The Mech Touch

Visions of battle projected in the mech arena.

Of course, these images did not remain confined to flat footage projected on a limited screen.

Soon enough, the large-scale projection systems that ran across the entirety of Phoca Arena came to life, transforming the gigantic central arena into realistic battlescapes.

The changes did not remain confined to the arena grounds.

The visual illusions also extended to the seats that encompassed all of the guests!

Through clever technology, the observers could no longer see each other with their eyes. The projection systems had isolated them to the point where they felt as if they had been transported back in time.

It was as if everyone had been individually plucked out of Bortele III and suddenly ended up in the middle of a battlefield!

The chaos of battle unfolded in front of them as well as around them. The immersive experience of this illusion was so encompassing that a lot of veterans immediately went on edge!

Fortunately, there was still a small sense of unreality to the illusions. The Larkinsons did not want to spook or trigger the traumas of their audience, so they had dialed down a lot of settings that could have made the experience more realistic.

The floating form of Commander Ikeon Powell also gave the ticket holders an anchor to focus on. The man's expression exuded a complete sense of control over his emotions.

The sight of battle did not appear to faze him much despite the fact that he had lived through all of these battles.

In one moment, the entire projected environment transformed into a settlement that was built on the rocky and lifeless soil of a recently terraformed moon.

Many prefab building modules had been stacked together next to a mining complex. The external environment was exposed to the cold of the vacuum.

"New Rulin IIB. A moon that is shrouded in darkness more often than not. Nobody was willing to pay the cost of terraforming this rock. The only reason why anyone would build a settlement is to mine a valuable exotic called Hachiron Theta, which happens to be buried in great quantities underneath this settlement."

A raiding force composed of several combat carriers approached from a distance.

The hostile nature of this incoming collection of ships became evident when the defense turrets of the settlement came online and shot bright rays at the incoming vessels.

The energy shields of the combat carriers easily resisted the attacks, but that did not mean that it was comfortable for them to remain exposed.

That was especially when the ranged mechs of the Skinny Rattlers made an appearance.

"At this point in time, our mercenary outfit has already replaced many of our landbound rifleman mechs with the Crystal Lord. That was the first time we made use of the luminar crystal rifles that have earned so much praise from those who had the pleasure to wield them in battle."

It took a bit of time for the mechs on standby and on patrol to take action. Dozens of Crystal Lords appeared in the span of a few minutes and began to fire at the incoming vessels.

The recently procured living mechs did not fire any laser beams or positron beams, but rather disruptor beams!

The effects of these beams were much different from the ones fired by the turrets.

For one, the energy shields of the combat carriers started to get drained much more quickly, and that was not just because of the greater volume of fire.

Though the raiders initially thought that they possessed enough strength to barrel straight into the colony and drive away all of the defenders by force, the mass disruptor beam fire quickly drained their energy shields!

Once any ship became exposed, the Crystal Lords switched the attack phase crystals of their luminar crystal rifles and began to wear down the vulnerable hull and armor plating of the vessel.

Though the incoming raiding force rotated their vulnerable vessels behind their shielded counterparts, more and more Crystal Lords emerged to apply greater pressure.

"These luminar crystal rifles are fantastic. They are light, efficient, accurate and versatile. They can inflict good damage without making too many compromises. Repairing the crystals is impossible since they are alien tech, but they can easily be replaced with spares. Their best feature is how we can quickly change their beam type."

Due to the heavy pressure exerted by all of the disruptor beams and positron beams, the combat carriers started to incur heavy damage.

No matter what sort of protection they relied upon, the Crystal Lords always applied the right kind of damage without any delays!

The hostile raiding force called off its original assault and landed on a distant location that was out of sight.

The unwelcome arrivals clearly did not give up on the assault. Their vessels carried many more mechs than the Skinny Rattlers deployed in the settlement, so they still had the capital to succeed.

As long as they completed their mission, they could gain a lot of loot and earn a massive payout to boot!

All of the losses that they incurred would be worth it so long as they won a decisive victory. They had brought additional cargo ships that contained empty holds in anticipation of salvaging a lot of broken mechs and other loot.

The scenario sped up a bit. Soon enough, the attacking force deployed a mixture of melee and ranged mechs to this assault.

The ranged mechs largely concentrated on taking down the stationary turrets before doing their best to whittle down the distant Crystal Lords.

The melee mechs simply advanced forward while making frequent evasive maneuvers to make it difficult to shoot them down.

The relatively light gravity of the moon enabled these mechs to make considerably greater steps than normal.

The aerial mechs among them also expended much less energy in order to keep themselves aloft!

In the face of hundreds of hostile mechs swarming towards the colony, the Skinny Rattlers readied their mechs to meet the incoming attacks.

A high proportion of LMC mechs happened to be among the defending machines.

fust like before, the Crystal Lords continued to shoot their luminar crystal rifles with no abandon.

Beam after beam frequently struck the distant enemy ranged mechs.

In a fight between two irregular forces, artillery and other heavy firepower was absent. Access to heavy artillery mechs was restricted and they were much more expensive to procure and maintain.

