All three plummeted at a furious pace and he could hear the impacts. He didn't have time to make sure Windchime was all right and could only assume the man knew what he was doing.
The other defenders began to close on the Knights formation, and Hammerhand dropped his shield. He gave his people a signal to fire once more when it came down, and they didn’t wait for a second after.
In the moment when the defenders began to draw away to find cover, he took a step forward, raised the hammer high, and swung it hard onto the mechs in front of him. A group of Cinders had hidden behind an improvised shield brought out for mobile defense. A small notch appeared where the shield dug into the hard titanium of the hammer’s head, but it made no difference as the Cinders were crushed under his blow.
There was no spark and nothing to blow the napalm tanks, and he took a few long strides back, raised his shield again, and highlighted the crushed mechs. This identified them as potential targets to blow when the remainder of the defenders pressed forward into a new assault.
Mercy dictated that he should probably wait for those pilots who might have survived his assault to exit their mechs. Under almost any other circumstances, he would have followed his natural instincts. In this case, though, they needed almost any advantage they could find, and that meant subjecting the possibly surviving pilots to a horrifying death by fire.
A couple of the Sherlock mechs acquired the targets and fired tracer rounds into them.
They had to make a few attempts to achieve their purpose. All that was needed was one good strike and they would go up in flames. The heat built slowly and it wasn't long before the three exploded and swept the mechs around them with fire as well.
It was something at least. The tactic had broken their charge again and slowed any kind of advance, but it was a delaying maneuver at best. The slower, heavier Raptors began to set up as soon they came within range.
Once their missiles joined the assault, the Knights wouldn’t last very long. They had managed to hold their own in the fight thus far, but they had taken losses. While these were limited to their Auburn allies—his team had sustained damage but no deaths—it was still too many losses, he thought belligerently.
"Where the fuck are they?"
He took care not to air his doubts on the comms, but as every second ticked past, he began to suspect more and more that they were on their own.
They would have to call a full retreat. It would mean guiding those who would follow into the ravine and he’d have to break through the Balthazars at their backs, but a retreat at this point would save more lives than it cost.
Assuming, of course, that nothing went to shit when they withdrew.
He growled with annoyance before he keyed the comms. "Tinker, bring us—"
His words were cut off by the loud horns that broke through the evening air and rose well above the noise of furious combat.
Hammerhand knew the sound and a wave of relief washed over him when the Prophet's Desert Warriors began to rush in from the flanks and circled to try to strike at the rear of the defending mechs' line.
"And it's about fucking time," he muttered, his comms inactive for a moment.
Tinker pinged him and brought him online again. "What were you going to say before?"
"Never mind that. Get us moving forward again!"
Chapter Fifty-Two
There was no logical way to explain the delay. The FEMA mechs had been out in the open for a while before the Prophet decided to bring his mechs into the fight.
But now was not the time to determine who was to blame or why the delays had happened. The FEMA mechs attempted to pull back, not quite sure what was happening but very sure that something had gone wrong.
The Knights had drawn them out and they’d thrown their full contingent of assault and support mechs into an assault designed like a pincer around the Knights and rebels, but all that had gone wrong. They were now flanked and their Quadrupeds and artillery mechs were exposed and under attack by the new force that had come seemingly out of nowhere.
In all their efforts to repulse the potential invaders, they had neglected the possibility that they might be drawn into a trap themselves. They now attempted to withdraw and connect with their rearguard to protect them, but it soon became clear that it wasn’t enough. The Prophet's mechs and vehicles already swarmed onto the Guardians that attempted to drive them back and their combined onslaught of both bullets and blades cut the mechs down as quickly as possible.
Hammerhand raised his weapon and gestured forward with it, a clear sign to drive the Knights and rebels forward to take advantage of the moment of desperation and confusion of their enemies. They did not intend to wait or rest on their laurels.
The Knights wanted to engage the enemy again, especially now that they were in a situation to win.
The desert fighters made quick work of the artillery and rocket mechs that desperately tried to pull back to the steps of the mesa. There was no cover for the defenders as their assault mechs faced a powerful attack from the Knights, a second prong that was spearheaded by Hammerhand. His shield was up to allow him to close the distance between the two groups, but once he was in close, they wouldn’t be let off so easily.
He rushed into their lines and used the shield to push them back. Heat flared from the
