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129 Chapter 129

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Max was sitting on the bunk inside Stalwart and meditating to clear his mind of the fog that has lingered in the background his whole life. He has suspected that these are the hidden memories of his past life since the first memory of battle came back to him during training.

Today, the fog seemed thinner than usual and Max continued to push, hoping for a relevant memory that could help him train Pilots that didn't have a System.

Other nations did it, surely he could decipher the method in time, but he didn't have time, they had to leave soon to join the offensive.

His focused mind was like the sun on the lingering haze, until suddenly memories came to him in a rush.

The end of his old life, the promise of reincarnation, and then his time in the womb. He was supposed to transfer in cleanly, like Nico did, and recover his memories as he grew up and his body could handle them. Instead, his mother's drug abuse had killed the body he transferred into, and only the lingering effects of the divine intervention allowed him to be born at all.

That was why it took so long to remember his past life, and even now, so much of it was either lost or locked away.

He still couldn't recall his youth at all, but there were some flashes of training recruits. But these were no ordinary Pilots, most of them weren't even human, or any species Max recognized.

The thought that he might have come from a far away place with many species but similar technology never occurred to him. His few memories of himself had shown him as a human, so had thought his old life was more like his current one.

Since his own memories were a loss, Max focused on Nico's memories. Her people genetically engineered their Pilots, but that should give Max something to work with.

There weren't many childhood memories, and what he found when he looked deeper through what he had skimmed from her memory as a child was increasingly disturbing.

Her past life did not believe in human rights, or war crimes. They believed in war and blood. When they went to war, billions died in the most horrific of ways, with the intent to honor some sort of religion that Max couldn't seem to understand.

Looking deeper through her past life taught Max a lot about Nico. She wasn't an aggressive pilot without concern for her own life. No, his best friend was a genocidal maniac without concern for her own life. At least she was before she was reincarnated.

The question was, how much had what she learned from her past life and then locked away during this one influenced her personality?

For sure, she didn't follow that blood soaked old religion anymore, he would have sensed it with all the time he spent in her mind, but she was still a combat maniac, which could be either a side effect or just part of her personality.

While Max thought about her personality, the person in question was being rudely awoken by the Crusaders attached to the Carpe Noctem.

[Ghost, oh Ghost. We have need of you again. The mines are clear and we are moving forward to the next battle.] The pilot tried over the open channel, with no luck.

Then a solid bang on her carapace armor almost shook Nico out of her seat.

"Get up, it's time for war." General Mons declared out loud with his intercom and Tarith's Rage stood up, grabbing the sword and freshly repaired shield prepared for it.

"There we go. I'm guessing that your radio isn't working, so just follow the group for now. We are supposed to meet up with Stalwart Special Tactics Unit in a few days and you can return to your little lover boy." General Mons' speech brought a round of the creepy laughter from the speakers of Tarith's Rage, but the Mecha gave him a respectful salute before falling in beside the Phalanx Class Giant Mecha as its personal guard.

"Is it just me, or does that Mecha just seem more and more like an angry ghost every time the General talks to it?" One of the infantry soldiers, now seated in an amphibious transport for the long journey, whispered to the man beside him.

"Quiet, or she might hear you." The other man responded with a wink, not believing the rumors.

The then the bone and blood red Crusader turned his way, and the eye like sensors under the front armor plate affectionately dubbed the helmet were firmly locked in him.

"Sorry." The second soldier muttered, and the Mecha looked away again.

There are sensors all around the carapace of a Crusader, there was no need for it to look his way to see or hear him, but somehow it felt like the Mecha was actually alive the way it turned to face him when he spoke about it.

Inside his cockpit, General Mons turned to his copilot with a sad tear in his eye. They had managed to establish a video link with Tarith's Rage using the Command override. Major Nico was in there, and most likely alive, despite her horrible condition.

But she clearly lacked the physical capability to control the Mecha, sitting stock still in her seat even as Tarith's Rage smoothly walked and interacted with the people around it.

"Do we have an analysis?" The general asked his second in command, whose Innate Talent was analyzing the status and condition of other System Compatible humans.

"Other than the obvious, there are signs of recently healed internal damage, her vocal cords have been burned away and the wound is scarred, and there are no eyes under that helmet's visor. But her condition is stable and slowly improving." The pilot whispered reverently, unable to believe anyone had survived those injuries.

[What are we waiting for? There are no enemies here.] The message appeared as text on the displays of the Carpe Noctem, tagged as having come from Tarith's Rage.

They could see the pilot hadn't moved at all, but General Mons recalled that Major Nico was supposed to be a hacker, using her Innate Talent. That certainly made more sense than a ghost or a possessed Mecha.

"Everyone move out." The General announced, getting the convoy moving, and he could have sworn he saw a smile pass over Major Nico's mangled face before the video link was abruptly cut.

"Arrange for an augmentic surgeon to meet us at the staging area. She is having far too much fun messing with people who think she's a ghost." General Mons ordered, following his troops through the swamp.

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General Mons sighed as he looked over the scene of the battle. This was the third time they had been ambushed since leaving the swamp. There was no way that the Narsians didn't know he was here now, and they most likely also knew where he was heading, based on the number of soldiers they had thrown at his unit.

Narsian morale was low though, thanks to their own personal Ghost Mecha. Tarith's Rage was now a fully close combat unit, and Major Nico had no qualms about throwing herself into combat at the first sign of hostilities.

The combat style was strange though. It wasn't anything that the Kepler Military taught, but it was much more efficient than any fighting style the General had seen before. He had seen precise and minimalist close combat styles before, from combat monks to rapier-wielding Cygnus officers, but this was different.

It didn't have the dignified presence of the combat arts he was familiar with, which gave the impression that the combatant was aiming for a noble victory. Somehow, all the strikes either cleaved straight down to split bodies in half or slightly upwards to throw arcs of blood through the air. Even the Kepler forces didn't want to be too close to Tarith's Rage, 'in case it forgot which side it was on', according to the Commander of Carpe Noctem's personal guard, whose position in line Nico had stolen.

[Are the terror tactics really necessary?] General Mons asked Major Nico, now fairly sure that she could actually hear the radio and simply chose to ignore it.

In response, she flicked a giant up in the air with the tip of her sword, then swatted the floating body with the flat of her blade, sending him crashing into the ground a hundred meters away.

The remaining Narsian forces broke and ran.

[You know, if I could prove you can hear me, I would have you up on charges of insubordination.] General Mons grumbled before cutting communications.

After the battle, Tarith's Rage moved to the front of the file so that it would be the first to detect and the first to reach the enemy. The strategy was incredibly effective at keeping the Narsians from approaching the unit.

Previously, they had launched rapid attacks, trying to cut down the Kepler force's numbers before the Carpe Noctem could react and wipe them all out. Now they actively avoided the column entirely, going as far as running away when they saw them on the horizon.

They had one more day to the Staging Area where the Kepler forces would meet before the battle and the General was getting eager to meet up with Stalwart and its pilot, Major Max. That young Pilot was the only one who could reliably keep Major Nico in check, and she seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of just exactly how far she could push the rules before actually being reprimanded.

But more importantly, she scared the troops. Some of the other close combat pattern Crusaders had tried to emulate her fighting style, but they were all noticeably slower and much more clumsy. Some of that could be attributed to practice, but there was no denying that Tarith's Rage had a kill count that was multiple times higher than the others.

Max was also a day away from the meeting point, at the back of the column of Academy Pilots, which was flanked and led by his own Special Tactics unit. They might be considered a military force in their own right, but escorting them with more practiced and better-trained troops lets them watch and learn on the way to the meeting.

Each of them had a learning program playing in their Mecha, giving hints and tricks for smoother operations and more accurate targeting. It was a highly irregular measure, but every time they came across a Narsian patrol the effects were visible in the improvements made.

Max had high hopes that by the time they made the destination the next day the Cadets wouldn't embarrass themselves around the troops that had dropped onto the planet. None of the other Unit Commanders knew what a low standard the local partisans were working with, so seeing these Line Mecha pilots would be their first experience with them, and build their impression of the planet.

It hadn't been so long since Max himself was a freshman at the Military Academy who had never touched an actual Mecha before, so he could at least empathize with the Cadets, even if he had never been in their shoes.

