The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2761 Desperate Counterattack

2761. A Desperate Counterattack
Almost the entire Imperial army at the Black Mountain base stared blankly at the mushroom cloud, for it was a pale blue mushroom cloud! Moreover, at the core of the mushroom cloud, a pale blue sphere of light was constantly rotating, destroying and annihilating everything around it, leaving not even a trace!
The explosion came and went quickly, leaving behind a crater over 200 meters in diameter. But the most terrifying thing was that there was nothing inside the crater!

What terrified the Imperial army even more was that their deflection shields were completely ineffective during this attack!
Their observation posts, underground fortifications, anti-infantry turrets, and even underground trenches were all reduced to ashes.

In particular, those underground defensive fortifications built with high-strength alloy concrete, which under normal circumstances could withstand a certain intensity of orbital bombardment, have now been directly destroyed!
Before the frontline commander could react, a second wave of explosions erupted, bringing with it mushroom clouds, blue orbs of light, and destruction once again.

The radar immediately locked onto the firing location. On the radar screen, each attack emitted a blue orb that moved close to the ground, as clearly as a dazzling indicator light. This point of light zigzagged across the screen like a mischievous child running around aimlessly, before unleashing a devastating explosion upon reaching its destination.

The Imperial frontline commander quickly dispatched fighter squadrons, with dozens of TIE advanced X-1 fighters taking off from the rear airfields to cover three TIE bombers as they attacked the area where the fire had started.

Imperial fighter pilots risked their lives to dive down, braving dense anti-aircraft fire, attempting to penetrate the deflector shield's range and bombard the target.

Unsurprisingly, the Kingdom of Dawn also had 10 Ghost and Viking fighters escorting them in the air, and the two sides engaged in fierce dogfights. At this moment, the reconnaissance drones mixed in with the Imperial fighters finally accurately spotted the target.

General Maximilian Wells stared solemnly at the enormous golden machine that appeared on the screen before him.

It is 20 meters long and over 10 meters tall, and because its overall shape is that of a giant insect crawling on the ground, its size is also enormous. At this moment, this insect-like machine is clumsily crawling forward, at a speed that is at most the same as a normal person running. Given its enormous size, it is almost impossible to see it moving.

Then, what appeared to be the mouthparts of the mechanical insect suddenly opened, releasing a ball of light emitting a pale blue glow. The ball of light then fell to the ground and suddenly began to run wildly!
General Wells could only be described as "running wildly," because countless dust particles rose up on both sides of the ball of light, only to be annihilated by the ball's powerful energy. Then the ball of light rushed straight down the ground, looking as if it were crawling at high speed!
Although its speed is not as fast as that of ordinary artillery shells, it is still at least several hundred kilometers per hour!

The ball of light left a deep burn mark on the ground and quickly approached the shield area of ​​the Black Mesa base. Then, the ball of light suddenly slowed down, passed through the shield at a speed below the shield trigger threshold, and then turned and rushed towards the nearest semi-underground fixed firing point set up by the Empire.

A flash of light instantly filled the entire screen, and then the communication with the reconnaissance drone was lost.

A few seconds later, Boom! A huge, muffled explosion rang out, followed by a slight tremor from the ground.

General Maximilian Wells's face turned ashen. He said sternly, "What is this mechanically fired projectile? It can turn corners and automatically track its target?"

“It should be a self-destructing drone, General,” a technician nearby said.

"A self-destructing drone?" Wells turned his head to look.

“Yes, General. If we pause the footage from the reconnaissance drone and remove the high-speed motion blur, we can see this…” The technician tapped on the terminal and then transmitted the image to the screen in front of Wells.

Only in the stopped image could the details of the pale blue orb finally be seen—it was not a pure energy body, but a spherical machine with a shell-like shape on it, resembling a worm curled up in a ball.

It rolled across the ground at an incredible speed, and with the immense energy surrounding its body, it vaporized almost all the sand and gravel instantly, creating a plasma trail that was difficult to detect with the naked eye.

"We can't let this thing keep exploding! It's rendering our deflector shields completely useless!" General Wells slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "All artillery fire on this machine! Concentrate your fire! The 47th, 48th, and 49th assault battalions, prepare for battle immediately and launch an attack! Blow this machine up!"

