From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 366 We will not pretend to be gentlemen anymore
The gusts of air created by the heavy particle cannon firing on the surface blew away the smoke and also woke up the federal armored soldiers who had just been aroused to fight.

After seeing the lead car turned into a pool of 'melted cheese' by the heavy metal particle jet, the fear of being 'held' by this high-energy weapon quickly rose in their hearts.

"Vehicle No. 1 was...destroyed and the company commander was killed!" A trembling voice sounded in the communication channel.

Even though the Federal 72nd Heavy Combined Brigade responsible for the attack on Atlas Camp V was a well-trained standing force, these armored troops could not help but panic when the lead vehicle was instantly destroyed.

Fortunately, vehicles No. 2 and No. 8, where the deputy company commander and senior non-commissioned officers were, were fine, so the command system of this armored company did not completely collapse.

The deputy company commander had no time to mourn the death of his company commander. He immediately took over the command on the communication channel and his choice was simple, which was to continue the attack.

Although a large number of obstacles, armored walls, powerful heavy particle turrets, and electromagnetic reconnection turrets suddenly appeared on the assault position directly ahead, if they stopped the attack and retreated at this time, they would just be made into targets.

So the deputy company commander had no choice but to continue the attack, praying that the support from the HCP company would arrive in time.
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"When the hell was this defensive position built?"

Norris, the commander of the 72nd Heavy Combined Battalion of the 162nd Heavy Brigade of the Federal Army, also saw the images sent back from the front at this time.

The sudden appearance of this circle of defensive positions on the outer position of Atlas really caught him off guard.

These things can't even be simply called defensive positions, but rather semi-permanent fortifications equipped with a large amount of heavy firepower.

It is not difficult to see from the effect of the infantry fighting vehicle's chain gun hitting the opponent's composite armored wall that the physical hardness should be similar to the "front face" of the main battle tank.

You should know that the federal army has actually been keeping surveillance on the ten refugee camps in Atlas.

Whether it was the long-flight drones that were conducting reconnaissance at the edge of the no-fly zone, or the reconnaissance satellites that flew overhead, the federal army believed that they had "full control" of everything in the ten refugee camps in Atlas.

But now, the inexplicable additional defense facilities on the outer positions almost slapped the reconnaissance troops in the face.

Norris looked at the images on the battlefield recorder of the front troops. Whether it was the artillery position or the composite armored wall, the surrounding land showed signs of turning over, as if it had grown out of the ground.

After seeing this scene, the combat staff officer beside him couldn't help but say:

"Captain, why do these things look like they were hidden underground before?"

Hearing the doubts of the operations staff, Norris nodded.

"It does look like that. Could it be that they are operating underground, so they haven't been discovered by reconnaissance satellites and drones?"

"If that's the case, it makes sense. After all, the reconnaissance satellites that passed overhead didn't use the neutrino detection mode, so they wouldn't have noticed anything going on underground."

The operations officer frowned as he spoke, and the confusion on his face did not decrease, but increased.

"The question is, where do they get the manpower to do all this?"

"Remember the unmanned mechanical units active in their camp?"

As soon as Norris said this, the combat staff's eyes lit up.

"I was wondering why they had been airdropping construction materials a while ago. At that time, the intelligence staff was still wondering where they had used all the construction materials. Are their unmanned mechanical units so efficient?"

"I don't know, but it looks better than ours."

Norris closed the screen, ended the topic on his own initiative, and then looked at the combat situation map on the side.

The 162nd Heavy Combined Battalion, which he currently commands, has deployed its combat formation according to the plan after the conflict and launched an attack on Atlas' camp.

Although the Atlas operations in Camp No. 1 have increased from one combined battalion to four after the reinforcement some time ago, the federal army has transferred two brigades of troops to take over the entire Camp No. 4, and has an absolute advantage in terms of manpower.

Therefore, the Federation's battle plan was not complicated. Once the conflict broke out, the "frontline attack battalions" in all directions would just make a breakthrough. However, the sudden appearance of the semi-permanent defense positions quickly shattered this plan. The heavy particle cannons and electromagnetic reconnection cannons mounted on the fixed turrets became a nightmare for the armored forces that were charging.

There were some main battle tanks and HCPs that followed them ready to try to counterattack, but when the front of these fixed turrets flashed a dazzling white light under their attack, many tank commanders and HCP pilots finally couldn't help cursing:
"What the hell is this thorny turtle shell!"

