2762. Heavy price
"Stop... stop it..." General Maximilian-Vels wanted to roar, but it turned into a weak moan when it reached his mouth. He watched helplessly as the blue light group lit up again, like Reaper's sickle cutting through the earth.
The mechanical beetle, curled up into a ball and wrapped in terrifying energy, drew a light blue burn mark on the ground, bypassing the obstacles on the road while rushing straight towards the AT-AT walker in front of Imperial army!
The AT-AT walker also obviously noticed the situation. The walker's head immediately turned around and aimed at the light group and fired continuously. The Turbolaser cannon fired a red beam and exploded into bursts of fierce fireballs on the ground.
However, it was useless. The light blue light group was so dazzling that even on the radar, a light spot could be clearly seen rushing over in a circle.
This light blue light ball accurately hit the AT-AT walker, and even climbed up a few meters along the long legs of the walker at the last moment, and then exploded!
The light blue energy mass exploded instantly, and the powerful force raised the surrounding dust tens of meters high.
When the dust cleared, it was only seen that the four long legs of the AT-AT walker were destroyed, and the main body on it was blown to pieces and fell to the ground. However, this shot did not completely destroy it. The AT-AT's head was still shaking, and it even fired a shot.
The hatch opened, and a the Empire soldier staggered out and tried to crawl out, but was immediately ignited by the aftermath of the explosion. His body was burning with light blue flames. He screamed a few times before turning into ashes and falling to the ground.
General Vels was silent.
At this time, the conscientious technician continued to analyze on his terminal and said, "General, according to the calculation results, the energy contained in the Kamikaze Drone launched by this Golden Maggot should be constant. In the attack just now, because it hit our AT-AT walker, the energy level of the explosion dropped by about 80% compared to the previous time when it destroyed the underground fortifications. What flew up was dust, and there was not much energy left in it."
"This thing can't destroy an AT-AT with one shot, can it?" General Vels asked slowly.
"That's true. But it doesn't make much difference. The AT-AT's mechanical legs cannot resist this explosion, so as long as it is hit, it will lose its combat capability." The technician said.
General Vels clenched the edge of the command platform, his knuckles turning white. He stared at the paralyzed AT-AT in the distance but still firing in vain, and whispered, "Adjust tactics, let the remaining walkers disperse their formations, and continue the attack."
He paused and glanced at the blue dot on the radar that was emitting again, "Send all the troops and you can't just sit there and wait! This thing must be completely destroyed! Attack! Attack!"
Now he has understood that the mobility of this Golden Maggot is very poor, but if it is used for defense, its power will be doubled, which is equivalent to the attacker having to sacrifice a lot of losses to exchange with the opponent.
And the most terrifying thing is that the Kamikaze Drone launched by Golden Maggot cannot be intercepted, cannot be defended, and can turn and track autonomously! In other words, as long as it fires, it will almost certainly cause heavy losses!
"General, Golden Maggot on the other side also started firing. 219th Assault Infantry Battalion on our left wing was destroyed by a single shot..." the adjutant said in a low voice.
"If we don't kill this thing, we will all die! Attack! Attack with all your strength!" General Vels punched the table.
Galactic Empire's troops rushed up like a tide, and the troops who entered the combat position did not stop at all and immediately launched an attack. And under the command of Commander on the front line, everyone spread out as much as possible.
The 100,000-strong army spread out like a net stretching for hundreds of kilometers, launching a full-scale attack on a wide front. The the Empire soldiers wearing white polymer alloy armor looked like white ants everywhere, even if the opponent's artillery fire was firing, they rushed forward crazily.
Their Commander had told them that if they stayed where they were, they would have no choice but to wait for death. Almost everyone saw the weird and terrifying explosion, and they also knew that if they could not break through the Kingdom of Dawn's defense line, they would have no chance of surviving when this thing exploded one after another.
Among the Galactic Empire army, there are more than 20,000 K-X series security robots. They hold a Blaster rifle in one hand and fire while advancing.
Kingdom of Dawn's side also had full artillery fire. On the rear artillery position, hundreds of Siege Tanks opened fire wildly, and dense plasma clusters fell from the sky, causing horrific explosions.
