Chapter 226: Unwanted Favoritism

[Battalions Two through Five, close the encirclement and rendezvous at the Location assigned to First Battalion for resupply and repairs.] General Yaakov ordered over the Command Channel.

There was no realistic chance of immediately catching those Klem who had escaped into the mountains, so the best course of action was to close the noose around the others and limit the numbers that they would be facing in the future.

The tunnel system was vast and well connected, with some areas being over thirty meters tall naturally. The Klem would also dig them out to create passable tunnels for their own kind, leaving room for the smaller Mecha to chase after them. That still left a major issue for the Kepler forces though. Most of the tunnels that the Klem would dig would be big enough for a Corvette Class Mecha, but very few would accommodate anything larger, and the most important ones were those that led to the incubation chambers, which would be under two meters tall, forcing even the infantry to crouch or crawl to explore them.

And, as Max had been grateful for earlier, there were no infantry troops on the planet at the moment.

That almost certainly meant that there were going to be reinforcements, even if it meant that the First Comor Regiment needed to retreat back to Abraham Kepler to keep their firepower a secret until the opportune moment.

It would be a great shame if they did have to leave early, instead of holding the planet alongside their allies, but Max totally understood that there were politics at play, and keeping the new Mecha a secret until they were ready to be used against human enemies was paramount to those who were in the highest echelons of Central Command.

"How are the munition stocks and repair materials looking?" Max asked Nico, who already had the data tablet in her hands.

"We have enough to supply everyone back to full, but with no reloading and depending on the level of repairs, we should be able to get most of them. The calculation says we have enough for 200 moderate or lower level armor patches." Nico informed him while going over the data.

That would change as the Klem army was forced toward the center, as the original plan had called for, forcing his unit to use up their reserves, but it was a good sign that they wouldn't have to wait long before they could start moving again once the Perimeter forces made it to them.

[We've got incoming. An awful lot of incoming.] Pippin reported, setting a pin on the map where he noticed a huge group of Heat Signatures.

[Hold up, that doesn't look like a Klem cluster. The temperatures are too high. Let me send the Drones to verify] Nico called, concerned that they would end up shelling their own allies.

The drones sped toward the heat signature, finding that the Fifth Battalion was closing in on them, no longer attempting to stop the Klem force from rushing past.

[First Battalion, please prepare for our arrival. Fifth Battalion has been ordered to reinforce your position now that the line is shorter.] The Fifth Battalion's executive officer, a Major named Melody informed them.

Max's own XO, Major Miller, was busy keeping the maintenance and reloading on schedule. The sustained fire had found a minor design flaw in the Disruptors, in that they would slowly lose calibration if they were overheated, and then would need to have a technician mechanically adjust them back into spec. It was a small thing, but somehow, self-adjustment had been overlooked. Only one unit had needed it so far, but the Major was a Logistics veteran and understood very well that where one case existed, others soon would.

So, while other Battalions relied on the XO to pass messages, or assist with battle orders, Major Miller took care of the Logistics side while Max and Nico took care of the combat side.

Overall, this was more efficient for everyone, since nobody was overloaded during battle or when preparing for a large movement or shift change. The Central Command might view it as inefficient on a large scale, but on a Battalion scale, especially with experimental Mecha, it took a lot of mental stress off the officers.

All of the Company Commanders had come to rely on Major Miller, since he kept the meals on schedule and set alarms to wake up Pilots who were about to be late for their shift, taking the burden off their direct superiors, who were also exhausted from continual combat.

Logistics staff from the First Battalion enjoyed the luxury as well. Instead of reporting to a veteran combat officer who didn't really understand what the Logistics side was doing, despite the mandatory courses almost all pilots slept through, they got their own former supervising officer.

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[Fifth Battalion, report to the outer trench, standard formation. Keep your men evenly spread and send me through the report on munitions levels and damages.] Major Miller called over the Command Channel, preparing to add the new troops to his responsibilities.

Their own logistics staff were back at the landers, sending buggies back and forth with what they could, and hauling damaged Mecha back for repairs since the Fifth Battalion was too stretched out to have them come back to the landing zone for their off shifts.

That was the situation most pilots were used to. Stretched and strained supply lines, and dragging the disabled and damaged Mecha with them as much as possible until they reached the next depot that could get them up and running again.

In a way, that made Max and the First Battalion the only forward operating base on the planet at the moment, though once the others reached him the Battalion who landed in the west, closest to the mountains would become the new forward position, while Max held up the rear, waiting for new orders.

"Why would they order an entire Battalion to our position? If they spread out through the perimeter forces we could finish this up much more quickly, instead of having the advancing forces grind to a crawl, while they try to force the Klem to flee in front of them." Max complained to Nico, the only one who could hear him.

"Likely one of the Generals was worried about our potential casualty rates. The satellites show the Klem have gotten wise to our games, and they are building up in huge numbers using the no man's land between us and the perimeter. If they turn our way, things will get more than a little hectic. Hell, we might even get to make a bigger better bonfire next time." Nico laughed, then pulled a small bag of chips out of a storage cabinet to offer them to Max.

"It would be hard to beat that fire. The blaze was pretty impressive with the way the Klem piled up the corpses for us. I'm not sure they will do that again, even if it does allow them to get much closer before they begin taking losses." Max waved off the chips and focused on where the Fifth Battalion was positioned.

[Move the Super Heavy Mecha back inside the defenses. You will need the extra range to keep the Artillery going when the Klem tide reaches the walls. The Thunder Guns are great, but they can only aim downward so far without unbalancing the Mecha.] Max ordered, making the new arrivals move their deployment a little.

They had taken pretty heavy losses among the Corvette Class Mecha, nearly a quarter had been sent back for repair and refurbishment and hadn't returned by Max's count. They were only down a few Crusader Class units though, and the Fast Attack Crusaders, the X109 were all still functional, though many of them sported battle damage.

[The massed Klem are starting to move our way. ETA 30 minutes.] Nico reported over the Command Channel, opening it to include Fifth Battalion's Commanders in all messages so their staff didn't have to relay information.

They were halfway through a shift, so keeping them active shouldn't be an issue. The current rotation only kept a third of the force active most of the time, with the rest either sleeping or eating. That way, in a case like this, the next unit to come online could be called early and double up the defenses without significantly exhausting anyone.

Fifth Battalion was simply all in for the battle, having not had time to set up a rotation after the last battle where all hands were needed to prevent themselves from being annihilated, so Max could only hope that the System Enhanced Physiques of the Pilots were up to the task.

[New orders are in. All Perimeter forces are ordered into full advance. This will be the final battle of the encirclement, and we won't be stopping until the Klem are eliminated from our zone.] Nico reported, watching the Central Command Messages come in.

[Klem advance at 30 kilometers. All Artillery Units, begin area bombardment of your assigned zone. Let's show them what the Thunder Guns can really do. Logistics, prepare for intensive reload requirements.] Max ordered, picking targets by area while Nico sent drones forward for more precise data.

The roar of eight sets of Thunder Guns shook the ground with a shuddering wave of continual noise. Even with the noise dampening of their environmental suits, the vibration was making some of the Logistics staff nauseous. 'Like they had been put in a paint shaker and ordered to work' as one Corporal described it.

[So eight in close proximity is the limit for infantry. Note that down Moonie, these vital signs are incredibly unexpected.] Sister Lilith ordered from her lab aboard Abraham Kepler. Never during all their tests, had they thought about what sixteen rounds per second in close proximity to a minimally defended human body would do. But now they knew, and they could input that data into the system to help develop new battle tactics that were better suited to the new models of Mecha.

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