Chapter 53: Guerilla Warfare

"Do not pursue!" Lieutenant Lionel Li ordered. Everyone obeyed, falling back to his position. Those who showed some hesitation or reluctance were immediately brought to heel by the bellowing Sergeant Samuel Shan. Even if they didn't really trust the inexperienced lieutenant, none of the marines dared to disobey their veteran sergeant.

"All accounted for, sir." Samuel Shan's tone was crisp, but it was clear that he considered Lionel Li trustworthy now. Since the officer had proven himself by taking charge and not panicking during the first mission, he decided that it was better to follow the chain of command. "What do we do now?"

"Mr. Shen, you've been checking your sensors, haven't you?" The lieutenant asked. I nodded, then realized that they couldn't see me unless I opened a video channel to display a holographic window of my face.

"That's right, sir."

"Can you check where the largest concentration of the guerillas were headed?"

"Yeah, I can." I immediately understood why he made the request. That would be the most likely direction of the guerillas' base camp. Having been routed by a superior force, the majority would reflexively flee in the direction of their base.

Even if they weren't heading back to base, we would still be able to track down a sizable number of them and eliminate them, thus reducing the rebels' strength further. Unlike the military, the guerillas had limited resources and strength, so losing a significant portion of their soldiers would be a tremendous blow. Already they must be reeling at losing so many forces to the newly scarred 1st platoon of the 2nd mechanized armored battalion.

We had to keep up with the momentum. And unlike infantry, we had energy to spare. That was one of the advantages of piloting a mech. We didn't have to worry about physical exhaustion since our suits were the ones doing most of the hard work. Not only that, we could cover a lot of ground – more so than the exosuits.

The guerillas could be faster if they operated their jet packs, but that would leave massive thermal signatures and traces easy for us to track and pursue. They would essentially be giving their positions away. If they moved on foot, however, we would have the advantage because of the Hunters' larger strides and superior power.

Running several calculations by the artificial intelligence installed inside my war walker, I mapped out several possible routes while highlighting the thickest concentration of fleeing enemy forces. Sending it over to the soldiers, I then closed my eyes, leaned back and waited.

I wasn't an officer. Even if I had been a soldier once, I was simply a grunt. The highest rank I had achieved was corporal, which wasn't very impressive. As a soldier, I wasn't trained to think, just do. At this point, I was more of a civilian than an actual soldier, despite being able to hold my own in a fight. Speaking of which, I did have one important job.

"Run diagnostics, please. Anyone whose Hunter is damaged, notify me immediately. I'll conduct field repairs." I did have a program that linked me to the A.I.s of all the other Hunters and could easily access their statuses and conditions, but I didn't want the marines to feel as if I was invading their privacy. So I chose to keep them involved. Perhaps they would warm to me.

As it turned out, there were no major issues. The energy shields protected the Hunters from the heavy weapons mounted upon the exosuits. There weren't many bugs, perhaps a lag here or there, but by and large the war walkers were running smoothly.

By the time everyone assured me that everything was fine, Lionel Li had come up with a plan together with Samuel Shan. At least the officer was smart enough to seek the advice of his non-commissioned officer.

"We'll pursue immediately, in this direction. They should have left some tracks behind." Lionel Li then addressed me. "Mr. Shen, we'll be relying on you to use the sensory arrays. And when we get back, I would like you to train a few of my men to use them."

"Roger that."

That made sense. I wasn't going to follow the platoon forever. They needed to learn how to use the sensory arrays themselves. In fact, I was pretty sure they should know how to use them – they weren't that different from military-grade equipment currently in use by infantry. I suspected that a few of them had already started familiarizing themselves with the sensor suite and learning how to use it by themselves.

I didn't tell the lieutenant that, however. Instead, I hung back as ordered, following the formation that popped up in a holographic window that indicated which person should be where. Once again, I took up the rear, along with the officer, while the sergeant led from the front.

We set off at a speedy sprint, the Hunters nimbly maneuvering through the forest in pursuit of the largest concentration of fleeing exosuits.

It was unfortunate, but they had a head start. On the other hand, they only had a head start of fifteen minutes or so, which was about the amount of time the commanders required to come up with a plan.

Given the longer strides, we caught up after an hour of pursuit. I continued to keep an eye on the holographic windows that displayed the thermal signatures and other traces that my sensors picked up. Infrared, motion tracker, radiation, biological and chemical detectors, and all that. Even radar, though that wasn't very useful in this case unless the guerillas had huge vehicles or aircraft.

