The Mech Touch

Unlike the Shield of Samar, the Promethea did not possess the ability to resist sustained enemy attacks, especially once it expended its resonance shield.

Though its transphasic armor system gave it a moderate advantage against opponents that did not possess any transphasic capabilities themselves, it was unfortunate that the Gauge Dynasty happened to be one of the parties that invested a lot into them since its agents first stepped foot into the Red Ocean!

The research and development they allocated to phasewater and its many applications far exceeded that of the Larkinson Clan or any other private organization. As the Gauge Dynasty was as large as a medium-sized state by itself, it had no lack of senior scientists and capable research institutions.

The Gauger mech designers were the most enthused about phasewater technology out of almost anyone else. The Masters among them eagerly experimented with all of the new possibilities that phasewater opened up. Their superior transhuman capabilities also allowed them to learn and master the uses of this complex substance a lot faster than other researchers!

Combined with the fact that the Gauge Dynasty managed to lay claim to numerous colonies that possessed phasewater deposits of varying sizes, the Sundered Phalanx managed to modernize all of its expert mechs with remarkable speed.

The Skorpion Kommando was stronger than anyone expected. The main reason for that had to do with the Skorpion Tail and the 'venom' it was able to inject into its victims.

According to the intelligence leaks that the Larkinsons based their battle plans upon, the Skorpion Kommando was able to deal heavy damage to exposed expert mechs, but none of the planners ever imagined that its venom could turn the Promethea into a burden with just a surface attack!

If the Shield of Samar hadn't activated its Primal Aegis ability with the help of its design spirit, the stinger would have been able to pierce into the Promethea's armor and inject much of that venom into the expert rifleman mech's crucial internals, thereby disabling it outright!

"This shouldn't be possible!" Ves exclaimed. "The Promethea's transphasic armor system is not a piece of cabbage. Its resistance against corrosion-based attacks should have been much greater!"

The Fridayman expert mechs that the Viper designed in the past did feature highly effective corrosive fluid formulas that had managed to dissolve the armor of many powerful Hexer expert mechs, but these incidents took place in a time where phasewater technology had not spread to the galactic rim of the old galaxy.

It did not take long until the Larkinson researchers found out why the Skorpion Kommando possessed such abnormally high effectiveness against modern expert mechs.

"The new corrosive fluid formulas employed by the Skorpion Kommando are laced with phasewater!"

"What?!" Ves looked surprised when he heard this report. "Even if that is the case, they still shouldn't have been able to eat through both Unending alloy plating and transphasic armor plating so quickly!"

"That is normally the case, but according to an intelligent report from a handful of our Black Cats on the ground, a department of the Sundered Phalanx transferred over a kilogram's worth of phasewater to the space station where the Skorpion Kommando was stationed. We believe that the Gaugers augmented the Skorpion Kommando's stock of venom with as much phasewater they are able to carry in a short amount of time!"

"Damnit!"

This was a brilliant move from the enemy! A huge trading hub like Pima Prime most certainly accumulated a lot of kilograms of phasewater.

The Gauge Dynasty probably prioritized the evacuation of most of it because of their value and because of the difficulty of converting them into anything useful.

Though it would have been great if the locals were able to fabricate stronger and more extravagant transphasic parts for their expert mechs, the invading forces arrived too quickly for the Sundered Phalanx to upgrade all of their expert mechs.

However, it was still possible for the high-end laboratories on Pima Prime V to produce enhanced corrosive fluids in a hurry, especially if the Viper had already developed the higher-end formulas in advance!

Ves already gained a fairly deep cognition of how the introduction of phasewater would change battles between human mech forces forever. The Skorpion Kommando was nominally an expert space knight, which was supposed to be the least threatening mech type among this category of high-end machines.

Yet by sticking the Skorpion Tail on its back and reserving enough room to contain a reservoir of phasewater-laced corrosive substances, the expert space knight became even more dangerous than the Shockshell at close range!

"Combat between transphasic mechs is largely a competition between who is willing to squander more money. The side with the biggest wallet will often gain the upper hand!"

This was the most painful part about mech combat in the phasewater era. The Larkinson Clan and the rest of the Golden Skull Alliance managed to luck out because they managed to plunder huge amounts of phasewater during the Purgatory Campaign.

If Ves hadn't pushed to go on a small mission to a star system that just happened to contain a hidden phase whale enclave, the Larkinson Clan would have never been able to invest in so many powerful transphasic expert mechs.

This would have put the level of its expert mechs at the same height as that of other medium-sized private organizations.

In an alternate reality where the Golden Skull Alliance never commenced the Purgatory Campaign, its mech forces would have never been able to compete against state-backed military forces such as the Sundered Phalanx. The disparity in resources would have been too great!

When Ves figured this out, he felt vindicated for pushing his clan and its allies to not hole up in Davute all of the time.

Sure, the Larkinson Clan would have definitely been able to develop at a steady trajectory by relying on the growing commercial success of the Living Mech Corporation, but how could the Larkinsons ever catch up to the likes of the Fridaymen and other larger players that had access to a lot more population, territory, resources and funding?

If Ves did not want his clan to remain vulnerable to the predation of these larger players, he needed to accelerate the growth of his own mech legions.

