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The deployment orders for the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit have come in. They will be doing a full force insertion, meaning that they will be bringing some spare equipment with them including the Mobile Suits and some vehicles. They will be dropping well behind the intended front lines to secure a secret military installation.
The facility is currently under Kepler's control, one of many such facilities within the heavily populated system. Sigmund also has one partially inhabited moon and a few resource bases on outlying planets within its solar system.
They aren't a powerhouse of military might, but they did have a fairly decent defense force, and they have a Space Station in orbit that is still holding out against the Narsian's anti-satellite attacks. It looks like the planet is doing better than most against this alien invasion and that the Abraham Kepler might be enough to stabilize the situation for a few days or a week until more reinforcements can arrive.
They were the only ship close to the point of the attack since it was so far within the Empire's borders, but neighboring systems will be mustering as many troops as they can spare and should be here soon. If one of them was close to their annual recruitment, they might even get lucky and see an entire Mecha Regiment and Field Army in the next few days.
Once their lander drops within the facility, the Special Tactics Unit has been assigned to fortify the facility as a regrouping and resupply point for the Kepler defense forces. It has an ore stockpile inside, and a wide variety of repair and emergency manufacturing facilities. It is a perfectly suited mission to the Unit, but going by the other drop sites on the list, they might have actually pulled the lowest risk location of anyone aboard the ship, other than those assigned to land with the two Phalanx Class Mecha.
"Commander, final requisitions are in. I got us a collection of Skyfire Turrets that we can use as an anti-infantry defense when we land. They won't have any issues with Narsian armor, and the flak explosions make them especially effective against large-scale assaults." Nico informs him, handing over the tablet with the loading information for the drop ship.
"Thanks, Major. Now, to get everyone on the ground without issue. From what I can see, the Narsians have taken at least a few cities, so we can expect heavy incoming fire on the way down, even if we are headed to a lower priority location." Max sighs, refreshing the battle status on his tablet.
"Nothing we can do about that. But the troops are ready to load and all Mecha are in place, loaded, and double-checked." Nico's assurance goes a long way to comfort Max, as he knows her skills would have caught anything that the crew missed, and the crews that loaded the landers are from the Abraham Kepler itself, all Career soldiers, and experienced, not fresh recruits like those going to battle today.
The entire ship is on edge today, with green commanders leading green troops on their first mission while expecting heavy incoming fire and a hostile landing zone. If they stay this nervous they won't even need the enemy to find them, they will be mentally defeated before they even reach the ground. Max needs to do something about it, he is going to need these Mecha to survive long enough to need to come to his position for resupply.
"Special Tactics Unit. On me. We will be taking a long way around to motivate the troops." Max instructs the unit.
They might not know much more than anyone else, but they are the elite of their group, and Max did give them a lot of extra training this week, all for the sake of survival. Their morale is high, and he hopes that just the sight of his unit's confidence will help the other units get their act together. Going by the chaos that he can see, it is more than a little bit necessary. Troops are running around trying to get last-minute orders handled, and rookie commanders are flustered by the need to get everything in order for something that isn't a drill.
They know how, but the nerves are getting to them and they are making simple mistakes that don't need to happen.
As they pass by, the other officers of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit are shouting orders at aimless troops, setting unit commanders back on the right path, and calming the troops. Max was right, just the presence of another unit in their situation that has their act together is enough to solve half the problem, the part where chaos is feeding on chaos and making things increasingly more difficult to organize.
They cross almost the entire landing bay before coming to the bay where Shining Darkness stands surrounded by cranes, getting ready to load now that the rest of its entourage is ready. General Tennant himself is busy with a Command Tablet, setting orders and rearranging drop schedules to avoid areas where the highest concentration of enemy fire will likely come from.
"Major Max, thank you for all the hard work. Security feeds showed me your tour around the loading bays getting the troops in order." The General Greets them as they pass by his hangar.
"The pleasure is all mine General. If those few of us with experience aren't on top of things, who would be? All they needed was a bit of confidence to remember that they've spent most of their lives training for this." Max answers with a crisp salute for the Senior officer.
"Your drop route isn't perfect, but it should be out of range of the worst of the incoming fire. Just take and hold that position at all costs. Sigmund has a fairly high population, but the on-planet resource levels are low. Most of their manufacturing is done on the outer planets or in space. Until the resupply drops begin, we will be pressed for resources." General Tennant explains.
Max can see in his thoughts that the General did his best to send his proteges somewhere relatively safe, giving them time to get their troops up to standard before facing the worst that the Narsians can throw at them. Even a few days of light combat before a major assault will greatly increase the survival rate of a unit, and he has bought them as many days as he can.
General Tennant himself will be headed for the Continental Capital, a thousand kilometers from where Max will be landing, while the Carpe Noctem will be going to reinforce the Planetary Capital, on the other side of the world.
"Everyone to the lander. You have ten minutes to get settled in and secured or I will be writing your names on your seats for the next drop." Max orders his unit, who laugh as they jog to the last bay to get loaded, lifting the spirits of the soldiers they pass.
They still have over an hour before the final securement call comes, but the Pilots haven't had much seat time in their new Mecha, and it is of a pattern they haven't had a chance to physically use before, so even getting an extra hour to get comfortable and set things up to their liking is appreciated.
Max also has to do the same, the interior of Stalwart was painted and renovated after the last battle, so he needs to make sure all the personal effects he has placed in the cockpit this week are secured, and places his lucky photos into the holders.
He has a new one for this mission. Of the entire surviving membership of his last mission on the day they returned to the ship. They are dirty, sweaty, and exhausted with thousand-yard stares, hardened by combat, but they look happy to be home. Now almost all of those faces are retired and their successors, including many of their younger siblings and cousins, are under his care.
"Just you watch boys, I'll bring these Pilots back as real men." Max smiles, tucking it into the clear plastic holder, right above the photo of himself between Nico and General Tennant on the day of his first deployment.
The Special Tactics Unit is living up to its reputation, ready on time and fully equipped, chatting easily as they wait for the final announcements. Max turns on Stalwart's external speaker and hears Ari taking bets on how far off the ten-minute warning will be this time. They all know that it is rarely even close to their actual drop time, especially for first-wave units, but some of the bets are entirely too optimistic. Seriously, twenty minutes before their actual drop? That would put them in the third wave of landers. No way will they have to wait that long.
The lander is moved into the final launch position and the lights turn to warning red, reminding everyone that they could be facing a drop any second and that any unsecured objects in the cabin could become deadly projectiles.
[Ten Minutes To Launch] the automated system announces, signaling the start of final launch preparations by the ship crew, and the rumble of the enormous drop bay doors opening shakes the lander.
The light tan walls of the lander look almost dark brown against the bone of the Mecha, and the lighting makes the black berets of the infantry into voids of darkness over olive-tanned faces as the thrusters of the lander power up.
[Launching] the single word announcement blares over the speakers and Max laughs, activating the external speakers of Stalwart. "Eight Minutes and forty-seven seconds early, a new unit record. Captain Ari, who is our lucky winner?"
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The launch of a lander is a lurch of rapid motion followed by sudden weightlessness that bounces everyone off their securement harnesses as the lander leaves the artificial gravity of the mothership.
It is a bit disorienting every time, feeling like up and down have ceased to exist, which in a way they do while you are in space.
The recruits haven't experienced it before, but the consensus of their first drop is that the launch is definitely better than the translation to faster than light transit. At least this doesn't feel like their insides are being twisted inside their bodies.
Max can feel that the thrusters are still activated, which makes no sense since the Abraham Kepler is still approaching the planet, they didn't need the extra speed to make an approach on the planet at near structural load limits.
"Nico, check the lander settings and find out what the hell is going on," Max calls over the secure command channel. Nobody will hear it but her and the other Crusader Pilots, so he doesn't bother to censor himself.
"Found the issue. Sending the data to Command." Nico answers without elaborating.
Max checks her thoughts and finds that the launch orders have been modified, without a verification code. Every Lander in the first wave is headed for a spot near the planetary capital that is crawling with Narsian troops and anti-lander firepower.
The only viable answer for it is that the ship's launch codes were compromised by an internal traitor, or that the Narsians have a hacking ability much more advanced than the Kepler military was aware of.
Following her thoughts, Max can see that Nico is busy using the anti-collision data network to reroute as many units as possible before they reach the point of no return, where it will be too late to significantly change their trajectory.
They do have thrusters and can reroute, but that involves losing a lot of orbital speed first, and by the time they do, they will be within range of the capital.
"Confirmation, course alteration signal came from the planet," Nico calls over the Command channel and Max relays it back to launch control, who rapidly works to change encryption codes before the next wave of Landers is launched.
The choice of encryption code is left up to the individual launch officers, which will cause some chaos since the Landers won't be able to communicate with each other on their way down due to varying encryptions, but that is better than having them all fired directly at a death trap.
[Shining Darkness to Stalwart. The original target is no longer viable. Your mission will be updated after landing.] General Tennant informs Max over the mecha's heads-up display.
