The Mech Touch

　　The voribugs weren't in a better shape either. While the insects still ate away the guts of the pakklaton ships, pretty much all of their elder voribugs had died when they attempted to jump onto the much larger human fleet.

　　The juvenile and adult voribugs may be incredibly difficult to get rid of entirely once they took root inside a starship, but they were too small and weak to traverse through space and navigate towards another vessel.

　　Right now, the main priorities of the Golden Skull Alliance were twofold.

　　First, they had to make sure to neutralize any active opposition inside the alien ships. Neither the pakklatons nor the voribugs must be allowed to ruin anything of value inside the hulls!

　　Second, the humans had to secure any high-priority treasures that the evacuation ship and the other disabled ships were carrying at the moment. This included phasewater and other high-grade exotics.

　　It was for this reason that the Golden Skull Alliance deployed a lot of assault shuttles carrying lots of different infantry units.

　　Although the Golden Skull Alliance mostly depended on its mechs to fight its battles, infantry soldiers were also indispensable.

　　Whether they were utilized as guards or employed as marines that specialized in performing boarding action, the Larkinson Clan had not neglected the necessity of raising and training thousands troops.

　　Of course, most of the time they melted into the background. They were the faceless troops that manned the checkpoints, inspected incoming and outgoing shuttles and escorted VIPs such as Ves and the other leaders.

　　It was quite rare for them to play an active role in a battle!

　　Although mechs could easily penetrate through the hulls of the crippled starships and annihilate any alien holdouts stirring up trouble inside, the damage the mechs would inflict in the process was way too high!

　　Any samples of phasewater or delicate pieces of valuable alien technology could easily get crushed by the sheer amount of collateral damage that mechs unavoidably inflicted!

　　This was why the infantry forces came out in full force. They all suited and boarded the shuttles in batches in order to head to different crippled alien vessels.

　　Most of them proceeded towards the evacuation ship, but the expeditionary forces made sure to dispatch enough units to secure the most critical compartments of other vessels.

　　The takeover did not go smoothly in many cases.

　　"CAWW!"

　　Over twenty different birds in armor flew above the heads of the Glory Seeker soldiers that had just entered and launched attacks by dropping bombs and firing their wing-mounted laser cannons.

　　Such an assault would have taken a light assault squad by surprise, but the squad that had entered was much more resistant against damage!

　　The Glory Seeker troops were taken aback at the ferocity of the attack, but they happened to carry a shield generator that blocked much of the initial strikes.

　　Even if the attacks went through, the heavy combat armor worn by the female soldiers were not for decoration. Their heavily armor plating could take quite a beating before they succumbed.

　　Several of them raised their positron rifles and tried their best to aim at the armored wings of the pakklaton troops.

　　These strikes dealt substantial damage as the pakklatons rarely employed heavy armor as far as the humans were aware of. As a race evolved from alien birds, the pakklatons favored flight and mobility in all of their combat approaches.

　　While the pakklaton race once raised heavily-armored units, these elite soldiers had long been crushed under the heel of the Big Two's boots. The alien troopers that accompanied the pakklaton refugee fleet were merely grunts that were lucky enough to enter an evacuation ship in time.

　　Even if they honed and polished their combat skills against the voribugs for several weeks, human troops were much more versatile than mindless insects!

　　"Bring these birds down onto the deck!"

　　A couple of heavily-armored soldiers brought their fluid projectors to bear and began to fire concentrated streams of slime that rapidly dried and solidified upon contact!

　　Often used for riot control, the slime was designed to trap, immobilize and incapacitate anyone and anything engulfed in the substance.

　　The slime formula used by the Glory Seekers was much more effective than the ones used by states such as the Bright Republic.

　　The slime not only stuck more effectively onto surfaces, but also reached an impressive degree of hardness within a minute!

　　Even if the slime did not have time to dry out, their inherent viscosity and thick consistency already glued up the movements and surface modules of the pakklaton soldiers in the air.

　　Soon enough, they fell helplessly onto the deck as they were unable to maintain flight with all of the hardening glue-like substances engulfing their armored forms!

　　At this point, killing them was as easy as slaughtering chickens.

　　Perhaps a more elite or well-funded unit would have been able to prevent or mitigate these actions, but the human attackers were considerably better in this regard!

　　"Heh. Stupid birds." A female soldier contemptuously stomped the beak of a dying pakklaton soldier. "The chickens just don't learn. Instead of hiding behind cover and relying on the defensive advantages of fighting on home ground, they would much rather fly out in the open inside a cramped starship. It's as if they never got rid of their primal way of fighting."

　　"Shut up, Costella. I am glad these pakklatons employ the same tactic over and over again. Now let's secure the bridge or whatever they call it. Why must they build so high?"

　　The bridge of the alien vessels was built like a forest or a giant nest. Though the heavily-armored troops were able to levitate, their bulk made it difficult to move quickly.

　　Fortunately, none of them had to know how all of the alien devices worked. Their tech specialist just pulled out a special data container and pressed it onto an alien console.

　　Soon enough, the various control panels switched off, signifying that much of the ship was locked down.

　　Elsewhere, another squad of heavy assault troops dispatched by the Cross Clan advanced towards a dangerous voribug nest where a lot of new insects were being hatched.

　　An elder voribug had stayed behind in order to protect the nest. When the insect learned that human invaders were on the way, the creature let out an invisible noise that caused many voribugs in the vicinity to stop their previous actions and converge upon the nest!

