The Prophet sidled closer to him. "What think you?"
Hammerhand studied the scans for a few more seconds before he bit his bottom lip. Tinker said he always did that when he thought but it didn’t stir the need to try to stop it. The thought was more important than the accompanying action, after all. "I have scans coming in that show mechs patrolling the area around it. The approach is defended, and even if we could break through the ground defenses, every step up would be hampered by people firing down at us. It’s not the best situation to attack, although certainly better than the one we would face if we assaulted the main entrance."
"Agreed," the Prophet replied, likely having noticed the same movements he had. "I would say attacking at night would give us some advantage. To be able to scale the walls without being seen would likely be the best tactical decision for us to choose."
He shook his head quickly. "It’s possibly the best tactical decision in the long term, but not the short."
"What do you mean?"
"A night attack would likely give us an advantage in the short-term but in the long-term, it would be seen as a foreign invasion by a foreign enemy—Knights Mechanica and Desert Warriors attacking their base. There's nothing like a foreign threat to raise defensive morale and make them fight harder."
"So, your tactical suggestion would be to attack in broad daylight in hopes that it will not be seen as invading forces?"
"They'll know who is attacking and the word will spread faster. That way, they will know it is the people of Auburn and their defenders fighting to regain their land. Otherwise, it will allow their leaders to twist the narrative and make it seem like an invading force."
"I suppose this is true enough. However, we would not be able to break into that mesa using force of numbers alone. There would need to be tactical alterations to this, those that would allow some advantage if not surprise."
"It is likely that surprise will still be on our side, but there will be an element of trickery to it. The Knights and our Auburn allies could present as the first line of attack, make a show of assaulting the stronghold, and when it fails, fall back quickly. When we retreat, they would be forced to pursue and leave an opening for the rest of the force to slip in behind them and attack the mesa."
The Prophet didn't respond for almost a full minute, possibly while exploring the likelihood of an attack like that working. "Very well. It shows ingenuity and planning that would make our enemies think twice about how they conduct their operations. I like this. Let us make it so and discuss the details of how it shall be done."
Chapter Forty-Eight
There were a great many details involved in launching an attack on a well-defended position, and Hammerhand had to admit it wasn't his strength. It was like Tinker had told him—their strength lay in being able to strike at mostly unprotected locations quickly, hit them hard, and move on before any retaliation could be mounted.
It was what kept the Knights alive and prospering while in the areas infested by raiders, who had no sense of how to defend themselves properly and knew only how to attack from numerical superiority.
He did know a thing or two about mounting defenses and even a proper attack, which was how they had surmounted a few middling defenses they had come up against. But something like this that had been set up to be defended in the long-term? He was out of his depth. Tinker had a better mind for it, however, and talked to the Prophet and the other commanders of their troop to determine how it should be conducted.
"All right. All teams, listen up!" Tinker called and opened a comm line with the whole group. He brought the march to an almost instant halt. "We will assault the mesa ahead of us in the next few hours and coordination will be important. You'll all need to know your positions and your roles. The details and your places in them will be sent to every mech individually. From this point forward, there will be complete radio silence since the closer we get to them, the more likely it will be that they will be able to intercept our comms or even realize that encrypted comm lines are deployed close to them. That will be enough for alarms to be raised."
The Prophet said a few words over the comms as well, likely repeating what he had been said in a language some of the others could understand. Most spoke the same language they did, but some had difficulties with terminology and others spoke another language altogether, with running translation required for solid communication to be possible.
Hammerhand didn't mind. They were a cohesive group that appeared to want the same thing. He did harbor a few doubts, but those were kept close to his chest for the moment. They still needed the Prophet and his troops and offending them for no reason would be the very definition of self-sabotage.
The messages were sent and from the battle plan that had been drawn up, he would lead the first charge, which would inevitably be a feint. It made sense, he acknowledged, given that an Excalibur charging their front lines would catch their attention to the point where any thought that it could be a trap was forgotten. The chances were, if they didn't respond to the assault as expected, the Knights could thin the lines of their enemies before they called for a retreat, thus forcing more troops from the top of the mesa to descend to support the counterattack.
Obviously, it was rare that such plans worked out exactly the way they had been devised. There was no telling what might go wrong in the middle