Checking the targeting data, Max can see that the General is correct, they fell too far while Nico was correcting everyone else's trajectory to prevent them from landing near the most dangerous points on the planet, and now they will be landing on the far side of the planet from where they were originally intended to be.
That's an unfortunate, but entirely too common outcome, though it is more often due to emergency evasions or damage than a successful hack of the launch computers.
"Do we have any data on the new landing zone?" Max asks, looking over the map. There is data there, he just hasn't studied it at all, since it was thousands of kilometers from their destination.
"Predicted drop zone is a tropical swamp. Population under 10 per square kilometer for the entire region. Enemy forces unknown." Nico responds, and Max hears the other officers give a short laugh.
"So you're saying that I'm going home?" Vincente asks, being from a tropical swamp himself.
"You're in luck Captain. The last time my unit found itself in a swamp, there were giant beasts that could eat a Corvette class mecha. This one doesn't show any life signs over three meters long on the initial scans." Max jokes.
"I heard about that from the other convicts. Back when you were stationed on Belmont, right? Capturing the planetary Governor alive was possibly the greatest bit of luck I've heard about in a while." Paul agrees.
"That's the time. Though after the flood, you could almost call the bridge defense a swamp." Nico joins in, helping cut the tension they are all feeling after the attack on their guidance systems.
"Don't remind me. Giant Cygnus Mecha everywhere, and I was still stuck on Line Mecha detail." Vincente complains.
The very fact that these three survived owed a lot to their pure skill levels. Command didn't intend for the Convict Units to survive, they were there to soak up bullets to save the better-behaved troops. The fact that Max brought so many of them back was a shock to everyone, including the few other remaining convicts.
The joking only works for a little while though, they have entered the atmosphere much faster than intended, thanks to the change in their course, and the whole ship is shuddering and creaking under the strain as the thrusters work to keep it on course and reduce the speed.
Once they get a little lower the Anti Gravity field can be engaged to assist with the descent in addition to the thrusters, but for now, it's pure fuel-burning power that is slowing the flying brick hurtling towards a populated planet at thirty times the speed of sound.
After a few minutes the violent shaking begins to subside as the lander gets close to normal entry velocities, but now they have dropped low enough that they are in range of the defensive guns as they pass over the more populated regions of the planet.
The explosions are still somewhat distant, a constant thudding as they drop, steady enough that the infantry soldiers, who aren't protected inside Mecha, feel the vibrations more as background music on their way to hell.
Even those slowly go silent though, as they cross the horizon and move out of sight of the cities. So far the Narsians haven't put much effort into the rural areas, beginning their invasion with the highest priority targets, and agricultural areas are low priority since the Narsians are unable to process most human foods.
[Altitude ten thousand meters, beginning final approach.]
[We have our landing zone, updating coordinates] Nico adds over the intercoms, relaxing the troops a little.
In their minds, if the XO is personally updating their landing zone, it must be safer than whatever Command had in store for them. Of course, they have no idea how close everything went to going fatally wrong, since the earlier discussion was on a secure channel.
The spot Nico has picked for them is a large, rocky ridgeline lifting out of the swamp like the back of a prehistoric animal. Sensors detected a large empty cavity underground, possibly an abandoned mine shaft, which is suitable as a bunker for the infantry, or will be after it is reinforced a little.
The plan visible in Max's heads up display is to put the lander in front of it as a makeshift defensive wall, giving them shelter from two sides and providing some cover for the Mecha.
[Prepare for Landing] the ship's computer announces, before the fifty meter long box gently settles onto the rocks and powers down.
"Everyone move out. Team Alpha and Team Bravo secure the perimeter, Team Charlie secure the caverns." Max calls, getting ready to move himself into position to support the teams.
The teams are a bit rough, not quite in sync with each other, but they are all on mission and in under 20 seconds the lander is empty and the Mecha teams are spreading out while the infantry forms the inner perimeter.
[All Clear] come the unit reports one after another.
[Radar shows no drops within 100km of our location. Orbital scans show no inhabited areas for 300km.] Nico reports and Max sighs. They really are in the middle of nowhere.
[Find a way to contact command and give them a sitrep. Once they know we are here and alive they will likely have to adjust their plans for the unit.]
[Caverns Clear. It looks like this was a Uranium Mine at one point. The lower shafts are sealed, but the upper caverns read safe levels of radiation.] Team Charlie reports in.
Just what they needed. The Narsians use uranium as their primary fuel for their powered equipment and energy weaponry. If they are sitting on a Uranium mine, Command will want them to hold it all costs, keeping the enemy from refueling.
[Get the caverns mapped. I suspect we will be here a while.] Max gives Charlie Squad their orders while Alpha and Bravo squads get settled into position.
They won't start building anything yet, as this location might already have an assigned defense team, but they can at least dig some foxholes and get the Anti aircraft guns set up. The infantry is always happier after the heavy support is in place.
[Central Command to Stalwart. Hold position until further notice. Reinforcements are coming with the third wave.]
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The worst thing about this posting had to be the swamp itself. The ancient flooded forest produced an enormous amount of methane from its decomposing base, and the smell, combined with some particularly aromatic local animal defense mechanisms was nearly enough to burn the eyes.
Despite the air being safe to breathe, most of the infantry had taken to wearing at least a cloth mask and goggles to keep down the smell and reduce the effects of the fumes on their eyes while on patrol.
While off patrol, they retreated to the mine shafts, where an air purification and radiation mitigation system had been set up to keep them safe while the construction machines reinforced the tunnels so that they wouldn't collapse when under attack.
Max was keeping up with the state of the battle as well as he could, given the situation. There wasn't much to go on, with reports so scattered and the Narsian efforts to disrupt their communications being so successful, but with Nico's help, he had a pretty good satellite and radar overlay of the region, showing that there were battles moving in this direction, but they were still hundreds of kilometers away.
It was quite likely that the enemy didn't yet know that this region was important to them, since they hadn't had a chance to explore it yet, but that could change on short notice. There wasn't much data about their sensory and exploration capabilities, but if they could hack launch control, there was no reason to believe that they couldn't find a buried fuel source on a planet that they had occupied.
And so, they just waited, building a proper defensive position big enough to hold two landers' worth of reinforcements, in case the battle turned for the worst and someone needed to retreat to their position. Max didn't expand the position, that would stretch his units too thin. Instead, they built a second row of defenses on the hill that held the mine entrance. If they were attacked before the third wave of drops, they could retreat to the second row and rig the first one to detonate if necessary, and if they weren't they were ready to accept a full landing force to defend the mine.
This planet's evolutionary path didn't ever use hydrocarbons as fuel, so the entire swamp was rich in both coal and oil, often leaking to the surface and adding to the innate stench of the place, but that wasn't going to attract the Narsians, as they had stopped using them centuries ago. It did give Max an idea for defense though, as the floating unrefined oils were still highly flammable and long burning. They could gather them and create ponds on the islands within the swamp, lighting them as a distraction to divert enemy troops or to mask the heat signatures of giant mecha.
The work wasn't pleasant, even using the Comor Pattern Corvettes that had full environmental systems, but by the end of the second day, they had a half dozen pools of crude oil filled in case of emergencies. The idea was one from his memories of his past life, where a burning oilfield was used as an ambush site to eliminate an enemy force that relied heavily on thermal sight.
Nico suggested that a series of randomly place traps and explosives in the swamp would be a fun and efficient idea, but the risk that friendly troops would be the first through the area was too high. They couldn't risk their allies being blown up as they retreated toward the unit's position.
Their next four days went this way, while the Officers trained the troops on relevant combat techniques to use against the oversized enemies in this world, and the freshly recruited infantry slowly started to look more cohesive.
They hadn't seen a proper battle yet, but the location was enough to make everyone put in maximum effort, not wanting to be a liability should they be attacked.
[Command to Stalwart] Third-wave has begun. Keep your sector secured, sector GA18 has been selected for attack staging.] The automated message comes up on Max's cockpit display and he sighs. That's their sector, and that means that more than a few Landers are coming.
That also means that they will almost certainly be redeployed somewhere more dangerous once the defense force is here, ending the relatively safe start to their first battle as a special tactics unit.
The attacking forces were in for a shock when they landed though. The swamp is a meter deep in most places with dozens of meters of peat bog underneath, built up from decayed plant life over centuries. If they weren't careful, it was entirely possible to sink a Crusader Class Mecha over its carapace armor in the muck, and extraction would be a nightmare.
[Stalwart to Command. Copy mission update. Advise that Landers only place on verified solid ground. Swamp unsuitable for Mecha Travel.] Max sees that the message is confirmed, but doesn't get an immediate response, not that he was expecting one.
In only a few minutes, the sky lights up with the fires of orbital drops, though this region is mostly free of anything that could harm them.
[Tarith's Rage to Stalwart. The radar reports mass enemy movement in the zone. Recommend sending out patrols to intercept.]
