Chapter 196: Chapter 150, The Death Iron Can
The private of the 3rd Infantry Corps, Aéro Rakrosha, had never even in his wildest dreams imagined such a horrific scene unfolding before him.
It could only be described as cataclysmic!
The lowly soldier had no idea about any orbit-strike plans from higher-ups, he only knew that a meteor shower had streaked across the sky and struck the Core Area of the High Tower Ruins in the distance, followed by the earth shattering!
Not to mention the scorching wind that blew, the shockwave, the massive noise… at the very least, just the things he saw with his eyes were enough to astonish him.
It was as if two large, and many small suns had risen from deep within the ruins of the high tower. Then, the High Tower Ruins he had grown so familiar with over the past few years had changed beyond recognition.
Despite being ruins, there were still ‘landmark buildings.’ Many of the city’s skyscrapers had collapsed, but a considerable number remained in place. The high-rise buildings erected by pre-war technology were meant to stand for centuries, and rightly so. No matter how derelict they looked, they simply would not fall. Many battles around these tall structures of the pre-war era, all those bullets and artillery fire, had not managed to bring them down.
Even a 155mm howitzer, hitting those standing buildings, would only scrape off some surface or further scramble the already haphazard structure inside, but a complete collapse had never happened.
But this massive bombardment from the sky not only achieved that, it went ‘overboard.’
Not only the pre-war skyscraper ruins had collapsed, but in the central area, there were no longer any forests of high buildings to be seen. From Lacroix’s viewpoint looking into the depths of the ruins, it was as if some monster had bitten off a huge chunk of the steel jungle, leaving a vast absence.
Before he could recover from the shock, a continuous whistling sound came from overhead.
He was familiar with the sound, having heard it often over the past month.
But he had never heard it this densely.
Before he had time to think further, the command of the platoon leader was passed down level by level, the squad leader ordered to move out, and he quickly gathered his thoughts to follow the troops.
As he advanced toward the front lines, he felt his body heat up. He couldn’t tell if it was due to the rapid marching or the excitement bubbling up from the bottom of his heart.
Continuous booming explosions came from the direction he was heading towards. That was the sound of artillery bombardment falling on the Green Skin Orcs’ positions.
During the advance, he was still nervous, fearing that an artillery shell might come hurling in or a Green Skin armed pickup might appear. These things had been their nightmare for some time.
But none of that happened.
When he and his comrades arrived a mere hundred or two hundred meters away from the Green Skin Orcs’ positions, he clearly understood why there had been no resistance on the way:
The Green Skins had been blown away, what strength did they have left to stop them? Those artillery pieces, those armed pickups, had probably been blown to bits long ago.
He only waited there for five or six minutes, but he had already seen hundreds of shells smash into the positions in front of them.
The intense bombardment made his head numb.
To be honest, Lacroix was still quite fearful at this position.
If those shells deviated slightly, they would land right on their heads; even if they did not hit, being only a hundred or two hundred meters away, he could still clearly feel the power of the explosion.
Even the officers kept tirelessly warning the soldiers below to not let their chests and abdomens touch the ground while lying in wait, and though it might be uncomfortable, to prop up their bodies. This was to avoid the shock wave coming from the ground, which could damage their internal organs.
They stood by in this position for seven minutes. According to the squad leader, they had arrived a bit earlier than the scheduled time. Lacroix didn’t understand these details since he didn’t even have a watch.
He only knew that now the time had come, it was time to charge.
He was still a bit afraid.
It wasn’t fear of the Green Skins, for how many would be left alive after such a bombardment? Even if a good number survived, it was just a matter of shooting it out; he had a gun, and if they got too close, he’d fix bayonets and fight it out.
What he feared was the artillerymen behind him having a shaky hand, which would mean his end.
But he charged anyway. Crossing the two hundred meters, they broke into the Green Skins’ positions and quickly sought out all potential defensive points where Green Skins might exist.
Intermittent resistance gunfire emanated.
Clearly, not all of the Green Skins were dead.
In the collapsed houses, in the narrow holes formed by toppled multilayered reinforced concrete, there still lurked some Green Skin Orcs who had survived the artillery strike.
As the human soldiers mounted their attack, they emerged from various places, howling as they counter-charged.
But their numbers were too few.
In front of Lacroix, three appeared. He and his comrades began shooting immediately. The squads in his platoon were not far apart, over thirty guns aimed at these three Green Skins, showering them with concentrated fire.
The Green Skins fired back, but they only managed to get off two shots each before they were hit by nearly a hundred bullets and killed. As for their last stand, they merely managed to break a soldier’s leg.