The Mech Touch

The artillery duel wasn't going well for the Golden Skull Alliance. No matter whether it was the Larkinson Clan, the Glory Seekers or the Cross Clan, neither of them possessed a strong enough artillery unit that could compete against the Ferril Provincial Army's Steel Rain mech regiment.

This was the difference between a band of space vagabonds and a professional mech military backed by an entire second-rate state!

The amount of support enjoyed by the latter was so disproportionately big that there was no true contest. It wasn't simply a matter of funding. The Larkinson Clan had plenty of money to spare and could invest in even higher-quality mechs if necessary.

The Steel Rain simply enjoyed too many other advantages. It was part of a large mech army that was not only professionally organized but contained a huge number of mech pilots and other skilled personnel.

As a large and comprehensive military organization, the Ferril Provincial Army had the power to invest a considerable amount of funding, manpower, expertise and other forms of support to raise numerous elite mech regiments.

Though it was too costly and extravagant to try to turn every mech regiment into an elite unit, it was no problem to concentrate double the amount of resources in 1 out of 20 or even 1 out of 10 units.

THe Steel Rain was the beneficiary of this treatment. Though Ves had always considered all of his mech legions aside from the Living Sentinels as elites, it was only now that he discovered that there was still a significant gap between what his clan considered elite and the Vulcan Empire had painstakingly built!

It was for this reason that General Verle finally couldn't bear it anymore. Since the Vulcanites already put the Gauss Baron in action, the Golden Skull Alliance had to reciprocate in kind. If not, the morale of its mech pilots would inevitably decline as the oppression exerted by an overpowering expert artillery mech increasingly pressed onto their hearts!

To someone who paid a lot of attention to the moods of both friendly and enemy soldiers, General Verle made his decision based on trying to keep the former's morale as high as possible and doing the opposite to the latter.

Though the Amaranto was not as good at suppressing opponents as the Gauss Baron due to its lower firing rate, its lethality was undeniable!

Though Venerable Stark's expert mech only wielded a single main weapon as opposed to the eight formidable cannons at Leiva's disposal, the singular firepower of the crystalline rifle was more than sufficient to punch through the hardiest bunkers on the surface of the Lemogo Distat!

"What is that expert mech?!"

The dwarven analysts and observers only just discovered the presence of this dark red expert mech. Just like the other Larkinson expert mechs, it had hidden behind the Graveyard until General Verle finally called it out. Even then, the slim expert rifleman mech barely showed anything to the distant enemy as it lay prone on the hull of the Graveyard with most of its profile hidden by a barricade.

Yet once Venerable Stark started firing her weapon, the Amaranto's resonance shield along with the light show generated by its weapon turned it into the brightest star in the expeditionary fleet. Tens of thousands of active and passive scans dialed onto its coordinates and provided the dwarves with an increasingly clear image of what they were dealing with at this moment.

"It's a tall folk expert rifleman mech!"

"The exterior material composition of the enemy expert mech is average, but the rifle it is wielding is unlike anything that we have ever recorded in our database."

"Where are our mech designers?! There's something weird about this tall folk expert mech."

"BY VULCAN! It's a masterwork expert mech!"

"WHAT?!"

The citizens of the Vulcan Empire all worshipped the God of Dwarves, Mechs and Craftsmanship. Though they might have differences of opinion with regards to his identity as a human or dwarf, no Vulcanite disrespected the domains that represented patron god.

Since the founding of the dwarven state, its industrious citizens focused more effort on Vulcan's authorities than anything else. With the active encouragement of the Vulcan Faith, the victors not only worked hard to build up a new dwarven identity, but also invested a lot in building up their mech industry and other industries.

What was notable about the latter was that the dwarves paid special attention to craftsmanship. In just a couple of decades, a lot of dwarven craftsmen and engineers had emerged that had sought to please or dedicate themselves to their god by trying to excel in good craftsmanship.

The status of any dwarven craftsman, whether he or she was a sculptor, gunsmith, shipwright or architect, was just as prestigious as a mech designer!

As the dwarves caught up to the regional standard in an admirably short amount of time, they did not stop and continued to invest in artisanal craftsmanship. Although the Vulcanites originally weren't noted for their high-end artisanship, the extreme amount of attention devoted to this sector caused them to rapidly raise a number of skilled and talented master artisans.

Now, one of them who happened to work for the Molten Hammers immediately recognized the remarkable nature of the Amaranto. Though the long-ranged scans were somewhat fuzzy due to a combination of distance, blockage and interference, the old but mechanically-gifted dwarf could not mistake the clues he managed to detect with his eyes.

More than that, as someone who personally created masterworks with his own stubby hands, the induction in his mind caused him to know that this enemy expert mech was absolutely a treasure!

"The enemy expert rifleman mech is a complete masterwork! From its chassis to its rifle, this work is blessed by Vulcan!"

"What?!"

"That's impossible!"

"This is blasphemy!"

The dwarven leaders who heard this answer from their respected master artisan couldn't immediately accept this conclusion. They turned to other dwarven engineers and technical consultants. They even transmitted the data feeds to dwarven Master Mech Designers who resided far away in order to receive confirmation.

As soon as these respected dwarven Masters took a good look, their eyes all widened.

