Time for the Counterattack!

The clouds billowed like churning flames, black and red interweaving across a sky that seemed entirely ablaze. The hail of gunfire swarming through the air had failed to halt the dark veil's descent. Billowing black smoke had already swallowed a corner of the towering airborne fortress. Even if that spark of fire was as minute as a speck of dust, it had still shattered the myth of the shield's invulnerability. As flames erupted across the starboard wing, the soldiers on the ground wore expressions of shock, their eyes filled with disbelief—along with a faint trace of unease. "...What happened?" "Did the engines break down again?" "Did something crash into it just now...?" "Impossible! The deflector shield's defense is absolute! How could anything penetrate it?!" "Are those parachutes? Or am I seeing things..." "Do those madmen actually plan to board the Heart of Iron?!" "What can that handful of people do... At most, it's just one or two centuries." Despite the damaged starboard engines, no one genuinely believed catastrophe would strike up there. As the most low-tech components aboard the Heart of Iron, the row of engines linked along the wings were notorious for frequent breakdowns; losing one was hardly anything to make a fuss over. The spare parts carried in greatest abundance in their airship's inventory were propeller blades. Still, their redeployment plan would likely have to be delayed by two weeks or more... Gazing toward the Heart of Iron, Rachel parted his lips in slight astonishment. From the moment the commotion broke out in the sky, the airship's observation gondola had lost the bandwidth to keep tabs on his sector. He didn't know what those natives had done, but watching the unbalanced airship list in the air, he understood that he wouldn't be able to count on air support anytime soon—not until the airship stabilized again. Still... It didn't matter. Tearing his gaze away from the airship, Rachel narrowed his eyes as he looked toward the ruins two kilometers ahead. It was an abandoned town. Crumbled walls and broken masonry dotted the rutted earth, while vines and moss choked rustic villas, bearing the scars of decades of wind and weather. The town lay dead silent, devoid of any visible movement. Yet beneath this deceptive surface brewed a violent undercurrent. Standing beside him, a deputy clad in an identical pitch-black exoskeleton lowered his binoculars after a cautious survey and spoke with certainty. "Defensive positions... but extremely crude. They probably didn't have time to prepare." Roughly an hour ago, the observation gondola of the Heart of Iron had spotted an unidentified cohort approaching from the southeast, apparently intending to enter the urban district of Ruigu City. Considering the active native guerrilla presence inside the ruins, the general staff aboard the Heart of Iron had immediately deduced that this force was reinforcements dispatched to aid the partisans. General Macklen naturally wouldn't let such a force slip into the city right under his nose. He had promptly issued orders to the Air Marines, demanding Rachel intercept and destroy them outside the perimeter before they could make entry. Compared to the small hit-and-run harassment squads from before, an armed force of a thousand men was undeniably a big fish. Even if, before the Legion, they were still merely an ant. Rachel had not lowered his guard simply because the enemy seemed insignificant. Upon receiving the order, he had led three cohorts alongside more than two thousand troops from the Auxiliary Army, surrounding the thousand-strong reinforcement detachment from three directions. The operation had proceeded smoothly. With aerial reconnaissance guiding them, they had successfully cordoned off the enemy's advance route, forcing them to abandon their push into Ruigu City and retreat southward. Rachel was never one to let a big fish slip away. He had deployed his armored units to cut off their escape route, driving them toward the edge of the forest. Realizing escape was impossible, the natives had simply given up running and holed up inside this small suburban town south of Ruigu City, intending to use its limited cover to make a desperate last stand against the Legion's pursuit. Five thousand against one thousand. Backed by armored units. Though the clash had yet to officially begin, the outcome was already beyond dispute. Raindrops the size of beans streaked across his helmet's visor. The deputy's lips curled into a mocking smile. "Pity we couldn't soften them up with an