No Guns, No Cannons

The battle was perfect, almost dreamlike, except for the lack of a final heroic charge. For a moment, the ragtag guards of Outpost 12 felt like they were dreaming. They had fought four battles against unknown Xenomorphs in three days, suffering heavy losses and exhaustion. Their commander was dead, they were forced to abandon their base, and they were plagued by self-doubt. They had only mechanically obeyed the "Moonfolk's" orders.

And then, they had zero casualties... If their opponents had been the same barbaric Sandfolk wielding primitive weapons as before, it wouldn't have been surprising. But the key was that the enemy had upgraded their equipment and even had tanks!

The soldiers were excited and deeply respected Yu Lian, but he didn't seem happy at all. With a blank expression, he ordered everyone to clean up the battlefield.

"So cool! That's a real man!" Miss Belinda gazed adoringly at Yu Lian, who was lost in thought with a poker face. She only snapped out of it when Dr. Banks nudged her to get to work, then she ran off, her face flushed crimson. If she weren't so plain-looking and average in figure, this might have been the start of a side quest.

Yu Lian, however, felt there was nothing to be happy about. Barbarians, even with tanks, wouldn't become a modern army. Otherwise, the warlords back in his hometown, with their Eagle aircraft and Rabbit armored vehicles, wouldn't have been beaten black and blue by guerrillas. Besides, the Sandfolk weren't exactly the brightest race to begin with. Their strong bodies and keen senses were balanced by mediocre intelligence. That was the balance of life. More importantly, lacking the accumulation of history and civilization, they were destined not to be smart.

Compared to the dozens of Sandfolk and their mounts they had eliminated, the spoils of war were more important to Yu Lian. After all, with another battle like this, their already limited ammunition would be depleted. Their crudely made bio-batteries were also unusable; another few minutes and the vehicles would have caught fire.

"Now, if worst comes to worst, we can just take the batteries out of these Frankenstein Tanks and install them. Vehicle power packs aren't necessarily universal, but I've already used crude bio-batteries, so why worry about this? Back in the day, ah no, in the future, I myself participated in massive construction projects like converting a luxury cruise liner into a battleship."

The Sergeant Major returned shortly with a look of considerable joy. It was the first time Yu Lian had seen her smile. He had to admit, though she had a pretty boy style, or to be blunt, she was a tomboy, she was quite beautiful and feminine when she smiled.

"We captured a total of 20 Type 67 White Raven Rifles and 15 crystal battle axes and swords. We..."

"Discard them," Yu Lian said.

The White Raven Rifle was designed by the Imperial Skyfire Design Bureau over 70 years ago and was considered the most widely equipped famous rifle in the universe. Its advantages were its simple, sturdy structure, low cost, and ease of production. Its disadvantages were insufficient kinetic energy, mediocre power, and subpar accuracy. Even the local defense forces no longer equipped it. However, this famous rifle was widely used in second and third-tier countries and by various criminal organizations, making it impossible to trace its origin.

In short, they were just generic, common-grade, broken guns for grunts, even more so than the C10 rifles they were currently using.

"Collect their bullets," Yu Lian added. The only value they had was that the White Raven used the same 9mm steel nail bullets as the C10, which were barely compatible.

Ina nodded and continued, "The tanks are severely damaged, but Uncle Karl said the power packs can be removed and used for our Black Panther Vehicles. Also, the last tank can be repaired and made operational."

See? I didn't even have to do anything myself; there are skilled mechanics among my companions. And they even captured a tank. Although it's a domestically produced Frankenstein, that ion cannon isn't fake.

"Oh, don't throw away my homemade batteries! They'll be useful later."

"Mm, we won't. I also want to study their structure. I feel like we could add a bit more and use them as bombs."

So you're already interested in various crudely made, unconventional items?

"Also, there are twelve prisoners."

"Oh?" Yu Lian felt a headache coming on, wondering why they didn't fight to the death. What happened to "Sandfolk never surrender"?

"I've had them all executed. Sorry, Commander, I didn't get your order."

"..." Although he already knew this girl would be so decisive in the "future," Yu Lian was still a bit taken aback.

"Commander, I'm just a Guard Team Minion. My future lies here. Executing prisoners of war is not a big deal in this outer-rim colony. But you are different; you are a Moonfolk with a bright future. You cannot be stained by a minor internship."

Yu Lian thought, while the logic was sound, the girl's attitude, acting like an experienced person guiding a naive rookie who hadn't faced the harsh realities of society, was subtly infuriating! If she knew about his past life, she'd be terrified.

"...Let's prepare to depart after cleaning up the battlefield. We'll go through the canyon, and if we find a more open area, we'll stop to rest."

"Don't worry, we won't be pursued for a while," Yu Lian added. He really didn't know what else to say.

Such a narrow canyon, and the front didn't look like it had any open spaces. There was also the possibility of a second wave of pursuers from the Sandfolk. Yet, for some reason, Ina felt Yu Lian's attitude was very certain and instinctively believed him.

What she didn't know was that after everyone left in the captured tank and the Black Panther Vehicles with their newly installed batteries. At the site littered with corpses and abandoned war machines, a nearly transparent liquid slowly seeped from the solid rock walls. These liquids, like a unified army of ants, quickly enveloped the bodies of the raptors and Sandfolk, as well as the abandoned war vehicles. They silently decomposed and dissolved them, turning them into the finest particles, which were then completely absorbed by the liquid.

Soon, the ground returned to its previous silence, and the liquids slowly receded into the rocks, leaving no trace.

Ina also didn't know that the mouth of the mountain pass they had entered, the "mountain ridge as plump as a lucky cat" that Yu Lian had mentioned, was no longer clearly visible after a gust of wind swept past.

It remained an integral part of the mountain wall, unchanging through the ages.

However, Yu Lian, who was currently leading everyone in eating dry rations in the central clearing of the canyon, knew that all of this had already happened.