The Mech Touch

With the Violet Estates under intensive siege by ten mech companies worth of black mechs, time was of the essence.

It took two hours for the main fleet to arrive at Trieden II and be ready to save the Purnesse Family, but that took way too long.

"We need to go now and we need to go fast! Skip the rest of the planning and just go forward as fast as possible!"

Every minute wasted on planning and preparation brought the Purnessers a lot closer to death than before. This was why the clan already moved into action as soon as General Verle conceived of his bold hot drop initiative.

Unfortunately, according to the preliminary calculations of the Larkinson Clan's engineering staff, not every combat carrier was robust enough to withstand the enormous forces acting on the hull by dropping from orbit at a high speed and a steep angle.

It was already a challenge to allow a huge starship that possessed an incredible mass and was filled with lots of weighty mechs to boot to land safely on a planet. To put more extreme stresses on them by performing a faster but much more risky descent was so excessive that most ships that weren't in their prime condition would simply fall apart.

"While it's true that combat carriers are designed to make drops under hostile conditions, they're mainly optimized to fly in the face of enemy firepower. They're not meant to descend into a planetary atmosphere in such extreme conditions that they practically turn into meteorites!"

Vivian Tsai, the Larkinson Clan's resident shipwright, had suddenly become the most authoritative figure when it came to planning and realizing this hot drop operation. She looked completely befuddled as General Verle had urgently tapped her for her expertise in this urgent naval engineering challenge.

"We know it is inadvisable to subject our vessels to so much abuse, but we have to do it anyway." Ves told her. "What we need is to transport our mechs to the surface as fast as possible. Even if we have to push our ships to the point where we are forced to scrap them, it is worth it as long as we can obtain the gratitude of the entire Purnesse Family."

If the Purnessers didn't appreciate the huge effort that the Larkinsons put into this operation, then Ves would convince them one way or another.

"Hmmm." She frowned as she quickly called up an interface that listed out all of the combat carriers in the fleet. She quickly tapped a handful of ships. "Some combat carriers are more suitable for the operation you have in mind than others. These are the ones whose hulls will likely survive a violent entry in my estimates. Mind you, I am just making a hasty judgment by relying on my intuition and expertise. If you want more precise results, I need to perform a lot of simulations."

"We don't have time for that." General Verle's projection spoke. "We will go with the ships that you have chosen. As a precaution, I will command the ships in question to evacuate all of their non-essential personnel. There is no need to put them at risk."

"You can do more than that, sir." Vivian stated. "It will be easier for the vessels to regain control after their descent if you lighten their mass. This will already happen once their mechs deploy from their hangar bays, but you should seek to dump any non-essential cargo beforehand. Supplies such as fuel, water, spare parts and so on should all be dumped overboard immediately. Every ton counts."

"I shall pass on the orders." Verle nodded.

"In addition, the crew left on board the vessels should do what they can to button down the combat carriers." She continued. "The outer compartments will especially be in danger. Don't leave something volatile or explosive in those areas. The crew should also do what they can to reinforce the outer hull. There isn't much they can do but they should at least retract whatever sensor modules and other vulnerable openings. Some of those sections can act as pockets that can concentrate a devastating concentration of heat and wind. After the crew have done what they can within a short amount of time, they should all gather in the interior of their vessels and pray that their rides won't fall apart too quickly."

Ves waved his hand. "You should get in contact with the captains or chief engineers of the ships directly. Don't waste any time explaining all of this to us. Just make sure the ships stay intact long enough to deliver the mechs safely and keep the crew safe. The survival of the combat carriers and whatever material assets are onboard is not a priority. Trash them if you want, but make sure they complete their final mission first."

"Got it, sir."

Vivian Tsai quickly refined the initial hot drop plan a few minutes later. She separated the suitable combat carriers into two waves.

The first wave would drop in first and had to endure the greatest amount of abuse. With just 6 eligible combat carriers, the Avatars of Myth and the Flagrant Vandals wouldn't be able to drop too many mechs into the field!

A second wave came roughly half an hour later as the 10 combat carriers that went next were not as tough. They had to come in slower in order to allow for a more gentle descent and that delayed their eventual arrival.

"Six combat carriers doesn't sound like much." Ves grumbled. "That's just 240 mechs in total. Those are dicy numbers compared to the opposition."

Fortunately, the opposition didn't look too formidable. When Ves studied the footage of the black mechs attacking the energy shields covering the Violet Estates, he affirmed that they didn't look like anything special.

"The primary purpose behind the design of the black mechs is to make them as untraceable as possible. This means that they don't possess any distinctive strengths or advantages bestowed by the unique design philosophies of high-ranking mech designers. That said, I can tell that whoever is behind their designs are at least Seniors, so their fundamental performance parameters are highly-optimized and not deficient in any major areas."

