Chapter 79
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:Aoki_Aku
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Max decided that sending scout teams out on motorcycles was going to be a necessary upgrade. After the flood washed away so much in the area the area they needed to watch was much larger, owing to the lack of hiding spots. That meant more mobility was needed in order to maintain security.
They are a standard part of most nation's infantry kit, though the 111th was all out of them by the time they arrived on this planet.
Fortunately for them, their kind and generous Cygnus Drop Master benefactors had bequeathed them a massive supply of infantry equipment, which included a number of the electric powered scout bikes. They could be solar charged slowly, or quick charged from a Mecha, and were assembled from their transport crate in minutes.
Max sent the scouts in pairs, every pair that they could get mobile, including a few pairs in ramshackle civilian transports that were somehow still functional after all the combat in the area. This silence felt like bad news to everyone, like the enemy was just taking time to regroup and stroke back harder.
So currently, the scouts are arrayed between them and the cities, with a pair of fast moving Sentinel pattern Mecha sent forward to watch for advances from the most likely direction, where Wrath of Carb was driven out from.
Not even a Corvette Class Mecha can catch a Sentinel at full running speed, so it is much safer than sending scout bikes to the most dangerous point in their forward positions.
"Colonel, reporting mass enemy movement. Two Super Heavy Mecha and a hundred plus Reaver Class, with light mecha support units." The Sentinels report in the next morning, and Max can hear the exertion in the Pilots voice as they run back for the main force.
Oh, how he hates being right.
"All patrols, report back to base, all units to defense positions, get the missile buggies dug in with sightlines to the river if we have any munitions left. Every pilot and heavy weapon team to the ready."
"Deploy around the full perimeter." Wrath of Carb adds. "I've fought this Commander before, they will send forces to flank and encircle, looking for a weak point to breach and enter the base in order to gain the advantage of close combat."
"You all heard the General. Full circle defence, heavy on the riverside where the main force will approach from."
Wrath of Carb was precisely correct with his predictions. Fifty Reaver Class Mecha plus both Super Heavy units and a plethora of light Mecha are in front of them across the river, just out of easy weapons range. At the same time, fifty additional Reaver Class Mecha and more light mecha have been spotted circling the fort at a distance, looking for a way in.
The way they're holding back looks as if they don't like what they see. Nico rushes to hack the custom secure channel they are using for this mission, not wanting to miss any orders or updates.
It takes a few minutes, since they aren't using the standard encryption algorithm, but she does manage to get a workable signal before they attack.
"It's the worst-case scenario, Sir." She hears. "I count nine visible Crusaders plus a full company of light mecha, another dozen possible hidden units and the Wrath of Carb."
"How does the Carb look? Did they get it repaired?" This voice sounds hopeful.
"Negative, sir, it looks to be disabled, with an assault shield blocking the front of the cockpit and partially repaired armour." The plan worked then. The shield is the one that saved its life during the last big fight, and the armour is patched in the essential areas but in need of paint to make everything match.
"We can do this. Even fortified, those Crusaders can't stand against two Super Heavies. The attack begins in two minutes." The voice of the Cygnus Commander announces.
"I got an intercept on the Cygnus command channel. They suspect our true strength but believe Carb is disabled. The attack begins in 90 seconds." Nico announces to Stalwart Battalion.
"Then we attack in 15 seconds. Ten seconds, pick your targets. 4, 3, 2, GO." Max counts down the attack.
Missiles fly from the upgraded personnel carriers, and a barrage of Ion Fire flies out, crashing into the Cygnus Mecha while they're preparing. A flurry of projectiles follows, the hidden Mecha revealing themselves to get in on the fight. The only one that hasn't moved is the Wrath of Carb.
The incoming Cygnus Mecha reach the ravine in a wave two dozen strong, closing as fast as they can to take advantage of their strength in close combat when Wrath of Carb comes alive, its flamer melting armour plating. At the same time, the Ion Bombardment Array turns on the Super Heavies.
They've been pelted with missiles and have been doing more evading than shooting, but when the first of them is hit by the big guns of the Wrath of Carb, priorities change. They stop evading and turn their weapons on their wounded peer.
That's the signal for Stalwart and the missile buggies to go all out on the Super Heavies. A wave of 60 missiles, the last of their supply, focuses on only the two targets along with the battle cannon and the Pulse Lasers of Stalwart.
One Reaver has gotten close enough to attempt to jump the river near him and Max hits it with both Plasma shotguns at once, turning the heavy central armour to molten slag.
He will have to thank Nico later, these new guns are amazing for close quarters defense.
"For the record, I dislike this plan." Wrath of Carb says as hundreds of fist sized rounds slam into the shield hung in front of its torso from the rapid fire Cannons on the Cygnus Super Heavy units.
One Cygnus Super Heavy explodes outright when the barrage of return fire from the Kepler forces hits it, the explosion knocking the other over.
Wrath of Carb recovers from the barrage, the shield it was wearing is now shredded and the armour behind it showing moderate damage after his barrier shield collapsed under the onslaught. A second burst of the mighty Ion Bombard Array disables the toppled Cygnus Super Heavy, and a cheer goes up from the defenders.
Max hears the air raid siren on Tarith's Rage make a noise he's sure is laughter, and the aggressive red Mecha charges at a sword-wielding opponent that just crossed the river, its blade at the ready.
The other sides are doing a little better than the portion at the river, still holding their opponents outside the trenches. The Kepler side of the gunfire is mostly energy based now, infantry projectile rifles do nearly nothing to Mecha, and they are about out of ammunition for them anyhow.
The Cygnus energy rifles might not be as familiar, but they have a lot of them available, and a supply of charged spare power cells.
Max turns his battle cannon towards the southern road, where a heavy Mecha of a design he doesn't recognize has crashed through the defences. Two quick battle cannon rounds slam into the stout Mecha's back and it explodes in a tremendous fireball.
He sees one of the defenders go down, and he unloads on the victorious Cygnus Mecha, knocking it backwards, where it receives a sword through its power core courtesy of Tarith's Rage, before collapsing in an oddly human way. Nico kicks the Mecha off her sword and dashes back into the fray.
Crashing a hundred tons of metal into brutal hand-to-hand combat might not be the most efficient combat method ever. Still, it's got a substantial psychological effect every time she kills an enemy Mecha.
The survivors of the attack are retreating, along with what Max assumes was supposed to be the second wave of forces, had the battle been more evenly matched, and the defenders start taking inventory of their losses.
"Stalwart, we have movement on the field, sensors suggest it is a pilot. Moving to intercept." Tarith's Rage announces over the speaker. She must have damaged her radio, Max decides.
"Kindly bring me your Ranking Noble, good pilot of Tarith's Rage. I am Lord General Kirkland, and I would like to surrender." The bloodied man near the downed Super Heavy announces with a sigh of resignation when Nico approaches.
80 Chapter 80
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:Aoki_Aku
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Lord General is a Cygnus title that elevates the rank of a Noble above the hereditary rank of their birth. All Cygnus Generals will be Nobles, but during wartime the Lord General ranks only slightly below the Lord Commander who will be in charge of this theater of War.
"I believe General Carb is a proper noble, please take a seat and I will escort you to him." Nico answers politely, kneeling and placing her Ion Destroyer on the ground. He can sit or lay down on it and hold the safety rails used by maintenance crews.
The voice sounds young, the General thinks. Perhaps the young Pilot lost her family here to the rebels before his forces arrived? The Cygnus Empire values noble blood very highly and took offense from the start to the rebel's tactics, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Lord General Kirkland checks the intelligence files on his wrist device, checking for any mention of Tarith's Rage in their files. What he finds is a bit of a shock though. The Tarith family is an ancient noble line, and at one point even married a Cygnus Imperial family member into their ranks. That would make this pilot an Imperial noble of Cygnus, as well as a hereditary noble in Kepler, even if she wasn't the most senior member, in line to inherit the titles.
Of course, there are millions of people who qualify as Imperial nobles at this point, but that doesn't mean that the Cygnus culture holds them in any lower esteem. The Imperial family has a long history of great deeds and not just those in direct contention for the throne.
"Might you join me for coffee while the papers are drawn, young Lady?" The General asks, curious to learn more about the situation within the Kepler Kingdom and the Tarith family.
"Forgive me, General. The battlefield is no place for a respectable young lady. I don't customarily leave my Mecha until a tour is over. I do hope you understand." Nico responds politely, making the General seated on the main weapon of her mecha smile.
"Of course, safety first. You spoke as if this is not your homeworld; might this not be your first combat engagement?"
"I arrived with the Abraham Kepler, straight from the battle at Belmont, on my first patrol after academy training." None of this was information the Cygnus intelligence couldn't already get in seconds, should the General be sending audio back in a way she couldn't detect.
"The Tarith's Rage has a splendid reputation among the forces." a voice comes from beside them as they enter the city, and Nico can see that the pilot has departed the Wrath of Carb, standing at the doorway to his giant mecha in preparation to head to ground level.
