The Mech Touch

Time passed by. As the Larkinson Clan slowly planned and prepared, many Larkinsons were being put to use. Although there was a clear separation between soldiers and civilians in the clan, at the end of the day this line was not that clear.

After all, a losing battle would not just spell the end of all of the mech pilots fighting in the front, but also the civilians in the rear!

This was one of the downsides of basing the clan around a fleet. It was not easy to keep a healthy distance between active servicemen and defenseless civilians. The ships that functioned as combat vessels also served as home for the families of the spacers stationed there. Even if the families were being segregated into dedicated civilian ships, those vessels also needed protection or else it was too easy for malicious parties to raid them or blast them apart.

Since the lives and freedom of the civilians were also at stake, they tried their best to contribute to the defense of the Larkinson fleet in any way they could.

The children, the elderly and anyone else who wasn't able to provide any assistance had to be moved out of the way.

The question was where to put them. Should they be placed onto fragile civilian ships, resilient combat carriers or aboard one of the capital ships?

After General Verle, Chief Minister Magdalena Larkinson, Fleet Coordinator Ophelia Kronon and Commodore Abigail Evern held a strategic session, they made a number of difficult decisions.

Considering the strength of the enemy fleet, it was highly unlikely for the Larkinson Clan to retain all of its ships. It was unreasonable to protect hundreds of sub-capital ships and numerous vulnerable non-combat capital ships.

The Larkinson Clan therefore had to set its priorities and decide which ships they should truly try to preserve and which vessels they could do without.

"The purpose of owning a large number of sub-capital ships is to strengthen ourselves so that we can reach the beyonder gate safely." Verle reminded everyone. "However, we never intended to keep them all as it is too prohibitive to buy gate passage for them all. Since we intend to discard them at some point in the future, it shouldn't be too big of a deal to lose them earlier than planned."

"Are you saying that we should use our fleet of sub-capital ships as disposable consumables?" Commodore Evern raised her eyebrow.

The general grinned. "That is exactly what I am suggesting. Instead of selling them off for money, we can instead use them as improvised walls that can shield our more crucial starships from getting crippled or destroyed by the inevitable bombardment from the Slug Rangers. If we can use our expendable hulls as defensive strongholds for our own mechs, then we can buy time and slow down the rate of losses of our mechs. At the end of the day, victory rests on our mechs, not our ships, so let us put the latter to better use rather than indiscriminately trying to preserve them all and risk losing something irreplaceable."

"It is also easier to protect our civilians if we don't spread them around so much." Minister Magdalena added.

The crown jewels of the Larkinson Clan had to be preserved at all cost. The leaders soon decided to allocate the civilians equally aboard each of the capital ships. In fact, they went a step further and ordered all non-essential servicemen aboard all of the sub-capital ships to transfer to the capital ships as soon as it became clear that battle was inevitable.

Although the capital ships weren't ready to host so many extra passengers in comfort, aside from the Blinding Banshee they were all large enough to fit a lot more bodies as long as the transferred people could cope with temporary accommodations for a week.

According to the new plan, only the bare minimum of skeleton crews of brave spacers would be left in charge of the emptied sub-capital ships. Their sense of duty, honor and belonging to the clan all made them willing to perform the noble task of controlling the combat carriers and logistical ships while they would soon be pounded into pieces by enemy artillery.

If they were lucky, they might be able to evacuate their crumbling vessels via escape pods in time. If not, they would most certainly go down with their ships.

The Larkinson Clan employed a similar tactic during the Battle against the Abyss. General Verle still remembered how they transformed the second-class combat carriers of the Penitent Sisters into giant improvised torpedoes. It was one of the only ways they could think of to destroy the pirate warship known as the Gravada Knarlax.

Of course, this time such a ramming strategy was not as viable. They weren't facing single powerful warships but a large fleet of carriers as well as tens of thousands of mechs. Simple ramming tactics would never fundamentally threaten such a large force.

This time, the Larkinson Clan was firmly on the defensive, so it was best to employ the disposable sub-capital ships as barriers to shield the capital ships from damage.

The better-armored capital ships such as the Graveyard and the Spirit of Bentheim could easily take care of themselves for a time. The crew of the former even planned to mount additional pieces of hardy metal onto her already-bloated hull.

The fleet possessed an abundant amount of raw materials that couldn't be converted into mechs or other useful supplies in the short term. Rather than letting them go to waste, the Larkinsons already came up with the idea of affixing them to the hulls of the more vulnerable sub-capital ships so that they could at least function as sturdier walls!

As all of these plans were being readied, elsewhere on the fleet Ves was holding an important discussion with the other Journeymen.

