Captain Richard Litgow was being driven mad.
His ch company consisting of light chs ranged ahead of the main formation in order to detect traps and other dangers in advance.
In order to perform their duties better, the chs under his command rarely grouped up together. They often split up into different teams or pairs in order to cover more ground.
While it was always dangerous to separate from the main body of a larger ch force, the light ch models assigned to his units relied on a combination of superior speed, agility and efficiency to make themselves as elusive as possible.
Even if these models weren't the best of what the Bontue ard forces could offer, Captain Litgow's ch pilots trained with them for years.
Of course, as his ch company was part of a planetary garrison unit, the models weren't particularly costly. Their armor was rudintary at best and the light rifles they were ard with could only scare away aerial chs and opposing scout chs at best.
Ever since the Bontue Republic's forces in the Korinna System launched their counterattack, Captain Litgow's ch company enjoyed a smooth ride at first.
Though it pained him to see so many cities of his planet get devastated to the point where they killed many millions of local citizens, there was no point in protesting the decisions of the higher ups. He could only lay the bla of the atrocities at the feet of the invaders that disrupted the peace of the planet.
As the Bontue vanguard units advanced in the direction of Dershin with haste, Captain Litgow expected to encounter little resistance.
The Quillim invaders had obviously been caught flat-footed and could barely keep themselves together without their precious starships. The remnant survivors found in the ruined cities quickly collapsed after suffering a single blow.
To go from mopping up scattered and disorganized chs to approaching a fortified enemy location under fire was like going from heaven to hell!
BOOOOOM!
An enormous orange blast engulfed a surprisingly large area at the rear of the vanguard formation in pure destruction!
An offensive knight ch that possessed just enough mobility to keep up with the rapid ch force had been caught at the edge of the blast radius.
Normally, an artillery strike shouldn't be able to do more than inflict moderate damage onto an expert ch, but it was clear that the long-ranged attacks weren't normal in the slightest!
Once the smoke and fury cleared, the knight ch had lost half of its fra. Many different pieces had been torn from the ch and flung tens if not hundreds of ters away.
Yet another Bontue ch had been lost!
"Damnit! No one told us that the Iron Hedgehog had beco this strong! What sort of shells have the Quillims dug up from their storerooms?"
"Have the Quillims gone mad? These expensive supershells are normally reserved for sieging fortresses or suppressing expert chs. Which enemy commander allowed Venerable Mox to waste these deluxe shells on normal chs such as ours?!"
The Bontue troopers possessed a general awareness of the enemy expert pilots and their respective expert chs. They had no idea that a newborn spiritual cat was secretly amplifying the attacks launched by the Iron Hedgehog. Their lack of information caused them to assu that the Iron Hedgehog was throwing lots of money away by foolishly depleting her extrely expensive warheads in advance!
Even though Captain Litgow and many of his fellow Bontues understood that the Iron Hedgehog was supposedly squandering a trump card in advance, that still did not give them a lot of comfort during this phase of the engagent.
BOOOOOOM!
This ti, a spearman ch piloted by a ch lieutenant of a different ch company got blown up! Despite the best efforts of the ch officer to evade the incoming shell, it was already too late for him to evade the incoming shell.
The blast radius was just too ridiculous!
Captain Litgow winced just before the powerful shell had landed. The distant enemy expert heavy artillery ch fired once every twenty seconds or so. The frequency of attacks had been irregular at first, but it seed that Venerable Irene Mox had found her rhythm, much to the detrint of the Bontue vanguard forces.
Although 20 seconds was a fairly long interval of ti, the fact that the powerful enemy expert pilot was so skilled that she could strike down at least one ch with every shot was outrageous!
"How is she able to whittle us down at this range?! We are still well over the horizon!"
"If this goes on, we'll be down 200 chs or more by the ti we can effectively launch our own attacks."
"It will be even worse once we reach the 50 kiloter mark as it becos much easier for Venerable Mox to aim her attacks at our chs."
"Why didn't we bring our own heavy artillery chs?"
"It's useless. The Iron Hedgehog will eat them all up like breakfast."
BOOOOOM!
The defenders of Korinna V had quickly gathered up thousands of chs, so a loss of 200 chs was not that significant in the greater sche of things.
The Bontues also noticed that the Iron Hedgehog only fired one of its howitzers at a ti. This suggested that the enemy expert ch clearly had problems with its ammunition reserves. Perhaps the powerful machine might lose its relevance in the later phases of the battle.
However, that was from the perspective of the commanders in the rear. To the ch pilots who piloted these unfortunate machines, they felt as if they were playing an oppressive ga of Russian roulette!
The impact this had on their morale was disproportionately large, especially due to the long period of ti it took to cross the remaining distance!
The ch pilots had been piloting their chs for several hours already, so they were anything but fresh.
BOOOOM!
Stopping to rest and resupply within artillery range of the enemy was extrely foolish, so Captain Litgow and the other Bontues had little choice but to press their advance and imdiately go on the attack once they reached the city in their sights!
Soon, the depressed Bontue ch officer received a new order.