[Set up Camp. Take a Four-hour break and then we will push into the meeting point.] Max ordered, directing the unit to a hollow between two hills for the night.

Taking the low ground wasn't optimal as a battle strategy, but it would get them out of sight, and reduce the chance that they would be ambushed during their rest period. Many of the enemy units that they had encountered had overtaken them from behind, moving in the same direction that they were at a higher rate of travel.

If he had ever thought that a major offensive could be a surprise, those hopes were long gone after the first day of travel. Now, he just wanted to get everyone to the starting line alive and wait for his new orders.

They had only just started moving again, a few hours before the sun came up when Max saw a familiar signal on his scans. Carpe Noctem was at the back of a large unit of Heavy Mecha, and they were under attack by Narsian artillery which had set up in a valley to their right flank. The same right flank that his unit was approaching from.

[All units forward. Our target is the artillery emplacement. The faster we get there the less chance that they will be able to change targets in time to shoot at us.] Max ordered and the Line Mecha began to run towards the target.

The Narsians attacking the convoy had sent out attacking squads to delay the rushing close combat Crusaders, and that seemed to have taken all their attention. The Line Mecha managed to make it to seven hundred meters away without drawing any enemy fire.

[Line Mecha, take positions, and fire at will. Attack Pattern A.] Colonel Sanders ordered.

Pattern A was simple, everyone stopped, took a knee to make themselves a smaller target and more stable, then fired first at anything approaching them, and second at anything that looked like a big threat. As a strategy, it was laughably simple. As a combat technique, it was one of the best that the Cadets knew.

Max was focused on blasting away the Narsian defensive positions to let the Light Mecha get at them, so he didn't notice how the General's battle was going until suddenly his radar showed a tightly packed line of Crusaders rushing into the artillery position.

In the lead was a Bone and Bronze Crusader with a sword and shield forcibly pushing through the crowd of giants using pure bulk and momentum. Behind it, the others cut down the Narsians who had been knocked to the ground, staying close enough that none could get between them and break up the convoy.

"Nico?" Max gasped, recognizing those hazard stripes on a Bone white Carapace shell, and more importantly, the faded and chipped smiley faces on the bottom of a foot that had just raised to stomp on a screaming Narsian soldier.

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[I should have been a farmer. Hunting Narsians is a lot like harvesting wheat isn't it?] Appeared on Max's heads-up display as a swipe of Nico's blade cut down three unfortunate soldiers who were standing side by side.

Max used his Pulse Laser Array to clear out a group of soldiers that was rushing at her back while Tarith's Rage tore into the artillery weapons with a vengeance before responding.

[I don't see what the two have in common. It's good to see you again Nico.] Max sent his response to her as a text message. She would receive that as well as a voice command, he assumed. But it was harder to intercept and didn't clutter the radio waves.

Her energy shield was flashing like a strobe light with all the incoming fire she was taking, but Nico didn't seem to care, and the mecha that came with her quickly moved through the Narsian position to eliminate the artillery weapons.

With Mecha forces on two sides, the defenders were in a hard position to begin with. But with the Mecha now in their back lines and tearing apart the artillery, the battle was turning hopeless for them. Max could see the moment that the commander ordered his men to retreat, something that they rarely did, even in the face of annihilation.

[They must be preserving strength to defend the city.] Max commented on the Command channel, as the giants began an orderly retreat from the battle, leaving the less mobile elements like heavy weapons and artillery behind.

While most of the Mecha from the Phalanx Class Mecha's convoy returned back to their stations, one remained behind. The heads and dismembered upper bodies hung from the chains around its carapace made it look terrifying, but the color scheme marked it as undeniably Tarith's Rage.

"She lived!" The doctor that they gained in the swamp cheered, and the ten-meter-tall mecha slung its sword from a hanger on its shield to give the medical professional a thumbs up.

"Still injured, are you? That's alright, when we get to the Staging Area there should be better doctors and a full augmentation suite. I saw the deployment orders." The doctor assured her and the mecha gave him a slight bow.

[All Units, fall in behind Carpe Noctem.] Colonel Sanders announced, repeating the orders that he had just received from the General in the Phalanx Class Mecha.

Tarith's Rage moved to walk beside Stalwart, giving Max a light shoulder bump that set the grisly trophies on her mecha swinging.

"Good to see you again too. Hold out for the rest of the day and they'll get you all patched up and mobile again." Max assured his friend, looking through her thoughts now that she had deliberately moved close enough for his Innate Talent to interact with the Nanobots in her body and feed him information.

As he had feared, the memories of her past life had started to take over her mind. He would have to work with that, but a lot of the problem seemed to be the fact that she couldn't move and was trapped in her mind. It had made the Mecha her proxy body, and the Crusader Class Mecha was only made for war. Even with two hands, it was still a prodigious war machine before it could ever be a body capable of normal interaction, especially when she couldn't speak.

[You didn't give the General too hard of a time did you?] Max asked her, getting back images of the various ways she had teased the forces at the swamp and pretended to be her own ghost.

[As funny as some of those were, we're going to have to help you behave. You can't keep acting out like that or they'll pull your position and put you behind a desk.] Max laughed at the thought of Nico as a secretary.

[I got a new ability when I hit 200 points of total system bonus. Drone Commander.] Nico sent him a text message to his wrist device so that others couldn't eavesdrop on the one-sided conversation as Max interacted with her thoughts.

[What is that?] Max sent back in confusion.

[Find me some gun drones or something easy to control and I can operate them until they lose communications. Up to two at once, but I should get better with practice.]

They have a couple of simple observation drones in the storage boxes that only carry a camera, used when they want to scout ahead with some stealth. Max could already feel the eye roll Nico was going to give him for that suggestion and he hadn't even spoken yet, so he decided to hold off on the idea.

The larger infantry battalions should have proper gun drones, with anti-gravity drives and Laser Rifles. They're similar to the drones that the Academy used to train them on the live fire courses and are pretty commonly issued to police forces as well.

[I will see what I can find you.] Max answered, then realized that they might be handy for himself as well.

The drones could be ordered to hold position around a Mecha, and with his Split Fire and Multiple Targeting skills, he should be able to use them as additional weapons for his Mecha. It had just never occurred to him since their usage and offensive capabilities were so limited that they served no more purpose than two extra infantry soldiers, which he wasn't in need of.

Max was still passively listening in on Nico's thoughts when a thought that made him burst into laughter came through the link. The tiny 10cm cubed camera drones with a Narsian Combat knife strapped to the top. The energy field on the knives is enough to punch through armor, and the tiny drones are silent as they move, but the flight drive on them might not be strong enough to hold the knife that was three times their size.

[Melee Drone is an amazing idea.]

Max laughed so hard at the ideas she was sending him on ways to use the ridiculous combination that even the infantry noticed the change in his piloting before he got himself back under control.

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With the additional numbers, nothing dared to attack their convoy before they reached the Staging Area, where a large crowd of Mecha and an even larger group of infantry were waiting for them to arrive.

The Phalanx Class Mecha is a symbol of hope for the Kepler forces, and seeing Carpe Noctem, which most of the troops didn't even know was in the system gave them real hope for winning back the planet.

Such grand and noble sentiments were the furthest things from Max's mind thought, since he already knew what standing next to a Phalanx Class mecha in combat was really like. He was more concerned with when the battle was going to begin and what his unit's role was going to be.

[General Mons, what sort of timeline are we on? Would there be time for Major Nico to be reconstructed before the battle, or should we hold off until afterward to maintain our capabilities?] Max asked, hoping to get a firm answer.

[There are a minimum of three days left before the last of the units arrive. Major Nico has a Self Healing related System Function, so there shouldn't be a problem getting her patched up. The only question will be what they can do for her. Her body is in bad shape, so they might not be able to biological replacements.] General Mons responded almost instantly.

That made Max feel a bit special, the Generals are busy people, so he was hoping for a response within the hour, as it is with Central Command, but General Mons answered right away. The courtesy of the rapid response wasn't for Max though, it was for the General's peace of mind. Once Major Nico was an intact and whole person again he could order her to exit the mecha and mingle with the troops, eliminating the superstitious rumors that had been circling through his men.

But even better than that, he could order her to teach more of his pilots whatever it was that she did in close combat. Even the Narsians saw fit to give her a hero's burial after seeing it in action and General Mons needed more Heroes on his side.

