Chapter 744.1: Closing Arguments

Under the cover of naval bombardment, four Viper transport aircraft rapidly broke through the defensive zone along North Island’s coastline. A total of 25 suits of exoframes were swiftly deployed at the airfield.

Faced with these terrifying soldiers armed to the teeth, the guard company responsible for airfield security was almost immediately routed once the shooting began. They collapsed after only a single exchange.

Muzzle flashes flickered continuously around the perimeter of the airfield, while streams of tracer fire crisscrossed the runway like tightly woven, impenetrable nets.

Behind a square wall of sandbags, a platoon leader wearing a ballistic vest pressed his helmet firmly against the cover. He did not dare raise his rifle over the sandbags to return fire.

Not far from him, a medic was desperately treating a wounded soldier lying on a stretcher. Half of the man’s leg had been blown away. Sweat covered his pale face as he gasped rapidly like a goldfish stranded on dry land.

Gritting his teeth, the platoon leader shouted into his radio. “The outer defensive perimeter has collapsed! Their firepower is too intense! We need reinforcements!”

The other end of the radio was filled with chaotic blasts. He waited for a long time without receiving a response and heard only a succession of explosions.

“Damn it!” The platoon leader cursed, clipped the radio back onto his shoulder, crouched low, and pushed his rifle out from behind cover before spraying wildly toward the source of the enemy gunfire.

However, before he could fire more than a couple of shots, two thick tracer rounds hissed past his barrel and slammed into the ground in front of him.

The projectiles were at least 20mm in diameter. They ricocheted skyward the instant they struck the ground, but the thunderous impact left his head ringing.

Fragments of stone blasted into his face. He cried out in pain and fell backward onto the ground. “Argh!”

The New Alliance did not cease fire.

One suit of Exoframe carried a 20mm Lance and fired intermittently to suppress the position, while three others advanced methodically toward the cover. Their weapons were soon aimed at the guards hiding behind it.

There was no suspense whatsoever regarding the outcome. The guard company’s platoon leader immediately dropped his rifle. Without even waiting for the enemy to speak, he obediently crouched beside the wall with both hands clasped behind his head. “I surrender!”

Old White gestured toward the teammate beside him, indicating that he should take out plastic restraints and bind the prisoners. When he was done, he raised his right hand and swiped his index finger several times across the floating display of his tactical visor, assigning each squad its objective for the next phase of the assault.

The Y-2 drone operating alongside them had already completed a comprehensive scan of the battlefield terrain. Identified enemy units were marked in red on their maps.

The entire process felt just like a game... Well, it was a game to begin with anyway...

With the assistance of quadcopter drones, the six squads reached their designated areas according to plan, securing more than eighty percent of the airfield’s facilities as well as the vital runway.

“The guard post has been suppressed!”

“The hangars are secure!”

“Enemy reinforcements detected! Visual count of 317 personnel, 10 police armored vehicles, and 2 suspected armored units! Possibly North Island Federation Marines!”

Hearing the report over the communications channel, Peepo nearly burst out laughing and could not resist making a sarcastic remark. “That’s all they’ve got?”

Glancing around the smoke-filled airfield, Kidney Warrior chuckled, “You have to remember that only a few tens of thousands of people live on this entire island, and they still have to support a navy. Scraping together a battalion for the army is already pretty impressive.”

The circumstances in North Island were the complete opposite of those in the Poro Province. The entirety of North Island was smaller than Port Gallon, and its military could not even assemble a 1,000-man-strong unit.

Of course, even though it could not field an army that big, the airfield’s guard company would have had little trouble defeating one of the 1,000-man units from the Poro Province.

After all, the Xilande Empire used nothing but obsolete junk discarded by the Army, whereas the Federation’s armed forces had been designed with the Army as their hypothetical enemy. The two sides were incomparable in terms of productivity and education. Even ordinary soldiers possessed greater military competence than many low-ranking officers in the Xilande Empire.

While the two were chatting, Old White’s voice came through the communications channel. “Don’t let your guard down. The battle isn’t over! Peepo, the Federation’s marines are northwest of your position. Contact is expected within three minutes. I’m placing the two nearby squads under your command. Stop them and don’t let them approach the runway!”

“Copy!” Hearing the order, Peepo immediately responded before shouting toward the men behind him. “Brothers! We’ve got work to do!”

“Oooooh!” Kidney Warrior let out an excited roar, inserted a fresh drum magazine into his light machine gun, and chambered a round with a sharp click.

At that moment, Old White had already seized control of the airfield’s communications equipment from the guard post and contacted the command headquarters at French Fry Harbor through the local radio tower. “We’ve secured the airfield ten minutes ahead of schedule. How long until reinforcements arrive?”

After a brief crackle of static, the operator’s voice came through. “The reinforcements have already departed. They are 15 minutes away from your position.”

“Tell them to move faster. I’m worried the Torch Church may dispatch reinforcements to North Island. Unless we can conclude the ground battle quickly, we may have another difficult fight ahead of us... It may become hard to keep civilian casualties under control.”

“Understood. We’re contacting the reinforcement crews now.”

After ending the transmission, Old White left one squad behind to defend the position and immediately led the remaining players toward the northwestern side of the airfield. The three squads under Peepo would intercept the marines from the front. Once the two sides became engaged, Old White’s group would maneuver around the enemy’s flank and coordinate with New Alliance aircraft to eliminate the comparatively troublesome armored units.

At the same time the Burning Corps’ advance force completed its preparations, the marines had already reached the northwestern entrance to the airfield.

