The Mech Touch

The wave of energy seemed to travel a bit slow on the map, but in reality it moved incredibly swiftly for how much devastation it was able to wreak.

It was already absurd for a strange energy wave to knock out and possibly kill the minds of so many Bloody Herons and other elite mech pilots.

No one expected the reality-defying attack would go on to slaughter the entire crew of the Auralis.

This was one of the Gauge Dynasty's proudest fleet carriers! While she was certainly not the largest capital ship from the Friday Coalition, she possessed a rare deep strike configuration which allowed her to traverse much more distant stars at good speeds.

Unlike some of the other deep strike fleet carriers in Task Force Umbra, the Auralis was not a minimal effort.

The cheaper fleet carriers such as the Vanguard Group's Forward Momentum and the Puffer Clan's Orca Tyrant only carried the basics. They were thinner, lighter and offered less room for mechs. While that made them fairly maneuverable compared to other capital ships, this was hardly what military leaders sought in a vessel that was supposed to undertake dangerous missions behind enemy lines!

The Auralis was a true deep strike fleet carrier as far as everyone was concerned. She was clad in thick, premium starship hull plating that could take a heavy beating for a time. As long as the vessel rotated along her axis, she could absorb a huge amount of punishment as long as none of the incoming damage wasn't concentrated.

The Auralis was definitely the most expensive and impressive fleet carrier out of the five she traveled with. Not even the Konsu Clan's Amagi or the CRC's Eager Condemnation matched the luxuries that the Gauge Dynasty had foisted on the starship.

It was actually quite noteworthy that the Gauge Dynasty was even willing to supply such a valuable fleet carrier for this operation in the first place, but then again, it had many more capital ships to spare.

Yet for all of the defenses that granted the Auralis so much value, she possessed a least one major weakness.

Relative to the other deep strike fleet carriers, her mobility was abysmal. While her FTL range was commendable, that was solely due to the quality of her specialized long-ranged FTL drives.

Her sub-light propulsion system was actually quite powerful, but that was mostly responsible for allowing the lumbering vessel to keep up with ordinary transits. Her straight-line acceleration was barely passable, but her other maneuvering characteristics were wholly inadequate.

The Auralis was deliberately built to be tough enough to block and bounce off any damage with her powerful shield generators and heavy hull plating. There was hardly any capacity left to install powerful maneuvering thrusters that could help with turning her orientation or allowing her to dodge to the side in a timely manner.

The side thrusters were so weak relative to the mass of the lumbering vessel that it was as if a mouse attempted to move a chair.

Even though there wasn't any friction in space, it still took an awfully long time for these piddly thrusters to move displace an object that massed an uncountable of tons. Just like every other capital ship, the Auralis was so heavy that she was unable to land on a planet with standard gravity.

Considering all of these disadvantages, the Auralis was the perfect follow-up target for the energy wave. It was big, valuable, and difficult to defeat through conventional attacks.

Yet the death energy evoked by the Penitent Sister battle formation was not material in nature. Just like normal spiritual energy, it passed through every solid obstacle and only interacted with other forms of spiritual energy and spiritual phenomenon.

Aboard the Auralis, the only spiritual presence aboard the vessel was the inherited spirit of her crew. Over 20,000 crew members served aboard the well-staffed vessel. They serviced the mechs, ran the many functions of the vessel, facilitated the complicated and risky process of performing long-ranged FTL transitions and so on. All of these Fridaymen were highly-trained professionals with at least a decade of experience under their belt.

None of these Gaugers were weak!

Yet despite the prodigious defenses of the Auralis, the minds of all of these loyal and professional soldiers had been snuffed.

The vessel failed to evade the full breadth of the attack. While she had actually detected the danger and started to move in time to save at least a portion of her crew, she wasn't maneuverable enough to save them all entirely.

It turned out that it was pointless even if she succeeded. The energy attack exhibited enough control to correct its course, though it seemed to be a strenuous process.

Without being able to evade the mysterious attack, the crew was doomed. No shield generator and no hull plating was ever designed to block such an inexplicable attack method.

Only high-ranking expert pilots with expert mechs were supposed to be able to accomplish these kinds of feats!

Perhaps the only consolation for Task Force Umbra was that the absurd energy was not endless.

The death energy had already expended a lot of effort. It weakened faster passing through the massive fleet carrier of the Gauge Dynasty. This proved that the attack definitely had other limitations.

The green resonance corona vanished shortly afterwards, and with its passing the wave of energy dissipated in short order.

The incredibly magical and confounding effect shocked the entire battlefield for a time.

But only for a time.

"Finish off your opponent first! Leave the rest to the eggheads! Let the nerds puzzle it all out!"

The fight soon resumed as if nothing had happened. No matter how much everyone wanted to learn about how less than two-hundred mechs led by a fake expert mech managed to accomplish such a feat and whether it was repeatable, they still had a battle to fight!

The only people paying attention to the Valkyrie Prime and its accompanying Valkyrie Redeemers were those who feared a repeat.

They didn't know whether the Valkyrie mechs could launch a second wave.

