Chapter 312.1: Fly Them Over

Boom!

Artillery shells fell one after another in the early morning, blowing up billows of dust across the central to southern Pinewood Forest Valley.

Looking at the billowing thick smoke in the higher ground 2 kilometers away, Bear Fang, who was holding the binoculars in his hand, sneered coldly and waved his big hand forward.

Seeing this, the company leader who was itching for a battle immediately loaded the rifle in his hand and signaled the brothers behind him to charge. "Brothers, let's go!"

The group of marauders raised their rifles and howled excitedly.

"I'm going to cut off their heads!"

"Awoo, awooo, awooo!"

Although shouting the loudest, the company leader didn't rush to the front, but cleverly let a few squad leaders under him lead the others to move forward first.

The group of about 120 people was divided into 3 teams that went to the left, middle, and right. Each team had 4 squads of 10, and they advanced quickly under the cover of the pine forest.

According to previous information, there was a Deathclaw lurking in the pine forest, and the brothers stationed at the northern outpost had heard its roar.

Everyone's eyes were wide open. Even though their artillery had blasted the enemy's position, they did not dare to relax their vigilance at all.

Meanwhile, in the position that had just been plowed by the artillery fire, 2 players slowly poked their heads out of the trench.

"Damn it... I'm almost deafened by this bombardment." Picking his ear with his little finger, Silver Sword cursed and spat out the dirt in his mouth.

"How many rounds did they fire just now? Did you count them?" While asking, Silver's Father squatting next to him stretched his neck and looked outside.

Silver Sword thought for a while and then responded. "I don't know... maybe 20 rounds?"

Silver's Father clicked his tongue. "Tsk, brokeass!"

Only 20 rounds?

How about firing 200 rounds at us instead?

Weakass!

Although the round of shelling earlier was fierce, it did not have much impact on the players in the defensive position.

Thanks to Ample Time's foresight, they had already predicted that the Fang Clan would bombard their positions shamelessly instead of fighting them head-on, so they dug bomb shelters in the trenches in advance.

When the first shell just fell into the forest in front of the position, the players squatting in the trenches immediately hid in the shelters.

By the time the marauders re-calibrated their artillery pieces to fire at the correct positions, there was no one in the trenches anymore.

The bomb shelters dug in the trenches were 5 or 6 meters deep with the walls and tops reinforced with thigh-thick pine wood. Although the sound of the bombardment outside was earth-shattering, it did not cause any substantial damage to the players in the shelters.

After all, the power of a 100mm artillery piece was still too small.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

If the caliber and charge were doubled, it might have caused some damage.

At the same time, the players of Burning Corps who were resting in the bomb shelters opened their eyes, waking up from sleep one after another.

Startled by many pairs of eyes that opened suddenly, Silver Hand, who was squatting at the entrance of the shelter, said in surprise. "Damn, you guys came online so soon? I was going to get someone to log out of the game and call you guys."

Ample Time shook his drowsy head. Looking at the dust on his legs, he immediately understood what happened and asked calmly, "What's the situation outside now?"

Silver Hand quickly answered. "The enemy fired dozens of shells at us, about 7 or 8 of which fell on our position. But we all hid in time, so there were no casualties!"

"If they can accurately strike our position, then there should be marauder spotters nearby..." Quickly making a judgment, Old White immediately looked at Night Ten on the side, "Night Ten, you go to the mountains on the side to look for them. Also, find out if anyone is coming from the higher ground north of us."

Closing his helmet visor, Night Ten consciously grabbed the sniper rifle and backpack on the ground. "Got it! Gale, let's go."

"Mhm." Gale responded as succinctly as always. After nodding, he picked up the rifle and the drone backpack that were placed next to him and left the bomb shelter with Night Ten.

Ample Time moved to the peep hole on the side and glanced outside. "... The shelling stopped. The enemy probably plans to charge."

The pine forest at the bottom of the slope was deadly silent in the faint morning light. If it weren't for the shell craters emitting hot smokes, almost no one would associate this place with the battlefield.

However, through the peephole that was almost covered by mud, even if Ample Time was not a perception type player, he could still smell the murderous intent hidden under the silence.

Without hesitation, Old White stretched out his index finger and quickly tapped twice on the VM. After switching the communication channel, he instructed loudly, "Everyone, go to your battle position immediately!"

"Prepare to engage the enemy!"

The players who had just logged into the game immediately got out of the bomb shelters and rushed into the trenches to take their positions. Loading the rifles and setting up light machine guns in their hands, they were ready for the battle.

Meanwhile, the marauder company passing through the forest also finally arrived at the edge of the pine forest!

Upon seeing the players standing in the trenches in front of him, the Company Leader at the bottom of the slope was startled. He didn't understand why there were still so many people alive, even though his artillery had fired several rounds of high-explosive shells at the high ground.

However, it was not the time to think about this question.

"Fire! Everyone, fire!" Ordering loudly, the Company Leader resolutely lay down behind the thigh-thick pine tree as fast as he could. While shooting towards the high ground with the rifle in his hand, he urged the squad leaders beside him to lead their teams forward.

Of course, the players stationed on the high ground would not let them succeed. Old White took the lead in pulling the trigger and firing the first shot in the defense of Pinewood Forest Valley.

"Fire at will! Repeat, fire at will!"

