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Chapter 696: The Extermination Order is Implemented, the Battle of Rheaduches (XI)

Iron Coffin is the name for the Dreadnought Mecha.

That was to roughly stuff a Space Marine into an alloy life-support capsule from which he could never leave. All the life support for the Space Marine for the rest of his life would then depend entirely on the life-support capsule.

At the same time, this life support cabin is also the cockpit of the Dreadnought. Many pipes are connected to the nerves of the Space Marines, allowing them to control the huge Dreadnought as if they were controlling their own hands and feet. The visual system of the mecha is its eyes, and the sound system is its ears.

That sounds okay.

Although they can no longer taste the taste of food, and no longer have any physical needs or impulses, Space Marines have little need for the former. In most Space Marine groups, the pursuit of appetite and the taste of food is despised. They prefer to practice asceticism and hone their minds.

As for physiological needs other than deliciousness...

It is hard to say whether they have sexual ability, but I have not seen any serious Space Marines pursuing this.

As for fertility, it is even more certain that they do not have it. Space Marines cannot reproduce normally, and if they really want to reproduce, they can only do so through gene seed implantation surgery.

Therefore, without these mortal pursuits, it seems that it is no big deal for the Space Marines. Whether they enter the Dreadnought Iron Coffin or not, they live like this.

But this is actually just the most insignificant price to pay after entering the Dreadnought.

The real cost lies in the negative effects.

They will stay awake at all times, no longer needing sleep and having no dreams. Their brains can certainly remain physically healthy under the maintenance of the life support cabin, but the mental fatigue will last forever and cannot be repaired.

The life support cabin 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 to perform routine movements, a slight tingling sensation, more like an itchy sensation, will continue to torture the Space Marine at all times.

It's not just action, just activating the visual and auditory systems is also operating the body, which will also cause "itching".

When it comes to a battle that requires intense exercise, the itching turns into pain.

It is for this reason that many of the Fearless Iron Coffins had a bad ending. When they were not needed, they would stay in the fleet's warehouse, library, elders' room and other places for a long time without moving. They seemed to be sleeping, but they were actually awake, but they were bored and could not do anything. After all, if they moved, they would feel itchy all over their body.

But whether it is the itch or the boredom of the long darkness, it will eventually drive people crazy.

It’s true that Space Marines are extraordinary creatures. Normal mortals may go crazy in a few days, but they can last for hundreds or thousands of years in there…

But it is not eternal after all.

Dreadnoughts have a tendency to self-destruct, and they often put themselves in the most dangerous situation during a battle in order to be freed in the battle. This not only fulfills their loyalty to the Emperor and the Chapter, but also frees them from eternal pain.

As for the worse ones, one day or at a certain moment, they may not be able to endure the torture that has lasted for who knows how long, and they will go crazy and launch indiscriminate attacks on their own ships, and are eventually killed by their own fighting brothers.

The name of the Dreadnought, the "Iron Coffin", is actually an understatement. It is not just a steel coffin, but an instrument of eternal torture.

Because of this, only the disabled but strong-willed Space Marines can enter the Dreadnought.

If you are not disabled, don't go in. There is no need to suffer that.

Those who are not determined generally do not want to go in. Rather than endure eternal punishment, it is better to return to the Golden Throne as soon as possible.

Even if you can't bear to go in, each chapter has strict standards. For those who are disabled, have lost their combat effectiveness, or even have to die if they don't enter the Dreadnought Iron Coffin, they have to see how they behave on a daily basis and whether they are firm enough. Otherwise, they can't bear the eternal punishment and will harm the chapter instead.

Le Luwa wanted to enter, first of all, he had great perseverance and determination. Secondly, he also had enough willpower to withstand the test brought by the Fearless Iron Coffin.

……

Gu Hang had no objection to Le Luwa's decision.

There are dreadnought mechas on his starship.