Therefore it didn't take long before I noticed rapid-moving icons on the edge of my motion tracker. Expanding the infrared screen, I made out humanoid signatures blazing ahead. I immediately alerted the mechanized marines to their presence.

"Hold your fire," Lionel Li commanded, much to everyone's surprise. "Let them continue running for now. Maintain your distance…perhaps they will lead us back to their base camp."

"That would be great…then we can wipe them out." One of the soldiers, Private Wilson Wu, sounded pretty bloodthirsty.

"Are they aware that we are on their tail?" Another marine, Corporal Xavier Xiao, asked hesitantly. "They might be a diversion, or lure us into a trap."

"I don't think so," I replied. "Their sensors aren't as powerful as those installed on the Hunters, and they are just barely in range of our sensors. They probably believe they have shaken us off after running for so long. Additionally, they have no idea what the top speed of our Hunters is, especially since this is the first time they are encountering them."

"That said, stay frosty, marines. We don't want the enemy to get a drop on us. Continue sweeping the surrounding areas with scans, to ensure we aren't rushing headlong into an ambush. We'll continue maintaining our distance for now, but report the moment you notice a chance in their movements. If they come to a stop, if even a single one of them breaks away for a toilet break, anything!"

"Yes, sir!" The marines responded.

Even though I had confidence in the superiority of the sensory equipment installed in my Hunters, I couldn't help but feel nervous. Theoretically, the Hunters had better sensory arrays because they were bigger and had a more powerful plasma reactor, thus allowing for further range and more accurate detectors. But I knew I couldn't afford to underestimate the enemy. However, I couldn't let my anxiety slow our progress. It was a risk that we had to take – a calculated risk, to be sure. But we couldn't let this opportunity slip by.

The pursuit continued for another hour before the exosuit-wearing guerilla insurgents finally came to a stop. I was about to report their movements, but another marine reported it to me. Lionel Li immediately brought us to a halt.

"Slow the advance, and approach cautiously. Do your best not to make any sounds. Spider formation. Enclose and weave a web."

"Understood, sir. You heard the man, people! Spread out!"

The marines obeyed, forming a line and spreading out. It took a lot of time and painstaking movements – and all the while, I continued to keep an eye on the icons that represented the enemy's exosuits – but eventually we were able to form a circle. There wasn't much movement, and I could see more human thermal signatures ahead, clustered together. Magnifying vision and other detectors, I could see caravans and tents.

"Confirm enemy base camp," I said, sending the image to the platoon.

"We've hit jackpot!" A marine, Private Jack Ma, cried out triumphantly. "Let's get them!"

"Hold your horses, marine!" Sergeant Samuel Shan snapped. "Wait for the order! Sir, do we hit them now?"

"How close do you think we can get without alerting them, sergeant?" Lionel Li asked. "I want to close the net and make sure none of them escape. The nearer we are, the more chances we have of wiping them out."

"Make sense, sir. But that's a question you'll have to ask Mr. Shen. Mr. Shen, do you know what's the upper limit of the range of the enemy's sensors?"

"Uh, well…" I was caught off guard by the veteran sergeant. Seemed like he was putting his trust in me, after all. "Estimating based upon the designs by Han Industries, I believe the range limit of their sensors should be 100 meters. I don't know if they have any equipment or radar in their base camp, though, something bigger and more powerful."

"They shouldn't have radar," Corporal Xavier Xiao mused. "Or motion detectors, not when the forest environment messes up a lot of those."

He was right. There was a lot of movement in the forest, and the trees absorbed the electromagnetic radar pulses. Without a clear line of sight, the beam would be blocked, thus radar wasn't particularly useful in a dense terrain like forests.

"All right, I would say a safe distance is 150 meters, sir. Once we get within 150 meters, we hit them hard and fast before they know what's going on."

As expected of the veteran sergeant, he knew to err on the side of caution and have a 50% buffer. He was taking no chances. The lieutenant agreed with his assessment.

"Then we will do that. Oh, and if possible, capture a prisoner. We might want to leave somebody we can interrogate later."

"I doubt they will answer us honestly," Private Howard Ho muttered under his breath.

"Perhaps not, but it's worth a try."

No one objected to that. When there were no other questions, Lionel Li gave the order over the main channel, his voice blaring from our speakers.

"All right, marines, advance! Hit them hard, hit them fast! Semper fi!"

"Semper fi!"

"Oo-rah!"

With that, we advanced at a mechanical lope, our Avenger laser carbines held at the ready.