The Kess People

The scorched earth was blistering hot, thick smoke billowed everywhere, and a great battle raged across the land. Broken corpses littered the hills and plains, while the air reeked of acrid gunpowder.

"We've been ambushed! The insect race set up an encirclement along our route long ago!"

"We need more fire support!"

A group of bipedal warriors clad in full-body exoskeletal armor held rapid-fire kinetic weapons, slaughtering the massive numbers of organisms charging at them from afar.

They stood by the sea, with the ocean at their backs and an endless sea of insects stretching out in the opposite direction.

The thunderous roars of heavy artillery emplacements rose and fell, blasting apart the insect tide attempting to close in. Without the help of those massive weapons, the exoskeleton warriors would have long since been swallowed by the swarm.

"Reinforcements! When will you arrive?"

"...Krr... We've arrived... krr... Open fire!"

A hoarse, distorted voice replied through the communicator. The next second, the sound of projectiles tearing through the air approached from afar, and shrill screams from nowhere echoed across the sky as blossoms of explosions bloomed amid the insect swarm.

Over a hundred aircraft shed their external camouflage and appeared overhead. Cluster bombs dropped from the aircraft continuously bombarded the insect sea.

Before long, the insect swarm that had been so dense and endless moments ago was reduced to shattered corpses scattered across the ground.

The aircraft descended vertically, then transformed into large mechs. Radio transmissions came from within them.

"Hank, how is the water collection going? How much more do you need?"

Their attention focused on a transport vehicle. It was enormous and broad, with a cylindrical metal container laid horizontally across it. The container was dozens of meters in diameter and hundreds of meters long, fitted with multiple large-caliber