275: Chapter 276 Siege

The perspective shifts back to the Baby Bus guild.

At this point, a full week had passed since the players joined forces with Melissa Family and the Sading family to officially declare war and launch an offensive against the Sun's Children, the Yelute Family.

On the bridge of the Baby Bus.

Dog Brother stood before the star map sand table, watching the front line push steadily toward the enemy capital. Far from feeling any joy at the impending victory, his brows were tightly furrowed, and he felt increasingly that something was wrong.

"This is too eerie."

Dog Brother tapped his fingers on the table. "From the very moment we declared war on the forums, that main fleet of the Yelute Family has been avoiding battle and retreating.

Even when our Baby Bus brazenly entered the near-Earth orbit of their home planet, they still chose to avoid battle. They didn't even fire a single symbolic anti-aircraft shot!"

"They actually have no intention of fighting a head-on battle in space, and have simply handed over orbital air superiority for nothing!"

Any Commander with a shred of sense knows exactly how important the advantage of orbital air superiority is in interstellar warfare!

Unless the defenders on the ground have deployed those giant planetary defense guns with exaggerated calibers, or super-heavy electromagnetic cannons capable of piercing the atmosphere, the power of any conventional ground artillery simply cannot compare to ship-borne guns in space!

After all, the sheer size of ship-borne guns speaks for itself.

Furthermore, once orbital air superiority is lost, it is very difficult to hold air superiority within the atmosphere. Once the aircraft in the sky are wiped out, the armored units assembled on the ground are nothing but sitting ducks in the face of orbital bombardment and bombers!

However, the Yelute Family has engaged in a series of baffling retreats and avoidance behaviors. This has resulted in a situation where, throughout this week-long so-called interstellar expeditionary war, both sides have caused virtually no substantive casualties or vehicle losses since the start of the conflict, other than consuming a bit of fuel.

"What on earth are they trying to do?"

Dog Brother was thoroughly confused. "Luring the enemy deep? A last stand? Or are they hatching some kind of underhanded plot? How exactly was the AI logic for these NPCs written?"

It wasn't just Dog Brother who couldn't figure it out; the other players on the surface who were ready to go all out were also completely confused.

At this moment, on the surface of the Yelute Family's planet, the ground coalition forces of the players and the other two families were deploying for an encirclement on a vast plain.

Not far away, the magnificent city with its towering walls was none other than the capital of the Sun's Children family—Lieyang City!

In the sky, players were piloting dozens of heavy fighter jets, circling back and forth with a deafening roar amidst the clouds.

And on the ground, it was a torrent of steel!

The massive desert ark, over ten meters tall and led by Penny, sat at the very front of the position like a moving hill.

On both sides of the vehicle, a dense array of hover tanks, heavy self-propelled artillery, and hive ships carrying countless swarm drones were lined up.

On the outer flanks of the player positions, dozens of massive knight mecha belonging to the Lake Goddess and Mountain-Sea Lord families were marching with heavy steps to form their ranks.

Penny sat in the cockpit of the desert ark, looking at the radar screen in front of him, confirming that their encirclement deployment was complete.

He picked up the communicator and reported: "Dog Brother! The ground siege position is set up, and we can launch an all-out attack at any time! But it's strange; the walls of Lieyang City are quiet, and I still haven't seen any defensive forces deployed by the enemy!"

The calm voice of Dog Brother came through the communicator: "Received. Stick to the original plan and don't fire yet. We will send a surrender demand into the city to see what kind of trick they are playing."

Penny Is My Wife put away the communicator.

He felt a bit stifled staying inside the vehicle, so he simply pushed open the cockpit hatch and climbed up the metal ladder onto the spacious top armor of the desert ark.

He took off his Power Armor helmet, took a breath of fresh alien air, and then looked around at the spectacular siege position with great interest.

In the very center was the main attack position, with the players' heavy firepower as the core, consisting entirely of various armed vehicles.

On the right flank of the position were the forces of the Lake Goddess. They had deployed a total of ten gorgeously painted, light and agile knight mecha, piloted by knights from Melissa Family. Behind the mecha, several full-strength auxiliary armored regiments followed.

On the left flank of the position was the army of the Mountain-Sea Lord. The display here was even larger; besides a small number of auxiliary troops responsible for logistics, there were a full twenty heavy knight mecha with diverse appearances and thick armor!