artillery strike first. Otherwise, this battle would be over in under ten minutes." "It makes no difference," Rachel replied coolly. Unclipping the comm on his shoulder, his voice rang cold. "All units, open fire at will!" "First and Second Cohorts, suppress the west and east flanks." "First Armored Squadron, assault from the north alongside the Third Cohort!" A chorus of crisp acknowledgments sounded over the comm channel. "Sir!" The war machine roared to life. Twenty Scorpion wheeled infantry fighting vehicles fired their engines first. Their turret-mounted dual 45mm autocannons swung toward the town as they deployed into an arrowhead formation, advancing forward at an unhurried, crushing pace. Simultaneously, the Third Cohort detached two centuries, dispersing into twenty fireteams that advanced in tight lockstep behind the IFVs. Each squad consisted of two heavy infantrymen armed with machine guns and clad in heavy ballistic armor, supported by eight light infantrymen equipped with standard protective gear. In addition, thirty Hyena light armored vehicles revved their engines, splitting into two wings to provide flank security for the IFV formation. The quad-mount 10mm machine guns mounted on their turrets glinted with a chilling luster, like the bared teeth of predatory hyenas. On top of that, nearly five hundred soldiers from the Auxiliary Army were driven to the vanguard. These wastelanders gripped their Ripper rifles with bayonets already fixed, their eyes divided between bloodlust and raw terror—with the remainder clouded by tension and bewilderment. As cannon fodder, they were tasked with launching the first wave of assault under the fire support of the Hyenas. Yet, unlike the regular troops protected inside armored hulls, the light vehicles accompanying them would not advance into the town. They would only provide suppressive fire from the perimeter. Should anyone dare to flee... Those thick, black barrels would turn on them without a shred of hesitation. Gazing at the completely encircled town, Rachel narrowed his eyes slightly as a trace of satisfaction welled up in his murderous pupils. This pleasure did not stem from the slaughter itself, but from the rectification of an error. Without question, these savages who resisted order were the root of all chaos and evil. They crudely occupied a heritage that was not theirs to claim, squandering grace they did not deserve with their wretched lives, scraping by like cockroaches and rats. Mutants, wastelanders, sub-humans... all these barbarians were essentially the same. Only by purging every last drop of this filthy blood from the land could purity be restored. And only then could the great Wilantes rebuild paradise upon this world—and march onward to expand their borders into far more distant realms. The First Armored Squadron was now only one kilometer away from the town. The dual 45mm cannons of the Scorpions deployed in arrowhead formation began unleashing ferocious firepower. Driven forward by heavy machine guns behind them, the Auxiliary soldiers screamed like madmen in an attempt to dispel the terror in their chests. Braving the whistling rounds flying overhead, they lunged toward the town like ravenous wolves. Simultaneously, muzzle flashes of stubborn resistance began flickering behind the crumbled ruins. Yet under the sweeping fire of heavy machine guns and explosive shells, those flashes flickered like candle flames in a tempest—fragile, wavering, liable to be snuffed out at any moment... The outermost defenses of the town collapsed. Of the five hundred Auxiliary soldiers, barely a hundred remained. The combat effectiveness of these wastelanders was pitiful, yet as cannon fodder, they performed far better than clone infantry. Driven by pure survival instinct, they could always summon uncanny bursts of desperate strength. Watching the natives' defensive line steadily shrink under the relentless firepower, the cruel smile on Rachel's lips grew more pronounced, his face gradually consumed by zealotry—or rather, madness. "Soldiers! Forward!" "Use your bullets, your bayonets, your knives, and your teeth... Disembowel these filthy vermin! Slaughter them in the cruelest manner possible!" "Then lubricate our wheels with their blood! Show these barbarians the fate of defiance!" ... West District, Ruigu City. The artillery positions concealed within the mountains were currently shrouded in rolling smoke, reduced to utter devastation. Perhaps reserving them for higher-value targets, the enemy had not used their slow-loading 400mm tube-launched rockets, opting