The Mech Touch

His little spat with Venerable Jannzi was a minor distraction from his day. The next round of mech design projects wouldn't be starting anytime soon as long as he was stuck on the surface of Prosperous Hill VI.

He was starting to get crazy the longer he stayed on this chaotic plane. He disliked the Lifers. The citizens of the state not only developed all kinds of weird beliefs about biotechnology, but also suffered from a deadly degree of complacency.

Their lack of readiness and their fragile mentalities left them very underprepared for the current situation.

Ves missed the times when he lived in the Bright Republic. His fellow Brighters frequently had to fight against the Vesians every generation. The constant cycle of war and preparing for war toughened everyone up and left them much more prepared to deal with dangerous and unexpected crises.

"Evidently, the Life Research Association doesn't ascribe to the Societal Revival Theory."

He found that to be a rather interesting detail. So far, many states he visited in the past showed at least some signs of generating a certain degree of conflict in order to keep their people lively.

The Friday Coalition and the Hexadric Hegemony sharpened their weapons in order to prevent their archenemies from overtaking them. Even before the Komodo War broke out, the mech militaries of the two states did not dare to slack off! If they showed any weakness, they had no doubt that their enemies would pounce!

The Sentinel Kingdom did not play such a high-stakes game. Instead, their royals and nobles cleverly made use of the friction between their state and the Nyxian Gap to maintain a level of tension and keep their mech pilots on their toes.

Ves didn't know what it was about the Majestic Teal Star Sector that caused them to fight much less battles, but he did not favor the approach by the locals. The fact that the Life Research Association suffered so much damage after the outbreak of hostilities was a clear sign that maintaining long-term peace only caused them to atrophy from within!

"I can't wait to get out." He muttered. "I have to make sure I get my dues, though."

His contempt for the LRA also came paired with a sense of resentment towards its people. The conservative faction, the radical faction, the combinants, the ultralifers, the unknown paramilitaries and all the other scum on this planet had screwed him over in different ways.

He was done getting beat up all the time. His decision to go on the offensive was not just necessary to preserve the morale of his newly-recruited Larkinsons, but also served as a means to vent his frustrations!

Being proactive was better than being reactive. Rather than leave open the possibility of the ultralifers attacking him for a fourth time, he was much more inclined to preempt their aggression and take the initiative!

After several days of searching and backtracking the artillery unit that had launched an unprovoked attack against the airfleet, the Larkinsons finally discovered the home base of the ultralifers.

Their hideout was a little closer to downtown Veoline than Ves liked. It turned out that the ultralifers occupied a massive underground fortress that had remained fairly unnoticed up until now. While not much was visible above the ground aside from some normal-looking tree structures, their underground fortifications turned out to be quite sturdy and expansive!

"The ultralifers invested many decades in building up their fortifications." Captain Reina Ember reported to Ves after she helped to gather some of the intelligence. "According to one of the contractors I've managed to track down, the underground base goes at least several hundred meters deep. Further scanning and investigation has revealed that the underground fortress possesses enough of a volume to fit at least a thousand biomechs."

Ves observed the projection that showed a map of the site in question. He clearly noted that the scans were rather fuzzy. There was too much uncertainty to know for sure whether the display conformed to reality.

In order to keep their intentions a secret, the Larkinsons did not dare to act too overtly. The scouts they dispatched up until now did their best to keep their presence hidden. This inevitably limited the amount of intelligence they could gather.

Once again, Ves wished that Calabast was here. She would be able to gather a lot more reliable intelligence in the same amount of time.

It seemed that after Ves finished bolstering and elevating the biotech side of his clan, he should take a look at its intelligence gathering capabilities. The Larkinsons could do much better in this aspect as well.

"How strong are the defenses of this underground fortification?"

"I'm sure you can interpret the technical data better than us, sir. The outer walls are thick and there are certainly shield generators onsite that can help with fending off breaching attempts. What's more, the organic nature of the base structure allows it to recover quickly when fed with high-grade nutrients. We need to punch through the defenses straight away in order to succeed."

As Captain Ember continued to outline the defensive measures of the underground base, Ves became less and less hopeful about cracking it open.

"What about the mechs stationed in the base? Do we have any solid idea how many of them reside inside?"

"We don't entirely know, sir. If we take their previous battle losses into account, our estimates of their numbers range from 500 biomechs to 1200 biomechs."

In other words, the utralifers probably had way too much for the Larkinson airfleet to defeat in an even battle.

What was worse was that attacking the base would hand the ultralifers a powerful defensive advantage. If their underground fortification was strong enough, then the inexperienced and inconsistent mech pilots at his disposal would certainly break before they could succeed in their assault!

He groaned. "It's clear we can't attack the base directly, then. What about their movements? How often do the ultralifers dispatch mech companies and larger units from their base?"

