Chapter 447: Prelude to War
The massive Bug Swarm was forced to halt outside Titan, their frenzied attack was held back for a full four hours.
But this Bug Swarm, similar in appearance to the Zerg, was raised by the Erdos Civilization. The races they herded weren't just the fearless Spider Bugs and Jumping Bugs—
In a civilization structure resembling ant nests within the Human World, these Spider Bugs and Jumping Bugs, the size of Human World cars, often served only as Sentinels and Worker Ants.
After the Earth Alliance's Heavy Firepower eliminated hundreds of thousands of Sentinel Bugs, the true Soldier Ants among the Bug Swarm herded by the Erdos Civilization began to appear in the Earth Alliance's field of vision.
These Soldier Ants, similar in appearance to Beetles, possessed a pair of sharp pincer-like mouthparts. Beneath their two split carapaces were bulging, bloated, and obese bodies. When you truly saw the size of these creatures, you would understand why they were so late.
Their split carapaces seemed to function as wings, but those small wings dragged their bloated bodies, which were the size of Heavy Truck beds, through the sky. Although the small wings vibrated at an extremely high frequency, their flight speed was even slower than a speed-limited two-wheeled electric vehicle on Earth.
The sight of these Beetles appearing... well, how should I put it? It was extremely comical!
But when these Beetles lined up densely on the World Tree Branch, lifting their bloated, water-sack-like rear ends and aiming them at the Earth Alliance's Defense Line, these seemingly comical Insects instantly transformed into long-range weapons.
Sticky balls of sulfuric acid solution emitting blue light sprayed out from their perky, bloated rear ends like autocannons.
The liquid strong acid balls sprayed from the rear ends of these Beetles could strike over ten kilometers away. The high corrosiveness of this liquid biological strong acid could even melt steel! Compared to the Spider Bugs and Jumping Bugs, the number of these Beetles wasn't large, only twenty to thirty thousand. But it was precisely because of the appearance of these Beetles that the Earth Alliance's Heavy Artillery couldn't fully unleash its force, allowing the Erdos Civilization's Bug Swarm to reverse the situation of their stalled attack.
Large batches of the Bug Swarm began to tear through the Earth Alliance's Battlefield Defense Line, the First Battlefield Defense Line. After several hours of continuous operation, the tank gun muzzles and heavy machine guns were already glowing red hot. Even without the attack by those Beetles, these heavy tanks would have to take turns cooling their cannon bores.
In the sky, sulfuric acid balls, one to two meters in diameter, fell from the sky. Under the effect of the internal blue light, they exploded in the center of the Earth Alliance's Defense Line. The Soldiers hiding inside the tanks were relatively safe; although this strong acid liquid could corrode steel, it couldn't do much to these heavy tanks with thick armor in a short time.
But for the sulfuric acid balls that landed on the Allied Forces Defense Line, if a Soldier was unfortunately splashed by the strong acid liquid after they exploded, their flesh and blood could be corroded away, exposing their bare white bones.
And the area covered by these exploding sulfuric acid balls was extremely large; one could cover an area of over ten meters. These sulfuric acid balls caused immense damage to the Earth Alliance, not only physically but also psychologically. Imagine those Soldiers watching their Comrades-in-arms being corroded into piles of white bone before their very eyes.
Small-scale soldier routs even occurred in some battlefields. To prevent a chain reaction, these fleeing South Korean Soldiers were immediately executed by firing squad by the Federation's Inspector Team! This prevented a large-scale desertion.
Even so, the Battlefield situation remained extremely grim. To prevent the Heavy Artillery group from being subjected to long-range strike, some Heavy Artillery positions and Rocket Launcher vehicles had to retreat. Although the Frontline Commander had already ordered the Frontline Soldiers to use mortars and rocket launchers to fill the missing Heavy Artillery firepower gap.
However, the firepower gap between these rocket launchers and mortars issued to squads and the Heavy Artillery with calibers above 200 millimeters was naturally extremely obvious.