instead for 100mm naval-grade airship guns. Yet the counter-battery fire had arrived far faster than anyone could have anticipated. Coughing dryly as he crawled out from the bunker, Yang Shu wiped the grime from his face. Searching the scorched, pitted position, he finally caught sight of an arm half-buried in the rubble. A surge of hope hit his chest. Stumbling forward, he tried to dig his comrade out. Yet when he grabbed the hand and braced to pull, the severed limb came loose in his grip. Staring blankly at the mangled half-arm in his grasp for several seconds, Yang Shu fell silent, took off his coat, and wrapped it gently around the limb. Just then, a cough sounded nearby. Hearing movement in the wreckage, he hurried toward the sound and finally found a living soul. The youth's face was half-buried in dirt, the left side scorched black, but his lips were still twitching, his breath coming in faint gasps. Yang Shu recognized him. The kid was called Lu Zi, a refugee like himself who had fled down from the north. Catching sight of his squad leader, the faded color in the young man's eyes brightened slightly. "Captain..." "Don't move! I'll get you out!" Yang Shu shoved aside the rocks pinning him down, then grabbed a shovel from nearby. Watching his captain frantically digging away the dirt, the buried youth coughed dryly, spitting out a mouthful of mud. "Captain, where's our cannon...?" "Those bastards blew it to pieces! Motherfuckers had terrifying aim... Forget about that for now!" "Captain..." "What is it now, damn it!" "I... I can't feel my legs..." The hands gripping the shovel froze for a split second. Yang Shu gritted his teeth and dug harder. "I'll buy you a new one!" Lu Zi grinned weakly. He knew his captain couldn't afford one—those things were horribly expensive. Still, he didn't call him out on it. "Captain, did... did we win?" Yang Shu glanced back at the burning sky, at the billowing smoke shrouding the airship's edge, and at the intermittent streams of tracer rounds clawing upward. He couldn't be certain of the situation up there. Yet in his heart, there was not a shadow of doubt. "...We definitely will!" At that exact moment, at the far end of his gaze, behind the cascading waterfall of black smoke, a brutal and bloody slaughter had only just begun. Muzzle flashes danced across the steel-plated deck like crackling bursts of lightning. Torrential rain washed away thick blood and mangled chunks of flesh. Crimson stains and shattered armor tumbled into the abyss of the distant ground below. Yet— Even under sustained casualties, nothing could stop the survivors from pushing forward. A hatch the size of a manhole cover swung upward. Heavily armored soldiers with safety tethers clipped to their waists scrambled up the ladder onto the dome, attempting to intercept the Burning Corps charging toward the massive cannon barrel. Yet the moment one poked his head out, an arrow pierced cleanly through his skull. Swept by the torrential rainwater rushing over the deck, he crashed back down into the airship's interior. Assault rifle in hand, Ye Shi stared at Fang Chang in astonishment. "Holy crap, you brought Daybreak too?" "What else? Save it for the New Year?" Fang Chang chuckled, though his hands never stopped moving. A high-explosive arrow pinned the hand clinging to the hatch rim with pinpoint precision. Agonized screams were torn apart by the high-altitude gale. The Marine tumbling back into the compartment carried the delayed-fuse explosive arrow right along with him. A muffled blast tore through the space below, cutting down a swath of troops beneath the ladder as a blast of scalding air surged upward, jolting the circular hatch violently. Just then, Lao Bai's voice crackled through the comms amidst gunfire that sounded like popping firecrackers. "Don't get bogged down with those grunts!" "Keep moving!" Fang Chang's expression sharpened, and he immediately responded. "Copy that!" Only around two hundred soldiers had managed to land successfully. There was no telling how many Marines and crew members remained aboard the airship; there was no way they could wipe them all out alone. Their objective had never been to seize the entire vessel. It was to destroy its artillery positions! Under Lao Bai's command, the Burning Corps quickly split into two teams. One, led by Kuang Feng, headed toward the forward artillery bay to target the twelve surface-bombardment guns mounted along the bow. The other team, led by Lao Bai himself, charged straight for the massive 400mm main cannon that loomed like a