Max led the column completely out of the swamp before they came across a Kepler-controlled position or any living beings for that matter. After the orbital strike, nothing wanted to enter the area, and even the native wildlife was afraid to try to take the territory as their own, on the off chance that whatever happened would happen again.

[Colonel, I am Major Max, Commander of the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit. We, along with these other survivors, were driven from a mine deep in the swamp by a massive Narsian attack. Do you have any more news on enemy movements?] Max asked with a hint of desperation when they were greeted by the commander of the Mecha Company stationed at the edge of the swamp.

This unit is from the Noctem Regiment, who only has the same few battles to their name that Max does, but it’s better than nothing, considering that before they saw combat they were in charge of monument security on their homeworld. They know organization and discipline, which the new pilots will need to keep them focused after their first real loss.

The residual energy in the crater interferes with communications and sensors, so Max and his unit hadn’t been able to get any sort of updates since they left. For all they knew, the Narsians were right behind them still, following just out of sensor range.

[The main force stopped there at the mine all night, but they seem to have started moving again. Word is that the mine being destroyed has sent them looking for other energy sources.] The other Commander answers, sending Max an updated chart of troop locations.

The advancing troops really didn’t send anyone after him, and only stopped at the mine overnight while he was running away before they turned to head towards the cities. Their new destination is a full thirty degrees off the course that Max followed, so they won’t be coming within a hundred kilometers of his current position.

The updated scans show that their numbers are below three thousand now though, a third of their original strength, and low enough for the City’s defenders to reliably deal with._.

The force at the mine only lost a quarter of their Crusader Class Mecha, but over a third of the light mecha, while Max was down two Crusaders and fourteen of his thirty Comor pattern Corvettes. Six of the Pilots were alive and being treated for injuries, but the rest of the members of Bravo Squad who stayed behind as rear guard with Nico were assumed lost to the last man. By contrast, the infantry did exceedingly well, losing only seven men, and recovering almost all the supplies.

The units here at the edge of the swamp haven’t had it easy either. It’s only been a few days since they were almost overrun by the Narsian advance that was wiped out with an orbital strike.

It has left them short on manpower, but like Max, they got their most recent round of supplies successfully, so food and ammunition are plentiful, even if Mecha are not.

For now, everyone is resting and mourning their lost comrades before it is time to sort the gear and set up a new camp. There are the remains of a village here that the other Mecha are using, and they’re willing to join forces until new orders come.

[That’s perfect. The units that relocated from the swamp will need a leader, and as a Special Tactics unit, I am most likely going to be reassigned. With you here, Colonel, they don’t need to argue about which Major is in charge.] Max jokes with his counterpart over the Command Channel.

The entire night passes while the injured Pilots recover, and the assembled force waits for a new mission.

High above them in Abraham Kepler’s Command room, a new plan was taking form. The city now had no worries about stopping the Narsian attack. They outnumbered the survivors after the battle at the mine, and they were entrenched with a solid rock city wall behind them to fall back to.

That meant that they could spare the survivors of the Swamp Detachment for other actions, most notably attacking the Narsian encampment closest to their current position to weaken the enemy before tomorrow afternoon’s wave of Landers.

The Stalwart Special Tactics Unit was needed for that mission as well, but they would be doing scouting duties, with the majority of the force staying behind.

Of the seven Generals that had assembled to make up the Command team, six were upset that such a valuable asset had taken heavy losses on a point defense mission. That’s not what a Special Tactics team is for after all. The last was General Tennant, and after seeing Tarith’s Rage reported as lost during the evacuation, he was beyond livid.

There wasn’t much he could do about it though. At least one of his chosen successors survived so far, and he would simply have to look for a replacement for Nico unless by some miracle she had survived the loss of her Crusader.

He wouldn’t put it past her, the girl was a force of nature in combat. But facing those odds, there was little chance of even running away. He couldn’t even spare the mecha to have someone check the battle for survivors yet.

Until the next wave of mecha was down safely and the region’s major targets and civilian centers were secured, wandering through the swamp to look for a mountain of corpses in hopes of a miracle was out of the question.

To take his mind off the loss, General Tennant poured himself into a strategy to inflict maximum damage on the Narsians. Not to secure the area, but to demoralize them and crush their will to exist. That was the best revenge he could have for his protege.

[Command to Stalwart. New orders. Search the area in grid AR12 for signs of a Narsian encampment. Report strengths and assist Noctem Regiment leadership in creating a plan for the elimination of all hostiles.]

Max smiles at the orders he has received. This is a proper mission for a Special Tactics Unit.

[Ari, Paul, Vincente, Catan. Report to me asap.] Max ordered, climbing out of Stalwart to pull the Mobile Suit from the storage crate attached to the top of his power plant’s cooling fins.

When the rest of the officers saw Max in the small powered suit they knew whatever was coming up was not part of normal unit operations and breathed a sigh of relief. They had seen enough battles of attrition that they weren’t in a hurry to see another.

“Welcome everyone. Captain Catan, how many dirt bikes do we have? We are assigned reconnaissance of grid AR12, searching for a Narsian camp. Stealth is important, we want to know as much as we can about them without leading them back here. The rest of you will be in Mobile Suits for stealth. As Paul already learned, the suits have excellent mobility, as well as decent firepower.

Pack light, but bring a bit of everything, and yes Ari, that means you get to bring explosives. If we determine that bombing them is the best way to eliminate them, by the Emperor we are going to do it.

Our mission includes forming a strategy for their elimination, so don’t fear overstepping your orders.”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard since we left the ship, Commander. Nothing hits the spot quite like a healthy dose of sweet, sweet revenge.” Paul agrees, thinking of all the lost pilots of his squad.

“We have twenty bikes, Commander. Do you want them all out?” Captain Catan asks, making a mental note of who would be best to send on the mission.

The bikes are electric and nearly silent, plus fast and agile, so drivers with higher agility are best. That narrows down his choices to about a fifth, but not all of them even know how to ride a motorcycle, it wasn’t in the training they had time for. With that in mind, he decides to simply grab the twenty best stealth operators out of the soldiers who know how to ride. Assuming that many do know how to ride.

“Prepare them all, but we will send out five at a time to do the scouting, along with the four of us in mobile suits.” Max decides.

They know approximately where the enemy should be, so they don’t need a huge search pattern, which means too many of them in the area would be more suspicious and easier to detect than sending the bare minimum.

Captain Catan called four men over and they began planning the routes they would take to search the grid square for the camp that the Narsians had set up. Looking at the topographical map, the answer was pretty self-evident, but there was always the chance that they split the camp, or picked a less suitable location, either to distract the Kepler forces or out of a lack of familiarity with the area.historical

“Alright, here’s the plan for the first day. The Mobile Suits will search the most obvious locations since they have stealth anti-sensor technology and much faster movement. Take the bikes and search the outlying areas in one continuous sweep, don’t double back or make any obvious stops. If they spot you, I want them to think you are messengers passing by.” Max orders.

Bike Messengers were a time-honored tradition. Not every message can be safely sent over the radio waves, and in cases like this, where hacking is expected, not every radio message can be trusted.

“If we all know our jobs, we will be moving out at first light. Notify the rest of your riders, in case we don’t find what we are looking for in the first sweep.” Though, the chances that they would find more than they were looking for seemed much more likely than finding nothing at all.