Chapter 334 05.0333: "High-altitude carpet bombing of the opening ceremony"

Seeing the officer put the cylindrical whistle in his mouth, puffing out his cheeks and ready to fire, the throats of all the soldiers in the trench moved in unison.

He tightened his grip on the gun, his palms sweating slightly.

"First row, turn around!"

Following the sergeant's order, the soldiers in the first row turned in unison and put their guns on their shoulders.

In front of them was a ladder leading to the ground.

Soon, the soldiers heard the squeaking of tracks and the roar of engines overhead.

Then came the sound of artillery fire from behind.

Cannonballs rained down over the tops of the trenches.

Then the enemy's howitzer artillery also opened fire.

The shells exploded on the snow, creating one "black and white fountain" after another that was several meters high.

The rebels' heavy firepower ammunition is already limited, and the ammunition allocated to each war zone and each front is even less.

After an artillery battle with the Astra Militarum last night, in which one of their artillery teams was overturned, they were in an increasingly tight spot and stopped responding to the artillery attacks.

But now they opened fire, for they saw Leman Russ tanks coming up along the entire front.

Wow!

The wide and long Leman Russ tanks drove out from the rear of the trench, the rolling iron plates creaking above the soldiers' heads. As they crossed the trench, a large amount of black frozen soil and black snow shaken off by the tracks fell on the helmets and shoulders of the soldiers below the trench.

The soldiers lowered their heads one after another, and sand mixed with snow and water fell like a rainstorm, hitting them with a rustling sound. Although their eyes, mouths, ears and noses were spared, a thick layer of dust accumulated on the back of their necks.

A young private in the 88th Infantry Regiment was boredly counting the number of tanks passing over his head and around him.

One...two...three...

Then a clearer engine sound was heard.

The line infantry were much more familiar with the sound of the Chimera's Vulcanor 16 twin-coupled multi-way combustion engine than the Leman Russ's.

Soon, the sound of intensive fire from various weapons such as heavy bombs, laser cannons, and cannons came from the front. The sound of shells hitting the front armor plate was like a drum, the muffled sound of shells exploding in the sand bunkers, and the sound of gongs when laser cannons were fired were the prelude to the battle song.

The young line soldiers knew that according to the attack sequence, it would soon be their turn to step out of the trenches.

He held the state cross given to him by his mother in his mouth, his teeth biting on the silver handle. His mother's love and the protection of the Emperor gave him courage.

Suddenly, everyone's head began to tremble, as if the air was burning.

The officers and soldiers in the trenches looked up, searching for the source of the sound in the narrow patch of sky above their heads.

But I could only hear the sound but not see the object.

"Look there! It's a bomber!" An equally young soldier broke the suffocating silence, pointing excitedly somewhere in the sky and shouting.

The people in the trenches looked in the direction the soldier was pointing.

It was a huge 'box' flying in formation.

These boxes were large, and comparing their apparent size with the actual size he knew, the experienced officer estimated that their flight altitude was between 8,000 and 10,000 meters.

Flying in the air were two formations of Starhawk bombers from the Defiant-class light cruisers, with four planes in a squadron, forming an air strike formation one in front and one behind.

It broke through the atmosphere from the void, and was accompanied by two squadrons of furious interceptors responsible for escorting it, so it produced such a huge sonic boom when flying.

"'Little Captain', we have arrived at the scheduled route as you requested and are at an altitude of 13000 meters in the target area." Captain Fasha reported to Horatio.

"Very good. Next, please continue to patrol this area, pay close attention and receive the ground air strike guidance form."

On the ground, the Hell's Vanguard guidance team, which had infiltrated the defense line with a few lucky scouts last night and was now hiding in the woods and bushes, was using the measuring instruments in their hands to calculate data for the group of bunkers a few kilometers away.

Because what will be carried out next is high-altitude carpet bombing, it is necessary to estimate the impact point dispersion range in advance.

