Chapter 75: Across The River
The enemy advanced well into range without firing a shot, which confused Max at first, until he realized that the jamming system blocked both radar and targeting systems, leaving them to manual fire. It is a skill every Kepler Pilot learns during their time on the Line Mecha, but one seen as antiquated and obsolete by everyone else. Most don't even have mechanical controls anymore, instead, they were using exclusively sensor suits or neural links
"All units Manual Firing Mode. Crusaders Fire for effect, maximum rates. Light Mecha, remain hidden until my Command." This meant their missiles would simply fly straight forward without tracking once fired, and targeting was a simple cross-hair in their display, with no ballistics or predictive targeting available to help them. But they could still fire with some degree of accuracy.
They weren't shy with the missiles, letting loose as many as they could to adjust for lack of targeting. Battle Cannons thundered and Gatling Cannons roared their distinctive scream. Only a handful of Mecha were equipped with Ion Destroyers, but they invariably punched hard into their targets, as the plasma flies perfectly straight.
This was Max's time to shine, as his System Skills don't need the sensor data when he can actually see the targets, and he still had hundreds of constantly updating targeting solutions available to him. The greatest threat was the Super Heavy mecha, so Max had unleashed everything he had at one of them, the Pulse Lasers destroying sensors and hull-mounted weapons, while the Battle Cannon dug large craters into the vulnerable armor at the waist joint.
Half a second after the first volley was unleashed sensors came back online as the incoming forces dropped their jamming signal and prepared to respond. But it was already too late. The second volley was incoming, and Nico brought the jamming signal back up, seeing how it crippled the Cygnus force far more than Stalwart Battalion and her allies.
"Why is the jamming still up, get us sensors." Their microphones picked up the opposition leader shouting and many of the Kepler soldiers laughed in their cockpits.
[Wrath of Carb, main guns online.] The Kepler Super Heavy announced over the intercoms, bringing a bit of hope to the soldiers in the trenches, who were dumping ammunition into the rapidly advancing Cygnus mecha force.
[Welcome back sir. If we could get a hand with their Super Heavy Mecha, it would be appreciated.] Max responded.
Wrath of Carb was equipped with an Ion Bombardment Battery like the Shining Darkness, but also with a massive Flame weapon that purged plasma in a short-range cone. It was like nothing Max had seen in the available equipment listings, perhaps it was a signature piece created just for that single machine?
The huge charges from the Ion Bombard battery slammed into both of the Super Heavy Mecha on the other side of the river, downing one and crippling the other in an instant. But the Cygnus Force had solved something at their end and the incoming fire was increasing at an astounding volume with much better accuracy. Four of the allied units that arrived already damaged were destroyed, and Wrath of Carb was in a very bad way only a few seconds after coming back online.
It was saved from total destruction by the actions of a brave maintenance tech, that used the repair gantry crane to stand a huge composite shield, like Nico was still carrying, in front of the bulk of Wrath of Carb's crouched torso, barely surviving himself when the crane was destroyed by the intercepted attacks.
Nico dropped the no longer useful jamming signal and the Kepler forces unleashed their full fury into the enemy lines. The Battle Cannon was smoking from the repeated firing without purging exhaust gasses fully and Pulse Lasers were glowing from the rapid rate of fire.
The Cygnus Mecha were getting close to the river now, and Max gave the signal for the Light Mecha that had been hidden from the initial attacks to stand up and join the fight. There was no way they could miss at this range, and they were almost all set for heavy Mecha destruction, using every spare heavy weapon the unit had obtained since landing here at the bridge.
The Cygnus Mecha were destroyed by the dozen, the river banks became littered with Mecha corpses. The few that got into the base began to shred the defenders, their close combat abilities outclassed the Kepler Mecha by a wide margin, especially the fully ranged units, who didn't even have the option to hold a close combat weapon. Most Cygnus mecha used a single solid mounted heavy weapon, or a shoulder-mounted weapons array to leave their hands free for close combat. The Warmonger pattern was mostly in the second group, very melee focused, with lighter than average weapons on the top of the unit.
As the first Cygnus mecha to pass the trenches approached Tarith's Rage, Nico dropped her shield and grabbed her serrated-bladed giant sword from the pile of prepared equipment and moved to engage. The fire from her anti-aircraft battery was blinding its sensory systems giving her time to close before the Mecha was fully prepared for her, though it caused minimal damage to the structure of the Cygnus Mecha.
The Cygnus leader and Nico's enormous blades clashed over and over, faster than most pilots believed their Mecha could even move. Tarith's Rage was being forced back and seemed doomed, if you forgot that it had a huge Ion Destroyer on its other arm, as the Cygnus pilot did, moving to his left for a better angle, and directly into its line of fire.
The plasma breached the machine's power core, the resultant explosion causing the shielding on Tarith's Rage to flicker out for a second and destroying the buildings around them in a huge fireball.
Tarith's Rage marched out of the inferno with her alarm horn blaring in victory, bringing cheers from all across the defensive line.
Tarith's Rage is charging forward to assist the front lines, but the Cygnus back lines have broken. Both Super Heavy Mecha have gone down, and fewer than 30 of their initial 200 Crusader Class Mecha remain upright on the far side of the bridge. The entrenched troops cheered in victory, firing into the backs of the fleeing machines until they were out of range.
"Casualty reports, and let's get the crews out to recover what we can. Clear the river first, we don't need the water getting Poisoned." Max calls, slumping in his seat.
[Enemy Repelled, Casualties Light to moderate. Wrath of Carb stands] he sees Nico send a strategic text update to the other two Phalanx Class machines stationed in the nearby cities.
[Super Heavies are being removed from cities into protected areas in preparation for continued orbital bombardment. Good to hear from you Tarith.] General Tennant sends back. So the battle in space is ongoing then, and not looking particularly good for their side.
Max is quite worried about how the battle in space is going, and the fact there's nothing he can do about it isn't helping. As the afternoon fades towards night and the sky darkens, they can see more of what's going on up there. Flashes of light mar the sky as transports big enough to be identified as interstellar ships even from the ground continue fighting back and forth.
The infantry has been granted permission to use the trenching machine to dig an underground Bunker for their expanded forces, since it is looking like they're not going anywhere any time soon, and being out in the open seems like a bad idea right now.
The situation with Wrath of Carb is currently in limbo. After the orbital strike there is no more city for it to defend. But Command can't decide what to do, so for now, it's remaining at the bridge with its allied forces.