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Reporting entry: №17843
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Message:
"Guys who have been to Hydra never smile. I used to wonder “why?”, but now this question has disappeared. I know why:
After fighting with beetles, smiling becomes simply unbearable."
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End of entries…
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The sandstorm obscured our visual view of the sand dunes, making it impossible for us to see the Xorxes, huge insectoids covered in black chitin and clattering with equally long mandibles, approaching us. Recently, these beetles decided to break through our defenses and attack Pharaoh.
Their decision was far from thoughtless as it might initially seem, but in a sense, very tactful. While there is a sandstorm, they could hide their presence from visual observation, which is why we could not accurately estimate their numbers, as well as their exact location.
And yet, thanks to bioscanners and thermal imaging devices, we observed emerging silhouettes through the stream of sandy wind scratching our helmets, preparing to soon enter into battle. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of huge creatures rushed east like the tidal wave of an approaching tsunami.
We could use our artillery against them, but without visual contact it was difficult to accurately determine the enemy's location, and using shells to strike over an area was not economically feasible.
The men of the 6th Division from half of the F4 Division prepared their positions in line to repel the attack. Firing points and equipment were located in a line aiming in a western direction, and in the rear there were artillery batteries and installations for launching guided missiles, the use of which over long distances became very difficult due to the disruption of long-distance communications.
At the moment, the communication relays were not operating at full capacity due to the extreme energy savings that went into building the base and supporting the droids. Until the energy issue is resolved at Pharaoh, we will have to save on everything.
Replenishing provisions and ammunition is also difficult, even though each division was equipped with military replicators; they also require energy and quite a lot of it, which we obviously could not afford. Our task was to use the minimum available means to defend against the monstrous size of the swarm, numbering tens of millions of individuals.
The General Staff had already even planned a plan to save available resources for the upcoming battles, but the Xorxes apparently turned out to be much smarter than we thought. Instead of constant mass attacks, they stopped the movement of their main forces beyond the range of our artillery fire, and also dispersed so that missile strikes could not inflict more than one-time damage on them in an area. If our aircraft continued to waste shells for strikes, we would simply be wasting our ammunition, that is, we would not be fulfilling the savings plan.
The Xorxes seemed to have figured this out and began sending relatively small groups of tens of thousands of individuals to probe our first line of defense. Artillery batteries coped with their job with a bang, destroying huge flocks of the enemy with targeted destructive fire, but soon even they became useless.
Subsequently, the Xorxes began to disperse their own flocks across the sands of the great desert, which is why we had to let the Xorxes closer, straight to the hastily erected defensive lines, and even call in aviation for targeted strikes.
In the scientific complex, meanwhile, they continue to study the biology of these same Xorxes; the fifth division even delivered hundreds of living individuals to the base for their study, as a result of which very surprising and unpleasant information for us was revealed: Xorxes are not individual creatures, but are essentially a single gestalt - consciousness, collective intelligence, acting according to general unified instructions.
Initially, it was believed that the Xorxes were driven by certain social instincts, but it turned out to be much worse. They had a strategic mind and planned to destroy us, considering us a threat to their own existence. Apparently, they are responsible for the destruction of absolutely every form of life in this area, subsequently turning it into a desert. Acceptable conditions for plant and animal life forms indicated that there was once developed flora and fauna here, at least I heard such thoughts and ideas from the general staff.
And now, watching the approaching flock of tens of thousands of individuals, half of the F4 division, numbering 4,800 people, was preparing to repel the attack. Infantry fighting vehicles with large-caliber guns rode into position and were ready to open heavy fire on the enemy. Self-propelled mortar crews were ready to fire a salvo at any moment, just give them the coordinates, and they will do their job: turn these giant insects into charred pieces of flesh.
What was happening now looked very much like a war, but was it really one? If this is so, then upon returning to Earth we will definitely be given the status of a combat veteran, and their pension is quite large. Well, knowing this, it’s time to join the battle and protect yourself from the local aggressive life form.
