[Location is CF55m minus 27 meters elevation] Lieutenant Becki informs Max once they get in full sight of the facility.
[Continue on course. Artillery incoming in 10 seconds] Max advised his unit as they rolled towards the compound.
The Rebels were expecting them, and the convoy was allowed to move freely right into the valley before anyone noticed the markings on the light mecha.
The very first calls of alarm were drowned out by a series of explosions, four shots over the course of two seconds, ending in a spectacular chain explosion rolling through the heavy mecha warehouse as the battle Cannon ignited the building's munitions storage, which spread to the underground plasma power generator, gutting the discretely Armored building.
[Everyone out. Get into the labs before they realize what is going on and lock them down.] Captain Catan tells his men, who pile out of their vehicles to storm the compound.
Lieutenant Becki and his wing of Line Mecha lay into the remaining defenders with a hail of Ion fire, the explosions of Light Mecha mostly lost in the continuing roar of the warehouse imploding.
The overall effect is nearly perfect. There are so many competing voices over the radio that it is incomprehensible and most of them are drowned out by the sound of explosions.
Then, everything inside the buildings goes dark. The Power Grid on the planet has been down since the invasion, and the Plasma Generator that was operating the facility has been destroyed. Every common area door in the building swings open, the magnetic locks disabled, letting Bravo Company charge through unimpeded.
Most of what they find are unarmed scientists, so Captain Catan gives the order that they are all rounded up into the auditorium on the main floor. Any who resist or show signs of being armed are eliminated and the soldiers move on.
There are no physical filing cabinets that they can find, but the soldiers grab hard drives from the computers they pass and a number of data tablets as they go, collecting as much data as possible for their mission.
Outside, Max and Nico have made their way into the compound, where Lieutenant Becki has already finished with the Line Mecha defenders. Nico uses the combination of the clawed hand and a giant foot of Tarith's Rage to open the bay doors to the remaining buildings, finding nothing but storage and a few forklift operators.
Faced with the might of a Crusaders Rail Guns pointed into their workplace, the staff members are more than willing to accommodate any request that is made of them, turning over their computers without issue and gathering by the doors of the darkened building, where only scattered emergency lights prevent them from being left in total darkness.
Fifteen minutes later, the entire facility is deemed secure, and the surviving staff is escorted into the open courtyard so the buildings can be double-checked for signs of life.
[Stalwart to Command Group 3. Facility Secure. Multiple Prisoners were taken, including high-ranked scientists. Please Advise.]
[Hold tight Stalwart. Air Evacuation unit incoming for the prisoners.]
"Good news everyone. They aren't going to kill you. Or have us do it. However, Command is intensely interested in the activities of your senior management." Captain Catan advises the prisoners, bringing the anticipated expressions of hope to their faces.
The Kepler Empire isn't known for leniency towards traitors. But if they can throw their bosses under the bus to save their own hides? That's a much different story. Most of these people were just government employees a few days ago, doing menial work in a seemingly normal mecha research facility.
Max might not know everything there is to understand about human nature, but he is pretty certain that there isn't a forklift driver on this planet willing to be executed to protect his boss from charges of treason.
In fact, the more menial the job, the more helpful they have been. The warehouse staff even showed Bravo Company how their inventory system works so the soldiers could find whatever they were looking for in the warehouses.
[Nico, hack that tablet if you can. I want to know what is in those buildings that might be useful to us.] Max orders his partner.
[Already on it. Most of it is just repair parts, which will be useful, but I found some parts that should be for Shield Generators, and some experimental ammunition.] Nico sends the locations through to Stalwart's computer for Max to look over.
[Bravo Company, find us a transport vehicle. I've found us some good stuff this time.]
Max sends out the warehouse locations, then notices a listing called [Man Portable Plasma Cannon v7]. There should be ten whole crates of the experimental weapons, so he adds them as a high-priority acquisition. He doesn't know if they work, but if they do, the amount of anti-armor firepower his unit will gain will be incredible.
A Plasma Cannon has a minimum output level to maintain stability. Getting it into a platform that humans can carry would give some of his infantry the firepower of Line Mecha.
The transport helicopter that comes a few minutes later for the scientists is clearly in a hurry to get them back, opening the doors before they are even near the ground. Or maybe they simply didn't trust that Max actually had the area under control and are expecting to have to do an emergency evacuation from a hot landing zone.
Either way, they get everyone loaded and gone in a matter of minutes, along with most of the electronics that Bravo Company gathered. Captain Catan ordered his men to keep some good stuff for themselves, the tablets from the Mecha research labs, especially the ones that are known to have warehouse contents listings, basically anything that might lead Command to order them relieved from the position in favor of a larger search team.
They found the Plasma Cannons already, and with those in hand, they are hopeful for more new toys. Maybe they can find some of that high-tech full-body armor that the politicos get. It might be the most basic form of powered armor, on par with the transport ship's pressure suits, but they are heavily Armored to protect high-value targets.
'Wouldn't the other companies be jealous, seeing me all kitted out in that?' Captain Catan wondered, searching through the warehouse.
