Chapter 401.3: AND LET IT SHINE

Watching from the bridge, the thick smoke of explosions like a dense wall, General McClennan squinted.

Did we hit them?

The radar signal disappeared, but success seemed to come too easily.

The next second, fluctuating signals appeared on the radar.

As it turned out, the ground artillery position wasn’t completely destroyed. They were still firing around the airship, but what they were shooting didn’t seem to be smoke shells anymore.

Instead, they were shooting chaff.

A hint of surprise flickers in General McClennan’s eyes.

Knowing to use chaff to jam their radar. Seems like those wastelanders have some tricks up their sleeves... Heh. It’s a shame they underestimate my radar.

I’ll burn through their interference in minutes!

Also... Their coordination is just too damn weak.

Since 600 planes had been destroyed, even if they fired chaff, it was too late. It would only serve to expose the position of the ground artillery.

As General McClennan continued to think about what had happened, 22 faint signals suddenly appeared on the radar to the south of the airship.

They appeared suddenly, and they were less than 10 kilometers from the airship. They appeared too suddenly and all of them were already above the clouds.

Seeing the string of signals, General McClennan was momentarily stunned before he reacted quickly. "Starboard artillery, ready!"

"Those 600 planes were a decoy! Aim for the targets to the south!"

...

As the Heart of Steel turned their gunports in unison, Unprofessional Retort, gripping the center stick, stared at the VM strapped to his thigh, counting silently in his mind.

It would take about 17 seconds to turn their guns 110 degrees.

The ground artillery was already firing chaff decoys to cover them, but he knew this level of interference wouldn't last long before being burned through by the enemy’s radar.

In fact, they might not even need to burn through them.

That dense firepower could tear them and the interference cloud to shreds.

Distant tracers had already pierced through the clouds, exploding into clusters of black smoke in the air.

Deadly shrapnel grazed the propellers and wings and the sounds of metal scraping constantly rang out. The aircraft started to shake violently.

Estimating that his time was almost up, Unprofessional Retort calmly grabbed the intercom hanging nearby. He announced after switching into the cabin’s channel.

"This flight has reached its destination, we will crash in 10 seconds... The remaining kilometer... It’s up to you!”

As he spoke, the rear of the cabin opened slowly as the wind whistled in everyone’s ears.

The noise in the communication channel was scrambled by the wind, but from those intermittent few words, he could still hear their indomitable spirit.

"Got it!"

"Leave it to us!"

With that, the paratroopers of the Burning Corps stepped out one after another.

Watching the tracer lights piercing through the clouds and the flashes lighting up the cockpit glass, Unprofessional Retort's lips curl into a smile.

Mission accomplished.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Well... I probably won’t be able to return.

As he thought about it, he switched to the main communication channel and yelled at the command center, "This is Group B flight formation... Our mission is completed, but the enemy's artillery has locked on us. We won’t be coming back. Before we're shot down, let's escort our paratrooper brothers for the last stretch!"

To that, there was no reply.

Unprofessional Retort knew that it didn’t matter. It was probably some electromagnetic interference shells cutting off his communication.

Well... It didn’t matter anyway.

Throwing the intercom aside, he hit the button beside the center stick. In an instant, the rear started emitting thick black smoke.

At the same time, he grips the center stick tightly, shouting towards the bullet-riddled cockpit. "Group B flight formation! Smoke and charge!"

Well... He couldn’t hear that shout over the sound of everything in his surroundings.

As soon as the plane started smoking, all 21 accompanying Dragonflies understood his intent and started to dive alongside him.

With orange gunfire dancing in the air, the sky was lit up. The cloud cover was torn apart as their planes were swallowed in flames.

But their sacrifice was not in vain.

The rolling black smoke, along with that suicidal dive, fell from the sky like a collapsing waterfall. They drew a falling wall of smoke across the sky.

The watcher stood by the sighting system and stared at the gunfire-lit skies with his eyes wide open.

He was sure those planes couldn’t escape their dense web of gunfire. He just couldn’t believe that they didn’t plan to run, but charge straight at them.

The next second, he saw parachutes piercing through the thick smoke.

They were like dandelions adrift in a sea of flames.

Their lives were burning away at a visible rate.

Yet even so, the scattered artillery and bullets couldn’t alter their direction.

Watching the parachutes fluttering down from the sky, the gunner behind the 100mm anti-aircraft gun stared with disbelief, muttering dreamily, "... Have these people gone mad?!"

