Zhao Chen!
Senior Su Lan and the others looked in astonishment at the man before them.
The one who'd appeared before them, of all people, was Zhao Chen!
This was the last thing they'd have imagined.
"Mecha squads — pin down the bug-swarms around us and cover the withdrawal." Zhao Chen gave the order to the three mecha squads.
The three mecha squads formed a triangular defensive line, each guarding a stretch around the ship wreck.
The appearance of these 15 black mecha changed the shape of the battlefield in one stroke!
The two 36-barrel Gatling laser autocannons mounted on the T2 Black-Knight-class Light Interstellar Combat-Mecha kept spitting blue light, laser after laser sweeping across those bugs, punching them into puddles of flesh on the ground.
A bug fully the size of a car pounced madly at one T2 Black-Knight.
That T2 Black-Knight's mecha pilot, unhurried, engaged the mecha's missiles.
A small missile shot from a launch-unit on the mecha's back and, under precise guidance, struck that bug true and sure.
After a great explosion, the bug's half-severed head crashed down before the T2 Black-Knight.
Under the T2 Black-Knights' terrifying firepower, the two academies' teachers and students, whose line had been on the brink of collapse, now found some relief.
The bug-swarms' assault was checked.
Zhao Chen sprang down from the T2 Black-Knight beneath him, walked before Zhao Wan'er with her frozen expression, and gave her somewhat mussed head a rub.
"Don't be afraid — your brother's here."
Five simple characters, and in an instant all the pent-up grievance and feeling in Zhao Wan'er's heart came gushing out.
"Boo-hoo-hoo… I really thought… I… I was going to die…" Zhao Wan'er said with a sob, dropping altogether that forced-tough front she'd always put up before Zhao Chen.
"All right, don't cry for now; once we're back, you can cry however you like — I'll fetch you a basin to catch it." Zhao Chen rapped Zhao Wan'er on the head.
Zhao Wan'er stuck out her tongue, mastered her feelings, and broke into her first smile in these several days.
"Senior Su Lan, my ship will carry you all out. The shuttles will land in a moment; right now, at once, have the two academies' teachers and students inside the ship seize the time to withdraw, and gather them here!" Zhao Chen looked to Senior Su Lan beside him and handed down the task.
At the same time, one could see six small shuttles flying down out of the hangar of the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser under cover of the interstellar drones, about to land.
"All right — I'll see to it at once!" Senior Su Lan wasted no words and began contacting the personnel within the ship, having them withdraw at once.
"You all stay put here nice and obedient; don't go running off." Zhao Chen instructed his sister.
"Then where are you going?" Zhao Wan'er looked at her brother with worry.
Zhao Chen said with a smile, "So wild a party — before I leave, of course I've got to say a proper hello to those lovely little things. They did make my dear little sister cry, after all."
Hearing Zhao Chen's teasing words, Zhao Wan'er's cheeks flushed.
And by now a personal-combat weapons crate had been dropped down from the air — that was readied for Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen walked over and opened the weapons crate.
Inside were arrayed a dozen-odd different weapons and equipment.
Without a word Zhao Chen chose a big fellow — he liked them big.
A weapon that took up fully a third of the crate's stock.
It was 10-barrel Gatling heavy machine gun; its mass alone reached an astonishing 1,000 kilograms!
Ordinarily it took several soldiers working together, fixed to the ground with a mounting device, to use as a fixed firepower point.
Even a soldier in personal exoskeleton combat armor couldn't lightly wield this weapon in battle single-handed.
But Zhao Chen, at this moment, hoisted it up with both hands outright, and behind him trailed a half-man-high intelligent ammo-feed box besides.
And just then, from the bug-hole the trodden-flat giant bug had bored, a great many bugs came swarming out.
"Come on, little darlings. Have a taste of Uncle's big fellow!" Zhao Chen squeezed the trigger with a savage grin.
The next second an enormous recoil slammed into Zhao Chen's body; had it been an imperial soldier here, likely in a mere three seconds both his arms would have gone numb from the shaking, never mind holding this great engine of slaughter in both hands and firing on.
But now Zhao Chen stood there rooted like bedrock, letting the great killer in his hands pour out its rounds.
This great killer used solid rounds.
Solid rounds weren't as convenient to carry as energy rounds, but because of the high-explosive material within them, their power far outstripped a weapon like a laser rifle.
And most important of all!
The fire-rate was blazing damn fast.
In a mere few seconds, near enough, the bugs swarming from that hole were all shot into flesh-pulp by Zhao Chen's rounds.
Ding — you have successfully met the task requirement of killing one bug
Ding — task updated. You have successfully met the task requirement of killing ten bugs
Soon no more bugs crawled out of that bug-hole; Zhao Chen turned his target to the bug-swarm surging up beyond the line, a trace of a mad smile on his face.
The barrage kept pouring down, shell-casings falling to the side like raindrops, piling in no time into a little hill.
Ding — task updated. You have successfully met the task requirement of killing one hundred bugs
Soon the task standard was met again.
"Careful!" Zhao Wan'er suddenly cried out behind him.
For a bug had, at some point unknown, lurked its way to Zhao Chen's side!
It leapt out, lunging straight for Zhao Chen's head to bite — and if those keen teeth got hold, that head would likely go like a basketball with the air let out.
But Zhao Chen wasn't the least bit flustered; he bent his upper body backward, and, relying on his powerful core strength, tipped his whole upper body back until he faced the sky — steady and unfalling!
"What amazing waist strength…" Xue Xiaoxiao, noticing Zhao Chen's posture, couldn't help swallowing.
That bug had, at this moment, leapt exactly to the height where Zhao Chen's head had been — which was now the spot where the muzzle in Zhao Chen's hands sat!
"Surprised?" Zhao Chen looked at this bug and gave a blink.
Then he trained the Gatling gun in his hands on the bug and fired.
Bang bang bang bang.
Under one burst of output, in a mere instant, that bug which had tried to ambush Zhao Chen had its whole body torn to a ruin.
Zhao Chen curled his lip in disdain and went on with the slaughter of the bug-swarm before him.
After he'd injected the T3 Super-Soldier Serum, he'd found his sense-perception greatly heightened; he could feel the stir of wind and grass around him — the moment that bug drew near him, he'd noticed.
Under Zhao Chen's ceaseless fire, the half-man-high ammo-feed box soon warned that its ammunition was near spent.
"Truly not satisfying enough." Zhao Chen curled his lip.
He tossed the Gatling gun in his hands aside.
And because Zhao Chen's firepower had stopped, a few bugs, seeming to think their chance had come, at once pounced at him.
Faced with the pouncing bugs, Zhao Chen neither dodged nor flinched, but simply reached out his hand.
And, of all things, caught a bug's head in mid-air outright; then came a scene like an apple being crushed, juices spurting onto Zhao Chen's exoskeleton armor.
Zhao Chen didn't turn a hair, as though what he'd crushed were only an apple.