Stellaris from the Automata Era

However, this missile did not have much effect. As soon as it reached the outer edge of the atmosphere, it hit a shield that spread out like ripples on the water and exploded like fireworks.

"Planetary shields, a civilization actually built one?!" Seeing the missiles fail to work, N2 could only offer his praise. "Even with planetary shields, they probably have comprehensive air defenses. You must be prepared for losses during landing."

The principle of the planetary shield is actually not too advanced technology. It is actually a ship shield enlarged to the size of being able to accommodate an entire planet.

However, as the area it needs to cover becomes larger, the energy required is proportional to the size of the planet.

But if it only relies on this oversized target in the universe, its shield will sooner or later be broken due to the fierce bombardment.

In fact, the original purpose of N2 launching the missile was to see the planet's air defense measures, but now I'm afraid the outer turtle shell has been pulled off first.

"Just launch a planetary bombardment. You won't be able to conduct landing operations until you destroy the one outside." The current humanoids do not have landing equipment such as landing pods.

Their landing operations still used ships to break through the strict defense network and place the entire team on land.

Therefore, all firepower and air defense can cause huge losses to them.

"Can't we clear out all their air defenses before we land?"

"Yes, it is possible, but it will take a lot of time, and you will need to focus on attacking their production buildings, otherwise they will soon realize that they can rebuild their anti-aircraft turrets.

If this really happens, we will be engaged in an alternative war of attrition. Either all the personnel who can operate the artillery will die, or all the resources on the planet will be exhausted.

We just don't have that much time to plan a complete and safe landing."

Yes, for every bit of time the current "Three Ship Alliance" wastes, the Tree People will recover a bit of vitality, so that they will have more time to reorganize their fleet.

On the other hand, Earth itself is a long and arduous expedition. They can win countless times on foreign battlefields, but as long as they lose just once, the complete victory will be postponed indefinitely.

"So what's your decision?" N2 threw the question and the power of choice to the two humanoids.

Faced with the Cygnus's territorial demands, she knew that the humanoids didn't actually have much choice.

"Let's attack."

Chapter 318: At least one of them should be court-martialed!

On the transport ship on the eve of landing on the planet, 11b had to fall into deep thought. Even without using strange skills such as psychic link and mind reading, the humanoids around her could see the distress on her face.

This silly girl's mental activities have always been written on her face. No one knows how long this state lasted. 160d, who followed her, finally stepped forward and took the initiative to share her worries.

"Senior, what's wrong with you?"

"160d." 11b looked at his junior, the distress on his face becoming more and more obvious. "How did I suddenly become the commander of the landing operation? Shouldn't this position be held by the commander?"

"Isn't it because the senior is the strongest? He volunteered himself?" 160d answered without hesitation.

Although the process was somewhat tortuous, everyone unanimously agreed that 11b kicked the commander out and "seized" the power of the army.

The main thing is that in the upcoming planetary landing battle, as the front line really needs a capable commander to take charge, and the commander is the commander who will be stationed in the rear for a long time.

——Can she really fight?

Anyway, 160d himself doesn't believe it.

In fact, the commander himself may also understand that the upcoming landing battle requires a commander with strong survivability to grasp the ever-changing situation on the front line, so he took the initiative to find 11b for a conversation.

I have forgotten some of the specific content of 160d, but I vaguely remember words like "severely inflicted a heavy blow" and "subdued the strongest person". Then my predecessor happily ran to the landing transport ship to report.

I was so happy at that time that I even lost my 160d when I went to report.

Although 160d remembered the entire process, 11b himself seemed to be in denial: "Impossible! How come I don't remember anything about this?"

She first refuted the junior 160d's words like this, then lowered her head to think for a while, and when she raised her head again, she looked as if she had suddenly realized something: "I know, it must be the commander's fault!"

"The Commander's fault?" 160d responded with a strange expression. "But what was the Commander's fault?"

"I don't know, but it must be her fault. I don't even remember what happened. She must have tampered with my system!"

11b was very arrogant and even made a false accusation.

Now even 160d found it difficult to agree with her, but considering that the person in front of her was her predecessor, it was difficult for her to come up with any words of rebuttal.

Of course, she did not agree with 11b's words. It is better to avoid such slanderous remarks against superiors. The power over the solitary confinement room in the Moon Bunker is still in the hands of the commander. Only Yoerha like 11b is beyond the commander's control.

However, as a base that produces many problem children, YoRHa is actually not short of brave people who dare to challenge. I don’t know if 11b’s words touched the heartstrings of a certain humanoid.

