51: Battle of Wichita

Wichita, Kansas.

This city in the American Midwest, once world-renowned for its aviation manufacturing, has now become one of the bloodiest and most brutal meat grinders of the Second American Civil War.

Its geographical location is critical; it is the essential path for the Federal Army to advance from the East toward the heartland of the Western Coalition.

To control this place is to seize the Coalition by the throat.

Therefore, in the third week after the war broke out.

The Federal Army's 3rd Armored Division and the Coalition's 1st California National Guard Division—two ace units representing the strongest ground forces of both sides—waged an incredibly fierce battle for the city here.

In the early stages of the war, the Federal Army held the upper hand, relying on their absolute numerical superiority and more extensive experience in traditional warfare.

The clusters of M1A2 main battle tanks, like steel beasts, roared as they crushed the city's outer defense lines under the cover of Apache attack helicopters, leveling building after building to the ground.

Although the Coalition's original National Guard troops were high in morale, their disadvantage in heavy equipment forced them to rely on the urban ruins for grueling street fighting, retreating step by step.

However, when the war entered its third month and the first batch of weapons urgently supplied by Paradox Technology arrived at the front lines for the Coalition, the situation across the entire battlefield underwent a complete reversal.

"Sergeant! What the hell is that?!"

Federal soldier Michael, hiding behind a broken wall, shouted in terror at his squad leader.

Just a few seconds ago, he had witnessed with his own eyes the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle that served as his platoon's fire support point being instantly destroyed by a drone that descended from the sky.

The drone was only the size of a backpack, with two pairs of transparent, biomimetic membranous wings on its back.

It didn't use any explosives.

It simply landed silently on the top of the infantry fighting vehicle's turret, and then a drill-like device extended from its abdomen.

Accompanied by a harsh sound of metal grinding, a jet of ultra-high-temperature plasma instantly melted through the vehicle's heavy composite armor, detonating the ammunition and crew inside.

The entire process was clean, efficient, and filled with a chilling technological beauty.

"I don't know!" The squad leader's voice was also filled with fear. "It's a swarm! The enemy's drone swarm! Take cover!"

Before the words had even faded, a dense buzzing sound, like the beating of dragonfly wings, came from the sky.

Hundreds of such drones, like locusts swarming out of hell, rushed toward the Federal Army's positions, covering the sky.

They dispersed and gathered, tracing eerie and unpredictable flight paths in the air, easily dodging the Federal Army's sporadic anti-aircraft fire.

The Federal soldiers were horrified to discover that their prized man-portable air-defense missiles and anti-aircraft machine guns were like clumsy flyswatters in the face of these incredibly agile little things.

A one-sided massacre began.

The drone swarm precisely sought out every fire support point and armored unit of the Federal Army.

Some specialized in attacking the weakest top armor of tanks, landing close before using high-frequency vibration drills to breach the armor and fire high-temperature jets.

Others carried multi-warhead kinetic penetrators, detonating above armored clusters to instantly paralyze all vehicles in a large area.

Some didn't even carry weapons; their sole mission was to launch suicide attacks, crashing into soldiers hiding behind cover and detonating the explosives they carried.

In less than ten minutes, a full armored company of the Federal Army completely lost its combat effectiveness under the attack of these "mechanical dragonflies."

And this was merely the tip of the iceberg of what the Coalition forces had to show.

"General! We've lost all armored units in Sector B!"

In the temporary command post of the Federal 3rd Armored Division, a communications officer reported to Division Commander General Howard with a pale face.

General Howard was a veteran who had participated in the Gulf War and the War in Afghanistan; he had spent his life dealing with tanks and artillery.

But the war before him was completely beyond his comprehension.

Since the war began, he had felt like a boxer with his eyes and ears covered, forced to take hits passively without even being able to touch the opponent's shadow.

All satellite reconnaissance had failed.

Every drone that took to the sky was shot down by unknown electronic interference.

They now had to rely on the most primitive human reconnaissance to obtain battlefield information.

Yet their opponents seemed to possess a god's-eye view.

Every troop movement and tactical deployment they made was anticipated in advance by the enemy, followed by precise strikes.

"Send the reserves from Sector C to the front!" General Howard roared, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the map. "Order the artillery units to conduct indiscriminate area bombardment on Sector B7! I don't care what's there! I want it wiped off the map!"

"General... our artillery positions... were hit by precise, long-range enemy fire ten minutes ago and have been completely wiped out." The communications officer's voice was trembling.

"What?!" General Howard looked at him in disbelief. "Our rear artillery positions? How did the enemy know our location? How could their artillery fire reach that far?"

