The Plane War Begins from Wandering Earth

Chapter 269 268. Carbon-based Flesh and Heavy Firepower Cluster

Out of distrust of the combat effectiveness of the armed forces of the colonial galaxies, the Federal Expeditionary Force Command did not deploy them to those Zerg colony planets with higher strategic value.

"Unlucky teammates" are sometimes even more terrifying than powerful enemies.

But the armed forces of the Thraide galaxy are not among the "pig teammates".

Just from the number of armed forces and the weapons and equipment they are equipped with, you can see how elite they are.

You could say that the Federation Expeditionary Force Command was arrogant and somewhat contemptuous of the armed forces of the colonial galaxies.

But that doesn't mean they are a group of idiots who can't tell right from wrong.

A professional in the military field within the federal government who is highly expected by the new interstellar marshal.

Any senior expeditionary officer who has seen the Thraide Galaxy Armed Forces with his own eyes would not equate them with those "colonial cannon fodder" who are there to make up the numbers.

So it was natural that the legion sent by the Collins family, named "Atonement Army", was allowed by the federal government to go to the secondary strategic planet: Planet P, and station there.

Although it is unclear why the armed forces of the Thraide system are called the "Atonement Army".

But Carl of the Psychic Strategy Force had no time to pay attention to this insignificant naming issue.

In the eyes of expeditionary commanders, all ground combat forces are consumables and cheap cannon fodder.

Regardless of whether the combat effectiveness of this "Atonement Army" is as glorious as its appearance.

A number of up to 120,000 is enough to attract the attention of the Zerg forces.

As for whether his old classmate can safely evacuate from the Zerg encirclement, it all depends on God's will.

The one in charge of leading the "Atonement Army" is Knight Commander Siegel of the Iron Knights Interstellar Legion.

Born into a pure cowboy family in Texas, North America, Knight Commander Siegel has the most "pure" bloodline in the US branch.

They have always been trained as the most important group of direct successors.

Being sent to lead the "Atonement Army" is enough to show how much importance the US branch attaches to this expedition.

Not only Knight Commander Siegel, but other middle-level and grassroots officers also feel a great sense of responsibility.

After arriving at the garrison point, the engineering corps of the "Atonement Army" began to frantically build a cluster of fortifications.

We must immediately seek to avoid the predicament caused by being surrounded.

However, the fortification cluster had just begun to be built when a series of frantic calls for help from the Whiskey Military Outpost began.

"The 'Hard Man Group' encountered an ambush, and it is estimated that there are tens of thousands of bugs launching a fierce attack on us.

Request support from surrounding friendly units!

Repeat, the 'Tough Guys' encountered a massive Zerg attack at the Whiskey Outpost.

Requesting support from surrounding friendly units..."

The sound of gunfire was heard in the background of the call for help.

The signalman was almost shouting at the top of his lungs for support.

This is enough to show the urgency of the situation of the "Tough Guy Group".

"What did the expeditionary force headquarters say?"

Knight Commander Siegel frowned and looked at the troop deployment data on the tactical tablet.

Although the "Tough Guy Regiment" is listed as an elite unit of the Mobile Infantry Regiment, it only has a few hundred people.

Faced with a swarm of insects that is dozens of times more powerful than them, direct resistance is absolutely a pipe dream.

"The expeditionary force air command claims that there is no air support available in the nearby airspace.

After three hours and forty minutes, perhaps we can mobilize transport planes to assist the 'Hard Man Group' in evacuating..."

“Three hours?
Why didn’t they wait three days?!”

With equal numbers, the federal troops were no match for the Zerg on the front battlefield.

What’s more, the “Tough Guy Group” is now under siege by a swarm of insects that is dozens of times their size.

The rescue that the Air Force Department talked about was just empty talk.

"The expeditionary force headquarters, including the P-star frontline headquarters, did not give us any direct orders.

According to the military regulations of the expeditionary force, when an attacked unit calls for rescue, the nearest friendly forces in the surrounding area are obliged to provide support.

No one told us to go to the rescue, but no one stopped us from going either.”

This situation where there are no clear instructions and the front-line troops have to rely entirely on their subjective initiative is very common after the "Clandaff Rout".

If the rescue fails, the higher authorities who ordered the rescue need to bear the responsibility.

To avoid responsibility, front-line troops were allowed to make their own decisions.

Once the "Tough Guy Group" is surrounded and destroyed by the Zerg, the "Atonement Army", as the nearest friendly force, may be held accountable if they do not go to support them.

If we go to provide support and end up suffering heavy losses, we will most likely be held accountable.

If the rescue is successful, the higher authorities will give rewards.

The main idea is "I won't get involved if there's work to do, but I'll take advantage of it if there's any work to do."

