The Mech Touch

The Vanguard Group was one of the declining partners of the Friday Coalition. Their prominence was so low that most people in the Komodo Star Sector overlooked their existence.

That did not mean their mechs were weak! While the Vanguard Army was not as large or well-equipped as the Gauge Dynasty, the 125th Destiny Hammers could go toe-to-toe against any Hexer elite artillery regiment!

The Destiny Hammers was an old mech regiment that possessed a rich martial tradition. They piloted exclusive mechs designed by some of the best Masters of the Vanguard Group.

What stood out was their penchant for bombarding their enemies with precise kinetic and explosive attacks!

They loved to hit their targets with hard-hitting projectiles aimed at any possible vulnerabilities. The energy beams they fired before was actually the secondary armament of their heavy mechs!

Just like the Transcendent Punishers, the Destiny Hammer mechs actually allocated much of their capacity to their formidable gauss cannons!

However, unlike the Transcendent Punishers which essentially relied on cheating to inflate their accuracy, the Destiny Hammers relied on pure skill and advanced technology to raise effective hit rate!

As Ves quickly read through the intelligence the Hexers had gathered on the Destiny Hammers, he grew quite concerned.

Even though the Destiny Hammers only 'donated' a couple of mech companies for this operation, their track record suggested that their performance would definitely be disproportionately high!

The Golden Skull Alliance immediately designated the Destiny Hammer mechs as priority targets. The longer the latter were allowed to fire their weapons, the more the expeditionary fleet suffered!

While that applied to every ranged mech unit, the Destiny Hammers were especially threatening in this case!

However, the Destiny Hammers weren't the only threats at range. The enemy possessed a lot of other potent threats.

Unlike the Destiny Hammers who had yet to unveil their best weapons, a different troop persistently achieved great results at extreme range!

Precise laser beams and positron beams struck the various surface modules of every starship in the expeditionary fleet. Even though it was incredibly difficult to achieve consistent results at longer ranges due to various reasons, the ranged mechs sticking close to the fleet carrier called the Orca Tyrant achieved exceptional results!

While the damage to the exposed sensor and communication arrays did not lead to any short-term drops in effectiveness, if this went on, the command and control capabilities of the expeditionary fleet would definitely suffer!

The Larkinsons and Glory Seekers tried their best to identify the enemies that achieved such steady results.

"It's the 219th Witch Slayers of the Puffer Clan!"

It was another famed marksman mech regiment! The Puffer Clan was just as weak if not weaker than the Vanguard Group, but their Witch Slayers had achieved remarkable results in the Komodo War.

Whereas the Destiny Hammers specialized in inflicting as much targeted destruction as possible at medium range, the Witch Slayers excelled at focusing their fire on critical targets at extreme ranges!

They were one of the premier sniper groups of the Friday Coalition. Their record was filled with accounts of turning the tide of battles by assassinating critical leaders or disabling critical hardware!

The formal entry of the Destiny Hammers and the Witch Slayers exerted a lot of pressure onto the expeditionary fleet.

"We have considerably more ranged mechs than the enemy, but our opponents have the edge on this aspect." Major Verle muttered. "Look at the results of our attacks. They're too scattered. Most of our firepower is absorbed by the thick hull plating of their combat carriers. We're not weakening the enemy strike force in any meaningful way except for chipping away at their buffer."

Ves wanted to rub his smooth-shaven chin, but his armored hand bumped against the chin of his helmet.

"Erm, we need to do something. As long as we give the order, our Transcendent Punishers can likely give them a surprise."

Major Verle frowned. "As much as it pains us to lose out on this long-ranged duel, we still need to hold on to our trump cards. From my understanding, our Ylvainan mech pilots cannot maintain their highly accurate state for an extended amount of time. We need to preserve this advantage until we truly need to eliminate our opponents quickly."

Eventually, they decided to keep the Transcendent Punishers on a leash. They were only allowed to fight normally inside their bunkers unless ordered otherwise.

Though Ves privately believed that it was best to cripple the Destiny Hammers and the Witch Slayers at the start in order to curtail their destructive influence, the range was a bit too long. Even if the Transcendent Punishers achieved quick results, it was far too easy for the elite range mechs to hunker down and weather the storm.

Besides, the two units were hardly the only notable threats the enemy held in reserve!

Ves briefly glanced at another projection. The Cross Clan seemed to focus much of their ire against the Praetor Clan and the Planat Clan. The grudge between the two sides ran so deep that they practically ignored the Larkinsons and the Fridaymen!

While he grew a little concerned at that, it was not a problem for now. The Larkinsons tried their best to identify which elite mech units they were facing while defending against as many incoming attacks as possible.

The good news was that the enemy stopped launching missiles. The bad news was that the missiles had done a good job of drawing out the defenses of the expeditionary fleet.

The enemy likely gathered a wealth of data. They identified the positions of every bunker, estimated the firepower of the heavy artillery mechs that shot down the missiles and gauged the damage resistance of starship hulls.

Few attacks landed on the Spirit of Bentheim. The Friday Coalition already learned that the factory ship possessed relatively high defenses for a non-combat vessel.