A quick follow-up remark came out: "Perhaps it really is the Commander's fault."

11b was naturally delighted to receive the response. She looked in the direction of the voice and saw another YoRHa member.

With the mentality of being on the same side, I smiled and approached to start a conversation. "Hello, I'm 11b, who are you?"

"I'm 7b..." 7b's voice sounded a little resentful.

As YoRHa humanoids from the same batch as 11b, it stands to reason that everyone should be familiar with each other.

After all, there were only a few hundred people in the entire bunker at that time. Everyone had formed teams for frequent airborne missions and had met each other countless times.

"7b! Why are you getting shorter?" 11b exclaimed, then quickly realized, "No, I'm the one who got taller."

As a humanoid from the 'past', 11b is a modified version of YoRHa. Equipped with all kinds of cutting-edge technology, she is indeed more than half a head taller than others.

In her memory, the main combat dolls from the same batch should have the same configuration, so it was understandable that she didn't recognize the weakened version of the familiar face at first sight.

"It seems we know each other. Let me introduce myself again. I'm Captain 7b of Yoerha's Fire Support Team. Reporting to you, Commander 11b."

"Fire support team?"

——Why does this sound like a shooting team?

11b looked at 7b's model name, Type B, and was lost in thought for a moment.

Maybe the expression on her face was really obvious, 7b immediately guessed what she was thinking.

"Don't get me wrong, the Fire Support Team was originally comprised of newly recruited Yoerha T-dolls. I joined this battle as their instructor. It's just that ever since I fought the Zerg swarm with a Tyranid commander in the Koprulu Sector, the adults changed the name to the New Training Team." 7B sighed. "How did a B-type like me become the captain of the Fire Support Team?"

"Maybe there's a mistake somewhere? But getting a team name from the adults seems like a win no matter how you look at it!"

"Why else do you think I'm still in the team?"

It sounds like... there's a bit of showing off in it?

160d noticed that something was wrong with the topic. Maybe 11b himself didn't notice it, but 160d more or less heard that the 7b in front of him was also the type who returned home in glory.

She seemed to be reminiscing about the past with her seniors, but more importantly, she was sharing the glory she had received from the humans. Although this should be divided equally among the team, many humanoids didn't even have the chance to get a piece of the pie.

——No, we can’t let our seniors be bullied!

Perhaps the original intention of the current scene was somewhat different from 160d's idea, but out of the idea of ​​protecting 11b, she still stepped forward and interrupted the conversation.

"Hello, Senior 7b. I'm 160d and currently serving as the bodyguard for Senior 11b. I've heard of you a long time ago."

"You, the junior, are quite pleasant to hear." 160b was taken aback at 7d's unexpected interruption, but then a smile crossed his face. "By the way, where have you heard of me?"

"Uh..." 160d froze. She remained silent for a few seconds, frantically searching the system's memory before answering timidly. "It should be 'a typical case of confinement.'"

Obviously, 7b hadn't expected such an answer. She thought the news of her team being given a name had spread throughout the internal network.

The unexpected words immediately fried her CPU, and she took a long time to speak. "It's all the Commander's fault. The electronic intrusion type assigned here is unreliable. How can you hack someone's panel right in front of them?"

——Is there something big going on here?

I have to admit that 7b's mumbling successfully piqued 11b's curiosity, but after the CPU ran high for a while, 7b was obviously not in the mood to continue.

She quickly made a perfunctory change of subject.

"What's your battle strategy for the upcoming landing?"

"How could that be possible?" Now it was 11B's turn to sigh and burn the CPU. "Both the Commander and N2 believe the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower will permeate their atmosphere, so even a safe landing is a concern."

In fact, the situation may be worse than what 11b said. This operation was basically in a "three-no" state: no preparation, no intelligence, and no escort.

They had no idea of ​​the weak points in the planet's air defense, and the transport ships would have to pass through the complete air defense fire zone and be forced to land on the ground.

I wonder if even half of the army participating in the entire landing operation could land on their feet.

However, the only consolation is that both the commander and N2 know that they cannot just let people rush down like this, so they will carry out a bombing strike on the entire planet before landing.

Only after the planetary defense shield is destroyed will limited bombing and precision strikes be carried out to disintegrate the opponent's defense system.

But the only problem with the whole plan is that no one knows the deployment points of the anti-aircraft firepower, and they may have to wait until the army's landing ships take action and are countered before they can find the target to attack.

"In my opinion, the success rate of this operation is not high at all."

