The roar of the warriors as they cleared the smoke and found that there was nobody there waiting for them was the first sign that the next stage in the battle had started.
The next was the abrupt end to the artillery bombardment, which was promptly replaced by the sound of the Mass Drivers using large explosions to chase the warriors toward the woods.
Their thoughts said that they knew that they were being herded toward the battlefield that Max had chosen, but they didn't care. They would fight in the open, in the woods, or in the tunnels. It was all the same to them as long as they could avenge the insult that they had suffered by allowing the group in to destroy one of their bunkers and then back out again.
They would accept a great number of difficulties in life and even sacrifice their bodies willingly for the cause, but the thought of being mocked by a tiny force of invaders was enough to drive them into a feral rage.
Soon, they wouldn't even need to be herded. Once they heard the battle start in the woods, they would willingly come to it and avoid the artillery of the Android force in the sky entirely.
At the moment, they were taking intense fire from the warriors' heavy weapons, but their energy barriers were holding strong, and Max saw no reason to order them to withdraw just yet.
[Should we get started then?] Nico asked over the radio.
[Might as well. Ambush as many as you can. I am certain they have some sort of communications, and we want them absolutely enraged.] Max agreed.
He could hear the sound of someone in heavy armour trying to be stealthy a hundred metres to his right, so Max engaged the gravity control system on his Mobile Suit and snuck through the trees toward his first victim.
It turned out to be a pair of junior light infantry doing their best to make it through an area of bramble bushes without getting hopelessly entangled.
Max chuckled quietly at their incompetence and dispatched them both before they even realized that he was there, using blasts from his Ion Cannons to vaporize their heads.
The bodies were left entangled in the bushes. The next warriors to come this way would certainly see them and realize what happened, which Max hoped would make them even more insensible and easier to kill.
Max checked his sensors and saw that he had been detected by another of the Warriors. The disguise of the suits wasn't perfect, and they weren't sure what the enemy had for sensors, so he cut the gravity control and dropped his power output to nullify most of his heat signature.
That was one of the easiest ways to track a technological enemy, and with his strength, he could turn the suit entirely off until he attacked, allowing him to use it as insulation and sneak up on his prey.
Just going low power seemed to be enough, though, as he could sense the warrior's confusion and apprehension as Max faded from the sensors.
With the exterior constantly adapting to the surroundings, his nearly silent approach through the trees went unnoticed until he was twenty metres away.
Then, the warrior suddenly turned and sprayed those magnificently destructive grenades in his direction.
The first of them impacted against his energy barrier, but the others missed as Max rolled to the side and put a Mass Driver round into the enemy.
His head burst in an explosion of gore, and Max mentally facepalmed at his oversight.
That shot could be heard for kilometres, and combined with the enemy's booming rifle, there was no doubt that his team had been located.
It didn't end the opportunities for stealth, but if they started to congregate in one area, it would be much harder to sneak up on the warriors.
He wasn't the only one who had missed the timing and let an opponent fire a round, though. It was mostly out of his hearing, but there were dozens of other short firefights all over the forest at the moment, and hundreds of warriors were running toward whichever sound they thought was closest.
[Commander, the field is now clear of enemies. What are your instructions?] The Android team leader asked.
[Drop below the tree line and return to the ship. Prepare a defensive perimeter and defend the vessel at all costs.] Max replied as he looked for another warrior to ambush.
There were no shortages in that department, and Max quickly found a three-person team moving in sync through the woods.
They were graceful and agile, even through this dense terrain, and Max was getting eager to see how they performed in combat when suddenly a flash of red caught his eye, and Nico came flying through the trees at nearly four hundred kilometres an hour straight into them.
Her claws impaled one while her Mass Drivers took out the warrior's stunned companions, and then she was gone again, rocketing off through the trees at the speed of insanity.
[You snooze, you lose. Better start moving, or you're going to fall behind.] Nico crowed as she found another target, and the sound of screaming in the woods turned to an agonized gurgle.
Did it really count as stealth when you were just moving too fast for them to react to your presence? Or, more importantly, was there even a distinction at that point?
Max engaged his thrusters and headed for a nearby opponent, a solo warrior with gouge marks on his armour. He must have escaped from one of the others, but Max's rapid approach tore his limbs off and left him for dead on the ground.
With the area momentarily clear, Max took a second to make sure that everyone's vital signs inside the suits were good. There were some elevated heart rates, but no signs of serious trauma, and all of the suits were still showing a sealed atmosphere, so there hadn't been any breaches since they left the smoke.
"Good enough for me. Now, where did we put the rest of those heavy weapons teams?"
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