That belonged to the Phoenix Regiment, and was intended for use by some elite veterans who could not be rescued. Now that one was allocated to Le Roux, it would not be a problem.

The performance of this Black Cross Marshal in the battle on the ground was truly admirable.

And it did have a huge impact on the battle situation.

The large hive was destroyed. Under that wave of incapacitating attacks, hundreds of thousands of Zerg units on the battlefields were wiped out. This number may not be very conspicuous, but the key is that it also includes a large number of high-level units. After all, the level of the hive overlord itself is too high. Many node creatures that usually appear to be the highest level are actually under his control. Now, there is no need to go to great lengths to kill them. Just observe from a distance and fire with a cannon. The opponent will not even dodge.

That directly led to the Zerg's biological titan army being forced to retreat.

It is true that a considerable number of Bio-Titans escaped, but they had suffered considerable losses in previous battles; in the subsequent retreat process, whether it was the rearguard troops destroyed by humans or the units killed in the pursuit, all of them severely damaged the army that the Queen of Zerg had intended to use to completely destroy the human army's base on the surface of the planet.

The battle is certainly not over yet, however, the phase has actually changed.

From the first phase of airborne operations, to the second phase of base defense, to now, we have entered the third phase of strategic offensive.

With the death of the Hive Overlord and the defeat of the Zerg Titan Legion, there is no military force strong enough in the vast area surrounding the human base to hinder the attack of the human army.

Gu Hang would certainly not waste such a good opportunity.

He decisively continued to increase the investment in ground military forces, and even wanted to send all four of them, including Salisbury, Martins, Xi Rui, and Ewing, down at once.

These four, if nothing else, are at least not weaker than Leroy. Leroy was able to get fourth place among them, and that was because Xi Rui was at the bottom.

Although Alma Ewing, the leader of the Blood Shark Corps, is usually quiet, Gu Hang is very clear about his actual combat capability, which is quite strong.

From his soul and the little bit of subspace essence he possessed, Gu Hang could intuitively see how powerful he was.

At the same time, Gu Hang also had in his hands the most elite group of warriors in the entire human coalition: Phoenix, Otopis, and Blood Shark. People from the three regiments were also teleported to the ground in an organized manner by Gu Hang.

To take advantage of its weakness, Gu Hang handed over the command of ground operations to Salilius, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front, who replaced Leroy. His request to Salilius was to rapidly expand the area of ​​the human base within two months and destroy every Zerg nest that could be found.

We have elite troops, manpower, and firepower, and the majority of the enemy was repelled. How can we not win this battle?
Salilus completed Gu Hang's task very well.

When the human coalition can ensure a safe area of ​​more than 1,500 kilometers horizontally and vertically on the ground, the success rate of airdrop will be much higher. This not only means that there will be no air defense interception from the ground, but it can also change the starship naval battle close to the planet's orbit.

The human fleet was stronger than the Zerg biological fleet in terms of both size and combat power. However, because of the orbital firepower from the ground, the human fleet suffered more losses than the enemy. They were restricted in fighting, and often when they went to the ground to provide support, they were simply exchanging ships.

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 is far from the planet, there will still be a lot of orbital firepower that can be fired at. But less is a good change. Moreover, if the human starships get closer to the planet to a certain extent, as long as they are directly above this safe area, all the Zerg orbital guns will lose their attack angle due to the curvature of the surface.

The safe zone was created in this way, allowing human ships to suffer less losses during naval battles.

This will feed back to the ground, making the ground attack smoother; if the ground is smooth, more and faster insect nests will be destroyed, the threat from the sky will be reduced, and the range of human starships will become larger, which will feed back to the ground again...

If this happens, it will be a positive cycle.

However, this was not enough to achieve victory.

The goal of the human coalition is not simply to win, but to win within a year, otherwise the reinforcements from the "tentacles" will arrive. By then, the situation will change.

Currently, conditions are such that the extermination order weapons can be deployed safely with a high success rate.

