Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

The vehicle was equipped with two small thermobaric cannons and a clearing device at the front, and 60 combat personnel were dispatched to stay in the personnel compartment next to the armored defense compartment.

The rest were freight cars piled high with boxes and sacks, filled with sweet potato flour, salt, and simple weapons and equipment. At the very front of the train, a paving locomotive carrying three supply wagons was slowly moving in.

This is a train heading to the Sarkaz mining settlements in the central part of the mountain range, where they are going to sell their food. The central Sarkaz, whose hilly terrain makes grazing impossible and provides insufficient arable land, rely entirely on purchasing food with manufactured goods.

Once this railway line is completed, the continuous flow of grain transported to the central region will become a death knell for both the northern and southern Sarkaz.

Furthermore, the main means of survival for the Sarkaz in the central region also includes trading. As long as this route is established, the farm's food will be continuously supplied to the war chariots in the south and the tribes in the north.

Conversely, when the Sarkaz in the Middle Kingdom no longer lack food and can even export surplus, they will need LMD more than livestock and food—meaning that all caravans will only accept LMD from various tribes from now on.

Since they only accept LMD, this will exacerbate the situation where various tribes further increase their holdings of LMD.

Moreover, based on the most basic price factor, nobles will unconsciously increase their exploitation of the lower classes.

This is just the beginning; when this exploitation reaches a certain threshold, the order will collapse.

However, such high-level matters had nothing to do with a new recruit like Graeme. He happily found an empty seat among his teammates, turned the rifle on his back to face him, and hugged it.

Unlike other Sarkaz, he liked this weapon. Because of his tall frame and thin muscles, he was often ridiculed in the traditional Sarkaz society for his bravery. He was a big guy with long arms and legs but little strength, at least compared to other Sarkaz.

However, when using this weapon, he found that he was no worse than others. In fact, because of his long arms, this slightly long gun-like weapon was easier to use. In addition, with the physical training and sufficient nutrition over the past few months, he had gained some strength and performed well in training, earning the basic respect of his comrades.

In the past, he would probably have been ostracized by these strong warriors, instead of sitting among them, listening to their absurd boasts, and laughing along with them.

The train departed quickly, but at a slow speed. This was partly because the locomotive was slightly overloaded, and partly because it needed to accommodate the paving speed of the track-laying vehicles ahead.

The high-strength polymer sleepers and carbon nanomaterial tracks are lightweight, quick to lay, and can withstand extremely high pressure without deformation. Under normal circumstances, electromagnetic excitation elements need to be embedded inside the carbon nanomaterial tracks, and magnetic levitation strips are inlaid on both sides, as part of the Covenant ground high-speed industrial transportation network.

However, Lao Xia's side isn't that extravagant. He can build maglev tracks, but that would require Rembiton to be able to build maglev carriages and locomotives. If not, it's better to just use it as a new type of rail material.

Moreover, using carbon nanomaterials has another advantage: it is not afraid of people dismantling the rails. Not only is it difficult to dismantle without a specialized melting and cutting machine, but it is also useless to dismantle them. Relying on the tools of the locals, it may take several days and nights to break a small gap—and before that, the patrol team has already come to harass people.

"I have some canned red sausage here, good stuff my father got from the cannery..."

Grom stared blankly at the unchanging yellow sofa outside the window for a while, then pulled an unlabeled can from his backpack. "Want some?"

"It can't be that kind of mysterious meat, can it!?" They ate that kind of thing back in training camp. It wasn't that Old Xia didn't give them good food, but it was a rule set by White Rabbit—

During training, a unit must differentiate treatment, with only those who excel being allowed to enjoy special meals.

Similarly, only the bravest troops are entitled to higher rations, while cowards are not fit to eat the army's food.

Therefore, for them, who were just new recruits, including the officers, all they could eat was luncheon meat stewed with cabbage. What if they wanted to eat some better meat chops?

Yes, during training exercises, the Yetis from the veterans' camp can eat their food, while they eat luncheon meat and cabbage.

The Sarkaz, of course, had no objection to this. It was Sarkaz tradition for samurai and samurai leaders to eat meat, lower-ranking warriors to gnaw on bones, and slaves to have nothing to eat, not even grass. On the contrary, treating everyone the same would only make them less motivated and feel insulted.

