From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars

The air waves raised by the heavy particle cannon when firing on the surface blew away the smoke and also woke up the federal armored soldiers who had just been aroused to fight.

After seeing the lead vehicle being beaten into a pool of "melted cheese" by the heavy metal particle jet, the fear of being "held" by this high-energy weapon quickly rose to their hearts.

"Vehicle No. 1 was... destroyed, and the company commander was killed!" A trembling voice sounded in the communication channel.

Even though the Federal 72nd Heavy Composite Brigade responsible for attacking Atlas Camp No. 5 was a well-trained standing force, these armored soldiers could not avoid panic when the lead vehicle was instantly killed.

Fortunately, the No. 2 and No. 8 vehicles where the deputy company commander and senior non-commissioned officers were located were fine, so the command system of this armored company did not completely collapse.

The deputy company commander had no time to express condolences for the death of his company commander, and immediately took over the command in the communication channel. His choice was also very simple, that is, to continue the attack.

Although a large number of obstacles, armored walls, and powerful heavy particle turrets and electromagnetic reconnection turrets suddenly appeared on the assault position in front, if they stopped the attack and retreated at this time, they would be made targets.

So the deputy company commander could only bite the bullet and continue the attack, while praying that the support of the HCP company would be in place in time.

——

"When was this defensive position built?"

Norris, the battalion commander of the 162nd Heavy Composite Battalion of the 72nd Heavy Brigade of the Federal Army, also saw the picture sent back from the front at this time.

The sudden appearance of this circle of defensive positions on the outer positions of Atlas really caught him off guard.

These things can't even be simply called defensive positions, but semi-permanent fortifications equipped with a large amount of heavy firepower.

It is not difficult to see from the effect of the infantry fighting vehicle's chain gun hitting the opponent's composite armored wall that the physical hardness should be similar to the "front face" of the main battle tank.

You must know that the federal army has actually been keeping surveillance on the ten refugee camps in Atlas.

Whether it was the long-flight drones that were conducting reconnaissance at the edge of the no-fly zone or the reconnaissance satellites that were flying overhead, the federal army believed that they had "everything under control" of the ten refugee camps in Atlas.

But now the inexplicably extra defensive facilities on the outer positions almost slapped the faces of the reconnaissance troops.

Norris looked at the images on the battlefield recorder of the front troops. Whether it was the turrets or the composite armored walls, the surrounding land showed signs of turning over, as if they had grown out of the ground.

After seeing this scene, the combat staff officer next to him couldn't help but say:

"Captain, why do these things look like they were hidden underground before?"

Hearing the confusion of the combat staff officer, Norris also nodded.

"It does look like that. Could it be that they are working underground, so they were not discovered by reconnaissance satellites and drones?"

"If that's the case, it makes sense. After all, the reconnaissance satellites overhead don't use the neutrino detection mode, so they won't detect the movement underground."

The combat staff frowned as he spoke, and the confusion on his face did not decrease, but increased.

"The question is, where do they get the manpower to do these things?"

"Do you remember the unmanned mechanical units active in their camp?"

As soon as Norris said this, the combat staff's eyes lit up.

"I was wondering why they had been airdropping construction materials some time ago. At that time, the intelligence staff was still wondering where they had used all the construction materials. Are their unmanned mechanical units so efficient?"

"I don't know, but it looks better than ours anyway."

Norris closed the screen, took the initiative to end the topic, and then looked at the combat situation map on the side.

The 162nd Heavy Composite Battalion, which he currently commands, has deployed its battle formation according to the plan after the conflict and launched an attack on Atlas' camp.

Although the Atlas operations in Camp No. 5 have increased from 1 synthetic battalion to 4 after the reinforcement some time ago, the federal army has transferred two brigades of troops to eat up the entire Camp No. 5, and has an absolute advantage in manpower.

Therefore, the scheduled combat plan on the federal side is not complicated. Once the conflict breaks out, the "front attack battalions" in various directions can directly break through.

However, the sudden emergence of semi-permanent defense positions quickly turned this plan into a bubble. The heavy particle cannons and electromagnetic reconnection cannons mounted on the fixed turrets became a nightmare for the armored forces that were charging.

