What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 535 Naval Gun Barrage
Charles was still shocked when the anti-aircraft tower opened fire again. He angrily wanted to question the Air Force about where the bombs were being dropped when his walkie-talkie was suddenly flooded with SOS calls from various squads:
"This is Ryan's team... We've been ambushed! (Explosions) It's grenades and machine guns (sound of a 37mm machine gun firing). The enemy has laid an ambush! They've laid an ambush!"

"Dennis's squad is calling for help! A shell from 265 degrees has wounded half of them, I need—"

"Four streams of fire have appeared at direction 70; Hans is launching a counterattack!"

"..."

Amidst the chaos, Charles quickly pieced together the key information:
-
Portable infantry firepower, rifle grenades are easy to carry, and machine guns... sneaking them out of the fortress isn't difficult, especially considering the possibility of tunnels.
The counterattack covered a wide area, resulting in the squad being attacked from all sides.

Without air support or ground armored assault forces, the only options for dealing with the melee are to either send reinforcements to provide cover or wait for the trapped team members to escape on their own.

After a brief moment of consideration, Charles ultimately chose the second option.

In the pitch-black night, who knows where Hans might appear? The relatively concentrated outposts only had a little over 600 people left, half of whom were combat personnel. Going there would be suicide.

Not only should they not attack, but the surrounding air defense positions should also be strengthened to prevent mosquito attacks!
Thinking of this, Charles looked up and saw the fierce battle in the air. Anti-aircraft guns from more than half a century ago were proving their power. Although fighter jets could easily evade the shells with a push of afterburner, the decisive moment in air combat only took a few seconds.

As the low-flying aircraft scattered and fled in panic, the original 11 F-16s were reduced to only 5. A lone F-15E was also shot down because it reacted too slowly and was targeted by two machine guns.

Six fighter jets crashed in quick succession within half a minute. In particular, four of the F6s that lost six aircraft were shot down along with the Gnats they were fighting.

……

Brigadier General Guy Gadra was also caught off guard on an EC130H electronic warfare aircraft more than 100 kilometers away.

Ten seconds ago, the pilots were reporting that all the bombs had hit their targets and confirming the results. The next thing they heard was the cries for help from the pilots—and there were more than one.

Within a minute, several pilots shouted words like "They're crazy," "This is moral destruction," and "Mom!" before crashing their planes. Only then did he realize that these fighter jets had been destroyed by anti-aircraft guns!
"This is impossible!"

Guy was the frontline commander sent by Fern this time, and with his intelligence background, the thing he did most before launching the operation was to confirm the aerial photographs.

The air defense towers in Zone C2 still use the outdated and primitive FLAK40 128mm twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns, which require 13 people to operate.

Even if those open-air, unprotected anti-aircraft guns weren't blown to pieces, the gunners should have been killed by the shockwave, right?
How long after the bombing ended could they reorganize and launch a counterattack?
"All fighters must retreat immediately; the mission is no longer necessary!"

Guy decisively gave the order that there was no point in lingering if the bunker couldn't be destroyed, and the reason could only be determined through further investigation.

However, the pilots at the front lines also had to be wary of the swarms of gnats flying out of the anti-aircraft towers, so they had to call for reinforcements on the ground.
"Intercept those gnats, we're out of ammunition! Repeat, intercept those little devils!"

……

Although he knew that the withdrawal of the air force would put more than a thousand ground troops in danger, Charles still ordered the already deployed air defenses to fire at full force without hesitation.

The old air defense equipment withdrawn from the National Guard was indeed effective. The gnats, which only catapulted four per minute, would be attacked by the air defense system as soon as they appeared, and the frequency of their appearance quickly dropped to five minutes.

Most of the forward squads had also retreated. Charles had given them another order to assemble as quickly as possible, and after the wounded were assigned, they were to be transferred with everyone else.

He set a time limit of 2 hours, but secretly hoped to finish within 1 hours.

Based on the experience of the previous 120 gnats air raid, it would take at least 2 hours for the aircraft to come from the air force base deeper in the rainforest, since the range of fighter jets can only be completed by cruising speed, and they cannot fly far at high speed due to fuel consumption.

As long as you hide inside the city of Karakara, the destructive power of the mosquitoes will be very limited.

……

Northwest of Caracalla, 34 kilometers from Charles's residence. A T6 drone wandered around for a while before finally finding a basin-like swamp surrounded by mountains. The nearby tributaries and roads were far away, making it an absolutely uninhabited area.

Tang Wen, completely covered up and wearing a biohazard suit, appeared suspended from a helicopter. Just a second before landing on the soft, wet ground, the surroundings instantly changed, and a rudimentary port was set up.

[Silver Coin-1000]

Stepping onto the cement ground, Tang Wen finally felt a little more at ease.

Although wearing the biohazard suits salvaged from the Navy was hot and uncomfortable, at least we didn't have to worry about various diseases and mosquitoes.

The next second, a battleship suddenly appeared in the stagnant dock. By the light of the primary port, the golden superstructure and snow-white hull could be clearly seen.

BB64, USS Wisconsin.

It wasn't the ship that the Empire sank in the war, but the Wisconsin that Tang Wen pulled out of the box.

Tang Wen appeared on the bridge, and Halsey also appeared and was appointed as the captain.

He then spent another 300 million silver coins to purchase the "Artillery Aiming Modification Type 2" consumable:

[Artillery Aiming Modification Type 2: Main Gun Spread -11%]

The maximum deviation of the main gun has decreased to 217 meters.

While the Maruns were fleeing in panic, no one paid any attention to the fact that a large number of T6 and T4 drones had been deployed to pinpoint the precise coordinates of their various positions.

At this moment, on Tang Wen's battle map, marked locations lit up one by one. One of them was the brightest, which was the main location where Charles was stationed. It was protected by a ring of air defense positions and was adjacent to a road and a river, making it easy to escape.

Tang Wen, inside the bridge, couldn't wait to take off his hat and gas mask, and then decisively issued the order:

"Execute artillery fire in sequence according to the size of the positions, for a duration of... 15 minutes."

"Yes!"

Halsey snapped to attention and saluted, then the Wisconsin's three turrets rotated to face south, the gun barrels raised to almost their limit.

boom!
Nine 406mm cannons fired simultaneously, and the expanding air masses from the cannon barrels directly knocked down a small patch of trees in front of them.

At a distance of 35 kilometers, a shell would take about 70 seconds to fly before landing, while the USS Wisconsin's reload time was 30 seconds per round. By the time the third round of shells left the breech, the first round of shells had not yet landed.

With the help of maps provided by drones, the positioning of naval guns can be so precise that it is terrifying, especially for static firing.

Tang Wen set a 15-minute time limit for safety; once the time was up, the port would be dismantled and the port moved.

This period of time was enough to fire 270 406mm shells, meaning that on average, one shell would be allocated to every five Marines.

Tang Wen started timing himself after the shells were fired. He had been keeping a close eye on the personnel changes at the Prism Building. A few days ago, he had seen the news that "General Charles arrived in Santa Rehn to offer his condolences," but he didn't know if the general himself was there.

If it were here, it would be the empire's most devastating loss.

"If you are here, please accept my farewell, General Charles."

(End of this chapter)