Parachutes...

They actually planned to land on their steel fortress with those ridiculous gadgets.

Even if a few manage to get through their net of gunfire and land on their airship, what then?

Even with five 1,000-men strong marine armies deployed on the ground, there were still three 1,000 thousand-men strong marine armies on standby on the airship. Even if there were a few dozen, or 100 ants...

They would be torn to shreds by their firepower in minutes!

Inside the bridge.

Watching those paratroopers, General McClennan stared at those around him, dumbfounded.

Although he didn’t know what kind of confidence those people had to forcibly land on his airship, he couldn’t afford to take it lightly at the moment.

In his eyes, those natives had paid such a high price to send those people over. There was no way they were sent to watch fireworks with him.

Suddenly coming to his senses, General McClennan snapped, "Adjust engine orientation! Aim at the sky!"

His aide also quickly snaps back to reality, taking the command.

"Yes!"

With his order issued, engines on both sides started to rotate as their propellers aimed into the air.

Blowing into the air, the airship was pushed downwards while also scattering the parachutes into the air.

Seeing the brothers in the Burning Corps caught in crisis, Lofty Cloud, having already left the battlefield, returned to the fray.

By then, it had already ditched the electronic jamming pod.

No longer emitting any signals, it was like a dagger hidden in the dark of night. It approached its target silently and swiftly.

"... The speed of falling raindrops... 10 meters per second..."

Gripping the center stick tightly, Falling Feather locked his gaze on to row of engines on the right side of the airship.

"The trigger limit for the directional shield should be around 60 yards..."

"I just need to decelerate at the edge of the shield..."

"I should be able to get in!"

Although it was his first time attempting such a reckless maneuver, a forward-swept wing aircraft should be able to do it!

Counting down the time to approach the shield in his mind, Falling Feather clenched his teeth tightly. He pushed the throttle and yanked the center stick rapidly as the nose of the plane was forced into the air. The tail of the plane turned to the front and as he endured the powerful g force, Falling Feather pushed down the afterburner next to his right leg.

The flickering light in the engine lit up in an instant.

With the speed dropping suddenly, the wings were torn to shreds by the high-speed airflow.

Not even getting a chance to utter a sound, Falling Feather felt his world go dark as he disconnected.

The unbalanced aircraft tumbled like a falling leaf, continuing forward, but not being pushed aside by the directional shield. Along with its shattered wings, it was sucked into the right-side engine.

A booming explosion tore the right propellers apart. The next instant, the unbalanced airship tilted to the side.

Having just stabilized his parachute, Night Ten stared at the explosion with his eyes wide with astonishment.

"What the fuck?!"

Cobra maneuver?!

He wasn’t the only one. The soldiers and officers on the Heart of Steel were also staring at what just happened in disbelief.

They didn’t even see how that plane approached.

All they saw was it decelerating through the directional shield in the final moment, turning itself into a bullet, striking their right-side engine.

With the right side losing power, to avoid capsizing, the Heart of Steel had no choice but to shut down the left-side engines. The pressure on the landing paratroopers dropped rapidly.

However, the threat of death wasn’t over.

Even having entered the 100mm anti-aircraft gun’s firing blind spot, even with the enemy’s propellers forced to shut down, still, a dozen 10mm machine guns aimed at them from all directions.

Exoskeletons offered some bulletproof capability, but it didn’t mean they were completely bulletproof.

Having crossed the directional shield’s boundary, overwhelming firepower was their next obstacle.

Over half of the 500 paratroopers had been killed or wounded up to this point.

Many were shot full of holes in the sky, drifting towards the ground, or hanging on the airship’s exterior, which bristled like a porcupine with gun barrels.

Staring at the flashing gunfire and the final 30 meters, Old White drew the dagger hanging on the front of his heavy cavalry exoskeleton. He yelled into the paralyzed communication equipment to charge.

"Even if our flesh burns out before hitting the ground..."

"... We will scatter our burning embers into their eyes!"

"Cut the cords!"

As he roared, he swung the blade in his hand, severing the parachute tangled on the exoskeleton, darting through the hail of bullets.

Free-falling, 30 meters passed in a flash.

His feet landed heavily on the top of the airship, denting the supposedly impenetrable steel armor with two deep impressions.

Clearly.

It is not as invincible as it appears.

"Target the 400mm main guns!"

Pulling out the rifle slung on his back, he yelled into the communication channel, "All who can still move..."

"Advance!"