Chapter 298: Heavy Hammer

Chapter 298: The Heavy Hammer

“Interleaved Company, First Squad!”

“Move southwest to the coordinates marked on the map!”

“Establish a honeycomb network base, guide the unmanned combat swarm forward for fire reconnaissance!”

“Second Squad!”

“Set up a heavy machine‑gun fire point on site!”

“Heavy machine‑gun over‑shoot, deliver covering fire on the enemy’s flank!”

“Third Squad!”

“Follow the tanks, provide coordinated cover, clear nearby small targets, and carve out a staging area!”

“Fourth Squad!”

“Construct artillery positions, deploy howitzers and rocket launchers!”

“Fifth Squad!”

“Maneuver westward to the mapped point, employ rocket launchers and recoilless guns to strike the enemy’s protruding targets!”

“Understood!”

“Understood!”

On the shores of Poyang Lake, Shen Yue issued deployment orders in rapid succession; the five squads of the interleaved company answered instantly, springing into motion to execute his directives.

The first to fulfill the order was First Squad; under their sergeant’s lead, the soldiers swiftly swept the high ground of minor monster threats, then, using the towering trees that grew there, hurriedly erected the honeycomb network base.

The instant the network pulse went live, several rotor‑craft drones from the combat swarm rose aloft, receiving commands from Fuxi and the War Crown, streaking eastward at high speed and unleashing their 8.6 mm guns in pinpoint strikes against the ground‑borne beasts.

Simultaneously, on the Bang Lake defensive line some sixty kilometres away, He Shuo’s unmanned combat swarm also locked onto the honeycomb signal, was swiftly slotted into the War Crown’s command chain, and began coordinated encirclement maneuvers with the aerial drones.

The beasts arrayed along the surge’s front line took the first blows; under a hail of large‑caliber fire, several of them never even reached effective range before their flesh was torn open and they crashed, bloodied, onto the muddy plain by the lake.

The momentum of the beastly charge was snapped in an instant, as if a cavalry charge had run into a palisade; the surge, driven by the interleaved company onto the lake‑side plain, erupted into a catastrophic “stampede”.

A massive, corpulent beast, upon falling, detonated as internal pressure gave way.

Its hulking body slammed into the earth like an avalanche; rotting fat and muscle burst apart the moment pressure collapsed, and foul, acrid fluids sprayed outward like high‑pressure water jets.

The surrounding ground blackened instantly, and the Fifth Squad, now within four hundred metres of the beast line’s flank, dropped low to the earth.

Corrosive spray fell like rain within fifty metres ahead, and the drenched leaves sizzled and withered at a startling pace.

“Take cover!”

“The creature’s fluids are highly acidic!”

The Fifth Squad leader roared over the channel, raising his hand to fire a signal flare.

Crimson light tore through the lake‑side mist, marking the splash zone for the drone swarm.

The aerial rotor fleet instantly altered course, laying intersecting fire to seal the flank gap exposed by the fallen beast.

Yet the chaos of the surge did not abate.

The death of that corpulent giant toppled like a line of dominoes; the charging masses behind it collided by inertia, their snapping bones and roars mingling into a cacophony.

Shen Yue glanced at the tactical lenses, where the operational map showed the enemy’s red markers flickering violently.

This is an opening.

The original hammer‑anvil tactic required two friendly forces, but now the monster carcasses formed a fragile “iron anvil”.

It cannot endure many more blows, yet it will not be pierced outright!

“Third Squad, tank cover, accelerate forward! Bypass the wreckage, carve a breach!”

The order rang out, and the clatter of tracks over mud rolled in from behind.

The stripped‑down 30A tank, its reactive armor removed and weight lightened to the utmost, burst through the smoke exhaled by the strange beasts, its main gun trained on a still‑moving target atop the piled corpses.

“Boom—!”

Tungsten‑core armor‑piercing rounds ripped through two conjoined bodies, shattering flesh into a spray of fragments.

Meanwhile, exploiting the window created by the other squads’ assaults, Fourth Squad completed the deployment of its artillery position.

