Instead of just mere Mechanoids and vehicles surrounding Mount Sunn Workshop, the enemy had finally brought proper equipment into the fray. Some kind of tanks which Jin had no knowledge of were placed in the front of the lines. It was until Nie told him more about it that he realised it was finally acting as a tank in most MMORPGs.
As the name bluntly reveals its nature, it's a shield tank where the tank itself was equipped with a shield generator instead of a barrel. While it still has machine guns and an unmovable barrel placed right at the side of it in case it requires to fight against other tanks, its general purpose was to generate a shield which would help adsorb the kinetic energy of the bullets and shells that were coming in their way.
However, according to Nie, they were not as sturdy as the name sounds. Its shield could only block from the front or wherever the generator was aiming at. This meant that their sides were vulnerable to attack and they were generally not used for urban combat considering how streets and alleys have three dimensional space for enemies to subvert such an ability. Still, when it comes to shielding a general direction, it's no doubt useful, especially in this kind of situation where they know that the only enemies that they have are the workshop alone.
This is terribly disadvantageous for Mount Sunn's artillery as they would not be able to penetrate through their defences with the limited shells that they had, and it seems like the private corpo army was banging on that fact. Even the defensive wall that held its ground in multiple occasions on day one would be useless against this major line of shield tanks protecting them. And to make things worse. it was not just the first row that was filled with those shield tanks.
Multiple rows of shield tanks had been sighted protecting various assets of the private corpo army while they advanced safely through the killing fields that had been plaguing them since the day before. And without the forest burned to a complete waste, all that tanks needed to do was to plough through whatever was left including their own side worth of corpses.
The defending Mechanoids tried to retaliate as wisely as possible, aiming for the probable gaps that were within the rows of the shield tanks and while it seems like a success for their shots, the need to always calibrate in advance despite the aid of the System was time consuming and they could only target that many holes in the enemies' gap.
Not to mention, there were also extra shield tanks that were hiding between the rows, providing cover from the artillery attacks at certain portions which indicated to Jin that the enemies were hiding possible special forces within those heavily protected regions to push for a strong offensive.
But there was still hope within Mount Sunn regardless of the frightening defences that the enemies had put up. Jin stopped all the artillery attacks momentarily so that they could be in sync for a huge retaliation attack in view of their limited ammunition. And that could only be done with the aid of the mountain cannon which Old Fammet had used once.
Even though Jin and the others were initially afraid of the air fleet that came, they soon realised the fleet did not bother to harass the mountain itself. They merely dropped the troops and supplies and flew off even though they had fighter jets escorting them as well. It was mainly because Edmond did not want to risk those aircraft they had 'borrowed' from the client's orders to be destroyed in a fight and a show of force in terms of air superiority might cause the enemies to think twice in their defensive measures.
Yet, they had forgotten that an animal that was cornered would do anything to get out of the pinch. Jin did not care about the impending doom of a possible air strike on the mountain cannon since the priority was to slow and if possible halt the frontlines. Thus, Jin summoned Old Fammet to shoot the mountain cannon with a horizontal laser strike.
Since the enemies were so focused on the defensive, the huge thermic beam should more or less obliterate the initial lines causing the rest to come to a halt. After all, they had been travelling in such tight formations there was no way for them to move so quickly changing their course without coordinating with the other commanders that were mixed within them.
And that was the difference between Jin's small ragtag group of stolen Mechanoids and the private corpo. Unlike the enemy, Jin had absolute control of all the Mechanoids in the current battlefield, allowing him to do a massive counter attack in an instant if need be but for the private corpo army, they were mixed with mercenaries who were just following orders based on the amount of coin they were given and they might not have access to communication channels which the private corpo commanders themselves have. This meant that orders needed to be relayed at least twice.
That is in addition to the fact that the enemy also did not know the extent of the mountain cannon. It was only used once on a straight road and they assumed that it could only be used just in that particular direction. They had no idea when the mountain cannon emerge again, it was able to do such a devastating attack on their front lines.
Not to mention, immediately after that thermic beam, Jin ordered the artilleries to fire at the row that was behind the shield tanks, causing the entire army to halt in their tracks. This bought some time for the thermic beam to push for another shot before retreating back into the mountain as the artillery had been temporarily buffing to increase their firing rate so that the second line was decimated as well.
It was a reversal that the private corpos were not expecting but Jin knew that they could not do this the second time considering how much time was needed to cool down the mountain cannon which had shot twice.
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