Chapter 51: Take And Hold

The battlefield slowly falls silent, with the Mecha's thermal imaging and system enhanced senses not indicating anything alive and moving near the landing zone other than their own team.

[Stalwart reports Landing Zone Secure.] Max calls over the long range radio, letting command know they have made it down and are still alive.

[Casualties minimal, moving to secure the area.]

The location they were assigned to was a staging area for enemy vehicles, but before that, it was a residential area near one of the planets smaller mines. A small, now destroyed downtown core with a few thousand vacant homes. Max isn't sure what happened to the locals, but they weren't present during any of the scans of Belmont.

Is possible the whole region was abandoned and the mine closed before everything started, but after crashing a lander though it and the following battle, he would have to search the outlying homes to know for sure. The area around them is simply too damaged to make an educated deduction.

The infantry company sends out almost half their force as four platoons to search the village for any remaining hostiles, Each accompanied by two Line Mecha. Max plus the Corvette Class unit scout out any likely spots for Armored resistance together while Nico is designated to hold the landing zone with a damaged Line Mecha who has retreated inside the lander for emergency repairs.

All landers have a basic automated repair bay with a few spare parts, welding capability and a material printer, one of the high tech joys of Kepler society. Given the correct raw materials, it can create a wide variety of basic items on demand. Most commonly Mecha armor and infantry gear, but it can make basic ammunition as well.

A town this size is honestly too large for a single company to search, even with modern technology, but if they can eliminate the heaviest concentrations of enemy troops the remainder should retreat.

Fortunately for Bravo Company, they captured 80 percent of the armored vehicles, including two undamaged tanks, that were stored here in the warehouses Max assigned them to target first. The defenders were so focused on the giant Mecha that the infantry managed to seize the vehicles before the enemy operators could even get to them.

The resounding success of the strategy gave the infantry company a full complement of protective transport and a big bump in firepower at no cost. When they got this mission, with an untested Commander and a forward deployment, Bravo Company feared this was the end for them, but now they're better equipped than ever.

Sporadic gunfire still sounds all over the city, but no serious fighting. It seems the open field they landed in held almost all the rebel forces that had assembled to guard this location. The Intel was correct, and being this far behind the lines of the current battle and out of reach of reinforcement from either force, they got off easier than expected.

Nico took a little damage from the close combat engagement, but Max didn't take a single hit to Stalwart. If it wasn't for his multiple targeting ability and the expenditure of dozens of rockets, that probably wouldn't have been the case though.

Before dark, Max orders all units to return to the freshly built compound and set up a defensive perimeter. Collapsed buildings now block all the main streets, preventing access by wheeled and most tracked vehicles, but a number of building basements are still accessible to serve as bunkers for the infantry or hangers for the light mecha.

Things might be calm now, but everyone understands that come nightfall, the insurgents are sure to either send reinforcements or a bombing run in an attempt to eliminate this force behind their lines.

The anticipated attack is right on time. Just as sunset makes optical scans useless for a few minutes, Max's radar is jammed and his thermal scans pick up incoming aircraft. As is protocol, Max calls out to the incoming aircraft on the Kepler Military scrambled channels.

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"This is the Command Mecha Stalwart on all short range channels, bomber group, identify yourself or we will fire."

No response, the jets aren't theirs.

"Nico you're up. Let's see what those quad guns can do." The anti aircraft guns have a much better range than anything his Mecha carries, and without flak, trying to shoot down airplanes isn't easy.

When the bombers get to the 10km mark, the quad guns on top of Tarith's Rage power up and explosions start wracking the sky, filling it with points of light as unstable plasma charges detonate, sending molten streamers through the air.

Seconds later a bomber explodes, then another. The aim is uncanny, like she knows exactly what their evasion pattern is going to be and puts Ionized plasma flak directly in their path. Three planes go down before the others break and turn away.

"They'll be back. Either with fighters or with ground support, now that they know we have anti aircraft capability. I need a full inventory of what we managed to obtain during the landing." Max instructs the unit, confirming the reports they sent earlier.

"We've got three vehicles with quad Flak guns on them, commandeered from the defenders. We also gained twelve Armored transports and two tanks, all fully stocked. I'll get them set up in a defensive pattern with a 24 hour crew." Bravo Company Captain Catan informs him.

As long as their supplies aren't damaged by an enemy attack, that should be enough firepower to hold this position for a few days at least. For the infantry to gain vehicles of any sort is a huge benefit to his unit, space in the standard assault lander is too limited for such luxuries, and the Kepler Military isn't big on sending a lot of extra assets with the infantry during a Mecha led shock assault.

"I've got Line Mecha on patrol around the town perimeter. No resistance so far." Lieutenant Becki in the Corvette Class Mecha adds.

Split into three rotations, they don't even have enough Mecha to keep the perimeter under complete sensor coverage, but it's still better than nothing. There's nothing worse than going into a battle blind when your enemy knows your deployment.

"Excellent. Our orders are to hold this location until further notice. Bunker down and get comfortable, we could be here a while." Max commands and everyone gets to work building fortifications and placing defensive weapons to better secure the ruins.

Even Nico makes herself a big pile of rubble to stand in, hiding two thirds of her crouched Mecha, but allowing full range of motion with her weapons. Max opts to simply stand inside the entryway of the lander with the broken door propped up as a shield in front of him, in case a stealth team tries to infiltrate.

It's too dangerous to leave infantry in the lander, in case of an incendiary rocket attack, but it makes a good shell around the Crusader Class Mecha.

The light mecha that are not on patrol bring what scrap they can from the tanks back to the lander, the material composition is similar, so the scrap can be used by the repair bay to create armor patches for their mecha.

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