In the southern highlands, combat robots inside hundreds of bunkers were shooting wildly, and remote-controlled turrets were constantly spitting out tongues of fire.
However, their army units are deployed at the rear of the battlefield as reserves, and they will only go into battle when the frontline defenses may be breached.
Galactic Empire's army had to pay a heavy price for almost every step forward, but they were not useless. As the troops on both wings continued to expand, Kingdom of Dawn's defense line was gradually stretched, the formation became loose, and some areas had been rushed by the Empire's soldiers.
General Vels was looking at the holographic combat sandbox at the headquarters, constantly issuing instructions to direct his troops to expand the results of the breakthrough as much as possible.
"Come in 14th Armored Assault Battalion immediately! Assault along the road on the east side of the highland and completely penetrate Separatists's front!" General Vels said sternly.
"Yes!"
Vels was finally a little relieved now. He looked at the terrifying Golden Maggot. When the battle started, all aspects of communication and interference from both sides were immediately intertwined. Therefore, they also intercepted a lot of Kingdom of Dawn's communication signals. They also knew that Kingdom of Dawn's soldiers called that thing "Golden Beetle".
However, this should not be an official name, because in some communications involving military officers, it was known from fragmentary sentences that the official code name of this thing is "Marauders".
This Golden Beetle continuously fires blue light groups at an average rate of one shot every five minutes, causing extremely tragic losses almost every time it fires.
However, when Imperial army's battle line was fully deployed, the firepower coverage of just two Golden Beetle was obviously not enough. In such a high-intensity, large-scale battle, the weakness of Golden Beetle was finally revealed in front of General Vels.
He found that the rate of fire of this terrible weapon was very slow. The rate of fire of one round every five minutes made it unable to continuously suppress the weapon. Moreover, the impact speed of the fired Kamikaze Drone was actually a bit slow, and it would often take several minutes before it reached the target.
Even General Vels discovered a situation. When Golden Beetle once fired at the the Empire armored troops, the fired Kamikaze Drone targeted a 2-M hover tank. As a result, the driver of the hover tank seemed to be possessed by Superman and drove the tank to flee crazily.
The maximum speed of the 2-M suspension tank can even reach 400 kilometers per hour. However, after a violent surge, this Kamikaze Drone exploded halfway! Although it also caused some damage, it was still much better than a direct hit.
This tank was also the only survivor after Golden Beetle was shot multiple times! General Vels decided to award the driver a Imperial Medal when the battle was over.
At the same time, General Vels also discovered that the firing rate of Golden Beetle was decreasing. According to the analysis of the conscientious technician, the firing interval of Golden Beetle has now increased to once every 7 minutes.
"Finally I caught you!" General Maximilian-Vels punched hard and looked at the battle line on the holographic sand table. He finally saw the dawn of victory.
Moreover, armored units have begun to surround Kingdom of Dawn, approaching Golden Beetle under the gunfire!
As long as you kill this thing and pick up some of the remains, it will definitely be a great achievement!
However, at this moment, the smooth and round transport plane that first transported Golden Beetle was seen flying over again. The transport plane was hovering over Golden Beetle, with a light shining from its belly. Then, a scene that almost suffocated General Vels appeared...
That damn Golden Beetle actually rose slowly with this light, and then entered the cabin of the transport aircraft. The whole process did not take more than five minutes!
Then, in full view of everyone, the transport plane turned around and flew towards the rear, quickly leaving the battlefield. At this time, Imperial army's armored corps was still advancing hard under artillery fire, and was only less than two kilometers away...
General Vels almost fell to the ground, clutching his heart. He couldn't even breathe and almost died on the spot!
When the transport plane transported Golden Beetle and put it down, he didn't feel anything, but now that Golden Beetle was sent away in less than 5 minutes, he realized that this unparalleled loading and unloading mechanism was simply off the charts!
This huge machine weighs at least hundreds of tons, and looking at the bulky appearance of Golden Beetle, it is estimated to weigh thousands of tons. Normally, it would be impossible to load such a thing onto a transport plane in less than half an hour. But the fact is that the golden transport plane only took less than five minutes! Five minutes!
