Chapter 78: Aftermath

It doesn't take Cygnus command long to realize that things have gone horribly, unexpectedly wrong. That includes the drop they sent to Max's position. They saw the super heavy units still present as well as all the Reavers in field maintenance position laid out inside the village and assumed that they were victorious but lost communications.

They learned better when Wrath of Carb began shooting down landers. But by that time they had already sent the location a months rations and all new equipment for ten thousand infantry that were inbound with the landers.

The similarity between the two nations landers was remarkable to Max. Both were a flying brick with huge thrusters on one end and doors on the other, with small folding wings for stability and maneuvering in the atmosphere.

The Cygnus army had almost immediately sent a mecha unit in a failed attempt to recover at least one pod, since the floods and scorching hot shock wave had destroyed almost all the provisions they had in the region and very few reinforcements survived.

Max also learned from their communications that the orbital strike that destroyed the city Wrath of Carb was stationed at was a Kepler attack, with the friendly fleet believing his position to be overrun already due to the signal jamming. An entire Cygnus Heavy Mecha Regiment was lost in the attack, and an unknown number of infantry.

General Carb hadn't realized things were that bad around him before the strike, but the Cygnus report reveals that with the city destroyed, the bridge is now a front line strategic location. One that they don't intend to allow to remain in Kepler hands.

The following day starts out with an attempt to paradrop special forces in exoskeletal armor just before dawn. None made it to the ground intact. That was followed five minutes later by a double wing of Reavers attempting to capture a drop pod, only to realize that the Kepler forces had already emptied them.

When they realized that their mission had just gotten much harder they didn't hesitate to rush the trenches, going to complete a recovery. General Carb was sleeping and Max was off duty so Nico led the defense in typically Nico fashion.

She had all the light mecha in the defense line pick the same target and fire in organized volleys. Every two seconds when she called the volley, a Reaver died and a new target was chosen. Only three other Crusaders were on duty, but following the same tactic at twice the firing rate they managed to eliminate the enemy without taking any casualties.

Alone, the light mecha don't do much to a Reaver at maximum range, but twenty at a time they had no problem at all, it was just a matter of organizing them to target the same point. The Cygnus raiders didn't even get into infantry heavy weapons range.

"You'd think they'd learn." Max sighed to himself after the third patrol sized raid that day. With just the entrenched infantry and the few light Mecha that are on duty, the base could turn away 20 light Mecha and a wing of three close combat Reavers.

The enemy can see they've got Wrath of Carb plus a number of Crusaders here. What are they even trying to accomplish with these small scale raids?

Meanwhile in the Cygnus command bunker, things were not going well. Light Mecha sent on patrol are running out of fuel, the Reavers are low on ammunition everywhere along the front lines and General stores are in an even worse condition.

The resupply attempt was an absolute disaster and forces have been acting independently to attempt to claim whatever they can to survive after the flood. Everthing is chaos, but the Lord Commander of the theater refuses to listen to anything his advisors say.

Or at least, the ones that are left after he had the first group executed for telling things like they are. Treason and Cowardice he called it.

"Can't you even take a simple bridge?" The Cygnus Lord Commander shouts at his front line Generals who are doing their best not to roll their eyes at his temper tantrum.

"It's been days since the landing, and we haven't taken a single position in our advance towards the southern cities. You're trying to make me look like an idiot, aren't you?" He screams, his face turning blotchy red with the effort, as sweat rolls in beads down his portly face.

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None present dared to tell him he was an idiot. They'd lost over a hundred thousand Mecha and ten times that many troops in the landing disaster he ordered. None of the supply drops for this sector had survived, and an orbital strike had destroyed all the Kepler supplies they could otherwise have used from the city ruins.

The Kepler defense strategy and the resultant floods from the destroyed mother ships has amounted to a scorched earth policy, there is nothing left behind, and the Cygnus supply lines have been shattered. Even with orbital superiority, they are likely to starve to death if the Kepler Mecha don't get to them first.

If they can't get things sorted within the week, mass desertion is likely. At that point, there is no point trying to go home, they would be exiled as traitors and pariahs for the incredible loss of life in a failed battle assisting a foreign rebellion.

The reinforcements who survived to reach the ground went on half rations the day they arrived, and they needed to take a Major City to recover enough to stabilize their hold, but that has proven impossible so far.

"My lord, if we could just get a supply drop for the target region." one General begins, causing the Lord Commander to smash his fist on the table in rage.

"We can't get one until we take either that bridge or the Capital that Carpe Noctem is holding, that evil bastard. They've got an orbital defense weapon in the city there somewhere that our supply pods are in range of, and whoever is holding that bridge does too.

The bridge defence is a handful of Crusaders and a mangled Phalanx that didn't even have main weapons working the last time we got a confirmation of its status, so it can't be much better now. They have no supply lines or spare parts. How could they even mount a proper defence this point?"

The Lord Commander is in a full on rage now, so the Generals dismiss themselves to make a plan.

"Assuming that Phalanx is active and they have ammunition, what do we need?" one asks.

"We've only got two Super Heavies in the zone. Send both. Reports say up to ten more Crusaders left, so send fifty Reavers minimum, and a hundred scout class light Mecha to breach the trenches and take out the remaining infantry positions?"

"And if the force that survived the bombarded city are all still at the bridge in hiding?" an old General asks softly.

"Then, given their numbers and assuming they have ammunition left, we'd need a minimum of 100 main Mecha to match their Crusader Class units in fortified positions, plus both Super Heavies and 200 light mecha."

"So what you're saying is we're all going?" The General who tried to get a supply drop says with a defeated laugh. Four of the Six were Pilots of the two Super Heavies, and the others led now mostly depleted Mecha regiments.

"Might as well empty the city then, send everything we have left in the zone. Death or Glory."

"Death or Glory."

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