It was not impossible for these Masters to make a masterwork mech based on a regular mech design. This was especially so after they had all begun to focus their efforts on improving their craftsmanship above all else. Yet even they could mostly only dream about fabricating a masterwork expert mech!

As much as these respected Masters all wanted to deny the truth, they had no choice but to confirm the earlier conclusion.

"We are 98 percent certain that this expert mech is a masterwork."

Many dwarven leaders had become shaken. If the humanoid expert mech utilized by their opponents was a masterwork, were they inadvertently fighting against the favored of Vulcan?

"Don't think too much!" A deep and loud voice boomed on the bridge of the Great Ram!

General Iker Kebrinore was an old and imposing dwarf. His resplendent uniform was bedecked with medals, many of which he had earned when he was a much younger mech pilot who fought to free his fellow dwarves from the tall folk.

The most notable part of his appearance wasn't his imposing uniform or dozens of medals, but his rich and braided beard. General Kebrinore's beard was so long and busy that at least a third of it pooled onto the deck!

If not for the fact that his smart uniform was equipped with special modules, the general constantly risked tripping on his own facial hair whenever he moved forward!

Much like many dwarves of his generation, he wasn't particularly known for his cleverness and ingenuity, which prevented him from climbing up to a higher office. However, he was incredibly steady, respected and loyal.

The general was particularly noted for his excellent battle intuition. Even though he never managed to become an expert pilot, his ability to read the flow of battle served him well and allowed him to survive the brutal battles that led to the founding of the Vulcan Empire.

He was also noted for his undying hatred against humans! This was why General Kebrinore was put in charge of the Ferril Punitive Fleet. His support for this risky and consequential action was high even if he was stubborn about embracing the Dwarven God Cult. In fact, his leadership ensured that the dwarves who still clung to the traditional Vulcan Faith did not feel alienated.

"Do not be deceived by a single masterwork expert mech." General Kebrinore steadily spoke to his men. "Vulcan is a fair god. Craftsmanship has never been exclusive to dwarves. Human craftsmen and mech designers make millions of different masterwork creations every day in the galaxy. We would have encountered them sooner or later."

The confusion among his men decreased. Although this was not a completely ideal answer, it was still sufficient to calm the conflicting emotions among his men.

General Kebrinore began to make another revelation.

"Our Masters along with our intelligence sources have just informed me that the enemy masterwork is almost certainly designed by a Master from the Mech Trade Association! This is the strongest proof yet that our great oppressor is behind this incursion. Defeat this tool and you will be credited with cutting off an arm of a great evil!"

Though the dwarven general was not convinced that the Big Two were secretly led by a cabal of evil human gods, that did not stop him from leveraging this radical theory to incite his men!

Indeed, as soon as the dwarven mech pilots ceased to treat the Amaranto as a holy creation but instead equated it to an infernal abomination, their fear and apprehension to the thought of fighting it had dropped.

The Ferril mech pilots instead became eager to be the ones that successfully slayed the devilish mech!

A large number of Land Crackers and Ship Crackers trained their sights in the direction of the Graveyard. More than a hundred heavy projectiles slammed into the capital ship, causing her surface armor to crack and shatter across a wider area!

The Steel Rain did not let up. They continued to batter the poor Graveyard with a continuous rain of kinetic rounds that exerted an unimaginable amount of stress on the capital ship.

Venerable Stark even had to pull back her Amaranto as her coordinates attracted most of the incoming firepower!

Though the Graveyard's exterior rapidly accumulated more and more damage, the salvage ship moonlighting as a defensive vessel was not that easy to take down!

The scrap and other available metals merged into her hull was so much that the Graveyard could endure much greater punishment. She even rolled her hull so that she was able to smear the incoming damage across her extensive, kilometers-long hull!

"The dwarves have finally shifted their fire!"

Though the Graveyard had fallen into a worrisome crisis, this diversion temporarily offered the rest of the Larkinson fleet a much-needed reprieve.

The Land Crackers and the Ship Crackers were so powerful that the screen of escort ships had depleted way too quickly. Several dozen sub-capital ships had already been crippled or destroyed in the opening stage of the battle.

Though it was not pleasant to turn the Graveyard into a punching bag for artillery mechs, she was at least built for the purpose. She boasted so many thick layers of scrap armor that the dwarven artillery mechs still hadn't come close to breaching her hull!

In order to make sure the Steel Rain kept up their attacks on the Graveyard, the Amaranto constantly poked out from behind the defensive ship and fired precise positron beams that always managed to penetrate a heavily-fortified bunker and destroy the Land Cracker mechs inside.

Venerable Stark did not attack any other mech. The Land Crackers were by far the greatest threats against the starships of the expeditionary fleet. The sooner she whittled them all down, the less the Larkinson Clan had to worry about losing all of their loved ones.

Just as her Amaranto was about to snap a beam towards another Land Cracker, its resonance shield shook and wobbled as an empowered gauss round slammed its upper edge!

"Your opponent is me!" Venerable Leiva broadcasted as all eight of the Gauss Baron's guns fired straight into the direction of the Amaranto!

Moments later, a huge chunk of hull plating blasted into pieces as the powerful attacks hit their mark!