On the flat wasteland full of gravel, a dark-brown Australian monitor lizard lies on the ground, greedily enjoying the sunshine that is quite poisonous for humans.
After a moment, the lizard, which felt the earth trembling slightly, raised its head curiously, stuck out its tongue and looked into the distance - unlike its cautious ancestors, as a being at the top of the food chain in this desert, it had not tasted fear for a long time. Such a taste that the instinct of living things to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages is gradually lost.
"Buzz buzz..."
This lazy beast was not kept waiting for too long. In just half a minute, more than a dozen armored personnel carriers belonging to the 1st Imperial Guards Division came quickly from the horizon.
The huge size of the armored vehicle and the roar of the engine immediately made the monitor lizard curl up in fear, hoping that its brown skin could deceive these "predators" it had never seen before.
As the two heavy steel tracks slowly stopped rotating near it, the imperial artillerymen responsible for installing and maintaining the artillery stepped off the personnel carrier one after another, staring with admiration at the dark gun in front of them, with a muzzle so wide that it could almost fill it. A giant mortar that can be used by grown men.
】
But obviously, these soldiers have a more important task than admiring the cannon, which is to use it to pour boundless fury on the enemies of the empire.
Seeing that the muzzle of the heavy mortar was being raised little by little, the subordinates methodically unloaded artillery shells weighing several tons one after another from the ammunition transport truck. The artillery officer who had not yet received the order to fire found a rounder one. Shitou sat down and hummed a hometown tune while taking off his military boots and cleaning up all the gravel that had appeared in them.
"Hey, when did you hide here?"
Suddenly realizing that there was an uninvited officer lying at his feet, he smiled slightly. After recalling his childhood experience, he squatted down and gently picked up the entire monitor lizard from the sand.
"Good guy, what did you eat when you were growing up? How come it's heavier than a howitzer shell!"
The officer glanced around the harsh environment, which was almost barren of vegetation, and expressed his sincere admiration for the monitor lizard's ability to maintain its plump figure under such conditions.
Putting his hands on the armed belt around his waist, the officer looked at the giant lizard that huddled up immediately after returning to the ground and began to think thoughtfully - although the army did not prohibit soldiers and officers from keeping pets, his original plan was to keep pets. A loyal hound, but this monitor lizard looks quite spiritual, not as good as...
"It's decided! From today on, you will be my 'artillery assistant', Joachim Grantz!"
Until half an hour later when the signal trooper handed the latest order to Captain Grants, the soldiers could easily see that he was in a happy mood. The anecdote about the captain picking up a lizard as a pet has already been spread throughout the entire company by the good guys. Such interesting news made many artillerymen who were debugging the giant cannon couldn't help but laugh, adding a little more to their boring work. Share the fun.
The leisurely time was short-lived, and the artillery position that received the order to fire quickly became busy. When the imperial soldiers responsible for loading artillery shells used a robotic arm to load a three-ton tungsten alloy earth-penetrating projectile into the cannon bore, the buzzing sound caused by the metal collision filled every soldier's face with confidence. smile.
After all, for such a heavy mortar with a caliber of 600 mm, rocket-extended shells and a strengthened barrel to increase the range to 20 kilometers, the artillerymen did not believe that any target could withstand her bombardment.
Of course, if the first round fails to completely destroy the target, they will complete the loading of the second round within three minutes.
Holding up the silver pocket watch issued by the artillery school when he graduated, the captain shook his head helplessly, pressed the button on the side of the pocket watch that represented the timing function, and silently estimated the time it would take for the artillery shell to fly over the target.
Based on Grantz's position, he naturally understood that the artillery force did not have equipment that was more accurate and powerful than mechanical clocks and heavy mortars. It was just that the senior officials believed that equipment that made extensive use of electronic technology would be interfered by the enemy, so they removed some equipment. The weapons and equipment that should have been assigned to the second-line troops or even remanufactured have been brought back to the front-line for continued use.