"Tarith's Rage, please report to the Augmentic Surgery department as soon as possible. It has been determined that your healing abilities will have you ready to fight again before the main battle begins, so they're going to attach some new limbs to you." Max ordered, sensing amusement in Nico's mind.

[I need 10 minutes. I used the Biowarfare containment locks to seal the cockpit, and they are on a timer to disable.] Nico informed him by text again.

[I'm ordering them to give you a new voice box as well. You can't just keep hacking everyone's Mecha when you need to talk to strangers.]

[Stranger Danger. Good Girls aren't supposed to talk to strangers.] Nico responded and Max just stared at his wrist device in shock. How do you respond to that? Every kid learned it in the first grade, but that rule doesn't apply to military interactions.

Max quietly adds a mental evaluation to her workup. She was a bit off even before the Narsians tortured her, but now she has zero inhibitions in her social interactions. Or maybe she's just incredibly bored and messing with him is her only available hobby. It's not like she can read a book and relax.

Ten minutes later, the surgical bay was ready for her with the very latest in Kepler Cyborg technology. The doctors had seen her medical data as she reported it through the Pilot Status reports generated by Tarith's Rage, and determined that at the very least a partial conversion was going to be necessary. She didn't have enough intact and undamaged bones for standard augments, and most of the bones that were whole had healed strangely due to a lack of medical intervention before they self-healed.

The specs on the experimental conversion looked highly promising to Max. They used a form of Non-Newtonian alloy shell that would become harder under the force of a projectile impact, but maintain a flexible and supple state for movement, increasing armor rating as well as longevity in combat while doing a decent job of mimicking skin.

They were supposed to be able to interact with the Nanobots as well, but the amount of upgrade they could get wasn't the same as increasing body attributes. Instead, the System would treat them as items attached to the body, and the enhancement would depend on the System Functions that the user had. For Nico, this was actually a benefit over most augments, other than biological ones which weren't done in combat due to the month-long healing and integration process, but they still wouldn't likely be able to keep up with regular pilot development.

Once she was set on the table to begin the procedure the doctor in charge looked down at her with a gentle smile. "What color were your original eyes? Or do you want something new? My wrist device is in your hand now, I'm told you can answer that way."

[Thermal overlays on Optical Implants.] Was Nico's answer and the doctor frowned.

"You understand that they won't look natural, right?" He asked and Nico nodded.

The thermal overlays gave the mechanical eyes a red iris, and if you looked close you could see that they weren't biological, but had an adjustable camera lens. Nico didn't mind though, she could wear sunglasses with her uniform, and having mechanical eyes was relatively common among veterans.

Plus, as a partial conversion cyborg, she was going to be clearly augmented anyhow.

"Alright, let's put you under and get this started." The doctor announced and the surgical suite went into full lockdown to maintain the sterile environment.

What was supposed to be a six-hour procedure slowly stretched to twelve and then fourteen hours, and the entire Special Tactics Unit was gathered in concern for their long-lost executive officer.

"She will be fine won't she?" Ari whispered, looking for reassurance.

"I can read the minds of the surgical team. She will be fine, but they kept finding more and more damage that was partially healed inside her body and ended up doing a full conversion instead of a partial." Max answered while staring at the wall towards where she was laying.

Nico had woken up about an hour in, but with the damage she had taken, she was no longer capable of feeling pain, so she simply waited as they worked on her.

At the fifteen-hour mark, the doors finally opened and the exhausted third shift of conversion surgeons came out wiping sweat off their brows and removing their gear.

"It is done. We had to have the medical team make up an entirely new torso for her, as well as some additional structure, but everything tested well and responded as if it were a natural part of her body. She is sedated for the final round of unconscious functionality checks now. The neural links need to be double-checked before she tries to move on her own or it could cause an inability to correctly utilize the cyborg body." The lead doctor sighed, looking into the room with a mixture of pride and regret.

"I must warn you though, full conversions often cause a complete loss of System function. The only natural part of her body is her brain, and even that has been heavily altered to interact with the cyborg body. She might never pilot again."

With that, he walked away and left the officers of the Special Tactics unit to wait impatiently for her new body to update and reboot.

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Max watched as the data tethers detached from Nico's new body and she sat up in bed.

"Dammit Nico, have you no shame?" Ari laughed as the Major stood up beside her bed to admire her new form. As it is a Cyborg body and was being updated, the doctors didn't dress it at all.

It wasn't really a big deal, the body didn't have any flesh, as it was covered in human-shaped armor plates, but the overall effect of the new liquid alloy made it look nearly identical to an actual body, only a little taller and in a nearly white metallic golden color. The smallest size that they had was 150 cm tall, a full 5cm taller than her original body.

The doctors would have likely given her the standard 175cm androgynous form if they had known from the start that it would be a full conversion. But since they started with the smaller size, thinking they would be keeping most of the body, they had to custom make the rest as they went.

"I like it. I might actually stand a chance in physical challenges against a Cyborg. Flesh Nico whooped me too many times." Paul laughed, admiring the craftsmanship that went into the conversion.

This particular line of cyborg bodies was intended to be used for stealth since the non-Newtonian highly malleable metal outer shell could be manipulated to change appearances to some degree, but they were also among the strongest and most adaptable of technology available, which is why it was selected for the first major conversion on the planet.

Or, so went the official story. General Tennant had actually ordered them in no uncertain terms to give her the most realistic body that they could.

"I wouldn't bet on that. I'm pretty sure I'm still stronger, faster, and smarter than you are. Plus, with this new adjustability, I might even have a bigger dick." Nico teased her fellow officer in a gentle and sultry voice, nothing at all like her original.

"Party foul. If you're going to use that voice you can't say things like that." Vincente interrupted her, looking over the flowing white gold outer shell of her body. Nico was currently adjusting her outer appearance to being slightly more feminine and returning a facsimile of her original face to the generic androgynous cyborg head.

Then the outer shell's 'skin' tone changed and faded to the same alabaster pale that Nico was used to. The only problem was the hair or lack thereof. The mission here didn't call for any political infiltration duties, so the cybernetic conversion team didn't have any morphable hair samples to use. The Military didn't care if a trooper or a pilot was bald or not, hair was not a combat asset.

Nico unhappily ran her hand over her perfectly smooth, bald skull and then walked to the locker intended for her use in the operating room and pulled out her cover, placing the blood-red beret on her head.

"There, that's better." She decided and Max pinched the bridge of his nose to prevent the incoming headache.

"Either change your outer shell back to a battle armor design or put some clothes on. A hat alone isn't a suitable outfit." He reprimanded her and Nico shrugged.

"It's just a cyborg Commander. A sexy robot and we all know that only Paul has a particular taste for them." Nico said over her shoulder as she put her uniform on, then adjusted her body shape a little to make the uniform fit better.

Her height couldn't change more than a few centimeters, and she would be immediately identified as a Cyborg if someone weighed her, but in her uniform, she made a very convincing mimic of a natural human.

"More importantly, do you still have access to your System Functions? The doctors said that full conversions often lose them, and I need to know before we go into combat tomorrow. I know it isn't much time to adjust to your new body, but that's all you get." General Mons called, entering the operating room followed by a pair of senior medical officers and his copilot.

"Most of them. My [Rapid Healing] Function says updating, but the rest seem to be fully functional. Even my Innate Talent survived." Nico confirmed and the General sighed.

"My life would be easier if we could move you to a desk position, but procedures say we still need to test your Piloting Standards and if you pass I must allow you to take Tarith's Rage into combat unless you apply for an indefinite medical transfer." General Mons' revelation isn't a surprise to anyone, but the doctors do look pretty eager for her to fail so that they can have a full conversion experimental subject with all the newest technology at their disposal.

"Let's do the test then. As long as my System Functions are active, I don't actually need a fast body to Pilot, only one that is durable enough to survive the abuse I'm going to put it through." Nico confirms since she knows the General has already seen how she was Piloting Tarith's Rage before her rebuild.

"I was afraid you would say that. Off to the testing station we go."

General Mons leads them to a smaller back room in the medical complex, where a number of physiotherapy devices have been set up along with a Piloting Simulator.

"First you need to pass the basic physical fitness exams. That should be easy enough with this body since the tests are set to the standards for Line Mecha Pilots. Then we will test your Crusader Class Piloting skills in the simulator." The lead doctor that arrived with the General says, taking out a clipboard with a blank exam sheet on it.

