The Mech Touch

The blood of many members of the Purnesse Family froze when they recognized the culprits behind the slow extermination they endured.

The appearance of several aquatic carriers proved that the assault on the Purnesse Family was not a hastily-prepared operation.

It took an immense amount of effort to transport such a class of sea vessels onto a relatively small and quiet paradise planet. Aside from modular construction and shipment, the more likely answer to their appearance was that they had been covertly constructed in some kind of secret underwater stronghold!

The lengths in which the Diyast Family went through in order to build up the strength to overwhelm the Purnesse Family in one swoop was excessive!

Like many people, Ves was surprised by the appearance of several large sea vessels. He could tell how much effort had been put into constructing them and the mechs they carried. The cost, time and manpower needed to put all of this together just to destroy a single family that was too weak to defend itself was absolutely mind boggling.

This was definitely a plan that had been in the making before the Crown Uprising swept the galaxy!

Even if there was no possibility of using the crown terrorists as a pretext to attack the Violet Estates, the Purnesse Family would have been targeted anyway. Perhaps in a few months or years, the enemy would have completed its preparations and launched a surprise assault that was so overwhelming that virtually every Purnesser at any location suffered an attack at the same time!

This was the best way to cut the Purnesse Family down in total, but the price of doing so was immense..

At the very least, the identities of the culprits would become clear. There was no way to disguise an effort that was huge to the rest of the Grand Loxic Republic. Sanctions would follow as the established powers of the great state would not tolerate a disruption to this degree.

Therefore, when the Crown Uprising changed human history forever, the people targeting the Purnessers saw another, less costly alternative.

By hastily painting some of their mechs in black and letting them fight against the Purnesse Family in the open would not be able to fool the knowing, but at least gave the ones responsible a pretense!

As long as no one bothered to back the Purnessers up, this pretense would continue to hold up, thereby preventing the Grand Loxic Republic from getting embroiled in a serious scandal.

Ves had to admit that this plan was quite shrewd and utterly ruthless. It should have worked splendidly especially after it became apparent that the Purnessers had lost all of their value and support.

"It's too bad that we happen to drop by and ruin their best laid plans." He sardonically remarked.

The slow extermination campaign made the Purnesse Family so desperate that it began to reach out to anyone who was willing to bail it out. This happened to draw the Larkinson Clan over to the Trieden System in order to pick up this supposedly easy bargain.

How could he know that the bargain he was looking for turned out to be another scam! He and his clan had been bamboozled once again!

"Meow."

Lucky directed a contemptuous look at Ves as he rested on the armrest.

"Oh shut up."

"Meow meow."

Ves ignored the accusations of his cat. Instead, he turned to Calabast.

"Who the hell are these guys?"

"According to the utterings of the Purnessers aboard our combat carrier, we seem to be dealing with the Diyast Family."

"And they are…?"

"Our hasty research shows that the Diyast Family used to be a lineage that is roughly similar to that of the Purnesse Family." The spymaster succinctly explained. "The two were even rivals once upon a time. Much like the people they are targeting, the Diyasts inserted a lot of people into government institutions, but instead of focusing on diplomacy, they focused more on the military sphere. They were aligned with the Foerendal Party, which is considerably more proactive and expansionist than the Hegenarion Party."

"What happened to the Diyasts?"

Calabast shrugged. "Public sources are rather vague and scarce on that. It seemed that the Diyasts did something naughty and got struck down because of their violations, but the reactions of the Purnessers on our ship makes me suspect that there is a greater story behind this past scandal."

Ves narrowed his eyes. "Are you suggesting that the Purnessers set the Diyasts up? Did the latter fall unjustly?"

"I can only speculate, but from what few clues that I have gathered, the Purnessers might not be the innocent victims as they make themselves sound. We do know that the removal of the Diyast Family allowed numerous Purnessers to acquire higher positions. In addition, if you look at this revenge action, it is so extreme that there have to be factors at play that we are not aware of. After suffering a great calamity, the Diyasts still managed to build up all of this hardware and find enough loyal and well-trained personnel to crew them all. The Foerendal Party has to be behind this power move."

"In other words, the Purnessers are reaping what they sowed. When you play a dangerous game, you shouldn't be surprised if danger comes to your doorstep." Ves muttered.

Neither Ves nor any other Larkinsons exhibited much interest behind this sordid story. What did it matter what sins the Purnessers incurred in the past? Who cared whether the remnants of the Diyast Family were justified in killing off the Purnesse Family?"

All of this drama was irrelevant to the Larkinson Clan!

"What are our chances against these mechs?" Ves asked General Verle.

"It will be a tough fight. The Diyasts have deployed almost 500 mechs, all of which appear to be on par with the black mechs we have seen before. If we assume that the quality of the mechs and the training standards of the mech pilots are equal, then the survivors of our first wave along with the mechs that have arrived with our second wave will have to fight an uphill battle. The Diyast mechs outnumber us to such an extent that the pressure on our side will be heavy."

