The Hell's Angels mercenaries, concealed within caves burrowed deep into various mountainsides, began to gather. Laid out before them were glowing screens, and the neatly arranged mercenaries awaited the unfolding of a grand spectacle with a sense of ease. The name of this show was 'The Hell's Angels Versus the Roman Fleet,' with Gu Xiechen as the overall director and Siren as the main cast!

The Roman fleet hovering above the Hell's Angels forward operating base began to stir. The lower hatches of all warships opened, and small transport vessels streamed out continuously. These transports ferried squads of soldiers and armored vehicles to the ground, quickly concentrating a massive Roman army on the eastern flank of the forward base.

Four thousand five hundred elite Roman warriors, thirty thousand Spirit race thralls, alongside over a thousand heavy magnetic levitation chariots and nearly ten thousand white wolf-shaped bio-beasts—this was the first contingent amassed by the Romans.

The pale, ghostly moon hung high in the sky, devoid of even a single cloud. Moonlight bathed the Roman army, yet not a single ray reached the forward base; the colossal Roman fleet blocked the light, plunging the entire base into a pitch-black expanse filled with an unsettling, deathly stillness.

Gu Xiechen stood atop a sentry tower, quietly gazing at the vast Roman army in the distance. Siren beside him was taking deep, measured breaths.

Gu Xiechen cast a curious glance at Siren. "What? Scared?"

Siren looked at Gu Xiechen strangely, asking with confusion, "How can you be so certain the Romans won't just flatten this place with direct bombardment from their warships? Just because of those few forged stone steles?"

Gu Xiechen raised his binoculars to examine the distance and stated calmly, "I understand the Romans better than you do. I've been doing business with them since I was eight. They are a flashy, boastful, greedy people devoid of faith. My father was the best teacher in this world; he taught me how to survive in it, and a significant part of that curriculum was learning how to deal with the Romans!"

Aredia suddenly interjected, "But you still almost died, in Manhattan, you nearly perished."

His right hand clenched, and the binoculars in his grip instantly disintegrated into powder. Gu Xiechen remained silent for a long moment before saying softly, "My father never taught me how to deal with my own brothers."

Brushing the fragments off his hand, Gu Xiechen took a deep breath and sent a command to Xin Jia via telepathic link.

Xin Jia, seated cross-legged beneath a tree, rolled his eyes. He roared up at Holm, perched a hundred meters above him on a thick tree branch, "The High Master commands it! Make your move!"

Holm clicked his fingers, and a dull gunshot echoed. His shoulder twitched slightly, unleashing over thirty successive rounds. The heads of thirty-odd Spirit thralls over two kilometers away violently exploded, spraying pale green blood across their companions. The bullets not only blew apart the thralls' heads but also pierced the bodies of those beside them; the slender forms of the Spirit soldiers were agonizingly fragile against these large-caliber rounds, with dozens of soldiers being snapped in half at the waist.

The cannons of three heavy chariots abruptly swung towards their position. Their onboard ballistic radars rapidly calculated Holm's location, and a blue light began to coalesce at the muzzle, ready to unleash a high-energy particle stream.

Xin Jia was fractionally faster than the three heavy chariots. He roared, hoisting the heavy energy cannon, and leaped fifty meters into the air from the ground. His monstrous eyes flashed, and three high-energy particle streams shot out first. With a grating, strange sound, the blue streams, wrapped in plasma clouds nearly two meters thick, slammed into the three heavy chariots. The intense plasma melted the vehicles' external armor, allowing the streams to penetrate the interiors. The energy cores inside detonated, and three massive balls of fire erupted from the Roman position. The powerful shockwaves blasted and injured over three hundred nearby Spirit thralls.

The deafening explosion signaled the opening act of the Roman offensive. Led by nearly ten thousand wolf-shaped bio-beasts the size of small calves, four thousand five hundred Roman warriors advanced in a dispersed line six kilometers wide. Behind them followed over a thousand heavy magnetic levitation chariots, surging toward the eastern defense line of the forward base like a tide. The thirty thousand densely packed Spirit warriors followed closely behind the chariots, shouting slogans as they charged forward like ants.

"There's no artillery preparation?" Siren's eyes widened in astonishment.

