Chapter 364 05.0363: "Exciting aerial shooting"

A hundred kilometers behind the First Brigade, at the foot of Mount Montachia, was the Imperial Navy's field landing and take-off airport.

The ground crew sent down from the Indefatigable were busy installing different tactical equipment for the various Fury Squadrons that were preparing to carry out air assaults.

The first echelon is the air control squadron, with wings and wingtips loaded with air-to-air missiles equipped with astronomical radar index heads and short-range omnidirectional infrared combat missiles.

Their mission is to destroy any enemy Deathclaw fighter-bomber fleets they encounter along the way, under the detection of the Alert Predator.

The second echelon is the long-range strike squadron, which is equipped with rapid-concrete destruction rockets and huge death strike missiles.

Their mission is to destroy enemy bunkers and hangars, as well as air defense firepower around airports that have been detected or may exist.

Unlike the uncertainty of the existence of field air defense positions, the air defense firepower distribution around the airport is usually not far apart. Even if it is washed by ballistic missiles, it is a profit as long as it can be destroyed.

The wealthy Imperial Navy had no shortage of powerful Death Strike Missiles, and the Astra Militarum's precious missiles, which were saved sparingly, numbered thousands in the huge ammunition bay of the battlecruiser Indefatigable's hangar.

At least it’s enough to defeat the star Far.

The third echelon is the low-altitude penetration squadron, with high-drag bombs hanging below. After the first and second echelons cleared the enemy's fighter-bombers that took off, and carried out saturation strikes on possible air defense positions around the airport.

They will conduct low-altitude penetration at the extremely fast speed of void fighters, and then pour high-drag bombs on the enemy's airport runways, simple shelters, ammunition depots and oil depots, as well as aviation command centers.

A high-drag bomb is a powerful low-altitude bomb. Its characteristic is that the bomb shell is designed with high wind resistance to slow down the falling process, so that after the bomb lands, its explosion and fragments will not damage the mother aircraft of the low-altitude penetration bombing.

Ground takeoff and landing dispatchers guided one 40-meter-long behemoth after another to slide out of the protective hangar.

They lined up in a long queue near the airport runway at a certain safe distance from each other, ignited their hot engines one by one, and soared into the sky along the newly hardened concrete runway amid the sounds of explosions.

Two alert-type predator fighters belonging to the Gothic Fleet's provocative light cruisers and an electronic warfare and reconnaissance (EW) Starhawk loaned from the Karl-Duniyash Fleet were deployed over the safe corridor.

After changing into his anti-D-force suit, Horatio boarded Anya Fasha's plane. She was both the wing commander and the executive officer of the air defense interception squadron.

"Welcome, little captain. Well, the last time you took my plane, I called you 'little lieutenant'. Sorry, you are so young, I couldn't help but call you that." When Horatio boarded the command plane and sat on the wing command platform, the female pilot did not forget to tease:
"Then that night, after listening to you talk about your past, I realized that you have a very colorful life. Well, colorful in every sense of the word, including the time you dealt with the dispute between the kitten and the pony after the dinner."

"you saw it?"

“Well, this isn’t a very rare thing, but it’s quite interesting that it happened to you.

At least you did what you said and didn't make unrealistic promises to your lover."

Horatio shrugged and hummed softly, leaning back in the comfortable airline seat, subconsciously feeling that his waist was still itching slightly.

"Hold on, we're about to take off."

She looked at the flat runway in front of her and pushed the throttle to maximum.
-
"Enemy armor! Fire!"

boom!
260 kilometers away on the flank of the st Brigade on the Southern Front, the Modians built many anti-tank bunkers on their positions, and at this moment the heavy firepower behind the bunkers opened fire.

Beams of blazing high-energy light hit the rebels' heavy tracked vehicles, which were urgently modified from agricultural machines and loaded with heavy firepower weapons.