This undoubtedly gave the Insects an opportunity! "Those damned Insects are swarming again! A Company! Block the gap!"
"Officer! Coordinates 346, 234, large numbers of Insects detected, I need artillery fire support!"
"Go! Go! Go!"
Without Heavy Firepower support, and with the landmines having been flattened by the Insects with their flesh and blood over the past four hours, large numbers of Bug Swarm began to cross the tanks and armored vehicles' Heavy Firepower and penetrate the Earth Alliance's Defense Line.
"Da da da da da da—"
"Bang bang bang bang—Boom boom boom boom"
Facing these huge Insects hissing and rushing forward, the Human Soldiers at the Frontline Position suppressed their fear and began their defensive counterattack.
The sound of mortars and rocket launchers breaking through the sky and exploding roared on the Battlefield. Rows of tubular objects, like beehives, formed Metal Storms that fired metal torrents at a rate of fire of thirty thousand rounds per minute. Even the Insects with sturdy bodies were instantly turned into puddles of minced meat by these metal torrents.
At the same time, each of these Metal Storm tube boxes was equipped with four launchers, capable of firing 16 rounds of 40mm grenades in less than 0.01 seconds.
It's worth mentioning that these grenades, like the grenades fired from the 40mm semi-automatic grenade launchers hanging under the rifles of the Earth Alliance Soldiers, were filled with thermite shells.
This thermite shell, which absolutely violates the Geneva Convention, was originally developed to target heavy defensive weapons like tanks.
When they hit the huge-bodied Insects, often a single thermite shell could burn through their thick carapaces, burning their flesh and blood into ash.
Hundreds of thousands of fierce Insects were blocked outside the Defense Line by humanity's top firearms, unable to advance a single step for another two hours.
But as the Earth Alliance's Metal Storms ran out, Vulcan Cannon ammunition belts were depleted, gun barrels overheated, various light and heavy machine gun barrels were replaced multiple times, and the cannon bores of mortars and light artillery reached their limits.
The Earth Alliance's Defense Line advantage also diminished little by little, especially as the sky gradually darkened. Although under the radiance emitted by Yggdrasil, Titan was not completely devoid of light like Earth's Night Sky.
However, the dim environment was undoubtedly an excellent attack environment for the Bug Swarm herded by the Erdos Civilization. "Officer! Position 270 lost! The Bug Swarm is rushing towards Position 275, we've lost two Battalions!"
"Contact the rear Heavy Firepower, tell the artillery, I need artillery fire support!"
"Officer! Position 364, defended by the Japanese people, is lost!"
"Officer, we have already lost ten kilometers of deep Defense Line!"
In the First Battlefield's Forward Command Post, a Federal Army Lieutenant General, responsible for Frontline Command, listened to the Operations Staff Officers receiving one bad news after another from the walkie-talkies. The news of losing one position after another made him frown deeply. He walked directly to a red telephone and picked it up: "Officer, I need Heavy Firepower support, whether it's artillery, missiles, or anything else, throw it all onto the lost positions. Otherwise, I can't hold out for two days!"
"Lieutenant General Haosi, this is just the enemy's vanguard force. According to the original plan, we need to hold out here for at least fifteen days. You need to know that against these alien bastards, once the big guns are used, they will be on guard in the future. Once the trump cards are used up, we won't last long!"
"Officer, I understand that, but the current situation is that without enough Firepower support, my troops won't even survive tonight. The First Defense Line is being lost! Listen, those damned Insects are slaughtering my Soldiers!"
The Lieutenant General held the red telephone towards outside the Command Post. The clear artillery fire, machine gun spray fire, mixed with screams echoing in the Night Sky, were picked up by the telephone receiver.
"I will order the Second Defense Line to launch a batch of Jericho Missiles to provide you with firepower support!" The voice on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment before speaking.
