Chapter 684: Chapter 389, Capturing the Planet
Four hours of space combat had yielded some victories for the Tianma Navy.
Although the fortress starport of Fatches still stood tall, and its shield had yet to be broken, many armed space stations had either been destroyed or taken over by the Navy Marine Corps.
By this time, Gu Hang had also received new intelligence.
On the ground, the warriors of Phoenix had achieved new successes: they had seized all of the anti-orbital firepower around the planetary capital and its surrounding area.
The seizure itself wasn’t very difficult, but the challenge lay in the short amount of time available, the need for rapid action, and the necessity to split forces everywhere.
In fact, Gu Hang had given them eight hours. However, under the command of the veteran of a hundred years, Kalduce, Phoenix had accomplished the task in half the time without a single casualty.
…
When the news reached Gu Hang, he immediately had the naval staff of the Tianma Fleet assess the possibility of moving on to the next phase of the operation.
And these staff officers quickly came up with a result: with the anti-orbital and anti-air systems on the landing sites completely cleared, they now preliminarily met the conditions for a landing operation.
With a grand gesture, Gu Hang announced the start of the action.
The cruiser that Gu Hang was aboard, along with three destroyers and seven escort ships, began moving forward rapidly.
Their movement quickly drew fierce fire from the enemy. Particularly the enemy’s central firepower, the fortress starport, launched several ‘Wrath of Zhongsui’ cannons. Due to the close distance, the hit rate shot up, directly causing the energy shield of an escort ship to overload, forcing it to immediately retreat from the battlefield in alarm.
But at the same time, as the distance closed, the starships’ firepower was also unleashed more fiercely. The Light Spear Array aboard the Concerto made the Void Shield of the Fatches Starport tremble incessantly. And during this process, hundreds of missiles were fired simultaneously, decelerating significantly before reaching the Void Shield – this naturally gave the enemy the chance to intercept the missiles, but it also allowed more than thirty missiles to penetrate the shield, and ultimately twenty hit the fortress interior.
Twenty missiles of S and M class specifications were not enough to destroy the heavily armored starport fortress outright, but a few lucky shots hit the firepower platforms and crowded personnel areas, causing significant damage.
This forced the Fatches commander inside the fortress to focus all attention on the approaching ships, unable to spare a thought for anything else for a moment.
In the vastness of space, numerous behemoths furiously bombarded each other.
However, taking advantage of the moment when the enemy’s core defensive firepower was tied up, another cruiser, ‘Violin’, advanced with several destroyers in tow. Only this time, their targets were multiple anti-orbit cannon positions on the ground, initiating an air raid.
Meanwhile, hidden within these warships’ formation were seven or eight fast transport ships.
These transport ships certainly couldn’t play any role in the space naval battle. Their current responsibility was to transport the landing troops.
From these transports, and from the military ships led by ‘Violin’, landing craft were released.
With many armed space stations destroyed or taken over, the starport fortress tied down, the anti-orbital firepower on the ground suppressed, and the anti-orbital firepower in the capital area completely cleared, the orbital landing became quite smooth.
The vanguard of the landing forces was a corps from the Dragonhawk 3rd Corps.
Three hundred landing craft surged across the planet’s orbit and broke through the atmosphere, heading for the surface. Their target was directed straight to the planetary capital.
During their descent, the few sparse firepowers managed to destroy about a dozen landing craft. This represented the loss of thousands of lives, but it did not hinder the overall success of the landing.
In the suburbs outside the capital, ten Phoenix warriors and a few thousand troops loyal to the Empire from the Capital Guard Army had already cleared a temporary landing site.
Landing craft began to touch down, each one carrying hundreds of Star Realm Army warriors; some even had heavy equipment like tanks and artillery.
A total of 140,000 Star Realm Army warriors gathered at the landing site.
The leader of this force was Major General Cai Minjin of the Star Realm Army. The main force of the assault was his own Dragonhawk Legion 314th Army Group. He himself, risking danger, was directly involved in this landing operation and was among the first to land.
While the forces were still gathering, Cai Minjin climbed to a high ground and looked distantly at the capital city before him, full of hesitation.
“General,” someone called from below, “General, you should come down, for safety…”
“…Sigh.” With a sigh, Cai Minjin descended from the high ground and then asked, “Is the car I had you prepare first thing ready to come out of the landing craft?”
“It’s ready.” The adjutant replied, “But… please think twice! The troops still need your leadership.”
Cai Minjin cursed and then said, “Think twice about what? Do I need to think twice about returning to my own city?”
“This…”
“Drive the car over. Let’s go!”
“Yes!”
Moments later, three military vehicles set off toward the capital city.
Along the way, Cai Minjin looked at the familiar yet foreign street scenes, finding it hard to describe his feelings.
He had joined the Dragonhawk Legion for only about a dozen years. Before that, he was a general in the Fatches Defense Army and the commander of the Capital Guard Army. That year, he was ordered to reorganize the entire Capital Guard Army and integrate it into the Star Realm Army. His status changed from a Defense Army general to a Star Realm Army major general.