This was the first time Penny had observed war machines like knight mecha at such close range in the game.

Although these knight mecha, with an average height of about ten meters, appeared somewhat slender compared to Penny's desert ark, which was piled high with turrets, they were bipedal humanoid mecha! That was truly damn cool!

Penny rubbed his chin and started musing aimlessly: "These mecha clank when they walk; they're too cumbersome. Is it possible to find Rocket Coal-Burner later and install a hover chassis on the soles of these things?"

After thinking for a while, he shook his head: "I feel like adding a hover chassis would look a bit ugly. Right! Why not just weld an adjustable micro jetpack onto the back of the mecha? It could even perform short-range flight and jumps! But if it can fly, then why keep two legs under the mecha?"

Just as Penny's thoughts were running wild, because the discipline of the life-skill players was inherently loose, after confirming the siege setup was complete, a large number of bored players actually jumped right out of their vehicles or Power Armor!

They ran in groups of three or five to the edge of the flank positions, and like they were at a car show, they started pointing at the allied knight mecha, loudly critiquing them and frantically taking photos and screenshots.

Penny couldn't suppress his curiosity either, and followed the crowd of players to the outer perimeter of the Mountain-Sea Lord's position on the left flank. He raised his high-magnification tactical binoculars and began to peek at the details of the stationary mecha.

The Mountain-Sea Lord's knight mecha were primarily painted in deep rock gray and dark green. The ceramite armor plates on the surface of the mecha looked very heavy, even somewhat bloated. One look was enough to know this was a heavy-duty model very adept at absorbing damage in positional warfare.

Nearby, a veteran player who had bought quite a few physical Warhammer tabletop game models put down his binoculars and asked with some confusion: "Hey? Why do I feel like the proportions of these knight mecha are a bit different from those miniature models sold by GW officially?"

Penny put down the binoculars and said with a certain tone: "Now I can be one hundred percent sure: they are definitely survivors who escaped from the Age of Strife!"

Penny pointed at the joints and weapon hardpoints of those mecha and began to explain: "Look! Most of the models of those knight mecha clearly have the primitive design features from the beginning of the Great Crusade! They haven't undergone the standardized modifications of the Adeptus Mechanicus, which are full of religious compromises!"

"But looking at many details, the configuration of these mecha has undergone some 'magic' modifications."

Penny reached out and pointed into the distance at the most conspicuous Crusader-class main battle Knight: "Take that one for example! Its main chassis is clearly a Crusader-class Paladin! But on the left arm of this mecha, instead of the traditional Gatling Avenger cannon, it's mounted with a plasma generator similar to a high-tier energy shield! Its right arm has been replaced with a foldable super-heavy shock lance!"

Penny analyzed: "This kind of extreme configuration usually only appears on those high-speed hunting Knight models specifically used for close-quarters dogfights. It seems that these three families likely retained the manufacturing technology for Knights. And after ten thousand years of development, at the very least, they have been able to independently manufacture and improve the accompanying weapons and armor!"

After hearing Penny's explanation, the players nodded, feeling impressed despite not fully understanding, and snapped photos even more enthusiastically.

After taking photos, the players slowly walked back to the defensive lines of their positions. Yet, they still didn't show any combat alertness, and the entire position still appeared lazy.

In fact, a few fearless players, from who knows where, pulled out an entire set of folding outdoor camping tables and chairs! They actually sat on the front line of the battlefield, where two armies were facing off, casually cracking melon seeds and drinking beverages, waiting for the battle to start as if they were watching a show!

Seeing this absurd and abstract scene, Penny had black lines on his face and couldn't help but cover his forehead. But he couldn't be bothered to manage these trolls and, on his own, climbed back up the ladder to the top of the desert ark, preparing to dive into the cockpit at any moment.

However! Just as the players were wandering around aimlessly, Lieyang City, which had kept its gates tightly shut and remained completely silent, finally showed movement!

With a dull roar of metal gears, the massive, hundred-meter-tall gates of Lieyang City slowly opened to both sides!

Amidst rolling clouds of dust, several towering figures, like moving walls, accompanied by a large group of smaller figures, slowly walked out of the city gates and appeared in the field of view of Penny and the others!

Penny had just sat in the Commander's chair of the vehicle when he saw the towering figures appear on the screen. He jumped up from the cockpit in excitement, as if he had been electrocuted!

