65: Chapter 65 The Strange Swarm of Insects, The War Begins

Near midnight, the Scout team returned.

Along with them came a wealth of intelligence regarding the Salt Flats.

First, the Scout unit provided two viable marching routes.

One was longer but had flat terrain, while the other was slightly shorter but rugged.

Considering the mobility of the Skyfire Guard, Su Yang decided to choose the slightly longer route.

Regardless of which route was chosen, there was one problem staring them in the face: the issue of the soldiers' fuel reserves.

The location of the Salt Flats was too far; just reaching it would consume nearly half of the soldiers' fuel.

After the consumption from combat, most soldiers would certainly lose power to their Imperial Armor on the return trip.

The journey from losing power to returning to the territory would become extremely dangerous.

Unfortunately, there were currently no fuel supply units on the battlefield, nor were there transport vehicles to carry the soldiers to the front lines.

The soldiers' fuel reserves could not increase infinitely; in the future, as the distance of campaigns grew, how to transport the soldiers would become a major problem.

A solution would surely be found in the future, but currently, there was no way to address it.

Su Yang had no choice but to take the risk; after all, the niter resources had to be secured.

Following the geographical and environmental factors came the detailed introduction regarding the enemy.

The vanguard main force of the third-generation Insect Swarm consisted of the newly evolved Four-Blade Stinger Bug.

They were faster and more aggressive than the lower-Rank Stinger Bugs.

The insect shell could not be tested, but visually, it had certainly been reinforced as well.

After the Stinger Bugs came the Spitting Insect; the Insect Swarm's only ranged unit had also been upgraded.

The stinger on their tail had changed to three, and their attack power had been further enhanced.

Furthermore, there was a red protrusion in the center of their tail, the function of which had not yet been discovered.

This was the complete report from the Scouts regarding the Insect Swarm; the evolutionary forms of the other insect species were still unknown.

Aside from the unit types, the next part was what shocked Su Yang the most: the brood nest of this Salt Flats Insect Swarm was built directly beneath the niter mine.

Unlike the insect nest at the previous coal mine, these insects seemed to feed on the niter mine!

The Scouts observed that these insects did not eat anything else, only niter.

It seemed that this group of insects had evolved to feed on inorganic matter.

What kind of evolutionary direction was this? How had they become like bacteria? Su Yang was shocked by this.

Moreover, would eating niter lead to the birth of species capable of utilizing niter, like explosive bugs or something?

If these fearless insects were turned into suicide trucks, that would truly be terrifying.

Thinking of this, Su Yang's vigilance against this third-generation Insect Swarm reignited.

He had to use the Skyfire Guard to eliminate them as much as possible before the Insect Swarm approached.

After hearing the intelligence, Su Yang immediately made preliminary plans for tomorrow's punitive expedition.

With General Li Xin as the commander-in-chief, he would lead 30 Armored Elite Soldiers, 20 Armored Crossbowmen, 2 Skyfire Guards, and all 4 Thousand-Mile Scouts.

Because this insect nest was located above the niter mine, the Skyfire Guard could not directly bomb it, otherwise the entire vein would be blown to the sky.

Units had to lure the Insect Swarm out to a location where bombing could be conducted.

Only the fastest Scout soldiers could handle this task.

Besides that, the Scout soldiers would also be responsible for surrounding reconnaissance and maintaining real-time contact with Su Yang.

This expedition, whether during combat or on the return trip, carried great risks.

Therefore, Su Yang did not intend to go; if an accident occurred, protecting him would waste combat power.

Su Yang would adjust the strategic direction of the on-site battle in real-time based on the Scouts' reports, while specific details would be left to General Li Xin to command in person.

After laying out the strategy, Su Yang had all the soldiers participating tomorrow return to the barracks to rest, leaving only the guard team behind.

Tomorrow's battle was not only the first clash with the third-generation Insect Swarm but also a key battle for acquiring niter resources.

The soldiers needed to get 100% rest to give their all tomorrow...

"Estimated distance is 10 kilometers. Shall we enter slow marching mode?"

"Yes."

Su Yang answered the Scout's inquiry in his mind.

The previous night passed without incident; there were no Insect Swarm attacks, and the soldiers had a good night's sleep.

Just as dawn broke, General Li Xin assembled the troops and set off for the Salt Flats.

Along the way, the Scouts continuously reported the unit's position and the distance to the enemy camp to Su Yang.

The troops had just entered the 10-kilometer zone of the insect nest.

Once in this area, they faced the risk of being discovered by the insect species at any time.

Therefore, they had to enter slow marching mode and slowly approach the insect nest.

Although it was a slow march, the speed was actually not slow compared to ordinary people.

Without waiting too long, the team stopped at a position 5 kilometers away from the insect nest.

This was the bombardment range of the Skyfire Guard; all targets within this area could become bombing targets for the Skyfire Guard.

"Form up!"

General Li Xin waved his hand, dispatching four Scouts to carry out luring and reconnaissance missions while ordering the Armored Soldiers to form up and wait.

The two Skyfire Guards set up their cannons in the center of the formation, while the remaining soldiers—the Crossbowmen on the inside and the Elite Soldiers on the outside—formed a circular formation around them.

This was a formation primarily designed to protect the Skyfire Guard, capable of responding to enemy attacks from any direction.

While the Skyfire Guard possessed powerful beyond-visual-range firepower, its shortcomings were equally obvious.

As a strategic unit, although it had heavy armor protection, it had almost no melee capability.

If surrounded and attacked by the Insect Swarm, it basically had no ability to resist, just as helpless as a tank being approached by an engineer squad.

Therefore, this formation by Su Yang was primarily aimed at protecting the Skyfire Guard.

Only after the Skyfire Guard had poured out all its firepower would they change the formation to fight the enemy with full force.

Swish, swish, swish—within the dense forest, the Rank 3 Scout soldiers advanced at high speed.

The steam power units on their legs and backs continuously vented power to maintain their forward speed.

As Scouts, they had the lowest presence in the troops and rarely appeared.

But low presence did not mean they were unimportant; on the contrary, they were almost the prerequisite for the entire territory to develop normally, and they were the hardest-working unit type.

The Scout unit was either exploring new areas and searching for mineral veins, or on the way to explore new areas and search for mineral veins.

Because of the urgency of the territory's development and Su Yang's exploitation, they never rested in the barracks; all rest was conducted in the wild.

However, for the prosperity of Great Qin, they were willing to endure all of this.

These trials also forged their powerful wilderness survival abilities.

Cling—the Scout soldier drew a silver-white iron dagger and slowly approached a grayish-brown Stinger Bug ahead.

Hiss—steam surged, and he leaped out of the bushes, landing at the feet of the Stinger Bug.

He thrust the dagger, hitting the torso precisely without deviation.

The grayish-brown Stinger Bug let out a shriek, its four insect blades waving wildly.

The Scout dodged left and right, narrowly avoiding two stabs, and quickly got up to continue charging forward.

His mission was to attract as much of the Insect Swarm as possible and then lure them to the target location.

Then let the Skyfire Guard blast them all into smithereens!