Even before thebat carriers madendfall, the lunar fortress unleashed a deluge of missiles. Much less than what they ought to have been able tounch, but still a considerable amount.


    Major Verle quickly issued orders to strike down the missile salvo. Akkara mechs anchored inside the bunkers along the exterior the of carriers started to fire their rapid-fire cannons in unison. They had been designed in part to provide a powerful form of defense against the Vesian propensity to throw out a lot of missiles. The iing missile salvo already started to diminish.


    Other mechs lent their firepower as well, though their coordination wascking. The Vandals relied too much on random mech models stolen from the Vesians. Their weapon configurations differed very widely, making it difficult to synchronize their fire.


    Nevertheless, the spaceborn Vandals actedpetently and wiped out the missile salvo just as it entered medium range.


    The lunar fortress failed tounch a second salvo. It appeared that the rebels hadn’t been lying when they said that they destroyed most of their stockpiles. Still, the suspicion that the Vesians might be holding back their missiles in order to trap the Vandals loomed closely.


    With the lunar fortress offering no further response, the Vandalbat carriers that arrived on the surface calmly disgorged theirndbound mechs. Many of these machines suffered from unsteady footing. The small moon exhibited a very weak gravity, causing most mech pilots to curse as their feet constantly bounced them above the surface.


    Fortunately, they adjusted quickly. A week before they arrived at the Detemen System, the mech pilots of the grant Vandals drilled extensively in every possible environment they might be deployed on. They already learned how to deal with the second moon’s gravity, but simtions were no substitute for the real thing. They wouldn’t be as good as the defending Vesians in moving around, and that was a significant disadvantage.


    The only upside to the moon’s weak gravity was that the Vandal spaceborn mechs could lend a hand as well. They didn’t fare too well under standard gravity conditions, but the moon was so small and weak that their flight systems hardly needed topensate.


    The Vandal mechs formed up. Due to the wide variety of mech models, they resembled a mob of pirate mechs more than a professional military formation. The only attempt at homogenizing them was to coat their exteriors in the regimental colors of the grant Vandals, burgundy and ck.


    Even then, many subgroups adopted their own patterns. Some mechs employed camouge patterns, while others adorned their mechs with animal heads. More utilized geometrical patterns that looked oddly hypnotic.


    In the eyes of an outsider like Ves, the Vandal mechs looked disorderly. He could tell from the orders issued by Major Verle and the movements of their mechs that they operated in a very decentralized fashion. Major Verle only issued a handful of broad orders, which his subordinate officers tranted into slightly more specific orders to the differentpanies that took part in the assault.


    The true decision makers appear to be the captains that led theirpanies. Thesepanies differed widely in numbers and mech makeup. Some of them were at half-strength at twenty-two mechs, while one of them moved with seventy mechs, each of them seemingly a different model!


    As much as Ves wanted to spit out and decry the travesty of it all, the grant Vandals somehow found order in chaos. They made their eclectic mix of mechs work seamlessly. Upon closer inspection, Ves realized that every mechpany wasn’t grouped by type or purpose and that they didn’t choose to bnce out their mechs either.


    Thepanies had been grouped ording to their movement speed.


    This led to a surprising level of coordinated maneuvering. The scoutpanies moved first and approached the lunar fortress, which the Vesians chose to perch on a low hill surrounded by ttened terrain.


    A lot of signs showed that the perimeter used to be very rocky, but the defenders deliberately cleared away the rocks and ttened the overall surroundings in order to deny any approaching enemy onnd the benefit of cover.


    "Heat signatures detecting! Iingser fire!"


    The mechs atop the walls already started firing potshots at the approaching scoutpanies from the air and on the surface of the moon. Major Verle made a quick judgement and held his scouts on a leash, not wishing to go further and risk them getting attacked by a prepared volley.


    The slowerpanies caught up while the scouts nked the fortress. After a few more moments of preparation, the assault began.


    "Attack! Breach the fortress and finish off the defenders!"


    A heavy amount of firepower poured into the walls of the fortress, diminishing it at a surprisingly low pace. The walls had beenced with an abundant amount of junk exotics as well as a few more valuable substances, which was much more than standard. The cost to erect this fortress must be at least three times as much as a regr fortification!"


    "The Detemen II is a resource processing center." Alloc reminded Major Verle. "Many materials are shipped in and out of this star system. Those fortress walls areced with Brown Laxanite, which is famed for their ability to dampen shocks. That increases the resilience of the walls by at least half!"


    "Is there anything else you can tell about the walls, Mr. Brandstad?"


    Alloc furrowed his brows. Ves passed him a couple of observations, but none of them were notable enough to be mentioned.


    "No, sir, only to state that the walls rely on Laxanite to withstand explosive and kic attacks, while utilizing their enormous mass to neuter anyser fire. It’s incredibly resilient against every conventional damage type."


    That left out a lot of weapons with strange effects, such as the Greater Terran United Confederation’s Destroyer Weapons. One slice of a Destroyer Sword would easily be able to part the thick walls in half.


    Naturally, the Vandals didn’t carry anything like that.


    "We’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. Inheritors! Prepare to dive in!"


    Major Verle constantly showed his impatience. Ves gathered that themander wasn’t being reckless, but the importance of staying on schedule weighed heavily on the entire mech regiment.


