The Mech Touch

Of all of the mech legions, the Battle Criers were the most subdued of all. As one of the more closed and least public units of the Larkinson Army, not a lot of clansmen paid attention to them. It was hard to get into them as the Kinners who controlled this mech legion demanded an unreasonable amount of loyalty from its troops.

Though every Larkinson was loyal by definition, not many were able to readily sacrifice their own lives for the good of the clan.

The Battle Criers might not be the toughest, deadliest or most skilled soldiers, but they were definitely the most committed to Ves and his clan!

Legion Commander Hugin Cinnabar rubbed his trimmed red beard as he addressed a compartment filled with Battle Crier officers. Many of them were fellow Kinners such as himself but there were also a couple of notable exceptions.

Captain Dietrich had quietly distinguished himself among the Battle Criers. Despite his relative youth, he turned out to be a steady leader and was good at inducting new recruits in the ways of the most loyal mech legions.

The native Cloudy Curtainer and former member of Walter's Whalers had more than earned Commander Cinnabar's trust.

Right now, Dietrich raised his hand and asked the obvious question.

"Which unit are we responsible, commander?"

Commander Cinnabar crossed his arms. "That depends. We don't know the full details of the hostile dwarven force. There are bound to be a lot of high-priority threats. The reason why we label them such is because each of them can single-handedly inflict a defeat on us. Now, our other brethren in the Larkinson Army have already picked their respective targets. Each of them will be responsible for containing different threats. We shoulder a similar burden. The only difference is that we do not yet know the names of our foes or the properties of their mechs."

Another Battle Crier frowned. "Don't we have enough information on each of the mech regiments of the dwarven mech divisions? At least that much should be known to the public, right?"

"Ah, but the Ferril Provincial Army haven't publicized most of its expert pilots and expert mechs. The Vulcan Empire may be at peace at the moment but it has always prepared itself for war against its human neighbors. It makes sense to hide their trump cards such as the details of expert pilots. What we must do is to prepare to step up and block their way as much as possible if there are no better alternatives."

This was a difficult task. They were at least able to anticipate how to fight against known threats such as the Gauss Baron or the Paravad. Though it was unlikely that the remaining expert mechs of the enemy force were as strong as these heroes, it was still a huge challenge to fight against numerous unknown Ferril expert mechs!

By now, the Battle Criers mostly piloted the Bright Warrior IB, the default model of the Larkinson Clan. Although this modular mech platform was both strong and versatile, there was still a huge gulf between this regular mech model and a genuine expert mech.

Were their numbers high enough to complete this task? Nobody knew for certain.

Commander Cinnabar offered them some encouragement. "We are not alone in this. We will have support of numerous other friendlies such as the Heavensworders, the Eye of Ylvaine and more depending on the situation. The Penitent Sisters will cooperate extensively with us. Our responsibility is to block and entangle any expert mechs that try to pass through our lines. The Eternal Redemptions piloted by the Penitent Sisters will provide crucial heavy fire support from the rear. Their powerful gauss cannons can inflict a huge amount of kinetic damage per hit and is one of our best solutions to overpower the high-quality armor systems that expert mechs typically enjoy."

The heavy air in the compartment receded a bit after he spoke, but the Battle Criers still weren't sure whether their odds were good enough.

"Sir, if the dwarves deploy 15 expert mechs or more, I'm not sure we have the numbers to stop them all." Dietrich voiced his concerns. "Even if our expert mechs are able to keep half of them at bay, the rest can probably overrun us or circle around us. Our Bright Warriors aren't fast enough to stay in their way if they try their best to avoid our blockade."

This was one of the difficult aspects about fighting expert mechs. All of their parameters were so high that even their weaknesses weren't really a big deal when compared to the performance of regular mechs.

Aside from extreme cases such as the planned upgrade of the Shield of Samar, most expert mechs were able to move faster than regular mechs. Mobility granted them a lot of initiative, allowing them to have the agency to affect an ongoing battle in any way they liked.

The Battle Crier Commander was already aware of this but did not look discouraged. Instead, he offered his men a vicious grin.

"Our clan is aware of the risks and has granted us a means to force the expert mechs to target us first. Have you heard about the recent development of the new luminar crystal rifles? General Verle has decided to allocate the largest batch of these newly-produced rifles to us. I'm told that each of them are configured to deal enhanced damage to resonance shields and resonance-based defensive measures. As long as we focus our fire on any of the enemy expert mechs, we can easily strip their most powerful defenses against conventional attacks!"

This was a huge boon to the Battle Criers! Everyone became shocked when Commander Cinnabar briefly shared the details of what the new rifles were capable of. Although the standard production model was weaker than the Amaranto's main armament, as long as they were all slotted with the same light beam attack phase crystals, they could inflict serious damage against one of cheat-like abilities that made expert mechs so difficult to defeat!

Still, as much as the Battle Criers were glad to receive the new rifles, the amount was not that much in absolute terms. After all, the clan only started producing them a few months ago and many production crews were still trying to learn the ropes of synthesizing the complicated crystals with the help that the Patriarch had provided.

