Sijiaer Hive City, Cole's private command room.
The adjutant put the encrypted battle report on the table with a complicated expression.
17th Infantry Regiment was completely wiped out, twelve ore refinery strongholds were blown up, and more than 3,000 people were killed or injured. No one from the regiment headquarters, including Colonel Klein, survived.
Cole picked up Data Pad and read it three times.
The first time is to confirm the number of casualties, and the second time is to confirm the serial number.
There was no way, because Cole really couldn't believe his ears.
17th Infantry Regiment is one of the most elite infantry regiments under Octavius.
For the third time, he put down Data Pad, picked up the gilt wine glass, and toasted to the coordinates of the Octavius flagship in the holographic projection.
He tried hard to look sad and angry, but he couldn't suppress the curve of the corners of his mouth.
Before, Octavius called him "a waste, a coward who hides in Hive City" every day in the encrypted channel. What now?
He retreated for three months and at least defended Hive City.
Octavius's elite infantry regiment was completely wiped out within four days of landing.
"Turns out it's not just me."
"Everyone likes it."
"I'm relieved now."
Cole drank the red wine in the glass in one gulp, feeling that the anxiety and insomnia of the past few months could be said goodbye.
He can sleep well tonight.
However, there is one more thing to do before going to bed.
Cole picked up the communicator.
"Send a condolence message to Octavius Earl, and the content is: I am shocked to hear that friendly forces were attacked, and I am deeply saddened."
"Sijiaer Hive City The ground troops have been put on the highest alert to prevent rebel infiltration. I hope Mr. Earl will take care of himself and put down the rebellion as soon as possible.
The adjutant was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head in response.
The official condolences to Dian Yue were even more hypocritical. When Octavius saw it, he had to smash the bridge.
This wave belongs to shrimp and pig heart.
Respect the fate of others and rub salt into their wounds.
Cole figured out the sinister aspect.
Oath of Courage bridge.
Octavius stared at the casualty figures on the report, and for a time he felt that he was hallucinating.
He rubbed his eyes and took another look.
Still the same number!
Just at this time, Octavius saw the condolence message sent by Cole. He was so angry that he smashed Data Pad against the wall on the spot, breaking it into pieces.
"Trash! A bunch of trash!" He pointed at the room full of staff members, his face turning red. "A full infantry regiment was wiped out in four days! Not even the shadow of the opponent's aircraft was touched!"
The staff members lowered their heads, and no one dared to answer the question.
The only sound left in the bridge was the heavy breathing of Octavius.
After being silent for half a minute, the combat staff took a step forward and said in a very low voice, "Master Earl, the tactic of holding on to the stronghold will not work."
"The opponent's bombs can accurately blast through thirty-meter-thick rock formations. If they stick to one place, they can easily become a living target."
"The suggestion of our staff is to break it into parts and form a search and suppression team with Sentinel Walker Squadron as the core to go deep into the desert to clear out the rebel infiltration forces."
Octavius turned his head sharply with fierce eyes. "The main force of the dignified Imperial Navy imitates a group of heretics wearing slippers to fight guerrillas? Are you crazy?"
"Sir, it only took four days for 17th Infantry Regiment to be completely destroyed from landing. If we follow this speed, we won't be able to wait for the main fleet to arrive." The staff advised earnestly.
"Sentinel Walker is an all-terrain walking machine. We also have heavy firepower and armor. We have an absolute advantage in the wild. How can we still defeat a group of rebels wearing slippers?"
After a period of terrible silence, Octavius suddenly punched the console.
Octavius stared at the casualty figures on the report, was silent for a long time, and finally nodded and said, "Give me the order! Set up twelve search and suppression teams, each with three Sentinel Walkers equipped with an infantry squad and one Basilisk Self-Propelled Gun. Divide the thousands of miles of desert into twelve defense zones and clear out all the rebel infiltration troops!"