"Yes!"

Wells stared at the paused image on the screen, slammed it down, and said, "Next launch, fire at that thing and try to intercept it!"

"Yes!"

The Black Mountain base sprang into action like a perfectly tuned machine. The Imperial army had originally planned to use it as a forward base to launch a multi-pronged attack to recapture the southern highlands. Therefore, after General Wells gave the order to attack, three assault battalions of Imperial stormtroopers immediately stepped out of their positions and launched the attack.

As always, the Imperial Army first used the 1-H heavy hover tank as the vanguard, followed by the 2-M hover assault tanks flanking from both sides, and then a large number of infantry launched an attack under the cover of the walking machines.

At the same time, General Wells ordered more fighter jets to take off from the rear airfield to assist, hoping to overwhelm the Dawn Kingdom's air force with sheer numbers and then find an opportunity to dive into the enemy's deflector shield range and drop bombs on the machine at close range.

General Wells clearly saw that this huge machine was completely defenseless against air attacks, and that it could certainly be destroyed by air strikes.

However, this was easier said than done... The Kingdom of Dawn wasn't stupid; they were well aware of the Imperial army's intentions. Upon discovering that the Empire had scrambled more fighters, they also scrambled more fighters to protect the airspace above the deflector shield.

Moreover, they also deployed Claymore fighter jets.

Compared to the TIE Advanced X-1 fighter jet, which could only cruise at subsonic speeds of Mach 0.95 within the atmosphere, the Claymore fighter jet, with its supersonic cruise capability within the atmosphere, undoubtedly possessed a decisive maneuverability advantage. Moreover, there was the Ghost fighter jet, even though it was outdated, which could still cause considerable trouble thanks to its stealth system.

The Viking fighter, with its powerful firepower, played the role of a fighter-bomber, and it was also extremely fast.

This combination meant that even though the Imperial fighters took off in numbers more than three times that of the Dawn Kingdom, they still couldn't find an opportunity to dive and attack.

Moreover, to dive into the deflector shield's range and then drop bombs, pilots needed to be prepared to die. But clearly, few of these Imperial pilots had that kind of resolve, and even General Wells doubling their allowances and benefits had little effect, failing to inspire them to be willing to die for the Empire.

The battle in the sky was incredibly intense, and the battlefield on the ground was equally brutal.

As the Imperial army launched its attack, the Dawn Kingdom's positions were already prepared, unleashing a barrage of long-range artillery fire that rained down on the Imperial forces. The Imperial army was forced to spread out its formation to mitigate the damage from the long-range artillery fire, while also making the most of the terrain for cover as it advanced.

Three AT-AT walkers equipped with mobile deflector shield generators followed behind, but the area covered by their deflector shields was still limited. Offense is different from defense; during an attack, the formation becomes very dispersed, and the battle lines are stretched out, making it impossible to cover all attacking forces.

In the Dawn Kingdom's positions ahead, flames spewed from numerous heavily armored bunkers, and countless bullets rained down upon them. The B-1 combat robots were almost mechanically aiming and firing, aiming and firing, ironically fulfilling their greatest role behind the bunkers.

Less than 20 minutes after General Wells launched his attack, the 48th Assault Battalion in the center began to show signs of collapse, prompting him to quickly deploy two more infantry battalions. He also sent in more 2M assault tanks to launch a rapid flank attack.

The 2-M Assault Tank is an improved version of the TX-130 Sabre Tank, the main armored vehicle of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. It has more powerful firepower and more robust protection, and is also faster. On the battlefield, it plays a similar role to the Scorpion Tank of the Dawn Kingdom.

More than 100 2-M assault hover tanks maneuvered to the edge of the battlefield, quickly increasing their speed to 300 kilometers per hour, kicking up countless clouds of dust, and launched an attack with astonishing force.

However, at this moment in the command center of the Black Mountain base, General Wells watched helplessly as the giant golden mechanical maggot clumsily turned its front half around and fired again at the left flank through the footage sent back by the drone!

There are 50 2M assault hover tanks flanking and encircling from that direction!