"They are reluctant to part with the Zakra crystals and rare metals in the base, and even more fearful of damaging those few steles!" Gu Xiechen sneered. "Artillery prep? What if they destroy those steles? How could they bear it? Look over there, their shelling is vicious!"

Three Roman warships flew to the location where Xin Jia and Holm had just been. Hundreds of gun barrels of various sizes extended from the ships' sleek hulls. Several hundred high-energy lasers and particle beams swept across swathes of dense forest like a torrential storm. The woodland spanning seven or eight kilometers vanished into thin smoke under the blinding, intense light. Holm and Xin Jia, long since having retreated, could still feel the intense heat washing over them from behind.

"Three Class-One warships could obliterate our forward base!" Gu Xiechen watched the motionless Roman army ahead with leisure and laughed. "We have three hundred and forty of them overhead!"

Siren shook his head. Aredia shook hers as well.

The nearly ten thousand wolf-shaped bio-beasts rushed toward the base defenses, on the verge of breaching the perimeter.

'Long live the Federation!' A tsunami of slogans suddenly erupted from hundreds of loudspeakers positioned throughout the base. Amidst the massive sound, thousands of mercenaries dressed in black uniforms rushed out from their hiding spots, each carrying heavy satchels of explosives, charging like madmen toward the lunging bio-beasts. The beasts' eyes turned red, and they attacked the charging mercenaries in groups of two or three.

Thousands of fireballs simultaneously ascended from the forefront of the base defenses. Each mercenary carried two hundred kilograms of high-explosive material; the simultaneous detonation of over a thousand tons of explosives devastated the bio-beasts. A ring of white shockwave swept outward. The blue energy shields on the power armors of several hundred leading Roman warriors dimmed sharply, and deep cracks appeared on the armor itself. The Roman warriors screamed as they were blasted far away.

All bunkers and strongpoints on the forward base's first line were instantly destroyed. The powerful shockwave completely ripped up the initial defense line, revealing fleeting figures tossed between clods of earth and sand, flesh and blood spraying across the sky, and the pungent smell of gore filling the air.

The two hundred energy cannons, only just acquired from the Romans, opened fire. Streams of light and bolts of energy roared into the charging Roman ranks. The energy shields of the Roman elite warriors flickered dimly. They managed to advance only a short distance under the sustained bombardment before retreating in disarray. At least five hundred Roman warriors had their power armor shredded by the barrage, turning into wisps of ash in the brilliant light. The over a thousand heavy chariots behind them roared forward, unleashing an overwhelming torrent of laser fire onto the base's various strongpoints.

The Roman heavy chariots boasted excellent fire control and were extremely accurate. The two hundred energy cannons fixed at the strongpoints were blasted into the sky before they could exert their full intended effect.

"What a waste!" Gu Xiechen and Siren sighed in unison. These energy cannons should have played a greater role, but since this was a performance, they wouldn't press the matter.

A flame flickered in Aredia’s eyes as she extended her hands, where several fireballs vaguely took shape between her fingertips.

Gu Xiechen stopped Aredia, shaking his head repeatedly. "No, you don't need to intervene yet. Causing them minor casualties is sufficient!"

Holm and Xin Jia constantly shifted positions within the dense woods. Holm's sniper rifle continuously harvested the lives of Spirit thralls. If any Roman warrior's energy armor was weakened by artillery fire, Holm would immediately land a fatal shot to their vital spot.

Xin Jia exclusively targeted the heavy chariots, his energy cannon spitting fire, turning chariot after chariot into debris.

The losses inflicted on the Romans by the forward base's two defense lines were admittedly significant, but they were still less than the damage caused by Holm and Xin Jia.

The heavy chariots, bearing the low, resonant hum characteristic of their maglev engines, crushed through the first two defense lines of the forward base. The Roman warriors’ halberds spat out high-energy particle streams, relentlessly destroying all forward strongpoints and bunkers. The Spirit thralls from the rear surged forward, their dense laser fire pouring down like rain onto the base defenses, scarring the ground and causing smoke to rise everywhere.

A dozen armed helicopters lifted off from the base, rapidly ascending to an altitude of two hundred meters, preparing to launch rockets and missiles. A Roman warship violently descended in a straight line from the sky, its several-meter-thick energy shield slamming into the helicopters. The violent energy field instantly vaporized them. These dozen attack helicopters, highly effective against ground targets, ultimately yielded only a few faint flickers of fire.

