Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

Max watched as his reinforcements were sent into the hills to support Nico's frontline from out of sight through the thick black smoke of burning Klem bodies. It was keeping the enemy from realizing that they were only seeing half of the combat force, while the Mecha were using Max's targeting skills as well as the sensor data from the nearby units to aim without need for their own sensors.

That had left nearly the whole western side of the battlefield barren of enemies after the first wave had swept through, and now the retreating forces were past the Great Enemy's base and preparing to regroup with the teams that had cleared the path for them.

Once that was done, they would charge into the back of the base and see if the Myceloids were going to focus on them or if they were going to attack the targets that were between the two forces.

The Great Enemy's base was slightly smaller than the one that the Alliance had built, likely due to the fact that they didn't have two massive World Ships taking up space in the middle, but it was still nearly three hundred kilometres across, and that was a lot of potential battlefields for the Myceloids to ignore if they wanted to focus on the humans.

[All units fall in on the backside of the Great Enemy's base and prepare for the push. Fast Attack units, remain behind the front lines until the push starts. The artillery will draw the enemy out of their bunkers.] Max ordered, signalling the start of the battle for the position.

The War Horns of the Mecha sounded the advance a second before the first artillery shells landed, and the main Alliance force pushed forward into the enemy base. A full quarter of their offensive force had been gathered here, twelve of the fifty major groups, all heavily reinforced from the base to begin the battle, and still Max wasn't sure how it was going to turn out.

Then the Myceloids began to cheer and charge at everything. His troops, the enemy defenders, the base itself. Once the horns sounded the challenge, they were all in on the race to see which army could kill more.

They didn't care which army the casualties came from, as long as it wasn't theirs, they just wanted to kill more than the Alliance did so that they could say that they were still the roughest, toughest, baddest species out there.

Max sensed the horror and frustration as the Myceloids turned on the Cathedral Ships and their warriors, as well as the panic of the aliens that couldn't understand what was going on or why a species that was supposed to be on their side was pillaging their base.

[Felicity, send a bombing run over the enemy base, use bunker busters, I want every underground tunnel and improvised structure that can be targeted to become a pile of rubble. Force everything to the surface so we can get a proper count on the enemy casualties.] Max ordered.

The Myceloid God would love that little trick, and having everyone out in the open would force them to fight instead of hiding and hoping to regroup later.

They had already found the first few tunnels entirely accidentally when the shaking from the artillery had collapsed shallow sections, so there had to be more, and the deep ground penetration of the bunker busters should make the occupants feel unsafe enough to run for the nearest intact exit.

[They're on the way, Commander. 30 seconds to the first impact.] Felicity reported.

The Myceloids had bombers of their own. Sort of. They appeared to be rocket propelled and without throttle controls, but they were racing in from the distance covered in bombs.

Then, the entire squadron abruptly veered straight up, rolled, and turned downward as the bombs released, and the Pilots ejected to parachute into combat.

At full throttle, the planes hit the ground first, surrounded by high explosives in an absolutely ridiculous quantity, and finally, the pilots, who were all blown off course to random spots due to the thermal clouds and winds created by their own attacks.

It was insane, but it had to be the most epic bomber assault that Max had ever seen.

They were mostly targeting the centre of the base, close to the portal, where the majority of the support staff were, hoping for the highest possible casualty counts, but Max wasn't bothered even if his troops were behind for the moment.

Once the panic truly set in and the running started, he would make up the lost numbers with longer ranged artillery.

The Myceloid God probably knew that as well, and the green tide was working on surrounding the Great Enemy's castle so that the number of escaping fighters would be minimized.

The more that made it past the encirclement, the greater Max's late game advantage would be, as he had attacked with a wedge, and the Myceloids had the greater surface area with less penetration into the base.

[How is the battle going? Things suddenly went quiet over here.] Nico asked.

[The Myceloids dive bombed the enemy base, and I think they might have hit the communications headquarters, while I sent bunker busters for the tunnels. Are you thinking that there is a chance we got the Klem Queen?] Max replied.

[It's beginning to look like it. Their drive toward the base is gone, and their coordination is failing. If they didn't lose the Queen, she's in no mental condition to be organizing the battle right now. I can almost guarantee that she is somewhere under that facility.] Nico agreed.

[Excellent, that means there should be high numbers of hidden opponents just waiting to come out. The Myceloids will be in for a surprise when they burst out to surface level.]

There were no signs of Klem yet, but the species were likely the ones that dug the tunnels under the base, as that was their preferred transport and breeding location. They just needed to get them to the surface and cut them down so that they didn't have to send recon units underground to finish them off.

That would be the worst-case scenario. Underground with Klem and Myceloids was not going to be a good time for anyone.