[Carpe Noctem, this is Stalwart. I confirm that the bridge is intact. Recommend no light or infantry support at this time. Terrain flooded North of Bridge with increasing water levels.] Max responds.

[Understood Stalwart. Light Support has been assigned an alternate route.]

Max isn’t sure where they are all going, but he hopes that alternate route involves a helicopter. Radio chatter indicates that no fewer than three of the Cygnus shops crashed into the deep oceans, boiling off over fifty meters of sea level into the atmosphere.

Forget seeing the rains end during their tour here, the results will likely be somewhere between a mass extinction event and a mythological planetary flood. Looking out over the shallow lake that was once fertile fields, Max can believe it.

But they are also in the low land, and as such might be evacuated to higher ground when the waters make their defense point of no strategic value.

Carpe Noctem appears on all its midnight black painted glory just over an hour after their message, escorted by two hundred Crusader Class Mecha, marching double file down the road._.

[Stalwart, do you have an eyewitness report on the mother ship that went down in this region? Contact has been lost with units near the regional capital ever since.] The pilot of the mighty Phalanx Class Mecha asks.

[The ship was destroyed by Orbital Lance approximately one hundred drop pods in to their deployment. They faced heavy fire from the ground, but the interstellar drive explosion would have caused heavy damage to mecha and overloaded most digital circuitry with an electromagnetic pulse. Sensors recorded it here, but damage was negligible at this distance.]

Max then forwards him the combat report he made for that day, annotated with the reports of Nico and the other officers.

The thunder is still so regular that their sensors couldn’t tell if there was a battle in the distance, but with the altitude of the explosion, there is hope for survivors, if not for their sensitive radio equipment.

[Expect returning units within the next 24 hours Stalwart. We are going to retake that city, and their damaged defenders will be leaving the zone via your location. Hold at all costs. There are no other bridges left across the river for five hundred Kilometers.]

[Understood Carpe Noctem, and the Emperor’s own luck to the current defenders.] Max responds and the giant Mecha leads his units across the bridge.

They go single file, only one unit on the bridge at a time for safety, not knowing if there is hidden damage, and soon fade into the distance.

Max and his unit don’t get to enjoy the thunder storm for long though. A squad of Rebel Crusaders is making their way east down the river banks, pulling their light support Mecha on makeshift rafts through the roughly 7 meter deep, muddy flood waters.

[Western Zone defense. Do Not let those mecha within sight of the bridge. The village is blocking direct line of sight for now, but that won’t last.] Max instructs, and numerous light mecha shift positions through the Trenches to get a clear shot at the approaching enemies.

The enemy looks pretty pitiful, heavily damaged, pulling their support, but desperation only makes them a larger threat to the bridge.

Once the light mecha begin their fire, crippling two of the lead Mecha, Max uses their targeting data that is being relayed to the unit to begin indirect fire. The first shell hits a barge, dumping a wing of light mecha into the water.

On a perfect world, the Line Mecha are sealed and can function underwater or in space. But these units are all heavily damaged, and unlikely to be waterproof.

They are still upstream of the blockage in the river, so there is no real fear of them washing down into the bridge, but Max orders mecha wing 3 who is on the eastern Trenches as well as the captured Sentinels to keep an eye out for mecha signals from inside the river.

All of the Crusaders are quickly disabled, and the light mecha cut their rafts free to be washed away by the fast moving waters north towards the Carpe Noctem and its support. If they are lucky the Mecha are moving fast enough that they won’t catch them, but Max suspects that will not be the case.

[Ceasefire, save your ammunition.] Max calls an end to the hostilities.

He would really like to go recover those destroyed units for his own men’s use, but there simply isn’t a safe way to get to them right now. Instead they will have to serve as submerged obstacles for the next unit that comes that way.

Carpe Noctem found what they were looking for later that evening, with constant radio signals of combat and the flashes of heavy weapons in the horizon. Then just before midnight another familiar voice joined the communications on the encrypted frequencies.

[Thanks for the spare parts Morning Glory. Shining Darkness is back to full capacity.] Comes the voice of General Tennant over the intercom.

[Prevailing weather patterns indicate that this region should start seeing a reduction in rainfall by morning. Proceed to point seventeen and implement plan C25.] The pilot of the Carpe Noctem instructs, getting only an affirmative beep in response.historical

Less rainfall during the overnight hours was a blessing, many basements in the village had flooded already and there were concerns for the safety of their supplies, but that reprieve also brought an old enemy back in to their lives.

[Incoming Bombers] Nico sighed for the third time that night, as the Rebels tried desperately to open a path for their troops to escape the two sided attack from the Phalanx Class Mecha.

It was all target practice to Max though. The Pulse Laser Battery had an incredible range, maintaining cohesion for over twenty Kilometers when fired into open air, and with his Targeting skills, it was almost as good as a flak Cannon at filling the air with deadly objects.

The major difference was, Lasers are much faster moving, unable to be dodged but don’t explode. Therefore it is all on Max to be able to directly hit the bombers in the sky, Calculating the firing delay of his weapon and the movement patterns of the enemy.

The fact that his weapon serves as a tracer round was incredibly useful before Max was used to the beams firing at the target he picked a quarter second after he selected them with [Split Fire], but that also worked in the opposite direction, and the enemy began firing back at his hole in the ground with their defensive weapons.

[Excellent work Stalwart. Who knew anti infantry lasers could be so good against bombers?] Lieutenant Becki congratulates him as the sun comes up, which has signaled the end of the daily bombing attempts in the past.

[Very effective, but it is a bit like shining a spotlight on myself. Find me a new position further from the bridge that still has good sight lines for defense and indirect fire.] Max directs the Light Mecha officer, while surveying the destruction all around him.

His own hiding hole is still the deepest in the area, but not by as much as he would like. If he enemy had been less accurate at targeting him, the bridge could have been damaged.

While a new location is chosen Max moves to the lander, getting repairs to his top carapace after taking repeated hits over the course of the evening. He decides he needs to learn from Nico’s trick and get an armor plate placed above his mecha, and a new camouflage vehicle, the old one was shredded.