Even before the combat carriers made landfall, the lunar fortress unleashed a deluge of missiles. Much less than what they ought to have been able to launch, but still a considerable amount.
Major Verle quickly issued orders to strike down the missile salvo. Akkara chs anchored inside the bunkers along the exterior the of carriers started to fire their rapid-fire cannons in unison. They had been designed in part to provide a powerful form of defense against the Vesian propensity to throw out a lot of missiles. The incoming missile salvo already started to diminish.
Other chs lent their firepower as well, though their coordination was lacking. The Vandals relied too much on random ch models stolen from the Vesians. Their weapon configurations differed very widely, making it difficult to synchronize their fire.
Nevertheless, the spaceborn Vandals acted competently and wiped out the missile salvo just as it entered dium range.
The lunar fortress failed to launch a second salvo. It appeared that the rebels hadn’t been lying when they said that they destroyed most of their stockpiles. Still, the suspicion that the Vesians might be holding back their missiles in order to trap the Vandals lood closely.
With the lunar fortress offering no further response, the Vandal combat carriers that arrived on the surface calmly disgorged their landbound chs. Many of these machines suffered from unsteady footing. The small moon exhibited a very weak gravity, causing most ch pilots to curse as their feet constantly bounced them above the surface.
Fortunately, they adjusted quickly. A week before they arrived at the Deten System, the ch pilots of the Flagrant Vandals drilled extensively in every possible environnt they might be deployed on. They already learned how to deal with the second moon’s gravity, but simulations were no substitute for the real thing. They wouldn’t be as good as the defending Vesians in moving around, and that was a significant disadvantage.
The only upside to the moon’s weak gravity was that the Vandal spaceborn chs could lend a hand as well. They didn’t fare too well under standard gravity conditions, but the moon was so small and weak that their flight systems hardly needed to compensate.
The Vandal chs ford up. Due to the wide variety of ch models, they resembled a mob of pirate chs more than a professional military formation. The only attempt at homogenizing them was to coat their exteriors in the regintal colors of the Flagrant Vandals, burgundy and black.
Even then, many subgroups adopted their own patterns. So chs employed camouflage patterns, while others adorned their chs with animal heads. More utilized geotrical patterns that looked oddly hypnotic.
In the eyes of an outsider like Ves, the Vandal chs looked disorderly. He could tell from the orders issued by Major Verle and the movents of their chs that they operated in a very decentralized fashion. Major Verle only issued a handful of broad orders, which his subordinate officers translated into slightly more specific orders to the different companies that took part in the assault.
The true decision makers appear to be the captains that led their companies. These companies differed widely in numbers and ch makeup. So of them were at half-strength at twenty-two chs, while one of them moved with seventy chs, each of them seemingly a different model!
As much as Ves wanted to spit out and decry the travesty of it all, the Flagrant Vandals sohow found order in chaos. They made their eclectic mix of chs work seamlessly. Upon closer inspection, Ves realized that every ch company wasn’t grouped by type or purpose and that they didn’t choose to balance out their chs either.
The companies had been grouped according to their movent speed.
This led to a surprising level of coordinated maneuvering. The scout companies moved first and approached the lunar fortress, which the Vesians chose to perch on a low hill surrounded by flattened terrain.
A lot of signs showed that the periter used to be very rocky, but the defenders deliberately cleared away the rocks and flattened the overall surroundings in order to deny any approaching enemy on land the benefit of cover.
"Heat signatures detecting! Incoming laser fire!"
The chs atop the walls already started firing potshots at the approaching scout companies from the air and on the surface of the moon. Major Verle made a quick judgent and held his scouts on a leash, not wishing to go further and risk them getting attacked by a prepared volley.
The slower companies caught up while the scouts flanked the fortress. After a few more monts of preparation, the assault began.
"Attack! Breach the fortress and finish off the defenders!"
A heavy amount of firepower poured into the walls of the fortress, diminishing it at a surprisingly low pace. The walls had been laced with an abundant amount of junk exotics as well as a few more valuable substances, which was much more than standard. The cost to erect this fortress must be at least three tis as much as a regular fortification!"
"The Deten II is a resource processing center." Alloc reminded Major Verle. "Many materials are shipped in and out of this star system. Those fortress walls are laced with Brown Laxanite, which is fad for their ability to dampen shocks. That increases the resilience of the walls by at least half!"
"Is there anything else you can tell about the walls, Mr. Brandstad?"
Alloc furrowed his brows. Ves passed him a couple of observations, but none of them were notable enough to be ntioned.
"No, sir, only to state that the walls rely on Laxanite to withstand explosive and kinetic attacks, while utilizing their enormous mass to neuter any laser fire. It’s incredibly resilient against every conventional damage type."
That left out a lot of weapons with strange effects, such as the Greater Terran United Confederation’s Destroyer Weapons. One slice of a Destroyer Sword would easily be able to part the thick walls in half.
Naturally, the Vandals didn’t carry anything like that.
"We’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. Inheritors! Prepare to dive in!"
Major Verle constantly showed his impatience. Ves gathered that the commander wasn’t being reckless, but the importance of staying on schedule weighed heavily on the entire ch regint.