"Brigadier General Viscount Carb. At your service. Please follow me, and we will process your surrender while my Mecha is repaired. The last barrage caused some control module damage."
The two nobles head to the local academy, where they can hold a proper discussion, and Nico returns to the field to continue her search, along with the light mecha and a few of the crusaders who have functional hands.
Very little on the Cygnus Mecha interchanges with their equipment, but it felt wrong to leave it lying about, so Max ordered it all collected and stored within the city until they could find a use for it.
An hour later, the search teams made a notable find among the limited amount of potentially useful bits, an ejection pod from the exploded Super Heavy Mecha. It was damaged but indicated life inside.
[Tarith's Rage to General Carb, come in.]
[Go ahead Tarith, how might I help you?] He sounds very formal; he must still be with the other Commander.
"Cleanup crew have recovered the ejected pilot's compartment from the other Super Heavy. Should I bring them to you for relocation, or should I leave them in there for a while?"
There's a long pause. "Gather all survivors. Cygnus is willing to ransom all their officers."
"Keep all officers alive if found, recovery crew. Their country is willing to repurchase all of them with terms." The infantry laugh at the Tarith's Rage. Of course, all Cygnus officers get Ransom, the same way that the infantry gets rewards for the pilots that they capture alive. Lately, they have been too hard-pressed by the attackers to keep Cygunus captives, so they haven't been making the effort and have been letting them flee instead. Or perhaps, only fighting rebel bureaucrats and their forces during her short time as a Pilot, she had become used to just killing everyone for treason?
Two more survivors in Brigadier General uniforms are found among the rubble, along with 3 Captains and a Major. Not bad, considering under fifty units survived to flee. All are brought to Tarith's Rage for sorting, and the capsule is pried open, releasing both pilots alive.
"Greetings, assembled officers. I am told you value noble rank over military rank, is that correct?"
They all nod, and she continues, "Good, my knowledge of Cygnus culture is limited. I am the Lady Tarith, pilot of Tarith's Rage. As civilized combatants, you will be brought to our base to await ransom negotiations. Those that don't wish that can be granted a merciful death now, dying in battle with full honors."
This was an honor they never expected. Being ransomed back will cost their families immensely, but dying as cowards would cost their entire lineage their title and good standing.
The coup de grace, or merciful death, was a custom of Nico's old life, she remembered. More commonly used for the severely injured, it was also granted to those whose honor demanded that they not be held captive after a loss.
One Captain stands up straighter. "Madam Tarith, my family is poor and newly promoted. We could not possibly afford the ransom. I'm afraid I shall perish of my injuries here."
"My condolences, sir." She says, then flicks his head with a giant finger, shattering his skull and neck.
"Someone gather his name for the dead on arrival lists."
"Thank you for your consideration. Cygnus pays a sizeable death benefit to the families who lose a pilot in combat." One of the Generals bows to the sinister-looking Crusader class mecha, the blood-red paint now scorched and gouged all over, and splattered with mud and oil.
"Now, to get you all to your compatriot. One pilot of the other Super Heavy survived as well." Nico informs them.
That's 5 of 6 Command Staff Generals apprehended, they realize. The Lord Commander will likely flee in shame at having ordered a mission that got so many Generals captured alive.
81 Chapter 81
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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The captured officers proved to be of greater benefit than was expected by anyone in the Kepler military. The Major and the Captain that they had captured both had an Imperial family, and the three other pilots were considered high-value assets.
The Cygnus Fleet decided to use the prisoner exchange negotiation to escape the debacle the Lord Commander had created, holding him up as a warmonger and scapegoat while arranging a ceasefire and withdrawal plan from the planet. It was only six of the eighteen Generals on the planet captured or killed, but it was all in one day and included the Lord General, who currently had the favor of a large part of the administration in the Defense Department.
[Bridge Defense zone, prepare for a return to the Abraham Kepler. Liftoff is scheduled in 72 hours, please begin preparing your lander for reorbit launch. Central Command requires confirmation of lander functionality within the next 24 hours. Inform Command directly if the lander is inoperative for alternative removal.] Comes the orders for Max and his unit.
[You heard the command. Time to dig up the lander and run diagnostics. Seventy-two hours until we're back on board the Abraham Kepler.] Max relays to the units gathered within the village. That causes some confusion, as they did not all arrive on board the Abraham Kepler.
It's not unheard of though, and with an intense orbital battle, there is a good chance that some of the transport ships are destroyed or currently inoperative. The standard procedure after such a battle is to extract everyone as efficiently as possible and reorganize at a staging base to refill the complements of the ships that are still in service, as well as replenish the ranks of depleted units. They might be added to new recruitment, or possibly retired early in the case of an infantry unit that is nearing the end of its service.
"What are your plans for after this, General Carb? I heard you lost your copilot early in the rebellion before we had even arrived." Max asks the Phalanx Class pilot that evening, curious as to what his plans are. The Wrath of Carb was stationed on this planet before the battle, plus this is his homeworld, but at this point, most of the population is dead and the planet itself is in horrible shape.
"I'll be with our esteemed guests until the transfer, then I'm going to go back and see if there's anything left of my home. This is my world, after all." The General confirms.
With the help of so many mecha, digging up the lander only takes a few hours, and the systems all test well. A quick test fire lifts it off the ground and out of the pit they dug for it without any issues, so Max relays the information of the test fire to Command and has the infantry double-check the structure and do another pressure holding test. They are the ones who will be unprotected against the atmosphere inside the lander, if it leaks they all die, so they're the best ones to test it.
For two days, Max was stuck in the Academy command room with the ranking officers, doing paperwork while the defense crew at the bridge packed everything that they possibly could into the lander for merits and war trophies. They have acquired a vast amount of gear since their arrival, from two different nations. Mecha chassis, the armored personnel transports they mounted rocket pods on, spare parts, guns, and all sorts of goodies that they are hoping to keep for their next engagements.
In the end, they barely fit all of the important equipment. But it does all fit and is slightly below the maximum allowed weight for the lander once their mecha and troops are added.
Notifications come in from Command four hours before liftoff. The Wrath of Carb will be staying behind, his duty requires him to be here on the planet and orbital scans show that his home city is relatively intact. The officers gathered for Ransom will be going with Max and his men to the Abraham Kepler, where the official prisoner exchange will occur.
The Shining Darkness will also be returning to the Abraham Kepler, with the Carpe Noctem plus an attached armored regiment joining them, as their transport ship was destroyed in the orbital battle. Most of the infantry and mecha from the bridge that didn't start the battle with Max are from those regiments, so it works out perfectly for them, getting to rejoin their comrades right away instead of having to wait for reorganization.
"So, will you finally be joining us down here, Tarith?" Captain Tarsus jokes after the orders are finalized. "Or have you become so comfortable in there that you're not planning to leave?"
Captain Tarsus doesn't get a verbal response. Instead, the data transfer function on his wrist device receives a photo of a cockpit bunk piled with soft blankets and pillows, with a data tablet open to the book 'Embracing Minimalism for a Bigger Life' sitting in the middle.
"So, what did she have to say?" Max asks, wondering when he'll see his friend in the flesh again, and the Captain shows him the picture, laughing.
"Yeah, that sounds like her. I'll get the crew to make her disembark before everyone has dispersed." Max assures the eager Captain.
The longer-serving members of the defense forces have been telling ghost stories to the new arrivals about Tarith's Rage being an autonomous mecha, operating itself on pure bloodlust ingrained into its onboard systems. The infantry is known to be superstitious, and the rumor seems to have caught on entirely too well. Her aggressive combat style and the modified voices that she uses for the intercom didn't help the situation either.
In the end, Max doesn't have to do anything to get her to come out. A protocol notice just before liftoff informs the entire Battalion that the senior officer and all present Nobles are required to attend to the captured officers personally until the hand-off, with two armed guards for each "Esteemed Guest."
Nico's name is listed on the order as "Lady Tarith", with verifying documents sent from the Kepler 142 station confirming her identity and lineage at the time that Tarith's Rage was deployed.
"Who did they bang to get the VIP treatment?" a sour-sounding Nico complains as she exits her mecha for the first time since they left orbit and the nearby officers laugh at her irritable nature and the way she shields her eyes even in the thick haze that covers the sun these days.
"Captain Tarsus, Captain Catan, you will each send five men to guard duty. I don't want any screw-ups, so make them good." Max orders, and the two officers leave to inform their troopers.
Max's command guarantees both Captains will be on the guard team, along with a few superstitious soldiers eager to see the elusive Nico Tarith in the flesh. They bring two more officers and two enlisted men each. Both in case chores need to be done and to give the enlisted fewer chances to complain. The possible existence of a Young Lady inside Tarith's Rage has been a significant talking point and rumor amongst the troops, after all. Leaving the enlisted out would just breed resentment.
"The Lady Tarith seems to be in an irritable mood." One of the captured Cygnus Generals notes to Max when he sees her going over the orders with the Captains.
"She hasn't killed anyone in three days, it makes her grumpy." Max laughs.
"But honestly, I think she just doesn't want to get out of her cockpit and interact with people. Out here, she can't just turn her radio to a different channel to tune chatter out."
