Terran Hegemony, front line base near Vienna in the former country of Austria.
The Princess thought the best way to help with the war effort without fighting would be to put on a concert since she loved to sing. Her mother, Queen Manyeo, only agreed to it since the Princess said it was to raise the soldier's morale and get them excited.
Princess Bang-gwi worked hard and had a stage setup inside the training grounds of the base earlier that day. Currently she was busy making the final touches to her set list and costumes from a trailer near the stage as it was almost time for the performance.
"It's done! It's finally done!" Princess Bang-gwi jumped around excitedly while looking at the finished dress.
"What's done?" Chuhan Jwi asked the Princess.
"Uhmmm, my preparations! I'm going to give them a concert they'll never forget!" the Princess exclaimed.
"I'm sure it will be amazing Princess. The pink gown of Miss Maven's you had us mimic for you is spectacular on you! Just don't cut the timing so close, you almost didn't have enough time to get ready!"
"I know, but I knew I could make it, and I wanted to do it as soon as possible!" The Princess resisted the urge to twirl in the dress since she didn't want her modifications coming undone. "Wait for me at the side of the stage Jwi, it's almost time!"
__________
"Team 3 status?" Giacobbe asked in the team leader chat.
"Team 3 status?!?" Giacobbe messaged again.
"Team 3 status update!!!" Giacobbe messaged again sounding impatient this time.
"Ah, sorry, we wanted to picnic by the river first..." Gray messaged back.
Gray figured Giacobbe would be fuming from this and couldn't help but think to himself "Why do I love to torture people like this?"
"I'm going to assume that was a joke, ETA to hills?" said Giacobbe
Gray was slightly disappointed he didn't take the bait and get mad so Gray decided to play with fire and said "Give us 10 minutes, I am enjoying a fresh salad."
Everyone else shook their heads at Gray for being such a butthead, but it was funny so everyone was still laughing to themselves.
"...just let me know when you're in position." Giacobbe said exasperated
"Moving to position." Gray said with a serious expression finally.
This seemed to satisfy Giacobbe as he left Team 3's channel finally.
"Ok, everyone, move to sector B12, Geoff, Yurika, Paul, and Myself will provide cover if needed, no need to draw attention to us." said Gray
"Aren't we supposed to be feinting and drawing attention to ourselves?" asked Alice.
"We will, just not yet. Need to find a way to get up to that Solar farm." replied Gray.
"Gray, not to be a hindrance, but we should assume this map was designed to make it impossible to get up to that area from outside of the base." Caleb said.
"Oh, they probably did design it that way, but I'm sure they didn't think of everything."
__________
A few minutes later, Gray and everyone else had climbed up the hills and through another forest before coming up to a 25 meter tall 'cliff'. The top of the cliff appeared to run behind the base and was where the solar farm presumably was.
"Ok, now how can we get up there..." Gray thought to himself, he jumped as high as he could in his mech and realized this mech wasn't designed to jump as it was more like a hop than a jump. Still, it was enough so the head of the mech could peak at the solar farm on top of the cliff.
Giacobbe went in to Team 3's channel again and yelled "What is taking so long?!? We've already used up a third of our time!"
"Oh yeah, sorry, took us longer to reach the designated spot, we will be ready to begin in 10 minutes." Gray replied.
"You were supposed to be ready 5 minutes ago, now you want 10 more minutes?!? We're going to start without you, just do what you want!" said Giacobbe angrily.
"Well, he's not very patient is he..." Gray said without any hint of urgency.
"That's a bad habit you got there Gray..." Geoff told Gray.
"I can't help it, I just enjoy giving those types of people a hard time!" Gray admitted. "Caleb, how much do these mechs weigh?"
"That statistic is not included in the overview of the mech selection screen." Caleb answered.
"I know, just give me your best guess!"
"Hmmm, well, given the thickness of the armor and using the standard uncompressed iron fiber armor with carbon dampening plates and the high-grade steel, aluminum, and titanium alloy skeleton I can estimate that these weigh about 600 metric tons, but that is only an estimate." Caleb
"... just the estimate of the weight will do next time..." Gray said "I have an idea though..."
