From the moment of his decision until the launch, Max had rushed to get everything organized and make sure that the Android's programming would be properly compatible with the assistance of the Pilots up in orbit.

They had confirmed that the Colony was still holding out against the Klem forces, and he had a full drone insertion force coming to clear the landing areas, as well as set up orbits around the planet so that they could have complete coverage for their Pilots although the world lacked a satellite network for them to hack.

It was a comforting, familiar feeling when Max strapped himself into the cockpit of Cleansing Light, which was crouched in the cargo hold of a modified Cutter. Especially once the announcements started.

[All hands prepare for launch. Departure scheduled in 15 seconds.]

The familiar voice made Max smile. Maybe on Absolution, fifteen seconds actually meant what it said, but during his early days aboard Abraham Kepler, it could mean anything from two minutes to right that instant.

Sure enough, fifteen seconds after the announcement, their ship began to move, gently gliding out of the bay. It was a much different experience than a Lander launch, but once the ship began to rumble and shudder through the atmosphere, his mind began to focus on combat again, and Max prepared for battle.

[Drone bombers have cleared your landing zone for insertion. The estimated clear time after bombardment is four minutes. Good luck Commander.] The announcement informed him as the map data went live on Cleansing Light's feed.

The Klem horde had been pushed back, and the defenders were celebrating the unexpected arrival of reinforcements, but the bugs wouldn't be held back for long, and this was a fully developed invasion.

Max could see at least a half dozen behemoths in the crowd already, each larger than his Mecha, and his Battalion of AI Pilots would be outnumbered a hundred to one the moment that they landed.

With thirty seconds to landing, Max checked on Nico, who should be descending right beside him, headed for the other side of the city. She was just as focused as he was, setting out a combat deployment plan for her companions, but Max noticed that she wasn't letting them just do their thing.

She had improved her [Drone Controller] System Function enough that she could override dozens of Mecha at once, but she was using it passively in a similar way that he was using [Unified Force] to coordinate his unit's actions.

The method was different, but the end result was similar.

[Doors will open in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]

The Cutter wasn't quite on the ground yet, but the Corvette Class Units surged forward the moment that the door opened, accompanied by the Fast Attack Crusaders, and moved to establish a perimeter around the Cutter while the other Mecha exited.

When Cleansing Light stood up outside of the Cutter and added its Disruptors to the barrage of fire that was holding the front lines of the Klem assault back, the Colony's communications net and citizens nearly went crazy in joy. Nobody cared that the Nation they fled from had been at war with the Reavers before being decimated. All that mattered was that there was a Titan Class Mecha here to save them from the Klem.

[Local defence, we will focus on the Eastern and Western fronts, to begin with, and then spread to encircle the Colony. How many souls require extraction?] Max asked.

[In all, there are approximately ten thousand survivors. We will defend as long as we can, but our military resources are very limited, and we have been using farm spec Mecha on the front lines.]

Farm spec usually referred to Mecha of an obsolete design. Or, for nations which didn't use a fully modular chassis, a unit which had seen so much structural damage that it was no longer fit for combat. But they could be stripped of their armour and sold at a discount, then used in place of conventional tractors on frontier worlds, where even farming was a life or death activity for the residents.

[We will have the Cutters hold their position until the encirclement is complete. If you look directly upward of your position, you will see the World Ship class Operations Center Absolution. We will extract you to that vessel as soon as the encirclement is complete and your residents can be safely removed from the surface.] Max informed the voice on the other side of the radio.

[Understood, Commander.]

Max switched his broadcast to the Battalion channel and began to give orders. [Thunder Guns, wide pattern bombardment. Turn the battlefield into an obstacle course for the Klem. Corvette Class units, brace for impact.]

The Klem Warriors were nearly on them, and his Disruptors could only hit so many at once, so Max let the light Mecha do their jobs while he picked a new target. There was a barrel-chested Klem Behemoth that looked like a beetle headed their way, and it was giving him a bad feeling.

If they looked like they contained a lot of innards, they were usually full of either something deadly or even more Klem, so Max focused his left arm's Disruptors on it, then blasted the Behemoth and everything within fifty meters of it into particles.

If it was one of the sorts that could spew acid or plasma at them, it wasn't anymore, but that had enraged the other Klem, and a barrage of spikes was flying his way.

Max cleared them with a burst from the Disruptors and moved forward to meet the charge of the Rippers before they could get to the light Mecha.

His defensive lasers were constantly firing, keeping the Klem Warriors off of Cleansing Light while he advanced, but there seemed to be no end to the tide, with more appearing by the second. Under normal circumstances, the dense mass of Warriors was an effective tactic for the Rippers to make combat uninjured, but Max still had time to cut a half dozen of the larger Klem down before the first one was close enough that he had to switch to melee weapons.

The System decided that Max needed to focus, and adrenaline surged through his body as he drew his sword, joined by the distinctive mental impression of joy that meant that Nico had landed and joined combat on the far side of the city.

[The sun is shining, the air is clear, and it smells of burnt Klem. It's a good day for a war.] Nico thought after her emotions caught his attention, sending Max into combat with the Rippers while wearing a smile on his face.

Indeed, it was a good day for a war.