Chapter 53
Lieutenant Lyndis Soto joined the other line of exo-mecha pilots waiting for the infantry to pass through the fence. Most of the infantry would divide into teams and split off to set up explosives at various targets around the base. The rest would be following the exo-mecha pilots and providing close-quarters support.
The infantry were moving quickly, all of them understanding the principles of the fatal funnel. Security teams were the first to go through, and there were a few soldiers that would stay outside the base, watching the fence and pulling security to make sure the primary escape route stayed secure.
If the enemy discovered the perimeter breach, the security team would slip away and advise via radio, finding another secure spot to breach the fence and then take up security positions again. If the worst happened, and the entire assault team was killed or captured, they would try to return to Fort Moore and advise command.
As Lyndis marched her mecha suit through the hole in the fence, following the rest of the pilots, she wondered how the tank companies were faring. She had heard the impact of the first salvo, but nothing over the comms since. Occasionally she’d catch the sound of an HE round blowing a hole in something, so she imagined they were doing well enough.
Since Captain Williams had been voluntold to keep the prisoner company and had determined that he needed to keep the prisoner in the dark about the specifics of their plan, Lyndis was taking his place as a company leader, responsible for coordinating the exo-mecha pilots to any problem areas. The mecha’s had also been tasked with carrying various explosive charges, which the soldiers with demolition experience would retrieve and set up to blow various communications equipment and data storage devices. They’d also be looking to bring down certain buildings if it was possible.
As the group of pilots made their way towards the base’s shooting range, Specialist Wallace called out “Stealth monster to the right. I’ll light ‘em up.” before positioning towards a group of trees on the right side of the dirt trail they were currently traversing.
Lyndis would have preferred not to engage, but if there was some kind of stealth monster watching them pass, it was probably a good idea to engage and destroy it as quickly and quietly as possible.
The exo-mecha pilots needed to balance stealth and security until the demolition teams had a chance to set explosives on at least a majority of the primary targets. If they couldn’t get at least that much done, the chances of the mission being a success were low. There was the chance they would be forced into an all-out skirmish, fighting all the elf forces on the base before they had a chance to do anything else, but that was the worst-case scenario.
Ultimately everyone wanted as many options as possible, but this was war. Specialist Wallace sent a burst of gunfire into a nearby tree, and suddenly a large bird with a monkey tail and feet shimmered into visibility. Some of the infantry engaged with small arms fire, and Lyndis was about to reposition and continue down the road, feeling fairly certain that the specialist had the situation under control.
That feeling didn’t prove to be true. Justin triggered a second burst that stitched across the bird-hybrid creature, but instead of doing any actual damage, the heavy .50 BMG round seemed to simply disappear. As Lyndis watched, the bird’s form seemed to fuzz, splitting into two distinct parts, one a bird, and one an ape of some kind, before further redefining themselves into two copies of the same person.
An older male elf, hair shaved off, with a salt and pepper colored mustache, wearing green robes with a brown sash and wide belt stood replicated on branches to either side of the fir tree.
“I am Ventius, the twinned druid, a level 20 member of the Frozen Legion. I will not allow you humans to pass this point!” the copies called out, voices oddly echoing each other.
Justin triggered another burst of system-enhanced golden .50 BMG rounds, but it didn’t seem to do any damage again. This was one of the worst situations they could have come across. A single foe who could hold them, costing valuable time, and preventing the demolition teams from splitting off, all while alerting the other elves on base was not good.
If they’d happened upon something powerful enough to force a retreat, or weak enough to be quickly dealt with (as Lyndis had initially assumed this would be) weren’t really that detrimental to the overall plan.
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If the enemy were powerful, the demolition teams would split off as the exo mecha pilots kept the enemy's attention and essentially kited the thing around the largely uninhabited parts of the base. If the enemy were weaker, they could mass on it and take it out fast enough to be gone before reinforcements arrived to investigate.
Instead, Lyndis found the whole detachment engaging with a powerful class seemingly designed to stand off against a large group, creating enough noise to draw significant attention. And they wouldn’t be able to easily escape and disburse across the base, not this close to the entry they’d made in the fence.
