Besides the two heavy knights that attracted most of the attention of the defenders, the other Imodris chs looked well-built as well. Ves forcefully shook off his fear and began to focus on what he could do to help.
"As a ch designer, I can still be of use."
Out of all the defenders, he knew more about chs than everyone else put together.
In battles like these, ch designers sotis assisted frontline units by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy chs. They also kept their eye out for weak points generated by battle damage.
Ves kept his eyes trained on the projections that showed the approaching Vesian formation. The enemy finished their preparations and began to set out towards the broken gap in the wall.
Now that the enemy ca into range of the ch Nursery, their jamming failed to block its powerful sensors. Detailed teletry poured into the command center in rapid tempo, swamping the support personnel. They tried their best to help the processors identify the ch models.
"Report!" Ves barked.
"Sir! The enemy regints have been identified. One company cos from the 5th Vavulan Chausseurs and the other company is detached from the 1st andering Monkeys!"
Additional projections popped up that provided a brief overview of the two regints of the 3rd Imodris Legion.
The chs 1st andering Monkeys all took on a mottled brown-green coating, and predominantly consisted of light and dium chs. Much like the Oodis Mudriders, the Monkeys excelled in long-range wilderness operations, and would usually be deployed in wild, untad planets.
The 5th Vavulan Chausseurs on the other hand consisted largely of frontline chs coated in grey and pale blue to better blend in to an urban environnt. They eschewed light chs entirely and based their full force around dium lee chs and a fair amount of dium frontline chs, the latter of which replaced their humanoid arms with ballistic cannons or laser cannons.
Ves understood the enemy composition. The andering Monkeys only made up the numbers and didn’t form that much of a threat. The true threat lay in the Vavulan Chausseurs, whose formidable chs had been designed to break through enemy defenses. Their allocation of two heavy knights to this minor raid further underscored their power.
Right now, they couldn’t withstand two heavy knights at once. It was not that the heavy knights possessed the ans to run down every ch and kill them in a single blow. Their true threat lay in their ability to act as immovable obstacles that absorbed everything the defenders dished out.
Having just co off a Mastery experience where the attacking force cleverly used disposable heavy shields as a ans of approach, Ves knew the value of an impenetrable defense. So long as those heavy knights remained operational, a large portion of the chs from Sanyal-Ablin and Mudriders would have to divert their firepower to hold back their inexorable march.
At this ti, the Vesian chs entered into range of the defending ch’s rifles.
"Open fire!"
Almost every rifleman ch among the defenders proceeded to open fire behind the walls. The initial volley of fire largely hit their marks, only to be stopped by two enormous tower shields.
"The Vesians have sustained minimal damage!"
The Vesians cleverly arranged their assault formation into a column of two ranks. With the two heavy knights in front, the more vulnerable chs at the rear had little to worry about.
Occasionally, so of the fire slipped around or above the shields, but the rest of the Vesian chs only sustained glancing damage.
Despite enduring a rain of fire, the Vesian chs remained in formation and continued to march forward. The only downside to their formation was that they moved at a snail’s pace in terms of ch speeds.
Heavy knights carried an imnse amount of high-quality armor, and their shields weighed as much as an entire light ch or more, so it was a given that they moved as fast as an elderly person.
Their relatively slow pace ant that the defenders slowly managed to chew up the shields. Nevertheless, these shields did their job as they forced the defenders to expend a large amount of munitions that might have otherwise been targeted at the lighter chs.
As the formation of Chausseurs neared the walls, the chs of the andering Monkeys started to branch out and pressure the sides of the ch Nursery. Their diversion forced lkor to request the Mudriders to split so chs away from the center and deter the flanking chs from breaching an undefended part of the wall.
"Fire on the chs behind the knights!" lkor ordered in the central command channel.
Once the enemy chs entered a certain range, it beca possible for so of the defending chs stationed in the far left or right of the walls to target the sides of the incoming column. This ti, they achieved so solid hits, although the frontline chs quickly turned their cannon and retaliated in kind.
Most of their fire splashed against the walls that the defending chs hid behind, but the intense barrage succeeded in suppressing them. At this mont, the inevitable collision beca imminent. The Chausseurs showed movent that indicated that they were about to bypass their heavy knights and breach the defensive line.
"Open fire! Ignore the knights! Focus on the frontline chs!"
The lee chs of the Chausseurs carried a substantial amount of armor. The frontline chs on the other hand had been built to scale, so their individual quality left much to be desired. Their deadliness ca not from their superior equipnt, but from the training and coordination of their ch pilots.
Even though their basic-level pilots would never be able to advance to advanced pilots, as long as they gathered in a sufficient amount of numbers, they would be able to suppress any enemy formation, which was what they did right now.
Their twin cannon barrels outputted as least twice as much firepower as a rifleman ch. What they lacked in flexibility and close-combat effectiveness, they more than made it up in the sheer amount of firepower they could unleash in a short amount of ti.
Of course, they also overheated very quickly and expended their energy or munitions rather fast, but in a short raid like this, endurance didn’t matter too much.