They only had four days to play with, and that was only an estimate of their allotted ti. The Vesian reinforcents might co sooner or later, but the Vandals didn’t count on getting lucky in that regard.
While much of the lower ranks of the Vandals remained ignorant, Colonel Lowenfield and her most trusted subordinates like Major Verle planned for this operation for years. They always intended to make a far-ranging raid on a star system deep within Kingdom space.
The Deten System had actually been selected as a potential longshot candidate due to its stability, relative wealth and lack of internal conflicts.
That last point proved to be pivotal to this attack. Many star systems with a little bit more wealth might allow the Vandals to earn a bigger harvest, but their riches attracted plenty of ambitious nobles.
Not so for this star system. Deten II was the main seat of House Jier, and while it would be possible to dislodge them, Count Reizen established lots of ties with his neighbors, which minimized the occurrence of violent conflicts.
As for Deten IV, no one wanted to touch Lord Javier. As the sole son of Count Loqer, any other local noble would practically be committing suicide if they touched that planet.
Count Loqer’s influence in the Imodris Duchy made him a powerful regional bully. He was the trusted hand of the Duchess and had served as her forr chief of staff.
With the amount of favor Loqer earned from the Duchess of Imodris, House Eneqqin was on the rise. No one openly dared to defy them. Yet while this status might make their rivals back away, it proved to be one of the most pivotal reasons why the Vandals chose to attack the Deten System.
House Imodris sent the majority of their legions to the frontlines. Those that remained had been tasked with guarding the Duchy’s capital and several vitally important star systems. As much as the Duchess favored Count Loqer, she would never divert her crack troops to defend a marginally significant star system.
Because behind the open threat of the Vandals, a follow-up invasion might ensue if the remaining legions moved to aid the Deten System.
As for the barons and counts that occupied the star systems closest to the Deten System, they would definitely move to support their beleaguered neighbors when prompted by House Imodris, but they would be sure to take the slowest route possible without being accused of leaving the Deten System out to dry.
"No one will co and reinforce the Deten System for at least three days. That should be enough ti to complete all of our objectives, but only if nothing else goes wrong."
The Vandals made slow progress into chipping away at the fort walls. Their ability to resist both energy and physical attacks made them extrely hard to deal with. Due to the angles, the landbound chs stood no chance in weakening the defending chs.
The defenders did not suffer from that problem as the Vandal chs were exposed on flat terrain. They could easily fire on every ch they wished from their comfortably elevation positions behind the walls.
The only reason why the Vesians hadn’t exacted a heavier toll was because they were pacing their face. Ballistic ammunition was in really short supply, and while they could replenish their batteries fairly quickly by recharging them from the fortifications power reactors, they could only recover so much juice at a given mont.
More than that, the Type D’s paced their fire due to their inability to shunt their heat fast enough. Every ti they built up a significant amount of heat, they retreated and deployed several spikes from their hips that anchored into the walls. This allowed them to transfer their accumulating heat through the spikes and stave off their heat limits, if only temporarily.
"The Inheritors are making their move!" Alloc whispered to Ves, which caused him to divert more attention to their plumting descent.
They dove down on a diagonal trajectory, making it rather hard for the defending Type D’s to target them. Several Inheritors got hit by the laser beams that raked their loose formation. A single laser beam wouldn’t cripple them, but their armor was so thin that they would certainly feel the hurt.
The Vesian defenders beca a little smarter about their targeting and started to focus their fire on a handful of Inheritors. This caused the targeted chs to be extrely unlucky.
While the ch pilots of the Type D’s weren’t good enough to box their targets in an undodgeable storm of lasers, they at least managed to whittle down the Inheritors at a mildly alarming rate. Those assigned to pilot the Inheritors weren’t exactly the best of what the Flagrant Vandals had to offer.
"n, ready your knives!"
Still, the Inheritors zipped down so fast that the Type D’s constantly had to readjust their aim to cope with the changing trajectories. As the Inheritors appeared larger and larger on their targeting scopes, the Type D’s needed to swivel their aim in wider arcs in order to keep up.
"The ti is upon us! Go in-and-out!"
The Inheritors engaged their flight systems in full, causing them to stop their impending crash to the ground and instead propel them forward, right into the lines of defenders. A handful of lee chs stepped forth to shield their weaker comrades. The Inheritors that faced those lee chs could do nothing in the short term to take these sturdy chs down, so they preemtively circled around and flew back up.
As for the other Inheritors, they faced no obstacle except for the wall, and even that provided no succor to the Type D’s. The Inheritors smartly passed over the walls and maneuvered around to hit the Type D chs from the sides or from the rear.
The laser rifleman chs stood no chance. The Inheritors showed extre excellence in peeling apart the vulnerable ranged chs. At least a third of the Type D’s dropped their rifles and gripped their backup knives in ti, but their ch fras were wholly unsuited to duel against a skirmisher.
It was a massacre.
Only ten seconds passed at most before the Inheritors finished their allotted ti. Those that hadn’t finished off their targets retreated without hesitation after reaching the limit.
The results of the short but intense action quickly beca clear. At the cost of half a dozen Inheritors, at least a third of the defending Type D’s had been taken out.
"We’ve got them!"
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