Max knows she had done that more than once, he saw it in her mind. Everyone else believed that her radio was down and she was working to repair it, but in reality, she was just more interested in the book that she had brought with her than human interaction and only had the volume on sensors and alerts turned up.
Even with orders to accompany the other officers during their trip to orbit, Nico waited until the last minute to exit her mecha, after everyone else was secured in for takeoff. She hopped down from the hull to the attached securement beam with a graceful bounce that was clearly well beyond what average humans should be capable of, waving to the assembled infantry as they sat staring in shock.
"I thought she was going to stay locked in?"
"Didn't you hear, she was ordered to accompany the captive Generals?"
"She's so tiny."
That was the overwhelming thought in the minds of the Battalion on first meeting Pilot Nico. Her 145cm height hadn't increased even a little bit during their stay, where Max had already needed to switch dress uniforms, his old ones were a size too small in the chest and legs when he tried to put them on the first morning after the battle. The pilot suits were much more forgiving of sizing.
"Welcome, Captain… Nico?" The door guard greeted her at the entry to the prisoner's cabin.
"You're Captain Nico, of Tarith's Rage?" he stammered in shock.
"Good reaction, I like that surprised face. Now, will you kindly open that door and get yourself secured so we can lift off?" Nico smiled back at him.
The guard opens the door, securing himself into the hard-mounted chair nearby before closing it behind her.
"Sorry for the delays, gentlemen. We should be ready for liftoff."
The look on every Cygnus Officer's face is one of complete shock. This is the pilot of the fearless and brutal Tarith's Rage? This small child? She wears a perfectly fitted Captain's uniform, so it must be her, but they had expected that rash and aggressive pilot to be someone large and imposing. The person in front of them doesn't fit the image in their minds at all.
"Are we sure that the Kepler Kingdom hasn't been committing war crimes? The captured Major asks. "There are international conventions on recruitment for war that prohibit the use of child soldiers."
Nico laughs and hops into a chair to secure herself while the others look for a good answer. Because, yes, by all legal standards, their command staff is proof of war crimes. Neither Stalwart nor Tarith's Rage should have been sent into battle for an entire year after they had been assigned to these pilots, and in normal circumstances, they wouldn't have been. The rebellion had led to an emergency deployment, and the fact that there were cadet pilots in Crusaders who had not met the two years after puberty legal standard for adulthood never occurred to Command. Such an early advancement to Piloting Crusaders was all but unheard of, so it wasn't something that they checked.
After the battle of Belmont, they were both fully commissioned and battle-tested officers, so Command simply adjusted their birthdates in the official records and pretended that nothing untoward had ever happened.
"Appearances can be deceiving, General. While I'm certain I still look to be in the prime of my youth, I can assure you that I was already an experienced officer when the battles between Kepler and the Cygnus army started." Nico assures them, glossing over the finer details.
"We were in the same class at the academy, Captain Nico is only a few minutes younger than I am." Max assures them, putting their minds at ease. While he still looks young, he has filled out into a tall and well-muscled young man, his closely cropped, sandy blonde hair has darkened a little from his time inside the mecha and the stress of battle has added wisdom to his face that makes him look more mature and responsible.
To Cygnus, the minimum legal age for combat troops is 14. Max is only a year younger than that in this reincarnation, but with the memories of his past life slowly filling in, it has been a while since he felt his age. The captured officers take a moment to digest the news about the petite pilot being a veteran before this engagement and a comfortable silence momentarily fills the room.
Now that the battle is over and he can actually relax, Max is also starting to feel the change in his system. Live combat helps a soldier grow more than any form of training, and Max is certain that he had gained a lot from this deployment, he simply hadn't felt a need to look at the details, when he could look at the results of the increases in the accuracy and speed of his multiple targeting skills.
[Keres Max]
[Compatibility Determined] Rank A
[Primary Attribute] STR 2.5x modifier
[Secondary Bonuses] DEX 2x, SPD 2x
[STR] 3+105%
[DEX] 3+62%
[SPD] 3+62%
[Innate Talent] Mind Reading
[Additional Function Unit Optimization]
[Additional Function Multi Point Targeting]
[Additional Function Split Fire]
82 Chapter 82
Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:
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With everyone securely strapped in, the lander was ready for its final checks before launch. Wrath of Carb also wouldn't leave the area until they were over the horizon, in case any attempt to assassinate the prisoners was made. With his array of weaponry, he was able to shoot down most types of missiles that might be fired at the lander, a small bit of extra security for Max's trip back home.
Without the urgent rush of combat, the Lander lifts smoothly off the ground and makes the transition from an anti-gravity field hover to forward flight. In order to get enough fuel to make orbit, they had to drain most of the Cygnus light mecha that still had intact tanks and bring their own light mecha down below a quarter tank, and even at that, they were going to be close on fuel levels if they have to do much additional maneuvering.
Fuel planning for the landers assumes that they will be coming back up the same weight or lighter than when they landed, to account for combat losses and light mecha usage during combat. That wasn't at all the case for their unit, so improvisation was needed.
Most of the passengers in the officer's room are silent as they launch, tense about their launch being discovered and attacked by one side or the other, but Nico and General Kirkland are having a polite conversation about interior decoration of all things.
They are both of the belief that the standard drab color scheme is not optimal for a pilot's mental focus, believing that a wider variety of colors, as well as warm and relaxing tones, would help pilots to feel at ease. When pilots are more relaxed, they should be more in tune with their mecha, which will lead to lower fatigue levels, more attentiveness as well as decreased reaction times.
The other Generals seem amused at the way that they are subtly probing each other for control tricks and the limitations of their respective mecha, but the infantry officers that are there to supervise the Cygnus officers just look a bit horrified at the implications of increased pilot efficiency. Even slightly more deadly mecha just means an even more brutal massacre for them.
"Lady Tarith, is it true that you painted skulls on the bottom of your Crusader's feet to terrify enemy light mecha in combat?" One of the Colonels they captured asks, making all the members of Max's force laugh.
"On the contrary, the feet of Tartith's Rage have smiley faces painted on them. For a Kinder, Gentler form of intimidation." Nico disagrees, making Max snort in laughter.
"But Tarith's Rage is hardly noteworthy as a Mecha, other than its ancient manufacture. I haven't even customized it yet, the pattern is the same as it was a thousand years ago. Most of the mecha in our unit underwent upgrades during the battle, either due to lack of munitions or for increased firepower." she continues with a big smile which makes the Cygnus officers frown.
"We noticed. That Stalwart piloted by Captain Max is a fine example of battlefield ingenuity, using our own Plasma Shotguns against us to offset the weakness of a fully ranged Crusader in close combat." General Kirkland says with a slightly sour tone.
"Don't take it the wrong way General, I would have used Kepler close combat weapons if I had them handy, but we had such a fine collection of Plasma Shotguns that it would have been a waste not to make good use of them. Just wait, before the next battle, I'm going to teach him the art of kicking mecha in the face." Nico laughs, making the slender and gray-haired General Kirkland smile a little.
"I've heard that the Kepler pilots' so-called System Functions can do wonderful things, but I don't think that just anyone can accurately handle a mecha during that sort of extreme maneuver. Just the turn to actually land the kick has to be near 3 times standard gravity inside the cockpit. That's why we switched to neural links instead of control suits, while your Crusaders still use hand controls." he counters.
"When you only weigh 35 kilos, you don't need much strength to perform mecha-based acrobatics." one of the other Generals snickers, looking over to where Nico's head doesn't even reach the headrest of the seats, being pressed against the back rest by the launch forces that aren't being fully dampened by the gravity control of the lander.
"You wouldn't want to face her in a basketball game." Max agrees, reminding the others that he is in the room. He might be in command, but she is the only one with anything resembling a noble title as far as Max knows, and Cygnus values that over military rank.
The lander transitions to zero gravity as it leaves the atmosphere and the warning alarm sounds.
[Gravity Field adjustment Failure. Please service at your soonest convenience.]
The polite notification for a situation that could well kill anyone inside the lander in case of an emergency landing brings a bit of levity to the assembled troops in the main chamber, before it is followed a few seconds later by a navigational update.
[3 minutes to docking with the Abraham Kepler]
"They must be anxious to meet us if they've come that close to the atmosphere. I don't suppose you have an outside viewer to show us the situation between the fleets?" General Kirkland asks, but Max shakes his head.
"They were damaged during the landing. We're almost flying blind up here. But the navigation system checked out, and we still have access to the automated system, should we need to make adjustments."
"That's fine then. Lady Tarith, are you betrothed yet? I have a son who would benefit greatly from a personality like yours." General Kirkland changes the topic with a sly wink.
Nico laughs at his alliance suggestion, knowing it's just a joke. Both Imperial families would have to approve of such a union, and the two countries were officially at war 4 days ago.
"Unfortunately, that's not an option. Though I hear Captain Catan here, younger son of Baron Catan is in dire need of a pretty, young bride now that his term of service is coming to a close." Nico teases, making the infantry Captain blush a little, highlighting the scars on his face.
