While Max secured the Northern and Eastern sides of the Colony, the Cutters moved to load all of the residents on board. They hadn't wasted their time during the battle and had everything that they could move already in crates, set to be packed into a cargo hold and taken with them off the planet, should they happen to survive and be rescued.
They hadn't had much here to begin with, as their main Colony had actually been on a different continent from this settlement, which was intended to be a rural farming village, gathering resources to bring to the site where their ship had crash landed.
At first, it seemed like good luck that they had landed on such a suitable planet. It had a breathable atmosphere, which was one of the emergency target requirements for the ship after it was damaged, but that was no guarantee that it would be suitable for growing anything.
This planet had already had life on it, just not human life, and for a few months, they had thought they could just start over without politics and violence from other worlds affecting them, but then the Klem had arrived and put an end to that dream.
This site was the furthest from where the Klem had landed, making it the last holdout when they had taken the planet, and if the Reavers had been even a day later, they wouldn't have survived.
Max waited behind the lines while the Klem regrouped. Taking the time to mark all the important targets would make the battle go much more smoothly and give the Hunters a chance to pick out the challenging targets that they were here for, reducing the number of truly dangerous enemies that the Mecha would have to face.
It was a win all around, but he would have to do something about the tunnels first. They had dug them without anyone noticing, and they got very close to the Colony during the last attack, so if he didn't collapse them, the Klem might just pop up among his troops, and it would be a strategic disaster, no matter how the battle went in the end.
Worse, they could come up inside the Colony and wipe out the Civilians. In fact, that might be what they were waiting for, but Max's sensors didn't detect any seismic activity that would indicate digging or an underground force approaching.
That didn't mean that it didn't exist, only that he couldn't detect it, which made the odds a bit lower.
[Drone Bombers, this is Commander Keres. Please drop shaker charges in formation seventeen Alpha on the marked location.] Max directed and sent the coordinates that he wanted them to bomb up to the Drone Pilots.
The Shaker Charges were meant to break bunkers, and they would do a wonderful job of collapsing tunnels if they managed to hit them. He wasn't the only one requesting them, but the new generation of Drones was more than capable of complying.
Instead of a standard bombing load, they had raw materials and a Printer so that they could make a variety of explosives as needed until their supply was depleted, and then they would return to the ship to restock and be sent back out again.
The Klem turned to look at the sky when the sound of approaching Drone Bombers caught their attention, and they began to fire spikes up at them, trying to hit the falling bombs. They had some limited success, but most of them made their targets, crashing into the ground with a directed charge, and shaking the earth around them, collapsing dozens of tunnels around the Colony and bringing irate Klem to the surface.
As suspected, they had been digging the tunnels forward of the last exits, but that should be on hold now, and the Klem force was preparing to rush at the defenders.
[Incoming Klem imminent. Pick your targets carefully, and all Fast Attack Mecha prepare to create a firewall when the Warriors reach your range.] Max directed.
If he had time, he would like to pile up the bodies and light them on fire, creating a secondary defence, but there just wasn't time yet, and he didn't have the proper tools with him. That was the one advantage of having infantry in your force. They could operate things like bulldozers and trenching tools. With everyone in Mecha, you missed out on those little things.
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The ground shook nearly as heavily when the Klem force began to move in unison as when the bombs had been incoming, and then the Thunder Guns started their barrage, blanketing the battlefield in explosions again.
[Commander, give us ten more minutes if possible. We are nearly loaded. There are just a few more important items that we would like to get on board before we leave for your vessel.] The Colony leader informed him.
[We will hold as long as we have to. Just make sure that your people all get on board and off the planet. The next round of attacks might not be compatible with unprotected human life.] Max replied.
Every citizen would understand what that meant. Large explosions would kill with air pressure changes even if they didn't kill you, and the Klem loved to use gasses and toxic liquids that would melt even military alloy and concrete. They definitely didn't want to be here when that sort of fight reached the city, and it was clear that the Mecha couldn't hold such a large perimeter forever.
Max bathed the Northern region of the battlefield in Disruptor blasts, clearing out most of the Klem Warriors in the front lines and giving the unit an extra thirty seconds before engagement, and then moved to the East, where a number of Behemoths had been spotted.
[Commander, the Hunters will take the Locust Behemoths this time. You can have the others.] The Huntress that had been fighting with Nico offered.
There were no suitable targets on their side of the battlefield, only the plasma-spraying beetle types, which were no fun to fight since they just exploded when hit. So they were coming to the East to help Max during this fight, leaving him with only three Behemoths to take care of, at least, that he could see at the moment.
Those were the sorts of odds that he could deal with.
The first Warriors breached the bombardment of the Thunder Guns just as the Huntress and her team of four arrived. They saluted to Cleansing Light as they passed by, and Max ordered the Thunder Guns to clear a path for them so that they could reach their targets without delay, then fell in behind them.
The Androids were getting better by the minute, gaining data on the Klem Tide's combat styles as they went, and as long as nothing changed, they should be able to make significant gains in their combat effectiveness by the end of the day.
It was far better than he had expected, and the general sentiment of the signals that he was receiving was that the Android Pilots were competent enough for the job, with only some clarification and a few suggestions from more experienced Pilots needed to keep the units from being overrun so far.
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