The Mech Touch

The Golden Skull Alliance couldn't pass off the opportunity to explore the first alien wreck it encountered since the start of their true expedition.

One of the main purposes of going on an expedition into new and unfamiliar territory was to search and plunder valuable treasures!

The large, 5-kilometer long alien biocapital ship should definitely contain a lot of valuables. Whether it was high-grade exotics, rare alien artifacts or completely foreign technological paradigms, the Titania should definitely be a treasure trove of goodies!

Shortly after the leaders of the alliance decided to go in, the huge fleet approached the inner system at a brisk but relatively cautious pace.

A core of capital ships including the refurbished Wild Torch accelerated forward under the protection of just over a hundred combat carriers.

Ves looked proudly at the large number of ships moving in unison. He used to worry about lacking too much combat power when the expeditionary fleet initially passed through the beyonder gate.

Though he still held concerns about the amount of deterrent that the combined fleet possessed, the addition of many combat carriers obtained through various sources came as an enormous relief.

Though the combat carriers didn't matter too much when confronted by human forces due to the 2-year protection period, it was still relevant in other cases.

They certainly came handy at this time as the aliens didn't play by humanity's rules. With thousands of additional mechs at their disposal, the three alliance partners possessed a lot more confidence in dealing with any threats that might emerge in the process of exploring the mysterious alien wreck!

Ves briefly tallied the estimated mech capacity as he sat in the observer's seat on the bridge of his flagship. His hand idly stroked Lucky's back as he counted.

"Meow."

"Yeah, the Crossers have outdone themselves." Ves said. "They can almost field 6000 mechs if they want to, but I'm not sure they have filled all of their new ships. They need to produce or acquire a lot of mechs, and that doesn't come easy. It takes time and money to get that much assets."

"Meow."

"The Glory Seekers should be in a similar position, though their burden is lighter. They only gained 20 combat carriers from their Hexer friends, which is not that much. Perhaps they have already filled most of their mech hangar bays with the mechs they previously packed inside their capital ships."

He estimated that the Glory Seekers should only be able to field 2750 mechs at most, which made them equivalent to an oversized mech regiment.

"Meow meow."

"Our Larkinson fleet sits in between at the moment. We didn't acquire as many combat carriers as the Cross Clan, but we're better off than the Glory Seekers in that regard. We can field up to 4000 mechs if we take over a lot of spare cargo bays. Still, we lost a lot of the mechs we brought into the Red Ocean due to tournament attrition. Last I checked, our production halls are still in the process of rebuilding mechs from recycled materials."

As long as the alliance partners had more time, they could eventually raise their collective strength to a level just above a mech division. This was a much more respectable amount of combat strength and would allow the expeditionary fleet to safely roam a lot of general territories.

For now, Ves estimated that the expeditionary fleet was still short of several thousand mechs, which might or might not make a difference today.

"I hope we won't encounter any unpleasant surprises."

Lucky turned his head around in order to send a nasty glare at Ves. "Meow!"

"Hey, hey! That's just groundless superstition!"

"Meeeeooow!"

"You're just upset because you don't like to eat organic materials. Hey, that reminds me. Can you eat alien flesh as long as it contains enough metals and exotics?"

"MEEEOOW!"

While Ves pondered whether Lucky was able to eat the Titania whole, the fleet continued to approach the derelict alien capital ship while maintaining a great degree of vigilance.

The different forces coordinated their actions and enacted a lot of precautionary measures to guard against ambushes.

The Flagrant Vandals moved their combat carriers ahead of the main fleet and spread out in different directions in order to guard against approaches from different angles.

The expeditionary fleet also deployed lots of listening devices that spread throughout the entire star system. Some of them were larger and contained cheap quantum communication nodes that could instantly transfer timely warnings back to the main fleet if they detected anything amiss.

This was an essential precaution to guard against hostile ships in warp travel. They were so damn fast that the light of their passage arrived far too late in many cases!

Fortunately, even if an alien ship in warp did manage to sneak up on the main fleet, the Larkinsons and its allies had a few surprises in store!

Special modules mounted on the Gorgoneion, the Wild Torch and other capital ships became active. They drained a considerable amount of power, but their effects were absolutely crucial.

They reinforced the surrounding space around them, making it much harder for warp drives to curve space.

The only downside to the commercialized dimensional smoother modules was that they were subject to the inverse-square law just like any other field generator devices. This meant that their effective range was fairly limited.

"Well, at least they can stop alien warships from closing in and unleashing their fire at point-blank range."

In fact, that wasn't the greatest danger to warp drive-capable starships.

The greatest nightmare that everyone in the Red Ocean worried about was what would happen if the incoming ships in warp did not slow down. What if they barreled into a hull at relativistic or superluminal speeds?

The results were not pretty, to say the least!

