Start with Planetary Governor

Chapter 531: Kick Their Asses
Xiong Lei was in a high tower inside the fortress, holding a telescope and looking through the small window at the battle surrounding the two Furious Space Marines. His palms were sweating from nervousness.

Although that battle was small in scale, its importance almost determined the victory or defeat of the hundreds of thousands of people he led.

On the planet Yuehe VII.3, there is no such option as "saving people but losing land". The specific situation needs to be analyzed specifically. The fundamental reason for the survival of this planet lies in orbital defense. Otherwise, when the enemy's superior navy lets go and bombs the ground, it is almost impossible to defend it from the front, and can only turn to guerrilla warfare.

That's not to say it has no effect, but on a larger battlefield, it means the loss of the entire planet.

In order to defend the planet, we must defend the many orbital gun fortresses on the ground, ensure that there are means to directly threaten space from the ground, and prevent the enemy's navy from bombing wantonly.

On the ground, fortresses like the one guarded by the 311th Division are life nodes. Losing one or two may not be a big problem; losing ten or eight will cause a big problem for the whole area, and the enemy can deploy ground forces and supplies from this place more recklessly, and it will become difficult to recapture the place, because the enemy's navy can come to the corresponding orbital area after the threat is reduced, and the firepower can be smoothly delivered here without being easily intercepted.

As for the situation Xiong Lei was facing, once the fortress was lost, it would be difficult for him to evacuate with the surviving troops. The distance to the next defensible fortress was not short, and without cover, they would be constantly pursued and bombed. I don't know how many people would die on the way.

From these perspectives, the fortress cannot be lost, and we must hold on here even if we bleed to death.

And right now, he was observing the siege of the Fury Space Marines, which almost decided the victory or defeat.

To be honest, Xiong Lei didn't have a strong understanding of Space Marines at first.

He had seen the phoenix before, but it was only a fleeting glimpse. At that time, he was deeply shocked by these heroic extraordinary warriors. He knew that these angels of death possessed powerful strength, but how powerful were they?

Recently, he believed that the powerful individual capabilities of the Space Marines were very effective in special operations and attacking special locations, especially in more complex terrains, such as places where heavy tanks could not enter.

But now, after observing with his own eyes, he found that he still underestimated the Space Marines' head-on combat capabilities.

He witnessed with his own eyes how the two Furies withstood the fierce firepower and destroyed eight Sentinel mechas and three Feedback Power Armor Elites in just two minutes.

Equipment advantage?

No, no, no, it's far from that simple.

Simply viewing the advantages of Space Marines over mortal soldiers as their ability to wear stronger power armor, their greater strength and reaction speed, and their more accurate shooting skills... is by no means that simple.

When all indicators far exceed those of ordinary people, they seem to have truly achieved transcendence in life.

Are our Sentinel Mechs and Feedback Power Armours really that much worse in performance than the MK.8s equipped by the two Furies?
Not necessarily?
But it just felt like I was being played.

Everything was slower than others. The elites who could guarantee the hit rate when shooting at targets, even at high-speed moving targets, were like wooden stakes at this time, reacting slowly and stiffly, unable to keep up at all; on the contrary, the huge Fury Warriors were like ghosts. The positions where they came out always made people feel incredible. Even though Xiong Lei was looking from a distance at a bird's-eye view and could see the overall situation better, he was often stunned by these Space Marines and could not see clearly at all.

At this point, he could basically judge that it was basically impossible to defeat these two Furies with only thirty sentinels and ten feedback power armor elites.

Even though there were a large number of ordinary soldiers nearby, the help they could provide was very limited.

Xiong Lei, who was watching the game, sighed deeply.

To be honest, this situation still shattered his fantasy.

In his imagination, if he could destroy those Raging Flame Warriors in this way, that would certainly be the best;

But now I can’t, my fantasy is shattered, and I can only return to reality.

There is a way to return to reality.

In the high tower, he moved the telescope's sight slightly and saw five or six engineering teams rapidly approaching where they were fighting.

Ten minutes later, when only half of the elite troops sent by the 311th Division were left, the engineers were finally in place.

It was not until this time that the order to evacuate was given to the two elite warriors who were fighting to the death with fury.

They began to retreat.

The two angry flames seemed to have noticed something was wrong.

They did not pursue, nor did they even break out along their previous target. Instead, they chose to retreat.

This somewhat disrupted Xiong Lei's deployment, but it was still too late for the Nuyans to evacuate.

