“Looks like the Ghosts have built their own academy now as well,” Biyu said as they stood in the command centre. “They’ve enlarged their own mecha bay too. Reckon that can hold ten mecha.”

Mai stroked her chin as she looked at the layout of the Ghost base. They’d placed the mecha bay and the mecha academy towards the rear of their compound, butting up against the rock walls which surrounded Nether City.

“They’ve been clever with their placement. If we want to attack we’ll have to fight through the rest of the complex, which will allow them to funnel us into whichever approach they want us to take, all the time whilst their mecha can sit and hide.”

“But they’d risk the destruction of a lot of their base if they did so,” Jock said.

“Not if they pulled their forces back. Fight on the walls, hold us off for a few minutes to give the mecha knights time to get suited up, then withdraw. Probably not even a fighting withdrawal, just run back through the complex until they reach these buildings here,” Mai traced a line of attack and retreated, drawing the stop line by a series of buildings.”

“What are those buildings?” asked Dakota.

“From the looks of it, they’re essentially store rooms, administration. They’ve moved all of the important buildings to the front of the base.”

“Clever bastards,” Hind clapped his hands. “Retreat through the valuable buildings, gambling on them not taking much - or even any - damage, then fight once the attacking force is amongst buildings of low value and low control point cost.”

“You’ve got to give it to them, they certainly know how to plan,” Jock rubbed his chin as he tried to work out the lines of fire offered by the bunkers and deep trenches which surround the Ghost mecha bay and academy. “They’ve placed the buildings so that no matter which one you take cover behind, you’re still going to be engaged by at least one of the bunkers.”

“And those turrets are mecha killers,” Dakota highlighted each of the bunkers and their weapons. “That’s a railgun, bit like the one we have on the recon unit, that’s a guided missile launcher, those are 7-finger cannons, and it looks like those are lasers.”

“They’ve spent every single control point they have to get this done,” Mai grimaced at the thought of how much such building effort would have cost.

“Must have been banking it, unless we’ve missed something?” asked Biyu. “I suppose it’s possible that they could be building up control points in the Upper City, and then using them down here.”

“If they are, that’s damned sneaky,” Jock threw himself into a chair and covered his face. “Why can’t we ever get a damned break!”

“Aside from the factory, where else do they control?” Mai looked over at Biyu, who had settled well into the role of intelligence officer.

“They have three Agri farms. Two are lichen, and one is vat-grown protein. Chicken and beef. Sell to all the other factions as well as locals. Make a lot of money apparently. They even donate to the orphanage.”

“What fucking orphanage?” spat Mai.

“There’s an orphanage, over in the Macgee urbexer clan sector. With all the fighting going on, and before we started peacekeeping, there was a lot of collateral damage. Hence an orphanage,” Bia shrugged as if it should have been obvious.

“Do we donate anything to them?”

“Like what? We’re a rebel faction,” Baio raised an eyebrow.

“A rebel faction which owns a cotton farm and factory. Start sending them clothes. It’ll boost our reputation and control points,” Mai ordered, watching as Biyu made the necessary commands.

“Cynical much?” muttered Dakota.

“I doubt that the Ghosts are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts either. Knowing them, they’ve probably made a damned good number of orphans themselves,” snapped Mai. “We’re fighting for survival here. Even if we don’t understand the stakes, we’ve got to do everything we can to live.”

Only she knew the stakes. She understood more than anyone else in the room as to what was going on. But it still hurt to hear Dakota thought about her like that.

“Hey, I was just saying”, Dakota held up her hands and backed away from the table slightly. Mai nodded her head, accepting the apology. It wasn’t worth bickering with her team.

“We send a team of mecha against the protein factory. It’s the furthest away from the Ghost base. Five only. Back them up with some infantry. Cause enough mayhem and damage to draw the Ghosts out. If they think we’ve only got five mecha, it’s a good chance that they’ll send all of theirs so that they can guarantee strength of numbers and take our people down quickly.”

