From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 240 The war begins and collapses
Half an hour after receiving the order from the coalition forces, Atlas' First Mixed Brigade broke out of camp.

Since the temporary camp No. 13 where Amber and the others are located is basically at the rear of the coalition forces, it can be said to be the safest of all temporary camps.

Therefore, the entire mixed brigade has not been fully deployed. Most combat vehicles, including self-propelled artillery and multi-legged combat vehicles, are in a marching state.

In addition, the camp created using the 'rapid wall building technology' does not need to be recycled, so the entire combined brigade basically just loads some supplies and tents into the truck and can start marching immediately.

Amidst various commands, shouts and the roar of engines, Temporary Camp No. 13 seemed to come alive.

Amber stood on the top of the command vehicle and watched a large number of wheeled infantry fighting vehicles and light multi-legged fighting vehicles forming a marching formation in the rising smoke and driving towards the distance.

This is the third medium-sized synthetic battalion serving as the vanguard.

After receiving the order from the Lubion System Autonomous Government, Amber immediately overturned his previous plan to make do with the U.S. Empire's ancient Marine Battalion.

Instead, they immediately reorganized into a synthetic force and placed orders to collect the missing vehicles.

In addition to the motorized infantry on board, the combat units of the medium-sized combined battalion mainly include 20 'Wolf Spider' light multi-legged combat vehicles, 2 reduced ultra-short wave reconnaissance and interference vehicles, and 46 'Serval Cat' wheeled infantry fighting vehicles. ——This thing is actually the sister car of 'Mongoose'.

The equipment loss rate of 1.4% is within the acceptable range.

During the entire march, there were no other accidents except for the mechanical failure of some vehicles, which caused some vehicles to no longer be usable.

Therefore, the mixed brigade, which is still behind the entire coalition force, must use the road network to maneuver quickly so that it can reach the scheduled attack assembly area within two days.

Fortunately, the city level here is relatively high, so the intercity highways and expressways are also at the highest level.

This has also led to the self-propelled howitzers that are common in almost all combined battalions and battalion-level tactical groups, and now they have basically withdrawn from the stage.

Needless to say, the two days of marching maneuvers. After crossing the front line of friendly forces, the entire combined brigade immediately deployed and entered an alert posture.

In addition, in order to ensure the ability to pass through, Amber specially found Major General Benjamin in advance and applied for dozens of trailers at the base area of ​​the space elevator to assist main battle tanks and heavy multi-legged combat vehicles in long-distance maneuvers.

In addition to providing direct fire support, it can also serve as a self-propelled mortar to carry out indirect fire strikes.

When the entire combined brigade maneuvers, the biggest factor affecting the marching speed is not the performance of the vehicle, but the passing ability of the road and whether the traffic jam is serious.

Especially the light-armed battalion that was ambushed at the front was defeated in less than 20 minutes.

It is mainly sold to civilians and private armed forces. After adding a lot of fancy functions, it is priced so much more expensive than the 'Mongoose' series that I don't know where it went.
In addition, there are also some auxiliary vehicles such as trailers, trucks, and emergency repair vehicles.

It was almost impossible to see the beginning and end of the huge convoy. According to the information on the command terminal, the vehicle at the front was already on the highway and heading towards the intercity expressway.

In addition, at this time, the civilians have either run away or are staying at home, so as long as there are no problems with the combined brigade's fleet, the traffic jam should not be serious.

At this juncture, the coalition commander did not expect any surprises, so he readily agreed to Amber's request.

The command headquarters judged based on the attack width, troop strength and opponent's firepower that it should be an attack launched by one of the armored cavalry battalions + an armored combined battalion with the support of direct firepower.

This attack also directly defeated a light synthetic battalion on the coalition side, and severely damaged another heavy synthetic battalion that came to support.

When the entire Atlas team was organized into a brigade and entered their preparation area in the direction of attack, and each unit began to make final pre-war corrections, Amber also received not-so-good news from the coalition command.