factory smokestack! The squad quickly breached their way to the base of the barrel. Staring up at the towering tube, Ye Shi couldn't help smacking his lips. "Damn, that barrel's so huge a person could crawl right inside!" A thought struck Lao Bai. He turned to Fang Chang, who was wearing a Light Cavalry exoskeleton. "Take a squad and breach through the barrel. I'll take the rest and hit the access hatch!" Fang Chang nodded instantly. "I'll give it a shot!" With that, he scrambled onto the barrel, sized up the opening against his shoulders, and found it was just wide enough to slip through. He waved a hand behind him and dove in without hesitation, leading his squad inside. To prevent catastrophic internal explosions, large-caliber artillery generally did not keep shells chambered; they were loaded only upon firing. As the ten-man squad dropped down, the crackle of close-quarters gunfire soon echoed from deep within the gun mount. Without time to confirm their status, Lao Bai barked orders for the rest to deploy thermite charges, burning gaping holes through the airship's outer dome. The Heart of Iron's armor was far more than a flimsy sheet of metal. Beneath the steel skin ran an interlocking lattice of heavy alloy framework. These structural ribs were extraordinarily rigid; even a Switchblade drone would struggle to blast through them. Lao Bai instantly shifted tactics, leading his men toward the nearest hatch and slapping a thermite charge onto it. A blinding flash erupted, destroying the hatch. Tossing a smoke grenade down below, Lao Bai, clad in a Heavy Cavalry exoskeleton, tucked his assault rifle under his arm and was the first to leap into the smoke-filled hail of bullets, plunging headlong into the corridor below. Over a hundred Burning Corps soldiers poured in after him, rapidly fanning out into four-man fireteams. A corridor battle, far bloodier and more brutal than urban street fighting, commenced immediately. Engagement ranges were under ten meters. Using the hallway as their battleground, both sides utilized doorways, bulkheads, and corner junctions as cover, contesting every inch of space in vicious close-quarters firefights. Corpses littered the corridor. The pungent reek of cordite masked the sickening smell of scorched flesh, and lives were snuffed out in seconds. Amidst deafening gunshots, both sides fought with blood-crazed ferocity. Burning Corps players and Legion soldiers alike! Carving a path of blood down the hallway, Lao Bai and Ye Shi rapidly advanced to the bulkhead of the 400mm main gun's compartment. With practiced coordination, the two flanked the door on either side. Catching Lao Bai's nod, Ye Shi drew a flashbang from his chest rig, ready to breach. Right then, two heavy knocks rattled the door from the inside. Lao Bai paused for a fraction of a second, then reached out and pulled the door open. Fang Chang stood behind it, soaked head to toe in blood. His exoskeleton was utterly wrecked, the battered composite chestplate riddled with countless bullet holes. It was hard to tell whether the man was supporting the exoskeleton or the exoskeleton was keeping the man upright. His left hand leaned against the wall while his right held a Scythe assault rifle, blood trickling down the lowered barrel to pool on the floor. Yet despite his ghastly state, his expression remained perfectly composed, and he even managed to squeeze out a faint grin. Before Lao Bai could ask what happened, an explosion echoed from the compartment behind him, sending a wave of scalding air and dust billowing into the corridor. Fang Chang coughed, steadying his breathing before speaking. "The magazine isn't here... After dropping through the barrel into the compartment, I only found the targeting systems and the autoloader. My squad and I took out the gunners, then slapped thermite charges onto the autoloader. It should be completely scrap metal by now." He was the only one left standing; every teammate who had dropped down with him had clearly been wiped out. Yet hearing those words, Lao Bai's taut nerves relaxed considerably. According to the battle plan, if they located the main magazine, they were to use the ordnance to pin down the airship's crew or detonate the ship outright if circumstances permitted. If they couldn't find it, they had to destroy the gun mechanism at all costs to cripple the Legion's aerial fire support. Now, that objective was practically achieved. Without its 400mm main gun, the Heart of Iron's surface bombardment capability was halved! "Outstanding work!" Looking at the blood-soaked Fang