She is right, they have charged right by the forces outside the swamp that they were engaged with and are coming this way. The landers will be falling on the far side of where they are now, so the entire Narsian force will have to pass by the mine to get to the targets.
Their best bet for victory is to attack the moment the lander doors open, so they are rushing to get there on time, not even stopping to scan the area, since they hadn't noted any forces moving about in the zone, or coming through since the battle started.
[Charlie, your turn on base defense is canceled. Bravo, you get an extra shift. Alpha and Charlie squads, prepare to move out. We will be intercepting the forces coming for the landing zone.] Max calls and the unit rushes into action.
They have carefully mapped the area in the days since their landing, so they know where the deep and soft spots are, which should give them an advantage here. The alpha squad under Ari takes the left side with Tarith's Rage reinforcing them, while Max moves Stalwart to join Vincente and Charlie Squad on the right flank.
The Narsian force is running full speed through the swamp, at least they are at first.
Then they find out about the swamp mud and the seemingly endless peat bog underneath it. Max's radar scans show multiple groups stop, or entirely disappear in the swamp while the others slow down. Their battle armor has environmental systems, so it is unlikely that any of the giants have drowned, but the effort to pull everyone out of the mud will slow them down for a while, letting the Special Tactics Unit engage them a few at a time instead of in one cohesive wave.
Those who aren't stuck only slow for safety, they aren't waiting for their allies. Doing that would make them all late to arrive, which would greatly increase the casualties on their side since the Kepler Mecha would have time to prepare for their attacks.
Tarith's Rage is the first to engage, sending a long-range blast of glowing white energy from her Ion Destroyer to obliterate the leader of a Narsian attack squad, before clanging her sword against the side of her leg, letting the sound echo through the swamp and drawing wayward attackers towards their position instead of having to chase them down to defend the zone.
Compared to her, Max's side is not nearly as lucky. The Narsians heard the attack, and they are rushing in her direction, grouping together near where Max had Charlie Squad set up their defenses.
They have ten Plasma Cannons for the infantry, plus ten Corvette Class Mecha with heavy energy weapons. The Narsians are well defended against the energy blasts, but projectile ammunition is just too hard to replace for Max to have equipped most of the unit with them. His Battle Cannon roars as the first shell is fired, a high explosive round that throws a half dozen giants from their feet and turns the force in his direction.
They are still out of visual range, so Max continues firing, using the artillery shells to his advantage and reducing enemy numbers before they are capable of shooting back.
The plan seems to be going well until a huge explosion nearly takes Max from his feet, and topples over a number of light mecha.
[What in the world was that?] Max shouts, hoping someone has information. If that was a misdirected enemy round, they could all be in trouble. The explosion covered nearly a hundred meters.
[Artillery hit a methane pocket] Vincente reports, trying not to laugh at the accidental destruction.
The methane pockets are a common occurrence here. Max just happened to land a direct hit on a methane vent and blow one of them sky high, wiping out the enemy units, but creating a giant crater that is quickly filling with brackish water.
[Add the crater to the known obstacles list. Radar, where is my next target?] Max sighs, checking the position of the Narsian attackers.]
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Max doesn't have to wait long for more targets, with the first of them coming running out of the woods just after he asked for a radar update. It is his first time seeing these enemies up close, and they are truly fearsome. While their size isn't intimidating to a Crusader Class Mecha, the speed and agility with which they move through the shallow water are far beyond anything mechanical Max has ever seen.
[Incoming from 220 Degrees] Max calls as a group tries to circle them while staying out of their direct line of sight.
Beside him, Vincente in the Morning Glory lets loose a Battle Cannon round of his own, having refrained from the earlier bombardment for lack of a suitable targeting skill. The enemy is under a hundred meters away and is closing fast until the massed firepower of Charlie Squad's infantry forces them to take cover. They weren't expecting the Kepler forces to have stationed infantry here, in a place so unsuitable to vehicle transport, and it took them off guard.
A half-second after they move out of the majority of the infantry fire, the Corvette Class Mecha begin their assault, using the advantage of their height above the water to hit targets that the infantry couldn't.
Now that they have realized that they can't hide, the Narsians charge. Their Plasma shots are mostly going wide of the targets, but they were intended as covering fire, keeping Charlie Squad under cover until the Giants can get close enough to tear them apart at close range.
The Pulse Laser Array on Stalwart flashes as Max makes the best use of his [Split Fire] System skill, taking out one target after another before they can even react.
[System Update Triggered] Generating Appropriate Skill
Max doesn't have time to even notice the message from the System flash in his vision as he shoots, but suddenly the world seems to be moving in slow motion. The Laser is firing so slowly that he has all the time he needs to pick and choose the best targets and adjust to weak points, taking out throats and helmet visors instead of simply hitting the giants with his shots.
Even his next Battle Cannon round is visible as a fast-moving blur of metal racing from Stalwart's barrel into a newly detected group of Narsian invaders. At first, Max is baffled, and then the second System Message clarifies his situation.
[New Skill Added: Perception 1] Increases cognitive speed by 50 percent at will.
That explains the sudden change. His skill for reaching 200 points of total bonus has finally come in. This one is also a combat skill, but it will also be very useful for strategy and Command. Having more time to think gives him time to contemplate his orders even while under pressure, turning every two seconds into three.
The number next to it indicates that this is a skill that can be increased during future advancements, so with time, his thoughts will get even faster. The only unfortunate part is that the System very rarely makes anyone smarter after the developmental acceleration. Instead, this skill only lets you make bad decisions faster.
A group of Narsians in Stealth Suits have almost made it to the small island that they have picked as their defensive position when Max's sensors pick them up, and he pings the spot on the radar map to let the Corvettes know that there are incoming enemies. They are too far off target to get Stalwart turned around, so he leaves them to the others, while he takes aim at a large group that is charging through the tangled mess of downed trees that the battle has created.
He sprays them with the Pulse Lasers, eliminating nearly half of them in a second as they charge into the range of the Plasma Shotguns.
The sizzling crack of the dual weapons spitting their cluster of light blue energy balls echoes through the area even as static electricity from the continued energy attacks ripples over Stalwart's surface. But the Shotguns live up to their name, and the wide spread of the pattern leaves the remaining Giants nowhere to escape their wrath.
With the area temporarily clear, Max checks on Alpha Squad, where Nico in Tarith's Rage has joined the identically equipped Bulwark Piloted by Captain Ari. They are also under heavy attack, but with Ari carrying a shield in her Gauntlet and Nico enjoying close combat as much as she does, they still haven't taken any casualties.
Max can only imagine how upset the Narsians are on that flank. They view shields as cowardice, and Bulwark is using one to defend the human infantry, which they also detest, even though the infantry weapons often prove lethal to the giants.
Bravo Squad back at camp still hasn't faced any enemies, with the two advanced flanks pulling everyone towards themselves, but they are preparing for much larger enemy numbers now that the incoming Landers are getting closer, already visible over the horizon on final approach.
They will be down in only a few more minutes, and will be fully deployed in the area Max is currently defending within the hour, according to the orders that Max has received.
Once they are, his unit is to fall back and let the third wave handle defense, while they will be reassigned to a more urgent target than the mine defense. Not that there is much that qualifies as more important in the area, but Max counts over twenty landers incoming, and fifteen of them are Heavy Mecha Wings. With somewhere around a hundred Crusaders plus Light Mecha support in the area, his Special Tactics Unit is a drop in the bucket of the total firepower during a siege situation.
Max takes advantage of his newfound cognitive speed to start sending targeting data to Vincente so that the Battle Cannon on Morning Glory can join with the artillery being fired from the base camp to thin the ranks of the Narsians before they get close enough to be a real threat. It doesn't take much with modern targeting to turn the swamp into a death trap for them, with the artillery rounds falling from the sky as the Narsian forces are slowed by the hostile terrain.
The scene awakens another of Max's repressed memories, showing him historical footage of battles from his past life. They were centuries before the Mecha were invented, and even longer before he was born, but the concepts of trench warfare were born from those ancient battles, and Max recalls seeing holographic footage of soldiers rushing through no man's land between trench lines, attempting to assault the enemy.
If they could make it, the death toll on the entrenched soldiers would be horrific, left with nowhere to flee. But the number who had to die on the open ground of no man's land in order to accomplish such a feat was equally staggering. Both sides tried to take advantage of each other's perceived weaknesses to gain the upper hand and minimize their own losses, and that made Max realize what the Narsian's next move is going to be.
[All forward units, relocate. Enemy return fire predicted.] Max calls, leading the squad further away from the central camp, extending their coverage and abandoning the island they were stationed on.
For a moment, Max thinks he might have overreacted, but just as the radar shows the enemy starting to advance again the sound of Narsian artillery hitting the area where they were stationed shatters the air and sends dirt and steam rising high into the sky.
Now they are spread too far apart to prevent units from moving between them and attacking the central force, but they are also able to intercept the attackers that have gone wide around the bombardment zone in an attempt to flank them and get to the Landers before they can deploy.
