According to the rules of the competition, Sebastian's group wasn't just from the Federation. Rather, it was all the participants in the entire Endless Star Territory, as it would make a more even distribution. Basically, participants from the same place were guaranteed to be evenly distributed in each group. This tournament system was also roughly similar to the previous competition.
Sebastian had long ago told the Astra Militarum about the details.
Outside the planet passage, the Astra Militarum had made preparations early on. Because the passage lasted only one hour, therefore, even if the Astra Militarum could mobilize millions of people now, it would not be possible to get through in time. Moreover, it wasn't that the more people, the better.
Today's Astra Militarum uses a professional army's strategy, with individuals accounting for a large part of the various weapons developed. So this time, the Astra Militarum sent only 50,000 people. Of course, the entire team was more than just the Astra Militarum. Not long after, the passage opened.
Suddenly, Sebastian noticed that a change had occurred on his points panel. Its ranking had changed.
[ Participant: Sebastian ]
[ Planet: Planet Area 81 ]
[ Points: 1 ]
[ Ranking: 2 (Tied) ]
"Tied for second place?" Sebastian raised his eyebrows. Immediately, he understood what was going on. This was a contestant who had been eliminated.
According to the tournament's rules, each participant's team started with a Star Fragment. When eliminated, it would drop half of the Star Fragments, and one Star Fragment represented a point. That means someone had already received another participant's Star Fragment.
"It should be someone who ambushed a person near the entrance of their passage and eliminated that participant." Sebastian thought about it.
It wasn't surprising. In past competitions, some eliminations were faster than this, but these kinds of things were naturally very few.
And on the Imperium side, the first to go in was not the Astra Militarum. Instead, it was mini drones. The size was very small, and the shape was similar to a dragonfly. This was the most advanced drone presently, the Insectothopter. Comprehensive reconnaissance, monitoring, early warning, automation, and many other functions in one! The most important thing was that it was tiny, so it was hard to notice by others.
The Insectothopter took the lead into the passage and detected everything around. After ensuring that it was safe and secure, only then did the Astra Militarum, led by Kendall and Seward. They pass through the passage in an orderly manner and step into this immense competition planet.
The number of participants in the Endless Star Territory this time exceeded one billion, so it was divided into one thousand and one groups, with each group having over one million participants. In other words, on this planet at this moment, there were already more than a million Supernatural teams.
According to his estimation, the number of Supernatural species on each team would not be less than 30,000. Because this was a fierce competition, there were too many teams, so too much was not good, but too little combat power was not enough. Each participant could only make the trade-off for themselves to decide.
At the front of the Astra Militarum, there were no scouts. Rather, it was the Giant Kong. That's right, this time, the Astra Militarum brought the Giant Kong. The Giant Kong had been staying right next to the base of the Astra Militarum, so their association with the Astra Militarum was friendly. In recent years, their group has grown a lot. With their wisdom being very high, when they heard that the Astra Militarum was going to fight the Supernaturals, they immediately wanted to join.
The Militarum did not want to bring them, but the development of melee weapons was still in progress. Although there were some results, it was not yet perfect. Later, a scientist had a sudden idea to switch the target to the Giant Kong.
"Why don't we combine our developed armor with the Giant Kong, and make them become a powerful melee attacker? Then, fight for us?"
This was this scientist's proposal, and everyone was slightly taken aback. Immediately afterwards, all of them slapped their face. They prided themselves on being the best among the best, but they thought too complicated. How come they didn't think of such a simple idea? Compared to the complex and difficult weapons, the Giant Kong is ready-made and good to go. Soon after that, the original armor that was not very practical was put on the body of the Giant Kong. It surprised them to find that this was quite fitting.
At this time of the group stage, when the Astra Militarum was the one that brought the Giant Kong, for the sake of caution, there were only a hundred of them. Each giant gorilla was heavily armed and wearing thick armor. A team of scientists specially tailored this armor for the Giant Kong; it was mixed with a lot of high-tech materials.
Of course, the most critical was that the alloy was synthesized from multiple materials, which was officially called Deformation Alloy. As the name implied, the difference between it and the previous alloy was that it could be deformed. The whole also had the characteristics of liquid metal. Not only would it not be uncomfortable for a Giant Kong, instead it could also increase their defensive power.
Besides the Deformation Armor, each Giant Kong was also holding an axe in its hand. The scientists tried several weapons, but only the axe was the favorite. These axes aren't the ones that the Giant Kong built themselves. Rather, the one that used Deformation Alloy materials. After the giant gorilla tried it and was satisfied with it.
Soon, a Deformation Alloy, guided by an Insectothopter, opened the way, while the soldiers followed closely behind. This time, there was no such thing as a tank. Because it was the Supernatural that was being dealt with, Tank was useless. It was a transitional product, and now it has been eliminated and is history. It was replaced by a new vehicle.
This was a heavily armored vehicle with a spider-like shape and four legs called Scarab Walker. The main use was defense and mobility. Not just on the plains, in most terrain, such as caves, jungles, alleyways, hills, and other places where Tank has difficulty functioning, where they could easily pass through.
There were two main types of Scarab Walker. One was for carrying troops, and the other was as a ground fire point. Because that day's Astra Militarum's main firepower came from the air, there was not so much need for the ground. Besides, the single Guardsman's combat power was very strong.
