Codegease: Air and Land Warfare 1946

"Oh, what are you worried about? How could a small-caliber anti-aircraft gun possibly..."

"This time it's a major blow. I've already seen three transport planes, either with their wings torn off or with holes chewed through them. Alright! Twenty seconds!"

"Hey, listen to the captain, Mr. Griffin." A female voice came from the blue Gloucester. "Lieutenant General Wood warned us not to let our guard down. This isn't a day for slacking off on St. Lawrence Island."

“Alright, alright, I’ll listen to you, Angelina. So, I’m going to take the lead now, right?” He first asked the other Gloucester, who was also in black, “Lilizia, how are you?”

"Please inform me when you depart, Lieutenant." The girl inside the mecha was resting with her eyes closed.

“Okay, then, Ypel, you…”

"Huh? Me?" the last green Gloucester answered, "Yes! I'll do my best!"

"All personnel, listen up!" the captain's voice suddenly rang out. "Ten seconds to reach the drop zone! Prepare for takeoff!"

"Understood! All aircraft, check that the equipment is functioning properly, confirm the map and coordinates, and prepare to exit the spacecraft!"

The cockpits of the mechs lit up, and amidst everyone's deep breaths, the transport plane's hatch slowly opened with the creaking of its motors. But this time, the deafening roar of artillery fire, mixed with the whistling of air currents, poured in without any obstruction, leaping into the doorway like a pack of howling wolves, seemingly intent on devouring the entire aircraft.

“Oh my god…” Angelie stared wide-eyed at the interplay of firelight outside and the shadow of her own plane being projected onto the cabin walls—it could be from anti-aircraft fire, or from the burning plane next to her, or even from her own flight burning!

"The hatch opened normally! You may depart!"

"Thank you, Mr. Haino!" Griffin said goodbye to the captain. "Lilizia, lead the way!"

"Yes, sir!"

The black Gloucester instantly flew out of the cabin, and Griffin followed closely behind, also lowering the KMF's drive wheels, reversing, and the glider opened like an eagle, bidding farewell to the cabin.

"Oh...you must be kidding..."

The moment he stepped out of the cockpit, the lieutenant witnessed a horrific scene he had never seen before in his entire combat career...

The earth beneath the darkness has completely transformed into the foot of a volcano overflowing with lava! Everywhere are buildings and thickets ablaze from the bombs dropped by hundreds of transport planes! Everywhere are golden ammunition chains swirling in like a blizzard! And there are giant birds and steel knights being mercilessly battered by anti-aircraft fire, some alone, others like apples scattered from an overturned basket, trailing countless fiery tails as they plummet to the earth, crashing onto the cold soil, becoming gaping maws of flame, roaring towards the sky.

Of course, the vanguard KMFs, some equipped with gliders and parachutes, others with flight packs, charged under the cover of night towards every anti-aircraft gun spitting fire, and the cold searchlights surrounding them. But it was all in vain! There were just too many roaring flames! The black sky above was almost turned white by the searchlights! The KMFs, armed with machine guns and recoilless rifles, were locked in a chaotic battle with the enemy on the ground!

Griffin was still reeling from the nightmare, gripping the control stick tightly, numbly letting the explosions of gunpowder and thunder from all directions pound into his ears. The cannon fire, intent on tearing the world apart, overturned the sky and sea like a world-destroying axe. Behind him, the brightly lit starry sky was the frozen earth, and the true Mother Earth, in his eyes, was merely a sheet of white paper completely charred in a fire, its blackened face flashing with countless blazing stars!

Aside from fearfully dodging the torrential downpour of bullets from the fiery cumulonimbus clouds and the hailstones exploding into giant black balls of yarn beside him, he could only gaze at the fire-reddened earth, imagining it as a warm fireplace to calm himself! The transport planes overhead had even fewer options! They could only try to maintain their flight path, like a herd of Tibetan antelopes battered by hail, desperately continuing their roaring advance, attempting to escape the slaughter of the poachers from paradise.

"Hey! Lilizia, you're at five o'clock!—"

The subordinate who flew out of the cabin first almost collided with a transport plane that had just been smashed into fireworks and was falling rapidly. The girl in the black iron cavalry managed to save her life by rolling the plane to the side at the last minute. But the crew members in the transport plane who did not have time to escape their seats could only fall to the ground with hysterical screams!

"Holy shit, this is absolutely the worst airdrop I've ever seen!"

"Calm down, Mr. Griffin," Angeline's admonition came again. "None of the eight of us on this plane have been killed yet. Once we get to the ground, quickly regroup and clear up the mission. That will save more lives than you nagging for an hour."

"Okay, everyone listen up! Remember our mission? Take down all visible enemy strongpoints to minimize airborne casualties! Then blow up all enemy supply depots, understand?"