Ves disliked bland and ordinary mechs, yet he did not deny such products could provide great value to the right customer. The black mechs were so devoid of personality that Ves truly wouldn't be able to figure out their designers or their origin even if he personally knew every mech designer in the star sector!

If the people behind the scenes were thorough enough, then they might have even imported the black mechs from another star sector. When performing business as dirty as taking out a political enemy, it was best not to leave a trace too close to home!

"What will that mean for us?" General Verle asked.

While the highest military officer of the Larkinson Clan knew a lot more about tactics and operations than Ves, he still had to defer to the experts when it came to specific matters.

Out of everyone in the Larkinson Clan, no one knew more about mechs than its resident Journeymen!

The only other person in the entire fleet who could do a better job was Professor Benedict Cortez, but Ves was not about to ask the man who used to be known as the Skull Architect for a favor!

Ves grinned as he continued to study the various mech models coated in black. "The enemy mechs are what you get if we live in a reality where mech designers aren't as special as today. These are normal, serviceable products that are mechanically sound but lack the charm of more competitive products. The inability to add any defining strengths to them is a significant handicap. It would be as if our mechs are not alive and lack any sort of glow!"

While his own Larkinson mechs would still be battle worthy even if they lost all of the advantages that Ves bestowed upon them, there was no doubt that their desirability would plummet to the bottom! There were more useful alternatives on the market that provided a lot more value for money.

"I see. Telling this to our men will definitely boost their confidence." Verle smiled in satisfaction. "What of the overall quality of the black mechs? They do not appear to be too upscale. They don't look like budget models either, though."

"You're correct, general. By my estimates, they are all midrange mechs.

In order to make life a little easier for the mech pilots who were about to drop onto the surface of Trieden II, Ves continued to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of every individual black mech model. He even requested Gloriana and the rest of the Design Department to perform their own analyses.

An expanding volume of detailed technical data entered the Larkinson database. Every Larkinson mech that constantly maintained an active connection to the rest of the data network would automatically download and process this data. The mech would subsequently be able to highlight specific weak points in an unobtrusive manner so that the pilot could target them whenever there was an opportunity!

In the meantime, the two waves of combat carriers kept racing towards Trieden II without too much regard to the challenges they were about to face.

With five mech companies of Avatars and one mech company of Vandals, the initial wave had to relieve the crisis facing the Violet Estates as much as possible.

Commander Melkor Larkinson had personally chosen to take part in this wave. He and his personal Bright Warrior had relocated over to one of the six leading combat carriers in order to command his men from the front right from the beginning!

As he sat in the cockpit of his living mech, Melkor constantly paid attention to the developing situation. The mech technicians had mounted a special command and communication module onto the back of his Bright Warrior in order to ensure he would be able to maintain his command even when subjected to substantial interference!

The ship he was on began to rattle as the first wave passed through orbital height and rapidly descended into the layers with actual air.

Even if most people didn't realize that air was an actual substance with mass and volume, anyone riding a vessel that was dropping from space would feel how much of a difference this made.

Soon enough, the vibrations affecting the entire hull became too severe for the combat carrier's various systems to suppress!

Melkor found himself unable to maintain his concentration as his cockpit began to rattle like a drum.

His heart beat faster as he realized that it wouldn't take long before he and his men faced adversity once again.

Though he felt the familiar touch of fear in his heart, his excitement and sense of duty balanced it out. Right now, the Avatars needed Melkor to lead, not to cower to the point of becoming paralyzed!

"Don't worry, sir. I'll make sure to cover you if the black mechs go after you." Isobel Koten-Larkinson reassured.

The Bright Warrior next to Melkor's brandished its rifle in emphasis. Different from many other Larkinsons, Isobel was an expert candidate! She did not hesitate to volunteer for this action in the hopes that she would be able to find her breakthrough opportunity.

Whether she would be able to succeed, nobody knew, but participating in any serious battles always provided a lot of harvest to expert candidates.

"I don't need the help. You should look after our new guests instead."

"Pff. I won't make any promises. Anything can happen in battle. I hope those snobs won't act too recklessly."

A handful of MTA mech pilots took part in the operation as well. In fact, the four who dedicated themselves completely to the Larkinson training program were jumping right into the fire by taking part in the very first wave!

While it was very reckless to push them into battle while barely giving them any time to get accustomed to the unique Larkinson mechs that had been specially prepared for them, Ves insisted on their participation.

All of the guests from the MTA had to learn that he and his fellow Larkinsons were very serious when it came to pushing their limits!