"Attention all the team members, give them everything you got!"

The battle broke out instantly!

As soon as the marauders rushed to the bottom of the slope, they were suppressed by the firepower coming down from above.

Encountering such fierce firepower, the marauders were forced to stop their charge and took cover in the craters left by previous artillery strikes. They used fallen trees and rocks on the ground as shields and engaged in intense firefight with the players on the high ground.

For a while, there were loud gunshots up and down the slope.

The situation was extremely tense!

Seeing that the high ground in front of him could not be captured for a long time, Bear Fang, who was standing on the north slope two kilometers away, couldn't help cursing anxiously. "Fucking useless!"

Standing beside Bear Fang, Tumen, who was serving as his staff officer, held binoculars in his hand, observing the distant position. A deep frown found its way onto his face.

The firepower was too dense!

There were probably hundreds of people squatting in the trenches, and the dozen light machine guns in their hands completely suppressed their men. This position didn't look like it had been bombarded by shells at all.

"... Those people probably have bomb shelters in the trenches."

Tumen couldn't figure it out. No matter how he calculated it, the opposite side only had 18 hours to build fortifications.

Even if they kept digging without stopping for a single second, it was already not easy to dig out a trench in such a short time. However, they not only dug out the trenches, but even bomb shelters to resist the shelling.

Even for real gophers, the speed was still a bit ridiculous.

Putting down the binoculars, Tumen looked at the Brigade Commander standing at the side, and said solemnly, "Our opponent has a wealth of field combat experience. I'm afraid this battle will not be easy!"

Hearing the staff officer's evaluation, a trace of irritability flashed in Bear Fang's eyes.

Especially when he thought of the mocking look of the Torch's apostle, it made him even more furious.

Not easy?

He didn't believe it!

Looking at the mortars that were just set up not far behind him, Bear Fang ordered with a loud voice, "Mortar unit!"

"Target the high ground in front of us! Strike it!"

With several loud bangs, more than a dozen mortar shells were shot into the sky one after another and landed heavily on the southern slope of Pinewood Forest Valley.

Explosions sounded one after another. For a while, the south side of Pinewood Forest Valley was covered in dusty smoke.

Players didn't expect these marauders to be so cowardly. They'd rather blow up their teammates who were still charging than fighting them head-on.

Being caught off guard by the bombardment, the players squatting in the trenches all lay down behind the covers to avoid the raging shrapnel.

Feeling the shrapnel flying above his head, Ample Time looked at Old White and yelled, "There are too many people in the trenches right now. Leaving 3 teams of 10 people here is more than enough! The rest of the people can go into the bomb shelters to hide first! If anyone outside dies, the other player can come out of the shelter to take over their position!"

"Okay!" Old White was obviously aware of the problem. He immediately issued orders to the teams through the command channel.

20 light machine guns remained in the defence position with 2 players standing next to each. Of those 2, someone was responsible for firing and the other was responsible for delivering the ammunition. The rest crouched at the entrance of the bomb shelters as substitutes, waiting to rush out to take over the positions of their teammates.

With the adjustment of the deployment, although the firepower on the position weakened slightly, the efficiency improved a lot.

But the situation on the marauder's side wasn't so good.

The mortar shells coming from behind were completely inaccurate, and less than half of them landed on the high ground.

As for the remaining half...

Either they flew too far, or blew up their own guys.

With machine guns firing at them on the high ground in front, and mortars from their own people blasting behind them, they were caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to either advance or retreat.

In less than 10 minutes, half of the entire marauder company was wiped out!

"Motherfucker! You think only you have artillery pieces?" Mosquito cursed while lying in the trench. He tapped the VM screen with his index finger and set the shelling coordinates for the slope to the north of Pinewood Forest Valley.

Pinewood Forest Valley was about 10 kilometers away from Bluestone County, which was close to the maximum range of his 130mm rocket.

Well, that wasn’t a big problem.

The rockets of the Goblin Corps were all mounted on Electric Mule trucks, and after Bluestone County was taken, they were stationed in a camp near the department store.

He had ordered the artillery unit to deploy the trucks loaded with launch tubes to open fields in the northern suburbs of Bluestone County when the battle had just begun.

At this moment, his artillerymen had already arrived at the designated position, ready to launch a counter-attack on the enemy's mortar positions at any time!

"Attention Goblin Corps Artillery Unit! The artillery coordinates have been updated. One round of rocket salvo..."

"Fire!"

After a few minutes, a series of howling sounds flew past everyone's heads.

Accompanied by the howling of the rockets, thick and long tail flames tore through the silent morning, and fell like raindrops in the northern part of Pinewood Forest Valley.

50 rockets poured down suddenly!

Although these rockets lacked accuracy, their quantity made up for this deficiency.

The deafening roar silenced the mortar positions in the north, and a thick cloud of smoke billowed from the high ground to the north as far as the eye could see.

In less than half a minute, dozens of people died under the indiscriminate bombardment of rockets, and nearly 100 people were injured.

The scorching battlefield was filled with people howling and screaming in pain. Many marauders had their limbs blown off. The whole scene was nothing short of a hellish nightmare.

Struggling to his feet from the muddy ground, Bear Fang ignored the mud all over his face and asked in a shocked voice, "Wha-what was that just now?!"

He had never seen such a terrifying weapon.