From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 737 Hand-to-hand combat, we are professionals
"It's done!"

When Atlas' First Army successfully completed the airborne landing, Agnes and her group in a temporary shelter inside the Grand Palace breathed a sigh of relief.

Jacques Kohl, the Chancellor of the Exchequer who had 'bet everything', slumped down in his chair, feeling completely exhausted.

From the regent Norton II's attack, the siege of the Grand Palace, to Atlas's launch of "Operation Golden Dragon", the First Army successfully landed on the surface of Saint-Saunière
Jacques Cole felt that the ups and downs he had experienced in the first half of his life might not be as exciting as today. He felt like he was riding a roller coaster and his heart was about to jump out.

"Master Jacques, are you okay?" someone next to him asked with concern.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's just a little... overstimulated." Jacques Cole waved his hands and tried to calm his breathing.

The news finally created an atmosphere of surviving a disaster in the temporary shelter of the Grand Palace. The other high-ranking officials and nobles in the shelter who supported Agnes finally released their long-suppressed emotions, and they cheered and hugged each other.

However, Agnes, who was at the center of the storm, knew very well that the struggle was far from over. She only had the capital to get back to the table with the support of the Atlas Group.

"There's new news from the Atlas Group."

Natalia ended her temporary communication with Hogg and Van Fleet, and returned to the shelter room from outside, her tone excited: "Atlas' ground forces have begun to advance this way! Your Highness, please rest assured that the Princess Guards will defend the Grand Palace until they arrive!"

Agnes nodded. She knew that after this battle, these loyal soldiers under Natalia would definitely suffer heavy casualties. But she could only say with mixed emotions: "Sir Natalia, it all depends on you from now on."
-
The front yard of the Princess Villa.

The smoke had not yet cleared, but eleven Atlas' new HCP 'Woodworth' had already dropped from the sky, turning on the autopilot mode and following the ATT team members' red special aircraft, which were firmly guarded in the middle.

When the ten ATT's 'Woodworths' dispersed to guard the surroundings, Amber also looked at the Marines around her and said in the communication channel: "Marine 'Princess' Squadron, continue to hold here and wait for the main force to join us!"

"Yes! Boss! But I have a small suggestion."

"Say!"

"Can you please not use code names like 'Princess Squad' next time? That's too unmanly!"

"Hahahahahahaha" the hearty and unrestrained laughter of the road battle team members suddenly came from the communication channel.

"No problem, you guys decide the code name next time!"

Without saying anything more, Amber smiled as she turned around and boarded her own HCP, then put on a special anti-gravity suit.

For a psychic of his level, the overload of HCP during ground combat can be completely resisted by the physical body, so the biggest function of this new anti-gravity suit is not to help resist overload, but to improve the pilot's control synchronization rate with the body.

When Amber sat in the cockpit of the HCP after a long absence, a different emotion slowly rose from her heart, and every cell in her body seemed to be reborn, bursting with new vitality.

After the battle of Serpens Alpha, a group of Atlas executives, led by Isabel, collectively asked Amber to stay in the rear during the battle. As a result, Amber had fewer and fewer opportunities to drive the HCP for assault.

In addition, he has been dealing with negotiations with various forces and the overall affairs of the Atlas Group recently, so he has gradually changed from the image of an elite pilot to a cunning and greasy businessman.
Until today, in this important battle, she finally returned to this familiar cockpit, and Amber was so excited that she couldn't help but scream out.

"The steel soul in my heart is still burning brightly!!!"

The other pilots of the ATT squadron in the communication channel also realized something after hearing Amber's howl, and the squadron leader quickly sent a message in the team's text channel.

"Everyone, pay attention. Boss is going to be excited this time. Do your best to keep up with Boss's pace and don't embarrass ATT!"

On the other side, after completing a quick self-check and adjusting the machine's power output to 'combat mode', the scarlet machine driven by Amber quickly came to the front of the formation, and his excited voice was heard on the communication channel.

"ATT Squadron, follow me!!!"

