Chapter 927, Covering the Sky and Sun

Just as Mattins had predicted, when the army of Chaos launched its attack, even though his troops were prepared to defend, they were immediately plunged into a fierce battle.

Human armies have almost no time to rest after the last battle. Although individuals, as biological beings, certainly need rest, at the level of an army, rest is not necessarily required, and at least rotation is possible.

Over the past dozen hours, the human forces have been rotating shifts, giving those who need rest a break and those who can hold out a little longer a chance to quickly rebuild their defenses in preparation for the next wave of attacks.

Many soldiers were taking a nap in their military vehicles when the drivers took them to their assigned positions.

In a flurry of activity, the human forces repurposed and rebuilt the army defenses located in the area surrounding the Cathedral of Savinil, which had been almost completely destroyed. They even salvaged some surviving heavy artillery pieces from some of the captured and destroyed artillery positions.

Meanwhile, with the number of Space Marines greatly increased, Martins ordered a large number of Space Marines to be deployed directly to key areas of the outer defense line.

Although the available troops were limited, the space inside the Church of Savinil was even more limited. Deploying all available forces inside the church would be unwise. The surrounding area was their lifeline; if all the surrounding positions were lost, leaving only the church area, the battle would be impossible to wage. Simply cowering inside and passively taking hits would inevitably lead to their eventual defeat.

Sending Space Marines directly to the front lines would significantly strengthen the defenses of those lines.

Overall, the alliance has done everything in its power to strengthen its defenses during the preparation period.

However, after the battle began, red alarms were transmitted to the command post from all lines.

"This is Hill 0104 on the northwest front. We have been subjected to heavy artillery fire and request countermeasures!"

"This is position 0332 on the north front. The Corrupted Titan has appeared before us and has been destroyed, but we have lost seventeen Phoenix Warriors. Our forces are critically low and we need reinforcements!"

"This is position 0746 on the northeast front. The number of enemies attacking our unit far exceeds our expectations. We can only hold out for a maximum of 20 minutes!"

Everywhere is under pressure, everywhere is calling for reinforcements, everywhere is reporting that they can't hold on much longer...

In theory, the person who should be listening to the report, as the supreme commander, Martins, was no longer in the command center.

Already fully equipped, he and his commando team boarded their fighter jets and took off with a roar.

Along with them set off was a massive fleet of fighter jets from the alliance!
If there's one area where the alliance can at least hold its own against its opponents, it's air power.

The large number of fighter jets that the Alliance deployed for the previous airborne operation near the church did not return.

From the Falcon to the Dragon Elephant, and various modified versions, they all possess vertical takeoff and landing capabilities, making their takeoff environmental requirements very low. Temporarily constructed airfields can fully meet their needs.

Martins had anticipated the current situation. Just recently, a new batch of transport planes arrived, escorted by another wave of fighter jets.

They brought with them not only an elite Army Guards Division—officially designated an S-Class Division by the Allied Army.

This is an even more powerful force than the Class A divisions. It was reorganized from the former Glory Guard Regiment and incorporated into the army. Class S divisions not only possess powerful artillery, armor, and Titan units, but their infantry are also fully equipped with feedback-based power armor.

The standard for forming a Guardian Division is that "one regiment's strength is equivalent to a Space Marine Chapter." A Guardian Regiment has a strength of approximately three thousand men, including four infantry battalions and two armored battalions, which constitute six front-line combat units, totaling about two thousand men. The remaining one thousand men are support personnel, including five self-propelled artillery support companies, as well as regimental logistics, reconnaissance, field medical battalions, staff, guard battalions, and a range of other units.

While they're touted as being comparable to Space Marine Chapters, in reality, they'd likely still lose in a direct confrontation. After all, although they outnumber a typical Chapter by three, can three elite ground soldiers in power armor with feedback systems really take down a single Space Marine?

It's hard.

If possible, Martins would certainly prefer to use his precious transport capacity to send another three thousand Space Marines over.

Unfortunately, he didn't have that many left.

His Southern Front comprised a total of forty-three chapters, theoretically numbering over forty thousand Space Marines. However, such a powerful force was not always united. In reality, the Space Marines were dispersed in companies to various locations along the Front's objectives, operating across thousands of worlds in one or two space sectors, carrying out strategic operations alongside the Southern Front's 22 detachments.

Of course, the largest force would naturally be the main fleet of the army group, namely Martins.

There are a total of five battle groups.

This force, the reserve force controlled by the Army Group Headquarters, fights alongside the main fleet and is ready to be deployed at any time when other detachments need it.

Even though they belong to the main fleet, the five thousand Space Marines wouldn't gather together. In fact, all thirteen worlds in the Multistar Sector, where Paparil is located, are targets of this offensive. The other four thousand Space Marines are currently scattered throughout the Multistar Sector with the rest of the main fleet.

They have received the news and are rushing here, but it will take at least three to four days to complete the assembly.

In other words, all the interstellar combat troops that Mattins can currently mobilize are already on the surface.

He wanted to escalate the situation further, but the highest level of combat power he could deploy was only the S-class divisions, namely the Army Guards Divisions.

A Sentinel Regiment can't compare to a Space Marine Chapter, but if they do encounter each other, they're not entirely defenseless; at least they can put up a fight.

This Guards regiment was also assigned to fight on the front lines.

Along with this Guards regiment came a large number of aviation energy crystals to replenish the fighter jets' energy.

This supports the current full-scale deployment of the alliance's fighter jets.

The warplanes, blotting out the sky, bombarded the Chaos Air Force, which had also taken off, despite the Chaos Army's anti-aircraft firepower.

While we may not have complete control of the airspace, we can at least accomplish some strategic air operations.

For example, bombing, or sending Martins and his commando team to wherever he wanted.

(End of this chapter)