The plan is unintentionally genius on Max's part, and they encounter a battalion-sized unit of Narsian heavy infantry slowly slogging through the muck, the weight of their gear and thicker armor dragging them down with every step. Even though they are new to war, everyone knows what to do, they need to kill the heavy weapons battalion before they can get prepared to defend themselves.
Max circles further right, getting a good firing angle on the giants that have hidden out of sight of the main unit, while Vincente goes left, being charged by melee troops wielding giant axes with electromagnetic fields around them that can cut through even the prodigious armor of the Morning Glory. He has the rending claw to defend himself though, and with their recent training, he has gotten very proficient in using it to both attack and defend himself.
The flamer in the center of the claw boils the swamp water, creating a thick mist that the vision of the Narsians struggles to penetrate, while the anti-aircraft battery fitted to the top provides suppressive fire to reduce the numbers charging at him. Their armor is easily torn apart by the might of the claw, chopping the soft bodies underneath into pieces, and the battle cannon at close range is causing chaos in their ranks.
All the while, Max is on the other side, unleashing a fantastic barrage of energy weapon fire, and the Light Mecha are leading the infantry in shooting at anything that isn't obviously a Crusader Class Mecha. A lot of the targets are trees, but who told them to look so much like Narsian infantry anyhow?
The first few landers are down and deployed now, and the radar is showing more and more giants have made it around or through the defense lines outside the swamp. That's still nearly three hundred kilometers away, but at the rate they run, they should be here within the next six hours, even with the swamp slowing their progress.
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As the senior unit on location, it falls to the Special Tactics Unit to arrange for the defense of the Uranium mine against the incoming Narsian attack wave. Eight of the fifteen heavy mecha wings are down already, as well as all five infantry landers.
The infantry will take a long time to get here, as they have no amphibious equipment for the meter-deep swamp and its muddy bottom. But the Heavy Mecha should be here within the next ten minutes, so Max sets them a perimeter pattern, enclosing the tightly grouped landers as well as the mine, with an emphasis on the side closest to dry land, where the enemy numbers are highest.
At first, a few units question why he has sent so many to a sector that isn't currently under attack, but once the incoming wave of Narsian infantry gets closer, the spread of their pattern clearly shows that the main force is indeed taking the shortest direct route to where they last encountered Max's mecha.
There isn't much they can do for defenses in this place, but many units start piling up fallen trees to form a defensive bulwark in front of their light mecha. Plasma weapons, like the ones that the Narsians prefer, have very little penetrating power, the rounds tend to explode on impact, due to their unstable nature. That increases their damage, but it also means that you don't need much of a barrier to block the first wave of attacks.
Randomly piled trees are perfect for the purpose, as the pattern means that even as chunks get blown away, the majority of the barrier will remain intact and functional.
After half an hour, every lander intended for the region has made the ground intact, and their occupants have fallen into position. Max assigned six wings of mecha to the base itself, along with all the infantry, allowing them to have a mobile force to defend against large attacks later without having to rearrange the defenses that Max had set up. From the orders that he has seen, it is possible that half of these Mecha might be sent out on attack later, along with most of the infantry, but for now, the directive is to hold the mine.
Even Max's own redeployment has been held for the time being, as Abraham Kepler has detected large movements of Narsian troops headed this way.
"Hey Max, what do you want to bet that we are the bait? Looking over the lander patterns, no other group of drops was so densely packed or arrived so close together. They likely think that this is a super-secret military facility or something." Nico laughed over the radio.
"Don't even say that. We were the bait last time and it sucked. It sucked a lot. Paul complains, watching over the region from inside his mecha.
"We got a nice safe spot on a bridge in the middle of nowhere last time and look how that worked out? Some arse blew all the other bridges up and we got charged by Super Heavy Mecha for a month straight." Nico points out, and Max can hear the infantry outside his mecha laughing.
Everyone knows that a serious battle is coming, but if these veteran officers are relaxed enough that they can joke about the times that life actually sucked, it must not be that bad, at least in the hopeful minds of these recruits.
"Someone put on an extra pot of stew. We have a couple of hours left until the first attackers arrive, and I want everyone up and ready for the first wave." Max orders, sending Alpha Company's infantry, who are back on mine defense duty right now, into overdrive.
The other infantry units have also set up kitchens down in the mine to feed everyone here, but usually, only one-third of the mecha are on duty at a time, with the others either on standby and relaxing, or sleeping. That way, they also all eat at different intervals, so to have everyone ready and fed at once is a monumental task.
The Stew as it was called, wasn't actually an official meal of the Kepler Military. Instead, the assorted dried fruits and meats that came with the rations, items that were only eaten in the direst of situations where extra calories were a life or death matter, were combined together with water and spices and boiled into a stew. The result was a savory and sweet combination much better than the sum of its parts, and without the inherent danger of broken teeth that the dried products came with.
Since they had a proper kitchen today, they also combined the breakfast oats into the mix, using the flavoring and powdered cream to add to the flavor.
An hour later, the meal was being sent out, to the Pilots, while the Infantry enjoyed the extra portions of stew. It's nearly impossible to transport bowls of hot liquid, so the Pilots get the ration meals, while the infantry trades theirs for stew. It's an eminently fair trade in their minds, and the Pilots are used to it, since most of them would prefer to stay in their mecha this close to an attack anyhow.
Even before the Narsian troops get here, the advance forces will likely set up Artillery to shell their location and try to put the defense force off balance. They might not have as much technology as the Kepler Forces, especially in the sensory department, but they aren't complete idiots.
"Hey, Stalwart, long hot shower and then a bubble bath," Nico calls over the intercom, bringing Max's attention to the stale smell of heavily filtered air as his recirculation system strains to keep the rotten stench of the swamp out of his cockpit.
"You are truly evil, you know that right?" Max responds, laughing. The five of them in Crusaders might be able to fully filter the air, but the Corvette Class Pilots have to exit their Mecha at the end of the shift to get proper rest since the cockpit is too small for a bunk.
"No, evil is fresh laundry with the Lemon Detergent and a hot cup of cocoa." Nico returns and Max can hear the men outside groan.
"Make her stop, I was already longing for cocoa and clean socks." One of the newly arrived infantry complains, shifting in his wet boots and making the soldiers of the Special Tactics unit laugh.
"How many pairs did you bring, Private?" Captain Catan asks curiously.
"The regulation issue four pairs, Sir?" The man answers, not understanding the problem.
"See son, if you had an experienced Commander like Major Max over there, he would have told you that the answer is twelve pairs. No more no less. You might get by with only the two uniforms, but you need all the socks you can get." The Captain informs him, and many of the other soldiers of the Special Tactics Unit nod their agreement.
Every few days a pot of filtered water will be boiled to wash laundry in, and if they are lucky, there might even be detergent to get them cleaner. But in the swamp, four pairs of socks is barely enough for one day, much less two or three.
"I will put in an order for extras with the first supply drop." His commander sighs, seeing the enlightenment in the eyes of his unit as they learn about the simple oversight they have made.
"Any other words of wisdom from the veterans?" The Lieutenant asks curiously, looking up at Stalwart, which is standing off to the side of the base.
"Sure. No matter how much ammunition you think is enough, it's not. Don't wait until your men start running low on power packs to start recharging them. Start them the second the first packs are depleted. One less man on the line is a far smaller problem than empty rifles." Max suggests, and the Lieutenant nods and writes it down in a notepad.
That's not a good sign. He was most likely made an officer due to his Noble heritage and knows exactly zero about combat. Even if they're not his troops, they are still on his side, so Max decides to give a little more advice.
"And one more thing. If you have sergeants who have served planetside, or in law enforcement, listen to them. It might not be by the book, but what works and what is written are rarely the same thing when you want to stay alive as an infantry officer." Max adds, the amplified exterior intercom of Stalwart carrying to most of the Infantry units in the area. Hopefully, most of them take those messages to heart. It is their first mission of a ten-year deployment, and the first mission is always the highest losses.
[All Units to defensive positions. Artillery incoming.] Comes the voice of Ari over the open channel.
Max isn't sure how she knows already, possibly due to one of her System Skills, but she isn't wrong. Seconds later the first shells whistle by overhead, hitting the open ground between the mine and the perimeter mecha.
Great, just what Max needed, an area bombardment to begin his day.
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The infantry was still scrambling to return to safety and the light mecha of the reinforcements were still powering up when the first shells landed near the mine entrance. Only a few at first, but there were more and more with every passing second.
From the radar scans, it appeared that the entire front line of the Narsian assault had stopped in their tracks and set up artillery emplacements. It was an excellent strategy, but the Kepler Heavy Mecha had sophisticated enough targeting systems to roughly estimate where the shells were coming from.
Not every mech could fire back, but those with missile pods or Battle Cannons soon began to return fire with a vengeance. The sound of explosions, both incoming and outgoing would have been deafening if not for the protection of the mecha, and the light mecha immediately bemoaned the lack of tactical shields. Many of the Crusader Class Mecha had them, and they chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with another mecha, using the shield to cover the main hull of both mecha from incoming artillery.
