"You seem confident in yourself." "Mn, that is because Leah and I worked the whole night to build new Mech units for the Crawler. I can assure you that you won't be disappointed."
They exchanged looks amongst themselves, Nathan's bold words had intrigued them. "Alright then. Let's see it." They expressed interest.
Nathan glanced over at Elena, the latter nodding in agreement as she took her seat to allow him to step up. He rose to his feet and pulled up a hologram.
"We worked on three units in total. Apart from the Humpback, I would like to introduce Flying Saucers and Sand Turrets." Nathan gestured with his hand and two images were shown simultaneously.
One looked a lot like a flying saucer, the urban myth that was once popular amongst the masses and was associated with aliens once upon a time. Those were simpler times, indeed.
The second looked a lot like a mechanized watchtower with a large cannon fitted at the top. "The Flying Saucers inculcate the concept of the Crawler Drones in its programming.
"They are human-sized plates equipped with light armor and medium firepower. Their speed bridges on the edge of the speed of sound, which allows them to get around pretty quickly.
"They are equipped with scanners and heat signature scopes that allow them to differentiate enemies and classify them. They are also a quick form of transport."
"They work the same way as the Humpback?" Sandra asked. "Well, somewhat. But we decided to intervene a bit and create something like a hive mind to allow a single person to command the actions of the Saucers."
"A hive mind?" "Mn, I don't think there is a need to go into details but I'll just say it is something like the relationship between a queen bee and her hive."
Elena nodded in understanding. "And the Sand Turrets?" "Yes, of course. They are designed in a way that closely resembles the previous iteration. The only difference is their firepower and the grade of their armor, which has been reduced from heavy armor to light armor."
"Why did you reduce the armor grade?" "To allow the Crawler to produce more of them. Also, I'm trying to be as economical as possible with the materials we have currently."
"Any further questions?" Nathan looked around once and after no response was heard, he took his seat. "I guess that solves the issue you brought up, Indra," Elena remarked as Indra nodded in agreement.
She rose to her feet and slammed her palm on the table, her back bent as she glanced over all those present. "Now, I believe it is time we plan on our next assault."
***
"The enemy seems to have tightened their defenses after learning about our attack on the other Crawler." Tanya pointed out as she soared high in the sky.
She was making use of the Flying Saucers to get around, sitter cross-legged as she used her binoculars to scout the area below. They had to make sure that they were not spotted.
As they circled the perimeter, they spotted clusters of Scorpion units positioned at strategic locations around the valley the energy node was located. Some were in groups of ten, others fifteen.
She was also able to make out a few groups that were comprised of the Tank that had nearly claimed her life. Just seeing it gave her chills. "They are expecting us to attack."
"That's not a surprise. Tanya, are there any gaps in their arrangements?" Elena asked. Leah was currently back at the Crawler. She laid down on a reclined chair and a helmet-like apparatus was placed on her head after which the helmet was plugged in.
This allowed her to establish a neural connection with the Flying Saucers, enabling her to control them remotely. "If we can trust in the capabilities of Nathan's mech units, we might just be able to mow them down."
Pictures of what she was picking up were being revealed to the others in real-time. Based on the defense this Crawler had achieved, one could immediately tell that it had put a lot into ensuring its safety.
Of course, they wouldn't be able to expect what was coming for them.
***
/a Few hours later/
At a particular gathering of Scorpion units, a dust cloud approached from the East. The dust cloud slowly got closer to them. [Scanning incoming anomaly]
[Enemy spotted. Begin countermeasures.]
Just as the Scorpion units were about to enter into a defensive formation to allow them to stall for time, it happened.
The dust cloud seemed to glow emerald for a brief moment after which several beams struck at the area where the Scorpion units were gathered.
***Boom***
It was a surprise attack and it was quite successful. The smoke cleared to reveal nothing left of the opposing units. They had been destroyed with even as much as scrap to remember them by.
The dust cloud steadily approached. "Alpha squad has mobilized at the designated spot." "Await further instructions."
"Aye aye, Herald." Nathan was feeling pretty good about himself. He was about to show just how effective his units were in battle.
The dust cloud soon reached the area where the Scorpion units had been decimated. Once they arrived, they stopped motion causing the dust to clear to reveal over twenty Humpbacks arranged in battle formation.
Nathan thought he would have to wait for a bit for the Crawler units to respond but his estimation turned out quite wrong as enemies quickly approached.
"Shit, the distress signal from the destroyed Units must have gotten out… Fine then, I'll finish this myself." Nathan sat before a screen that was further divided into twenty screens.
His hand was fitted with a glow with a button at the edge and the other was what looked a lot like a joystick. "Time to cause chaos."
He thought to himself as he immediately began to fire. The Humpbacks sent attacks flying in the direction he felt the enemy was approaching.
Sure enough, from the left side, a couple of Scorpions, numbering over thirty approached.
On the right side, five Tanks made a beeline for them. "Let me handle you guys first." He activated the defense mechanism of the Humpbacks to keep the Scorpion units busy for some time while the other units handled the Tanks.
Within a single exchange, the battlefield quickly became chaotic. Explosions flew every which way as Nathan fought solo against the enemy… or was that the case.
On another end, The Flying Saucers were moving through the sky and once they were in good positions, they dropped literal bombs on the enemy.
***Boom***
Several mushroom-sized explosions occurred one after the other. It would be strange if the Crawler had not noticed their attack. It immediately got to produce more units.
"Get a move on," Elena said as she lead the other members of the Squad to the vantage point that would be used to infiltrate the Crawler's defenses and destroy it.
Leah's Flying Saucers relentlessly attacked the surrounding area putting it in complete disarray. For a moment, she could not help hit feel satisfied. "Is this how it feels to defeat an enemy."
"Focus, Leah. We are almost done." Nathan remarked from his position. He controlled the Humpbacks to fall back and allowed Leah to completely carpet bomb the area. The entire valley would increase in size soon enough.
***
Meanwhile, back at the Eastern base, The Mammoth was currently extracting the energy from the node when the alarm sound went off all of a sudden.
[Enemies approaching. Enemies approaching.]
Nathan had installed detectors across all Sand Turrets placed around the Mammoth. They numbered twenty-four in total.
Their arrangement would be enough to cause any sane person to think twice before approaching.
"Ah, what the hell do you mean intruder?" Reyes grumbled inwardly as he rose from his position and moved to the control panel.
"Are you upset with the alarm going off or about the fact that they asked us to stay behind?" Reyes stopped in his tracks. "It doesn't matter anyway. Let's just do what we are asked to do."
"Thunder, what seems to be the issue?" [Enemies incoming from the North sector. They seem to be seeking an opportunity to reclaim ownership of the Eastern Node.]
"This is bothersome." "We should go."
Just then, the door to the control room swung open and Ruben rushed in. "I heard the alarm."
"Let's go, we can't afford to allow this place to get captured no matter what."
They rushed over to the weaponry to equip themselves. A few minutes later and Reyes was comfortably poised to stop the Mammoth. Celeste had taken up a spot on one of the Sand Turrets while Ruben stood in the barrier created by the turrets, swinging his ax to get a feel for it.
"It's about to go down."