However, for the well-trained imperial artillery, even without the guidance of fire control computers and satellites, they only need a telescope, a pencil and a piece of white paper. They can also find the best shooting angle for various artillery with great ease. .
"The time has come to test your qualifications as an artillery assistant. A qualified artilleryman will never be afraid of the sound of artillery, whether it is his own or the enemy's."
After touching his new pet who was feasting on military cans, Captain Grantz couldn't wait to raise the walkie-talkie and said: "Start the bombardment! Give our enemy a little empire shock!"
Three deafening roars of artillery fire resounded throughout the entire wasteland almost in no particular order. Within just a few seconds, three huge rocket-extended range bombs trailed dazzling meteor-like contrails and turned into several inconspicuous small objects in the sky. Black spots, accompanied by howls representing destruction, cut across the sky.
Adhering to the artillery doctrine that the Imperial Army has believed in since its founding, the general, who did not want his troops to lack firepower at critical moments, thoughtfully equipped each fire strike company with a 600mm caliber mortar, and their enemies It was very unfortunate that they had to face the indiscriminate bombardment of three imperial reinforced artillery batteries at the same time.
"boom!
! "
Through the vision of the high-powered telescope, Captain Grantz could clearly see the towering smoke column rising from the ground in the distance due to the explosion of the ground-penetrating bomb dozens of meters underground, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
After a moment, realizing that most of the enemy bases had been destroyed, he licked his lips with unsatisfied intent. He glanced at the long black tongue of the monitor lizard that kept spitting out in panic. He asked in a mysterious way: "Artillery Assistant, do you think there are still more soldiers?" Is a second round of shelling necessary?”
Perhaps there was an unknown force helping the captain. The giant lizard, which could not understand human language, nodded at this moment and gave a positive answer to the master's question.
"Since even you think so..."
As if he could really see traces of the remaining enemies in the underground ruins, Captain Grantz, after contacting the officers of the two surrounding friendly forces, gave the order to load the shells and continue the bombardment without hesitation.
Three minutes later, accompanied by the loud noise when the shells were fired, the second round of artillery fire streaked across the sky along the same parabola as its predecessor, drilling into the ground at a terrifying speed several times faster than sound.
With the blessing of speed and hardness, the three tungsten alloy warheads effortlessly penetrated tens of meters of soil and the external protection of the enemy base, bringing 1,200 kilograms of high explosives into this place. A crumbling underground structure.
"Boom boom boom..."
After a short period of dead silence, a series of dull explosions came from the underground. Together with it, thousands of tons of soft soil poured into the cavity created by the collapse of the main structure of the base, knocking out some enemies who were still trying to survive. Completely buried in the dark underground.
However, what all the imperial soldiers had not noticed was that while they were bombarding the underground stronghold established by the Arasaka Company in this world, a spherical drone had been quietly suspended hundreds of meters in the air, using ultra-high-precision monitoring The equipment carefully recorded all the data of the Imperial artillerymen during their operations.
After realizing that the Imperial Army did not intend to launch a third round of bombardment, the drone immediately turned off all the recording equipment it carried and flew over another position where the Imperial Army was stationed.
It is obvious that there is more than one such spherical drone, and they are very keen to collect information and data on the Imperial Army during combat.
Since the Imperial Army is equipped with a large number of jamming equipment manufactured by the Star Group, it is absolutely impossible for these drones to belong to the Arasaka Company. Considering that there are only three forces in this extremely desolate world, the ownership of these drones is very clear.
Through countless invisible transmission lines, all the data collected by the Stars drones were summarized to the Imperial Expeditionary Force Headquarters located in Zhanlang Fortress for review by the military leaders responsible for the expedition.
In the words of Expeditionary Force Advisor and Group Army Secretary Ramsay, "Even the most backward equipment, as long as it is supplemented by the help of an advanced command system, the enemy's pitiful advantage in technological level will be instantly wiped out. live."