Max was under the protection of a Mecha Called Sturm's Fate at the moment, with both mecha firing Battle Cannons at the Narsian emplacements.
It didn't take long for the artillery barrage to die down though, as the second line of heavy infantry was about to reach the forward lines of Heavy Mecha that Max had reinforced. The sound of energy weapons crackling joined the sound of fading artillery, and then the high-pitched buzzing of Gatling Cannons set a distorted rhythm to the day's destructive melody.
[How are you enjoying the first real taste of war, ladies and gentlemen?] Max asked on the Unit's secure channel, as the first wave of attackers was repelled and the front lines finally got a moment to breathe and regroup.
[It sounds like Captain Vincente trying to beatbox.] One of the Corvette Class pilots joked, making the others chuckle in their cockpits.
[Hey, my sense of rhythm isn't that bad.] The Captain in question countered, but even he didn't sound too sure of his assessment. The man was never cut out for a life of music. Even his speech patterns were disjointed and unevenly flowing.
[Alpha Squad, move to 195 degrees and reinforce the unit at that position. The radar shows heavy incoming.] Max directed Ari's squad, who immediately began shifting positions, along with Nico, who was currently attached to them.
Max sent Battle Cannon shells towards approaching targets until his feeder ran dry, and then signaled his wingman that he was breaking off to reload.
Their lander still had a fair bit of extra ammunition, as well as a loading and repair rack, so the other units had brought some extra munitions forward to build the stockpile at the base. Most of the landers were within their encirclement, but the ones that weren't had been picked dry and sealed shut so that the enemy couldn't easily use them against the Kepler forces.
With trained staff on the loader, the process only took Max a few minutes and he was almost ready to head back out when a Narsian portal opened right outside the mine entrance.
That was the worst possible luck that the invaders could have had. Their second wave could only come through a few at a time, and the troops on the other end had no way to contact the ones on this side of the portal before they arrived. They were traveling blind and had walked into a brutal crossfire.
Max's mind went into overdrive as the mecha fire started, eliminating the Narsians before they could get a signal off. The Special Tactics Unit was granted a number of esoteric weapons for their job, along with the unusual patterns of mecha, and among the toys was a fusion bomb, intended for destroying fortified underground bases. Detonated above ground, it would destroy everything within dozens of kilometers.
The portal goes both ways while it is open, but it will only be open for an hour at the most. If Max sends a bomb through to the other side, he could well destroy the enemy facility that they are departing from. There is no way to tell what the layout is, or even what planet they are coming from, but one thing that Max knows for sure is that they will have eliminated everyone not of their species before they built the portal facilities and left to spread their territory.
It might only be a few thousand soldiers destined for this world near the entrance, but the facility itself is a valuable target, and the radiation from the bomb will kill crops well beyond the range of destruction. That's why the Kepler Handbook doesn't approve it for above-ground use on civilized planets.
[Open Crate 16a5 and load the contents as the next shell in my Battle Cannon] Max directs, sending the staff running to comply.
They manually load the shell and signal that Max is good to go. They were just in time too, the Narsians seem to have gotten a signal off, or they didn't and the command squad was expecting one because the portal was beginning to close already.
Max doesn't wait and fires the shell through to the other side as soon as he can see the open side of the portal.
[Everyone get clear of the portal] He calls, unsure how much if any blowback they will be receiving on this side from the bomb.
The portal is almost closed when the shell detonates, sending a concentrated lance of searing hot light across the camp and into the hillside, where it blasts free a chunk of stone the size of a lander.
"We can call that a victory for our side," Max announces over the intercom, and the Kepler Mecha send up a cheer, celebrating the end of the nearest source of Narsian reinforcements.
Though, the fact that they sent them at all is disturbing. They must have put a very high value on this planet to send more than one wave of attackers towards it. Normally what arrived on the first day would be the end of them, and enough to take the planet, according to their own Estimates.
They were often wrong because they had no way to account for nearby space vessels full of troops, but they were also often right, and many worlds fell to their might.
The attacking Narsian forces didn't seem to know that their portal had been breached, and they were charging in full force, ignoring the heavy shelling that they were receiving, intent on reaching line of sight of the Kepler Mecha, where they could begin doing real damage.
One after another, the Battle Cannon equipped mecha returned to the lander to reload, and Light Mecha returned to base to pick up additional munitions for their units. This was the greatest advantage of being near a staging location, they could go all out on the artillery fire and get case after case of shells to keep the enemy at bay.
Any battle where the enemy can't fight back is a good one in the minds of the Mecha Pilots.
[Close Contact] Nico informed the defense forces over the group channel, pinging the location on their radar screens.
That served both to let the others know that there was a chance of infiltrators and that they shouldn't indiscriminately shell the enemy, since they were now too close to the Mecha.
The sonic boom of the Rail Guns on Tarith's Rage was clearly audible even when fired over ten kilometers away from where Max was standing. Three times a second they went off, over and over for ten straight minutes until a tired voice came over the radio.
[The position has been secured, rotate a standby unit to my location for repair and reload purposes.] Nico called back to base and Max got right on sending a group their way.
There were three squads in that area, making 30 light mecha and 4 Crusaders and still, it clearly took them a ten-minute long intense firefight to deal with the invaders. That's a lot to ask of a projectile-based munitions supply.
Max decided that he too needed to be on the front lines for a while since most of the Mecha pilots here were still rookies, and two of his own veterans were coming off the line for a cycle, so he sent the text notification to Nico that she would be taking over dispatch duties while he filled her spot on the line.
He picked the three units from the top of the list of mecha on standby and turned stalwart to the west, moving to fill the gap in the lines before more Narsian forces arrived and took advantage of the weakened area.
He was just in time too, as over half of the mecha waiting for his arrival were out of munitions, moved to the back for their safety while Nico and the mecha of Alpha squad took point, engaging the handful of newly arrived giants in close combat to keep the line from being overrun.
[I thought you said position clear?] Max joked, blasting a pair of giants off their feet with the plasma shotguns mounted in the curved nacelles above his mecha's shoulders.
[This is as clear as it gets. But the position is secure.] Nico responded and Ari's dismay at her nonchalance was so intense that Max didn't even have to focus on her to feel her thoughts.
[Fall back, you've got two rotations of Dispatch duty. I'll be back after one, and I'll switch you out after the second.] Max instructed Nico, who gave him a sword to the chest salute as she turned to make her way back to base.
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Even before she made it back to the base camp, Nico was barking orders for units to swap out, rotating the most exhausted back for a period of sleep and a good hot meal, while the fresh pilots took their place.
At first, Max didn't see the need for her to hurry, but then his radar slowly began to fill with red dots as the Narsian attack waves turned from organized groups to a cohesive mob. They must have hidden survivors from previous waves in the water and had them wait to join the next group of attackers.
They are under half an hour out from the front lines already, and the density of the attackers is steadily increasing. His new [Perception] skill that increased his rate of thought really came in handy at this moment, allowing Max to make full use of [Split Fire] and [Multi Point Targeting]. To the other mecha on the line, it looked like his lasers were guided, every shot hitting a different target, even though they knew that the weapon should be a hard-mounted barrel, adjusted by arm movements.
Max was going easy on the Battle Cannon rounds, for now, knowing that he had an entire shift on the line at the minimum and that if he went all out on the hard ammunition, with his increased rate of fire, he would definitely run out.
That is why the Mecha only spent two hours on the line at the most, with the standard shift being one hour. At the maximum rate of fire, two hours was enough to severely deplete solid ammunition, while an hour of intense combat was the point where it started to get mentally draining, even with the enhanced minds and bodies of the System-enhanced Pilots.
They didn't need much sleep, but an off hour to rest their minds was still necessary to keep them from mentally lagging and making careless mistakes under pressure.
[Temperature alert] Stalwart reminded Max as the barrels of the Pulse Laser Array slowly rose in temperature with the constant firing.
They had been modified and System optimized, but he still couldn't fire them at maximum output forever. The number of giants that were charging them was getting close to overwhelming though, now that the hidden forces had reached the forefront of the battle.
They were even getting to the tree line, under a hundred meters away from the defensive line now. Max added blasts from his Plasma Shotguns to the mix and reduced the power of his lasers to seventy-five percent, letting them cool down a little without reducing his rate of fire. That's the best he could do, and he could see that the rest of the mecha at his location were in a similar position.
With the enemy tightly packed and getting closer, Max switched from standard shells to the High Explosive version more commonly used for artillery in his Battle Cannon, the advantage of the Dual feeder that they had installed after taking the facility on Belmont.
The explosions shook the ground and boiled off the swamp water into a steamy fog that limited actual visibility to only a few meters, but large sections of the enemy forces were destroyed with every shot, giving the line a half-second breather now and then, as the Narsians moved to fill in the gaps left in their assault.
