4924 The Power of Deterrence
The significance of taking out an expert mech was too great. This was especially when it took place at an enormous range.
It was not unusual to take out expert mechs over a hundred kilometers away in space. Battles that took place in the great void. It was especially easier to strike distant targets with most energy weapons.
The circumstances this time were completely different. For one expert mech to be able to destroy a distant expert mech in a planetary environment completely frightened the Bontue soldiers advancing towards New Kreon!
They had already endured a lot of suppression beforehand when the Iron Hedgehog took out one mech after another with every single attack.
When the mech pilots under fire thought they needed to endure this threat hanging over their heads, their enthusiasm for this battle sapped with each step taken by their mechs.
Once the Blue Amazon came under fire, these pilots became even more discouraged.
Artillery mechs weren't supposed to be able to threaten expert mechs over the horizon. The delay between firing a projectile and impact was so great that the Blue Amazon should have ample means to avoid getting harmed.
What happened today completely broke the rules!
Not only did Venerable Irene Mox manage to do an excellent job at predicting the movements of the Bontue expert pilot, the Iron Hedgehog's explosive shells also exploded with much greater power than before!
The Bontues all thought that the Quillim invaders had reserved a secret stash of super-deluxe premium shells in case of emergencies!
Even if the Bontues suspected that the Quillims did not have a large supply of these premium shells, the wind had already been taken out of their sails.
Since the planetary invasion had already taken place for some time, the Bontue defenders already possessed a good understanding of the expert mechs at the enemy's disposal.
Several of them including the Iron Hedgehog were certainly awaiting the Bontue mechs at New Kreon.
The Blue Amazon played an important role in constraining these powerful machines.
Now that it had been taken out of the fight, the only other way to overcome a disparity in the number of high-level mechs was to sacrifice a lot of mechs to overwhelm the powerful enemy murder machines!
The battle was bound to be tragic. Not only would many mechs get destroyed, their mech pilots were unlikely to survive as well due to the excessively high attack power of expert mechs.
In addition, it was one thing to gang up on an expert melee mech that could only effectively slaughter its opponents at close range. A typical expert swordsman mech's group killing efficiency was not particularly high.
The Iron Hedgehog was completely different in this regard. It gave up any pretense of being able to duel against other expert mechs up close, but what it got in return was an unparalleled capacity to destroy entire areas!
So far, the Iron Hedgehog managed to depress an entire mech force as well as take out its strongest combat asset.
It did so by relying on just one of its howitzers!
The Bontues knew that once they came closer, they would once again face the full brunt of the expert mech that had breached the fortifications of many of their cities and turned the tide of many skirmishes!
Even if the damaged expert heavy artillery mech had yet to regain the function of all of its formidable cannons, it still had plenty left intact that it could harvest half-a-dozen mechs if not more with each salvo!
The officers and analysts on the Bontue side weren't stupid. They knew extremely well that launching a straightforward attack on a fortified position that was guarded by an expert heavy artillery mech was a recipe for disaster!
In the end, the Bontue commanders acknowledged that their offensive would likely fail if they insisted on pressing on. The premature loss of the Blue Amazon not only deprived them of an important lynchpin in their operation, but also had a strong negative effect on the morale of their remaining troops!
Once the troops lost their willingness to fight, their chances of succeeding had already dropped to the bottom.
"Our vanguard troops lack the heavy support they need to suppress the Iron Hedgehog and break through enemy lines. Let us pull back and wait for our main troops to catch up before pressing on to Dershin. The Quillims aren't going anywhere now that we have wrecked all of their starships."
"We can constrain and limit the movements of the stranded Quillim mech forces as long as we disperse our mechs and have them fight a guerilla war for the following three or four days. The Iron Hedgehog may have an amazing range, but it cannot be everywhere."
The Bontue leaders all assumed that time was on their side. Even if their vanguard failed to press the attack, it would not change the inevitable outcome.
Due to all of this, the Bontues made the logical decision to call for a retreat.
This surprised Venerable Irene Mox and many of her fellow Quillim soldiers. They thought that since the Bontues had managed to reverse the situation, their old enemies would be eager to finish the job!
"Damn, they're trying to take the Blue Amazon's frame away!"
A pair of Bontue mechs had quickly approached the collapsed mech and tried to drag it away, but Irene wasn't having it. Letting the enemy take it back meant that it could quickly be repaired and put back into the fight a few days later.
This time, she no longer held back. The Iron Hedgehog armed all of the howitzers and gauss cannons that it could bring to bear at this time.
She intended to make another statement this time. With Emma empowering the solid round loaded in one of the gauss cannons, the reinvigorated expert pilot intended to cement her victory!
"Hold your fire, Venerable Irene!" A voice instructed over the communication channel.
"What?! Why, sir?! The Bontue mechs are well within the range of my Iron Hedgehog! I can promise you that I can easily wreck a hundred of them before they move too far away!"
"The battle is over, Venerable. You have done your part. Colonel Harvey Dost has just negotiated a 24-hour ceasefire with the Bontue commanders. Neither side is allowed to attack each other for an entire day. It may be frustrating to us to let our enemies retreat with a shred of dignity, but do not forget what we are fighting for. One of the clauses of the ceasefire agreement is that the Bontues are not allowed to get close to Dershin and New Kreon."
