The battle was fierce, but King John did not feel it, and the other officers and soldiers did the same.
Now they are racing against time. As long as you can kill the attacking enemy, you can withdraw to rest and prepare for the enemy's next attack. If they fail to kill the enemy in time, then after they withdraw, the enemy will occupy the ground position and immediately launch a new attack. Even if the enemy only occupied a part of the position and moved forward a small step, it also meant that it would not be long before the fortress behind would fall. This is the last fortress of the human legion, and there is no way to go back, no matter how much the price is paid, it must be defended. However, the fighter's physical strength is limited, and the time is also limited. Under the repeated attacks of the enemy, King John was already exhausted. If the battle is over now, he just wants to get a good night's sleep. Perhaps the same is true for other officers and soldiers. For them, the biggest reward for defeating the enemy is to withdraw to the underground bunker and enjoy a rare and extremely precious little quiet time. As for whether they can hold the fortress, or when they will even die in battle, it is not a question for basic-level officers and soldiers like King John to consider. In their view, whether it is victory or death, the time will come naturally, and all they do is to obey orders.
Thirty minutes passed quickly.
When the sound of Jinbao sounded in his ears, King John knew that they had the last three minutes left. This was not the time to kill the enemy, but the time to withdraw to the underground bunker. Because the poisonous gas permeating the position has not dispersed yet, they must end the battle immediately, otherwise they will not be able to return to the underground bunker in time. The problem is that the battle is not over yet, and there are still many enemies on the ground.
"Everyone has it, retreat according to plan B."
Hearing the order from the squadron leader, King John did not retreat, but rushed towards the densest place with the enemy along with a dozen officers and soldiers.
If all goes well and all the enemies are killed, everyone will withdraw to the underground bunker. The problem is that if you fail to kill all the enemies, when the energy is exhausted, and the battle is not over, some officers and soldiers will have to stay, cover other officers and soldiers to withdraw to underground shelters, and try to kill as many enemies as possible. Simply put, these remaining officers and soldiers will definitely die in battle, and their sacrifices will buy precious time for their comrades, allowing them to return to the underground bunker to replenish energy. Because as long as you stay, no matter how many enemies you kill, you will eventually die. Therefore, there is an unwritten rule in the legion that all officers and soldiers decide the order by drawing lots, and then take turns to be responsible for the breakup.
This time, it happened to be the turn of a dozen officers and soldiers including King John.
They did not hesitate, nor did they fear the slightest. In fact, King John even had a sense of joy that he was about to be liberated.
In fact, the same goes for more than a dozen other officers and soldiers.
As a veteran, King John came to this planet fifteen years ago, and according to the rules of the Human Federation, unless he is promoted exceptionally, he has to serve here for thirty years before he has the chance to return to his home galaxy. , Get a good job as a veteran. Without this war, for humans with an average life span of more than 300 years, the thirty-year military service period would not be considered long. If luck is good enough, such as getting an exceptional promotion and becoming an officer, King John will go to other places to continue serving for decades, and even work until retirement. Although military service means facing danger at all times, and the death rate of soldiers is much higher than that of others, the income of soldiers, especially officers, is also considerable, at least allowing King John to feed his family without burden. Soldiers also have a high social status and have the best welfare. Not only can the children of military officers receive free education, they also have the opportunity to obtain higher education. All in all, most soldiers have no worries and regard joining the army as a shortcut to realize their ideals in life.
It's just that before joining the army.
During the fifteen years here, King John had a question. This is, what is the ideal of life
You know, all citizens of the Human Federation, regardless of men and women, as long as there are no physical barriers, they must perform military service after they reach the age of eighteen. Because they only received basic education before that, most young people can only start as soldiers. Even if you pass the assessment and get the opportunity to receive higher education, you still have to perform military service after graduation. It's just that you start with a grass-roots officer, starting from a slightly higher starting point. The key is that all grassroots officers and soldiers did not have a family before serving, and according to relevant regulations, only mid-level officers are eligible to marry during the service period. Therefore, for the grassroots officers and soldiers like King John, they must either form their own families thirty years later, that is, after they retire, or they must find a way to climb up and strive to be promoted to mid-level officers as soon as possible.
In fact, for almost all grassroots soldiers, it is almost impossible to get an exceptional promotion during the thirty-year military service, let alone promote to a mid-level officer. Quite simply, officers are trained through higher education, and grassroots soldiers have no opportunity to receive higher education at all. Even if you have the opportunity to get an exceptional promotion, you must first return to colleges and universities to receive a systematic education, and then return to the army to start as a junior officer, and then it will take ten to fifteen years before you have the opportunity to be promoted to an intermediate officer. Although this means being able to serve in the military for life, it also means spending more time than officers who have received higher education from the beginning.
