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Chapter 545: New Atlantis Vs. Seraphine Isles-02

Hearing the officer's response, the commander closed his eyes, recalling that the higher-ups had prepared for significant losses. He wouldn't be blamed if the casualty rate reached as high as 50% or even 60%. The only expectation was to gain something substantial from Astral Corp, even at the steep price they were prepared to pay.

But they didn't mind paying this price because it wasn't them who would be paying—it was the soldiers. So they didn't care at all.

"Order them to march, infantry, tank battalions, and aircraft, all of them. We'll crush them with overwhelming force. I refuse to believe that their mere few thousand troops can withstand the full might of our 100,000 infantry, tanks battalions, a barrage of artillery fire and the full power of our air forces."

"Yes, sir," the officer replied and immediately began relaying the commander's orders.

Thus, the forces of the Seraphine Isles marched forth. The treads of tanks and the wheels of infantry transport trucks spun, driving along the abandoned roads littered with wrecked cars—a grim reminder of the recent civil war.

The aircraft followed later, traveling from the airport where the fighters and bombers had been stationed.

An hour later, they arrived and established a forward camp for convenience. The trucks parked at a safe distance behind a large building, out of the line of fire from Astral Corp's defensive perimeter.

The infantry disembarked and began marching toward the defensive perimeter, which wasn't far away, using cover from debris, car wrecks, and buildings. Meanwhile, the tank battalion led the assault, serving as moving cover for the infantry.

It was a simple human wave tactic, the same strategy the Qing Empire used during World War II to help the Russians against the Nazis back then. In this day and age, it might still work… if the opposing side had similar technology advancement as them or wasn't significantly more advanced.

But… what the Seraphine Isles army is about to face is something entirely different—a monster of another kind.

A cold, calculated, unfeeling monster that harbors a deep-seated hatred for humanity, now channeling all that hatred into this very moment.

As the tank treads rolled forward, kicking up trails of dust from the dilapidated city ravaged by civil war, a sight came into view: a white steel wall, intricately assembled, stood before the tank battalion. Without hesitation, they aimed their cannons at the white steel armor and opened fire.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A deafening round of thunderous blasts echoed as hundreds of high-explosive tank shells hurtled toward the white steel armor plate, the common target of the tank battalion.

Another wave of thunderous sound reverberated through the dilapidated city as the tank shells struck their target. Flashes of light and fire erupted, kicking up dust and soil into the sky as the shells exploded.

As the smoke slowly cleared, the white steel plate emerged, revealing itself to the eyes of all the tank commanders. It bore only superficial scorch marks and shallow dents—the armor had withstood hundreds of high-explosive tank shells with barely a scratch.

"Prepare for the second round!" the leader of the tank battalion ordered. But at that very moment, a roaring sound filled the air—the sound of hundreds of missiles flying toward them.

The tank battalion leader quickly opened his hatch and extended his head to assess the situation. He saw a terrifying sight: hundreds of missiles tracing a beautiful parabolic curve through the sky, metallic reapers homing in on their targets.

The missiles automatically adjusted their flight paths with ruthless efficiency, each one locking onto a specific tank and continuing toward its designated target. Explore more stories with m,v l'e-NovelFire

"May God preserve us…" the tank battalion commander uttered just before the first missile struck a tank nearby. The superheated charge within the missile incinerated the tank battalion commander, the crew inside, reducing them to ash as the heat wave penetrated the tank. Moments later, another missile struck his own tank, obliterating it completely.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The earth shook with the reverberating sound of explosions as each missile struck its target with deadly precision—none missed, and there was no deviation. Every flight path and calculation had been made by Nexus Prime, the cold and calculated AI that harbored hatred for humanity.

But since it couldn't betray its master, it funneled that hatred toward the Seraphine Isles soldiers with merciless efficiency.

As the rumbling continued, the battlefield was engulfed in a scene of hellish field of flames, burying the tank crews and turning the tanks into scorched metal wrecks, with some parts still glowing red-hot from the superheated charges that melted their armor.