The only reason why the defenders maintained their ground was because the cheap construction of the frontline chs also made it easy to take them out. Plenty of chs turned inoperable after sustained concentrated fire, but the Chausseurs continued unabated. They had already steeled themselves for so losses.
To the ch Legion, losing a couple of frontline chs was nothing, as each of them ca with a unit price of around ten million credits or less. Their ch pilots mostly managed to eject well in ti, so the Vesians actually hadn’t lost any lives at this point in ti.
"Watch your fire! Don’t aim too high! We can’t afford to hit their cockpits when they eject!"
The Mudriders and the Sanyal-Ablin chs purposefully avoided targeting the cockpits of the Vesian chs. Neither groups wanted to incur any more enmity than necessary. If news ca out that they excessively slaughtered too many enemy pilots, then they would certainly be hunted down by the 3rd Imodris Legion.
The ch Legion on the other hand held no such scruples. If they saw an opportunity to eliminate an enemy pilot, they would gladly do so in order to damage the Bright Republic’s vitality.
At this ti, imposing manner of the Vesians reached an oppressive level. Many of the ch pilots stationed on the walls started to vacillate. Why did they even need to resist the Vesians in the first place? Neither the quality nor the quantity of their chs could match the combined force of the Chausseurs and the Monkeys.
lkor tried his best to firm up their side’s resolve, but everyone knew that the battle might take a turn for the worst once the enemy lee chs ca into play. To the Chausseurs, their frontline chs only played a side role. The regint invested most of its resources in cultivating their lee chs.
Ves quietly stood in front of the central projector of the command center and balled his fingers into fists. "Co on, buddy. Make your move before it’s too late."
Just as the Vesians were about to make their final sprint, one of their heavy knights suddenly halted. Even though the ch’s shield had almost been chewed apart from withstanding all of the enemy fire, the fra itself only suffered a couple of scuffs. The ch still possessed a lot of fight, and shouldn’t have halted to suddenly.
The montary halt of that ch caused the entire column of Chausseurs to co to an uneven halt. Many of their pilots turned their attention to their halted comrade, unsure why the ch turned into a statue.
Monts later, fus started to leak from the fra. Small explosions erupted deep within the fra that destroyed vital components. The heavy knight abruptly powered down and fell over facedown like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Everyone was taken aback, including the defenders. What had happened to that seemingly invincible ch?
Monts later, a tiny blur escaped from the chest of the fallen heavy ch. It darted towards the next heavy knight, only to be t with a barrage of fire from a couple of quick-thinking ch. The fire went straight through the tiny blur, forcing it away from its original course. In order to escape the fury of the Chausseurs, the blur instead changed course and dove deep underground.
"I knew you could do it, Lucky!"
His pet managed to succeed in taking out a heavy knight! Even though his sneak attack only worked once, the consequences for the Vesians were dire. With the takedown of one heavy ch, the remaining one now beca the focus of the defending chs. They all diverted their firepower to that heavy, blasting apart its shield in short succession and started working away at the ch’s heavy armor plating.
While the Vavulan Chausseurs fell into a brief bout of confusion, to their credit they regained their senses extraordinarily quickly. They all beca enraged at the strange attack and switched tack almost imdiately. Their chs all charged forward at their full speed, leaving the defending lee chs scrambling to et the charge.
"Hold the line! Set off the traps!"
The ground before the Vesian chs briefly exploded as mines hidden just below their feet beca ard.
Although the explosions all hit multiple chs, their power left much to be desired. In order to hide them from the Vesian scanners, they only ca in relatively small packages.
Still, even if the mines mostly failed to breach the armor of the stricken chs, they ddi succeed in slowing their charge. Ultimately, this caused the Chausseurs to clash against the defensive line with less than perfect force.
Still, the line almost buckled then and there as the handful of knights failed to withstand the impact of the chargning chs.
For a mont, both sides recovered from the charge, but then the true lee began.
"Hold them back! Don’t let them through the gap!"
The previous artillery bombardnt opened up a wide gap in the defensive walls that the defending chs struggled to stopper up. However, the intensity in which the Chausseurs pressed down upon them indicated that they wouldn’t be able to hold for long.
Ves frantically studied the chs of the Chausseurs, but found to his disappointed that they’d been too well-designed to expose any obvious weak points. Only upon sustaining damage would vulnerabilities begin to show, but that was easier said than done as the Vesians constantly rotated the chs that faced the front.
As soon as a ch sustained a heavy blow, it pulled back and another ch of the Chausseurs filled its place. This spread out the damage and prevented the Chausseurs from suffering a loss in combat effectiveness.
This way, they managed to maintain a constant level of pressure to the defenders, who all lacked the numbers to pull off the sa tricks.
The chs of the Oodis Mudriders suffered the most out of this exchange. They possessed relatively few dium chs, and most of them hadn’t been designed for a stand-up battle. Several of their chs succumbed in quick succession, prompting lkor to make his move ahead of ti.
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