Infinite Stream Metaverse

Chapter 715: The Great Battle of Ullanor: Three-Dimensional Offensive
Ullanor, an orc city on the surface.

Calling it a "city" may be a bit inappropriate, because it is different from the traditional impression of modern cities with high-rise buildings or Gothic punk hive cities. It is more like a large settlement composed of a large number of chaotic industrial shantytowns and fart slums. The Orks themselves are an interstellar nomadic race that lives by war, so it seems okay to call the city they built a "settlement".

Various buildings were stacked up randomly and crowdedly. Fortresses full of gun barrels and weapons factories with chimneys were close to each other. In between were twisting streets full of sewage and stench. This extremely unplanned urban settlement seemed to reflect the chaotic nature of the Orks.

It was not an easy task to clear a place for the transport ship to land in such a place. The technical sergeants of the Space Marines began a violent demolition. Multiple mechanical arms with pliers on their power backpacks swung, clamped the supporting steel pipes and then pulled them forcibly. The iron houses in the shantytowns collapsed like a pile of cards. The melta weapons and conversion beam weapons in their hands also sprayed indiscriminately, sweeping down large areas of stacked houses.

These are the heavy weapons that Space Marines use to break down doors when participating in boarding operations or exploring space hulks. Using them to deal with these crudely built Orc houses is simply a waste of resources. Everything is done to build a landing site in the shortest possible time.

Of course, the most efficient way to clear the area is by using super-heavy tanks. The tracks of super-heavy tanks equipped with plowshare bulldozers and chain hammer mine sweepers on the front rumbled past, and soon they crushed out a flat area in the messy shantytown.

The terrain in these areas is complex and full of gullies. From time to time, Snotls and Squiggs jump out of tunnels filled with garbage and slop. Because the Space Marines landed too quickly, these low-level Ork subspecies did not have time to escape from here.

The Space Marines used flamethrower weapons to sweep over these Orks, igniting them into howling, running little fireballs. These cowardly, yet insidious and brutal green-skinned creatures might be carrying explosives and must be eliminated.

The Space Marines completed the landing operation in just a few hours, but it took them a whole day to clear the remaining Orks in the urban settlements and build a landing site, while also dealing with the counterattack organized by the surrounding Orcs.

At this time, the landing field has been leveled.

Dozens of inter-orbital transport ships slowly descended amid the roar of their engines. Flames and strong winds blew dust and garbage everywhere. After the landing gear was stabilized, the rear hatch of the transport ship slowly opened and fell down, and a row of knight mechas strode out of the cabin with their cross-shaped mechanical claw feet and stepped onto the ground.

At the feet of the knight mech, red-robed soldiers wearing capes and hoods were also lining up and walking down the cabin quickly. Behind the Mechanicus's transport ship, the tall figure of the Firebee Legion's Warlord-class Titan was looming in the smoke and dust.

Valkyrie transport planes circled in the sky. The Guards armored forces consisting of Chimera armored vehicles, Leman Rust tanks and Basilisk self-propelled artillery lined up in a row and drove out of the city. The soldiers of the Imperial Guard marched in small steps and assembled into several neat square formations, quietly listening to the speeches of the political commissars.

Fu Qinghai stood on top of an orc fortress that served as a temporary battlefield command center and took in all of this.

Beside him stood an even taller and more majestic figure, the Lord of Fire Dragons, Vulkan Vulkan.

"The Adeptus Mechanicus did not send any Emperor-class Titans or Warmaster-class Titans. Kubik said that Mars no longer has any Emperor-class Titans or Warmaster-class Titans. They were all destroyed in the war. The group of warriors in front of us are all the remaining main forces of the Firebee Legion..."

Fu Qinghai looked into the distance and said calmly:
"I don't believe this. Based on my understanding of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Martian thought cluster brain will definitely analyze the probability of victory in this war. I guess the probability of winning is not high, so the Forge Lord will not deploy all of Mars's troops to Ullanor, even if you join the battle."

Fu Qinghai would speak ill of Kubik whenever he had the chance.

After listening to this, Vukan frowned and asked in confusion:

"There is an old saying on Nocturne: No lizard's scales can survive without its skin. Mars is unwilling to send out its entire army. If the Empire is defeated as a result, how can they guarantee that they can survive the disaster that is sweeping across the Orcs?"

Fu Qinghai curled up the corners of his mouth and smiled when he heard that.

"as far as I know."

Fu Qinghai said with a hint of sarcasm:
"They have their own way."

Facing the puzzled gaze of the Primarch.

