Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 289

289. Chapter 288, Let the Boltguns Roar!

The 9th Company of Valenzuan had to cross the 35-kilometer desert area and reach the designated combat site within two hours, and no more than three hours at most.

The time was relatively sufficient, but it was still impossible to run around with a bunch of heavy equipment on two legs, so they had to drive.

He sat in the co-pilot seat, holding two maps in his hands. One was large, and the other was small.

The large one was drawn before departure, with a large scale, and roughly planned the route of travel – only for his company. This was copied from the regiment staff when he went to the regiment headquarters for a meeting. The small one was just drawn, based on the large map, with a reduced scale, and was drawn according to the mission briefing that the regiment chief of staff had just mentioned during the call.

While looking at the map, he directed the driver next to him to correct the route.

Marching in the desert is very difficult, even with a car. In

the Western Desert, except for the main road that runs through the east and west, which is considered a paved and hardened road, there are no roads in other places – if there are any, they are trampled out by the caravans with their feet, cow hooves, and wheels.

This is not a good way to go.

Although the terrain here is generally flat and endless. But when you really drive, gravel, sand, small pits and small slopes are all things that restrict the passage of vehicles, which is quite a test of the off-road performance of the vehicle.

But fortunately, the new military version of the Iron Bull-200 equipped by the Alliance has been greatly upgraded compared to the first generation. Not only is the rear truck box fully enclosed with metal, but the tires, suspension and other aspects of the vehicle have been upgraded, especially emphasizing off-road capabilities.

Bumps are inevitable, and you can’t drive too fast, otherwise who knows that a piece of gravel that the wheel has run over will burst your tire at the critical moment of the mission, and then you’re done. Although there is a spare tire, changing the tire is a waste of time, not to mention that the spare tire may not be enough.

The team ran in the desert at a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour, leaving some extra time.

Valenzuan felt that under such circumstances, they should be able to arrive at the destination at the scheduled time.

The earlier the better. Arriving earlier, they would have more time to dig a few more foxholes and make them deeper, which would make the following battles easier.

Seeking a fight and being belligerent does not mean that they will throw their brothers’ lives away in a real fight.

They were not fools while marching.

Valenzuan had already sent out a reconnaissance squad, driving several tricycles in the company to investigate the situation to the west.

The Alliance’s army has fully distributed communication equipment to the squad level.

The reconnaissance team would pass back a piece of intelligence every once in a while.

They also encountered scouts from other brother companies. Based on this intelligence and the battles detected in front, Valenzuan roughly pieced together the current situation.

An unknown but certainly not small number of mechanical legions are being attacked by a synthetic battalion of the Extinguished Wind Brigade. That should be the 2nd Battalion of the Extinguished Wind Brigade. They were bombed and were counterattacking under artillery fire.

They alone were definitely not enough. Although they had Lion tanks, chariots, and elite infantry, the number was always a problem.

However, although the number of the front-line attacking troops was much smaller than that of the enemy, their firepower was extremely fierce!

Among them, the most important source of firepower was the Alliance artillery unit that was already on the march.

The artillery of a synthetic battalion of the Wind-Quening Brigade was not the only one participating in the battle. The artillery battalion under the brigade, the artillery support company within the reach of other battalions, and even the artillery of the 3rd Brigade next door, anyway, all the artillery that could hit were pouring firepower there.

The intensity of the artillery support was much greater than the scale of the participating troops.

With such artillery support, the brother troops of the 2nd Battalion next door made great progress.

Valenzuan really felt a sense of urgency in his heart.

He calculated the distance and time. It would definitely be no problem to arrive at the designated location in two hours, but he still had to try to arrive earlier.

After hurrying and hurrying, they arrived at the designated combat location about an hour and a half after setting off.

The enemy had not arrived yet.

They hurried to set up their positions.

In theory, they had about an hour to set up fortifications.

Their company had only more than 130 people, and they brought some engineering equipment, shovels, hammers, and everything else. Each squad and platoon found a suitable place and started working. With

so few people and just one hour of work, it was impossible to dig out a complex battlefield trench with all the functions. There were no

anti-artillery holes, tunnels, bunkers, command posts, rest areas…

None of these things.

But it was also impossible to stand upright on the wasteland and shoot at people.

