The Marrakath System slowly succ.u.mbed to the Hexers!
With the introduction of the amazing Blessed Squire model, the Wrathful Doves Mech Army Group embraced the new addition with remarkable speed.
Initially, DIVA pushed the Blessed Squire onto the Wrathful Doves through backroom deals and secret agreements with the upper ranks. Later on, the positive reactions of the rank-and-file mech pilots who drew strength from the new model ensured that no one would be able to reverse the tide.
No one within the Wrathful Doves wanted to deprive their fighting boys and women the incredible utility offered by this odd new supportive knight mech.
Even if its design was not as optimized as regular Hex Army models, the Blessed Squire somehow possessed its own slightly foreign charm. Even when word started to spread that a boy of all people played an integral role in its design, the Wrathful Doves simply accepted the news without any controversy.
This was because anyone who experienced the Blessed Squire's simply couldn't imagine getting rid of it! Many Hexers believed that the mech was literally blessed by the Superior Mother.
With such a mythical Supreme revealing her presence through a mech model of all choices, how could the Wrathful Doves reject this sacred mech?
No amount of external pressure would convince them to give up a mech that had helped them achieve victory after victory!
Weeks after the Blessed Squire energized the ground forces of the Hex Army, the territories of Marrakath III quickly fell to their offensives in quick succession. Like falling domino stones, the rapid conquests rapidly caused the defenders to lose an enormous amount of supplies and war materiel.
In too many cases, the Hexers advanced so rapidly that the Fridaymen were only just beginning to evacuate their exposed fortifications!
The Fortune Legion and more specifically the Opal Trident Mech Army Group suffered calamity after calamity. The constant defeats and retreating actions depressed the morale of every Fridayman mech pilot.
The dark cloud looming over them not only caused the Opal Tridents to lose their edge, but also made them more susceptible to the Blessed Squire's glow!
Only a fourth of the available land surface of Marrakath III remained in Fridayman hands.
Ordinarily, any invasion would slow down at this point. If the Opal Tridents kept pulling off orderly retreats, then they would have been able to concentrate their remaining strengths across a much tighter defense line.
This was not the case this time! Too many times, the Fridayman failed to retreat in order. They either sacrificed too many valuable supplies or failed to make it back to friendly lines.
Without enough mechs, supplies and other equipment, the Fortune Legion simply couldn't resist the Hex Army on even ground!
With the rear of the Fridayman-occupied territory in disorder, the Hexers pushed themselves to the limit. They had to advance as fast as possible! The sooner Marrakath III fell, the sooner they breached the gates to the interior of Carnegie Group space!
The momentum of the Wrathful Doves couldn't be stopped at this point. High command decided that the cost of slowing down the enflamed Hexers was too much for them to bear, and began to issue orders to evacuate from the fortress planet!
"Marrakath III will fall!"
"We've given up on this planet!"
"Those damn Hexers!"
The Fortune Legion elements attempted to retreat as orderly as possible. Crucial production equipment and other heavy machines were shipped away first. After that, various mechs and high-value supplies were taken away next.
The war-stricken orbit of Marrakath III became even more hazardous due to the non-stop struggle for orbital supremacy.
The battle in orbit and in space unfolded more evenly as the spaceborn elements of the Hex Army lacked the support of the Blessed Squire. Yet even that started to change as the Wrathful Doves started experimenting on putting Blessed Squire in space!
From attaching external flight system harnesses to its frame to simply placing it onto an armored flight platform, the Hexers tried many ways to deploy this remarkable mech in space.
Some of these inelegant solutions actually worked!
While it was very wasteful to employ Blessed Squires in this fashion, the amplification effect provided by their glows made the calculus worthwhile to the Wrathful Doves. The performance of every spaceborn mech increased remarkably!
Under these circ.u.mstances, the Fridaymen became more desperate than ever to evacuate their ground troops and as much equipment as possible.
Near a large, military spaceport, an entire city had almost become flattened and cratered due to the sheer amount of fighting that unfolded recently.
Much of the structures had been built with large amounts of bulk exotics, making them as thick and tough as starship hull plating. Some key structures even boasted better protection than capital sh.i.p.s!
Now, many of these structures had either collapsed or exhibited a lot of holes. Just a day of fighting had turned a key defensive bulwark into a broken mess. Mechs from both sides trampled over fallen debris, broken mech parts and other junk.
The air constantly cracked and thundered with exchanges of energy beams, projectiles and missiles. Entire mech regiments advanced and retreated along a slowly-receding line.
The Fortune Legion put up a stiff but increasingly hopeless resistance as the hotblooded Hexers relentlessly assaulted their lines without stop!
Flying very low over the ruined streets was one of the few morale boosters left among the Fridaymen that had gained more prominence during the current campaign.
The Charlemagne and the Scara had become famed in a matter of weeks! After its foreign expert slayed seven Hexer expert pilots in total, the Fridaymen no longer turned up their noses in front of Venerable Ghanso Larkinson.
His heroism and valiant performance paved the way for the introduction of other foreign expert pilots. The Coalition Reserve Corps would have encountered a lot more resistance if Ghanso and his Charlemagne hadn't killed so many enemy expert pilots.
Unfortunately, the blood on his hands enraged the Hexers!
After losing a string of valued expert pilots to the Charlemagne and his fifty quasi-expert mechs, the Wrathful Doves finally put down their arrogance and treated Unit L as a serious opponent.
The Hex Army analyzed Venerable Ghanso and his assets and tried to figure out a way to counter him. With all of the protection that the Opal Tridents bestowed on him, it wasn't easy to take out the Charlemagne.
However, the Fortune Legion couldn't protect all of the Scara!
Above a ruined supply depot, the Charlemagne hastily flew back while firing a resonance-empowered positron beam!
The quasi-expert mechs that accompanied the expert rifleman mech fired their rifles as well. Unlike before, their volley of beams looked ragged and not as nearly overwhelming as before.
The Scara incurred many losses!
With the Hexers focusing their fire on the cheaper and less well-protected rifleman mechs, Unit L gradually lost more and more of its teeth.
By now, only twenty-three intact quasi-expert mechs accompanied Charlemagne in battle! Their beams, though still fairly potent, barely even scratched the armor of Venerable Ghanso's current opponent!
"Marrakath III shall fall, and so shall the Crestfallen Stars! The Carnegie Group will be the first to fall to ruin, and the rest of the Friday Coalition shall follow next!"
Ghanso did not even bother to reply to his current adversary's taunts. He was too busy with trying to keep the remainder of his Scara alive!
The loss of a couple of dozen quasi-expert mechs was not regrettable. They were just mechs that could be produced at any time, though they weren't cheap by any means.
What truly pained Unit L and Master Huron was the loss of their 'mech pilots'! Not even a powerful Master was able to replace the dimwitted clones so easily. Something about them made it very difficult to cultivate them in greater numbers. The losses suffered by Unit L might take quite some time to replenish!
Venerable Ghanso instinctively felt acute danger. He immediately responded by commanding his Charlemagne to dodge to the side as fast as possible no matter how disgraceful it seemed!