Chapter 696: The Extermination Order was implemented, the Battle of Rheadoches (11)
Iron Coffin is the name for the fearless mecha.
That was a Space Marine being roughly stuffed into an alloy survival capsule that he could never leave again. All life support for this Space Marine for the rest of his life will depend on the life support module.
At the same time, this survival module is also the cockpit of the fearless mecha. Many pipes will be connected to the nerves of the Space Marines, allowing them to control the huge Dreadnought mecha as if they were controlling their own hands and feet. The mecha's visual system is its eyes, and its sound collection system is its ears.
That sounds fine.
Although I can no longer taste the taste of food, I can no longer have any physical needs and impulses. But... Space Marines have little need for the former. In most Space Marine groups, pursuing appetite and food taste is looked down upon. They also advocate hard work and temper their minds.
As for physiological needs other than delicious food...
It's hard to say whether they have sexual ability, but I don't see any serious Space Marines pursuing this.
As for the further fertility, it is even more real. Space Marines cannot reproduce normally. If they really want to 'breed', it can only be achieved through gene seed implantation surgery.
Therefore, without these mortal pursuits, it seems to be no big deal for the Space Marines. Whether they can enter the Fearless Iron Coffin or not, they all live like this.
But this is actually just the most negligible price to pay after entering the Dreadnought Mecha.
The real price lies in the negative effects.
They will be awake all the time, no more sleep, no dreams. Although their brains can maintain physical health under the maintenance of the life-support cabin, the mental fatigue will last forever and cannot be repaired.
The life support capsule can ensure the health of the Space Marine's body, but due to the direct connection between the entire machine and the nerves, when the Space Marine controls the Dreadnought mecha to perform regular movements, a slight tingling, more like an itch, will continue all the time. Tormenting the Space Marines.
It’s not just about moving, it’s just activating the visual and auditory systems, it’s also about operating the body, which can also be ‘itchy’.
And when it comes to fighting that requires strenuous exercise, the itch turns to pain.
It is precisely because of this that many Fearless Iron Coffins have unhappy endings. When they are not necessary, they will stay motionless in the fleet's warehouses, libraries, elders' rooms and other places for long periods of time. They seemed to be sleeping, but in fact they were awake, but they were bored and couldn't do anything. After all, if they moved, the itching sensation would come all over their bodies.
But whether it's the itch or the boredom of the long hours of darkness, it eventually drives people crazy.
It is true that Space Marines are extraordinary creatures. Normal mortals may go crazy in a few days, but they can persist in it for hundreds or thousands of years...
But it's not eternity after all.
Dreadnought mechas have a tendency to self-destruct. They often put themselves into the most dangerous situation during a certain battle in order to escape from the battle. It not only fulfills one's loyalty to the Emperor and the Chapter, but also frees one from eternal pain.
The worse thing is that on a certain day or at a certain moment, you may not be able to endure the torture that has lasted for an unknown amount of time, and go crazy and attack indiscriminately on your own ship, and eventually be killed by your own battle brothers. To solve.
The name "Iron Coffin" of the Dreadnought Mecha is actually an understatement. It was not a steel coffin, but an eternal instrument of torture.
Because of this, only physically disabled and mentally strong Space Marines can enter the Dreadnought.
If you are not disabled, don't go in. There is no need to suffer the punishment.
Those who don’t have strong ambitions generally don’t want to go in. Instead of enduring eternal punishment, it would be better to return to the Golden Throne as soon as possible.
Even if you can't think of entering at the moment, each war group has strict standards. Those who are disabled, those who have lost combat effectiveness, or even those who are about to die if they don't enter the Dauntless Iron Coffin, we have to see how they behave in daily life and whether they are firm enough, otherwise those who cannot bear the eternal punishment will harm the war group.
If Leroy wants to advance, he must first have great perseverance and determination. Secondly, he also has enough willpower to withstand the test brought by the fearless iron coffin.
……
Gu Hang had no objection to Leroy's decision.
There is a Dreadnought Mecha on his starship.
