Yes, the memories belonging to this body were slowly resurfacing.
Too many memories belonging to another person flooding in at once, even with Yu Lian's mental fortitude, he would be momentarily dazed.
However, this looked exactly like an acute stress reaction from brain trauma, so it was no wonder everyone was so nervous.
"Then do you remember how you got injured? What happened before?" Ina also asked eagerly.
"I... um, went to save a soldier who was half-buried by a ground collapse, and then I was ambushed," Yu Lian said slowly.
Ina finally breathed a sigh of relief, but then said with lingering fear, "That thing was too terrifying; it tore open the back of your power armor in an instant.
If Lieutenant Mondeson hadn't thrown a concussion grenade, you would have... It was truly a close call!"
Yes! How could it not be a close call?
The thing that bit the unlucky guy's lower body was clearly a Tank Bug hiding in a sand pit, and as for ambushing me, it must have been a Thorn Snake King!
No matter how shoddy the AS40's armor was, ordinary Hydralisks and Zerglings really didn't have the killing power to break through in one hit.
So, my whole body was in pain just now, and I felt like my spine was broken.
I'm afraid it wasn't just being ambushed by the bugs, but also being "boomed" by your grenade, right?
Thinking of this, Yu Lian couldn't help but look at Lieutenant Mondeson with a very unfriendly gaze.
The latter quickly offered an unnatural smile.
Your image as a pure swordsman from a few minutes ago has collapsed, you know.
Also, although I already knew that a "Warrant Officer" must be an elite military academy student from the bureaucratic group, I didn't expect it to be this high-level?
The so-called Central Defense University, isn't that the top military academy in the entire country?
In a sense, it's even harder to get into than Tsinghua, Peking University, or Harvard in my previous life—no, my life before last.
Those admitted are all elite scholars who are both civil and military.
Because the military academy headquarters is located in Guanghan City, Moon City, its graduates are jokingly called "Moon People" in the military, and they are elite talents coveted by any military institution.
And the so-called Department of Strategic Studies, isn't that the most elite and hardest-to-enter discipline in this top-tier academy, whose graduates are naturally the elite of the elite, known as the "Cradle of Admirals"?
Yes, although they are all so-called "elite bureaucratic groups," there is a pecking order even within this class.
Graduates from other military academies or departments take the orbital elevator when they get promoted, while those from the Department of Strategic Studies cross the Star Gate directly.
The average retirement rank for other military academy students is Colonel—it's said this is based on data—but those who come out of here, if they haven't become a General and are respectfully called "Your Excellency" before the age of forty, they'd be too embarrassed to attend their class reunion.
And, the 830th class? Could it be the 830th from later generations?
Also, the Sand People army besieging Tulon Port? Officer Bonaiba?
Yes, it should be the "Tulon Port" incident that made it into later history textbooks, which occurred in November of Galaxy Common Era 829.
The series of events it triggered as a fuse ultimately led to the Blue Star Commonwealth completely losing control of the Star Gates and the Andromeda Galaxy colonies.
As for Officer Bonaiba... A tall, upright, and handsome figure quickly emerged in Yu Lian's memory.
Lieutenant Colonel Eleanor Bonaparte, born into a famous military family, with six Generals and one Marshal in her last three generations, and like him, a graduate of the Department of Strategic Studies.
However, when Yu Lian first enrolled, Eleanor was already a graduating student in her final year, and later graduated with the highest overall score.
Her education, ability, and background were all impeccable, and her future was naturally predictable.
More than three years after graduation, she was already a Lieutenant Colonel; no one doubted she would become a General before the age of thirty—this situation was not unprecedented in history, but it only happened during wartime.
Presently, Eleanor was in Toulon City, serving as the Chief of Staff for the New Yumen Garrison, which meant she was also besieged in the city by the Sand People army.
Hmm, it seems our relationship is quite good.
When I first arrived, she even treated me to carbon-grilled marmot...
Yu Lian recalled too much at once, and his head hurt even more.
He wanted to sort out more information from these mixed memories, but he really didn't have the leisure to do so now.
"This is no place to linger!" Yu Lian said in a deep voice.
You already said that once, sir.
Lieutenant Mondeson really wanted to say that.
"I mean..."
"Lieutenant! Look down the mountain!" Soldier A, who was on lookout at the entrance, shouted loudly.
"Silence!" Yu Lian whispered sharply.
Soldier A trembled and said nothing more.
Everyone Present couldn't help but look at Lieutenant Mondeson, but the latter just spread his hands frankly, with a helpless and resigned expression that seemed to say, "See, it's starting, this is normal operation for Moon People."
Yu Lian, however, had no mind to pay attention to everyone's attitude.
Dragging his newly reattached lower body, he crawled to the cave entrance, only to see dozens more bugs gathering in the field below the mountain.
Their bug claws scraped and crawled on the ground, clearly trying to find something, then slowly moved in this direction.
Although there were only dozens of them, their aura was far more imposing than the hyena-like Zerglings from before.
As expected... Yu Lian pursed his lips.
Those were Dreadclaw Bugs, also known as Warrior Bugs, which are combat bug species that can genuinely fight armed-to-the-teeth motorized infantry—I mean well-equipped and well-trained Imperial or Alliance Marine Corps soldiers, not the pathetic Commonwealth Garrison Miscellaneous fish.
