Chapter 54: Strike Swiftly, Strike Hard

Under A.I. assistance, we coordinated our advance and reached the hundred and fifty meter range at almost the exact same time. The artificial intelligence must have informed Lionel Li, for he immediately issued the order.

"Fire at will!"

Networking with each other, we were able to select our own targets without clashing against each other. Squeezing the trigger, we let loose a massive volley of laser rounds that streaked across the forest in ruby beams. Normally, lasers were invisible, but I had designed them with color so that we could avoid friendly fire as well as to intimidate the enemy.

First, we had to inflict the maximum amount of damage possible.

The ruby beams of high heat lanced into the base camp, searing through stationary exosuits and cutting them into pieces, the molten parts cauterized from the sheer temperatures. Men and exosuits alike fell, sliced through by the precise beams.

We continued to advance toward the clearing, firing relentlessly while acquiring new targets through the holographic reticules that danced across the screen and helped our aim. The stabilizers in the mechanical arms and servos allowed the Hunters to steady their aim and hold down a suppressing beam of laser fire that swept across the base camp. Even a heavily armored bunker made out of thick steel plating wouldn't have withstood the onslaught of laser fire, never mind the makeshift base camp.

In order to allow for mobility, for the guerilla insurgents never allowed themselves to stay in a single position for too long, the tents were made of lightweight material. All of which were cut apart as easily as scissors through paper. Tents collapsed, revealing screaming men. The exposed soldiers were swiftly cut down, the high rate of laser fire bombarding their location and disintegrating everything. Men were incinerated, their bodies combusting spontaneously when struck by the merciless laser beams, leaving little but blackened ash behind.

The circle of titanium closed in on the panicking guerilla rebels, ensuring that none of them escaped. What few insurgents who managed to get into their exosuits – or those already in their exosuits when the assault started, and perhaps more than a few who had remained in their exosuits after fleeing – tried to launch a counterattack, but the majority of them were blown apart before they could even raise their armored gauntlets.

That was mostly because we targeted the occupied exosuits first, for they posed the largest threat. Even though this would be a one-sided slaughter, the mechanized marines were taking no chances. We weren't going to underestimate the enemy and allow them free shots. Of course, I wouldn't be able to gather much data – such as checking the integrity of the energy shields and seeing if they held up under stressful circumstances – but my priorities were to keep as many soldiers alive as possible. I wasn't going to sacrifice them for combat data.

After all, the whole reason why I designed, developed and invented energy shields and armored war walkers was because I wanted to save as many soldiers' lives as possible. I might have created highly destructive weapons as a consequence, but my main objective was to create suits of armor and shielding that drastically increased the chances of a soldier's survivability in the battlefield. That was why I focused on defensive armaments such as energy shields first, as well as cladding the pilot in a thick suit of armor, to maximize his protection.

Of course, I felt bad for the enemies, but they were the enemies. And I wasn't deluding myself. Perhaps I was a hypocrite…no, I was most definitely a hypocrite. But I would rather protect the people I could protect than no one at all. I wasn't a god, so I wasn't going to try and protect every single person in the world. If that was the case, I wouldn't be inventing robots, weapons and military technology in the first place. I wasn't a patriot either, nor was I doing this for money. I just liked giant robots, and I also hoped the pilots who controlled them would be able to come home alive.

Just like my dad.

It was unfortunate, but I had no choice but to scythe down the enemies in front of me. Since I wasn't a marine and I hadn't been to a live-firing range for years, my aim was rusty. I missed about forty-five percent of my targets, and a single exosuit blazed toward me, firing its last micro missiles. I stepped away, evading several of them while the rest impacted against the shimmering energy shield that clad my Hunter. Drawing the combat field knife, I cleaved the approaching exosuit apart, and then twisted around to behead another that was attempting to flank me.

"Huff…"

Breathing deeply, I glanced up and read the holographic windows. There were still a few targets left over here and there, so I swiftly switched my aim and took them down. I missed quite a few of them, but fortunately the other marines made up for my lack of precision and destroyed the escaping enemies with a few well-placed shots. Several of the targets were exosuits whose wearers had activated their jump packs to boost them out of the tent in a clear attempt to escape, but they made themselves visible targets with the roar and orange burst of flames.

We continued to close in, a contracting circle of titanium, until we were almost shoulder to shoulder. The surviving guerillas mounted a desperate last stand, dredging whatever anti-tank weapons they had. It ranged from heavy man-portable laser cannons over 1.5 meters long to rocket propelled grenades and missile launchers.