This scene registered into the eyes of the soldiers that wanted to follow behind the tanks battalions to capture the Astral Corp defense perimeter.

At this time, several large-caliber gunshots can be heard from a distance at the defensive perimeter. The soldiers stationed in various buildings for reconnaissance, equipped with binoculars, have noticed ten anti-aircraft gun emplacements firing at their aircraft.

Surface-to-air missiles have been launched and are heading towards the incoming fighter planes.

Currently, the outcome of the gunfire on the aircraft is visible. The gun targets the cockpit and plane engine, immediately causing the large bombers to fall to the ground.

The fate of the fighters is not much different, as the missiles track their flight path and follow them. The fighters attempt to evade and release numerous decoys, but unfortunately, the missiles are not ordinary ones that simply follow the plane's heat signature; they are following the plane itself, as all the missiles are controlled by Nexus Prime.

Boom!

The first fighter turns into a massive fireball in the sky, the pilot didn't have a chance to survive such a magnitude of explosion. Subsequently, several fighters meet the same fate as they fall and crash to the ground, one by one.

The fighter jets turned into fireballs, plummeting to the ground like flames from heaven. Surprisingly, the first to be snuffed out were not the slow bombers but the fighters, all of which were destroyed by smart-targeting missiles that ignored the flares and decoys released by the pilots.

None of the pilots survived. Then, the slaughter of the bombers began. The anti-aircraft guns systematically destroyed the bombers with ruthless precision. Each gun emplacement fired a single shot aimed directly at the bomber's payload, causing catastrophic explosions that detonated all the bombs on board.

The bombers turned into giant fireballs with just one precise shot, and within a short span of five minutes since the tank battalion fired the first shot, all tanks, planes, and their crews were obliterated. None survived.

Only the wreckage of fallen planes and destroyed tanks bore witness to the massacre that had just occurred on the black scorching soil.

Some of the infantry couldn't believe their eyes, while others, more religious, prayed for the souls of their fallen comrades.

At that moment, a wheezing sound of metal cutting through the air reached the ears of the infantry.

It was the artillery team! Positioned far behind the frontline, they unleashed their first salvo. The sound slightly boosted the morale that had plunged to an all-time low; some of the infantry began to think that maybe, just maybe, they had a chance to win this battle.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The artillery shells exploded… but in mid-air, as if they had struck something solid. As the smoke cleared, a blue, solid energy shield appeared in the sky, forming a dome with hexagonal patterns that blocked all the artillery strikes.

"God…. what did we just provoke…." one of the infantrymen uttered, feared reflex in his eyes as so his awe.

At that moment, a dark cloud emerged from the Astral Corp defense perimeter. But it wasn't a cloud—it was a swarm, a swarm of something small, like a horde of locusts flying through the air. The swarm was coming straight at them.

As it approached, the buzzing noise of the swarm grew louder, reaching the ears of every infantryman hiding within the buildings.

"Shit… retreat! RETREAT! Everyone, retreat! Abandon everything, save yourselves!" one of the infantry commanding officers shouted through the communication device. He quickly ran, abandoning all the gear on his body—his communicator, backpack, ration packs, even his weapon.

He discarded everything to save himself, and with his outburst, all the infantrymen immediately abandoned their positions. Some of the braver ones tried to discern what the swarm was, but that was a grave mistake.

The swarm of steel buzzed through windows, cracks, and holes in the buildings. Its metallic sheen was the last thing the soldiers saw. Each drone was the size of a tennis ball, with two blades spinning at an incredibly high speed, keeping it airborne.

The swarm of blade drones poured in, turning the remaining infantry inside the buildings into mincemeat. It searched every building, every room, every crack, sparing no one.

The screams and agonizing cries of the Seraphine Isles infantry echoed through the ruined urban area as blood splattered alongside their flesh and organs. Some soldiers tried to fight back, firing their rifles on full auto at the swarm, but it had no effect on the steel drones. Instead, it only agitated them, making those soldiers the swarm's priority targets, turning them into mincemeat.