The Mech Touch



The potential problem escalated to a dangerous degree, but the situation was still salvageable.

They just had to preempt the pescans and prevent whatever means they employed to free the alien captive at the center of the facility.

At worst, Ves could use Goldie to inform the Larkinsons on the other side to compel the government to call in the MTA on an emergency basis.

Even though the state would have to pay a huge price to call in the MTA's intervention, there was no way the mechers would stand by and let an escaped phase whale destroy an entire city during a breakout attempt!

However, Ves was deeply concerned about whether the MTA's fast response group could adequately control a fight against a formidable phase lord or phase whale.

Although he had seen the MTA suppress such powerful creatures in the past, that was mostly confined to battles in space where there was nothing important in the vicinity.

Any fight that might ensue between the MTA and a powerful alien 'god' would most definitely devastate the entire ancient prison.

If the phase whale was especially dangerous and powerful, the battle might even spill over Kotor City which was built around the center of the entrance to the pocket space!

All of this was bad news to Ves. He did not want to leave anything to chance.

The best way to deal with a possible calamity was to prevent it from happening in the first place!

As the pressure of all of these predictions weighed down on him like a blanket made out of Unending alloy, he felt as if he and his forces were the only ones that could save Kotor City from a disaster of the colonial state's own making!

It was the negligence of the founders of Davute that drove Great Chief Jaharon and his surviving aliens to this corner of a pocket space!

"We need to end this sooner rather than later!"

To that end, Ves temporarily said goodbye to Gloriana and his children once again. He then approached Nitaa who was hunkering just behind a structure that was close to the main entrance that led to the next floor.

The sounds and vibrations of weapons fire became a lot louder, and the risk of getting blasted by a bomb or other heavy weapon in the hands of the aliens was not light!

Nonetheless, Ves still possessed a strong belief in the strength of his Unending Regalia. He had already summoned his Amastendira and his primordial human skull was always ready to be used.

"What does the situation look like according to your opinion?!"

"The pescans are fully ready to meet our attack." Nitaa reported back. "There are more pescan soldiers as well as civilians that have hastily been armed with spare battle suits. Although most of these soldiers are fairly weak, their quantity is distressing. Our own troops have suffered moderate casualties already, so it is not certain whether they have the numbers to sustain an attack."

Ves had already taken a good look at the other soldiers. The Davutan guard soldiers still possessed the determination to fight and die for a good cause, but the same could not be said for the private guard troops that were loyal to other important groups.

If Ves wanted to make sure that both of them pulled their weight in the upcoming offensive, then he needed to give them the confidence that they could win without paying a grievous price!

He thought about this problem for a moment. He even called up a projection that showed a feed from a hidden spy drone.

The quantity of pescan defenders was quite exaggerated. Scores of defenders were stationed at every entrance, but over a thousand aliens had gathered around the main entrance alone!

Although the majority of those aliens consisted of civilian pescans that only hastily wore a spare battle suit, they only had to aim their arm cannons in a single direction in order to block any human force from pushing through a narrow entrance!

Ves already gained a headache from seeing all of the pescans looking ready to impale any humans that came within range.

The hatred exuding from them was palpable! Even if the expressions of most of these aliens weren't visible behind their thick helmets, Ves could clearly pick up the dark and seething emotions that were boiling inside their minds and spirits.

Almost all of the pescans that had hastily evacuated from their city state had lost many friends and relatives during the conquest of their planet!

These aliens would certainly fight until the bitter end!

Even if there was a miniscule chance that their race could be saved from extinction, they would definitely fight like hell in order to give their people a way to survive!

As Ves continued to study this situation from multiple angles, he suddenly found a possible method to break this difficult situation.

The current plan that General Verle had proposed was to take advantage of the extraordinary resilience of the combat armor of the honor guards to lead a charge through the main entrance.

By attracting the bulk of enemy fire, the Larkinson guards could buy precious time and space for the other soldiers to move up and overrun the enemy positions.

This was a simple and brutal plan that exposed his honor guards to a huge amount of risk.

Ves did not like it at all because he did not want his own men to pay the price for a victory. He wanted to achieve victory in a better way and he just thought of a way to turn the tide against the aliens.

He opened up a communication channel. "General Verle, I have a proposal."

It did not take long before General Verle agreed with the alteration to the plan. It was not as if Ves completely overturned the original strategy. He just augmented it by adding in his own contribution.

The only issue that Verle had a problem with was that it required Ves to stay fairly close to the action.

"Does it have to be you, sir?" The general asked with concern. "It would be better to entrust this responsibility to your guards."

"They can't. They don't have the skills and expertise that I have. Don't worry. I do not intend to charge at the forefront like before. I will keep a pair of honor guards around me just to make sure. Is that okay?"