"Where did you hear that? I hid my family lineage when I applied."
Now it is Max that is laughing. "You thought you could hide anything from Nico Tarith? You were deluding yourself. She likely looked through your mother's photo album before trusting you with unsupervised command of Bravo Company."
In fact, she had. Young Captain Garrett's mother practically lived to post photos on the net, she had seen hundreds of the Captain's childhood photos once she knew where to look on the Kepler data networks.
"Your mother is a skilled photographer." she commends, showing everyone a photo of him in his kindergarten uniform.
General Kirkland is having a great laugh at Captain Catan's expense. "See boys, this is the kind of banter a unit should have. They're not stuck on rank or protocol, they're a proper officers corps."
From there on out, the conversation is light, often about family, while the trials of war and the battle that brought this odd group together are ignored. It's almost a disappointment when the lander docks with the Abraham Kepler and the orders to disembark come.
[All arriving units fall in for inspection. Officers and guests hold fast in the secured quarters for further instructions.]
[You heard the automated notice. All units, exit the lander and fall in. Full checks will be done before you are assigned quarters.] Max calls over the intercoms.
While they wait with the Cygnus officers, the rest of the force slowly makes their way to the check-in area just outside the lander docks to have all their war spoils documented and the remaining company equipment and munitions, as well as casualties, injuries, and survivors inventoried. The check-in process will take hours, even though the infantry can go when they themselves are done and the mecha will get a full diagnostic later when they are in the repair bays.
A Kepler supply officer comes over to inspect the returning forces, turning to Captain Catan, who is the senior officer present. "Impressive troops. Is it just me, or are these troops better equipped after the battle than when they left?"
"We believe, as Kepler Infantry, in being ready for anything. As such, we scrounge the battlefield for everything useful and add it to our own equipment. If you look over to your left, you'll see our newly acquired troop transport vehicles." Captain Catan informs him with a smile, pointing at the missile buggies.
"Those are still infantry transports? How many do they hold?"
"Military Secret, I'm afraid. Not as many as stock, but the missile pods didn't take up too much capacity." The supply officer nods, knowing already how many the stock version can hold and not particularly caring what Bravo Company chose to do with their equipment, except the munitions capacity that will be needed to resupply them.
The signal is given that the Cygnus officers can be led out of the secure areas, and everyone straightens their uniforms and puts their hats back on, getting presentable to meet with whatever political dignitaries have been sent to greet the Generals.
"Generals, Imperial Highness, Captain Max, Lady Tarith. It is good to see your trip went safely." A politician in Cygnus's official government uniform greets them as he approaches.
"Ah, Jervis, good to see you here. Please do escort us to the ransom meeting" General Kirkland replies, making the man's eye twitch. Clearly, Jervis is not this man's name.
"This way, Sirs and Madam." He intones, motioning towards the far door.
Nico frowns, knowing that now there is no escape, she will be stuck in meetings until the small hours of the morning. Max gives her an amused smile, secretly glad that he doesn't have to suffer half a day of political nonsense alone. He is very good with troops, but with lifelong politicians and trade negotiations involving planets that he has never, and likely will never see? He really doesn't see any good reason for him to be there, except that he is the one who accepted their surrender.
"Now that everyone is here, the final discussion can begin. Does anyone have any special requests before we begin drawing up the agreement?"
"The pilot of Stalwart must be given a title. It cannot be said that we surrendered to a commoner, even if there were other nobles present at the time." One of the Generals insists.
"Simple enough. Anything else? No, then we can begin."
The discussions from the fifty or so people present went on for hours, and frankly, everyone is sick of sitting here. Except for a few bureaucrats, they are not doing anything but lending a title to the official record of the proceedings.
"You look a bit bored Lady Tarith, might I ask what's on your mind?" General Kirkland whispers when he notices that Nico has totally zoned out.
"If I had just squished you I could be eating dinner right now," Nico whispers back with a big grin, making the man laugh out loud and interrupt the proceedings.
"Something amusing about the transfer of mining materials in exchange for textiles? Lord General Kirkland, Lady Tarith?" The head negotiator asks.
"Battlefield humor good sir. Please, do continue." Nico says in her best formal voice, causing a round of low laughter at the lifelong politicians that have been appointed to head the meeting, who are the only people in the room that were not a soldier at some point, while also being the only ones that actually need to be here right now.
At least they brought in a fine buffet, suitable for politicians and senior officers soon after. The negotiations continue for nine hours in total, and the outline of the agreement is over forty pages long, but it is finally complete.
"It was a pleasure shooting at you Gentlemen, enjoy your trip and I hope to meet you again on better terms." Nico waves farewell as the Cygnus contingent head for their shuttle, making Max and the Kepler delegation facepalm.
"Likewise, Lady Tarith. Perhaps you might get to enjoy our hospitality next time." General Kirkland replies with a smile and a bow.
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Bravo and Charlie Companies returned to the infantry quarters, with an ecstatic group of former convicts. The declaration came in while they were returning to the Abraham Kepler that they had earned their pardon and would be attached to their respective companies, and retired from active service with them when the ship reached Kepler 111 in only a few months' time.
Sure, it wasn't anywhere near their homeworlds, but that didn't matter. They were better off making a fresh start in a new world as returning war heroes than going home to be known as ex-convicts.
The infantry army and the 42nd armored are both set to retire from active duty after this battle. Only nine thousand of the original two hundred and fifty thousand infantry from the field army lived to return home, and the Mecha forces aren't in much better shape, under a third of their original strength. As a reward for heroism, they have all been granted a lifelong salary at their current rank and early retirement back to their homeworld of Kepler 111.
The salary means very little on the battlefield, but after a decade at war, they have quite a bit saved up, and what they get from now on will be enough for the officers to live comfortably, even if they had spent everything before they got home.
Max realizes that means they are losing everyone he has known and fought beside, except for Nico. A full new field army and an equally inexperienced armored regiment will be loaded on board the Abraham Kepler once the ceremonies for the returning veterans are complete. Experience can be earned quickly though. After all, it has only been two deployments and Max has become quite used to the rigors of combat at this point.
That experience came at a high cost though. Despite the relatively sheltered position that they were in at the start of the battle, they still lost a huge portion of their forces in a single battle. Max looked up the roster for the returning forces, and under a thousand of the conscripted prisoners will be going to Kepler 111, and almost all of the survivors are in Bravo and Charlie Company which were attached to him. The paperwork to get the pilots among them properly recognized for their position wasn't easy to get approved, but Max has managed it, so all the soldiers that served with him will be retired with everything that they are due.
Lieutenant Becki is a bit less enthusiastic than most to return home. All his siblings were pilots selected during the recruitment for the 42nd armored, and he is the only one coming back. He hasn't had the heart to tell his mother yet, but since it is their next stop, a form message from the military detailing their service and death benefits will be sent to his mother in the next few days.
Currently, he is trying to decide if he should tell her in advance or let her find out the hard way and have time to adjust before he shows up alone.
Personally, Max thinks it will be better for her to hear it from him first, then the denial phase can end when the letters show up, and she can start accepting the reality of her loss before her last son shows up.
Becki is indecisive though, and the final decision is made by one of his wingmen, who uses his interplanetary contact credit to call Becki's mother directly, while Max and the rest of the wing keep the Lieutenant from running away. To say the call is uncomfortable is an understatement of epic proportions, but after a much-needed crying session, the basic details are shared and the timer on the call credit runs out.
"Thanks, Captain. I didn't know how much I needed to do that before I did it." Lieutenant Becki thanks Max, who was kneeling behind him to hold him in his chair, before returning to his quarters for the evening, not even waiting for dinner to be served.
Late that evening, Max gets an official posting message both to his wrist device and in hard copy delivered by ship staff.
[Captain Keres Max,
It is our distinct pleasure to promote you to the rank of Major and assign you to Command of the newly formed Stalwart Special Tactics Unit. Upon arrival at Kepler 111, recruitment from qualified planetary forces will be conducted on your behalf, filling the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit to the strength of a Mixed Batallion.
Final unit strength and assets will be forwarded as they become available.
Lieutenant General Carb,
Central Command]
So General Carb got a promotion and a move to Central Command after the battle. That's a good spot for him since the General has a good mind for tactics, and a solid respect for all soldiers' lives, not just the mecha pilots like so many career pencil pushers in Central Command.
Being assigned a Special Tactics Force is a dubious honor in Max's estimation. Unlike Special Forces, who are best known for their level of talent, Special Tactics are known for their ability to adapt to almost anything and go anywhere. If the situation calls for rapid insertion, they are a Rapid Insertion force. If it calls for Artillery, they will gear up to become a forward artillery position.
In theory, that makes them the greater and more prestigious of the two options, but it is also the higher casualty rate option, simply because of the nightmares they are sent into that a standard unit with regulation tactics couldn't handle. Having to do all that with a fresh green unit is not going to be a pleasant experience.
Checking the unit details to see if he can find out anything more, Max finds that Nico has been appointed as his executive officer and also promoted to Major. That suggests to Max that at some point he is likely to see another promotion in rank, possibly as soon as the first successful mission with his new unit.