"So, what do I need to do?" Nico asks, looking around the room for some sort of course or another indicator that would let her know what the test is.

"The easiest way is to have a sparring match with another pilot. We don't have a Line Mecha Pilot here with us, but if one of your comrades goes easy, we should be able to test your strength and response times in under a minute." The doctor informs her and Paul smiles.

"I volunteer. Thank you for this opportunity, Major." The Captain smiles at her, not at all concerned about the capabilities of her new cyborg body.

He should be, her System's [Mecha Modification] Function works perfectly well on the robotics of a Cyborg Body, and Max is certain that she's already started tweaking it for better performance. Plus, she's a much better fighter than he is.

"Who has the camera? We need to record this. For educational purposes of course." Max asks and the doctors both pull out high-definition digital video recorders.

"Go get him, Nico." Max calls to start the fight and the two pilots drop into combat stances.

Paul thinks he has the advantage, so he lunges forward, only for his fist to meet the palm of a very hard metallic hand. Pulling back his hand before Nico can grab and crush it, he goes for the follow-up to the chest, but Nico has already sidestepped and treated him to a kidney punch that he never even saw coming.

Paul rotates away from her punch, limiting the damage, and grabs her in a chokehold, making Nico laugh.

"Did you just try to choke out a robot?" Vincente laughs as Paul realizes his mistake and backs away.

"Oxygen is filtered through the external shell. No breathing through the nasal passage or mouth is necessary and there are no easily damaged mechanisms in the throat." The doctor confirms.

Nico moves forward with a flurry of punches, startling Paul with her speed. She's still slower than he is, but he's a Crusader Class Pilot with years of experience bolstering his System bonuses, not many things should be as fast as him.

Paul grabs her wrist and attempts to twist it over to force Nico into an arm lock. With a whine, the arm slowly rotates a quarter turn before twisting back. Then Nico flexes her bicep and tosses Paul up in the air, catching him in a Princess carry.

"That's all the data we needed. Now, if you can pass the Piloting exam, you can be cleared for duty." The doctor calls an end to the fight before the red-faced Paul can vent his rage at the position he is in. The best he can do is glare at Nico as she sets him back on his feet.

The piloting exam is passed with flying colors as expected. Nico's Innate Talent is [Technology Manipulation], so she doesn't even need to rely on her physical skills to pass, but the Cyborg conversion proves to be completely capable of meeting the standard for a Crusader Class Pilot anyhow.

"With that, you are cleared to return to duty. As per regulation CRB007, you have the right to request a transfer to a non-combat role at any point in the future, in recognition of the sacrifice you have made for Kepler." The doctor gave her the official notice and signed off on her medical paperwork, bringing Max's unit back up to its full strength of five Crusaders.

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Orders for the assault were sent out that evening, giving the Commanders eighteen hours until they were set to depart.

Stalwart Special Tactics Unit wasn't part of the main assault force, they had been assigned to depart early and infiltrate a number of buildings on the edges of the Narsian's highly defended base in the downtown area. Some were to be cleared for infantry positions, some were to be collapsed to serve as cover for the advancing Mecha forces and some were suspected to have valuable government information in them that Central Command didn't want to lose forever.

Each of the locations was marked on their Mecha's internal map with a little red flag sporting a yellow smiley face. This was Nico's doing, of course, only she would associate smiley faces with military targets, but the other squad leaders liked them since they could adjust the emoji on the flag to represent the current status of the facility.

[These first four targets won't be Heavy Mecha friendly. They are all down narrow streets with poor access. A deliberate design to repel assault in the case of insurrection or Military Coup. The Infantry element will take them out, targets three and four can be demolished if necessary after they are searched for civilians and any valuable intelligence.

Next are the Mecha targets, I have highlighted them by the squad. If you have any questions ask them now.] Max passed out the unit orders and everyone looked over the data that was available on their assigned target.

[Where will Stalwart and Tarith's Rage be?] Vincente asked, not seeing the two Commanders assigned anywhere, which is unusual for Max.

[Since everyone else has a target, we are the reinforcements. Tarith's Rage will back up the Mecha elements while Stalwart will provide heavy fire support for the Infantry, should things go wrong.] Max informed them and the Captain nodded in understanding.

One Mecha isn't much backup, but since each of the other Crusaders will be deployed with a wing that is only them plus ten Corvette Class units, it's still a significant bump in capability.

The number of targets is unusual though, making the Officers suspect that a lot of the infiltration units did not make it to the Staging Area on time. Normally, a Special Tactics Unit would only get two or three targets at once, not seven. They will be stretched very thin, but the assigned targets are still close enough that the unit can support each other a little if one squad should fall behind schedule.

[I can't stress enough how important the timing is. Everything needs to happen at once or someone is going to get swarmed by Narsian defense forces. We all know how that ends, so don't do it. If the schedule is in jeopardy, call right away and I will try to get you back on track.]

That sets most of the unit's minds at ease, but Paul has one last question.

[Aren't the Narsians going to lose their shit when they see the trophies on Tarith's Rage?]

Nico tried to make a smile with her new face before responding, but the motion felt unnatural, so she wasn't sure that she had succeeded. Not that anyone could see her anyhow, as she was already in her cockpit.

[That's kind of the point Captain. The angrier they are at me, the less they will focus on you, so you can get your jobs done and the back to the green zone, where the main force will still have reinforcements.] The three Captains nodded, seeing the logic in the taunting technique.

[That's the plan. Everyone, work out your unit's routes and relay them back to the Executive Officer, now that she has returned to duty. I will see you all in sixteen hours.] Max dismissed the officers and leaned back in his seat to look over all the best spots to set up. What he needed was a location where he could see the Infantry without being clearly visible to every Narsian in the city.

That was trickier than it seemed, the city was actually designed to prevent just exactly this scenario, where an attacker wanted to hide from the city's defenders and do maximum damage. The best he could do was the main road near the middle of the cluster of buildings they were assigned to deal with. If he stands behind a building he can fire artillery shells from the Battle Cannon their way, and if he steps into the street he should get a straight shot towards the majority of the Narsians who will be approaching or chasing the infantry.

During the afternoon, Max arranged the exact timing with a few other Commanders who had been assigned to do the same in other zones of the city core's perimeter, so that they could all act at once and spread out the reaction by the Narsians even more.

The final assault was set to demolish the buildings at five in the morning. That way the infiltration teams, which are almost all infantry, can make it back to base by morning's light.

At a quarter past three, the Special Tactics teams moved out, loaded up with more kit than they would likely ever need for a mission, but ready for almost anything that could come at them. The Infantry targets were the closest, which made things convenient for Max since the Mecha were faster.

Today just wasn't their day though. Paul almost immediately ran into a large Narsian unit in the dark. They had been using thermal insulation, so his sensors missed them, and there were enough that his unit was pinned down.

[On my way Ferrus. Once I arrive I will grab their attention and you can immediately proceed with the mission.] Nico announced, using the name of his old Mecha, and possibly not knowing that the entire chassis had been swapped.

[This is Ferrus. Back on schedule.] Paul announced less than a minute later and Max breathed a sigh of relief.

The giants must have all chased Nico and given his unit a chance to run away and reach their target. All they had to do was demolish it so that it dropped across the road, a simple task that they could do in seconds once they arrived, but an important one for the Mecha that would be coming down the road an hour behind them.

Once Paul was moving again the sound of the Rail Guns on Nico's Gauntlet began barking constantly, shattering the quiet morning. Then the city suddenly went dead silent again, with every soldier within ten miles of the noise waiting to see what happened next.

[Tarith's Rage is clear.]

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Max didn't have to wait long until the Narsians responded. His thermal and energy scanners showed over a thousand enemy forces heading for the park where Tarith's Rage was standing. Sure, she took out a small patrol that was harassing a single wing of mecha, but wasn't that response overboard?

That was when Max realized that the scouts weren't the only ones that had made a move. The Phalanx Class Super Heavy known as Carpe Noctem had also begun to set up for an imminent attack. It had traveled while crouched, to blend in with the Crusader Class Escort, and it was at the end of the main road behind the targets that his Mecha units had been sent to destroy.