The two elves merged again, becoming a large Squirrel-Bear like the one they’d faced the second day out. In response, Lyndnis triggered one of the adaptive properties of her suit. In response, the overall damage potential for all the other mechas dropped slightly, resulting in a large damage boost to her guns. She triggered a sustained burst from the .50 caliber machine gun mounted under her suit’s arms, walking the much more effective rounds up and across the druid monster’s chest.
The creature roared in pain and charged toward them, violent intent evident in the shape-shifted elf’s eyes. The other mecha pilots took aim, unleashing several bursts of high-power rounds into the charging beast. This time the rounds passed right through the beast, similar to the initial burst Justin had unleashed.
The druid must have some kind of damage resistance or avoidance ability. Lyndis made another decision, calling out over the pilot-only channel of her radio “Stand by and let me engage in close combat. If you get a clear shot, take it for as long as you can. But stay out of the way.”
She triggered the adaptive property again, borrowing the armor trait of the other exo-mechas, and charging towards the bear. The druid must have realized what she was planning, since the creature reared back, meeting her in a head-on grappling match. The ground shook with the echoing clang of claws on metal and the weight of the bear creature crashing into her.
Her suit control software pinged several warning messages, but everything held. Lyndis let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and began trying to push her way forward, struggling for better footing to avoid the druid monster’s attempts at throwing her to the ground.
She knew if she ended up on the ground, enhanced armor or otherwise, the fight was probably over for her. Desperate to gain the advantage, she shifted to the side, risking being thrown in exchange for opening space between her and the bear’s left arm. Just as recognition flashed through the bear’s eyes, she punched into the creature’s armpit, hoping it would cause enough pain to take the druid out of his damage reduction ability.
The other pilots hadn’t been standing idle, carefully maneuvering around the bear, and seeing the opening Lyndis had created, most triggered sustained bursts from their machine guns as she hopped back out of range.
Instead of falling back on the forest floor as Lyndis had expected, she found her suit’s leg sinking into extremely soft dirt. “What the fucking hell?” Lyndis shrieked, unable to stop the expletive from passing her lips. She tried stepping back, but ended up tripping over herself, suit crashing to the ground.
“Sorry to butt into your fight Ventius, but it looked like you were having trouble.” Another elf-accented voice called.
“Nonsense Tallia, I know you are just trying to steal the spotlight. I had this handled, why aren’t you engaging the rolling vehicles as planned?” The bear replied, somehow forming English-sounding words from its snout.
“The other vehicles were deemed a threat that the lessers could handle en mass. Instead, the commander wants this fight done quickly in case there are more human aircraft coming.” The ownerless voice replied.
Lyndis quickly recovered from her shock, triggering the suit’s jump jets in a very carefully controlled pre-programmed sequence that had her back to standing on solid ground. She glanced around, noticing a massively oversized gopher hole.
Was there another druid? That wouldn’t make sense. Ventius had called himself the twinned druid, but he’d split into two copies of himself. The other voice had to belong to some kind of animal tamer. When she realized that, things started clicking into place. What other perfect pairing could the elves have come up with to counter the threat the exo-mecha suits presented?
A druid and an animal tamer could likely pair really well together, buffing each other quite nicely. And with all the mutation and excess growth the system brought to the local animal population, it was the perfect combination to slow down a group of large walking metal suits.
Lyndis opened a radio channel to the tank force that would hopefully be making good time towards their objectives. ““Requesting reinforcements from Taurus. We’re tied up fighting a shape-shifter and a pet master, and the .50 just isn’t cutting it even with system enhancements. How copy, over”
It didn’t take long for the tank company commander to respond.
“Savage Six, we have a solid copy. Sending 6 Taurus units to you now. Guide them in with an IR strobe. Over and out.” came the reply.
Lyndis didn’t even have to relay the order, an enterprising infantryman who was likely eager to end the fight sent up an IR strobe, providing illumination for the Americans. Lyndis wasn’t sure how the elves could see at night, but they didn’t seem to be having any difficulty fighting at this time of the night. If she survived this, Lyndis would ask their elf captive.