Chapter 312: 303 unmanned?
In front of Su Beisi, there was actually a resort. Two beach hotels stood beside the gulf, with the sea in between the two buildings, which were quite distinctive in their tropical style. It was evident that the tourists and locals had evacuated in a hurry; outside there still remained a row of parasols and the jet skis people used for fun.
Su Beisi and a few Teizene warriors walked up to the area, but Su Beisi quickly noticed that it was unnaturally quiet.
"Why isn't there a single person?" Su Beisi called out anxiously.
Although civilians typically evacuate and disperse in the face of interstellar wars, there are variances between civilizations in terms of planetary management capabilities. Furthermore, the withdrawal and evacuation of planets with large populations and more facilities are even more challenging.
Su Beisi fully expected that even with the Star Alliance as Earth's new overseers, they couldn't have possibly evacuated everyone so quickly within just a few days. However, what he hadn't counted on was the Star Alliance's planetary management capabilities far exceeded his imagination.
"Impossible, just a year ago, this planet was still in complete disarray; even unifying commands was out of the question, so why can the Star Alliance pull off such large-scale evacuations?" Su Beisi seemed to grasp something but still felt rather perplexed.
More reports of Teizene landing parties finding not even a single person began coming in through the command device in his hand, and even Su Beisi started to wonder if there was anyone left on the planet at all.
Su Beisi instructed the few soldiers by his side, "Combine the assault pods into an assault vehicle, we need to expand the search area."
Teizene's individual assault pods can be connected in parallel to form a military vehicle that resembles a hovercraft, capable of short-range low-altitude flight, and is equipped with weapons of considerable force. These landing pods, which can be assembled into assault vehicles, have become an important weapon for the Teizene orbital airborne army, providing its soldiers with both substantial fire support and mobility after landing.
By this time, Su Beisi had gradually calmed down from his initial disbelief and rage. If he couldn't find any Earthlings to take his anger out on, then his life as the Sixteenth Prince was too precious to just throw away here. If possible, he could hide on Earth and wait for the arrival of the follow-up fleet; there might still be a chance for a turnaround.
However, thinking of the godlike and terrifying Homeland Titan, Su Beisi became anxious again. He was not clear whether Teizene could defeat this formidable weapon.
"Perhaps, a shield array combined from two thousand warships could withstand a battle against that Titan-class ship for a while. It's just too bad we can't gather more data; the situation would be completely different," he said.
In warfare between two civilizations, intelligence is often the key to victory. Civilizations with different developmental paths and priorities, like the conflict between Teizene civilization and Earth, continually bring out unexpected elements that influence the battlefield. Many things are not invulnerable or indecipherable; with prior understanding and preparation, the enemy often suffers more on the battlefield, leading to one's ultimate triumph.
Bai Zhongqi had purchased Teizene intelligence on Bupinga Star before the battle. Although it was comprehensive and voluminous, some critical details were still unknowable. Teizene's reconnaissance patrol stars provided better results, collecting a lot of intel including the spectrum of the Iridium Star's anti-warp device, yet its breadth was insufficient to cover many significant matters.
"If the Borke had given us more stealth-type reconnaissance patrol stars, perhaps we could have fought this war more easily without ending up in this situation," he said.
Musing over what could have been is useless now, but his pride left him no other way to think.
After the assault vehicle combination was completed, Su Beisi and two Teizene soldiers jumped on, intending to cross the vacation resort and enter the nearby rainforest, which in fact implied a heavier intent to evade, but Su Beisi wouldn't admit that so easily.
Just as they had flown a few hundred meters, Su Beisi had a bad premonition. He saw a shell whizz past with a dull thud from somewhere unknown, and with his quick reflexes, he immediately jumped out of the vehicle. And the moment he left the vehicle, the shell struck the fragile transport directly.
The luck of the two Teizene soldiers wasn't as good. The explosion tore through the vehicle instantly, and even though they were both clad in heavy powered armor, the shell was a plasma high-explosive warhead with considerable power, which instantly blasted them to pieces.
Even Su Beisi himself suffered some repercussions, but his Individual Armor was of better performance and didn't cause him any significant harm.
"Huh, he didn't get killed."
Su Beisi heard a man's voice speaking, but unfortunately, he didn't understand any of Earth's languages. As he rose from the ground, he saw a burly man, similar in stature to himself, carrying a massive shoulder-mounted coilgun, strolling unsteadily towards him.
Twenty meters away from Su Beisi, this towering giant, over two meters tall, stopped in his tracks and propped the enormous coilgun, possibly hundreds of kilograms in weight, onto the ground. He then used a translator to address Su Beisi:
"Your Individual Armor is different from the other two guys, it seems to have the mark of the Teizene royal family on it. You must be the Sixteenth Prince who led the invasion against the Star Alliance."
Su Beisi was quite surprised; Earthlings had completely mastered the Teizene language and knew more about them than the Teizenes had imagined.
"Lowly Earthlings—" Find more chapters on My Virtual Library Empire
The burly man cut him off: "You Lizard People, with the idea of occupying our planet and using our people as food, dare to call us lowly? It's quite laughable. I actually have some respect for you; you've caused quite a bit of trouble for the Star Alliance, making you a decent opponent. But a true warrior faces his defeat."
Su Beisi roared in rage: "We Teizenes shall never be defeated, even if the first fleet is destroyed, we still have two thousand, three thousand, or even more warships arriving from the Danlu Interstellar Cloud. One day, you Earthlings will all be killed and consumed by us!"
The burly man suddenly lowered his visor, revealing an untamed face tinged with an inexplicable sense of vicissitude. He said, "Earth will not be destroyed at your hands; instead, your race might be annihilated by the Star Alliance. Perhaps you think the Teizenes are an especially warlike race, so let me prove you wrong. I hear that Teizenes give doomed prey a chance to resist, then toy with them before killing them. Now, let me try that feeling too. Resist me, and if you can beat me, you may live."
Su Beisi sensed the ferocity in the man and realized this was no simple opponent: "I will not fight with someone unnamed. You look like an Earth general, then I shall fight you."
The giant chuckled with a 'heh': "General? No, I am just a soldier."
Lifting his visor once more, he concluded: "They call me, Sergeant Major."