It belongs to the Phoenix Chapter, and is intended to be used by some elite veterans who cannot be rescued. Now it will be no problem to allocate one to Leroy.
The Black Cross Marshal's performance in the battle on the ground was impressive enough.
Moreover, it did have a huge impact on the battle situation.
The large insect nest was destroyed, and under that wave of incapacitation, hundreds of thousands of insect units on various battlefields were wiped out. This number may not be impressive, but the key is that it also includes a large number of advanced units. After all, the Hive Overlord's own level is too high. Many node creatures that usually appear to be the highest level are actually under his authority. Now, you don’t have to bother to kill, you can observe from a distance that the opponent won’t be able to hide even if you blast them with a cannon.
This directly caused the insect swarm's biological Titan army to retreat.
It is true that a considerable number of biological titans escaped, but in the previous battles, their losses were not small; in the subsequent retreat process, whether it was the rear-end troops that were eliminated by humans or the units that were killed in the pursuit, they all lost their lives. This insect queen was originally intended to completely destroy the human army's base in the planet's surface, and its vitality was severely damaged.
The battle is indeed not over yet, however, it has actually changed stages.
From the first stage of airborne operations, to the second stage of base area defense, to now, it is already the third stage of strategic offensive.
Taking advantage of the death of the Zerg Hive Overlord, the Zerg Titan Legion retreated. There was no military force powerful enough to hinder the human army's attack in the vast area surrounding the human base.
Of course, Gu Hang would not waste this great opportunity.
He decisively continued to increase the investment of military power on the ground, and even wanted to send all four of them, Salisius, Martins, Xi Rui, and Ewing.
These four, if nothing else, are at least no weaker than Leroy. Among them, Leroy was able to reach fourth place because there was Xi Rui at the bottom.
Alma Ewing, the leader of the Blood Shark Chapter, despite his usually quiet appearance, Gu Hang knew very well about his actual combat power, which was quite powerful.
Gu Hang could intuitively see how powerful he was from the essence of his soul and the little bit of subspace he possessed.
At the same time, Gu Hang also had in his hands a group of elite warriors among the entire human coalition: Phoenix, Otaupis, and Blood Shark. The members of the three battle groups were all organized and transported by Gu Hang. A batch arrived on the ground.
Taking advantage of the fact that his illness was killing him, Gu Hang handed over the command of ground operations to Salius, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front Army, and replaced Leroy. His request to Salisius was to rapidly expand the area of the human base and destroy every Zerg nest that could be found within two months.
It requires elites and elites, troops and troops, and firepower. Most of the enemy has been beaten back. How can this kind of battle be unwinnable?
Salisius accomplished Gu Hang's mission quite well.
When the human coalition forces on the ground can ensure a safe area of more than 1,500 kilometers horizontally and vertically, and then carry out airdrops, the success rate will be much higher. This not only means that there is no need for air defense interception from the ground, but it can also change the naval battle of starships close to the orbit of the planet.
The human fleet is more powerful than the Zerg biological fleet in terms of size and combat power. But just because of the orbital firepower against the ground, the battle damage was greater than that of the opponent. When fighting, we are helpless and often go to the ground to provide support. This is purely a matter of using ships.
But now, an entire area is safe, which means that the starships in the sky have a relatively safe orbital airspace.
Although 1500×1500 is not large for the entire planet, if the battle distance is relatively far from the planet, there will still be quite a lot of orbital firepower to fight it. But the smaller number is a good change. What's more, if the human starship closes the distance to the planet to a certain extent, as long as it is directly above this safe land, then all the Zerg's railguns will lose their strike angle due to the curvature of the surface.
The safe zone was created in this way, so that human ships could finally suffer less losses when engaging in naval battles.
And this will feed back to the ground, making ground attacks smoother; when the ground is smooth, more and faster insect nests can be destroyed, the threat in the sky will also be reduced, the range of activities of human starships will become larger, and then feed back to the ground...
If so, it is a positive cycle.
However, this was not enough to achieve victory.
The goal of the human coalition is not simply to win, but also to win within a year, otherwise the reinforcements from the 'tentacles' will arrive. By then, the battle situation will have changed.