"Send the coordinates of our lost positions to that Bastard Bart, and notify the retreating troops. As soon as the firepower support ends, immediately retake the positions!"
After Lieutenant General Haosi hung up the phone, he immediately ordered his Adjutant and the Operations Staff Officers.
"Yes! Officer!"
In the trenches of the First Battlefield Frontline, a Spider Bug was using its sharp front limbs, several meters long, to pick up the corpse of a Human Soldier and send it into its mouthparts. Suddenly, a whistling sound breaking through the sky echoed.
The Spider Bug put down the food in its hand and rolled its compound eyes upwards. In the dark green sky, a thick cylindrical object was vaguely visible disintegrating in mid-air, turning into hundreds of missiles heading towards the entire Defense Line.
"Boom boom boom boom—"
"Boom boom boom————"
"Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom—"
Before the Spider Bug could react, a missile overhead smashed down towards it. The force generated by the explosion of a Jericho Missile directly covered an area of dozens of meters.
The surrounding Spider Bugs were instantly swallowed by the firelight of the explosion.
Over a thousand supersonic Jericho Missiles disintegrated into hundreds of thousands of cluster missiles in mid-air, instantly covering the entire lost Frontline Position of the First Battlefield.
Amidst the roar of explosions, accompanied by the wails of tens of thousands of Insects buried under this fierce firepower, the Frontline Position of the First Battlefield was illuminated by firelight like a fiery cloud.
The Allied Forces Soldiers on the First Battlefield launched a counterattack on the lost positions almost instantly after the Jericho Missiles were dropped. Soldiers carrying rocket launchers were at the front, using the red firelight as illumination. Any living being that could move was hit with a rocket from afar.
Then came various light and heavy machine guns and grenade launchers to supplement, followed by flamethrowers. "Jericho Missiles, we Federation Persons aren't that extravagant. What's the situation at our Frontline Position now?"
"Officer, with Wuzu, Chaos, and Bai Qi Support Model Robots, the position is still in our hands, but due to the time of day, the Battlefield situation is very unfavorable to us! Frontline Soldiers have suffered heavy casualties!"
In the Second Battlefield Command Post, General Wang, who was in charge of command, after communicating with the Federation Command Post, looked at a few good mates.
"Night combat is indeed very unfavorable to us, especially since we are unsure if these Insects have night vision ability!"
"Since the Battlefield environment is unfavorable to us, then change this Battlefield environment! Pass on my order, send an Air-Ground Brigade, from here to here," General Wang pointed at the virtual holographic projection sand table in front of him, "Drop twenty thousand tons of napalm bombs in batches!" "Since the Night Sky is unfavorable to me, we will turn this Night Sky into daytime, and let the corpses of these Insects illuminate us!"
"If using napalm bombs, I suggest abandoning the first trench of the Frontline Position to form a twenty-kilometer circular fire network, which can also reduce some pressure on the frontline!"
"Do we have enough gasoline reserves?"
"Don't worry, supplies are abundant. Earth is still continuously transporting supplies here!"
"Then let's do it! Also, notify the other battle areas of this plan. Whether they use it or not is their business!"
Facts proved that even alien Insects had little resistance to flames, let alone a great killer weapon like napalm bomb.
In the dark green Night Sky, hundreds of bombers took off from Temporary Airfields hundreds of kilometers away from the Frontline Battlefield. After these aircraft reached the Battlefield, they directly dropped tens of thousands of tons of napalm bombs onto the Battlefield.
Napalm bomb is arguably the most terrifying lethal weapon in the Human World, even a thousand times more terrifying than white phosphorus bomb.
The famous "LeMay's Barbecue" was when the Federation dropped tens of thousands of tons of napalm bombs on Japan for several months, burning and injuring nearly 500,000 Japanese people and destroying millions of houses.
The truly terrifying aspect of napalm bomb is that its principle is simple, its cost is extremely low, and it has low quality requirement for raw materials.