What he didn't know was that in the Coalition's command center, Elon was like a big boy playing a real-time strategy game, easily moving his "units" on a massive holographic sandbox.

And the one providing all this intelligence support for him was the omnipresent white flower.

Although white flower could no longer directly control Federal military satellites, she could easily hack into every working civilian surveillance camera, smartphone, and even smart appliance in the city.

She integrated these massive streams of information to construct a real-time, updated digital model that rendered the entire battlefield transparent in one direction.

Every soldier and every tank of the Federal Army was like a red dot lit up on a giant sandbox; their locations, movements, and even communication contents were laid bare for the Coalition.

When General Howard ordered the artillery to fire, white flower had already calculated the precise coordinates of the artillery positions in a fraction of a second by analyzing the muzzle blast sounds and ballistic trajectories.

Then, the heavy weapon from Paradox Technology deployed on the other side of the city—the electromagnetic railgun—received the order to fire.

The electromagnetic railgun was hidden on a mobile platform disguised as a civilian truck.

It had no massive barrel or recoil mechanism like traditional artillery, only two parallel electromagnetic rails ten meters long.

When the firing order was given, a high-explosive shell with a special casing was placed between the rails.

A powerful pulse current instantly passed through the rails, generating a Lorentz force strong enough to distort the air.

There was no explosion, no flame.

Only a shrill sound like tearing silk.

The shell was accelerated to twenty times the speed of sound in less than a second, turning into a death line invisible to the naked eye that precisely crossed tens of kilometers, descending from the sky to pierce through the Federal Army's artillery command vehicle.

A violent explosion erupted.

Immediately after, more shells followed.

Each one precisely hit a heavy artillery piece.

Some railguns firing armor-piercing shells specifically destroyed self-propelled artillery covered in armor.

The Federal Army's prized artillery positions were completely wiped off the battlefield without even knowing where the enemy fired from.

The tug-of-war on the ground continued.

But the situation on the battlefield was turning around day by day.

As various equipment reinforced by Paradox Technology arrived, every Coalition soldier was soon equipped with individual exoskeletons and information warfare terminals provided by Paradox Technology.

They could easily carry heavier weapons and ammunition, possessing greater mobility and protection.

The AR displays on their helmets marked known enemy locations, optimal attack routes, and friendly movements in real-time.

They were no longer isolated individuals, but super-soldiers connected by an information network.

Another great helper of theirs was the quadruped robot that looked like a mechanical hound.

These agile and lethal "mechanical hounds" moved across the complex urban ruins with ease.

They could charge ahead of the soldiers, using their sturdy armor to block bullets and suppress fire with machine guns mounted on their backs.

They could also silently infiltrate the enemy's flanks, using their high-precision sensors and laser designators to provide precise target indication for snipers in the rear.

They could even immediately switch to medical mode when a soldier was injured, injecting hemostatics and morphine, and dragging the wounded back to the rear safely.

The Federal soldiers realized they were no longer facing flesh and blood like themselves, but an iron legion composed of soldiers, mechanical hounds, and drones filling the sky.

Their coordination capabilities had reached a height bordering on art.

A four-man Coalition combat team, with the cooperation of two mechanical hounds and several reconnaissance drones, could easily clear an entire building occupied by the Federal Army.

The drones provided vision from high altitude, the mechanical hounds were responsible for the assault and fire suppression, while the soldiers, guided by information, efficiently and lethally cleared every room of enemies.

The entire process was filled with a killing efficiency as precise as computer code.

After weeks of brutal street fighting and several failed counterattacks easily neutralized by the opponent's information advantage, the Federal 3rd Armored Division, once an ace unit, finally collapsed.

Their casualties exceeded one-third, and their heavy equipment was almost entirely lost.

More importantly, their morale had hit rock bottom.

Facing an enemy you couldn't see or hit, but who knew everything about you, no one could muster a shred of will to resist.

Finally, on a stormy night, General Howard looked at the area on the map completely surrounded by red dots representing the Coalition, and for the first time, a look of despair appeared on his weathered face.

He picked up the wired phone that could only be used for short-range communication.

"This is the 3rd Armored Division Command, I am Division Commander Howard."

His voice was old and hoarse.

"I order... all units to cease resistance."

"We surrender."

The end of the Battle of Wichita marked the end of the Federal Army's advantage on the front line.

The battlefield situation was about to be reversed.

It also announced to the whole world the arrival of a new era of war—an era dominated by information and unmanned equipment.

The war logic of the old era was ruthlessly crushed in this battle.