Xyrin Empire
Chapter 415 - Chapter 415 Chapter 415 Planet Landing

Chapter 415: Chapter 415 Planet Landing Chapter 415: Chapter 415 Planet Landing I believe I’ve assembled the most YY mage corps in history–none can compare.

Have you ever seen a blood elf mage clad in power armor, leaving a trail of plasma wake behind him as he zooms through the skies at supersonic speeds, casting blizzards?

Have you encountered an old mage resembling Gandalf–with a head full of venerable white hair, a beard reaching down to his third rib, and each wrinkle on his face exuding wisdom and erudition–calmly nesting in an interstellar marine’s armor, biting on half a cigar, ambiguously shouting “Let’s go! Fire and blood!!” as he guides arcane missiles?

… Victor, sir, you’ve gone astray.

During our combat simulations using insect race samples, we confirmed that the mages brought in from Azeroth indeed perform exceptionally well against the insectoids. Although their magic isn’t as OP as the Raven-type Magic God, it can still disrupt the metabolic processes of the insect race, causing all sorts of gynecological–ahem, lethal injuries. It’s incredibly satisfying to see such a fierce race falter under the specialized energy attacks from another world.

Of course, even though the mage corps can serve as a new force, they are far from being the main power. Here we are on an interstellar battlefield, facing enemies numbering in the billions. Even if we summon mages from three worlds, they still can’t serve as our primary force. Moreover, the mages’ attacks only work against the insect race; as for dealing with other races in this star zone…

I don’t think the native mages of Azeroth can stand up against the advanced weapons of an interstellar civilization.

The real protagonists of the battle are still our warships.

The human mages understand this as well, and they’re not discontented. On the “Gods’ Battlefield,” from the very beginning, they never expected to be a force to reckon with. Just standing amidst this magnificent exotic realm, able to fight side by side with gods, has already thrilled these otherworldly beings who grew up in warfare and worship various heroic legends.

“We shall become epic.”

The old mage, Victor, chewing on his cigar, coolly pulled down his face mask and declared.

To reiterate, Victor, sir, you’ve gone astray.

During the few days of intense training of this mage corps, Reynolds was in a nearly chaotic state. Magic, this phenomenon had disappeared from the human legends of StarCraft for countless years. Having fully embraced technological advancements, they had long forgotten this mystical art that once enraptured many. To now witness a live mage corps casting brilliant spells right before their eyes broke many steadfast materialists under Reynolds’s command.

Reynolds was not an exception.

I didn’t waste time explaining everything to him but simply told him two things, “First, there truly is no magic in this universe. As natives of this universe, unless encountering miracles (like running into Xyrin Apostles out for a jaunt or Dingdang on an undercover excursion), don’t ever expect to learn magic. Second, the powerful Xyrin Empire’s influence spans across other worlds; the mages you see are from armies of another universe, and they are vassal races of the Xyrin Empire.”

Upon hearing this, Reynolds and his close friends were collectively horrified.

Pathfinding the mage corps was naturally Jaina. After several days of emergency training, she and her soldiers had grown fairly familiar with the unfamiliar battlefield and the enemies and, oh, the miraculous armor that could excite any goblin to the point of spontaneous combustion. Naturally, the power armor Jaina used was a specially designed improved model. This “captain ship” armor, which cost twice as much as the regular power armor and boasted sleek, body-hugging lines inspired by Federation Ghost Agent armor (still Bubbles’s gamer idea), doesn’t have the cumbersome feel of ordinary power armor–though numerous male mages contend that only half a ton of heavy duty power armor is a man’s romance, women, who favor elegance and beauty, naturally prefer this type of close-fitting light armor.

However, every advantage has its trade-off. The lightness of the armor itself means that the protective capability of the improved power armor is far less than that of the standard version. Although its performance is still strong enough to let Victor beat a reinforced Federation Marine squad singlehandedly, it is still limited in operational scope because it consumes a lot of energy to boost its ghost energy shield to compensate for the lack of physical armor. So, the enhanced magic amplification effect of this improved power armor is always somewhat wanting; that’s why it is designated for leader’s use only. As the commander of Azeroth’s forces, Jaina seldom gets a chance to enter the battlefield herself, and even the slightly inferior magic amplification device, with Jaina’s own formidable power compensating, is negligible.

“Mages of all races have already mastered the tricks of using this magical armor to aid in combat. It really is as you said, just like wearing a piece of clothing that puts one at ease,” Jaina and I walked side by side through the temporary Mage District in General City, reporting on the training of the mages, “We are now learning to adapt to the radar system and various locking images on the visor, although convenient, it still bewilders some of the older mages.”

This was inevitable. The suite of advanced equipment installed on the power armor to facilitate long-range combat had been upgraded to fully intelligent systems by Taville, but those natives from the Otherworld who had never used high technology needed a period of adjustment to get used to having every enemy’s distance marked precisely down to the millimeter on their heads.

“What else? Any other issues?”