"As soon as they reach the minefields, fire when ready. Are orders clear?"
"Yes sir."
The chorus from the fighters of half the division gave me confidence in the success of repelling this attack, but should I have been so confident in this? Our enemy may not have our technology, but the Xorxes are far from being stupid creatures to just go ahead, which means they are clearly planning something to break through our defenses and even injure one of us.
One of the rules of the officer code says: you cannot be completely confident of success, you need to be prepared for unexpected troubles. I always tried to adhere to this rule, but the current atmosphere seemed not so catastrophic, but rather upbeat and militantly patriotic. Apparently this is due to the fact that we perfectly understand our capabilities and do not expect problems from the enemy.
This should be carefully avoided. After all, now is precisely the atmosphere when something unexpected can take us by surprise.
"Five hundred meters!" I heard it in my earphone and looked through my thermal imaging binoculars.
The enemy was rapidly approaching and would soon reach the minefields, and when this happened we would open fire on them from our firing points. We can do this now, but then the Xorxes will most likely run back and hide behind the dunes or cobblestones scattered across the desert. We couldn't lose sight of any of them, otherwise problems were simply guaranteed.
For our team, this was the first battle on this planet and the prospects of the current enemy attack wave were, to put it mildly, terrifying. We are fighting a hive mind with no support, no constant supplies, limited manpower, ammunition and ammunition, it was a clear cause for fear that few of us felt.
I could see how many fighters’ hands were shaking while they, looking out for the approaching Xorxes, held large-caliber rifles in their hands. It seemed to all of them that there simply wasn’t enough ammunition to pierce the chitin of these creatures and to shoot each and every one of them on our way. All the fighters, like me, were afraid of death and it was damn normal! Fear gave us strength, the main thing was not to give in to it, but to use it.
None of us will die here.
"Four hundred meters!" repeated the observer.
In the distance, through the noise of the wind, the first clap was heard, and the first flash appeared through the thermal imager. The huge creature stepped on a mine with its limb and caused a powerful explosion, losing most of its body, and then other Xorxes began to be blown up by mines one after another.
The worst thing about watching these explosions is that the Xorxes, even after the death of the first hundreds of their relatives, were not going to retreat, but continued to rush forward as if they were expecting something like this. It was bad, very bad. Such an inexorable enemy that he attacks headlong and is much more dangerous than a cautious opponent. After all, the thought of a cautious enemy is much clearer to us, because he wants to survive, and the Xorxes only want to win.
At this moment, the Poldiv fighters began to carry out the order they had received earlier, infantry fighting vehicles and mortars opened fire, points with large-caliber machine guns also began to chirp, showering the advancing insectoids with deadly shells. We relied on living fighters here and did not trust the turrets to open fire; it is unlikely that they could distinguish between living targets and flashes of explosions while the visual view was hidden by a sandstorm. The human eye can do a much better job of identifying targets, but this is now, and we still don’t know what will happen later.
What was happening now could not be described in any other way except as a firestorm, the enormous size of the Xorxes died like midges when their bodies were torn apart by hits from large-caliber shells, never reaching our positions. Nevertheless, there were many of them, and they tried to overwhelm us with numbers, rapidly using up our ammunition. By this time, we had already destroyed about thousands of them, but there were still a lot of them, and they continued to advance. These creatures were not going to stop for a moment and seemed to be about to reach our positions.
To make matters worse, they did not intend to gather in heaps and attack us en masse, but acted like modern units, dispersing across the battlefield at a distance of tens of meters from each other. Only sometimes did they gather in heaps and fall under a missile strike, causing enormous damage over an area and killing them in dozens. The Xorxes continued to advance and had already passed half the minefield in front of our positions and it seemed that they had very little time left to engage us in close combat.
"The call sign "Parrot" reports the complete consumption of ammunition. The withdrawal process has begun."
"Accepted, "Parrot", Begin retreat."
"Callsign 'Moro' requests missile strike, cluster detected, eight hours from our positions."
