Bab 50: Begin the Assault
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!
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
LordSputnik
LordSputnik Yes, Alice Zuberg and Kirito is a Sword Art Online reference.
And yet more fun with names...
Focaccina means 'Muffin' in Italian
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone