137: Suicide drone swarm tactics

While the U.S. Military was busy responding, the war on the Anti-War Army's side was taking a different turn.

On the large combat screen, numerous circular openings, similar to missile silos, appeared on what previously looked like unremarkable mountaintops, valleys, and hillsides.

Then, one by one, missiles soared into the sky with a whoosh, trailing flames, and after ascending to a certain height, changed their posture, with their warheads tilting, flying towards distant destinations.

There must have been hundreds, even thousands, of such missile silos, scattered throughout the entire mountain range, demonstrating a much greater level of firepower than the Anti-War Army had previously shown.

These super-numerous missile silos, which were extremely well-hidden and showed no signs of external excavation or construction, were naturally not built by the Anti-War Army themselves. Instead, they were generated by the system when it materialized, based on the terrain and geography of the entire mountain range.

These missile silos were also connected to the main base inside the mountain, allowing for a continuous launch of missiles as long as they were transported from within the base to the launch points.

It has to be said.

This unconventional trump card, even if the enemy wasn't Douglas or Aris, but any other U.S. Military general, would have been unimaginable.

The U.S. Military was now caught off guard.

Although the U.S. Military had 100,000 troops engaged in combat in the central theater, 70,000 of them had been sent into the mountains beforehand. Their equipment was inconvenient to carry, and most were ordinary infantry. Even if they had some armored or anti-aircraft firepower, it was in narrow valleys, where they couldn't maneuver or move easily.

As a result, most of the 70,000 infantry in the mountains became lambs to the slaughter.

Meanwhile, at the U.S. Military's rear, the 20,000 troops remaining at the command center, and the long-range fire units—whether missile, artillery, or air force—that had exposed themselves to strike the Anti-War Army's strongholds, were also subjected to large-scale surprise bombing.

Due to the short distance, suddenness of the attack, and delayed air defense, most long-range fire units didn't react in time and were routed under continuous waves of bombing.

To facilitate air force deployment, the U.S. Military not only requisitioned the former Alice Springs airfield but also built temporary runways to serve as field airfields.

This round of bombing destroyed a large number of waiting fighter jets and many flimsy runways, resulting in less than one in ten U.S. Military air force units being able to successfully take off to engage the enemy.

It can be said that this sudden attack has crippled the U.S. Military's strategic operational capability.

“What happened?”

Before the command center's orders reached the front lines, U.S. Military soldiers deep in the mountains looked up and saw bright spots with white tails in the sky.

The soldiers recognized them as missiles flying at low altitudes.

At this moment, similar missiles were flying over the entire mountain range, each missile heading to its own destination, like blooming flowers.

Who ordered these missiles to be launched?

These soldiers initially thought they must have been launched by the U.S. Military, as the Anti-War Army had been crippled and had lost its long-range fire capability.

It wasn't until missiles flew directly towards them that these soldiers finally reacted, shouting, “Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”

But maneuvering in the mountains was difficult, and their positions were quickly hit, causing chaos and casualties.

And the missiles were not the only terrifying thing.

The U.S. Military infantry who survived the first round of artillery bombardment had just recovered when they heard a buzzing sound overhead. They looked up and were terrified again.

“Drone bombs! They’re drone bombs! Run!”

They saw dense swarms of small, simply constructed objects with only wings, a front-facing camera, and bombs strapped to their undersides, flying rapidly towards them from low altitudes.

These were extremely low-cost, mass-producible suicide drone bombs, remotely controlled and not afraid of attrition, which had proven very effective on the Eastern European battlefield.

These U.S. Military soldiers naturally recognized the danger, dodging and firing their weapons.

They did successfully shoot down many suicide drones, but even more drones, under remote control, successfully delivered their payloads above and around them, causing explosions.

In the densely populated, inescapable mountain valleys, they became a slaughterhouse for suicide drones.

Clearly, the mode of warfare has truly changed.

—

Inside the Anti-War Army's mountain base.

Fang Le, wearing an FPV device, was in the electronics room controlling a suicide drone to search for U.S. Military soldiers or heavy equipment on the ground.

Beside him, the entire electronics room was filled with soldiers like him, wearing devices and remotely controlling drones for long-range combat.

This was a special unit, which Fang Le called the Drone Array Unit.

Their drones were crudely made and couldn't form a true array yet, but they could perform collective actions and implement swarm tactics.

The largely barren mountain terrain of Macdonald was precisely the most suitable for drone swarm operations, as there were few obstacles, and the enemy had almost nowhere to hide.

Fang Le had already controlled several drones, killing many U.S. Military soldiers and vehicles, and even, with luck, igniting a fuel transport truck.

It felt somewhat like playing a first-person shooter game.

Suddenly, his shoulder was patted.

Fang Le took off his FPV device and saw that it was Political Commissar Zhao Gang, who had come to find him. He asked, “What’s wrong? Is it time for the next step?”

Zhao Gang nodded: “Yes, almost. It’s time for our full-scale attack.”