The Mech Touch

When the Trost reached the Spirit of Bentheim, Venerable Kelvin Praetor felt a bit of consternation.

It wasn't easy to bore into a capital ship. The analysts aboard the Soaring Eagle already transmitted a lot of information about the enemy factory ship to his mech.

According to various sources, the Spirit of Bentheim wasn't a typical industrial vessel. She was expressly configured for frontier survival missions and came equipped with both energy shields and a robust layer of armor.

However, a non-combat vessel was never able to match a combat vessel such as a fleet carrier when it came to defense.

The Spirit of Bentheim just posed a greater challenge to the Trost than normal, especially when it was rotating as madly as possible like someone threw a spinning coin in space.

What was even more annoying was that the Amphis would soon reach the Spirit of Bentheim as well. While Venerable Kelvin Praetor was confident that he could keep out of its reach, the necessity of moving around would hinder his attempts to bore into the core compartments of his target ship.

"The Amphis possesses decent straight-line acceleration capabilities but it is less good at correcting its course." Another analyst instructed him. "As long as you keep circling around the Spirit of Bentheim, it's impossible for the Amphis to close in on your mech. However, be careful not to meet the Amphis on the other side."

"Don't worry. I won't make such a beginner's mistake."

Venerable Kelvin concentrated deeply onto the rotating vessel. He had set his sights on the stern of the factory ship.

The other sections were too difficult to bore through quickly. The sides were covered with meters of thick hull plating. Even if the materials were not all that tough compared to mech armor, their sheer thickness was an obstacle in itself.

The bow was even more unbearable to him. He was surprised when the analysts told him that the sculpted prow consisted entirely of mech-grade armor.

This was an extremely extravagant expenditure! The Larkinson Clan would have been much better off if it employed this tough alloy into its mechs instead. At least several hundred more mechs would have remained intact if they were clad with this excellent material!

Kelvin shrugged. "Idiots."

The stupid Larkinsons did not even apply this material onto the surface of the Spirit of Bentheim in a manner that made sense. Instead, the Larkinsons decided to pile it all onto the prow, giving the ship an extremely hard head but leaving the rest alone!

"They should have used it to reinforce the backside instead." He shook his head. "Well, at least that makes my task easier!"

As his expert mech continued to circle around the Spirit of Bentheim, he waited for the right moment to strike.

The Spirit of Bentheim's rotation might look hard to deal with, but the processors of his expert mech already figured out his target's trajectories. There was no way a vessel as huge as this could alter the direction and speed of her rotations.

In addition, the ship had to take a lot of care not to spin too quickly. If her angular momentum exceeded what her inertial dampeners could compensate for, any crew inside that wasn't strapped down would quickly be pressed onto a solid surface!

In the worst case scenario, their bodies might go splat as if they fell off a tall building!

"The primary engineering bay of a capital ship is always closely connected to the main sublight propulsion system." A Praetor engineer informed Kelvin. "We have looked closely at the stern of the Spirit of Bentheim and believe this thruster section is your best opportunity to breach into the primary engineering bay. Once you have destroyed what's inside, the ship will already be half-crippled. You'll have to get in deeper to seriously threaten the ship and all of her occupants."

"What about their leader?" The expert pilot asked. "Is Ves Larkinson even onboard this ship?"

"Even if he isn't, you are still doing enough to save our fleet. Only the Crossers are still chasing after our fleet. The Larkinson and Glory Seeker mechs have all begun to turn back to their own ships."

While none of the members of the Golden Skull Alliance wanted to let their enemies go, the Larkinsons and Glory Seekers absolutely couldn't care about chasing after the enemy capital ships at this time.

Both Ves and Gloriana were under great danger!

Even though it shouldn't be possible for the Trost to find them in a ship that was over 2 kilometers long, who knew how much destruction the expert mech could unleash once it got inside!

Just as the Trost was about to pounce onto the stern that was just rotating into view, a mech had barely managed to get into range and began to fire all of the weapons it could bring to bear.

Missiles exploded without inflicting any meaningful damage.

Nails ricocheted off the armor.

A laser beam reflected off the surface.

The mech closest to the Trost was so weak and ineffectual that nobody paid attention to it! The mech in question was so irrelevant that not even its own mech pilot thought he could make a difference.

"I told you already, Raella! My attacks aren't even tickling the mech. The Transcendent Punishers are much more powerful than my old little mech."

"That's not an excuse, Vincent!" Raella shouted at him over their private communication channel. "I don't expect you to defeat the Trost, but you need to do everything possible to stall it so that the others can catch up. Get close, get in its way, attack its flight system. Just do something!"

"I can't!" Vincent fearfully replied. "I'm not cut out for this! My mech isn't good enough either. We don't belong in a battle like this. That bastard Ves didn't even give me a proper second-class mech like yours. What am I supposed to do? The Trost can fight off thousands of mechs like mine!"

Raella privately agreed with Vincent's assessment, but the situation was far too desperate at the moment. The Larkinsons had to do everything in their power to preserve their flagship and the tens of thousands of innocent Larkinsons taking shelter inside the vessel.

Even though she wasn't a typical Larkinson, she still prioritized the safety of all of those vulnerable clansmen over the life of a single mech pilot.

"Are you a coward, Vincent?!"

"What? No! I'm not! I can't go against an expert mech. I just can't!"

"You disappoint me, Vincent. Where was the brash young man who fought valiantly against the Sand War? Where is the war hero who fought to defend Bentheim for months? Has all of your courage disappeared once you became a Larkinson? You're a disgrace!"

The insults crushed his heart and hurt his confidence.

Even as the Trost successfully charged the stern of the Spirit of Bentheim and unleashed a torrent of attacks that damaged one of her main thrusters, the Adonis Colossus remained unmoving!

"GET MOVING, VINCENT! Are you a man or are you a coward?!"

"I'm a man!"

"I'm not seeing any of that here. For all your pretensions, you're doing a very poor job at proving your worth. All of our other mech pilots have fought and risked their lives against the enemy. You're pretty much the only one who hasn't done anything to defend us. You're no Larkinson, Vincent! You may have taken our name, but when it mattered the most, you chose to dig your head into the ground instead of fighting like a man. You're a disgrace!"

"I'm attacking! I'm doing something, don't you see?!"

Indeed, his mech had begun to fire its missiles and other ranged weapons at the Trost whenever possible. Unfortunately, the Adonis Colossus was designed to fight against sandman vessels and third-class mechs. The jump to its current opponent was too big!

"YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING!" Raella furiously shouted. "GET CLOSE AND USE YOUR MECH AS A DISTRACTION! DON'T LET THE TROST GET ANY DEEPER! IF YOU DON'T START MOVING NOW, I'LL NOT ONLY BREAK UP WITH YOU, BUT ALSO ASK VES TO KICK YOU OUT OF THE CLAN! WE DON'T NEED COWARDS LIKE YOU IN OUR RANKS!"

Vincent froze. He really didn't want to get booted out of the Larkinson Clan. There was no way he wanted to return to his old life as a space peasant after enjoying a lot of benefits.

What was even less acceptable was the damage to his pride and confidence. After going through so many bumps in his life, he finally settled on centering his identity around his manhood.

If he lost even that, what reason was there for him to exist?

It was unbearable for him to live in hell after he became accustomed to living in heaven!

He imagined what he would be like if Raella truly did what she said. How would he be able to lift his head up when he was branded a coward and a failure of a man?

"I would rather die!"

He really couldn't live in disgrace. Not now. Not when he enjoyed the good life.

In comparison to such an awful outcome, death didn't sound so bad. Even if he perished in battle, he would perish like a Larkinson and a man. His girlfriend and the other Larkinsons would honor his sacrifice and credit him with saving the lives of thousands of Larkinsons.

Once his mentality changed, Vincent seemingly became a whole new man. His body no longer shook. His eyes didn't waver anymore. His thoughts no longer became enthralled by fear.

While he was still afraid, he chose to disregard the many possible ways that this could go wrong.

"I need to step up as a man." He spoke to himself as he piloted his mech forward. "I need to prove myself as a warrior and a Larkinson!"

His determined words seemed to echo with his mech. The Adonis Colossus became much more comfortable for Vincent. His thoughts aligned with the machine and the machine aligned with Vincent.

Even if his mech was only a fraction as strong as the Trost, the Adonis Colossus was the closest to the only remaining threat to the clan. Even a second of stalling could save numerous lives aboard the ship!

Right now, the Spirit of Bentheim had already sustained considerable damage to her propulsion systems.

The Trost did not land on the vessel. Instead, it remained mobile and just fired its formidable ranged weapons at the stern. The advanced targeting systems of the expert mech combined with the considerable skill of its pilot resulted in accurate, devastating salvos that inflicted massive damage to one the thrusters.

The Shield of Samar and the Bright Beam Prime were helpless to intervene.

The Amphis was about to arrive as well, but the space knight simply didn't have a chance of catching up either, and everyone knew it. The only way for Venerable Linda Cross to attack the Trost was by firing her mech's shoulder-mounted laser hardpoints, but this wasn't really an effective solution.

The shoulder lasers were mostly designed to pick off kiting standard mechs and intercept incoming missiles. They lacked too much of a punch against better-armored targets!

It was at this time that the Adonis Colossus reluctantly came closer.

To be honest, the hybrid mech piloted by Vincent wasn't all that fast either. The only reason why the Adonis Colossus managed to get close to its target at all was because the Trost completely disregarded its threat.

Venerable Kelvin Praetor had to keep circling around the Spirit of Bentheim in order to avoid bumping into the Amphis.

Vincent simply followed a track suggested by a tactical officer and found that his mech was flying almost straight towards the Trost!

The enemy expert mech finally noticed the Adonis Colossus in front of it. Its active sensors swept across the third-class mech. One of its secondary weapons, a laser hardpoint buried in its chest, casually targeted the weaker mech.

A powerful beam that was strong enough to pierce through any third-class mech instantly struck the Adonis Colossus!