The Mech Touch

Many people in the expeditionary fleet already knew that the expert mechs designed by the Larkinsons were a little abnormal compared to others of their kind.

From the participation of Journeymen with unusual design philosophies to the contribution made by an MTA Master, the four expert mechs that the Larkinsons had currently managed to produce at the time of this battle all exhibited significantly greater power than expected!

A single expert light mech managed to traverse a large distance in open space and overcame a huge number of obstacles until finally taking out an expert heavy artillery mech that must have outmassed the former by at least eight times!

A masterwork expert rifleman mech not only managed to pave the way for the destruction of that oppressive expert artillery mech, but also continued to make its presence felt in every corner of the battlefield. As long as any of the friendly expert mechs entered a crisis, the powerful luminar crystal rifle would surely bark out a powerful energy beam that temporarily hindered the enemy from exploiting an advantage.

An expert swordsman mech that oddly wielded a masterwork mech sword fended off three different peers through a combination of exceptional skill and brilliant sword techniques. The expert pilot was so skilled that she handedly managed to fend off a famed dwarven hero as well as two extra helpers that were doing their best to drill through the human expert mech's extremely resilient armor.

And finally, a hefty spearman mech turned out to be way more resilient than anyone including its designers expected. The taunting expert pilot enraged the three opposing dwarven expert pilots so much that they continually tried and failed to inflict any meaningful damage onto the spearman mech. After working so hard to overcome its resonance shield and upper armor, it turned out that its second armor layer was much harder and much more resistant to damage!

To Ves, the effort the latter two expert mechs were making to keep three enemy expert mechs occupied each was nothing less than heroic!

It was absolutely worth the tradeoff to expend two expert mechs to keep six enemy expert mechs occupied. The former didn't even have to beat the latter. Just making sure that the enemies who tried to use gang tactics against the surprisingly resilient Larkinson expert mechs granted the humans a huge advantage in this battle!

In effect, the role of the First Sword and the Riot was to do their best to reduce the disparity in numbers as much as possible. So far, the two offensive expert mechs were indeed managing to hold off their opponents, though to be fair they were far from defeating any of them. That was still a step too far for them as the interference from multiple expert mechs were hampering their moves.

It was not as if the dwarven expert pilots failed to realize what was going on. The problem was that they were in a rather helpless position themselves.

The strength of the First Sword and the Riot rose far beyond an average expert mech, and that was just by their armor alone. Their Unending alloy exterior practically made them immune to regular attacks and also enabled them to take much greater risks and trade blows for blows, knowing that any hits they received was just a fraction of the damage that they inflicted on the enemy machine.

That turned the two human expert mechs into rascals of some sorts. They couldn't be treated with common sense and had to be restrained by at least three different machines to prevent them from running away with their aggression and destroying a dwarven expert mech by relying on brute force!

Ves wasn't sure whether these confrontations would remain stable, but he had a lot of confidence in the protection offered by an armor system made primarily out of Unending alloy. As long as Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise guarded the weak points of their machines carefully, they should last long enough to buy time for other elements of the expeditionary fleet to achieve a breakthrough.

"Hm, there are still a couple of enemy expert mechs that are unrestrained."

The expeditionary fleet still didn't have enough expert mechs to keep the remaining dwarven expert mechs pinned. One of them was currently rampaging close to the center of the battlefield.

The Burza Fens was an expert axeman mech that was similar to the Trementine. The expert pilot of the former was a lot younger and more inexperienced than the pilot of the latter.

Given these circumstances, General Kebrinore ordered the Burza Fens to reinforce the faltering lines of Molten Hammer mechs that were already beginning to flag after they witnessed thousands of comrades die from a massive area attack.

Initially, the Burza Fens made a huge impact. Its arrival rejuvenated the deflated morale of the Molten Hammers and also allowed them to reverse the tide and go on the offensive once again!

With each swing of the axe, the fast and unstoppable Burza Fens hacked Crosser and Larkinson mechs left and right. Not a single human mech was able to withstand a single blow from this simple but still powerful machine!

"Where are our expert mechs?!"

"We don't have any left to spare. They're all locked in their own duels!"

"Then what are we supposed to do, sir?!"

"We'll just throw enough mechs at it until it succumbs."

"Then where's our ranged support?"

"It's coming now!"

It took a short moment to organize a proper response against the Burza Fens. Just as it was about to chop a Bright Warrior in space knight configuration, its resonance shield rippled as a volley of ultra-heavy gauss rounds struck the barrier.

The dwarven expert pilot sensed something unusual from these attacks. They weren't as negligible as other regular ranged attacks.

The Eternal Redemptions had entered the fray! Although only a squad of them had turned their powerful cannons on the Burza Fens, it was still a useful form of support.

Sadly, if the Eternal Redemptions thought they could chew through the dwarven expert axeman mech's resonance shield in a minute, then they were sorely mistaken!