[Close Combat Mecha Forward] Max instructed as that still proved to be insufficient to keep them at bay. The light mecha and a few crusaders with claws or combat shields moved up to push the enemy back from the more vulnerable long-ranged units, and the long-ranged units of the squad started picking their targets more carefully, trying to eliminate those with the best close combat weapons before they could reach melee range.
It was standard procedure for the Kepler military, and it had worked well a thousand times before, so Max was fairly confident it would again, even if they were now beginning to take damage.
"Stand Fast. The next unit should be here soon, we just need to hold until they arrive." Max announces, looking at his notifications and seeing that they were still five minutes away.
Nico had sent the rested units out early, only thirty minutes into their hour-long break, just long enough for the mecha to get restocked and the pilots to be served a proper meal. Not much of a break, but the intensity of the attack was much higher than anyone had anticipated.
Neither orbital scans nor radar had detected this many Narsians in the area, so Max suspected that there had been more portal openings, either in the swamp itself or nearby in the hills where these giants were coming from.
[Just our luck isn't it? We had to be the ones that pulled the double deployment Narsian invasion with untested recruits.] Nico jokes to Max, her text message popping up on his heads-up display where the joke won't be seen by others and damage morale.
[They're not untested anymore.] Max sends back as he unloads on a Narsian Heavy weapons team with both his shotguns and his Battle Cannon.
Their weapons aren't the only thing increased, so is their armor, making them the Narsian equivalent of a tank squadron. The combination of weapons is enough to take them down though, and Max lets loose a sigh of relief.
[Prepare for Incoming Orbital Strike]
'That's the robot voice of Abraham Kepler, but why here and why now?' Max wonders, right before the sky lights up with brilliant purple lightning.
The ship used a dispersed pattern orbital lance to eliminate everything from a few kilometers away from the defense force to the edge of the swamp. The temperature warnings on Stalwart light up again, but this time not for his weapons, but to inform him that the exterior temperature is unsafe for infantry troops.
[All infantry back to base and get underground.] Nico instructs a few seconds late.
It seems that the strike was a surprise to her too, or at least it came much sooner than anticipated. The Narsians have been shocked by the attack as well, their carefully planned attack formations faltering and the mecha on defense tearing through the survivors at a rapid rate.
Max takes a moment when his position becomes clear again to check the official logs, not seeing anything about a strike by Abraham Kepler. But there are four more drop ships now on planetary station, all having arrived within the last twenty minutes. It's possible that they planned a series of strikes on high-density enemy targets over the Fleet Channels, with updated encryption, so Max wouldn't have received them, but that doesn't make it any less shocking when you get a notice of friendly fire two seconds before an orbital strike.
[Here is the updated intelligence] Nico sent over to Max as he was clearing out the stragglers of the Narsian attack and considering what might have prompted the orbital bombardment.
Looking over the data that Nico sent, which had just minutes ago been made available to the Commanders, he finally understood. When Nico rerouted the landers of the first wave, she sent the entire population of Abraham Kepler to this one continent. One out of the nine that were on the planet. The overwhelming force cleared out most of the Narsian troops, and even now they were making great headway with the second wave.
With one secure continent, they were free to launch attacks on the others, and could safely stage supplies, repairs, and logistics. Despite the early setback, the tactic was unintentionally brilliant, sending them all to the lowest value continent with the fewest enemies. The Kepler forces now had a secure foothold on the planet, and the ships of the fleet were planning to do the same thing on another continent, but with twice as many troops, to account for the increase in Narsian soldiers.
If it worked again, the four ships would take two more continents in short order, and then they could push out to attempt to take the rest.
This would make for a slower battle than blanketing the entire planet at once, but according to the Fleet data, it should reduce 'Resource Expenditure' or as soldiers called it, casualties.
Their orders were to hold the swamp while the next waves came down, while the units on dry land scoured the region for surviving Narsians. Bringing the population of them to zero in a day was realistically impossible, but estimating by the number of red dots that disappeared from his radar, they lost tens of thousands in a second today.
[Contact South] Nico informs the back line mecha, who have been mostly waiting and killing off sporadic attempts to encircle the mine.
Not that they haven't been in combat, just not as intensely as the unlucky lot in front of the main push to break their forces.
[Contacts are under control] The Southern line reports and Nico sends a round of deployment orders, bringing Max's group back to base and sending out an equalized force to hold the perimeter, lacking the doubled patrols that Max set up for the attack.
That leaves them with a third of their force available in an hour to go on patrol, hunting the swamp for Narsian survivors and additional hidden attackers. The muddy and bloody part of the battle is about to begin.
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For an hour after he returned to base, Max napped, getting his mind in order for the next set of orders that needed to be given. As his body progressed, he needed less and less sleep to function at full capacity, but this last advancement seemed to be the real tipping point. After only a single hour, he was refreshed and ready to face the day again, confident he could last through much more than just a single shift if needed.
Most of the pilots weren't at this point yet, and wouldn't be for years to come unless they had a particular affinity for advancing through battle. Fortunately, the orbital strike had made their lives easy, and the single unit patrols on the perimeter could safely be extended, giving the Pilots four hours off between two-hour shifts on duty. As the area stabilized, that could be extended to a full six hours, but that increased the chances of inattentiveness near the end of a long shift, so Max preferred not to do it if at all possible.
[Special Tactics Unit, gather at Stalwart] Max instructed, bringing his unit jogging over from where they were resting in the base or underground.
Once they were assembled, Max began his orders. [Mecha squads, you will be going on a cleanup mission. One in each cardinal direction except towards the crater. Mecha only for that deployment. I have a separate mission for the Infantry.]
The swamps were too deep and difficult to navigate for any of the infantry vehicles they had brought, so there was no point in them slowing down a hunting patrol of highly agile Mecha. Instead, Max was going to have them take care of the second most important aspect of life on base. Supplies.
[Infantry, keep to your original squads and search the landers that are beyond the perimeter for anything useful. Rations, ammunition, repair devices, raw materials. If it's there, bring it to us here. I don't expect them to get cleared out quickly, but there isn't enough room to move them into the compound and I will not be giving up our resources to the Narsians.]
That was the sort of mission that infantry soldiers could appreciate. Not only were they not intentionally heading for combat, though they might find it anyhow, but they were also tasked with improving their own quality of life.
More of the infantry would be sent out soon, but as the elites, Max wanted his own men to scout the area first, making sure that there weren't any hidden pockets of resistance. If they did find one, the Special Tactics unit was not only better equipped to fight, but also to run away and survive.
[When you reach the first lander in your zone, have the Materials Printer create Pattern SBM0420. It is a flat-bottomed boat with a crude gravity drive. It won't hover, but the drive is silent and the disruption to the surrounding water is much lower than a hover boat, with a negligible energy signature.] Nico adds, giving them a way to get around efficiently.
The boats are flimsy things, made of a single sheet of light metal, but they take only a little more material than a single armor penetrating Battle Cannon round and can run off a Plasma Rifle energy clip for an entire day. They're relatively fast as well and can be loaded with a large amount of gear.
Max had forgotten about those things, regarded more as children's lake toys than military equipment, but he sees the logic in Nico's mind in her instructions. The Narsians will likely take them as civilian vessels if they do detect them, and if they make them after leaving the camp, the enemy won't be alerted to their use until the first round of them arrives back at camp with supplies. Assuming that the mine area is under surveillance by the Narsians of course.
The capabilities of the Narsians have been surprising this mission, so Max isn't willing to discount that they might have much better technology than usual.
The mecha are the first to leave, followed by the scrounging squads. The crater area isn't a great threat at the moment, so Max holds off on sending any more mecha squads out, letting them rest until they are needed. Even if they haven't had time to learn much, being suddenly awoken to go on missions is a favorite tactic of academy instructors everywhere, so they should be able to scramble on short notice.
It would be nice if there was a senior officer on location though. All of the Unit commanders are Majors at the moment, and Max is the senior officer, so he can't even order one of them to take over until he is redeployed.
The first few minutes of the mission go quite smoothly, as no Narsian would dare to stay so close to an enemy fortification. That doesn't last long though.
[Contact Squad Alpha. 12 Narsian infantry, all injured.] Ari reports as her mecha wing moves through the swamp.
These are survivors of the orbital strike, soldiers who were on the very outskirts of the blast and managed to escape with their lives. Even injured, they are still fierce combatants, and Max can see that some of the light mecha have taken damage, based on the condition updates that the Mecha send back so Commanders can tell how their troops are doing.
When everything is good, the unit will show solid green where Max has placed the displays on a side screen inside Stalwart. With only thirty-five mecha to keep track of, they are simply four rows, three for the squads, and one with himself and Nico on it. There's no such luxury for the infantry, but he has worked out a system for that, using separate sections of the touchscreen to indicate casualties and injuries, as well as reported ammunition shortages.
The random numbers might not make any sense to others, but to Max, it is a comprehensive overview of the units under his command.
