Chapter 237: Form Up For Survival

The sound of the speeders caught the attention of the heroes and the Frost Giants alike as the convoy moved carefully down the mountain road. But it also drew resting heroes out of hiding.

The first Flight Suit team had been sitting tight in the woods, recovering their mana between assaults, when the convoy passed within a kilometre of them.

"Let’s get up. We can ride the roof of the carrier until it’s time to fight." Ivan instructed.

"Got it. It looks like the last groups that we rescued are in trouble again, the Frost Giants aren’t giving up, and they have the numbers to hunt through the forest." Sinn agreed.

The five Rogues flew low, beneath the treetops, so they didn’t attract attention, and joined the convoy. Sanchez opened the top hatch and removed his visor so they could see who they were speaking with.

"Good to see you alive. How is the kill count going?" He asked.

"Not bad. Eight temporary rescues so far, but we ran out of mana and had to rest. The suits and the Pulse Cannons both burn through it," Ivan explained.

"Yeah, it’s not perfect. But you’re all still here. Have you seen anyone other than the ones in the valley here?"

Ivan shook his head.

"There are two groups at the far side of the valley that aren’t fighting right now, but they both took heavy casualties right at the start. They appeared next to groups of Frost Giants. But they’ve got their carriers, so they can help the others get out of here if they’re down one."

"The road leads us to the other side, so we will have to fight our way to them, unless you want to lead them to another group.

Our plan was to pick up people as we go and build a stronger force, then take it to the Giants."

"That’s a good plan, I like it. If we can get to the group on the far left, they’ve got two mages still active. They’ll be best at shielding the group against ice attacks."

Sanchez checked the road, and nodded. "We can do that. Driver, make the best time that you can, don’t worry about comfort, as long as you don’t roll the carrier."

The carrier bounced down the dirt road, its suspension soaking up an impressive amount of punishment, while the occupants inside strapped themselves tight to their seats.

Then, a quick click on the radio informed them that they were nearly at their destination.

"I will take the top gun, everyone feed it mana. The speeders know what to do," Sanchez ordered.

However, they were not the first ones into battle. The Insects were both larger and faster than the vehicles of the humans, and they reached the Giants first, with Esmeralda chasing behind them on her Crocolisk.

The speeders darted overhead, laying down suppressive fire on the Frost Giants, who did not duck for cover, but placed ice shields over their heads.

However, the effect was the same.

They could not attack while they were putting everything into defending, so the heroes got a slight reprieve, and the rest of the team got time to close the distance while the undead surrounded the battle.

Out here in the mountains, there was no doubt that the undead were on their side, as the Frost Giants hadn’t seen the same trials that they had, if they had seen trials at all.

So, the gunners were careful not to target them, and the Frost Giants had to face enemies their own size.

That was not their specialty, Sanchez decided.

They were powerful and impressive, but they were no match for the insects, who were raw fury and chitinous armour that seemed to shrug off ice attacks as if they didn’t exist.

The Sergeant knew that it wasn’t that they were particularly strong, bullets and energy weapons took them down just fine. But they weren’t harmed by the cold. He couldn’t remember if there were any ice mages in the group, but the insects had died fine to fire and lightning.

Perhaps they were just a hard counter to the Frost Giants?

Sanchez laughed as the Pulse Cannon on top of the personnel carrier shook in his hands, and the Frost Giant assault team fell before the might of the Heroes.

With the advantage of superior numbers and giant murder bugs, the Frost Giant Patrol was eliminated in under a minute, and Sergeant Sanchez was immediately organizing them to go rescue another team.

"There is a chance that we’re only here until noon. Which means we’ve got an hour to rescue who we can, and counterattack the Frost Giants.

The more damage that we can do to them, the happier I will be," he informed the others.

Esmeralda smiled. "I like the way that you think. If we can send every speeder we’ve got on a fast run over the Frost Giant city right before noon, we can put a hurt on them, and then get sent back home in victory.

It’s just a shame that Kalli isn’t here to reload the rockets."

The Assault Speeder pilots laughed, "Yeah, we should start carrying spare rockets with us, just in case we need them while further from the city. But nobody thought that we were going to need them at all this time."

"Well, it’s a lesson for next time.

It wouldn’t have helped my team, as we were dropped into the middle of a Frost Giant training ground in the middle of the city. But some sort of life-saving or extreme damage emergency option would be a good thing for everyone to carry if they had the room."

Kruger nodded and gestured in the direction of the next team.

"I’ve got enough mana now, let’s go rescue our Heroes. I’m sure that they’re going to love this plan."

The flight suits lifted from the ground. "We will go first, keep at least three speeders with the carrier, in case of ambush. We can just keep moving forward and gathering teams until we reach the end of the valley, or find heroes somewhere else.

Are you getting anything on the radio?"

Sanchez shook his head. "Nothing from outside the valley. Might be interference from the hills."