"We have been studying their past patterns for a while now after sourcing several pieces of data. The ultralifers are apparently quite active. Every day, around five to eight mech companies exit the main entrance of the base and go out to fulfill specific tasks. They usually return within the same day, though there have been instances where they have remained in the field for several weeks. This is the exception rather than the rule, though. We've also noticed that the ultralifers have cut back on dispatching mech units after we defeated their artillery unit."

"Have they closed their gates entirely?"

Captain Ember shook her head. "They are still dispatching scout mechs and other smaller elements. In fact, they have grown so vigilant that our own scouts have to back up even further in order to avoid exposing their presence."

These ultralifers might be insane, but they weren't stupid. After suffering a severe and unexpected loss, the radical nationalists withdrew their units and gathered them all in their base to guard against possible retaliation.

Their unusually clever decision gave Ves a headache. How was he supposed to take revenge if the bastards kept hiding within their turtle shells?

Certainly, their fortification was static and stationary. Unlike his airfleet, it could not move in any direction, so it was vulnerable to sustained bombardment.

Yet the amount of power and effort required to go past all of that soil and break through the other defensive layers was unreasonably large. It would take a long time to breach the underground base from the top by shelling the ground on top of it. During this time, the ultralifers could employ many methods to counter the siege.

For example, they could secretly dispatch their mechs to the surface by making use of secret tunnels. Once these hidden mechs attacked the airfleet from multiple sides, his inexperienced mech pilots would likely panic from the sudden developments!

Another way the ultralifers could relieve their difficult situation was to call upon allies! Though the Larkinsons failed to figure out whether the ultralifers had any friends they could call upon, it was best to assume that this possibility existed unless proven otherwise.

All of this added to the difficulty of punishing the ultralifers.

Ves did not hope for anything as extravagant as uprooting their entire base and killing everyone inside. He just wanted to inflict enough punishment on them in order to finish what he started.

If his airfleet didn't do anything soon, then the morale he had just restored would quickly start to backslide!

Right now, the fighting spirit of his newly-recruited clansmen was still vigorous, but he doubted it would last if he didn't take any action within the next few days.

Being patient was not a virtue this time!

"If we can't rely on our own strength to hurt the ultralifers, what about working together with their other enemies?" Ves wondered. "For example, the paramilitaries occupying the warehouse complex have a considerable degree of animosity towards these bastards. Why not contact them and ask whether they are willing to pool our strengths?"

The Larkinsons did so. They dispatched a single envoy in order to establish relations and sound out the possibility of ganging up on the ultralifers.

Unfortunately, the paramilitary force did not entertain this proposal. Their spokesperson didn't reveal anything to the Larkinson envoy. Instead, they sent the messenger away.

Ves cursed at these developments. "These cheapskates! They just want to sit in their conquered site and reap the benefits of our counterattack against the ultralifers!"

The paramilitares benefited from this situation most of all. Regardless of what the Larkinsons and the ultralifers did, everyone else would have less to fear from the two organizations after they damaged each other.

Ves hated the thought of being taken advantage of. Why should he be forced to take the lead and do all of the difficult work of teaching the ultralifers a lesson? There ought to be plenty of other organizations who developed a lot of animosity towards these aggressive radicals!

"Aren't there any other ways of attacking the underground base?" He asked. "Why not pump toxic gas into the ventilation systems or something?"

Commander Casella Ingvar did not look amused at that suggestion. "That is very illegal, patriarch. Even if we do as you say, a fully-equipped defensive installation is like an armored starship that is buried underneath the ground. It is a fully-contained, self-sufficient fortification that can generate its own air and remain completely sealed from the outside world. Even if we manage to break a hole in its exterior and pump toxins inside, the defenders will simply close off the breached section."

There were probably a lot of other safeguards in place that negated many different forms of attack. From flooding the ground with a torrent of water to trying to induce an earthquake, a modern second-class underground fortification already had answers to many of these calamities!

"The only way to seriously put a dent in this base is if we can drop an artificial asteroid from orbit, sir." Casella said in an exasperating tone. However, the devastation in the surrounding civilian city districts will be immense. The Big Two will not sit still if we drop a rock that is way too big in the middle of a population center."

Ves did not put much stock in this suggestion. "We don't have any assets in orbit to do something like that, so we should just forget about it. Let's collect more information. There has to be an opening that we can exploit. The ultralifers are decently organized but they are not elites."

He and his fellow Larkinsons basically had no good ideas on how to attack the ultralifers at this moment. The Larkinsons may have amassed a decent airfleet, but they were not equipped to conduct a siege!

Since his current combat assets weren't strong enough to attack the ultralifer base in a conventional way, Ves had no choice but to look for creative solutions.

One day, Ves developed an interesting proposal…