Scarlet panted heavily as she lay back into her chair – She had hoped her efforts not to use enhancers as often would make battles less exhausting, but that didn't seem to be the case.
   Looking to her main monitor she watched the now lifeless rumble of more than a dozen fallen mechs float by – They had soundly defeated the enemies first wave, 12 forward scouts were now nothing but scattered sheets of red and purple metal – Interspersed between these were the corpses of 3 fallen Nemos – Overall it was an acceptable victory.
   “Now to deal with the other 88...” She muttered.

Of course this small debris field of slain mecha was nothing compared with what was just a few miles behind her, the defence-line and past it the still raging fields of No-man's land.
   Just the sight of were her other squad-mates were still valiantly fighting on was enough to get Scarlet to straighten back up and reach for her comms dial;
   “Alright you lot, well done but this is only the start – If you're damaged, get fixed – And everyone get refuelled than back into position. We took that first wave by ourselves but the next ones we'll have the mines to aide us – Lets do this!”

A few replies echoed back at her and the surviving 8 Nemos got to work doing as instructed – The battle to hold off Remembrance was just beginning.
   As Scarlet readied her own machine for what was to come, she looked out once more at No-man's land in the distance, 'You lot better be doing ok out there...'

****

Kolme let out a long yawn before wiping the sleep from his eyes and lowering his helmet visor – A moment later he stepped through the sealed doors and back into the Fluchtig's main hanger-bay.
   He had only had 10 minutes out of the cabin while Chief Pel preformed repairs and optimisation, but it was already time to head back out – At this point there wasn't really anyone for Kolme to leave in charge in his absence except for Tomo.

He strode across the cavernous space, carefully weaving between engineers and mechanics hard at work salvaging parts of some destroyed machines and repairing those that might yet still fly.
   Nearing his own Neo-C he spotted Chief Pel herself and beckoned the jubilant woman to come over.
The Chief was as ever a short person with a large personality, a spanner in hand, her space suit more soot coloured than white.

“How's it going?” Kolme asked as cheerfully as he could muster.

Pel frowned a little playfully;
   “For the commanders machine you have taken far too much damage Mr.Kolme, far too much.”

Kolme did his best to laugh in good humour before asking the real question, “Wat'cha think in general lass?”

Pel's foe frown transitioned into a real one, filled with exhaustion and worry - “It is not good Mr.Kolme. We have only around 80 machines that can still move left in the line, but more than that – Once this is over, to get those machines working again in time for the next battle will be almost impossible.”

“Next time? Pel we just got'ta hope there isn't a next time after this for all our sakes – Anyway thanks for your hard work.”       Kolme said back, patting her on the shoulder and starting off over to his machine.
   With both Scarlet and Hoki's teams now seeing to other duties there was no longer anyone out in the chaos to help guide stranded machines back to the line, that meant their numbers were now exclusively going down and it was starting to show.
   Kolme suddenly turned on his heal remembering something and calling out to Pel, “Ah actually Chief, you seen Lieutenant Tomo recently? Just, when I called for him he didn't answer so I presumed his machine was being serviced too but I don't see it here?”

Pel's face took on a truly pained expression, “Mr.Kolme the lieutenant fell in battle nearly an hour ago – His machine was brought back but he dead inside the cockpit, I saw as such with my own eyes.”

“A-Ah eh? You did? I see....”

“My greatest apologies Sir, someone should of notified you or the bridge.”
   Pel bowed her head deeply.

Kolme floundered his arms at this, “No, no, you're busy enough – My job is keeping track of pilots not yours, think nothing of it. Its just.... Ah well, it is what it is – Thank you Chief.”
   With that Kolme kicked off the ground and floated the rest of the way up to his machine's entry-hatch.

He knew Scarlet was fine, he could see the rear defence position from his Neo-C's place above the Fluchtig but his thoughts went to other pilots like Tomo who he couldn't hope to keep a constant eye on – 'Sabban, Hoki, you two better come back to me, please.'