“Callsign “Violet” is receiving a request from the “Moro” group. Rocket launch in 15 seconds. Can you hear that?”
"Accepted. Waiting for launch."
"… ~shhh~…"
The air was playing in the headphones, the fighters did not have enough ammunition to shoot insectoids, the fighters relied on the infantrymen, who had no choice but to help in the delivery of large-caliber shells. It is unlikely that simple units could help much in the current battle; without combat suits they cannot use heavy weapons and were content with only light weapons, which did not cause significant damage to these creatures.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Two hundred meters!"
The situation was starting to get out of control. We expected to shoot them all before they reached our positions, but they were getting closer and closer and were about to engage us in close combat, which we were guaranteed to lose. The Xorxes continued to attack in a dispersed manner, and I’m afraid we have no choice but to do something that is economically unfeasible.
I went online and gave the artillery batteries a clear order:
“Speaking Kalilul Mratin, I order all artillery batteries of half-division F4 to open fire, maximum distance 600 meters, close the flanks. The order to save is canceled. How do you hear?”
"Order accepted, sir. Let's begin the task."
A few seconds later, booming thunderclaps sounded behind him, and flashes of massive rocket launches shone overhead. The artillery fired from all kinds of guns at the Xorxes who were about to start hand-to-hand combat with us. It’s hard for me to imagine what losses we will suffer if they actually do this. Under no circumstances should we allow this to happen.
A hail of fire rained down on the approaching Xorxes. Now I could no longer see anything in the thermal imager; everything disappeared in thousands of flashes in the distance. From now on, the fighters relied only on bioscanners; up close they worked better than ever, while at that time, through the sandstorm, we tried to see real hell in the flesh. Everything ahead was burning with hellish flames, and because of the sandstorm on top of that, it was incredibly difficult to see what was happening ahead.
The nearest xorxes, who remained just under fifty meters, were soon shot down, while the rest evaporated under the blows of artillery fire. Soon the shooting died down; there was no one left to shoot in these fields of fire. I expected that the artillery would not be able to destroy them at once, but it seems that we were somewhat mistaken with their numbers and were able to destroy them all. The soldiers did not stand still and did not celebrate this insignificant victory and instead carried ammunition to vehicles and machine-gun points to repel the attack. At any moment the Xorxes could come again and by this moment we need to be prepared for anything.
Meanwhile, I climbed back into the command vehicle and closed the hatch to see the general situation on the battlefield on the screens.
"Report." I asked.
“There are no losses, the commanders of all artillery batteries are currently reporting on the state of reloading the guns, the next wave of Xorxes will reach us presumably in 6 hours.”
"Damn wonderful!" I laughed and patted the driver on the shoulder. “But don’t relax, rotation is still a long way off.”
It was an excellent job, but I’m afraid that due to the frequency of battles, our half-div will soon simply quickly run out of steam, which we could not afford. After the next wave, you need to request a rotation from the commander of the 6th division, Janis Zayahvla.
"Sir,... Lieutenant Colonel Janice Zayahvla wishes to contact us."
Right on time.
"Accept the request."
I re-entered the airwaves and heard an angry female voice.
"Idiots! Where are you?! What the hell is going on there?"
A? What happened? I was perplexed by the furious cry of my colleague and immediately received the same furious answer.
“How did the Xorxes sneak past you?!”
"What?" I was surprised, starting to be covered in drops of sweat a little from what I heard. "They bypassed our positions? How?"
“Why are you asking “how”? I should have asked you!”
I looked at the screen with the strategic map, not a single half-division had moved, and supposed groups of opponents continued to advance, not one could break through our positions and would not have been able to through these sands. Or maybe they...
"Plans changed." I heard the calmer and more confident voice of Lieutenant Colonel Zayakhvla. “Immediately retreat to the second line, with the entire division. Now the first division is already digging in there. Is the order clear?”
"Yes, sir. I'm proceeding to execute the order."
“Fine. End of connection.”
