Chapter 2

The group made quick progress towards sector B-24, the ground being flat arid wastes let them travel all the way to their destination with ease. 

Leonard quickly went over 2nd and 3rd squads status, their current combat capabilities turning his face more grimm the further he read through. Pulled off active secondary combat fronts, the pair of squads had no time for re-supply, their fuel readings dipping below half in the worst cases. 

Their ammunition count was a silver lining however, none dropping below 80%. Small blessing he guessed, at least they could stay in the rear and provide cover without fear of running out of rounds. It would help their dwindling fuel situation as well. 

Leonards melee based squad was called a knight squad, opting to fight with shield and spear, a small laser pistol and short sword held in reserve attached to their legs. It wasn't a loadout suited to facing the Swarm horde, before he'd joined this squad they were busy hunting pirates deep in the galactic rim. The thick armoured shield easily blocking the often weaker firepower of pirate mechs, allowing them to close the distance and pierce their vulnerable cockpits with their spears. 

And while Leonard would have wanted a different loadout in this situation, it wasn't as simple as dropping their current loadout and picking up another. Mechs were often designed for a specific purpose, and his frontline mechs were designed to draw attention and withstand a beating. With extra armour they weighed fair more causing them to be much slower than skirmishers and riffle mechs, however once they closed the distance they were often unmatched in melee. But the extra armour left little room for improved aiming modules, ammunition and battery packs needed to operate a ranged mech efficiently. 

Dacre and Hacket's squads on the other hand were ranged based, fighting with large projectile rifles, and while this did limit them to the ammunition they could carry, it packed much more of a punch than their traditional laser counterparts. They did however have a small laser pistol and dagger in reserve, lest they be caught with their pants down with no way to fight back when they spent every round. 

But with everything, this ranged configuration of their mechs came with trade offs. Their thinner and weaker armour meant that if they ever got into melee range they were often overwhelmed, but their lighter frames allowed them to more easily retreat and reposition. 

"Captain, eta 2 minutes, B-24 should be coming into view briefly", Corporal Arming spoke through his mechs comms. 

B-24 quickly came into view, a trench and bunker network spanning the width of the valley at least 5 lines deep. Every inch of space was covered in sandbags, barbed wire, armoured bunkers and artillery positions. Ten of thousands of men buzzed about, like a colony of ants, manning firing positions and loading up guns. 

Further back another much smaller complex of trenches lay, surrounding a command headquarters and medical facilities, as well as a full artillery regiment already unleashing volleys of explosives over the horizon into their quickly approaching foes. 

"Command this is Sergeant Leonard Vallum, Captain of 1st, 2nd and 3rd squads, 5th regiment of the Iron Knights Mechanised Division, here to lend our support." Leonard hailed the local command centre, he didn't have to do this, but he always felt it prudent. Technically the Mech Corps fell outside of the PDF's jurisdiction, even the military itself for the most part, which most uppity mech pilots often abused. But cooperation between everyone was often beneficial, at least in his opinion. 

"Captain Vallum", the image of the base commander popped up on his display, a tough looking man, though his uniform had seen better days. "I'm Colonel Barret, Commander of Task Force B-24, it's a pleasure for you to join us, your assistance is most certainly appreciated." 

"Of course Colonel Barett, I aim to take the front with squad ones knight mechs with squads 2 and 3 riffle mechs providing ranged support from our flanks." 

Colonel Barret's image nodded, "That's all well and good Captain, however I'm confident my men can handle the rabble with 2 ranged mech squads in support. Would it not be prudent to leave your squad in reserve to deal with the Swarm Lord itself?"

"The Swarm Lord sir?" Leonard questioned. He had received intel that it had indeed made planet fall, but nothing about its current location, let alone where it may attack. "I have not been made aware that it was spotted in the region." 

The Colonel paused, looking over to the side briefly before adjusting his collar and responding. "I have it on good authority that the Lord was spotted in the region."

"With all due respect Colonel, that is not the information I have received." 

"Well-" He made to continue, however a muffled voice off screen made him pause. "I see." He nodded before returning his attention to Leonard. "An information package will be forwarded to you." 

"Very well, I'll send you a passage-" It was his turn to pause, eyes widening as a file popped up into his mech's display without his authorisation. A member of the PDF, even if they were high ranking like the Colonel here, did not have the clearance to interact with the Mech Corps internal systems, let alone send a file directly into his Mech.

"Colonel Barret! You will explain this instant how you were able to access the Mech Corps systems!" The security implications if that file was somehow spiked were immense, not just in terms of possible viruses, but in the fact that data stored within a mech was a national level secret. If its schematics were leaked to foreign nations the consequences could be catastrophic. 

He didn't dare open the file, already initiating a complete scan of his systems to see if any data had been leaked, or tampered with in any way. 

