In fact,
the joint offensive of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and 3 Commando Brigade, Royal Marines in Northern Ireland
had placed enormous pressure on the thousand Astral soldiers.
The pressure did not come from the enemy's ground forces,
but from the armed helicopters in the sky!
They hovered above the areas where the fighting was most intense,
using their mounted 70mm rockets, 30mm chain guns, and even Hellfire missiles meant for destroying tanks
to repeatedly strafe and bombard the Astral soldiers taking cover behind various buildings.
This began to inflict genuine, effective casualties on the latter.
As mentioned before, the most technologically advanced equipment carried by Astral soldiers was their tactical goggles.
Their helmets and combat uniforms contained, at most, a small amount of Kabane biological fiber.
Their protective strength was only enough to stop pistol rounds below 10mm.
So they would still die if hit by autocannon fire, let alone rockets or anti-tank missiles.
At the same time, the snipers and grenadiers among the Astral soldiers were also doing their best to fight back.
After all, both heavy sniper rifles and Rocket Launchers could threaten helicopters.
But such incidents were unlikely.
First, the former fired 12.7mm rounds.
Although most of the Apache attack helicopters deployed by 3 Commando Brigade, Royal Marines were built from lightweight aluminum alloy,
key areas such as the engines, fuel tanks, and crew cabins were fitted with bulletproof armor made of boron carbide ceramic and Kevlar fiber.
It was sufficient to withstand direct hits from 23mm rounds at a range of 500 meters.
Even the three panes of glass before the pilots were high-strength aluminum oxide bulletproof glass.
They could withstand close-range 12.7mm fire and long-range 23mm fire.
Even accurately striking the main rotor mast was useless.
It was made of high-strength alloy steel.
It