What is security for?
To prevent assassinations, prevent riots, protect one’s master… They might have better training than the military, better equipment, and are more professional in some missions to protect VIPs. However, when the situation escalates into large-scale warfare, differences in specialization, training methods, and weaponry become a vulnerability.
Security forces lack heavy firepower and anti-armor capabilities. Facing artillery, they struggle to counter; against the so-called Knight Order, those Sentry Mecha paired with two Ranger class Knight Titans charging at them, they are at an overall disadvantage.
Their numbers are far fewer than the opposing side. Under the onslaught of the enemy’s vast expendable troops and withstanding artillery barrage, as well as targeted assaults by Knight Titans leading numerous Sentry Mecha, the defense line of Gu’s Security was continuously compressed and breached.
The situation quickly became perilous.
At this point, Wang Qi made a decision that she later regretted as possibly being a mistake: to hold their position.
She hoped they could hold out until the Rage Owl Star Legion from the town outside the city came to their rescue; moreover, they had contacted the Chamber of Commerce Fleet in the sky to provide orbital support, deploy landing shuttles, and evacuate people from the air.
But soon, bad news arrived from all sides.
The Rage Owl Star Legion troops in the suburban town were also ambushed and were currently engaged in fierce combat;
The Chamber of Commerce Fleet in the space surrounding the planet had a rebellion. Among the eight fleets under Wang Qi’s control, there were degrees of unrest, both large and small, within each fleet. The four fleets directly under her control were manageable, but the other four, belonging to allied nature, had bigger problems.
Moreover, the four armed merchant fleets under the control of Gu Ming were also threatening nearby, preventing them from taking control of the planet’s orbit.
Worth mentioning is that Heijian Star was not a place utterly devoid of anti-air capabilities. Going elsewhere might pose considerable problems, but in Pincer City, where conflicts had erupted, there was an expensive orbital defense system imported by the Luman Kingdom.
Unable to control the orbit for accurate orbital strikes, the few shuttles they forcefully dispatched, even if they passed the interference and interdiction from Gu Ming’s ships, would get locked on by Pincer City’s orbital defense system as they entered the atmosphere and then be annihilated in the sky.
Reinforcements couldn’t arrive, aerial evacuation was impossible, the Luman Kingdom’s Knight Order was making rapid advances, and their defenses were shattered… At this point, Wang Qi realized that holding out was impossible, and they needed to break through.
However, it was somewhat late to prepare for a breakout at this juncture.
Even as they decided to break through, three Sentry Mecha as vanguards blasted open the gates and rushed into the banquet hall!
Everything became incredibly chaotic.
The three Sentry Mecha were eventually taken down, but how exactly they were finished off, Wang Qi wasn’t clear. She only remembered, as she was fleeing with her bodyguard, the last glimpse she caught showed three wrecks.
But the breakout was still not smooth, they were intercepted and attacked multiple times, and her bodyguards were sacrificed one by one. When they were almost at a dead end, when she was forced to use her last resort to survive, Lacroix, leading dozens of the 10th Special Warfare Brigade soldiers, arrived in the nick of time.
About five hundred men from the 10th Special Warfare Brigade were deployed and joined the Expeditionary Force. Their main force, along with the Legion, was in the town outside Pincer City. Only the fifty most elite, led by Lacroix, formed a team and entered Wang Qi’s close protection unit.
But from the beginning until the end, their role was not significant. They were more present as a communication channel between the security forces and the main Rage Owl Star forces in the suburbs.
Fundamentally, they were ‘outsiders,’ and followed a different path than the security team; on one hand, they were somewhat excluded as they were not subordinate to each other, and on the other, the special operatives like Lacroix were essentially soldiers, with protecting VIPs not being their specialty.
But now, it was war. Read exclusive adventures at empire
This fell within their area of expertise.
Lacroix and his men wiped out the enemy forces entangling Wang Qi and then continued to protect her as they headed out of the city.
Throughout this process, the enemy numbers were consistently substantial.
They sacrificed one comrade after another, forcibly dividing their forces to distract the enemy’s attention and manage to get through the ordeal time and time again.
Until now, Lacroix, taking her with him, had reached the edge of the city. In an abandoned alleyway where they rested and briefly debated, Wang Qi, still not entirely safe herself, was thinking about how to rescue the leaders of the Chamber of Commerce Fleet whose fate was unknown.
As a result, not only did Lacroix completely reject her request, but they also encountered trouble again.
Appearing outside the alley was a ‘Kingdom Knight,’ a Sentry Mecha.
Wang Qi was ready to assist at any moment.
In her view, this young man named Lacroix, although skilled, was now alone. How could he contend with a steel machine?
Not to mention, there were seven fully armed soldiers beside the Sentry Mecha.
During their previous breakout and escape journey, they had encountered Sentry Mecha as well. When faced with such situations, they would avoid them if possible; if not, they would typically divide their forces, letting another squad draw the target away, and then evacuate.