"How much power do these new rifles have, sir?" Captain Dietrich asked.

"We don't know, to be honest. Our clan hasn't performed many tests with them due to safety concerns. However, it is estimated that they can inflict at least four to ten times as much damage to resonance shields than regular weapons. That means if we arm 200 Bright Warriors with these new rifles, they can potentially inflict as much damage to an expert mech as an entire mech regiment! This is a crucial opportunity to equalize the odds considering we are already outnumbered by the enemy. The less mechs it takes to occupy the dwarven expert mechs, the more we can free up other friendly mechs."

What the Larkinsons had to do was to negate the numbers disparity as much as possible! The Larkinson Army was constantly figuring out ways to counter or deal with specific dwarven units with the least amount of cost. If they didn't do so, then too many dwarven mechs would be free to surround the Larkinsons, reinforce other dwarven units and generally tip the balance in the Ferril Provincial Army's favor.

The Battle Criers had to do the same, and shouldered one of the most dangerous responsibilities. Dietrich and everyone else knew that even if these new luminar crystal rifles were able to live up to their promises, that didn't mean that the enemy expert mechs would quickly be toppled.

Every expert mech was clad with extremely high quality armor. That was especially the case with dwarven mechs as they were bulkier and stockier than their regular humanoid counterparts!

Another factor that limited the effectiveness of the new weapon system was that the Battle Criers actually had to hit their targets. This was quite difficult to achieve against faster and more agile expert mechs. Their high mobility characteristics along with their extraordinary mech pilots easily allowed them to be very proficient at evading attacks.

As the Battle Criers discussed how to handle highly mobile targets, elsewhere other groups of Larkinson soldiers were trying to figure out a way to contribute to the defense of their clan.

"Our job is simple, men." Commander Casella Ingvar addressed the Living Sentinels. "We hold the line. That is all. We are not meant to maneuver a lot. From the beginning, our job is to stick close to our ships and prevent the enemy from getting close enough to threaten our vulnerable ships and people. We aren't the stars of the show, so we cannot single-handedly stop any of the hostile dwarves. However, we do not have to defeat any enemy alone. Whether it is the Gatecrasher, the Paravad or any other powerful dwarven mech, there will be elites to take them down. Our job is to stall, block or distract any opponent who gets close enough to our fleet. Is that understood?"

"Yes, commander!"

"Who are we?!"

"We are the watchers clad in silver!"

The Avatars, the Penitent Sisters, the Swordmaidens and so on all held similar sessions. The cloud of uncertainty that hung over the clouds of the soldiers evaporated when they received concrete instructions on what to do in the coming battle.

Everyone gained their own purpose. Some were tasked with preventing the Molten Hammers from punching through the lines of the Golden Skull Alliance. Others were expected to skirmish against the mobile assets of the Hivar Roarers. Some were even expected to fight against specific mechs.

Venerable Stark stared at the projection of the three most prominent enemy expert mechs.

She and the other expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan were all contemplating their own priorities in the upcoming battle.

Of the six expert pilots, two of them looked distinctly upset.

Though Venerable Joshua and Venerable Jannzi did not see eye-to-eye with each other very often, this time they shared the same sentiment.

"If only I had an expert mech…" Joshua whined.

Venerable Jannzi tapped her foot in frustration. "I'm not happy with this either, but there is nothing we can do. We can still contribute to the battle in our own ways. Your Valkyrie Prime and my Shield of Samar are still far more powerful than any regular mech."

"It's not the same! I wouldn't dare fight against a real expert mech!"

"There are still ways to fight them." Jannzi said. "You just need to cooperate with other friendlies. That's what we did in the Battle of Reckoning. I don't see why we can't employ this solution again."

It wasn't the same. As long as an expert mech was really serious about defeating their prime mechs, Joshua and Jannzi would definitely be pushed to their limits. If not for the fact that their prime mechs were clad with a copious amount of Unending alloy, their prime mechs might not even be able to withstand a single powerful resonance attack!

Compared to this unfortunate pair, the other expert pilots were a lot more upbeat.

Each of them were highly confident about their own chances. Their expert mechs were far more powerful than typical ones. They not only incorporated powerful resonance materials, but also enjoyed numerous unique advantages that allowed them to stand out further.

However, aside from Venerable Stark, the other three Larkinsons expert pilots were aware that they suffered from a major shortcoming.

"Our expert mechs are strong, but I'm not sure whether we can keep up." Venerable Tusa stated the obvious. He exchanged glances with both Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise. "We might be impressive in the eyes of other mech pilots, but among expert pilots we are still too young and weak. Our resonance strengths measure in the single digits and we don't have much real battle experience with our expert mechs."

Venerable Orfan grew impatient. "What are you trying to say, Tusa?"

"We ought to be fighting against their expert pilots that more closely match our strength. However, since our side is short on expert mechs, we have no choice but to fight against their more powerful ones. Let's consider the other two prominent enemy expert mechs. Can any of us fight against the Gauss Baron or the Paravad by ourselves?"

The other expert pilots weren't able to supply an immediate answer.