Chapter 509 - The Tea Table Is Full of Cups
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The Zerg’s means of reproduction came from the Hatchery’s larva. The larvae were created by reorganizing genes. On the other hand, the humans’ means of reproduction was through breeding clones.
This might be the reason why their souls were a bit deficient, causing them to be unable to sense the effect of [Enlightenment].
After [Enlightenment] activaed, two status panels appeared.
The first one was for the vehicle called Vulture. It was described as a normal quality vehicle capable of high-speed driving, laying mines, bombardments, and many other things. As for the other status panel, it was for the driver of the vehicle. The driver’s creature rank was only a normal 1-Star. He was a lot weaker than the Marines, but his intelligence was quite high at 12 points.
According to Wei Xiao Bei’s understanding of StarCraft, if the Marines were 1-Star Elite Creatures, then the Vulture should at least be a 2-Star Elite, which was on the same level as the Hydralisk.
However, it appears that the Vulture and its driver were calculated separately. The driver was useless without the Vulture.
The Vulture was quite fast. By his estimate, it was moving at least three hundred kilometers per hour, in other words, it had the same speed as modern helicopters.
Moreover, one of its effects was to ignore obstacles that were lower than three meters, allowing it to easily move through the terrain.
Just when Jessica spoke, the Vulture stopped in front of them. Immediately, the vehicle cover lifted and a soldier appeared. He saluted to Jessica, “Second Lieutenant Jessica, private first-class James has received orders from base to escort the 17th squad!”
“Then I’ll ask you to stand guard for us.” Jessica saluted back and gave her orders.
James? 007 James?
Wei Xiao Bei chuckled.
“Ma’am, yes ma’am!”
The soldier closed the vehicle cover and quickly started the Vulture again. With a spin in place, he once again drove and disappeared in the distance.
Wei Xiao Bei did not ask why they did not just ride the Vulture to return to base.
He was not an idiot. He could see that the Vulture was the size of a truck, yet there was no place for people to ride on it at all. Its back should contain spider mines, while the cockpit in front was only fit for one person.
As for riding on top of it, that was an impossible thing. With the speed and maneuvering of the Vulture, other than Wei Xiao Bei, other people would probably be thrown flying with how smooth the hull of the vehicle was.
“Continue advancing!”
The squad immediately picked up the pace, but the mood was a lot better than before.
After all, among the Terran Empire army, the Vulture could already be considered a heavy-duty weapon compared to the Marines. Moreover, the spider mines that it planted would deal significant damage to the Zerglings. The explosion radius would not allow the Zerglings to escape at all.
According to Jessica, this place was considered a red zone, in other words, it was the most chaotic part of the warzone.
They could encounter a Zergling at any time. Living and dying were completely based on luck.
However, it was now good. With the Vulture leading the way to investigate, it would be harder for the squad to encounter a Zergling ambush. Jessica explained all this with a lively voice.
Wei Xiao Bei had been influenced by the other party’s mood as he smiled.
If Jessica was placed in the real world, she would be considered an absolute beauty. Moreover, she was an extremely cheerful type.
Who knows how many handsome men would strive to outdo each other to obtain her.
“How much farther do we have left?”
After walking for half an hour, Wei Xiao Bei inquired.
“Going straight, there should be 12.615 kilometers left.”
Jessica took a look at the watch on her right hand and replied with great accuracy.
Twelve kilometers?
According to their walking speed, it should take less than an hour for them to make it to the so-called base.
However, at this moment, Jessica suddenly removed her helmet. In a few moments, the slightly weakened voice of the private first class named James was transmitted from the helmet, “In Zone J6, I have encountered the Zergs. The counts are three hundred and seventy Zerglings, twenty-seven Hydralisks, and two Wyzerns! My bombardment has killed five Zerglings. I am currently escaping from J6 to J7 while laying down spider mines. I cannot continue the mission of escorting you. I wish you good luck.”
It was very clear that the voice came from a transmission channel. Perhaps showing consideration to him, Jessica played out the audio.
There was no doubt that this information would make someone feel gloomy. The atmosphere immediately changed from liveliness to despair.
Three hundred and seventy Zerglings and twenty-seven Hydralisks were not considered much. After all, the perception of these Zerg creatures was not great. As long as they were not encountered head-on, there was still a good chance to run away from them.