Irene fell silent. She did not feel the fight was over at all. It frustrated her enormously that the Bontue soldiers who sought out to kill all of the Quillims trapped on Korinna V would be allowed to turn tail and run without suffering any further punishment for their transgressions.
Blinky spoke up at this point. "Do not give in to your baser desires. Control yourself. You are a soldier, not a rogue mech pilot. Remember that keeping the Bontue forces away from Dershin was the whole point of making a stand in New Kreon. It doesn't matter how your side is able to accomplish this goal. If you can accomplish your objective without suffering further bloodshed, then we should take it. Just look and listen at the mech pilots around you. See what you have accomplished by successfully deterring the Bontue vanguard from committing its assault."
Venerable Irene had always set her sights on the enemy mechs over the horizon. She had largely retracted her awareness of her immediate environment.
Once she pulled back her focus and paid attention to what was taking place around her, she noticed the joy and relief of her fellow Quillim comrades.
"We made it through! We bought ourselves a lot of time!"
"I really don't want to fight while being heavily outnumbered."
"None of the Bontues can break our defenses as long as we have Venerable Mox on our side!"
The soldiers were not only relieved after learning about the cease-fire, but they also expressed a lot of gratitude towards Irene!
Hearing all of the praises directed against the expert pilot made her feel fulfilled in a way that was difficult to describe.
She had often received a lot of appreciation from her fellow troops, but with so many lives at stake this time, the easy victory that she delivered to the Quillims tasted especially sweet this time!
This was what she was fighting for. This was why she pursued greater strength!
Miew!
Even Emma grew excited! Her tail lifted upwards as she basked in the positive emotions that surged around the Iron Hedgehog. The companion spirit might be a force of destruction, but she was also a cat!
The Battle of New Kreon eventually ended abruptly before it could properly start. The Iron Hedgehog along with the support of the Quillim scout mechs started and ended this engagement in a domineering fashion.
Every Quillim stationed in Dershin and New Kreon cheered Irene's name!
Once Irene pulled back her Iron Hedgehog and finally shut it down in order to enjoy a well-earned break, she continued to revisit the earlier battle and analyze all of the decisions she made during that time.
She also took the time to summarize all of the new capabilities she gained after she received her own companion spirit.
Miew~
The spiritual cat that only she and Blinky could observe in her current state brought unexpected benefits to Irene.
The expert pilot had always been fairly quiet and reclusive. Her identity among the Quillim soldiers was too high, and she even found it difficult to talk to other expert pilots due to their vastly different piloting styles.
Emma managed to dispel her loneliness to an extent. Perhaps Irene might have gone mad for treating the cat as a different individual rather than another aspect of herself, but the darkness in her heart eased a lot after she started to hug and talk to her invisible cat.
"My bestie…" Irene showed a rare moment of weakness away from prying eyes.
Ves respectfully remained silent during this time. Though he still kept an eye on the expert pilot's thoughts and deliberations regarding the previous engagement, he had no interest in her private affairs.
Twenty-four hours came and went without incident. The Bontues never showed any sign of breaking the ceasefire agreement. They instead spent their efforts on gathering their troops from across the planet in preparation to launch an overwhelming offensive.
The Iron Hedgehog may be able to deter a couple of thousand enemy mechs, but it would be much harder for it to hold back enough machines to form several mech divisions!
The Quillims hadn't been doing nothing all of this time.
On the surface, it looked as if the trapped invaders were preparing to make a last stand.
In reality, they had taken full advantage of the guaranteed period of quiet to accelerate the repairs on the Peyton Phoenix while preparing to evacuate with every available shuttle and transport that they could obtain and convert to their own use.
Once the reinforced Bontue mech troops had just begun to launch their general offensive, the Quillims finally pulled off their retreat!
Hundreds of shuttles and transports brought all of the surviving personnel trapped on the ground.
Not only that, but they also had enough transport capacity left over to bring away crucial mechs such as the Iron Hedgehog!
Though the Bontues had a few ranged and aerial assets that could shoot down numerous vulnerable vehicles, the lack of preparation and the lack of proximity hindered this effort!
Most of the vehicles managed to reach the barely repaired Quillim fleet carrier without issue.
Although the engineers and technicians who secretly snuck aboard the Peyton Phoenix warned that the chances of pulling off a successful FTL transition was not high, the Quillims were more than willing to make the attempt!
The shuttles and transports that just delivered their important payloads to the Peyton Phoenix did not become useless all of a sudden.
Many of them started to extend chains that attached to different points of the damaged rear half of the fleet carrier.
They soon began to fly in a unified direction. Combined with the minor thrust power that the Quillim engineers had just restored, the battered hull slowly managed to move to the nearest Lagrange point.
With the Iron Hedgehog and plenty of ranged mechs and flight-capable mechs on guard, none of the enemy's attempts to interfere with the evacuation had any chance of success.
Soon, the Payton Phoenix reached the Lagrange point. Though her systems groaned a lot, her recently-installed FTL drive finally did its job and propelled the shortened hull out of the Korinna System!
The crisis had truly passed at this point. Many Quillim survivors felt relieved and no longer remained on guard.
As the most important hero of the campaign, Venerable Irene Mox received a lot of thanks and appreciation.
She had no time to bask in her accomplishments. She withdrew to a spare room in order to hold one final talk with Blinky.
The expert pilot had a strong feeling that this may be the last time they could communicate with each other.
