These drop pods were not falling randomly, but had been precisely calculated and adjusted, heading directly for the farming community where the Lars family lived.
Each pod's rear thrusters continuously fine-tuned its trajectory, ensuring the fastest, shortest path to its target.
As the pod surfaces burned red-hot upon reentry, they resembled meteors crashing to the ground with an aura of destruction.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside the shelter grew heavier, an almost suffocating tension filling the air.
Owen tried to soothe Luke and Beru with a calm voice, but the anxiety in his tone was unmistakable. His eyes frequently darted to the shelter entrance, as if dreading that enemies would burst in at any moment.
Beru clutched the edge of her apron tightly, her face pale, her gaze full of worry.
Luke could no longer sit still. He stood abruptly and stro
de to the shelter's ventilation shaft, trying to peer through the narrow slit and observe the situation above.
But all he could see was swirling sand and distant flames, as though the entire world had plunged into chaos.
BOOM—BOOOOM—!!
Suddenly, a deafening barrage of explosions echoed from above, causing the entire shelter to tremble violently.
Sand trickled down through cracks in the ceiling, sprinkling over Luke's head and shoulders.
He staggered back a few steps, nearly falling to the floor.
Beru instinctively grabbed Owen's arm tightly, as if drawing a sense of safety from her husband.
Owen's face grew darker, his brows furrowed deeply. A flicker of despair appeared in his eyes—for he knew those explosions meant the flames of war had now reached their home, and they could no longer remain uninvolved.
Above ground, chaos had already erupted;
"Enemy attack!!"
"All units, prepare for combat!"
Galactic Empire soldiers panicked at the sudden explosions.
They had believed the farming community would serve as a relatively safe refuge—but they hadn't anticipated such a rapid and fierce assault.
Over five hundred "elite" desert stormtroopers in their iconic white armor, wielding various blaster rifles, quickly occupied the high ground within the farm buildings.
More than a thousand Imperial Army soldiers, clad in simpler armor without sealed power suits, used the farm structures as cover, pointing their weapons toward the community's perimeter.
Their faces were filled with tension and fear, but they tried to maintain formation, bracing for the incoming assault.
Meanwhile, the few armored units at their disposal began to move.
The TX-130 Saber-class tanks, about eight meters long, activated with a low hum from their repulsorlift or anti-grav engines, gliding effortlessly across the sand.
The outskirts of the farming community were already shrouded in swirling sand, as if a sudden sandstorm had engulfed the land.
But this was no natural phenomenon—it was caused by more than eighty drop pods crashing straight into the desert with barely any braking thrusters engaged, producing massive impacts.
These pods embedded deep into the sand, kicking up waves of dust like massive tidal surges, blanketing the area in a murky yellow haze.
THUMP~THUMP—!
A series of metallic crashes followed—the sound of pod doors being forcibly ejected.
Heavy hatches slammed open under mechanical force, landing with dull thuds on the sand.
As the pods opened, a chilling air poured forth, forming a stark contrast with the desert's sweltering heat.
Due to the thick dust, the Galactic Empire's visibility was severely limited.
Even with visual aids in their soldier systems, they couldn't penetrate the dense sandstorm to accurately lock onto fast-moving targets within.
It seemed the enemy possessed more advanced individual combat gear, and under the cover of the dust, remained nearly impossible to detect.
The Imperial soldiers could only make out vague outlines of the drop pods, and shadowy figures darting ghost-like through the sand.
In orbit, the battle still raged. The flashes of space combat were occasionally visible in the blue sky. Some ship explosions resembled nuclear detonations, their brilliance piercing through the dust, casting eerie light across the battlefield.
For the Imperial troops trapped in the farming community, the war above felt impossibly distant. Worse yet, all communications with the outside had been severed. No support, no orders—they were abandoned in this desolate desert.
Fear spread quickly among them.
The unidentifiable shadows crept steadily closer.
Every noise from the dust made hearts race. Their fingers clenched tighter around their weapons.
Their breathing grew ragged, cold sweat beading on their foreheads, eyes filled with panic and unease.
Even the seasoned desert stormtroopers couldn't completely hide their fear.
The approaching shadows were like the footsteps of death, slowly devouring their courage and hope.
The entire farming community felt like a lone island, cut off from the world by sand and fire.
In this chaos, Imperial soldiers could only rely on instinct and residual discipline, trying to resist the unknown threat.
But as the shadows neared, their mental defenses began to crack, and fear became their greatest enemy.
THUMP, THUMP!
Heavy, forceful footsteps echoed from the dust, like sledgehammers pounding the ground, ringing in the ears of the outermost Imperial soldiers.
It was the distinctive sound of magnetic boots stomping through sand, each step carrying immense weight and pressure.
At the same time, the dust kicked up by the drop pods began to settle, and the blurred battlefield started coming into focus.
The Imperial soldiers finally saw, with their own eyes, the terrifying black shadows—
A squad of Spartans clad in Mjolnir power armor.
Each stood over two meters tall, their armor gleaming with a cold metallic luster. Strange emblems adorned their pauldrons, like divine beings from another realm.
Their strides were steady and swift. The sand offered no resistance. They moved with unstoppable momentum.
!!!
What should have been a welcome clearing of the dust only intensified the soldiers' dread. Seeing these imposing enemies firsthand made their fear spike even higher.
The Spartans looked like a direct challenge to their very faith and courage.
"Open fire!!!"
Thankfully, the Empire's noncoms and junior officers hadn't completely lost their nerve.