Due to their wide bodies and unreasonable designs, these chariots, shaped like small fortresses, could only move forward slowly. The rebels standing or squatting on them poured fire on the Modians' foxholes and trenches from above. Following behind were the Leman Russ tanks scavenged from the planet and the Chimera chariots loaded with rebel infantry.

"Artillery unit, 0.2 base, fire!"

A thunderous sound suddenly sounded.

The artillery positions in the rear fired huge shells out of the muzzles according to the marked points that the enemy units passed by, and the shells flew along the trajectories calculated in advance, bringing down a rain of steel on them and quickly carrying out artillery attacks.

This caused considerable casualties to the enemy's frontline assault troops and effectively slowed down the enemy's offensive momentum.

Many tracked armored vehicles had their tracks blown off, and some unfortunate armored vehicles were hit by high-explosive bombs of hundreds of millimeters caliber directly on their vehicle bodies, and were instantly blown into the state of being sent to the factory for parts.

"The front-line early warning position was attacked!"

Gunfire rang out at the early warning position on the salient. The Modian Guards inside used fierce firepower to force the enemy to deploy a battle formation in advance before attacking the position, slowing down their advance.

But everyone knew that once the rebel troops really rushed forward, this half platoon of people would be killed in a short time.

This is an unavoidable sacrifice, but it is because of these warriors who are willing to die that the defense line still has a chance of survival.

Guns and cannons roared, and the missile launcher on the first trench position on the main defense line opened fire when the enemy advanced to 3000 meters. The missiles rushed away with long tails of flames and landed on the armor of the rebels.

Soon, the enemy approached to about 1500 meters of the front line.

As the target got closer and closer to the precise firing range, macro cannons, laser cannons, automatic cannons, and heavy bombs opened fire one after another.

The enemy infantrymen in armored vehicles began to get off and join the battle, but as soon as they stepped on the fertile farmland, they faced the same dilemma as the Mordians.
——The knee-deep mud made it difficult for them to move forward, and they gradually lost touch with the armor they were carrying, making them targets for the Mordians.

When they finally approached within 800 meters, the Iron Guard infantrymen who had already built trenches on the hard soil stretched out the muzzles of their laser guns from the sandbags and mercilessly shot the traitors with resolute firepower. But this could only slow down their offensive, and the rebels' front finally touched the defense line.

The enemy's armored vehicles rolled over the trenches above their heads one after another, and the soft black mud splashed on the Iron Guards' gorgeous uniforms. Without taking a breath, they had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemies who jumped into the trenches one after another.

The enemy armored vehicles that rolled over the first trench did not make much progress either. Many were paralyzed by the anti-tank mines that had been laid out in advance. Modian's commandos relied on the well-arranged bunkers and communication trenches to quickly approach the armored vehicles that had lost their mobility, and used special weapons to attack their vulnerable rear and side armor.

This is a common tactic used by light infantry regiments that are good at defense to deal with enemy armored forces. They are not anvils, but like soft gauze.

Once they have wrapped around the incoming fists, they close the gap and strangle these seemingly indestructible and unstoppable armored monsters.

Although they will also suffer heavy casualties in the process. "This is Dolphin. The rebel armored forces have launched a new round of attacks on the defense line of the Mordian forces."

"Pegasus received, have you detected any enemy air units?" Horatio asked while holding the intercom.

"There is an organic group signal reflection wave at a relative altitude of 1500 meters, with a bearing of 36 degrees, heading from northeast to southwest, and a distance of 173 kilometers."

Horatio marked the location on the holographic aviation tactical map according to the feedback from the early warning aircraft.

Just as he expected, this was the first batch of Hell Claw fighter-bombers accompanying the ground attack. They had just taken off and were climbing in altitude at a relatively slow speed.

The relevant air situation information was sent to the Thinker array in front of Fasha, and the experienced pilot immediately began to make combat deployments.

"Skyhawk Squadron, Falcon Squadron, follow me. At 12 km intervals, with our interception heading of 350 as reference, at an altitude of 7000 meters, launch the first round of missile salvos at 50 km, not giving the enemy aircraft much warning time to turn around."