"I want these country bumpkins to know that the empire's steel is not something they can touch."
desert.
Defense Zone Three.
Three modified pickup trucks were running wildly on the sand, with the stolen Hydra Flak Cannon in the truck bed, and the tires rolled up yellow sand all over the sky.
This is the motorized squad of Genestealers Guerrilla Unit. They use hit-and-run tactics, which have proven successful against coalition infantry before.
But today, they can't escape.
Three Sentinel Walkers rushed out from behind the flanking sand dunes, their articulated all-terrain legs walking swiftly on the sand.
Genestealers wanted to turn into the ambush point behind the dunes, but the sentry's all-terrain legs climbed directly over the dunes and intercepted them on a shortcut.
As soon as the leader Fika turned his gun, the lead sentry's cluster Laser had already swept over. The red beam instantly melted through the battery pack at the bottom, and the entire vehicle burned instantly and turned into a fireball.
The remaining two pickup trucks turned their steering wheels and fled separately. The three sentries immediately divided their forces to pursue them, and Autocannon fired wildly.
In less than five minutes, all three pickup trucks were destroyed, and not a single Genestealers escaped alive.
The Sentinel pilot didn't even leave the cockpit. He only relied on Auspex to lock the target and pull the trigger a few times, ending the battle.
Ruins of abandoned refinery.
A Genestealers team relied on the concrete wall and ambushed the coalition patrol with Heavy Bolter. After the attack, they prepared to drill underground pipes to evacuate.
This was a tactic they had used countless times, and the coalition infantry never dared to pursue them into the pipeline.
But this time, two armored sentries crashed directly through the three-meter-thick concrete wall and rushed in.
The Auspex array has long since cleared out the location of every living creature in the ruins.
As soon as Genestealers threw the explosive bomb, Auspex swept into position, and Autocannon destroyed their bunker in advance.
However, the Lasgun of Genestealers only left shallow bullet marks on the sentry's armor, but the Autogun carried by the sentry smashed the entire wall into pieces together with the Genestealers behind it.
The two Genestealers who wanted to drill the pipeline had just opened the manhole cover when they were burned to coke by the sentry's Heavy Flamer.
In less than three minutes, the ambush team was wiped out.
midnight.
Outside the coalition temporary camp.
Twelve Genestealers, wearing tattered work clothes, touched the camp wall in the dark.
Darkness was their best cover, and coalition infantry without thermal imaging equipment could not detect them at all.
Genestealers turned off the flashlight, held his breath, and even his heartbeat slowed down, but he was still accurately targeted by Auspex's biothermal imaging.
When they got within 300 meters of the fence, the searchlight suddenly came on.
Three Sentinel Walker hidden in the dark opened fire at the same time, and the clustered Laser swept across the sand instantly like the scythe of death.
They were nailed to death on the sand without even seeing the enemy's shadow.
Sentinel's Auspex biological scanning mode can still accurately locate every living creature in the dark.
In three days, twelve sentinel search and suppression teams cleared 23 Genestealers Guerrilla Unit ambush sites and killed more than 300 Guerrilla Unit members.
Genestealers Guerrilla Unit's penetration line was completely cut off, and the casualty rate soared to 60%.
Their fanaticism, tactical experience and familiarity with the terrain were reduced to unilateral massacre in the face of Sentinel Walker's absolute firepower, armor and sensor superiority.
Battle reports were sent back to the Alpha Hive City command room like snowflakes.
At the end of the last battle report is a fanatical prayer written with blood by Genestealers believers, "Lord Intercessor, the prophet of Four-Armed Emperor! The people of God-Emperor are blocking the empire's steel torrent with their flesh and blood!"
"I pray that you will give us the artifact to slay heretics! We will use the skulls and flesh of our enemies to sacrifice the supreme Four-Armed Emperor!"
In the command room.
Fu Haoran looked at the casualty figures filling the screen, his expression getting increasingly ugly.
