The Mech Touch

The Gravada Knarlax. The proud ship bore her unusual-sounding name with pride.

No one knew why the Allidus Alliance bestowed this name to her. It sounded as if she was named after someone, but Gravada Knarlax could also be named after a planet or star system.

Whatever the case, the Gravada Knarlax had acquired an infamous reputation in the Nyxian Gap. Even in the core regions where the spatial warping and other anomalies caused many complicated systems to fail, the Gravada Knarlax had managed to remain intact for decades.

This was an incredible feat considering that any MTA or CFA warfleet that ventured in the core regions always suffered unavoidable losses sooner or later.

Few people were aware why the Gravada Knarlax remained safe and sound. This was despite the fact the Allidus Alliance continually upgraded her with energetic exotics! These materials were more prone to exciting the dangerous forces of the Nyxian Gap.

Any Nyxian pirate that had lived in the region for a few years knew that gathering too many potent but unstable exotics was a recipe for disaster. The higher the concentration, the greater the chance of something going wrong!

This was why few pirate factions followed in the footsteps of the Allidus Alliance and built their own warships. They could not guarantee that their new flagships would be safe from the disasters that had spelled doom for many grand works in the Nyxian Gap!

Only a small number of high-ranked pirate leaders knew of a way to stave off disaster. Certain groups and natives from the Nyxian Gap claimed to possess the power to prevent or suppress the onset of anomalies.

The Hallowed Abyss Temple was one of the most prominent organizations to make this claim!

While it sounded ridiculous that a group of weird cultists were able to affect the fabric of reality inside the Nyxian Gap, they had proved ability plenty of times for the people in the know to take them seriously.

Therefore, at the small cost of letting the Temple erect shrines in their territories, the pirate lords all gained a measure of security.

What even fewer people knew was that the Hallowed Abyss Temple forged even deeper ties with certain pirate factions. Lord Hivex of the Allidus Alliance possessed a deeper relationship with the Watchers of the Temple. More figures in black and grey robes roamed the ships and bases of the Allidus Alliance than anywhere else. Some of the Allidus pirates had even converted to the cult!

Right now, the intermingling between Allidus and the Hallowed Abyss had led both of them to push for a confrontation against the Larkinson Clan.

Standing in the middle of the huge and expansive bridge of the mighty Gravada Knarlax, two powerful figures observed the battle through the large central projections.

One of the figures was a large, imperious-looking man. Wearing a resplendent suit of chrome-like armor that was bedecked with trophies and marks, Lord Hivex truly exuded the aura of one of the most pirate lords of the Nyxian Gap.

Despite his success and rise to power, nobody knew where Lord Hivex came from. His origins were a mystery, and so were his aims. So far, he single-handedly raised the Allidus Alliance to a formidable power in the core regions through a combination of shrewd decisions and ruthless determination.

He was the first in the Nyxian Gap to order the construction of an armed warship! Though he took a lot of risks for doing so, his gambit paid off. With the help of a strong and overpowering warship, hardly any other pirate faction wanted to challenge Allidus Alliance!

Such a figure should have been at the height of his power at this time. Yet oddly enough, the imposing pirate leader had adopted a restrained posture. It was as if he was not the ultimate authority in the formidable pirate fleet.

This was all due to the other figure that stood besides the legendary pirate lord.

Few Nyxian pirates were able to recognize his black-beared appearance underneath his ragged but thick black robe. Since the battle had commenced, the dark figure had done nothing but observe the projections of the ongoing battle.

At some point, the robed figure stirred. Lord Hivex noticed the movements.

"Black Watcher Ortis, is there something amiss?"

"Something is stirring. The Larkinson Clan.. is more powerful than I expected. The Dark Gods are right to be concerned." A gravelly voice responded.

Lord Hivex slightly shook his head. "If this is the extent of the Larkinsons, then I do not see the need for your Temple to intervene. This vessel is already pounding their assets into scrap. I admit that those approaching suicide ships are of some concern, but our enemies think too lightly of our firepower.

The Gravada Knarlax had already destroyed or knocked out a number of unusual combat carriers.

From the modifications made to them, it did not take long for the Allidus pirates to conclude the second-class combat carriers had all been converted into suicide ships.

Ever since Lord Hivex discovered this fact, he ordered the Gravad Knarlax to prioritize taking them out. As long as all nine of her main cannons concentrated their fire on a given ship, not even the ships built by Hexers were able to withstand the damage!

The broken fragments of many of these ships littered the surrounding battlespace. Their potent, explosively payloads drifted off into space without the chance of detonating against their intended targets.

If this pace of destruction continued, none of the Hexer suicide ships should be able to come anywhere close to the Gravada Knarlax!

Yet as time went by, the Black Watcher continued to sense something dangerous. He tried to commune with his dark god.

As a black-robed member of the Hallowed Abyss Temple, he outranked the Grey Watchers. Usually, important figures like him were stationed at the physical location of the temple or particularly important outposts.

The Gravada Knarlax happened to be his current station. His presence alone bestowed powerful, mysterious capabilities to the heavy cruiser!

In fact, Lord Hivex and a handful of other Allidus leaders believed that Black Watcher Ortis alone contributed as much to the ship as one or two of her mighty turrets!