There were some main battle tanks and follow-up HCPs ready to try to counterattack, but when the front of these fixed turrets flashed a dazzling white light under their attack, many tank commanders and HCP pilots finally couldn't help cursing:

"What a thorny turtle shell!"

After the armored companies and HCP troops responsible for opening the way in each battalion suffered more or less losses, the attack was finally stopped.

The commanders of the four "frontline attack battalions" that were originally scheduled to launch the first round of attacks finally realized that the Atlas troops in front of them seemed different from those private military companies that fought without any rules.

They came prepared.

——

When the commanders of these frontline attack battalions withdrew the attack troops and gave up the "one-wave" fighting method, they were ready to start firepower preparation according to the conventional combat plan.

The federal psychic agent codenamed "Hanged Man" was making the most exciting escape in his life.

120-pound artillery shells continued to explode near him, and the explosions, which were "little threatening" at the beginning, were about to fall directly on his head.

Obviously, his approximate location has been locked by Atlas's people, and he is now being covered and shot by the opponent's fire team.

This situation was something he had never experienced since leaving the military academy.

The biggest reliance that psychic agents rely on to shuttle around the battlefield and turn into reapers to harvest the lives of high-value targets is their optical and infrared stealth capabilities, which can make them invisible to most ground detection methods.

The same goes for the opposite. After someone discovers his location, if the squad-level battle like Amber's on the Robert 4 goes well, the psychic agent can still rely on his own equipment and psychic powers to 'kill everyone'.

But in the face of a large amount of heavy firepower, without the assistance of other friendly units, psychic agents are just a kind of "advanced infantry".

What the Hanged Man didn't expect was that Atlas's ground troops had already been familiar with the "Anti-psionic Combat Manual" produced by Amber.

What is recorded in this manual are all 'little tips' for players to use against Federation psionic agents and Imperial psionic commandos at low levels.

At that time, players did not have technology like "Psychic Detection Radar", so they always asked the highest-level psyker in the team to do "meat recon". After discovering psionic agents or psionic commandos, they would never Instead of entangled, they directly called the rear for fire coverage.

Now, except for the penetration reconnaissance vehicle of the teaching team using new technologies to conduct investigations, the other processes are not much different from those back then.

Just as everyone in the infiltration reconnaissance vehicle was watching a round of 155 high-explosive bombs fired by the self-propelled artillery company, which set off a burst of smoke and dust at the impact point, a series of light spots with white trails suddenly flashed across the sky, which made them feel sad. All of a sudden the alarm bell rang.

When they saw the plasma fireballs bursting out in the air in the direction of the refugee camp behind them, and the deflection force field that was like a 'shield' made of electric arcs, protecting the refugee camps and outposts, they breathed a sigh of relief. .

"The federal government has no bottom line when it comes to directly attacking the refugee camps."

"But then again, how did you create such a large deflection field?"

——

"TMD, who can tell me how such a large deflection field was created?!"

In the federal army's ground headquarters, Lieutenant General Van Fleet watched the scene returned from the drone that went to conduct damage assessment, and fell into a crazy situation.

He finally made up his mind to let two long-range rocket battalions carry out coverage strikes on Refugee Camp No. 5. Unexpectedly, deflection fields appeared out of thin air to intercept and detonate them in advance.

This round of salvos are all plasma warheads, which mainly rely on the formation of high-temperature plasma fireballs after explosions. There are no prefabricated fragments in the warheads, so the damage to the ground after being detonated in advance can only be said to be minimal.

The other people in the command center looked at each other, but no one could answer Van Fleet's question.

If Amber knew the reason why the lieutenant general was going crazy at this time, he would definitely say with excitement:

"It's a fusion furnace! I added a fusion furnace!"

Of course, Amber could not stand in front of Van Fleet at this time and tell him how he airdropped a complete set of fusion furnace components to the ground, and how he reduced the instantaneous output to expand the coverage of the deflection field for specialized defense. deflection fire strike

Because he is currently mobilizing the pre-war mobilization of Gnakuri and other members of the HCP force on the Hermes, and the Atlas fleet is about to respond to the federal army's long-range rocket attack on the refugee camp.

Soon, the Federation warship in the outer space orbit of Para 4 saw two Atlas light cruisers begin to lower their altitude. At the same time, the optical camouflage component of the ship also printed a line of text on the side:

"Since you are doing this, then we don't have to pretend to be a gentleman anymore."