1199 1199 In Time
Felicity deployed the shuttles from Absolution with Terraforming arrays equipped, and allowed them to race around the perimeter of the Alliance camp. Each pass dug the trenches a little deeper, and the high speed made them harder to target with light arms fire from the ground, should there be any more enemy forces close to their position.
Putting Mecha into trench lines was a bit nostalgic for Max. He hadn't used trench warfare tactics in a long time, but building a wall that was thousands of kilometres long wasn't feasible after the first attacks started. Trenches were easily cleared by the Mecha if they were collapsed or filled, but walls were difficult to rebuild. The earthen fortifications that had been made with the displaced dirt would have to be enough to defend the front lines from attack.
The Mecha were mostly there now, but other than the one eliminated scout team, there hadn't been anything for them to fight yet. The priority was just to secure the perimeter around their vessels so that they could start working on a more aggressive strategy without worrying about being overrun.
Unlike a conventional army, which needed trained personnel, the Android Armies could be rapidly replicated and sent out to support the rest of the Alliance forces. It was a huge advantage to them, and it should allow them to fight for a much longer duration than their enemy could.
When a bored God had stuck you all in an artificial battleground, a war of attrition seemed like the most likely outcome. It was the worst possible type of war to fight, but it was also the one that the Human forces excelled at.
[Commanders, we have contact at 342 degrees. Commencing countermeasures.] The Androids reported.
Max checked the feed from the shuttles, and ordered a wing of drones to head that way and assist, while Nico got an array of sensor drones sent up to high altitude to replace satellite scanning. They had been in this situation on the Golden Legion's planet, but this time they could send their probes higher. They even managed to make low orbit before being blocked. That was the best-case scenario. They might not be able to leave, but they would have a satellite image of the whole world within an hour, and ongoing communications with their forces as well as any other Alliance outposts that they found.
Max noticed that the attack was still ongoing in the north, where the Mecha had reported an attack. A quick search of the sensors showed that there was a Great Enemy force there with decrepit hover tanks and their strange Mecha sized cyborgs hiding behind a hill to fire at the trenches.
Both sides had shields, and for now, they were holding, but that was mostly down to a lack of direct line of sight. Once they could use their primary weapons, things would change rapidly. But without the nuclear option, the Mass driver rounds were somewhat limited, and they were going to need a different high explosive option that would take out the enemy shields more effectively.
Perhaps this was part of the Myceloid sensibilities on war. They preferred a stand-up fight, and an indirect artillery bombardment that could wipe out anything that the enemy could field before it even knew it was under attack wasn't very sporting.
No matter how satisfying it was.
"Sylvie, do you have a situation like this in your records?" Max asked the AI.
"Processing." She replied, and began to hum her waiting tune as she searched through the damaged files in her battle reports.
"Roughly seven hundred incidents with limitations of an unknown origin are in my reports. That makes them over two thirds of one percent of all battles that I have data for." She replied after a few seconds.
So, this wasn't a new trick. Just a resurrected favourite.