I asked in detail, as this batch of power armor, after all, was a prototype designed within a day, and even with Taville’s thorough consideration, being a Xyrin Apostle, her lack of understanding of carbon-based life could likely lead to flaws in her work.

Like accidentally forgetting the oxygen supply… Uh, that shouldn’t happen, right?

“There’s three more things,” Jaina said somewhat awkwardly, “First, the elves, including the Dark Night Elves and Blood Elves, all think there’s a problem with the helmet design of the power armor; their ears get crunched up inside, which is uncomfortable after a long period. Second, for the dwarfs and gnomes, even though controlling the armor is not a problem, each time they suit up, they need to stack up a bunch of stuff underneath, which embarrasses them. Third, the Tauren Shamans and mages, they are too large, their horns also require specially made helmets, and often their hooves get stuck in the armor. Sal and Kane contacted me last night. The next batch of Mage Corps mainly comprises forces from Thunder Cliff, with many Tauren Shamans, we’d better prepare some extra-large armors for them.”

I replied, “… I’ll get Bubbles to add a production line…”

Honestly, I don’t know why, but I just suddenly thought about designing armor for Tauren Machine Gunners.

It’s been seven days since the destruction of the Insect Swarm.

Exploration of the neighboring star system had already been completed. Initially, I planned to go there with an EOP-03 to settle the matter, but this time it seems not so simple. According to the images sent back by the probes, that planet is full of traces of intelligent life. Although they have been covered with pits and craters by the secretions of the insects, some of the larger structures can still be clearly discerned. By conducting restorative analysis as much as possible, Reynolds deduced that the ruins on this planet must originate from the Protos Divine Race.

I have always had a strong interest in this mysterious race. However, their stubbornness makes me think that initiating cooperative development directly with them might be troublesome. Now that we have discovered one of their abandoned colonization stars, not thoroughly slicing up this planet would simply be an insult to the more than a hundred research ships I’ve brought!

Qianqian, Lilina, and I, the Empire’s most unreliable trio, personally led three newly reassembled Eternal-class mother ships and ten thousand assorted escort ships to the airspace of this planet we call Bump Star–an annoying name Qianqian coined based on the countless nests dug out by the insect race on its surface. This reconnaissance and extermination mission will be personally conducted by us. Of course, this isn’t to say we three are the most suited professionals for such high-end tasks, but rather…

We three are currently the most leisurely idlers in the entire Black Egg Star base…

Even Big Sister can serve as a brain, while crazies like Pandora and Visca can be responsible for military expansion and training. Yet, I must team up with Qianqian, who is full of bizarre ideas all day, and Lilina, that unreliable poetess-priestess, classified as an idle trio, only capable of taking on the least technical sweeping operations. Life, indeed, is like that exquisite West Lake Longjing tea–even if you’re worth eighteen thousand per pound, you are ultimately destined to be steeped in a cup…

While we brought a massive fleet composed of ten thousand escort ships, the main combat force for this operation was the landing force. Vega finally found her chance to show off her skills. Planet landing battles and various search and infiltration operations are the forte of Armored Scorpions, especially against enemies like the Insect Race, who have large numbers of close-combat units. Using the original wars of these war-loving scorpions: they’re valuable targets that let you slaughter to your heart’s content, satisfying both in quantity and quality.

In close combat, a well-trained scorpion could easily defeat tens of thousands of Insect Race “Little Dogs.” Those synched thousand cuts applying space folding technology could crush the Insect Race’s close-combat troops in a matter of time, even if they evolved for tens of thousands of years longer, and these scorpions would be responsible for destroying the enemy’s defensive fortifications swiftly, paving the way for the following troops.

Meanwhile, another part of the ground forces was composed of mages. We mixed Ravens and human mages, forming specialized long-range extermination units against the Insect Race. Each Raven leading a hundred human mages made up ten of such teams from Azeroth. Under the protection of Armored Scorpions, they would sweep every Protos relic and then secure the landing of our survey teams.

Aside from these elite troops, which could be termed special forces, the most numerous naturally were the generic combat sequences composed of regular Xyrin Soldiers, light vehicles, and Single Soldier Fighter Jets. These experienced veterans were split into myriad small squads of varying numbers and deployed to locations that were not particularly critical but still held reconnaissance value. Unmanned probes had already landed near those spots, ensuring safety during the landing process. Although the Xyrin Army was fearless and mighty, I certainly didn’t relish sacrificing my soldiers for nothing.

After some preparatory work, all landing forces entered the micro-jump landing pods that were carrying them and began to head toward the entire Bump Star.

A synthesized female voice echoed through the command bridge, “Planet landing pods are now in launch status, teleportation coordinates adjusted to the planet’s surface. First batch of landing units, prepare for battle–for victory and mission. The glory of the Emperor is with you.”

Accompanied by hundreds of beams suddenly illuminating the planet’s surface, our first batch of landing troops had safely arrived on the ground.