The Larkinson fleet did not even attempt any other ships in front of the Spirit of Bentheim. Any attacks that strayed in the direction of the capital ship harmlessly splashed against one of her energy shields.

It took a lot of contracted attacks to overload a heavy-duty shield generator. Unless the enemy was determined to crack open the Spirit of Bentheim, it was best for them to direct their firepower on easier targets.

The sub-capital ships of the expeditionary fleet suffered the brunt of the enemy bombardment as a consequence. While none of the other ships had been crippled yet, they gained increasingly more hull breaches.

The Larkinsons already expected this outcome. It was not as if they held all of their fire.

The combat carriers of the Garlaner clans and the Forward Momentum of the Vanguard Group came under significant fire.

The latter received special attention because she was one of the least resilient fleet carriers in the enemy fleet. While the Orca Tyrant of the Puffer Clan came close, the Forward Momentum received the greatest attention because it held the increasingly more threatening mechs of the Destiny Hammers.

While the Witch Slayers were incredibly annoying, the Destiny Hammers possessed a much greater capacity for destruction!

Sooner or later, the artillery duel would begin in earnest. Both sides were still waiting until they reached their optimal range.

More ranged mechs opened fire from both sides. Aside from the artillery mechs, the other mechs did not fire their weapons at full power. The ranged mechs also controlled their firing rate in order to moderate their energy consumption and minimize their heat buildup.

As the enemy mechs continued to expose their strength, the Larkinsons continually identified more and more units.

The Coalition Reserve Corps brought forward a distinctive unit of medium and heavy mechs.

"The 77th Corundian Giants." Major Verle frowned. "They're specialized in defense. They're also good at steadily pushing lines. The Corundian Giant mechs are noted for carrying multiple shields. While their mobility is low, they can shed pieces of their armor in order to gain a boost in acceleration and agility."

"There's more to them than just their defensive mechs." Ves zoomed in on the live footage of a pair of mechs that practically melded together into a single combination. "Is that a cannoneer mech slotted into the back of a space knight?"

Although Ves had heard about these combinations, he had never seen it in action, let alone be on the receiving end of this unusual tactic!

He continually zoomed in on the Corundian Giant mechs until he confirmed his suspicions.

"The two mechs have truly bound their frames together!"

The space knights of the elite CRC mech regiment boasted an abnormal design. The flight system mounted to their back collapsed and moved to the side. This exposed some kind of mounting mechanism which allowed a specially-designed cannoneer mech to physically slot itself in place!

The result was a very slow-moving combination mech that possessed superior defenses and superior firepower!

In fact, the genius part about this complex maneuver was that the two different mechs were essentially capable of sharing their strengths.

The space knight was no longer a punching bag. Instead, it gained a very powerful helper that was capable of retaliating against any ranged mechs.

The cannoneer mech could fire its cannons without exposing any of its fragile frame. Not only that, but it was able to draw power from its companion mech while dumping a lot of excess heat at the same time!

Of course, the combination's awful mobility left it very prone to flanking attacks, but that was not a concern at the moment!

Ves felt both impressed and intimidated at the fantastic mechs the enemy employed. As a mech designer, he keenly recognized that none of the enemy mechs were weak! Their quality was incredibly high and their performance was guaranteed to be stellar!

"What the? Are those hero mechs?!"

"Huh?!" Ves reacted with surprise.

Hero mechs were not common. They forced too many compromises and demanded more from their mech pilots. Most mech militaries preferred to employ mechs with more defined roles.

When Ves directed his attention to the mechs that stuck close to the Auralis, he became a little more suspicious. The colors of those mechs looked a bit familiar.

"It's the 1633rd Bloody Herons of the Gauge Dynasty!"

"What?!" Ves almost shot up from his seat!

He never expected to encounter a unit from the Bloody Herons!

"What is the matter, sir?" Major Verle asked.

"The Bloody Herons.. are very special. Their mech pilots are all connected to a neural network."

The Bloody Herons was one of Master Huron's handiworks. They were famed for their versatility and exceptionally high coordination!

Their mech pilots overflowed with talent and were proficient in both ranged and melee combat. It was like facing an army of Joshuas who all happened to have gone through a very strict training program that allowed them to meld their minds together in the midst of battle!

During the development of his spiritual networks and battle networks, Ves had performed plenty of research on the elite mech troops that Master Huron had shaped.

The Bloody Herons was one of his greatest success stories! The combination of excellent skill, powerful mechs, punishing training and a brotherhood that was closer to family resulted in many victories against the Hex Army!

Did Master Huron bear a grudge against Ves? He allowed the Gauge Dynasty to commit Unit L to this operation, but also 5 full mech companies of the Bloody Herons!

Ves understood more than anyone else in the expeditionary fleet how exceptional the Bloody Herons could be once they entered the stage. Their powerful and expensive hero mechs hacked down any enemy that came close and fired their rifles at any targets that thought they were safe at range.

While this didn't sound particularly different, the key here was that the Bloody Herons coordinated their actions to an insanely high degree!

What one mech pilot knew, another mech pilot knew as well!

Ves could not allow the Bloody Herons to take over the battle!