After half a Terran day of relentless conflict, chaos reigned among the ranks of the Venomous Sting.
The telepath in charge of communications relayed reports from the front lines, while Venomous Sting processed this information in his mind, striving to reconstruct the current battlefield situation.
Yet, he was left with only one impression of this war: confusion.
The retreating forces provided no effective cover for one another; the enemy seemed to be omnipresent. Various units struggled to maintain cohesion, some even losing their retreat direction and blindly fleeing toward blocked pathways.
Venomous Sting longed to mobilize four or five battalions to establish a defensive formation, at the very least to carve out a safe escape route for his loyal followers, but such action was utterly impossible.
The enemy could emerge from any direction, only to vanish after a barrage, or large groups could materialize right at the heart of several nearby battalions, stunning them before retreating, rendering their defensive lines utterly futile.
Venomous Sting had little time to adjust his strategy, for he faced a more pressing dilemma.
"My lord, we must eliminate the enemy artillery immediately; thousands may have already perished in the bombardment while I spoke!" a telepath implored, turning anxiously toward Venomous Sting.
Rubbing his temples, Venomous Sting swiftly devised a plan and seized his communicator: "Aylin, I need you to lead your mobile unit to the enemy artillery's location without delay. They are positioned just north of Sector Twelve, only one thousand meters from your current location."
Aylin, commander of a mobile regiment within the Tyron II planetary defense force, had his troops travel not on foot but aboard centaur transport vehicles.
Although the Tyron defense force did not typically feature mobile units, Venomous Sting and the governor favored employing cunning strategies in warfare. Thus, the mobile unit was created, crafted with substantial resources to execute their tactics swiftly.
"I've spotted the artillery," Aylin's voice crackled through the communicator; he was not a telepath. "These cannons are deployed outside the city, unmanned, yet they can still fire."
"I don't care what the enemy artillery looks like; I only care whether you can neutralize them. Get moving now; I'm keeping a close watch on you," Venomous Sting commanded icily.
He was not merely attempting to intimidate Aylin. Gifted by the Lord of Wisdom, he truly could see Aylin's every movement.
Aylin had no intention of defying orders; he and his mobile unit sprinted towards the artillery's location.
However, those unmanned cannons either remained oblivious to their approach or simply did not care, continuing to unleash firepower upon the distant battlefield.
Aylin's soldiers turned their heads, unable to resist glancing at the bombarded area.
Although the distance rendered the individuals indistinct, the violent explosions illuminated the scene with brilliant flashes and billowing smoke.
Drawing from past experiences, Venomous Sting estimated that this round of artillery would obliterate at least half a battalion, particularly in the midst of such chaos, where bombardments wreaked havoc on units unable to find cover.
"Don't teleport, don't teleport, don't teleport…" Venomous Sting heard Aylin murmur in prayer; evidently, he had encountered instances where targets had teleported away before.
Fortunately, a thousand meters was a short distance for Aylin's soldiers, who reached a position to engage in less than a minute.
"Fire!" Aylin bellowed, giving the command.
At his order, the centaur transport he occupied exploded, debris raining skyward.
This sudden attack drew attention, forcing all soldiers in the regiment to abandon their artillery targets and pivot to confront another group of foes.
"When did these bastards show up?" Venomous Sting gritted his teeth, witnessing an entire enemy battalion positioned behind Aylin's mobile unit.
They appeared combat-ready upon arrival, not even on the move. All the Lehman-Rus tanks were lined up, and infantry clad in powered armor took cover behind them. Their commander leaned partially out of the turret, brandishing a laser pistol and shouting commands. Suspended above them, an enigmatic drone hovered in midair.
In contrast, Aylin's mobile unit only began to react after suffering the unexpected attack, but the enemy had already initiated a second round of assault.
The transport was destroyed by tank fire, and the infantry who burst forth from the vehicle were met with concentrated fire.
Some skilled drivers attempted to maneuver, ensuring their transport's heavy lumber guns or explosive rounds could target the enemy, but it proved futile.
All physical projectiles were shattered beneath the drone, while only the beams from the infantry's laser rifles struck true, and even then, they merely impacted against the tanks' armor.
"They're doomed," Venomous Sting observed, his eyes opening wide, feeling numb.
He relished warfare, not for the violence it allowed, but for the opportunity to showcase his strategies and wield the gifts granted by the Lord of Wisdom. Yet now, this war brought him nothing but anger and frustration.
Despite considering the possibility of the enemy employing teleportation technology before the conflict began, he had never anticipated how it would manifest, and these advanced units were merely for testing purposes.
However, the results of the test far exceeded expectations.
This teleportation technology was alarmingly stable, markedly different from what he had witnessed elsewhere.
"The mobile unit has been annihilated," another telepath reported to Venomous Sting, awaiting his reaction to the loss of his most favored battalion.
Yet Venomous Sting displayed no response; he merely murmured, "I was wrong from the start; I should never have allowed their retreat."
"No… no, no, no."
"If they hadn't retreated, it would have been no different from waiting to die. The enemy that teleported in can easily execute tactics impossible in conventional warfare, effectively flanking us."
"A deadlock, indeed a deadlock."
"This war is a blunder; I should never have listened to the governor to initiate hostilities… no, that's not right."
"At least we now comprehend how the enemy operates, making these sacrifices worthwhile; otherwise, we wouldn't even have the opportunity to discuss countermeasures."
Venomous Sting muttered to himself like a madman.
"Ha ha." The telepaths present erupted into laughter, reveling in Venomous Sting's discomfiture.
Had any outsiders been present, they would have noticed that these individuals bore no semblance of a superior-subordinate relationship. Though they appeared busily engaged, Venomous Sting's commands were not always relayed.
"The preparations for the ritual are complete."
As Venomous Sting grew increasingly vexed, he finally heard some good news and promptly rose, exiting the building to the square outside.