The gunners loaded swiftly, their coordinates auto‑calibrated in real time by the War Crown system.

“Elevation 42, azimuth 089—fire!”

The deafening roar of the cannon’s discharge sent rippling shockwaves across Poyang Lake’s surface.

The rocket artillery’s steel rain fell upon the still‑cohesive beast cluster behind the surge; in the blaze of explosions, several armored creatures were lofted by the blast, their limbs curling and carbonizing in the searing heat.

Like grasshoppers plunging into flame.

Shattered limbs arced overhead, debris fluttering down in a soft cascade.

Yu Qian, witnessing the scene, clutched his rocket launcher, momentarily dazed.

Yet immediately, new orders crackled through his headset.

“Open the corridor!”

“Fifth Squad! Advance!” Yu Qian gritted his teeth, staying close behind the sergeant who had already surged forward.

It was his first glimpse of a battlefield of such magnitude.

Dozens of colossal beasts, exploding shells everywhere, bullets whizzing overhead, drones in the sky, unmanned combat swarms on the ground, a radio chatter so dense it bordered on cacophony, and comrades whose faces were stretched tight with tension.

All this instinctively tightened his nerves; his grip on the launcher spasmed from the over‑exertion.

Yet he had no choice.

This is the interleaved company.

This is the assault unit!

No matter how tangled or brutal the field, he must stay glued to the sergeant’s heels, a razor‑sharp spear thrusting deep into the heart of the beast surge.

“Fifth Squad, in position!”

The sergeant ahead halted, his voice a little hoarse as he reported over the radio.

Then he continued, ordering:

“Everyone, prepare to engage!”

“Aim at the enemy’s protruding points, assign each target from left to right in order!”

“Listen to my command!”

“Open fire once within effective kill range!”

“Understood!”

The nine warriors of Fifth Squad answered almost in unison.

Yu Qian’s gaze, through the rocket launcher’s sight, dead

through the front, and at that moment he finally could comprehend the tremendous psychological pressure that the true Chinese army endures when facing monsters

Pressure.

This is entirely unlike the previous “Hunt Operation”.

A monster thirty meters tall, at a distance of five hundred meters, still gave no sense of oppression.

At three hundred meters, the tremor of its movement already raised dust from the ground.

At two hundred meters, its shadow could, in the setting sun, blanket the entire position of Squad Five, and even when one lifted his head, the terrifying maw and the blood‑stained claws it brandished were unmistakably visible.

At one hundred and fifty meters, the creature filled the entirety of one's field of vision.

Yet the squad leader had set the effective killing range at one hundred meters!

Yu Qian breathed heavily, waiting in silence for the leader's command.

Another stream of acid spurted from the monster's mouth, but before the liquid could fall, the prepared squad leader had already launched a cloud‑burst bomb.

Boom!

The blast wave, coupled with searing heat, instantly vaporized the liquid, and immediately thereafter the leader hefted a recoil‑less cannon, roaring out his order.

Fire!

Yu Qian rolled to his feet.

He raised the muzzle of his rocket launcher.

The next instant.

Boom!

Boom——

Several rockets and recoil‑less shells shot from the position.

Brilliant fireworks erupted everywhere in the sky, and the six heads of the protruding monster fell instantly.

Yu Qian let out a slight sigh of relief, turned, and lifted his rifle, preparing to withdraw.

But at that very moment, a bizarre scene unfolded before his eyes.

The fallen monster's corpse shattered from within.

Then, a ‘fetus’ enshrouded in blood rose from the gore.

A piercing wail drowned out the muffled explosions and the deafening gunfire.

The fetus's eyes opened, locking onto Yu Qian's location.

Yu Qian's gaze hardened.

In the next heartbeat, that fetus surged toward Squad Five's position at an inconceivably swift pace.

The scene felt hauntingly familiar.

Yu Qian lifted his gun's barrel.

That silhouette was already bearing down.

And in his hand.

A rifle already loaded!

Fifty meters.

Trigger pulled!

(End of chapter)