Chapter 543: Ch The Resolve and the madness- 3

Inside his cockpit, the Guard Captain was left genuinely bewildered. Why had they given up their advantage? Instead of tightening the noose and pinning him down, they had broken off entirely, handing him precious breathing room, an avenue of escape, or even the chance to go on a rampage through their backlines.

Unable to fathom what the human pilots were thinking, he cast the doubts aside, a sudden surge of battle frenzy taking hold instead. His mech’s rear thrusters ignited with blinding brilliance. Swiveling around, he locked his sights onto an isolated human mech suppressing two of his fellow guard compatriots just a few miles out.

He braced the controls to surge forward—

WHIR-CLACK.

A dull-grey projectile, traveling at speeds so absurd that his mech’s automated sensor suite failed to track, register, or issue a warning, was already practically on top of him.

“Dammit—!” the Guard Captain began to scream, but the cry was severed mid-breath.

The hyper-dense tungsten sabot struck dead center against the guard mech’s torso. The kinetic slug punched through the energy shielding like paper, shattering the heavy breastplate and driving straight into the mech’s armored core.

BOOM!

A blinding flare of pure white light erupted from the point of impact, followed instantly by a violent kinetic shockwave. The guard mech’s chassis cracked, crumpled inward like crushed tinfoil under the sheer force, and was completely obliterated into floating slag.

Inside the cockpit of the second lieutenant’s mech, he stared frozen through his visor at the vacant patch of space where the towering machine had stood only seconds before. The realization finally hit him why the captain had ordered an immediate retreat.

It was for this.

Gulp.

He swallowed hard, cold sweat running down his neck as the horrifying thought crossed his mind: If I had stubbornly held my ground… what would have happened to me?

Before his thoughts could spiral any further, Captain Miller’s steady, unbothered voice crackled over the squadron channel. “Gather up, boys. We still have plenty of targets left to clear.”

Meanwhile, word of the captain’s instant death swept through the ranks of the Star Guards locked in brutal combat across the frontline.

The radiant beacon of their planetary defense—the Guard Captain who had personally spearheaded this desperate sortie, a decorated elite of the entire Star Empire—was simply gone. Snuffed out in a single heartbeat by a sniper round launched from the capital ship lurking in the rear.

A violent shudder of panic and despair tore through the ranks of the planetary guards. The stubborn, tightly coordinated defensive web they had maintained to buy time for the planetary shields began to fracture.

The battle line they had held with gritted teeth buckled; their focus shattered, their hope dissolved, and their combat effectiveness plummeted as their remaining momentum completely collapsed.

The three Void mech squadrons and the heavy fighter squadron—along with their respective commanders—did not miss the shift in tempo; they smelled blood in the water from miles away.

“Press the advantage! Hit them hard before they can regroup!” Miller and the other two captains roared across the shared comms channels.

They dove headlong into the Star Guard lines with newfound ferocity, striking like predators unleashed. Simultaneously, Squadron Leader Paul dialed up the intensity of the heavy starfighter runs, unleashing concentrated missile salvos that detonated entire formations of gunships in blinding flashes of fire.

Only moments earlier, the Star Empire’s planetary guards had maintained a stubborn defensive screen through sheer numbers. Even while suffering heavy attrition, they had managed to hold the perimeter dividing the invaders from the homeworld behind them.

Now, with their Guard Captain dead, that fragile resolve shattered.

Sensing the crumbling morale of their opponents, the Void mechs surged forward with surging momentum, pressing a brutal, coordinated counterattack. They fell upon the scattered ranks like wolves descending on a broken flock, hunting without mercy.

Stowing their long-range rifles, the Void pilots closed the distance, drawing their close-quarters blades and heavy shotcannons to cleave the retreating planetary guards into isolated, panicked pockets.

A handful of veterans still remained among the planetary guard forces, desperately fighting to hold the line. Banding together with the most experienced surviving pilots, they locked into a tight formation and launched a fierce, coordinated counterattack.

For a fleeting moment, their defiance actually worked. They halted the advance of the bloodthirsty Void mechs, managing to disarm and nearly destroy five Void machines in rapid succession—a tactical feat unmatched since the opening salvo of the battle.

The sudden breakthrough pumped desperately needed morale into their ranks, rallying several drifting squads to reinforce the counteroffensive.

Yet this brief spark was never going to be enough. To the vast majority of the broken planetary guard, this isolated victory was far too little, far too late.

Quickly enough, the pressure began to mount against them. It only intensified with each passing second, showing not the slightest hint of relenting.

With every fallen guard mech, shattered starfighter, and burning gunship, another blind spot was carved into their tightly-knit formation. With zero reinforcements incoming, their exposed flanks remained wide open. Meanwhile, the Void mech squadrons tightened the perimeter around them by the second, steadily whittling down the defenders’ numbers through the ruthless efficiency of their counteroffensive.

Leading the charge were elite strike cells like Captain Miller’s five-man team, flanked by two identical vanguard squads led by the other squadron captains, each spearheading the assault with four seasoned veterans at their side.

Miller and his team, finally freed from the duel that had pinned them down, were like wolves among a flock, tearing through the Star Empire’s planetary guards with a savage, practically unstoppable momentum.

Miller’s mech was a whirlwind of destruction, unleashing long-distance barrage after barrage at the planetary guard mechs and starfighters. He targeted cockpit after cockpit, crushing them with a few decisive shots. Even when pilots managed to eject themselves from their failing mechs or fighters, they were quickly and systematically neutralized before they could escape.

The first and second lieutenants, along with the other two veterans, were equally ruthless.