The Mech Touch

The Fordilla Zentra System never saw battle in its entire history of its existence. It was just a bog-standard red dwarf star system. It only occasionally hosted lone vessels and small fleets that wanted to avoid the more frequented star systems for one reason or another.

Due to its relatively weak star, not a lot of light reached the outer system. Even if the borders of the outer system of a red dwarf was significantly smaller than that of a more powerful star, the current solar engine was not quite powerful enough to illuminate the vessels soaring in space like it was daytime.

Fortunately, there were other sources of illumination.

Bright energy beams, fiery explosions and the strong light sources affixed to the surfaces of both mechs and ships caused this desolate and empty piece of space to be lit up as if they were in a dance club on fire!

The two opposing fleets and mech forces each formed elaborate and coordinated formations that only wobbled in order to avoid making it too easy for them to get hit by distant attacks.

It was easy enough for most mechs in space to vary their flight in random patterns. Any distant artillery mech would have a hard time landing their shots even if they were armed with lightspeed or near-lightspeed energy weapons at these ranges.

This was why most of the mechs on both sides did not bother to attack the swarms of mechs that both sides had deployed.

Even though these machines had formed up into different ranks, the space between them was so wide that many shots were bound to pass right through. Space was big so mechs were accustomed to position themselves further apart from each other.

This was why the ranged mechs of both sides concentrated their firepower on the enemy vessels. Though damaging or downing any starship would not have much an immediate direct effect on the battle effectiveness on an enemy force, it would definitely affect the later stages and the aftermath of a serious clash!

If the battle turned into a prolonged siege, then combat carriers and fleet carriers all played a crucial role in sustaining a mech force. If one side or another decided to cut its losses and run, then the amount of functioning mechs remaining determined whether the losers could succeed in escaping the battlefield alive!

Though Ves apparently adopted a do or die attitude just like the rest of his Larkinsons, in truth he didn't intend to go down with his ship.

If the battle truly went sour, he had no qualms in running away!

It would definitely hurt him a lot if he lost his clan and destroyed his reputation as a brave and courageous mech pilot, but he was a mech designer by profession. Unlike soldiers who had a duty to protect the people they serve, Ves was only meant to provide support. Sacrificing his life to further for a noble cause was not a part of his job description!

He already prepared a multitude of contingency plans. It would be ideal if he could take the Spirit of Bentheim away, but if the dwarves tried their best to prevent the high-profile factory ship from getting away, Ves could always shuttle over to a smaller and less conspicuous vessel. There were so many sub-capital ships in the expeditionary fleet that the enemy wouldn't be able to tell which one carried any VIPs.

Calabast had helped out as well. By combining their expertise, they created numerous different escape routes for themselves that were very difficult to deal with if their opposition didn't know about the methods in advance.

Ves briefly smirked. Though Calabast and him were very different people, they were both of the same mind when it came to their most essential priorities.

The biggest problem was that some of these escape methods did not offer that much capacity. If the Larkinson Clan was truly about to be destroyed, he might not have enough time to bring along the people he cared about the most.

The thought of leaving behind people like Ketis, his wife and most importantly his unborn child was almost intolerable to him. He had to prevent this outcome at all costs!

The mutual bombardment had already proceeded for over a minute. The Transcendent Punishers of the Larkinson Clan and the equivalent artillery mechs of its alliance partners were all directing their firepower towards the distant carriers of the Slug Rangers.

Everyone in the Golden Skull Alliance knew that the ranged specialists of the Ferril Provincial Army had to be neutralized first!

The threat level of this destructive mech division was so great that no ship or mech would be able to survive getting focused upon.

"We've lost the Alderia Smoke!" A bridge operator called.

Ves switched his eyes to a dynamic projection that automatically showed the most relevant moments of the ongoing battle. It depicted a sub-capital fuel tanker that had been broken into half after a volley of ultra-heavy gauss rounds slammed into her hull.

The heavy firepower was too much for the lightly armored logistical vessel. Numerous projectiles fired by the incredibly formidable enemy Land Cracker mechs had bypassed the extra plating that had recently been affixed to Alderia Smoke's sides and happened to destroy her keel and a number of critical structural elements.

As a result, the fuel tanker snapped in half like a twig. The high-density fuel that was stored in her abundant tanks surprisingly didn't ignite and just froze into crystals as they drifted off into deep space.

Ves closed his eyes for a second. The fall of the Alderia Smoke was just the beginning. The Larkinsons had already anticipated that they would lose their ships one-by-one.

The problem was that the loss of this ship happened too soon! At this extreme range, the accuracy of the gauss weapons wielded by the Slug Rangers wasn't actually high. Yet they still managed to overcome numerous difficult circumstances and successfully removed one of the obstacles that shielded the Spirit of Bentheim.

"The Steel Rain mech regiment is definitely worthy of its reputation!" Ves sighed.

