The Grax military recovered quickly from the shock, returning to action with a vengeance. Zealous cries of outrage rang out as they concentrated fire on Cleansing Light, filling the air with bursts of light and explosions as their attacks detonated against its shielding.
[Shields at 50 percent and falling] the computer informed Max as he turned to place his shield between the main attacks and his Mecha, then unleashed the defensive Lasers and half the Disruptors with reduced power so that he could increase his rate of fire.
Explosions blossomed all through the Grax lines as Cleansing Light tore through their out-of-date Mecha, with the Second Company rising up out of cover to join in the offensive.
In under a minute, the Grax lines broke, and the Mecha fled at full speed back into the city behind the reinforced rockcrete walls, which could take the sustained attack of a Heavy Mecha company for hours on end.
[Grax forces, you have been deceived. We have been sent to punish the false prophets for claiming divinity. Lay down your weapons, and the humans of this world will not be harmed.] Max informed them, causing confusion among the defenders.
They didn't know that the Capital was gone yet, the news hadn't broadcast it, and the blast was out of sight from this location. So, naturally, they didn't believe Max at first, but when their Commanders didn't respond to requests for updated orders, chaos began to take hold in their ranks.
Much of that was Nico's doing, sending out encrypted messages suggesting that their Commanders had fled to save their own lives and abandoned them here, and part of it was because so much of the Command Structure had already been destroyed by targeted strikes that there weren't enough coordinated officers to get timely messages to a billion soldiers.
Under normal circumstances, a handful of officers could rally a dozen Regiments, which is what the Grax had been doing so that they didn't have to send most of their species to work. But when Max began targeting them, the relatively small number of senior officers left everything to the human Regimental Commanders, who relied on the guidance of their Divine Leaders before making any large decisions.
So, they held behind the walls, not retreating and not engaging the Terminus forces, as they waited for orders that weren't coming.
[Commander, I have infiltrated the computers of the city's primary landing bays. I am launching their ships into orbit now. They really should have updated their security.] Nico informed Max, laughing as she worked.
The sight of the Holy Relics, the colony ships that had brought the Grax to their world, rapidly departing the atmosphere without taking any of the Humans with them crushed the forces' morale. Max quickly jammed their standard long-range frequencies so that nobody outside the immediate area could contact them to see what was happening, reinforcing the idea that they had been abandoned here to their fate.
This scene played out all over the planet, but not every Regimental Commander was gullible enough to fall for it. Some managed to scan the ships and found them nearly empty, while others relied on faith to decide that it was a trick and kept fighting.
Over the course of an hour, the two sides dug in their positions, sending volleys of attacks back and forth with some restraint, with the goal of keeping their targets pinned down while they waited for the situation to change.
The forces from Terminus knew that if it came to it, they couldn't take on a military a billion strong, even if ninety percent of it was infantry. But on the other hand, the Grax forces knew that most of their divinities were dead or gone, and they would need to sacrifice many lives to drive this invading force from the planet.
So, the initial shock assault turned into a dozen entrenched battles, with a handful of roaming forces on the planet and sporadic bombing by the drone forces if anyone got ideas about trying to muster up a larger force.
The Grax air force was laughably bad, intended as a civilian police force to keep the humans in line, and they didn't even have weapons capable of damaging the Mecha or the Drone Fighters. After the first few minutes, they didn't even dare to launch a helicopter anymore for fear of losing the pilots needlessly.
The only time that a Grax vehicle was seen in flight was when it was marked with the Red Circle that they used to denote their medical teams. On principle, the Regiment left those alone, letting them evacuate the wounded, a tactic that was confusing the Grox forces even more.
The Terminus forces weren't attacking, only holding their positions outside all the major cities on the planet, and no more orbital strikes had landed. However, they were clearly capable of them. Coupled with the propaganda that was being spread on every outlet, the sentiment of the civilians was quickly turning against their own defenders.
[The Illithid have analyzed your tactical decisions in this battle. Our collective estimates seven more days before the population begins to abandon their alien religion and turn against the military, with a peaceful transition within another four days afterward.] Nico informed Max as he reclined in Cleansing Light, searching every sensor feed he could for signs of an imminent attack.
[Thank them for that. I seriously hope that they are right, but I suspect that given human nature, there will be a last stand, as the most zealous attempt to regain control at the last moment. They won't simply accept that the population has turned against them, especially the ones that were granted a larger amount of power by the Grax.] Max replied.
If there was one thing Max could count on in human nature, it was that they would never simply give in and give up. A large portion of them would be willing to die for their beliefs, even if they were shown evidence to the contrary. It was fundamental to the human psyche.
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