Chapter 91 The Focus of the World—The Death Korps of Krieg’s First Battle

Following the orbital deployment, the JTF defensive lines surrounding New York were stabilized and cleared.

Strangely enough, Obadiah’s attacks and the destruction of three satellite cities in New York State also restored order within New York City itself.

The city had remained chaotic throughout the nationwide lockdown. Even two waves of activated Division agents had failed to stabilize it completely.

Now, except for a handful of utterly insane gang members and violently antisocial criminals, most citizens actively cooperated with the JTF.

When forced to choose between possibly going to heaven and definitely going to heaven, even New York’s most unruly tough guys wisely chose the former.

If the JTF controlled the city, it might at worst initiate an American-style quick-draw contest with you.

The mutated biochemical monsters, on the other hand, would enthusiastically tear out your heart and lungs.

With its rear areas stabilized, the JTF finally had the opportunity to reorganize.

With assistance from the Foundation and Division agents, it began reinforcing the Jefferson Line.

That was the name JTF command had given New York’s defensive perimeter.

They hoped the Jefferson Line would save the United States just as its namesake had helped the nation during the Revolutionary era.

The United States was, after all, a country with freedom of religion.

Following the nationwide lockdown and yesterday’s “Apocalypse Day,” when three American cities were destroyed, religious fervor surged.

The exposure of anomalies, combined with countless chaotic rumors circulating among the public, left people desperately hoping for the arrival of a savior.

When Foundation troops descended from orbit, it seemed almost predestined.

The entire nation placed its hopes for salvation upon the Foundation.

As interest reached unprecedented heights and the Jefferson Line stabilized, television networks and media organizations from across America began broadcasting live from the battlefield.

Experienced war correspondents sheltered behind the comparatively secure JTF defenses and transmitted the Foundation’s battle to the entire world.

Certain factions deliberately encouraged this attention, hoping to see the Foundation humiliate itself—especially after the appearance of the Death Korps’ seemingly outdated equipment from the world wars.

Their efforts pushed the battlefield broadcast to even greater prominence.

The Death Korps of Krieg’s first battle had now entered the world’s view.

News helicopters hovered behind the relatively safe defensive lines.

Broadcast vans and camera crews filmed the Krieg positions in the distance.

Compared to the noisy and crowded Jefferson Line, the Death Korps’ trenches and barbed-wire fortifications were almost unnaturally silent.

One camera had an especially clear view into a Krieg trench, where soldiers stood guard as motionlessly as statues.

Heavy snow continued falling.

The weather was poor, and before long, the newly constructed defensive positions were blanketed in white.

Yet the Krieg soldiers remained perfectly still, even as accumulating snow covered their boots and lower legs.

The sight moved countless viewers.

Hypocritical progressives, rapidly growing MAGA supporters, and the immigrants who had once begged to enter America only to curse their misfortune after becoming trapped there—all fell silent before the image.

Countless Americans began to weep.

The motionless Krieg soldiers reminded them of the United States at its peak during World War II, when American troops had fought what the public remembered as a righteous war.

In their minds, only soldiers of that era had possessed such determination.

The media might have turned the Jefferson Line into a circus, but none of that stopped the approaching infected army.

The biological tide was drawing closer to the Death Korps’ positions.

JTF artillery had already begun saturation bombardments, but the results were poor.

The parasitized military units and high-level mutated creatures were the true core of the biochemical army.

Even a modern military found it difficult to strike those targets accurately.

The parasitized soldiers were intelligent enough to conceal themselves among the enormous hordes of ordinary zombies and mutated organisms.

Those expendable creatures absorbed tremendous quantities of artillery fire and ammunition.

By the time human defenders encountered the enemy’s elite forces, they were often exhausted and low on supplies.

The combined biochemical army would then overwhelm and destroy them.

Ordinary zombies were only the most basic cannon fodder.

The biochemical forces also included numerous advanced special infected.

There were towering creatures capable of vomiting virus-laden corrosive acid.

Highly mobile Hunters attacked in coordinated packs.

Wailing Banshees released destructive sonic waves.

Witches possessed terrifying strength and inhuman speed.

Lurkers could become optically invisible and grow mutated blades from their limbs.

There were also colossal infected creatures standing four or five meters tall, with the largest approaching seven or eight meters.

That did not include the parasitized military units.

Those soldiers possessed vitality far beyond normal humans while retaining the ability to operate modern weapons and military equipment.

Once a human defensive line collapsed, its soldiers were almost invariably infected and absorbed into the enemy army.

