The Mech Touch

The conflict between the ultralifers and the unknown paramilitary group broke out completely!

The latter had already raised their guard when a large amount of green-coated biomechs steadily advanced towards the warehouse complex.

The only odd aspect about the huge movement was that it followed a slow, winding path towards the site. A true invasion force would have advanced faster in order to give their targets as little time as possible to rain down fire on the vulnerable mechs.

Perhaps this was another negotiation ploy. Perhaps the ultralifers sought to intimidate the paramilitaries in order to gain more concessions out of their next round of talks.

Yet as the distance continued to shrink, the chance that this was a bluff grew smaller while the possibility that this was an actual attempt to launch an all-out assault increased!

In truth, the ultralifer mech pilots who followed the four animated statues of Lufa did not have any attack intentions in mind. They might have deployed all of their available biomechs and they also equipped them with a standard loadout of weapons, but they were not prepared to launch a risky offensive against a base!

When the paramilitaries finally couldn't ignore the risk of an actual assault any longer, they opened fire with their beefed-up artillery assets.

The shells and rounds raining down on the massive ultralifer formation inflicted considerable damage, but most of the victims were tough, resilient organic war machines.

Even if they were uncovered, they were more than capable of withstanding some attacks!

The volume of incoming firepower was considerable, but their precision and consistency was fairly low. Shells exploded from every direction and no kinetic round struck the same biomech twice.

At this point, the ultralifers were merely alarmed, but far from worried about their safety. Their own kinetic ranged mechs already returned fire in response to the sudden attack. It was a pity that the ultralifers lost the bulk of their heavy artillery mechs. If not for this, they could have hurt the base occupants a lot more!

Yet from the moment a random shell detonated in the midst of two of the vulnerable statues of Lufa, the ultralifers snapped.

The loss of these two heaven-sent objects was more than a loss of two material objects.

It was a direct attack on their new faith!

The rage that welled up was indescribable. A level of fury that went beyond reason had swept through their minds.

"KILL!"

"SLAUGHTER THEM ALL!"

The maddened ultralifers descended upon the base with only destruction in mind! They did not hesitate to throw themselves into the fray and overwhelm the base occupants with their righteous fury alone!

The paramilitaries were caught off-guard. They never expected that their bombardment would incite the ultralifers rather than suppressing them. The unexpectedly violent offensive pushed them back so hard and fast that most of their defensive advantages failed to play a significant role.

The battle at the warehouse complex quickly turned into a frenzied melee where melee biomechs threw themselves against each other and ranged mechs fired at any moving object with the wrong colors!

"WE NEED BACKUP!"

"What has gotten to these ultralifers?!"

"Johnny! They killed Johnny!"

Though the paramilitaries were badly hit at first, the large amount of casualties they suffered in the initial round of fighting caused their emotions to be enflamed as well.

When your comrades and buddies started getting butchered left and right, it was hard for the remainder to sit still. They had to fight back and take revenge for the losses they suffered!

The paramilitary organization pushed back just as hard and was determined to slay the ultralifers and end their threat once and for all! Only by slaughtering their main mech force would the base occupants be rid of this dangerous and unstable enemy.

"Don't let them advance any further!"

The base commander of the warehouse complex also issued strong orders to prevent the ultralifers from reaching the interior of the base.

Neither side backed off. The ultralifers had seemingly lost all reason after the loss and the paramilitaires dug in deeper instead of retreating.

With both sides having their own reasons to commit themselves to a pitched battle, every opportunity to avoid their mutual destruction was lost!

Even if a handful of their members magically regained a bit of common sense, it was far too late to stop the hostilities at this point!

Dozens of biomechs fell every couple of seconds. Scorched, broken and ruined flesh and bone littered the warehouse complex. The stench emanated by all of the damaged and spilled biomatter was indescribable. In fact, due to the abundance of harmful exotics leaking from the damaged biomechs, the air had literally turned toxic to humans!

As this tragedy continued to unfold, the mastermind behind this destructive turn of events was grinning like a shark.

"Hahahaha! Gullible idiots! You fell for it so easily!" Ves almost fell over from his chair.

The effortless way he managed to manipulate fanatics only increased his contempt towards their kind. Blind belief and lack of critical thinking were the greatest threat to human advancement in his eyes. If every human in the galaxy was as stupid as the ultralifers, the alien civilizations in the galaxy would have long squashed the human race!

When Ves saw that the ultralifers had fully thrown themselves onto the occupied warehouse complex, he felt that the time was finally right for the Larkinson to take action themselves.

He immediately issued an order to his mech commander.

"The time to remain on standby is over! Deploy our mechs and prepare to launch a full assault!"

Commander Rivington and Commander Casella both looked concerned.

"Uhm, do we really have to enter the fray so soon, sir?" Rivington cautiously asked. "It takes a lot to take down second-class biomechs. If we show up too soon, the two groups might figure out the truth and decide to turn their weapons against us. It's best to wait until they have fired the last rounds in their magazines."

Ves smirked and shook his head. "The whole point of our current operation is to rile up our own men and convert them to the Larkinson mindset. How can we do that if we don't act proactively? Besides, I'm not thinking about attacking the warehouse complex right now. Our men might think we are trying to ally with the paramilitaries in order to squash a common enemy in the form of the ultralifers. This can't be further from the truth."