Chang, Lao Bai grinned and teased, "After spending so much time with your little girlfriend, I was starting to wonder if your skills had gotten rusty... Looks like I was overthinking it." "You definitely overthink things," Wiping the blood from his face, Fang Chang smiled faintly. Catching his breath, he didn't forget to correct him: "And I think I've told you already, we're not what you think." Lao Bai stared at him in disbelief. "Seriously?" Ye Shi chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows. "You just don't get it. He's enjoying the thrill of the chase." "Piss off." Fang Chang rolled his eyes, too tired to banter with him. Just as he was about to say something more, the suppressed gunfire erupted again, rounds ricocheting down the hallway. Returning fire, the group fell back into the 400mm gun compartment. "Damn... These big-noses are tough. We just wiped out a squad, and another immediately plugs the gap." Even as an enemy, Fang Chang had to admit that in terms of sheer combat willpower, these troops were exceptional. If they were up against marauders, they would have butchered their way through the entire airship by now instead of being pinned down here. A barrage of shouting echoed from the corridor outside. Judging by the tone, it sounded like a demand for surrender. "You are completely surrounded!" "General Macklen promises that if you lay down your weapons and surrender, he will permit you to leave here alive!" The shouting outside was clamorous. Lao Bai barely understood any of it and turned to Fang Chang. "What are they squawking about?" Fang Chang answered casually, "Asking us to surrender." Lao Bai blinked, then turned toward the doorway and cursed loudly. "Surrender? Ha! Fuck off! You think I went through all the trouble of climbing up here just to wave a white flag? Tell him to eat shit!" Only after venting his lungs did Lao Bai realize the other side couldn't understand him. He looked back at Fang Chang. "Translate that for them!" Fang Chang sighed, reluctantly translating the trash talk. The soldiers crowded outside were stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered, erupting into a furious stream of shouted insults in return. This time, even Fang Chang couldn't decipher what they were shouting. Meeting his teammates' expectant looks, he shrugged helplessly. "Probably some west coast dialect..." Ye Shi sighed. "What if they get desperate, throw all rules out the window, and just dump grenades or satchel charges in here?" Fang Chang chuckled softly. "Who cares? This is their base. If they want to blow up their own 400mm cannon along with us, let them go right ahead." "Haha, damn right! Let them try!" Lao Bai chuckled heartily, grinning as he added, "The 400mm gun is already scrapped, so our mission is complete! Now all we need to do is hold out as long as we can and wait for support..." Drawing a steady breath, he fixed his eyes on the doorway leading into the corridor, his index finger resting on the trigger. "The rest... is up to Kuang Feng's side!" ... A command post several kilometers away from the artillery position. Serving as a runner, I'm the Darkest jogged up to Brother Spring, snapping a salute with total immersion. "Report!" "The feint group failed to reach the southern district to establish their defense! They have executed Plan 3 and retreated to the town along Route 417 in the southern outskirts!" Lowering his binoculars, Commander Spring nodded. "Understood." According to the original plan, the mixed cohort led by third-line units such as the Silver Corps was supposed to reach Ruigu City's southern urban zone and dig in behind pre-constructed fortifications. Once the bait pinned down the enemy's main force, the Death Corps and three mercenary cohorts dispersed throughout the city were to launch a general assault, using anti-tank weapons to eliminate the enemy armor while driving the Legion out of the city. Immediately following that, the Skeleton Corps, equipped with armored units, would coordinate with the Goblin Corps' flight attack squadron to deliver a decisive blow against the retreating Legion forces. As for the Jungle Corps, they were assigned the final mission of providing anti-air support. Yet expecting every phase of an operational plan to unfold flawlessly was impossible. The battlefield was fluid, changing in the blink of an eye. While he played his cards, the enemy played theirs. Under the contingency protocol, if the feint group failed to arrive, they had no choice but to fall back to 'Town 417,' shifting the ground battlefield's center