Moreover, even the bare minimum rations were better than what they used to eat. As pure off-duty soldiers, they didn't need to take on any other work. Their mission was to fight, their role was to kill, and they were the purest form of violent organization.

However, no matter how you explain it, it's undeniable that eating this stuff every day would make your mouth feel incredibly bland. As soon as Graeme pulled out the can, it attracted everyone's attention.

"Canned red sausage, the kind they say is sold to Ursus in the north?"

“Yes, the factory produced too much, so the leftovers were given out as year-end bonuses.” Grom took out another one, and the fragrant aroma of the smoked and cured product filled the enclosed carriage.

"The people who work in the factory have a different way of life than us who toil in the fields."

A Sarkaz man, who may have come from a family of farm laborers, said enviously, "There's no such thing as leftover stock in the plantation, so there aren't such generous year-end bonuses."

"Your work in the fields is quite good; factories don't offer that many holidays!"

"That's true." Agricultural production has a fairly long off-season. Even crops that are not afraid of the four seasons have times when they can be left fallow and fertilized, and when they do not need to be subject to heavy field management.

But factories are different—there are no weekends off, eight-hour shifts, and you can only catch your breath during special times.

However, everyone has their own reasons for envying. The working-class families envy the farmers' rest time, while the latter envy their stable jobs and the free leftover goods to share. After all, people are always full of longing for what they cannot have.

"Bang!" The connecting door between the carriages was kicked open. "First Company, go to the front; Second Company, go to the back; everyone else, check your equipment and ammunition and prepare for battle!"

The Yeti veteran roared as he entered, already wearing armor and carrying the same MA12 rifle, but a fully automatic version.

The three-round burst version is only for training and new recruits, to prevent these guys from just pulling the trigger all the way through. With a full rate of fire of 850 rounds and a 75-round drum magazine, if you turn it on full automatic, all but the first few shots will be wasted. Until they have experienced one or two real battles and can make mistakes due to nervousness, it's better to forget about it.

The MA12 comes in three magazine types: a standard 40-round magazine, a 50-round extended magazine, and a 75-round drum magazine. With a bipod and a white light sight, it can be quickly converted into a squad automatic weapon and an assault rifle.

"Check the battery pack!" A metallic clanging sound rang out inside the vehicle. Every recruit who wasn't qualified to wear powered armor had a rudimentary exoskeleton, with a metal frame extending from his dominant hand to his palm.

The battery pack is located on the lower back. The new Originium Battery looks like a small gas tank on the waist. The cables connect to the exoskeleton. The recruits connect the power cables to their weapons and check the battery level and various parameters through the monitor on their forearms.

This minimalist exoskeleton only provides movement assistance and stability during swaying; it offers no protection, but this also reduces the chance of being hit.

Of course, there is still a chance that the power cable will be broken during combat, causing the weapon to misfire. Therefore, every recruit is equipped with a quick-change cable on their thigh. It is very fast, just like changing a mobile phone charging cable.

Powered by the protective gear, the battery and magazine are not required to be integrated, thus eliminating the need for superconducting batteries and superconducting rails. This is a clever way to use electromagnetic weapons.

Of course, this rudimentary mode offers virtually no resistance to EMPs, but Terra doesn't have cheap and effective EMP bombs either!

In addition to their main weapon, a rifle, each person also has a 30-centimeter-long thermos combat knife and two W101 Originium grenades. If you add the helmet, the thermos guns carried by the squad firefighters (two people per group), and the Snow Rabbit rifles carried by the marksmen, basically everyone has a sense of security that they are armed to the core.

Of course, this illusion will soon be dispelled when you see the Yeti veterans' powered armor. They are wearing military powered armor designed during World War III, weighing 790 kilograms, with 49 horsepower output, and the thickest torso armor is 16 millimeters thick. It consists of an outer layer of carbon fiber, graphene sheets and metal ceramic bulletproof plates, and an 8-millimeter foam gel shock-absorbing layer inside.

Tall, heavy, and exuding a ferocious aura that was absent in the old industrial version of the power armor, it had shotgun launchers mounted on its arms, grenade launchers on its shoulders, and a folding shield on its left arm. Its entire body was covered in sturdy and robust armor—truly armed to the core.