They would then be used to attack other human forces.

Worse still were Obadiah’s flesh-mechanical armored units, created by fusing mutated biological matter with the technological achievements of Stark Industries.

Those machines had already made the JTF suffer tremendously.

Now that entire terrifying tide was about to crash against the Death Korps’ positions.

The first wave alone contained at least a million zombies and mutated creatures.

Large formations of parasitized soldiers followed behind them.

Even Coulson, observing through binoculars from several kilometers away, felt sweat gathering in his palms despite the freezing temperature.

The entire world focused on this moment.

The Death Korps was about to collide with an ocean of biochemical horrors.

At last, the Krieg defensive lines came alive.

After completing their firing calculations, the 210-millimeter Earthshaker cannons unleashed their fury.

Coulson stared in disbelief at the bombardment footage transmitted by reconnaissance drones.

The previously snow-covered plain was now scarred by thirty-six enormous black craters.

Steam rose from them, and shattered remains of infected creatures lay scattered everywhere.

The Krieg artillery formation Coulson was observing contained twelve Earthshaker cannons.

They had fired only three volleys.

Thirty-six shells had created thirty-six craters, each more than ten meters across.

Judging purely by the craters, each shell appeared comparable to a thousand-pound aerial bomb or a 460-millimeter naval shell.

Their explosive power far exceeded that of modern field artillery.

Even more astonishingly, their accuracy resembled that of precision-guided munitions.

How had they accomplished that?

That was the only thought remaining in Coulson’s mind.

A single bombardment had devastated an area spanning seven or eight football fields.

At least two or three thousand infected creatures had been blown apart.

Those not directly torn to pieces were pulped by the shock waves.

As expected, the Foundation’s forces were far more advanced than they appeared.

The parasitized army soon launched a counter-battery strike.

Its 155-millimeter shells landed accurately across the Death Korps’ positions.

However, apart from the observation posts, most Krieg soldiers had already entered reinforced shelters dug into the trench walls.

The sophisticated fortifications absorbed the artillery’s destructive force exceptionally well.

Combined with the frozen terrain and heavy snow, the enemy bombardment caused surprisingly few casualties.

The instant the shelling ended, the Krieg soldiers returned to their combat positions.

Experienced Krieg artillery observers had already located the enemy guns.

They immediately requested counter-battery fire.

The Earthshakers roared again, annihilating the parasitized army’s artillery positions.

A dense cannonade followed.

Precise bombardments continuously struck the advancing waves of infected creatures.

The Earthshaker cannons might have looked crude, but their materials and technology came from the 41st Millennium.

Their rate of fire surpassed that of ordinary field artillery.

Their accuracy was extraordinary, and their shells possessed terrifying destructive power.

Under a density of artillery fire exceeding that of modern armies, the first local wave—more than a hundred thousand infected creatures—was swallowed by explosions.

Eventually, however, the Earthshakers consumed enormous quantities of ammunition.

Their barrels began overheating, forcing them to pause.

Countless infected creatures and parasitized soldiers finally closed on the Krieg lines.

A war correspondent captured the next scene.

Bullets filled the air above the trenches.

One round struck a Krieg soldier directly in the head, causing his body to sway beneath the impact.

The bullet failed to penetrate his helmet.

Even more astonishingly, the soldier merely rocked backward before resuming his stance as though nothing had happened.

Then the entire Krieg line opened fire.

Beams of las-fire mixed with solid projectiles, rapidly and accurately eliminating the infected creatures charging the trenches.

Leman Russ battle cannons thundered.

Hull-mounted lascannons and melta weapons unleashed devastating fire, incinerating everything before the defensive line.

Then the Medusa siege guns deployed near the artillery positions opened fire alongside the Earthshakers.

Screaming 600-millimeter Medusa shells descended with the Earthshakers’ bombardment like a torrential rainstorm.

They struck the parasitized army gathering before the trenches.

A deafening chain of explosions followed.

Smoke and waves of heat engulfed the battlefield.

The previously chaotic front suddenly fell silent.

Then, amid that silence—

“Beeeep!”

“Beep! Beep!”

“Beeeep!”

Charge whistles sounded across the trenches.

Before countless cameras, the ironlike figures of the Death Korps vaulted over the trench walls with astonishing agility.

For a moment, no one could tell which side was the true tidal wave.

Behind every gas mask was a pair of unwavering eyes.

Gleaming serrated bayonets and entrenching shovels rose amid the earthshaking thunder of marching boots.

Then they crashed down upon the heads of the infected creatures that had expected to feast upon human flesh.