Wade stood behind him and reported all the bad news of the past few days, "Sir, Genestealers's penetration lines have been cut off, and three supply points deep in the desert have been blocked. If we continue to fight like this, Guerrilla Unit will not be able to survive behind enemy lines for half a month."
"Secondly, we only have 24 MiG-25 fighter jets in our hands. We can't keep an eye on dozens of mobile sentry teams in the desert thousands of miles away, let alone lock them accurately."
"Third, if we send the Valkyrie gunboat, there is a risk of being shot down, so we cannot dispatch it casually."
"Fourth, the cost-effectiveness of the glide bomb is too low. Once the sentinel team is dispersed, our strike advantage will be lost. At present, it is just the vanguard force of the coalition. If it is consumed at the current rate, we simply cannot afford it."
Fu Haoran knows that what Wade said is right. There are more than twenty Hive City troops on the opposite side, and there is only one Hive City on his side.
If you fight head-on to consume, you will never be able to win.
Fu Haoran's eyes fell on the drawing of the gliding bomb on the table.
"The Sentinel Walker's armor is not thick, and ordinary artillery shells can penetrate it. Since it can be equipped with guidance for a four-ton bomb, why can't it be equipped with power, let it fly hundreds of kilometers by itself, and explode after chasing the moving Sentinel Walker?"
"We don't even need expensive bombs or complicated fire control. We only use suicide drones saved from civilian parts. This way, the cost can be lower, and we can still pursue the target."
The more Fu Haoran thought about it, the more feasible it became, so he immediately returned to 2K World and issued a task to Cheng Beixiao, the only employee in the country. "This is a new purchase Manifest, the sooner the better."
Cheng Beixiao took a look at Manifest and found that the items purchased this time were all ---- cheap!
Yes, all cheap civilian products:
MD550 engine used in dozens of motorcycles.
A batch of industrial steering gears.
High density fiberboard.
Scrap mobile phone camera modules.
Laser rangefinder plus electronic compass for engineering use.
Cheng Beixiao I don't understand. What are these drones used for?
Don't think about things you can't figure out. This is the philosophy of Cheng Beixiao.
After following his boss for so long, he has long understood: if he doesn't understand the boss's arrogant operations, it's because he doesn't have enough structure, and he will be done with it if he executes it.
After all, his boss offered him a monthly salary of 100,000 yuan. It was his fault that he couldn't figure it out, and it could never be his fault.
However, these things are too simple, not to mention the quantity is not large, so Cheng Beixiao placed the order directly from Taobao, and then packaged them together and shipped them by air to Amerikan's headquarters.
Soon, DYB headquarters.
A group of engineers are assembling a simple drone according to the requirements.
In the words of the boss, this is a suicide Firefighting Drone--although Li Jianguo feels that this load is of little use to extinguish fires, but it is too cruel to load explosives.
But as an engineer with an annual salary of one million, Li Jianguo feels that if he asks too many questions, he is ignorant and disrespectful of his salary.
The boss knows how to respect talents, and he must also learn to mind his own business. If he doesn't understand, it means he lacks strategic vision.
Li Jianguo and the workers assembled the fiberboard fuselage, model aircraft engine, and flight control servo, and welded the energy-gathering fire-extinguishing parts modified from the gas tank to the front end.
At the core, a photoelectric sight with a small aperture is installed, equipped with a camera removed from a scrapped mobile phone.
Li Jianguo I don't understand very much. What is the use of this opening that is obviously used as a bomb sight for drones?
You know, this kind of design was only used by bombers in World War II. When it is used on drones, who is it for?
Do we need to install a pilot in the drone?
What he didn't know was that someone said that although the driver couldn't be placed, he could put the "driver's" head on it.
Li Jianguo looked at the UAV that used wooden propellers, fiberboard fuselage, gas tank warhead, and motorcycle engine - extremely simple and extremely cheap, and shook his head mockingly.