    They only had four days to y with, and that was only an estimate of their allotted time. The Vesian reinforcements mighte sooner orter, but the Vandals didn’t count on getting lucky in that regard.


    While much of the lower ranks of the Vandals remained ignorant, Colonel Lowenfield and her most trusted subordinates like Major Verle nned for this operation for years. They always intended to make a far-ranging raid on a star system deep within Kingdom space.


    The Detemen System had actually been selected as a potential longshot candidate due to its stability, rtive wealth andck of internal conflicts.


    Thatst point proved to be pivotal to this attack. Many star systems with a little bit more wealth might allow the Vandals to earn a bigger harvest, but their riches attracted plenty of ambitious nobles.


    Not so for this star system. Detemen II was the main seat of House Jier, and while it would be possible to dislodge them, Count Reizen established lots of ties with his neighbors, which minimized the urrence of violent conflicts.


    As for Detemen IV, no one wanted to touch Lord Javier. As the sole son of Count Loqer, any other local noble would practically bemitting suicide if they touched that.


    Count Loqer’s influence in the Imodris Duchy made him a powerful regional bully. He was the trusted hand of the Duchess and had served as her former chief of staff.


    With the amount of favor Loqer earned from the Duchess of Imodris, House Eneqqin was on the rise. No one openly dared to defy them. Yet while this status might make their rivals back away, it proved to be one of the most pivotal reasons why the Vandals chose to attack the Detemen System.


    House Imodris sent the majority of their legions to the frontlines. Those that remained had been tasked with guarding the Duchy’s capital and several vitally important star systems. As much as the Duchess favored Count Loqer, she would never divert her crack troops to defend a marginally significant star system.


    Because behind the open threat of the Vandals, a follow-up invasion might ensue if the remaining legions moved to aid the Detemen System.


    As for the barons and counts that upied the star systems closest to the Detemen System, they would definitely move to support their beleaguered neighbors when prompted by House Imodris, but they would be sure to take the slowest route possible without being used of leaving the Detemen System out to dry.


    "No one wille and reinforce the Detemen System for at least three days. That should be enough time toplete all of our objectives, but only if nothing else goes wrong."


    The Vandals made slow progress into chipping away at the fort walls. Their ability to resist both energy and physical attacks made them extremely hard to deal with. Due to the angles, thendbound mechs stood no chance in weakening the defending mechs.


    The defenders did not suffer from that problem as the Vandal mechs were exposed on t terrain. They could easily fire on every mech they wished from theirfortably elevation positions behind the walls.


    The only reason why the Vesians hadn’t exacted a heavier toll was because they were pacing their face. Ballistic ammunition was in really short supply, and while they could replenish their batteries fairly quickly by recharging them from the fortifications power reactors, they could only recover so much juice at a given moment.


    More than that, the Type D’s paced their fire due to their inability to shunt their heat fast enough. Every time they built up a significant amount of heat, they retreated and deployed several spikes from their hips that anchored into the walls. This allowed them to transfer their umting heat through the spikes and stave off their heat limits, if only temporarily.


    "The Inheritors are making their move!" Alloc whispered to Ves, which caused him to divert more attention to their plummeting descent.


    They dove down on a diagonal trajectory, making it rather hard for the defending Type D’s to target them. Several Inheritors got hit by theser beams that raked their loose formation. A singleser beam wouldn’t cripple them, but their armor was so thin that they would certainly feel the hurt.


    The Vesian defenders became a little smarter about their targeting and started to focus their fire on a handful of Inheritors. This caused the targeted mechs to be extremely unlucky.


    While the mech pilots of the Type D’s weren’t good enough to box their targets in an undodgeable storm ofsers, they at least managed to whittle down the Inheritors at a mildly rming rate. Those assigned to pilot the Inheritors weren’t exactly the best of what the grant Vandals had to offer.


    "Men, ready your knives!"


    Still, the Inheritors zipped down so fast that the Type D’s constantly had to readjust their aim to cope with the changing trajectories. As the Inheritors appearedrger andrger on their targeting scopes, the Type D’s needed to swivel their aim in wider arcs in order to keep up.


    "The time is upon us! Go in-and-out!"


    The Inheritors engaged their flight systems in full, causing them to stop their impending crash to the ground and instead propel them forward, right into the lines of defenders. A handful of melee mechs stepped forth to shield their weakerrades. The Inheritors that faced those melee mechs could do nothing in the short term to take these sturdy mechs down, so they preemtively circled around and flew back up.


    As for the other Inheritors, they faced no obstacle except for the wall, and even that provided no sor to the Type D’s. The Inheritors smartly passed over the walls and maneuvered around to hit the Type D mechs from the sides or from the rear.


    Theser rifleman mechs stood no chance. The Inheritors showed extreme excellence in peeling apart the vulnerable ranged mechs. At least a third of the Type D’s dropped their rifles and gripped their backup knives in time, but their mech frames were wholly unsuited to duel against a skirmisher.


    It was a massacre.


    Only ten seconds passed at most before the Inheritors finished their allotted time. Those that hadn’t finished off their targets retreated without hesitation after reaching the limit.


    The results of the short but intense action quickly became clear. At the cost of half a dozen Inheritors, at least a third of the defending Type D’s had been taken out.


    "We’ve got them!"