"Sound off."
Rushing over the root laden floor of the jungle, I cleared a path for the three mechs behind me as we made our way towards the mark on the radar that the battleships in orbit were pinging for us.
"Tyr 03 reporting."
"Tyr 09 reporting."
"Jotunn 12 reporting."
Three different voices crackled over the comms, and I quickly registered the voices to their signs before saying "Jotunn 12, the moment we emerge from the jungle hunker down and provide overwatch with your cannons. Tyr 09, you and I will engage up close, while Tyr 03 remains between us and Jotunn 12 to pick off any that might slip past us."
My orders were quick and decisive, the overview of my three squad mates giving me the details on their gear and letting me make the decision rather easily, and I put them to use as we raced out of the jungle not even ten seconds later, the speed of our mechs allowing us to cover a large amount of ground in mere moments.
They gave me their affirmations and got into position, with the heavy cannon wielding Jotunn Class Mech planting its thicker legs down in the soft soil, going so far as to extend the braces attached to it's calves to stabilize itself even further.
Wielding a 70mm Suld Cannon loaded with an abundance of fragmentation rounds, the Jotunn with us was geared for tearing through large swathes of enemies with lethal efficiency, but just in case something got too close to it the giant axe attached to its back was waiting to be unfurled.
Tyr 03 remained between the stabilized and now immobile Jotunn and us, it's 40mm Mjolnir Cannon waiting to be used to precisely blast chunks out of our enemies, and the twin linked Ripper Chainguns attached to its wrists loaded with .556 rounds were prepared for anything that might get too close.
Like the Jotunn, Tyr 03 also carried an axe on its back, but unlike the Jotunn it wasn't as large nor as heavy, though it was just as lethal when wielded by a Tyr Mech; joining me at the front was someone brandishing a Thrungva Sword and wielding a 30mm Aesir Chaingun as well, which made me all the more confident that the Chukanids we were to face wouldn't survive long at all.
Already there were Chukanids cresting over the hill in front of us, and upon seeing the four mechs many of them let out grating screeches or clicks as they hurled themselves forwards with reckless abandon, their hunger driving them to neglect personal safety as they sought out the flesh inside.
They were by no means dumb, and we still had little idea on how they functioned as a species, but the most prevalent theory that I believed in was a shared hive mind that told them what they needed to know, and the primary thing was how tasty the flesh of living beings was.
Yes they enjoyed the flora around us too, but they leaned to being more carnivorous than omnivorous if given the opportunity, and something that they all seemed to know was that beneath the metal plating of the mechs, juicy and succulent meat waited for them.
Meat they wouldn't be getting today since the moment I said "Fire at will.", a rattling boom sounded out behind me, followed by a few more confined explosions as shells arced down towards the insects hundreds of feet away.
Tyr 09 and I awaited their arrival, giving us the wonderful sight of a 70mm mortar shell crashing down in their midst and blowing them to pieces, followed by the rain of 40mm that blasted smaller groups of Chukanids into pieces.
It was a messy, loud way to eradicate these pests, but it was a satisfying one as more and more of them were blown apart and turned into a pink mist, their carapace strong enough for normal firearms and even some stronger, heavier weaponry, but barely capable of even blocking the force of the explosion from these larger shells.
These were the 'Mortal' Class Chukanids, and we were blessed that the rare 'Kami' Class Chukanids were nowhere to be seen; the descendants of the Japanese and Korean Ark 'Breath of Susanoo' had only encountered them a dozen of times since finding them, and they had been marked as 'Kami' simply because they displayed incomprehensible amounts of power for something biological to possess.
Towering bugs with armor thick enough to work as the hull of a battleship, they were the banes of all things living and more than capable of taking over a planet on their own, but thankfully they were rarer than the planets we were able to inhabit; and hopefully, Gods be willing - if there were any out there - they would remain that rare for a long time to come.
As more Chukanids rushed over the hill and managed to slip past the barrage of shells blasting apart the hill they were standing on, Tyr 09 and I got ready, warming up the barrels of our Aesir Chainguns with a few potshots at the bugs, ensuring our targeting software was working seamlessly and preparing to be drowned in alien blood.
Lifting the Aesir Chaingun and using the targeting reticle Mimir 14 provided, I pulled the trigger and sent a burst of 30mm Blitz rounds straight at a cluster of larger Ashigaru Chukanid, the yellow tipped shells exploding on impact and sending arcs of electricity scattering out amongst the nearby aliens.
Compared to the normal rounds my peer was shooting, the Blitz rounds were specialized and granted to us Einherjar to further empower us; still, my peer was picking off Ashigaru with precision before turning their attention to the forefront of the wave, switching off of burst fire and instead resting their finger on the trigger as they just let the rounds fly.
I continued my precision for as long as I could before I did the same, flicking the burst fire off and frying all of the bugs closest to me as they tried to enter melee range; even when the first one did, my Gungnir pierced through its chest as it leapt at me, and I flicked the corpse off of my spear as I prepared for the close quarters battle to come.