“Sigh… and there’s also the most important thing: ‘Get closer to Kostyan in the east as soon as possible, and after joining forces with other forces, completely destroy the highway and railway bridges that span the river.’” Angelie sighed and couldn’t help but cover her face with her hand in the shaking cockpit.

"Ah... okay, okay, now! Everyone check the electronic map! Confirm the landing site!"

They were not far from the ground when Griffin deployed his parachute, drew his MVS sword and machine gun, and floated down to the ground with the other seven KMFs. He glanced at the sky again, seeing KMFs engaged in dogfights with enemy aircraft in all directions. Sometimes a single plane chased a lone KMF, sometimes several KMFs pursued a single plane; in the end, the latter always became a shooting star in the sky.

"Fighter jets chasing after mechs, hmm, not bad..."

"Lieutenant! Important target below!"

Griffin looked down and saw an anti-aircraft gun emplacement not far away, busy taking care of the aircraft overhead and seemingly unaware of their presence.

"Oh? Okay, I'll lead the charge!"

He cut the parachute lines of his vehicle and, with his glider in hand, accelerated down the slope. When the Soviet soldiers there heard the noise and turned around, they saw a four- or five-meter-tall humanoid monster lunging at them. Just as they were about to turn their guns around, the knight leaped up, then took a step, using the immense gliding momentum to kick the anti-aircraft gun!

"Yahoo!"

Gloucester slid a short distance on the cannon, knocking over the searchlight, then somersaulted and landed in front of the soldiers who were about to scatter to get their weapons. With a swipe of his longsword, a lot of disgusting blood splattered onto the wrecked anti-aircraft gun mount.

"hurry up!"

Griffin shouted and looked back at her teammates who were still slowly drifting down—there were advantages to being at a high altitude. They took charge of using the firearms in their vehicle to help the lieutenant clear out the enemy soldiers who had retreated to the side.

"OK! We've taken this place!"

Hey! You over there!

In the blink of an eye, another anti-aircraft gun position not far away seemed to have noticed the loss of this place, so it stopped looking at the sky and instead pointed its guns and ammunition belts at them!

"Come back!" Angelie pulled Griffin's plane back, and then, following the exhaust fumes from Lilizia and Ipel's planes, they moved behind the rammed earth and lay down.

"Hey! What are you afraid of!" the lieutenant said nonchalantly. "It's just a position. I'm capable of taking it."

When he tried to get up, Angelie actually climbed onto him.

"Give me a moment's peace and quiet to look around, my dear 'Ace'."

Angelina gestured for the other two to transmit their camera feeds to Griffin's control panel—on the ground, enemy firing positions, like a fortified array of stakes, had already surrounded them. Worse still, several anti-aircraft guns, machine guns, and searchlights had detected their presence. Now, the lights and ammunition sprayed out like jets of water from a fire truck, splattering mud and whitewashing the surrounding area.

Huh? Weren't there four others who parachuted in with them? Cough cough, one of them had already been blown to pieces by artillery fire and turned into a roof tile, while the other three had all crawled into a stable not far away, not daring to show their faces. The lieutenant and his men could only find out their location by radio.

The planes in the sky and the paratroopers were still being slaughtered under the continuous barrage of fire. The team had to find a way to break the deadlock as soon as possible.

"Huh?" Angelie looked up and saw a fairly intact transport plane slowly descending in their direction, trailing a fiery tail that covered half the sky.

“Listen up, everyone.” She pointed in the direction the plane was coming from. “This is our ‘cover.’ Quickly memorize the enemy’s position. When it gets closer, Ypel and Lilizia, you two will set up a wall of fire.”

"Ok!"

Slowly, beneath the thicket of fire, the transport plane swayed gently to their side. Gloucester, wielding a recoilless rifle, one in green and one in black, unleashed shells at the plane. Immediately afterward, a massive fiery cloud, like a reckless rhinoceros, tore through the transport plane's fuselage, crashing to the ground with a roar a hundred times brighter than searchlights.

"Alright! Let's go!—"

As soon as Angelie finished speaking, Griffin led the charge towards the nearest anti-aircraft gun position, nimbly moving while using his machine gun to suppress the still-unresponsive opponents. While the two were locked in a cat-and-mouse game, Lilizia circled around to the artillery emplacement where it was crouched, then leaped onto the top of the anti-aircraft gun, aiming the muzzle at the gasping crowd.

Goodbye, you scum!

The shells whistled through the air and slammed into the position. The anti-aircraft shell clips stored in the position were also violently detonated by the attack, scattering Soviet soldiers, sandbags, and wooden crates all over the ground, turning into a colorful spray of confetti.

