[Bring those mecha back here on the double. Skyfire Pattern Line Mecha are amazing anti-infantry mecha, and we have a fair bit of ammunition for them.] Max directs.
[We have a working flat deck transport, would you like us to send it out, Stalwart?] Captain Tarsus asks. They will have to drag it through the mud, but they can load a lot of mecha on it instead of carrying or dragging them back one at a time.
[Head north and help recover those mecha. We need all the spare parts we can get.]
Max surveys the fields to see where everyone is right now and finds Nico is examining some of the Cygnus mecha that they took out. She must have used her System Skill to detach one of the weapon arms and she is holding up a Plasma Shotgun like a trophy. He is about to admonish her since she is supposed to be collecting spare parts when he realizes she has dragged over a fallen Crusader Class Chassis and is carefully removing the carapace-mounted missile launcher, which is totally out of ammunition and heavily damaged.
[What do you think? Can we make it fit?] She asks, holding the Plasma Shotgun to the central Carapace mounting point.
It actually locks in place, thanks to a similar mounting system, but the power system is totally different. Not only the connectors but the voltage and frequency. If anyone has a hope of making such a hybrid monstrosity work it is her, but even then it won't be a short and easy task.
[If you seriously think it will work, bring it back. You can have the lander modify it after the Line Mecha repairs are finished.]
That is her cue to collect anything she can physically remove, which turns out to be everything but the actual Chassis of the Reaver Class machines. They spend all day doing the recovery, but with the evening inventory, there is good news.
They are short on Pilots at the moment, but they have recovered or repaired enough Line Mecha to make a total of sixty units, including ten with the Skyfire Pattern quad guns. Doubling their initial compliment of mecha gives them both spares and options, but in order to make full use of them, they will have to do a promotion from within the ranks, and Max isn't sure they have enough soldiers that have the qualifications, or even a high enough system compatibility to have the necessary physical skills to perform to standards.
The new ideas didn't end with Nico's intentions to add a Plasma Shotgun to someone though. The infantry has convinced the Light Mecha to help them mount Missile Pods to the top of the Personnel Carriers. The pod is hilariously oversized for the vehicles, being as wide as they are, but the Kepler software is all designed to be compatible, in case of battlefield scrounging incidents like this one, and once they are attached the targeting software that normally controls a machine gun can also launch the missiles.
It's not much, but a half dozen more missile launchers are a good start.
The missiles are guided, capable of penetrating a lander or a Light Mecha with ease, and a Crusader with great difficulty while having a maximum range of hundreds of kilometers. In theory, they could be used against almost anything, they simply lacked the speed for certain targets. The six-wheeled troop transports were made for heavy loads and soft terrain, so the extra weight wouldn't be a huge issue for them. They could also still carry twenty soldiers comfortably, or fifty packed in tight, which made moving the mixed unit around much easier.
It was a shame they didn't have more of them, but taking the others they encountered without destroying them would have been dangerous and a waste of precious ammunition.
[Captains, check among your ranks for soldiers that have checked out on the Line Mecha before washing out to infantry. We have a wealth of spare units now that just need a deep cleaning and some final repairs. I want six wings of Line Mecha staffed in the next 24 hours.] Max instructs, checking the satellite data to see if there is any new information available about enemy troop movements.
The survey and double-checking of military records take hours, but the two infantry Captains do eventually find enough men, mostly among the Convicts, who have the training and qualifications to pilot the newly acquired Line Mecha. That cuts their infantry numbers even lower, but the extra armor and firepower will more than make up for the losses.
After two more days of intensive medical treatment, most of the wounded pilots are back at full strength, and the others are healed enough for limited duties, like waiting here in the trenches for the battles in the cities to play out.
The radio channels are full of constant streams of engagement reports for Max to listen to while Shining Darkness has some of its most damaged armor panels repaired one at a time. Taking the whole unit offline and doing the repairs isn't an option, they don't have a big enough repair rack in their lander, but they have slowly brought the General back up to full strength, except for the shoulder-mounted Cannons, which they don't have ammunition for.
He has been ordered to hold here for the moment. The Cygnus reinforcements have begun a counter-offensive moving south towards them. There is a spaceport in the city to their south, and Command suspects that they are trying to capture it and make an attempt to flee off-planet. The strategy feels like desperation to Max, but he can't discount the possibility that they are actually trying to take a suitable facility for their own reinforcements to land at.
Overnight, the orbital battle becomes more active, with the flashes of energy weapons coming every few seconds. The Cygnus units are almost certainly trying to capture a city with landing facilities. Central Command feels the same and orders Shining Darkness to retreat to the city to their south, stationing himself in the Spaceport under cover of the reinforced bunkers, and wait there for the enemy to attack.
As good as it was to see him again, the extra firepower wasn't going to last forever, a Phalanx Class Point Defense Mecha is intended to defend a city not a bridge in the middle of nowhere.