Gray walked his mech over to a tall pine tree and gave it a push, the tree just shook a little as it was around 3 meters in diameter and was placed here to be used as cover by the designers of this map.
"Geoff, gimme a hand here. Help me push this tree over!"
Geoff came over to Gray and the two of them pushed as hard as they could trying to force the tree over, it started to move a little bit but it still stood firm.
Caleb figured Gray was trying to knock over the tree so he suggested "Gray, the amount of force you would need to break the tree is greater than the force you would need to uproot it, might I suggest you break the roots first then try pushing it over."
"Good idea, we don't have much time though, so everyone split into teams of 2, we're going to need to knock over at least 4 trees, maybe more!" Gray said.
Everyone was able to quickly knock over 4 trees using their backup combat knives to slash away the roots then Gray instructed everyone to push one of the fallen trees against the short cliff, then another against it. All 8 of them worked together to lift up a third tree and lay it on top of the other two making a small lumber stack about. Lastly, the fourth tree was rolled perpendicular to the other three trees forming a 'T' to keep the 3 logs from rolling away.
"I'll try it first" Gray said then he tried to step on one of the lower fallen trees. Unfortunately it didn't have enough area for his mech's foot to gain traction on so he slipped. Gray noticed that the tree holding the other 3 had nothing on top of it so instead of trying to climb on the lower tree first, he stepped on the supporting tree and then stepped up on to the second fallen tree in the stack. The fallen trees made a horrible sound of wood snapping and cracking as branches were crushed under the weight of the mech and Gray had to maintain balance on top of the second fallen tree until it finally settled down.
"Whew, that was fun..." Gray said laughing nervously.
Everyone's attention was drawn below to the base when Team 2 started to create a diversion for Team 1, but it wasn't going so well as they had already done this before. In order to sell it, Team 2 broke from cover and started to advance across the bridge while firing at the defending enemy mechs on top of the base walls.
"Need to hurry up" Gray thought. His mech was now able to put it's arms on top of the small cliff, but without an extreme jumping ability he couldn't just hop up on to it. Instead, Gray decided to just go for it and try jumping an then "falling" onto the top of cliff. Gray jumped his mech on to the top of cliff as best he could just getting the hips of his mech over the edge which allowed him to drag his mech up to the top. Several alarms in Gray's mech blared as his internals were partially damaged when he landed, but luckily nothing major since he really didn't fall more than half a meter.
"Whew, that was rough, but I got up!" Gray said. "Think the rest of you guys can do that?"
"So you want us to belly flop our mechs up to the top of the cliff?" asked Alice.
"Yep, hurry up and flop up here so we can save this battle before a certain leader leads it to a defeat."
Totally flaked on the chapter title this time...
...and based on the amount of pressure required to smash a tree, a 600 ton mech should be able to step on a 3 meter diameter log without breaking it since the amount of pressure needed break it would be a few million psi I think. We'll just chalk it up to plot convenience if you don't buy that though.
With a little bit of difficulty and some minor damage to their armor, Gray and the rest of Team 3 were able to "flop" up to the solar farm.
"Ok, snipers get a bead on the main entrance, we have the higher ground and should be able to get a clear shot from here. Everyone else pair up with a sniper and be their eyes to get a wider view and help where necessary." Gray commanded.
Paul paired with Xyra, Yurika with Stacia, Geoff with Caleb, and Gray with Alice. The snipers deployed their tripods and took aim down towards the base's main entrance. The sounds of gunfire and the occasional rocket being launched could be seen from the base's defenses when ever one of the attackers stepped out of the cover of the forest. Giacobbe was still trying to probe the south to draw defenders away from the main gate.
"Giacobbe, sorry for the delay, we're in position." Gray reported to Giacobbe.
"About time! Team 2 is getting beat up, no casualties yet, but once you draw them to the east that should relieve them." Giacobbe replied in the leader chat.
