[Hey Commander, we have the trenching machine adjusted for mining. Who has the final blueprints for the bunkers?] Captain Tarsus asked the next morning, as the officers tried to get the chaos back under control.
The extra units were supposed to be staying a while, so senior staff had decided to burn off some of the pilfered fuel they had obtained to dig an underground complex below the village to hide their numbers.
Buildings and collapsed parking garages weren't going to cut it anymore, though they would make a great entry and exit point for the underground complex.
A bunker more than 30 meters below the surface, or 10 meters down and reinforced with Rock Crete could survive a low-yield orbital strike and would fully mask their Mecha's signature from orbital scans.
They had been careful to only send a few units at a time to scavenge the battlefield this time, giving the impression that most of their numbers were destroyed, should anyone be watching from above. It will be a lot of work, but they had the available staff to get three chambers dug and layered with Rock Crete today.
The plant in town isn't military-grade, since it was meant for civilian building materials, but it had enough of a stockpile when the battle started for their purposes.
[Never mind, I found them.] Captain Tarsus follows up and then begins calling out to the groups assigned to use mecha to pull trailers filled with rock and dirt to the defensive berms.
There were some digging tools for the Line Mecha in the ruined village's storage sheds, so they are starting on one location while the machine starts the another, using all their numbers that are not on defense to get the job done.
"Hey Tarith, can you come to give us a hand with Wrath of Carb?" One of the Bravo Company soldiers that has been pressed into repair duty calls, pointing at a replacement barrel assembly.
"No problem. I've got some repair-related skills so how about I help you do the diagnosis?" She asks, using the speaker's robotic artificial voice.
"You are a life saver. None of us have more than the academy's basic repair classes to go by, so just following the directions is hard." The trooper jokes, indicating where the crew is having issues hanging an armor plate on a Crusader.
Brigadier General Carb, a muscular soldier in his late middle years watches them carefully, not happy to have amateurs messing with his beloved mecha, but it is better than the alternative.
Building the entire underground complex high enough for him wasn't an option, so the best he will get is a thick armored roof over his head should they come under heavy fire again. That means he needs all his armor repaired.
The steam clouds have given way to a haze of smoke as the wind shifted over the course of the day, obscuring their work from visual scans and he fully intends to make the best of it and convince the enemy that his unit moved on after the battle.
[General Carb, check your incoming files. Tarith's Rage has settings for long-range Ion stability, and I've modified them for your Ion Bombard Array. Apply that and you should get a boost to your orbital lander and Insertion Pod targeting.] Nico informs him once they had almost everything else finished.
He smiled at the young officer's initiative and had his System and his mecha check the new data. It looks like a very decent update, with no major flaws or viruses, so he begins to adapt it to fit into Wath of Carb's subroutines.
[Stalwart, you are up next. Head to the repair rack.] Nico eagerly announces. Their Phalanx Class defender was the last unit on the list, now she can do the upgrades she has been longing to make to the Stalwart.
They are entirely out of missiles now, since the Cygnus units aren't compatible. That makes Max's shoulder-mounted launches useless, and he knows his friend has been itching for an excuse to modify a Cygnus-issued Plasma Shotgun to fit a Crusader. They are a devastating short-range weapon and should complement his existing medium-range firepower very well.
There is far more than a shotgun waiting for him in the lander though. New custom shoulder armor with sheltered weapon mounts, a few large metal plates he can't see a use for and a new design of chest armor are waiting among the pile near the repair rack.
Everyone else has been banished from the lander for now, and Nico has actually left her Mecha to pilot a Line Mecha for the upgrades. His shoulder and chest plates are carefully removed and stored away before being replaced with the new design that looks even more durable, with a hinged lower joint that protects his vulnerable waist joint from frontal fire. It's not a new design, but it isn't used much anymore due to the weight.
[The shoulders are fully custom for mounting Cygnus weapons platforms, we will need to test everything when we are finished.] Nico informs him, placing a Plasma shotgun inside the nacelles on either shoulder.
[Isn't that a bit bulky?] Max asks, scanning the new additions.
[Yes, and adjustability is limited because I set them into the nacelles for protection. You have twenty degrees in any direction. But the firepower will be worth it.]
Max's system scan shows both shotguns are fully functional, just awaiting test fire, but Nico isn't done. She mounts a bracket to his Battle Cannon, then one of the flat bars above and one below.
The blades glint in the harsh lights of the lander and Max smiles.
[So if I run out of ammunition, just beat them over the head with the Battle Cannon?] He jokes.
[That's the spirit. Give me a second to double-check everything and top off your ammunition and then you will be good to go.]
[And how did you solve the power draw issues?] Max asks as his friend admires her handiwork.
[I did what I can, but you will be pretty slow-moving if you use the shotguns and the Pulse Laser at the same time.]
He will just have to adjust his tactics then. This current objective doesn't require him to move much, but his greatest advantage lies in his ability to fire everything at different targets all at once, so they will have to work on a solution once they get off this Rock. But before then, a double blast from Plasma Shotguns at point-blank range will devastate anything he comes across.