General Vels felt an evil fire rising into the sky in his head. He roared crazily, "Kill all these Separatists! Kill them all!!"
Imperial army launched a crazy offensive. Their fronts continued to expand, and the number of troops they invested continued to increase. Now they have outflanked them from both wings, cutting off the connection between both sides of the southern highlands, turning this place into a protrusion of Kingdom of Dawn.
Now, they can besiege from three directions, compress all the enemies in the highlands into an encirclement, and catch them all in one sweep!
Imperial army has already set foot in the southern highlands, and at this moment, with the continuous bombing, Deflector Shield on Kingdom of Dawn's position has been destroyed, and now the Empire's artillery fire can fall directly on their position.
The artillery roared, and lasers, missiles and artillery shells continued to fall, almost turning the high ground over.
A 1-1-H Heavy Hover Tank took the lead and rushed to the high ground. There were destroyed metal bunkers everywhere along the way. Among the wreckage, you could still see the B-1 combat robot that had been blown to pieces.
The 1-H heavy tank is currently one of the most advanced and powerful Galactic Empire armored units. This tank has an astonishing length of 20.5 meters and is equipped with a MK 4/E heavy laser cannon, a MK 3/S medium Turbolaser cannon, and two light anti-infantry blaster cannons.
And this kind of tank is actually suspended. The powerful anti-gravity device allows the tank to fly at a height of two meters above the ground, and the maximum speed can even reach 300 kilometers per hour.
Compared with the AT-AT all-terrain walker, which has both the troop transport function and the obvious weakness of its four long legs, the super-heavy suspension tank 1-H can be said to be comprehensively superior in terms of firepower, protection and mobility - after all, this is an armored unit dedicated to combat.
A very intuitive comparison is that although the AT-AT looks extremely large, the four long legs account for a big factor. In fact, the length of the AT-AT is only 20 meters, which is a little shorter than the 1-H super-heavy tank.
But so far, the 1-H super heavy tank has always been taken care of by Kingdom of Dawn bombers, and General Vels is also worried about excessive losses, so he uses these precious units very cautiously.
But now, with a steady stream of reinforcements, he finally has the confidence to play his trump card!
This 1-H super-heavy tank ran rampant, and two Scorpion tank tried to sneak attack from the side, but were unable to shake its protection at all, and were immediately destroyed one by one by the 1-H rotating turret.
One of the biggest advantages of the suspension tank is that it can be equipped with Deflector Shield very conveniently!
The tank rushed through the sand, and there were no enemies visible in front of it.
However, before the driver of this tank could express his feelings about the cruelty of war, a mechanical spider about half a meter in size suddenly emerged from the ground, and then crawled at an extremely fast speed. In less than two seconds, it climbed up to the engine hatch at the bottom of the tank, and instantly erupted with a dazzling Arc Emitter, and then...
Boom!!!!!
A violent explosion immediately set off, and a huge crack was directly blown out of the front of the heavy tank, and the entire tank was overturned. Although it was not completely destroyed, it had completely lost its combat capability!
The tank that lost its ability to levitate hit the ground heavily, and thick smoke billowed from the engine compartment. The driver struggled to activate the emergency system, then opened the hatch and climbed out. Only then did he realize that his encounter was not an exception. Many Imperial armys who had invaded the Kingdom of Dawn position had encountered this kind of Self-Destructing Spider that emerged from the ground!
The roar of the explosion was endless, and the Galactic Empire's forward troops were disrupted by these Self-Destructing Spiders. They stopped one after another and called for radar detection support from the rear - because they found that the radar installed on their tanks could not detect these Self-Destructing Spiders at all!
But at this time, Kingdom of Dawn's movements did not stop. Bunkers carrying B-1 combat robots continued to fall from the sky, and after landing, they fired wildly at Imperial army.
These annoying bunkers, coupled with those Self-Destructing Spider, caused huge chaos to Imperial army, and the originally unstoppable advance was forced to stall.
It was not until the early morning of the next day that Galactic Empire's army reoccupied the southern highlands.