This place can almost be regarded as a battlefield that Xiong Lei has carefully arranged for the enemy. The firepower points that appear here can also be regarded as bait. Previously, when Fury attacked many areas, Xiong Lei did not move his troops, just waiting for them to attack here.

Here, the bottom is empty.

It would of course be the best and safest option if the mobile force could kill these two Furies; but if not, then lead them here and then take further action.

The engineering corps within the army had already calculated the explosives and blasting points needed to blow this place down.

Now is the time to execute.

"Blow up! Blow up now!" He grabbed the walkie-talkie.

"But... our people haven't all been evacuated yet..." The officer leading the engineers at the front line hesitated.

"No time to worry! Blow it up! If we don't blow it up now, all the sacrifices we made before will be in vain!"

The reason for this decision was Nuyan's sharp judgment that they were evacuating the trap area.

We can't let them get away!
Under the clear order, the front-line commander gritted his teeth and made the decision.

The explosives were detonated, boom!

Beneath the flames and smoke that shot up into the sky, there were violent explosions and loud noises caused by the collapse of buildings and floors.

When the smoke and dust cleared, the place where the two angry men had been besieged had become a ruin.

But Xiong Lei still felt it was not safe enough.

He was so impressed by the strength of the Space Marines.

The building collapsed due to the explosion and the people were buried inside, but... were they really dead?
Xiong Lei couldn't guarantee it.

After hesitating for a moment, he decided to use his backup plan just to be on the safe side.

There are relatively few sentinel mechas and feedback power armors in the division, but there are still quite a few tanks.

The surrounding area was cleared, and after a wave of explosions, a lot of open space was left, which was perfect for parking tanks.

In the defense of the fortress, heavy armored vehicles such as tanks have little room to play, so they might as well be used here.

Led by several Lion King tanks, dozens of Lion tanks were in position, and together with a large number of infantry, they formed a circle nearby.

Guard the corpse.

Two days later, we actually achieved some results.

Three other Fury Warriors raided this place.

This is certainly not normal.

This place is not a strategic defense point, and it is guarded by heavy vehicles. No matter how thick the Space Marines' armor is, it is not as thick as the Lion Tank, let alone being compared with the Lion King Tank, which is like a mobile fortress; the main guns and secondary guns of these two tanks can both cause fatal blows to the Space Marines. Even if they don't hit directly, as long as the explosion point is a little closer, it can still cause considerable damage.

They had no reason to attack here, unless the two Furies buried below were really not dead and they came to rescue their companions.

Then, a furious figure really crawled out from the ruins.

When he received the news, Xiong Lei was horrified - Space Marines are too difficult to kill!
These are just two ordinary Space Marines.

I really don't know how those dozens of the most elite warriors in the Fury Regiment were slaughtered in that "bloody fight to the death" that made my blood boil when I heard about it before.

It’s too hard to imagine!
But fortunately, only one person crawled out of the rubble, and he was seriously injured.

The three Fury Warriors who came to support were unable to break through the encirclement of the tanks. They used plasma guns to destroy two Lions and severely damaged a Lion King. But it was also this Lion King that used the heavy artillery on it to deal a heavy blow to the three Fury Warriors.

They had clearly hidden behind the wall, but the cannon still blew the entire wall into pieces and injured one of the Furys. The secondary cannon that followed took his life.

Meanwhile, the Fury who had crawled out of the ruins was entangled by a bunch of infantry. He started killing people, but was also dragged to the spot and couldn't get out. The Alliance troops reacted and sent in Sentinel mechas and power armor elites again, and finally killed the Fury who had difficulty walking.

After losing one man and knowing that the fighting brother they were going to rescue had died inside, the remaining two Furies had no reason to continue fighting, and they finally chose to retreat.

No matter how powerful the Space Marines are, they cannot engage in head-on combat with heavy armored units - unless they are in groups and carry targeted weapons.

However, the two surviving Furies do not possess these conditions.

They could only withdraw sadly.

……

After this battle, Xiong Lei organized engineers to carry out excavations on the spot.

There is also a rage buried inside.

Although there is a high probability that he is dead, otherwise he would not have shown up when his brothers came to rescue him.

However, before he saw the body, he was really worried.

After three days of digging, the body was found.

Now, Xiong Lei felt relieved.

Although, there were still two angry ones alive, and after the death of their three brothers, they vented their anger by carrying out crazy revenge, and then did some things more frequently and more cruelly.

