As night fell, the gunfire of the mountains southeast of the outskirts of Manta City slowly fell. In a valley, the soldiers of the 74th Armored Division of the Federation, after a day of fierce fighting, were temporarily resting and waiting. Haoyi, who was soaked in blood and armor, was lying on top of a siege tank that had been blown away by the turret, tilting his head and squinting his eyes to count the dazzling lights that crossed the sky from time to time. Those rays of light were not beautiful meteors streaking across the sky, but beams of laser guns from battleships bombarding rebel positions in the distance.

Next to him, Hu Erpang was holding a bag of individual rations in his hand, his mouth was stuffed with food, and his head was tilted against the chariot tracks. The rest of the armoured soldiers gathered in twos and threes, talking quietly or smoking cigarettes to check each other's wounds, and some were carefully examining their guns or checking the wounds on their chariots.

In the First World War, although there were battle cruisers providing fire cover at high altitudes, the casualties of the ground forces of the expeditionary force were still not small. The rebels, who had been prepared for a long time, used the mines scattered everywhere to connect almost the entire interior of the mountain, and then used the thick rock layer and the secondary steel armor used by the warships to reinforce it to build a solid underground fortification. Some of the fortifications were able to survive even the continuous bombardment of the secondary guns of the battlecruisers. In addition to the exposed fortifications and the rebels who did not have time to retreat to the underground fortifications, the carpet bombardment of the battle cruisers barely injured the rebels.

As soon as the heavy artillery fire of the battlecruisers had ceased and the ground armor clusters of the expeditionary force had re-attacked, the rebels would suddenly emerge from the underground fortifications and force themselves into the attacking queue of the expeditionary force, so that even the ghosts and banshee fighters hovering and covering at high altitude could not effectively support the ground troops.

At one point, the battle was so hot that even the Marines on both sides began to stage a series of tragic and bloody hand-to-hand combat. Hit Zuihou, the Federation commander had to order the ghost fighters to get out of the range of the mothership's force field, venture into a low altitude, and forcibly bomb the rebel underground fortifications with precision. After losing countless Ghost and Banshee fighters, the expeditionary force finally took a slight advantage, forcing the rebels to abandon their positions and retreat.

Despite a small victory, the ground offensive forces of the expeditionary force suffered equally heavy casualties. The 74th Armored Division, where Hao Yi belonged, lost nearly half of the tank mechs, and the casualties were countless.

"Damn, it looks like fighting is really not fun!" Counting the rays of light that crossed the sky, Hao Yi took a long breath and sighed secretly in his heart. One by one, the marines were torn to pieces by the fierce artillery fire, and the chariot mechs and the armored soldiers inside were blasted into a "gorgeous" fireball. Although, he never knew how to write fear, but he was not the kind of person who was extremely cold-blooded.

"Er Fat, after this battle, Brother Hao will take you home!" Turning his head and seeing Hu Erfat sleeping soundly at his feet, Haoyi was a little distressed. The honest and honest Hu Erpang gave up the superior living conditions at home, followed him to join the army without complaint, and was inexplicably pushed to the battlefield. If he is a little long and short, Hao Yi really doesn't know how to explain to the second fat parents. Thinking of this, Hao Yi's heart was a little heavy.

"Haoyi, Hu Liangtao! Where's you two bunnies! Just as he was thinking wildly, Haoyi suddenly heard a familiar voice in the distance. Lieutenant Meehan? Hao Yi was stunned for a moment, and then heard the voice of the detachment leader Mi Han. Because the soldiers were strictly forbidden to make loud noises when the troops were resting, Mihan's shouting was a little muffled.

"Lieutenant Meehan, I'm here!" In the night, which was lit up by the artillery fire in the sky, I saw Mihan's vague figure stumbling towards this side. Haoyi hurriedly got up from the chariot, turned on the tactical light on the helmet, flashed it three times in a row, and greeted in a low voice.

Mi Han, who was in the distance, saw the signal sent by Hao Yi, so he jumped in front of Hao Yi with a deep and shallow foot, punched Hao Yi with a smile and said, "You kid cat is counting stars here?" ”

"Hello sir!" Haoyi jumped out of the chariot and saluted, and suddenly saw that Mi Han, who was covered in dirt, had the rank of captain on his left arm through the shining light of artillery fire in the distance, so he smiled and quipped: "Yo, the commander has been promoted to captain, shouldn't you invite us to have a few drinks!" ”

"You bunny! If you can go back alive, Lao Tzu will ask you to drink for three days and three nights! Mi Han scolded with a smile, patted the dust on his captain's armband, sighed slightly, his face became solemn, he looked at the bandage wrapped around Haoyi's forehead, and said with concern: "How are you two?" The injury isn't serious, is it? ”

"Don't worry, sir, I belong to a cat, and I can't die with nine lives!" Haoyi grinned, and wanted to wake up Hu Erfat, who was still snoring on the side, but was stopped by Mi Han.