Its development cost is less than 0.02% of nuclear weapons, meaning it can be manufactured widely on a large scale. Around 1983, the World Security Council even convened a special meeting to agree to restrict and prohibit the use of napalm bomb and formulated a convention for strict control.
However, the convention is limited to protecting the rights and interests of various countries on Earth and humanity as a whole. For alien Insects, presumably no one would speak up for them.
Napalm bomb is composed of a trinity of gasoline, polymer glue, and white phosphorus. When these napalm bombs come into contact with Insects, they quickly penetrate the Insects' carapaces and flesh and blood, reaching the bone.
At the same time, due to the different factories producing these napalm bombs, some other materials were also added to these napalm bombs.
Calcium powder was added to these alkaline napalm bombs. When they come into contact with skin or liquid, a chemical reaction occurs, directly burning a hole in the Insect's carapace that is covered in gasoline.
Even if they jump into water, it will only intensify the corrosion of the calcium component;
Adding lead salt produces toxic gas during the reaction, causing these Insects to quickly become poisoned and unconscious; adding thermite increases the combustion temperature and rapidly consumes oxygen. Before these Bug Swarm could launch an attack, they would suffocate to death from lack of oxygen.
Accompanied by the roar of batches of aircraft, thousands of tons, tens of thousands of tons of napalm bombs were dropped onto the Battlefield.
Flames exceeding a thousand degrees Celsius burned fiercely on the Battlefield. Countless Insects struggled and hissed in the sea of fire. The Battlefield temporarily resembled a hell of flames. As General Wang said, the entire Battlefield was illuminated like daytime.
The great fire ignited by the napalm bombs burned for an entire night over an area of dozens of kilometers, until the corpses of the Insects were completely turned into ash and there was nothing left to burn.
Facing the flames ignited by these napalm bombs, even the fierce Bug Swarm did not dare to step off the World Tree Branch until the flames extinguished.
Sharp Insect hissing echoed on the World Tree Branch throughout the night.
Under the dark green Night Sky, several transparent fishing lines hung down from Yggdrasil. One end of the fishing lines was tied with some sheep bone and lamb. These fishing lines hung directly down to the mouths of the restless, hissing Bug Swarm. As soon as these Insects impatiently bit the sheep bone, the next moment, they experienced the fun of riding a roller coaster.
"What's the use of you guys catching so many Insects? You can't expect me to eat them all!"
"Old Demon Dragon, the capable do more work, right? Didn't you say these Insects taste good? You can just have a snack!"
"Then don't just catch these Spider Bugs, get some of those fat Beetles to try. That stuff, biting into it, the feeling of it bursting in your mouth is great!"
"Another flying Insect is here! Old Demon Dragon, wait, I'll catch one for you to try!"
Earth, Federal New York, World Security Council Building
Just as the Earth Alliance and the Erdos Civilization's Bug Army were locked in a positional battle, all Media and network live broadcasts on Earth were broadcasting the live broadcast released by the World Security Council.
The Director General of the World Security Council stood beneath a large flag symbolizing the World Security Council, featuring an olive branch encircling the Earth. Behind the translucent background were huge assembly lines operating at full power, producing various military hardware.
Accompanied by the powerful clanging sound of mechanical arms, the Director General of the World Security Council waved his arms and roared with a voice bordering on madness:
"Victory ultimately belongs to Earth! We will fight to the end!"
"Our Soldiers have completely annihilated the enemy's vanguard force on Titan! Our Soldiers are fighting on Titan to protect Earth! Victory, victory is our only pursuit! No matter how powerful the enemy is, as long as we are united, as long as all Earthlings fight bravely, we will ultimately achieve the final victory!
Victory is our only pursuit, our only target, because only with victory can we survive, and our civilization can continue!"
"No matter how powerful the enemy is, no matter what outsiders impose upon us, whether it is death or ultimate destruction, we will defeat them! Earth Civilization will definitely achieve the final victory!"
