Counterfeit Hero

On the battlefield virtual image in the Operations Hall, the red arrows representing the Gazalin Empire continuously clashed against several key high grounds of Jialuo Mountain, while the blue defensive lines of the Leray Federation were on the verge of collapse under the enemy’s assault.

Jialuo Mountain, the forward position west of Kato, had already become hell. Countless artillery barrages poured onto this area of just over six hundred square kilometers, reducing several important high grounds by twenty to thirty meters.

In a hidden command room less than ten kilometers from the Jialuo Mountain front, Admiral Blatt, the Chief of Staff of the Miloke Advanced Command, looked gravely at the electronic sand table.

He had already dispatched two fully mechanized infantry divisions to High Ground D1 on Jialuo Mountain, both of which were full-strength main divisions. However, distress calls from the front line were still coming in one after another. The only difference was that those who had initially called for help had already perished, and their replacements picked up the phone to make the same pleas.

None of the soldiers from the original fully mechanized infantry division stationed at High Ground D1 managed to withdraw alive; they all perished in battle.

This battle was brutal and fierce!

The bunkers on High Ground D1 had already been leveled, and the two additional divisions had to go up there with hastily assembled temporary fortifications. Such makeshift structures couldn’t possibly withstand the enemy’s artillery. The only thing they could buy was time for the soldiers to use their engineering mechanical arms to dig new fortifications.

How many more reserve forces should be dispatched? The Gazalin Empire’s attacks on High Ground D1 were virtually endless and insanely aggressive. Their losses were even greater than those of the Federation, yet it seemed that the Empire’s commander had made a firm decision to seize this critical crossover point that allowed them to bypass Katos Canyon by crossing Jialuo Mountain.

The position of High Ground D1 was on the left-forward defensive line of the Jialuo Mountain combat zone. The entire high ground looked like a pyramid with half its side sheared off, and the side facing the enemy was a steep cliff, nearly eighty degrees. Whether infantry or Mecha, any attempt to attack this high ground first faced this steep wall. Thus, this high ground became a thorn on the enemy’s attack route, always ready to strike from a commanding position, making it a primary target for the Imperial Army’s offensive.

Admiral Blatt was frustrated because the fire support system was no longer operational. Six self-propelled artillery units had been destroyed by the enemy’s counter-barrage. Among them, four belonged to the direct artillery battalions of the fully mechanized infantry divisions at High Ground D1, and two were reserve support artillery battalions from the Jialuo Mountain front command. The direct cause of these losses was that the SkyNet System was practically paralyzed from the unprecedented intensity of the electronic warfare.

Self-propelled artillery was essentially a simplified version of Mecha, with ultra-large caliber guns mounted on reverse-joint mechanical legs, capable of traversing various terrains. Their concealment and deployment abilities were significantly better than the older tracked self-propelled artillery. These were the fire support systems of the mechanized infantry divisions, which under the coverage of the SkyNet System, continuously provided precise fire coverage based on coordinates transmitted by the system.