Not all of the ranged mechs continued to fire their weapons after unleashing some initial volleys. Although the Bright Warriors armed with positron rifles were capable of hitting starships from a long distance with fairly respectable hit rates, it was extremely hard for them to hit the exact same sections multiple times.

With the way that starships were built, if incoming attacks did not strike the same surface, then they could easily absorb a huge amount of damage across their huge surfaces without losing any operational effectiveness!

The only way to take them out of the fight was to concentrate enough firepower on a single section and breach the interior. Only by taking out key systems such as the power reactors or just wrecking a sufficient amount of internal structure was it possible to cripple or destroy a starship.

Therefore, thousands of rifleman mechs, cannoneer mechs and other mechs armed with ranged solutions withheld their fire for now. Each of them only possessed a limited amount of heat and energy capacity. While it was possible to replenish them by going back to their motherships, it took a lot of time and effort to replenish them. General Verle and his dwarven counterpart from the opposite fleet choose to keep the majority of their ranged mechs on standby.

Many of these mechs were much more effective at medium and close range. At those distances, the hit rates were a lot higher and it was a lot easier for the mechs and mech pilots to consistently target the same weak points.

For now, the amount of beams and projectiles flying across the void of space was relatively restrained, but that did not mean that the ongoing bombardment was a breeze!

The Steel Rain focused all of their firepower on a number of key targets. They devoted half of their attention on the Hemmington Cross and the other half on the Spirit of Bentheim.

"Good targets."

The Hemmington Cross was the biggest fleet carrier of the expeditionary fleet. She not only held a lot of mechs, but also served as the strongest enduring symbol of the Cross Clan.

If the Slug Rangers managed to blow her up, then the Crossers would definitely incur a huge drop in morale! Not only that, but the Cross fleet would also become disarrayed as it lost one of its central pieces.

In order to prevent this disaster from happening, the Crossers employed the same approach as the Larkinsons and put their resilient combat carriers in the line of fire so that their flagship would be spared from incurring too much damage.

The Hemmington Cross desperately needed the cover. Though her mech capacity was impressive, her hull plating was not that impressive! Although she could withstand a lot more damage than civilian vessels such as the Vivacious Wal, she was not designed to be in the thick of battle!

"That white elephant is dragging down the Cross Clan in every battle." Ves slightly frowned.

The Cross Clan had spent an unreasonable amount of effort to keep the capital ship named after their ace pilot alive, and this time would probably be no different. Compared to the worth of this priceless fleet carrier, the numerous combat carriers and other sub-capital vessels simply weren't comparable!

"Frontal starboard shields holding at 91 percent!"

Numerous slugs of different calibers managed to thread through the wall of sub-capital ships and slam into the Spirit of Bentheim. Fortunately, she not only boasted a respectable amount of armor, but also carried a number of ship-grade shield generators.

These shield generators were spread across the length of the hull and provided directional projection that covered different portions of the factory ship.

By now, the large and energy-hungry production halls had long ceased churning out mechs and parts. This freed up an immense amount of power that was all being redirected towards the shield generators.

As long as the intensity of the incoming fire wasn't too high, the shield generators could maintain their energy barriers for a very long time!

Captain Daria-Maria Vraken, dressed in an impressive uniform that also incorporated vacsuit functionality, directed the operations of the ship with a steady composure.

"Rotate the hull by 45 degrees. Let the partially depleted shields recover naturally. We need to maximize the longevity of our shield generators as much as possible. Make sure to hurry up with organizing evacuated crewmembers from other ships into additional work teams and damage control parties. The dwarves have set our ship as their highest priority target so we are bound to incur significant hull breaches."

The dwarves chose wisely, though Ves wished that they could have picked another target. The Larkinson fleet encompassed numerous different capital ships. Several of them were much less resilient and could be taken down with significantly greater ease.

Yet instead of picking on more fragile capital ships like the Dragon's Den or the Andrenidae, the Slug Ranger preferred to target the much tougher Spirit of Bentheim!

"Maybe I should have designed her to be more low-key." He muttered.

The Spirit of Bentheim's attractive appearance and strategic importance provided the Larkinson Clan with a lot of benefits outside of battle. However, when the ship became embroiled in battle, it was quite a pain for the Larkinsons to protect a vessel that was not quite relevant in combat!

As the artillery mechs from both sides continued to pound against each other, the damage continued to pile up. Several more vessels began to lose propulsion and slowly fell out of formation. Several bunkers had gotten breached and the mechs inside weren't in a better condition.

Both the attackers and the defenders already started to lose hundreds of lives. Ves could feel the Larkinson Network growing restless as it lost a few precious connections. Each of them represented the death of another Larkinson.

Nyaaaaa….

"Stay strong, Goldie." Ves softly whispered. "It will only get worse from this point. The only thing we can do is to remain firm and keep encouraging our men. Confidence is key. We cannot allow the dwarves to break us first."

The approaching dwarven fleet kept becoming more and more intimidating. All of that mass and all of that firepower exerted an increasing amount of pressure towards the Golden Skull Alliance!