"Captain Litgow! I need your chs to press further and strangle those Quillim scout chs! The main reason the Iron Hedgehog is able to accurately target our chs is because the enemy scout chs are transmitting accurate observation data to their rear. I am dispatching several more light ch companies to completely drive those scouts away."
"Understood, sir."
BOOOOM!
Privately, Captain Litgow did not have high hopes for this. Scout chs were extrely fast and elusive. They were difficult to catch and could easily lead pursuers on a long and fruitless chase.
Fortunately, the vanguard forces were not short of light chs. Even if many of their models were not as good as the military ch models employed by the Quillim invaders, their speed combined with their advantage in numbers should be able to drive the enemy scouts back!
It did not take long for over a hundred light chs sprinted forward at greater speeds and closed in on the Quillim scout chs.
The latter could not possibly fare well in a direct confrontation, so they helplessly stopped their attempts at recording and transmitting rich observation data to the rear.
Though Captain Litgow's chs were able to open fire at the retreating enemies with their light rifles, it was anything but easy to land consistent hits under these circumstances.
Even if their weapons occasionally struck the rear of the enemy scout chs, the damage usually wasn't too serious at first.
The Quillim scout chs turned out to be better than the ones employed by the Bontues, so the range between the two never decreased.
BOOOOM!
Though it was impossible to eliminate the enemy scout chs outright, Captain Litgow was already pleased with driving them away.
Combined with the fact that the Bontue aerial chs had flown forward in order to push back the Quillim's own aerial assets, there was no way the Iron Hedgehog should be able to bombard the vanguard formation as easily as before!
Everyone waited for Venerable Irene Mox to miss her first artillery strike. The Bontue ch pilots already regarded her as a devil, so they looked forward to pulling her off the throne they constructed in their minds!
Over thirty seconds had passed since the Iron Hedgehog's last howitzer attack had landed in their midst.
This should have been a reassuring sign, but Venerable Mox had pulled off so many amazing shots already that Richard Litgow and the others started to grow nervous.
Soon enough, the friendly aerial chs in the air detected a supershell approaching from the distance.
Although it was not that difficult to detect the incoming shell in advance, the resonance-empowered projectile closed in so fast that the Bontue ch pilots barely had any ti to react!
Different from the previous attacks, the potent enemy warhead dropped a lot sooner from the air than before!
Captain Litgow's eyes widened when his ch sounded a distinct alarm.
"She wouldn't dare!"
Though the idea that entered mind was too outrageous for him to believe, he did not waste his ti on any further thought and desperately flung his machine towards the left.
The light ch he was piloting could just catch the bright orange trail of the rapidly nearing shell arcing towards his ch unit.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Though the shell turned out to land far enough away for his ch to co out unscathed more or less, the powerful shockwave released by the excessively powerful explosion buffeted all of the nearby machines.
The resonance-empowered blast even spread an inexplicable wave of hostility that briefly caused ch pilots such as Captain Litgow to shake in their seats.
They all felt as if they had been one step away from having their bodies and chs torn apart by the explosive power of the enemy expert heavy artillery ch!
It took a few more seconds than normal for Captain Litgow to regain his wits.
"The Iron Hedgehog has shifted its firepower to our scouting chs!"
"Continue your mission but do your best to keep your units spread and ready to evade. Do your best to eliminate the scout chs. The sooner they are taken out, the sooner the Iron Hedgehog will lose its range advantage."
BOOOOOOOOOM!
Captain Litgow winced as he lost another subordinate.
The nature of the highly destructive artillery attacks made it nearly impossible for the targeted ch pilots to eject from their cockpits.
The muzzle velocities of the artillery cannons of an expert ch was considerably higher than that of an ordinary ch.
Each ti the aerial chs detected an incoming resonance-empowered artillery shell, it was already too late for the ch pilot in trouble to transmit the ejection command.
Before the cockpit managed to blast out of the rear of a ch, the fast warhead already reached the end of its journey!
BOOOOOM!
The repeated attacks on his ch unit already depressed the morale of Captain Litgow's ch company even further.
If this went on any further, even he might break from the pressure!
"Stand by for reinforcents."
"What reinforcents?" The ch captain inquired.
A bright blur raced across the battlefield and passed by Captain Litgow's ch unit from behind!
Nurous seconds later, four Quillim scout chs quickly collapsed as an unstoppable sword sliced through their torsos while hardly encountering any resistance!
The Bontue light ch pilots instantly regained their good mood as they realized what had happened!
"The Blue Amazon has taken action!"
The Blue Amazon was one of the few Bontue expert chs on the planet. It was an expert swordsman ch that happened to be piloted by an older heroine who was forced to retire from the frontlines after suffering a severe injury.
Though the expert pilot still hadn't returned to her peak, she was more than capable enough of returning to the fight.
The Blue Amazon was one of their main solutions against a threatening expert ch such as the Iron Hedgehog!
Just as the powerful expert swordsman ch advanced towards another enemy scout ch, the Blue Amazon hastily changed direction and even leapt away in an undignified manner!
BOOOOOOOM!
A rapidly closing shell struck the area in front of the Bontue expert ch!
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