In fact, this time is still relatively tense, especially for brigade-level units.

Just an hour and a half before they ended their march, the imperial troops on the first line of defense actually took advantage of the advance of the coalition's frontline troops to launch an attack.

Among them, there are 20 'Wolf Spider' light multi-legged combat vehicles. The main gun is also a common 120mm straight/curved dual-purpose electrothermal chemical cannon.

Because of Atlas's feint position, it was on the right wing of the entire battlefield.

Not many HCPs were the first to attack the Imperial Armored Cavalry Battalion, because the Armored Cavalry Battalion was essentially a "three reconnaissance and one heavy" firepower reconnaissance unit.

However, the four HCPs still brought some wheeled combat vehicles and light multi-legged tanks, and clamped the light battalion that had not been fully deployed from both wings like a pair of pliers.

We don’t yet know what the commander of this coalition force had in mind for placing a light combined battalion lacking armored units at the forefront.

Anyway, the final result was that after 5 main battle tanks and 5 heavy multi-legged tanks launched an attack from the front with the remaining mechanized infantry, the hasty and fragile resistance of the light battalion was completely collapsed.

The most powerful firepower in the light battalion is the light multi-legged tank.

If you let them attack heavy armored units, they can only find opportunities from the sides and rear, but they may not be able to penetrate them.

But the electromagnetic reconnection cannons of main battle tanks and heavy multi-legged tanks can really be hit one at a time.

With a muzzle velocity of 3000 meters/second, it can be said that it can be hit anywhere within the combat distance on the ground.

Moreover, the units that were hit were directly smashed into parts by the powerful kinetic attack and could not be saved at all.

After receiving a call for help 15 kilometers away, the heavy-duty combined battalion immediately rushed here to provide support. They really didn't expect that their friendly forces would collapse so quickly.

Since they were all from the same company, the commander of this heavy-duty combined battalion was quite anxious and worried.

But it was precisely because of this 'anxiety and worry' that he rashly entered the kill zone of the imperial armored battalion.

Although the first two HCPs reported shooting down several surveillance drones, the commander of this combined battalion had already discovered the problem. However, the sudden attack from the 155mm self-propelled artillery group still interrupted the order he was about to issue.

Although the troops had already deployed, they did not cause much damage, but the effectiveness of the heavy artillery fire still caused some units of the combined battalion to fall into chaos.

The imperial army on the opposite side obviously knew how to seize the opportunity. The armored battalion that took the initiative to attack from the flank of the combined battalion quickly produced miraculous results.

The armored battalion of the Imperial Royal Army's Combined Forces, with its 'two-step, one-step' configuration, is itself designed to compete with the heavy-duty combined battalions of the Federation.

It is the standard frontal attacker or offensive spearhead among the synthetic troops.

The imperial battalion-level units deployed at the forefront were also replenished and even strengthened after units were transferred from other units.

So when the armored battalion, which had already been prepared for the attack, launched the attack, the heavily armored battalion on the coalition side immediately fell into a passive situation.

If they weren't also a heavily equipped battalion-level unit, relying on heavy equipment to withstand the first wave of impact, and the fire company was desperately supporting behind, they might have followed the example of the light synthetic battalion. Followed in the footsteps.

But even so, their situation is still not good.

Because after leaving a small force to deal with the remaining soldiers, the imperial armored cavalry battalion that killed the light battalion had already begun to encircle them from the other direction.

Obviously, these two imperial military battalion-level units, which cooperated very well, planned to eat up both battalions of the coalition forces.

In the end, if two HCP platoons hadn't rushed up from behind and forced a gap to allow the surviving units of the heavy-armed synthetic battalion to retreat in time, the coalition forces might have quickly lost two synthetic battalions in the first two hours of the war. Camped
After reading the simple battle report, Amber already had an ominous premonition in her heart.