“But they’re not going to actually duke it out are they?” asked Biyu.

“No, fighting retreat through the farm, causing as much damage as possible before moving through the surrounding hab blocks. Draw the Ghost mecha after them.”

“And whilst those mecha are fighting ours, we send the bulk of our knights against their base?” asked Hind.

“Exactly. Biyu, this is one for you and your scouts. Get out to the protein farm. Signal when you’re ready. We’ll move into position and attack once we see how things are progressing. If the Ghosts don’t take the bait, I’ll call you back in.”

Biyu gave a shark-like grin, sketched a salute, and ran from the command centre, her comms channel already issuing orders.

“Do you think we’re ready?” asked Dakota quietly, breaking the silence which had followed Biyu’s exit.

“We have to be. We’ll have had more training than their people,” Mai tried to sound confident. What she didn’t voice was her worry that the Ghosts had potentially brought mecha pilots from the Upper City. She’d never heard of mecha being used in the Upper City, but they could well have done so in the various colonies and frontiers.

“We’re in position Biyu. Good to go. On your mark.” Commed Mai. Their forces were spread out amongst the sprawl of buildings facing the Ghost factory compound. Technically they were inside Ghost territory, so Mai had sent three platoons of infantry to sweep through the habitation blocks, pushing the civilians in the buildings away from the compound and lessening the chance of collateral casualties.

“Roger that. Commencing now.” Mai settled back in her pilot’s seat to watch the action. Until the Ghosts made their move, there was nothing that Mai and her people could do to affect the battle at the protein farm.

I might as well see how Biyu and her people progress.

She selected Biyu’s gun cam. Biyu had spread her people in a diamond formation around the protein farm, each of her mecha supported by the five recon specialists that she and her people had trained up.

It made for a well-balanced force. All five members of the recon squads were armed with high-power sniper rifles, but at any one time only two of them would actually be using them. The other three acted as support, protecting their flanks and rear, using suppressed SMGs.

“Guards marked. Confirm all guards marked,” commanded Biyu, her minimap full of enemy markers.

“Confirmed, all visible targets marked,” commed the recon commander, a young woman called Chow.

“Marking targets of priority,” Biyu’s gun cam showed numbers appearing above the various enemy troops. With her five mechas and ten snipers, she could realistically take out fifteen enemy guards simultaneously.

If that happens, we can hopefully avoid any sort of battle, just comm over an open channel that we’ve taken the factory. That should be enough to have the Ghosts send their mecha.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Firing on my mark. Red, red, red, green.” Biyu’s tri-barrel flared into life, her beam hitting the target full on in the chest. As the target’s liquids were instantly superheated the guard exploded, flash boiled.

Kills flashed on the minimap, the markers disappearing as the targets died. Not one was left standing.

“Good kills, drones out. Find any other guards that might be hiding, send them into the buildings if necessary.”

Mai piggy-backed on the drone camera being controlled by Biyu. Workers ran around in confusion as they reacted to the explosive deaths all around them. She was certain that they would be raising the alarm, which was precisely what she needed.

Cat’s really amongst the pigeons now, she thought, immensely proud with the first demonstration of their recon specialists. Stage one had gone without a hitch.

“Guards in the room I’m pinging now,” reported one of Biyu’s knights.

Mai looked over at the minimap as it flashed on a building.

“Firing railgun,” Biyu’s gun flared into life, sending its solid slug through the air at supersonic speeds. The effect was near instantaneous. There was an indistinguishable movement of time from the gun firing to the slug hitting the target.

The effect was surprising. Punching through the walls of the building in microseconds, the round made a small entry hole, and then removed the entirety of the far wall as it punched through and kept going before hitting another building further on.

“Shit. All mecha, be aware of over-penetration. Angle rounds downward if firing at buildings so they don’t carry through too far. Confirm,” Biyu’s voice was tight. Mai too was shocked at the power of the railguns. They’d been impressive against other mecha, but the mecha armour was designed to withstand such blows. These buildings clearly weren’t and might as well have been made from rice paper for all the protection they gave.

