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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Aware-Material507 on 2024-10-27 22:29:59+00:00.

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It was not too long before I had the three squads worth of ranged drones in position with their various weapon systems aimed at the turrets opposite them. At least that was what I had told myself. In actuality it took nearly three hours of monotonous work, however if this actually worked properly, I would be hard pressed to feel like it was a complete waste of time. While I was doing that, Cooper had been handling the much more tactically minded tasks such as ensuring that the enemy forces on the other side of the fortress outpost stayed preoccupied and did. Cooper, in conjunction with their tortoise counterpart, managed to keep the hostile units busy enough that they did not notice my little plan coming to fruition which was good because if they even for a moment looked over to the steadily increasing number of holes, the whole plan would become a bust. Thankfully however, no such prying eyes had landed on me and my schemes which meant that it was time to begin the assault.

As ordered, Cooper had pulled second platoon, which had sustained the least casualties, from the battle lines along with the majority of my large drones meaning that the moment the turrets were disabled, my troops could pour in and attack. Retrieving my equipment which had been left discarded on the ground while I helped my ranged drones set up, I along with second platoon braced ourselves for the imminent barrage. Which came almost immediately after as I gave the signal and nearly three dozen drones opened fire at the same moment. “GO GO GO!” I yelled as the first melee squad accompanied by, or rather advancing behind, one of the tank tortoises which rumbled past and around the corner towards the inner walls and hopefully a large amount of disabled turrets. Upon hearing the distinct lack of enemy turret fire ringing out, I along with the rest of the platoon rushed forward to support the first group which had already crossed the distance and were preparing to break down the wall. Running up to join them, the now two tank tortoises reared back while everyone else made way before they both rushed forward and slammed into the wall with a thunderous clash which was immediately followed by the collapsing of the thick reinforced concrete wall.

Once the dust somewhat settled, it was quickly un settled as more than two dozen drones quickly began streaming through the open gap of the wall and engaging the scrambling inner wall defenders who were likely not anticipating an attack. They, however, were much more prepared than the outer wall defenders were initially as the hostiles quickly rallied and began pushing back while others ran off, presumably to warn the rest of their forces. Not that they would even be able to spare anything given that I had ordered Cooper and requested Churn’s commander to attempt to buy time for second platoon. This took the form of having the two units push against the enemy positions at the same time in order to force a response. It was either that or a collapse of the fortifications and choke points that the enemy units had been solely relying on to hold my troops back. Pushing those thoughts away from the forefront of my mind, I focused on the current threat which was the three dozen enemy drones which had quickly formed up and fired off a salvo of projectiles against the first ranks of my battle line. To make things slightly worse, a few of the turrets on the sections of wall not targeted by the surprise barrage were able to turn inwards and fire upon my drones as well.

Thankfully the two tank tortoises were able to weather the worst of the shots presented before us, however more than a few of my drones were cut down before they managed to scramble into cover. Our own ranged drones were likely extricating themselves from their spots in the buildings surrounding the inner walls which meant that we would not be able to send out our own salvos at the moment. Ordering my tortoises to push forward and engage the enemy front line as best they can along with the infantry squads, I swiftly began surveying the battlefield. It would seem the surprise barrage had been rather successful as a dozen and a half turrets had been disabled and destroyed by the torrent of laser and spike fire. Inside of the inner walls, I found that it was mostly comprised of a single building which was somewhat squat which I presumed to be the command center. Other than the command building, there seemed to be a rather lot of interesting looking crates filled with who knows what but at the moment they would only serve as decent enough cover. Looking to the sides of the building, I saw that there were still turrets that had not been targeted by my ranged drone’s attacks, meaning that they would have full reign to fire down upon my troopers.

I quickly grabbed a couple of the fire beetles stored within my backpack and temporarily placed them atop my right arm which they automatically clamped onto. Bracing my shield for what was probably a rather bad idea, I launched myself out and to the side of the quickly devolving melee between second platoon and the enemy units. The squad nearest to where I had sprinted out swiftly began acting as interference against the enemy drones who attempted to stop my assault which left me more or less free to maneuver. Something that proved to be rather helpful as the few that managed to slip through nearly stopped me in my tracks as they attempted to bog me down in melee combat. This quickly snapped the attention of one of the still functioning enemy turrets onto me, something that was swiftly confirmed as my blast shield was battered by a short and concise blast of a laser. Sprinting forward, fully ignoring the enemy drones that broke away from the fighting to intercept me, I ordered one of the fire beetles that I had prepared to crawl up into my hand. Once they found purchase, I drew back my arm and in one smooth motion through the beetle straight into the cluster of enemy ranged drones.

My little suicidal drone preformed their mission expertly as they denotated the moment they reached the most ideal point in their arks leading to maximum damage. The rain of quickly combusting chemfuel and shrapnel splashed down onto the rank and file of the enemy force leaving many severely damaged, some to the point of having their weapon systems disabled or destroyed. Ordering the next beetle to slide into my now free hand, I rushed past the scrambling enemy ranged drones over to one of the few turrets that were still functional after the surprise barrage. Blocking another shot from the turret in question as I closed the distance, I eventually passed the minimum firing range where I strategically placed my beetle onto what I was guessing was the turret’s power stores. Not sparing another glance at the turret which promptly exploded once I reached a safe distance, I swiftly found my next target, that being one of a pair of turrets that were pouring a steady stream of fire at one of my tortoises. The next and last couple of beetles had managed to crawl out of the now empty backpack and settle themselves onto my chest as the enemy turrets locked on to me and began opening fire.

Blocking the first of the blasts, I was unfortunately unprepared for the second shot as it slid right through my defenses and cascaded into my right shoulder which quickly locked up and refused to move. Deciding that I needed to get the beetles out now, I sprinted forward as fast as my legs would carry me and quickly used my shield arm to grab and huck both of the fire beetles and the farther turret before bracing the shield in front of myself as best I could. One of the beetles that I had thrown unfortunately was intercepted by the quickly recharging laser turret, being blasted back by the beam, however the second managed to cross the distance and latch on before detonating, disabling the turret for good. This left me as I blocked the shot directed at me with my blast shield, the integrity of which was beginning to wear down, before I slipped into its minimum firing range. Shaking off the stunned nature of my right arm, I ungracefully climbed onto the turret’s back before grabbing onto the turret’s long, coiled, laser barrel with both hands before bracing myself against the turret’s base. Once my armored boots found solid purchase, I began wrenching the barrel backwards which at first only amounted to the turret aiming straight upwards before it reached its maximum degree of motion at which point metal began to rend.

A feat like this would have been physically impossible for any standard, non enhanced, person which I certainly had not been before I had died however with the robust hydraulics of my industrial grade vessel drone, feats of such strength were seemingly built in. While I was fist fighting a turret, the leader of second platoon had been taking advantage of the absolute chaos that my probably justified use of unrestricted explosives by pushing forwards and beginning to envelop the enemy drones. Unfortunately for them and rather fortunately for my drones, the enemy troop numbers were quickly being reduced meaning that they were unable to effectively counter my platoon leader’s assault. Oh they fought, rather hard in fact, however when pressed up on multiple sides by enemies, it becomes rather difficult to effectively take on the oppo…

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