As for that Thorn Snake King, it must be hidden among the Warrior Bugs. It’s a Lord Bugs that has evolved a certain level of intelligence, though it’s still a one-track mind kind of intelligence, but it can certainly serve as a Bug Swarm squad leader.
Look at them, pressing their antennae to the ground, fumbling around like dogs. It’s only a matter of time before they find this place.
In fact, the sense of smell and hearing of these bugs are indeed more than an order of magnitude stronger than dogs.
Is it really necessary? Such a big commotion? Is it to avenge the arrow from earlier? I haven’t heard that your Bug Swarm has any camaraderie.
Oh? Perhaps… Yu Lian looked at Ina, who also had a solemn expression, and immediately guessed something.
For the Bug Swarm, someone like Sergeant Major is like a glowing, mobile gold nugget.
So, the bugs are actually coming for Ina? Yu Lian looked at Sergeant Major and decided not to tell her yet. Randomly talking about future events would most likely get him labeled as a lunatic. Yu Lian had already suffered similar losses in his previous life.
The memories belonging to this body were still somewhat chaotic; other matters could only be postponed. He had to deal with these hunters first.
“Have Sergeant Baka and Sergeant Youyou returned?”
“Here, here, Officer Bonaiba,” the Black Sergeant, who had returned at some point, scurried over.
“What’s the situation?”
“There is indeed a small path further inside that leads to the back of the mountain. Hmm, it’s just not very easy to walk.”
“It’s barely passable,” Sergeant Baka said in a muffled voice. Unlike his furious demeanor in combat, the Bearman Sergeant was a calm and taciturn person.
“Good, since he can barely pass, then everyone else won’t have a problem,” Yu Lian thought, then said, “Officer Bonaiba, how many concussion grenades do we still have?”
The so-called concussion grenades, as the name suggests, are used for “concussion.” Of course, these are not proper lethal weapons, but they are an excellent choice for dealing with the local natives of New Yumen, those unruly Sand People.
However, could this thing be used against the large bugs at the foot of the mountain, which looked even harder to deal with? Lieutenant Mondson was very skeptical, but still looked at Ina.
“I have three, Lieutenant Mondson has two, Lieutenant Russo hasn’t used his and has five. As for you…” Sergeant Major said.
Concussion grenades are quite large, and only the armored units Present were carrying them; it would be too inhumane to make the unarmored grunts carry such heavy items.
“That’s enough.” Yu Lian calculated, “Go get the stretcher, and take out the batteries from my Waste Armor !”
“What are you going to do? Make a booby trap? Why not use ordinary grenades then?”
“The Type 20 infantry grenades we’re equipped with are meant to deter unarmored native Sand People; their power is mediocre, probably not even enough to collapse this broken cave, and it’s hard for them to penetrate the shells of those large bugs. You’ve all seen how tough they are before, right? But, with the power armor batteries and a certain amount of concussion grenades, I can rig up an impact bomb! It should be able to cause direct internal damage to their internal tissues beneath their carapaces.”
“The principle seems to be that… but, you can do this too? Moon People, no, Warrant Officer, aren’t you from the Strategic Studies department?”
“Hmm, Officer Bonaiba, the so-called Strategic Studies department is where you learn a little bit of everything, and master nothing. That’s how you become a leader!” Yu Lian replied as a matter of course.
Lieutenant Mondson, who was more than twice Yu Lian’s age, felt a bit stung. Thinking that once the other party graduated, he would have to call him “Officer Bonaiba” in three to five years, he didn’t know whether to feel relieved or even more disheartened.
“Didn’t I hear that the Central Defense University only taught you elite bureaucrats how to cut Alliance Andes beef with Imperial crystal knives and eat it with starfish sauce? I haven’t heard about teaching how to make bombs,” Ina said abruptly.
Lieutenant Mondson’s face turned pale with fright, and he quickly kept winking at Sergeant Major. However, the latter was completely oblivious and continued, “Warrant Officer, you must have learned this skill from somewhere else, right?”
‘It’s you, of course, and from that whole bunch of militia training videos you personally appeared in,’ Yu Lian muttered to himself.
Fortunately, the other party merely said it and wasn’t prepared to dig deeper, so Yu Lian glossed over that part with an awkward, meaningless laugh. He opened the safety pins of all the concussion grenades, tied them into a string, and then took the batteries to tinker with them. His movements were so practiced, like a habitual offender who frequently robbed banks and hijacked spaceships with various homemade bombs, that everyone was momentarily stunned, feeling that this person’s demeanor was increasingly diverging from the “Moon People” paragon they had imagined.
“Even so, the explosion range is limited. It can only be detonated once they enter the cave. Even if it doesn’t kill them, the collapsed cave can bury them!”
Lieutenant Mondson felt that even though he still had something to ask of the other party, it was necessary to say something at this point, otherwise his stance as an officer would be untenable. He then said, “Well, Warrant Officer, although your skill amazes me, isn’t it a bit redundant? We’re hiding in this cave, and those xenomorphs might not…”
He hadn't finished speaking when he heard a sharp cry from the Bug Swarm at the foot of the mountain in the distance. The monstrous, terrifying giant bugs, baring their fangs and claws, uniformly turned around and swarmed towards this direction at a high speed exceeding 50 kilometers per hour.