Of course, fewer than one in ten thousand soldiers get an exceptional promotion.
In fifteen years, King John did not find the ideal of life he had pursued.
In the first few years, he still had some fantasies, thinking that he was the lucky one, but gradually, he recognized the reality and joined the trend. For him, it is a thirty-year military service period. After retiring, he can return to his hometown with a veteran's honor certificate, seek a not too bad job, and then start a family with a woman and raise a few Children, wait for more than two hundred years to welcome death in peace.
In fact, this is also the life experience of most citizens.
However, this war changed the fate of King John and also changed the fate of all soldiers.
At the beginning, when the federal authorities declared a state of war, and in accordance with the wartime decree, the military service period of all active soldiers was extended indefinitely. Like other soldiers, King John was extremely angry, thinking that the federal authorities did not take their The interests are in sight. However, as more and more planets fell, and as more and more legions fell, the complaints gradually decreased. Compared with the survival of the human confederation, what is the extension of military service? What's more, this is only a war decree, which means it will be invalid after the war is over. If military service in peacetime is just a job, then in wartime, it is for survival.
Obviously, it's not just the life and death of soldiers, but everyone.
Although King John is not married and does not even have a partner who can be regarded as a girlfriend, he has relatives and many friends.
It's just that the continuous and hard fighting is also eroding the fighting spirit of King John and other soldiers.
Obviously, grassroots officers and soldiers like King John cannot see the future at all, let alone know when this war will end.
For him, all he needs to know is to fight the enemy and face death bravely.
After more than a dozen battles have been fought, King John has long given up hope. Although he firmly believes that the human confederation will persist to the end and win this war, he does not believe that he can live until that day, or even believe that he can defend the planet he is on.
You know, before this, many planets have fallen, and none of the soldiers guarding those planets have survived.
In fact, after the fall of other fortresses, King John knew that the moment he needed to face death bravely returned soon. At that time, it will not only be him, all the officers and soldiers fighting side by side, as well as those high-ranking officers hiding in the fortress and directing the battle will be the same.
In a sense, death on the battlefield will be the final outcome of all officers and soldiers including King John.
If this is an unchangeable ending, then coming sooner means getting out of the way sooner.
This is also true. After the squadron commander issued the retreat order, King John rushed towards the enemy first, and did not flinch from the impending death.
At this moment, King John had only one thought, to kill a few more enemies before he fell. Even if the significance is small, after all, there are too many enemies. Even if this attack is repelled, there will be another attack. All the officers and soldiers of the officers will die before the fortress falls. But, what else can you do besides killing a few more enemies? Retreating is also dead, and retreating in violation of the order will die in your own hands in shame. If the final outcome is death, then before the result arrives, it counts as many enemies that can be killed. Besides, it is the last three minutes. Even if it is not killed by the enemy, it will be poisoned to death after the energy is exhausted.
Three minutes, obviously very short.
When the siren became a continuous buzzing sound, King John took a final breath. Immediately afterwards, the energy barrier protecting him disappeared. For him, the last two minutes of his life are left, and there are more than a dozen affected enemies near him who have not yet woken up. He didn't stop, still waving the long knife in his hand quickly, every stroke was extremely accurate, either stabbing the key or cutting off the enemy's head. It's just that the suffocation is getting stronger and stronger, every cell in the body is desperately getting oxygen, telling the brain with the sting, and letting the brain give instructions to the abdominal diaphragm to breathe. Only gradually, the brain became numb and confused. King John still stubbornly rushed to the enemy not far in front, and pointed the tip of the knife at the enemy's back waist, which was the position of the heart. When he rushed for the last step, King John put all the weight on his body and watched the blade pierce the enemy's body.
When he fell, King John opened his mouth and took a greedily breath.
There is still enough oxygen in the air. As the air enters the lungs, all the cells in the body come alive and the brain regains cognition.
It's just that this is just a flashback.
Along with oxygen into the blood, there is poison gas released by the enemy. Thirty seconds later, the poisonous substance in the poisonous gas will paralyze King John's nervous system, making him completely paralyzed. If he has comrades around him, he can survive. Only now, waiting for him will be about three minutes of death. It wasn't too long, and it wasn't very painful, because he would completely lose consciousness before he died.