A guard staggered from the building, Mai used the drone camera to zoom in and was shocked to see that he was missing both arms, blood spurting from the wounds.

PANIC, BLEED@15% PER SECOND, BLINDED, STUNNED, WINDED all hung over him as he collapsed to the ground and bled out.

“Stick with your tri-barrels,” Mai ordered, cutting in over their comms channel. “Only use your railguns against bunkers and more heavily armoured buildings, unless absolutely necessary. Confirm please.”

She listened to a chorus of confirmations. Shock and awe had its place, but she couldn’t see civilians suffering the way that guard had.

“Recon units moving into the farm, mecha staying on overwatch,” Biyu reported as the blue blips representing the recon specialists moved in towards the farm. Panning over them, Mai said that all of them were using SMGs now, their long-rifles impractical for the close-in fighting required when entering a built-up area.

Mai cut over to her own unit’s drone feed to see how the Ghosts were reacting.

Thank the gods!

Alarm glyphs had appeared over a number of the guards, and she could hear a siren building up to full wail. Men and women in Ghost uniforms ran from the mecha academy, sprinting towards the mech bays as mecha support engineers prepared their war engines for battle.

“Biyu, be aware, you’ve had the desired effect, they’re deploying. Mecha. Standby for confirmation of numbers.”

Mai flexed her fingers, working the blood back into them as she realised she’d been clenching them into fists.

“Roger that boss. We’re ready and waiting,” commed Biyu as she positioned her unit in the Agri farm to maximise their defensive effect whilst still retaining the ability to pull back.

Mai bit her lip as she watched the Ghosts mecha charge out of the bays.

“Boss, they’re sending what look like four anti-mecha, the others are general assault types. Confirm twenty mecha on their way to you Biyu,” reported Dakota.

Mai punched the air in silent jubilation, finally something seemed to be working to plan.

“They’re going to be with you in ten minutes, Biyu. Confirm when you’re in contact,” Mai knew Biyu knew exactly what to do, but nerves were kicking in and she was unable to stop herself from repeating the missions, reassuring herself that everyone understood the parameters and objectives.

Ten minutes usually flies if you’re doing something you enjoy. But when you’re waiting to go into battle, where friends could well be killed or maimed, it can seem like an age. After the umpteenth time of checking her timer and seeing that it had only been a few seconds before she last checked, Mai forced herself to watch the various drone feeds of the Ghosts’ crystal factory, and Biyu’s force in the protein farm.

“Contact!” Biyu’s voice had Mai cursing as she tried to bring her thumping heart back down to a reasonable rate. She’d been so absorbed in watching the routines of the Ghosts guards on the crystal factory wall that she’d finally lost track of the time.

Looking Bioa’s feed, she could see that the enemy mecha were moving down a street horizontal to the farm.

Fast and dumb, she thought as she looked at how closely packed the enemy mecha were. There didn’t seem to be any attempt to hide their advance, and she assumed that they hadn’t planned for the possibility that their enemies might know they were approaching.

Typical fucking players, probably think this is some sort of new mission, NPC opponents. Easy meat, her lip curled in hatred and she issued a low growl.

“What’s the range on the railguns Biyu?” she commed.

“Four thousand paces, the enemy are three thousand paces from us, closing at ten paces per second. They’ll be with us within five minutes.”

Now Mai understood why the time had seemed to pass so quickly once she stopped checking the clock. The extreme range of the railguns meant that the enemy were within engagement range much sooner than it would actually take them to cover the distance to the base.

Closing her eyes for a minute, she cursed herself for not taking that into consideration. It was a basic mistake, and one which she knew she wouldn’t make again.

“Feel free to engage whilst they’re still bottled up on the street, punish them,” she ordered.

“Roger that, engaging,” Mai could hear Biyu’s smile as she laid her own railgun sights onto the nearest assault mecha. Dropping her sight, she placed it over the mecha’s left kneecap. As soon as her railgun chimed, confirming lock, she fired. As before there was barely any time between the railgun firing and the shot hitting its target.

CRITICAL HIT!

LOCATION DESTROYED!

CRIPPLED!

“Hit!” molten metal and sparks flew in all directions as the mecha’s knee disappeared, its lower leg spinning away, the mecha itself stumbling and dropping face first into the road. It was well and truly out of the fight.

Other explosions rocked the enemy mecha as Biyu’s people hit their own targets. One of the assault mecha was completely obliterated by a double hit, two smoking legs the only things that remained.

This is going better than I ever imagined! Her people had already caused twenty per cent casualties to the enemy mecha without taking a loss themselves. PANIC glyphs appeared over a couple of the other enemy mecha as the pilots tried to react to the incoming fire. Outgoing fire raced away from the Ghost mecha as they blindly fired towards where they thought Biyu, and her people were positioned. They were far out, and explosions rocked the Agri farm and surrounding area.

“Keep your heads down little squishies!” commed Biyu as another volley of railgun shots raced out into the enemy mecha. Only three scored a hit this time, the Ghosts having deployed counter-measures, and starting to move more erratically.

“Time for us to move,” she ordered. “Destroyers, clear the walls.”

The surprise was total. Guards died before they knew it, towers erupting as guided missiles blew them to pieces, bunkers were shattered, and bodies and parts of bodies flew through the air.

“Blowing the gate,” reported Dakota as she fired all of her missiles at the thick gates. They’d already learned that they were Mark 8, which was an impressive level Mai hoped she’d soon be able to match on their own base, so Dakota had spent time upgrading her own mecha through hours of training. Her Mark 9 missiles reduced the gates to molten slag in the blink of any eye.

“Charge,” Mai ordered. It wasn’t an all-out charge like in the holomyths, or like the order even suggested, but a careful advance of units in a specific order. She and her command squad were to remain at the rear.

They’d decided that it was only fair for the other rebels to earn the experience and progression needed. Not only would it improve morale, but it would strengthen her people far beyond any of the locals used by the factions as foot soldiers.

Workers scattered as the mecha strode through the factory compound, the pilots slowing in their advance to ensure that they didn’t crush any by mistake. Resistance was light, mostly small-arms fire, the heavy weapons on the walls already destroyed.

“Keep pushing people, watch out for that unit of anti-armour troopers on the right flank,” Mai kept up a never-ending flow of orders, shuffling units to meet any possible threats, keeping their flanks safe so that the destroyers could get as close as possible to the mecha bay and academy. She was both exhausted and exhilarated at their progress. Any resistance was swept away.

“Firing on the main objective,” reported the commander of the destroyer element. Explosions rippled across the buildings as the destroyer unleashed a literal storm of metal, every weapon in their arsenal pouring fire into the buildings.

Mai watched as the armoured buildings’ SOAK value was whittled away in mere seconds and then changed to catastrophic damage. In no time at all they blew, shockwaves racing out in all directions and a mushroom cloud blooming into life above them.

“Fuck, two minutes,” gasped Mai as she checked the timer once again. “Two minutes, people. Well done.”

She was stunned at how quickly the battle had been finished. A squad especially tasked for the purpose was already reporting they’d seized all of the boxes of crystals and were busy loading up a lorry.

Switching her view to see how Biyu was progressing she smiled at the sight of smoke columns rising into the air above burning enemy mecha. Counter-measures made it hard for her to judge how many still survived, but she thought that at least half of them had been killed. There was no knowing how many of the survivors had been damaged.

“Biyu, time to get out of there. Mission achieved.”

“Roger that, all units pull out!”

Mai repeated the order, pulling all of her units back from the shattered remains, leading her victorious arm back to base, ready for whatever else was going to be thrown at them.