"How can such a cheap drone carry people on it?"
Priest Kallen stood next to the production line, the red light of the optical goggles flashed wildly, and he muttered, "Blasphemy! This is blasphemy against Omnissiah! Use civilian brains, aircraft model garbage, and furniture factory boards as killing weapons!"
But his mechanical tentacles were optimizing the drawings frantically, and at the same time ordered to Servitor on the other side, "The fuselage welds should be made denser! The Wetware cabin is sealed! Before dawn tomorrow, I want to see fifty aircraft come off the assembly line!"
Lucifer Green eyes swept over the prototype, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"I have lived for tens of thousands of years, and I have seen Aeldari's aircraft, and I have seen Orks's aircraft made of scrap copper and iron."
"I think if you go to Orks's place, you can definitely become the chief Big Mek."
"Thank you for your compliment. From the perspective of being diligent and thrifty, I very much agree with Orks's approach. It's useful for whatever it is. As long as the weapon can kill the enemy, it doesn't matter what it is." Fu Haoran replied proudly.
At this time, the communicator suddenly exploded.
Genestealers Guerrilla Unit's emergency call for help came with a cry, "Sir Intercessor! Three sentry squadrons have touched the main supply point deep in the desert! We can't hold it anymore! The coordinates have been sent! Requesting support!"
On the holographic map, three red light spots representing the Sentinel Squadron are rapidly approaching the supply point.
All Genestealers Guerrilla Unit's ammunition and medicines are hidden there. Once confiscated, the entire infiltration system behind enemy lines will collapse and will not be able to recover for a long time.
Fu Haoran looked at the ten suicide drones that had just come off the assembly line on the tarmac.
In order to extremely reduce costs, the drone was not designed with a landing gear, not even a complex ejection rack, and only used the cheapest solid rocket booster to take off.
The boosters are custom-made by domestic fireworks factories. The cost of a set is less than 100 US dollars. They fall off immediately after burning. The drone cruises and flies on the model aircraft engine.
With a little fuel, you can fly more than 1,000 kilometers.
Are such drones really feasible?
"No matter, let's try it again!"
Fu Haoran immediately ordered, "Sign up the target coordinates for the drone, just in time to test the results in actual combat."
In order to save costs, the drone is not even designed with a take-off stand and relies entirely on ejection to take off.
As the command was given, ten rocket boosters were ignited simultaneously, and the orange-red tail flame cut through the morning light. The drone dragged a faint trail, staggered into the sky, and flew towards the desert thousands of miles away.
Fu Haoran leaned on the guardrail at the edge of the runway, looking at the increasingly smaller black dots in the sky.
Kallen stood behind him, staring at the ten disappearing black spots through the optical eyepiece, and remained silent for a long time.
"Sir, do you Garden World humans have any misunderstandings about the word war?"
The subtext of Kallen is, is such a cheap weapon too irresponsible?
"No." Fu Haoran said, looking at the flying drone, "The principle of war passed down from my ancestors is just one sentence - fight whatever weapons you have. Whatever can defeat the enemy is a good weapon."
At the same time, in the Oath of Courage bridge, Octavius looked at the results report of the three-day clearing campaign and snorted proudly.
"But if a group of heretics wearing slippers slightly change their tactics, won't the initiative on the battlefield return to my hands?"
He picked up the red wine glass and raised his glass to the Hive City coordinates on the holographic map.
"When the main fleet arrives, I'm going to hang that country bumpkin's head on the bow of the ship and show it all over Great Crusade."
He didn't know that ten extremely cheap suicide drones had already flown over the desert.
Little did he know that what he was about to face was a low-cost hell with a total cost of less than 10,000 US dollars.
Fu Haoran leaned on the guardrail, looking at the light spots that had completely disappeared in the sky, with a smile on his lips.
There are many ways to play.
Since we can't afford to fight the rich's war, we should take the poor's asymmetric war to the extreme.