Soon after the infantry reported that the boats have been created and that they have loaded what they can from the first landers. It seems that the other units left almost everything behind, bringing only their food supplies and what ammunition was in the mecha. The first few landers they came across were among the first to land though, and fully mechanized, so they might have assumed that they would be returning, and they didn't have any infantry to carry resupply provisions for them.
Even emptying a single lander is too much for the squads. They built six swamp boats each, for the five-man fire teams that would board them, but there is still more valuable material inside than they can carry.
[Return to base once the boats are loaded. We will send a larger-scale mission tomorrow at first light.] Max instructs, checking the amount of sunlight left. There's plenty for at least one more trip, but building and loading the boats took more time than expected, and he doesn't want the infantry trapped out in the swamp after dark.
The Narsian army doesn't need night vision technology, they can see well enough in the dark on their own, like the feral cats that inhabit the slums of Kepler Terminus where Max grew up. Only absolute darkness is enough to stop them.
The infantry boats all make it back in good condition if you disregard minor damage due to the fact that nobody on board a few of them had ever piloted a boat before. Kepler 111 has lakes and even oceans, but for kids who went to the academy at twelve years old and grew up in the suburbs of a megacity, those were things from picture books, not something that they had ever seen themselves.
Max is a bit annoyed at the fact, then he realizes that he too might have the same issue, if not for his Innate Talent of Mind reading. He has never been on a boat before, much less piloted one, at least not in this lifetime.
[Bravo Squad has made contact]
[Alpha Squad has made contact]
[Alpha Squad has made contact]
Ari and her team really did pull the short straw today. They hadn't gone a full ten minutes on patrol without running into something, mostly injured remnants of the main push on the mine, but Charlie Squad under Vincente in his Mecha, Morning Glory had yet to meet any form of resistance. In fact, they had hardly even seen any signs of enemy movement on that side.
[Bravo Squad requests reinforcements, portal force detected.] Paul calls and Max perks up, checking the data that he relayed from the newest orbital scans since Paul could only detect a mass of heat signatures.
They haven't made contact yet, but they are picking up hundred of Narsian infantry, and the pattern suggests that they have made a base of their own in the swamp, setting up a defensive perimeter and multiple improvised heavy weapons bunkers.
[Second Shift to your Mecha. Enemy force detected for elimination.]
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Max watched in appreciation as the pilots got ready for action, powering up their mecha and double-checking the weapons functions as they moved into position for deployment. They are all intensely focused, and he can't see any real errors or problems with their training as they form a column to move out.
[Four minutes fifteen seconds. Not bad, but you can do better.] Nico calls over the intercom, eliciting a few soft laughs from the other unit commanders.
Five minutes is the standard for most units, three is the standard for Special Forces. The fact that they were actually ready in under five minutes for a surprise deployment took most of their commanders by surprise, but it stands as a testament to their dedication to wiping the invaders off the face of this human-colonized planet.
[Everyone move. Double time to the meeting point. We still have a patrol squad in the immediate vicinity and they won't remain undetected forever.] Max orders, leading the column with Nico moving Tarith's Rage to his right side.
She has a combat shield in her mecha's gauntlet, with her sword hung from the hooks on her torso armor. Even after the mecha was repainted to the new color scheme, the chains and razor wire remained. With the red and bone white paint a bit scorched and splattered with swamp filth, the combination gives the ten-meter-tall mecha a menacing aura, which somehow feels more at home here than the other Crusader Class Units, who clearly look like interlopers.
While Max picked Red and Bone as his unit's colors, the rank and file mecha of the 43rd Mechanized are all drab green with yellow accents. In a forest, they should look like part of the scenery, but somehow the black bark of the trees, and the odd teal green of the leaves just highlight the fact that these units were painted to blend into a different world.
Stealth was never going to be an option, moving dozens of giant mecha through the swamp, so instead, they go for a high rate of movement. None of the Special Tactics Units Mecha are with them, though they will be meeting up with the Alpha squad in just a few minutes, so Max decides to teach the new pilots an old trick.
[I need two Corvette Class Pilots forward. Grab a long branch, at least your mecha's height, and move in front of the column.] Max instructs, and two of the Lieutenants hurry to comply.
[Move thirty meters out front and probe the swamp with every step using the sticks. If you find a deep spot, spread left and right and find us a better path so we don't have to slow down.] Max orders and the two agile light mecha dart out ahead to begin their scouting duty.
That saves them the need to be extra cautious of their footsteps since the route has already been checked. There shouldn't be too many deep spots in the swamp, and much of it looks like land until you try to step on it with a mecha, but they're in a hurry and don't need to be spending time fishing pilots out of holes. This side wasn't a high priority for artillery, but it did receive some outgoing fire.
[Contact, 10 o'clock.] Nico calls and Max turns to engage but doesn't see anything on his radar or thermal scans.
[What do you see Nico?] He asks, confused before the Ion Destroyer on Tarith's Rage begins vaporizing swamp water.
The moment the first round hits the water, a group of Narsian scouts jumps up and begins to fire back, their purple energy weapons a stark contrast against the blue and white of the Kepler units.
They are wearing some sort of flexible body suit that hides their thermal signature, so they didn't show up on any of Max's sensors until they stood up and made themselves a moving target above the water. They weren't even showing any sort of energy signature.
[Good find Tarith's Rage. How did you do that?] One of the other Crusader pilots, in a unit named Jericho with a Heavy Laser Cannon and a gauntlet, asks, watching the light mecha verify that the scouts are indeed dead.
[Call it a woman's intuition, Jericho. Do you remember how your mom used to catch you sneaking cookies? It's just like that.] Nico informs him in a smug tone.
[How did you know about that?] The pilot gasps and the comms fill with soft laughter.
[Man, everyone's mom caught them stealing cookies. Even guys without moms were caught by a babysitter or neighborhood auntie. It's just a fact of life. But I'm guessing she actually used a System Skill.] One of the other mecha teases the naive pilot of the Jericho.
[A sensory skill as your fifty-point upgrade? That's just not fair.] One of the pilots, who Stalwart's display tags as being in a light mecha, complains.
[No, my fifty-point reward was a repair-related System Skill, and it comes in really handy in a prolonged battle. I'm over two hundred points of bonus stats now. Just like you will be by the time you go home.] Nico informs the young man, who clearly forgot who he was talking to.
[One day for sure, Major. I'll just have to wait. I only got my first step bonus just last year after all.] He agrees and Max sighs, looking through the pilot's profile.
He's Gamma Ranked for system compatibility, as expected of a Line Mecha Pilot, but back on Kepler Terminus, fifty points was the goal for the first years at their academy, since progress slows down so much afterward, with a hundred points being the goal before graduation for the light mecha pilots.
Since the stats are based on a standardized average human, that really shouldn't be too hard to accomplish, but it is becoming clear that not all planets view things the same way.
[Friendly Mecha sighted.] The two corvette class scouts call in unison a few minutes later, alerting the mecha of Alpha company to their presence, which signals them all to stand up and join the incoming force.
[Here's what we have found out about the enemy position. They are settled in, but the only defenses that they have built are the heavy weapons emplacements. Trenches and Foxholes aren't really feasible in the swamp after all, but they have a dozen heavy plasma cannons, evenly spaced around the base, at the positions that I've indicated.
[Good work, Bulwark.] Max commends Ari by the name of her Ion Destroyer equipped Mecha.
She must have gotten caught on a low-hanging branch, because the curved top carapace armor has a rather sizeable tree draped across it, and it doesn't look intentional. It does make for fairly decent camouflage though, and she isn't in a hurry to dislodge it.
[Battle Cannon mecha, stay here and take up artillery positions, Bulwark you take the left flank with half the force, and Tarith's Rage will take the right. Stop once you get a good line of sight. The Narsian plasma is decent, but their true strength lies in close combat. Get as many of them down as you can before they close the distance.] Max orders and the column smoothly split.
Everyone has a preferred wingman, so the Crusaders move by pairs, while the Light Mecha split off a unit at a time.
Kepler's battle strategy isn't big on heroic charges and individual heroism, so as long as the intelligence was correct they should outnumber the enemy force. The artillery will soften the target and move them to hiding spots, then the main force will move in and clear them out.
Simple, Safe, and Efficient. At least that's the plan.
Nico feeds live orbital scans to the unit, showing everyone with Battle Cannons, the only weapon they have available that is capable of indirect fire, where they should start their barrage, and the mecha begin to pick their targets.
[Begin bombardment, everyone move out.]
Max's order begins a thunderous roar of artillery shells being hurled into the air while two large units of mecha spread out to prevent the enemy from fleeing.
Even from kilometers away Max can hear the shouting and screams as the first shells land, proving that they are right on target. If they hadn't heard the mecha coming already, they know about it now, and Max can see the lights of energy weapon fire in the distance, making the low-hanging fog glow in the dim light under the forest canopy.
[Spread and encircle.] Nico orders, signaling that the Heavy Mecha have reached the target, so Max orders the bombardment to stop.
[Artillery, move forward, and engage. Fill any weak points in the encirclement.]
