bookrandom Chapter 267 Retreat and Support
Chapter 267 Retreat and Support
"Bang!"
After the smoke cleared, a pit more than 20 meters deep and 5 meters wide appeared on the spot. After low-altitude reconnaissance by drones and detection by near-ground sensors, it can be determined that there is no danger in this area.
While Cleveland was mobilizing support troops, the heavy combined arms brigade had already made contact with the silicon-based biological cluster that came to provide support.
The first wave of silicon-based creatures that rushed into the electromagnetic barrier were blown up by smart mines, and due to their excessive speed, the entire vanguard was thrown into chaos.
The assault gun group, located inside the electromagnetic shielding ring, seized the opportunity and quickly moved out from its concealed position, appearing diagonally in front of the silicon-based organism. The turrets rotated, and 105mm armor-piercing rounds and HJ-1 anti-tank missiles were fired together.
However, this time the salvo was not aimed at the vanguard in the chaos. The assault artillery used the smoke and dust kicked up by the vanguard to fire at the left flank of the main force of the silicon-based biological cluster, causing them to turn to the right.
When the main force was driven to the right by the intense firepower, what came into view were irregular gray "wreckage".
Before they could even react to what these things were, five dark cannon barrels emerged from behind the "wreckage," followed by a bright flash of light.
"boom--"
Five dazzling fireballs exploded on the silicon-based creature at the front, successfully knocking it off balance. But before it could regain its balance, the silicon-based creatures behind rushed up and collided with it, rolling into a heap.
Immediately afterwards, five more cannon barrels emerged from behind the "wreckage," but this time the pause was slightly longer. Three dark shapes flew out of the cannon barrels: a steel needle and two plastic supports with semi-circular cross-sections.
The steel needle shattered into a pile of fragments after piercing its hard surface, tumbling wildly inside its body and successfully shattering many of its nerves.
The five silicon-based creatures that were attacked twitched for a moment before collapsing on the spot, becoming stumbling blocks for the following teams.
At this moment, three special shells landed above the enemy group and exploded, but no smoke was produced. However, every silicon-based creature felt that the communication channel suddenly became quiet.
Before they could react, five more cannon barrels emerged from behind the "wreckage" and fired another round of armor-piercing discarding sabot rounds.
Meanwhile, behind the first tank company, the six 120mm mortars of the artillery company completed calibration and began firing at full speed at the enemy's left flank, forcing the enemy to turn around as soon as possible.
When a barrage of 120mm high-explosive shells exploded on the enemy's left flank, the 2nd and 3rd Tank Companies had already arrived on the battlefield. However, before they arrived, a convoy of five logistics trucks in the rear had completed their firing preparations.
These five logistics trucks are quite strange in appearance. They are 10 meters long and use an 8×8 heavy-duty chassis. The front of the truck is a U-shaped structure composed of two separate driver's cabins, with the gap in the middle used to house foldable electromagnetic projectors.
This electromagnetic projector also looks strange; when unfolded, it becomes an open rectangle.
However, the items it projects are more complex and diverse; this time, it has projected a type of quick-condensing bunker.
Before firing, the shape of this bunker was not much different from that of a conventional shell, but it had eight ejectable rudders and a deceleration device at the tail.
The shell is filled with a special fast-hardening, early-strength aerogel. When the shell lands, the impact fuse activates the explosive column in the center of the shell, and the gas produced by the explosion will rupture all the compartments inside the shell.
After the compartment shatters, the chemical agents begin to mix, and then the aerogel will rapidly expand, breaking through the fragile outer shell of the projectile to form a light gray and irregular bunker.
The surfaces of these bunkers are neither tough nor hard; however, the adhesive properties of the colloid inside are very strong. A 155mm high-explosive shell can only create a deep crater on them, but cannot shatter them.
A 200mm caliber composite electromagnetic railgun firing a full-velocity armor-piercing projectile can only penetrate a 5-meter-thick aerogel bunker, but it will not retain much kinetic energy after penetration.
Although the manufacturing process of these bunker-mounted shells is rather complicated and the mobility of the launching vehicles is not very good, they play an irreplaceable role in terms of combat effectiveness.
When the second and third tank companies arrived at their designated combat positions, all ten aerogel bunkers had been deployed.
Three tanks formed a group, and all the tanks were evenly distributed behind the aerogel bunker, and began to line up to bombard these silicon-based creatures.
The sudden barrage did disrupt the rhythm of these silicon-based beings, but as an alien weapon that had been fighting for years, they quickly responded by reorganizing their formation and sending out small and medium-sized individuals to launch an attack.