Fu Qinghai gave a hint:
"Just before the combined fleet set out, the observers on the battleship Supremacy made an accidental discovery: Phobos appeared from one end of the orbit to the other end of Mars in one second. If my observers are not mistaken, this satellite of Mars instantly crossed the 13,000-kilometer orbital distance that would normally take four hours."

Upon hearing this, Wokan narrowed his eyes and began to think.

Fu Qinghai continued to describe what he knew:

"And the Grand Master of the Assassin's Court, Wangerich, also confirmed another fact to me: long before Terra sensed the rise of the beasts, other Forge Worlds had come into contact with the Battle Moon and studied and analyzed a lot of Orc technology. I have reason to suspect that this includes the kind of teleportation technology that allows the Battle Moon to reach Terra directly without passing through Mandeville Point."

The Primarch reacted quickly.

We can immediately draw the conclusion from these two facts:

"You mean to say... Firestar wants to run away?"

"I cannot arbitrarily speculate on the subjective thoughts of the Forge Commander."

Fu Qinghai shook his head slightly and said:
"But they do have the objective capability to leave the solar system."

Look at what Qingshan Khan said, it is flawless.

Fu Qinghai actually lied here.

The observers of the Serenity did not find any instantaneous movement or orbital change of Phobos. Even if Mars was conducting a planetary teleportation experiment, it would not leave such obvious evidence.

But Fu Qinghai didn't lie either.

Because in the original novel, Mars was indeed conducting planetary teleportation experiments during this period. They could teleport small natural satellites like Phobos, but something went wrong when they tried to teleport the battle moon above Terra. They only moved half of the satellite, and the remaining half shattered and fell into Terra's atmosphere, killing millions of ordinary Terran citizens.

Kubik had told Fu Qinghai that one of the reasons Mars was unwilling to send troops was that they were worried that destroying the Battle Moon would cause it to disintegrate in Terra's orbit, and the satellite debris would fall and harm ordinary people on the surface of the Throne World. However, in the original novel, Mars disintegrated the Battle Moon in order to verify the transmission technology.

After Fu Qinghai launched a coup and successfully seized power, the Space Marines took back the control of the battle moon above Terra from Mars, so there was no secondary accident disaster caused by the experimental transmission technology that led to the disintegration of the battle moon. But this does not mean that the Forge Commander has no problems. Fu Qinghai still wants to throw the dirty water that belongs to him on him.

The conclusion that Fu Qinghai wanted to tell Vokkan was that Mars could leave the solar system through teleportation technology, and facing the threat of wild beasts, they did not intend to coexist and perish with the human empire.

After listening to Fu Qinghai's story.

Vulcan was silent for a moment.

"The Mechanicus was not like this before."

The Fire Dragon Lord finally let out a sigh.

The human empire was not like this before.

Fu Qinghai stared into the distance, also speechless.

At this time, outside this unknown orc city settlement temporarily named "Landing Site City" by Fu Qinghai, soldiers from 21 Imperial Guards were building multiple lines of defense with remarkable efficiency and speed, digging trenches, laying minefields, and building temporary ammunition supply depots and front-line command posts. The shield wall with crenel holes quickly connected in front of the trench. This military green roadblock was called the "Aegis Line of Defense", a prefabricated simple fortification used to quickly build a defense zone in a short period of time.

Strictly speaking, the landing operation of the human coalition opened a small gap and drove a small nail into a planet full of orcs. The orcs have not launched a large-scale counterattack yet, only because the landing operation was successful too quickly. In just a few hours, an urban settlement near Gaoge Garden was captured. Other orcs on the planet have not fully reacted yet. Once they react and start organizing a counterattack, the landing site city will immediately be trapped in a siege by the vast green ocean.

Therefore, the Imperial Guard was needed to firmly hold the landing site for the human coalition forces, so that the Space Marines and the Mechanicus responsible for the main attack on the Gogo Garden would not be cut off from the orbital reinforcements or trapped in a situation where they were attacked from three sides. Positional warfare and trench warfare happened to be the combat methods that most of the Imperial Guards were best at. Except for special regiments such as the Alicia Airborne Troops and the Harakoni Fighting Falcons, the most training that the Guards received was "building a stronghold and fighting a static battle."

After the successful landing operation, the Battle of Ullanor entered its second phase - the human coalition's direct attack on the Gogo Garden. Everything was going according to Qingshan Khan's plan.

