Chapter 138: The Limits of Holding the Line
Seeing the appearance of the ‘Challenger’ tank and another war machine he didn’t recognize, Rugi Likoshi was initially stunned.
He truly hadn’t expected to see such things here.
He had once considered buying a Challenger tank, especially after forming the Beast Slayer Corps; he wanted one even more.
If he had a tank like that as the core of his force, with a large number of infantry troops by its side and artillery support always available, battles would be much easier to win.
Unfortunately, even if he could afford one, the key issue was there was no channel to buy it.
And as for that other vehicle beside it—even without a main cannon, its dual-barrel autocannon was still not something to be taken lightly.
The combined firepower of these two machines was astounding.
A single tank shell exploded amidst the greenskin orcs, causing at least three casualties.
More terrifyingly, there was the autocannon on the infantry fighting vehicle and the mysterious, seemingly-not-a-machine-gun gun that shot alongside it.
The 40mm autocannon could inflict lethal damage on the greenskins; the strange, explosive machine gun would detonate within an enemy upon impact, guaranteeing a kill with each shot.
Under the frenzied barrage, six or seven greenskins were taken down on the road in just one round.
With this wave of fire, combined with the earlier kills by the infantry squad, a total of fifteen greenskin orcs were eliminated.
As it turned out, orcs weren’t entirely brainless creatures that only knew how to charge into battle.
On the contrary, their wisdom—or rather, instinct—when it came to combat was quite impressive.
They realized that continuing to charge under this level of firepower would mean being annihilated before they could close the last twenty or thirty meters.
They scattered in different directions, quickly finding cover.
One even poked its head out and fired a shot at the infantry squad, successfully shattering a soldier’s left arm.
Someone helped by quickly applying medical gauze to press down on the wound to stem the bleeding, while two others attempted to retreat with the injured soldier.
The remaining seven soldiers, however, did not rush to attack—instead, they waited for the tank and armored vehicle to move forward.
After clearing this wave of enemies, they would continue to advance, encounter more enemies, stop to fight, try to eliminate them, or preserve their strength until the tank and armored vehicle came forward again.
Infantry-armor coordination was not simply a matter of having armored vehicles in front with infantry following behind using tanks or armored vehicles as cover; that was a low-level approach.
In wide, unobstructed areas, such tactics could work with armor advancing in front and infantry following behind within a range of dozens of meters.
But here, in a city ruins operation, it was usually the infantry leading the charge, with the armored units behind them providing fire support as they pressed forward, leveraging infantry’s close-combat advantages to clear enemies one by one.
If the armored units were in front, the complex terrain and enemy threat could mean unpredictable risks to armored vehicles.
For example, hidden enemy infantry could ambush with explosives or anti-tank rockets, taking out the tanks or IFVs in an instant.
Of course, Likoshi didn’t fully understand the specifics of infantry-armor coordination; he only knew that the substantial greenskin horde had no chance of reversing the situation and would inevitably be wiped out.
More than the tactics of infantry-armor coordination, Likoshi envied the tanks and armored vehicles themselves.
His entire Beast Slayer Corps, with its six or seven thousand members, couldn’t muster a single tank, whereas a simple infantry squad attack here was coordinated with tanks and armored vehicles.
Everyone was human, so how could the disparity be so absurdly vast?
Tactics could be trained; equipment, on the other hand, was something else—without it, there was no solution.
…
Pobov was not in a good mood.
He had received several casualty reports already.
According to the previous plan, there were about twenty coordinated infantry-armor assault teams advancing in waves, controlling a battlefield roughly three to four kilometers wide.
He had ordered the frontline combat units to push two kilometers forward to give the advancing greenskin orcs a head-on blow.
Pobov’s forces indeed succeeded in achieving their intended objective.
In the two-kilometer advance, at least 300 greenskin orcs were eliminated under the infantry and armor firepower.
However, his forces weren’t unscathed during this process.
Two tanks were destroyed, three armored vehicles lost, and over fifty soldiers were killed or wounded…which was enough to make his heart ache.
And this level of casualties was indeed impacting the combat power of the entire battalion.
The greatest loss occurred when an assault team was nearly annihilated.
Pobov received a verbal summary from the wounded soldiers, reporting that they were ambushed by greenskin orcs while advancing.
These greenskins hid cunningly in the ruins and stayed out of the infantry’s detection range.
Then, when they launched their charge, they were already sixty to seventy meters away.
The orcs were tactically divided into four groups, attacking the infantry from both flanks and targeting the armored units in the rear simultaneously.
At close range, the infantry squad suffered heavy losses in the exchange of fire, killing four or five greenskins, but also suffering casualties from close-range greenskin fire.
The crude firearms in the greenskins’ hands could easily incapacitate soldiers with one shot, breaking ribs or causing internal injuries even if they hit bulletproof vests, drastically reducing their combat effectiveness.
Moreover, the greenskins had a penchant for shotguns, whose pellets could easily shatter limbs.
In close combat, the soldiers’ casualties were significant.
When the greenskins closed in on them for melee combat, even though the G9 rifles were equipped with bayonets, making them effective long-handled weapons, they still couldn’t match the greenskins.
The most critical issue was that they couldn’t get fire support from the armored units in time.
The armored units themselves were struggling.
About twenty greenskin orcs, shielded by obstacles and cover, closed in on the vehicles from the flanks and kept moving as the cannon and autocannon rotated, preventing the vehicles from fully unleashing their firepower advantage.
While a significant number of greenskins died on the way, and two were taken down by the infantry protecting the armored units, seven or eight managed to get close.
Their shotguns eliminated the accompanying infantry, and then they placed explosives on the tank tracks and the sides and rear of the armored vehicles.