"Me?" The Colonel's eyes widened, while on paper his rank was higher, the organisation itself that he was a part of was much lower on the totem pole than the Mech Corps. "W-what do you mean..?" 

A voice to the side of the Colonel let out a low sigh, before the camera panned over to them. This new face, or rather mask, was completely decked out in a set of black full body power armour, their face concealed behind a dark fully faced helmet. They didn't have to talk for Leonard to understand, the symbol on their shoulder being enough for his concerns to completely dissipate. 

Bulwark. 

"I trust you understand Sergeant?" A feminine voice rang out from behind the mask, cold and steady. 

"Understood." He responded. "Squad one will wait in reserve for the Swarm Lord's arrival." 

"Good." 

The communications cut off, leaving him alone with his thoughts in his mech. "Bulwark huh?" He thought to himself as he clicked open the file he had received. Military Intelligence always seemed to show up out of the blue. He had been fortunate to not have run into them yet, but it seemed his luck had run out. The file itself didn't contain much, but what it did have was enough. A satellite or drone picture, he couldn't quite tell, but what he could understand was the Swarm Lord it framed, rushing quickly towards their position. "We're so fucked…" 

"Arming." He contacted his second in command. "New information just in, what do make of it?" 

The man let out a small whistle as he took a look at the file Leonard sent through. "I already knew it was going to be a tough day. But this… its…" 

"Suicidal?" 

"I wasn't going to say it." He let out a small chuckle. "But you're right. Three squads for a Swarm Lord? What a joke. We're not even at full strength." 

"My thoughts exactly." Leonard lamented. 

"What do you plan to do?" 

"I'm not completely sure yet." He freely admitted. He wouldn't talk this candidly to the rest of the squad, having to keep up the persona of a confident squad captain despite being fresh out of the academy. However Arming was a veteran with years more experience than him, he had helped him become accustomed to his new role, as well as always offering much needed advice. "I've been ordered to keep squad one back to use exclusively on the Lord itself."

"What about squads two and three?" 

"Their ranged mechs should be useful in helping out the frontlines, assisting any areas that are being hit harder than others." Leonard began formulating a plan. "However I will need them to keep at least 30% of their ammunition in reserve to help with the Lord."

"Fair enough." Arming responded, looking over a map of the valley within his own mech. "We can station them at the fourth trench line, while we take positions behind the third." 

Leonard looked over his own map. The defences in the valley were split between five distinct sections, six if you included the command centre, with a large open section in between them, filled to the brim with mines. 

"I can understand the ranged mechs being stationed back." Leonard began, a frown beginning to form on his face. "But, if we station ourselves at the third trench line we would be all but abandoning the first and second." 

"We are just three squads. There's not much more we can do." 

Leonard went to respond, however the words got caught in his mouth. He knew what Arming was saying was true, but it was hard for him to accept. There were thousands of men in the first and second trench lines, thousands of lives he would be leaving to die. 

"We do what we can Leonard." Arming spoke up, reading the pained and conflicted expression on his face. "It's just not always what we may want." 

"I know, I know… I just." Leonard couldn't find the words, but Arming knew what he meant. 

"Don't blame yourself for what's beyond your control. If anything you should be blaming high command for not moving more squads over here. Or the Iron Knights fleet up in orbit for not sending enough mechs down." 

"But they're not the ones making this decision." Leonard quipped back, a bit too much venom coating his voice. "It would be me." 

"It was my suggestion." Arming said back, not bothered by Leonard's raised voice. 

"You and I both know it doesn't work that way." Leonard shook his head. He had to make the call soon. Every second he was wasting the swarm horde was growing closer. He patched his communications into Dacre and Hacket's Mechs, informing them of their new positions. 

"Sir." They responded simply, before rounding up their squads and making their way towards the front. Now however came the hard part, one that he didn't want to do, however knew he had to.

"What!?" Corporal Gaits responded instantly as he explained their new orders. "You want us to sit back and watch? What are we now? Cowards!?"

Leonard sighed. He knew Corporal Gaits wouldn't take this order well. The Corporal was known for his hot-headedness and eagerness to be on the front lines, regardless of the risks. Though this time he found himself agreeing with the Corporal. A sense of bitter irony tugged at the back of his throat, however he forced his face to remain steady. 

"We're not cowards, Corporal," Leonard replied calmly. "I'm simply adjusting our strategy to maxi-"

"But we can fight!" Gaits yelled, "We can still fight! If our spears are not enough let us stomp them out with our feet."

"Corporal Gaits, think for a second would you?" Arming spoke out, "the PDF cant possibly dream of taking down a Swarm Lord by themselves. And that's without dealing with the hundreds of thousands of swarmlings under its control." 