Although 11b believes that he does not have an outstanding command awareness and overall perspective, he has participated in many battles as a main force in the past.

If you haven't seen a pig run, you've probably eaten pork (note)? The humanoids, which don't have all the necessary equipment, are basically free for now.

So after becoming the Army Commander, she was genuinely surprised at how she had gotten there! She was a man of great insight, and she definitely wouldn't have volunteered! Absolutely!

But now that the matter is done, she can't withdraw temporarily.

"Be careful with your words!" 7b quickly covered 11b's mouth with his hands. The highest commander was not optimistic about the battle, and such remarks would simply undermine the morale of the troops.

While morale among the humanoid troops isn't low right now, it certainly would have shaken them in the past. "We've never experienced a landing battle before, so let's just treat it as practice."

"Have you forgotten about the airborne operation?"

"How can that be compared?" 7B objected. "Back when we were fighting, the airborne program wasn't successful, and the overall scale wasn't as large as it is now. There's no point in practicing it."

7b, who was just telling others to be careful with their words, quickly became part of the group that shook the morale of the troops.

As the conversation between the two seniors drew closer to the military court, 160d knew it was time for him to step forward and set things right. Otherwise, the next time he saw them, it would either be in the moon bunker's solitary confinement room or at a shooting scene.

"Is it almost time for us to launch an attack?"

160d's words finally brought the two dolls back to reality from their reminiscing.

After a moment's hesitation, 11b quickly scratched the back of his head. "To be honest, I don't know the exact time of the attack."

"Oh no! Is it too late for me to get off the ship now?" 7b's eyes widened. Even though they were covered by a tactical eye mask, everyone could still sense her incomprehensible gaze. "Are you really the commander?"

Faced with professional doubts, even if he had doubted himself before, 11b now had to express his stubborn nature.

She put her hands on her hips, her demeanor radiating. "Of course I am! While I don't know the timing of the attack, I do know we should have the fleet breach the enemy's planetary shields before we attack."

"Like, right now?"

"Yeah, like...wait? Now?"

11b After being stunned for who knows how many times today, she quickly turned her head and looked at the situation outside through the glass inspection port.

In front of her, the Earth's mixed fleet had begun to bombard the planet's outer shield with firepower.

After a series of brilliant fireworks erupted in the atmosphere, the tree people may have realized that maintaining the shield might be a waste of energy, or they may have indeed reached the maximum critical point of the planetary shield.

Soon all the firepower was sinking unimpeded into the inner atmosphere.

After everything that was happening in front of him was over, 11b finally reacted.

"Tell the pilot that we are ready to depart, and notify the entire army to begin the landing!"

After the order was given, the transport ship started slowly, and after a period of pre-acceleration, it directly penetrated into the planet's atmosphere. There were many other ships performing the same maneuver.

There are probably about 5 ships maneuvering or preparing to maneuver. After all, during the expedition, the headquarters claimed to have a fleet of 1, but there were only actual combat units, and the rest were all logistics and army transport ships.

However, after several months of consumption, most of them have become empty ships.

As a last resort, most transport ships were used directly as landing ships, and in order to minimize the losses caused by the entire ship being shot down by anti-aircraft missiles during landing.

Each landing ship can only carry a force of about one or two hundred people. The average available space for the army alone is enough to make the Terran brothers next door drool with envy.

Although so many preparations have been made, landing is still a high-risk task after all.

Unfortunately, as the first landing ship led by the commander, 11b and the others were not lucky enough to land without any damage.

Just one second after breaking through the atmosphere, a laser cannon hit the tail of the ship head-on, and half of the important propulsion device was shut down on the spot. Then more firepower was fired from the ground.

"Everyone, attention! Everyone, attention! Our ship has been hit! Our ship has been hit!" The pilot's urgent cry came from the loudspeaker inside the ship. He seemed to be trying his best to save the ship. "Most of the thrusters have been cut off. We don't have enough power to break free from the constraints of gravity. Prepare for a hard landing!"

"I knew I wouldn't be so lucky!" 11b grabbed something that could stabilize his body and prevent him from being thrown away.

The other people on the boat were doing the same thing. 7b and her fire team held the auxiliary machine tightly. As they were idle, they must have an auxiliary machine following them.

This little thing should be able to save their lives before they are thrown away.

After everyone was ready, they could see themselves getting closer and closer to the ground outside the glass observation port.

ps: Note: Actually, it should be said that you have not eaten pork but have not seen a pig run. However, according to our current concept, it should be the other way around. After all, life has become better!

Chapter 319: Remember that human form and water do not mix