When the transport plane took off, the pilot opened the protective window. Zhou Yuan sat on the seat next to the window and could see the scenery outside through the glass. Actually, there was not much to see. After leaving the Mars base, there was hardly any green on the ground, only yellow. Mars was like this, with only the residential areas being relatively better, while other places were still barren deserts.
"Bugs!" After flying for a while, Zhou Yuan's eyes lit up. He saw many bugs, and from high up, the swarm looked like a colony of ants wandering around as small black dots. Occasionally, he could also see many bombed areas full of bug corpses and missile craters, which looked devastated.
This was the first time Zhou Yuan had seen bugs with his own eyes, and he felt very excited. When he was in high school, he had seen bugs, but they were all bodies that had been dissected in his anatomy class, and they were all sandbugs.
In fact, there were many different species of bugs in the Arachnis bug family. However, humans and bugs had not yet officially started the war, so it was still unclear about the specific strength of the bug race. So far, the federation had only released information on four types of Arachnis bugs, namely the Warrior Bug, the Jumper Bug, the Sand Bug, and the Plasma Bug.
The Warrior Bug was the most common bug, resembling a cross between a cockroach and a praying mantis, and was larger than a regular tank in size. They charged headfirst into battle and never cared about their lives, hence their nickname, "Warrior Bug". Because of their overly abundant numbers, Warrior Bugs were also referred to as "Soldier Bugs".
The Jumper Bug looked like a smaller version of the Warrior Bug, with a pair of flying wings, and the ability to jump more than ten meters on the ground. Thus, they were called the Jumper Bug. They were also known as pests in the Arachnis bug family.
The Sand Bug was relatively normal, about the size of a turtle, resembling a super-sized stink bug, with a powerful reproductive ability. Because of their lack of combat power, there was no nickname for Sand Bugs.
Lastly, there was the giant Plasma Bug, the largest known Arachnis bug, over 50 meters long and over 30 meters tall. They looked like large glowing blue butts of a dung beetle, with their tails capable of firing plasma cannons that were powerful enough to destroy a starship. Although they had no nickname, the word "Giant" was added before their name.
In addition to the Arachnis bugs known by the federation, Zhou Yuan also knew a lot of bug species that had not been discovered by the federation. Conventional species included Water Bugs, Cannon Bugs, Tank Armor Bugs, and Grenade Armor Bugs, ten or so kinds of combat bugs, each with multiple forms. Exceeding the standard strength were types like Brain Bugs, Queens, and Bug Gods, several high-level bugs with psychic abilities. There were also many special bug species, such as Parasitic Control Bugs and Starship Bugs capable of interstellar travel.
However, it was unlikely that they would meet these bugs in the short term since the war between humans and bugs had just begun, and the bug race had not yet started their full-scale invasion of the solar system. The bugs they could encounter now were mostly just Soldier Bugs and Jumper Bugs, with even Plasma Bugs being rare species that could only be found on Bug Planets.
Twenty minutes later, the transport plane arrived over the Talis Fortress. "I'm amazed..." looking at the Talis Fortress below, Zhou Yuan couldn't help but exclaim. The feeling of shock he experienced with his own eyes was far more intense than looking at pictures. The Talis Super Giant Dead Volcano was very large, like the eye of Mars, with a Talis Fortress growing out of it. Groups of warrior bugs wandered around on the highlands, occasionally charging towards the Talis Fortress. However, just this size of bug tide couldn't even budge the Talis Fortress.
There were electric wire walls on the outermost layer, followed by automatic artillery walls, surveillance walls, and patrol walls. One protective wall following another, just like nesting dolls, isolating all danger outside. Under the protection of these walls, the area outside the Talis Fortress was already covered with bug bodies, forming countless obstacles.
Meanwhile, in the third company of the western wall defense line of the Talis Fortress, "Support is finally here! I'm so done with overtime." "This support is dogshit, just a bunch of rookies who can't even hold a gun steady." "It doesn't matter as long as they can wash socks." "This is unfair. The second company is reinforced with veterans, while we can only accept these useless rookies!" The sentinels on the patrol wall in the outermost layer of the defense line all chime in, mostly expressing contempt towards the rookies and complaints towards the fortress.
They were indeed short of personnel, but shouldn't they receive veterans instead of rookies like this? What could rookies do? Outlast running bugs? Or perform gun assembly for bugs? They were very sensitive at this moment, almost exploding at the slightest touch of something.
The minority of veterans were already looking forward to using newbies venting their frustration, letting newbies experience what the reality was like...
Before long, the transport plane landed smoothly. After the newbies got off the plane with their luggage, they stood still, feeling a bit awkward. Zhou Yuan counted them up and found that three planes had carried 75 people in total, but he didn't know how many would join the third company. "Don't just stand there, come over here!" At this time, a sergeant not far away waved to them, signaling for them to leave the parking lot.
"I like this place. It's like heaven." While being taken to the work hall by the sergeant, Brown muttered quietly, his smiling mouth almost stretching to his ears. Among the newbies transferred from the Mars Base No.1 camp to the Talis Fortress, he was the squad leader of the tenth squad. The other six squad leaders were Blake, Johnson, Zhou Yuan, Taylor, Martin, and White. The seven people had a good relationship. While they were competitors in the newbies' camp, they had now become companions.
"It is indeed a good place." Zhou Yuan nodded, his heart equally burning. Frontier bases were completely different. Their military supply level was much higher than in ordinary military bases. As soon as he got off the plane, he saw the Federation's latest combat robot, a giant over five meters tall with an imposing presence. The robot's energy source was a controllable nuclear fusion device, the same as the "Ark Reactors" he remembered. However, the smaller the controllable nuclear fusion device was, the harder it was to make. This was a very difficult bottleneck. The Federation's technology could only make them the size of a suitcase. Therefore, anything that could be equipped with a controllable nuclear fusion device was all heavy equipment. Strategic military weapons like single soldier powered suits couldn't be developed without taking 10-20 years, and at most, only a bankrupt version could be made, just like in CG movies. There should be mechanic armor for sale in the system mall, but he had only opened the first district mall, and could not see higher-level goods.