"Unit One and I go to shield-trooper mode and protect the combat group's formation. Units Two and Three use machine-gunner mode and lay fire on targets on the enemy ship's surface. Marine soldiers with room to fight, start laying down suppressing fire on enemy targets too!" Song Keke ordered calmly.
"Yes."
"Understood."
Song Keke drove her mecha at the very front. She reached the mecha's right arm back to the small of its back, and a small crimson shield fastened itself onto the right arm.
When the right arm held the small shield across in front of it,
the shield at once spread out to its full size, nearly ten times larger than at first, a great shield almost as tall as the mecha itself.
At the same time, the great shield's edges linked with the mecha's star shield, forming a complete defense.
Because the great shield was in front, it took more of the attacks.
But the defense of this crimson great shield was quite astonishing. However the enemy's guns pounded it, they left only finger-sized marks on the great shield, no deeper than three centimeters at most.
At the same time, another Phoenix-Guard mecha on the other side spread out its crimson great shield as well to hold off the enemy's attacks.
The main idea of defending with this great shield was to use less star-shield energy.
After all, once the star-shield energy was used up, it was truly gone.
And the great shield's defense was quite astonishing too.
Its one drawback was that once spread out, if it took too much damage, it might not fold back up again, which meant either carrying it along as it was or abandoning it outright.
Those were the strengths and weaknesses of this crimson great shield.
For stronger defense, it had to give up being easy to carry.
But the defense of this crimson great shield was said to be able to take a hit from a T5-grade interstellar destroyer's main gun head-on!
Behind the two Phoenix-Guard mecha holding the crimson great shields were two more Phoenix-Guard mecha that had brought out, from who knew where, a full six autocannons between them.
Each autocannon was a Gatling type with a full eighty-nine barrels, and when they fired, the rain of shells was quite terrifying,
no weaker than the rapid-fire guns on a T5-grade small interstellar cruiser.
But this weapon's drawbacks were plain too: at full rate of fire it could not run for long before it sounded an alarm, and its barrels had a very short life, usually needing to be changed after a single battle.
It went to one extreme as well: between firepower and endurance, it chose heavy fire for a short time.
On this point, many researchers understood.
After all, the conclusion of many real battles was that once interstellar combat mecha went into battle, the death rate was very high.
And in step with that was how long these interstellar combat mecha fought: from going into battle to the battle's end or being destroyed, the time was very short.
So, all things considered, seeking high-intensity fire for a short time was in fact the best direction.
And at that moment, under the terrible fire of these autocannons,
the fire of the enemy ship's close-in guns below, and of those interstellar marines, was indeed held down to some degree.
Just think: an interstellar combat mecha's autocannons trading fire with an interstellar warship's close-in guns; that alone showed how terrible these autocannons were!
"Three kilometers to touchdown; prepare to land," Song Keke said on the command channel.
"Yes."
The four Phoenix-Guard mecha started the reverse-thrust modules of their rocket thrusters, and their headlong speed fell off very fast.
In the end, all four Phoenix-Guard mecha landed very smoothly.
"Move! Move! Find cover, find cover!" The interstellar marine soldiers at once undid the modules fastening them together, and with their weapons and gear moved quickly away from the interstellar combat mecha, looking for cover as they went.
The interstellar combat mecha could protect them, true, but it could also make them the enemy's target.
It was a double-edged sword.
So the moment they landed, they had to make ready for battle and form up.
"Set up a fighting position, and clear out the enemy's close-in guns first!" Song Keke drove the crimson great shield in her hand hard into the surface of the hull armor.
Then two heavy guns extended from the shoulders of Song Keke's Phoenix-Guard mecha.
(Phoenix-Guard heavy-artillery mode deployed.)
So spoke the voice of Song Keke's mecha artificial intelligence.
Song Keke used the crimson great shield as cover and began looking for targets.
Very soon she spotted a close-in gun turret not far off; that close-in gun was firing at the heavy interstellar marines boarding after them, trying to stop them.
"Heavy guns locked," Song Keke said, aiming at the target.
The two heavy guns on her shoulders began gathering terrible energy, and after a brief charge,
two crimson beams shot like arrows from a bowstring at that close-in gun.
