Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 973: The Skadi in a Tough Battle
"Raise the alert level of the ship's defense facilities to the highest level, lower all cabin partition doors, and let the Marines prepare to meet the enemy!" Major General Alexander issued three orders in succession.
As soon as he finished speaking, four heavy armored doors fell one after another, blocking the corridor leading to the bridge. Several soldiers responsible for defending the bridge set up two machine guns behind the doors, with the black muzzles pointed directly in the direction of the corridor.
"Everyone, be ready for battle... even civilian officers," said Major General Alexander. He pulled out the exquisitely crafted pistol from his waist, which symbolized his commander's status, took a look, shook his head in disappointment, and threw it into the locker under the captain's console. Then he walked quickly to the weapons locker on the side of the bridge, took out a 0.5-inch hunting pistol and put it in the holster, and picked up a 25-kilogram Gauss machine gun and straddled it.
"Uh, General, why don't I take it..." An officer wanted to take the machine gun from Major General Alexander, but Alexander glared at him and said, "If you need a weapon, get it from the cabinet... I said that everyone must be prepared for battle. Note that everyone, including myself."
"But you are the supreme commander here..."
The officer was interrupted by Alexander before he could finish his words: "So what if I am the supreme commander? Can't the supreme commander hold a gun? If those monsters break through the defense line and enter the bridge, will they not attack me just because I don't have a weapon in my hand?"
Before the officer could react, Alexander pulled another rifle from the weapons cabinet and pressed it into his hands.
"Does it work?" Alexander asked.
"Uh... yes." The officer was stunned at first, then nodded quickly - although he was a civilian officer, as long as he was a soldier, he would know the most basic firearms operations. The military also conducts skill assessments every year, and even generals are no exception.
In addition to the officers and soldiers who were operating the "Skadi", everyone else in the bridge also ran to the weapons cabinet and picked out weapons that suited them. A few people even put on tactical mechas and guarded both sides of the entrance and exit of the bridge.
Alexander turned around and glanced at the live screen in front of him. The Skadi had already arrived directly above the Ark. However, the Ark was too large, and it would take several minutes for the Skadi to pass over it at its speed.
Oval-shaped tumors were continuously fired at the Skadi. The bases of these tumors had a structure similar to a jet device, and their output was so strong that they could even fire tumors weighing more than ten tons to a height of one thousand meters. Although the Skadi had already risen in altitude, it still could not avoid these cannonball-like oval-shaped tumors.
Major General Alexander suddenly remembered a plant from Earth that he had read about in a book when he was young. The seeds of that plant were stored in a tightly closed spore. When an animal passed by, the stimulated spore would burst suddenly and eject the seeds. The seeds with sticky substances on the surface would stick firmly to the hair of the passing animals and be carried to other places by the animals, where they would take root and sprout.
These oval tumors are very much like the seeds of that plant... except that the place where they take root and sprout is not the soil, but the flesh of the host.
Countless monsters were hatched from the tumor, and as the tumor ruptured, a liquid similar to amniotic fluid flowed out from inside. As soon as this liquid came into contact with the surface armor of the Skadi, a large amount of white smoke began to emerge - obviously, this was a highly corrosive substance.
"The unknown substance in the oval tumor is corroding the battleship's external armor." The CIC intelligence officer reported loudly to Alexander, "In the most severely corroded area, the depth of the corrosion has reached one-quarter of the armor layer. It is estimated that in another forty seconds, the armor layer will be corroded through!"
"If we continue like this, the situation will be very unfavorable to us!" The commander of the Marine Corps also connected the communication to the bridge and said to Major General Alexander, "General, let me take the mecha troops to the outside of the ship to eliminate these monsters and the tumors attached to the hull! Our mechas have been upgraded with strong magnetic pads, which can move on the surface of the warship by themselves and will not be thrown out!"
"Rejected." Alexander immediately rejected the proposal of the Marine Corps commander. "Even if you can fight those monsters outside the high-speed flying warship, how many troops can you deploy?"
"Two hundred people! I only need to take two hundred people out, so that the defense inside the ship will not be left empty!" said the commander of the Marine Corps.
"CIC, tell him how many enemies are on the surface of our warships now." said Major General Alexander.
"There are currently about 7,500 egg-shaped tumors attached to the battleship with a diameter of less than one meter, about 1,100 with a diameter of one to three meters, two hundred with a diameter of three to ten meters, and nine giant tumors with a diameter of more than ten meters... No, two more giant tumors just broke through the energy shield, so there are eleven now! Thirty percent of the tumors have already hatched, and more than half of the remaining 70% will hatch within a minute." The CIC intelligence officer quickly counted the data, "Moreover, this number is still soaring... The number of enemies we are about to face is estimated to be between 10,000 and 12,000."
"Two hundred men against ten thousand monsters." Major General Alexander said, "Are you sure?"
"I..." The commander of the Marine Corps was suddenly speechless. Although he knew the situation was serious, the CIC data would not be open to the Marine Corps without the captain's permission, so he did not know the exact number of oval tumors projected onto the Skadi.
This over 1.9 meters tall and extremely brave Marine commander was an old subordinate of Major General Alexander. He was transferred from the First Cruiser Fleet to the Zero Fleet with him. He was also a veteran who had experienced many battles. But even he had a look of despair on his face after hearing the enemy's numbers.
