Number One Commander - Chapter 73

“Captain we’ve reached the target area. Please begin the designated mission,” said the navigator.

“Alright team split up and harass the structures as much as you can, the most important targets are the production facilities, command center, supply depot, and the supply line from their Crypt of Heroes. Do you read me?” The captain of the squad said.

“Yes, sir!” Replied his team.

The air force that eliminated the drone was divided into two divisions, one went to support the ground forces with cleaning up the enemies and the other to their enemies base to halt their production facilities.

Luon wanted to take advantage of his airforces to eliminate and delay their opponent’s production ability while they are still unable to contest.

The captain who had led the small squad of 5 aircraft known as XT fighters, came from one of the 5 sides they were attacking from and began to nosedive alongside his men into Arisa’s base.

It was at this time that they were soon notified that a barrier was set up to restrict electronic devices, hindering many of their flight mechanisms.

Since the aircraft they operated was remotely controlled, the signal became slightly delayed which required the pilots to adapt to.

The captain who had just entered the zone yelled, “Can anyone read me?! I repeat can anyone read me?”

No words came from the comms found on the aircraft as it was disabled. Switching out of the remote control application for a second the captain turned on their group voice chat system and said, “I guess we really can’t go for realism mode, the sound coming from the application died in here, ” said the captain.

“Sir, there’s no more audible noise coming from the aircraft, our sense of immersion has been disturbed, ” replied one of his subordinates.

“I know, I know, just don’t get yourself killed otherwise we have to reform our flight team. Alright folks, let’s show these bots how real pilots do things, ” said the captain.

If Arisa’s method was to control her units like she was playing an RTS game than Luon’s method was more like a 3D MMORPG with tons of players. The sensors of the program were used to emulate the area, and sound displays to increase their immersion levels. However, Arisa’s barrier field had disabled that option.

Fortunately, the core components like flight, weaponry and visual display were reinforced with EMP resistant materials otherwise it would have been a pointless effort to attack the base.

Who can drive a plane, and shoot their enemies without any vision? It wouldn’t be a surprise if they had even shot each other in that state.

Arisa’s base began to initiate its anti-air defensive maneuvers, sentry turrets aimed towards the sky with the intent of shooting down these XT fighters.

The 25 XT fighters began to attack every vital facility that they had discussed beforehand haphazardly.

Bullets flew towards the sky and bombs laid havoc to the land below, the damage done to the base was merely 3% after the first run. As the battle continued the number of XT fighters dropped, and a troublesome new foe disrupted their formation.

“Did you think your the only ones that can fly?” said Belle as she equipped her NG-Arms to intercept the XT fighters. Before their mission, they were briefed to watch out for her, yet after they started their assault, she didn’t appear at all until a decent amount of their facilities had been damaged.

The pilots were confused as they question themselves, why did she appear just now? What was she doing before this? Their queries were soon answered as a series of enemy air units came streaming out of one of the robotics facilities.

“All attack squads retreat to sector B, I repeat all attack squads retreat to sector B,” replied the navigator. In the chain of commands for Luon control system, he had set it so that the navigator who had received his direct commands would one-sidedly relay the news of his commandments.

Following the order the XT fighters hastily retreated with their enemies on their tail, the casualties gradually increased and they had lost ⅓ of the units that they had started with.

These deaths weren’t for nothing though, when they were deemed that they were unable to continue these brave men dove into the flock of enemies and structures letting off an explosive collision dealing more damage to their enemy.

Although it was a measly third that had fallen, no one was hurt as they were all automated remotely. While the assault had occurred the original 50 XT fighters that were divided into two separate teams with different objectives, tripled in number.

Of course, Luon did not neglect to create more ground units as they were also just as important. After clearing out Arisa’s army of ground units with his forces, the number of units he had was equal to Arisa’s, while having human pilots.

His army of ground units was divided into three different divisions with their own type of specialization, they were: Infantry, Artillery, and Mobility.

His infantry division was composed of humanoid robots that exited out of a transportation vehicle and had the greatest number of troops.

The way the human operators used these units were like a game he had played during his first life simulation where it made the squad leader the group as the center unit and the others would automatically take a formation surrounding that unit based on weaponry. If they were armed with rifles they would line up and shoot if they were armed with spears the AI system will allow them to attack the closest enemy after they charge in. It was a simple mechanic, yet highly effective.