Without much hesitation, Knight Commander Siegel finally decided to lead his troops to rescue.

Staying where they are will definitely lead to failure, and only a successful rescue can be considered a win. More importantly, the "Atonement Army" also needs a tough battle to prove themselves.

Leave 20,000 indigenous troops to continue building the fortification cluster.

The remaining 100,000 troops, assisted by highly mechanized military vehicles, quickly rushed towards the Whiskey Outpost dozens of kilometers away.

Half an hour later, the "Atonement Army" finally saw the insect swarm mentioned in the rescue intelligence.

“Damn it, there are more than ten thousand bugs here?

At least thirty to fifty thousand!

Are those guys in the 'Hard-Bond Group' just muscles in their brains?

It’s impossible to even estimate the number of insect swarms!”

Listening to the complaints of his elite knights, Knight Commander Siegel also looked towards the black swarm of insects covering the mountains in the distance.

The surface of Planet P is mostly reddish-brown rock and soil.

The yellow and black Arachi war bugs are quite conspicuous on the surface.

Tens of thousands of war bugs piled together were so densely packed that they were extremely creepy.

No one can tell whether the signalman of the "Tough Guy Regiment" deliberately reported the wrong number of insect swarms.

After all, with tens of thousands of war bugs in the swarm, even the main force of the federal government's army of more than 100,000 people was defeated and fled in actual combat.

In a small-scale "human-insect encounter", humans still have the opportunity to achieve a two-to-one or even a one-to-one exchange ratio.

But the larger the scale of the battle, the greater the number of insect swarms.

The advantages of insects will become more and more obvious.

Tens of thousands of insects obeyed the orders of the same superior intelligent insect race and launched a charge without fear of life or death.

Even with heavy firepower and air support, as long as the insect swarm attacks the mobile infantry regiment, the battle will end in the defeat of the mobile infantry regiment.

Countless cases have proven how terrifying insects are in ground combat, especially in close combat.

Therefore, it is understandable that the "Hard Man Group" deliberately downplayed the scale of the insect swarm.

Because any expeditionary commander with a normal mind would not order a charge against tens of thousands of insects just for a few hundred friendly troops.

But Knight Commander Siegel had no time to worry about such trivial matters as whether to conceal the information.

The insect swarm in the distance has discovered the "Atonement Army" troops coming to support.

Above the Zerg swarm, the Zerg air force consisting of "Jumpers" and "Rippers" are turning around and rushing towards the "Atonement Army".

Turn around and evacuate now? Perhaps there is a chance to escape successfully at the cost of some casualties.

But this thought only lingered in Knight Commander Siegel's mind for a second before being eliminated.

Whether it is the Iron Knights Star Corps or the "Atonement Army".

Whether it is the battlefield of the coalition government or the battlefield of the federal government's expeditionary force.

Fleeing without fighting would never appear in Knight Commander Siegel's life dictionary.

What's more, the insect swarm on the opposite side was far from enough to make him despair.

In the short period of time when the insect swarm rushed towards the "Atonement Army".

Knight Commander Siegel put on his heavy power armor helmet and raised the melta blade in his hand high.

Soaring to a height of one hundred meters, the golden color of his helmet identified his identity as the knight commander.

Needless to say, the raised sword has already made his attitude clear to the "Atonement Army" soldiers below.

The next moment, under the guidance of countless Iron Knights Interstellar Legion soldiers who served as grassroots officers, the "Atonement Army" formed a fan-shaped battle cluster, ready to meet the head-on attack of the Zerg swarm.

According to the combat mode of the interstellar legion and the joint government forces, before the large-scale battle, the aerospace forces and long-range strike forces will take the lead in launching fire coverage on the enemy's military clusters to weaken the enemy's manpower.

But obviously, the expeditionary air force on Planet P will not cooperate with a colonial galaxy armed force to fight.

The colonial forces were not eligible to call for air fire support.

Fortunately, the coalition government never placed its hopes on the expeditionary force.

The conscripted troops reported by the Thraide Galaxy are not just 120,000 infantry soldiers and their individual equipment.

There are also a large number of firepower strike equipment and military vehicles.

The first batch of "jumpers" were like "Flying Mantises", lowering their altitude and diving in an attempt to attack the tight formation of the "Atonement Army".

The "Ripper" cluster followed closely behind, with long-range corrosive insect sting attacks ready.

Once the "jumper" cluster disrupts the human army's formation, long-range attacks from the air will further disrupt the human army's command.

What followed was a mass charge launched by tens of thousands of war bugs.

Almost all large-scale ground battles of the Expeditionary Force's Mobile Infantry Regiment were defeated by this Zerg attack mode.

But this time, the swooping "jumper" cluster was not facing the Federal mobile infantry who were trembling with fear at the "death buzzer".

