A proud smile floated in Brigadier Oak's Lips, as he saw thousands of sailors and oarsmen waving their hands and cheering on the Rider Formation he led.

He couldn't clearly hear the cheering word by word. But still, the combination of the echoes managed to raise his fighting spirit, and it changed his mood dramatically.

At first, Brigadier Oak was truly nervous when Duke Fogel emphasized that the success of the beach landing was closely related to how the Riders he led destroyed the opposing artillery. Duke Fogel even said that destroying a piece of opposing artillery was equivalent to saving 3000 landing troops.

But now, he felt that Duke Fogel's words were an indirect way to say the importance of Rider in the current conflict, and not to describe how dangerous the opposing artillery was. Brigadier Oak also started to think that the intel about crushing defeat of Buriek Air Corps was a propaganda full of deception.

'A completely different air defense from what we have faced before, huh...' Brigadier Oak snorted before continuing muttering inwardly, 'What a joke, rather than the air defense's might, it's more like the inability of Buriek's Riders.'

Wasting no time, Brigadier Oak grabbed his crystal communication. "Let's show to this smelly sailors, how we win a war."

[Roger, Sir.]

[Understood.]

[Copy that.]

[Aye Sir.]

Four captains under the command of Brigadier Oak immediately gave him a calm but steady reply. And so, the Rider Formation continued approaching Levsait confidently in three wide rows.

Then, they suddenly saw twelve thin puffs of white smoke from the southern tip of Levsait, and six seconds later...

B-B-BOBOBOOM!!

Almost at the same time, twelve thunderous explosions blared at a distance of 20 meters in front of Rider Formation.

Every explosion perfectly sends a group of 10,000 steel darts that were tucked neatly in the beehive round, and each group forming a cone area of effect which enlarged up to a diameter of 50 meters just before it arrived in front of their first victims.

No matter how good their reflexes were, it was impossible for the leading Riders to avoid the incoming steel darts. They didn't even have time to scream when hundreds of steel darts penetrated and shredded their body.

In an instant, Riders and Cloud Hawks in the leading position were turned into a lump of meat and fell into the sea. Then, slowly but surely they sink to the sea floor, leaving behind a red colored sea surface.

As for the Riders in the second row, they managed to survive but suffered severe wounds. In short, only 40 Riders in the third row were in a perfect condition to fight effectively. But a moment later, the remaining Riders became an easy snack for 44 Rippers deployed in Levsait.

Actually, the use of the beehive round was not new. In the University of Vietnam, 105 mm beehive round s with 8000 steel darts were often fired from a main battle tank to ward off a human wave attack, that usually came from a dense forest. Given that in its effective range, the steel darts were able to penetrate a tree as thick as 40 cm.

Of course, at that time the beehive round only had an effective range of several hundred meters and NVA or Vietcong could avoid it by lying low on the ground.

As for TF Amethyst, this was the first time a beehive round was used as a means of air defense. And the result was good even if the firing solution was calculated manually, without assistance from a Fire Control System equipped with C-RAM capability. Moreover, the time fuse for each beehive round was also set manually by the loader.

---

"Impossible!!"

"How can this happen?"

"Someone, please wake me up from this nasty dream."

"Oh my gods, they slaughter our Riders..."

Every sailor, oarsmen, and landing troops in the first wave of beach landing dropped their jaws, as they witnessed how the Riders fell from the sky rapidly, as if they were old leaves falling in the middle of a strong wind.

In a single blink of eyes, a rapid series of thunderous 'Boom!' killed about four of dozens of Riders in the leading position. Then, fire spears accurately intercepted and killed the rest in a rapid interval.

In the end, most of the sailors, oarsmen, and landing troops turned their gaze away.

It was painful to witness Riders who were the source of their pride getting slaughtered without being able to put up a fight.

'They easily wiped out our Riders,' Captain Karam muttered weakly.

Even after he watched it with his own eyes, it was still too hard for Captain Karam to swallow the reality before him.

Unfortunately, the total massacre in the sky was just a small greeting from TF Amethyst.

---

Siuuuuuu. . . . . . . . Kwaboom!!

A long whistle was approaching quickly, then a 120 mm mortar shell suddenly hit transport ship Sampan-01 in the left side.

The mortar shell used a delayed impact fuse and it easily penetrated the upper deck, then exploded outward sending deadly fragmentations along with wooden shards. The outburst killed a dozen sailors, injured another dozen, and created a large hole in the left hull right below the water line.

The sea water then entered the hull like a flood. Without a separate pumping and sealing system to contain the flooding in each compartment, it only took a few breaths before the Sampan-01 tilted to the left and passed the margin of beyond saving.

