Sergeant Jerry Mace had been mingling with the crowd, so of course he'd heard his comrades whispering. Their emotions were complicated: caution, excitement, relief, lingering fear, and, naturally, disbelief.
Those complicated emotions had turned into a few exclamations of wonder, though it was hard to tell whether they were marveling at the troll general's thick hide or at the battle honors they'd earned. Perhaps it was both.
Yes, Major Hongkhas, deputy commander of the Empire's Yaochi Front Army, who had only taken up the post a month ago, had already fallen in battle. The Earth soldiers had been too intimidated by his formidable presence in life to approach, but the zero-element glow rising from his corpse was proof enough.
Even so, everyone still found it a little hard to believe.
The soldiers present all knew that this Leg giant general was a powerful psionic, with strength enough to make him nigh indestructible. And that was indestructible in the literal sense. More than one person had seen him stride through a sea of boiling flames, cross a wall of explosions, and charge through a storm of bullets as if nothing were amiss.
At the time, everyone had thought they wouldn't be able to keep this Imperial officer from escaping. At best, they could slow him down. If they managed to hold out until their own psionics arrived, that would count as a victory.
Yes, they'd heard that the troops led by Lieutenant Colonel Meng Jiao, the deputy division commander, had almost reached them. They had to hold out until he got there!
Still, they hadn't expected the battle to go so much better than they'd imagined.
A high-explosive shell fired from a 107 orbital cannon had landed right in front of General Hongkhas. Incendiary dust clung to the Leg giant and