As the Cathedral Ships approached, Max was expecting another wave of interceptors or orbital fighters, but what he got was much more horrific. The massive vessels disgorged hundreds of thousands of Demonic beings and armoured Warriors into space, and though they had no gear of their own, it seemed that the Demons had no trouble navigating.
They ran through the void as if they were running through the air, only incredibly quickly, covering multiple kilometres with every step as they closed the distance to the Mecha.
[I would just like to note, for the record, that this is some bullshit right here.] One of the Titan Class pilots remarked as the rearguard opened fire on the attackers.
He wasn't wrong, but it did confirm Max's suspicions that the Demons were, in fact, energy beings and not corporeal at all. They only seemed that way because they had to coalesce to interact with the rest of the universe.
Hitting them with Mass Drivers was a lost cause. The rounds punched through them with little resistance, and the holes healed soon after. So, Max abandoned the solid projectiles in favour of Nuclear rounds once again.
The damage caused by hundreds of small nuclear explosions decimated the enemy ranks and nearly stalled the advance until the enemy began to spread out to limit the effectiveness of the area effects and try to surround the humans who had remained behind to allow the rest of their portion of the line to retreat safely.
[Retreat as you fire. Do not allow them to surround us.] Max ordered as he tore apart another massive Demon with his Ion Cannons.
The distance was closing between the groups, but as the Mecha increased the speed of their retreat, the Demons seemed to lose enthusiasm for the battle and began to slow down.
If they kept at it for a few more minutes, the rearguard should be able to break free, and then Max would just have to lead them to a safe location to board their vessels.
All of the Titan Class Mecha were warp-capable, but it would be a pain to try to hold on to that many Androids as they engaged the Warp Field, so Max called back the Android ships first.
They could pick up Mecha without risk of human life, and they could be rebuilt if he was wrong about the enemy backing off.
They were still taking fire from the Warriors, but nothing heavy enough to truly challenge a Mecha of this Class. The Demons were the real threat, but they had to make it to close combat first, and they were no longer trying.
[Commander, the last of the enemy units are retreating to rejoin their main force. Should we call back our transports?] The leader of the Anomaly Defence Force asked.
[Give it a couple of minutes until we see how they react to the Android Ships arriving for pickup. They will stay on station while the rest of us get settled in.]
The destroyers arrived to pick up the Android Army only a few minutes later, and the enemy didn't react at all. In fact, they seemed to be retreating themselves, regrouping back inside the edge of the Rift where sensors couldn't easily penetrate to detect their movement or their disappearance into the other layers if that was their plan.
Though this battle might have seemed like a pyrrhic victory for them, Max was left without any way to tell how large the Great Enemy or the Violent One's army was. The two meant the same thing, as far as he could tell. The names just changed depending on what language you translated from.
[The Army is loaded, Commander. Sending the signal to bring the Anomaly Defence Group here.] The lead pilot of the Android Destroyers announced.
[Bring my Cutter as well. We will return with the others to the Anomaly in Koleska space and work out a plan for the future from there.] Max informed the human contingent.
The trip back to the Anomaly was a sombre one. Over a hundred of the Mecha Pilots were dead, with over two hundred Titan Class Mecha disabled or in for complete overhauls. The only positive point was that they had at least managed to bring back all of the bodies, so nobody was left on the battlefield.
The Koleska had likewise taken heavy casualties, with nearly twenty percent of their Pilots lost in battle. Commander Yuri's men had fared much better than average, with more training and being kept in reserve through the most brutal part of the early battle, but there was going to be a long series of memorials for the dead in the coming days.
There wouldn't be time for everyone to shut down and grieve, though. Already, there were reports from the closest planets to the Rift that they had detected movement coming their way and were evacuating as many civilians as possible.
"How long are we going to take to regroup before we head out to reinforce some of those frontline planets?" Nico quietly asked Max as they sat in a multispecies meeting about the future of the battle.
"I think 24 hours should be sufficient, so we're here to politely attend the first round of memorials, and then we can move back to the front lines.
We've found a method to stabilize a portal long enough to get a ship through so we can get back quickly, with some risk. I think it will be enough to save at least one planet." Max whispered back.
[Thank you all for attending. As you know, we are all under the same threat here, so my Numexian people have proposed a new strategic military alliance that will bring all of the military groups in the region together for a coordinated effort.] One of the politicians was informing the room.
This was the fourth iteration of that speech that they'd sat through, and every one of them put the speaker's race in charge of everything, with the others as their subordinates and shock troops, so they could suffer few to no casualties while making it look like they were doing their best.
The long-winded Numexian finished his speech, and the moderator of the meeting turned to Max.
"As the representative of the Reaver Faction of the Human Species, what are your intentions?" They asked.
Max stood at the table and took the translation device in his hands so every species could understand him.
"The Reavers will remain here for one standard day to attend the first Memorial Services for our Koleska friends, and then we will return to the front lines of the battle. I have marked four possible planets as the most likely to be attacked next, and we will provide military support while they evacuate civilians.
Once that is finished, we will continue on to the next planet needing assistance until either the Great Enemy runs out of forces or we run out of planets to evacuate."
The whole meeting was in an uproar at that. The strongest of the militant species had no intention of joining any of their alliance efforts and was going to go it alone. It was a disaster for their plans.
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