“`
They were all still in shock when, in a flash, each of them was ‘splashed’ with more than twenty armor-piercing bombs.
The entire army was annihilated.
Immediately after, the sound of thermite bomb explosions echoed from two fortifications that housed Knight Titans.
Without a doubt, Knight Titans with no pilots and energy shields deactivated, once rigged with four or five thermite bombs and detonated simultaneously, stood no chance of being repaired and were utterly destroyed.
The mission of the Phoenix Battle Group had been thoroughly accomplished.
The entire process had taken less than six minutes.
Matins’s expression bore not a hint of pride or anything of the sort.
Just basic operations.
“Spiritual Energy transportation, right into the enemy’s face, and then slaying them all with a blade—what’s so difficult about that?”
Not at all difficult.
The only thing that might be considered somewhat difficult was how to retreat safely and unharmed.
After all, they were now deep in enemy territory.
Surrounding them were hundreds of thousands of Stefano Kingdom’s troops.
Not to say that they were invincible just because they were Interstellar Warriors wearing powered armor.
That was not the case.
Based on Matins’s past experience, if they made any mistakes or were the least bit careless in their following actions, there could still be consequences.
Heavy artillery, excessive gunfire, bombs… these things could all pose a threat to them.
But the good news was that the enemy’s setup here had been completely shattered.
In the face of the sudden, monstrous losses, and with the Knight Titans destroyed, the ordinary soldiers had no will to fight amidst the chaos.
They retreated without much resistance and headed along the pre-planned route toward the palace fortress’s defensive lines.
After covering more than twenty kilometers, passing through the outer city district, they had successfully escaped danger.
Prior to this, they had a thorough plan; the routes chosen were designed to progress through narrow areas that were not conducive to the use of heavy firepower.
Moreover, their enemies were obviously unprepared for an attack from the rear—lacking both checkpoints and the will to fight, they crumbled easily upon being struck.
In the outer city district, the Interstellar Warriors moved as if strolling leisurely in a garden, facing almost no effective resistance.
Additionally, they had an extra gain.
During the retreat, one of the squads discovered an unusual military deployment around a building, suggesting the presence of a high-ranking figure.
That building was on their evacuation route.
Since it was on their way, they attempted to attack the location.
The attack was, of course, successful, and as a result, they found the enemy’s command center in there. A veteran general took the lead, and many officers of the Stefano Kingdom Army were trapped inside.
Several Sentry Mechas guarded them closely, covering as they boarded several military vehicles in an attempt to leave.
But the bomb guns blew up all those vehicles.
The enemy forces were thrown into sudden chaos, while the Interstellar Warriors did not linger and effortlessly left the scene.
…
The actions of the Interstellar Warriors were not isolated.
Two hours before their Spiritual Energy teleportation, the Alliance Army, occupying the Central Palace, had begun a multi-point, comprehensive, heavy firepower assault on the exterior at Matins’s instigation.
The main objective wasn’t to seize any vital targets but to draw the enemy’s attention and create opportunities for the Interstellar Warriors.
At the same time, an entire battalion of special forces advanced outward along the route of the Interstellar Warriors’ retreat to provide support for the Phoenix warriors.
“`
Although without these preparations, the Phoenixes would certainly still be able to successfully withdraw, yet when making the plan, one must always be prepared for the unexpected.
The interstellar warriors who successfully withdrew, their achievements in this surprise attack were extremely glorious.
The two hundred thousand troops of the Kingdom of Stefano stationed in the outer city area were instantly paralyzed and even lost control.
With the main war weaponry gone and the recently recovered semblance of a command brain excised, countless soldiers witnessed The Emperor’s Angels cut through the entire district with an invincible stance. Everyone before them was like insects, easily killed. This made them lose their belief in victory.
The organizational structure collapsed from the top-down, and the morale of the ordinary soldiers crumbled. The chain reaction caused by all of this made the lower and middle-ranking officers completely unable to control their subordinates—quite a few among them didn’t want to control them at all since they themselves were breaking down.
The army seemed to still exist but also seemed as if it had disappeared.
Large numbers of deserters began to emerge among the soldiers, and those who did not flee were panicked and at a loss. Moreover, many vicious incidents began to occur in the city, with soldiers starting to rob residents, committing murder, and arson.
But all this came to a halt the next day.
The main forces of the Alliance came.
Belonging to the Alliance Central Corps, the 13th Armored Brigade and the 60th Armored Brigade converged and advanced in unison.
Although there were only about twenty thousand of them, when two hundred self-propelled guns broke the main gates of Stefano and then thousands of armored vehicles, and over a hundred Lion Tanks, marched into the city in an imposing procession; when the special forces elites within the Central Palace District, the soldiers of the 31st Airborne Division, began to cut through from the palace, coordinating with the external armored forces to pinch and strike at those Stefano soldiers…
All resistance henceforth crumbled.
The Alliance’s army, without dispute, gained control of the entire city.
And after a brief consultation, the political commissars of the two Armored Brigades implemented a series of post-war policies.
The whole urban area was first put under military administration, but multiple distribution points for essential goods were opened, ensuring basic humanitarian relief. They even temporarily mobilized some surrendering officials from Stefano’s royal city to help with this task.
About two hundred thousand people became prisoners of war. The Alliance swiftly began sifting through them, most had no issues, but those who had committed crimes before the Alliance took full control of the city were picked out, publicly tried, and executed on the spot.
All were handled strictly and severely.
These strategies, swift and effective, pacified this feudal metropolis of two million inhabitants.
…
“I want to see Mr. Gu,” said Isabel.
Standing in front of her was Matins.
The Battle Group Leader did not say much, just nodded slightly.
And so, ‘The Iron Curtain Queen’ Isabel boarded a Windfalcon Fighter bound for Pincer City.
On the plane, Isabel, no longer young, seemed to recover the feeling she had when she first ascended the throne at seventeen.
Nervousness, fear, confusion… these feelings were the greatest, even larger than back then.
By comparison, while initially she held firmness, perseverance, forbearance, and a decisively resolute attitude when necessary, now they were woefully weak.
She didn’t feel she had become weaker, but the two situations were completely different.
If the past was the battle for her throne, then now, she was facing a war for the very survival of her nation.
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And it was a war that had already been lost.
During her captivity, she was not too strictly supervised; as such, in that limited freedom, she personally saw how her brave Knights and soldiers went to their deaths courageously but meaninglessly; she also witnessed how the twenty thousand-strong forces outside the city, on whom she had pinned great hopes and who, in her previous fantasies, could at least hold off the Alliance Army for over a month with the solid royal city, completely collapsed within a mere two or three days.
Even though, the Kingdom of Stefano still had a million men in its remaining territories, what was the point now?
She had fully realized that in this war that was deciding the kingdom’s fate, they had already lost in reality.
Stefano had fallen.
But she was Stefano’s queen, and she still had to make one last effort for the survival of the Kingdom of Stefano.
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With a total of 8k updated, what was owed has been made up.