As the Drone Fighters screamed down from orbit the Super Heavy Mecha stepped forward into the gaps left by fallen Crusaders, giving their defensive weapons a clear line of sight to engage the Klem. The number of missiles that they carried was limited, but the four sets of Gatling Lasers were free to fire at full capacity.
With his Ion Bombard Array set to maximum dispersion, creating unstable, exploding energy balls that raced into the Klem lines beyond the fire, Max did his best to repel the enemy from his small slice of the defensive lines.
Using his System Skills let Max target the Shredders that were in range and most likely to attack his Mecha, which meant that he was taking far less incoming fire than most of the others. That was enough to stall the momentum of the Klem advance and force them to regroup.
Once one sector had been stalled, the others began to retreat as well, realizing that their previous tactic had failed and that they would need to find a new way.
The flamers fell silent as the Klem left their range, though the intense heat from the weapons lingered much longer, and the black haze of burning bodies lingered in the air as the fires on the ground spread through the closest walls of bodies that the attackers had used to shield their advance.
If it wasn’t for the constant beat of the Thunder Guns firing, it would have almost been a moment of peace on the front line. Instead, the contrast between the calm in front of them and the violence that they knew the big guns were sending into the distance made for a surreal experience as the two forces stared each other down.
Then the artillery from the rear line of Mecha met the barrage from the First and Fifth Battalions and all hell broke loose on the battlefield. Gone were any grand plans of victory, or finding the Kepler army’s leader, the only thought the Klem had left was vengeance.
The central force was closest, so that was the direction that they charged, heedless of the wall of Fusion Flamers that met them on the way in. So dense was the wave of bodies that those in front didn’t even fall, they were dragged forward even in death, as those behind were pushed by the third line when they too inevitably died to the horrendous heat.
The eight Super Heavy Mecha turned the Thunder guns downward, no longer lobbing artillery fire into the distance, but directly firing them into the last fifty meters in front of their own lines, sending burning chunks of chitin flying through the air, hissing, and smoking as the moisture was burned out of them.
Despite the wrath of the Kepler forces, some few Klem still made it close enough to engage the Corvettes guarding the front lines, who had changed tactics to a full defense, only guarding themselves until the Crusader Class units behind them killed the monstrous insects or the Klem burned to death.
On and on the fight raged, with the Drone fighters overhead unleashing their Laser Arrays into the Klem force long after the bombs had all been deployed. Most of the Shredders were dead now, targeted for destruction by the Super Heavy Mecha, so the fighters were in little real danger, other than the lack of visibility caused by the fires.
[First Battalion Commander, this is Third Battalion Command. We are now at the two-kilometer point and have visual confirmation of your position. Proceeding with the cleanup.] Came a welcome voice over the command channel.
At this point, that was beyond Max’s optical range, due to the haze, but his sensors had already picked up the Mecha in the distance, and the sensor feeds from the drones and Drone Fighters had kept him updated on their entire advance.
[Confimed, Third Battalion. Once the two fields of flame meet we will drop ours to finish the remnants.] Max agreed.
The others weren’t far behind the Third Battalion, advancing under the cover of the Fusion Flamers, burning everything in their path to ashes. When the two sides were one hundred and fifty meters apart the two fields of flame met and the First Battalion dropped theirs, lashing out with the rest of their weapons to clear the last few Klem targets from the battlefield.
It was total annihilation, but that was the only way to stop them from repopulating and coming back in a few days to try again.
[First Battalion to Regimental Command. The Klem’s presence has been eliminated from the initial containment zone. Beginning rearming and repair of the forces still in the field.] Max reported and a big smile spread across General Yaakov’s face.
The battle was a heavy victory for them, with under ten percent casualties, and most of those still had surviving pilots and chassis that would be repairable with more time than they had during the battle. The Higher Ups would be pleased with the news, and Central Command had already received reports of additional forces being deployed to the area to clear the Klem presence from the mountain regions.
[Supply Pods are incoming with munitions and raw materials. All Battalions, reposition the Landers to form a base camp within five kilometers of the central base camp to effect repairs and await orders.]
The order made every Battalion Commander sigh in defeat. General Yaakov was still on Abraham Kepler, he couldn’t possibly understand just how hot and horrible smelling this place was, much less the effects of the thick smoke on their logistics crews. It would clear out eventually, as almost all of the bodies were either burnt or still burning, but the landscape here was a scorched nightmare, and so heavily battered by artillery fire that there was no such thing as an actual flat spot for a lander, so moving around the camps would be treacherous, no matter where they placed them.
[First Battalion, rotate out. On duty Crusader Class Pilots, report to the Landers to collect a plow. Pile the Klem bodies into bonfires and get this mess cleaned up so we can breathe again.] Max ordered, setting the unit in motion.
Fifth Battalion did the same, deciding to simply camp exactly where they were, intermingled with the First Battalion. They could scatter their Landers around the Base Camp and settle in. It wasn’t like anywhere within five kilometers was going to be any better than where they were now.