[All infantry units accounted for. Survivors have exited the tunnel system.]
The report from the infantry commanders was the signal to send the X109 Fast Attack Mecha into the underground labyrinth.
The terrain was incredibly poorly suited to the fast-moving Crusader Class chassis, but their weapons were ideal for the situation and enemies that they would be facing today.
That alone was reason enough to send them. The perfect weapons on a less-than-ideal chassis? That was an excellent start to a data set that would justify additional weapon sets for the Corvette Class Mecha, or even for infantry units in the future.
The researchers were overjoyed with the situation, and Sister Lilith had them all working well beyond their usual quotas in order to process the data that they were getting in a timely manner.
On a normal deployment, the data sets from just the first battle against the Klem would have taken three to six months to process, and indeed they were far from done, but the need to form at least an operational outline of every ongoing engagement couldn’t be ignored, so the deep analysis was put on hold in favor of simply gathering the most relevant points for the Senior developers back on Comor.
“Who was in charge of analyzing the probability data for a runaway burn of the Limestone caverns?” Moonie called from across the research lab, trying to keep everyone on task in her role as Lilith’s assistant.
“Over here, Moon. Our numbers say an eight percent chance, but if they limit the Flamer bursts to under five seconds at a time they should have a one hundred percent purge rate, with a less than one percent chance of a runaway Limestone burn taking down the entire mountain.” One of the team members shouted back.
“Thank you. Now, who has the data on the Disruptor’s penetration rates? Can they safely be used against Limestone that doesn’t lead directly to a cavern?”
“Ten meters per second in natural limestone. Safety rates are within tolerances.” Another group called.
“Sister Lilith, all the data looks good, you are clear to send them into the caverns,” Moonie informed her boss and best friend.
“Thank you, Moonie. Get ready for a flood of data to be sent up when they reach the surface again since we don’t know how well the communication devices that they are equipped with will be able to contact us while they are underground.” Sister Lilith’s instructions dampened the mood in the room instantly.
They all knew that they were going to be getting a flood of data, but if it came in all day long it was manageable. If it all came in at once at the end of the shift it was a nightmare of information overload for the research teams.
“Have some faith, Sister. We designed the new communication systems with very high gain digital audio, it should be able to reach the surface well enough for the rest of the team to relay it back to the surface.” One of the team leaders said hopefully, crossing his fingers behind his back for luck.
They would need it. The Fusion Flamers caused a load of interference on their own, and coupled with the underground environment, getting any sort of useful data through was going to be a minor miracle. At best, they could relay audio, but a full set of sensor data would be too corrupted to be interpreted by the time it made the surface.
[Send them In.] Sister Lilith ordered, and General Tennant sent the official Commands to the surface.
“Now Ladies, don’t fret. Your beloved Cassanova will be here with you even after our fast attack units head below. Whenever you are ready, gentlemen.” Company Commander Carlton, better known as Cassanova or Young Cassanova, relayed the order to his Mecha, making the Pilots laugh.
Unlike his namesake, the Company Commander had not had much luck with the ladies of the Sector Defense Regiment that he was assigned to. In fact, he had none at all, if you didn’t count them humoring him with playful conversation.
That was exactly what the unit counted on though. Cassanova was a forty-seven-year-old virgin with horrible luck in love. He had only managed one girlfriend that anyone knew of, and she cleared out his bank accounts and tried to claim military spousal benefits for the six children she already had when they met.
On the other hand, his antics made the rest of his men look better, by comparison, so they were happy to play along and help him with his technique and morale.
In person, he could start out incredibly suave, but after a few drinks or a day of interaction, his true nature would come through. None of the Pilots could explain why, but despite actually being a decent guy, he immediately turned off every woman he interacted with.
Some even suspected that it was a prank played on him by the System during one of his advancements, forcing the wannabe playboy to focus on Mecha Piloting, for lack of luck at anything else.
One squad after another, the Fast Attack Crusaders went below, heading for the end of the tunnel system to start their purge, so that they could work back to their origin point without having to cross over regions that they had already burned to lime dust.
Within an hour, the entire mountain range looked like a forest fire had spread through it, but all of the smoke was coming from underground.
Here and there, pockets of Klem that had been hiding were burned to ash, with a few even managing to make close combat with the Mecha that was burning them out of their hiding spots, but none of them managed to do any serious damage before they were obliterated either by fire or Disintegrators.
[Rockstar to Command. We have a minor issue. Fusion Flamers have found a Coal seam among the stones.] One of the squad leaders reported, catching Max’s attention.
That wasn’t good news. Coal would burn nearly forever in an underground environment, maintaining heat for decades despite the absence of oxygen.
[This is Keres. Do what you can to isolate the burning seam with your Disruptors. If necessary, we will dispatch a team with cryogenic tanks to cool the area. Pure Carbon is a valuable building material.] Max ordered, then listened as the message was relayed through all the units in the Mountains.
With a resounding explosion, that proved to be a failed attempt. The disruptors broke apart the molecules, but even independent, floating Carbon atoms were highly reactive to heat, and explosive when exposed to fire.
[Attempt Failed, Unit retreating from the region for fire control entry.] The Pilots reported.
The rest of the Company Commanders sent out orders to watch for signs of Coal seams while they were working so that the fires could be contained, and a hover truck with a liquid nitrogen tanker was quickly printed and sent out to quell the fires.
The Disruptors had slowed the fire by creating a small fire break, but the area still needed to be cooled to end the fire, and the supercooled liquid would do the job reasonably well.
[Commander Rage, we have a report. A munitions transport wagon has picked up an infantry unit on the mountain and returned them to the defensive line. Barring a rest break, ETA for the wagered unit is two hours to Staging.] Colonel Klinger reported.
They had been so distracted with actual work that they had missed the unit they were watching walk down the mountain being picked up by an unsuspecting transport truck.
“That’s too early by a lot. Nobody is within six hours of that time.” Nico grumbled, having abstained from wagering so that she could referee.
[Logistics team. There is an infantry unit at the front lines that look pretty hungry. Why don’t you head over and get them a nice hot meal?] Nico ordered on a private channel just to the staff that was working on the front lines.
[Got it, boss. We are on standby here, and the Stew is still hot.] The logistics sergeant replied, thinking that the Major was only being kind to the infantry who had walked so far to get back to their location.
They didn’t hear the order, but everyone in the area could see the Lunch Truck heading to the infantry, who gathered around it for their first hot and proper meal in days. That would delay them at least a few hours, and it would soon be mid-afternoon, and most units preferred not to march in the direct sun, so they might stop a few extra hours before continuing on.
The Mecha were starting to return back to their units already, having only needed to blast open a few tunnels and burn mostly empty caverns. Forty Mecha for that job was overkill, but it got the job done before anyone could complain, plus the data that they collected would prove incredibly valuable to the research teams, once they had time to analyze the effects.
[Good job everyone. Standby as units and wait for further orders.]
As far as Max could tell, the Klem infestation was contained and annihilated, they just had to wait and see if there was any more activity detected over the next few days. If there wasn’t they should be able to send these spectators away back to their home deployment and move on to their next assignment without causing any more ripples in the layer of secrecy over their deployment.
Inquisitor General Ming was thinking exactly the same thing. The other ships had all been watching the action on the ground and detected the deployment of the Mercenaries belowground before the underground temperature readings spiked to incredible levels, indicating that they had burned out any chance of Klem survivors.
They had perfect timing. He had just enough time while everyone was distracted to deal with the suspects on the other vessels and return to Abraham Kepler before they returned to the surface.