From the depths of darkness, a giant ship approached the orange-red planet. The words TS Expedition were engraved on the hull and blended in perfectly with the black armor. Just like a sharp sword piercing through the darkness, it alluded a deadly vibe among the stars.

The bowl-shaped engine ejected a red glow, and then the glow suddenly disappeared.

Under the influence of inertia, the Seagull-class transport ship slowly stopped on the synchronous orbit of Mars.

“The main engine off.”

“Secondary engine ignited.”

“The orbital parameters have been corrected.”

“The feedback beam is confirmed. The center of gravity is normal. Confirmed to enter the synchronous orbit.”

“The secondary engine off.”

After a series of commands, the serious and tense atmosphere in the bridge disappeared.

A man in a military uniform walked to the captain’s side and saluted.

“Captain, we have arrived above the colony! Waiting for your orders!”

The majestic man in the bridge gazed at the fiery red planet outside the window.

“Order the deactivation of the hibernation chamber.”

“Roger!”

Outside the bridge, inside the transport cabin.

The lights on the wall began to illuminate one after another as they lit up the rectangular space.

The hibernation chambers along the wall emitted a blue glow as gas escaped from the edges between the hatch and the chamber itself.

The hibernation chambers opened and the soldiers inside opened their eyes. They pushed out of the half-closed hatch doors. Just like what they performed many times in exercises, they rushed to their battle positions in an orderly manner.

The crew in blue overalls headed swiftly to the function bays of artillery, observation, power, and the Marines in gray-white uniforms rushed into the arsenal and equipped themselves with space kinetic skeletons and Gauss rifles. They all waited in the buffer cabin on standby.

Inside the bridge.

The officer returned to the captain and saluted again.

“All hibernation chambers have deactivated.”

“Connect the colony channel.”

“Roger!”

The holographic screen emerged in the middle of the bridge, and after a series of white flickering images, the image on the screen quickly stabilized.

When the man appeared on the screen, from the captain’s calm expression, there was a smile that was beginning to form.

On the other hand, Hong Zewei sighed in relief as he stood in the command room of the colony and looked at the friend on the screen who had finished his captain training one year after him.

Hong Zewei cleared his throat, and with a composed voice, he expressed his welcome to the arrival of the reinforcements on behalf of the colony.

“This is Mars colony. We welcome the expedition force to enter the bay.”

“This is Expedition. The first group of Marines is airborne. Thank you for your hard work.”

…

When he looked up above the colony, the joy and shock in Zhang Hai’s eyes magnified.

The prism-shaped airdrop cabins dragged a blue glow, and left clear trajectories in the sky. They eventually crashed into the desert near the colony.

The dust of Mars was sent high up into the air and the impact wave blew the red sand instantly away.

The hatches on all sides opened and smashed into the ground.

New combat vehicles rolled out from the airdrop cabins as they left trails of dust.

The new combat vehicle was called Pathfinder T-2. Compared to Pathfinder T-1, previously equipped for the colony, the new vehicle had higher tonnage, a hybrid track-design that replaced the rubber tires and rapid-fire guns that fired electromagnetic shells.

These improvements were designed to deal with extraterrestrial armor units that may appear near Mine 071. Except they did not expect that there would only be a weathered ruin under Mine 071 without any thing else in sight.

However, the situation took another twisted turn, and the Devil Worms that emerged from underground caught Celestial Trade by surprise. The one hundred Pathfinder T-2s were then deployed to eradicate Devil Worms which provided armor protection for vulnerable targets.

The movement outside the colony attracted the attention of the Devil Worms nearby.

When the Devil Worms felt the tremors from the surface, they drilled out from the oxygen supply layer. Like the mythical earth dragons that roamed in the ground in old legends, they accelerated to the source of the tremor, before they penetrated out from the ground and bit down on the “new neighbors” they haven’t even encountered yet.

“REEEEE-!”

The muffled screeching of the Devil Worms sounded like cries of pain. The two pairs of sickles hit the sturdy armor but only left a crack the size of a thumb.

The large-scale rapid-fire guns began to rampage with glaring lights emitting from the fearsome barrels. The shells accelerated to multiple times the speed of sound, then instantly ruptured the armor of the Devil Worms and turned those bugs into sieves. Devil Worms crawled out from the ground one after another, just like worms after a storm, they bit toward the vehicles.

However, the unintelligent creatures were unable to comprehend the stupidity of their behavior.

The sickle that could slice granite was stopped by the Grade-A steel. Unable to break the armor of the vehicle, it at most posed interference to the attack of the vehicles. But when the bugs realized this point and started their retreat into the ground, it was already too late.

Inside the spaceship, the captain who had ended communication with the colony locked onto the red dots on the satellite map.

Life detection device.

The maximum depth of detection for underground creatures was only five kilometers, but for those Devil Worms that sensed the tremor on the surface and already moved upwards, they were within range.

When the armored units of Celestial Marines completed its assembly, he immediately ordered.

“Depth five kilometers, launch the underground seeking missile!”

“Roger!”

As soon as an order was issued, the crew members in the bridge immediately began to execute.

“Weapon is loaded!”

“The coordinates are locked!”

A long stripe-shaped object was separated from the SS Expedition. After it had fallen for some distance, an orange-red flame suddenly surged out from the silenced engine at the tail.

Under the dual action of gravity and engine propulsion, the missile began to accelerate as it crossed the distance of 17,031 kilometers before it smashed into the sand dune.

When the dust dissipated, the sand dune was quiet, much like in the silent bridge…

On the holographic screen in the middle of the bridge, the red dot that was the focus of everyone’s attention quickly descended.

When the altitude value jumped to negative five kilometers, the gunner calmly said.

“Hit confirmed!”

Almost at the moment when he finished this sentence, the flame was like rolling magma, engulfing the rock and tunnels with Devil Worms lurking into an ocean of fire.

Thousands of degrees of high temperature even ignited the air, even the metamorphic rock could not withstand such a high temperature, as the rock directly liquefied into magma. The magma dripped into the next layer and formed into pointy stalagmites.

No creature could survive through this purgatory.

Even the species that survived over 3.7 billion years lost to the weapons of the civilized.

The raging flame quickly dissipated.

A string of red dots that marked life on the screen also extinguished.

An officer walked to the captain and stood upright, clean, and neat.

“A total of twenty-seven Devil Worm kills confirmed!”

The captain listened to the report from the first officer, then nodded. There was a sense of pride hidden deep in his pupils.

Devil Worms?

Alien species?

In front of the iron hoof of Celestial Trade.

They are only so-so!