It took several weeks, but the slowly growing battalion of mechanized marines finally wiped out the guerilla insurgents. Or at least we broke the back of the insurrection, depriving them of the ability to mount an organized resistance.
We struck the base camps and wiped them out one by one. The rebels were unable to move in time. While the exosuits could be faster, the tents, equipment and machinery were another thing. The secessionists simply couldn't uproot their base camp immediately and moved from one spot to another without expending quite a bit of time and energy.
Worse, they would have to travel on foot. Despite the huge number of exosuits, the secessionists simply couldn't afford to equip their entire army with exosuits. They just didn't have the budget or resources.
As it turned out, the one advantage that choosing the forest terrain afforded them – depriving the enemy of their armored units and vehicles – was used against them. Being forced to relocate on foot, the rebel commanders and their sentries weren't able to escape in time when squads of Hunters showed up in front of them, blazing away with heavy weaponry. They were wiped out to a man, barring any prisoner who was terrified into surrendering after witnessing their comrades getting massacred in front of their eyes.
After the initial success of the first few raids, Lieutenant Lionel Li and Sergeant Samuel Shan agreed to split the platoon up into squads, realizing that over twenty Hunters converging on a single enemy base was overkill. Five Hunters were more than enough to take out a base, even with the exosuits defending them.
Particularly since the number of exosuits that the enemy had continued to diminish drastically with every loss they took. The exosuits proved to be completely no match for the Hunters, their weapons ineffective against the energy shields installed upon the war walkers whereas they were instantly obliterated by high rates of laser fire or cleaved apart by monomolecular blades. Whenever there was a clash, they were the ones who suffered horrendous casualties, usually wiped out to a man. Coupled with their lack of logistics, which meant they had great difficulty in replacing those losses, the guerilla insurgents found themselves driven into a corner.
As if to make things worse, the Hua Xia military was sending us reinforcements, with trained soldiers appearing in freshly built Hunters only recently churned out by Bu Business's factories. The secessionists' defeat was only inevitable.
While we waged war against the poor guerilla insurgents, I tirelessly worked on the combat data to search for any design flaws or problems with the war walkers. The Hunters were operating smoothly, and there were a few minor technical issues, as there always were during actual combat, but by and large they remained operational and effective. Whatever problems I found were easily fixed, tough there were instances where I had to jury-rig or compromise because of the lack of spare parts and components on the field.
That was something that was easily resolved whenever field supplies were delivered to the front. All I needed to do was put in a request, and the next the resupply convoy came (with fresh water, rations, ammunition, and power cells), they would bring the components that I had asked for. That allowed me to conduct more thorough repairs rather than the hastily makeshift field repairs that I had to make do with.
I had to say that the energy shields were working better than intended. Not only did they protect the war walkers from incoming fire, they also helped mitigated the engines of the Hunters from being clogged by dirt and soil. Given that the energy shields had a range limit – meaning that under a certain distance, anything too close to the war walker and moving under a specific velocity would get past the shield, I didn't expect that to work out. Fortunately, I had designed the Hunter's chassis with this in mind, taking care to make sure the vents didn't get clogged up.
I took note of several improvements I could make, observing what I had missed when holed up inside my garage without much experience of how things would go in the forest. Fortunately, they weren't too significant, but they still existed.
And before I knew it, the mission was done.
"Congratulations, everyone. The higher-ups have declared the war won. The guerilla insurgents have been destroyed, and whatever survivors are left have surrendered."
By then, over a month had passed. It had been almost two months, and our relentless hunt of the guerilla insurgents proved to be the tipping point. More rebels were emerging from the forest, surrendering without a fight. We had crippled their supply convoys, slowly starving them out, and ensuring that they were unable to replenish their ammunition and exosuits after each loss.
The leaders – those who had survived, anyway – must have realized what a hopeless fight this was, and rather than drive all of their men toward death, they had surrendered.
Furthermore, it had been at least a week since the last attack. On one hand, we had forced the rebels onto the defensive. The secessionists simply didn't have the luxury to launch guerilla attacks like they did before, their raids often running into patrolling Hunters that were stalking them. We were essentially using their terrain against them now, our nimble Hunters often concealing themselves in the forest, relying on our sensors to pick out an approaching platoon of exosuit-wearing soldiers, and then emerging from the trees to ambush them.
By now, we were so familiar with our Hunters that the war walkers seemed like a second skin, an extension of ourselves.