The Xorxes were able to break through our defense lines without us noticing, and I wondered how they were able to do this. One of the reports from the general headquarters stated that there was an extensive network of caves under the Ksor hives. This means that these insectoids could and can dig tunnels, and with their size and number they could do this very quickly.
“I order the entire half-division F4 to immediately prepare to retreat to the second line, immediately fold up and leave. I repeat, immediately...”
I repeated my order several times, and the entire half-division quickly gathered and began to move, loading everything that we had previously pulled out into the vehicles. At the moment when half the division in full force was preparing for marching formation, the crackle of shots began to crackle outside, and then I heard a voice in the earpiece:
"Alarm! Xorxes are crawling out of the ground!"
Damn it! I cursed to myself as I saw more targets begin to appear on the bioscanner that were actually emerging from under the sand.
They decided to attack us on the sly while we were in our most vulnerable position. Fortunately, the shooting of the Xorxes went flawlessly, the fighters did not relax for a moment and were ready to engage in battle at any moment.
At least five points were noticed from where they decided to crawl out. As soon as a huge three-meter monster with a black shell and huge mandibles crawled out from under the sand, these positions were immediately showered with heavy fire. The yellow blood of the xorxes splashed in all directions, and the creatures themselves screamed disgustingly as the shells tore their thick limbs from them.
While the vehicles were shooting insectoids, I received news that the full squad was ready to move to the second line, after which I gave the order:
"Start moving!"
Infantry fighting vehicles, trucks, self-propelled missiles and artillery began a scattered movement back to the east, simultaneously shooting behind the Xorxes, who could not keep up with us. At this moment I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. From the reports I learned that no one died, which made me happy, but what about the Xorxes that will be waiting for us ahead?
I’m sure those Xorxes have already been shot or the first division is already in the process of executing this order, and to find out, I probably contacted the headquarters of the 6th division.
"This is Major Kalilul Mratin speaking. Half division F4 has begun its movement towards the second line of defense."
"Accepted." I heard a voice in the earphone. "You better hurry, it's going to get hot in your positions soon."
"How hot is it?" I asked and received a very scary answer.
"General Zeonid has ordered a series of tactical nuclear strikes."
***
Spreading its wide wings in the clear cloudless sky, the drone hovered, looking with its camera for a huge ocean of insectoids, which seemed to be moving east in their mass like tidal waves. Broadcasting this monstrous horde onto the screens of the strategic headquarters of the 127th Army, General Zeonid examined the strategic map with the location of the opposing forces and listened to the reports of officers on the current state of affairs.
The Xorxes dug under the positions of the first line of defense and immediately attacked the second, after which an order was received for half the divisions of the first line of defense to retreat closer to the Pharaoh, leaving these already meaningless positions to the opponents. Although the 127th Army did not suffer losses, it suffered a strategic defeat, leaving prepared positions to the enemy.
The officers gave orders after analyzing the received reports from the locations of the troops. Right now, General Zeonid was observing a real breakthrough that only modern armies could be capable of, and not hordes of insectoids, which is what they eventually accomplished. The general admitted that he had made a miscalculation by not taking into account the Xorxes’ ability to dig underground; from now on, this will now be taken into account in future planning.
At this time, one of the drone operators reported that the device had reached its destination and was ready to complete the assigned combat mission. Everything was ready to begin with a squadron of drones dropping nuclear warheads with an activation timer on the insectoids.
"Your orders, sir?"
"Reset."
"There is a Reset command. The first warhead has gone."
Twenty drones began dropping nuclear warheads, and the devices themselves then turned in the sky back to the Pharaoh base. At this time, one of the drones was still in the visual radius of the explosion and could capture a nuclear strike on the horde of insectoids. The warheads themselves, having reached the required height, opened their parachutes, the explosions must occur in the air to cause maximum damage to the enemy, and only one will have to reach the surface to shake the bowels of the planet.