Only an hour after the last message, another letter is delivered to Max's room, notifying him that he has been granted the Noble Rank of Knight. It was one of the conditions of the Cygnus Generals, in order to preserve their dignity in surrender, but it is good to see that the agreement has been upheld so quickly. Even if it was so that any spies that reported back advance information on the deal would see that Max was a noble before the agreement was officially ratified and announced to the public.
With both letters tucked into his jacket pocket, Max heads to dinner to see if any of the Special Forces Cadets made it back. They are still assigned to the same room as they were before since they were already in the reserves section. In fact, all of the 42nd is there now. Carpe Noctem has joined them and the Shining Darkness aboard the Abraham Kepler for the next leg of their mission, along with his personal Mecha Regiment, so space had to be made for them.
That still only makes the Mecha hangers a little over half full, but with the 42nd moved to the reserve sector, their former quarters can be fully painted and prepped for the next occupants while they get ready to retire.
At least one full division of infantry came with the Carpe Noctem as well, so Max has high hopes that they might stay on as the ship's second Field Army, to balance out all the rookies. It might be asking a lot, but that doesn't stop Max from holding on to that last bit of hope. A fully stocked and staffed Abraham Kepler would have been a game-changer when they arrived at Belmont for his first-ever deployment.
Only one of the Special Forces Cadets is in the dining hall, Russo is having dinner with some of the guys from the 42nd. The whole dining area is packed though, so even if they are here, they would have to wait to get seated. In fact, Max himself will have to wait for a table unless he can find an empty seat. Worst case scenario, he might have to take his tray back to his bunk and eat there.
Fortunately, Nico is looking out for him, sitting with Captain Catan and Sergeant Morrison of Bravo Company. They have saved him a seat, so Max heads to grab his tray, reminiscing of the days at the academy when they would sit in the corner by the kitchen. Just like then, the table today is in the corner of the room, but Max can see that it is marked on the wall as reserved for command staff, which he and Nico now are. The table properly seats eight, but even as crowded as the room is, nobody is likely to elbow in on the command table.
If they were feeling snooty, there is a smaller command officers mess only ten yards down the hall, on the other side of the kitchen, but that will likely be full of the colonels and Majors of the 42nd Armored, and Max knows very little about them. Here in the general mess eating beside the rest of the pilots feels more comfortable.
"You made a long walk, coming all the way to the Mecha wing for dinner." Max jokes to the infantry soldiers, who are actually closer to this mess hall than their own, thanks to the layout of the infantry section. They just need to cross the bulkhead between sections that makes up one wall of their rooms at the end of the hall to get here.
"You should see the chaos in the infantry section. The convicts found out that they've all been pardoned as a reward, and they've been partying ever since. Fortunately, they have some time before they need to do anything productive." Sergeant Morrison laughs, unilaterally trading his brownie for Captain Catan's apple slices. The brownies tend to be rock hard, but the preserved apples are really good.
"We got the notice just a few minutes ago, we leave orbit tonight, headed home. The trip will be almost a month, and the infantry is excused from training and drills the entire time." Captain Catan explains.
One month before he has to say goodbye to these battle-brothers and welcome a new group of fresh recruits. How did he suddenly become the old man in this scenario?
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As expected, the Abraham Kepler departs promptly the next morning, on a mission to return the veteran troopers. There is an entire month to kill, so Max decides to take some time to relax and get to know how things are usually done in the other Special Tactics Units. Only, as he discovers, there are none left on board.
All the ones that were with the 42nd were lost in the last few battles, and the so-called Noctem Regiment, that came with Carpe Noctem, was a fully ceremonial unit up until a month ago. According to the data that he received from Nico, the political problems that forced General Tennant to take them off Kepler Terminus in such a hurry also caught up to the Carpe Noctem and her pilot. Max isn't sure if it is suspicious or deliberate that they have ended up together aboard a transport, but two Phalanx Class units in one spot is a highly unusual event. The official deployment form for the Abraham Kepler doesn't even have a column for a second Phalanx Class deployment.
He also hasn't gotten any more information about the upcoming deployment to his unit yet, so all he really has to do is kill time. As Max wanders the hallways he hears cheering and shouts of encouragement from the training area in the corner of the reserve barracks.
That is immediately suspicious, everyone here has been excused from regularly scheduled training for the duration of their transit time. There shouldn't be much of anyone except a few health nuts in the training rooms, much less a large enough crowd to raise a ruckus that he could hear from the end of the hall.
Max makes his way over, the crowd parting with muttered complaints as he approaches in uniform. The enlisted don't have the right under military rules to stop him from going where he wants, so Max walks straight in, only to find that they have modified the Virtual Reality boxing program to allow multiple opponents. Six troopers are in VR pods facing away from the crowd, and the data screens all around the room are showing the fights.
Nobody is going to get hurt in a simulation, so Max removes his hat and coat to show he's not here on official duty and leans up against a support pillar to watch the next match.
There are six pods, so Max assumed it was a three-on-three fight, special forces attack squad style, but that isn't what comes up on the screen.
[Major Nico vs Charlie Company] Round 3 Begins
Max just laughs when he sees the fight. They may or may not know it yet, but they are about to get obliterated.
There is a lot of shouting and betting going on, so Max tosses in 5 credits on Nico, getting the crowd worked up.
"See that, boys? The Pilots think they are all that. The odds are 5 to 1, the same as the fight. Get those bets up, the betting ends when the first punch is thrown!" The Corporal in charge of the bets shouts over the din getting the last few bets in before the fight.
The bell rings to signal the beginning of the round and Nico immediately rushes forward, grabbing one of her opponents by the leg and twisting. Despite her size, the system has made her more than strong enough to toss a grown man around like a ragdoll. It would have been kinder if that was what she actually did. Instead, she spun him in a circle, using him as a club to beat his teammates with, raising a wave of jeers and laughter from the crowd.
"No way is she that strong. Major Max, that has to be a glitch, right?" One of the soldiers asks and Max shrugs.
"Watch this and you will understand," Max tells the curious man, before grabbing him and throwing him all the way to the twenty-meter roof of the training room, jumping up to catch him halfway down.
"Everyone knows that we get a huge benefit from the system that allows us to pilot at a level that no others could, but nobody thinks about what that means when an Alpha Ranked System user is outside their mecha. My modified strength is just over 6 points." Max explains, and a lot of the troopers gasp.
"At that point is there even a reason to give you a mecha? Why not just give you body armor and a club and let you beat the Line Mecha to death?" The trooper asks, tapping Max to ask the Major to let him down from the princess carry that Max caught him in.
"The Line Mecha is big enough to carry the power pack and ammunition a pilot needs for battle. That's why the environmental suits for the political guards are so heavily armored and not more mechanically powerful. The person inside them makes up for the difference." Max tells the soldier with a smirk, setting him back on his own feet.
The fight is short and brutal, ending in under fifteen seconds without Nico taking a single hit, despite the decade of experience that the troopers have.
"That's the round gentlemen. Winners come up here and claim your pay."
Max collects his 25 credits with a smile at the infantrymen just before a whistle sounds from down the hallway and everyone goes silent, pretending to be working out as the combatants exit the simulators.
They catch on fast that everyone is putting on an act, and make like they are recovering between sets just as the Colonels from the 42nd armored, Marino and Romano, walk into the room.
"Colonels, good to see you here. Have you come to get in a few reps while the gym isn't quite as deserted as usual?" Max asks while the two cast suspicious looks around the room.
"We had reports of a disturbance and illegal gambling going on here. You wouldn't know anything about that would you Major?" Colonel Marino asks suspiciously.
"Lots of disturbance, the boys got a little worked up. You know how infantry get when they need to burn off some steam. But there isn't much to bet on unless someone wants to try to beat the daily reps challenge." The challenge is generated by the Abraham Kepler's computer, based on the usage patterns of the various gyms, so this one, being in the zone assigned to veteran mecha pilots, is set to a standard that nobody without a Beta Ranked or higher system could possibly complete.
To start with, the leg press weight is over a ton, for 25 reps. Max can complete it without much trouble, but a bunch of Gamma and Delta-ranked infantrymen? Not even at the end of their term when their system bonuses and natural strength are at their peak.
The two Colonels relax a little as the soldiers continue to exercise, following a standard training regimen, but with a bit of added motivation. They have already arranged matches against some of the Line Mecha squads, who are mostly Gamma with a few weaker Beta Ranked Systems among them. Those matches they might actually stand a chance against. These elite Crusader Pilots just have too big of an advantage over them to overcome.
Assured that nothing too out of line is happening, the two Colonels strip to tank tops to begin their daily workout, inspired by the supposed enthusiasm the infantry are showing. They might be on their way home, but getting there in good shape is still a priority. After all, They have been under military supervision since age 12. Not a single one of them is married, and there aren't many women left in the units to choose from, none at all that the senior officers would be allowed to fraternize with, so coming home as war heroes with a lifelong pension, getting married and having a whole litter of children sounds like a pretty good life.