Suppressing their fear, they shouted commands in an attempt to rally morale.
The soldiers responded quickly, aiming their weapons at the advancing Spartans and pulling the triggers without hesitation.
ZAP—ZAP ZAP!!
In an instant, countless red blaster bolts sprayed forth, like a torrential storm aimed at the Spartans on the perimeter of the community.
Yet the Spartans didn't stop.
Their armor generated faint energy shields that easily deflected most of the blaster fire.
Combined with their extraordinary speed, the Spartans appeared almost as blurs to the naked eye—streaks of green lightning racing across the sand.
Their astonishing velocity, combined with the Empire troops' still laughably poor aim, rendered their concentrated fire completely ineffective.
Though the blaster bolts were dense, most missed entirely.
Seeing this, the TX-130 Saber tanks couldn't hold back any longer and began firing in the Spartans' general direction.
The tanks' turrets rotated slowly, and the muzzles of their heavy twin-linked blaster cannons glowed ominously.
Ri~ZAP ZAP—!!
With a low hum, several high-powered energy shells erupted from the barrels, screaming through the air.
Trailing long tails of light, they rocketed toward the Spartans.
BOOM. BOOOOM—!
Deafening explosions ripped through the desert, blasting massive craters in the sand. Flames and thick smoke billowed skyward, as if to swallow the entire desert.
Though the strikes missed their targets, the shockwaves tore through the sand, fracturing it and exposing glowing crystal-like formations.
The shockwaves even affected the charging Spartans.
Their steps faltered slightly, but their armor's stabilization systems quickly adjusted, nullifying the impact.
At that moment—
"John! Those tanks' twin-linked main cannons can be fatal to your team. Prioritize them immediately!"
Cortana's (data copy) calm and urgent voice sounded inside John's helmet.
He swept his gaze across the battlefield and locked onto the nearest TX-130 Saber.
His HUD quickly locked onto it and magnified the image.
On the left side of the display, a data sheet provided by Intelligence popped up, listing the tank's weapons and vulnerabilities.
John scanned the info. Even without Cortana's follow-up, he already knew the Saber's twin-linked main cannon could deliver fatal damage to Spartans.
He didn't slow down, still sprinting toward the Lars family's farm, while issuing a firm command over the comm channel:
"Red Team, Black Team—eliminate all enemy heavy vehicles."
"Yes, Master Chief."
The Red and Black Team leaders responded simultaneously, their tone filled with absolute obedience—not just to the command, but to John himself.
Their voices echoed through the comms, brief and resolute.
Immediately, Red Team members 092 Jerome, 042 Douglas, and 130 Alice sprang into action.
Their forms darted across the sand like phantoms, each step kicking up dust.
Jerome led the charge toward a Saber tank, moving with fluid precision, magnetic rail rocket launcher in hand, crosshairs locked firmly on target.
Douglas and Alice flanked from both sides, using terrain and the drifting dust for cover as they closed in on another tank.
Ri~—ZAP——!!
A thick red laser beam shot out from a Spartan laser weapon.
BOOM————!!
The struck Saber tank exploded on the spot. Flames erupted into the sky, smoke and fire blending into a scene of utter destruction.
The wreckage was blown apart, flaming shards raining down on the sand with crackling sounds.
Meanwhile, Black Team members 053 Margaret, 143 Roma, 031 Otto, and 101 Victor executed their assault.
Their tactics mirrored Red Team's—precise and efficient.
Margaret provided sniper support from a distance. Each of her shots was pinpoint accurate, like the gaze of death.
Roma and Otto used their armor's mobility to quickly flank another tank. With EMP grenades, they disabled its engine systems.
Victor drew enemy fire head-on, keeping the tank's attention fixed on him.
BOOM—BOOOM——!
A few more deafening blasts later, the last Saber tank was reduced to burning wreckage under Black Team's coordinated assault.
Within mere seconds, the battlefield had been completely reversed. The Spartans moved like a storm, utterly dismantling the Empire's heavy units with seamless coordination.
Even armored vehicles couldn't stop their advance. And the combined 1,500 desert stormtroopers and Imperial Army soldiers couldn't even hold their positions.
Their lines collapsed under the Spartan onslaught like a paper wall, torn apart effortlessly.
After all—
Are only "you" allowed concentrated fire, but "we" can't have precision shooting?
This unfair duel was doomed from the start.
From the moment the Spartans left their pods and charged, they had been under heavy suppressive fire from the stormtroopers and army.
But the Spartans showed no sign of panic. They immediately retaliated with their 10mm Gauss rifles.
Their marksmanship was terrifying, and paired with the Mjolnir suit's targeting assist system, every shot was precise and lethal.
John, Jerome, and the others fought like Astartes—walking cheat codes, unstoppable on the battlefield.
Within moments, the stormtroopers and army suffered devastating losses.
The Gauss rifles' spike rounds had immense penetration—far beyond what the stormtroopers' armor could handle. Blood and shrapnel exploded everywhere.
Imperial soldiers' screams rang out one after another, their formation shredded by the Spartans' precision fire, like wheat stalks cut by a merciless scythe.
In the end, in just a few short minutes, the battle in the farming community concluded—
With every Spartan unharmed.
------------------
Enjoying the story? Support the author and get early access to chapters by joining my Patre@n!
Find me at: patre@n*com/Mutter
You can read each novel for $5 or get them all for just $15.
Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
[+50 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[+5 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter]