[I should have been a farmer. Hunting Narsians is a lot like harvesting wheat isn't it?] Appeared on Max's heads-up display as a swipe of Nico's blade cut down three unfortunate soldiers who were standing side by side.
Max used his Pulse Laser Array to clear out a group of soldiers that was rushing at her back while Tarith's Rage tore into the artillery weapons with a vengeance before responding.
[I don't see what the two have in common. It's good to see you again Nico.] Max sent his response to her as a text message. She would receive that as well as a voice command, he assumed. But it was harder to intercept and didn't clutter the radio waves.
Her energy shield was flashing like a strobe light with all the incoming fire she was taking, but Nico didn't seem to care, and the mecha that came with her quickly moved through the Narsian position to eliminate the artillery weapons.
With Mecha forces on two sides, the defenders were in a hard position to begin with. But with the Mecha now in their back lines and tearing apart the artillery, the battle was turning hopeless for them. Max could see the moment that the commander ordered his men to retreat, something that they rarely did, even in the face of annihilation.
[They must be preserving strength to defend the city.] Max commented on the Command channel, as the giants began an orderly retreat from the battle, leaving the less mobile elements like heavy weapons and artillery behind.
While most of the Mecha from the Phalanx Class Mecha's convoy returned back to their stations, one remained behind. The heads and dismembered upper bodies hung from the chains around its carapace made it look terrifying, but the color scheme marked it as undeniably Tarith's Rage.
"She lived!" The doctor that they gained in the swamp cheered, and the ten-meter-tall mecha slung its sword from a hanger on its shield to give the medical professional a thumbs up.
"Still injured, are you? That's alright, when we get to the Staging Area there should be better doctors and a full augmentation suite. I saw the deployment orders." The doctor assured her and the mecha gave him a slight bow.
[All Units, fall in behind Carpe Noctem.] Colonel Sanders announced, repeating the orders that he had just received from the General in the Phalanx Class Mecha.
Tarith's Rage moved to walk beside Stalwart, giving Max a light shoulder bump that set the grisly trophies on her mecha swinging.
"Good to see you again too. Hold out for the rest of the day and they'll get you all patched up and mobile again." Max assured his friend, looking through her thoughts now that she had deliberately moved close enough for his Innate Talent to interact with the Nanobots in her body and feed him information.
As he had feared, the memories of her past life had started to take over her mind. He would have to work with that, but a lot of the problem seemed to be the fact that she couldn't move and was trapped in her mind. It had made the Mecha her proxy body, and the Crusader Class Mecha was only made for war. Even with two hands, it was still a prodigious war machine before it could ever be a body capable of normal interaction, especially when she couldn't speak.
[You didn't give the General too hard of a time did you?] Max asked her, getting back images of the various ways she had teased the forces at the swamp and pretended to be her own ghost.
[As funny as some of those were, we're going to have to help you behave. You can't keep acting out like that or they'll pull your position and put you behind a desk.] Max laughed at the thought of Nico as a secretary.
[I got a new ability when I hit 200 points of total system bonus. Drone Commander.] Nico sent him a text message to his wrist device so that others couldn't eavesdrop on the one-sided conversation as Max interacted with her thoughts.
[What is that?] Max sent back in confusion.
[Find me some gun drones or something easy to control and I can operate them until they lose communications. Up to two at once, but I should get better with practice.]
They have a couple of simple observation drones in the storage boxes that only carry a camera, used when they want to scout ahead with some stealth. Max could already feel the eye roll Nico was going to give him for that suggestion and he hadn't even spoken yet, so he decided to hold off on the idea.
The larger infantry battalions should have proper gun drones, with anti-gravity drives and Laser Rifles. They're similar to the drones that the Academy used to train them on the live fire courses and are pretty commonly issued to police forces as well.
[I will see what I can find you.] Max answered, then realized that they might be handy for himself as well.
The drones could be ordered to hold position around a Mecha, and with his Split Fire and Multiple Targeting skills, he should be able to use them as additional weapons for his Mecha. It had just never occurred to him since their usage and offensive capabilities were so limited that they served no more purpose than two extra infantry soldiers, which he wasn't in need of.
Max was still passively listening in on Nico's thoughts when a thought that made him burst into laughter came through the link. The tiny 10cm cubed camera drones with a Narsian Combat knife strapped to the top. The energy field on the knives is enough to punch through armor, and the tiny drones are silent as they move, but the flight drive on them might not be strong enough to hold the knife that was three times their size.
[Melee Drone is an amazing idea.]
Max laughed so hard at the ideas she was sending him on ways to use the ridiculous combination that even the infantry noticed the change in his piloting before he got himself back under control.
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