The Mech Touch

"Who am I speaking to?" A dutiful female voice asked.

"My name is Ves Larkinson. I would like to report a crime."

"Please describe the nature of the incident in question."

"A squad of mechs is in the process of bullying a giant. The former is beating up the latter to such a great extent that the latter doesn't stand a chance!"

"Oh dear. How horrible. This certainly goes against common sense. Unfortunately, I am unable to process your report any further."

"What? Why not?"

"Because I work for the MTA!"

Though this conversation did not happen in reality, it might as well be considering how domineering the MTA acted at this time.

Twelve resplendent metallic mechs succeeded in doing what no LRA biomech managed to do before.

They were hurting the rogue biojuggernaut.

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This was already quite impressive. After everyone witnessed Uranus withstand the collective bombardment of entire mech regiments worth of biomechs, they began to believe that only warships were powerful enough to put a dent on its massive frame!

Yet right now, a trivial amount of mechs whose sizes simply could not compare against that of the unleashed bionightmare were clearly making a mockery of their target!

Though it was not wise to make light of an opponent in a battle where anything could happen, the MTA mech pilots were so confident in their own strength that they did not even treat this battle seriously!

When their first-class multipurpose mechs deployed their expanded plasma swords, they looked like toys that projected an unrealistically large weapon.

If Ves attempted to design a mech that projected that much plasma at such a difficult length, then the power systems of the machine would probably collapse in seconds!

Yet these MTA mechs extended these massive high-heat blades with no concern for the strain they put on their frames!

The mechs moved into action. They danced and circled around Uranus like nimble flies. They not only exhibited a lot of speed, but also demonstrated their agility. While they looked like medium mechs, their mobility parameters vastly exceeded that of Ferocious Piranha or any other second-class light mech!

It was practically surreal to see mechs perform this impressive in a star sector like Majestic Teal. The people who live here had never personally witnessed a first-class mech in action. How could they know how far behind they were in comparison to one of the apex powers of the galaxy?

After today, no one would doubt the MTA's power anymore. Just twelve 'ordinary' MTA mechs possessed the courage to confront Uranus up close whereas the Lifer mechs never even made a serious attempt to do the same.

At first, the MTA mechs relied on their superior mobility to perform simple but effective hit-and-run attacks.

Each time they made an attack pass, they easily evaded the slow and clearly-telegraphed attacks of the biojuggernaut. As soon as the first-class mechs flew close enough, they slashed their plasma blades against their humongous fleshy target, burning lots of biomass and inflicting horrible burnscars that inflicted more stress on the monster's high-speed regeneration capabilities!

"UUUUAAAAAAGHHHH!"

Uranus didn't seem so tough now that it was absorbing the hurt instead of dishing it. The feral mind that was in control of its humongous body didn't possess much of a tolerance of pain. The more it got hurt, the sloppier it moved!

"If you disregard its size, the juggernaut is actually very clumsy!"

Each punch took at least ten times longer to pull off compared to that of a normal mech. Though its immense scale came paired with an even greater degree of strength, its agility and mobility hadn't caught up. It took so much time for Uranus to move around its limbs that the nimble MTA mechs easily danced around its reach like mosquitos.

As the mechs continued to perform their attack runs, their plasma blades were slowly adding more and more burnscars onto the large and vulnerable frame of the biojuggernaut.

It was as if the MTA mechs were torturing the biocreation for its many crimes!

After getting hit again and again, the monstrous creation slowly lost altitude as it had to divert energy away from its flight system in order to take care of other priorities. It desperately tried to speed up its kicks and punches, but there was only so much it could do to combat its own sluggishness.

In fact, at some point, Uranus did succeed in hitting one of the MTA mechs with its considerable might.

Yet this was by design. One of the twelve biomechs deliberately flew in front of the biojuggernaut's face and maintained a stationary position relative to the descending biomonster.

The MTA mech was just asking to get punched by maintaining this position, and Uranus readily obliged!

Frustrated at its continued inability to hit the small metal mechs, the biojuggernaut reared back its fist before launching it forward with so much might that the air around its arm seemingly whipped up a storm!

An arm that was bigger and most certainly a lot heavier than all of the MTA mechs put together rammed directly into one of them without missing!

A loud crunchy collision ensued as the MTA mech that got struck flung backwards by a hundred meters or so. Yet despite its inability to maintain position, the powerful first-class mech managed to withstand the powerful attack! Its energy shield was so strong that it only looked slightly stressed after resisting the direct blow.

In fact, Ves doubted that the first-class multipurpose mech would incur any significant damage if it deactivated its energy shield. He knew how hard it was to damage first-class armor and was confident that the MTA mech could have taken the hit directly.

The only troublesome part was that it was a lot more difficult to prevent the enormous force slamming into the frame from affecting the internals. Ves was sure the MTA had solutions for that as well, but he wasn't fully up to date with all of the modern innovations the Association stuffed in its mechs.

Regardless, Uranus failed to achieve its desired result. The giant looked both pained and confused. Its partially-charred form shook as the juggernaut began to feel an emotion that it never experienced before.

Uranus began to feel fear.

From the moment its urge to survive surpassed its violent impulses, the biojuggernaut completely lost its aura of invincibility!

Its immense power no longer seemed so intimidating now that the MTA had come to punish this rogue creation!

