While the team was laying in wait for the outcome of the massacre, the Narsians who heard the commotion were already on the move.

[Prepare for incoming] One of the Crusader Class Pilots on sentry duty announced, seeing the first few enemy targets headed their way.

That was the signal for the advance troops to retreat back to base and prepare for combat, while Max and the others in Mobile Suits scouted the area for targets that the sensors missed.

[Move out together. I don't want anyone getting isolated and ambushed.] Max ordered quietly over the radio, heading deeper into the search zone looking for signs of additional hidden Narsian targets.

If they had dug one, it was reasonable to suspect that they had created at least one more as a backup, and that meant an intensive search to see where it might be located. Hidden below the ground as this one was, even his squad nearly missed it. If they didn't find the next one, the Narsians would have a chance to regroup and build up numbers for a surprise attack that might even be strong enough to wipe out the Kepler force in this area with a frontal assault.

[Sir, multiple Narsians are incoming from 275 degrees.] Ari called, alerting the group to the faint blips her sensors had picked up.

They were starting to get used to that now. The Narsian cloaking technology was very good, but not perfect, so when they were moving they would give off a faint signal, which the Kepler technology could detect, but not completely identify. But if you were watching closely, you could see the faint image show up before fading away again, and know that it was them.

[I count three Narsian infantry, let's move to intercept.] Max answers, carefully leading the way through the trees.

They're in mobile suits now, not Crusaders, so the element of surprise is their best hope at remaining undamaged. If they can kill the enemy without being seen at all, it's even better. Let them send out signals talking about ghosts in the woods.

The squad managed to make it to the trio, which turned out to be a Narsian scouting squad, without being detected. Max laid himself out on a slight rise in the woods, the mixture of camouflage and his Ghillie suit blending right into the surrounding forest floor. The other three picked similar shooting positions nearby and waited for the perfect moment.

Once the scouts were a little past them, they could land a clean shot to their backs and kill the giants without them ever knowing they were in danger.

The scouts moved silently over the forest floor, watching the trees and their sensors for signs of mecha, both nearby and having passed through the area. Even the light mecha would still rub trees and break branches as they passed, it was simply unavoidable. That made them very easy to track, which in turn made the enemy scouts a little bit lax in their duties since they didn't fear the Kepler Infantry.

Four shots flashed through the air, Three lasers and one Ion blast hitting the backs of the inept scouts and killing them instantly.

Their death causes a commotion though. The Narsians had gotten wise to Kepler's trickery, and put a heart rate monitor on their scouts, so the commander knew the instant they all died.

Twelve more giants came running through the woods, waving a high-sensitivity thermal detector around. Even with the stealth technology of the Mobile Suits, they weren't perfect, and that sensor would find them pretty quickly. Or at least a few of them, depending on the angle they approached from.

[When they reach twenty meters, fire at will. I will charge to draw their attention.] Max orders his team.

After the mystery gains that he got while visiting the Kepler 142 Space Station, his stats all had a baseline of 3 times human standard instead of 2, and his modifiers were growing quite impressive now, with his strength just recently breaching the 100 percent bonus mark, putting him over six times standard human strength.

The standard was set by the minimum requirements to pass the military physical fitness standards, so it was actually possible for a person to begin with a negative modifier to their one-point base if their system compatibility was low enough that their body wasn't keeping up, but for the most part, the Kepler citizenry with D rank or higher system compatibility were all well beyond what the other human nations would consider normal.

When the combat platoon reached the mark he set, Max used the thrusters on his Mobile Suit to launch himself into their ranks. With an Ion Pistol in one hand and a sword in the other, a standard fighting style that he and Nico had practiced for thousands of hours together, Max took the lead Narsian by surprise, blasting a hole in its face shield before kicking the body back into its comrades and cutting the right arm off the giant beside him.

As soon as his first strikes landed, the weapons fire from the other three began and the Narsians moved to shoulder their rifles. All except the three at the front that is, who wielded a mix of swords and a two-handed war hammer to face Max, who was still moving rapidly into their ranks.

Not having time to properly holster his weapon, Max simply dropped the pistol and pulled the small combat shield attached to the Mecha's pack free from under his Ghillie suit. The mighty hammer slammed down on his hastily raised arm, nearly driving Max to his knees, but the Mobile Suit held, the overwhelmed hydraulics were bolstered by the pure physical strength of the Pilot inside, as the designers intended.

The giant didn't even have time to marvel at the fact that this human could take a direct strike from his weapon and remain standing before a Laser Rifle shot from the woods caught him in the throat and left him gasping for breath.

Max knew that the giant was as good as dead, so he turned his attention to the others, sweeping his blade in an upward arc designed to sever the Narsian's leg. The soldier got his sword down in time to block the first strike, but Max's blade bounced off the much more sturdy one it wielded and the Mobile Suit activated thrusters to move behind him faster than the giant could turn his body.

The next strike of the blade cut through the softer sections of the armor, where it was designed to flex for arm movement, and dug deep into the body before twisting and pulling out in a fountain of blood.

The remaining Narsians were about to turn their rifles on Max when an unexpected guest joined the battle, a single damaged Corvette Class Mecha of the Comor Pattern joined the fight, using an Ion Cannon to blast two of the giants apart at the same time and totally changing their target priority.

Max recognized the markings on that mecha, it was one of his, a member of Paul's wing that stayed behind for Rear Guard action and was assumed lost in battle.

With the heavier support, they now had the battle won, with three more Laser shots expertly dropping Narsian fighters and the Ion Cannon of the Corvette taking another, leaving one last warrior to fall to Max's blade.

[It's good to see you again. We thought that everyone on Rear Guard was lost.] Paul welcomed his Pilot back home.

[It's good to be back Captain, but I wouldn't say I really survived by much. I'm about out of first aid supplies, but the bleeding is still bad, I think it's internal. My mecha was knocked into the swamp and powered down due to damage. The self-diagnostic got it running again after a few hours and I snuck away while they made camp by the mine.] The pilot explains his seemingly miraculous recovery.

Just the fact that his mecha came back online is a small miracle. The entire structure is in bad shape, and the armor is devastated. But all four limbs are working, at least a little, and it just proved that it was still combat capable, so once they get back to camp they can get it on a repair rack and get it back to serviceable condition.

[Any other signs of survivors?] Max asked hopefully.

[At least one, though they're likely not alive anymore. When I fled they were torturing someone in the middle of the camp, and building a hero's pyre for someone. You know the ones from the training data that they build for warriors that kill more than fifty in a single battle.]

Max knows the ones, they're typically made up of human corpses, the victims of the mighty warrior that fell to help them secure victory. Fifty or more confirmed kills in a single battle is incredible though, and Max doesn't recall any outstanding Narsian warrior that might have qualified, so the shaken pilot might be mistaken, and they were simply collecting the bodies for disposal.

The Narsians usually leave the dead where they fall, returning them to the soil of the planet they fell on, but in a case like a swamp, where the end result would just be rot, fouled water, and an even worse smell, they sometimes light funeral pyres to dispose of the bodies.

[Command says the unit that attacked us has moved on. I will find us an excuse to go back and collect our dead as soon as I can.] Max informs the others, more to assure himself that he hasn't forgotten them than for the benefit of anyone else.