In this expedition, all four military systems of the human empire participated, and the division of labor was clear. The Imperial Navy was responsible for clearing the Ork naval forces in the galaxy and the orbital defense forces outside the planet to open up a path for the landing operation, while being vigilant against the Ork naval fleet returning from other regions. The Imperial Guard was responsible for consolidating the defense and holding on to the landing site city, and fighting against the Ork army that surrounded the entire planet. The Space Marines and the Mechanicus were responsible for attacking the Gogo Garden and completing the final decapitation operation in the plan.

Landing site, battlefield command center.

"Scanning images from orbit show that the orcs in Gogo's Garden are gathering in our direction."

Mandulatu pointed to the miniature sand table of Gaoge Garden in the holographic projection and said that there were a large number of red dots gathered there.

"We must launch an attack as soon as possible, Qingshan, otherwise the orcs on the entire planet will be fully mobilized."

Bosimonde turned to look at Fu Qinghai and reminded him.

"Do not worry."

Fu Qinghai stood among a group of chapter leaders, his hands on the edge of the huge iron table, staring at the projection, shaking his head slightly and said.

"Do you remember the experimental conclusion I told you about?"

Fu Qinghai raised his head and looked around at the surrounding regiment leaders:
"The more orcs gather, the easier it will be to destroy them. We are not afraid of the orcs continuing to gather. The key to ground combat lies in the Sister of Silence. All tactical plans must be formulated around the Sister of Silence. We need to protect the Sister of Silence until the orc army enters the visual range of the naked eye. Within this combat range, the soulless force field can be effective."

The White Scars Chapter Captains nodded at this.

The Sister of Silence is indeed a powerful weapon to restrain the Orks, but it does not mean that the Sister of Silence is immune to long-range artillery shells, lasers, missiles and rockets on the battlefield. The range of the soulless force field of most Sisters of Silence is actually smaller than the visual distance. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a specific combat plan to achieve close combat with the Orks.

“It is hard to imagine that a group of forgotten nuns who were exiled a thousand years ago will become the protagonists of a final battle that concerns the future fate of the human empire and the Orks.”

Exclaimed Odanas, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines.

"But this is the fact and we respect the fact."

Fu Qinghai glanced at Odanas and said lightly.

"This is a gift from the Emperor."

Bosimonde began to express his unique views:
"He gave us a powerful weapon to fight against the orcs."

Several Chapter Captains present raised their eyebrows upon hearing this.

Fu Qinghai didn't want Bosimond to continue talking about the issue of faith, so he turned to his attendant and asked:
"How long will it take for the mining ship to complete the pulling operation?"

"Estimated five hours, Khan."

Lin Yu glanced at the tactical tablet and replied:
"Five hours later the debris entered a descending orbit."

The prototypes of the three planet-cracking mining ships and Unit-01 are the famous commercial mining ship in the Dead Space universe, the Ishimura. When Fu Qinghai first got the Ishimura, he thought about the possibility of weaponizing this planet-cracking mining ship. The Ishimura can certainly be used in war, but the application scenarios and scope are very narrow.

The main reason is that the process of planetary fragmentation is too long.

Taking the Earth as an example, in order for a mining spacecraft to break off a plate as large as the Australian continent, it first needs to build a series of auxiliary devices around the collection area and lay down gravity anchors to connect the nodes, which takes four months. Then, the mining spacecraft uses gravity anchors to tear the crust from the surface of the planet and pull it into orbital space, which takes another two months.

That is to say, it would take at least half a year to split a crustal plate as big as the Australian continent on Earth, and it would require the cooperation of ground personnel and mining spacecraft. A local war on a planet rarely gave a mining spacecraft such a long time to operate slowly, and Fu Qinghai and the Iron Pagoda Corps had never fought a protracted war that lasted for decades.

Therefore, when the first batch of planetary cracking mining ships were put into operation in the Phaeton Foundry World, most of them did not choose planets as mining targets. It might take more than ten years to completely crack a planet. Instead, they chose meteorites or asteroid belts in the galaxy as targets, and they could also clear the shipping lanes. Choosing meteorites as targets would make the operation much faster.

Ullanor's orbital space facilities cannot be compared with the earth's crustal plates in terms of mass and volume. It does not take months for planetary fission mining ships to use gravity anchors to pull these large debris, and they do not need to be pulled all the way from the surface to space. They only need to change their orbits, break away from their original orbits, and begin to fall towards the surface.

Because orbital space facilities have a certain initial speed when they revolve around the planet, the process of orbital space stations re-entering the atmosphere is not a straight line perpendicular to the surface, but an inclined parabola. After precise calculations by the technical priests of the Phaeton Army, the planetary cracking mining ship must pull these orbital facility debris at a specific angle and speed so that they can accurately fall on the top of the Gogo Garden.