A total of 16 huge fighter planes from the two squadrons immediately broke away from the formation, flew to both sides, and headed towards the predetermined interception course in a double-team manner.

"Followers of the true God, wise believers, and believers who seek truth, today we will break through the weak front line of the Corpse King's lackeys and cut them off before they reach the central hive group!"

"Destroy the Corpse Emperor's lackeys, and victory belongs to the True God!"

Suddenly, a shrill alarm came from the Black Thinker array of the lead aircraft.

That was the warning sound of being locked by the bird's radar waves.

"All aircraft launch the first round of intensive salvos!"

laugh!laugh!
Each Fury interceptor first released its first air-to-air missile, followed by the second one, which fell from the rack and ignited in mid-air.

Dozens of white streaks flying across the cloudless blue sky were particularly eye-catching.

"The false emperor's falcons! Damn, how come these guys are so fast!"

"Evade! Evade! Air cover squadron! Air cover squadron!"

The Hell Claw fighter-bombers immediately dispersed their formation and performed scattered evasive maneuvers.

For a moment, heat bombs, aluminum foil decoys, and noise emitters were above the blue sky. Then, missiles that had lost their trails due to the disappearance of their power stages exploded in the sky.

"Oh! True God! I pray that you can save us! Beep—"

The hit aircraft dragged thick black smoke and flames, falling out of control to the ground from a thousand meters in the sky.

Horatio stared at the air situation information map, on which red cross marks appeared one after another - that was the signal that the enemy plane was destroyed.

This group of fighter-bombers had just taken off and were preparing to provide ground support and attack the Modian front line. 40% of its units were instantly evaporated in the missile raid just now. The remaining surviving fighters also fled to the northwest to avoid the attack of the Imperial Navy Air Force.

Horatio's eyes caught the air situation report coming from the alert Marauder.

An enemy squadron was flying from a higher altitude, heading due north to south, towards the two interception squadrons he was leading.

The surviving enemy planes were heading towards the protective circle of their air cover squadron. For them who had failed to complete their assembly, releasing a new round of missiles meant little.

"Captain Farsha, target, enemy air cover squadron."

"Second round of attack, fire!"

Whoosh whoosh!
Both sides released their air-to-air missiles simultaneously.

As a fighter-bomber, the Hell Claw can both carry out ground attacks and fight against enemy air units. It is quite versatile and is the Chaos Forces' favorite multi-purpose fighter in the atmosphere.

However, also because it is an atmospheric fighter, the missile equivalent and acceleration power it carries are far inferior to the Skyfire missiles of the Imperial Navy's Void Fighter.

When the missiles they launched ran out of acceleration fuel and their trails disappeared, the Imperial Navy's Skyfire missiles were still accelerating forward, reaching a speed of up to Mach 5 at one point.

After that, both sides had to continue to use radar divination signals for guidance. The two groups of aircraft formed an eerie silence in the air. Faced with the missiles flying towards them, no fighter jet broke away from its formation to evade them.

Horatio bit his lower lip. This was the most suffocating moment in the air battle.

The legendary "shooting in the air, whoever is cowardly will die."

Any fighter that loses the courage to evade will lose its radar index, and the missile it launches will inevitably lose its target. It is still unknown whether it can avoid the enemy missile.

But, this is generally speaking.

Horatio had anticipated this situation and had a plan in mind.

On a level invisible to the naked eye, the large shuttle-shaped, auxiliary fuel tank-like device on the tail of the EW electronic warfare Starhawk that was loaned from the Carl-Duniyash fleet and was accompanying the flight began to take effect.

(The three-man crew of the Hell Claw fighter-bomber, pilot, gunner and captain)

　Please give me a monthly ticket! Please recommend!

　　Premium VIP users who enjoy a 6% discount may have fully subscribed but not have enough points to join the fully subscribed group.

　　In this case, you can join the book club, then send me a private message with a screenshot of all orders, and I will add them in.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)