Horatio rode on the black saddle, looking at the fleet of Starhawk bombers looming in the sky in the distance, and smiled a restrained but still slightly smug smile.

The area where the bomber group was located was not a high-value area for the rebels, but a part of the blocking defense line that was planned to be abandoned.

Therefore, the rebels did not deploy their valuable air power in this area, and the alert-type Marauders serving as the Imperial Navy's early warning aircraft did not detect any hostile air power.

Not to mention that for safety reasons, he still dispatched escort fighters to provide protection.

The rebels' anti-aircraft weapons here are mainly Hydra and Earthshaker.

Since the Imperial Navy was unwilling to provide close ground support under enemy air fire, Horatio thought from another angle:
[On the basis of ensuring air superiority, I will first launch a round of high-altitude carpet bombing on fixed targets. Wouldn't this not violate the support principle and weaken and kill the enemy's fixed permanent defense buildings?]
Soon, the Starhawk bomber unit received two Hell Vanguard guidance teams at an altitude of 10,000 meters, confirming a planned "bombing corridor" from different angles and directions.

The navigator marked the points one by one on the screen in front of him and planned the route. The voice of the lead aircraft commander sounded in the channel, and the fleet began to adjust the flight angle in formation and fly to the designated entry area.

On the ground, the enemy's air defense position's augury radar had detected the approaching aircraft, and each fortress group had received an enemy air raid warning.

"Quick! Shoot them down!" Amid the piercing sound of air defense sirens, the rebel artillery crews began to work as busy as ants.

The cold barrels of the Earthshaker and the Hydra were pointing far into the sky.

Soon, dense rain of fire shot into the sky, exploding into clouds of black smoke.

"All escort crews immediately raise their altitude." Captain Fasha, the wing commander, ordered the escort squadron.

The Fury interceptor gained altitude and broke away from the bombing formation.

The eight planes in the bombing formation dispersed, keeping a distance of several kilometers between each other.

At an altitude of 13,000 meters, these eight thick-skinned and scattered targets did not look very large and were quite difficult to aim at.

Without missiles and a dense fire network, it was difficult for the rebels to rely on the towed Hydra anti-aircraft automatic guns pulled by several trucks and a few earth-shaking cannons to shoot it down in such a short time. The high-explosive shells of the earth-shaking cannons exploded into black clouds between the clear sky and the clouds.

The adamantium tracer shells from the Hydra's anti-aircraft artillery flew loosely over a few kilometers around the aircraft, with a large dispersion and inaccurate.

Their weapons are all live ammunition, and facing high-speed targets at an altitude of 10,000 meters, there is naturally a large delay. Moreover, they lack a complete air defense system and divination radar vehicles, so it is difficult for them to estimate the lead time of the Starhawk bomber.

Rather than hoping to shoot down targets at an altitude of 10,000 meters, it would be more accurate to say that these shots were intended to interfere with the accuracy of their bombings.

But this is exactly what Horatio wants:

I've already carpet-bombed, so why would I need high precision? As long as the bombs can be dropped on your bunker positions, it doesn't matter if they damage, kill, or collapse anything, it's a profit.

The rebels knew nothing about this and still believed that the Imperial Navy Air Force was going to carry out precision close-range bombing on the bunker.

Thousands of meters in the air.

"Bombardier, the control of the aircraft is now in your hands." The bomber captain said on the communicator.

"receive."

The bombardier focused his eyes on the bombing device and began to debug the equipment.

A green holographic image was projected, and the estimated landing points calculated by the Thinker were marked with red marks on the image. The bombardier then called up the air raid area mapped by the ground air raid guidance team and superimposed and compared the two.

After confirming that the landing points of a series of bombs coincided with the ideal strip landing area, the bombardier turned the dial on the side of the instrument.

"Bombs out of the cabin!"

Call——

As the bombs left the bomb bay, their wings flew freely in the wind, emitting long, piercing screams that made people's hair stand on end.

