in2ebook Chapter 261 Burning Position
Chapter 261 Burning Position
It was early morning on August 14th, 589th year of the New Calendar.
The heavy fog that shrouded the city was slowly dissipating, and the sunlight began to shine on the positions of the warring parties again.
This is the ‘one year anniversary’ of Amber’s crossing.
One year ago today, he was still a lieutenant candidate who had just arrived on Robert IV. He was still trying his best to survive in the cracks and find opportunities to escape from the war-torn planet.
One year later today, he was on another planet, commanding a coalition force numbering tens of thousands in a final showdown with another imperial expeditionary force.
In this year, the Robert IV was bombed, the Federation and the Empire sank tens of millions of tons of warships in the star sea, and countless soldiers died in the void.
The Federation recovered from its initial state of confusion. While expanding its armaments and engaging in "big construction," it also allowed the power of the military-industrial complex to expand.
And the 'reins' loosened from the necks of the autonomous governments of each galaxy also planted a 'seed' for the unbreakable federation.
The seemingly prosperous and powerful Xinglong Empire also began to reveal its old side. The old emperor was dying soon, and the domestic party struggle reached the most intense level.
The legal heir to the empire had just completed a bloody crackdown on the border planet, purging all those who tried to split the country with a tough iron fist.
The Prince Regent, who was standing on the other side of the 'stage', was still patiently waiting for an opportunity to complete the 'fatal blow'.
In the prelude to this war, Atlas also grew from a "start-up group" of dozens of people to the most basic form on Amber's blueprint.
And with the nourishment of another ‘corporate war’ in the shadow of this war, it gradually grew in a corner where people could not see it.
But on the current Lubion 5, maybe Amber is the only one who thinks about these things.
The soldiers who had prepared for the attack in various attack preparation areas of the coalition did not think so much at all, because they were looking at the position in front of them that turned into a sea of fire with slightly frightened eyes.
Shells passed over their heads like a meteor shower, whizzing out and heading towards the enemy's position.
The moment the shell hit the ground, the entire earth trembled, and the explosion's flames dyed half of the sky blood red.
Huge shock waves and flying mud fragments swept over. Although they were at a safe distance, the violent power was still frightening.
Taking the Hermes heavy particle cannon's ground salvo as a signal, the orbital attack ship's tactical ground missiles kicked off the fire preparations.
Immediately afterwards, more than 300 self-propelled artillery pieces of various types distributed by the coalition forces behind the attack surface began to send 155 and 203 mm programmed grenades to the opposite position at an average speed of 15-18 rounds per minute.
At the same time, the main battle tanks and multi-legged tanks on the offensive front equipped with 120- and 155-mm straight and curved electrothermal chemical cannons also began to carry out supplementary fire strikes.
High-explosive bombs, attack bombs, terminally sensitive bombs, cluster bombs, the coalition's self-propelled artillery units projected various types of ammunition on the bound coordinates in various ways.
The vehicles and engineering machinery used to assist self-propelled artillery are constantly delivering ammunition and helping some self-propelled artillery with problems replace the entire barrel module.
In 30 minutes of fire preparation time, the coalition's ground forces alone fired more than 200,000 artillery shells at the opposite side, not to mention that the Hermes also completed two orbital strikes, and the orbital attack ship also dropped hundreds of missiles. .
In another parallel world, during Operation Michael in 1918, the German army assembled 6,000 artillery pieces to prepare for firepower, but only 320,000 rounds of artillery shells were fired in half an hour.
The target of their attack was the 13 infantry divisions of the British Fifth Army on the front.
The targets of the coalition's attack were just a few thousand remnants of the Star Dragon Empire's expeditionary force.
"Perhaps this can also be considered a kind of military progress? After industrial manufacturing capabilities have reached new heights, the God of War is still not old enough to retire?"
Amber in the HCP cockpit looked at the fire preparation report sent by the headquarters. At this point in time, he could still make such a comparison in his mind.
When the coalition soldiers looked at the position on the opposite side that had been flooded by artillery fire, they may be glad that such artillery fire did not fall on their heads.
The imperial troops on the city's outer defense line were completely unable to think clearly under the artillery fire.
Although the moment the coalition firepower preparations began, most of the soldiers and equipment on the position had already evacuated to the second line of defense and behind the large buildings in the city in accordance with combat doctrine.
But there are still many company and platoon-level troops who have been relegated to the battlefield by their organic counterparts.
The soldiers who were lucky enough to evacuate to the second line of defense were lucky enough to see the largest ground artillery preparation in recent decades - after all, this level of artillery bombardment was not used in previous low-intensity battles.
The earth is shaking and the air is burning.
Every artillery shell that fell on the position and exploded was like an invisible giant hand, ruthlessly tearing at our defense line.
Especially those special attack bombs, which turned solid semi-permanent fortifications into powder.
The artillery fire was like a torrential downpour, dense and ferocious, almost breathless.
The beam of light falling straight down from the sky is like a divine punishment that destroys the world, melting everything near the impact point.
Although the imperial soldiers were wearing combat exoskeletons and hiding in combat vehicles or bunkers protected by armor and overpressure explosion-proof layers, the artillery preparation, like a Vulcan forging hammer, still left them with psychological trauma.