With the explosion of a grenade, the battle erupted instantly. The airfield, which had been quiet for only a few minutes, was once again drowned beneath deafening gunfire.

The North Island Federation Marines deployed a battalion to meet the Burning Corps. They even brought out the police riot-control vehicles parked at the police station, along with both prototype Alligator amphibious armored vehicles, the only two that had been manufactured before formal production began.

The latter was an amphibious combat vehicle developed by North Island Heavy Industry under Chalas' orders. It had originally been intended for landing operations against Peace Island and Ring Island. Unfortunately, before the equipment could ever be put to use, the Southern Sea New Alliance landed on North Island first.

Although the firepower of those light armored vehicles far exceeded that of an exoframe which was essentially individual armor, there were simply too few of them. Furthermore, because the equipment was still under development and had never officially entered service, the North Island Federation lacked sufficient experience in coordinating armored vehicles with infantry.

Almost as soon as the two Alligator amphibious armored vehicles reached the front line, they became separated from their supporting infantry and were trapped inside a narrow alley near the airfield.

Spotting that fleeting opportunity, Peepo immediately removed the Dove missile launcher from his back. Tossing a quick yell to cover him toward his teammates, he vaulted over a partially collapsed wall and climbed onto the rooftop beside the alley.

Both armored vehicles were clearly visible below. The lead vehicle had raised its 30mm autocannon and was pouring fire toward the airfield, attempting to drive away the Viper transport plane circling overhead to support the ground troops.

Peepo took a deep breath and expertly activated the launcher’s imaging system. He aimed it at the armored vehicle only 150 meters away and the sensor in the missile’s nose immediately locked onto the target.

With every preparation complete, he pulled the trigger without hesitation with an exaggerated cry, “RPG!”

What emerged was not an RPG at all, but he still yelled it for fun.

A thick streak of white smoke shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, striking directly beneath the armored vehicle’s turret. The vehicle erupted like a lighter, bursting into a brilliant spray of fire amid a deafening explosion.

The Dove missile’s metallic-hydrogen warhead possessed far greater destructive power than the shaped-charge warhead of an ordinary RPG. Of course, it also cost more than ten times as much.

The marines nearby were stunned by the explosion. Once they recovered, they turned their weapons and concentrated fire toward the direction from which the white smoke had emerged.

Peepo was preparing to load another missile when he noticed that the second armored vehicle had swung its cannon toward him. Startled, he quickly jumped down from the rooftop.

However, he soon realized it had merely been a false alarm. After seeing the vehicle ahead explode, the second armored vehicle had clearly panicked. It began reversing frantically while firing wildly at the rooftop.

The cannon’s thunderous roar left the marines stationed along both sides of the vehicle dizzy and deafened. Forget aiming at him, they could barely keep hold of their rifles.

“Holy shit, friendly fire! These guys are real professionals!” Peepo stared in disbelief after jumping down from the roof. Had he known their coordination was this terrible, he would have stayed up there.

While he stood momentarily stunned, several sharp whistles tore through the air above his head. The roar of an aircraft cannon and the shriek of flying fragments followed almost simultaneously.

The armored vehicle retreating while firing had obviously been marked by the New Alliance. Combined with the muzzle flashes revealing its position, the brothers in the sky did not even bother using an air-to-ground missile. A single burst of cannon fire ripped it open like a tin can.

Its relatively thin roof armor was little more than paper against airborne 20mm armor-piercing incendiary rounds. Even the turret was hurled into the air after the blast.

The soldiers crouching beside the armored vehicle met the same fate. Flying fragments buried them beneath the dust, and the entire alley fell silent in an instant.

Watching the vehicle erupt like fireworks and the P-2 Lightning attack fighter sweep low over the ruins, the players firing from behind cover cheered in excitement.

“Beautiful!”

“Hell yeah!”

Peepo lowered the missile launcher he had only just locked onto the target and smacked his lips with lingering disappointment. “Motherfucker! He stole my kill!”

Still, cannon shells were ultimately cheaper than missiles, so there was no point complaining about the stolen kill.

Unlike the Burning Corps, the morale of the North Island Federation Marines had sunk into the abyss. Staring at the burning alley nearby, Lundy’s eyes bulged as though they might fall from their sockets. His ashen face was filled with despair.

Those two Alligator armored vehicles had been virtually their only hope, yet against the New Alliance’s forces, they had failed to last even 10 minutes.

Although their equipment and training were considerably superior to those of the airfield’s guard company, and they even possessed some equipment left behind from the Prosperity Era, they remained far inferior to these professionals.

At that moment, two Overlord transport aircraft appeared on the horizon. Their enormous bodies and long plasma trails were as conspicuous as meteors crossing the night sky. The towering aircraft landed heavily on the airfield runway. After taxiing for some distance, they came to a stop and lowered their broad, heavy cargo ramps.

From the hold, eight menacing armored vehicles emerged.

Those were the New Alliance’s Chimeras!

Nearly 500 soldiers followed them, armed to the teeth in exoskeletons. Compact assault rifles were held in their hands, while their polished ballistic chest plates gleamed with a cold, menacing light.

“It’s over...”

Continuing to fight would accomplish nothing except sending the young men of North Island to their deaths.

If the New Alliance’s aircraft could come once, they could come a second time. With only the forces remaining to them, there was no possibility of retaking the airfield. Even if the battleship returned, it would make no difference. A fleet without a harbor was an orphan at sea.

The moment Lundy saw the two transport aircraft land, all desire to resist vanished from his heart. He turned toward the equally pale adjutant beside him. His throat shifted, and eventually he forced out the helpless words. “We’ve lost.”

...

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