The eleven HCP engines roared, and the plasma propulsion arrays ejected dazzling blue light one after another, like an arrow shot from a bow, rushing straight towards the direction of the Grand Palace.
-
The Imperial Guards, who were drawn out together with part of the Martyr Legion's forces to intercept the Atlas ground forces, soon discovered the HCP squadron that was rapidly breaking through the front line.

When the frontline troops that were breached before their positions were fully built sent back the important information that the leading machine was painted red, the Imperial Guards' battle auxiliary command AI immediately performed feature recognition from the database and concluded that there was an 80% chance that Amber personally led the assault.

When the Regent heard the news, he felt like he was facing a great enemy, because he knew very well that Amber was a powerful psychic.

The commander of the Imperial Guards was also not willing to take it lightly. Although their Imperial Guards did not have a deep enough understanding of Amber's combat capability, he still recognized the "high-risk" mark given to Amber by the battle auxiliary command AI, not to mention that the AI ​​had specially used a dark purple color that would not be used easily.

In the Imperial Army's map operation specifications, this often means that this unit has the ability to influence the outcome of the battle.

So the commander of the Imperial Guards did not hesitate at all and immediately dispatched a group of elite HCP pilots to intercept Amber.

"Dispatch two squadrons, no... four HCP squadrons to intercept. The enemy must be trying to break into the Grand Palace to rescue them. We must stop them!"

The commander of the Imperial Guards knew very well that in the face of the elite HCP troops, it was too inefficient to mobilize conventional troops to intercept them. In the hands of those elite pilots, the mobility of these Iron Demons would be brought to the extreme. Therefore, the only force that could compete with the HCP troops on the battlefield was often another HCP troop.
Under the command of this commander, the Imperial Guards tasked with blocking missions sent out one-third of their HCPs, and the one in charge of commanding the attack was an ACE pilot from the Imperial Guards.

The interception force consisting of a total of forty "Royal Clerics" from four squadrons quickly completed the rendezvous. The Imperial Guard ACE pilot who led the team drove a "Royal Cleric" that was different from the models of others. Not only did it further unlock the performance limiter of the machine, but the external armor also had more golden patterns that symbolized glory and merit.

It is also very conspicuous on the battlefield. After receiving the order to "intercept the enemy's elite squadron", although the ACE was very alert to this order directly issued by the supreme commander, it was obvious that he did not realize what kind of monster he would face.

Forty 'Royal Clerics' also deployed in an offensive formation, and the plasma propulsion arrays behind them simultaneously ejected dazzling blue light at high power, and charged straight towards the ATT squadron led by Amber.

The terrain near the Grand Palais of Saint-Saunière is a large plain with an ups and downs of no more than 20 meters. Such terrain naturally became a paradise for attacking forces, especially highly mobile units, to launch assaults.

So the two sides soon met in an open area some distance away from the outer positions of the Grand Palace, and in just a moment, the battle entered a white-hot stage.

The HCP unit of the Imperial Guard is worthy of being the most elite HCP unit in the Empire, and its pilots are ACEs drawn from a large number of conventional troops. Therefore, even when facing the ATT squadron, which has rich combat experience and superior machine performance, it still demonstrates excellent combat qualities.

Using their tacit cooperation and superb operation, they immediately tried to split and surround the ATT squadron led by Amber.

But ATT's pilots are no pushovers. Those pilots selected to assist Amber in carrying out assault missions are the ones with the highest technical and tactical levels in the entire group, except for Murat and Louis.

The 'Woodworth' they were driving was also Atlas' most advanced aircraft, reaching the highest level of mobility, protection and firepower among the currently active HCPs. At the same time, it continued the 'multi-functional' characteristics of the Atlas aircraft, and each aircraft carried a pair of weapon containers with rapid cooling function.

So after the exchange of fire between the two sides, the HCP troops of the Imperial Guards were first hit by a series of complex long-range fire attacks. This was also the most commonly used and simplest and most brutal tactic by ATT pilots when engaging the enemy - first use the advantages in power and firepower to deal a head-on blow to the enemy, and then rush up to engage in hand-to-hand combat while the opponent has not yet reacted.