Even though the exoskeleton's microphone had already reduced noise to the highest level, it was still difficult for the soldiers to hear the shouts of their teammates on the radio channel.
They could only use their elbows and knees as support, curl up as much as possible, and pray to the Dragon God that the next shell would not fall on their heads.
Half an hour of artillery preparation time was like a year for the soldiers on both sides.
In the final stage of artillery preparation, the mechanized troops of the coalition rushed out from their hiding places and quickly completed the deployment of the battle formation with the posture of "heavy armored units in front, light armored units, and armored transport vehicles on the side and rear".
Hundreds of HCPs also rushed out from their respective hiding places, surpassing the coalition armored forces at a faster speed and rushing towards the outer defense line of the city.
The fastest "spearhead" among them was the HCP company directly under the brigade led by Amber and the five test machines of ATT.
16 HCPs were arranged in a standard "arrow cluster" assault formation, and almost at the same time as the last 155 shell exploded, they stepped onto the first line of defense.
When the imperial soldiers and combat vehicles, urged by the officers, rushed to the first line of defense that was almost flattened in front at the moment of the shelling.
But what greeted them was a volley of heavy particle cannons on the position.
"What's going on? Why are we being attacked by our own position?"
This thought only appeared in the minds of several multi-legged tank drivers for a moment, and the next second they and the vehicles under them were vaporized by the surging heavy metal particle jet.
"The enemy's vanguard HCP has boarded the first line of defense! Repeat, the enemy's HCP has boarded the first line of defense! Where is our Titan?!"
The roar of the front-line officer echoed in the communication channel. He watched his men attacking the steel giant that was wreaking havoc on the position with individual anti-vehicle missiles in vain.
But the missile was detonated by the close-in defense laser in mid-air, followed by several large-caliber high-speed piercing rods fired by electromagnetic rifles, covering the launching team just now.
When the smoke and dust cleared, only some equipment and limbs that had been shattered remained in place.
While the imperial officer was cursing the friendly HCP, he rushed towards an anti-vehicle missile on the ground nearby.
A sharp sonic boom sounded from behind him, and he didn't even have time to look back before he felt a behemoth flying over his head and rolling up a frenzy of wake.
A silver-white fanatic, in the dazzling blue light of the plasma propulsion array, wielded a heavy sword and rushed straight towards the coalition HCP.
The timing of this attack was clever. The coalition HCP had not even had time to turn its gun around before the Empire's fanatics had already approached it.
But just as the heavy sword was about to strike, a dark red HCP smashed a shattered building next to it, and in a flying rubble and smoke, it used a heavy shield flashing with arcs to hit the side of the fanatic fiercely.
At the moment when the two steel giants collided, the officer who had become a bystander even felt that he saw a visible shock wave spreading.
The pilot in the cockpit of the fanatic who was knocked away unexpectedly only felt that his eyes went black. He didn't even have time to adjust his posture before he saw the blue plasma blade tearing open the armor outside the cockpit.
The nearby Imperial officers never expected that the HCP, who was highly expected by their own side, would be pierced through the cockpit by this dark red HCP at just a glance.
However, he didn't have time to think about it. While he subconsciously hid behind the building next to him, two consecutive sonic booms came from behind him. The two Zealots that came to support him passed over his head again, and then disappeared between the nearby buildings in the fight with the other two HCPs.
The imperial officer slowly sat down on the ground against the wall of the building behind him. On his command interface, two-thirds of the people in his platoon were marked with red crosses.
The remaining soldiers were not only scattered everywhere, but each of them was marked with light yellow or dark yellow, which meant that they were injured to varying degrees.
This was just the beginning of the battle, and his platoon had already lost its combat effectiveness.
"Isn't this just the beginning?"
The officer was immediately confused, but the voice from the radio pulled him back from a moment of trance.
"Lieutenant Ram! We are here to support you!"
Hearing the voice, Ram followed the guidance of the 'out-of-sight unit indicator arrow' on the tactical visor HUD and looked to his left.
On the street across the intersection, a heavy multi-legged pacifier chariot was coming over here with about a platoon of infantry.
He stood up and was about to say something to the friendly troops who came to support him, when he saw a huge "crawler"-like figure appear on the first position on the right that originally belonged to the imperial army.
"Don't come over! Hide quickly"
Before he could finish his words, the turret of the pacifier who had just walked out of the street was pierced by a tungsten alloy rod, and the huge kinetic energy almost tore the turret of this heavy multi-legged chariot apart.
In the flames of the burning chariot, several anti-personnel anti-personnel bombs fired by electrothermal chemical bombs also exploded at the street.
The flying fragments quickly knocked down the mobile infantry accompanying the pacifier, and Lieutenant Ram also felt as if he had been bitten hard on the neck.
He raised his hand to touch his neck, only to find that the silicon carbide neck guard had been shattered, and the blood spurting from the arteries in his neck was flowing everywhere on the tactical gloves and arm armor.
As he fell to the ground, Lieutenant Ram stared blankly at the sky full of gunpowder smoke, his mouth kept making "ho ho" sounds, and his vocal cords cut by shrapnel struggled to form his last words.
"Isn't this just the beginning?"