However, Yu Lian didn't have an Atomic Light Spear snatched from an Imperial Star Realm Knight Commander, nor a Gale Blast Gun prototype stolen from the Alliance's Future Star Laboratory, nor a psychic divine sword from the Enlightener Ruins capable of cleaving Star Dragon scales and Titan armor.
He was now just a half-crippled man unable to move, with only a Sergeant Major Xi Lika, who was possibly a future celebrity, and a group of seemingly unreliable security forces, commonly known as "security force cannon fodder" or "go-fers."
They were indeed quite unreliable. A group of living people stood in a line, firing their rifles with a "pa pa pa" sound, without a skirmish line, no crossfire, and no layered, advancing firing positions. One might even mistake them for forming a battle line.
Seriously, how clueless were these gentlemen, treating themselves like battleships?
Yu Lian also knew that he couldn't really blame them. The entire All-Galaxy had received too many gifts from predecessors too early, and various technology trees were quite skewed. Not to mention the pathetic Commonwealth Earthlings, even the two major hegemons, the Empire and the Alliance, who now divided the All-Galaxy, had infantry tactics that were just as bad.
However, a team of over ten people, without heavy fire support, no vehicles, and only four sets of external power skeletons—commonly known as mechs—one of which he was wearing and was likely broken—that was truly unbearable. Even the Imperial Army, or the garrison forces of inland feudal lords, wouldn't make such a foolish mistake.
The Blue Star Commonwealth's pathetic state indeed had a heritage! Yu Lian compared the two memories and was suddenly enlightened.
Fortunately, although his team wasn't very reliable, the enemies they faced weren't overwhelming Bug Swarms of brave claws or Leviathan-class behemoths that could directly confront battleships, but the most common Zerglings and Hydralisks. In Yu Lian's era, they were just cannon fodder and support in the Bug Swarm, good for terrorist attacks behind enemy lines, and occasionally serving as emergency rations, but on a frontal battlefield, facing regular armies armed to the teeth, they were just going to be slaughtered.
The security personnel indeed lacked tactical training, but the electromagnetic rifles in their hands, capable of spitting out a thousand rounds per minute, still formed a dense barrage. Although these insect-like and beast-like monsters had evolved bullet-resistant carapaces, any living creature ultimately had its limits. In Yu Lian's vision, truly less than one in a hundred managed to reach them, and each one was wounded.
"Baka!" Lieutenant Mondson shouted.
"Bien!" The burliest man in the entire squad immediately let out a roar that a normal person would be unlikely to produce, taking a stride out of the team and directly lifting the power axe at his waist.
His power axe was also more than a full size larger than a normal soldier's, and when its blade unfolded, it was clearly a wheel. Yet, the Sergeant held it with surprising ease, and when he wielded it, it truly moved like thunder, exuding overwhelming power.
The first Zergling to break through the gunfire was smashed on the head by the large axe, instantly shattering into pieces. That wasn't all; the Zergling's corpse flew backward like a large baseball that had been hit, landing squarely on a Hydralisk.
The latter had already unfolded its carapace, preparing to spit spines, but was thus knocked back into the barrage, instantly becoming a sieve.
"For the Commonwealth!" The Lieutenant, also a burly man, shouted and leaped behind the Sergeant, standing back-to-back with him, holding a chainsword that emitted a piercing "buzzing" sound with both hands. With a single upward sweep, he sliced another Zergling in half. His timing was so precise, it was as if the Zergling had perfectly impaled itself on the blade.
It was clear he was a master swordsman. He seemed to be using "Empire Assault Team Close Combat Swordsmanship - Type 1," also known as "Anti-Beast Type," which was, in essence, swordsmanship specifically designed to deal with large ferocious beasts. Although its developers were Imperial psychic nobles, it was a common skill that could be learned by anyone serving in the Imperial Army, and it had now spread throughout the All-Galaxy.
They were truly two unyielding heroes! One with natural divine strength, the other with extraordinary swordsmanship. If this were the cold weapon era, their martial prowess alone would be enough to leave their names in history or even establish their own domains.
He felt he had to do something, and he moved his body again. This time, a searing pain came from his lower body. However, at least his upper body had regained feeling.
Yu Lian's upper body was only clad in a field uniform, while his lower body was still encased in the power exoskeleton, or rather, what was left of the lower half of the power exoskeleton.
"Weapons, are there no weapons?" Yu Lian fumbled around and actually found the grip of a rifle by the side of the power stretcher. He quickly checked it; the magazine was full, and the battery had more than half left, which was enough.
