Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1248: Chapter 8-34: Breakthrough! (Part 2)

If we can’t break through the defense line... then let’s die here!

Without the communication system, orders could only be relayed to each combat unit by the Mecha running back and forth.

In the mountainous area a few square kilometers to the east of Hot Spring Town, the trees were densely packed. Towering trees stood in serried ranks, reaching toward the sky. The huge canopies, like umbrellas, obscured the sky. More than twenty thousand Chuckna Warriors hidden in the jungle sprang into action upon receiving their orders.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, and the damp air was filled with the scent of decaying leaves. Group by group, they formed tidy ranks, checking their equipment and counting their numbers while listening closely to their commanders’ detailed explanation of the combat requirements.

Each small group maintained silence, with Chuckna Soldiers lined up at intervals of tens of meters in the jungle, extending far into the distance. The farthest ones were even on another hilltop. Although the battle had not yet begun and gunfire was not heard, the impending great battle’s tension still involuntarily made the warriors’ hearts race.

Everyone understood that they only had one chance.

Once the frontal attack began, the troops would quickly move forward according to planned numbers, and when the Armored Group opened a gap, the main force must closely follow to support the Armored Group in expanding to the flanks. However, if the enemy counterattacked, or the main force failed to break through the lines, what awaited this troop was hell itself. The battlefield east of Hot Spring Town would become the graveyard for twenty thousand Chuckna Warriors!

Time ticked away second by second. The warriors watched as Mecha ran back and forth through the jungle, as the Repair Mecha and Transport Mecha moved toward the front, as batch after batch of comrades passed by in response to urgent commands to head toward the forward strike position.

When a few birds suddenly took flight in alarm from the forest, the crackle of the communication channel opening buzzed in the headphones on the sides of their helmets, signaling that the electronic mechas were fully deployed.

A cannon shot rang out from the other side of the mountain. Immediately, countless cannon sounds echoed as one, deafeningly loud.

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The basin of the valley was silent.

Oono Hayato stood staring in a trance at the position of Hill 415, shrouded by cloud-piercing mountains on both sides. The officers were each attending to their own tasks, not daring to make a sound.

Outside the base, Mecha moved back and forth, clearing the scattered remnants of battle. Engineers worked tensely to patch up the broken base, while medics hurried beside the steady stream of stretchers.

The troops’ morale had plummeted to rock bottom following the battle.

The few battalions of the 172nd Division were indeed a loose collection, and the 59th Division was not much better off.

The soldiers’ minds were already running wild. Thoughts that should be only of battle had been replaced by all sorts of ideas.

The fact that the entire Falcon Camp had been decimated as if chopped by ten Mechas was unacceptable to everyone. Private discussions, various speculations, and rumors surged like an undercurrent. Although unseen, they were turbulent.

Everyone affected one another. Even though the officers tried hard to constrain them, and even though orders prohibiting debate and complaints had been given, the tattered base before them, the Mecha forces patrolling outside as if facing a powerful enemy, and the remnants scattered outside the base, along with the wounded filling the military hospital, served as constant reminders to these soldiers of all that had just happened.

No words were needed; a mere glance in the silence allowed the soldiers to see panic, shock, and dismay in each other’s eyes.

The words of the Major General of Leray before he left hung over everyone’s heads like a boulder.

Nobody knew when those ten deathlike Mechas might launch another attack. What was certain was that it was fanciful to think of capturing Hill 415, heavily guarded by Chuckna people, in the short term. Not to mention the 172nd Division’s earlier setback there, the terrain’s difficulty in defense, the mere shadow of those ten Mechas was enough to deter any approach.

On open ground, under the siege of three thousand Mechas, they could decimate most of Falcon Camp and retreat leisurely. How many Jiepeng Mechanics’ lives would it take to assault that steep and narrow Hill 415?!

These battle-hardened Jiepeng Soldiers, for the first time, felt an inexplicable fear.

This fear was complex. On one hand, there was the worry about the ten Mechas launching an attack at any time. As the saying goes, it’s not the thief you fear, but the thief keeping you in mind. That feeling of being stared at by a Fierce Beast hidden deep in the jungle was terrifying. On the other hand, more of this fear stemmed from a sense of bewilderment and helplessness.

Since the outbreak of the war, warriors from these two divisions had fought many tough battles. For them, the combat model of this war was all too familiar. Even as Mecha’s agility and increased energy shield made long-range attacks decline and close-quarters combat rise in recent years, they felt no discomfort.

Years ago, this trend had already been confirmed by the Imperial Army Department. All along, the development of new Mecha and training in close-quarter combat had rigorously followed this trend. The tenth generation ”Mechanical Violence” was a revolutionary product for close-quarter combat Mechas by Jiepeng, and in terms of fighting skills, the Military Department invited many experts and specially revised the mechanical control regulations.