As such, the two sides primarily relied on their rifleman mechs to fight at a distance.

Though the attacking side had the advantage of numbers, the Skinny Rattlers not only enjoyed a defensive advantage, but their firepower also happened to be more effective!

The differences between two sides quickly became clear when the Crystal Lords gradually started to suppress the enemy rifleman mechs!

This was quite a surprise to all of the viewers who were not particularly familiar with LMC mechs or the unique characteristics of the Crystal Lord in particular.

The mech model had always been underrated in the mech market. Its glow did not convey any obvious advantage, which caused a lot of customers to direct their attention to machines with more impactful glows such as the Ferocious Piranha and the Pacifier.

However, in this firefight where the Crystal Lords had to fight against a collection of different ranged mech models, the crystalline machines started to gain the upper hand!

Due to the narration of Commander Powell, many observers instinctively rooted for the side of the Skinny Rattlers. They placed themselves in the shoes of these mercenaries that had chosen to adopt LMC mechs on a larger scale, believing that these products were powerful enough to earn them success on the battlefield!

So far, it looked as if this bet paid off, as way more mercenary mechs either had to retreat or incurred enough damage to the point where the mechs actually broke down.

The attackers still valued their machines quite a bit. Their ranged mechs did not dare to fight too hard. From the moment their conditions fell below a dangerous threshold, they pulled out and ran right back to the combat carrier.

This was not the only reason why the attackers were unable to suppress the Skinny Rattlers.

"Our Crystal Lords are simply better than the ones used by our enemies." Commander Powell spoke with a smile. "Look at these beautiful machines. Can you see how little heat they emit? Their luminar crystal rifles don't build up as much waste heat. They can remain relatively cool even in a vacuum environment. Our mech pilots are able to fire them to their heart's content without needing to put so much effort into managing the heat levels of their machines."

The Crystal Lords also had another advantage.

The attackers primarily armed their own rifleman mechs with cheap but cost-efficient laser rifles.

Yet these were precisely the kind of weapons that the Crystal Lords feared the least!

The mechs embedded with luminar crystals did not remain huddled behind their defensive barriers all of the time, but boldly exposed themselves and took the time to aim their shots in order to increase their hit rates.

Since these Crystal Lords were stationary, the mech pilots found it much easier to land their shots against the approaching enemy mechs!

Laser beam after laser beam regularly struck the Skinny Rattler mechs, but the Crystal Lords easily resisted them without suffering too much damage.

"When our mech pilots used their Crystal Lords in combat for the first time, they felt as if they were the kings of energy weapons. They had little to fear from the enemy laser weapons, but they were confident that their own laser or positron beams could make the lives of their enemies miserable. Our living mechs reassured each of us and helped us keep our cool in spite of the fact that we were outnumbered."

The raiders should have been the ones with greater confidence, but the lopsided results of this firefight clearly caused them to lose their confidence in battle!

This affected the attacking mech pilots in various ways, from prematurely pulling out of the battle to causing their shots to become shakier as they put far more effort into taking evasive actions.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

However, the enemies did not give up. They had numbers on their side.

On the one hand, the raiders deployed spaceborn mechs that sought to attack the Crystal Lords from the flanks where they could fire their weapons at more favorable angles.

On the other hand, the attackers also relied on rifleman mechs armed with gauss rifles to deal much more effective damage against the Crystal Lords.

Nonetheless, the crystalline machines easily took care of these new threats!

The Crystal Lords temporarily disregarded the enemy rifleman mechs armed with laser weapons.

They weathered the laser beam barrages with relative ease as they accurately pummeled the machines armed with more threatening gauss rifles.

Once these threatening mechs had been taken care of, the Crystal Lords concentrated entirely on taking down the spaceborn mechs!

The differences between landbound mechs and spaceborn mechs immediately became evident.

Due to many technical limitations, the latter were unable to hit as hard, resist as much damage, absorb as much heat or increase their accuracy.

The Crystal Lords benefited from much simpler and more solid internal architectures. Combined with their excellent luminar crystal rifles, they easily shredded the spaceborn mechs whose maneuverability did not avail them much in the face of all of the accurate energy weapons fire!

Although it was not obvious, the more knowledgeable observers saw that the accuracy and weapons handling of the Crystal Lords were considerably better than the norm.

"The Crystal Lords are special." Commander Powell smiled. "Their glows somehow causes their mech pilots to use their rifles as if they are extensions of themselves. The mechs are also alive, and they were basically born for this. Many of our mech pilots entered into a state of zen where they continually struck the enemy mechs where they hurt."

The partially immersive battlescape continued to emphasize the impact of the Crystal Lords. Their punishing luminar crystal rifles easily caused over a third of the spaceborn mechs to collapse. The remainder all lost courage and either landed on the ground or flew back to their combat carriers!

Though the Crystal Lords had done an admirable job at reducing and suppressing the enemy ranged mechs, the hostile melee mechs had remained virtually untouched.

This happened to be the time where the latter was just about to enter the settlement and let loose all of the anger in their bellies!