Upon seeing the silicon-based organisms reorganize their formation, the tank company at the forefront immediately called for artillery fire from the rear, ordering them to unleash special ammunition once more.
The main battle tanks paid little attention to the silicon-based creatures that had already advanced to their front, continuing to use their main guns to clear out the medium and large individuals in the distance.
These somewhat dull silicon-based creatures quickly split into several teams, preparing to bypass the cover and launch an attack from both sides. But as soon as they bypassed the cover, what they saw were countless dark blue individual soldier bunkers and 45 black cannon barrels.
"Knock knock knock—"
"Thump thump thump—"
Two distinct gunshots rang out simultaneously, and a barrage of ammunition instantly tore the assault troops apart.
After a round of sweeping, the heavy electromagnetic machine guns used by individual soldiers and the 30mm autocannons equipped on armored infantry fighting vehicles ceased fire simultaneously.
The armored infantry fighting vehicle raises its gun muzzle and switches its internally loaded high-explosive shells to armor-piercing ammunition belts.
The two firepower-type Guardian III robots behind each bunker retracted their heavy electromagnetic machine guns and quickly retreated. Two heavy-armored robots then rushed forward and dismantled the individual bunker into two large full-body shields.
A heavy-armored robot and a firepower-type robot were paired up. The heavy-armored robot carried a full-body shield in front, while the firepower-type robot held a heavy electromagnetic machine gun behind. In pairs, countless four-person teams quickly advanced forward.
The firepower robot extends the barrel of a heavy machine gun out of its shield and uses the observation equipment mounted on the gun to aim and fire, with its entire body and robotic arm retracted behind the heavy-duty robot.
During the assault, the heavy-armored robots would occasionally use the grenade launchers mounted on their shoulders to fire smoke grenades, confusing the positions and speed of their own troops.
To cover the infantry assault, three companies of tracked infantry fighting vehicles quickly moved forward and used armor-piercing rounds to suppress the enemy.
At the same time, all the tanks also launched a gray cube, 1.5 meters wide, 1 meter long, and 1 meter thick, mounted on the upper glacis armor.
The moment the block landed, a stream of gray aerogel surged out and quickly formed a rectangular aerogel shelter that was three meters wide, two meters high, and two meters thick.
Under the cover of the armored formations behind them, readers were discussing the allure of science fiction novels in the forum. The 180 robots successfully traversed the 765-meter-long open area, losing only 13 squads.
Upon arriving at the remains of the silicon-based organism, the heavy-duty robot subtly moved its hand, controlling the telescopic mechanism inside the shield to lower the shield located at its head, and began to use the life detection device equipped on its head to detect the condition of the silicon-based organism in front of it.
Once death is confirmed, the robot will use the silicon-based creature in front of it as cover and prepare to continue its inward journey.
When faced with a silicon-based creature that is not yet dead, the Heavy Firepower Type 1 robot will take out a wall-penetrating bomb hanging on its leg, activate it, and fix it to the head of the silicon-based creature.
With just one explosion, the brain nerves of a medium-sized silicon-based organism will be burned by the high-temperature armor-piercing jet, completely losing its original capabilities.
As the infantry approached the silicon-based biological cluster, the assault artillery cluster within the circle quickly moved, maneuvering towards the left flank of the silicon-based biological cluster.
Each assault gun was spaced one meter apart from the one in front of it, and 0.5 meters apart to the left and right, and was arranged in sequence to the left rear.
Of the eight assault guns arranged diagonally, only vehicles number 1 and 8 activated their smoke generators, trailing a trail of grayish-white, high-temperature smoke as they moved forward.
These eight assault guns maintained a speed of over 60 kilometers per hour throughout the entire operation, with their 105mm electromagnetic cannons firing continuously, sending armor-piercing rounds into the enemy formation. Their aim was not to kill, but to affect the enemy's movement and lethality, thus completely eliminating any possibility of them moving to the left flank.
Meanwhile, four Hornet attack helicopters, fully loaded with ammunition, circled around and entered from behind the silicon-based bio-swarm. The 50mm electromagnetic cannons under the nose and the anti-tank rockets mounted on the left and right wings fired continuously, attacking the silicon-based bio-swarms that were still trying to fight back.
Faced with these rocket barrages raining down from the sky, the infantrymen on the assault would often pause briefly, and then, at the moment the rockets exploded, continue their charge, taking advantage of the smoke and dust kicked up by the explosions.
