Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 666

Chapter 664: Can’t Be Hard

Enough. The Titans’ movements appeared sluggish from a distance, but in reality, they covered dozens of meters with each stride. The opposing Titan armies, seemingly still at some distance, exchanged long-range fire, but a moment later, the two steel behemoths clashed fiercely.

Titan close-quarters combat required exceptional maneuverability.

At the outset of the battle, Gu Zhouhua had already annihilated three enemy armored giants.

The heavy artillery on the Warlord-class Titans was immensely powerful. Gu Zhouhua’s Titan’s main cannon was a laser cannon. Built at great expense, this laser cannon was a watered-down version of an M-class Melting Lance. Without the same range, the Titans couldn’t use it; nor was the destructive power, which they couldn’t handle. However, the lance’s concentration was much greater, making it significantly thinner. The damage it inflicted was comparable to that of a Melting Lance.

Under such a barrage of weapons, the energy and void shields of the larger Titans could still withstand it, but ordinary Knight mechs were no match.

Gu Zhouhua’s target suffered a crushing blow. A small Knight mech like the Squire-class was destroyed, shield and armor alike, with a single volley.

Even a standard Knight mech like the Ranger-class, while not small in size, suffered a single volley, causing its energy shield to overload, a level of damage so severe that even the shield generators exploded. Then, without the need for a main gun, a single volley from the weapons system operators’ secondary guns was enough to destroy the target.

This was how these three victories were achieved.

However, a powerful Warlord-class Titan couldn’t be constantly used against such small creatures.

Gu Zhouhua’s Titan, one of the fastest-moving large Titans in the entire Legion, naturally drew concentrated enemy fire.

In fact, a Warlord-class Titan had already fallen not far from Gu Zhouhua.

It wasn’t that the Void Shield wasn’t effective, nor that the armor wasn’t thick enough; it was simply being targeted, and no matter how strong it was, it couldn’t withstand it.

Of course, Warlord-class Titans also fell on the opposing side.

Gu Zhouhua wasn’t so unlucky, not becoming the primary target of the enemy’s concentrated fire. Even so, the ferocious fire caused his Void Shield to turn a dangerous purple-red, threatening to overload.

At this juncture, under his constant urging, the operator in charge of the power supply had already started to smoke the engine. The entire Warlord-class Titan charged into the enemy formation, its target being an enemy Warhound-class Titan.

The fierce clash brought both sides to a momentary halt.

At this point, Gu Zhouhua could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Once locked in close combat, the enemy’s fire wouldn’t be able to concentrate on him. Even if the enemy insisted on attacking, regardless of friendly casualties, he still had a Warhound in front to block the attack.

However, the sigh of relief he had just let out was forced to be rekindled.

Is close combat really that easy?

Even if the opponent was just a Warhound, there was no room for complacency.

Void shields were useless in close combat!

Even back when he was a trainee, he’d known this: wielding a melee weapon slowly through a void shield before accelerating to cut and strike the enemy. He didn’t believe the opposing Titan operator didn’t know this.

Even though the infected pilots had lost their minds, they were essentially lacking some flexibility and rigidly following orders. They still had the ability to think. After all, their brains had been eaten—at least not completely, so they could still function normally.

This was an advantage in some situations, but in a confrontation involving sophisticated weaponry and top-tier equipment, a lack of “humanity” was fatal.

The Warhound Titan only mechanically tried to straighten itself and mechanically hurled its weapon at Gu Zhouhua’s Titan.

But Gu Zhouhua, with a sudden inspiration, issued several commands in quick succession. The power unit abandoned the balance control provided by the machine spirit and operated solely on the legs. With a single thrust, it knocked the Warhound Titan to its knees. Taking advantage of the situation, the weapons team unleashed a massive power fist onto its head.

If one punch didn’t do the trick, they’d just keep hitting it again until the entire Warhound-class Titan was completely destroyed.

During this process, Gu Zhouhua, the Titan’s commander, was no longer focused on the enemy in front of him. Instead, he was accessing information from the observation system regarding the entire battle situation ahead and to the sides.

His biggest worry was being targeted by other enemy fire while he was pinning and beating the enemy.

When their Void Shields were nearing overload, they were actually quite vulnerable.

What reassured him was that the enemy wasn’t aiming at him. Only a small amount of fire struck him, and the nearly overloaded Void Shields still blocked 30% of it. The remaining 70% caused the Titan to stagger, but the Titan’s robust armor and structural strength allowed it to withstand the attack, and even the damage wasn’t serious.

This wasn’t because the enemy was showing mercy, but rather because by this point, the two sides had already engaged in extensive contact.

War machines, flanked by their allies, charged forward and collided with each other.

The clashing of steel and steel produced a deafening roar. These steel giants, often tens or even dozens of meters tall, engaged each other in a primal and brutal manner.

Enormous chainswords shredded steel;

power fists, with unparalleled force, crushed shells;

cannon barrels penetrated the inner layers of energy shields, firing at close range.

In this seemingly modest area, the ferocious clash between hundreds of steel behemoths was truly rare.

Even Chapter Master Salilius of the Ortopis, a man of extensive experience and experience, had to admit that this war resembled many of the classic battles recorded in ancient history. Throughout Imperial history

, battles involving such a concentrated concentration of Titans in such a confined area, with both sides engaged in desperate battles, were not uncommon, but they were rare.

He couldn’t help but ask the person next to him, “Sage Barnes, what do you think of this Alliance Titan Legion? Have you changed your assessment from a few days ago?”

Barnes was silent for a long moment.

He came from Mars, from the Mechanicus’s headquarters, to serve as the chief advisor to Salilius and the entire Western Front Legion.

A few days ago, when the Alliance Titans attacked, he’d commented with four words:

“Nothing special.”

Back then, he’d still clung to his words, a bit of the arrogance of, “I’m from the center of the Empire, I’ve seen Titan legions far stronger than this.”

But now, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

Perhaps the Martian Mechanicum could directly mobilize a far greater number of Titan legions than this. But how many years had it been since the Martian Titans had fought a war like this? They were usually lucky enough to deploy a few Titans on a single battlefield and crush the enemy.

Martians had little experience with large-scale Titan-to-Titan battles like this.

At least, he hadn’t personally witnessed it.

Now, he couldn’t be too stubborn. He

could only cough twice and say, “They’re quite capable.”

Salilius chuckled and sighed, “If it weren’t for the Alliance’s help, with only the few dozen Titans and Knights at our disposal, we wouldn’t have been able to defeat this kind of battle today.”

————

One more chapter before dawn.

(End of this chapter)