Even though the War Maidens did not need to eat food, the aroma leaking from the kitchen was fantastic, making them hungry for it. They tried to resist it but turning off their olfactory sensors could not make them forget the smell, which caused their taste sensors to prepare the necessary nanomachines so that they can break the food down for additional energy.
However, when the dishes came and laid bare on their makeshift table, everyone was brimming with excitement. Even the presentation alone from the weird mish mash of materials they acquired was enough to amaze them. Obviously, they never saw any of those food items before but Lynn had presented them to be the same as what Jin was used to.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtFried Chicken Rice, Steamed Vegetables mixed with spices and even a bowl of soup.ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ꜰire
"Don't you need time to make all these?" Jin asked as he thought that the time she took was not exactly very long until he saw his watch. The meeting between his squad members and Nie was intense that they did not realise how much time they had taken. It was enough to make him squeak out a quiet apology to the Chef as they started to dig in.
Without a doubt, everyone was surprised by the taste of the food even though they knew it would be fantastic both from the presentation and the smell. They had their expectations, but it exceeded more than that. But what was more unbelievable was that the food was easy for the nanomachines to break down and had high efficiency conversion rates to charge their backup batteries.
They enjoyed the food so much that no one was speaking even Old Fammet, who Nie said was a picky eater, was quietly taking more portions for himself. After their dinner, they started to prepare for the upcoming siege with whatever they had planned previously. The War Maidens were initially worried that their commander was overworking until they saw that he was still jumping around to perform what was needed of him from the plans they made.
As for the Mecha Smiths, it seemed the food they partook in was more than nourishing. It energised them more than any heaps of coffee could ever give and they started smithing items for the defences of the Workshop. Every one of them did their part to fortify the workshops to the best of their abilities.
These went on for days until the proximity sensors started to pick up activity from the roads and it seems that Nie's warnings were spot on. Because of their numbers, they were going in rashly without any scouts which made the Grey Bear Squad's bet pay off. This was because they had prepared an impromptu minefield using C4s and a few dozen claymores that were lying around in the Smith's warehouse. They were painstakingly placed by Click and a few of the mass produced Mechanoids as the very same group was currently staying at the frontlines to kill any scouts in case the private corpos sent them.
However, it seemed like there was no need for that now since the private corpos were confident enough that their superiority in numbers would be more than sufficient to forcefully take over the workshop thus the squad went straight to phase 2.
"Artillery team, take aim," Jin said as he connected the Tactical System to the defence team, allowing the Tactical System to provide exact coordinates for the bombardment. This was made possible by Jin's Maqi being stored in a power energy rod and placed all around the forest. Its energy was released so that it could work something akin to a temporary proximity sensor for the Tactical System while bypassing the enemies' sensors.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Fire!" Jin shouted and the Mechanoids simultaneously released the volley of bombardment like clockwork. When the Private Corpos Commanders heard the first loud boom, it did not register to them that they were artilleries and it shocked them that when they got hit where the concentrations of soldiers were the highest.
"Spread out! Spread out!" The commanders shouted but it was too late as many were shellshocked from the initial volley and this allowed the Mount Sunn's artillery team to fire the next volley with good toll of causalities. Also, Jin's proximity sensors manage to give the Tactical System an approximate movement of the army, enabling the Mechanoids manning the guns to adjust them accordingly and shoot with efficiency and precision.
"We were not told that the Workshop has long range artilleries! That is not what the recon had told us about!" Jin intercepted Private Corpos open communications channel with the help of the frequencies installed in the stolen Mechanoids. He chuckled knowing that it would be impossible for them to know since this was the power of the Tactical System, extending their barrels and installing impromptu boosters to ensure that those shells could travel further.
Of course, there was a price to pay knowing that after the use of those boosted artilleries, there was no way the workshop could ever salvage them again. They would be even more useless than scrap metal but for a one off long duration of battle, it was a good trade off for such guns. Even Old Fammet was impressed by how the Tactical System could influence at such a large scale, not knowing that it was capable to do even more. (In fact, he was doubtful, to begin with, and did not believe until he saw with his own eyes how his customised artillery guns enlarged on their own like a living creature evolving to suit the current circumstances.)
But for what it's worth, the thinning of their numbers was important even though they did not know Jin had a backup plan as well. The Grey Bear Captain could only hope that it would not come to such a situation. "All Fire Teams, continue firing until the entire army goes into the forest. Do not care about the advancing group, and kill all highly concentrated stragglers before we go into phase three." Jin commanded as he knew that despite the size of this particular army that came in, it could just be the start and the Private Corpos still have many to spare.
Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.