“Um… Divine Messenger?” Jaina’s somewhat unconfident voice transmitted from the command bridge’s communicator, as it was her first time participating in a mission. To set an example, she had volunteered to join the first batch of landing forces, “This is Jaina, can you hear me?”

“Very clear, how are things there?”

“We have safely arrived on the surface, it’s desolate here, and… slightly disgusting.”

Jaina’s voice sounded obedient, and I didn’t doubt that they had directly landed on the insect moss–almost no clean land remained on the surface of Bump Star.

“Any enemy spotted?”

“No response–our lead Raven is releasing search magic, and we are going to find a place to hide first.”

“Alright, be cautious, Vega and her Scorpion Soldiers are in your team, make sure not to stray from their protective range.”

After briefly instructing, I shifted my attention back to a series of holographic projections on the command bridge. As for Qianqian and Lilina?

Those two restless folks had already run off to the landing transporter, ready to wreak havoc.

The holographic projection in front of me displayed hundreds of blue dots on the surface of Bump Star… err, gradually expanding into blurs of light, indicating that our hundreds of landing forces had started to expand outward. However, the intelligence reports sent back by various squads left me puzzled. Up to now, they had not encountered organized Insect Race troops, only some scattered skirmishers discovered by the landing teams and immediately eradicated.

This was unusual. Considering the breeding capabilities of the Insect Race, even if they hadn’t been able to form a significant threat in so many days, they shouldn’t only have such scattered forces left on the entire planet, right? Could it be that those hundred million insects already represented all their military presence on this Bump Star?

The civilizations destroyed by the insects would cry! They really would cry!

“Your Majesty, this is the 37th landing force. We have discovered the intended target; it appears to be a Protos hall, no residual energy detected inside.”

Suddenly, such a report came through the communicator. Suppressing the doubts in my mind, I responded, “Very well, have you spotted any enemy movements?”

“We have had three minor skirmishes, the opponent hasn’t deployed any large-scale troops, nor have they organized any form of counterattack.”

“Alright, continue with the operation and stay hidden.”

Soon afterward, messages from all the vanguard squads began to converge. Naturally, I couldn’t respond to each one and sort them out myself. Instead, I left that to other commanders of the fleet. Based on their collected intelligence, most of the insects on the planet indeed seemed to have disappeared.

“Main system, has the rescan of the celestial body yielded any results?”

I frowned, asking the air.

“Data compiling for comparison… Results the same as initial scan, no traces of insect swarms detected, no unusual energy responses identified, no dangerous energy radiation found.”

Damn, what’s the deal with this weird situation? Insect moss and traces of those sticky life forms are rampant everywhere, so how could we be unable to find any trace of the enemy? Could it be they all went to participate in the Blade Queen’s competition for suitors?

Just as I entertained such a ridiculous idea, a voice suddenly transmitted from the communication device: “This is the 14th landing force! We have entered the target area, preliminarily determined to be a Protos ceremonial site. We have discovered a large insect carcass and are now collecting its DNA samples… Sample comparison underway… Commander! It’s an Insect Queen! Repeat, this is an Insect Queen!”

“Are you certain? How did that thing die?”

I was shocked–dead? The Insect Queen of this planet was already dead? No wonder we couldn’t find any trace of the enemy everywhere; it turned out their spawning machine was already done for!

“Commander, we’ve found signs of high-temperature melting at the scene, and the Insect Queen’s body has marks of being burned by a high-temperature cutting tool,” the commander of the regular landing forces reported urgently, “There’s a certain degree of energy residuals at the scene… Wait! Commander! We have detected residual Original Ghost Energy of the Protos Divine Race! The killer of this insect might be the Protos Divine Race!”

The Protos? Are they on this planet?

This news was immediately communicated to every landing squad leader’s mind, and after the security level was lowered, these vanguard teams immediately expanded their search range. Soon, in a few areas close to the 14th landing force’s search zone, other squads also found similar battle traces. It seemed the Protos troops were mainly concentrated in these areas, attacking the Insect Race, but we hadn’t found any bodies of the Protos fighters; we didn’t know if they had been eaten by the insect race or…

Just when we thought everything was progressing smoothly and that the enemy wouldn’t appear, making us ready to deploy research squads, a Raven suddenly sent an urgent communication: “Your Majesty! This is the third Raven small squad! Our Druid has detected subtle life fluctuations in a cavern! The probe we deployed lost contact a minute ago! We will enter the cavern soon, requesting follow-up forces to support!”

This message finally brought a change to the calm exploration process. Two regular squads nearest to the third Raven squad were immediately ordered to advance toward the cavern they had discovered, while I reported the finding to Qianqian and Lilina. Unsurprisingly, both of them got excited immediately!

“We can finally go on an adventure! Ah Jun, let’s hurry!”

This was Qianqian’s jubilant voice; she seemed to have a completely different concept of delving into insect nests than ordinary girls.

“Great! There’s finally a fight!”

Lilina cheerfully joined Qianqian. What can I say, I think the Life Goddess Chief Priestess is just as unreliable as the deity she worships…

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