Chapter 58: Take and Hold

[Command Group 3 to Stalwart. Prepare for incoming. Rebel Forces from the capital region have been mobilized to attempt to regain control of the facility.]

Max expected that to happen. You don't get to take something this interesting and then just hold it without a fight, even if you managed to blow up a good portion of the most valuable technology that was stored on site.

[Incoming Enemy forces, strength unknown. Bravo Company, we need eyes on the target. Either get a patch in to the cameras or send out scouts. Becki, deploy your men for an attack from the capital city side.]

[Sir, we recovered land mines as well as the Plasma Cannons.] Captain Catan suggests.

[Excellent. Get some deployed on the road and surrounding areas. Anything that will slow or weaken them is a blessing. We are not expecting to be relieved from this position until the battle for the capital is finished.]

By that Max means they expect to be here until the Battle for Belmont is finished, which with a little luck will be less than a week away. The Rebels are down to one last stronghold, according to intelligence reports, and they are surrounded on all sides.

[I've got the satellite feed. Sending you the updated target numbers now.] Nico informs him and Max sees a column of vehicles and Mecha come up on his screen.

6 Crusaders, 10 infantry transports, 30 light mecha, and 5 artillery pieces. Not the best odds they have ever faced, but not the worst.

The most important thing at the start will be to stop the infantry transports and destroy the artillery. With those gone, the Mecha will have to advance the final distance without covering fire, making them easier targets.

The Rebels don't have access to the satellite feed anymore, so they don't know much about his force or positioning and will have to guess at their targeting until they can get a direct line of sight. They are also likely under orders not to destroy the facility, which will be of great benefit to Max and his allies.

[Enemy Force is 10 Kilometers out. Finish setting those mines and get back into shelter asap Bravo Company.] Max calls, watching his feed.

There is a marshy area that will stop the infantry transports from leaving the road just ahead of their current location, so he plans to take out the lead vehicle to block the convoy, and then shell the rest.

The marsh won't stop Mecha, but it will slow them down, making them easier targets, and Max hopes to take advantage of that to buy his men a bit more time to prepare. Assuming that they do scatter and don't just charge down the road when the attack starts.

Once all the vehicles are within the marsh, Max fires off two shells, using the live streaming data that Nico is feeding him from the satellite. He picked the wrong targeting box for the first round and ended up striking a Crusader squarely in the cockpit door, an absolute fluke of a shot against a well-shielded weak point.

The giant Mecha burst into flames, falling across the road as the second round hit home on the rear Artillery platform. The convoy had no idea where they were being shelled from, and could only stop and circle in a defensive formation as the surviving Crusaders dragged their fallen wingman from the road so the vehicles could move again.

Max kept up the pressure, as they still didn't know where they were being attacked from, destroying a troop transport to keep the road blocked and then firing the remainder of his shells at the Crusaders and their light mecha escorts.

With the hang time, Max could have three in the air at once, and with the Satellite feed in real time, his Multiple Targeting skill has no problems guessing where his targets would be.

Two more Crusaders take fatal damage before the enemy breaks and spreads out into the swamp where the canopy hides then from Satellite tracking.

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That leaves the trapped and wounded infantry vehicles on the road alone, helpless to avoid annihilation.

[Armory, reload me with those experimental High Explosive rounds. Tarith's Rage, take Lieutenant Becki and go hunt down those Rebels. Most of their units have taken damage, they won't be going anywhere in a hurry.]

[Copy that Stalwart. Becki, fall in behind me and keep up, I have a good idea where they are headed.]

Keeping up with Nico is no easy feat, that Ancient Mecha has no business being as fast as it is. Modern Mecha might be mass-produced, but in her hands, Tarith's Rage makes it feel like technology hasn't evolved in centuries.

[Reload Complete, Stalwart.] The infantry members assigned to be his ground crew announce and Max cycles the first round into his Cannon and locates the infantry near the road.

They have wisely abandoned their vehicles, but they haven't made it far before the bombardment starts again, this time with ten-meter fireballs throwing infantry shredding fragments of metal much further.

"Damn those politicians, they said the Empire would understand, that it would never come to violence. What a load of crap, half the planet is dead and the allies they promised never showed up." The last surviving rebel Crusader Pilot from the convoy vents to the cockpit of his mecha as he runs.

Craig flees for the abandoned bunker on the far side of the swamp as fast as his damaged Crusader will take him. If he can make it that far he will be able to hide from surveillance and escape through the tunnels, leaving his beloved 'Corpus' in the hangers.

He turns to enter a valley, avoiding having to cross a clearing where he would certainly be spotted, now certain that the bombardment of his unit had been guided from space. Why they would care about him was a mystery, so the reason must have been his target, another secret to curse his Commanders for keeping.

He has nearly made the safety of the bunker complex when something slams into the side of his Crusader, throwing it to the ground before a sonic boom that overloads all his audio sensors echoes through the swamp.

He can't believe he actually took a Rail Gun hit through cover but spins his mecha to its feet to face his opponent.

His Ion Destroyer flashes, sending a full power charge towards the relic of a stalker pattern Crusader charging him. The accursed mecha sways like the pilot is drunk, avoiding a direct hit and shrugging off the rest with a flare of the Mecha's shielding. The counter shot hits his top carapace armor at the left shoulder joint and damage warnings light up his heads-up display.

Craig desperately tries to punch the rapidly approaching mecha, but the Corpus's left arm isn't responding and then with a flash of overloaded power cells everything goes dark.

[Captain Nico, this pilot is still alive. What is your call?] Lieutenant Becki asks after pulling the emergency hatch open on the destroyed Crusader.

[Leave him for the swamp. He's no longer a threat. Spread out and hunt down the Light Mecha, they must have heard the battle. Stay in sight of each other we don't need anyone getting ambushed like Corpus here was.]

Becki thinks for a moment that the menacing red mecha was showing uncharacteristic kindness towards the fallen pilot, but then he sees all the large heat signatures of the swamp creatures.

"Good luck Pilot. You will need it." Becki whispers as he turns and leads his men on the offensive.

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