The Narsians must have noticed them, and now they were bearing down on the Mecha at a full run.

[Everyone, take cover. Let the Narsians run past you, they should be heading for the Carpe Noctem.] Max ordered, and the Crusaders started looking for a place to hide.

As hoped, they ran right past the three infiltration units, but Nico wasn't as lucky. There weren't enough spots for her to hide in an open field full of corpses, and the Narsians turned to overrun her first.

But General Mons had predicted this, and he was ready. Massive energy blasts from the Ion Bombard Array on the Carpe Noctem started hitting the Narsians, killing everything within a dozen meters of the target with every shot. His other hand had been switched to a multiple target Laser Array, akin to Max's Pulse Laser Array on steroids, but it didn't have the range to hit the giants from outside the city. Once it got closer though, it could target a hundred moving objects per second with fairly decent accuracy.

It was a Point Defense weapon that gave the Phalanx Class units such a renowned reputation for being able to hold an entire city on their own. Light Mecha couldn't even approach it with that Laser Array at the ready. The Narsians might do a little better, hiding in and between buildings until they got closer and launching attacks before they were detected.

But Carpe Noctem was in the open, there was no way to sneak up on it until it entered the city. Instead, they started firing all the artillery they had at the giant Mecha.

That revealed the secondary purpose of the Lasers. They could intercept artillery shells, exploding most of them in the air before they could do any damage to the Kepler forces below.

The light show was amazing. White Ion blasts, purple lasers, exploding artillery shells, and then a sea of ground-level weapons fire as the Narsians abandoned the battle with Tarith's Rage to deal with the real threat. They had realized the moment that Carpe Noctem started defending the Mecha that it was nothing more than bait to keep them out in the open where they could be easily killed by the Ion Bombard Array.

Max was rather impressed. All of the various scout unit Commanders had sent Central Command their plans only a few hours ago, and they had predicted things well enough to bait out so many defenders and then use an unsuspecting unit to hold them in the open while they were killed.

[Ten-minute warning. Get ready to leave.] Max ordered, watching his timer.

The units were all reported as ready the moment that Max called it, but someone on the far side of the city jumped the gun and blew up a number of buildings prematurely. They must have come under attack and done their best to finish the mission before escaping, but that was going to cause chaos for everyone else.

[All scout units. Finish Missions in 30 seconds.] General Mons ordered over the army-wide channel, and the Special Tactics Unit scrambled to get clear of the charges that they had set.

Plans are just that, plans. Nobody really expected them to hold up once they were actually tried in combat, but they did make it pretty close. Under ten minutes deviation from the schedule.

[Targets destroyed, but we have company.] The Lieutenant in charge of the fourth infantry squad called and Max checked his scanners.

[On it.] He called, firing a half dozen Battle Cannon rounds towards the spots his Targeting Skills thought that the Narsians would be by the time the shells landed.

Explosions lit up the buildings and roads near the collapsed building and swearing filled the airwaves.

[Just keep moving. You're not dead, and the camp can patch you up as good as new.] The Lieutenant's voice came over the radio again, indicating that something had gone wrong. Either the unit was slower than Max predicted, or some of the Narsians made it through.

[Major Nico, you're our lucky charm today. I'm coming to you.] Captain Catan called out.

That was way off his retreat route, but he had run into more resistance than expected, including elite heavy infantry. Those ones could take a Corvette Class Mecha in a one-on-one fight most of the time. His unit had a lot of kit, but not enough to deal with a squad of elite heavy infantry.

They had taken out a few, but now they were at a full run, heading for the park.

Tarith's Rage was running towards them to intercept, and Max fired rounds at the rear edge of the Narsian force, slowing them down and giving the infantry a chance to escape.

[Stalwart, Units two and three are coming past you with a tail if you please.]

Max saw them running down the main road, with the Narsians in close pursuit, so he stepped out into the road and unleashed the Pulse Laser Array on them, letting the two squads escape. All over the city, similar scenes were playing out as the defenders tried to stop the Kepler forces from setting up barricades and bunkers for their advancing troops.

[All units are behind you now Stalwart.] Captain Catan called, having just assisted Tarith's Rage in dealing with the unit that was chasing his own squad. They had been clearing a building for an infantry Company to use as a bunker, so they had the advantage of a defended position to fight from when the giants first rushed out, but still ended up on the run.

[Stalwart Special Tactics Force, back to base.] Max sighed in relief.

That went better than anticipated.

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As the initial recon and demolitions teams were returning, the vast majority of the force was headed out into the city to take advantage of the stage that the first wave had set for them. The Narsians had underestimated the might of a Phalanx Class Mecha, since they had never seen one before and the data on them is strictly confidential, even within the Kepler Military, so there was nothing on the planetary servers for them to have stolen.

Instead of charging the mighty war machine, they had turned their attention to the forces advancing from the rest of the city, encircling their position and trapping them in the city core.

Even the mighty artillery that they had thought would take out any true threat to their security had given up on targeting the Phalanx Class Mecha and had begun shelling the denser clusters of Heavy Mecha.

General Mons wouldn't stand for that though, and the Ion Bombard Array had been pounding away at the artillery positions for the past few minutes, reducing most of them to rubble and forcing the others into hiding to prevent annihilation.

[Everyone to the bunkers. They have prepared a large enough position for us to relax inside with our transports and mecha.] Max ordered the unit, leading them to an underground parkade for large transports that had been reinforced to withstand artillery bombardment.

It was a tight fit vertically for the Crusaders, and those who had taller weapons on their carapace armor had to crouch a little to avoid hitting the roof, but it was secure and well-provisioned. They even had a fully staffed kitchen set up for the Special Tactics Group and the one other Mecha Company that had been assigned to this shelter.

Since they reused existing parkades, for the most part, each one only held one or two units. This strategy had the side effect of spreading them out all over the quadrant of town closest to the Staging Area, but it also served to secure a large area against attack. The building that Max and his unit were assigned to was right on the edge of town, where the transports from the mine were unloaded to a complex conveyor system that fed a number of industrial facilities within the city.

"Have those conveyor tunnels been fully blocked off?" Max asked, looking at the layout of the bunker.

"There are four rows of blast doors currently closed and sealed. One at the secondary junction, one at the first junction, and then a double set here at the warehouse. Since there is hope to reclaim the city, they didn't want to destroy critical underground infrastructure." The traffic controller that had led them to their parking area confirmed Max's suspicions.

[You heard the man. We will be setting a double guard patrol of the infantry. I want guards on the conveyors and the doors, with movement sensors and thermal imaging to be placed further down the line, and in two rows at the entrance. Both around the perimeter of the building and a block away. I don't want anything sneaking up on us while we are resting.] Max ordered.

The staff at the bunker thought he was a bit paranoid, but that wasn't uncommon for elite units. They themselves had a constant patrol around the building, and the Kepler Military occupied this entire quadrant of the city. They weren't going to stop him though. Having a Special Tactics unit looking out for them made them feel more secure as well.

One by one, everyone who wasn't assigned to this shift on duty filed out of their transports and mecha to go see what the Military had come up with as a buffet for them. A meal that didn't use up their own supplies was always welcome, and some of the Field Kitchens served very good food. At least compared to the shelf stable rations.

[Nico, that means you too. Come out and be social, it's good for your mental health.] Max insisted, watching Tarith's Rage to see if he was going to have to force her to come out.

She did come out without complaint, but he could see the annoyance on her face as she stood on the carapace armor. It didn't seem to be for him though, but for her situation. She wasn't fully used to her Cyborg conversion yet, and it didn't have the same physical capability that her old body did. It was likely to be much more durable though, and Nico was willing to test the reality against the design specs.

The winch that most pilots use to lower themselves is only rated for two hundred kilos. Nico's new body weighed nearly twice that. She would have to replace the winch eventually, for convenience's sake, but for now, she ordered Tarith's Rage to raise a Gauntlet for her to stand on and then lower her towards the ground. Once it got near waist height, she simply jumped down with a resounding bang, only slightly muffled by the rubber sole of her boots.

"Hopefully I can get back up there," Nico grumbled as she came to stand by Max, bumping her shoulder into him in greeting.

"We will find a way. There's a material processor here, the same as in the Landers, so we can upgrade the winch on Tarith's Rage if you want." Max offered.

