The Mech Touch

On the surface, the condition of a mech pilot's body was unrelated to the individual's ability to pilot a mech.

In theory, as long as a mech pilot's head got cut off from his body, he would still be able to interface with a mech!

In the early days of the Age of Mechs, some pioneering mech designers wanted to test if this was actually the case!

The problem was that these research-obsessed scientists and engineers didn't want to wait for a mech pilot to suffer an injury that was so heavy that his or her entire body below the neck would have to be scrapped.

The early-generation mech designers captured mech pilots belonging to an enemy state and cruelly separated their heads and stuck them into containers to keep them alive!

When these body-less heads were mounted into mechs in a twisted attempt to create 'semi-permanently active mechs', the results failed to meet the expectations of the mech designers.

Leaving aside whether the test subjects were even willing to fight on behalf of their tormentors, their ability to control the mechs encountered significant issues!

Deeper studies revealed numerous issues that contributed to the drop in performance.

The simple answer was that the mech pilots simply weren't comfortable enough. Piloting a mech was like replacing a human body with a mech frame, but not quite. For reasons that only the most knowledgeable neural interface specialists were able to understand, a mech pilot ideally had to possess a complete and healthy body.

This was mainly based on the mech pilot's perception. It didn't matter if the mech pilot had heavily augmented his body. Regardless of whether he was carrying cranial implants, cybernetic organs or regrown limbs, as long as the mech pilot was comfortable in his own skin, then he wouldn't experience too many hindrances in piloting mechs.

Those who suffered physical debilitations all encountered problems when piloting their mechs. The technical reasoning behind this was complicated and too profound for Ves to understand, but the bottom line was that people who thought that something was wrong with their bodies always performed less than optimally!

Considering Vincent's personality and frequent complaints about his inform state, it shouldn't have been a surprise to see the Rotenring trip on its feet as if it was a baby that was just learning how to walk!

The consequences of a mech tipping over was quite severe. Their weight was so great that Ves would have lost balance if he wasn't wearing an armored suit!

Plenty of tools and objects shook from their positions and the sudden displacement of air even pushed them away!

The biomech technicians had fortunately retreated far enough to remain unaffected, but they all looked incredulous at what had happened.

Maintaining the balance of a mech was one of the first lessons that every mech pilot learned! Even if Vincent was infirm, he should have been able to maintain at least that much control over a new mech!

"I hate this biomech!" Vincent transmitted to Ves over a comm channel. "I can't stand this mech. It's so different from the Adonis Colossus that I can talk all day over what is wrong this stupid lump of flesh."

Ves grew annoyed. "I don't care. Get your mech back on its feet and go out! The enemy mechs are already closing in and they'll soon bump into our own mechs! If you aren't out there by the time the fighting starts, Jannzi and our new allies will have a very hard time holding back more than twice their number of opponents!"

"I know, I know! It's just.. I can't figure out this damn biomech! Do you know how disgusting it is to pilot a mech that is like a giant version of a neutered man? It doesn't help that this mech is balanced differently than my precious Adonis Colossus!"

Despite his complaints, Vincent was already trying to recover. He knew the stakes as well as Ves so he tried his best to get the mech back up its feet.

He succeeded, but not as gracefully as Ves had hoped. The Rotenring moved as if it was drunk and under the influence of other substances. Its shaky arms hesitantly pressed the mech to a sitting position. After a bit of scrambling, its legs finally managed to bend and balance in a way that allowed the striker mech to get back up its feet.

It had to pick up the shotgun that it had dropped to the ground, and that was another difficult test of Vincent's control.

Fortunately, the biomech came with plenty of auto-balancing systems that assisted Vincent in keeping the Rotenring on its feet. Once the mech grabbed the heavy shotgun, it began to move out just as sounds of fighting echoed from beyond!

"Our side has just made contact with the enemy! Hurry and repel the enemy!"

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Vincent complained. "I can't risk moving too fast!"

The Rotingring waddled forward at a manner that ensured greater stability but cut its speed by at least 30 percent. Though Ves was frustrated at the sight, there wasn't much he could do at the sidelines.

If Vincent was piloting an LMC mech like the Bright Warrior, then there were many ways for Ves to manipulate the mech.

The Rotenring wasn't his work, though. The biomechs utilized by the Roving Hunters were all designed by several Seniors who partnered up with the competitive team.

Several hundred meters away, the two sides had already started to come to blows.

The enemy not only brought more biomechs, but also a greater quantity of ranged firepower!

Two rifleman mechs fired a steady frequency of positron beams. Venerable Jannzi had arrived just in time for her to utilize the Perringer's medium shield as a barrier against the attacks that were aimed towards Bluestar.

