The Cathedral Ships were beginning to recover from the initial confusion, and the vessels within the base had their shields raised, with firing lines in hastily built foxholes behind the formidable barriers.
With the output of weapons limited, it would take some time to get through the shielding, possibly even enough that the rest of the base would be cleared, giving the Alliance and the Myceloids a clear winner in the kill count race.
That is, if they could prevent enough of the defenders from fleeing to safety.
Max sensed the relief of the first destroyer as the Mecha gave them a wide berth to attack the stragglers still caught out in the open, but that relief would not last long.
[Commander, the analysis is complete. One coordinated burst will take down the shielding on the Destroyer.] Felicity informed Max as she prepared more troops to be deployed as reinforcements.
[Felicity, prepare the bombers, the instant that shield goes down, I want high explosives and bunker busters blanketing the protected zone. Not just the ship, hit everything in the area.] Max ordered.
That should get the Myceloids all worked up. The sight of an exploding Destroyer would muddle the count and make it look like the humans had just gotten a huge boost in their competition.
It was a bad day to be a part of the Cathedral Ships, as they had unwittingly become the punching bag in the slugfest between two military titans. But there was nothing that they could do about it now, and even sending in their Commander wouldn't save them from this tragedy, as they had so painfully learned not long ago.
The warriors aboard the Destroyer began to prepare for a counterattack as the first of the Emperor Class Mecha moved back, and Max gave the order.
[Full bombardment now.]
Thousands of Mass Drivers firing at once drowned out all communications for a moment, and the resulting shockwave knocked many of the infantry to the ground, while sending the hovercraft spinning. But the shield fell, and the last few rounds fired impacted against the unprotected hull of the Destroyer a split second before the bombers were overhead and shelling the entire radius of the vessel's defensive perimeter.
[All units seek cover.] Felicity ordered suddenly.
They had miscalculated the damage that they could cause to the Destroyer, and a lucky shot from one of the Mass Drivers had ruptured the Warp Core, causing it to go critical. None of them had any faith that the Myceloid God would defend them from their own mistakes, as the antimatter containment went offline and the blast filled the battlefield with hypersonic shrapnel.
But it seemed that the rules of this battlefield did help to some extent, as the aftermath of the Warp Core detonation was not nearly as bad as they had predicted, and the shielding of most of the Mecha held against the blast.
[Second rank, charge forward and clean up the survivors.] Max ordered.
They had been near the edge of the battlefield when the Destroyer had been eliminated, and needed no time to continue the bombardment.
The enthusiasm of the Myceloids was overwhelming once they realized that the Destroyers could be taken out as part of the game, and Max sensed their strategy shifting to account for the number of crew members that should be inside each vessel.
They might be lousy combatants, but they were all valid targets.
[The Myceloids are preparing to emulate our strategy to get the kills on the ships around the perimeter.] Max warned the attacking units.
They would have to stay out of the way to avoid being caught up in the secondary explosions, while pushing forward in the centre of the camp to get as many kills as possible, and find the entrances to the underground portion of the base, where the Klem Queen and other valuable targets should be hidden.
That was Max's priority. They could deal with most of the forces here easily enough, but the Klem reproduced so quickly that if they were given time and a Queen, they would become the most powerful portion of the enemy force.
[Target designated. Attack.] Felicity ordered, and another Destroyer's shielding went down, followed by a chain reaction of explosions as the drone bombers followed through with their run.
That was a direct challenge in the eyes of the Myceloids. They were down two to zero, and they had just realized that they hadn't coordinated their heavy firepower well enough to take out the largest ships.
But they had a backup plan. Blow up the little ones and make the big ones come out to fight them. Nobody cared about weaklings anyhow, and they wanted a right proper fight.
The real danger was that this operation would be too successful and the Mecha would leave themselves encircled by the Myceloids in place of the Cathedral Ships.
Once the numbers started to drop, they were going to have to plan a way out so that they didn't end up on the losing side of this battle and cause huge numbers of casualties among their Alliance forces.
The Alliance units were mostly centred on light and fast attack roles though, and in a grinding battle like the clearance of the base, they were out of their element, so Max ordered them back toward the pass where Nico was fighting, and then pushed more of the Android Regiments up in their place.
After the main battle was over, the Mecha could retreat to the pass, with the fast attack units in the hills behind them as fire support, and that should stall the Myceloid advance long enough for both sides to regroup and focus on the next step in their strategies.
The transition was executed smoothly, with the hover vehicles easily passing over and around the Mecha, and not needing to slow their attacks as they retreated from the encirclement.
More of the Cathedral Ships were being destroyed, and the Androids had caught on to the game that Max and the Myceloid God were playing well enough to have determined that the goal was not always strategic victory, as that was already assured, but the total casualty count.
So, they began poaching kills from the Myceloids.
When they shifted units to prepare an attack, the Mecha would focus indirect fire and take out their target a few seconds in advance, leaving nothing but rubble where the Myceloids were expecting an easy kill.
They were good sports about it, and even though they were frustrated by the kill stealing, they were happy to return the favour, and even managed to get a tank barrage final kill on a Cruiser before the bombers could get in place, after the Mecha had taken out the shielding.
[The enemy base is beginning to implode, all units fall back to avoid encirclement. Keep up an artillery barrage to give the impression that our strategy is an interior sweep of the region to find the hidden entrances to the tunnel complex.
Have we found them yet? Report all signs of tunnels or the Klem Queen's presence.] Max ordered.
[Understood Commander. No tunnel entrances were found within the complex. We are currently predictive mapping the most likely exit points.] Felicity replied, while Sylvie gave Max a grumpy look.
Felicity had so much more tactical experience than she did that she had been relegated to the role of data processing support, even though she was also a World Ship Class AI.