But first of all, their number has indeed dropped from 5 to 2, and even if the frequency is increased, it will not be as fierce as before, and the blows suffered by our side have been reduced a lot;

Secondly, if there is one targeted trap, there will always be two.

Although the other side had also increased their vigilance, and several ambushes failed to kill the two men, but for the two of them, each time was still quite thrilling.

Later on, they had to act more cautiously to avoid capsizing.

This further reduced the frequency of their attacks.

Under such circumstances, the troops under Xiong Lei's command even took the opportunity to recapture several previously captured areas and even drove the rebel troops out of the fortress for a time.

However, they quickly mobilized heavy firepower and fought back.

Xiong Lei commanded the three divisions, 311, 077, and 240, with more than people, in this fortress area. Despite the chaos caused by two angry enemies inside and about three or four times the number of surrounding troops outside, they refused to retreat.

The supplies stored in the fortress are enough for them to fight for a long time. Occasionally, friendly forces will be able to break through the siege and enter the fortress to bring them valuable supplies. Airdrops are also a way of transporting supplies.

However, these means of supply were not stable, and the fortress's reserves would be used up as the fighting intensified. Moreover, there was really no place to replenish the dead and wounded soldiers.

Xiong Lei reported to his superiors many times and requested reinforcements, but to no avail.

They couldn’t even transport the wounded out, let alone the overall rotation of the troops.

But what can he do?

I could only grit my teeth and bear it. After bearing it for another half a month.

His troops once again repelled the enemy's attack.

As of today, his troops have suffered more than 60,000 casualties, which has dealt a considerable blow to the combat effectiveness of the entire army.

But it is gratifying that the other side suffered at least 160,000 casualties in order to kill these 60,000 of them.

Today, the enemy was beaten back once again, and their movements were somewhat strange: they retreated more than 20 kilometers as a whole.

what does this mean?
Can’t fight anymore, don’t fight anymore?

Xiong Lei thinks it's unlikely.

He and his staff were more inclined to believe that the enemy had suffered too many losses in the past period of time and needed to retreat and accumulate strength for the future.

Although the enemy will inevitably come back, and by then the invading enemy will probably be even larger and more powerful.

But at least for now, they can breathe a sigh of relief.

The troops still had no chance to withdraw and change guard, and the order Xiong Lei received was still for their three divisions to fight to the death here.

But they have been fighting for more than half a year. Even if they claim to be elite soldiers, they are also human beings. After showing their bravery under cruel training, they should also consider the weakness of flesh and blood.

He planned to take this opportunity to waste some logistical supplies and consume more food in the warehouse. The scarcer supplies such as alcohol and cigarettes could also be released for one or two days.

Even the companies, regiments and battalions that are taking a break can hold small parties within their respective units.

Relaxing a little and relieving the tense mood can also help restore morale.

The weather is nice, the night is clear and the sky is bright.

The soldiers who were drinking, eating military canned food and smoking by the campfire looked up and could even see a meteor with a long tail streaking across the sky.

One, two, three...

The trail of the meteor is getting bigger and bigger.

'Beep, beep!'

The alarm sounded and the scene suddenly became panic-stricken.

Everyone knew that this was an air raid coming from orbit.

But what can they do?

Find cover, lie down, tremble...

There was no time for the bonfire.

They could only pray that the anti-orbital interception firepower within the fortress would be able to play a sufficient role.

As if their prayers had been heard, the fortress's anti-orbital systems detected the attack and opened fire.

The meteors in the sky were intercepted one by one, and even a beam of light that was shining down rapidly was blocked.

However, this time the enemy space marines seemed determined.

The firepower projected was extremely dense.

Ultimately, the railgun failed to intercept everything.

A spear of light shone into the fortress.

The anti-orbital system's main gun was destroyed.

Then, missiles, macro cannons, and light spears continued to fall.

One after another, the anti-orbital weapons were destroyed, and those that failed to hit their target were directly bombarded in various parts of the fortress.

The soldiers on the surface could only pray in despair.

After two hours of intensive bombardment, the orbital concentrated strike from the Traitor Navy finally ended.

The fortress, which had already been through the vicissitudes of the battle for more than half a year, was now completely reduced to ruins. The anti-orbital system inside and the garrison were all buried in the ruins.

……

'Fortress No. 3 on Planet VII.224 of Yuehe was hit by the full force of the enemy navy and has been destroyed. The 5th Army Group stationed there, the 077th Division, the 240th Division, and the 311th Division were completely wiped out.'

