"Those damned bugs!" The lieutenant colonel could not help clenching his fists. Of those 3,500 people, at least seventy were humans. Leaving aside the economic loss of seven landing ships, losing more than seventy men before even seeing the enemy made the lieutenant colonel, a fellow soldier, feel that it was not worth it for them.
But this was war. There was no such thing as worth it or not worth it—only victory and defeat. As the infantry corps of the human faction, they would suffer the greatest losses in every war. Aps understood this as well.
"Roar, roar, roar..." Seeing another hundred or so Ironclad Octopuses fly out from Mita Planet, Koski immediately ordered, "Deploy the smoke bombs!"
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..." The landing ships speeding through the air suddenly split apart down the middle, one becoming two. At the same time, the armor of every landing ship began reflecting a silvery gleam. Once the light faded, the black landing ships actually vanished from sight.
This was the landing ships' smoke bomb tactic. So-called smoke bombs did not actually release smoke; they simply used two methods to reduce infantry casualties. First, the split landing ships—some carried five hundred soldiers and their combat equipment, while others were completely empty. If the Ironclad Octopuses chose the wrong target, by the time they crushed an empty landing ship to pieces, the ships carrying soldiers would already have plunged into the atmosphere.
Second was this cloaking device. Within the layered armor of the landing ships was a light-absorbing panel that absorbed sunlight and prevented it from reflecting. Everyone knew that they could see things because light shining on objects reflected into their eyes and formed an image. If that light could not be reflected, then the object naturally could not be seen. Furthermore,