Perhaps the performance of the Larkinson Army was quite good during this battle, but that was only because the Hex Army locked down the bulk of the Sundered Phalanx mech divisions.

As groups like the Gauge Dynasty began to adopt phasewater technology on a wider scale, an even greater separation would take place between the bigger players and the smaller players.

Ordinary mercenary outfits and security companies did not have enough access to phasewater!

A lot of phasewater harvested from places like the Friday Colonies were internally consumed, which meant that they rarely got sold on the open market.

The market price for phasewater became ridiculously high for this reason as only an overwhelming premium would convince parties to sell a portion of their reserves to their rivals and competitors.

All of this meant that the importance of gaining a stable supply of phasewater became more important than ever.

Ves underestimated the value of concluding a business transaction with the Hex Federation. He was lucky that the Hexers valued his Mental Simulation Training System so highly that they were willing to pay 5 kilograms of phasewater to gain access to this revolutionary training method!

"I need to expand the market for my MSTS." Ves immediately concluded. "There is no better way for my clan to earn a steady supply of phasewater. I need to play to my advantages."

As Ves continued to think about the importance of obtaining more phasewater to strengthen his forces, Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Isobel were enduring a lot more pressure than before!

When the Promethea got splattered with the Skorpion Kommando's phasewater-rich corrosive fluid, a third of its front and a noticeable amount of internals got dissolved.

This not only opened up a serious weak point in its armor coverage, but also degraded its overall performance parameters by a third!

This drop in performance was extremely serious, and turned the Promethea into a notable liability when fighting against a powerful high-expert mech.

The Promethea was no longer as fast as before due to the damage it sustained, so it became a lot more difficult for Venerable Isobel's expert mech to maintain its distance from the Skorpion Kommando!

Venerable Isobel endured life-threatening pressure as she piloted her damaged machine to the best of her abilities. More and more of her potential became unleashed as she tried to squeeze as much power as she could from the Promethea.

Her application of the mysterious methods derived from the Alfari Corps Detonation Code abruptly reached a higher level as she gained inspiration during this battle!

"There is still more I can do!"

She even deepened her cooperation with Zeiga and the Illustrious One, both of whom did not want to see an expert mech that they oversaw as its design spirits fall in its first proper battle!

It was a pity that none of their measures were enough. The Promethea hit harder and inflicted almost just as much damage as before to the exterior of the Skorpion Kommando despite the noticeable drop in power.

Yet the Skorpion Kommando easily endured all of the attacks. Even if its thick frontal armor was beginning to chip away due to getting stuck by repeated explosive energy beam attacks, there were still plenty of layers of hardy transphasic armor left!

Though Venerable Isobel tried her best to concentrate the Ignitron rifle's resonance-empowered attacks onto key targets such as the hands, or the infamous Skorpion Tail, Venerable Oskar always managed to mitigate them by moving his expert mech just a tiny bit out of the way.

"You are 50 years too young to cripple my mech!"

In contrast to Venerable Isobel's relatively unimpressive results, Venerable Jannzi was able to achieve much more results.

The Shield of Samar received a lot more abuse due to receiving the brunt of the Skorpion Kommando's attacks, but the Larkinson expert mech's thick frontal armor and abundant amount of mass made it so that any Skorpion Tail attack only ended up dissolving buffer material rather than more important internal components.

As long as the Shield of Samar was able to retain full power and functionality, it possessed the capital to slow down the Skorpion Kommando, especially now that Venerable Jannzi had fully woken up and exceeded her previous limitations!

The stakes of the battle along with the need to protect Venerable Isobel and her weakened Promethea drove Venerable Jannzi's willpower to new heights.

Alongside that, the Shield of Samar and Qilanxo both deepened their cooperation with their long-standing partner, allowing the trio to develop a more extensive degree of cooperation!

The most drastic benefits of their greater synergies was that the Shield of Samar's true resonance had become stronger and more condensed.

Jannzi's stronger willpower amplified every performance parameter of her expert mech to a greater degree, allowing the Shield of Samar to move faster and exert a stronger gravitic attraction force on the Skorpion Kommando!

"Let go, you stupid woman!"

Despite Venerable Oskar's best attempts to break the Fatal Attraction resonating ability that was preventing the Skorpion Kommando from chasing after the Promethea, his breakout trick no longer worked as effectively as before.

Part of that was because his previous outburst had tired out his strong but still finite willpower.

Another part of it was because Jannzi and Qilanxo had amplified the power of Fatal Attraction!

This was not sustainable though as the amount of exertion required to restrict the movement of a high-tier expert mech was too great for Venerable Jannzi!

"I can't hold the Skorpion Kommando for long." She gritted her teeth. "We need to take it down quickly."

Venerable Isobel quickly made an estimate but shook her head. "My firepower isn't high enough. The Skorpion Kommando's armor is just too strong."

Just as the two Larkinson expert pilots were trying to come up with desperate measures, over a hundred slicer beams struck the Skorpion Kommando and the area around the enemy expert mech!

"WHO DARES?!" Venerable Oskar shouted as the narrow energy beams managed to bite deeper into the armor of his expert mech than they should!

"It's… it's the Battle Criers!" Venerable Isobel's expression lifted up. "Our reinforcements have arrived!"