The Mech Touch

"We are Vulcan's Shield!"

"We are indomitable!"

"We are the guardians of the empire!

As the Molten Furies continued to remain stubbornly alive while withstanding attack after attack, the morale among their steady dwarven mech pilots remained high.

The pitiful weapons of their human foes weren't strong enough to break their heavy shields!

Their mechs might be more maneuverable than their dwarven machines, but what was the point of that? The dwarven mechs just had to keep up their defenses while they advanced.Sooner or later, the Molten Hammers would be able to bull through to the enemy fleet and force every fast and flighty mech to fight the dwarves upfront whether the humans liked it or not. This was the favorite strategy employed by the Vulcans!

"Hahaha! Look at their skinny, ugly mechs! So what if they have this weird mind crap? Their gods can't help them and our souls are protected by Vulcan. They can't possibly defeat us with their feeble mechs!"

Though this was the first time the Molten Hammers experienced the various glows of the Larkinson Clan, they did not stay unbalanced for long.

As the mech pilots of an old and famed mech division, the dwarves who piloted all of the melee mechs were filled with pride and an unquestioning belief in their own strength.

The Molten Hammers had managed to drive away many of the human forces that once occupied the Smiling Samuel Star Sector!

They were one of the units responsible for freeing many dwarves from slavery and oppression!

The mech division had also taken part in the grand founding ceremony of the Vulcan Empire. Their contributions along with their valor earned them a place of pride that conveyed eternal glory!

Although the first generation of mech pilots had mostly retired, there were still a number of oldsers among the Molten Hammers. Together with Venerable Orthox, these storied heroes not only taught a lot of valuable lessons to the newer generations, but also served as pillars of support that made every younger mech pilot feel compelled to perform at their best!

The Larkinsons and Crossers were able to feel the ferocity of their foes. No matter what they did, the dwarves never gave in and tried their best to never show weakness!

"Watch out! The dwarven offensive mechs are on the move!"

After the Vulcan's Chosen stalled the human mechs, the dwarves seemed to have gotten the measure of their opponents. The rest of the heavy assault mech regiment were finally about to show their teeth!

The Avido Berserkers moved up first! Anyone who looked at the design of their Shieldbreaker mechs could immediately tell what they were all about.

"The Avido Berserkers are the dwarven equivalent of our Swordmaidens!"

The Shieldbreaker was the lightest mech model fielded by the Molten Hammers. It was an axeman mech that was more maneuverable than other dwarven mechs but still boasted enough armor to withstand a couple of heavy blows.

As its name suggested, this offensive mech model excelled at breaking shields. Every Shieldbreaker wielded a variety of different axe configurations. Most wielded heavy two-handed battle axes but there were also mechs that either wielded a pair of smaller axes or carried a more defense-oriented axe-and-shield combination.

Regardless of the weapon loadouts, the Shieldbreaker mechs did not focus on any other targets aside from the defensive mechs of the Larkinsons and Crossers!

Whereas most offensive mechs sought to attack space knights from the sides or the rear, the Avido Berserker mech pilots didn't bother with all of that tricky maneuvering.

They just charged straight ahead and chopped at the enemy shields with great violence!

Within just half a minute, the first thick tower shields that the Bright Warriors relied upon to fend off the dwarves were already starting to show signs of breaking. Swordsman mechs and other offensive mechs of the Larkinson Clan quickly backed up the beleaguered space knights, but that did not completely solve the danger!

"Those Shieldbreaker mechs are cooperating really well with the Molten Furies."

The dwarven axeman mechs fought alongside the dwarven space knights in a well-practised routine. Each time the former launched a powerful chop with their axes, the latter surged forward and shielded against any incoming counter-attacks, thereby removing much of the threat to the Shieldbreakers!

Commander Melkor and many other Larkinsons couldn't help but admire the excellent synergy between the two dwarven units. The Vulcan's Chosen and the Avido Berserkers fought as if they had already experienced this a hundred times before.

By combining the defense of the Molten Fury model with the powerful might of the Shielderbreaker model, the dwarves already established a basic but powerful combo that was enough to frustrate many opponents!

The only weakness was that they didn't possess any means to retaliate against ranged mechs. Heavy caliber cannons such as the ones utilized by the Transcendent Punishers and the Eternal Redemptions were able to crack and overwhelm the defenses of the Molten Furies, but they were currently engaged in their own struggle against the Slug Rangers.

This was a difficult situation, and it was only growing worse as the other signature mechs of the Molten Hammers came forth!

As soon as the Avatar and Crosser mechs grouped up in order to concentrate their strength and force a breach in the defensive lines of the Molten Hammers, another dwarven mech model strode forth.

"It's the Volcano's Wrath!"

"Let the flames of Vulcan cleanse the blight of humanity from the galaxy!"

A large amount of dwarven striker mechs approached the areas in the battle line that was under heavy pressure and began to activate their flamethrowers.

Large clusters of human mechs suddenly faltered and were forced into a retreat due to the large overlapping streams of flames bearing down on their positions. The temperature in front of the dwarven mechs had grown so hot that the most badly-affected mechs even showed signs of melting!

Fortunately, the defenses of the Bright Warrior mechs were good enough to resist the heat, but the appearance of the Volcano's Warth mech regiment plugged yet another loophole of the dwarven defensive lines!