"Holy f***!!!"

Penny's voice was trembling as he shouted frantically in the guild channel, "Acastus-class super-heavy Knight! Brothers! The enemy just played their trump card!"

The ten mecha walking at the very front were simply too massive! Their height even approached that of a Warhound-class Titan!

Without a doubt, these things were definitely the top-tier, clan-protecting combat power from the ancient Knight family's treasury!

One must know that a super-heavy mecha of this level, even in the prosperous era of the 30K Great Crusade, was an extremely rare strategic weapon of mass destruction!

Penny swallowed his saliva as he looked at those ten mecha, which were like fortresses of war: "The weapon configuration is too terrifying! Five of them are equipped with anti-Titan heavy firepower—twin laser cannons! That power is second only to standard Titan main guns, specifically designed to go head-to-head against enemy Titans and super-heavy underground fortifications!"

"The other five are cluster annihilation types!"

Penny's voice grew more and more excited: "They are equipped with twin conversion beam cannons, volkite heavy cannons, and shoulder-mounted mortar arrays! Once these things open fire, they are lawnmowers for clearing infantry and armored clusters over a large area! Their ability to break through fortifications and formations is simply unsolvable!"

And behind the massive bodies of those ten super-heavy mecha, there were dense numbers of various conventional knight mecha following! Just the close-quarters Lancers, armed with lances for charging, numbered over twenty at a rough count!

Upon seeing this, the players exclaimed in the channel like inexperienced rookies.

But! Faced with this terrifying torrent of steel that even a Space Marine would walk around, not a single player on the scene showed any sign of fear or shrinking!

They still unhurriedly began returning to their battle stations in their positions. Even those few players sitting outside cracking melon seeds were slowly and methodically wiping their camping tables and chairs clean, folding them up, and stuffing them into their backpacks.

However, the changes on the battlefield were far from over! Just as the players had just returned to their vehicles, a sudden change occurred!

A harsh sound of mechanical bearings turning came from the left side of the player position! The players were surprised to find that the Mountain-Sea Lord family, originally deployed as allies on the left flank, had suddenly and simultaneously turned the muzzles of their twenty knight mecha!

All the heavy artillery and plasma cannons were aimed directly at the central player position!

At the same time, Penny's desert ark, as well as other players' vehicles, immediately emitted harsh alarm sounds indicating they were being strongly locked onto by enemy radar fire control!

"The left flank has turned on us!" someone shouted.

And on the right flank of the position, the ten knight mecha of the Lake Goddess family, upon discovering the betrayal of the Mountain-Sea Lord, didn't show any hesitation or intention to fire in support of the players!

The knights of the Lake Goddess immediately started their engines, took big strides, and began to quickly shrink their defensive line toward the rear! It was obvious that they were attempting to abandon the players, clear themselves of any relationship, and even had a subtle stance of blocking the players' retreat!

The enemy in front had unleashed a world-destroying weapon of mass destruction; the allies on the left flank had suddenly torn off the mask and turned traitor; and the friendly forces on the right flank were in a posture of simply selling out their teammates and running away! Surrounded on all sides and trapped in a desperate situation!

In this situation, if it were any conventional Imperial army, I fear their morale would have been severely shaken in an instant, or even resulted in the entire army collapsing and scattering!

However. This time, their opponents were players from The Fourth Calamity! This group of people belonged to that type of peerless perverts who, the more you resist and struggle, and the more adverse the situation, the more excited and thrilled they become!

In the guild communication channel, which had been sparse due to boredom, the players suddenly went crazy and started a carnival: "Awesome! The devs are awesome! The plot finally has a twist and some action! After so many days of buildup, I was about to die from boredom!"

"Hahaha! Brothers! I f***ing told you these NPCs were up to no good! Bring it on!"

A player driving a hover tank shouted excitedly in the channel: "Brothers, don't fight me for it! That tallest, coolest twin laser cannon super-heavy Knight at the city gate is mine! I'm going to strip it down later and make a figurine out of it!"

Another player could no longer hold back: "Stop talking! Brothers, fire control is locked! Can we fire early?"

Penny looked at the radar and calmly stopped them: "Wait! Although their muzzles are pointed at us, it seems they haven't fired yet. What to do? How about we say hello first?"