Chapter 49 How did this happen?

Max inspects the details and the map he has before addressing the others. "Can anyone tell me how this assignment was chosen?"

Sergeant Enns looks around and smiles. "You see, escort Mecha are chosen by their history. You two are in the Mecha that have the most illustrious histories among all unassigned units, so you got the nod direct from central command. Bravo Company are the finest soldiers that The 111th has, and Becki here is on punishment detail."

The heavily freckled, Ginger haired man flips the infantry soldier off, then laughs. "If I wasn't so fething good they would have busted me to Private by now, like they did my wing. But no fears Stalwart, we know what we're doing. You make the orders and we will follow them."

"That's a relief. I was worried they would give me a bunch of incompetent washouts who could manage to shoot their own Crusaders in the back. General Tennant would call it a leadership test." Max jokes.

"Looking at our landing zone, I'm thinking doors east, Tarith's Rage will lead with a Battle shield, Stalwart will follow at full fire volume. Light mecha will clear the north building, Infantry goes south. That looks like a vehicle storage to me, commandeer as much as you can."

The obvious danger of this plan is that they will be exiting the lander towards what is likely to be a group of tanks and artillery guns. They will need to clear them fast, but going the long way around and using the lander as a shield would just increase the amount of time they would get shot at.

They don't have any good options, so the unit leaders are fine with Max's plan. It looks a lot better to them than the usual plan of use the infantry as Cannon Fodder to soften the target before the big guns come out.

They are still inspecting the satellite feeds from Belmont when the departure notification comes through and the Abraham Kepler makes the transition to faster than light travel.

This time Max is ready and the feeling isn't so bad, but he's certain that feeling won't ever be one he actually manages to totally ignore.

All they can do is wait for the ship to arrive, so Max returns to Stalwart to finish his upgrades. He will be dropping in to Belmont for his first mission in under 48 hours and he wants to be ready and well rested, if that's even possible for a first drop.

By the end of the first day, Max has everything on the checklist finished, but he's still not happy with the way the Gatling Battery loads. It's Optimized as well as it can be by his skill, but it still feels clunky, despite being within tolerances.

"Nico, want to come give me a hand with this? I just can't get the belt feeder quite right." He calls over to where Nico is painting smiley faces on the bottom of her Mecha's feet.

He really doesn't want to know.

Nico easily climbs the Mecha to sit on top of the Gatling Battery, pulling the inspection covers open.

Just as Max did, she measures everything, but then she releases the feed belt and starts measuring the actual rounds. They're all within tolerances, but on the other end of the range from the Gatling Battery. A few quick tweaks followed by something Max can't understand, that she does with her System Ability, and Nico closes the unit back up.

"I polished and honed the chamber mouths for poor quality ammunition. Try the feeds now."

[Optimizing Unit]

Now the feed is textbook smooth. No hints of delays, barrel push, dragging or anything but perfection.

"Thanks Nico. Mind double checking the Battle Cannon as well? It is pretty good, but you have got the magic touch."

Nico obliges without hesitation and Max's System Optimizes again, adjusting to her changes.

"That's as good as it is going to get. Good thing they didn't want us to sneak in anywhere, between Stalwart and my Rail Guns, everyone within Kilometers will know we are coming."

Max can see Nico is still using her System Talent on Stalwart for a few more minutes, looking to anyone observing like she is doing an inspection of the Battle Cannon she just modified. It doesn't seem to be doing much until Max gets a notification

[Legacy Equipment Online: Repulsion Shield]

That's a technology Max didn't think he would ever get his hands on. New Mecha aren't equipped with it, because multiple direct hits can overload the Power Plant, but the shielding makes an invisible energy film over the Crusaders Armor, reducing damage from energy weapons and projectiles to nearly nothing.

This shield is the reason Rail Guns are still in service, the incredible velocity carries a lot of kinetic energy, which overloads the shield, even though the projectile would deform on modern armor and do minimal damage.

A higher output version of this shield is standard issue in Phalanx Class Mecha, which have more available power, and that's the only reason Max is even familiar with them.

"Nobody ever removes them, they just disable them when they can't get the parts to fix them anymore. But now you know why Stalwart has such a storied history, and why it was really put into storage." Nico explains.

Like so many other non standard items, after centuries of war, the parts became obsolete, the plants were retooled to make more common items and the loss was deemed acceptable in the grand scheme of things.

With the ability to absorb a direct hit or two, this mission becomes a lot less risky in the early stages, at least for Max.

Having Stalwart in such good condition helps Max relax as he watches the ongoing Battle of Belmont through the next afternoon, double checking for changes in the situation near their proposed landing zone. Max feels like he has just fallen asleep to get ready for tomorrow's mission when the ship wide intercom blares.

[All Combat Units To Stations. Launches will begin 30 seconds after transition from faster than light travel in Exactly 4 hours.]

They're well ahead of schedule, so it's time to start loading up the Mecha into their assigned landers. The faster they can get done the more time they have to make final adjustments to the plan.