They would temporarily dig some foxholes, pile up some rubble that could be picked up and put them in front of the pits to serve as bunkers and firing points; if conditions permitted, they would also dig another pit next to the foxhole – a pit with a cover to serve as an anti-artillery hole.

But this was not easy.

The wasteland in the Western Desert was not a desert, and there was no quicksand everywhere. But the soil structure was still not strong enough, and if the holes were not artificially supported, they might collapse by themselves.

The company now only has some simple engineering tools to use. Unlike the regular engineering companies and engineering battalions, which have recently been equipped with military-grade engineering machinery, digging such a hole is a bit difficult.

Valenzuan and the company instructor walked around, checking the deployment of each team and evaluating the progress of the project.

But just as they were digging the hole, something happened.

There was a figure moving from the northwest.

The soldiers immediately became nervous.

Their hole has not been dug yet. In fact, the time has not yet reached the scheduled two hours, and there are still twenty minutes left.

But on the battlefield, anything can happen. The enemy cannot cooperate with their actions and arrive when they say they will. They may have withdrawn early, or they may have sent out scouts or pioneers to ensure the safety of the retreat.

The soldiers had to prepare for battle and crawled into the shallow foxholes that had not been dug yet. Some of them had no place to crawl, so they could only hide behind the iron bull trucks behind them. On the battlefield, using vehicles as cover was obviously not a good choice, but if the soldiers did not even have this option, they could only find a place to lie down.

However, the situation that followed… I don’t know if it was a false alarm or worse news.

The ones who came were not enemies, but friendly forces.

There were many familiar faces inside.

It was the 3rd Company of the 2nd Regiment of the 3rd Brigade, the brother company next door.

There were about 20 people in total, many of whom were injured and looked very embarrassed.

When he saw these guys from afar, Valenzuan had a bad idea in his mind.

He shouted to his brothers to do what they should do next. At the same time, the company instructor had already led a team of people to meet them.

Valenzuan took a telescope and took a look.

The distant sounds were not clear here, but it could be seen that there seemed to be some conflict between the two sides. The good-tempered instructor of the 9th Company seemed to be very angry and was cursing something, and he also took out his pistol and loaded it. The soldiers on the opposite side were dejected. Some argued for a few words, but in the end, there was no movement.

In the end, the instructor and the soldiers of the company pressed the group of people back.

Fortunately, there was no bigger chaos, and it was not to the point of disarming the group of people.

After bringing the people back, the instructor arranged for them to find a place and temporarily organized an extra class to dig pits and make preparations before the war. He himself came back to find the company commander to report the situation.

Valenzuan asked: “Deserter?”

The instructor’s face was a little ugly. He hesitated for a moment, and changed his characterization: “To be precise, it should be a deserter.”

Valenzuan did not comment on this.

The instructor was still a little soft-hearted.

“Deserter” and “deserter” are completely different in nature. The former will be brought to a military court, or any military commander or military and political commander on the front line has the right to shoot them directly. As for the latter, it is a helpless choice, there is no way.

If they are deserters, it is okay, they can be gathered and used. But if they are deserters, Valenzuan dare not trust this group of people.

If you can escape once, there will be a second time. At the critical moment of the battle, if one of your defense lines escapes directly in the battle, it will affect the life and death of the entire company.

Looking at the look of the company commander, the instructor hurriedly said: “It is really a deserter! Look, there are no officers in that group, and the highest rank is only a sergeant…”

Then, he said the information he got from the deserters.

The 3rd Company is just northwest of their current location. The task they received is similar to that of the 9th Company, which is to encircle the rear and fight a blocking battle.

But their situation and luck are both bad. First of all, they ran into trouble on the road. They encountered a small group of enemies and had to get off the car and fight a battle first. This made them arrive at the battlefield later than scheduled, and their scheduled area was relatively close to the enemy, so they ran into most of the enemy without time to prepare.

“… According to them, they were attacked by a round of artillery before they got off the car, and some vehicles were blown up, killing a whole car of people; they had just got off the car and there was no cover, so they could only rely on the vehicle to fight the enemy, but the artillery fire was continuous, and there were combat drones attacking from the sky, so they couldn’t resist, and the company’s firepower points couldn’t be deployed, and the casualties were heavy from the beginning. When the mechanical dog rushed over, they couldn’t stop it.”

