From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 399: Van Vleet is shocked

Using a large number of technical weapons to fight is indeed a waste of money.

But compared to the high pensions of Atlas Private Military Company, this amount of money is nothing.

In the previous conflict with the federal army, the Atlas ground forces still suffered certain losses, which were even greater than the losses in the previous battle on Rubion V.

Not only was the elite training team "annihilated", causing Amber to almost go berserk on the battlefield, but the 5th Medium Combined Battalion that was coordinating the decapitation also suffered considerable losses in personnel and vehicles.

Even the few outposts that were engaged in defensive battles suffered casualties under the attack of the federal army.

These casualties were certainly related to the objective factor of "the enemy outnumbered us", but according to post-war statistics, they were more due to the fact that the Roma soldiers were reluctant to use technical weapons.

Even Lilith, who was always monitoring everything, didn't know when the idea of ​​"the company is my home, and making money and development depends on everyone" began to emerge among the Roma community in Atlas.

Most of these Roma people from the Thousand Star Empire believe that with extremely high salaries and benefits, the company's profitability may be mediocre. Moreover, now that they are engaged in "charity activities" such as humanitarian aid, which seem to have little profit, the income may be even lower.
Therefore, in order to reduce the company's "economic pressure" and also to reduce the consumption of technical weapons, these Roma people basically will not use suicide swarms, smart mines, cruise missiles and other things unless it is absolutely necessary.

Even Roma like Monton and Telak, who have fought from the beginning to the end and are now considered "veterans", try to be as frugal as possible in the use of technical weapons and consumables, and are even a little stingy.

After Amber learned about this situation, she was both angry and moved.

Then he immediately held an "ideological education meeting" with military commanders at all levels, and after the meeting, he asked these military commanders to convey the idea of ​​"don't be afraid of equipment loss, use it openly" layer by layer.

In Amber's opinion, this is a very simple math problem, because the disability pension for Atlas soldiers who are seriously injured or killed is several levels higher than that of other private military companies or even the regular armies of the Federation and the Empire.

So compared to these pensions, the drones and intelligent units consumed by soldiers in battle are nothing.

Rather than losing soldiers, paying compensation, and consuming a lot of technical weapons, it is better to protect every soldier and reduce casualties as much as possible, and on this basis consume those things that are originally "consumables" at will.

This is also why, after taking down the first line of defense, the heavy troops did not pursue the victory, but let the suicide swarms and cruise missiles go first to "clean up the ground."

The suicide swarm was based on the Imperial swarm that Amber captured at Blue Harbor on Robert IV and later used in the battle at the orbital elevator base area.

In essence, it is a small drone equipped with high-performance military explosives. Its maneuverability is similar to FPV, but its material, battery life, and signal transmission are much stronger, and it also has military-grade anti-interference measures.

The one controlling these suicide bee swarms was none other than Lilith, who had been "busy with work" recently, and this was her last time to control these suicide bee swarms in combat.

In the future, suicide bee colonies will also be controlled by the "hive core" after software upgrades and become part of the hive system.

Under her control, these suicide swarms seemed to come alive, with an outrageous level of flexibility and integrity, while constantly rushing towards the Imperial defenders' second line of defense and deeper reserve positions.

The mission of these suicide swarms is also very simple, which is to attract as much fire as possible from the terminal air defense firepower, and then crash headfirst into it. It would be even better if they could find high-value targets such as air defense command vehicles, field radars, and jammers.

Even if it doesn't cause much damage in the end, it will allow the attacking forces to have a general idea of ​​the enemy's deployment in depth.

More importantly, the suicide swarm's attack attracted a large amount of anti-aircraft firepower, creating an extremely good penetration condition for the subsequent cruise missiles. If they encountered a target that was not destroyed by the swarm, these cruise missiles would directly rush up to "finish the job", and the remaining cruise missiles that successfully penetrated flew towards the depths of Garibal.
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"The situation has been decided. The imperial defenders here are basically unable to turn the tables. They simply have no ability to recapture the lost positions."

In a cabin somewhere on the Infinity, Van Fleet, who was under house arrest, looked at the live broadcast of the battlefield on the virtual screen and spoke, with some fear in his tone.

"How come the situation is already decided? Hasn't the first crack been made?" Guterres, who was sitting in another chair next to him, frowned, then looked down at the information previously given to them by the Atlas soldiers who were responsible for their house arrest.

"Look, Atlas only has two brigades of attacking troops, while the number of imperial defenders in Gallipol is close to five brigades, and this is an extremely complicated and dangerous street battle."

"You're a navy man, and you know shit about land warfare!" Van Fleet raised his eyes, his words full of disdain for the vice admiral next to him.

He has always believed that the final outcome of the battle on the Pella IV was due to the defeat of the naval fleet led by Guterres, which was 90% responsible.

"Oh, you're the only one who understands land warfare? If you understand land warfare, why are you locked up with me now?" Hearing Van Fleet's words, Guterres immediately retorted "not to be outdone".

In his opinion, it was because Van Fleet was 'beheaded' by Amber at the critical stage of the battle that the situation on Pella IV collapsed. Otherwise, it would have been entirely possible for them to hold out until the federal support fleet arrived - if the federation had arranged a support fleet.

"You" Van Vleet was choked and speechless. He stared at Guterres for a long time before he calmed down the urge to punch him.

"What? Are you not convinced?" Guterres is indeed a federal naval officer like Randall. He is extremely talented in challenging people.

"You idiot, don't you see that the way Atlas' ground forces fight is quite different from that of the Federation and even the Star Dragon Empire's ground forces?"

Van Fleet suddenly spoke loudly, and his momentum immediately intimidated the vice admiral beside him.

"Super long-range heavy artillery bombardment, new armored units with excellent terrain passability, and densely packed unmanned units, not to mention that their ordinary soldiers completely crush ordinary human soldiers in terms of physical fitness. These are things that the federal ground forces do not have yet."

"You're right. This company does have some weird new things."

Van Fleet's words could not help but bring back some bad memories for Guterres. Whether it was the fleet being stabbed in the ass by a large number of invisible plasma torpedoes, or being strafed by the six-kilometer-long giant ship, these memories were bound to leave an indelible impression in Guterres' mind.

"Let's not talk about anything else, just talking about those long-range heavy artillery, the design and combat concept are completely different from the current federal army. How come I don't have a good thing like the 180-kilometer range self-propelled electromagnetic gun TNND?
This is just the firepower of a battalion. If this guy named Amber is determined to use it as the main equipment of the artillery combined brigade under the army, I dare not imagine its support and strike capabilities. "

Van Vleet paused, then continued:

"As long as Atlas's troops advance steadily and slowly as they are now, using these unmanned swarms to clear the way, the Imperial defenders' personnel, equipment, and morale will only be eroded bit by bit."

"Can't we find opportunities to launch a few counterattacks or ambush somewhere?" Guterres asked with some doubt. In his opinion, the imperial defenders had the "geographical advantage" anyway, and they also had more available troops.

"Don't believe it? Then wait and see."

(End of this chapter)