Each one is 6000 pounds (about 3000 kilograms), thick and deadly, and filled with deadly plasma.

In addition, the size of a void bomber like the Starhawk is nearly three times larger than the predator bomber commonly used in the atmosphere, and the number of bombs it carries is even more astonishing.

The effect is as terrifying as if eight airships were dropping a hail of bullets 13,000 meters overhead.

This long howl made both the enemy and the friendly forces shudder when they heard it. After the Astra Militarum soldiers on the front line got goose bumps, they immediately burst into deafening cheers.

"Yeah! Blast those traitors to pieces!"

"Flying man! Fuck them! Fuck them hard!"

The soldiers in the trenches raised their rifles and cheered at the bombers in the sky. The air raid support from the Naval Aviation was rare. Even for those senior officers, it was the first time in their lives that they saw air fire support before the official battle.

With the rare special support, at least at this moment, everyone is full of confidence in victory.

Hundreds of heavy plasma bombs emitting faint blue fluorescence fell to the ground with a roar that broke through the wind.

The plasma without the stabilizing device released an increasingly beautiful and bright azure light through the missile body, looking like a beautiful blue meteor shower falling from the sky.

On the top of a mountain in the distance.

"What a beautiful sight! It's a rare sight!"

"I've never seen such a romantic opening to a battle."

"Oh, Mr. Cochrane, are all the weapons in your navy so romantic? Seeing them makes me want my daughter to marry into the Imperial Navy. Do you have any recommendations?"

A group of noble ladies and girls holding parasols and wearing fluffy dresses nearby looked at the plasma bombs falling from the sky like stars in the distance, and couldn't help but sigh with admiration inevitably in their tone.

"On behalf of the Imperial Navy, I would like to present this opening show to you. I hope all the gentlemen and ladies will enjoy it." Horatio stared at the battle situation intently and casually echoed it.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was cheerful applause from all around.

Amidst cheerful applause, bombs rained down on the enemy fortresses.

From the bombardier's perspective, it looks like blue fireworks exploding on the ground.

For a moment, plasma overflowed from the top of the bunkers. Any exposed guard would be blown to pieces by the splashing plasma if he got even a little bit of it on his body.

Soon, the air was filled with the burnt and iron smell of death.

Those small open-air firing points that were set up on the top of the bunkers with the intention of blocking the ground roads stopped firing, and the annoying clanging sounds on the armored plates of the Astra Militarum tanks finally stopped.

The shooters and assistant shooters of these firing points, along with their heavy weapons, have been merged into one forever. Only the remaining white bones allow people to identify that there were once two living people standing here, two shameful traitors.

Death gradually spread downward from the top of the hill.

Some bunkers that had been bombarded all night last night and had their steel structures exposed on the tops began to melt after being exposed to high-yield plasma.

It had lost its structural support, and the artillery positions were still bombarding it with shells pounding on it like thundering war drums.

Finally, these damaged bunkers began to collapse.

In one of the bunkers, just as the artillerymen on duty were reloading and aiming at the hard frontal armor of the Leman Russ tanks, gravel began to fall from the sky.

A rebel artilleryman looked upward, and the next second, the broken steel structure pierced his face, cutting off the upper half of his head, leaving only a living tongue still wriggling in his mouth where blood was gushing out.

Boom boom boom.

The collapsed top structure blocked the entire bunker's combat port tightly, the breech block was twisted by the quick-concrete fragments, and the entire muzzle was compressed and twisted upward, as if saluting the attacking armored forces.

"Fortress K-231! Received a reply! Received a reply! Damn it! Damn it!" As several fortresses lost contact, the commander of the defense line slammed his fist on the table and shouted at the air defense position officer:
"I don't need any excuses, shoot those damn flying monkeys down! Otherwise, you'll be the opening sacrifice in tonight's blood sacrifice duel pit!"

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(End of this chapter)