Weapons charged and spirits high, the mech military of Montreya eagerly opened fire on the mantis invaders the moment they came into firing range. The firing range of a mech was much more limited than that of a spaceship, and so the mechs had to wait for the enemy to come much closer than the range which the fighters had engaged the mantis at.
The space station from which they had been deployed was far back, left behind so that the attack of the mantis wouldn't deal damage that could have easily been avoided if they had fought at range. As it was, the space station was several dozen kilometers away from the designated deployment zone of the mech force.
"Alright boys, we're nearly in firing range of the mantis scum. Follow the targeting instructions that the analysts in the station will provide if you can't aim in the heat of things. Of course, most importantly, make sure you get out alive!" Roman's voice sounded over the open transmission channel that was designated to the Storm Busters.
"Yes sir!" A resounding chorus was replied by the members assigned to Maximiler's unit. In the corner of his vision, a screen flickered into view, projecting the layout of the battle field. The defensive line of mechs was depicted by blinking blue dots while the approaching mass of mantis was depicted by blinking red dots. It was very easy to understand.
Under than projection was another that pointed out the deployment areas of every mech unit, including the Storm Breakers. With the help of the superior processing power of his mech, Maximiler was able to easily process the vast amount of information that was transmitted to his machine, getting the gist of his role in the upcoming battle.
Orders flew around as the mechs waited for the alien attackers to get in range. Soon enough, the first call for fire was sounded over the comms!
Laser beams pelted the not-so-distant, ever approaching swarm of mantis. The first volley resembled the rising dawn over the horizon as a wave of bright light shot into the distance.
The mantis retaliated in kind, firing their own weapons at the human defenders. A scattered volley of bright green lasers rained down on the mechs of the defenders, although in a much less coordinated manner.
The knight-type mechs that were deployed had taken up the front of the formations, with their massive, bulky shields held up high to block the incoming rain of deadly energy discharge. Bright green laser beams pelted the shields relentlessly, while the bright red beams of the mechs also shot forward in retaliation.
The shields of the mechs were being steadily worn away with not just the extreme heat and pressure they were being put under, but also a corrosive substance that the mantis' lasers contained. It burned deep into the thick metal plating, but the mech pilots were already prepared for it. This wasn't their first clash against the mantis!
Explosions lit up the machines on the side of the mantis as their ranks were being quickly weeded through by the coordinated fire of the military. Their well focused attacks made sure they were able to make the most out of their might.
It wasn't as if the mantis were vegetables either, but the earlier damage done to their ranks by the fighters earlier, along with their naturally erratic manner of battle left them open to exploitation by the generals of the mech military.
Maximiler fire shots at the approaching enemy from behind his post behind a large knight mech. The frame of his relatively fragile rifleman mech was well hidden behind that of the knight mech, letting him take shots at a relatively decent pace, although roughly forty percent of them went wide because of how the mantis swerved about to avoid the shots being fired at them.
The Knight mech that protected him from the searing green laser beams was a friendly mech from his unit. The pilot of the mech went by Titus. The man was a bit overbearing, but he was friendly overall.
"Keep aiming at those bastards, Maxi! Let 'em feel the heat!" The man roared in his cockpit. As a knight mech pilot, he wasn't able to join in on a lot of the action, and was instead forced to sit back until the enemy came close enough for him to swing his massive sword at it, but even with that drawback, the man loved being able to pilot a mech to protect his friends. Maximiler thought he had a lot of fire to his personality.
"Don't worry, they're blowing up just fine!" Maximiler called back as he turned yet another mantis mech into a flaming ball of fire.
Just then, he noticed something going on in the middle of the mantis swarm. The wave was parting and giving way for something else that was emerging from the frigate that was in the center. The long, lean, green mantis spaceship glowed with a sickly light that slowly pulsed. That pulse built up until it reached a crescendo before finally dimming. The moment it did, something shot out of the frigate!
A narrow, but massive bullet like mass of metal and flesh was hurled at the mechs of the defending side!
The size of the strange object was roughly the size of five mechs piled onto each other, but its streamlined shape was enough to let everyone know that something dangerous laid beneath the surface! The mechs of the defending side were immediately ordered to focus their fire on the strange object that was gaining speed as it rocketed towards the space station.
Laser beams, ballistic rounds, and gauss rounds all pelted the exterior of this strange object, but none managed to get under the tough exterior. In fact, they barely left a scratch! Maximiler looked increasingly worried as he watched the alien contraption close the distance between both sides.
"This only spells bad news..." His intuition told him that, and Maximiler had always been one to trust his intuition ever since his days as a simple ship rating officer.