The MTA mechs stopped playing with their prey. After proving in multiple ways that the mechs fielded by one of the most powerful forces of humanity could easily deal with this bloodstained giant, they finally proceeded to do their actual jobs.

The impressive machines spread out again and surrounded the biojuggernaut in every direction. They retrieved a strange-looking grenade and threw it at their target at precise trajectories.

When the grenades flew close to Uranus, they activated, causing them to project a strong gravitic field that abruptly increased the gravity force acting on the biojuggernaut.

This was a devastating development for Uranus. Its immense size and density resulted in a total mass that was higher than the equivalent of a starship of the same length.

The fact that it managed to lift itself straight into the air under its own power was already a miracle, but that did not change the fact that it took an enormous amount of effort to even lift its feet off the ground.

Now that the local gravity around it turned several times stronger, the biojuggernaut lost altitude even faster. The clouds slipped further and further out of reach as Uranus desperately reached out its injured arms towards the open skies.

Its freedom lay beyond! As long as it was able to enter space and reach the nearest Lagrange point, it could have disappeared from the star system and made itself much harder to find.

Yet now that the Mech Trade Association decided to take action, the powerful organization did not leave any chance for the rogue biojuggernaut to escape.

Even if it possessed a means of entering FTL travel that was not restricted by the gravity well of Prosperous Hill VI, the MTA mechs most certainly had means to interrupt such an escape method.

As the pained and regretful-looking biojuggernaut approached the ground, the MTA mechs kept up with its descent but did not take any further action. Their mech pilots did not have any doubts in their ability to control the situation!

"How powerful.." Ves expressed his admiration at the superiority displayed by the MTA mechs. "My work still has a lot to go before it can approach this level of strength."

First-class mechs unquestionably towered over second-class mechs and not by a marginal degree either. The disparity between the best and second-best mechs was incredibly large, but that was logical considering the difference in cost was even more extreme!

Even though the Supreme Sage channeled decades worth of funding siphoned from the income earned by an entire second-rate state, Ves seriously doubted that its total cost exceeded that of one or two MTA mechs!

In essence, this matchup was unfair from the start by this measure alone.

"Size doesn't matter."

There was a reason why the entire mech industry and the MTA preferred to work with mechs with modest height.

When they became too large, they became too expensive and much less practical for use.

When they were too small, they were lacking too much strength because their reduced scale limited this advantage.

Their current size was just right. They packed plenty of power but remained relatively easy to mass produce and ship to various destinations.

Now, the Mech Trade Association clearly proved to everyone that their normal mechs were more than powerful enough to handle this incident!

BOOM!

From the moment the biojuggernaut landed on the ground, another earthquake set off in the immediate area.

It was fortunate that its previous rampage had already killed or scared away the majority of the survivors who lived in the vicinity.

The powerful gravitic grenades lost effect at this time. They deactivated and flew back to the mechs that initially threw them forward. Once the MTA machines stowed the valuable hardware away, they withdrew a special launcher that was mounted behind their backs and began to fire a salvo of sparking projectiles at Uranus.

"HUUGAAAAAAAGH!"

The biocreature roared in agony as the projectiles embedded in its massive frame began to release a powerful current that shocked and pained it in a way that quickly caused it to lose control over its own limbs!

BOOOM!

The ground shook as it fell to its knees.

BOOOM!

The earth quaked a third time in rapid succession as its upper body fell over, causing the once-frightening bionightmare to lie flat on the ruined ground!

A few intact tree structures flattened under its immense bulk, but no one cared about this triviality at this time.

"The giant has been felled!"

As the strange shock projectiles continued to paralyze the enormous biocreation, a single MTA mech dove in and planted its feet on top of the messy hair that covered the monster's gigantic head.

It withdrew a spiked lance from its back and plunged it straight into the terrible humanoid beast's head!

"WUUUUUUGHHHHH!"

Even though Uranus continued to express its pain, fear and frustrations, the MTA mech that had landed on its head remained rock-solid. After punching the odd lance through the skin and skull of the rogue biocreation, its spiked tip began to affect the massive brain of the biotitan in mysterious ways.

The creature stopped screaming. It stopped resisting the shocks that prevented it from lifting itself up its feet. Its eyes grew dull as the red glow grew dim.

Silence reigned as Uranus lost consciousness.

"..."

"The MTA did it. The MTA mechs actually subdued the juggernaut."

Recent incidents in the Komodo Star Sector caused many citizens in the star cluster to question the readiness of the MTA. Was the powerful organization still strong enough to perform its duties? Or had its latest preoccupation with the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy spread its presence too thin?

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After this day, no one held these doubts anymore. Even a handful of their first-class multipurpose mechs were capable of wiping out an entire second-class mech division with ease with the capabilities they just demonstrated in public!

It wasn't just their raw might that made the MTA mechs strong. This brief and one-sided engagement also reminded everyone that all of the high technology that the Association mastered over the centuries provided it with astounding capabilities!

Although it should have been easy for these first-class mecs to destroy Uranus, the Association was not content with that outcome. The MTA mechs were deliberately armed with high-tech tools that easily allowed them to restrain and subdue monstrous biotitan while leaving it reasonably intact.

Anyone could see that the MTA obviously wanted to capture this horrible invention whole. Inferior technology or not, there were many aspects about Uranus that made it worthy of study.

The Association's mech designers were probably eager to probe the depths of Uranus. They would do anything in order to figure out the biodisaster's dark and forbidden secrets!