227 227 Klem Incoming
With three Battalions of Heavy Mecha at their backs, the Klem began to charge for the center. In their minds, since breaking free of the confinement didn’t distract these hateful metallic monsters, and their attacks didn’t draw more defenses to any particular spot, that meant that the leader was clearly the one in the center. Once Fifth Battalion was reassigned to Max’s position, it cemented this notion in the minds of the Klem.
If they could overrun the position in the center, the Klem were certain that the Mecha organization would crumble and they would be left leaderless and weak. In the past, they had fought enemies that had turned even more vicious when the leader was killed, but going by the way these Mecha were organized by size, the Klem had decided that they were a Caste-based enemy, so their leader should be very important to them.
What they hadn’t counted on was the fact that the X137 had been hiding the true range of their artillery. From the moment they began to charge, the high explosive shells rained down among their ranks, killing indiscriminately and tearing apart the forest they had hoped to hide in.
If they had known how much discomfort the barrage was causing their allies, the Klem would have seen it as much less than they deserved for this cowardly tactic of attacking blindly at an area. The Klem were smart enough to understand that it was the Mecha force in the center of their territory that was attacking them, but what they couldn’t understand was how they knew where to find the Klem army.
All they could do was increase the speed of their charge, hoping to get within range of the enemy leader as fast as they could.
[Two Kilometers to the front ranks of the Klem charge] Nico called over the Area Channel, working as the station intelligence officer.
[Prepare for close contact, bring the flamers to the ready positions in front of the other Crusaders and prepare to repel the first wave.] Max ordered.
Their compound wasn’t large, made for one company of Mecha, not two, so even the sixty-five Fusion Flamer equipped Mecha that were on duty right now would make a dense wall of searing flames once they engaged the Klem.
The throbbing roar of artillery was making it hard to even think, but for the moment all they needed to do was obey. Just get into position and roast everything that came close enough.
Seconds later, the front ranks of the charge came into sight, and the Mecha opened fire. Every energy weapon they had unleashed its full might against the Klem, struggling to thin the wave before it crashed down on their outer defenses.
The wall wasn’t large enough to contain a full second Company of Mecha, so most of the Corvettes from Fifth Company, as well as all the active X109 Fast Attack units with their Fusion Flamers, were currently in the trench outside its questionable defense. It was never intended to hold the enemy at bay, only to slow it down long enough that they could roast the bugs more efficiently.
The bodies quickly began to pile up, torn apart by the fury of three hundred Heavy Mecha, but it wasn’t nearly enough, and the tide simply rolled over their bodies, never slowing in its advance. This was the true horror of the Klem. As they consumed everything on a planet, their numbers would swell to an unimaginable level, and they would simply drown their enemies in chitinous bodies.
[Enemy at eighty meters. Flamers in 3, 2, 1 NOW] Nico announced, and the area around the landing site turned to an inferno of superheated air and burning bodies.
[Corvettes, close combat formation] Both Max and Colonel Meek of Fifth Company ordered at the same time, instructing their lightest Mecha to get their swords out and prepare to repel the Klem that made it through the flames.
They were burning, but that wasn’t enough to stop them, and the survivors slammed into the Corvettes at a full-on run, impaling themselves on blades, and knocking dozens to the ground as the next wave of Warriors followed closely behind them.
Mighty blasts from the Crusader Class X104 in the rank behind them destroyed the seared bodies of the Klem Warriors, and flew blindly into the flames, tearing apart more of the Warriors that were so desperate to make it through to engage the Mecha forces.
The first of the Shredders were close behind them, firing a thick wave of spikes into the Crusaders, wearing down shields and damaging vulnerable joints. The Ion Bombard Arrays of the Super Heavy Mecha had been decimating them since they came into sight, but through pure numbers, they still had the power to disable many of the Crusader Class units on defense.
The Shredders’ only regret was that they couldn’t target the units with flamers in the front. The heat was too intense, and the wall of spikes would have been turned to ash.
[Change Bombardment targets. Grid Ring 2, wipe out everything that is in attacking range.] Max ordered, setting the bombardment coordinates to obliterate everything from one to two hundred meters away.
That would mean a heavier wave of enemies later, as they were no longer thinning the ranks of the main force, but if they didn’t their defenses would be breached early and the shields wouldn’t have time to come back up.
With eight Super Heavy Mecha, clearing the zone only took a few seconds, adding a wall of explosions to the ring of fire around the base.
That led to a moment’s rest for the outer ring defenders, who kicked the remains of Klem corpses off themselves and stood back in formation as they waited for their shields to come back online after the damages they had sustained.
[Casualty report.] Max ordered, preparing for the Klem he could see on the radar nearing the two-kilometer point, where they could be directly targeted past the hills and remains of the forest that once stood here.