The Mech Touch

　　"What?! Why would they do that? The aliens have warships!"

　　"According to what I've heard from above, those warships aren't as scary as they look. The pakklatons are not a strong race to begin with, and their ships must have gone through a lot of hardships after fleeing from their collapsed empire non-stop."

　　"Even if they're down, they're definitely not out. They have genuine warships, you know. Even damaged ones can still burn our mechs into ash!"

　　"I've heard that those big laser guns must be worn out or damaged by now. With our fresh and well-functioning mechs, we can definitely overwhelm the pakklaton ships at range."

　　"Have you lost your mind? These are warships you're talking about! Our mechs can't fight against them on even ground. All of those virtual training sessions where we're pitted against different alien warships always end up badly for us. If any of their combat systems are still reasonably intact, they can still chew through hundreds of mechs before we can finally defeat one of their warships."

　　"The brass will think about that problem, not us. We just do what we're told."

　　Opinions on the fleet's apparent course of action were decidedly mixed to say the least.

　　Just the thought about going out of their way to provoke a fight against an alien fleet with nine formidable warships was enough to make a lot of Larkinsons shake in their boots!

　　"Hahaha!" A veteran Avatar mech pilot slapped the back of a younger colleague. "What are you fellows scared about? This isn't the first time we Larkinsons faced warships head-on. Have I ever told you about the Battle against the Abyss?"

　　"Who hasn't? That battle is legendary!"

　　"It also caused a lot of clansmen to fall in battle…"

　　Many mech pilots in the Larkinson Clan had no real experience fighting against any warships. As a consequence, many of them became unstable in the following hours as their nerves and all of the negative propaganda against warships sapped their confidence.

　　It took a lot of effort to get these mech pilots back on track. A lot of mech pilots were kept busy by putting them through meetings, quick simulation training and frequent patrols.

　　As everyone geared up for battle, Venerable Jannzi sought out Commander Melkor.

　　"What's going on?" Jannzi questioned as she pinned her cousin with a glare. "Why exactly are we choosing to provoke an unnecessary complication? The alien refugee fleet clearly isn't interested in attacking us, so we are not under threat. That will definitely change once we enter into battle with them. Is Ves so determined to repeat the debacle of the Battle against the Abyss!?"

　　"Hey, to be fair, our situation is much better than before." He told her. "Our alliance can field more than 12,000 second-class mechs, many of which are armed with ranged weapons or can wield a spare rifle. The power disparity between our forces is much more tilted in our favor. The alien starships are riddled with damage and I bet they are also low on supplies. The morale of these pakklaton aliens must be low as well due to traveling deeper into human-occupied space with no safe harbor for them to find shelter."

　　Jannzi didn't look assured at all. "I'm only hearing guesses and assumptions from you. That's always the problem with Ves. He's way too overconfident and always thinks the enemy will fit his preconceived notions. Then he gets all surprised when the enemy does something that falls outside of his expectations. Look, I'll be happy if this pakklaton fleet doesn't end up as bad as I think, but what if my fears are closer to the truth?"

　　The Avatar Commander carefully approached and put his arms on the female expert pilot's shoulders.

　　"We aren't going in blind. We all thought about the concerns you've mentioned. Before we get anywhere close to maximum engagement range, we will keep collecting as much information on the pakklaton ships as possible. The closer we get, the more our sensors can resolve the true state of the enemy fleet. We're also consulting with lots of outside experts and consultants that know more about the pakklaton race and their combat capabilities. If we ever find out that a battle will lead to severe losses, we'll turn around without hesitation. That is what we all agreed upon during the meeting."

　　Though Venerable Jannzi didn't feel reassured by this, her momentum subsided a bit. She lifted her steely arms and held onto Melkor's outstretched limbs.

　　"I hope you are right, but I will stay on guard as long as possible. Take care and don't let you or your men die just because Ves is greedy to conquer another warship."

　　She pushed aside his hands from her shoulders and marched away. She had a bad feeling about this attack. She could feel it in her bones that Larkinsons would die today. Those alien warships all looked formidable and their primary weapons could easily breach the hulls of the Larkinson fleet's combat carriers if they were accurate and functional enough.

　　Her thoughts lingered on one key question at this moment.

　　"Can my Shield of Samar and I block a warship attack?"

　　Elsewhere, a trio of other expert pilots came together in one of the pilot ready rooms of the Wild Torch to share their thoughts on the upcoming battle.

　　As the latest capital ship to join the Larkinson fleet, the Wild Torch distinguished herself from the Gorgoneion by hosting a lot of wilder, rougher and more aggressive soldiers.

　　The concentration of Flagrant Vandals, Heavensworders, Swordmaidens and Penitent Sisters aboard the vessel also led to a noticeable increase in female mech pilots aboard the fleet carrier.

　　As the expert pilots suited up, two of them did not look excited about the upcoming action.

　　Venerable Orfan let out a frustrated grunt. "We won't be playing much of a role in this next battle. Everyone is saying that this battle will be decided at ludicrous ranges. Even if our expert mechs are powerful enough to chew through hundreds of opposing mechs, my spear isn't long enough to cross a distance of thousands of kilometers!"