of gravity from the southern urban sector to the southern outskirts. As an alternate rallying point, that town also contained fortifications they had dug in secret. However, compared to the prepared positions within the city, the defenses there could only be described as pitiful. Due to the airship's presence, they hadn't been able to conduct major construction in the exposed town, having to work exclusively under the cover of night. Consequently, they had only managed to throw together basic foxholes and sandbag emplacements, with no underground tunnels connecting the bunkers. Standing beside Commander Spring, Kakarot frowned. "There are at least three cohorts besieging the feint group. I doubt they can hold out for long..." The mixed cohort was primarily composed of life-profession players with combat experience and casual players. While it included Awakened individuals and veterans who had survived more than six campaigns, their overall combat capability remained limited, nowhere near that of the Alliance's regular corps. Even if their morale was sky-high and every single one was prepared to fight to the last man. Commander Spring knitted his brows tightly, peering through his binoculars toward the faint silhouette in the south. Suddenly, he asked, "How many guns do we have left?" "Report! The artillery position has been wiped out! Our fire support is down to twenty unrevealed rocket launchers!" Despite the grim situation, I'm the Darkest delivered his salute with crisp energy. "What about our aircraft?" Commander Spring asked calmly. I'm the Darkest answered at once: "The Dragonfly transports are completely wiped out, but the Goblin Corps' Mosquito attack squadron is still at full strength!" Watching Spring sink into thought, Kakarot couldn't help chiming in. "The enemy has extensive quad-mount anti-aircraft machine guns, and those aren't the makeshift junk the Bone Chewer tribe cobbled together. If we send the Goblin Corps in, they'll probably only get one shot... How about I lead a squad over to reinforce them?" The Storm Corps still had over three hundred men on standby in the jungle, ready to support any sector. Yet feeding that handful of troops in would be a drop in the bucket; they'd be swallowed whole within minutes. Not only would it fail to relieve pressure on the feint group, but it might also forfeit their initiative. Ordering the Death Corps to attack prematurely was equally out of the question. If they launched the general assault before the enemy artillery was silenced, all targets caught outside cover would become sitting ducks the moment the airship's fire support resumed. "Not yet!" Commander Spring turned toward the Heart of Iron, a flicker of anxiety finally breaching his calm demeanor. In his original projection, at least half the drop force should have landed on the Heart of Iron's dome after breaching the defensive perimeter. Yet the paratroopers had suffered over fifty percent casualties before even hitting the deck. Those who made it aboard couldn't even form two full centuries. Even though he had planned for the worst and estimated the enemy's strength to the absolute limit, the firepower threshold of the Heart of Iron had still exceeded his expectations. Particularly that outrageous stunt of vectoring their engines straight into the sky. If not for Luo Yu's split-second decision, the Burning Corps would likely have been wiped out before boarding. While he had no doubts about those top-tier veterans' combat prowess, the battle in the sky had undeniably become the greatest wildcard across the entire front. His mind raced. Just as Spring was weighing his options, a sudden burst of flame flared in the sky. A fireball erupted beneath the forward hull of the airship, the roaring flames engulfing the twelve forward-facing gun barrels. Almost simultaneously, a thin wisp of red smoke drifted from the muzzle of the 400mm main cannon. Though faint as a candle flickering in a storm amidst the dense black smoke and torrential rain, everyone on the ground saw it with absolute clarity. Staring dumbfounded at the sky, Kakarot blurted out, "Holy shit, they pulled it off!" They actually blew it up?! Spotting the blooming fireball in the heavens, the gloom on Spring's face vanished, his eyes lighting up with instant delight. It worked! Not just that—it was even faster than planned. Without a second's hesitation, he barked his orders. "Rocket artillery, open fire immediately! Target the armored formation north of the town!" "Also, notify Brother Edge!" "The time for the counterattack has come!"