Counterfeit Hero

As he finished speaking, the bodies of forty [Rangers] rose steadily, supported by mechanical legs. Once fully extended, they began to stride forward, merging into the rolling tide of steel.

It wasn’t until the Bandit Army Mechas moved away that Cheng Zhixuan and Cage, along with a few other officers, finally snapped back to their senses.

For a moment, everyone exchanged glances, at a loss.

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Markovich stood on the hillside, gazing at the distant Northern Alliance positions, his thin lips almost biting down to draw blood.

A few kilometers in front of him was a series of trench positions belonging to the bandit army. Scattered on these positions were burning fierce fires, remnants of mechas, timber from the fortifications, or charred bodies. Thick smoke columns slanted eastward with the breeze. Twisted barrier nets, bizarre mecha parts, disassembled firearms, and portable missile launchers were scattered across the entire battlefield.

Behind him, clusters of bright white lights crowded together densely and endlessly. In the sky, the comet-like streaks of Energy Cannons blocked out the sun. The explosive roars rolled across the ground like thunder, bellowing with rage. The glow of flames surged into the sky. Countless buildings had turned into shattered ruins, and the city parks, plazas, streets were all unrecognizable, with only one charred crater after another visible.

”Those bastards!” Markovich spat fiercely.

He had seen many such scenes before.

Before joining the 4th Fleet, he was part of the Galileo local fleet.

During the Gazalin invasion, the actions of the front-line commanders were not much better than those of the Northern Alliance now. Whenever deemed necessary, they could issue such orders a hundred times without hesitation, each time more resolute and calm than the last. There are many people like them in this world.

What Markovich despised the most were those scoundrels who slaughtered recklessly in the name of war. War should never be an excuse to harm civilians. It’s supposed to be a confrontation between men, between warriors! Slaughtering defenseless civilians shows no skill whatsoever.

Fortunately, the bandit army still possessed sufficient firepower for retaliation, and thanks to Fatty’s command, Puluo Town had constructed ample bomb shelters.

In the distance, a resonant bugle call echoed.

Behind the bandit army’s positions, self-propelled artillery began to roar once more. The enemy’s despicable shelling was suppressed again. Amidst the thunderous sounds of slaughter, an armored company swept into the enemy’s positions from the flanks.

They were the warriors of the Fourth Group, having just taken over from the 3rd Group.

This group, who had never seen battle before, did not disappoint expectations. They fought more fiercely on the outskirts than the 3rd Group. The enemy’s bombardment of Puluo Town had utterly enraged these Mech Knights. There was no need for pre-battle motivation or slogans—just a bugle call, and they launched a frenzied assault in the direction pointed out by officers.

However, Markovich was unsure how much longer this resistance could hold out.

The entire outer positions of Puluo Town had been devastated. Currently, only one-third of the original forces remained in the trenches. Of the sixteen hundred [Swords] deployed into battle, fewer than twelve hundred were still functional.

This battle had reached its most bitter extreme.

”Beep!” The Mechanical Computer blared with a sharp alarm.

It was an emergency call for reinforcements.

Markovich quickly clicked on the flashing red battle report icon, his stern face suddenly turning deathly pale.

Following the bombardment by the Northern Alliance’s armored group composed of one thousand [Far East Victory] class mechas south of Puluo Town and the two armored groups to the west, the bandit army had focused its attention entirely on these two directions.

After all, to the northeast lay merely two of the enemy’s mixed formation groups, whose attack intensity in previous engagements had lagged far behind the other two directions. After repeatedly crashing against the bandit army’s defenses, these mixed formation groups suffered heavy losses and posed little threat to Puluo Town.

Thus, at the moment, only the 3rd Group’s Second Battalion had not yet completed the handover, leaving just one company on the Northeast Defense Line! To curb the enemy’s bombardment of Puluo Town, Markovich had redeployed the main forces of the SM Fourth Group to other defense lines, relying on outer perimeter attacks and mecha firepower suppression to delay the enemy’s destruction of Puluo Town’s central district.

To anyone, this decision appeared flawless. The bandit army’s forces were limited; countering the Northern Alliance’s treacherous moves required maintaining sufficient deterrent strength.

But now, Markovich realized that when the enemy began shelling the central district, he had made a fatal mistake by entrenching the armored group’s main force in the south and west, instead of executing a mobile defense as initially planned.

According to intelligence from the Hunter squads operating on the outskirts, capturing information and executing free hunts, two of the enemy’s armored groups would reach the Northern District within half an hour to merge with those two mixed formation groups. Meanwhile, the two Blood Shadow Armored Battalions in the southeast had also left their original positions, moving toward the northeast.

What chilled Markovich to the bone was a report that an enemy ”Hunter,” positioned in the eastern hills of Prometheus Mountain beyond the two mixed formation groups, had discovered enemy forces comprising more than two battalions! Based on their equipment and mecha numbers, they represented the main force of the Blood Shadow Mecha Group!