These explosives destroyed one tank and one armored vehicle.
If it hadn’t been for the squad leader calling for help immediately after the ambush and if a nearby team hadn’t been able to respond within a few hundred meters, they might have indeed been wiped out.
Despite the quick response, the losses were still severe.
Only six out of over twenty infantry survived; one tank was lost, and two IFVs were reduced to just one.
A warning bell went off in Pobov’s mind.
The enemy this time was far from the typical marauders they usually dealt with.
Though these greenskin orcs only wielded light arms or melee weapons and could only destroy armored vehicles with primitive, direct means like explosives, they appeared to lack long-range fire.
However, their beast-like physical strength, extraordinary close-combat abilities, and fearlessness…
Even with his force’s firepower superiority, casualties were unavoidable.
Since deploying from Revival City until now, Pobov’s first battalion had already lost two tanks (with one still broken down on the road), two armored vehicles, and nearly a hundred men.
This meant his forces had suffered over a ten percent loss.
The battle against the greenskins was bound to be grueling, but such heavy losses at the very start…what about the battles yet to come?
He didn’t dare imagine.
Quickly, though, he forced these anxious thoughts down.
The fight had to go on.
The advance troops had, according to the original plan, pushed the front line two kilometers forward, killing a considerable number of greenskins.
Moreover, their determined advance forced many greenskins previously in the offensive to fall back.
It had to be said again—these greenskins were wild, belligerent, bloodthirsty, and prone to getting carried away, but they weren’t mindless.
In fact, they were cunning and pragmatic in battle.
Realizing the disadvantages and heavy losses they suffered against armored assaults in open terrain, the greenskins didn’t continue their reckless advance.
This left Pobov with a slight regret, as they could have possibly killed more greenskins, maybe not just over three hundred.
The retreating greenskins began constructing simple fortifications or used the ruins for layered defense.
The difficulty of advancing with the armored units would increase considerably from here.
It was foreseeable that further progress would result in sharply reduced gains and increased losses, potentially reaching one-to-one or even two-to-one attrition ratios.
Pobov didn’t have enough troops to trade evenly with these greenskins.
Having achieved the set objectives, there was no need to press forward.
The frontline combat units started setting up defenses on-site, using the ruins as cover and constructing fire points and fortifications at key locations.
Their advantage over the greenskins was that they had tanks and armored vehicles providing mobile support from a distance, ready to unleash cannon fire, autocannons, and explosive machine guns on any greenskins bold enough to charge.
At this point, both sides settled into a standoff.
Pobov could accept this situation.
He had already discussed the goals of this battle with the commissar and several advisors and lieutenants.
It was impossible for a single battalion to reverse the entire deteriorating battle situation.
Their task was to stabilize the line, become the bulwark, plug the gap, and prevent a complete collapse.
As long as they could
hold until the Governor arrived, it would be considered a success.
However, it seemed the greenskins were not inclined to give up and still harbored intentions of breaching the human defenses.
This time, Pobov wouldn’t show them any mercy.
Twelve kilometers away from the front line, the 155 howitzer position had been completed.
Since it was no longer in the advance phase, with many adventurers withdrawing from the frontline to regroup, there was no worry of friendly fire.
The shooting data had also been relayed back to the front.
Without hesitation, they launched five rounds of artillery.
Sixty heavy shells fell on the greenskin orcs’ assault route within ten minutes, with some shells landing less than a hundred meters from the frontline soldiers.
It was difficult to assess the exact casualties across the front, but it was estimated that the greenskins’ losses were likely higher than what the tanks, armored vehicles, and infantry had inflicted.
After losing another three to four hundred, the greenskins attacking Zone Five had lost about twenty percent of their forces.
Once the five artillery rounds were over, the greenskins’ preparations for an assault were effectively thwarted, and they finally stopped advancing.
Twenty percent losses were within the greenskins’ tolerance, but they needed a purpose to justify the losses.
Rushing a layered defense under heavy artillery was not an act of bravery but of stupidity.
Greenskins were anything but stupid in battle.
Furthermore, they didn’t necessarily have to attack this position head-on.
The first battalion’s frontline covered a mere five to six kilometers in width.
In contrast, the battle line advancing from the High Tower Ruins to Garbage Town spanned over sixty kilometers, encompassing the entire High Tower area and its surrounding outskirts.
The greenskins could choose from many points along this wide front to outflank or bypass.
Pobov understood this.
The scale of this battle involved nearly a hundred thousand adventurers and armed scavengers against a force of ten to twenty thousand greenskin orcs.
His battalion of eight hundred, even with superior equipment, could act as a weight on the scale but couldn’t be expected to hold a sixty-kilometer front alone.
The results they had achieved were sufficient.
They had inflicted heavy losses on the greenskins, stabilized the defensive line, and absorbed the peak of the greenskin’s assault, buying time for the reorganization of the subsequent forces.
Pobov had done all he could.
The rest depended on what Denison Henry, Jason Swan, and others could accomplish.
Oh, and he had received intelligence that a Beast Slayer Corps commander had been rescued.
He might be able to hope for some assistance.
Pobov estimated how long he could hold the line: as long as the artillery support had ammunition, he could hold.
If the pressure became too great and the 155 howitzer shells were exhausted, there would be no choice but to retreat.
Without retreat, his forces would be trapped here for nothing.
A single 155 howitzer shell weighed sixty kilograms; the twelve guns had fired five rounds just now, consuming three and a half tons of shells.
The logistics team had three trucks solely for shell transportation.
After accounting for the rounds used at Three Pools Town, the remaining shells could last for thirty more rounds.
That would be the limit of their endurance.