In truth, the Penitent Sister mech pilots were already nearing their mental limits. Connecting to the battle network and channeling more energy than ever before had taken a very great toll on their minds.

To be honest, the power and reach of the energy surpassed their expectations! Even Ves was surprised that the attack actually managed to succeed in sweeping through the Auralis.

While he was very pleased with the unsurpassed power and scale of the earlier attack, the price was also considerable. When Ves accessed the pilot telemetry of the Penitent Sisters, he immediately noticed signs that they were completely spent.

It was hard for them to concentrate on piloting mechs after such a heavy exertion!

"This is strange.." Ves briefly frowned. "It wasn't like this before."

In previous tests, every activation of the battle formation took a lot of the Penitent Sisters, but they still retained at least some strength to fight for a time.

This was different.

As Ves tried to find an explanation, he recalled one of the experiments he performed.

He connected the Valkyrie mechs to the battle network as well!

As 'living' entities, why shouldn't they be able to participate in the battle network? The Valkyrie mechs may not be human Hexers, but they were completely designed as an extension of a specific aspect of the Superior Mother.

While Ves hadn't been able to observe how the mech interacted with the battle network when the mech pilots prayed to the Supreme, he reasoned that some of the extra power must have been brought by the mechs.

As for that weird homing function at the end, Ves guessed that the Superior Mother was able to maintain a connection to the wave attack. Whether the death energy had always been under her control or whether the resonance bestowed by Venerable Joshua added that capability was something that Ves would look at later.

Right now, they still had a battle to win!

"The Fridaymen are wavering!" Major Verle sounded both amazed and excited. "Their resolve is clearly shaking. Look at how their mechs are fighting at the moment. They look as if the wind had taken out their sails. Even their Praetor and Planat compatriots fighting on the right side are flustered!"

The Fridayman mech pilots who had been closest to the passing death wave were affected more than most. Their very souls had trembled as the soundless doom attack had caused them to experience fear on a primordial level.

Their excellent training, discipline and determination quickly reasserted themselves. As some of the best mech pilots of a powerful second-rate state, their wills were not so easily broken!

While they were still suffering from the afterattacks of escaping a brush of death, they managed to pick themselves up to an admirable degree.

Yet no one, not even the iron-willed Silent Swords, were able to fight as confidently as before.

The momentum of battle was a very nebulous concept. It swung back and forth according to many different variables, the most important of which was morale.

The elite Fridaymen did not easily lose their morale. They also did not break and rout even if the situation looked a lot more hopeless than before.

Yet that didn't mean they were emotionless robots. Aside from the shadow the extraordinary energy attack had left in their hearts, the Fridaymen mech pilots were also being pushed back for another reason.

A giant hole had been blasted in the middle of their battle line!

Once the mechs of the Bloody Herons and some of the other Fridayman mechs in the vicinity had lost their mech pilots, they became as useful as scrap metal. Even if their AIs took over control for a time, they were never designed to assume permanent control.

That was too dangerous.

Therefore, once their mech pilots had become braindead, the machines gradually powered down and silently drifted out of formation.

The void that had formed in the middle was not so easily filled.

Just like how the morale of the Fridaymen had sunk, the confidence of the expeditionary forces had risen to its highest level!

With the power of a death god on their side, the defenders eagerly pounced on the advantages created by the enormous move!

Mechs quickly filled up the gap and tried to split the off-balanced Fridayman mech units apart. Their goal was to cleave the enemy's carefully-arranged battle lines and put even more pressure on the enemies that remained!

"Cleave their formation apart and sandwich them from multiple flanks!"

"We've already wiped out over 200 of these bastards in an instant! If we can't capitalize on this advantage, then we will shame ourselves in front of the Superior Mother. Attack!"

The Larkinson and Crosser mech pilots fought as if they already saw light at the end of the tunnel. The reduced pressure from their enemies also contributed to their increasing confidence.

As for the Glory Seekers, their swing in momentum was much more drastic. As soon as they beheld the giant energy silhouette of the Superior Mother coming to life, they had already gone through a rapturous moment.

The Superior Mother was with them! Not only did she descend on the battlefield to inspire the righteous Hexer mech pilots in person, the Supreme also punished the wicked Fridaymen by waving her hand!

"For the Hegemony!"

"For the Wodin Dynasty!"

"For glory!"

Even though the Glory Seekers had suffered heavy casualties prior to this moment, the surviving mech pilots didn't care about that anymore. Their faith was so invigorated that it practically propelled them all forward.

No one thought about retreat at this time!

The huge swings in morale had a devastating effect on the Fridaymen elites who had previously acquitted themselves well. Slight disadvantages cascaded into major disadvantages. The old status quo had broken. The left side of the battlefield had firmly swung in the favor of the Golden Skull Alliance!

Yet before Ves could maintain his satisfied grin, a bridge officer conveyed shocking news.

"The Leskin has fallen! Venerable Banner Cross has been overwhelmed by the Jaenne D'Arc!"

More bad news poured in a moment later.

"The surviving Fridayman expert mechs have altered their battle posture! It looks.. it looks as if they are attempting to break through our lines at all costs!"