Chapter 969: Her People

Max ducked the Mecha's shoulder and charged the warrior. The impact slammed him against the wall, nearly throwing his weapon from him and leaving him splayed out on the floor.

The now very shiny warrior rolled to the side as Max's blade descended, then parried the backswing with his blade and leaped forward from a prone position.

The feat would have taken superhuman strength, so either the armour was augmentic, or this warrior was nearly as strong as Max.

The warrior's speed was well beyond human levels and pushed Max's ability to parry in the confined space of the bunker, where he couldn't use his full range of motion or stand the Mecha fully upright.

The warrior had all possible advantages in here, but Max wasn't an easy target. He slammed the warrior with his shield, spinning him around, then parried his spinning blade attack and drove his blade forward, causing a glancing blow off the side of the warrior's head that shattered the eye lens on his helmet and carved a deep furrow down the side.

With the man's eye now visible, Max could see the appreciation and madness that were reflected in the man's thoughts.

The warrior's eye glinted with malice as he traded blows with Max, sending a strike sliding off the top of his shield to damage the shoulder plating of the Mecha.

Max kicked him, forcing the smaller warrior back a few steps to regain the advantage of reach. That put him far enough away to send a Mass Driver round his way, and Max selected a solid slug.

The sonic boom overloaded the audio sensors of the Mecha and shook the interior of the small bunker, while the round itself shattered the warrior's armour and punched clean through him, leaving a shattered hole in his chest.

The warrior gurgled something that Max couldn't understand, then launched another attack, stumbling halfway and leaving the back of his neck open for Max's blade to remove his head from his shoulders.

That fight had taken much longer than expected, so Max returned outside to check on the progress of the battle without the reinforced bunker limiting his sensors.

There was much more of a fight going on than he had expected, and the details from the Hunters' sensors said that there was a whole tunnel complex beneath the bunkers.

From what Khan could determine, the bunkers were new, created when the trenches were to fortify their position in front of the city, but the tunnels had been created much further in the past for a different offensive.

The blood-soaked warriors were already getting reinforcements through the tunnels, and they were staying in the bunkers attached to the tunnels, waiting for the bombardment to end.

The Mecha were too large to navigate the tunnel system. If anything, they would have to go in a Mobile Suit, as the Hunters were already nearly the same size as the Warriors that the tunnels had been made to accommodate.

[This isn't going to work. We can't get to them to fight them. Should we retreat and regroup until we have a better plan?] Nico asked.

[Do it. We cleared the surface, so cleanse any bunkers that have tunnel access with a Fusion Flamer and buy some time to retreat in safety.] Max agreed.

It was annoying to have to retreat with the job half done, but it was all that they could do.

Khan added her opinion in a grim tone. [Leave the Androids in place to bombard the zone between the trenches and the locals, or they're going to be in a bad way once we pull back.

We've got these warriors all riled up, and they're out for blood. Without us here, they will swarm and slaughter the city.]

It was a predictable response. They had pulled troops from elsewhere to deal with the increased capabilities here, and if their force suddenly left, all those new arrivals would run rampant over the defenders.

He had been wrong. This wasn't a balanced fight without reinforcements. The warriors were holding back, as they didn't view this location as a high priority.

The last one of them to leave the area was, predictably, Nico. With a serrated blade from the demonic beings of the other layer in either hand, she was tearing apart anything that came for her and allowing the plasma shots and rocket-propelled grenades to explode against her energy barrier as she fought.

The scene was gruesome, and Max could sense the horror of the defenders as he fought off the last few warriors who came for the Hunters as they made their way out of the trench complex.

[Time to go, Nico. Once we change gear, you can come back and play again.] Max yelled at her over the radio.

[Alright, fine. Androids, cover my retreat.]

Nico finally joined the retreat while the Androids slowly bombarded the area from the air. With their sensors linked, they wouldn't double up on targets, and their standing orders were suppression, so unless their analysis showed that the enemy was likely to charge out of the trenches, they weren't firing at all.

It was enough to give everyone a breather, though. The defenders were rearranging their lines to prepare for a charge while the Mecha returned to the ship in preparation to change their wargear and test out their skills underground.

The Alliance would be very disappointed in them, but who was going to tell them? Certainly, nobody here, and the rest of the force thought that they were here testing their stealth technology.

Technically, that was true. They had done a lot of testing on the new paint, including durability testing. Just not in the way that most corporate organizations would.

[Give me an hour to modify the Mobile Suits before we head out. The Disintegrators didn't do anything against their armour, so we are going to have to swap to either Plasma, Ion Cannons or a Laser Array.

The locals are using both, and they seem to work fine. Does anyone have a preference?] Nico asked as they reached the shuttle.

[I vote Ion Cannons. There is never enough of the classics.] Khan agreed.

[Ion Cannons it is.]