Hemmed in as we were in such a tight formation, there was no room for us to maneuver. Indeed, there wasn't any need, for our shimmering energy shields overlapped and merged, turning into a larger force field.

Huh, now that was interesting. I never expected multiple shield generators to work together and merge the shields together. This was beyond my expectations.

In any event, we continued to blaze away with both heavy laser carbines and combat field knives, thinning their ranks considerably.

"Capture the last guy!" Lionel Li reminded his marines and the fire stopped. By now, the enemy's base camp was in ruins. There was literally a single person left, cowering under the ruins. Unlike his brethren, he hadn't picked up a weapon to fire back defiantly at the approaching titans of metal, whimpering with his head under his hands and his body curled to a fetal position.

Pathetic. Then again, I wondered if I wouldn't be doing the same if I was in his position.

"Sergeant, assign sentries. Watch our rear. I don't want any enemies sneaking up on us from behind. There's no telling if there will be other exosuit wearing soldiers returning to this base camp over the next few minutes."

"Right. Tang, Xiao, Liu, Pang, Chen, you're on sentry. Keep your eyes on our sixes and report any sign of suspicious movement. I mean any sign at all, I don't care if you think it's a tiger taking a shit in the bushes, I want you to report it immediately."

"Yes, sarge!"

The assigned sentries whirled their Hunters away and formed a spread out circle to watch the trees surrounding us. I hoped they knew how to use the sensory arrays. Then again, they were marines. They were very resourceful soldiers, the elite of the elite. The biggest badasses on the planet.

"Ming, Huang and Lu, you guys are with me." The glass canopy swung upward, revealing the plot within. Lionel Li was exiting the cockpit of his Hunter and dropping onto the ground. His chosen soldiers followed his example, raising their glass canopies so that they could disembark. All of them was armed with a smaller solar pulse laser carbine that was several times smaller than the Avenger Gatling laser carbine their Hunters were equipped with.

They kept the barrels of their weapons trained on the whimpering guy, whose pants were damp. He had pissed himself from fear. I wondered if he was a guerilla rebel or a prisoner of war, taken hostage by the secessionists.

Well, it was Lionel Li's job to find out. The lieutenant was armed with a sidearm rather than a laser carbine, a plasma pistol that I had recently designed. The M228 Sol plasma pistol, the same one I carried on me when I was at home. Even now I still had it, though I also had my M124 solar plasma rifle tucked in the back of my cockpit, within easy reach in case of an emergency.

One could never be too careful, especially when in the battlefield.

"Identify yourself," Lionel Li ordered. The man looked up and raised his hands.

"Don't shoot! Please!" He was jabbering, tears streaking down his face. "I surrender!"

"Your name," the lieutenant snarled impatiently, pointing the barrel of his plasma pistol at the sobbing man.

"Truong Phi Long," he replied with a gulp. "I…I surrender!"

Yeah, we heard that already. This man was clearly a secessionist. If he was a prisoner of war, he would have been more delighted to have been liberated by the Hua Xia military. Huh, perhaps liberated was the wrong word. Rescued, maybe.

"Is this your only base camp?" the lieutenant pressed. Truong Phi Long shuddered before shaking his head frantically.

"No! It isn't! It's only one of many!"

"How many base camps are there total? Where are the others?"

"I…I don't know!" Truong Phi Long spluttered. "I honestly don't! I'm just a grunt! The commanders might have an idea, but you just killed them all!"

He glanced nervously at the incinerated corpses of his former comrades, tears spilling from his eyes, and trembled uncontrollably.

"…and…they might not know themselves! Each camp is isolated and independent of each other, always moving, always on the move." He was blabbering now, but I guess it was understandable, given his current circumstances. "We'll only find out their whereabouts when we need to contact each other."

"And how do you contact each other?"

"I…I honestly don't know! That's the commanders' job! I'm just a grunt, I'm telling you! I just joined the rebellion only recently! We…we want independence, you understand. But I haven't been with them long, they won't trust me with such sensitive information…"

"What do you think, sergeant?" Lionel Li raised his head to look at the Hunter that Samuel Shan was piloting.

"He's most likely telling the truth, sir." I could hear the shrug in Samuel Shan's voice. "But interrogation isn't our specialty. Probably best to hand him over to the military police and see what information they can extract from him."

"All right. Contact HQ and let them know we have a gift for them." Lionel Li turned back to regard the quivering Truong Phi Long. "As for you, as long as you cooperate, we won't harm you. Understand?"

The prisoner nodded fervently, too scared to resist. I shook my head as I watched the exchange, feeling uncomfortable.

There were multiple base camps of the enemy out there? Oh boy…seemed like this mission was going to take a while…