Thanks to these fearless robotic infantry, the somewhat overstretched heavy combined arms battalion successfully completed its mission before the scheduled time, while Platinum's required troops had only just been mobilized.
Armored repair vehicles waiting in the rear quickly moved forward and began repairing the 17 damaged infantry fighting vehicles.
The heavy-armored robot immediately dropped its shield and, together with the heavy-firepower robot that had put away its machine gun, dragged the damaged robot out of the enemy lines.
The 67 lightly wounded robots returned to the vicinity of the armored repair vehicle and used the nanosystems on board for rapid repairs.
After the repairs were completed, the 67 robots were regrouped with the 36 intact robots and boarded the remaining 28 infantry fighting vehicles. The mixed force then headed to the most questionable and dangerous area to meet up with a team of experimental robots and flamethrower vehicles that had just arrived.
In the time it took for the heavy troops to arrive, Platinum had completed inspections of almost all the dangerous areas.
"Phew, this is the last one."
Platinum slid his finger across the screen, recalling the other two teams of experimental robots, before looking at the mech that was being repaired.
[Mech #0 - Repair progress 71.4%]
[Mech #1 - Repair progress 45.2%]
[Mech #2 - Repair progress 84.1%]
[Mech #3 - Repair progress 98.7%]
[Mech #4 - Repair progress 35.4%]
[Mech #5 - Repair progress 42.7%]
[Mech #6 - Repair progress 97.2%]
The weapon system of Xuan Tie's No. 2 mech has been repaired, with only some of the external armor plates remaining to be laid.
Cat's No. 3 mech and Di Ting's No. 6 mech have almost completed all the repair work, with only some armor plates that may have internal damage remaining to be replaced.
The repair progress of Keshige's No. 1 mech and Tengu's No. 5 mech is about the same, but only the weapon system has been repaired, the sensor array is still under repair, and the transmission system and internal frame are still in the testing phase.
Roy's Jaeger No. 4 was in the worst condition. Except for the frame, which did not need repair, all other systems required testing and maintenance. The spare parts carried on the assault ship were completely insufficient to complete its repair work.
However, the slowest repair speed was for Platinum's own No. 0 mech. A large number of transmission components and electronic systems needed to be replaced, and some motors also needed a complete overhaul. Only the weapon system was intact.
Platinum glanced at the faint black lines on the screen, then at the troops below, and fell into thought.
The map shows that these black lines were detected after a brief overload of the sensor array. The good news is that this is the only black line on the entire eastern battlefield. The bad news is that these lines are at least 10 meters in diameter.
Seeing the heavily armed troops rushing towards them, Platinum chose to suspend the attack and adjusted the repair order of each mech, canceling the repair work of mechs 1, 4, and 5.
She then initiated a communication with Lorraine through the ship's onboard communication system.
"Commander, the situation is not good, we need remote support."
"clear."
Then, Lorraine contacted the standby rapid-condensity bunker launcher via laser communication system.
After receiving the specific location and radio navigation frequency, the projectile vehicle adjusts its direction, while the ammunition storage vehicle installs rocket propulsion systems for the shells.
At the same time, a squadron of 12 Qianlong fighter jets that had just been transferred was also stopped on the runway of the forward airfield. They obeyed orders to return to the hangar and change their ground attack payload to bunker buster bombs.
Three minutes and 24 seconds later, the first batch of rapid-fire bunker-buster missiles equipped with rocket boosters were launched, leaving a bright trail of fire in the sky.
When the convoy arrived, a low gray bunker more than 800 meters long had appeared outside the defensive line, and behind the bunker, a group of experimental robots were carrying out earthwork with shovels.
Meanwhile, the portable bunkers and folding close-in weapon systems that had been transported here were being delivered in cooperation with six engineering mechs.
The heavy combined arms brigade stopped outside the defensive line, and then 103 robots dismounted from tracked infantry fighting vehicles and, under the control of the command terminal, took over the shovels from the guards to continue the earthwork.
The tank units and infantry fighting vehicles were separated. The tank units went directly into the pre-designated tank positions, while the infantry fighting vehicles joined up with the engineering mechs to transport the folding close-in weapon systems and portable bunkers to the designated locations.
With the addition of this new force, the construction speed of the entire defense line increased rapidly, and it was possible to complete the construction before the fighter squadrons arrived in the combat airspace.
Just as everyone was engrossed in the battlefield maneuvering, a Gray Falcon drone was rapidly approaching the flagship from high altitude.
After receiving the IFF signal, the Cleveland quickly raised the electromagnetic arresting system on its stern deck and guided it to land via radio.