Just before the first light of dawn, Max orders the scouting team to move out. With the bikes on a big loop, it will look like they are passing messages between units if anyone is monitoring them, and they have permission to stop off and do exactly that if they should find another Kepler Unit in the area, giving them the scouting reports that they have found, in an effort to keep everyone in the loop and reduce human casualties.
"Follow me. We will split up at the river if we haven't found the Narsian camp." Max instructs the other mobile suit-wearing officers.
The suits themselves have an adaptive Camouflage function, as well as thermal shielding, housing them from most sensors, but Max added one more layer, old-fashioned ghillie suits.
The simple nets with their tied cloth, sticks, and leaves are viewed as unnecessary by most Commanders, given the technology available, but Max recalled a battle scene from his past life while he was planning.
The enemy Mecha had dragged themselves through the mud and then covered themselves with this story of Camouflage. Then they shut off all power and waited. The entire front-line force had passed them by, relying on only their sensors.
It was only Max trusting his intuition that spotted the hidden force and prevented them from completing their ambush of the senior military officers.
The four Pilots move silently through the trees away from the ruins of the village that the combined Kepler force was using as their camp, heading for a hollow between two hills.
That was the most likely spot for the enemy camp, followed by a clearing near the river and a box canyon that would be extremely difficult for Mecha to access.
Being in form-fitting armor is a strange experience for Max. Almost like a pressure suit, but Armored and augmented. The biggest change was the lack of targeting indicators in his vision. Inside Stalwart, his System Skills would always be looking for more targets, but his rifle is slung over his shoulder, leaving no weapon to activate his skill.
It feels somehow very lonely. The fact he had to stop himself from making a joke about it to Nico, who is no longer there to talk to only made the feeling worse.
[Slow to a crawl. The target should be just over that rise.] Max said softly over the radio, tagging a hill five hundred meters away.
The location lights up on the navigation display, and all four Pilots spread out to search for scouts.
[I have found motion. ] Ari signals and Max crawls closer to get a better look.
The scout is one of only four on patrol, and the enemy force is a mere three hundred giants. That's far fewer than expected, and the lack triggers something in Max's memory.
If so few are here, at the most obvious location, it must be a trap.
[Back out the way we came. Search the topographical map for nearby hiding spots.] Max ordered, wondering what he missed the first time.
As the squad settled in to wait and search their maps, Max turned his audio sensitivity to maximum. The Narsians are worse at hiding the noise of their movement than their heat and electrical signatures, so he might learn something unexpected.
There isn't anything on the map that indicates a way for the enemy to have hidden from them. All around is a flat forest floor, all the way to the river.
[First Bike has made it to the end of the zone, no sightings reported.] Captain Catan signals and the five scout bikes make a loop to come back down a different route.
[Sir, I think I found something. Underneath this location, there should be solid granite bedrock. But the ground feels soft, like the swamp.] Vincente hesitantly voices his observation.
They had all gotten so used to the feeling that they didn't notice, but Vincente is right, the ground under them wasn't solid.
The radar on their units isn't ground penetrating, so the best idea had has is to use the multi-purpose shovel and dig a hole.
Ari has a better idea first though, attaching an audio sensor to a tree root. Then she taps the ground a few times at different locations and removes the sensor.
[It might be best for cracking locks, but I can tell you that there is a large cavern under us. If a heavy Mecha came through they would fall in. I can also say for certain that the hole isn't empty. I heard voices speaking Narsian.]
So they dug a Mecha trap around the camp and filled it with soldiers? Not bad. Very few scouting units would have noticed and many Crusaders would be lost when the dome collapsed and dumped them into the Narsian troops below.
That would then leave the light mecha trapped with no support and an army in front of them. They aren't heavy enough to fall through, so they would easily have made it to the camp before the trap was sprung.
[They're not going to leave this spot easily. Our options are to let them know we're on to their tricks by shelling the trap or to find a way through that won't collapse.]
The Mobile Suits spread out again, searching for solid spots to cross, but finding very little positive news. As far as they can tell, the hidden moat is a full circle.
[What's the plan, Commander?] Paul asks, eager to get even with these giant aliens.
"How much Thermotex do we have on hand?" Max asks, checking his own storage for supplies of the Kepler Military's finest new explosive.
"I have 24 charges," Ari informs him, cutting everyone's search short. That much explosive is enough to level a bunker complex.
"Set them all as shaped charges around the moat. I want it scoured of life the moment the bikes confirm there aren't any more hidden forces."
The order brings a big smile to Ari's face, hidden under the helmet of her mobile suit. She doesn't say anything else, silently getting to work and setting charges all around the perimeter.
[All done.] Ari informs Max a half hour later when she reaches the position where Paul and Vincente were helping rig the charges.
[All bikes report in.] Max calls, getting a variety of answers back.
There are no other large camps to be found, but if they're hosting underground, the scouts might have missed them. If they do exist, this boat is certain to bring any hidden Narsian forces running.
Max relays his plan back to the camp and the Colonel agrees to send twenty Mecha with Battle Cannons forward to Bombard the valley when the moat is destroyed.
The artillery will stop them from sending medics in to rescue any possible survivors. With a bit of luck, this attack will be no less devastating than the orbital strike, clearing an entire Narsian force in an instant.
[All scout bikes are safely back at camp.] Captain Catan confirms, climbing off his trusty electric steed and plugging it into one of the idle ports on the Lander closest to where his men have set up camp.
The Crusaders assigned to artillery duty, along with fifty infantry squads with Howitzer-type cannons have already left camp, taking almost all the indirect fire capability with them. The plan that Max put forward was to hit the camp so hard that they would have no chance to either survive or even understand what was happening before they were annihilated by the force of the explosion.
Captain Catan wasn't completely certain how much firepower would be needed to wipe out an area the size of the valley in a few seconds, but he could see how much they were going to use, and it was pretty impressive.
He had thought that they would be joining the mission, but as a Special Tactics Unit, their orders were just to do the scouting and spotting for the mission, while the main force did the leg work.
[Artillery in position.] The call came through, and Max motioned for Ari to set the timers while they retreated from the vicinity of the valley.
[Fire on my signal.] Max called over the general channel, hoping that maybe the Narsians were listening in, so they could have one last moment of panic before they died.
Ari positioned the shaped charges so that they would blow in a clockwise circle around the moat, and the effect is glorious. A tornado of fire, hot enough to melt the bedrock circles the trench around the valley, with the charges timed so that each one will pull in the blast from the one behind it, turning a single explosion into a swirling vortex, trapping the heat inside the hole and burning away all the oxygen.
The blast is impossible to miss, trees shake and fall over a kilometer away from the main blast, and multiple jets of fire explode into the sky where the Narsians had dug emergency escape tunnels. The force even blows out a section of the valley wall, showering the Narsian main force with shards of rock a split second before the artillery shells arrive.
The bombardment continues once every three seconds for an entire minute until the artillery commander orders a halt to the hostilities.
[Send out a scout drone. Bring me some good news.] He orders with a big grin on his face for the fate these treacherous invaders have suffered today.]
The one-sided battle was heard for many kilometers around, as Max had intended, ensuring that no Narsian force could pretend that it didn't happen and that any lost Kepler Forces knew where they could find a large number of friendly troops.
