The BETA were teaching them that lesson now, and the tuition was paid in lives.
"Fuck."
Lin Cuo saw the biological signatures continuing to multiply in the landing crater and swore again.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."
Clear the surface BETA in a few hours, then enter the Hive?
Why the hell had I thought this could go so smoothly?
While he was stewing, a gold coin icon he had never opened before suddenly lit up in the lower-right corner of the System Interface.
[Detected: player currently requires independent combat units with high organization.] [The Europa Universalis IV module has an unused mercenary feature.]
"Now? You want me to recruit Europa Universalis mercenaries on a BETA battlefield? Recruit what, Swiss Pikemen? Have them form a square and stab a sixty-six-meter-tall Fortress-class?"
[The mercenary module has completed cross-world adaptation.]
"So after adaptation, their pikes turn into antitank spears?"
[Open the available corps interface?]
"No. Fuck off."
Another barrage of explosions came from the landing crater. The theater system showed that the Seventh Division's Third Infantry Department had begun engaging Tank-class BETA. Lin Cuo gritted his teeth, his gaze lingering on the gold icon for half a second.
"Wait."
The system waited quietly.
"I'm only taking a look for the sake of criticism, to see exactly how you plan to swindle me out of my political points."
The golden interface unfolded before him.
The contempt on Lin Cuo's face lasted only a moment.
"My esteemed system, could you scroll down a little?"
Europa Universalis's mercenaries were merely a category that retained the module's original name. Any independent military organization that entered the battlefield under a temporary contract without counting toward the player's standing military cap would be filed here.
What appeared in the interface now were