　　"My Decapitator will fare no better either." Venerable Dise said in a resigned tone. "My sword will stay sheathed in this battle, I think. Both of us will have to make do with the luminar crystal rifles the clan will hand out to our mechs."

　　"These stupid aliens! All of them are using warships as if they are the best ways to kill their enemies. Why have none of them converted to fielding mechs?"

　　"I would imagine that they don't have the time to make the conversion. Their territories have already been razed by the Big Two." Dise dryly responded.

　　The spearman mech specialist turned to the only ranged mech specialist in the ready room. "Stark, you'll probably have a really great time soon. Out of all of our expert mechs, yours is the most useful by far. That Amaranto of yours is the closest thing to a warship-grade cannon that we possess. The only way we can output higher damage than your expert rifleman mech is if we employ a battle formation."

　　Dise shook her head. "It won't work. Battle formations can be powerful, but their effective range is too short. Those powerful energy attacks rapidly lose cohesion the longer they are active. We need to get into spitting distance of the alien warships in order to hit them. That is also the range where they are most effective."

　　The reason for that was because nearly every warship was armed with secondary weapons. Their calibers were substantially smaller than the main guns, but that also made them a lot more suitable to intercept lots of smaller targets such as missiles and warships!

　　If a fully-functional warship was able to unleash the firepower of all of her secondary guns, then the vessel could easily output as much damage as hundreds of Transcendent Punishers if not more!

　　This was the main reason why the Golden Skull Alliance did not count on its melee mechs to fight this time. The chances were too high that hundreds if not thousands of mechs would collapse without even being able to sink their weapons into the hulls of the enemy vessels.

　　"Don't expect too much from me either." Venerable Stark spoke up. "It's true that my Amaranto's firepower is greater than anyone else's, but don't count on me to disable the enemy warships by myself. It takes a great amount of effort, concentration and energy to fire continuous powerful resonance-empowered energy beams. The most I can do is exploit any weak points generated by the attacks of other mechs and hasten the elimination of our priority targets. The Avatars, Sentinels and our allies will all have to do the heavy lifting for this battle."

　　The Amaranto was only one machine and Venerable Stark was only one expert pilot. Even though she was arguably the strongest among her peers in the Larkinson Clan, a stronger ant was still an ant in the face of a human!

　　The only way for the ants to topple the giant human was to dispatch the entire swarm to overwhelm the massive entity. This was essentially what the Golden Skull Alliance was hoping to accomplish.

　　Every mech pilot knew that mechs were ultimately fragile and vulnerable before warships. Unless mech technology improved to a point where their offensive or defensive capabilities experienced a transformational leap, this condition was unlikely to change!

　　Elsewhere aboard the Wild Torch, a pair of expert candidates held a similar conversation.

　　"Damn. Why did my mech come with so many physical guns? My B-Man won't hit anything in the ranges that people say will decide the battle!"

　　"At least your mechs are still tuned to fight with ranged weapons." Imon Ingvar said. "My Blade Chaser's debut battle won't see me doing anything of importance. My new custom mech can only wield a spare rifle like the other useless melee mechs."

　　"Hm, you never know, buddy. These aliens are all unique. Minor races like the pakklatons have to depend on something in order to survive in a galaxy dominated by the thirteen major races. This fleet has been on the run for a year according to what I've heard. If that is so, how come it still exists?"

　　Imon shrugged. "Alien warp drives are more convenient when it comes to hiding in deep space. Any ship or fleet can warp travel to the void between star systems and stop at a random coordinate. Unless we possess extremely advanced and powerful long-range sensors, it's too hard to detect any ships at these ranges. I've heard the aliens have even built entire secret bases at these void hideouts!"

　　"Aren't the Big Two supposed to track down and demolish these places?"

　　"Maybe that is where this refugee fleet came from, though it may very well come from their original territory." Imon reminded Vincent. "Don't forget that these alien warp drives are much slower compared to FTL drives when it comes to traversing a lot of distance. A journey that takes a few months for us can easily take more than a year for these aliens."

　　"Wow. You sound smart. Did you learn all of that by yourself?"

　　"No. My sister explained it to me when I called her earlier."

　　"Oh."

　　A brief moment of silence ensued before Imon spoke up again.

　　"Do you think we're doing the right thing?"

　　"What do you mean?"

　　"I mean, we're actively attacking a fleet of refugees that were driven out of their homelands. They are hardly an honorable target."

　　Vincent threw his friend a serious look. "We're talking about a fleet of hostile alien remnants. Sure, they may look weak and pathetic right now, but the pakklatons would not hesitate to do the same thing to us if our positions were reversed. It's kill or be killed in this dwarf galaxy. If we let these aliens go, they'll eventually bump into other humans and get wiped out anyway. The only variable is how much damage they could do. Since we are big enough to pick a fight with the pakklatons, we might as well do our part and make the Red Ocean safer."