"Beginning attack then!" Gray said.
"Attack?!? Just feint, no need to do a full blow attack!"
Gray left the channel before Giacobbe could say anymore. "Caleb, in your opinion, what is the weakest part of the mechs?" Gray asked Caleb.
"The pilot, if you rattle the can enough the pilot will get scrambled."
"Agreed, but that isn't an option since we're in a simulator. I think the weakest point is the joints, specifically the knees and elbows." Gray responded
"Indeed, the armor plating around the joints is much more segmented and also thinner to allow freedom of movement."
"Yes, now snipers, aim for those joints! I know headshots are all the rage in player versus player (PvP), but that head just houses the primary sensors."
Several affirmatives came from his team, then Gray asked Alice to tap her sniper's camera feed into his HUD so he could see what she sees.
"30 defenders by main gate, 15 by southern gate, last 5 are at the mech hangers getting reloaded or repaired it looks like. Let's take out those mechs in the hangers, they're not moving and if we disable them in a gantry, it will disable that gantry for a bit until they can clear it out."
Gray saw Alice aim for the mech hanger where the mech gantries were, then she said "Kirito, adjust my scope's aim for the wind resistance and range"
"Who are you talking to?" Gray asked befuddled.
"My AI, don't you all have them?" said Alice.
Gray saw Alice's scope adjust slight up and left even though the gun didn't actually move. A mechanical male AI voice said "Calibrated based upon height, temperature, range, and wind speed and direction."
"Yeah, but I thought they were only for training... I didn't hear anything though, did your AI talk back to you?" asked Gray.
"Yes, only you can hear your own AI, nobody else." Alice said.
"Tiara, are you there?" Gray asked
"Yes Gray, how may I serve you?" said a melodious AI voice.
"Can you adjust my aim too?" Gray asked.
"Not at this moment, I have not received enough data to be able to help you with this weapon. Currently, I can only help you with the Standard Laser Rifle, not your equipped Battle Rifle."
"So... what can you do then for me now?"
"If you walk into a forest and cut down a tree, but the tree doesn't understand why you cut it down, do you think it's stumped?" said the AI Tiara emotionlessly
"..." Gray was at a loss for words.
"I am sorry Gray, was that joke not sufficiently bad enough? I researched thousands of them to offer for you since they seem to be the only thing you've ever searched for through our network." Tiara said apologetically.
"It was... AMAZING! Hey, can you send text messages to the channels here? I want you to spam a joke like that every 5 minutes in the public channel!" Gray was starting to get excited.
Gray looked up and saw Yurika, Paul, and Geoff pointing their Battle Rifles at his mech and Yurika said "This would be for the better of the team."
"I... I was just kidding... Really..."
Sadly Tiara said she was unable to send messages as she was unable to interface with anyone or anything else except for Gray. Gray thought it might be better to look into it later to see what else the AI could do for him.
"By the way Alice, why'd you name your AI Kirito?"
"Because I picture him as a self-righteous whiney brat that everyone spends all of their time inflating his ego for him." said Alice
"Is your last name Zuberg?" Gray asked
"Huh? It's Focaccina! I'm also of Italian descent like Giacobbe, not German!" Alice complained.
"It was a joke..." Gray said laughing slightly "Jokes aside, fire at will!"
Gray watched Alice aim at the knee joint of a mech being reloaded in one of the gantries, using a steady hand she squeezed the trigger of her sniper rifle and a massive round shot out of the rifle towards her intended target. The round missed but instead nicked the gantry support and a crane carrying ammo suddenly toppled over causing the technicians to scurry around and hide, then look around for where that shot came from.
Stacia fired next and she managed to hit the elbow joint of a mech in a gantry, the forearm of the mech went limp but didn't fall off, still, a limp arm is a useless arm. "I hit it!" Stacia said excitedly.
"Good shot, keep your cool though, plenty of more limbs to damage." Yurika told Stacia. "Stacia, 20 meters left, go for that leg next."