Boom.
With a huge explosion, the close-in gun was destroyed outright, mount and all.
Close on its heels, rainbow-colored halos appeared on the part of Song Keke's Phoenix-Guard mecha's star shield showing outside the crimson great shield: the marks of the enemy's fire.
Song Keke dodged as she watched her surroundings,
and spotted an enemy interstellar marine fighting position not far off.
"Two o'clock, about nine hundred meters. A squad of enemy interstellar marines; careful." Song Keke at once marked it on the interstellar war map in the command channel.
This was one of the interstellar marines' features: a shared map.
That way, the people of every combat group could know where every enemy was from this shared map.
"Report: bearing **, a squad of enemy heavy-weapons interstellar marines. We're taking extremely heavy blocking fire here and can't land; requesting support."
Just then Song Keke heard word from a combat group boarding after them.
She at once looked at the place marked on the map with a red exclamation point, and at the video that came with it.
In the video one could see
a squad of heavy interstellar marines equipped with interstellar combat mecha too, and at that position, a dozen-odd portable personal rapid-fire guns as well.
And around this position was a personal star shield, protecting this fighting base.
Song Keke checked the state of her strongest firepower, the two heavy guns.
They were still cooling down.
The two heavy guns on her shoulders were this Phoenix-Guard mecha's strongest long-range firepower, but their one drawback was that they took too long to reset between shots.
"Range… five kilometers." Song Keke glanced at the distance between that enemy position and herself.
She knit her brows slightly.
She had meant to use a cheaper way.
But at that range there was really no way.
"Nothing else for it. This will have to do for now. Deal with the trouble in front of us first. Ready a hundred Fire-Phoenix missiles; enter target location." Song Keke worked the controls.
On the back of the Phoenix-Guard mecha and along both sides of its body, several missile ports appeared, and lying inside them were the interstellar missiles this interstellar combat mecha carried.
As they ignited, small interstellar missiles shot out one after another,
streaking off toward the target location in the distance.
This was the other long-range weapon on this Phoenix-Guard mecha: interstellar missiles made for mecha!
What made them useful was that within their range they could fly freely, with no need of a direct line of sight to the target.
The heavy guns before needed a direct line of sight to the target.
Put simply, these interstellar missiles could turn corners.
They suited the fighting needs of the moment exactly; their one drawback was that they were consumables, and a Phoenix-Guard mecha carried only a thousand of them.
And because they were small, though they used T6-grade technology, their explosive power was not ideal,
not in the same class at all as the heavy guns before.
But they did make up for one of the Phoenix-Guard mecha's weak points in fighting.
Under the attack of these hundred interstellar missiles, word soon came over the command channel that this danger had been dealt with.
At the same time, on the squad's shared map, the marked enemy positions and enemy close-in gun positions were being rooted out group by group.
That let the mecha combat groups landing after them come down more smoothly.
"Area secure. Interstellar marine squads, begin phase two of the plan." Song Keke looked around her and stepped out from behind her crimson great shield.
All around, as far as the eye could see, the enemy had been more or less cleared away.
"Understood. All right, everyone, let's get moving." The marine soldiers began to move.
Three soldiers carrying big cases stepped forward. Each chose a spot, set her case down, opened a display screen on the case and tapped at it a few times.
The cases began to assemble themselves.
Very soon each square case had turned into an "eight-legged spider", and from the spider's belly a needle-like thing pointed down.
"Laser gopher ready. Starting up now." The operating soldier entered the start command.
Then the needle-like thing beneath the device could be seen bursting out with an astonishing beam of light.
Where this beam struck the outer armor of the hull, every bit of hull armor it touched began "corroding" outward fast enough to see.
It was a weapon made specially for eating through high-strength armor; it could slowly eat a hole through hull armor that even heavy fire could hardly shatter.
In under ten seconds, this hull armor had been bored through at least half a meter.
But that was far from enough.
These "laser gophers" had to open a hole at this spot big enough for a Phoenix-Guard mecha to get in.
The battle plan that came next depended on it!
"How long will it take?" Song Keke asked seriously.