Chapter 1466: Sunk
There was no suspense left in the ensuing battle.
Under the cover of the armored vehicles, Celestial Trade infantry pushed towards the center of Turbo through the four main roads. Originally, because of the existence of kinetic skeleton and Hummingbird drones, the UA soldiers’ individual firepower was inferior. With the armored vehicle’s support, the outcome of the war was already determined.
The rangers that suffered consecutive defeats continued to retreat, and finally established the last line of defense in the port area while they waited for the rescue team from the command post.
On the other side, on the mountain road to the west of Mount Palamillo, 30 kilometers away from Turbo.
The 34th Mechanized Brigade that arrived for reinforcement from the southeast was ambushed by the Fifth Armored Brigade of Celestial Trade near Chigorodo. The Tiger IIs hidden in the jungle opened fire and the shells launched from afar completely caught the UA 34th Mechanized Brigade mobilizing on the mountain road off guard.
Neither the M1A2 main battle tank nor the M2A3 infantry fighting vehicle could take a hit from the five-kilogram projectile accelerated to a speed beyond the speed of sound. If the shell landed on the tank track, it would knock the weight-bearing wheels off, and if the shell hit the body of the tank, it would penetrate the outer armor along with the inner depleted uranium armor.
More than twenty tanks broke down on the road. The 34th Mechanized Brigade, under the cover of the onboard smoke grenade, hastily fired back into the mountainous range while the force withdrew from the battlefield. Three Apache gunships immediately took off from the NATO Operation Base on the outskirts of Medellin and outflanked the Celestial Trade Fifth Armored Brigade in the mountain.
But the Apache formation only made it halfway there before it haplessly encountered the Aurora-20s that just returned from the Caribbean.
The battle between helicopters and fighters could only be described as a tragedy, not to mention that the helicopters’ bomb nest was full of ground-to-surface missiles on an anti-tank mission.
The fighters’ guns fired from a long distance away, and the Apache gunships did not even have a chance to fire flares before they crashed into the mountain.
The two Aurora-20 formations only glanced at the UA 34th Mechanized Brigade before they ignored the enemy force and continued their flight back to the military base in the Tumaco Special District. The UA soldiers on the ground all breathed a sigh of relief. If these fighters persisted, only a few tanks would survive with only so many air defense vehicles in the force.
However, they didn’t know that these Aurora-20s did not engage in a battle because they had exhausted the majority of their ammunition. If the UA force learned that these fighters just returned from the Caribbean, they would not be too happy either…
…
The support rockets launched from the outskirts of Medellin arrived at the battlefield, and the bombardment of rockets covered the mountain. However, Celestial Trade’s Fifth Mechanized Brigade had already dug out tank shelters two days ago, and NATO’s rockets did not even cause a splash other than a Tiger II that had its track belt accidentally blown off due to poor evasive maneuver.
Under the cover of rocket bombardment, the 34th Mechanized Brigade finally gained the opportunity to continue its retreat. As for the 27th Infantry Brigade and the 75th Ranger Battalion that fought in Turbo, except for a small number of them that withdrew to the direction of Monteria, most of them were disarmed by Celestial Tarde besieging the port.
…
The silence inside the headquarters was terrifying.
Just two hours ago, they were still discussing where Celestial Trade, which seemed to be disconnected from the battle from the very start, had gone. However, unexpectedly, they bypassed NATO Coalition Force’s main force, passed through more than 300 kilometers of tropical rain forest, and directly raided Turbo on their flank.
No wonder they did not appear for more than a week; they went into the rain forest!
Because of the harsh climate, neither early warning aircraft nor observation satellites were able to detect their movement. Especially given that the two strategic cities of Medellin and Bucaramanga were both at a critical juncture, NATO’s attention was all pulled to South Colombia, and they did not expect Celestia Trade to launch such a sneaky attack.
“Immediately destroy the road from Turbo to Monteria, and move a mechanized division from the front line to garrison in Monteria!” General Felton was the first to break the silence in the command post. As the top commander of the NATO Coalition Force, he made a decisive decision and immediately ordered.
“But on North Columbia’s side…” Deputy Commander Belleden frowned.
“If we allow Celestial Trade to cut off our supply line, 170,000 NATO soldiers and 200,000 North Colombian soldiers will be in danger! I will explain to Vargas. Now, immediately send engineers to blow up the road, before Celestial Trade moves towards Monteria! YOU MUST ACT FAST!”
The officer standing next to him hesitated, took a look at Deputy Commander Belleden, and finally gritted his teeth, stood straight, saluted, and ran out of the post.
“ROGER!”
After a pause, Felton then looked at the correspondent sitting in front of the computer and ordered.
“Contact the Ford aircraft carrier battle group immediately and ask them to send F-16s for reconnaissance in Turbo. I need to know how many enemies, how many armored vehicles, and how many tanks there are. They must get an accurate number!”
“Roger… Damnit, I can’t get in touch with them, they’re not responding.”
When Felton heard these words, he was visibly stunned, then he frowned.
“We can’t reach them?”
It seemed too abnormal.
Based on the combat order issued by the top military command, to effectively support the Columbia battlefield, all combat units of the Ford aircraft carrier battle group had to be on standby at all times. Even if it was not the case, the loss of communication absolutely could not happen in this state.
Could it be EMP?
Felton quickly denied this possibility.
Large units such as aircraft carriers and destroyers were designed with electromagnetic pulses in mind, and it had been confirmed during the last Colombian Civil War that EMP weapons have minimal impact on aircraft carrier battle groups.
Just then, the satellite phone in Felton’s pocket suddenly rang.
There was only one place that could reach the number on this phone. Without any hesitation, Felton pressed the connect button and put the phone closer to his ear.
“Hello?”
“…”
The command room became quiet.
General Felton’s expression gradually turned gloomy, and the officers in the room all felt something was wrong.
About five minutes later, the call finally ended.
Felton didn’t say a few words from beginning to end, except for “mhm” and “yes”, all that was left was a silence that was even more depressing than his face.
“The call was from the top military command,” he broke the silence and put the satellite phone back into his pocket. He took a deep breath and slowly said, “…bad news.”
“What happened?” Belleden frowned.
“Our Ford aircraft carrier battle group…” One word at a time, Felton squeezed the sentence out from his gritted teeth. With all the eyes in the room looking at him in surprise and uncertainty, he finally finished the last half of the sentence, “…was sunk.”