Gu Hang and Wang Qi, this mother and son duo, discussed post-war plans in their conversation. No matter how much they disagreed or how worried Wang Qi was about her son’s plans, there was one point they never talked about but took for granted as the premise for everything:
Gu Ming and Nes Luman were as good as dead.
The reason they took this for granted was because neither of them saw it as an issue, but as a certainty.
And reality proved that they were not being blindly arrogant.
After the Phoenix Battle Group and the Allied Air Force executed a beautiful surprise attack, destroying a Knight Titan, the Luman Legion besieging the suburban town collapsed.
It was also fortunate that the Phoenix did not have complete intelligence during the assault, unaware that Gu Ming and Nes Luman were right beside the Knight Titan they destroyed, allowing the two to escape. Otherwise, with the capabilities of the Phoenix, they could have easily slaughtered them on the spot.
But they could only run temporarily, not forever. Read latest stories on empire
In the following days, several events transpired that symbolized the dissolution and collapse of their alliance.
Moreover, these events happened quickly.
First, the last Knight Titan in the Luman Kingdom’s army was destroyed.
After the defeat at the suburban town battlefield, as the main forces of the Allied reinforcements had yet to arrive, the Luman military was trying hard to regroup and retreat towards Pincer City.
However, at this time, a battalion of the 1st Extinguishing Wind Brigade as the vanguard and the first troops to disembark from the landing ships was already speeding toward the battlefield.
The sight of the reassembled Luman Army’s main force did intimidate this battalion.
Although they had over a thousand troops, with nine Lion Tanks and over fifty various types of combat vehicles, attacking the enemy’s tens of thousands of troops, especially given the presence of over a hundred scout Mechas and a Knight Titan in the enemy forces, was indeed difficult; if they charged in, they might not come back.
After much deliberation, the battalion commander, a major, decided to play it safe.
He instructed his troops to merely follow at a distance and monitor movements.
In fact, the major was very tense inside.
His battalion was too small in number, and being an armored mobile force, they couldn’t dig any temporary lines of defense while keeping up with the enemy. If the enemy were to counterattack head-on, it would be a serious problem.
Especially if the Knight Titan began to move, that would be truly nerve-wracking.
However, he quickly realized he had worried too much.
The enemy’s reaction was much more panicked than his own.
When his armored troops appeared, the enemy was like startled birds, jumping into action.
Through his military binoculars and the reports from his reconnaissance soldiers, he could see the enemy troops become utterly disorganized. The Knight Titan he had dreaded even sped up and moved away from them.
This was absurd to the major.
Forget his single battalion; the cost of that Knight Titan was far more than his entire brigade combined.
Yet, when the Titan noticed the presence of his battalion nearby, with plenty of other troops around, its first reaction was to accelerate away?
Amidst his disbelief at the absurdity, a bold new idea popped into his mind:
Why not go for it?
The Luman Army was like a toothless tiger.
It was as if their backbone had been broken.
However, he was still rational and did not let the tempting thought directly sway him.
But soon, another event catalyzed his idea and made up his mind: the stellar warriors and the Allied Air Force arrived.
Military communications came straight into his command vehicle, and after a brief exchange, he made his decision.
Oh, he didn’t need to make the decision now. In the Allied military hierarchy, Commander Matins of the Phoenix Battalion had very high authority. According to Allied military regulations, he was required to follow the battalion leader’s command on the battlefield unless the leader’s orders absolutely contradicted the mission he was carrying out, in which case he needed to seek higher clearance.
Now, Commander Matins simply wanted his surveillance troop to launch an attack and distract the enemy’s attention, which didn’t create a conflict with his tasks.
The only thing of concern was casualties.
But this was an absolute order for battle; where did concerns about casualties come in?
The battalion quickly prepared for combat and launched an attack.
They were already in a state of combat readiness, not requiring any additional preparation, and could start fighting at the command.
And the outcome of the battle…
As expected, the Luman People had no will to fight and were easily scattered like rats by the iron tide, fleeing in all directions.
This was a crushing defeat; the actual number of casualties was not significant, as a single battalion couldn’t really set up encirclements or execute annihilation tactics.
However, their assault achieved its real effect.
The Luman People, whose morale had already collapsed after the defeat at the suburban town, managed to barely reassemble, only to show signs of collapsing again at this attack.