The same as the armor, the vehicle could also be deformed. But because of the limitations of the process, it could only change three postures. In the middle of the battle, it would vary according to the terrain to make a posture shift. The troops were not walking on the ground; instead, riding in the Scarab, fast and flexible.
Above the sky, Fighters lined up in a formation and flew in. It was the upgraded Typhoon. Compared to the decades-old Typhoon, both the airframe performance and combat power were greatly improved. In the development of fighter aircraft, the military was very cautious. With every update, there must be a tremendous improvement, and after several years, the Typhoon has been upgraded. Although the material also contained the new alloy, the fighter wouldn't be able to morph.
"Is this the planet for this conquest? We are going to compete with over a million Supernatural teams, and compete in the same field area." After entering the passage, Lando surveyed the environment in front of him, and his eyes couldn't help but reveal a hint of anticipation.
Outside the passage entrance, it was filled with buildings, and almost all of them were hundreds of meters high. But these tall buildings had fallen into disrepair, and it was covered with huge vines and moldy spots. Between the tall buildings, there was a wide street that went in all directions. But they paved these streets with unknown stones, which have also been mostly damaged by now. Huge weeds and wildflowers sprouted from the crack. And on both sides of the street, gigantic trees block out the sky and the sun. Some grew to the same height as tall buildings.
What was the situation of the planet? No one knew, only when you get deep will you find out, so it was impossible to make targeted measures in advance. Of course, they could still guess the general situation. It was nothing more than that type of terrain. The group star competition was unlikely to suddenly give many participants a "special" terrain.
"Act as planned," Lando ordered. A drone flew high into the sky and scanned a ten-kilometer radius.
The rest of the Astra Militarum entered the passage and temporarily stopped in place. They made no rash moves while the Giant Kong was on guard outside.
Just a few moments later, the drones sounded an alarm. Through the footage captured by the drone, they saw that at a distance of two kilometers, there was a Supernatural team that was silently encircling over.
"Supernatural have very sensitive ears and a keen sense of smell, it's normal for them to discover us at such a close distance." Lando thought nothing of it, "Since the other side sent us to the door, let's settle them."
Lando and Coleman order one after another quickly. At this moment, this Supernatural team failed to notice that above their heads, several drones were hovering. Their every move was captured. This was a group of Tauren, and their number was about 30,000. Because of their vast size, it was impossible to avoid causing a commotion while marching.
"Charge, take them out!" Seeing that they had been exposed, he immediately ordered.
"Tauren, a mid-level civilization species." Sebastian had read a lot of information about various civilization species during this time, so he recognized it at a glance.
This Supernatural species wasn't a partial one. Because the competition could be registered by any Level 2 Planetary Lord, the level of species that appear in this varies. From low level to super, it could be seen from the initial level of Level 2 to the peak of Level 2. These Tauren were over five meters tall, and they belonged to the middle to upper Level 2 Planet. The bull's hooves trampled down, causing their footsteps to sound like a thunderclap. It rushed fiercely towards the location where the Astra Militarum was.
"Fighter Squadron, move out, while soldiers are to cooperate in the battle," Lando commanded calmly.
The Typhoon flew over the Tauren, and they deployed the two Machine Gun Pods on their wings. Just an instant, they fired over 100,000 HEIAP rounds.
HEIAP, or High-explosive incendiary/armor-piercing ammunition, was a fully developed version of the armor-piercing ammunition. Not only was the armor-piercing ability a step up, but when the bullets penetrated the body of the enemy, they could also explode. The bodies of each Supernatural species were very strong, especially outside the body, as most had thick armor and fur, so only armor-piercing bullets could break open. But their internal organs did not have such a powerful defense, so it was unable to resist the power of the explosion. This was also because of the emergence of deformed alloys, it is able to make the HEIAP to undergo deformation in the air.
"BRRRT-BRRRT-BRRRRT!" A sharp, rattling roar splits the sky, like a chainsaw tearing through steel.
"RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!" The pod hammers out a stream of fire, each burst slicing through the air with a feral growl. Shell casings clink and spin away, vanishing into the jet stream as the gun chews through belts of ammunition.
"BRAAAAAAAP!" A single, thunderous belch as the pod unloads a final salvo before cutting off with a smoky hiss.
Just for a second, groups of Tauren below were hit by the HEIAP. It differed from the previous armor-piercing bullets. Previously, armor-piercing bullets needed several, or even dozens, of simultaneous hits to kill a Supernatural species, but now only one was needed. One explosion in the body could take away a life.
Boom!
An HEIAP hit a Tauren and instantly exploded, causing its internal organs to be blown apart. Under the intensive strafing of the aircraft, many Tauren were hit. Immediately after that, explosions occurred in their body. On the spot, they were blown up, seriously wounded, or died. Within seconds, there were over a thousand Tauren casualties.
The Machine Gun strafing continued, but the troops on the ground were not idle either. They raised assault rifles in their hands towards the Tauren within range and fired. This batch of the troop was the brand new generation, and this was their first time participating in the Conquest; all of them were very excited.
Looking at the Tauren that kept falling, Lando could not help but sigh: "That Year Award should have been given to this scientist who invented the HEIAP."