Corporal Sunx Ping of the Chuckna Air Marine Corps 51st Infantry Division extended his hand and squatted down slowly, listening attentively to the gunfire not far away. Behind him, five Chuckna Soldiers quickly hid among the trees or bushes, vigilantly scanning the surroundings.

"One, two, three..." Sunx Ping tightened the G12 automatic energy rifle in his hand, his sharp eyes staring directly at a bush ahead, his ears twitching slightly as he continuously counted the footsteps he heard from the listening device in his mind.

From the nearby positions, the sound of intense gunfire and explosions echoed again. Sunx Ping’s heart tightened, and he cursed, giving up the listening. Involuntarily, together with the five Chuckna Soldiers behind him, he glanced towards the direction of the positions.

They were all soldiers of Company 2, Battalion 1, Regiment 1792, Brigade 179 of the 51st Division, holding a defensive position on this hill with an elevation of 347, blocking the enemy for a full eight hours.

Since the Feiyang people launched a surprise attack on Canglang Star, the 51st Division had left the bombed ruins of the Kester military base and, together with the 13th Armored Division, retreated southwest while intercepting the pursuing enemy along the way.

Fighting all the way, Sunx Ping could no longer remember how many battles he had fought or how many people he had killed. The only thing he remembered was that from the beginning of the escape, countless comrades had fallen by the roadside and on the positions. The enemy behind them, like an endless tide, could never be completely vanquished. The warplanes overhead circled like vultures that had sighted a corpse, hauntingly persistent.

The troops were continuously reduced in number, but scattered escapees still occasionally joined in. Some were Chuckna people, while others were Feiyang people. In this manner, after resisting around several communities and towns, the 51st Division and the 13th Armored Division finally stumbled their way to this location.

To the south, there was no further path.

The wide Karachi River blocked their way forward. To cross the river, they had to head towards Resource Highway No. 3. Only in Hot Spring Town was there a bridge crossing the river.

However, Sunx Ping knew that even upon reaching Hot Spring Town, the headquarters would likely not dare to organize a crossing. In such a situation, surrounded and pursued from both front and rear, stepping onto the 40-kilometer-long bridge was akin to marching into a dead end. Just one space fighter could effectively trap and annihilate both divisions on the bridge! One coordinate lock, and countless missiles would come flying from over the mountains, completing the final funeral.

This seemed to be the end of the road for their escape.

The sound of gunfire and explosions from the positions clearly indicated that the enemy was launching a new round of attacks. Over the past eight hours, Sunx Ping’s Company 2 had repelled over twenty attacks. Of the original more than a hundred men in the company, only about twenty were still in one piece, another dozen were lightly wounded but could persist, and three seriously wounded lay behind with prepared Fusion Hand Grenades, ready for sacrifice.

This battle had reached a point of extreme hardship. The only five Mechas of the company’s direct Mechanical Armor Team had all been destroyed in the previous engagements. Eight hours of fighting were enough to push these soldiers, marching over hundreds of kilometers without a proper rest, to the brink of collapse. Although a veteran of many battles, Sunx Ping sometimes thought of when he might get a bullet to the head, ending his life swiftly, without having to struggle as he was now.

Squinting his bloodshot eyes, Sunx Ping tried to cast aside concerns for the position, focusing on his most urgent task: checking out the wrecked spaceship nearby. The platoon leader had given a strict order. Regardless of which side the ship engulfed in flames belonged to, he must find a way to see if a communication system could be located to contact headquarters. Otherwise, the entire company might be lost on the position!

To have five men assigned to him in such dire circumstances showed the platoon leader’s urgency in restoring communications.

Leaning his back against a large tree, Sunx Ping made several hand signals to his companions behind him.

Sniper Feng Laos nodded to him, bending low and swiftly crossing a thicket, following a small ditch filled with dead branches and decayed leaves, and headed towards the slope revealing reddish-brown rocks. The other four warriors split into two groups, maneuvering to the left and right, preparing to establish fire points on the flanks. This was the flank of the position, located halfway down the mountain. Since gunfire could already be heard, it meant that Jiepeng people had already appeared.

Finding or not finding a communicator was another matter; as a veteran, Sunx Ping’s first priority was to prevent the Jiepeng people from sneaking up to the position from this direction.

Pulling out the necklace from his collar, he looked at the photo of his girlfriend on the pendant and gave it a hard kiss, making up his mind to survive until the next leave to marry this girl who always seemed to bring him good luck!

After checking his gun again and ensuring the energy box was full and the gun was in working order, Sunx Ping cautiously listened again, then bent down and quickly moved around the large tree to the next hiding spot.

In his dirty green uniform, like a moving bush, he constantly shifted directions, moving between one large tree after another.

A minute later, Sunx Ping lay down behind a slope. The gunfire was already very clear, almost as if it were right next to his ear.

He cautiously poked his head out from the grass. Down a slope, bullets flew wildly, and the ground was struck with puffs of sound. Dead leaves scattered and danced in the air. However, following the direction of the bullets, he saw no one. Aside from the faint figures of a few firing Jiepeng Soldiers in the jungle, he saw nothing.