"Yeah, that's likely a good idea. I'll see if I can still climb up though. The cybernetics are very strong, but throwing a chunk of alloy that high through the air isn't an easy feat." Nico gave Max a wry chuckle and followed him to the line for the buffet.

"Wait, do you still need to eat? Or I should say, Can you? I don't know much about Full Conversions, they didn't have them on my side of town growing up." Max asked, curious about her new status.

"You know the supplementary nutrition liquid pouches? I need about one of those a month for actual nutrition. However, my System Functions are still altering this body. The material that it's made of is really compatible with the nanobots, and they seem to be having a lot of fun with it. My first physical upgrade cut down on my need to eat or sleep, replacing a lot of it with photosynthesis, and I can feel the incoming energy flow already as the System tries to adapt to the new body.

Because they did the limbs first, then realized they needed to do the rest, I managed to transfer almost all of the nanobots to the new body as the doctors worked, it wasn't like when they do a straight brain transfer from an old body to a new cyborg shell. I didn't lose many functions at all, and the System didn't need to put too much into rebuilding itself." Nico's explanation gave Max a lot to think about, but it would give the doctors even more of a revelation.

There was a chance that they had been doing conversions all wrong from a System standpoint. Done this way, it was quite possible for a full conversion to keep a good part of their system intact.

"What are our orders anyhow?" Nico asked while Max was pondering her last answer.

"Standby. We aren't part of the main assault plan, all the recon elements will be waiting until the city is taken or the advance grinds to a halt." Max sighed.

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Max led Nico through the buffet line, grabbing himself dinner while Nico chatted happily with the soldiers around her. Everyone had a bit to say, a welcome home sort of greeting after she was away so long.

The fact that she still looked a lot like herself was a relief to the unit. Getting used to the generic faces of a full conversion always took time. There were only three designs for the standard body full conversion cyborgs, and they were all androgynous. It was an open secret that the faces creeped most of the population out, being close enough to almost pass as human but clearly not.

The warm welcome was also setting Nico's mind at ease. Alone in combat, she felt too much like an outsider, with her memories of a past life driving her in a direction that wasn't quite compatible with Kepler's military doctrine. But here in the bunker, she felt more at home, like part of the unit again.

Well, she felt at home except for the fact that she didn't have a weapon. Her sidearm and combat knife were both lost in the jungle, and she hadn't had a chance to replace them yet. All of the infantry carried a knife with them at all times, since they were useful for so many things, including opening ration packs that never tore open along the line as the directions insisted they should.

If you cut the top open just right, you could use the resealable bag for many other purposes. Holding valuables, spare drinks, and snacks, the possibilities were nearly endless but relied on the perfect opening that didn't damage the seal.

Once they were seated the wave of well-wishers dispersed, heading to their own meal while the two Command officers sat and talked about all the things that they had missed while separated.

"You said you got a System Function called [Drone Commander] right? Could you use that to scout potential artillery locations for General Mons? From what I've heard he has amazing multiple targeting skills, even better than mine, but he lacks the ability to target things his sensors can't pick up. Out of his line of sight, in stealth, and so on. If you could send out a couple of drones to look for high priority targets, his Ion Bombard Array could eliminate them in seconds once they were in the open, or inside an unarmored building." Max suggested, winking at Nico, who felt the sudden urge to tease her Commander and best friend.

"There's an all-female Penal Colony regiment on the other side of town. I could scout out some beauties on the way. You know, just in case." Nico joked, recalling how flustered Max got with the debutantes during the unit recruitment.

"Those ones might be safer than the last batch of convicts that we got, but the unit would get jealous if I kept them all for myself. We have a few stealth camera drones in storage for the infantry scouts, how good is your range on that skill?" Max deflected the teasing to focus on work.

"From here, I could hit about five hundred kilometers with the help of my Mecha. It's all based on communications range though, so in a better environment, I could hack the satellites to send drones globally. At least in theory." Nico explained.

That would make for a very valuable addition when the unit was on the move and an added convenience for recording the training between members of the unit. Drones got a much better angle on units attempting to hide than troops watching at ground level did.

"I'll have someone send them to you in a bit." Max decided, then flicked Nico's hand away from his fries.

"And why are you stealing my food when you don't need to eat?"

Nico shrugged and grinned at him. "They're really good. I still have taste buds, even if I can't digest them. I could always just lick them and put them back?"

An involuntary shudder ran up Max's spine at that idea. But then again, Cyborgs don't have saliva or mouth germs do they? No, it's still a disgusting thought.

"Fine, just don't eat them all." Max couldn't help but smile. He hadn't realized how tense he was until he finally got a chance to sit down and relax.

She might technically be his subordinate, but it was like he had known Nico his whole life. His first memories were hers, they did all their training together, got into trouble together, and went to battle together. Nico was an inseparable part of him, and Max now realized there was an empty void in him when she wasn't around.

The question was how to stop her from doing suicidal things like taking Rear Guard alone again.

For a while, they caught up on the adventures of the unit, and Max told her all about the students of the local Academy and their struggles. His training regimen made good sense to her, given the limited time that they were able to actually practice, and Nico could sense his unease at their fate.

Because of that, she ended up having the drones sent over right away. Once they were powered on and hovering, she sent them to the door and waited for the next opening to have them fly out into the city.

"Don't worry too much about the academy Cadets. They're hard workers and smarter than most officers would give them credit for. I'm sure they're doing a pretty good job of hiding themselves in a secure position." Nico assured Max as she watched the two streams from the drones in the back of her mind.

"Oh, not even a minute out and I found something good." Nico cheered, stealing another fry.

"I don't suppose you have a way to show me do you?" Max asked, wondering what he was missing.

A video stream notification appeared on his wrist device and Max pulled up the hologram, only to find four soldiers involved in a rather interesting form of sensual acrobatics in the rafters of a mostly destroyed building.

"For feth's sake Nico. Leave the poor horn dogs alone. How are the Cadets doing?" Max laughed, drawing the attention of all the soldiers nearby to the projection from his wrist device.

"No, wait, send the camera back. I still haven't worked out the mechanics of that position." Captain Catan joked as the drone flew away, headed for the spot where the Academy Cadets should be.

Even flying through the streets and dodging buildings, the drones were incredibly nimble, and it only took a few minutes until they were in the right area. Nico sent one drone up into the clouds where it wouldn't be noticed and then moved the other into the building where the academy cadets were stationed.

It was a former shopping mall, and still in reasonably good shape, despite some battle damage to the outside. The cadets' Line Mecha were set up in prone positions on the roof, almost two kilometers back of the front lines, assigned to make sure nothing slipped through and made it back to threaten the reserves. It was a much better assignment than Max had thought they would get, but not without hazards.

Even through the drone feed, Max could see fresh battle damage on some of the units, so they hadn't had it too easy, but they were at least still alive.

"One second, I found a thing and I want to check it out," Nico muttered and the drone flew away.

Moments later it was focused on a team of Narsians setting up a battery of Mortar tubes. They were most likely going to target the front line and then retreat before the artillery could come raining down on them.

"Firing orders have been sent," Nico whispered and three seconds later the scene in the drone view turned into a ball of fire.

"That's better. You keep scouting around the front lines, and the unit can scout the industrial area around us. After seeing the Narsians just come out of nowhere with artillery, the camp is going to need more scouts than they have assigned." Max congratulated Nico on her good work.

Even with scouts out though, this was the closest thing he had felt to relaxed since they landed on the planet. Once he could inform the other units of the danger, they would also send more men to scout, and hopefully, the whole quadrant would come under surveillance by the end of the day.

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Of course, they weren't the only ones with drones out. All the infantry assets carried them and used them heavily to avoid being ambushed by the physically superior and more heavily armored Narsian forces.

All over the city, small camera drones floated, reporting targets, searching for traps, and keeping the troops safe.

The Kepler lines were slowly pushing forward, and it seemed at first that the Narsians had nothing that could stop them. But the giants were only waiting for the perfect moment to push back.

Just after dawn on the third day of the assault, the counterattack began at the moment the sun rose high enough that the more advanced sensors of the Kepler army lost some of their advantage against the eyes of the Narsian soldiers. At this point, the Kepler Mecha were well beyond the first line of defense created by Max and the other scouts. They had pushed deep into the city core, creating only makeshift barricades in preparation to move forward again in the morning.

