Beep—
Accompanied by the shriek of an extremely piercing horn, the Chemos Guard lying in ambush around the Xenos Army began their charge.
At the same time, countless Automated Flying Mechs that had originally hovered high in the sky began plunging rapidly downward, hurtling toward the xenos below.
Automated Flying Mechs did not need to carry weapons.
Because they were weapons themselves.
Boom!
After rapidly closing in on their xenos targets, they automatically detonated the Fragmentation Armor-Piercing Grenades loaded within them.
Even Melt-Explosive Charges.
Faced with countless dive-bombing attacks from the sky, the Crystalline Constructs could only scatter in all directions, raising their Focused Energy Weapons to prepare a counterattack.
But... there were simply too many targets. Far too many.
The Automated Mechs filling the sky were impossible to fend off.
Not when they were all diving toward them at such terrifying speed.
It was like someone holding a gun and trying to wipe out every mosquito buzzing around them.
No matter how powerful the xenos' Focused Energy Weapons were, how far they could fire, or how destructive they were, there was still nothing they could do.
What was more, the Automated Flying Mechs' target acquisition was highly intelligent.
Each one would only crash beside its designated xenos unit and detonate instantly, achieving maximum lethality.
Caught completely off guard, countless explosions engulfed the entire Xenos Army in an instant.
As the Automated Mechs launched their assault, the Xenos Warship seemed to have noticed that its ground forces' advance had been impeded.
This brutal self-destructing mech tactic had greatly obstructed their army's advance.
More and more crystalline Landing Pods were deployed from space, and countless fresh Crystalline Alien forces joined the battlefield.
Whoosh!
Sizzle, sizzle—
As heavy weapons were deployed, an exceptionally brilliant laser beam instantly tore through the miasma that had shrouded Silent Star for countless ages.
Immediately afterward came countless crackling explosions that rang out through the air.
The enemy's heavy firepower had entered the fight.
Lasers swept back and forth across the sky. In an instant, the black Mech Cloud that had filled the heavens looked as though it had been erased, leaving several gaps behind.
The Crystalline Aliens also understood that continuing to have their forces fight the Automated Mechs to the death was no solution.
After all, they were trading their own lives for soulless steel.
Anyone could see that they were getting the worse end of the bargain.
But as more troops were deployed to the surface and the tide of mechs weakened, if this was all humanity's counterattack amounted to—
Then although the Xenos Army would suffer severe casualties, with their superior firepower, taking humanity's fortress would still only be a matter of time.
But unfortunately, the only things charging at them were not Automated Flying Mechs.
There were also the surging masses of people scattered in every direction.
"What are these Auxilia doing?"
The Emperor's Children Veteran standing before the fortress defenses asked in confusion.
In his eyes, the Chemos Guard's charge was not concentrated like that of other Auxilia forces.
Instead, it took the form of numerous layered, interlocking Triangular Formations.
Their manner of advancing was even more unlike that of ordinary troops.
When ordinary Auxilia engaged in battle on open ground, they would form a line and advance while firing in unison.
But these soldiers constantly dropped prone and rose again, their triangular Combat Squads covering one another as they ran, dropped down, and fired.
Why were they doing this?
"Shut up and watch closely."
The instant the Chemos Guard's tactics unfolded, Company Commander Caslon's impression of the Legion Acting Prefect changed dramatically.
This battle-hardened veteran needed only a moment to recognize the brilliance of Kasgar's tactical arrangements.
"Pay attention and record this."
"We may be able to use tactics like these in our own Guerilla Warfare in the future."
"Attention?"
Aqua asked in confusion.
"What did the soldiers constantly dropping prone have to do with attention?"
"It is a means of exhausting the enemy's focus," Kasgar explained.
"In the enemy's eyes, there is little difference between someone dropping prone and someone being shot down."
"No one can distinguish whether an opponent is dead or alive amid a battlefield filled with death and constant change."
"And even the most advanced reconnaissance equipment cannot distinguish the wounded, the newly dead, the dying, and soldiers lying prone."
Put simply, it was a way of repeatedly pulling the enemy's aim around through a game of whack-a-mole.
You simply could not tell whether that enemy who had fallen was dead or lying prone and firing.
The troops constantly rising and dropping placed immense psychological and mental pressure on the enemy.
At the same time, the Triangular Formation allowed the attacking troops to remain closely coordinated despite being spread out.
Furthermore, the crystalline plain where they fought had wildly uneven terrain. Its countless jagged crystal ridges and hollows could practically be called natural trenches.
The Chemos Guard had thoroughly surveyed the terrain before arriving and knew it like the back of their hands.
As they advanced or withdrew in coordination, repeatedly popping up and disappearing again, the enemy could only feel as though foes were everywhere, with no way to deal with them.
"Then arrange several groups of soldiers to rotate in. Like a tsunami, they repeatedly wash over the enemy positions, wave after wave."
"It is dazzling and overwhelming. Every corpse may be an enemy lying prone, and every drone may be an unexploded bomb."
"Even if we only have a few thousand men, it will look like we have—"
"A sea of people."
"That sounds pretty mystical. I don't really get it."
The stronger Aqua was with a sword, the weaker she was at everything else.
"Anyway, this was the command you gave the Chemos Guard, telling them to fight like this, right?"
"Command?"
Kasgar smiled.
"I gave them only one command—attack."
"Everything you see here is the result of their own understanding and execution."
Although Kasgar was the Legion Acting Prefect and commander, he never interfered in the specifics of battle.
He only provided the most basic intelligence and orders to attack or withdraw. As for how to fight and whom to prioritize, the Chemos Guard's junior officers relied entirely on their own initiative and judgment.
Organization, coordination.
Combat information on an actual battlefield changed by the second. Warfare did not depend on a commander personally moving an artillery piece five centimeters in real time.
If Roboute Guilliman's Ultramarines were perfect executors of meticulously arranged tactics—
Then the Sons of the Emperor Kasgar would lead in the future would possess the freedom of water, allowing every Combat Squad to create local advantages according to changing conditions and select the best tactical approach.
"Then by your reasoning, wouldn't anyone who used this tactic be invincible?"
"Of course not."
The tactic itself was not without weaknesses. It still had many prerequisites.
Fighting this way required exceptional organizational ability.
Junior officers had to be capable enough to judge the battle situation and adopt the appropriate tactics.
A useless soldier was bad enough; a useless commander ruined the entire army.
And the soldiers themselves had to possess the will to fight.
Otherwise, when Kasgar had ordered them to attack on their own, their first reaction would have been to throw down their weapons and run.
Then there was intelligence.
The reason the first wave of Automated Flying Mechs had not immediately begun bombing was simple.
Their role was to measure every piece of information that appeared on the battlefield and transmit it back to their side.
Where the enemy's weak points were, where the enemy's main forces and attention were concentrated, and which unit's defeat would leave the enemy leaderless—
The mechs quickly gathered all of this intelligence.
And to Kasgar and the others, enemy forces that had exposed all their information were as naked as could be.
"And thus, they will be defeated one by one by our forces."
Kasgar smiled confidently.