After the armored companies and HCP units responsible for clearing the way in each battalion suffered more or less losses, the offensive was finally called off.

The commanders of the four "frontline attack battalions" that were originally planned to launch the first round of attacks finally realized that the Atlas troops in front of them seemed to be different from those private military companies that fought without any rules.

They came prepared.
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When the battalion commanders of these front-line attack battalions withdrew their attacking troops and gave up the "one-wave" strategy, they prepared to start fire preparation according to conventional combat plans.

The federal psychic agent codenamed "The Hanged Man" is making the most exciting escape of his life.

120mm mortar shells kept exploding near him, and the explosions went from being "not very threatening" at the beginning to almost falling directly on his head.

It was obvious that his approximate position had been locked by the Atlas men and he was now being covered by fire from the opposing fire group.

This was a situation he had never experienced since he left the military academy.

The biggest reliance of psychic agents in shuttling around the battlefield and transforming into the god of death to reap the lives of high-value targets is their optical and infrared stealth capabilities, which can make them undetectable by most ground detection methods.

The same is true in reverse. After being discovered, if it is a squad-level battle like Amber did on Robert IV, the psychic agent can still rely on his own equipment and psychic powers to "kill everyone".

But in the face of massive heavy firepower, without the assistance of other friendly units, psychic agents are nothing more than "high-level infantry".

What the Hanged Man could not have imagined was that Atlas' ground forces had already been familiar with the 'Anti-Psychic Combat Manual' produced by Amber.

Recorded in this manual are all the 'little tricks' that players can use to fight against Federation Psionic Agents and Imperial Psionic Commandos at low levels.

At that time, players did not have technology like "psychic detection radar", so they would let the highest-level psychic in the team go up for "physical reconnaissance". After discovering psychic agents or psychic commandos, they would never get entangled with them but directly call for fire coverage from the rear.

Now, apart from having the infiltration reconnaissance vehicle of the teaching team use new technology for reconnaissance, the other procedures are not much different from those at that time.
Just as the people in the infiltrated reconnaissance vehicle were watching a round of 155 high-explosive shells fired by the self-propelled artillery company raise a cloud of dust at the point of impact, a series of light spots with white trails suddenly streaked across the sky, causing alarm bells to ring in their hearts.

They heaved a sigh of relief when they saw the plasma fireballs exploding in the air in the direction of the refugee camp behind them, as well as the deflection field that was like a "big shield" made of electric arcs, protecting the refugee camp and the outpost.

"The Long-Range Fire Federation has really reached its limit by directly attacking the refugee camp."

"But then again, how did you create such a large deflection field?"
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"TMD, can anyone tell me how such a large deflection field is made?!"

In the Federal Army's ground headquarters, Lieutenant General Van Fleet was looking at the images sent back by the drone that went out to conduct a damage assessment, and he fell into a state of madness.

He finally made up his mind to have two long-range rocket battalions launch a covering attack on refugee camp No. 5, but he didn't expect that the deflection force field that appeared out of nowhere would intercept and detonate them in advance.

This round of salvos were all fired at plasma warheads, which mainly rely on the high-temperature plasma fireball formed after the explosion to kill. There were no prefabricated fragments in the warheads, so the damage to the ground after being induced to explode in advance can only be said to be negligible.

The other people in the command center looked at each other, and no one could answer Van Fleet's question.

If Amber knew the reason why the lieutenant general was mad at this moment, she would definitely say excitedly:

"It's a fusion reactor! I added a fusion reactor!"

Of course, Amber couldn't stand in front of Van Fleet at this time and tell him how she airdropped a complete set of fusion reactor components to the ground, and how she reduced the instantaneous output to expand the coverage of the deflection force field, so as to specifically defend against indirect fire attacks.
Because he was currently conducting pre-war mobilization in the hangar of the Hermes with other members of the HCP force, and the Atlas fleet was about to respond to the Federation Army's attack on the refugee camp with long-range rockets.

Soon, the Federation warship in the Pyra IV outer space orbit saw the two Atlas light cruisers begin to lower their altitude, and at the same time, the optical camouflage components of the ship's hull also printed a line of text on the side:
"Since you guys are doing this, we don't have to pretend to be gentlemen anymore."

(End of this chapter)