The sounds of battle were fierce, and the whole city seemed to be shaking from the intensity of the explosions and the number of Heavy Mecha all moving at once.

The reinforcements had all been called forward, leaving only the scouts in the camp to protect the logistics staff. Once the shaking outside stopped, the area seemed unnaturally empty to Max, even after so long in the isolated mine site.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Max asked Nico, who had sat down beside him with a book.

"White Phosphorous bombs via drones to shroud the city center and burn the Narsians out?" Nico asked, using that unnervingly innocent voice program in her new voice box.

"I was going to say bring the support staff indoors because we are definitely about to be attacked." Max corrected her.

"We can do that too." Nico agreed, nodding her head, but the expression on her face never changed.

[All Stalwart units not on patrol, report to your battle stations. Narsian attacks are expected to be incoming immediately. Plan to proceed into the city, protect all support assets, and move them to shelter.] The announcement came from every Mecha's speakers in Nico's voice. The fact it came from everywhere meant it only needed to be a little louder than the talking volume to get everyone's attention, a small blessing for those with sensitive ears inside the warehouse.

Max hurried to send the same message to all the other scout unit Commanders, and the camp erupted in a flurry of activity again, and not a moment too soon.

The outdoor facilities were quickly being packed, and the support assets with the least to organize had only just begun to move into the nearest bunkers when the drones that were patrolling the camp picked up the first signs of movement.

Being at the very edge of town, it was still well away from where Max's unit was, so they circled the bunker and waited for more information. Fortunately, the only unit with his location as their closest bunker was a single infantry mechanics corps unit, which was more than happy to ditch what didn't run and drive the rest to safety, leaving the area clear of forces that could be ambushed by the Narsians if they had managed to sneak past the edge of the city and into the Kepler back lines.

With them inside, there weren't any friendly targets in the immediate vicinity to worry about, making every heat and energy signature a possible hostile unless it came from one of the other defensive positions on patrol.

[Contact from the forest, coming inward at 30kph.] Vincente reported being the closest Crusader to the target.

[Confirm identity before firing. I don't want to hit a friendly with damaged comms.] Max ordered before shifting a squad of infantry over for support.

[Confirmed. Narsian scout unit. Moving to engage.] Vincente confirmed.

[Negative, stay where you are. Narsian communications indicate that there are stealth units approaching from the woods.] Nico stopped him suddenly.

[Tarith's Rage, follow me and we will support the forest line. All other units maintain your positions. I don't want anything slipping by us.] Max ordered as he climbed the ruins of a building to gain the advantage of high ground.

That wasn't an easy thing to do in a ten-meter-tall Mecha, standard building materials weren't designed for that sort of concentrated weight, even with the anti-gravity systems of Stalwart working overtime to help offset the bulk of the Mecha. Without them, the Kepler army would simply sink in the mud on every planet they visited, but the systems still had their limitations, and a Crusader Class Mecha still put a significant amount of weight on the ground, and far more lateral force when it wanted to move.

Tarith's Rage had moved out in front of the defensive line, being heavily biased to close combat with only three rail guns as ranged weaponry at the moment.

Her presence was taken as a slap in the face by the Narsians. The hull of her Mecha was already decorated with the corpses of Narsian officers and a few of their finest weapons, and the hateful Mecha had come out to challenge them the moment they were detected.

The giants' first instinct was to charge, but that was clearly what the Bone and Bronze mecha with the gruesome ornaments wanted. The pause in their movements as they fought with their instincts cost them dearly. Every ranged Mecha in the Special Tactics Unit, as well as the three heavy weapons emplacements that the Infantry had set up in range, began to rain fire down on them and the surrounding area.

That was Max's idea. If they couldn't detect the stealth troops in the woods, they would simply remove the woods from their weapons range. With a kilometer of clearing before the city, it would be much easier to deal with anything trying to sneak into their territory.

Somewhere in Max's newly returned memories, he recalled doing this before. Clearing Firing Lines they had called it then, and the practice was considered an essential function in defending a fortress in an era that was now long past due to the invention of advanced sensor systems and powerful weapons that didn't see foliage as an impediment.

One after another, groups of Narsian stealth units popped up on his sensors as their cloaking covers were damaged, and the giants did their best to flee, hoping to get away and try again at a point that might have less capable defenders.

[Area secure, Sir. No Narsian signatures and no indication of enemy advance over the communications systems.] Nico reported, standing down and backing up to rejoin the line of mecha at the edge of the city.

[We don't know how much they have left for us, but the battle for the city center has turned up the intensity. Everyone hold their positions until further notice.] Max ordered, breathing a sigh of relief.

Stalwart Special Tactics Unit waited two whole hours before the all-clear was sounded. The might of Carpe Noctem added to the Kepler Heavy mecha had overrun the Narsian base in the center of the city. The entire city was now theirs, and all remaining signs of the giants showed them in full retreat.

What the mecha on the ground couldn't know was that this scene was replaying on battlefields all over the planet. Four Phalanx Class Mecha had been dropped to retake the most troublesome areas, and now the few Narsian forces that survived were headed into hiding.

[Mecha Squad C and Infantry Squad 4, sorry about your luck, but it's your turn on patrol. Everyone else, head back to the bunker and take your break. Alpha Squad and Infantry Squad 1, you are up for patrol duty in two hours.] Max informed the unit before retiring to his bunk to get some much-needed sleep.

Two hours into his afternoon nap the most wonderful of news came over the radio. Ten more ships of the fleet had arrived, and the initial landing forces were being relieved. The fresh units would scour the planet for survivors and begin the work of establishing a new colony based on their findings. The planet was officially considered back in human hands.

It wasn't as simple as it sounded, they would likely be clearing out Narsian hiding spots for years, but in the estimation of Central Command, there was little chance of the planet being threatened again. Humanity had won.

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With the battle won and the remaining Narsian troops on the run and being hunted by the main forces of the Kepler Army, the entire Stalwart Special Tactics Unit had the next few days off.

They still set a patrol around the warehouse and kept watch on the sensor feeds because nobody wants to lose friends to a desperate retaliation days before you go home, but for the entire first day, there was nothing to be seen.

They were getting constant updates, though. This continent had been well managed from the start, and the main enclaves of Narsian firepower had been taken down with relative ease, but on the other continents, the Fleet had resorted to more extreme measures. On two continents, they had employed Orbital strikes by the dozen to eliminate Narsian-controlled cities and then swept through with Mecha to eliminate the stragglers. The true horror came on the final continent, where Species-specific bioweapons were tested and destroyed the entire Narsian population in a matter of hours.

The test was viewed as a success, and the chemical would be added to the Kepler arsenal for the next time they saw the giants attack. Of course, nobody really knew where their homeworld was, or if they even still had one, but they had appeared in Kepler and the surrounding nations before, so the threat was still considered uncontained.

This was especially true after the second wave of arrivals. A second wave of Narisan attackers was a phenomenon that hadn't been seen before. With a persistent lack of linguists due to the rarity of Narsian attacks in their territory, the Kepler Fleet was short on answers as to how and why it had happened to them.

With a stack of reports in her hands, Nico made her way over to where Max was sitting, double-checking the inventory reports while watching the sensor feeds. "Hey Major, the final set of mission reports is finished, as well as the planet-to-ship transfer requests."

"You're a lifesaver, Nico. I'm about done with my work here as well, you want to go relax?" Max asked.

"Sure. What did we usually do to relax?" Nico asked, clearly confused.

That brought Max's brain to a standstill. What did they do to relax? All that they had ever done was to train, fight and train some more. Ever since they had met, there was always something that needed to be done and there was never actually time to relax.

Once they were back aboard the ship they were scheduled to begin a three-month leisure deployment. They would be taken to a safe planet's Space Station, and the ship would remain there for three months while the Mecha, equipment, and the ship itself were in for a full refurbishment and overhaul.

Only after that would new orders for reinforcements be finalized. In short, they really didn't have anything to do now that the reports were done.

"You know, I don't know the answer to that. We never really took a break, did we? How is your adjustment to the new body coming along? We could lay on the roof and watch the artillery in the distance while your calibrations finish?" Max suggested.

Hearing the two of them contemplate what the word relaxation meant, Ari could only sigh. She looked up from her romance novel and put down the chocolate cookies that Alpha Squad had pilfered from one of the buildings they had passed by.