"Then let them die! We are Mech pilots! Why should we care for those low born ilk?" The Corporal whirled his mech around to face Arming, spear pointing out accusingly. "I will not sit by and let someone else take my glory!"

"Ahh.. There it is.." Leonard internally sighed. More the fool for him to think Gaits was thinking about the safety of the soldiers up ahead, rather than simply chasing after glory. To think he had almost agreed with him for a moment.

"Glory? Glory!?" Arming's voice rose, an act completely out of character from a stoic veteran like him. "Is that all you noble fucks care for? We are soldiers of Bastion first!" 

"Enough!" Leonard stepped between them. "Last I checked Corporal Gaits, I was the Captain. These are my orders and they are final." 

His squad was falling apart. It didn't help that he had no experience in leadership, from day one only Arming followed his orders, pulling in the rest had taken considerable time and effort. And yet it often split into two camps, with Gaits pulling away the nobles to his side. 

He rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had long since grown tired of this situation. Maybe he should ask for a transfer, not that he would ever have a chance of getting it accepted. 

"Just.." Leonard sighed, "let us deal with this so called lord first, you can lobby your complaints when we return. But for now we have a mission, let us see it through to completion." 

The other two squads had already begun to move, their orders were simple and expected, and while Leonard was technically in charge, he knew the squads own Captains had a better read on their own men than what he could have achieved in the few hours they were together. Besides painting some of the larger brush strokes of the plan, he trusted them to fill in the details.

"Forward scouts seen movement, 5 minutes out sir" Arming spoke, he had patched his mech into the communications of the PDF soldiers on the ground. Leonard could have done it himself, but he detested the increased and mostly useless information that came through onto his already crowded display. Arming already acted as his second in command, albeit unofficially, the man was extremely competent and would make a great commander himself, but politics would always rear its head, in the eyes of the high command he was a commoner and therefore unable to direct some of the more noble pilots. 

Leonard scoffed, it was not as if he was noble himself, but the prestige and military accomplishments of his house often framed them as such. Leonard would have never held his position so early in his career if it wasn't for that.

"Two minutes until contact, they'll be in view in one" Lines of artillery to his side continued to roar, striking at an enemy unseen, the rumble of their guns shaking the ground. He had positioned his squad near the command centre, the higher elevation offering a better view of the valley below.

"30 seconds until visual contact" up ahead in the trenches mortar positions opened fire, hundreds of them scattered throughout the labyrinth of fortifications and razor wire.

"Visual contact" not that Leonard needed confirmation, cresting the horizon was a veritable sea of Swarm forces, broken only by cratering explosions tearing apart their ranks, only to be filled again by fresh numbers in seconds. Individually they were nothing special, small ant like creatures, only scaled up to around the knee height of an average male. But in enough numbers even ants could fell a giant.

Their sickly dark green and black chitinous exoskeleton blended together, causing them to look less like individual bugs and more an ever growing tide consuming everything in its wake. Sprinkled throughout were larger forms, Swarm Elites and Commanders, the former being similar ant like creatures, only larger and with visibly thicker and stronger chitinous armour.

The Commanders however were in a league of their own. Easily visible through the crowd, they were built like giant scorpions, standing double, triple, sometimes even quadruple the height of an average man. The giant snake-like stinger was less like a melee weapon, and more a giant cannon shooting highly corrosive organic masses of flesh. The pair of huge pincers carrying enough force to pop any unfortunate mech unlucky enough to be caught in its grasp.

Leonard watched as multiple direct fire guns and batteries unleashed their armaments upon these Swarm Commanders, the fire power of mere stray shots being enough to kill swathes of common Swarm bugs, but the concentrated mass of direct explosions not being enough to even slow them down.

"They've come out in force today" Arming whistled at his side, "I haven't seen this large a force since the day they landed on the planet."

Leonard couldn't help but agree, even though he wasn't positioned on Arming 2 at the outbreak of the war, recordings of the ordeal were still available.

It only took a moment for the Swarm to reach the first section of defences, a thick jungle of reinforced razor wire slowing down their charge considerably. Even all these years since its creation, razor wire was still a cost effective, easy and quick defence to deploy. Although the alloys and production methods had long since changed, its use was still the same as ever. 

Thousands of men in the trenches opened fire with their own arms, a torrent of laser and projectile fire tearing through the Swarm ranks. From heavy machine gun emplacements, to single soldiers with hand held guns, every available weapon unleashed their destruction.

"Do you think they will hold?" Leonard asked, his mechs sensors relaying clear videos of the frontlines to his monitors.

"I'd like to believe so" Arming answered, eyes locked ahead. "The PDF has faced worse odds than this and pulled through.." 

"Worse odds?" Leonard puzzled, "what can be worse than this?" 

"True" Corporal Arming chuckled. "I was just trying to make light of the situation. I said I'd like to believe, but I'm not so sure about what I actually think."