Under the blue, peaceful sky, the first flash appeared, eclipsing the radiance of the parent star of this world, and then the second and third and many more, which seemed to notify this world of the beginning of the end of the world.
Powerful bright explosions with shock waves of an expanding sphere swept away all insectoids that fell within the explosion radius, and the expanding fiery spheres, like man-made suns, devoured everything in their path, leaving behind only a scorched wasteland.
General Zeonid's gaze moved from the visual vision screen to the map, where the entire mass of advancing insectoids was displayed. The nuclear strikes were supposed to kill at least two million Xorxes, separating the first advancing wave from the rest of the swarm, and apparently they succeeded.
At the site of a dozen explosions, dusty clouds remained forming black mushrooms, slowly dissolving in the sky, and the craters from the explosion sites were covered with cooling molten glass. There was no living space left of the Xorxes; nuclear strikes consumed everything they reached.
The horde that followed the first wave stopped, not wanting to cross the glassy molten desert and also fearing being roasted alive. The other part of the swarm became disorganized, they began to rush from side to side and even attack each other. Now they looked more like wild animals than a single intelligent organism operating under a single command. On the screens one could see how the Xorxes, with their mandibles, tore the chitinous shells of their relatives or dug underground, hiding in the sands to escape the unbearable heat and radiation.
Zeonid used his trump card on a primitive planet against a seemingly not particularly superior opponent in the level of development, but still he was forced to use nuclear weapons as soon as the situation got out of control. The warheads and launch vehicles themselves were disconnected from the ship's torpedoes during the evacuation from the cruiser. According to Captain Arman, it was necessary to separate the nuclear warheads for their further use for production purposes.
It seems that some warheads were used to develop a nuclear reactor and generate the required amount of energy, at least for the first time. However, Zeonid was not interested in this; he was glad that he had then given Captain Arman time to save the nuclear warheads. Otherwise, if the cruiser crashed, this planet would also face a nuclear disaster on a global scale.
At the request of the command of the 127th Army, Captain Arman agreed to provide Zeonid with thirty warheads out of more than two thousand available in order to protect the Pharaoh base from the rapid breakthrough of the Xorxes. And although the general managed to protect the base from an intelligent collective swarm, he feared that the Xorxes, now knowing what trump card the people had in their hands, would try to do something else to destroy the people, and this scared the general doubly.
This is my mistake. Zeonid blamed himself.I didn't expect them to dig underground. If this had not happened, then we would not have to resort to such extreme measures.
And although Zeonid was not satisfied with himself, other officers at the headquarters did not take their eyes off the screen, where the drone broadcast the consequences of nuclear strikes, left nuclear craters, raised clouds of dust, scorched glass vapor and the dying millions of insectoids exposed to radiation.
Seeing what they were capable of in the face of this obstacle, they could not help but feel proud. They were lucky to be born human and survive with such destructive weapons. No one now even thinks that their saving trump card once upon a time destroyed the Earth for a long time, plunging the world under thick layers of nuclear ash. They didn't care about that, but they were worried about something else: could they completely destroy the Xorsk by relying only on nuclear weapons, or would they have to look for another way to overcome the threat hanging over them?
However, now this is not so important, because General Zeonid has already begun to observe the movement of the swarm on the screens and what he saw scared him madly.
Not this.
The Xorxes began a super-scale encirclement of the Pharaoh. Soon they will begin to attack the base from all directions.
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Reporting entry: №17844
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[* - In the culture of the Catians, a tale arose about a strange entity called "Eus", which abducted young children and tested their body and spirit in its domain. The tested children returned as warriors, ready to stand up for themselves and their families. "Beria" in the language of the Phedrisians means land. This is where the name "Eusberia" comes from - the land of testing. It seems to me that this is what is happening to us now: a test of humanity.]
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Message:
"The task was not an easy one. We need to form a circular line of defense and begin preparations for offensive actions on the beetles' positions. Below is a map."
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Map:
image [https://i.postimg.cc/x84wPmtq/Map.png]
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End of entries…
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