Silicon Invasion

The first to bear the brunt was the other Bearface standing next to it, its massive body directly blocking the shrapnel from one direction. Crisp and muffled impacts rang out simultaneously. The areas covered by armor easily withstood the impact of these fragments, and the fur covering the unarmored areas also provided amazing defense, remaining unscathed despite such an impact.

The second victim was Niu Wei. The shockwave of shrapnel directly shattered several of his external sensors and cameras, but fortunately, his tonnage was considerable and his defenses were thick, so there were no major problems.

Next were the two Warrior 7 units five meters behind him. The not-so-light Warrior 7s were actually shaken back several times by the shockwave before regaining their footing.

Not only them, but even Archer 3, further away, was almost blown away by the shockwave. Fortunately, Luo Rui reacted quickly, taking several steps back to dissipate the force, avoiding embarrassment.

When the dust settled, the Bearface that had taken a direct hit was now split into several pieces. Much of its tissue had disappeared, and its ruined body exposed large areas of bone and mechanical components, looking utterly miserable.

"Good lord, what kind of warhead was that?"

Niu Wei muttered, greatly shocked.

At this moment, the whistling sound of the missile finally roared into people's ears.

This Bearface was not the only lucky one. At the same time, more explosions and howls descended on the battlefield. Huge crystal trees were blasted apart and collapsed, and the Silicon-based Beasts hidden within them also suffered heavy casualties.

"It's reinforcements from the base!"

Instructor Zeng's voice was somewhat excited.

Although the mining team had been smooth sailing in recent years, without any intrusions, emergency plans were still being prepared.

The current Hucan Base is not what it used to be. After so long, countless long-range fire weapons have been deployed inside. If the Silicon-based Beasts attacked the base in the dark, they might have a slight chance of success, but their choice to attack the mining team was simply giving the base's long-range fire weapons room to operate.

Thanks to the priority deployment of communication lines, auxiliary machines continuously transmitted intelligence gathered by drones to Hucan Base.

The large-scale attack by the Silicon-based Beasts also reduced many of Hucan Base's concerns, and the long-range fire weapons were authorized to fire at will.

Although the battlefield was more than twenty kilometers away from Hucan Base, this distance was nothing in the face of modern weapons. The artillery and missiles in Hucan Base were thick and long, and hitting dozens of kilometers was like child's play.

With the specific coordinates sent by the auxiliary machines, a salvo from Hucan Base not only eliminated several Bearfaces, but even silenced the Gold Apes.

Immediately afterwards, the second and third rounds of artillery bombardment forcibly widened the obstacle-free area by hundreds of meters. It was unknown how long it would take for those blasted trees to grow so tall again.

In a monster attack, with the support of Hucan Base's long-range fire, the outcome was no longer in doubt. Although Silicon-based Beasts were still constantly rushing to the battlefield, they could no longer form a numerical advantage.

The Bearface that Luo Rui faced was shot down by the first round of support. For a time, the remaining Bearface was in a dilemma.

Fortunately, the base's service awareness was quite in place. Before the Bearface could decide whether to continue attacking or run away, the humans thoughtfully sent a second round of covering fire.

So, the Bearface had a choice: to die with its previous companion, hoping that in the afterlife, there would be no missiles and no large-caliber artillery.

Half an hour later, the Silicon-based Beasts finally began to rout. The team stopped after a slight pursuit, as everyone understood the principle of 'do not enter the forest'.

Although a large number of Silicon-based Beasts were eliminated, there might still be other dangers inside.

The retreating team began to clean up the battlefield, giving a final blow to any Silicon-based Beasts that hadn't breathed their last and whose bodies were incomplete, and putting shackles on those that were relatively intact, taking them back to be raised or made into specimens, which were important materials for research.

Many of the ore boxes were damaged. When fighting, there was no time to take care of them. According to past practice, the broken ones would just be discarded on the spot. Anyway, this stuff wasn't rare on Mai Kan.

But this time, the team received a strange order from the base, requiring them to collect as much of the ore, ore boxes, and anything else brought back from the mining base as possible, and bring them back to the base.

The ore boxes were fine, as man-made objects were still relatively conspicuous on this land, but the ore was different. Their color was extremely similar to the stumps of those Silicon-based trees, and the site was full of blasted old stumps, with various scattered fragments mixed together, plus ground fragments of roughly the same color. It wasn't easy to distinguish which were ore.

This was a delicate job, and delicate jobs meant time-consuming. It seemed they wouldn't be able to go back tonight. He wondered if the other pilots had brought enough adult diapers.

Post-war statistics came out quickly. In this battle, there were 114 wounded and 15 killed in action. They were given priority to be sent back to the base. Most of the fatalities occurred during the battle with the Bearfaces, and a few were unfortunately hit by stones thrown by the Gold Apes.

Luo Rui's side was fine, with everyone surviving and not suffering any injuries, but everyone was still silent. No matter when, the sacrifice of comrades-in-arms was an extremely sad thing.

Moreover, they had just learned that among the casualties, there were also two students, one of whom was a student from Nanling College, a senior in his fourth year. Since there was no direct contact, Luo Rui only had a vague impression of him.

However, he had been Niu Wei's opponent and was a Warrior 7 pilot. Their defense line was broken through by a Bearface. While he was blocking the Bearface, he was hit in the cockpit by a palm. The violent shock caused him to fall into a short-term coma. Before he could recover, the Bearface pounced on the motionless machine and repeatedly struck the cockpit.

In the end, the enormous force directly destroyed the structure of the cockpit, causing the cockpit to deform, trapping and crushing the pilot inside, causing his internal organs to rupture.

If this injury had occurred on Blue Star, there would still have been a possibility of rescue, but this was Mai Kan, and many things and conditions were not available.

Thus, a young life ended on the land of a dangerous alien world, which was lamentable.

Everyone was silent, hurrying to work, but the sorting work was too troublesome. In the end, there was no choice but to dig three feet into the ground and then pack everything up and take it back to the base for sorting.

In the evening, numerous flares flew into the sky, illuminating the vicinity as bright as day. Rest was impossible. The Silicon-based Beasts could return at any time, and the team had to complete the mission and return as soon as possible.

With everyone's efforts, the packing work was finally completed, but the number of packages was so large that even Luo Rui's Archer 3 had to temporarily act as a transporter.