This parabola is the so-called "descending trajectory".

"According to the gravity acceleration and atmospheric density of Ullanor, the Phaeton Tech Priests calculated that these large orbital facility debris will reach the surface and hit the orcs in about twenty minutes after entering the descending orbit, Khan."

Lin Yu stared at the data on the tactical tablet and read.

"Has the Antaeus-type general cannon I requested been deployed?"

Fu Qinghai looked at the sages of Mars again and asked.

"All engines of the Hundred Fleet are ready to go."

The ruling sage Greg Zhukov replied respectfully.

The Hundred Squadron is a relatively mysterious organization within the Adeptus Mechanicus. The engine it controls is the famous General Cannon, which can be divided into the Large General Cannon and the Small General Cannon (or "Sub-General Cannon") according to the size of the chassis. The structural principle of the General Cannon is actually very simple. It is basically to install the Titan weapon of a large Titan on a tracked chassis. Therefore, for a Forge World, it may be better to directly form a large Titan Legion than to manufacture the General Cannon to form the Hundred Squadron.

However, the weapons mounted on the chassis of several general cannons are not large Titan weapons, but relic technology, such as the sonic crusher on the Ulato general cannon and the giant earthbreaker on the Antaeus general cannon. The latter is the general cannon that Fu Qinghai specifically requested to be deployed on Mars this time. The weapon mounted on its chassis is a giant drill, which is the largest drilling vehicle in the human empire, much larger than ordinary drilling vehicles such as the termite-class assault driller and the Hades assault driller.

"After our exploration and analysis of the soil and rock formations, we estimate that it will take about three hours to build a tunnel from here to the Goge Garden using the Antaeus General Cannon, Khan."

Without waiting for Qingshan Khan to ask a question, the ruling sage Greg Zhukov took the initiative to answer the question he wanted to ask.

Fu Qinghai said this before.

He wants his offense to be more three-dimensional.

Instead of attacking Gogo Garden directly from the space orbit, we will attack Gogo Garden from the ground. The advantage is that due to the curvature of the planet, the ground forces can choose a direction to focus on breakthrough, without having to face the Orc capital's dense and fierce space firepower and layers of void shield arrays.

But if we simply shift the direction of attack from space to the surface, and simply replace the vertical longitudinal attack with a horizontal horizontal attack, it cannot be called "three-dimensional".

In Fu Qinghai's plan, the human coalition will not give up the space offensive while carrying out the ground offensive. At this moment, there are still some space warriors in the fleet, ready to drop into the Gogo Garden from orbit at any time. The wreckage of the large facility in orbit is the stepping stone for the space offensive.

Use this stepping stone to crack open the orc's head.

At the same time, using a series of assault drilling vehicles such as the Antaeus General Cannon, the human coalition will also launch an underground offensive. By digging tunnels, they will bypass the layers of defense lines and fortresses built by the orcs on the surface and directly reach the interior of the Gogo Garden to achieve the center of the attack, making this attack more three-dimensional.

Unlike what many people imagine, the tactic of temporarily digging tunnels to attack a city is not actually a covert one - because it will produce obvious vibrations. Ancient sieges relied on manpower to dig tunnels, which would produce sounds that could be detected by the defenders in the city, not to mention the huge vibrations and noises produced by the giant drilling vehicles of the Mechanicus. Smarter orcs can even judge the direction of tunnel digging and the location of the tunnel through the vibrations on the surface, so as to surround and ambush in advance.

Therefore, the ground-penetrating vehicles must coordinate with the offensive in the sky and on the ground simultaneously, and the timing of the offensive must be strictly controlled. Only in this way can they use the vibrations and noise caused by the outbreak of fighting on both sides to cover up the movement coming from underground to a certain extent, so as to achieve the effect of catching the enemy by surprise.

In this way, the human coalition launched attacks simultaneously from three different dimensions: the sky, the ground, and the underground. This was the "three-dimensional offensive" planned by Fu Qinghai, and it was also another big gift package that Fu Qinghai prepared for the beasts after the landing operation.

Fu Qinghai originally wanted to name the attack on the orc capital "Operation Market Garden", but this name was too reminiscent of the failed "Operation Market Garden" of the Allied forces in World War II, and it felt a bit unlucky, so he gave up.

"It's almost time."

Fu Qinghai looked up at the timer.

"Let's go now!"

He withdrew his gaze, slammed the table and gave an order.

…………