The battle seems to be going well, at least on their side, and Max doesn't see any major damage to the mecha of the Special Tactics unit as he advances, leading the long-ranged mecha into combat. But the reason why soon becomes clear. The battle is about to turn ugly.
What they thought was a standard Portal opening is actually a Narsian Special Forces unit, kitted for close combat with extra heavy armor. They must be the ones that sent the scouts that the unit encountered earlier, and they were expecting company.
As the mecha move to encircle the camp, Max spots stealthy giants moving around well outside the perimeter getting ready for an ambush.
[Check your backs everyone, Narsian Special Forces outside the camp.] Max sends the order just as the battle cries of the giants begin. The sound is more like an animal's roar than any coherent speech, and it is met by the barking report of light mecha firing at the charging heavy infantry.
108 Chapter 108
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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While the Narsian Ambush sprung from the outside of their ranks, most of the force was trapped in the middle of the Kepler Mecha squads formation. Artillery shells from the Battle Cannons continued to rain down on them, while the Giants rushed out to meet the enemy head-on.
Despite the fact that Max brought greater numbers the giants still had the edge in close combat numbers, since most of the Crusaders were long-range focused, and the Line Mecha weren't their equals one on one.
But to get there, they would have to withstand the full fury of a Kepler Mecha barrage. They couldn't do anything about the Battle Cannons, which were out of the main camp's range and not close enough to the ambush teams for them to stop, so staying in place wasn't an option. Instead, they all charged for the encirclement, opening themselves to incoming fire that they hoped would be less damaging than what was landing in their camp.
With the heavy weapons emplacements expertly taken out by the first volleys of artillery, the return fire as the mecha approach is minimal, but large portions of the force have turned around to stop the attackers that are coming from behind.
If Max could see them, he would shake his head in shame. For an attack from behind, the standard procedure is to switch every second Mecha around so that the main target wasn't left unattended, but entire wings turned to face their opponents, leaving large gaps in the advancing lines, just as the Narsians intended.
[Spread and fill the holes] Nico's angry voice comes over everyone's intercoms, and they hurry to obey.
They were mostly successful at taking the Narsian countercharge, but some giants still snuck through the holes in the lines to attack the back of the units who turned to deal with the ambushes.
For a moment, the two circles are a confused melee, as the outnumbered Giants look for ways to get at the relatively defenseless long-range mecha and to take out the Line Mecha who make up the majority of the bodies that are trapping them in for this attack.
While the Kepler squad leaders shout orders at their wings to deal with the most imminent threats, the Narsian commanders do the same, their roaring language unintelligible to Max. It isn't one of the languages that Kepler's translation software recognizes, so Stalwart can't translate their deployment orders for him.
Max moves forward, locking onto dozens of targets before cycling up his Pulse Laser Array and blasting the backs of two of the ambushers as he approaches at the head of the artillery squad.
They roar something back at him, and a particularly large Narsian, standing a full head taller than the rest of his unit lifts his hammer in a challenge, then throws it at Stalwart. The Narsian weapons have a disruptive energy field around them that causes strong vibrational damage to anything they hit, in addition to the force of the weapon itself, but the shield on Stalwart has no trouble with such simple attacks, knocking the flying metal weapon to the ground with a simple flash of energy on impact.
The failure seems to have enraged the giant, and he pulls a large sword as he rushes toward the giant mecha, every step covering a half dozen meters of ground.
The effort is doomed though, as the twin Plasma Shotguns flash and the heavy armor over his body vaporizes, leaving only a lower torso and legs to collapse on the swampy ground, dying the teal leaves with the Giant's blood.
Since the rest of his unit is already engaged, the Pulse Lasers from Stalwart tear into their backs with impunity, felling a Giant with every strike while Max continues onwards towards the main fight.
The sound of all three of the Rail Guns on Tarith's Rage shatters the air, before the keening wail of the serrated blade being forced through the air begins and another round of Narsian orders are shouted out.
Only this time, someone shouts back at them, using the intercom of a Crusader Class Mecha.
Nico has analyzed enough of their language to decipher the basics of the insults that they have been shouting at the Kepler Mecha, and she is taunting them back in their own language.
In order to take down a Crusader Class Mecha, they would need at least four team members or a lucky shot with a heavy weapon, so the Narsians divert a few of their warriors from where they are locked in combat with the Line Mecha to go deal with the rude red Mecha's Pilot.
"You got this Stalwart?" Nico laughs, realizing that Max is looking straight at the unprotected backs of the Giants running her way.
Max sighs and turns his Pulse Lasers on them, following with a blast from the Plasma Shotguns, before Nico cuts down the last of the five with her sword in a single strike.
With the Line Mecha holding the giants away from the more heavily armed Mecha, the battle has turned into a slaughter. Crusaders are firing at will, blasting away Narsian infantry by the handful every second, and the ambush forces are getting ready to flee.
[Keep them engaged. We don't need infiltration attacks hitting the infantry later tonight.] Max orders, in case some of the pilots had the idea to let them escape and prevent more damage to their units.
A cornered enemy is a dangerous enemy, but it is more dangerous to let them live.
The Narsian forces are nearly obliterated when suddenly Max's radar fills with red dots of unidentified movement. Not hours away, and not at the edge of the swamp, like most of the movement that the Satellites detect, no this is detected by Stalwart's own sensors, and it is under twenty kilometers away and approaching fast.
[We've been detected. All units fall back into the forest and converge on my position.] Max instructed, moving to a small hill where they had detected extremely deep holes under the water on two sides.
That should limit the number of attackers they will be facing at one time, and give the ranged mecha somewhere to fire from.
As the Narsians fall, the unit retreats, preparing for additional incoming.
By the numbers, they are over five hundred strong, with unknown equipment, but clearly aware of the battle that just raged here.
Not that they could have missed it. Between the glow of the energy weapons, and the sound of Rail Guns and Battle Cannons, they would have to be deaf and blind or dead to not notice, and even then there was a good chance they might.
The enemy is almost on them when they are finally in position, but they do get themselves arranged for a close combat charge before the Narsians are in sight.
The first sign that they have been spotted is the Plasma Cannons, heavy weapons being fired on the run, forsaking accuracy for the ability to engage without stopping. They are strong enough to make it work, and a number of light mecha go down with assorted damages, while the Crusaders take minimal blows to their armor. The curved armor plates of the Redemption Pattern Crusaders are among the finest of any army's equipment, a single shot from an infantry-sized Plasma Cannon won't take them out.
Over the heads of the Light Mecha in front, the heavy weapons roar out their reply, lighting up the sky again, as they did with the first attack.
The Line Mecha brace for impact, but just before the Narsians reach them Bulwark and another Crusader with a combat shield step forward to block a large section of the forces, with Tarith's Rage between them, crouching to sweep low with her sword, forcing the Narsians to try to stop or risk losing their heads.
It was perfectly timed, even without coordinated orders, and the center of the charge faltered. Then the left flank falls into the deep underwater hole, flailing for purchase in the mud before being blasted apart by the ranged attackers they were trying to reach.
[Full rate of fire. After this we will return for resupply.] Max orders, picking dense clusters of Narsian signatures to target with his high explosive Battle Cannon rounds.
He didn't bother loading anything else this time. Even if the Narsians have armor on the planet, they're not bringing it into this forsaken swamp, so the weapon is best suited to artillery duty and eliminating large groups of enemies at once.
The Giants quickly learn to fear the blue light of his Pulse Lasers, moving behind cover when he pans the weapon in their direction. They are clearly shouting obscenities at him, though Max can't understand the words.
"There's only one thing to do then. Repay the favor." Max chuckles to himself in the cockpit of Stalwart, switching his targeting method to fully randomized, splitting his fire as much as possible to hit Narsians dozens of meters apart at nearly the same time, while the Plasma Shotguns take out anyone brave enough to stand in front of Stalwart.
[Light Mecha casualties 20 percent] comes the automated message from his computer and Max surveys the battleground while firing at whatever target seems convenient.
Most of them aren't dead, just disabled, so once the battle is over they should be able to recover the mecha and drag them back to base.
As they themselves did to the Narsians, Max's patrol has found themselves surrounded. There are enemies on every side, but with the impassible waters on two sides, the ranged mecha are still clearing the Narsian force at a steady rate, despite the heavy damages they are taking in return. One after another the Giants fall until they are at under a quarter strength, causing their commanders to signal the retreat.
[Do Not give chase. Gather up the wounded and the damaged mecha and let's get back to base.] Max orders, his mind slowing from the fast-paced thought processes of battle to a more sedate speed, reducing the flow of endorphins and adrenaline into his system. It's a side effect Max hadn't considered. Faster thinking causes an increased stress response, which releases more adrenaline, further heightening combat effectiveness in the short term, but causing a crash in the long term when the adrenaline wears off.
He will have to learn to control his excitement even more or at least train his body to handle it. As it is, his hands are shaking, and he isn't sure if he will be able to pilot smoothly for the walk back.