Accompanied by stirring and passionate music, the figure of the World Security Council Director General gradually blurred, and the screen showed large numbers of Soldiers advancing bravely in neat formations.
Heavy Armored Vehicles drove out of the Military Factory one after another, and Heavy Warplanes roared into the sky.
On the Ground, new anti-aircraft turrets were being rapidly constructed; they would be directly pulled by the Rainbow Bridge / Bifrost along with rows of neat Heavy Artillery and put into the Titan Frontline Battlefield.
Stirring and passionate music accompanied the Director General's extremely inflammatory speech. The lens on the light screen constantly changed,
Broadcasting scenes of the Earth Alliance completely annihilating the Faceless Ones' war beast troops, as well as the grand fireworks released by tens of millions of disposable rockets, exploding among the space fighter groups.
For a time, the entire Earth was plunged into a fervent atmosphere, as if the Earth Alliance could defeat the Alien Coalition Forces in the next moment.
In the Small Conference Room of the World Security Council, a remote meeting was being held. Unlike the General Public outside, the several World Security Council Directors attending the meeting were not optimistic about this war.
In fact, truly intelligent people on Earth could see the outcome of this war. With the strength of Earth, a single Planet, against the Allied Forces of numerous Interstellar Civilizations, from technological level to weapon equipment, Earth was completely the side being crushed.
However, Earth Civilization had no retreat other than a desperate battle.
A light screen was displayed in the center of the Meeting Room, showing the scene of the Earth Alliance clashing with the Faceless Ones and the Erdos Civilization's Bug Swarm on Titan.
"So far, only one day and night has passed on Titan. We have encountered attacks from two different civilizations. The good news is that these Interstellar Civilizations have indeed kept their agreement and have not used the lethal weapons on their alien warships! However, analyzing the increasingly strong attack intensity from the two civilizations, it will be difficult for us to hold out for the planned fifteen days!"
The Minister of Defense, as the only person attending the meeting in person, took it upon himself to explain the current Battlefield situation on Titan.
A white old lady, over fifty years old, wearing a necklace of white pearls around her neck, looked at the picture on the light screen and frowned, saying, "Why does your plan need to buy fifteen days of time?"
"Since S.H.I.E.L.D. has recruited enough Superheroes, we can completely take action now and strike directly at the heart of the enemy!"
"Ms. Elizabeth, integrating these forces takes time, and we also need to tie down Thanos's attention on the frontal Battlefield!" Nick Fury's figure was also among the attendees.
His virtual projection stood up and explained to the crowd.
"We only have one chance. If we fail this time, Thanos's Fleet will definitely tear up the treaty and directly attack the entire Solar System. So we have to be cautious!"
"But, judging by the current Battlefield situation! Even if our Soldiers fight bravely, the enemies we can tie down are still insignificant compared to that Large Fleet!" A World Security Council Director frowned and shook his head.
"The key to the problem lies with these civilizations that have failed in their attack!" Nick Fury said, "Thanos is a very crazy guy. Even for the civilizations loyal to him, as long as they are losers, he will equally wipe out half the population of an entire civilization!"
"Facing the powerful Thanos, these Affiliated Civilizations are often angry but dare not speak out. As long as we let these civilizations see Thanos's failure, these Affiliated Civilizations will definitely turn on him! Especially these civilizations that have been defeated by us on the Battlefield, even if Thanos wins this war, they will be liquidated afterwards. They will be a crucial part of this plan!"
"Gentlemen, the key to this plan is the victory on the frontal Battlefield and the time we gain. The longer the frontal Battlefield buys us time, the greater our chance of winning this victory!"
Nick Fury scanned the representatives present and said solemnly.
Of course, Nick Fury had another purpose that he didn't mention. He was waiting for someone, waiting for the powerful Goddess in his heart to come save Earth riding on Seven-Colored Auspicious Clouds.
(End of chapter)