The fate of Xiong Lei's troops, in the eyes of the vanguard commander-in-chief Perbov, was just this short sentence.

Moreover, this text was not sent to Perbov alone, but was listed in a single line in the entire report, mixed with the numbers of many troops, and was not even noticeable.

In fact, what happened to the 311th SS Division was not an isolated case.

That was the general situation on the entire Yuehe VII.3 planet. The only difference was that some were blown to pieces, some were conquered, and some were still holding on...

It's not just this planet. The defense line built by Perbov around the northern bulge of the Menghe star field, consisting of more than 20 fortified worlds, is almost a similar situation.

There is no doubt that war is cruel, and the lives of soldiers are being consumed every moment on every planet.

This was also the first time that Perbov was independently responsible for such a large-scale war involving multiple star regions.

Of course he was nervous and was not sure whether the decision he made was correct enough.

Only now did he dare to say roughly that at least he had not made a big mistake.

They retreated to the three star regions of Zhongbeihe, Houbeihe and Med, where many fortress worlds were built, and they fought so hard, not to mention actively fighting with the main force of Nuyan in Qianbeihe or Guyin and Seth.

If he had made the wrong choice, it would have been a big problem.

However, although making the right decision is right, the pressure at this moment is not small at all.

Sitting in the command center, the most common message he received was asking for help, help, and help.

Each division fighting on the front line asked the army group for reinforcement, and the army group asked the army group for reinforcement; but each army group was often responsible for the defense of multiple planets, and the troops were also stretched thin, so they kept asking Perbov for people.

Who else does Perbov have?

With only one army group, he could only split it into divisions one after another and try his best to deploy them to where the fighting was fierce, but it was often a drop in the bucket.

What's more, he couldn't send out all the reserve troops in one go.

On the contrary, there were a large number of local allied forces gathered from the southern part of the Menghe star field, but with insufficient naval power, safe deployment was a big problem.

Even if the deployment was successful, the defense forces that went down would still be at a great disadvantage if they really fought against the princess's rebels.

It still cannot change the overall situation of the battle.

Perbov also has to coordinate the naval forces. Although they are weak, they cannot be invisible at all. They cannot let the enemy navy act recklessly. Moreover, they have to rely on the strength of the navy to protect the transport ships and send reinforcements and logistical supplies to the surface of each fortress planet as much as possible...

Pobov was overwhelmed and had never been under such great pressure in his life.

This is different from being stuck in a dilemma.

Faced with the front-line battle, he could just throw everything aside and just do it with all his passion.

As long as you are not afraid of death, you may have a chance to survive.

But in his current position, he can't do that.

It's like walking on thin ice. One order, one decision may affect the lives of hundreds of millions, or even tens of millions of people.

This kind of pressure is really too terrifying.

But what can be done?

You can only grit your teeth and hold on.

The soldiers and officers on the front line are fighting hard, and he, the commander-in-chief, is also fighting hard.

There is no going back.

This line of defense is the last lifeline.

Once a breakthrough is made, the enemy will advance straight in and there will be no defense left behind.

What's more, it is gratifying that the time he needs to guard should not be too long.

He has learned that the final mobilization has been completed in the alliance's homeland.

The army led by Governor Gu himself has set out.

And something even more surprising happened - he received a communication request from Yan Fangxu.

"I am Perbov." At first, he was still cautious.

Yan Fangxu on the other side smiled mischievously: "Guess where I am?"

"Be serious!" Pobov said with a fierce face, and then he seemed to have thought of something and asked, "Are you..."

"I'm here." Yan Fangxu restrained his smile and said, "Comrade Perbov, you've worked hard. The Governor ordered us to complete the next task together. This time, I brought seven Union Army Groups, and the 'Raging Owl' also came with me."

Pobov finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He thought he would have to hold out until the governor arrived, but unexpectedly, reinforcements arrived first.

Seven army groups, meaning 1.4 million genuine Union Army soldiers;

The 'Furious Owl' is the Alliance's newly completed battlecruiser!

With these things, even Yan Fangxu's face, which he always found somewhat disliked, became cute at this moment.

Perbov didn't mind someone coming to 'seize power' who was higher in position and military rank than him. He only cared about one thing:
"Great! You came just in time! I can't wait to kick their asses!"

----

Although I stayed up late to post it, it has 6k
Still owe 122k
My writing state was pretty bad last month and I could barely keep up with the updates; this month I hope I can get back on track and make up for some of my debts.

(End of this chapter)