Under the influence of Amber's personal style, if the pilots of Atlas want to become the "elite" recognized by their comrades, their ability in hand-to-hand combat must be enough to convince others.
First, a dense burst of plasma rockets was fired in a full-scale manner, directly covering the area where most of the Imperial Guards HCP were located, forcing them to disperse their formation to evade.

Immediately after discarding the empty rocket nests, a large number of smoke bombs were thrown out through the multi-functional launcher. Although many of them were shot down by the close-in defense lasers of the Imperial Guards HCP in the process, with sufficient quantity, they still slowly pulled out an intermittent wall of smoke.

For the Imperial Guard pilots who were used to relying on the HCP's mobility and short-term bursts of firepower to carry out rapid assault tactics, they had rarely encountered this tactic of changing the rhythm of the battle between the two sides by blocking information on a large scale.

After all, the HCP pilots in this world, in most cases, prefer to use guns, cannons and heavy swords to "talk directly".
"Be careful to prevent the enemy from rushing straight at you from the smoke! Squadrons B and C, try to pass through the gaps in the smoke wall and divide and surround them first!"

Under the command of the commander of the Imperial Guards, the forty "Royal Clerics" immediately adjusted their formation in an extremely smooth manner, like mercury flowing on the ground, keeping a distance from the smoke wall while quickly infiltrating into the gaps concealed by the smoke wall.

The whole process can be said to be smooth and there is no sense of lag at all.

But before the Imperial Guards' HCP launched an offensive, a sudden volley of heavy particle cannon fire, like a "volley", blew away the smoke that was blocking the sensor's detection, and then directly covered the coverage track of one of the Imperial Guards squadrons.

The Royal Clergy's adaptive deflection field was activated the moment the attack came, and this round of attack, which was equivalent to blind shooting, luckily hit five machines.

"Bingo! The opponent's trajectory is exactly as predicted in the simulation battle. However, the movement is indeed a little slower than the 'enemy' generated based on the boss's data~"

The captain of the ATT squadron said excitedly in the channel. Apparently the hit rate of this round of blind shooting still reached the line in his mind.

However, the deflection field generators of these "Royal Clerics" were obviously not the common items distributed in large quantities to conventional troops. Even if two machines were hit by two surging jets of heavy metal particles at the same time, they still successfully blocked the fatal attack with the cooperation of the heavy laminated armor shield.

But the attack of the ATT squadron was obviously not as simple as a round of salvos.

Before the Imperial Guards HCPs, who were suddenly attacked by heavy particle cannons, could readjust their direction of attack, four "Woodworths" led by Amber rushed in front of them at lightning speed.

The attack process that had been practiced countless times in simulated battles was executed to perfection at this moment. The assault was synchronized with the heavy particle cannon salvo and successfully entered the Atlas pilots' favorite fighting distance before the enemy could react.

In the cockpits of these 'Royal Clerics' who were targeted, the alarm of 'enemy target approaching at high speed' sounded almost simultaneously!

Because Amber and his men's assault was almost synchronized with the salvo of heavy particle cannons, the sensors of these 'Royal Clerics' were still covered in a cloud of snow due to the electromagnetic reaction of the deflection field caused by the bombardment of a large number of charged particles. The only way to see the outside world clearly was through the backup optical channel in the middle of the full-circle screen, which had a very narrow field of view, like a 'crack in the sky'.

So after seeing three extremely fast black shadows flash by through this 'crack in the sky', these pilots immediately realized that the opponent's machines had entered hand-to-hand combat distance.

"Prepare to fight!"

The squadron commander yelled in the communication channel and quickly pulled out the plasma heavy sword from the heavy shield.

The heavy sword is powered up! Fighting stance is ready!
But the next second, a violent collision directly caused the body to lose balance, and the plasma heavy sword across the front of the cockpit also lost its posture under this impact.

"It's over!"

The squadron commander only had time to have this thought before the blue plasma blade of a heavy sword pierced through the armored door of the cockpit, vaporizing it instantly.

At this moment, the squadron also lost four "Royal Clerics" at the same time. Without exception, their cockpits were pierced by the heavy sword after their fighting postures were broken by the powerful force.

This is the combat style that Amber trained the ATLAS TEST TEAM to adopt.

We are professionals in hand-to-hand combat.

(End of this chapter)