The problem was the two Wyverns.
These so-called Wyverns were not the Wyverns from Western fantasy, but a fighting force of the Zerg.
It’s figure looked like a Wyvern. It had two wings and can spit out something to attack, dealing damage to enemies with range. The worst part about them was that they could fly, making their field of vision further than the Zerglings on the ground.
Just like that, if they continued on the path of J6, then there was a huge chance for the Wyverns to notice them.
Naturally, making a detour was a way to dodge this.
The problem was that the topography between zone J6 and J7 was two interweaving canyons, a place you needed to pass through to reach the base. According to Jessica, they had built a few mechanical bunkers in the two canyons to control the canyon zone.
Now, it appears that the Marines inside the mechanical bunkers had been annihilated.
Otherwise, it was impossible for there to be so many Zergs.
If they wanted to take a detour, then they would need to walk at least sixty kilometers, with the chance of encountering more Zergs.
In other words, the squad currently had no room to advance or retreat.
Naturally, there was an extra option, finding a place that was easy to defend and waiting for reinforcements.
The problem here was that they had already been on a mission for five days. The food that they carried would only last them a few days.
Although the Zerg’s corpses could be turned to food, that could only be done back in the base, where equipment to remove the poison from the Zerg corpses was.
If it was not processed, then they would die from food poisoning.
After understanding everything, Wei Xiao Bei felt that these soldiers were unlucky.
However, something more unfortunate was quickly about to happen.
Just when Jessica was pondering which option to chose, her face suddenly turned stiff, and she said a few things.
It appears that the Vulture that had escaped was surrounded in the end, but the driver remained unyielding. He immediately called for the tank near the base to bombard his location.
Although the bombardment had killed the Zerglings surrounding the Vulture, the leader of the Zergs appeared to have become angry. In the end, thousands of Zerglings, hundreds of Hydralisks, more than a hundred Wyverns, and other Zerg creatures had surrounded the base.
Naturally, it would be difficult for the Zerg to just charge into the heavily defended base.
However, it made Jessica and the others unable to retreat. Moreover, with the base heavily surrounded, it would be difficult for reinforcements to come and provide support.
“Let us find a safe place first, then we can discuss other matters.”
The main reason for Wei Xiao Bei’s visit this time was to see the village’s situation in the Dust World, as well as finding the six missing people.
Now that the base was surrounded, he would naturally not hurry to go there.
Although this region of the Dust World had big changes, Wei Xiao Bei could still faintly sense from buildings. Thus finding the village would not be too difficult.
Seeing that Wei Xiao Bei began advancing in a certain direction, Jessica hesitated for a bit and could only follow behind Wei Xiao Bei.
After all, being able to travel with someone strong like Wei Xiao Bei was a safe choice.
After walking a certain distance, Wei Xiao Bei found the direction of the village and began walking straight there.
But walking in a straight line caused some problems as it was easy for them to encounter wandering Zergs.
After advancing for three kilometers, Wei Xiao Bei saw tens of Zerglings charging toward him.
This did not mean that the Zerglings’ field of view had widened, it was instead because of a strange hot-air balloon-like monster floating in the sky.
Its entire body was blue. Above was a flesh-formed air sac while the bottom had ten-meter long tentacles.
Wei Xiao Bei immediately used [Enlightenment] to identify this monster.
This was the famous Overlord of the Zerg!
Its name sounded awe-inspiring, but in truth, it was the transport aircraft of the Zerg. Its speed was very slow and it did not have any fighting power. It could provide nourishment to a certain number of Zergs, float in the air as a scout, and signal warnings to the Zergs. Everywhere that it went, whether it was the humans or the Protoss, it would be able to detect them.
However, going back to the issue, the terrain was extremely flat. For Jessica and the squad, this was not a good place to defend against the Zerg’s attack.
“Where are you leading us! We are now doomed!”
The Marine guarding the rear was currently shouting at Wei Xiao Bei.
From his point of view, facing tens of Zerglings in a flat piece of land would, without doubt, lead to death.
Since they were about to die, then they need to let out all their frustrations and curses before they die.
Naturally, it was not only this Marine that thought this way, but even others were complaining about him in their hearts.