Currently, the situation is such that it is possible to launch extermination weapons safely and with a high success rate.
But similarly, the number of combat troops put on the ground by human forces is too high, and their quality is also very high. Gu Hang also faces the same problem as the Northern Front Army: Should they be burned directly along with the Insect Queen... …
No need to.
Gu Hang himself was reluctant to burn the Phoenix and Martins to death on the ground.
Even if we put aside the emotional factors, in terms of profit, maybe Gu Hang can make up for the number of phoenixes at a relatively small cost, even at the level of company champion. However, those who surpass the level of company champion and reach the level of group model and group champion cannot make up for it.
Although there is a [Hero] interface that can be used for attunement, subsequent upgrades require sufficient talent.
It’s not even enough to have talent, you also have to have enough experience.
These all restrict Gu Hang's ability to become a master.
Moreover, even if you upgrade to the highest LV9 that the system can upgrade to, even if you add in the related training of Space Marines, your overall strength will be slightly worse than the group champion.
Just like a psyker, Gu Hang had received so many reward templates and had the blessings of the Kingdom of Storms. If he was promoted to LV9, he would be nothing more than an A+, and there would only be one S-level one.
The same goes for Space Marines.
Not only the Phoenix, but even the Raging Flames and New Age Torches have been pulled to LV8 and LV9, but in fact they are generally not up to the level of a group champion. The Chapter Masters of those two Chapters are not worthy of their names, and they do not have as powerful a battle force as the Space Marine Chapter Masters in the conventional concept.
Only Martins, the only one who had some special circumstances and had his own breakthrough, coupled with Gu Hang's blessing from the Storm God Kingdom's secondary god in the subspace, was able to show that he could be called the champion among the group champions. Relatively top strength.
These things are hard to come by. Even the divine blessing that Gu Hang can control actually requires the target to be able to bear it, and the number of people who can bless it is still limited.
Now if Martins dies, it will be impossible for Gu Hang to make another copy. There will be no candidate.
Gu Hang really couldn't bear to give up on him.
For example, Gu Hang couldn't just trick others like Salisius, Xi Rui, and Ewing to death. Ewing's blood shark Gu Hang is planning something. The first two are influential bosses in the entire empire. If they are tricked to death, the political turmoil will be huge.
However, although Gu Hang made a similar decision to Leroy during the first battle, in fact, the situations they faced were completely different.
When we really have no choice but to burn them together, we will burn them all. However, that is clearly not the case now.
The human starships in the sky are superior in size and quality. Although the battle situation is about the same, that is due to the support of ground orbital firepower for naval battles. When the ground war continues to advance smoothly, the human side will definitely regain the advantage.
The ground battle was indeed going quite smoothly.
So why be so anxious?
There is still more than half a year left before the deadline to end the battle.
Just because the Extermination Order weapons are not dropped directly onto the ground does not mean that they are not used.
Gu Hang used some transport ships to transport five rounds of Extermination Order weapons to the ground.
The Zerg were still able to sense the presence of the Extermination Order weapons, and they tried their best to intercept them.
But this time, it couldn't be stopped.
The degree of destruction of the orbital interception firepower on the ground has exceeded the critical line and the pressure given is not enough; those flying insects that can fly outside the atmosphere have to first eat the anti-aircraft firepower interception from humans on the ground.
Due to the lack of ground orbital firepower, the human fleet can protect these transport ships closer and more closely.
Even if the Hive Fleet carried out a full-force assault and suffered heavy losses under the attack of the human fleet. But even so, only four were stopped in the end, and one Sky-burning torpedo still entered the planet's surface unharmed.
At this time, the human troops began to shrink rapidly and boarded the landing spacecraft to evacuate in various safe areas.
During the evacuation process, although the success rate is only about 85%, if unlucky, the entire ship will be intercepted by the Zerg biological ship before they can return to the starship and transport ship.
But it is much better than staying on the ground and being buried with bugs all over the planet a month later.
————
4k make up yesterday.
One more chapter before bed.
(End of chapter)