Their last two deployments didn't even have civilian women around who might entertain a friendly compensated offer after all, and that can bring the mind to delusions if left unchecked.
That becomes a daily routine for everyone, fights in the morning, that the senior officers pretend they don't know about, but with the betting toned down to prevent anyone from getting in financial troubles on their way home, or attracting the attention of higher authorities. Then lunch, followed by an afternoon workout and a trip to the leisure facilities to practice 3D Pool and other 'essential skills'.
Max opts out of most of them. Instead, he opts for studying the wide variety of military tactics used by successful Special Tactics Units in the past. Nico gladly helps him with that, sending him new material to study every day. Max isn't quite sure where she keeps finding them, but with her skills at hacking, it is probably better that he doesn't ask too much.
The data he finds in the tactical summaries sometimes resonate with memories from his past, giving him new ideas about Mecha and infantry tactics that would have worked as well or better in that situation, which triggers more and more of Max's repressed memories of his past life but unfortunately still mostly ones of combat, and nearly nothing about his actual life, hobbies, or previous personality.
The extra knowledge is still a win though, and if nobody in this lifetime has used a tactic, that just means it will be even more effective when he does because nobody will expect it. The memories of Nico's past are the same, but whatever force she came from wasn't big on human rights, so some of the tactics that they employed aren't ones that Max could use in good conscience.
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Of course, being the only one who knows the tactic won't do him any good, and the Commander has a lot more to do then just train troops, so Max will need to bring Nico up to speed with his ideas.
With that on mind, Max spends the evening writing out the battle tactics he improvised so he didn't forget them. Nico will likely have more ideas to add to the list that she hasn't sent to him yet, and then they will have to practice them, so late that night Max sends her an alert to meet him at the training simulators at 07:30 the next morning.
That gives him time to have breakfast and get his mind in order before they start training in all new combat tactics. Even infantry tactics, infiltration, and exoskeleton suits for close quarters combat are within the deployment possibilities for a Special Tactics force.
It's a shame that everyone else is retiring though, an extra month to get the officers up to speed would save so much time later.
Max suspected that a lot of the new men he is going to be assigned would be graduates from the local academy or university's Special Forces and advanced officer training classes, but he also knows the Russo and Ibanez were way behind where Nico and him were when they arrived on Belmont.
The next morning when Max arrives at the training room, Nico is not alone, three offers in Pilots coveralls stand with her. Two tall, olive skinned and dark haired men and one blonde athletic looking woman who has a face like a porcelain doll, but with a hint of madness in her eyes that reminds him of Nico during battle.
"Commander, meet Paul, Vincente and Ari. All three are qualified Crusader Pilots and all were denied amnesty due to the nature of their crimes. I know you wanted veterans for the team, and these three all have dozens of kills to their records." Nico introduces them and the two men snicker while looking at Ari, the striking blonde.
"Something amusing Pilots?" Max asks.
"Good morning Commander, I am Captain Mary Aisha, or Ari as everyone prefers. As you guessed, I came with the convicts, sentenced to lifelong penance as part of a botched bank robbery. I was the demolitions expert that rigged the building next door to the back to collapse as a distraction, but the cops were onto us and chose it as their observation post." After her explanation, she shrugs as if it was no big deal, or maybe she's told the story enough times now that it's just routine.
Max pulls up her details on a data tablet, finding that she is indeed a highly qualified expert, but that over fifty local defense force officers died when the building collapsed.
That explains the humor in "dozens of kills", she has accomplished that both on and off the battlefield.
The other two were in for weapons trafficking charges that look extremely flimsy, but bear a planetary governor's personal signature as both judge and prosecutor. That explains why they weren't pardoned.
All three Pilots have beta ranked system compatibility, with two having strength primary and one with dexterity primary stats. Unexpectedly it is Vincente who has the dexterity primary, though the tall and muscular, olive skinned pilot had put a lot of work into his physique to not look as lithe as most dexterity specialists do.
"If you are competent, I will give you a chance. If you can't keep up, I will see that you are transferred to a suitable posting once the new units arrive." Max decides, glad for the chance to have at least enough trainers to get the rookies trained once they arrive. Book smart with no practical experience won't get them far on a Special Tactics team.
None of them are infantry officers though, and the squad will be a mixed force again, with infantry making up the bulk of their numbers. He will just have to work with what he will be handed.
"Alright, the fist test scenario I will use to evaluate your existing skills is a facility capture. Each of you will lead a squad, running the scenario separately. I will give you five minutes after the orders arrive to plan." Max declares setting the mission in the simulators, then calling Nico to come watch their test with him.
He is planning to have them each lead a team tasked with the assault on the technology facility that he led on Belmont to recover the rebel research and development data. Bravo Company, and even his Stalwart made great gains there thanks to the captured rewards.
Max knows how he did, so he can compare their responses. Mostly it is creativity and attention to detail Max is looking for. Tactics will be trained as they go.
The prep time passed quickly and Max checked in on their plans. Paul had made a very by the book sort of assault plan. His Crusaders will attack the facility from the top of the hill while light mecha and infantry rush the compound.
Vincente plans to besiege the facility and send an infiltration team for the data, not terrible, given the information they have, which is the same that Max was given, but with the hidden Mecha in the one hanger, it likely won't end well.
Ari plans to send two infiltration teams in advance to bomb the warehouses and cause chaos while the Mecha attack from the main road and the majority of the infantry sneak into the main building using shaped charges to blow in a half dozen windows at once, giving access all over the building.
They have all equipped their units very differently. Paul has a balanced force, similar to what Max had to work with. Vincente went with long range heavy weapons for most of his infantry team, while Ari went full stealth. In this case they would complement each other well if they were working together, each leading a section of the force.
"Nico, what do you think? I see some issues, but do you see anything major?" Max asks, reading her thoughts to see what his second in command truly thinks.
"Ari picked a cooling vent for the power reactor as one of the bombing targets. It's not in the intelligence analysis, but it's going to go critical before she finishes the attack. All three are going to struggle to recover the data for different reasons."
She is exactly right. Paul had problems getting into the main building, but eventually recovered some data. Vincente nearly lost his entire team when the Crusaders in the larger hanger activated and had to modify his plan and try again with more stealth, skipping six hours in the virtual scenario to give the base time to stand down.
Ari nearly blew her entire team up when the reactor went critical, but got a bunch of data from the main building and research warehouse out safely.
"Results are in. Not bad on the creativity. Paul revived the most data, but it might have gone more smoothly if your men had cut the power.
Vincente, your plan was good, but the slow adaptation to the surprise Mecha cost you a lot of time they used to destroy top secret data.
Ari, bad luck with the breaching charges. That vent was for the nuclear reactor, not the warehouse forges." Max informs them of their results.
"That was a great twist, totally didn't expect it." She answers with a nod, thinking of ways she could have avoided such a mistake.
"It looks like you will all be capable squad leaders, you don't waste troops and you all equipped yourselves well for the plan that you made. Take this as lesson one. The intelligence is always incomplete when it isn't outright incorrect.
For the rest of the transit time, we will be working on the specialized core skills every Special Tactics team needs to know. Then when we reach Kepler 111, we will all be training the recruits what they need to know to stay alive." Max announces, looking forward to the rest of the day.
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If the three new officers thought that they would have it easier serving under similarly youthful Commanders, they were sorely mistaken. Both are students of the General Tennant training methods, which are far more intense than anything they had faced before.
Their day is split into four sections, theory, training, lunch, and repeat. That way they can practice two very different, but related skills every day.
Today was their third morning of training and after spending the last two days going over assault techniques that Max and Nico had come up with, they were looking forward to seeing what lay in store for them today.
"How much experience do you have in mobile suits?" Nico asked over breakfast, referring to the roughly human-sized tactical insertion suits.
They were a step up from pressure suits and bodyguard armor, but still worn around the body. They were often issued equipped with thrusters and wings for flying or aquatic missions and had top-of-the-line robotics that could challenge Line Mecha for strength.
Forget about using them, nobody in the cafeteria where they were eating breakfast had even seen one in person in years, since the few that were with the original Special Tactics teams were lost.
"Will we seriously be using something like that?" Vincente asked around a mouthful of pancake.
"They are in the approved requisition list," Max confirmed with a smile, looking forward to trying them out in the simulators.
There wasn't a dedicated simulator for them, instead they use the pressure suit trainer and the modifications are added inside the simulation. The basic controls are the same, it's just that one has many more combat options.
Today's mission is to para drop in from a fast-moving and low-flying transport. Really, they only need to step out the back and hover, then assault the target, an enemy politician hiding inside their fortified home. Stealth has been ruled out because of the security, so brute force assassination is their order for this simulation.
Max picked the scenario for mobile suit training, which is usually similar to special forces infantry training with better gear, in order to see how everyone's combat skills are. Nico looks a bit too happy about his decision though.
Wondering what she's thinking, Max looks in on her thoughts, finding her mind lost in memories of a massacre. The enemy they were facing had a weapon that disabled Mecha, but in her past life, the army she served in were all genetically engineered superhuman warriors. Even in an infantry battle, the enemy was mercilessly butchered. Hopefully, this training scenario doesn't end quite that brutally.
