Chapter 201: Chapter 151, It’s So Big, So Green_2
The very definition of ‘obliteration’.
On the outskirts of the crater, some suspicious debris began to appear.
Looking at the scraps, one could roughly guess that they probably belonged to the bodies or equipment pieces of Green Skin Orcs.
But that was just conjecture.
Pieces without any discernible shape, stuff that had melted and then cooled down, were all there was to speculate with.
Further away, there were parts that could be identified as belonging to something before destruction, like fingers, halves of thighs, and in these areas, the bodies tended to be more concentrated.
Even further out, one could see some individual pieces of complete equipment wreckage, such as overturned, charred and tattered trucks, immobilized killing machines, and relatively intact scorched corpses.
The Green Skin Orcs, once boasting with pride and ready to depart to annihilate everything, had suffered a catastrophic blow here.
It was uncertain whether any Green Skin Orcs survived on the fringes of the bombardment zone, but even if there were any, they were certainly few and no doubt they would have already fled.
Gu Hang was quite satisfied with the effects of the strike.
However, there was one slight unease troubling him: why had the space marines not reported the effects of the strike to him before?
This was not supposed to happen.
The special operations team had marked the targets for the strike more than a dozen hours ago and left the range that could be affected by the orbital strike. They had more than ten hours to evacuate, which should not have been a problem.
Even, there was no need to retreat so far, just maintaining a certain distance and ensuring their own positions were not marked for orbital strike would suffice to avoid fire from space, and naturally, they would be safe.
After the orbital strike had ended and the magnetic field for wireless communication stabilized, they had a conversation with Gu Hang, reporting their safety, indicating they were not affected by the orbital bombardment, and upon Gu Hang’s request, they went to the two most important targets: the assembly area of the Green-Skin Army and their headquarters, to investigate the impact of the orbital strike.
In all logic, given their distance, they should have been able to report back very quickly.
Yet, the reality was the large force that Gu Hang led had already witnessed the situation at the Green Skin Orc assembly area, but the special operations team, which should have reported back by now, had not transmitted any message.
It was now midnight, far into the night. Every officer had been involved in a battle since eleven in the morning, continuously pushing through the ruins, clearing out Green Skin Orcs. For thirteen hours, apart from a short rest at lunch, there had been no time for respite, and they were all very tired by now.
It also wasn’t good to keep the large force moving.
He found a communications soldier and sent out a radio communication request to the Phoenix Battle Group.
There was no response.
His feeling of unease grew.
He called Perbov over and arranged for his forces to move toward the direction of the reported Green Skin Orc headquarters for reconnaissance at break of dawn the following day, after getting some rest. If they encountered Green Skin Orcs along the way, they didn’t necessarily have to clear them out unless it was convenient; the main mission was to find traces of the special operations team.
Gu Hang was quite anxious.
Although there were five space marines in the action team, theoretically, there shouldn’t be any major problems, but…
During the conflict with the Primordial Wrath Owl Sect, they had lost a space marine, not to mention fighting Green Skin Orcs.
Especially since these Green Skin Orcs seemed slightly different from the wild ones that developed independently from spores.
Wild Green Skin Orcs and space Green Skins were both Green Skins, with not much difference from physical structure to social form, except that the latter developed more robustly, with a higher level of technology, powerful Orc Warlords, and even an Orc Clan overlord.
The most terrifying orc disaster in the legends occurred seven thousand years ago, nearly destroying the entire Human Empire.
However, excluding that kind of powerful space orc clan, the ones that developed independently on certain planets without becoming a galactic-scale threat were called wild orcs.
The process of Green Skin infection spreading to another planet is difficult to trace. During one interstellar voyage, invisible Green Skin spores on some cargo might be taken aboard a spaceship. As the cargo is unloaded and lands on the ground, or is blown away by the wind and finds a suitable environment, it begins to take root and blossom, producing the first Skugg Beast. This ferocious little beast, in its hunting, fighting, when injured, during excretion, or upon death… secretions, the splitting spores give rise to more Skugg Beasts, impish critters, and eventually Orc juveniles.
Generally, when the Green Skin ecosystem on a planet has not fully unfolded, the Green Skins exist in a primitive tribal state. They have neither technology to speak of nor any sort of organizational structure—they are essentially just a group of wild beasts with relatively high intelligence.
They will fight each other, continuously struggling for power. After all, fighting is in the nature of Green Skin Orcs, and it doesn’t really matter to them whether their opponents are of the same tribe or not.
Through the battles, they will select a Green Skin chief, who becomes the leader of the tribe. The Green Skins forming the tribe will start fighting against anything nearby under the chief’s leadership. If they can’t find opponents, they will split and then start fighting themselves.