But at the same time, the number of human troops deployed on the ground is too large and the quality is also very high. Gu Hang also has to face the same problem as the northern army: should he burn them together with the queen of insects?

You don't have to.

Gu Hang himself was reluctant to burn both the Phoenix and Martins to death on the ground.

Even if we put aside the emotional factors, from the perspective of interests, perhaps Gu Hang can make up the number of Phoenixes at a relatively small cost, even at the level of company champion. However, those who exceed the level of company champion and reach the level of chapter paragon and chapter champion cannot be made up.

Although there is a [Hero] interface where you can be enlightened, in order to upgrade later, you must have sufficient talent.

Talent alone is not even enough, you also need enough experience.

These all limit Gu Hang's ability to create masters.

Moreover, even if it is upgraded to the highest level 9 that the system can provide, and even with the relevant training of Space Marines, the overall strength will be slightly worse than that of the regiment champion.

Just like a psychic, even though Gu Hang got so many reward templates and the blessing of the Storm God Kingdom, his upgrade to LV9 is nothing more than A+, and there has only been one S-level one.

The same is true for Space Marines.

Not only Phoenix, but even Fury and New World Torch also had warriors who were raised to LV8 and LV9, but in fact, they generally did not reach the level of a chapter champion. The chapter leaders of those two chapters were not worthy of their names, and they did not have the powerful combat power of a Space Marine chapter leader in the conventional concept.

Only Martins, the only one who had some special circumstances, had some breakthroughs of his own. With the blessing of Gu Hang, the lesser god of the Storm Kingdom in the subspace, he was able to show his top strength among the champions of the regiment.

These things are hard to come by. Even if it is the blessing of God's Choice that Gu Hang can control, it actually requires the target to be able to bear it, and the number of people who bless is limited.

Now that Martins is dead, even if Gu Hang copies another one, he won’t be able to do so because there is no one to choose from.

Gu Hang really couldn't bear to give up on him.

Gu Hang couldn't just kill Salisbury, Xi Rui, and Ewing. Ewing's blood shark Gu Hang was plotting, and the former two were influential figures in the entire empire. If they were killed, the political turmoil would be huge.

However, although Gu Hang made a similar decision to Le Roux in the first battle, in fact, the situations they faced were completely different.

If there is really no other way, we can just burn them all together. However, that is obviously not the case now.

Humans have an advantage in both size and quality in the spaceships, and although the battle situation is evenly matched, that is due to the support of ground orbital firepower for naval warfare. When the ground battle continues to progress smoothly, the human side will surely regain the advantage.

And the ground combat was indeed going quite smoothly.

So why the rush?

There is still more than half a year left until the deadline to end the battle.

Not dropping extermination weapons directly on the ground doesn't mean they won't be used.

Gu Hang mobilized some transport ships to deliver five Extinction Order weapons to the ground.

The Zerg could still sense the presence of the Extinction Order weapons, and they tried their best to intercept them.

But this time, it couldn't be stopped.

The degree of destruction of the ground's orbital interception firepower has exceeded the critical line, and the pressure applied is not enough; those flying insects that can fly outside the atmosphere will first have to suffer from the anti-aircraft fire interception from the humans on the ground.

Due to the lack of ground-based orbital firepower, the human fleet can protect these transport ships more closely and thoroughly.

Even though the Hive Fleet carried out a full-scale assault and suffered heavy losses under the attack of the human fleet, even so, in the end only four were intercepted, and one Burning Sky torpedo still entered the surface of the planet safely.

At this time, human forces began to shrink rapidly, boarding landing spacecraft to evacuate from various considered safe areas.

During the evacuation process, although the success rate is only about 85%, if you are unlucky, the entire ship will be intercepted by Zerg bio-ships before returning to the starship or transport ship.

But it's much better than staying on the ground and being buried with all the bugs on the planet a month later.

----

4k makes up for yesterday.

One more chapter before bed.

(End of this chapter)