That memory actually gives Max a good idea for this afternoon's battle simulation. Learning all the techniques needed for close combat will take up most of their journey anyhow, but with Nico's memories, he might be able to speed that up. His own memories of his former life don't involve much outside of his Mecha, so they will only be relevant during certain parts of the training plan that he has built up for his team.
"Nico, take the lead. You're the best in close combat." Max instructs laying out the infiltration plan to the safe room the politician is almost guaranteed to retreat to.
"Isn't Mecha combat still much different than infantry fights, even in a suit as light as these?" Vincente asks, voicing all of the new officers' concerns.
"Trust me, I've seen Nico do martial arts in a Corvette Class Mecha better than most can do them on foot. This afternoon we will be reviewing battle footage and physically training the areas we are lacking." Max announces, ending the hesitation.
The team sets their equipment and the scenery shifts to the inside of the cargo plane.
"We will drop right over the target, drop straight vertical, and flare out before impact," Max instructs before the red light comes on to signal that the rear cargo bay doors are opening.
[Begin Drop] The intercom informs them and Nico leads the team out, charging out the doors and racing towards the ground at full thrust with a blade in either hand.
The plane isn't quiet, so the guards are already alert, searching the sky for threats. The suits are painted black to help them blend in with the night sky, but at least a few of the guards on patrol should have some form of advanced optics.
Everyone but Nico fires their rifles as they chase the blade-wielding mobile suit to the ground, reducing the number of guards on patrol. Nico crashes blades first into the two soldiers at the doors, smoothly puncturing their armor and letting momentum carry them all through the sturdy metal structure with a resounding crash that echoes through the yard and the house alike.
[Max has taken up the rear guard position. Close up the formation.] He informs the others, as they reach the ground two seconds behind Nico. The sounds of carnage have brought soldiers out of the side rooms, who are efficiently dispatched by the incoming mobile suits.
Their operation of the graceful units is still a little clumsy from lack of practice, but they are adapting fast. Paul seems adept at knife fighting, dealing with close combat easily, but the others are struggling against the simulated Royal Guard, knowing only the most basic of hand-to-hand arts that are taught to Pilots.
Nico stops for an instant, putting Ion pistol rounds into four targets inside while Max finishes with the targets outside the door, freeing the team from combat.
The lights have switched to emergency red now, and the sirens are blaring. Nico could likely disable them in a second, but that would defeat the purpose of the training mission, and she has used the time she would have been hacking the security to happily dismember the group of guards who had just come out of an elevator.
She reached inside the waiting elevator and hit a button, sending it away just as the rest of the squad arrived at her position.
"Halls clear," Ari calls, just as Paul and Vincente report the side rooms clear.
"Drop at half-second intervals." Max reminds everyone of the plan before Nico kicks in the elevator doors and drops down the empty shaft. A swipe of her blade breaks the lock on the basement doors and she shoulder checks them open just as Ari lands behind her, rifle pointed over Nico's shoulder.
A flurry of shooting as Paul and Vincente land is followed by screaming and crashing before Max drops down, firing a round into the hoist mechanism of the armored elevator above them, bringing it sliding down the shaft to prevent them from being followed.
The basement is coated in blood and a dozen guards lie dead while the team searches the side rooms.
Only the door to the safe room remains unchecked when Nico calls the all-clear, which is Ari's cue to place the charges that will breach the vault.
The moment the charges detonate Paul and Vincente charge in, shooting anything that moves, and a lot of things that didn't. If Max didn't know better, he would think that they had fully emptied their energy storage into the hapless politician. Perhaps the mission triggered a bit of pent-up frustration with their situation in life?
[Target eliminated.] Max confirms after DNA-checking the politician to be sure it wasn't a body double.
They are still under two minutes since landing, leaving them three more to escape before reinforcements are expected. A shaped charge opens a hole in the elevator shaft above the disabled elevator and they head for the roof, where they will be able to signal their victory to the waiting satellites before flying away.
Again when they reach the heavily guarded roof, Max notices the lack of actual fighting ability, moving melee combat training to the top of his to do list. Most things can wait, but better combat skills will have to be taught to every member of their team, Pilots included.
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The following afternoon was a nightmare for the pilots, as their new Commanders drilled new combat techniques into their brains.
"You know, I used to think I was decent at that until I met those two." Paul sighs, as he settles into a seat next to Vincente in the mess hall.
"No kidding, I feel like I had never held a combat knife before today." Vincente agrees, while Ari just shrugs, already having known it was a weak point on her part.
"I think we might actually learn pretty quickly with those two though. Don't they say that you can learn more in a day with a Master than in a lifetime with a layman?" Ari asks.
"You're assuming that this month of training isn't actually going to take our lives. You were training with Commander Max, you don't know. I'm pretty sure that Major Nico was just kicking my ass for sport. She's so small it's impossible to hit her, and she's stronger than I am." Paul points out.
"She's faster too, and more agile. In fact, I think she might actually have the edge on the Commander when it comes to pure physical skills. I heard she has all mechanic field skills though, so we might get our own back when it comes to the Crusader Class courses." Ari smiles in anticipation, while Max, who is listening from across the room smirks at their naive optimism.
Forget overcoming the fusillade of fire from Stalwart, even against Tarith's Rage they would struggle to land a hit. Her evasion patterns are all nonstandard, so the Crusader Class Mecha's predictive targeting is nearly useless. Even his own System Skills struggle to actually connect with her in simulations.
The next morning Max has prepared a physical training course for them and invited a number of members of Bravo and Charlie Companies to come train with them. Keeping in shape to pass the time is becoming more popular as the days pass and the soldiers decide that being in peak form when they arrive home is more likely to impress the ladies than a month of lazing around and getting soft.
Add to that the fact that most of them don't intend to fully retire, taking up new careers when they get home, and the extra combat training that Max is offering is a very tempting deal for them. Most haven't had a ton of advanced training, despite the more elite status of their companies, and Max is planning to teach control and restraint techniques for the next few days.
For the Special Tactics force, taking prisoners is often the objective, so his troops will need to know it, and for the retirees who want to get into jobs like law enforcement and private security jobs, it will be even more important. Once they get home there will be no more killing annoying targets, they will need to be restrained with minimal injuries and escorted from the building, or to the prison as the case may be.
The training room has been split into two groups to begin the day, one that will be learning unarmed fighting and one that will be learning control and restraint techniques. Then after lunch, they will switch. Max will be teaching the control and restraint class, while Nico goes over the introduction to advanced unarmed combat.
The class goes more smoothly than usual, without all the usual clutter of troopers who don't actually want to be there, and the men are catching on fast to the grappling techniques that Max has come up with as the essentials. On the other side of the room, Nico is teaching her students a particularly brutal combat technique that has all the soldiers staring at her in awe.
By the time they break for lunch, her group is sparring like they are all Cygnus Special Forces. They had a solid base, to begin with, and while the new techniques are still clumsy in use, they are clearly more competent than yesterday. Ari in particular is catching on very fast to the new techniques, being limber enough to properly duplicate the maneuvers that Nico is showing them.
When they switch, the soldiers come to Max's side of the training hall with a palpable sense of relief, as the grappling training is not nearly as violent and draining as the sparring on the other side. Not that it's easy, but the recovery after someone is pinned takes a few seconds, giving them a bit of a breather.
Max grabs dinner in the usual mess hall near his quarters, finding the three new officers chatting with the officers of Bravo company. One of the Lieutenants has a huge bruise on his face that Max recognizes as a boot print, and he wonders how it happened. Neither of them was practicing a technique that involved kicks today.
Paul waves him over to join them, and Max settles in, giving the bruised soldier a questioning glance.
The soldier gives him a sheepish grin and points at his cheek. "This? No biggie, I just misunderstood a technique you see."
Paul nods his agreement. "Exactly. You thought strength was more important than flexibility, and you missed the landing when Ari tossed you."
It seems that the man thought that he could simply brute force stop himself from being thrown to the ground by the smaller officer, and ended up pulling her forward, causing her to step on his face. Max thought he had made it pretty clear that strength wasn't everything, but even without his warning, Ari has a Beta Rank System Compatibility, and she is stronger than he is.
The real news of the day though was Captain Catan sparring with Nico. She had sent him some training techniques after Belmont, and he had been working hard to get better at them, so they went a round to see how his skills had been coming along.
Max knows that he just hit 200 points of total bonus, and his System is currently upgrading his body, a process that usually takes between two days and a week if it's not only giving you a System Skill. Nico should be close to the same, with a split Primary in Dexterity and Speed, so the fight should have been pretty epic.
"I'm telling you, it was insane. They used the entire arena like a 3D pool table, jumping between beams and railing like gravity just wasn't a thing. And the speed, I have never seen a human move that fast, it's just not natural." One of the troopers is insisting.
Captain Catan himself comes in a few minutes later with Nico, both fresh from the shower and laughing about the match, sporting rapidly healing bruises on almost every visible bit of skin.