He knew that the 'corporate armies' of the coalition forces might not be that capable of fighting, but he never expected that they were so incompetent.

He immediately ordered the entire mixed brigade to adjust to a defensive formation, and all ministries immediately sent reconnaissance teams and observation posts to the front.

At the same time, the self-propelled artillery of the firepower camp near the brigade headquarters has been deployed, ready to provide long-range fire support to the forward troops at any time.

Currently, Atlas's entire mixed brigade has a spread width of 25 kilometers. At the front are two heavy-duty synthetic battalions, with a distance of only 5 kilometers between them.

The remaining two medium-sized combined battalions are in the rear position and are ready to maneuver forward according to tactical needs.

The firepower battalion and Amber's brigade headquarters stayed in the relatively safe rear.

This is also the standard combat width for a combined brigade to deploy in a square formation under normal circumstances.

If you are close to the urban area or enter the urban area directly, this width will be further reduced to less than 10 kilometers.

In fact, Amber had always thought that a standard brigade-level unit could reach a combat width of 30 or even 50 kilometers after deployment.

Because he believes that since they are equipped with HCP, a land combat unit with firepower, mobility, and certain defensive capabilities, the battle width can definitely be expanded wider.

Therefore, when he conducted a simulated command deduction in the game for the first time, he also conducted it in this way.

As a result, I was penetrated by the old land warrior from the guild to the point where my mother didn't even recognize her.

Because the opponent also has HCP, and in terms of combat effectiveness, this unit is much stronger for tactical insertion than for controlling the front.

Just like the two battalion-level units that had just been overthrown by the Imperial Army, everything that should and should not be leaked was leaked within a 15-kilometer distance.
To this day, Amber still remembers that after the simulated battle, the big brother who served on the staff of a certain heavy-duty combined brigade of a certain group army before retiring, patted him on the shoulder and said:
"What do you think? The distance between the two battalions is 10 kilometers, so why should I stick to it? Isn't it easy to break up into pieces and enter your depth, divide, encircle and annihilate them all?
Always remember, 'concentrate your strength to do big things', rather than scattering your fists and destroying your martial arts! "

When the order from the brigade headquarters was issued, each battalion-level unit quickly adjusted its position according to the order. At the same time, Amber also sent a warning to the coalition units deeper on the right, asking them to pay attention to the retreat.

It was at this time that a series of icons representing 'engaging', 'retreating', and 'requesting support' appeared on the tactical map of the command terminal like dominoes.

Although the data links and command and control systems of various companies are not fully connected and can only maintain the most basic communication and information sharing, this is only for human technical officers.

Lilith, who has already been in the 'Mahayana stage' in terms of network intrusion, has actually solved the problem of incompatibility of data transmission interfaces between various systems.

So at this moment, among the entire coalition forces, perhaps only Atlas can integrate the combat situations of various companies.

But for Amber, looking at the densely packed war icons on the map and the central coalition forces showing signs of retreat only made his brows deepen.

After all, when everyone met at the coalition command center, the commanders of those companies were all so high-spirited, as if victory was within easy reach.

But now the troops in their hands are being wiped out or retreating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"It's so unreliable. Why was he defeated as soon as he came up? Are the people on the opposite side of the empire superhuman per capita?"

The entire coalition's frontal offensive force was met with a counterattack by the Imperial Army at almost the same time.

The current situation is the same as what Amber had guessed during the meeting with the operational staff two days ago.

The remnant soldiers of the empire really gathered into a punch, ready to defeat the coalition forces in one wave.

And judging from the intensity of the attack, Amber now even suspects that the two armored brigade-level combat teams deployed in the rear by the imperial remnants may also come forward.

If we extrapolate from the current situation, it is very likely that the fortifications and troop gatherings detected by the drone before were a kind of confusing behavior by the other party.

The reason is to make the coalition forces mistakenly think that this imperial remnant army wants to rely on defense to defend, rather than preparing for an attack.

(End of this chapter)