The Artillery division was the smallest of the bunch, it took several human operators to use single artillery, and the transportation vehicles were mainly used to carry the ammunition.

The mobility division, on the other hand, was Luon’s and Thomas’s pride and joy, similar to the televised shows that he had seen during his first simulation the robots were designed after animals with weapons attached them.

They were flexible, lightweight, quick and highly destructive. The mobility division was also the easiest to produce.

Luon’s army slowly traversed Arisa’s territory, spreading across his scouting drones the map around her base was uncovered entirely. Setting up his siege units away from the base they slowly inch forward to make their offensive, Gizmo stayed behind at their base to operate one of Lion shaped robots, and Bendan had left towards the battlegrounds since he wanted to be there when the base was eliminated.

The match so far was the longest recorded out of all the other ones before this, lasting over 45 minutes, after building and scouting for the first ten minutes there was another 25 that had taken place in the core section of the map. After harassing Arisa’s base, Luon had used the remaining time to regroup all of his forces outside of her base.

Luon gazed at the map in front of him if there were no surprises the match should evidently be his win.

Commanding his units to lay siege upon the base the artillery began to do its jobs. Rounds of ammunition stormed over the base which Arisa had replied with barrier magic, however, the rounds that Luon were using were highly destructive, unlike the times he had laid siege before. After studying the art of explosives, the bombs he had used performed many times better.

Just as the barrier went down from damage caused by the explosive rounds, the ground shook around the artillery and infantry division.

Dirt and dust surged out of the ground like a geyser as a giant worm-like monster with many fangs emerged decimating a large group of units.

Bendan who nearby saw the creature come out and smiled, and with a sword in hand dashed towards it. However, it wasn’t easy to get to as an army of robots began to emerge from the ground.

“Infantry division engage with the new enemy! Mobility division raid the enemies base! They should be out of units now! Artillery retreat from the battlefield!” Luon yelled as he shot a series of commands out.

Following his commands, the infantry division entered a stalemate with the new robots that had emerged from the ground. The mobility division, on the other hand, made a significant amount of progress as they quickly approach the base, there were no defensive mechanisms that had significantly prevented them from attacking the base.

Just as they were halfway there the sky had turned black, a flock of robotic air units appeared from the base and intercepted the mobility division. And at this moment Luon’s air division had arrived, and a huge aerial dogfight took place. It was a complete mess, from ground and air, havoc was everywhere.

Luon yelled at the mobility division, “Ignore those air units and destroy the facility, use their structures as shields and prevent them from creating more units!”

As Luon continued to command his troops, the battle became wild on three different fronts, compared to his base it was like comparing a storm in the ocean and to a serene vacation on the beach. More and more units were made from Luon’s base, and Arisa’s production facilities struggled while dealing with the mobility division.

The battlefront between the infantry division and the worm suddenly had a change of events. Just as Bendan was about to hit the enemies front lines with his sword a burst of laughter came from the crowd of enemies.

“Bendan! You won’t get wormy that easily!” said Belle as she flew towards him. Flying back because of her rifle rounds he twirled in mid-air to intercept her sword strikes. Their battle had made him fall between the crossfires of the two armies. Indiscriminately attacking, the robots shot at the both them, helpless to their assault the two quickly fell before the ocean of bullets.

The worm continued to shoot acid at the infantry division uninhibited by any other forces, Bendan who was planning to deal with it was easily defeated before he could.

At this time the artillery division managed to reach a safe area and began to attack the worm with their explosive rounds. The impact shook the worm as it crazily cried in pain and it attempted to retaliate. However, they were too far, it helplessly fell to the artillery rounds that Luon’s army had launched.

The worm and Belle died settling Luon’s worries so far, the only ones left on their opponent’s team was Arisa, Shizuka, and Keyral. Who knows what tricks did they have in store for him.

It was at this time he felt his body went cold for a second, Luon felt that someone’s eyes were on him. He warily looked around the surroundings but found nothing. Luon felt relieved as he thought it was merely his imagination. However, his fears soon became true.

“Why hello once again,” said an intruder.

And a blade appeared in front of Luon.