...Alright, he had a weapon. But now there was a technical problem: he couldn't even lift his upper body, he had no firing angle, who was he going to shoot?
Yu Lian tried to move his lower body again, but it didn't budge an inch, and the pain was so intense that cold sweat broke out.
The steel alloy armor could provide him with three times his own strength, allow him to sprint at 100 meters per second for half an hour, carry two thousand bullets, ten grenades, plus a power axe or chainsword that a normal person couldn't even lift, but now it had become a shackle, restricting his basic movements.
Such a weak body.
Also, where exactly was I injured? Yu Lian couldn't help but mutter.
"Your waist sustained a severe injury," Sergeant Major Xi Lika beside him replied. The beautiful girl, who was suspected to be a future celebrity, was concentrating on shooting as she answered.
Unlike others who poured out firepower, the girl consistently fired in three-round bursts, each burst accurately hitting the Zerglings that broke through the barrage, always completely killing them, perfectly supporting her two powerful teammates engaged in close combat.
Now, Yu Lian was at least 80% certain that she was indeed that person.
"I'm sorry... although you risked your life to pull Xiao Qiao out of the Bug Swarm, and sustained such serious injuries, he still couldn't be saved." This time, it was the other of the only two women in the team who spoke, a girl with an ordinary appearance, ordinary build, and ordinary temperament. Her military uniform bore a red snake staff emblem, indicating her identity as a military doctor.
However, did the female military doctor not have special medical power exoskeletons? Did the security team not know how to cherish technical talent?
As Yu Lian thought this, the military doctor girl had already picked up a thick syringe and, without a word, jabbed it into his waist.
It hurt for a moment when it first pierced him, but then came a wave of coolness, and the pain became almost imperceptible. His physical strength also seemed to have recovered quite a bit. At the very least, Yu Lian could actually manage to prop up his upper body, and his field of vision widened.
"Warrant Officer, you still need to rest! Don't worry, we can definitely repel..." The military doctor was startled by Yu Lian's movement and quickly stepped forward to dissuade him, but the latter shouted, "Ina, shoot the Hydralisks!"
Staff Sergeant Ina Hilika of the Blue Star Commonwealth New Yumen Defense Security Team was startled, thinking, "You've only been here for less than three days, when did we get so familiar?" But what came out of her mouth was: "What's a Hydralisk?"
Sergeant Major Xi Lika, of course, didn't know this "military academic name" that would only be recognized by All-Galaxy nations years later.
"They're those big cobras! When they unfurl their carapaces, they're about to spit spines. Burst fire at the chest cavity beneath their carapaces!"
When Hydralisks spit their spines, that's when they are at their strongest. In the future, the fully evolved Hydralisk units will be able to spit spines over a thousand meters high, still capable of piercing 2cm of alloy armor.
But similarly, this is also when they are at their weakest. The moment their carapace opens means that the central nervous system and tendons within their chest cavity are completely unprotected.
Of course, seizing this split-second firing opportunity on a smoke-filled battlefield truly tested a soldier's marksmanship. This wasn't the future where every mobile infantryman was equipped with a personal targeting radar—one should know, even space battleships still had a lot of hand-cranked anti-aircraft guns now.
"Pa pa pa! Pa pa pa! Pa pa pa!"
Sergeant Major Ina Hilika began to shoot, still using the classic three-round burst. She didn't disappoint Yu Lian, perfectly demonstrating the marksmanship of a suspected future celebrity. With every three-round burst, a Hydralisk would inevitably roll over, howling, with bloody fragments from behind its carapace, and die.
Thus, for a full minute, not a single Hydralisk completed its spine volley.
However, perhaps due to the loss of Ina's precise burst fire, more Zerglings did manage to break through the barrage. One of them even bypassed the swordsman Lieutenant and the strongman Sergeant's blade interception and pounced in front of a soldier.
This private was completely dumbfounded. Clad only in a regular field uniform and a bulletproof vest, he couldn't possibly block the opponent's sharp mouthparts and blades, and was about to be killed in one blow.
Yu Lian raised his gun and fired a burst. He was very grateful that even though his current body was very weak and possibly crippled, he still had a certain shooting instinct, coupled with the tempered shooting experience from his memories, allowing him to precisely send bullets into the Zergling's gaping maw, then blow its head off.
However, when even he, a cripple, had to join the fight, it only meant one thing: they were truly being overwhelmed.