The slimmer marauder mech excelled in mobility, but right now the large loading hall was not conducive to its operation!

A random distribution of crates, vehicles and other objects were loosely spread across the entire hall. They were large and solid enough to hurt any mech of it attempted to walk through, but they were also too low and fragile to serve as functional cover!

All of this meant that the invading biomechs immediately assumed superiority!

The enemy mech squad happened to consist of a balanced mix of biomechs.

Two knight mechs with thick tower shields steadily advanced from the front.

Two spearman mechs were huddling right behind the knight mechs, ready to poke their spears past the shields or turn around to respond to any threats from the rear.

Two swordsman mechs circled around the flanks. They weren't in a hurry to engage just yet. They were capable of inflicting the most damage when their opponents became locked in battle against the frontal components of the mech squad.

Two rifleman mechs positions at the rear were already inducing a steady degree of pressure towards the four, now five opposing mechs.

One auxiliary mech remained close to the ranged mechs. Its role wasn't entirely clear, but its slim size suggested that it wasn't too powerful.

All in all, the numbers and tactics utilized by the ultralifer mechs showed that they definitely knew their business!

When Ves patched into the feed of the Perringer, he tried to gauge the strength of the enemy biomechs.

"Ugh. What makes a good biomech?"

He didn't understand biomechs nearly as well as classical mechs. They were like alien parodies of metallic mechs to Ves. He could only form his judgement on other details such as mass, density and other properties.

Soon enough, he formed some reasonable estimates.

The good news was that the quality and cost of an individual enemy biomech was lower than that of any of the five competitive mechs.

The bad news was that their quality was still serviceable enough to make them stronger when factoring their superiority in numbers!

Of course, he also witnessed situations where the opposite happened.

Right now, his judgement and intuition told him that his side was heavily disadvantaged!

"Lucky! I need you to go into action again! Can you phase into the c.o.c.kpits of those mechs and assassinate the enemy mech pilots?"

"Meeeeooow!" The tired gem cat yowled.

"Oh come on, you have succeeded in phasing through plenty of solid material. What makes mechs different?"

"Meow meow meow!"

"Are you kidding?!"

"Meow!"

Ves frowned. What Lucky told him was deeply disappointing. While his cat was capable of phasing through mechs, there was something about them that made it very tiresome.

For example, the strong resonance and force of will of an expert mech plainly made it impossible for Lucky phase through its frame!

In the past, this problem didn't bother him too much. The recent battles he and his clan fought these days encompassed hundreds of if not thousands of mechs. With so many machines on the battlefield, it was extremely dangerous for Lucky to wander around! Besides, the influence he would be able to exert was extremely marginal.

"Can't you do something? I just need you to kill one enemy mech pilot. As long as you can do that, our odds of achieving victory will be much greater!"

"Meow… meow…."

The cat eventually acquiesced. When Lucky moved to the loading hall, he didn't immediately phase or turn invisible. He had to ration his remaining strength as much as possible in order to achieve a good effect!

As Lucky moved out yet again, Ves observed the progress of the battle.

Not much had happened since the two sides confronted each other. The ultralifers were content with adopting a slow and steady approach. Their ranged capabilities were much better. With two rifleman mechs at their disposal, they had the luxury to adopt a defensive posture. The enemy mechs essentially taunted their opponents into attacking their prepared formation!

Captain Rivington had encountered similar situations in the arena and knew that it was a trap. As soon as his five mechs moved forward, they would probably get locked by the 'anvil' in front while their sides and rear got assaulted by the flanking swordsman mechs!

If his side had a couple more mechs, then he would have been able to counter this approach. As it was, going forward spelled certain doom!

"Are we just going to stand here and let them shoot at us?!" Vincent complained as a positron beam seared across the surface of his mech. "I'm getting cooked over here!"

"Be patient, pilot."

When Ves studied the situation, he knew he had to pitch in as well. He increased the power of his Odineye and began to perform active scans on the enemy biomechs.

At this point, it didn't matter if the enemy was able to detect what was going on. It was more important for Ves to gain a detailed understanding of their inner structure and expose their weak points.

"I knew it! Biomechs have flaws as well!"

Ves worked alongside Gloriana so many times that he had picked up plenty of tricks and insights about identifying flaws. The deep scan readings he received helped immensely as nothing on the surface of the biomechs could be hidden from the power of his Odineye!

He focused his attention on the enemy knight mechs first as they happened to be the most difficult enemy machines to handle. Even if their offensive threat wasn't as high, their ability to lock up their opponents was one of the biggest reasons why Captain Rivington didn't dare to go into action!

"Captain, please take a look at the data I've transferred. I've just scanned the enemy knight mechs and discovered a major weakness…"