The Mech Touch

Venerable Orthox De Massie was by far the most threatening known quantity in the enemy mech force.

Any mech pilot who fought during the dwarven rebellion were truly battle-hardened. The conditions for the rebel soldiers back then were so difficult that they had to rely on grit, determination and a willingness to sacrifice a lot of lives in order to defeat the established human powers.

As a survivor of this meat grinder, Venerable Orthox not only managed to survive the war, but thrive during the period of rapid growth and consolidation. Being able to strengthen his will during times of peace was a clear indicator that this was a warrior who never gave up and always prepared for the next fight even if it was decades away!

Every mech pilot who managed to grow stronger did so because they thought it was necessary. This was easy to maintain in times of war but a lot harder to sustain when there wasn't an obvious need to fight.

Even expert pilots were able to lose their edge after a long period of stagnation. Time was one of their greatest threats. It was difficult to defend against the consequences of the passage of time.

Perhaps Orthox may have grown past his physical peak, but his extraordinarily powerful will was more than threatening enough to compensate for that. In any case, expert pilots relied on their expert mechs to fight so a weaker body was not that big of a deal.

Patriarch Reginald already looked forward to meeting the dwarven high-tier expert pilot in single combat. Perhaps the Cross Patriarch thought that an earnest duel against an equally powerful opponent would be sufficient to push him past the final limit that held him back from becoming an ace pilot.

Though Ves and the others were glad that Patriarch Reginald volunteered to block Venerable Orthox and the Gatecrasher, there were numerous other notable expert pilots among the dwarves.

Every expert pilot the Ferrils showed off in public had to be good enough to impress their audience. There were no rookies or weaklings among their public heroes.

Calabast quickly went through the other four notable dwarven expert pilots.

"Venerable Leiva Hinder is the quintessential slug ranger. She is a mid-tier expert pilot who pilots an expert heavy artillery mech called the Gauss Baron."

Venerable Leiva's portrait showed off the visage of a ferocious, red-haired middle-aged dwarven woman. Her eyes radiated the bloodthirstiness of killers. She looked as if she was more than willing to shoot up an entire space station just to sate her need to kill!

Everyone focused on her expert mech next.

"As its name suggests, the Gauss Baron is built around its set of eight powerful gauss cannons. Each of them are built to some of the highest standards that the Vulcan Empire can develop at their size. While we haven't been able to find out if the Gauss Baron carries other weapon systems, it's best to assume it is hiding a couple of surprises."

The Gauss Baron looked incredibly formidable. It was already bad enough to face a powerful heavy artillery mech in a spaceborn battlefield with no natural cover on the battlefield. It was even worse when it came in the form of an expert mech that looked like it could crush any standard mech with each shot it fired!

""Hmmm, according to this data, this expert mech's gauss cannons feature high impact, high penetration and high muzzle velocity. It excels at destroying large, relatively immobile targets such as starships but it can also suppress light skirmishers at range due to its abundant amount of cannons. The only real limitations that I can see are its low firing rate and the limited ammunition capacity of the Gauss Baron."

"Ammunition and other supplies are easy enough to replenish with enough support." Ves commented. "If it functions as a bunker mech, then it can easily rely on the carrier to provide additional gauss rounds on demand. If it is deployed in space, then a retinue of support mechs will be able to carry all of the gauss rounds it needs. For an organized mech army, lack of ammunition capacity is not a real detriment."

Venerable Brutus looked incredibly serious at this expert mech. Without a comparable machine that could compete against any expert mech, he was unable to do anything to stop its destructive firepower.

"This Gauss Baron is an even greater threat than the Gatecrasher in my opinion." The Hexer expert pilot said. "The Gatecrasher may be a high-tier expert mech, but it's effective range stretches up to a hundred meters or less. The Gauss Baron on the other hand can inflict crippling damage many kilometers away. In fact, it can effectively threaten our capital ships at distances far beyond conventional ranges as long as it has the rounds to spare. It's a one-mech sieging army."

Although that latter part was a bit of an exaggeration, his point was still valid. Brutus rightfully highlighted the possibility for the Gauss Baron to win this battle single-handedly by inflicting catastrophic damage before the proper battle even began!

Ves slapped his palm against the conference table. "We need to take it out straight away. We can't let such a huge source of firepower run amok throughout the entire engagement. Each minute it remains active it can kill another ship or damage one of our expert mechs."

"During the Battle of Reckoning, we managed to overpower the enemy's strongest ranged assets." General Verle reminded everyone. "This was one of the key factors why we were able to achieve victory. Our ranged mechs and our Transcendent Punishers in particular were able to continually suppress and whittle down the enemy mechs without too much interference. If we don't stop Venerable Leiva soon enough, she will be able to do as much damage as all of our Transcendent Punishers put together!"

Everyone looked at each other for a moment.

"The dwarves will do their best to protect the Gauss Baron." Marshal Ariadne Wodin said with certainty. "It will either be deployed in a special bunker that is built especially for this expert mech, or it will be deployed in space but under heavy guard by the Molten Hammers. No matter what, all of our attempts to attack the Gauss Baron must first go through multiple layers of defense."

