Heijian Star, Capital Pansel City of the Luman Kingdom, and the residents in the suburbs were both terrified and bewildered.
The terror stemmed from the war; even though neither side deliberately targeted civilians and even took measures to protect them. This included the Alliance Army from another planet that, after occupying the suburban towns, only took control of strategic areas, imposed military restrictions on the entire town, but did not harm civilians.
However, war itself is the most destructive force, no matter from which angle you see it. Guns and cannons are blind, and the incidental damage leading to civilian deaths was beyond anyone’s control.
It was only natural for civilians to be afraid.
As for the bewilderment, it was also easy to understand: just a couple of days ago, everyone was busily preparing to celebrate the holiday with bright lights and decorations, and the arrival of the Gu Family for their grand meeting was always a time of joy.
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The last time they had come to the Luman Kingdom was over thirty years ago, and in the memories of some of the elderly, it was a beautiful time.
How could it suddenly turn into war just like that?
And no matter how much they couldn’t comprehend, war had broken out in a way that was unstoppable by the will of the people.
They could only meet it all with a sense of terror and helplessness.
Peasants on the hillside gazed at the battlefield set up in the plains below them.
Two armies clashed on the field. Terrifying war machines rolled over their farmland.
One of them belonged to the traditional army of the Luman Kingdom. Two Knight Titans led over eighty Sentinel Mechas and twenty thousand infantrymen, advancing in formation.
The Luamn infantrymen, in simple cloth uniforms and almost no protection, were ironically at the very front.
They were ill-equipped but plentiful in number, essentially seen as cannon fodder.
Of course, even cannon fodder had its value; even in death, it shouldn’t be in vain.
They maintained a relatively loose formation based on their training and could barely form small combat squads. This was mainly to avoid being wiped out in one fell swoop by a single artillery shell or a burst of machine-gun fire.
The rifles handed out to them came with not too much ammunition. The fact was, the survival time of these cannon fodder infantrymen on the battleground wasn’t expected to be long, and allocating too much ammunition would be wasteful. Their task was to charge, draw fire, and try to deplete their ammo before dying—which would be considered as completing their mission.
The Sentinel Mechas accompanying them were the main force. These machines, just over three meters tall, with twin-barreled miniguns, had enough firepower. They couldn’t penetrate Lion Tanks, but the armor of Strider Armored Vehicles couldn’t withstand the fierce barrage of the miniguns. Often, a few mechas could destroy an armored vehicle with a concentrated volley.
The two more powerful Knight Titans were outright behemoths of destruction. At the start of the battle, they had already destroyed three Lion Tanks.
Yet, even after heavily striking the Alliance Army, Count Drex, piloting one of the Knight Titans, still had a tense expression.
From his many years of war experience, the enemy had encountered their superior firepower head-on, sustaining such heavy casualties that their strongest warfare weapons, the Lion Tanks, had lost almost 20%. Logically, their morale should have been affected.
But why was there no sign of faltering among these soldiers from another planet?
Never mind the tanks and armored vehicles. In Count Drex’s view, those manning powerful weaponry were generally elite, possessed higher morale, and were not easily shaken—that was somewhat understandable; but what about the infantrymen who were initially transported by trucks or infantry fighting vehicles and were now all alighting to fight on foot? Weren’t they supposed to be cannon fodder as well?
Why hadn’t they faltered even once?
On the contrary, what surprised Count Drex the most was the performance of these infantrymen in the Alliance Army.
There were merely about two thousand of them, but facing an enemy ten times their number, they didn’t show the slightest hint of fear. They didn’t cower behind armored vehicles or tanks; instead, they bravely moved forward, using their rifles with far greater accuracy than the Luman infantrymen to eliminate their attackers.
They operated effectively in squad formations, and their modified machine guns powerfully suppressed the advancement of the Luman infantry.
Wherever the machine guns swept over, the Luman infantrymen had to stop. Either they were shot down directly, or they had to seek cover on the ground and wait for an opportunity to counterattack—but often, there was no opportunity.
The only thing that could pause the firepower of these Alliance soldiers for a moment were the Sentinel Mechas themselves.
The ‘Knights’ were not so easily defeated by bullets; on the contrary, when they detected the source of the Alliance soldiers’ firepower, they would often direct their miniguns there.
The Alliance soldiers had extraordinary courage, but in the end, they were still flesh and blood. A volley of minigun fire could wipe out half a squad in an instant.
But… there were only eighty Sentinel Mechas after all.
Moreover, these infantrymen were not entirely without means to counter the Sentinel Mechas.
On the contrary, having realized that the Luman infantrymen were quite fragile and posed little threat, these soldiers began targeting the ‘Knights.’ Squad-level fire, riddling with machine guns, rang against the surface armor of the Sentinel Mechas like hammering metal.
They might not penetrate the armor, but under the assault of several machine guns, the Sentinel Mechas would still stagger, with their advance speed hindered.
