Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

Nico wiped deep orange Klem blood from her blade and surveyed the carnage around her. Max had been right, when the Great Enemy called on reinforcements, they would have to come through this mountain pass in order to get to the battle in a timely manner.

The process would likely take multiple days, as the Klem were on foot and there were over a thousand kilometres between her and the main battlefield, but that was perfect for Nico and her team of androids.

They had also been joined by a Shin and Valkia cooperative fast attack group that was helping them with the scouting, in case the Klem had been leaving eggs in the trees where the orbital scans didn't detect them, but that team had orders to avoid being engaged and surrounded, so they were operating mostly on stealth and leaving the battle to Nico.

She had brought everything that she might need for an extended battle. There was a whole Battalion of Android Mecha, two wings of Drone Bombers, a shuttle with a Terraforming Array, and even a full squad of Crab Drones, fifty smaller units accompanied by one larger drone to take the leadership role with its superior processing power.

They had proven extremely effective in battle against the Klem Warriors, who had a terrible time trying to hit the fast-moving targets while being shot with the lasers.

It wasn't just the Klem, though. The first wave had been a strange alien species with nine legs that operated hovercraft with strong shields and open tops.

The ninth leg was an evolutionary oddity, replacing what Nico would have assumed to be the tail, so she had sent samples to the lab on Absolution to see if they had been genetically engineered or mutated. There was no use for that leg, it didn't help them walk, defend or attack, and it should have been weeded out if it was an evolutionary oddity.

[Commander Nico, there are more coming.] The leader of the Androids reported.

The Behemoth screamed and fired plasma as it came across the battlefield, still so fresh that Nico hadn't gotten a chance to scour it clean with Fusion Fire.

Nico shifted left and used her thrusters to charge forward, taking on the behemoth, while her unit followed their defensive tactics memo and began to methodically pick apart the swarm.

[Max, can you check the minds of the Klem and find out where their Queen is? They're getting pretty organized about heading toward the base, so there has to be some sort of mind leading them.] Nico requested as she flipped over her target to land on its back and remove the head from its body with her blades.

[I will get right on it. I'm not sure if any of them actually know where the Queen is though, only that they're getting orders.] Max replied.

That was good enough for Nico. There was lots of combat here in the mountain gap, and the battle with the Queen would come afterwards.

The ground in front of her shuddered with explosions as Nico unleashed the Gatling Mass Drivers, the result of her attempts to make the Mass Driver into a machine gun, equipped with high explosive rounds.

Max had sent her two of the new pattern Titan Class Mecha based on Sylvie's Emperor Class Mecha, which had even more firepower than her custom Super Heavy unit did, but they weren't as mobile as her preferred Mecha was, so she hadn't switched yet.

If the targets got too deadly for her to deal with using the firepower that she had, then she would switch, but until then, Nico was much happier with the combat style of the unit she designed for this battle.

This wave of Klem didn't seem to stop, and more kept pouring out of the hills as the drones eliminated the first group. The bodies were beginning to pile up, and she would have to either burn them to ash soon, or move her unit so that they didn't provide cover for the attackers.

It was a strategy that they had seen many times in the past, and she wouldn't fall for that trick again.

Nico was just about to order the drones forward to engage at a new battle line when a group of hovercraft came screaming out of the woods, trying to make a break past her defensive line and around the mountain, where even artillery wouldn't be able to follow them.

[Emperors, take care of the hovercraft. Everyone else, forward into the Klem.] Nico ordered.

It was a good tactic, but Nico had the confidence to split her forces and focus on the lesser threat in order to make sure that nothing got past her to join the battle closer to the enemy base.

Then, once everyone was fully engaged, and Nico was surrounded in Klem Rippers, a split second away from a glorious melee scrum, a column of fast-moving hover speeders raced toward them from the other side, using the distraction to break the blockade.

There wasn't enough firepower to stop them all.

That was an annoyance, but you couldn't stop absolutely everything, Nico reasoned.

But just as they got out of sight, there was the sound of intense combat and exploding vehicles.

Nico checked her map and realized that Max had seen the hovercraft coming for her and had sent reinforcements, but he had sent them around the backside of the mountain where the enemy wouldn't see them appear.

So, when they broke past the line, they ran into the second line of defence and were obliterated. It was accidentally brilliant, and over the sound of combat, there was a good chance that nobody else had even noticed that they were missing yet.

[Drones, light up the wall of Klem bodies. I want thick enough smoke that the incoming enemies can't see the pass.] Nico ordered, intending to keep the reinforcements a secret for just a little longer.

Their first artillery barrage would be that much more entertaining if nobody knew they existed.