Planet of Sand and Oasis of Iron

Chapter 24. Is there anything wrong with occupying the hilltop alone?
Mercenaries have their own unique skills, such as 'how to advance under suppressed fire'.

Seifer watched helplessly as the mobile team went straight up, especially the motorcycle he was riding. He turned the throttle to the maximum and sprinted towards the slope under the almost flooding gunfire in the night sky.

As the first group of mercenaries rushed to seize the hilltop, the suppressing firepower was transferred from suppressing the rescue of those who had overturned their vehicles to this side.

The bullets hit the bulletproof shield, making a clanging sound. Seifer lowered his body, fearing that he would be hit. "Just charge forward like this? Where's the plan? Where's the arrangement?"

"What's the plan? Oh, by the way, I'm 'Zhanqiao C79'. When we charge up, don't jump out of the car. The cars our company provides are all equipped with forward energy protection!"

That's a good feeling.

Only then did Seifer realize that their recklessness was primarily due to their defensive capabilities. The independent mercenary team was still relying on their vehicles as cover, providing firepower for this area.

The roar of artillery fire overhead and the hail of bullets in front of him did not affect Sefer's mood. He checked the safety of his weapon and saw the scenery in the distance the moment the motorcycle rushed onto the beach.

Then he reached out without hesitation, grabbed the unlucky kid who brought him here, and threw him backwards in the direction he came from.

The number of enemies lying on this sand dune is not the key. The key is that not far away, the whole vehicle is equipped with long guns and short cannons, and even the "medium-sized stronghold" with an absolutely abnormal moving speed is aiming at this side!
Standing on the car, Seifer raised his gun and aimed at several people nearby. He scanned and locked the threat and opened fire in an instant. Several enemies a little further away were immediately enlightened.

Then he immediately curled up his body, and the beach motorcycle completely obscured his figure, and fell heavily on the sand with it.

This set of actions made the vehicles behind them, who were worried about their own units, a little scared - but if they were discovered, they would open fire!
The guns and cannons roared violently, but they were not aimed at the top of the sand dunes.

In the driver's opinion, it was no big deal for just one person to break through the defense line. The people on the sand dunes would be able to kill that person later. The biggest threat was only the convoy that was still in motion and the mercenaries who had not yet crossed the sand dunes.

Projectile grenades, curved small artillery, and probably mortars and flares all flew over his head. Seifer didn't care about them. He raised his hand to block the bullets shot at him, and shot the approaching enemies with two shots.

He turned around and swung the light blade. By the time the enemies were horrified to find that he was actually an invulnerable mercenary, several of them had already been killed.

"Red Crossbow, why are there so many near your signal—"

"Enemy, encounter. I'm a bit busy right now."

As he spoke, Cypher rolled over in the sand and kicked away the explosive that was thrown beside him.

It exploded in mid-air, scattering fragments everywhere.

Bullets continued to fly, and even Cypher could not really ignore this impact - the protective force field shield mounted on his back immediately deployed to resist the damage. At the same time, he calmly half-knelt in the sand pit and fired at the enemies who were close at hand.

There was also chaos under the sand dunes. The mercenaries were a little dizzy from the high-intensity and intensive firepower, but they soon used all kinds of fierce skills and bombarded each other with the opponents across the sand dunes.

Even the convoy turned accordingly... Honestly, the scene was quite shocking.

The huge vehicle's rotating tracks left dark blue ruts on the ground. At the same time, like the fixed main gun in a mobile fortress, it fired, spewing out a blazing stream of fire and, upon hitting the target, the artillery fire that could definitely penetrate the opponent's armor directly boomed throughout the entire field.

Dozens of high-speed vehicles left zigzag and twisted blue tracks on the ground, filled with radial halos left by explosives.

It was like a shimmering light painted carelessly on a vast canvas by a mindless sci-fi artist. The medium-sized vehicles knew that exposing themselves to patrol vehicles with their physiques would only lead to their deaths. They quickly abandoned the second wave of support units and moved in the opposite direction, determined to engage in guerrilla warfare against the massive convoy.

If you have the guts, turn around. Then we can use the long-range main gun and short-range armor-piercing shells to pry it open!

The convoy commander was feeling proud of this idea when his subordinates suddenly cried out, "Our blocking team on the hill has suffered heavy casualties, Commander!"

"……What did you say?"

In fact, while the two sides were making large-scale transfers and fighting, the less-noticed Sefer had almost cleared out all the people on the hill.

The one-way shield I got from the mercenary before is really useful. Although it can only block the part in front of the body, the flexible opening and closing makes Cypher, who already has extraordinary mobility, even more flexible.

These individual sniper teams and even the unlucky ones in the heavy machine gun positions fell one by one without any ability to resist under Seifer's attack, like wheat in the autumn harvest.

Some people even lost their morale and simply dropped their weapons and ran away - Cypher had no time to finish off such people, because their movements were too conspicuous, and the strange creatures waiting under the sand dunes targeted them.

Those things were of relatively uniform shape, all of them were square boxes with two legs. After Cypher was the only one left standing on the hill, they immediately took action, predicted Cypher's position, and opened fire!
“Da da da da…”

The flint quickly slashed towards Sefer, and he immediately stepped back and hid behind the hill in an instant. The bullet that followed hit the sand with a "puff puff" sound, bursting out with a brilliant blue light.

Ignoring the warheads that followed, Cypher continued, "Leica, can you analyze the enemy I'm facing?"

"They're also mercenaries, and their weapons and equipment are comparable. The one that attacked you just now was an unmanned automatic weapon platform. Be careful of direct fire."

"Okay, new question. Will I be hit by vehicle-mounted artillery from this position?"

"The probability is very low. They wouldn't attack you unless there was a greater threat... But still, be careful. Those weapon platforms are coming."

Seifer changed the magazine for his gun and lay down in the sand. "It's okay. We have quite a few people here too. Those who fell out of the second round are coming up now, aren't they?"

The moving convoy was once again bombarded by distant main guns, but this time the enemy's shots were even more off-target - the analysis module pointed out that the probability of an accurate hit from such an artillery attack more than ten kilometers away was very low.

This wasn't some trebuchet game in the bathtub. It was even a question whether he could hit the target even if the ammunition depot was emptied... Seifer didn't have time to care about that, because his position had once again become the front line.

There were light armored vehicles following behind those unmanned units, but that was not enough. The medium-sized vehicles that had abandoned their payloads were also running faster. They were about to cross the sand dunes and turn to the side where they could not be aimed.

Cypher quickly told Tien to be careful of the opponent's double-team tactics, but she laughed and told Cypher to be careful not to get killed, and then continued to order the unit to circle.

When they went around to this side of the mountain, and the convoy was even able to use its secondary guns and grenades to support Cypher and blow up those automatic machines, he saw what Tien was confident of.

...It was a missile of considerable size and powerful propulsion that was ejected from her patrol car, ignited in mid-air, and then sped away after calibrating its direction!
Perhaps it will take some time for Sefer to understand why the missiles in this world cannot strike beyond visual range, but not now.

He now had his eyes on several medium-sized vehicles that were moving, with a vague sense of anticipation in his heart.

That thing should be very valuable, right?
(End of this chapter)