Battle for Silent Star (Part 2)

BEEP—

A piercing horn blast tore through the air as the Chemos Guard, lying in ambush around the xenos army, began their charge.

At the same moment, many of the Automated Flying Mechs that had been hovering high above the sky dove sharply downward, hurtling toward the aliens below.

Automated Flying Mechs didn't need to carry weapons.

Because they themselves were the weapons.

BOOM!

Closing in on their xenos targets at breakneck speed, they automatically detonated the Fragmentation Armor-Piercing Grenades loaded within.

And even Melt-Explosive Charges.

Faced with countless dive-bombers from the sky, the Crystalline Constructs had no choice but to scatter, raising their Focused Energy Weapons to fight back.

But there were simply too many targets. Far too many.

The sky was thick with Automated Mecha, utterly unstoppable.

And they were all diving at them with terrifying speed.

It was like trying to swat every mosquito around you with a gun.

No matter how powerful the aliens' Focused Energy Weapons were, no matter their range or destructive force, there was nothing they could do.

What's more, the mechs' target acquisition was highly intelligent.

Each one crashed only beside its designated xenos unit, detonating instantly for maximum lethality.

Caught off guard, countless explosions ignited the entire xenos army in an instant.

As the Automated Mecha struck, the xenos warship seemed to notice that their ground forces were being hindered.

This savage kamikaze mech tactic was severely impeding their army's advance.

More and more crystalline Landing Pods were deployed from orbit, pouring fresh Crystalline Aliens into the battlefield.

SHWOO!

ZZZZZAP—

With the deployment of heavy weaponry, a blindingly bright laser sliced through the miasma that had shrouded Silent Star for countless ages.

Then came countless crackling explosions, echoing across the sky.

The enemy's heavy firepower had opened up.

The laser swept back and forth across the heavens, and in an instant, the once-black Mech Cloud was wiped clean in several swaths, as if erased by a rubber.

The Crystalline Aliens also realized that continuing to let their army trade blows with the Automated Mecha was pointless.

After all, they were exchanging their own lives for soulless steel.

Anyone could see they were getting the worse end of the deal.

But with more troops deployed to the surface and the mech tide weakening, if humanity's counterattack was only this...

The xenos army would suffer heavy casualties, but with their superior firepower, taking the human fortress was still only a matter of time.

Unfortunately for them, it wasn't just the Automated Flying Mechs charging at them.

There were also the surging tides of men scattered in every direction.

"What are these Auxilia doing?"

An Emperor's Children Veteran standing behind the fortress defenses asked, full of confusion.

In his eyes, the Chemos Guard's charge wasn't concentrated like other Auxilia units.

Instead, they were arranged in many overlapping, nested Triangular Formations.

And their method of advance was even more unusual.

Normal Auxilia, when engaging in open ground, would line up in a row and advance while firing in unison.

But these men kept dropping prone and standing back up, their triangular fire teams covering each other as they ran, dropped, and fired.

Why were they doing that?

"Shut up and watch."

The moment the Chemos Guard executed their tactics, Company Commander Caslon's impression of the Acting Prefect underwent a drastic shift.

This battle-hardened veteran needed only an instant to see the brilliance of Kasgar's tactical arrangement.

"Pay attention and record."

"We might be able to use tactics like this in our future guerilla warfare."

"Attention?"

Aqua asked, puzzled.

"What does repeatedly dropping prone have to do with attention?"

"It's a method of exhausting the enemy's focus."

Kasgar explained.

"In the enemy's eyes, there's not much difference between hitting the dirt and being shot down."

"No one can tell, in the chaos of a battlefield filled with death and constant change, whether someone is dead or not."

"Even the most advanced reconnaissance equipment can't distinguish the wounded, the newly dead, or the dying from soldiers who've simply dropped prone."

Put simply, it was a game of whack-a-mole, repeatedly drawing the enemy's fire.

You could never tell if that fallen enemy was dead or just lying prone to shoot.

By constantly having men rise and drop, they put immense psychological and mental pressure on the opponent.

At the same time, the triangular formation meant the attackers were spread out yet still able to coordinate tightly.

Add to that the heavily undulating terrain of the crystal plains—countless jagged crystal outcroppings that served as natural trenches.

The Chemos Guard had thoroughly surveyed the terrain before arriving and knew it like the back of their hand.

Whether advancing or retreating in sync, repeatedly popping up and ducking down, they made the enemy feel like enemies were everywhere and impossible to handle.

"Like this, you rotate squads of soldiers in and out. Like a tidal wave, you wash over the enemy position, wave after wave."

"Dazzling, overwhelming. Every corpse could be an enemy lying in wait, and every drone could be an unexploded bomb."

"Even if we only have a few thousand men, it looks like—"

"A sea of people."

"That's pretty out there. I don't really get it."

Aqua's swordsmanship was as strong as her understanding of everything else was weak.

"Anyway, that's the command you gave the Chemos Guard, right? To fight like this?"

"Command?"

Kasgar laughed.

"I only gave them one order—attack."

"Everything you see here is the result of their own interpretation."

Though Kasgar was the Acting Prefect and commander of the legion, he never meddled in the specifics of battle.

He only provided the most basic intelligence and orders to advance or retreat. How to fight, who to prioritize—all of that was left to the junior officers of the Chemos Guard to use their initiative and judge for themselves.

Organization, coordination.

Combat information on the actual battlefield changed in an instant; it didn't rely on the commander moving a cannon five centimeters in real time.

If Roboute Guilliman's Ultramarines were the perfect execution of tactical drills, down to the letter, then the Sons of the Emperor, under Kasgar's future leadership, were as free as water, letting each Combat Squad adapt to the situation, create local advantages, and choose the best tactical plan.

"So, according to you, anyone who uses this tactic is invincible?"

"Of course not."

The tactic itself wasn't without flaws; it had several prerequisites.

It required extremely high organizational ability.

The junior officers had to be capable, able to read the battle and adopt appropriate tactics.

A bad apple spoils the barrel, and a weak leader ruins the unit.

At the same time, the soldiers had to have the will to fight.

Otherwise, when Kasgar ordered them to attack on their own, their first reaction would be to drop their guns and run.

Then there was intelligence.

The reason the first wave of Automated Flying Mechs didn't bomb directly was simple.

Their role was to measure and transmit all intelligence on the battlefield back to their side.

Where the enemy's weak points were, where their main force and focus lay, which unit's collapse would leave them leaderless—

All this intelligence was quickly grasped by the mechs.

And the enemy force, with all its information exposed, was completely naked in Kasgar's eyes.

"And thus, they were—defeated one by one."

Kasgar smiled with confidence.