"We have the Ferocious Piranhas though."

"That's true, but their glows are less effective against second-class mech pilots." Verle retorted. "I don't know where the Diyasts got all of these mech pilots from, but their resilience is not that much inferior to military mech pilots. They will doubtlessly get distracted by the Ferocious Piranhas, but it is too optimistic for us to hope that they will be able to accomplish anything more."

That meant that there weren't any easy solutions for the Avatars and Myth and the Flagrant Vandals that were arrayed against the Diyast forces. They had to fight a tough and determined opponent the old-fashioned way.

Though the Larkinsons were already dispatching even more support, it took a considerable amount of time before the next wave of combat carriers arrived.

Ves began to look pensive. "I recall that we offered to dispatch additional prime mechs as well as a small contingent of Penitent Sisters, Swordmaidens and Ylvainans in the second wave."

"The commanders of the Avatars and Vandals refused the help. They want to win this battle on their own merits. The moment the two mech forces have to rely on others to secure victory, the damage to their confidence and self-image will be incalculable. Right now, the odds are still within a tolerable range, so the men in the field are still hopeful that they can gain the upper hand."

It wasn't just a matter of pride. The performance of the Avatars and Vandals would define their image to the rest of the Larkinson Clan for years to come.

In previous battles such as the Battle against the Abyss and the Battle of Reckoning, the Swordmaidens and the Penitent Sisters established strong and invincible impressions for themselves. The two female-dominated mech forces did not need to prove their strength any further because everyone already acknowledged their strength.

The others felt a lot of pressure to catch up. The Living Sentinels were more laid-back because they never aimed to be the best in the first place, but the Avatars could not accept being relegated to fourth or fifth place.

They had to get into the top 2 at least!

"Pride is so silly sometimes." Ves shook his head. "We're about to lose a lot of mechs and a fair amount of mech pilots. It is going to be a pain to replace them both."

The only reason why he didn't feel more upset was because what was happening fell in line with his own thoughts. The Avatars had grown very quickly as of late, but the embrace of so many newcomers severely degraded their cohesion and hardiness.

A hard fought battle would definitely hammer and condense the Avatars into a unified fighting force!

While Ves tried to weigh the costs and benefits of this evolving battle, the Diyast Family had fully deployed all of their aerial mechs.

Different from the black mechs of before, the orange-and-grey machines were fully flight capable. They were already eying the combat carriers of the Larkinson Clan that had hastily entered the atmosphere of Trieden III.

The Larkinsons hadn't been idle all this time. As soon as the heavily-damaged combat carrier carrying the VIPs approached the more intact vessels of the second wave, numerous shuttles traveled back and forth.

Under the cover of several combat carriers repurposed into makeshift walls, the evacuees were being transferred over into the hangar bays of several combat carriers whose hulls were still in the process of cooling down.

While this hastily transfer took place, two old enemies exchanged words with each other.

"Ernesto Diyast." Novilon Purnesse grimly said. "I never thought that you managed to escape the hunting squads."

"No thanks to you, kid." The man in charge of what was left of the Diyast Family scoffed. "Did you ever think that your family's plot would come back to haunt you in this way?"

"We did nothing! We merely acted on behalf of the Loxic President and the Hegenarion Party! Both of them are already dead or on their way to the grave. Aren't you satisfied with their fall?"

"NO!" The middle-aged man shouted back. "I AM NOT! Don't lie to me, you brat. I know your ways. Everything that comes out of the mouth of a Purnesser is a distortion. My friends and I have done our own research. While it is true that the Hegenarion Party dealt the main blow, the principal reason behind our collapse was because you Purnessers wanted to get rid of an obstacle!"

Novilon Purnesse's mood worsened. "We were just abiding by the rules of the game."

"Screw the rules! What you did went way out of line! The conspiracy you enacted against my family not only led to the deaths of my parents, grandparents and thousands of other relatives, but also caused me to lose my wife and children! Children, Novilon!"

"I am truly sorry for that, Ernesto, but what happened to your family was outside of our control. While I do not begrudge your right to take revenge against us, think of what is left of the Diyast Family. Now that you and your forces have reemerged in the open, you should know very well what that means."

"SCREW THE GRAND LOXIC REPUBLIC!" The Diyast survivor shouted as his eyes bore into the projection of one of his hated foes. "Our Diyast Family has already died as far as I'm concerned. I do not seek a future for myself. The only reason that I have been hanging on until now is to repay blood with blood and kill every member of your Purnesse Family!"

Ernesto Diyast had gone mad! Novilon Purnesse that there was no hope in persuading this crazed survivors to call off this attack.

The vengeance-obsessed madman was willing to squander everything the Diyast Family had left in order to satisfy his final desire!

"Attack!"

The two sides immediately opened fire on each other as a larger battle began to unfold!