180: Chapter 180, No. 24

Lanshan Planet.

Five months into the siege by the Lux Aliens, Xia Xingchen's ground forces had long since retreated from their defensive positions in the wilderness, falling back to the Rose Plains defensive line on the outskirts of Holy Mountain City.

While the aliens had gained complete control over the vast lands outside the city, they were far from resting easy.

Xia Xingchen's orbital forces remained suspended above their heads like a butcher's blade ready to fall at any moment.

Unlike on Yongri Planet, control of space over Lanshan Planet remained firmly in human hands.

Precise Orbital Strikes could easily tear apart every large-scale offensive by the aliens, and even during non-combat periods, they could inflict excessive casualties on alien assembly points.

It was common for hundreds of thousands of Lux Aliens to be resting in ground camps only for a descending orbital laser or heavy missile to reduce them and their fortifications to scorched earth.

Driven to desperation, the aliens could only adopt the clumsy tactic of synchronized sea and land attacks after establishing stable communications with their space fleet:

While the space fleet exerted full pressure on the orbital defense systems, the ground forces would advance as planned, aiming to capture predetermined targets before the fleet ceased fire.

The success rate of this tactic was pitifully low.

If they managed to achieve their objective three times out of ten, they considered themselves lucky.

In utter desperation, after consulting with one another, the three princes of Lux resolved that they must create a sufficient "vacuum period" for the ground forces.

To achieve this goal, they had spent a full three months preparing.

This time, the aliens had gone all out, diverting one more battleship from their remaining three.

They reorganized a fleet with a scale no smaller than the one that had originally raided the orbital platform, and their orders to the fleet were very clear:

They were not required to destroy any specific number of targets; they only needed to hold the orbital defense platform firmly in check for three months, forcing humans to focus all their attention on space and leaving them unable to launch any further Orbital Strikes against the ground.

The ground forces also finalized their battle plan simultaneously:

Within three months, the main army was to advance to the foot of the Holy Mountain City walls.

As long as they broke through the outer defensive positions and reached the city gates, human Orbital Strikes would be hindered by the fear of collateral damage.

Once the plan was set, the Lux fleet in space immediately lunged toward the orbital defense platform from all directions.

They consistently maintained a delicate distance—far enough to avoid the devastating salvos of the space station's Slaughterer laser cannons, minimizing losses to their main force, yet close enough to suppress the platform with continuous fire, leaving it unable to attend to other matters.

At night in Holy Mountain City, soldiers could look up and see flashes rising and falling in the night sky, like a never-ending thunderstorm.

Recruits discussed it curiously, guessing at the intensity of the battle erupting in space, while veterans and officers wore grave expressions; the orbital platform being continuously tied down meant that in the upcoming ground war, they would have to rely on themselves.

In this round of the offensive, the Lux Aliens not only deployed armored Giant Beetles but also dispatched their knight-class units, the Scarabs.

The core battlefield for the slaughter was chosen at the Rose Plains, fifty kilometers west of Holy Mountain City.

This five-thousand-square-kilometer expanse would become the slaughterhouse that determined the course of the war.

This plain was once named for the roses that bloomed across it, but that splendor had long since become a distant legend; no one could say for sure why the roses had vanished, nor did anyone care.

Now, on the plain, humans had dug crisscrossing trenches and anti-tank ditches, and firepower bunkers were scattered like stars, forcibly transforming the entire flatland into a massive fortress.

Nearly a million soldiers were stationed along this defensive line; Xia Xingchen had committed the most elite Astra Militarum and Ironclad Heavy Army under his command, and the Skitarii of the Adeptus Mechanicus also joined the battle.

Lux frontline officers, looking through the reconnaissance vision of Corrosive Wyverns at the dense war fortifications and steel torrents on their light screens, could not help but gasp.

To flatten such a defensive line, the first wave of the charge would require sacrificing at least tens of millions of troops.

"I never imagined that humans could transform an entire plain into a steel bunker."

A Lux officer wrote this sentence in his war diary.

But the aliens had no choice.

To the north and south of Holy Mountain City lay steep, continuous mountain ranges, making it impossible for large forces to bypass them;

The mountains to the north were an even greater natural barrier, stretching for tens of thousands of kilometers.

It was not that the Lux hadn't tried to infiltrate through the northern mountains, but all the units sent out had mysteriously vanished in the mountains, and they hadn't even found a single path that led directly to Holy Mountain City.

The east was similarly rugged and difficult to traverse.

After all their calculations, the flat and open Rose Plains to the west was the only breakthrough point.

"Deploy all Scarabs, form a suicide assault squad, and at all costs, get close to the Rose Plains, use firepower to tear open a gap, and cover the main army's charge."

The one who issued this order was the supreme Commander of the alien ground forces, No. 24.

This was a special Commander who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood: the antennae on his head had been severed, which were his medals of honor from countless battles.

Having climbed from the lowest-ranking soldier to the position of supreme ground Commander step by step, he was a living legend among the Lux race.

"Commander!" a general nearby said, looking worried. "Every Scarab used is one less we have; the space fleet cannot replenish them for us. Is it too risky to commit them all at once?"

No. 24 was silent for a moment, his compound eyes calmly gazing at the defensive line ahead. His tone was without a ripple, yet carried unquestionable resolve: "Execute the order. I will take full responsibility for any issues that arise."

With the supreme Commander having said this much, the generals had no further objections, and the battle plan was finalized.

The tactics were clear: Corrosive Wyverns would launch a preemptive strike to destroy enemy heavy weapons and inflict casualties on living forces as much as possible;

Then, the Scarabs would launch a charge to attract and suppress enemy firepower; following closely behind would be the vanguard army of tens of millions, with the goal of capturing the outer areas of the Rose Plains and establishing a stable forward base.

No. 24 sat in the command room constructed of biological materials, looking at the latest communication.

Lux IV was urging them once again to launch the general offensive as soon as possible, as the space fleet was suffering losses every single moment.

No. 24 had no other choice.

On the last day of June, there was not much time left for them.

That night, the Rose Plains were shrouded in thick smoke and fog.

And this day would eventually be etched into the history of Lanshan Planet.