"Go! Go! Hurry up!" This desperate assault was just the beginning. Despite the burning wreckage of the transport plane, the four of them didn't slow down at all. They even encouraged their three teammates, who were huddled in the stable, to rush forward with them.

"Listen up! The enemy's train station is just ahead! We must take advantage of the chaos and destroy as much of their stockpiled supplies as possible before the enemy advances!"

"knew!--"

“Oh, um, Lieutenant,” Ypel, who was at the very back of the group, spoke up, “Could you move a little to the right? You’re blocking my way.”

"Hmm?" Griffin did as instructed, and then saw Ipel's plane, which was moving straight ahead, gradually slow down, its cannon pointing towards the direction of the train station in the night vision goggles.

"alright!--"

The lieutenant looked in the direction of the flying shell and the flash of the explosion revealed the target—or rather, a target that had just been destroyed. The explosion had directly knocked over a locomotive, an antique that looked like it could go into a museum, from the train station platform, turning it into scrap metal in the junkyard.

"Beautiful! Let's go, lovely ladies! Fireworks time!"

……

Meanwhile, in Berlin, the mech army, advancing eastward in a frenzied assault, slowly encroached upon the streets guarded by Soviet soldiers, like a swarm of cockroaches.

Now Maren can finally get some rest, as Duke Sassler and Admiral Windsor are orchestrating the main offensive of the breakout.

Amidst the symphony of gunfire from the Soviet Red Army and Britannia, the land of Berlin seemed to be emitting a mournful cry of liberation.

"General! Report from the front! The assault force on Central Avenue in the East District has been met with heavy Soviet firepower and armored units."

"Oh, really? Look at this setup... Connect to Mordred!"

"Hmm? General?" A somewhat childish female voice came through the radio from the Sixth Knight of the Round Table.

"A large number of enemies have gathered on the main street to the east. We need you now..."

"Target spotted, you can stop talking now..."

The next moment, the slightly bulky, purplish-red KMF that had been flying around the portal bypassed the massive fleet of aircraft still pouring out of the portal and flew to the low skies to the east.

"Hmm..." Mordred stopped, and the hadron cannons, as large as giant shields on his shoulders, slowly moved to his chest and aimed at the distant street.

Goodbye to the new record.

A thunderous red beam of light roared as it erupted from Mordred's body, scorching the ravaged street like the breath of a dragon. Wherever the hadron cannon passed, rocks, flesh, and steel were crushed as if thrown into a ball mill. After a ruthless, straight sweep, the tanks and cannons that had held the line in the street were all twisted and deformed, exploding into shattered metal cans after a series of piercing, heart-wrenching sounds.

"Objective accomplished, General."

"Well done!" the Duke praised, watching the mech army begin its devouring rampage again on the transmitted images, and shouted into the radio of the command center.

"That's it! Warriors of the Holy Britannian Empire! Cheer up! Drive all the enemies out of the city! Victory or death! Forward!"

"Charge!—"

Section 149, Chapter 94: Nest, Separated from Branch

The midnight landscape near Berlin was engulfed by a torrent of artillery fire, like a giant dragon tearing and gnawing at the not-so-fertile land with its massive jaws. The anti-aircraft gun ammunition belts were its sharp dragon teeth, and the bombers were its powerful jaws. One explosion after another rolled across the land like waves, cleverly transforming into the dragon's tongue, brutally churning all living things and war machines in its mouth, shattering and scattering them.

Only the burning eerie shadows of houses and vehicles were reflected in the firelight, ready to be swallowed into the dragon's belly.

Soldiers exist to fight, and this catastrophe is a furnace in which they must be transformed into steel and thrown into it, and they must be brave enough to melt themselves.

But for some people, getting away from here right now is a more effective and long-term choice.

About twenty kilometers east of Berlin, on a road leading south, several trucks and jeeps painted with red five-pointed stars drove leisurely and methodically, heading towards a place far from the battlefield.

In the passenger seat of a Jeep, a crisp, clanging sound emanated from the passenger, a stark contrast to the engine's subwoofer—the sound came from the three gleaming gold five-pointed stars hanging around his neck.

You read that right, it is indeed Marshal Zhukov, who has been awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union three times.

So, did the marshal desert? Obviously not.

In fact, several days ago, in response to the teleportation portals appearing outside Berlin, the Marshal had already considered many countermeasures: deploying some of the siege forces outside the city as a precaution, and also preparing for how to deal with each teleportation portal once it appeared.

But most importantly, and for the Marshal himself, was to plan several relocation schemes for the Soviet high command in Germany to ensure his safety. The Soviet army group in Germany was so large that its army group number could be counted on two hands. If the Marshal were to be killed because of the enemy's unpredictable and unexpected attack, there would be no doubt that this army would be left without anyone to effectively coordinate it.