Stacia's aim shifted barely 1 degree to the left to line up her next shot, at the point Caleb had just fired his first shot and hit the other elbow of the mech Stacia had already hit and caused the other forearm to go limp.
"Good shot Caleb, consider that mech disarmed, literally." Geoff said to Caleb.
"You're welcome Geoff." Caleb replied.
"For what?" asked Geoff.
"You've been wanting to use that joke for awhile, right?" Caleb said with a smile on his face.
"Yes... and thank you! 20 meters right, go for a leg this time"
Xyra was aiming at the same mech that Alice was, but her aim was awful. She was aiming for a knee joint but instead ended up hitting the mech in what would've been the groin if it were a person. Paul winced in pain when he saw where she hit and Yurika said "Perfect shot! Yeah!"
"...n-no... aiming... right knee..." Xyra whispered.
Yurika said to Xyra "Take a deep breath and relax, we're in a simulator so nobody will get hurt if you destroy their mech."
"...thank you..." Xyra whispered again.
After four muzzle flashes the defenders finally were able to see where the shots were coming from and some of the defenders started to work their way around to the North East of the base. A missile turret that was in range aimed in their direction too, but it never fired as the AI operator seemed to be afraid of damaging the solar panels or was not allowed to cause damage to potentially critical structures.
"Good, as I hoped the only thing we have to worry about is enemy snipers." Gray said.
Only 5 enemy mechs stayed on the south wall, 20 on the west wall where the main entrance was, 15 were taking up sniper positions along the north and east walls to try and hit Gray and the others. The remaining 10 were either stuck in a repair gantry or trying to clear the debris from the crane falling earlier.
"Tiara, can you monitor the enemy snipers and let me know which one has the best shot?" Gray asked.
"Yes Gray, I will highlight each enemy mech in different shades of red based upon threat assessment." Tiara replied.
"Good, now Stacia and Caleb, pick off exposed enemies that try to chance positions. Alice and Xyra, aim for the defenders at the south gate." Gray commanded.
"Why the south gate? Shouldn't we help the main force at the main gate?" Alice asked
"Not yet, we're going to try and really sell the south gate attack."
The enemy snipers had to aim up, and being unable to kneel and aim up easily gave Gray and the rest of Team 3 a huge advantage. The 4 snipers continued to aim for the joints of the defenders and even though they only managed to hit a few, each enemy that lost an arm or leg would be come significantly less effective in combat even if they weren't completely out of it.
"Team 2, heavy push, cross the bridge, sell it like a used car salesman wearing a cheap suit!" Gray popped into Team 2's chat room and attempted to order them. Luckily after laughing for a second they all burst out of the southern forest and headed across the bridge. The enemy missile turrets turned towards them and fired off several rounds at Team 2 as they tried to cross the bridge. Fortunately Giacobbe wasn't a complete idiot and recognized what was happening so while more defenders move to the southern gate thinking it was under a full assault, 4 members of Team 1 ran to the edge of the forest near the west gate carrying what looked like a giant bazooka with 4 sets of handles, even for a mech this was a little overkill Gray thought.
"Knock knock bitches!" Giacobbe said with a cheesy grin, one could tell he was just waiting to say that.
A low rumble sounded followed by a high pitched squeel then a noise similar to a grenade launcher resounded as a large ball of lightning discharged from the giant bazooka the 4 mechs were holding.
"Plasma! Damn, no wonder Giacobbe was confident, but one problem with that thing though..."
Gray noticed that the 2 mechs at the back of the launcher had gone dark and were not moving.
"Damn thing drains not just your weapon energy, but your mech fuel since plasma isn't purely electrical."
The ball of plasma collided with the main gate almost noiselessly, the ball collapsed and spread out over the door evaporating it within seconds.
"Charge!" Giacobbe yelled as the main assault had truly begun!
Yes, Alice Zuberg and Kirito is a Sword Art Online reference.
And yet more fun with names...
Focaccina means 'Muffin' in Italian
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