“The entire unit suffered heavy casualties, and the remaining people had to fight and run. Not to mention the dead, the living people were all scattered. They don’t know where the other comrades have run to, and they don’t even know if there are any alive except themselves.”

Valenzuan was quite emotional and sympathized with the experience of the 3rd Company.

The results of a battle with preparation and without preparation are very different.

He touched his chin and said, “That does sound reasonable, but in order to let them participate in the next battle, we must always pay attention to their fighting spirit.”

“I’ll keep an eye on it.”

…

The fleeing soldiers have already arrived, so the enemy will not be far away.

In fact, a few minutes later, the scouts on the front line sent intelligence saying that they had seen the enemy’s traces and had even shot down two combat drones.

And soon, they returned to the team.

There was no need to move forward to explore, the enemy had already arrived. Valenzuan was holding a telescope and could already see it himself.

“Fire!” he ordered.

There was no need to get close to fight, this was not an ambush, and there was no condition for an ambush in this endless wasteland. It would be best to try to eliminate the enemy at a long distance and prevent the enemy from approaching.

However, the guns in the hands of ordinary soldiers did not fire. Now

, the enemy is still more than 3,000 meters away, and firing ordinary rifles is a pure waste of bullets.

At present, the only ones that can spray fire are the mortars owned by the company-level units. The upgraded 80mm mortars have a much stronger firepower than before, and they are not too portable. Five such guns, operated by mortar gunners, fiercely projected firepower forward.

The other weapon that can fire is a heavy grenade launcher. The effective range of this thing is completely over 3,000 meters, and at this distance, it can still guarantee accuracy – it is people who cannot guarantee accuracy. After all, when people see things 3,000 meters away, it is good to see a small black dot.

However, if there are a bunch of small black dots, they can just rely on the scales on the guns and training experience to sweep.

It is the heavy firepower of the infantry company level. The enemy suffered such a blow, and for a moment, it really felt like they were blown up.

They seemed to be somewhat unexpected that they encountered such a fierce firepower from the infantry. They had just destroyed and defeated the 3rd Company, which was not well prepared before the war. At that time, the soldiers of the 3rd Company did not even have time to deploy heavy weapons before they suddenly entered into a close-range exchange of fire.

Now, facing the firepower of the prepared human infantry positions, they suffered heavy losses.

Valenzuan, who was holding a telescope, saw many cyborgs, mechanical dogs, and even another kind of machine that was rare before, with four mechanical legs and could walk sideways like a crab, equipped with a firepower platform, which was also blown to pieces by a string of heavy bombs.

Captain Valenzuan smiled.

It is very important to take the lead, at least the morale of the troops was mobilized.

But soon, the enemy’s counterattack arrived.

There were artillery shells whistling in the sky.

The shells were fired at places that were out of sight, and they were definitely out of their reach. The enemy did have large-caliber self-propelled heavy artillery that could hit targets dozens of kilometers away, at least the power was no less than the Alliance’s 155 grenades.

These shells fell and hit the position of the 9th Company, and suddenly the whole place was covered with dust.

When Valenzuan heard the whistling sound of the shells, he shouted “bombardment”, then lowered his head and wished he could bury himself in the soil of the foxhole.

The violent shaking of the earth, the explosion that almost deafened him, the sand and gravel that fell on his helmet and military uniform…

these were all extremely shocking.

But as soon as the shelling ended, Valenzuan immediately raised his head and looked around.

The losses were difficult to assess. One iron bull was blown over, and no one had emerged from the other foxholes for the time being, and no one knew what had happened.

But he clearly saw that the positions where the heavy bolters were placed, the original gunners and ammunition feeders, their bodies were abnormally twisted, and they were obviously dead.

Looking forward, the mechanical monsters that were previously suppressed by firepower had taken the opportunity to charge.

He gritted his teeth, dragged a soldier next to him, and rushed out with his back hunched.

He controlled the bolter, and the dazed little soldier he had dragged over fed him ammunition.

Fortunately, the heavy bolter itself was still quite sturdy, and the shells did not fall directly into the foxhole, so the gun was still usable.

After some operation, he made the bolter roar again!

(End of this chapter)