The Golden Skull Alliance not only had to overcome all of the external defenses, but also punch through the expert heavy artillery mech's own defenses! Its immense size and bulk already suggested that both its resonance shield and armor system were almost just as tough as that of a heavy space knight!

General Verle turned to Ves. "Can the Amaranto take out the Gauss Baron by itself?"

"That's… highly unlikely." Ves reluctantly replied. "The Amaranto's fully-powered shot is incredibly powerful and can negate specific forms of defense, but if the Gauss Baron is hiding behind multiple layers of defense, then that can bleed a lot of energy even before a beam actually hits this artillery mech. Even if a shot manages to penetrate Venerable Leiva's expert mech, it is too large not to incorporate a high degree of redundancy and compartmentalization. Even if half of its frame is shot to pieces, it can probably continue to fire most of its cannons."

The discussion continued for a little while until General Verle finally set aside this topic.

"We can't determine our response until we can finally get a good look at the enemy fleet and mech deployment. The Gauss Baron is a singularly powerful threat, but it is not the only one we need to be worried about."

Calabast nodded. "The Hivar Roarers also have a champion of their own. Venerable Merek Bulfuron is a relatively young expert pilot but possesses a great deal of talent. He has quickly risen up to become a mid-tier expert pilot. He is also noted for his religious fervor. He is a strong adherent of the Dwarven God Cult, which in the past might have landed him in trouble but is now a strong point in his favor. The Paravad he pilots is an avian expert medium marauder mech that is fast, flexible and capable of fighting at different ranges depending on the circumstances."

The Paravad was basically a multipurpose expert mech that was shaped like a bird. Similar to other marauder mechs such as the Valkyrie Redeemer, the Paravad excelled at flanking, ranged harassment and hit-and-run attacks.

The biggest difference was that Venerable Merek was able to perform this function at the expert mech level, which was a lot more threatening and difficult to defend against.

Ves could already envision the Paravad operating independently or at the head of a dedicated mobile flanking force. This detached dwarven unit would probably function as one of the few independent elements that was free to sneak around the back of the expeditionary fleet and threaten the vulnerable civilian ships at the rear!

Perhaps the Paravad did not excel at frontal combat as other expert mechs, but it didn't need to be. Its ability to maneuver around the Golden Skull Alliance's defenses and hit its weak points was an incredibly alarming prospect!

All in all, these three dwarven heroes exerted a huge amount of pressure onto Golden Skull Alliance. The different strengths of the three dwarven expert pilots and their respective expert mechs were so formidable that the Larkinsons and so on had to prepare specific responses for each of them. If not, any of these powerful expert pilots could single-handedly overturn the entire battle and tilt the battle in the favor of the Ferrils!

Calabast wasn't able to name any further notable dwarven expert pilots even though they had to exist. It was likely that they were low-tier expert pilots and not really worth publicizing.

Though no expert pilot with an expert mech was a pushover, they should at least be a little more manageable in battle.

After discussing a few more preliminary battle plans, the meeting ended. It was convened in haste and everyone barely made any preparations at this time. Calabast also needed a lot more time to gather relevant and reliable intelligence. Since many details had yet to be determined, it was better to save the detailed battle planning for later.

"How much time do we have?" Ves asked.

Calabast shrugged. "That's difficult to determine, but we should have at least a couple of hours at our disposal. I suggest you prepare as much as possible. Don't hold anything back. If the Ferrils have done their homework, then they must have definitely taken both our numbers and our previous battle performances into account."

"Are they aware of the capabilities we have shown during the Battle of Reckoning?"

This was a dreadful possibility. If some of the trump cards that his clan had recently shown became exposed, then that would heavily limit their effectiveness in the upcoming battle!

The spymaster offered Ves an encouraging smile. "I think the dwarves don't have any details. The Fridaymen is probably more than willing to share its logs and battle footage of the Battle of Reckoning to anyone that is willing to attack us. The problem is that the Vulcanites hate humans. They will never ask the Fridaymen for assistance."

"What if the Fridaymen approach the Vulcanites on their own initiative and proactively share their data?"

"That is even more unlikely." Calabast chuckled. "Though we have already found out about the attack, don't forget that it is a secret operation. There is no word about it on the galactic net and the Ferril Province has not publicized or leaked out any obvious intention of turning against us. Besides, I doubt the Fridaymen are paying attention to us these days. We have moved too far away from their sphere of influence."

This was good news if it was true. Though Ves was aware that a lot of rumors were floating around on the galactic net, it was difficult to distinguish truth from fiction. The Fridaymen and the Garlener clans that participated in the battle weren't generous enough to broadcast their own humiliating defeat to the rest of the galaxy.

Ves smirked. All hope was not yet lost. As long as the dwarves didn't have a solid idea of what his clan's battle networks were capable of, then the Larkinson Army at least retained one powerful advantage over their foes!