Max stood among the ruins of the most recent armoured column that had faced off against him and Nico, checking the battle reports and trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
The Mecha Companies were dug into trenches to hold their positions, and the number of casualties among the Cathedral Fleet was staggering, hundreds of thousands dead along with nearly a dozen armoured regiments.
The Cutter had sent out nine replacement Mecha Companies since the Cruiser had been destroyed, and still the number of enemies was not decreasing. That shouldn't be correct, it meant that they had killed three times as many as the ship should hold, and they still weren't running low on support.
Something was very wrong with this picture, and if they didn't sort it out quickly, the cities wouldn't be able to hold, even with the Mecha and drones backing them up.
The Cutter was reporting another Company of Mecha sent out to reinforce the defence lines around the ship itself, and Max knew that it was time that he did something more than just killing everything he saw.
[Nico, we need to find the source of these reinforcements. Check the wrecked vehicles and every hidden terrain feature that we come across for anything out of the ordinary. If I'm right, they have a way to keep bringing their troops in.] Max ordered.
[Do you think that was why they used the drop pods? If they weren't just a transport, but a miniature portal generator, they could keep dumping troops into the battlefield, and we wouldn't think twice about them.]
[It has to be something. We've already killed three for every soul that should have fit in that Cruiser, and they're still increasing in numbers. I would rather not have to use scorched earth tactics when there are still millions of civilians in the area.] Max agreed.
The two Titan Class Mecha split up, hacking and blasting their way through the enemy as they searched for the source of their reinforcements.
Max kneeled at a troop transport vehicle that he definitely hadn't seen in the drop from the Cruiser, and tore open the top of the ruined vehicle. Nothing suspicious, just a bunch of supplies and a handful of dead soldiers that matched the other dead soldiers scattered around it.
All of them were from the same alien species, which reminded Max somewhat of a six legged dog. The controls were interesting, intended to be manipulated with the front paws in a glove-like enclosure, and Max made a note of it, but there was no sign of the way that they had gotten here.
Next up was a drop pod from the Cruiser, which had never opened. Normally, the doors on them were designed to blast open and clear rubble or obstructions from around the pod for easier supply extraction, but this one was still sealed tight, with no signs of life inside.
It could be a gun drone or a trap, but Max was willing to take the risk on the off chance that there was something inside that was worth viewing.
Carefully, he pulled the door open and stared at the mass of electronics inside. This was definitely not a supply pod, and it looked like it was still active, with a fairly intense power signature, but he couldn't figure out what it was for.
So, he carefully linked a data tablet, making sure that there was no connection back to his Mecha, just in case it was designed as some form of countermeasure against AI or technology, and began his inspection work.
At first, it was just a programmed database, and the data wasn't making much sense, but after only a few minutes of work, Max realized what he had found. It was a Replicator pod, to make weapons and gear for the Great Enemy, using material from the planet, or nearby rubble and corpses.
But that wasn't all. It was remotely controlled.
Max rapidly altered the settings on his scanners to trace the signal from the pod back to its origin, and found that it was receiving signals from a location only four kilometres away, much closer than he had dared to hope for.
Normally, such a device would be run from a safe spot on the far side of a planet or in orbit, not within artillery range of the replicator itself.
Unless they thought that this was a suitable spot to restock and resupply, even though there were hundreds of Mecha on the prowl.
It didn't make much sense, but as they had dropped everything in a panic once the two Titan Class Mecha started firing, there was a good chance that nothing was where it was intended to be, and wherever they were getting reinforcements from, that leadership group was planning to reorganize.
[Nico, I have found a replicator in a drop pod. It is sending a signal to a nearby location. I have sent you the frequency and encryption codes. See if you can find more and if they're all communicating with the same spot.] Max informed her as soon as he finished the analysis.
[Good find. I think I found something strange as well, vehicles that seem to have taken fresh damage from a collapsing portal, but there hasn't been a new portal here in hours. I have the closest Mecha team guarding the site.] Nico replied.
That was two points of information, and another step closer to finding the reinforcements. If they really were using portals to another layer to bring them in, then all Max and Nico had to do was isolate how, and they could send themselves on their way as soon as the situation was stable.
Sometimes, it was the small things that really helped the day seem brighter, and Max was in a much better mood as he started to head to the second location.
Then he froze, realizing his mistake.
There was no way that they would just sit and keep their operations online while he ran at them in a fifty-metre tall Mecha for four kilometres. The fact that they hadn't shut them down when he reached the pod was already surprising.
[Nico, I'm sending the Command Mecha back to the Cutter and infiltrating in a Mobile Suit. I will contact you again once I have additional information.]