Wasting no time, senior sailors immediately shouted orders.

"Leave the ship!! Leave the ship!!"

"Move your ass on the double!!"

"Save yourself!! Get out of here fast!!"

The surviving sailor immediately executed an emergency evacuation. They were swiftly carrying out their colleagues who were still able to stand up. As for their colleagues who died or suffered severe injuries, they hardened their hearts and left them.

If they wanted to survive they had to hurry, because the ship was rapidly sinking as if

a pair of invisible hands pulled it to the sea floor.

Most of the heavily wounded sailors closed their eyes in silence as their colleagues were leaving them behind, while some others tried to plead for their life.

"Noooo! Please, don't leave me!"

"W-wait… Why do you just leave us to die here?"

"Brother, help me. I can still fight."

A young sailor stopped at the stairs after hearing his best friend's plea, but a senior sailor Immediately dragged him.

"We don't have enough time to save them. In return, win this war so their family receives war compensation in full."

"Aye Sir."

After wiping his tears, the young sailor continued his step.

In the end, some sailors failed to get out from the ship, some others failed to get away from the sinking radius and got dragged to the sea floor by whirlpool, but most of the Sampan-01 crews managed to climb into the lifeboat.

Unfortunately, a long whistle was heard one more time.

Siuuuuuu. . . . . . . . Kwaboom!!

This time, the mortar shell used a proximity fuse and exploded 10 meters above the head of the survivors.

In an instant sweep, deadly fragmentation killed or heavily injured every single survivor. Some of them fell to the sea, creating a splash of red water before sinking to the sea floor, while the rest slowly sank in one package with the lifeboat.

Then, once a good recipe to kill the targeted ship and its crew was obtained, TF Amethyst's artillery element immediately sent the real salvo in the most effective way.

---

Siuu.... siuu.… siuu.… siuuu!!

Kwaboom! Kwaboom! Kwaboom!

Siuu.... siuu.… siuu.… siuuu!!

Kwaboom! Kwaboom! Kwaboom!

Under a heavy rain of artillery shells, Sampan-02 tried to leave the landing corridors as fast as possible. Previously, right after the first mortar shell hit Sampan-01, Captain Karam immediately went back to the bridge and ordered the full retreat of Sampan-02 as far as possible from the landing corridors.

And now, from the bridge of Sampan-02 he witnessed how the landing corridors turned into an unforgiving hell.

Frigates, corvettes, transport ships, landing boats, survivors on the lifeboat, or even survivors who were still floating on the surface of the sea, TF Amethyst's artillery element sent every single of them to the sea floor in a precise and efficient manner.

'This is not a war, but pure one-sided massacre.'

Captain Karam couldn't stop shivering as he imagined what if Sampan-02 was hit by the deadly salvo. Wasting no time, he immediately shouted his worries.

"Damn it! Go Faster!"

"Aye Sir!"

"Use every single coal brick we have."

"Aye Sir!"

"I don't care if the engine blows up in the process, just get this ship out of the landing corridors as fast as we can."

"Aye Sir!"

Actually, even without Captain Karam's instructions, every single crew of Sampan-02 already gave their best effort to escape from the landing corridors. Given that the continued long whistles and loud explosions they heard was more than enough to make them piss in their pants.

And finally, Sampan-02 managed to reach a distance of 16 km from the coastline.

"A little more, and we will be well hidden behind the horizon."

"Aye Sir!"

Slowly but surely, color returned to be visible on Captain Karam's face and all the crew of Sampan-02.

'You can't hit something that you can't see,' Captain Karam muttered as he took a breath full of relief.

Unfortunately, Captain Karam's calculation was a big miss. As TF Amethyst's artillery elements had a means to peek at targets beyond the horizon accurately.

Moreover, they have a huge number of smart shell in their inventory. A guided artillery shell equipped with wings, control fins, GPS/INS navigation, and a laser seeker, to increase the accuracy up to 1 meter and could reach a range of 20 km in five minutes for a 120 mm mortar shell.

As for the 155 mm howitzer shell, it would increase the effective range up to 40 km. However, in the current conflict TF Amethyst would only utilized it up to 30 km, and stored the extra 10 km range as a surprise for future opponents.

KWABOOM!!

A mortar shell suddenly hit Sampan-02 bridge. This time, it came in silence without long whistles. It killed Captain Karam in an instant, along with most officers under his command, followed by two other shells that sent Sampan-02 and the remaining crew to the sea floor.

Then, with the assistance of 12 Reapers which took the role as target acquisition units, the massacre to the target beyond the horizon began.

*****

Footnote:

C-RAM: Counter - Rocket Artillery Missile