Commander Casella Ingvar widened her eyes. "You aren't thinking about…"

"Your guess is correct. I want to invade the underground base fortress that the main ultralifer mech forces have just vacated! There is a high chance that the hoodwinked extremists have deployed every biomech at their disposal, so the only hindrances we have to face are static base defenses, heavily damaged organic machines and irrelevant infantry soldiers."

In other words, the ultralifer base was completely incapable of repelling mechs!

His commanders immediately understood the opportunity. This was the chance that they had always been waiting for! While it was a pity that they couldn't destroy all of the ultralifer biomechs in person, destroying their vulnerable home base without incurring as much risk as before also sounded good!

"What about potential self-destruct measures?" Casella cautiously asked. "While we can't be sure that the ultralifers rigged the base up to blow, we can't discount his possibility."

Ves nonchalantly shrugged. "Then send in our more disposable biomechs and mech pilots first. They can be our vanguard. Make sure to hold back our expert pilots and our original Larkinsons. We can't afford to lose them. They are the core of our mech force and the pillar that draws everyone closer to our values."

The airfleet, which had stayed dormant over the past few days, finally started to surge forth again!

The Larkinsons split up into two. Several Larkinson biomechs remained behind with their biotransports and bioshuttles while the rest flew on ahead.

Soon enough, several hundred deadly biomechs reached the site where the underground base rested below.

Several squads had already been equipped with specialized breaching and tunnel equipment. They planted several organic pillars onto the ground and turned them online.

WIthin the span of a few minutes, the industrial equipment displaced a large amount of soil. Large tunnels appeared on the surface that led straight into solid bone-like walls.

"Crack them! Be careful of any counterattacks. We don't have too many of these machines at hand!"

The Larkinsons salvaged the mining equipment from an abandoned company site. Despite their relative fragility, they were unreasonably effective at drilling through hard matter.

It didn't matter if they weren't designed to drill through fortified walls. They were so effective at their jobs that using them was a much better choice than relying on massed firepower to breach into the ultralifer base!

The people who remained in the base after the departure of their main mech force weren't ignorant of the attack. A number of turrets and other defensive measures came online, but they didn't even have a chance to go in effect before the alert Larkinson biomechs shot them apart!

"Too feeble!"

"This base is practically empty if this is the extent of their response."

"We're already half-way through drilling a hole through the wall!"

The invasion proceeded very smoothly so far. In fact, the remaining resistance was so light that Ves suspected that the ultralifers may have decided to evacuate the base!

"Watch out for escapees! If I was in their shoes, I would have fled through a secret escape tunnel that leads to a distant location. I want mechs in every direction around the base. If some unidentified vehicles or biomechs emerge out of nowhere, then do your best to intercept them. I don't want to let any ultralifer slip from my grasp!"

The remaining individuals inside the base were not useless in his eyes. Not only did they possess a wealth of intelligence, including knowledge about what lay hidden underneath the warehouse complex, but they could also serve as potential test subjects.

Besides, letting all of these valuable human resources slip away might come to haunt the Larkinsons in the future. They could flee to other ultralifer strongholds and convince the people over there to retaliate. They could also flee to allied groups and convince them to target the Larkinsons.

When Ves issued his latest orders, some of the escorts of the airfleet broke off in order to scout the surroundings. Most notably, Venerable Tusa opted to circle around a wide perimeter in order to respond quickly to any escape attempts.

As for Venerable Jannzi, she remained steadfast in defending the vulnerable airfleet. The departure of most of its escorts had made it more vulnerable against unexpected attacks. Though there was little she could do while piloting a single Bright Warrior IB, that did not deter her from doing her duty.

Time passed by. Despite all of the excitement going around, the command center remained calm.

None of the excitement happening at the increasingly more ruinous warehouse complex affected the Larkinsons.

As for the ultralifer base, aside from a few hiccups, its internal defenses were woefully unable to hinder the Larkinsons from going deeper. Though all of the solid walls and energy barriers in the way slowed down their advance, these passive defenses didn't play any significant role when the base lost its entire mech garrison.

In the end, the Larkinsons quickly managed to secure the majority of the largely-empty base. As soon as a specialized group of soldiers forcibly took over the primary command center, the critical data archives and the energetic power generators, virtually every relevant system of the base surrendered remarkably quickly to the invaders.

"Sir, while we have yet to clear away any lingering threats or sweep the base for hidden explosives, the base is ours." Commander Casella told Ves with an unbelieving expression.

It was too easy.

In an age where most defensive facilities always relied on mechs to do the heavy lifting, the lack of this important piece had already sealed the fate of the underground base.

Ves smirked wider. Aside from worrying about a potential self-destruct setting, the situation was largely under control.

"Excellent. Haul out any prisoners and interrogate them. I want to know everything of value. At the same time, survey all of the valuables inside the base. Make sure to reward our mech pilots and soldiers with a portion of the plunder if possible. They need to be rewarded for their efforts."

"Will do, sir."

Training his own Larkinsons was no different from training the ultralifers. If Ves wanted to keep relying on them to fight his battles, then he needed to make them willing and eager to face combat. This was a good first step in doing so. Sooner or later, this newest batch of clansmen would become just as fearless in combat as the veteran Larkinsons!