The combat readiness preparations were completed in one minute. The new recruits of the escort team quickly occupied the armored vehicle sections in front and behind, and then began to establish a defensive line using portable bunkers in the cargo section. To their flanks and rear, billowing dust came directly towards the slow-moving train.

“Wild bandits, not the regular army of any tribe!” The Sarkaz mercenary standing on the defensive wagon immediately recognized that they were not some tribe that had come to plunder, but rather the more dangerous wild bandits.

Wild bandits are a peculiar breed. They often face hardship in their survival, but due to their frequent scavenging and access to unidentified resources, they often possess unusual equipment, some of which are even relics from ancient times.

"Wow, the instructors didn't say we were going to fight something like this during training!" A rusty land-based warship emerged from the yellow sand. Judging from its structure and shape, it was clearly not a product of any country. It looked more like something that had just been dug out of an ancient ruin.

"Crack! Crack!" The thermobaric cannon on the defensive section was turning, while the bandits were howling on the deck, seemingly waiting for something. They hoped that this strange land vehicle would stop, after all, they only wanted money.

"How do you think the intelligence was leaked?"

“We didn’t hide anything at all,” Petrenko shrugged. “When we set off, the whole station was packed with people. The laborers and the merchants loading and unloading nearby all saw it.” The fact that the merchant guild and the bandits had no connection was a famous Sarkaz joke.

“Besides, isn’t this exactly what we’re here for? It’s easier for them to jump out so early.” Petrenko tapped on the side of the carriage. “Notify everyone that we will not accept negotiations and prepare for battle. Artillery crew, knock down that box on their deck immediately. I have a bad feeling.”

"Leading team, slow down. Notify the engineering and road clearing team ahead to prepare for on-site defense. Notify headquarters that we are under attack by a gang with land-based ships, numbering around 400. We may need reinforcements at any time."

Over the years, Petrenko was no longer the snotty-nosed young man from Ursus who hunted in the snowy forest, but a qualified company commander.

Of course, Yelena also grew from a twelve-year-old loli into a sixteen-year-old girl, beginning to exude youthful vitality.

Compared to the composure of the Yetis and Sarkaz mercenaries, these recruits seemed overly nervous, each gripping their weapons tightly and staring intently at the approaching landship.

The title of Chapter Four is being loaded.

Chapter Four

The landship began to approach the gradually decelerating train. At a distance of about 200 meters, the assault rifles opened fire. The MA12 rifle had a clear range advantage, and its gentler recoil compared to gunpowder weapons and purely electromagnetic rail weapons made its three-round bursts easier to control.

However, long-range engagements are mostly fruitless, and even with a 2x scope, the units on the land-based ships are not much bigger than ants.

Moreover, both sides were moving at high speed and experiencing bumps, coupled with the wind in the wilderness, making the hit rate truly pitiful.

Graeme tiptoed and hooked onto the open cargo box filled with sweet potato flour. With a push, he pulled himself onto the roof, spread out the tripod, released the safety, checked the sights and ammunition boxes, and then lay on the roof to begin suppressing fire. However, given the same dual-action platform environment, this suppression fire had not caused any effective damage so far.

The biggest effect was that the bandits' original plan to approach and board the ship had to be thwarted. A group of people were pressed behind the gate on the side of the ship, not daring to show their faces. Bullets struck the armor, making a clanging sound and leaving behind dense white spots and jumping sparks.

"Load!" The first recruit finished his magazine and, trembling, pulled a new magazine from his ammunition pouch.

Clearly, the overwhelming presence of the land-based warship put him under considerable psychological pressure, and he failed to complete even the simple task of loading ammunition after several attempts.

As the new recruits gradually began loading their weapons, the train's firepower became somewhat weaker.

At this point, the landship had closed to within about 100 meters, at which distance the crossbows could be fired.

The crossbows used by the bandits were a type of cluster crossbow. They ground various metal parts they found into irregularly shaped bolts, and then fired them in bundles. They did not seek accuracy, but only the number of bolts in a single burst, in order to compensate for the low accuracy of their crossbow mechanisms and bolts.

"Whoosh!" Petrenko ducked down as a crossbow bolt grazed his head and pierced the cargo box beside him. "Damn it!"

The cursing commander picked up a helmet from the ground—whose head was unknown—and slammed it on the head of a rookie next to him. "Everyone, put on your helmets!"

