"I need to form ten teams of a hundred mechas. You will be suicide squads to charge and lock down any ambushing parties that appear. Trust me, your contributions would not go unnoticed. These academy instructors record everything." Sheera Lin called out.
"I will lead the first Hammer Squad!" I shouted eagerly. "If you want to join my Hammer Squad, follow me!"
Instantly my bunkmates and Tes jumped ahead to come after me.
"I will lead the second Hammer Squad." Olivia Summers called out resolutely.
"Golden Bear Squad, form up!" A familiar voice rang out. It was the Golden Bear Squad leader's voice.
One after another, volunteers started appearing. Pre formed squads and brave individuals jumped up and called for their buddies and friends to join them.
"Come! Let's give those damned ambushers a taste of their own medicine! Get revenge for what they did to us in the Grand Melee! It's probably the same bunch of idiots!"
"There is no greater love than those who lay down their lives for their friends! You brave souls! Join me!"
"Come join my Hammer 7! We will destroy those ambushers single handedly and claim the greatest glory for today's mission!"
With so many enthusiastic kiddos jumping forward and lighting up fires in the hearts of all the kids, hundreds responded.
Very soon, all ten Hammer Squads were filled.
It was amazing how things turned out from being openly hostile to my initial attempt to gather them, into one that filled a thousand suicide spots within minutes!
"The rest of you will advance when I say so. Your task will be to knock down any ambushers still alive AND to bring with you your fallen comrades. Remember, LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND!" Sheera Lin's voice rang out with righteous fervor.
"Yes!" The rest of the kids shouted excitedly.
At that moment, the first bunch of idiots finally triggered the first ambush.
Fifty standard practice mechas suddenly burst out of a large pile of wreckage and swarmed a small cluster of five mechas passing by them.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The five mechas had no chance. They were quickly put down.
"Charge! Get the others!" The leader of the fifty ambushers shouted loudly and sprinted towards the next cluster of mechas.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Upon seeing the fifty ambushers, the other frankenstein mechas finally realized their mistake.
"Damn! There really are ambushers! As if getting across this hell hole at high speed isn't difficult enough!" One of them cursed and immediately tried swerve away from the incoming ambushers.
However, the ambushers were designed with speed in mind, and they very rapidly closed the distance between them and the next bunch of mechas.
They were doomed.
"Charge!" Victor Long shouted.
As one, the fiendishly competent Long family members and their stout hearted followers charged forward in their frankenstein mechas.
Ghastly raptors, humanoid monsters, beast form mechas and all sorts of travesties thundered forth towards the fifty ambushers!
"Heavy mechas above fifteen tons take the flanks." Victor Long calmly instructed. "Wedge formation."
The group mechas shifted their formation as they charged and formed up behind Victor Long at the lead.
Like the first wave, the second wave was most probably doomed. There was no way that there were only fifty ambushers. They would probably get ambushed as well.
But it was crucial that they charge to bait out even more ambushers, so that the others could then deal with them.
Victor Long was a brave kid, and more than that, he was also competent and confident.
Even though he knew he was doomed, he also knew that a solid performance by him was crucial.
If he was able to solidly resist his own ambushers and force them to send out more mechas to deal with him, he would disrupt the plans of the ambushers and create chaos within their ranks!
And when that happened, the chances of them winning would rise dramatically.
His actions were impressive as hell.
As expected, three hundred practice mechas surged out of several wreckages around Victor Long and his group.
They closed around Victor Long like a clenched fist.
"Keep charging ahead after me!" Victor Long shouted. His group of frankensteins immediately punched through the fifty or so mechas blocking them from the front and continued their mad dash towards the fifty ambushers.
"Justin. Go on ahead and reinforce Victor. After that, remain in the battlefield and fight till the end." Sheera Lin said calmly.
In effect, she had just sentenced me and my group to death, even if we succeeded in our first mission objective to relieve Victor's group.
And she probably did so without batting an eyelid. The Eternal General knew my strength, and wished to use me and squeeze me completely dry in the field of battle.
It was the first time she did that to me. But it was definitely, definitely not the last time.
"Fine. So be it." I replied in a calm voice as well. "Brothers. Dying in battle with you today is my greatest honor! Charge!!"
I said those words in what I thought was a mighty and grandiose manner.
But alas, it completely failed to achieve what I set out to do.
Instead of inspiring my men to shout out with an impassioned and resounding roar, I merely got a bunch of sarcastic comments in reply.
"Huh? You're dying? With who? Are you sick?" Roland Hu shouted loudly even as he charged directly behind me and to my right faithfully.
"Who the hell wants to die here? Dumbass!" Jack Yang cursed at me as he took his position behind me as well to my left.
"Pui! Dying with you here is a disaster! I should have stayed behind and joined the final clean up group!" Barrick Rui grumbled.
"I'm not dying here. But don't worry, I will carry your dead mecha with me if you do. Consider it me returning you the favor." Tes said quietly.
"Yeah, dumbass." Another unknown punk cursed at me.
"Dumbass." Another one agreed.
To a man, they "died" with great honor that day.
But what a death they had.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