"Did you learn a little about what a proper fight looks like?" Captain Catan jokes to one of the troopers replaying a video of the match for his friends who weren't at training today.
"I learned that a flying elbow drop from the Mezzanine balcony doesn't only happen in staged wrestling matches." The Corporal confirms, so Max looks in on the Captain's memories to see what happened.
The two of them had been grappling, and he threw them both off the mezzanine but lost his grip on the limber Major, who managed to land on him elbow first, knocking the wind out of him and ending the match.
The match looks surreal, like a fight scene from a movie, reminding Max that human limitations as he understands them don't really apply anymore. He could have done exactly the same thing, and the four-meter fall most likely wouldn't have caused him much damage, at least not until that elbow hit him.
Advancing so fast has left Max's brain playing catch up. Barely a year ago, he was just awakening his System, as a totally average boy entering puberty. Now he could easily throw a grown man the length of a catch ball arena. Maybe a few weeks of taking it slow might do him a lot of good, letting his mind catch up with everything that has changed around him.
The notion of relaxing is put to an end the next morning though. Not only have the trainee numbers doubled, but he also received a new message from Central Command.
[Major Keres Max,
In regards to the nonstandard modifications made to the Crusader Class Mecha known as Stalwart:
The following modifications have been approved for long-term use as standard equipment.
[1] Shoulder Pauldron Customization
[2] Cygnus Pattern Plasma Shotgun X2
[3] High output Thorium Reactor
The following modifications have been ordered removed as nonoptimal equipment:
[1] Modified Battle Cannon Barrel
Please confirm changes with your Transport's mecha maintenance crew and prepare a unit paint scheme before arrival at Kepler 111.
Regards,
Central Command]
Max doesn't recall asking for his reactor to be changed out, but more power is never a bad thing. The real challenge will be finding a unique unit color scheme that will be easily adapted to camouflage in various situations, as well as serve as a distinct marker separating them from the standard squads.
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After seeing the letter from Central Command, Max headed straight for the mecha hangers to see what, if anything had been done to the Stalwart while he was away.
So far they haven't done much, only swapped the barrel of his Battle Cannon out for a regulation model with no blades welded to it. Even if Command had approved his modification of it, that wouldn't be surprising, since the old barrel had taken some battle damage over the course of their mission.
Nobody is currently working on his unit, so Max climbs the gantry and hops inside, powering up the Stalwart to check the functionality and optimize the battle Cannon for the new barrel. Everything looks fully functional, but as Max goes through the structure with his [Optimization] Skill, he notices that everything feels really sluggish.
Checking again shows that everything is at the very peak of spec performance, and Max pauses in confusion for a moment, wondering what went wrong. Then it occurs to him, that his mecha is fully optimized, but it hasn't been modified by Nico for higher performance. After nearly a thousand rounds out of the old Battle Cannon, going back to a bone stock one is just painfully slow, so Max sends a text alert to his second in command to come to fix his new artillery piece as soon as she has time.
The big question tonight is what colors should he go with for the unit? Realistically, the Crusaders will never be able to blend into their surroundings, unless they pretend to be trees in a forest., and even that would require the observer to be at least half blind. But highlighting their presence from a distance is also not a great idea. So he needs something that will blend in with most surroundings, while still being unique enough to make them stand out from the standard-issue troops.
Max looks over the uniforms for the incoming recruits, to see if they will be any different from the 42nd Armored that is retiring, and finds that they are similar, but not quite identical. The new units will be olive green with bronze trim, and the infantry will wear blue berets with their unit insignia on them.
None of them really know what they will be assigned to do after recruitment, with all the talk of political uprisings, but Max found that after a while, churned dark brown dirt and gray stone dust were the most common colors on the two battlefields that he has served on.
Brown and Gray is a pretty lousy mecha scheme though, looking dingy at all times. Pilots take great pride in their Mecha, so something with a bit of flash is the standard, with the green of the mecha that originate on Kepler 111 being the outlier.
Max plays around a while and decides that a bone-colored armor with bronze trim and red unit markings is his favorite of all the color schemes that he has come up with so far. In battle, it will make them stand out, but not enough that they will be overly highlighted against the skyline. Meanwhile, on parade, it will look noble and powerful. That should make the pilots happy.
Special Tactics units often disguise their mecha for missions anyhow, either for the locale, or to imitate the target units, so the main scheme won't always be on them, and almost never on the specialty units like the Mobile Suits and Powered Armor.
Max returns to his room, where he pulls the color scheme up on all of the units that they are likely to be using and sends a copy to Nico. She can give her opinion on that in the morning once she has time to really go over it and make a decision on how she likes it. If she has a color scheme in mind that he likes better, Max will consider changing it, so he doesn't send the final orders through to the hangers yet, and simply settles into bed for the evening.
Fortunately, Nico doesn't have any objections to the new color scheme, so Max puts the details into the Unit's data before breakfast and heads to the training grounds to see how the three new officers are progressing. The presence of so many soldiers for the combat training is doing them a world of good, not only do they have multiple partners to choose to spar with, they are all at different training and physical ability levels.
They are still working on unarmed combat, but with the recent practice, Max can start to step up their skills, from basic throws to combinations and defensive grabs. If progress keeps going this way, they shouldn't have any issues once they get to the recruitment grounds to pick up the new unit.
Two days later, the first round of requisition orders arrives in Max's inbox. Their total Mecha count has been finalized, with five Crusaders, Thirty Light Mecha, all Corvette Class, and one company of infantry.
The provisioning will mostly be done after they arrive, but the color scheme has been approved by Central Command, as have the Light Mecha requisitions and the Crusader assignments. But what Max needs to know, is what patterns will he be ordering? The Corvette Class Mecha can have a variety of equipment, but there isn't enough budget to get all of them at once, especially not if he is going to order the specialized equipment he knows that the unit is going to need.
Not having a unit on board to discuss everything with is becoming a real headache for him, and even the General doesn't have much experience with provisioning a Special Tactics unit. He does turn out to be a wealth of knowledge about the actual tactics though, which indirectly gives Max a better idea of what they're actually going to need and what it is just frivolous spending.
Once he finishes meeting with General Tennant, Max calls the three new officers to a spare meeting room for what might be the most important meeting of their career, other than the trial that landed them in jail that is.
[Ari, Paul, Vincente, report to Meeting room R13 in 30 minutes] he sends to their wrist devices, pulling the three officers out of bed in a hurry.
They see him every day at the training grounds anyhow, and it's not even breakfast yet, so whatever he has to talk to them about must be important. They're all hoping that they are going to learn about their new Crusader Class Mecha today since they are almost halfway to their destination now. None of them thinks that it is likely that they will get any sort of choice, given their military records, but the mere fact that they are going to be back in one of the giant mechas again is a blessing.
"Welcome, you're right on time." Max greets them, three file folders sitting face down on the desk in front of him when the officers come running in.
"I have the Crusader assignments here in front of me, as you might have guessed. The decisions have been made by Central Command, so I had no say in what you will be getting, but the Central Computers should have picked them based on your skills assessments." Max begins as the three of them stand in front of him, too nervous to sit.
"First up is the Bulwark. Crusader Class, equipped with an Ion Destroyer and Gauntlet. It even comes with a matching Combat shield. Ari, Central Command has assigned the Bulwark to you. Conveniently, it is the same basic pattern as Tarith's Rage, so you can ask Major Nico if you have any questions about tips and tricks for the optimal use of the design." Max says with a grin, making the tall blonde laugh.
"Next up is the Ferrus. Crusader Class, long-range spec, equipped with an Ion Destroyer and Heavy Laser Cannon. Paul, Central Command has assigned the Ferrus to you. Take good care of her, that heavy Laser is going to come in very handy for breaching armor and reinforced buildings." Paul picks up his folder with a big smile, looking over the details and specs of his new unit without a work spoken.
"Last up is the Morning Glory. Vincente, Command has decided that the optimal pattern for you is a Battle Cannon and a Rending Claw. That should come in handy to support the infantry since the central plasma torch can be used as a flamethrower." Vincente nods, not entirely happy with the choice of the claw over the Gauntlet, but beggars can't be choosers, and in a Special Tactics team, there is a chance that his equipment can be changed in the future to better balance the squad.
Max contemplates the crew he has been given. In total, they have two fully long-ranged mecha in Stalwart and Ferrus. They have two that are capable of artillery bombardment when necessary, and they have three that are capable of close combat, including one that has reinforced armor and a custom Combat Shield. That seems to be properly versatile and well-rounded, so at least it doesn't obviously look like Central Command is discriminating against the pilots that were denied pardons.
That might only be because of intervention on his and Nico's behalf, but Max is thankful for whatever caused Command to decide to give them not only five Crusaders for their team but five that should work very well together.
The three Captains have finally taken a seat, engrossed in reading the history and details of their mecha, so Max sends them a silent message to skip morning training and report after lunch, giving them a little over four hours to celebrate before he pulls them back to work. It's not like the units are on board yet anyhow.