The Penitent Sister mech pilots who fired their cannons continuously at the Burza Fens didn't have much hope. They only sought to apply as much pressure as they could and hoped that they could slightly interfere with the dwarven expert pilot's movements.

It was at this time that a second unit of mechs stepped forth. Ves leaned in as one of his pet projects was about to show its worth.

Captain Dietrich Kotz was one of the leaders of the Battle Criers. He commanded roughly forty Bright Warriors in rifleman mech configuration, though General Verle kept his unit in reserve until now. Each of the mechs under his command had been issued with special replacement rifles that instantly won the hearts of his subordinates.

The Battle Criers were one of the few mech legions that received a batch of newly-developed luminar crystal rifles. In fact, the most loyal mech legion received the largest batch out of them all. The former Kinners had become delighted that their patriarch and liege lord remembered their existence and valued the role they could play!

Captain Dietrich adored the new luminar crystal rifle that he was allowed to handle. All of his men were of the same mind.

However, they were also aware that the Larkinson Clan wouldn't gift them the most modern and powerful ranged weapons at its disposal without expecting a lot in return.

The stronger the mechs, the greater the responsibility!

Therefore, when an unattended enemy expert mech had come forth in order to butcher a lot of regular mechs, Captain Dietrich and the rest of the Battle Criers courageously stepped up so that they could play the sacrificial lambs this time!

Dietrich knew his men well enough that they did not need to listen to a speech in order to accept the fact that they were about to clash directly against an enemy expert mech. The projected survival rate of confronting an expert mech such as the Burza Fens was difficult to calculate. Whatever the odds may have been, the Battle Criers anticipated a lot of sacrifices.

"Load light beam attack phase crystal." He ordered.

Every Bright Warrior including his own activated a setting on their luminar crystal rifle. The revolving chamber spun a bit until the active attack phase crystal had switched from positron beam mode to light beam mode.

The luminar crystal rifles held by the Battle Crier mechs soon changed in character. The crystal weapon released a soft and white glow that hinted at a new type of energy that most people had never encountered in their lives.

This was one of the most crucial elements that gave the Battle Criers the confidence to fight against an expert mech.

Certainly, they would have fought against an overpowering enemy regardless of the weapons they had at hand, but not even Kinners liked to commit suicide without achieving anything of value.

With the new weapons provided to them, the Battle Criers became fully committed to living up to their patriarch's trust!

"Men, the greatest burden of this battle rests on our shoulders." Captain Dietrich told his fellow mech pilots. "If we allow the Burza Fens to keep slaughtering our mechs by the hundreds, it will not only cause our counter-attack to fail, but also restore the confidence of the dwarves, thereby negating much of what we have worked towards. Will we allow that to happen, Battle Criers?!"

"NO!"

"Then let us tackle this great and terrible foe and prove to the galaxy once again that even gods can be slain by mortal hands!" Dietrich cried out as his Bright Warrior raised its glowing luminar crystal rifle! "Fight until you die! Die until you fight! We fear no death because duty and service is in our blood! Attack!"

The Battle Criers advanced towards the unscrupulous Burza Fens with a pre-prepared plan in mind. Once their rifle-wielding Bright Warrior mechs reached a certain distance, their mech companies dispersed into squads which subsequently split up into individual mechs.

A couple of hundred Battle Crier mechs proceeded to fan out in order to attempt to surround the enemy axeman mech in a spherical formation.

The dwarven expert pilot, though consumed with hacking as many Larkinson mechs to pieces as possible, wasn't ignorant of the enemy's maneuvers. His eyes narrowed as he sensed something more out of this response than normal.

"Is this their plan to handle an expert mech? Hah! They're too naive!"

The Burza Fens stopped pursuing the retreating Crosser mechs and began to pivot towards the nearest Bright Warrior, accelerating with an impressive burst of speed that caused a lot of Battle Criers to miss their initial shots.

Hundreds of white light beams lanced the space just behind and around the dwarven expert mech. In this great forest of attacks, a handful of mech pilots finally managed to strike their target.

The dwarven expert pilot wasn't worried. The Burza Fens might just be a low-tier expert mech, but it was equipped with a serviceable resonance shield that could block the majority of mundane attacks with great efficiency.

Yet when the shield was finally struck by some of the laser-like beams, the dwarf uttered an alarmed cry as he experienced a greater sting than he thought!

"Those rifles!"

It was only now that he took the enemy's rifles more seriously.

When his Burza Fens finally closed in and chopped the entire torso of a Bright Warrior into half with a single powerful swing of its resonance-enhanced axe, the brethren of the fallen mech furiously fired their crystal rifles at the expert mech, their job now made easier now that the expert axeman mech had briefly stagnated in order to perform its attack!

Over fifty different light beams struck the resonance shield of the Burza Fens from different directions. Though the dwarven expert pilot ordinarily didn't pay much attention to it, he discovered to his horror that the stability of his first line of defense had already declined by at least 8 percent!

"Impossible!" The dwarven expert pilot cried. "They're not expert mechs or even pseudo-expert mechs! How can they deal so much damage?!"