The flamers turned out to be both their best friend and worst enemy in close combat. They were insanely effective, roasting everything that came near them, hot enough that they even partially melted the stone and earth outside the trench. But that effectiveness came with a price. The smell of roasted Klem.
The others seemed drawn to the smell, and after the battle groups of Klem warriors and Swarm would arrive to cannibalize the bodies on the outer reaches of the battlefield. What they needed the most at this stage in their invasion was food, and they weren’t above consuming their fallen comrades if it meant helping themselves grow.
[Well, that’s disturbing. But we should do something about it before they start getting much stronger.] Pippin sighed over the Command Channel.
[The other four Battalions have already settled in on the outer perimeter and are spreading out by the company to begin pushing into the Klem in the morning. If we wait for the offensive we should have an easier time of it. We don’t have any data on their organizational abilities, so waiting for a distraction is prudent.] Max informed him, quietly implying that they should make plans for when that happens.
Most Battalion Commanders didn’t micromanage, they gave a vague directive and left it to their Company Commanders to get it done the best way they could. Max had worked under that sort of Battalion and Regiment in the past, and it was very refreshing compared to the horror stories some of the Test Pilots had told of their time on active duty.
Of course, ones like their current Regimental Commander, who viewed lineage as more important than competence were equally bad, but at least General Yaakov was willing to let them run their Battalions as they saw fit.
Max didn’t realize that the General wasn’t always like that, and that other than his aversion to talking to Commoners, his lousy attitude had been entirely due to having been thwarted in his attempts to recruit a new Personal Guard. For example, right now aboard Abraham Kepler, he was working on a plan to relieve the center of the fight with Orbital Fighter Drones if the Klem threat started to ramp up to levels that they didn’t believe that the experimental units could handle.
Losing their first combat engagement wouldn’t look good on his resume, or the new units, and he had high hopes for this new Regiment Organization that didn’t rely so heavily on infantry. On his homeworld, the commoners were a valuable resource for the factories of the wealthy nobles, the loss of so many in an infantry battle hurt his wealth-minded soul.
Just after dark, the Klem started gathering at the seven-kilometer mark, one kilometer back of where they were last time, outside the ring of corpses left after the last artillery bombardment.
[They learn quickly. They are past the point that they think our weapons can reach.] Major Petrova of Charlie Company noted on the Command Channel.
[Hold fire until they have begun the rush and avoid pushing them out of sensor range?] Major Ivanov suggested, getting the men of Able Company ready.
[Colonel, after the results last time, I think we can each cover a third of the zone if you want to take a backup role and reinforce the areas where the density is highest.] Major Petrova suggested.
An artillery zone that large was going to be hard to cover even with the terrifying force of three Super Heavy Mecha, but they didn’t need to kill everything, they still had a full Battalion of Mecha with them to keep the base clear. This was a test of everything they brought, and not just the X137 after all.
[Agreed, Major. I will support the areas with higher density. During this rush, I recommend not having the X109 Fast Attack hold back so long. Put them up front with the Corvettes and let that Disruptor work its magic. The Klem army doesn’t have radiation shielding, as far as I know, so the radiation should be devastating all the way out to five hundred meters.] Max directed them, much to the joy of the Pilots.
They hadn’t had much chance to see the weapons in action since they mostly waited to use their flamers last time, but putting them in support of the Corvettes, for a combined fast attack line made good sense, with the less mobile units behind them burying the enemy in energy blasts.
For most of the night, they waited, as the Klem force built up to an astonishing level. The infestation was already moving into the middle stages, and the first Behemoth had been spotted along the outside perimeter, though the main assault hadn’t begun yet.
[They must have cleared almost every bit of life from the area to build up this strong. The clouds are keeping me from getting a visual on the area, but the heat signatures are pretty intensely clustered out there.] Nico informed the Commanders, sending a still screenshot to the Command Channel.
It was within expectations for a mid-stage infestation, and the battle plans already existed, but the Klem had advanced to this stage a few days faster than expected.
Thanks to the rotation of the planet, the tightly clustered pods scattered across five hundred kilometers of the planet, which was now fully contained by the Kepler Military, at least in theory. The main attack was going to begin at first light when the change in light should make it hardest for opponents that rely on visual senses to fight, but from Max’s viewpoint, it looked like the Klem force was doing the same.
Nico had already sent the data to Command, along with everything they had recorded about the Klem’s actions so that the Generals could learn more about the opponent. The insects were notoriously adaptable, so it was always prudent to reassess their capabilities at the start of a battle and not just go by what you saw them doing on another planet.
[Colonel, it is almost dawn, should we bait them in? A little fire should refresh the scent that drew so many of them to us in the first place] Major Ivanov suggested, though the number of Klem corpses in the area that weren’t already ash was fairly low.
[Do it. We have waited long enough for them.]