The pale blue orb was launched again, rushing towards that direction at high speed, turning nimbly as it went, heading straight for the armored troops along the relatively flat terrain of the mountain.

The first few 2M assault tanks attempted to intercept, but all missed. Then…

boom! ! !
Another massive explosion erupted, accompanied by a pale blue mushroom cloud and a terrifying pale blue light. The tanks caught in the blast were instantly vaporized, leaving nothing behind!
This single shot destroyed 12 hover tanks! If these tanks hadn't been so widely dispersed, they would have been completely wiped out by this one shot!
Then, to General Maximilian Wells's horrified gaze, the golden maggot clumsily twisted its head toward the right wing.

"Fire! Fire! Concentrate all your firepower and intercept that suicide drone!" Wells roared furiously.

All the long-range weapons at the Black Mountain base that had time to react immediately changed direction, and at that moment, the golden maggots opened fire again.

At the same time, artillery fire erupted from the Black Mountain base, and countless lasers and missiles poured out, weaving a dense net of fire in the air, heading straight for the fast-moving pale blue orb of light.

Several laser beams precisely hit the front of the target, and the missile exploded at close range, with shockwaves sweeping around.

However, the ball of light only paused slightly, even circling the ground once, before piercing through the fire net at an even faster speed, crashing straight into the core of the right-wing armored group. A deafening roar tore through the battlefield, and another wave of blue flames and mushroom clouds rose, instantly vaporizing nine 2-M assault tanks!

Interception failed!

"What is this? What is this? What is this?" General Wells was nearly going mad. He pointed at the screen and roared furiously at his adjutant, "Why can't we shoot this thing down?! Why can't we shoot it down?!"

"This...I...this..." The adjutant stammered, unsure of what to say.

The technician on the side was very diligent. He kept operating and analyzing on the terminal, and finally said with some uncertainty, "General, it is possible that... the energy density contained in this thing is too high. All attacks will be immediately annihilated and neutralized by this energy."

"Do you take me for a child? On one hand, the energy density is too high, and on the other hand, it runs around on the ground and won't explode until it reaches its destination! How is that possible! This is contradictory, understand? This is completely unscientific!" General Wells roared.

The technicians also looked astonished. "Yes, General. Such a high energy density, yet simultaneously maintaining both a violent and stable state... I really can't understand what technology could achieve this... You never see anything like this in science fiction movies..."

He paused, glanced at the screen, and continued, "However, the artillery barrage was effective. The calculations are in—the explosive power of this attack was about 34% less than before. It's just that the tanks' formation was a bit too dense..."

"This is pointless! This is definitely a secret weapon of separatism!" General Wells said with a dark face. "Order more troops! Launch a full-scale attack immediately! At all costs, blow this maggot to pieces!"

"General, a second one of these giant golden maggots has appeared on the other side of the southern highlands!" The communications officer beside him suddenly looked up, his voice trembling.

"Now!!!" General Wells roared with almost all his might.

The Imperial army at Black Mountain base immediately mobilized. A hundred thousand troops were gathered in this huge base and poured out like a tide, then quickly spread out to both flanks.

That's right. Because the number of them is so huge, it's impossible for them to all charge head-on. According to the plan, they need to first spread out to the flanks to form a huge battle line of more than 200 kilometers before launching a full-scale attack.

This process alone takes a whole day.

But Maximilian Wells didn't care about anything else. After witnessing the terrifying destructive power of the golden maggots, he was absolutely certain that if they weren't destroyed as soon as possible, not even a hundred thousand troops at the Black Mountain base would be enough!

The battle on the front lines continued, with General Wells sending more armored units to flank and penetrate from both sides, while a large number of infantrymen were massing up for a frontal assault.

At this moment, the powerful turbine laser cannon of the AT-AT walker had already exploded on the Dawn Kingdom's position, and the powerful force created strong ripples on the shield.

Then, the horrible golden maggot clumsily twisted its body, aiming at the AT-AT walking machine!

General Wells felt as if the blood in his body had frozen!
Here, we'd like to invite a Zerg player to talk about just how terrifying the gold beetles guarding the mine can be...