[Zero losses so far. Nine units are lightly damaged but still functional.] Major Miller reported, having already organized a squad to resupply the Thunder Guns with munitions.
None of the technicians really wanted to do it, as outside was a nightmare of artillery fire and noise, but the option was being overrun with Klem, so the Carts were loaded, the Tech Adept Harnesses were equipped and they were out the door.
Fortunately, the design team had been prepared for this sort of situation, and the guns could be reloaded without ceasing fire, unlike their predecessors, who needed to be moved to a repair rack, or have a munitions magazine swapped in the field to reload their projectile based cannons.
The process took a bit of time, as the rounds rolled down a roller conveyor and into the Mecha, but in only two minutes they would be done.
It wouldn’t be a peaceful two minutes though, as the Klem Warriors had amassed another charge in the distance that they could see from the tall shoulders of the X137s, and the attack was about to begin again.
The Klem weren’t stupid though, they had a new tactic for the second attempt. While most of the force charged, they also sent a large number of shredders forward. Not to fire spikes from in close, but to leap over the wall of flames.
They couldn’t do this alone, but with the assistance of two others, a Shredder could be hurled over seventy meters, landing near the front ranks to tear into the defenders.
The method still had a downside though, being in the air, they couldn’t dodge, and many of the flying Shredders were torn apart by heavy weapons fire before ever reaching the ground. Those who weren’t killed in the air launched a devastating assault on the Corvettes, easily punching through shields and tearing off limbs before succumbing to attacks and being replaced by the next group.
This time there was no break, the Klem tide kept coming, ignoring the artillery fire and charging into the flames to reach the front ranks of the Kepler defenses.
[All remaining Corvettes, pull the damaged units to safety and take point. All off-duty Mecha to the front lines for the final push. Allied forces are at the fifteen-kilometer mark.] Max ordered, pushing the Battalion Commanders to commit their reserves to the battle.
The Klem army wasn’t going to give them a days-long war of attrition, where they could cycle out the tired and injured, they needed every gun they could get on the front lines to stop the advance, and it wouldn’t stop until one side or the other was eliminated.
The Klem wave was now using the bodies as a barrier in order to get closer to the front, letting the Fusion Flamers burn through the corpses as they pushed the pile in front of them, getting within thirty meters before they needed to face the flames.
That was as close as they could get, due to the increasing heat incinerating the corpse piles faster than they could build them up, but it was enough. Most of the warriors were making it into close combat now, and the flames were beginning to falter as the X109 units engaged in melee.
[All Super Heavy Units, maximum firepower. Bring all the point defense guns online and push the tide back off the flamers.] Max ordered, and seven Technicians took a seat beside their Pilots.
From there they could effectively operate the four lightest defensive weapons against the Klem Warriors who had gotten too close, filling the sky with purple lasers that didn’t match the color of anything else that the Kepler forces used.
[Incoming Drone Fighters. Abraham Kepler has deployed all fighters to join the battle.] Nico reported, an intense look of concentration in her mechanical eyes as she pushed her limits to operate four drones at once while relaying all the data she could to the other units and up to Abraham Kepler.
The extra targeting data was vital to the success of the bombing runs and attack of the drone fighters, who had no way to effectively determine the most important targets among the mass of bodies during the initial stages of their descent.
“Where is all this data coming from? I don’t recall having a recon team on the surface.” General Yaakov muttered in the command room aboard Abraham Kepler, watching the progression of the battle.
“That would be Major Nico. Her ability to control drones gives her a lot of flexibility in information collection. She has been doing the advance target scouting for the Super Heavy Mecha as well.” General Tennant answered his counterpart with a smile. The man annoyed him to no end, being elevated from a political officer to Command due to his years of service and high-security clearance.
Given the option, General Tennant would have cut him out of the loop, but the Regimental Commander was relatively competent and hands-on, so there was no proper excuse not to have him involved in everything. What General Tennant could do though was insist that he was there in person, and eliminate that even more annoying adjutant of his from Central Command Meetings.
The man was some relation of his, raised purely through nepotism, and more than once General Tennant had considered Voiding him out an airlock for insubordination.
“Aren’t the perimeter forces too slow in advancing? They’re barely keeping up with the Klem advance.” General Yaakov complained, making Tennant sigh.
“Each centimeter on the map in front of you is two kilometers. Given terrain difficulties, combat, and the need to keep Mecha supplied, they are moving along much faster than expected. The Klem isn’t a force that you can chase down and overrun on foot.” General Tennant explained wearily, checking the updated damage reports from the Central Position.
They were still holding strong for now, but they were running low on Corvettes, and the rest of the Mecha weren’t well suited to fighting the Warriors, who could swarm the larger units and avoid their close combat blades.