From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 374 Ikaros Support Components
When the federal soldiers on the two high ground blocking Highway 56 were attacked by 120mm self-propelled mortars from the front, they knew that Atlas' breakout had begun.

The commanders of the two reinforced companies also looked bitter almost at the same time, silently complaining in their hearts about how bad their luck was. The positions assigned by their superiors happened to be in the direction of the Atlas troops' breakout.

Fortunately, their mission was not to completely annihilate the enemy, but to use the advantage of "geographical location" to delay Atlas's breakout.

Since the opposing medium-sized combined forces were equipped with a large number of high-speed mobile wheeled vehicles, they still needed to rely on the road network for maneuvering unless necessary. The two high grounds guarded by the two reinforced companies just happened to bring Highway 56 under their feet into their attack range.

The two overlapping attack areas will maximize the advantages of cross-fire, and the high-risk environment of being attacked on both sides at the same time is enough to make the troops planning to break through from the road regret their choice.

From this perspective, it seems that two reinforced companies supplemented with self-propelled mortars and heavy multi-legged tanks are more than enough to intercept a medium-sized combined battalion by taking advantage of the terrain?

The two federal army company commanders indeed thought so before Atlas launched the attack.

Even after seeing the skirmish line of 20 "humanoid units" appearing in the distance, the two even laughed "That's it?" in the communication channel.

But under the fire cover of the medium-sized combined battalion, when these 20 seemingly "ordinary" humanoid units rushed over at an extremely outrageous speed, the two men finally panicked.

"Open fire! Open fire quickly to stop them!"

The first to respond to the order were the charged particle cannon team, which had already completed preparations for the attack. This two-person team using low-power charged particle cannons was an important part of the federal army's company-level fire support.

When more than 20 purple-red beams of charged particles streaked across the open space and accurately hit the charging units, the silver-white electric arcs that were stirred up made the federal soldiers on the defensive positions break into cold sweats.

"Deflection field?! How do you achieve that with such a small unit?"

When everyone witnessed these 20 unidentified humanoid units withstanding the direct hit of the charged particle cannon and continuing to charge towards the position at a very high speed as if nothing had happened, they knew that the situation might have changed a little.

At this moment, the commander did not need to issue any more orders. The factor called "fear" caused all the weapons on the position to start attacking.

The reinforced company-level firepower finally suppressed the charging teaching team, forcing them to slow down their charge and move together in groups of four to create a larger deflection force field.

But at the same time, such an unreserved attack also allowed the Fifth Medium Combined Battalion to discover all the large and small firepower points on the position.

In addition to the 120 self-propelled mortars that never stopped firing, the 105 electrothermal chemical guns of the wheeled assault guns also joined the attack, using the high-precision attack of direct-fire artillery to deliver shells to various firing points.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of individual or vehicle-mounted cruise missiles leaped into the attack route from a height close to the treetops and fell towards the identified key targets.

The two high-energy laser anti-aircraft vehicles and six terminal anti-aircraft vehicles equipped with multi-barrel electromagnetic machine guns on the position fired frantically in an attempt to intercept the swarming cruise missiles.

Although the air defense effectiveness of high-energy lasers and multi-barrel electromagnetic machine guns is very high, the 50th Medium Combined Battalion fired % of its reserve of various cruise missiles in one go.

When the number of incoming attacks exceeded the threshold of the air defense units, there were continuous "slippery fish" that fell onto the positions, causing rounds of explosions.

And a charge distance of 1 kilometer is just a short moment for these heavy power armors equipped with small rocket propulsion devices.

When the teaching team, with full firepower, divided into two teams and rushed to two positions, the nature of the battle began to change.
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While the battle on the ground was getting tense, Amber, who was furious because Baninger forcibly hung up the communication, was also not idle.

Under the guidance of Lilith and the powerful performance of 'ATLAS', he led the 'two light and one heavy' escort cruiser formation and dismantled the 10 warships of the orbital attack ship detachment in front of him before their ammunition was exhausted.

For the escorting cruiser formation of the Federal Navy, it was a great shame to watch the enemy sink all of their escort targets while flying up and down. So in Amber's opinion, the captains of the three cruisers seemed to have entered a state of mindless rage.

They threw the so-called "safe navigation regulations" to the winds, commanding their warships to chase Amber at a dangerously low orbit at an extremely high combat speed, trying to swat to death this fly that ignored them.

Just as Amber was about to take the three cruisers for a 'walk' and wait for the fleet that had circled the orbit to come and pick them up, Lilith's somewhat panicked voice suddenly rang out.

"Master! We've fallen into a trap. This cruiser formation is deliberately trying to drive us away!"

"what?!"

"The last orbital attack ship launched a tactical nuclear bomb before losing control of its attitude!"

After hearing what Lilith said, Amber was stunned for a moment.

"This thing requires launch authority. Does that mean the other fleet commander doesn't plan to leave any way out?"

"I don't know, but based on what the deployed stealth probes captured, the missiles launched by the other side do have the characteristics of tactical nuclear bombs!"

While Lilith was informing him of the situation, Atlas also synchronized the information it had obtained from the large number of stealth probes it had deployed in orbit during this period.

A red dotted line suddenly appeared outside the cockpit, pointing directly to the ground, and a nuclear radiation sign was also marked at the landing point.

The current situation is very tricky for both Amber and Atlas Fleet. The missiles landed in the day hemisphere, but the Atlas Fleet has entered the night hemisphere under the pursuit of the Federal Fleet.

While "walking the dog", Amber also maneuvered to the vicinity of the terminator, and the missiles launched by the orbital attack ship had been blocked by the planet.

It would be too late to rush back at this time, because Amber not only needed to slow down, but also needed to re-accelerate under the attack of the three federal cruisers.
Even more unfortunately, in the last round of assault on the orbital attack ship, the last of the ammunition of 'ATLAS' had been used up, and now only the charged particle cannon and heavy particle cannon were left.

But these two things obviously cannot bypass the curved surface of the planet to attack the falling target.

"Go around the surface. Wait, go around?!"

Amber suddenly felt like an idea came to his mind, but under the tight time schedule, he had no time to think about the success rate of this idea.

"Lilith, where is the Ikaros support component? Can we provide support?"

"Master, 'Ikaros' is currently maintaining optical stealth, and support can be provided at the current location!"

Lilith immediately understood Amber's thoughts, and her voice couldn't help but carry a hint of excitement.

"Quick! Fire the long-range electromagnetic sniper cannon assembly at maximum speed. Hopefully there's still time!"

At Amber's command, a container-like device at a certain location in orbit around the star released its optical stealth and opened one of its several hatches.

Then, with a sound like a missile launch, a huge black shadow suddenly jumped out from the inside of the hatch, and under the propulsion of the rocket engine, it turned into a point of light and flew towards Amber's position.

(End of this chapter)