"Very well…"

Although withholding two honor guards directly weakened the vanguard that was still scheduled to storm the enemy's position, first, it couldn't be helped.

In order to ensure that this part of the next attack would go well, Nitaa had decided to lead the charge in person.

Fortunately, Nitaa had already passed on the Larkinson Mandate to the Chief Ministers of the Larkinson Clan. Otherwise, the precious heirloom of the clan might actually get exposed to withering fire and get destroyed!

Once everyone completed their respective preparations, General Verle, Major Durant and the other leaders commanded their men to advance.

At this point, the soldiers did not need an extolling speech or encouragement from Zeigra in order to do what was necessary. They all knew the score and they didn't like being manipulated twice in a row.

"Take action!"

The attack commenced after a pair of heavy weapon specialists brought forward their laser cannons and fired them at the enemy's defensive positions in order to blow open a wide enough hole!

"Attack!"

A small group of honor guards charged forward, attracting the attention of hundreds of pescans and attracting a lot of enemy fire!

Even though the power and caliber of those weapons weren't all that great, the sheer quantity of hits already began to stress their combat armor!

The aliens defending up above began to yell and roar different alien sounds that express their undying hatred and ferocity against the human invaders and murderers!

The utter hatred had seeped so deep into their souls that they presented an invisible cloud of fury that utterly caused the advancing humans to feel the wrath of their race!

However, the humans did not rear back when confronted by the righteous anger of the aliens that they tried to annihilate.

Humanity was strong!

Every single human living in this age possessed a strong and unquestioned belief in the superiority and strength of their own race.

Although this was a fairly common occurrence among many races, it was especially strong in humans.

Itr was as if the technological superiority and the scale of conquered territories was directly proportional to the racial pride of different species!

Since humanity grabbed more territory than any other race in the galactic neighborhood, humans fully possessed the capital to rank themselves on top of every other alien race!

These pescans who never really managed to expand beyond their only home planet were incredibly pathetic in comparison.

It would be a shame for humanity to lose even a single battle against these final remnants that deserved to be swept in the dustbin of history!

Whether this pride was irrational or not, it significantly helped to boost the morale and determination of the humans that were climbing up a ramp, thereby completely exposing themselves to attacks!

The incoming attacks inflicted a lot of damage. The amount of pescans armed with guns were so great that dozens of infantry soldiers had fallen in battle.

They happened to be the troopers who were equipped with weaker and less resilient suits of combat armor!

The ones wearing better equipment managed to hold out longer, but even the honor guards started to falter under all of this fire!

Their first-class armor plating resisted a lot of energy attacks with relative ease, but there were still plenty of aliens who were armed with physical guns!

Each time these aliens lifted their two arm cannons and pulled the trigger, their muzzles boomed as pairs of ballistic projectiles slammed against the armor of the honor guard!

These attacks often caused the honor guards in question to falter in their steps or get pushed back to an extent.

The worst attacks launched by the pescans were grenades and other explosives. They not only affected multiple honor guards at once, but could even blast them off their feet if they were powerful enough!

One guard in particular suffered a series of blows. Not only did he get knocked flat on the ground after suffering an explosion at point blank range, a small team of pescan elite soldiers who had been waiting for the right opportunity suddenly exposed themselves and fired a dozen transphasic laser beams onto the same target!

Each of them coordinated their fire so that the timing and aim of the attacks landed onto the exposed chest plating of the fallen and immobile honor guard at the same time!

"AHHH!"

Ves snarled as he could feel the passing of the loyal honor guard.

Though Ves had never bothered to learn the soldier's name in person, he knew that the deceased fellow used to be a loyal Battle Crier armsman who had managed to prove himself worthy to become his most honored bodyguard.

The loss of such a skilled but more importantly dedicated guard was a significant loss to Ves!

Although the clan was capable of hiring a lot of elite guards these days, their loyalties were never truly secure.

Only certain groups such as the former citizens of the Kinner Tribe were willing to pledge unreserved loyalty to Ves in person. This had always caused Ves to favor the Battle Criers for the most sensitive and crucial jobs such as becoming the basis of his elite Nullifier Battalion.

Even though the human sharpshooters had already sniped the elite pescan soldiers that had finally exposed themselves, there were still more of them that were inflicting great damage.

As Ves observed another honor guard losing a limb as a volley of laser beams scorched the poor man's arm, he couldn't take it any longer.

Ves did not intend to let any of his precious men suffer any further.

Once he confirmed that the pescans had become fully preoccupied with attacking the vanguard, he stepped forward and began to make his move.

He lifted David's Skull and began to channel a classic combination of design spirits.

"Zeigra! Lufa! Qilanxo! Bring forth your power and engulf the aliens with your despair!"