Chapter 328: 328 Battle For the Facility
[We will be touching down in 3 minutes. As soon as we are down, First Battalion will flank west, Second Battalion will flank East, and we will pincer the Rebel forces outside the facility between us while the Cutters do their work with the drones.
Push as hard as we can, I want those Rebels down before they can do real damage to our men inside the facility.] Max ordered.
Max's display lit up with potential firing solutions the moment that the doors opened on the Transport ship. The vessel hadn't even landed yet when Max hit the ground running, unleashing every weapon on Enduring Rage at the highest rate of fire that he could manage.
The maneuver caught the Rebels off guard. The ship was one of their own, and though it hadn't responded to messages, they had hoped that it was reinforcements from the outer regions coming to help them deal with these Mercenaries.
The appearance of more of the unusual Super Heavy Mecha caused panic in their ranks, as the Rebels realized that their reinforcements weren't coming and that they were now surrounded by Reavers.
Max did his best to pick off the Crusader Class units in the force since the Rebels didn't have a Phalanx Class Mecha with them. The pilots of the Kepler Super Heavy Mecha were loyal to the Emperor before all else, and as far as Max knew, they had only managed to turn a couple in the entire Empire.
Max switched his Ion Bombard Arrays to a dispersed pattern, firing large, unstable rounds that exploded on contact, best for dealing with Light Mecha faster than individual shots could manage it.
His charge had inspired the rookies in the Line Mecha, and within minutes they were overtaking him. Their weapons were shorter range than those of the Thunder Pattern Mecha, as the recruits were calling the Super Heavy Units.
Seeing the line of Samurai Mecha charging, Max realized that he would have to update all their close combat skills to match their new units. It was one thing to look the part, but they would need to actually be able to fight in close combat if they were going to get a significant edge on the competition.
Fortunately, both Max and Nico knew a load of Mecha Combat styles from their past lives that would improve the close combat capability of the new pilots to a great degree. Max knew many efficient and lethal styles, but after watching the Samurai fight, he thought that Nico might be right, Terror Tactics would be much more devastating against an enemy like this than a simple loss of numbers.
That sinister sword style of hers that seemed designed to split things in half would be great for the Line Mecha pilots if they could be trained to use it effectively.
[Inferno Pattern Fast Attack Units, thruster jump over the lines and land among the Rebels. The standard Kepler Line Mecha can't thermal shield against the Fusion Flamers, and you'll roast the Pilots before the Mecha melts.] Max ordered, sending two dozen Crusader Class Mecha into the sky over his head.
The Rebels weren't expecting that, and the sea of flame that followed broke their spirits, sending them running from the battlefield, even as Max heard the orders to regroup and fall back to the Facility, despite the fact that it was mostly held by the locals and the three Battalions that Max had sent to reinforce them.
[Push forward through the Rebels. Crush their positions and dig them out of those makeshift bunkers. Flamers, you know the drill.] Max ordered, striding forward between the Line Mecha as he continued to fire.
Those Rebels that weren't dead were starting to fall back to the Facility, joining the other attackers and allowing the First and Second Battalions to join forces again to present a unified line of firepower.
[System Update: Additional Function]
Max smiled as he saw the update message. He hadn't leveled up enough to get a new boost in a while, thanks to the increased level of his bonuses. He didn't suffer from diminishing returns as badly as everyone else did, but it still took work to get gains when he was already so powerful.
Keres Max
[Compatibility Determined] Rank A
[Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier
[Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x
[STR] 3+180%
[DEX] 3+98%
[SPD] 3+98%
[Innate Talent] Mind Reading
[Additional Function Unit Optimization]
[Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]
[Additional Function Split Fire]
[Additional Function Perception 3]
[Additional Function Unified Force]
[Unified Force] Allows all linked Mecha to gain the benefit of the user's targeting data.
Max quickly linked every Mecha in the Regiment through his and watched as the cadence of the battle changed. He got hundreds of targeting updates a second, and with the System sharing that data, adapted for the other Mecha's positions, their rate of fire was tearing apart the Rebels.
For the veterans, the differences were small, since they all had skills of their own and were limited by their physical ability to fight and shoot any faster. But for the rookie Line Mecha, the amount of plasma fire that they were putting into the Rebels took a visible leap.
[I don't know what that update was, but this new targeting data patch is incredible.] One of the Corvette Class Pilots laughed, unleashing all of his weapons on separate targets.
[The targeting Data says that it is coming from Enduring Rage. The Commander must be going all out.] Colonel Klinger laughed from inside the Facility.
There were a number of units that Max couldn't see, but not many that he couldn't target once the Mecha's sensors were all linked into one feed for his [Multi Point Targeting] to pick from. Though he couldn't hit them, that didn't mean that Colonel Klinger and his men couldn't, and the targeting skill had an uncanny ability to pick out enemy weak points.
[Archangel incoming. The Rebel vessel has been put on an automatic course for orbit. Its condition is fragile at best, and I wasn't going to risk staying aboard it, even in this minimal atmosphere.] Nico reported, and Max saw her Exoskeleton unit flying in low from the horizon.
[Good job. If it makes it up there, we will drag it home with us. Grab some drones and go reinforce Colonel Klinger. They're having issues with Rebels inside the Facility hiding from Mecha.] Max ordered.
[You're too good to me, you know that?]