"It's okay, let him sleep again!" Mi Han leaned over and gently examined the wound on Hu Erfat's left arm, and saw that the bleeding had still stopped, so he was slightly relieved, got up and whispered to Hao Yi: "Hao Yi, there is another task above!" ”

"What?" Haoyi was a little surprised when he heard this, and said, "What's wrong?" Shouldn't we go with it again to blow up the rebel ammunition depot? I'm X, I only had half a life left last time! This time, don't let Young Master Ben return to his position directly! ”

"Little bunny, it's not that serious!" Mihan smiled and punched Haoyi again, explaining: "This mission is not so dangerous, it is to repair an air defense position abandoned by the rebels. That position has been occupied by our troops, and now a friendly marine detachment is stationed there. ”

"That's good, as long as we don't stab the rebels' hornet's nest again!" Haoyi said exaggeratedly stroking his chest.

Hearing Haoyi's words, Mi Han showed a somewhat guilty look on his face, and muttered: "The last operation was an intelligence mistake by the division headquarters, and it is also possible that our actions were detected by the rebels in advance. After hearing the news of your ambush, the division commander was furious and scolded a group of division staff officers! As he spoke, Mihan probably thought of something, and asked curiously: "By the way, how did you blow up the rebel ammunition depot in the last operation?" According to Staff Officer Lu of the reconnaissance company who came back from the breakout, there was less than one platoon of mechs left in the rebel base at that time, and the rebels had a whole regiment of men! ”

"Sir, we don't know!" Hao Yi scratched his head and said embarrassedly: "When we woke up at that time, the rebels' ammunition base had already turned into a big crater!" ”

"Hmmm! Anyway, you should hurry up and have a good rest. Half an hour later, assemble at my place and get ready for the mission! Mihan nodded, and stopped asking.

An hour later, Hao Yi and the others dragged a large pile of maintenance equipment and took advantage of the night to grope their way to the high ground where the air defense position was located. The anti-aircraft position was built on the main peak of an unknown high ground, equipped with a powerful anti-orbital nuclear main gun, and more than a dozen anti-aircraft missile towers equipped with new anti-stealth radars.

The caliber of the anti-orbital nuclear main gun is three meters thick, and the long and stout cannon body is like a ballistic missile launcher, relying on a powerful electromagnetic force field to gather high-yield nuclear energy and launch it at one point, and its power is only second to that of the battle cruiser's Yamato gun. This type of anti-orbital nuclear cannon is mainly used against large space warships in low-earth orbit. If you are directly hit by this kind of nuclear main gun, even a battlecruiser with thick skin and flesh will die.

This anti-orbital gun is located under a solid mountain rock groove on the main peak, and the gun body and launch base are buried more than ten meters underground, and only a black hole is exposed. The entire main gun position is protected by armor steel plates of secondary ships several meters thick, and it is difficult to destroy this main gun without hitting the launch base directly from the muzzle. The rest of the anti-aircraft missile towers were also half-hidden in a pile of rock crevices, and the protection of the positions was quite perfect.

What is strange is that at the time of the fierce fighting during the day, apart from the fact that the more than 10 anti-aircraft missile towers in this air defense position once caused heavy casualties to all kinds of fighters of the expeditionary force, the nuclear main gun did not even fire a single shell. "Maybe our armored forces are attacking too fast, and the rebels don't have time to use this main gun!" When everyone passed through the haode passage that had just been repaired next to the muzzle and entered the underground launch base of the rail gun, Mihan looked at the thick cannon body and explained to Haoyi and the others.

Probably because the rebels retreated in such a hurry that they only had time to destroy the launchers of the main guns and the entrance passages, and did not even have time to detonate the bombs placed in the energy depot. The commander of the federal army probably hoped to repair this main gun to deal with the remnants of the rebel space battleship that might appear at any time, so he sent Haoyi and these field maintenance soldiers to repair the main gun.

Haoyi and other maintenance soldiers only spent just one hour to completely repair the main gun launcher.

"Haoyi, Hu Liangtao! You two stay here and keep watch! Remember, don't mess around with Lao Tzu! Captain Mihan threw down Haoyi and the others, and then took the rest of the soldiers of the maintenance detachment to repair other anti-aircraft missile towers, and did not forget to tell him when he left.

"Don't worry, sir! I promise to keep an eye on this foodie and not let him eat the nuclear cannon! Hao Yi agreed with a smile, and when he saw Mi Han and the others disappearing into the passage, he screamed excitedly, looked at the huge launch canister outside the main control room, and exclaimed in his mouth: "Good boy, this big guy, it is amazing that he can beat that giant Mac out of space!" No, I've got to take a good look! ”

After that, Haoyi threw down Hu Erfat, who was just looking for a comfortable guy to sleep, and ran around.

"Huh! What is this? Haoyi, who was walking around, suddenly noticed a square object shining red in a corner of the main control room.