"Buzz buzz~"

A series of "beeping" sounds far more violent than those of the "jumper" cluster rang out.

More than 200 anti-aircraft armored vehicles equipped with close-in machine guns began to enter combat status.

This close-in defense weapon, which originated from the first generation of space battleships, was disliked by officers of the United Government's Aerospace Force, who believed that these machine guns with a caliber of only 20 mm and using chemical gunpowder ammunition were simply useless.

But after the "naval gun went ashore", it was installed on a mobile armored vehicle and received unanimous praise from the officers of the United Government Army.

The equipment carried by the "Atonement Army" has been strictly selected. While maintaining strong combat effectiveness, it cannot expose the military and technological strength of the coalition government.

The military equipment carried needs to be kept at the same level as the federal government's military as much as possible.

"Gunship Landing" fits this condition perfectly.

The full load of ammunition for each close-in weapon system and anti-aircraft firepower armored vehicle can only support their continuous firing for less than one minute.

But for the "jumper", every 20mm caliber machine gun round is an unbearable burden on life.

Whenever the "Jumper" is hit by a machine gun shell, the area around the hit part will explode instantly.

The huge impact force of chemical gunpowder can immediately make a "jumper" lose its combat effectiveness.

The charge speed of 100 kilometers per hour is indeed fast enough, but for the close-in defense machine guns designed to deal with supersonic cruise missiles, it feels a bit like "using a cannon to kill a mosquito."

With the support of artificial intelligence, each close-in machine gun anti-aircraft firepower armored vehicle can wipe out more than a dozen "jumpers" that come in a group with a "burst fire" of 0.2 seconds or 0.4 seconds.

A "continuous shooting" lasting up to 1 second can form a "fire wall" in the air to deal with those "Rippers" with higher defenses.

Faced with the human army's tried and tested pre-war air strikes, the Zerg forces were unable to cause the slightest disturbance under the countermeasures of anti-aircraft machine gun firepower and armored clusters, and the battle ended in disgrace.

There is no time to mourn for the Zerg Air Force, as the next to appear is the charging army of war Zerg.

What greeted them was a tactical nuclear howitzer equipped with rocket-assisted tail fins.

This heavy firepower unit, which appears to be technologically backward but is actually not advanced at all, was completely abandoned as early as the United Government entered the era of plane wars.

But it was unexpectedly applicable when used on the battlefield of the expeditionary force.

Inherited from the Soviet-era weapons of the source plane, they never consider "surgical precision strikes" but emphasize "great force to make bricks fly and full firepower."

With one shot, all insects within a 250-meter radius with the impact point as the center were swallowed up by the instantaneous shock wave and light radiation. Insects within tens of meters from the center were even vaporized and disappeared.

The aftermath of the explosion can cause destructive lacerations to insects within 550 meters, and in serious cases, they can die directly on the spot.

Hundreds of small mushroom clouds slowly rose above the battlefield.

The surrounded "tough guy group" felt a violent shaking under their feet like an earthquake.

Even the P planet front-line command observed the fighting from military observation satellites.

Looking at the series of small mushroom clouds slowly rising on the screen, the officers at the front-line command looked at each other in bewilderment.

The expeditionary force's psychic strategy force, which was responsible for formulating the "Bait Plan", was also closely watching the fighting around Whiskey Outpost.

Knight Commander Siegel didn't know that there were so many eyes in the sky watching them.

He only knew that it was time to fight the opposing swarm of insects.

More than 1,500 warriors of the Iron Knights Interstellar Legion formed hundreds of combat clusters with them as the core of the battle.

Soldiers of the United Government Army and elite indigenous troops gathered around them and launched a counterattack against the insect swarm that had just been bombarded.

The Space Marines, dressed in heavy power armor, were like gods descending from heaven, with bolters in their left hands and melta axes, chainswords and other cold weapons in their right hands. They faced the tall war bugs head-on without fear.

While attracting the attention of the war bugs, the soldiers of the United Government Army and the indigenous forces in the rear were also frantically pulling the triggers, firing heavy firepower such as individual fuel-air bombs, automatic shotguns, and micro rocket launchers at the bugs.

They are wearing the "Delta Series Anti-Stab Power Armor" specially designed to deal with war bugs, which can greatly weaken the fatal injuries and improve the battlefield tolerance rate.

The physical fitness of the "Atonement Army" soldiers is far superior to that of the soldiers of the Earth Federation Government, which means that the upper limit of the battlefield injuries they can sustain and the upper limit of the number of heavy firepower weapons they can carry are far greater.

Led by members of the Iron Knights Interstellar Corps who were as powerful as "supermen on the battlefield", the "Atonement Army" faced the insect tide and gradually pushed the battle line back.

(End of this chapter)