On the scorching desert, these helmets, made of cheap steel plates and Kevlar material produced by Rembitox, were very uncomfortable to wear. They were stuffy and hot, and many new recruits threw them away as soon as they got hit in the head.

Only a few, like Graeme, who were relatively law-abiding, wore them properly. A good helmet could significantly reduce the mortality rate of soldiers, but these inexperienced soldiers had to pay a certain price to understand this.

"Buzz!" The molten metal cannon began to charge up. The molten metal cannon was very powerful, but its range and accuracy were limited. In order to maximize its effect, the enemy's land-based ship was brought close to be fired.

"Boom!" The dragon flame slammed into the side of the deck. Even though it was still some distance from the square device, the crudely made metal plates of the bandits were instantly turned into shiny, splashing liquid that flowed down the side like scarlet blood.

The closer distance also improved the recruits' accuracy, and bandits continued to fall from the guns.

However, casualties also began to occur here. On the real battlefield, apart from the Yetis' armored canisters, any measures and equipment can only reduce the casualty rate but not eradicate it, especially in close-range firefights.

Seemingly realizing that this was a tough problem, the square device slowly turned around.

Then, four pillars of fire erupted. "Damn!" Petrenko's forehead throbbed, and he lunged forward, crashing to the floor. A burst of flame struck the truck bed behind him. "Boom!"

The entire train carriage was shaking, and the topmost heat-melting cannon was cleanly and decisively reduced to flying Originium fragments and messy parts. Hot blood flowed on the roof, leaving behind a cluster of Originium that looked like flames.

"Damn it, the fire support team!" The anti-armor platoon, composed entirely of Yeti veterans, quickly split into a four-man team, each carrying some kind of tube-mounted equipment on their shoulders. "Clear the rear!"

"Fire!" Four indiscriminate rockets struck the deck of the landship, two of them hitting the sides, tearing off a small piece of armor and revealing the rusty skeleton behind.

However, it did not cause any effective damage. Of the other two, one hit a small crane next to the square launcher that was trying to load the missile, causing a small-scale secondary explosion, while the other simply missed.

"Shoot their tracks, concentrate fire!" As the land-based ship drew closer, many recruits lay prone behind makeshift shelters, too afraid to look up, because of the previous attack—whether it was a missile or a rocket—and the bandits became arrogant, preparing to fire crossbow bolts with cables and then board the ship.

Rockets, the beams of molten lava guns, and various grenades bombarded the tracks on one side of the landship. The thick track plates effectively withstood the damage, and with both sides in motion and under tension, the hit rate was indeed not high.

"Awooo!" The bandits slid quickly onto the train using the grappling hooks that were attached to the carriage walls.

However, in the air, they were perfect sitting ducks. "Bang!" The Snow Rabbit rifle struck their shoulders heavily, and the high-temperature metal jet pierced the two bandits together, instantly landing on the sand and being thrown backward by the train.

If the recoil of the Snow Rabbit rifle is like a strong man punching you in the shoulder, then the recoil of the MA12 assault rifle is probably like the force of a lover's gentle punch.

The explosive recoil mainly comes from the initial expansion and propulsion of the electrothermal material. The recoil from the subsequent secondary electromagnetic acceleration is much gentler. With the addition of a muzzle compensator, the recoil is further reduced, and the flash brightness is also very low.

"Whoosh!" Graeme rolled away from the oncoming flying axe, which slammed into the sack beneath him, sending sweet potato starch flying and staining half of his body white.

"Rat-a-tat-tat!" The sound of the MA12 gun was rather muffled; neither the electrothermal charge nor the electromagnetic acceleration produced the explosive sound of gunpowder.

The Snow Rabbit rifle also achieves this effect; the muzzle shockwave, when combined with the compensator, is more akin to the sound of a champagne bottle being opened.

The 7mm full-metal bullet tore through the body of the bandit who threw the axe, along with his crude armor plates. His body exploded like a red cotton ball, instantly wiping out the strong Terran man's strength. He crashed into the carriage like a tattered sack.

The rope on his belt kept him suspended from the cables. "Cut these cables!"

The landship is now traveling in the same direction as the train, and more boarding cables are being thrown over. However, this relatively stable situation has also significantly improved the recruits' accuracy.

However, not everyone has the courage to stick their head out of cover and aim at the enemy at this time, and the enemy is also using simple grenade launchers and crossbows to suppress them.