This meant that anything that made the Black Watcher uneasy was enough reason for Lord Hivex to put his guard up. He knew that the Larkinson Clan was still holding some of its strength back, but what could they possibly do against the pride and joy of his fleet?

"Not good!" The Black Watcher uttered and pointed at the map! Over there!"

"What is it, Your Excellency?!"

"A storm is brewing! It's too late!"

As the battle between the two forces became more intense, a sudden change swept over the pirate fleet.

Some time earlier, the Penitent Sister mech that received a special from Ves had snuck forward amidst the chaos. The Hexer mech pilot deliberately chose to swing around in order to avoid the brunt of fire pouring down the middle.

Even though her mech stood out a bit, no one paid attention to a single odd mech amidst an ocean of mechs. Most pirates dismissed her machine as a scout, which suited her just fine.

It wasn't until she crossed a certain line that a number of pirate mechs received orders to block her from approaching further. Scout or not, letting any sneaky enemy get too close was not a good idea!

Once she recognized that she could go no further, the Penitent Sister decisively launched the torpedo.

The specially-constructed torpedo launched forward. Its powerful thrusters immediately accelerated forward at a rate of acceleration that could make Tusa jealous!

The odd torpedo immediately attracted the attention of the pirates that were tasked with intercepting the lone mech. It took some time for them to report their findings to their superior, who in turn had to report to an Allidus officer.

By the time the pirates directed some of their fire against the odd torpedo, the mysterious projectile had already crossed a fair distance. In the meantime, its thrusters kept increasing its forward speed. This not only made it more challenging to land a hit, but also decreased the time it reached its target!

"Damn, what is up with this missile?! Why haven't you shot it down already? It's practically racing forward in a straight line!"

"But boss, we did hit a bunch of times. It didn't go down!"

"What?! Are you serious?!"

This was not any torpedo. Ves had not only used up plenty of Breyer alloy and some other precious materials, but he also reinforced its nose and forward sections with a layer made out of scraps of extremely valuable Unending alloy!

"The big missile, no, torpedo, is heading straight at the Mortis Greyson!"

"I have a bad feeling about this. Tell those ship boys to shoot it down!"

The Mortis Greyson was the second-most powerful warship of the pirate fleet. While her dimensions and tonnage paled in comparison to the Gravada Knarlax, the destroyer and her formidable laser cannon turrets formed a powerful deterrent against both Penitent Sister mechs and lightly-armored Larkinson ships alike!

Just like the Gravada Knarlax, the Mortis Greyson possessed its own suite of secondary gun batteries. While they were primarily designed to fight against hostile mechs, they also functioned as point defense.

Since the Mortis Greyson was already directing a prodigious amount of power reactor output to her primary laser cannons, the destroyer opened fire with a formidable array of ballistic cannons.

Though fairly inaccurate by nature, their large quantities along with the support of advanced ship systems caused them to land a lot of hits against the incoming torpedo.

To the ship crew's surprise, none of the impacts managed to take out the odd torpedo! In fact, other than slowing it down a bit, the enemy projectile began to unleash an even greater burst of acceleration, giving very little time for the pirates to direct more fire in its direction!

"It's coming close!"

"Careful!"

Before everyone knew it, the torpedo reached the Mortis Greyson!

The torpedo thudded against her hull with so much force that its Unending alloy nose pierced straight through the thick but softer hull plating!

Many of the pirates aboard the pirate destroyer had braced themselves and unfolded the helmets of their vacsuits or hazard suits over their heads. Each of them expected some kind of explosion to detonate inside the ship.

Yet as half a minute passed, the pirates slowly relaxed. They looked confused at each other.

Was the torpedo a dud? Had the Larkinsons screwed up somehow? What was the point of launching this powerful and expensive torpedo at their ship?

"Send a security party to the compartment where the torpedo has landed!" The captain ordered. "I need visuals on it immediately!"

One of the officers located the compartment the torpedo had finally breached before it bled out all of its momentum. The disturbingly-intact cylinder rested quietly as it had pushed halfway through the bulkhead leading into a storage compartment.

As the captain observed the strange torpedo through the projection, a part of him began to feel uneasy. It would have been better on his nerves if the torpedo detonated already.

A few seconds later, he received a priority transmission from the Gravada Knarlax. Before the captain had time to play the message, the projection of the breached compartment suddenly lost signal.

Seconds later, a huge unstable wave of pressure engulfed the entire Mortis Greyson! The captain and everyone else aboard the ship screamed as they felt as if something was trying to crush their minds!

"Ahhhhh!"

Just thirteen seconds, the heads of the captain and every other crew member aboard the pirate destroyer exploded!

As blood, bone and brain tissue rained all across the interior of the destroyer, the broken spirits of the recently-deceased didn't even have time to dissipate.

An enormous suction force dragged the spiritual remains to the location of the torpedo. As soon as every scrap of remnant spiritual energy disappeared, a silent roar erupted from the Mortis Greyson.

The surrounding ships and mechs all paused for a moment as the roar affected both man and machine!

An instant later, an unimaginably powerful force cracked the Mortis Greyson! The pirate destroyer deformed as if a huge monster was trying to escape from within!