"Everyone is in it together, so let's make sure we put our assistants to good use." Ves began.

"What do you have in mind, Ves?" His wife asked.

"We can keep the Erudites here and function as analysts. Let them stare at all of the mechs deployed by the dwarves and point out any weak points and vulnerabilities that our mech pilots can exploit. As for the Braves, I suggest sending them down to the mech hangars of every carrier vessel. They're far superior compared to mech technicians when it comes to readying individual mechs for battle and efficiently repairing damaged machines."

"If you do that, there are bound to be casualties among the latter group of mech designers." Juliet observed.

"That's their bad luck." Ves crossed his arms. "I once fought in the 'trenches' myself and I gained a large amount of experience and insights that have shaped and benefited my design philosophy. Anyone who carries the title of Brave has already been told what I expect from them. I did not hire them for their intellect. I hired them for their resilience."

Although he was engaging in the same scheme as the Brighter politicians who believed in the Societal Vitality Theory, he firmly believed that the Larkinson Clan's mech designers needed to live through the hardships endured by the soldiers they served in order to design more effective products in the future!

Mech design was not just about designing the highest performing mechs. It was also about designing the most suitable mechs, and that was not possible if the designers became too arrogant and locked themselves up in their ivory towers all the time.

It was a tendency that Ves was very familiar with whenever he collaborated with Gloriana.

Ketis enthusiastically agreed with his decision. "The best people who can serve soldiers are soldiers themselves. These Braves of ours have grown too soft in the past year. They've done a great job in studying more knowledge and gaining more skills, but they still don't have a good idea of how their work affects their users. Seeing the consequences of their own decisions up close will make them a lot more serious about their future designs."

The matter was soon set. Even if a batch of Braves perished in battle, it wasn't a big deal. Ves could easily hire another batch of assistants. His reputation, prestige and accomplishments in the mech industry was already impressive enough to attract a large number of Apprentice Mech Designers from any state.

As for the Journeymen themselves, they decided to stay in the design lab and work with the Erudites to analyze the enemy mechs. No machine was without vulnerabilities. The more they were able to figure out, the easier it was for their mech pilots to take down their foes.

"I think most of our attention should be focused on the enemy expert mechs." Ves spoke. "Defeating them is crucial to winning the battle. At the very least, we need to pressure them enough so that they can't run roughshod over our forces."

"That's going to be difficult. Expert mechs are much more advanced than regular mechs."

"Even a tiny advantage is enough to make a difference. We have several offensive options that can become a lot more effective if they know where to hit to achieve maximum effect."

Since it would take a few hours before the hostile dwarven fleet arrived, the Journeymen intended to spend their time on other useful activities.

For example, Juliet and Ketis went back to their respective mech legions in order to finetune their mechs and advise them on how to approach the battle.

Gloriana decided to tweak and tune the expert mechs so that they could enter battle in their best possible state.

As for Ves? As much as he wanted to join his wife, he did not follow her right away.

"What are you up to this time?" She asked in a suspicious tone.

"I'm thinking about how we can even the odds a little further." He said. "While I'm glad that our clansmen are doing everything in their power to prepare us for battle, I don't think it's enough."

Gloriana looked concerned. "You've been able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat several times before. What makes this different?"

"The number disparity is too great." He told her. "Even with our various trump cards, I don't think it's enough. Not only are we short on thousands of regular mechs, but we will also have to contain more expert mechs than we can match. I think our forces can reluctantly deal with one of these problems, but it is too much to handle both of them at the same time. We just don't have enough combat assets to spare."

"So you're thinking about a way to increase that?"

Ves nodded. "Either that or improve the strength of our existing assets so that they have a better chance of overcoming the disparity in numbers."

"If that's the case, why haven't you made use of these options before?"

"They're… somewhat costly or controversial. I've been reluctant to resort to them for various reasons. The only reason why I'm thinking about these options is because our situation is too dire for me to stick to this conservative stance. The dwarves are driving me to desperation!"

He felt very distressed about this situation. He really didn't want to resort to his more costly or dangerous bag of tricks but the damned Ferrils weren't leaving him with much choice!

It would be the height of foolishness to conserve his strength in this life-and-death battle!

At this time, he couldn't care about the price he had to pay or the risks he had to incur. As long as he was able to improve the odds of victory, it was worth it for him to take action!

As for the negative consequences that he and his clan were bound to suffer afterwards? That was no big deal. As long as he and his clan managed to survive, it was worth the sacrifice!

The two shared an intimate kiss before they separated.. While Gloriana went down to the hangar bay, Ves moved to his personal workshop.