Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

[It's good to hear a friendly voice again, Commander.] Max greeted the Koleska leader.

[You can join the Valkia defensive and then push forward with me and Nico toward the planet where our Destroyers are fighting.

Once we have that situation under control, we will push toward the other Human troops. Our goal is to secure this region of the fight so that the Arisen and Darkling forces can push back the enemy in the other layer and keep this battle contained to the edge of the Rift.] Max explained.

[Understood, Commander, deploying my unit now.]

The Koleska War Machines had gotten some upgrades since Max saw them last, courtesy of the Human Military. They were now in the style of the newer generation Heavy Mecha, with none of the Light Mecha present at all, though there were still a lot of conventional Koleska War Machines on the line.

[We were reinforced when we were transferred from regional defence to base defence. They gave us all the new toys and some extra training materials, but the units are all locally produced, based on your designs.] Commander Yuri explained, predicting Max's response.

[As long as they're effective, that's all that matters. Things have gotten a bit hectic here in the last few minutes.]

The attacking ships had retreated once their troops were deployed, and Max would have to fight his way through them to eliminate another transport, so he turned his attention to holding the flank for the Koleska.

They had gotten very good at fighting as a unit, and the formation was quickly encircling the strange alien ships without giving them any chance to advance into the Valkia.

The extra firepower gave the winged fighters a chance to retreat and catch their breath. The only way for them to stay alive in that battle situation was to keep evading, so it was much easier on them when they were not the main force, a factor that they had not understood until faced with it today.

Max could hear their thoughts telling themselves that the Alliance had gone too long without a threat and that they were in real trouble if some fraction of this force was to escape and come their way.

But that meant they needed as much combat experience as they could get, so they prepared a request to move forward with the Koleska force, working between the War Machines and ambushing the enemy while they were busy dealing with the larger Mecha.

It was a much better use of their skills, and Max approved the instant that he saw the request, leaving it up to their Commanders to implement the strategy.

Their ships would remain in place to defend the Innu, who were quickly becoming everyone's favourite faction on the battlefield. They weren't discriminatory about who they helped. If they could repair or duplicate your tech, they would do it and send you back all patched up with a fresh attack craft, Mecha or interceptor.

They had also begun to spread out to help the other humans and the main Koleska force more efficiently. There were a few other species in the area, but mostly, they only needed to work with a few types of vessels and biologies.

Max rolled his Mecha around its vertical axis, moving out of the way of a Laser Barrage from an incoming ship. He smiled as the Pilot's frustration reached his thoughts and then put a Mass Driver round through the cockpit of the attack craft.

He moved downward a few metres and let the next barrage fly over his head, then used the two light Mass Driver turrets to take out two interceptors at once.

[I swear that reflexes like that shouldn't be physically possible.] He heard the Commander of the Valkia force thinking.

The Commander wasn't wrong. Max didn't have reflexes that fast. He was a telepath, and the killing intent directed his way would warn him what part of his Mecha they were aiming for, so he had an extra fraction of a second to move.

It wasn't even a conscious effort at this point. He just reacted when he sensed a threat, and the results were fantastic. That wasn't really something that you could explain to others, except maybe the Illithid, who would understand the complexities of using telepathy to improve autonomic responses.

The Koleska and the Valkia working together were doing a fine job of clearing the immediate area, letting Max move on to larger threats, like the force that was attempting to eliminate his Destroyers while they defended the Android Army from orbital bombardment.

He risked a quick portal to get in front of the Destroyers, emerging right on target, though the Portal itself was a bit unstable around the edges.

It was good enough for combat use, and now he was in a position to assist the Destroyers with their attack craft issues.

The Drone Fighters were held up a few thousand kilometres away, dealing with an influx of Myceloid attackers that had just appeared through the portal, but the remaining attack craft here were all piloted by living aliens as well.

That was what Max was after. Get rid of the ones who were hardest to replace first, and then they could tailor their attacks to only a few species. The more that they could narrow down the enemy forces, the better.

The interceptors frantically dodged as they realized that Max's Mass Drivers could punch through them and their shielding without exploding.

The Destroyers were using all energy weapons at the moment to avoid friendly fire incidents if the Mass Drivers should miss a target. It had left the interceptors unprepared for Max's attacks, but the forces thousands of kilometres past them were even more shocked to be randomly taking fire despite being well back of the lines.

Nico was thinking the same thing, and when she had a good line between the enemy and their reinforcements, she would switch to solid projectiles for the secondary damage they could do.

[Zone Clear.] Commander Yuri announced a few minutes later. He had already started to press forward with the Valkia, but the situation around the Innu and the Valkia ships was now under control and back of the main lines again.

[Understood. Good Luck, Commander. I will be pushing your way once this force is finished.]