The casualty ratio between humans and indigenous creatures has always been a difficult number to quantify. If the target is an insect creature in the wilderness, a one-on-one fight between the insect creature and human soldiers can instantly wipe out a team of ten human soldiers, while the light weapons in the hands of human soldiers can hardly cause damage to it. But if humans set up an ambush area in advance and use napalm bombs, tactical nuclear weapons, or even the main guns of battleships to kill them, then a large number of insects can be eliminated at a very small cost.
In other words, you can directly airdrop a cluster of tactical mechas into the main nest of the Zerg, use the thick armor and powerful firepower of the tactical mechas to break into the core of the main nest and kill the queen directly, and you can also eliminate a Zerg swarm in a short time.
But in the current situation, if the marines really run outside the battleship to fight those monsters, there is no doubt that they will never be able to achieve the casualty ratio of the latter two situations.
According to Alexander's plan, he would defend the dangerous place and put these monsters into the warship in small quantities and multiple times to destroy them. In this way, he could maximize the "geographical advantage", which was equivalent to the second tactical strategy when facing the swarm of insects.
But there are risks in doing so - the number of oval tumors projected onto the Skadi is still increasing, and the number of monsters placed inside the battleship will become increasingly difficult to control. This is like a dam. When the water pressure is not too high, it is easy to control the floodgates, but when the amount of water accumulated behind the dam exceeds a certain threshold, the entire dam is in danger of bursting.
Once this "dam" really breaks, the monsters that continue to rush into the ship will instantly destroy all defensive forces and kill everyone inside the battleship.
In addition, there is another problem. That is, choosing the battlefield inside the warship will inevitably cause serious damage to the internal structure of the warship. The Marines are even restricted from using heavy weapons that are too powerful... In this restricted situation, the bonus brought by "geographical advantage" will continue to weaken with the passage of time.
Major General Alexander seemed calm and solemn, but he was actually very anxious...but as a commander, he absolutely could not show this anxiety on his face.
Being able to remain calm even when facing a huge disaster is a quality that an excellent commander must possess.
But Alexander also knew that no matter how excellent the commander's qualities were, it would be useless in the face of an absolute gap in combat power... At most, it would allow him to lose in a more decent manner.
…
Meanwhile, at the Mukah base, in General Maginot's office.
"It's over... These tumors can actually penetrate the energy shield of the Skadi. We're all over now!" General Maginot put his hands behind his back and walked quickly in front of the sofa, muttering to himself, "Ten thousand... no, there are almost twenty thousand monsters on board the battleship. How can they defeat them? Once the gap in the hull is opened, these monsters will rush in... Then, there will be a massacre!"
The battle between the "Skadi" and the Ark was being broadcast live on the projection screen facing the sofa through an information transmission chain composed of thousands of communication drones. Seeing the surface of the Skadi covered with large and small oval tumors, General Maginot went from being calm at the beginning to being restless later, and finally became what he is now.
"No! If they continue like this, they will definitely follow the fate of the Ark Garrison Fleet and the First Cruiser Fleet! I finally know how those warships perished!" Maginot said quickly, "Ke Lan, we must let them retreat now and send support immediately, so that we can save the Skadi and the officers and soldiers on board... Our combat power is very limited. If we lose the Skadi, the whole situation will become very unfavorable to us!"
What Maginot said was not without reason. The Skadi heavy cruiser was the strongest force in the human survivor coalition. This statement was not an exaggeration. If the total combat power of the survivor coalition was compared to 100 points, then the Skadi accounted for at least 85 points. Losing the Skadi was almost the same as being completely wiped out.
It would take at least a few months for the new warships at Griffin Fortress to be put into use, and during this time, the monsters on the Ark would likely attack the survivors' coalition bases, including Griffin Fortress and Mukach Fortress. Even if Ke Lan showed the trump card of Yaguna Kator, there was only one Yaguna Kator, and it was impossible to protect all the bases.
One solution is to concentrate the forces of the survivor coalition in one place, but this means that they must abandon a large amount of supplies and production facilities, which is tantamount to cutting off their own arms.
The best solution is to save the "Skadi". As long as the "Skadi" is in charge, the survivors' coalition will have a greater chance of winning no matter in a defensive battle or an encounter in the wilderness.
The difference between having warships for air support and not having warships for air support is so huge that it no longer affects the balance of victory, but directly overturns the balance.
"Ke Lan, why are you still so indifferent? I'm almost dying of anxiety!" General Maginot's facial features were squeezed together. "Can't you see the screen? I know you want to keep your trump card, but if you keep it, we may be completely at a disadvantage. By then, even if you play your trump card, it may not work! Although I don't know much about leading troops in battle, the importance of the Skadi to us is very clear even to the orderly soldiers below... We must rescue them!"
"Fatty, can you be quiet for a while?" The hound sitting on the sofa glanced at Maginot. "We are also in a hurry, but what's the use of being in a hurry? Don't you see Ke Lan is thinking? You are barking nonsense at this time, which will not help the situation at all."
"Even if you are still thinking about countermeasures, at least send Yaguna Tor out first!" Maginot said anxiously.
"Do you think it's too late to let Yaguna Tor set off now?" Ke Lan glanced at him and asked.
"What?"
"According to the information sent back by the CIC of the Skadi, those monsters will invade the battleship in thirty seconds at most and engage in close combat with the crew on board. Do you think it's too late for Yaguna Tor to rush over to rescue it ?" Ke Lan continued to ask.
"Thirty seconds..." Maginot sat down on the sofa as if he had lost his soul. "How could it be... so fast? Isn't the armor of the Skadi very thick? How come it can't even last a minute?"