They were not only great at fending off the Ferocious Piranhas and other annoying light mechs, but also served as excellent area denial tools.

When Ves spotted the appearance of the striker mechs, he knew that they had become a great threat to the Avatars and other mech units at the center.

The Magmatar mech model was built for war and it showed. They were sturdy and wielded thick flamethrowers that were big and robust enough that they could probably be used to bash weaker mechs.

The Magmatar striker mech model didn't appear to possess much mobility, but they didn't need to be particularly fast. Their role was to provide close-ranged support to the battle line. Though the flames they released weren't capable of melting mechs immediately, it was extremely undesirable to bathe in them for an extended amount of time.

The widespread pattern of the Magmatar's flamethrower and the capability to use multiple weapons to deny a huge area instantly caused the melee mechs of the expeditionary fleet to feel as if they were being hampered at every turn.

The impregnable defenses of the Molten Furies, the destructive axe attacks of the Shieldbreakers and the anti-crowding capabilities of the Magmatar produced an even stronger degree of synergy!

"So this is what a real mech division is like!" Ves became enlightened.

He had seen hints of it when his clan fought against the Fridaymen, but that was different. The detachments from the elite mech regiments were plucked from different Coalition partners and had to fight alongside strangers from the same state.

This was different because the Molten Hammer mech division came as a whole. Ves understood the logic of organizing a mech division better now that he saw how each and every specialized mech regiment was designed to synergize with each other.

The Vulcan's Chosen formed the defensive bulwark. The Avido Berserkers formed the assault group. The Volcano's Wrath provided close-ranged fire support.

The combination of the three made for a much greater combination than anything the Larkinson Clan was able to come up with! The Avatars and so on mainly relied on the four configurations of the Bright Warrior model which was never designed with maximizing synergy in mind.

The current iteration of the Bright Warrior was meant to serve as a quality base platform that was designed to be highly adaptable in many different battle situations. They also had to be flexible enough to be compatible to a wide range of different mech pilots.

Although Ves was glad that his Bright Warriors fulfilled its role, he never really thought how they would function as part of a wider system on a battle of this scale.

Though General Verle had mentioned this topic to Ves many times, the abstract nature of the topic along with his other priorities caused him to neglect this matter.

Now that Ves not only saw the power of combined arms first-hand, but also suffered from it, he vowed he would definitely rectify this shortcoming in the future!

The Avatars of Myth, Living Sentinels, Flagrant Vandals, Battle Criers, Swordmaidens, Penitent Sisters and Eye of Ylvaine were too monotonous when it came to their mech rosters!

A single well-designed mech model might afford them great advantages against most opponents, but against true professionals, mixing and matching different specialized mech models always yielded better returns!

"I need to apply this approach for my own troops!"

The clan's mech legions all deserved to field a coherent mix of mech models that each combined into powerful systems that performed far better than the sum of their parts!

Ves quickly felt another burden on his shoulders. He knew that this could not be done unless he designed a large number of mechs. Each and every mech design not only had to perform well on their own merits, but also had to fit the fighting approach of every mech legion.

Due to this, one specialized mech design that worked well with the Avatars for example might not make sense for the Swordmaidens.

As a result, Ves would have to design at least three to four specialized mech models per mech legion, each of which had to perform better than the Bright Warrior.

Suffice to say, that was a lot of design work and would probably take years to complete.

"Once I do…"

A grand vision momentarily swept his imagination. If he entered this battle with a mech army that was largely composed of many different specialized mech models, this battle might have turned out drastically differently!

At the very least, his mech legions wouldn't have been forced into such a passive position!

"Of course, the lack of numbers is also hurting us a lot."

Though the synergy between the different dwarven mechs were excellent, the fundamental reason why the expeditionary forces were already on the backfoot was because they were thousands of mechs short!

The only reason why Ves and the Larkinsons weren't panicking was because the Molten Hammer mechs were beginning to crowd up. Part of this was due to their own tactics, but another reason why they began to condense their lines was because of the pressure exerted by the expeditionary forces.

The Avatars did not lose their will for battle. Despite the difficulty of keeping up with the Molten Hammers, the Avatar mech pilots possessed their own pride and fought with the fate of the Larkinson Clan on their shoulders.

"Reinforce our left and right wings! We need to compress their battle lines further. They're still too far apart at the moment!"

"Our middle columns can't hold the dwarven mechs back!"

"Hold as best you can! Buy as much time as possible!"

Another reason why the Larkinson mech pilots fighting against the Molten Hammers did not lose confidence was because they were all anticipating a powerful solution.

Further in the rear, the Valkyrie Redeemers led by the Valkyrie Prime had been circling around and biding their time. The Penitent Sisters had all been praying to the Superior Mother for over ten minutes. Their bond and connection to the Supreme had reached their strongest point!

On the right flank, Venerable Dise and the elite Swordmaidens had also been honing their minds and wills. The Hivar Roarers were just as difficult to deal with as the Molten Rangers and conventional solutions were too costly to undertake.

Only by employing its trump cards would the Larkinson Clan be able to change the current pattern!

"Wait for the right moment, Larkinsons. Soon, we'll show these dwarves that Vulcan won't be able to save their lives!"