Falling into despair, with almost no exosuit, weapons or ammunition left, there was little the secessionists could do except surrender. And so the survivors eventually raised the white flag and stepped out of the forest where they had been conducting guerilla warfare for the past year or so, confounding the most brilliant military minds and wreaking havoc on previous army units.
The technological advantage turned to be the decisive factor in turning this conflict around and ensuring that Province Y remained firmly under the control of Hua Xia.
"Mr. Shen, they want you back," Lionel Li told me.
Now, we had gotten to a clearing where the military had established a small base camp. The once twenty-man strong platoon had swelled up to a company of seventy soldiers, and more reinforcements were coming everyday, to establish a permanent garrison here. I doubted they would trust the locals, especially after what happened, so they were bringing troops from the other provinces instead. These soldiers would be rotated out every year or so.
However, since I wasn't a soldier, there was no reason for me to stick around. The military knew this, and so they wanted me to return, to continue coming up with more stuff for them to use.
Therefore, I wasn't surprised to see General Gary Goh after Lieutenant Lionel Li led me to the command tent. He was busily going through checklists on his desk, planning out army movements and contemplating the terms of surrender – which was dictated by the politicians, of course. The military wasn't allowed to make decisions on their own.
Fortunately, I heard that there were people within the government sympathetic to the grievances of Province Y and they were pushing for reforms. It was only logical. If the citizens were content, they wouldn't have any reason to revolt. And no revolts meant that money could be spent on other industries rather than burning so much cash on a pointless war. Hopefully they would learn their lesson and govern Province Y properly this time.
Given the track record of politicians, though, I didn't really have much cause for optimism. Even so, it was none of my business. My role was to build more giant robots.
"Congratulations, Mr. Shen." Gary Goh looked up from his desk with a smile. He then gestured for Lionel Li to leave. The lieutenant saluted briskly, turned on his heel and marched out of the tent. The general then beckoned for me to take a seat. "Your new invention has clearly proven to be a success. It revolutionized warfare, as you've promised, and helped us break the stalemate that has been going on for almost a year, defeating the guerilla secessionists thoroughly and completely."
"Just doing my part, sir," I replied noncommittedly. Gary Goh guffawed.
"They are thinking of awarding you a medal, do you know that?" He shook his head affably. "And I'm handing in my recommendation too. What you did saved many soldiers' lives. There were no casualties in this entire mission. None whatsoever. Do you realize how incredible that is? It has to be the first in war history, to not have a single soldier on one side killed or severely injured."
"Thank the heavens that there was no major malfunction," I said, making the sign of the cross. Gary Goh raised an eyebrow at that, wondering if I was a close Catholic. He didn't remark on it, though. Instead, he smiled.
"In any case, you are a hero. You will be rewarded for this, you can be sure of that. And I'll make sure you get that medal."
"I don't need a medal. I didn't do this for prestige or recognition."
"Yes, yes, I'm sure." Gary Goh nodded, not taking my statement seriously at all. Or he probably didn't care if I was telling the truth. "But it will be good for morale, you see. Morale of the troops who fought alongside you, and also for citizens. Politics, and all that."
Ah. I understood. After the debacle in Province Y, the government wanted to display the brightest spot in this conflict – how no soldiers died or were seriously hurt because of my invention. I could understand them wanting to appeal to the citizens, to justify military spending as well as reinforce loyalty and national pride.
For we were the only country so far who had successfully developed energy shields and practical war walkers (or giant robots, if you asked me).
"Now that this theater of war is over, the higher-ups have more requests for you."
"The shield boat," I said. Gary Goh nodded, suddenly grim.
"The world has been stirred up by your inventions. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm sure you're aware that you're a popular man…and I don't just mean the good side of popularity. There are many who would see you dead…and more who wish to abduct you and force you to work for them."
He didn't have to say who. I could guess that this was on a national scale, so not specific individuals or even companies, but entities on the level of nations.
"Country A, for example, has just mobilized a good chunk of their navy. Intelligence reports say that they are headed for the South Hua Sea." He nodded at me meaningfully. "They will be here in two months, right off our coast. Do you know the implications of this?"
"War might break out." I swallowed.
"That's right. And you probably are the only one who can prevent that."
"How?" I frowned. Gary Goh didn't have to answer – barely a few seconds of silence had passed when I made the reply for myself. "The shield boats."
"That's right." Gary Goh nodded. "The higher-ups want you to return and speed up the construction of those shield boats you've designed. If you succeed in building them, we'll able to deter the navy of Country A from attacking us…and you might just win another medal."