　　"Hsssssss!"

　　"Shaaaa!"

　　The flood of voribugs that descended upon the approaching Crosser troopers was great!

　　If a dozen of the small hand-sized insects were able to jump onto the armor of the human troops, they could use their metal-tearing limbs and maws to drill inside and mutilate the vulnerable bodies within.

　　However, the Crossers did not allow the bugs to get close in the first place!

　　The troops all raised their heavy shotguns and poured out small but extremely numerous pellets in different directions.

　　Whenever a swarm of bugs became too much, one of the small shoulder-mounted launchers automatically fired impact grenades that produced strong shockwaves that pushed the voribugs aside!

　　If any of the insects managed to get past all of those defenses, then the shield generator carried by the troops forcibly stopped them from getting any further.

　　Hundreds of deathly insects fell in quick succession. While the elder voribugs were quite threatening to individual soldiers, these ordinary bugs were trivial to kill as long as the defenders were prepared.

　　The only troublesome factor was that repelling all of the bugs consumed a lot of energy and ammunition. If the soldiers weren't accompanied by carrier bots that contained additional supplies, they wouldn't have been so wasteful in how they fought.

　　The only troublesome part about the voribugs was that they could come in each direction. The ones tunneling below the decks were particularly difficult to deal with because the soldiers preferred to keep the surface they were standing on intact.

　　"These bugs are endless!"

　　"No wonder the pakklatons never managed to eradicate them for so long."

　　Slowly but surely, the Crosser assault troops managed to reach the entrance to the compartment that held one of the hives of the voribugs.

　　They briefly stopped as they beheld the space. Every surface was covered in gunk, causing the entire space to look dark and foreboding. Even the light fixtures had been partially covered by the excretions and other biological waste matter of the insects.

　　A single elder voribug stood in front of a large nest of tiny eggs. It was many times larger than an adult and its exoskeleton was laced by the alloys that it had originally eaten from the ship.

　　The creature gazed at the human intruders with opaque black eyes. None of the Crossers could determine how much intelligence they conveyed, but none of them enjoyed being stared at by an exoinsect!

　　"HHSSSSSSSSSS…"

　　The sound issued by the elder voribug echoed through the chamber and discomfited the humans. The cry served as both a warning and a declaration of strength to the creature!

　　If that wasn't enough, strange half-metal wings unfolded from behind the voribug. They flapped at a rapid pace, causing the heavy creature to rise up in the air despite its considerable mass.

　　Given the size and the material composition of the elder voribug, it would take quite a lot of effort for soldiers on foot to kill this powerful insect!

　　This was a voribug that could pose a threat to mechs!

　　The Crossers didn't come in blind, though. Even though the Golden Skull Alliance only learned relatively recently that the pakklaton ships were infested by voribugs, it did not take a lot of time for them to pull out the gear and plans they prepared in the event they encountered a voribug infestation.

　　"Take out the cannon. Slowly. Let's not startle this bug, shall we?"

　　One of the heavy weapon specialists slowly withdrew the cannon parts mounted on one of the floating carrier bots and slowly locked them into an operational weapon.

　　The voribug seemed content to buzz around while making intimidating noises. The creature's greatest priority was to safeguard the eggs of its species, so it did not dare to act rashly.

　　However, as the heavy weapons specialist slowly brought the large and formidable-looking cannon, the elder voribug finally recognized that it would not be able to protect eggs if the intruders got their way!

　　"HHHHHHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

　　This insectile hiss sounded different from the last one! The sensors of he Crosser soldiers went wild as they detected a lot of incoming enemies!

　　"The bugs are coming!"

　　"Hold out until we can fire our cannon!"

　　Swarms of voribugs emerged out of lots of tiny holes and descended upon the Crosser infantry squad!

　　While they were being halted by the same means they employed before, the difference was that they were also facing an elder voribug this time!

　　Just as the troopers thought they could complete their mission without any complications, a large and heavy insect slammed against the energy shield!

　　The barrier exploded in light as the shield generator could not withstand the force of the impact!

　　Without the protection of this shield, the smaller insects were quickly able to swarm towards the vulnerable troopers.

　　"Flamethrowers!"

　　Although the flames unleashed by the soldiers managed to fry many insects, the voribugs were quite resistant against heat damage, so plenty of them managed to get through!

　　One insect drilled through the faceplate of a soldier. The man screamed as his entire face was being eaten by a voribug!

　　However, even as all of this was taking place, the heavy weapon specialist successfully fired his cannon!

　　A powerful gauss shell surged forth and slammed against the elder voribug that managed to get in the way in time!

　　Though its large body cracked and almost shattered from the blow, the creature managed to remain alive with the help of its incredibly tenacious biology.

　　It was a pity that the creature was not able to negate physics. The surprisingly powerful gauss cannon attack propelled the body of the elder voribug backwards until it slammed through thousands of tiny, milk-like eggs!

　　As the voribug came to its senses, it observed the eggs that had been crushed under its heavy shell.

　　For a moment, the voribug swarms paused and fell silent.

　　Then, they all hissed louder than ever!

　　"HSSSSSSSSSS!"

　　"HSSSSSSSSSSS!"

　　"HSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

　　The surviving Crosser troopers all shook in their armors.

　　"We should have brought more men!"