Another dozen ground-attack aircraft scrambled urgently from the ground, but before they could gain altitude, four Roman warships rushed in from all directions at high speed. The attack aircraft shattered like eggs hitting stone.

Two crescent-shaped Roman fighters launched from the mothership. Excited, maniacal laughter from Pol Pot blared from the powerful speakers mounted on the aircraft: "Mr. Gu Xiechen, according to intelligence from our advance reconnaissance team, you suffered massive troop losses fighting the Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group. Based on the current situation, your defeat is certain!"

"A tedious display!" Gu Xiechen shook his head.

Spirit soldiers fell one by one, and heavy chariots exploded continuously. Holm and Xin Jia’s coordination was highly efficient. Three Roman warships tracking them had already annihilated dozens of sections of the forest, yet Holm and Xin Jia persisted in their sniping.

The Roman attention gradually focused on Holm and Xin Jia. The forward base, hidden in darkness, was on the verge of being occupied by the Roman ground forces. The Roman army charging head-on suffered minimal losses; conversely, the continuous sniping by Holm and Xin Jia was inflicting greater damage. In just a few short tens of minutes, Xin Jia had destroyed over two hundred chariots—not a huge tactical loss, but infuriating nonetheless. Soon, three more Class-One Roman warships joined the hunt for Holm and Xin Jia, with the Romans utterly destroying vast stretches of forest simply for sport.

As the massive Roman army broke through the eastern wall of the forward base and swarmed inside, large groups of mercenaries in black uniforms rushed out from various barracks. Intense gunfire swept in all directions, turning large numbers of Spirit thralls into sieves. The mercenaries skillfully utilized the barracks structures for rapid infiltration and encirclement, engaging in fierce close-quarters combat with the Roman forces within the buildings.

The fire from the main cannons of the Roman chariots ceased; they switched to their vehicle-mounted laser guns to eliminate any black silhouettes in sight. The Roman elite warriors also lowered their devastating axes, drawing plasma swords to join the final mop-up operation.

What made the Romans’ scalps tingle then appeared: these Hell's Angels mercenaries fought like demons sprung from the underworld. They fired madly, slaughtered ruthlessly, and if struck fatally or grievously wounded, a loud bang and a flash of fire would erupt—the explosive packs they carried always detonated promptly, pulverizing all nearby Romans and Spirit soldiers. Nearly a hundred heavy chariots were even rushed by these death-defying mercenaries, who detonated their explosives at point-blank range, reducing the vehicles to scrap.

The nearly ten thousand mercenaries inflicted truly horrific casualties on the Romans. The Roman army struggled to gain a foothold and seemed on the brink of being driven out of the forward base.

A Roman warrior grew enraged. A blue light flashed between his brows, and he exerted his full mental strength to unleash a psychic shockwave. A blue light swept across the surroundings, causing dozens of mercenaries to collapse, screaming.

Other Roman warriors simultaneously launched their psychic assaults, blue light blazing in their eyes, sending waves of blue energy across the entire forward base.

With continuous, earth-shaking roars, all the downed mercenaries detonated simultaneously, inflicting another massive wave of casualties upon the Romans.

The two Roman fighters still circling overhead remained silent for a long time. Pol Pot’s voice finally cut through: "We must admit, your spirit is commendable. However, in the face of our great Roman Fleet, all resistance is futile. Mr. Gu Xiechen, if you surrender now, I can offer you some preferential treatment. For the sake of these mercenaries who fought to the death, you, as their commander, deserve a small concession."

Gu Xiechen remained silent. By the time the last wave of 'mercenaries' charged out of the barracks, he, Siren, and Aredia had already evacuated the forward base.

Reuniting with Holm and Xin Jia in the woods, Gu Xiechen and his party used the cover of the forest to return to the true base, hidden deep within the mountain belly.

The suicidal resistance from nearly twenty thousand mercenaries would be enough to let the Romans settle confidently into the forward base.

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Pighead is catching a train home today, so two chapters are being updated early. Comrades, keep recommending! Even though Pighead will be on the train, I can still feel the impact of the recommendation tickets being cast down... Keep those votes coming, and don't forget to bookmark!