In fact, it was not that simple for ships to conducts suicide attacks with ease. It was hard for warp drives to curve space that contained a lot of matter and energy. Warp drive tech also hindered starships from crashing into obstacles such as random space rocks.

Even so, that did not prevent starships from warping forward only to shut down their drives moments before their trajectories intersected with other vessels!

There were many more dangers that pioneering fleets had to take into account. Ves would probably drive himself crazy if he had to address all of these risk factors!

"Well, that's what my underlings are for. I'm sure they have covered every angle."

As the distance between the expeditionary fleet and the Titania slowly shrank, the Larkinson mech units that weren't already out on patrol all geared up for deployment.

Commander Melkor Larkinson oversaw his Avatar mech pilots getting briefed by their officers. A particular focus of these lectures was how they should respond against new and unfamiliar developments concerning alien ships and forces.

"Spread out." A mech captain emphasized as she pointed at a projected battle scenario between a human mech company and a generic alien vessel. "If you encounter any alien vessel of any size, chances are that she is armed. Since these ships come in far larger dimensions than any mech, they can easily accommodate weapons that can crush not just one, but multiple mechs at the same time. Therefore, it is crucial for you to start off with dispersed formations and be ready to separate even further depending on the opposition that we face."

If the mech pilots didn't understand the mech captain's message, then the projected simulation battle made her point abundantly clear.

The first simulation run showed the mech company flying forward in a typical defensive formation. This granted it excellent defenses against melee assaults, but it also allowed the alien warship to blast all of the mechs to pieces with a single salvo of her main cannons!

"Defense doesn't matter. No matter how tough your space knights are, none of them are designed to cope against firepower of this scale. If you get hit, then I hope you ejected your cockpit from your doomed machines a second before. If I were you, I would keep your hand on the ejection lever at all times. We can afford to replace a mech, but we cannot bring back human lives. Even if you made a mistake and ejected prematurely, it's okay. We can just put the cockpit back into the mech afterwards."

It was too intimidating for any mech pilot to fight against warships head-on. The Larkinsons should know as they already fought against one before.

The rules of battle were much different. Not only did mechs have to contend with the risk of getting annihilated in an instant, the ships of the expeditionary fleet also had to prepare against direct attacks that were much more threatening than anything a mech could unleash!

The different circumstances caused Commander Melkor to question whether it was appropriate for him to deploy with his men. As a leader, he could still do his job in the command center of the Gorgoneion.

He grimaced as he adjusted the visor on his face. "No! I shouldn't think this way. I need to retain my fighting urges. Besides, Gloriana has already begun to design a custom mech for me. It would be a waste for her to do all of that work only for me to retire from the field."

Though he did not think he was the second version of Casella Ingvar, he had his own pride as a man and a mech pilot.

An older man soon reached Melkor's side.

"How are our mechs, major?"

"All of the mechs assigned to our mech legion are ready for deployment, sir." Major Cardano Belsir reported. "Some of the older machines that have become less reliable due to frequent damage and repairs might not perform up to par, but they should be able to keep up with maneuvers."

"And the men?"

"They're… scared more than they are excited."

The newly appointed major was one of the more recent hires of the Larkinson Clan. Major Belsir brought much-needed structural leadership and management ability to the Avatars of Myth.

As a graduate of a military academy and someone who had climbed up the ranks of a military organization until his 50's, Major Belsir neatly compensated for all of Commander Melkor's shortcomings. He particularly excelled in the more boring aspects of leading a mech legion such as administration and logistics.

Melkor had assigned other officers to take charge of these responsibilities, but it was nice that there was someone above them that knew what should be done.

The only shortcoming that prevented Major Belsir from gaining more respect from the Avatars was that he was not a mech pilot. Even though the ability to fight with mechs was not related to leadership ability, mech pilots were much more willing to entrust their lives to those who understood their plight and experienced the same dangers.

"A bit of respect towards alien threats is healthy." Commander Melkor said as he considered the state of his men. "We can't let their fear of the unknown affect their courage too much, though. This is just the start of our great adventure into the Red Ocean. If we get spooked just because we came across something new, then how will we be able to confront other dangers?"

Major Belsir did not look comfortable. "The dangers we need to take into account in the Red Ocean are much greater, commander. There are Avatars who think we do not even need to explore such a large and potentially dangerous alien shipwreck."

"They are allowed to think that way, but they must follow their orders regardless. The decision to explore the Titania does not lie with us. We are Avatars. We fight the enemies of the clan. Nothing more."

That said, Commander Melkor also had his misgivings about approaching the alien shipwreck. Giant capital ships, even alien ones, shouldn't remain undisturbed for long. Why hadn't other pioneering fleets explored the wreckage already? Why was the Titania even alone?

There were so many question marks surrounding this event that Commander Melkor feared that the Larkinsons might be blundering into another situation they could not control.

If that happened… then the Avatars needed to show what they were capable of once again.

"Our men must be ready."