Moreover, if the enemy were to come with overwhelming force, so large in number and strength that even the Soviet troops stationed in Germany would have to be on edge, then the paralysis of the highest command would undoubtedly be a fatal blow—even if it did not lead to the complete annihilation of the Soviet troops stationed in Germany, it would still cause tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers to bleed and sacrifice in vain.

Attention! This is no joke! To sacrifice the life of a military giant to reignite the burning desire for revenge among millions of people in a country just emerging from a major war would be an utterly disastrous loss! The Soviet Union had countless soldiers, but there was only one marshal of such distinguished merit!

Of course, the marshal on the transfer route was not panicked at all—he had seen a situation even more on the verge of collapse back in Moscow in 1941, so why would he care about the life or death of enemy paratroopers rushing to his command post? Before the transfer, he had given orders to the army group commanders: while stabilizing the encirclement of Berlin, concentrate forces to counterattack the airborne enemy and resist the large army in Berlin that was trying to break out of the city, ensuring that they would not join up with the enemy in the airborne zone.

However, strictly speaking, there were still some unforeseen aspects: looking at the anti-aircraft artillery chains all around, the Marshal originally thought that another portal would open somewhere else, but he did not expect the enemy to launch such an unpredictable airborne attack—so many planes, and they were quite large, actually flew out of a portal directly over Berlin? It was a bit beyond his imagination.

"Marshal, we just received a message from the 16th Air Army." The communications officer sitting in the back seat leaned close to Zhukov's seat. "The night fighter squadron has attempted to approach the portal over Berlin, but due to being outnumbered, they failed to achieve their objective. The portals are all outside the effective range of the anti-aircraft gun positions outside the city."

"Okay, I understand." The marshal nodded, but now he was in a dilemma—the most effective way to intercept the formation was no longer feasible, and he could only use anti-aircraft firepower and night-flying aircraft to confront the sky full of white doves head-on.

"Furthermore, Marshal," the communications officer added, "the Eighth Guards Army just sent word that due to the wide distribution of the enemy's airborne forces, many units have been fragmented and the battle is in chaos. General Chuikov is now preparing to abandon some positions deep in the eastern suburbs of Berlin and regroup forces for defensive operations."

"Hmm? In that case..."

Zhukov pondered for a moment. After all, the airborne troops' tactics of being scattered, appearing and disappearing unpredictably, and working together in a coordinated manner were beyond the reach of a large army in a region. Moreover, the ones airdropped this time were those four-and-a-half-meter-tall steel dolls, which were more powerful units than light infantry.

"No problem, let him do it. We can't let the army group's structure collapse."

Just then, several flares suddenly appeared in the distant northeastern sky, like a cluster of shimmering flowers inserted among the ammunition belts of several anti-aircraft guns roaring into the sky.

"Oh no... this is bad..." The marshal had a general idea of ​​what kind of place that was...

……

"Sir! We've arrived to report for duty, sir!"

In an artillery position where a battle had just ended, Lieutenant Griffin, with his remaining four men, stopped in front of the KMFs who were squatting together nearby—of course, the three girls with unique paint schemes were still alive, but two of the ordinary pilots had been killed.

"Very well! Warriors! Now listen to me!"

Under the glow of Soviet flares in the sky, the officer's plane slowly pointed its red-tinged steel exterior towards the land ahead—flat as farmland, yet quietly occupied by dozens of planes like flocks of geese, along with a motley collection of tents and barracks. The anti-aircraft guns around it had lowered their muzzles, protecting the field airfield with a net of ground fire.

"Our troops have surrounded this place from all sides, but we've only managed to break through this small gap in the enemy's ring defense. There aren't many obstacles blocking the runway. We need to charge at full speed now, launching a central attack to dismantle the enemy's defenses. Do you understand?"

"clear!--"

"Very good! Warriors! Heed my command!" The officer looked ahead, waiting for an opening in the Soviet firepower.

"Prepare!--"

"superior!--"

"Charge!!!" Lieutenant Griffin and his superior led the charge, followed closely by a dozen or twenty KMFs, who charged towards the airport like a pack of wild boars. With spitting fire from gun barrels and cannons, and the sound of chainsaws as the drive wheels scraped the ground, just as the anti-aircraft guns had swept away a few unlucky ones who were too slow, Griffin and Lilizia took the lead and destroyed a garage, blowing the car and the house up with them.

It was at this moment that Angelie, who was charging alongside the main force, seemed to discover an opportunity.

"Sir, the enemy's firepower on the left is relatively weak," Angelie said over the radio. "I suggest sending a few more men to our five-man team so we can take care of them. When you attack the right, don't be too aggressive to avoid unnecessary casualties."