"You two are really hopeless you know that right? I'm even willing to wager that one of you two was thinking of a virtual reality combat simulator as a relaxing pastime." The Captain joked, but both of the commanding officers looked a bit guilty.

"You were, weren't you? Let me guess, a martial arts combat simulator so that you could train side by side?" Nico just shrugged, not denying it.

"We could move the setting to somewhere nice, like a waterfall in the tropics or something?" Nico suggested.

"That doesn't sound bad. Set it on minimum difficulty, so we can talk while we train?" Max agreed, making Ari sigh in frustration.

"There's a hotel nearby that hasn't been completely destroyed. It's in our zone, so there's nobody there. Why don't you two get a room, lay down, and watch a movie or something? Just take your mind off everything and actually relax."

"Good idea. I have the perfect movie in mind." Nico agreed, smoothly standing and reaching out a hand for Max.

Max had no idea what Nico had in mind for a movie, and he didn't want to spoil the surprise by reading her mind, so he just followed along, calling out to Ari as they left.

"If anything happens, call for us. I'll have my wrist device on, but set to urgent alerts only."

The so-called hotel was actually a former truck stop that happened to have a motel for the raw materials transport drivers, and it was right next door to the warehouse that they were in. The convenience store had been mostly picked clean, but Max found a couple of bags of gummy snacks and some warm soda in the stock room after Nico broke the lock for him.

"Alright, we have the snacks, we have the couch, what do you have in mind for a movie?" Max asked curious as to what Nico's taste in movies was like.

He had a sneaking suspicion that she preferred horror movies and action flicks, but for relaxation, he was pretty sure she wouldn't pick either of them.

"Only one of the greatest classics of all time. Catgirl Rangers." Nico joked. The series was a cult classic, a children's cartoon series about feline mutated demihumans who looked after a forest. Having seen Nico's memories before, he was one hundred percent sure that this was not on her list of favorite films.

Nico laughed at the dismayed look on Max's face and carefully settled down on the couch, which was marked as safe for cyborgs by a faded sign on the hotel room wall.

"Fine, I picked The Slumdog Crew." She finally gave in and held up a data storage chip for Max to insert into the holographic projector in the room.

It was a romantic comedy about a bunch of hapless but kind criminals from the downside of a mega city and how they accidentally ended up living a normal working-class life together. Now that's what he needed, stupid mindless comedy.

140 Chapter 140

Name:Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System Author:

+ - Turn on Reset

Max didn't notice when he dozed off, somewhere in the middle of the second movie. He only knew that he woke up in the firm bed that the motel offered with his head resting on something that was somehow both comfortably firm and incredibly solid.

That something was Nico's chest. He could see that she fell asleep reading a book, it was still in her hand, and he was draped across her chest. Hopefully, he didn't drool in his sleep, that would be too embarrassing.

"Good morning. How was the sleep? I've been working with the system to adjust the outer shell settings to a more natural feel." Nico greeted him, still not opening her eyes.

"The texture is perfect, but your torso is still a little solid." Max joked, before sitting up and realizing he was in his underwear.

"Noted. Let's get dressed and head back to the unit. We've still got time, there haven't been any updates, but someone has to keep them in order."

With that Nico also sat up, the sturdy bed dipping with her weight as she put her uniform back on.

"Hey, Max, what makes a person a person?" She asked, staring out the window with her shirt in her hands.

"Their mind I think. Do you recall the lessons on morality in the academy? I think that's the difference between people and not. The ability to reason." Max answered, wondering where she was going with this.

Nico nodded, thinking about his answer. "You see, I no longer breathe, I don't have a heart to beat, and I don't really eat. But I still feel like me. My system still works, even my [Rapid Healing] System Function finished adapting last night after you fell asleep."

Max wrapped his arms around her from behind, giving her a solid hug. "You're still you, no matter what. Even in a different body, just like the last time, you're still you."

"Thanks, Max." This time, Nico's smile was real and genuine, unlike the forced facial expressions she was practicing while they watched the movies.

Nico just rested there in Max's arms for a few minutes before finishing getting dressed and laughing at a stray thought that passed through her mind.

"You know, my mother used to say I loved Mecha so much I was going to turn into one. If only she knew how right she was. We should send messages home once we're back on the ship."

"I'll send mine via your parents. Dave would freak out if he got an official Fleet message, it might give him a heart attack. Not to mention the months of paranoia about the government watching him."

On their way back, they stopped at the truck stop storage room and loaded a tarp full of goodies, and bundled them like a sack. Soda, cookies, chips, all of the customarily unhealthy snacks that had remained the staples of road trips for centuries. The bag made it slow going back to the bunker, but contrary to Max's fears, everything was running smoothly when they finally reached the rest of the unit.

"We found dietary supplements. " Max called and a handful of soldiers came running over to relieve them of their burden.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you, Commander?" One of the men asked, opening a bag of cheesy poofs.

"I am a career officer Corporal, it would never work out." Max replied in all seriousness, making the other soldiers smirk at their unfortunate Comrade.

While Max went to make sure he hadn't missed any messages, Nico disappeared into the corner of the warehouse where the scrap and damaged Mecha parts were stored for recycling. There were all sorts of goodies hidden there, and her system was begging her for materials to complete the modifications that it deemed to be essential to her optimal performance.

"Need any help, Major?" A Corporal from the third Platoon of the infantry company asked as she started digging through electronics.

Nico only raised an eyebrow at him. Not many soldiers would even understand what she was looking for.

"I am a huge tech nerd. I've heard you modified all the Mecha in the unit, but if you need an assistant, I'm happy to help." He explained.

"Good enough. I've sent you a parts list. That's what I need." Nico explained.

There were various units of light alloys, capacitors, energy relays, and Plasma conduits on the list, and his first thought was that she was making a new weapon for the infantry. But there were a lot of metals listed and not a lot of electronics, so maybe it was for the Mecha and needed to be maneuverable.

"Corporal Walker, do you understand the principles of stabilized energy barriers?" Nico asked, hoping to pass the time with a similar mind.

"Ion barriers like the one on Stalwart, yes. I've been researching them. But these parts don't all seem to be for that."

"You're right. Only some of them are. I am going to make a stabilized energy blade as well." Nico informed him.

Corporal Walker has read about them, but they were theoretical. Nobody had made one work for more than a few seconds without overheating as far as he knew.

"But where will you find the focusing crystals?" He finally decided to ask as they dug parts out of the pile.

"There are the remains of a Crusader Class Laser Cannon right here. I already grabbed them." Nico smiled, giving the Corporal the creeps. Her smile was just too unnatural for his mind to accept it, like a predator wearing human skin.

The Corporal just assumed that was normal for cyborgs, and Nico didn't realize there was a difference between this smile and the genuinely happy one she gave Max.

With everything assembled the two tech aficionados sat down in a relatively clean room to begin their work. There were three items to be created. The energy blade, a combat shield with an integrated energy barrier, and a mystery third item Nico had collected a lot of rare ultra light alloys for.

Corporal Walker didn't know, but Max who had been searching her thoughts to see what she was up to did. Her System demanded those particular materials for an upgrade to her skeletal structure and internal systems.

The upgrades sounded pretty sketchy, but he had never known the system to harm the user. According to what the system told her, it should cut her total weight by half and increase skeletal and hydraulic strength, while allowing for better integration of the Nanobots.

It wasn't quite living metal, but it sounded very close to it in Max's mind.

Nico was doing the upgrade stealthily, sitting on the pile of materials while the nanobots broke it down and rebuilt her body on the molecular level, discarding the unneeded material into the scrap pile.

While the system worked, so did the two soldiers. The first item was a new design of the classic combat shield. Tarith's Rage has an integrated energy shield, but Bulwark, Piloted by Captain Ari, does not.

This might not be as powerful, but it will take a lot of punishment.

"So, which unit will get to try the energy blade? One of the Corvettes?" The Corporal asked as he sorted the necessary parts.

"This prototype won't have enough energy output for that. At best will be personal weapons if it works. The unit wouldn't hold up for Mecha use with the parts we have available." Nico told him sadly. She really did want to give Tarith's Rage an energy blade, but it just wasn't feasible. But for herself, using the cold fusion power cell of her new body, the blade would be sufficient for most purposes.