Max charged forward to meet the Klem, intending to keep them away from the Cutters as well as he could.
The six Disruptors on Cleansing Light flashed a wave of energy at maximum dispersion, directly vaporizing the closest Shredders, as well as the ground that they were standing on, creating a sloped ditch between the Titan Class Mecha and the approaching aliens.
The tide only hesitated for a second before spreading out, hoping that he couldn't get to them all at once, but Max was already firing again, wiping out the flanks and letting the portion of the assault force that was closest to him advance.
If there wasn't a Behemoth guiding them, that was the best way to trick Shredders into going where you wanted. They could think for themselves a little bit, but when guided toward a threat, they would lock onto it.
They were strangely conniving when they were on defense, though, setting many traps and proving to be uncanny with their ability to pick positions to ambush from. It was a strange adaptation for such a powerful attacker, but given their lack of ranged attacking power, it did make more sense for them to wait for enemies to approach and then ambush them than to launch suicidal runs across the sand toward a Mecha Regiment.
The only reason that they were doing it at all was that the Behemoths had spotted the Cutters and ordered them to find the invaders and eat them.
The Thunder Guns began to rumble as Max demonstrated his plan for the Klem, forcing them toward the Titan Class Mecha and buying their Battalions more time. They weren't directly targeting the Klem with every shot. Instead, one in three went into the sand outside of their flanks, causing them to dodge toward the center, which would create a new gap for the next shell to fall in.
They didn't pack them too tightly, as even the instinct-driven Klem would realize that they were being herded if they did, but it was enough that most of them were focused on Cleansing Light as the primary threat.
It was going amazingly well, and the corpses were turning the sand into ichor-soaked mud until the Behemoths reached a hill in the distance and gained a line of sight to the battle.
That was enough for them to realize what had happened, and the Shredders began to spread out again, leaving only a small group to target Cleansing Light while the others intended to rush past to target the Regiment.
The ranged units weren't in range yet, having a larger distance to cover, but the sensors detected an incoming mass containing thousands of the two-meter-long flying species known as Gargoyles due to their vague resemblance to the carvings that adorned the top of many buildings.
They weren't coming from the main city but an outpost somewhere around forty kilometers away, and it had taken them a little while to get into the air, likely due to confusion about the situation. They wouldn't immediately assume that the planet was being invaded unless they could see and identify the threat, so they hesitated until something had determined that the objects were human vessels.
This planet might be a nightmare to fight on, but it was a treasure trove of battle tactics, so Max was recording all that he could, intending to add it to the simulators as a practice scenario that the Pilots could take on to test their skills and Command decisions.
With a fully inhabited planet like this, every action was interlinked, and a wrong decision could bring hundreds of Klem down on a scouting party before they could even regroup for defense.
[Sir, we are eighty percent loaded.] The pilot of the First Battalion's Cutter reported.
Max's screen showed the last defense was a group of Fast Attack Mecha, which could rejoin their comrades in the air, thanks to the jump packs, which gave them limited flight capabilities, but the Regiments all still had their Super Heavy Mecha on the ground.
Their position was next to the door, so they needed to load last unless they didn't care about delaying the other Mecha, but it was giving the Regiment a rather formidable last stand.
The artillery was throwing up clouds of dust, blown by the wind generated by repeated bombardment and the thermal disturbance of Fusion Flamers, which were finally in range of their targets as the Klem charge reached its last stages.
From underground, a rumbling indicated something was wrong, and the seismic sensors on Cleansing Light indicated that something huge was moving underneath his feet.
Max jumped straight into the air and engaged his thrusters, intending to hover and finish off the center line of Shredders, but a huge mouth followed him up.
The Klem appeared to be an armored worm with thousands of rows of teeth in a mouth as large as its body. The Kepler Empire called them Constructor Worms, which dug the underground complexes where the Klem preferred to lay eggs after the initial assault was successful, and they could devour and pulverize anything from bedrock to a Heavy Mecha with equal efficiency.
The enormous worm followed him fifty meters into the air before crashing to the ground, snapping the opening of its round maw open and closed in frustration at being unable to eat the biggest potential meal in the area.
[Get the Cutters off the ground ASAP. Constructors are never alone, and if they start eating away at your hull, we are going to have much more severe problems than a planet full of mutant Klem.] Max barked, and the Super Heavy Mecha hopped onto the loading ramps at either side of the Cutters, leaving a gap at their back for the last few Fast Attack Mecha to make their retreat as the ships took off.
The extra training and time to practice paid off, and not a single Mecha other than the Fast Attack Crusaders was left on the ground, and they were rapidly leaving as well.
One unfortunate soul was grabbed by the Constructor Worm before Max's Disruptors blasted the behemoth class worm in half, letting the mangled unit climb free.
Its Fusion Flamer was still working, and the pilot was doing their best to deal with the Klem around them, but the jump pack was completely mangled.
Max took Cleansing Light to ground level and grabbed the final straggler, carrying them to a waiting Cutter and preparing to launch an Orbital Bombardment to finish off the remaining forces, as well as the ruined city that they had come from.
[All Units accounted for. Terminus Regiment returning to the mothership.]
