The Mech Touch

Ves enjoyed a grand view of the battle. In a modern battlefield, every element tried to be as connected to each other as possible.

Though the quality and quantity of network connections degraded over time due to all of the explosions and energy bursting through space, there were plenty of solutions to ensure that the entire battlefield remained visible to the fleet where the headquarters and the enormous support services of the Larkinson Army was housed.

There were hundreds if not thousands of operators and officers sitting behind their terminals providing constant support to the mech pilots at the front. Whether it was reminding them of incoming threats, providing individual weak point assessments or offering tactical advice to mech officers in the field, mech pilots never really fought by themselves.

Of course, not a lot of information got passed on by vocal communication. That was a rather inefficient and distracing method of giving mech pilots who were in the heat of battle a heads up. There was so much data of varying degrees of relevance that could be conveyed that overloading mech pilots with too much details became a very real threat.

Therefore, most mech armies implemented a better system where a web of heavily-encrypted signals and strong, point-to-point connections formed a vast combat communication network or warnet as it was colloquially referred to. The most distinguishing characteristic of warnets was that it utilized specialized AIs and algorithms to dynamically filter and transfer relevant pieces of data to the correct recipients at the right time.

For example, someone engaged in a struggle for survival against multiple expert mechs such as Venerable Dise and Venerable Orfan didn't need to be told of events that happened on the opposite side of the battlefield. The data their mechs received from the Larkinson Clan's warnet was almost exclusively focused on providing the Larkinson expert pilots with the various properties and potential weaknesses of their opposing enemies.

Even then, the mech pilot might or might not choose to accept the data input. Human bodies, even with implants, weren't inherently powerful receivers and their ability to process and filter data was never as good as that of a huge mech that possessed plenty of room for advanced processors.

Depending on the configuration set by the mech pilot, the mech could transfer as much or as little data to its controller as preferred. This also went in the other direction as important commanders in the rear needed to obtain the most relevant data without getting flooded by minutiae in order to make the most appropriate decisions.

Ves wasn't a professional military commander and never pretended to be one. He only summoned a few projections that provided him with a strategic view of the lines and maneuvers on the battlefield.

He trusted senior officers such as General Verle and the rest of his staff to know what they were doing. Their performance in previous battles did not give him much reason to reconsider his trust.

What he really focused on during battle was the performance of his works. As a mech designer, his attention laid squarely on his own mechs and various other battle solutions.

From studying the first proper combat action of the Eternal Redemption model to judging the effectiveness of the battle formations evoked by the Penitent Sisters and Swordmaidens, Ves obtained an abundant amount of real battle data that enriched his understanding of his own work.

It was great to see his efforts translating into the outcomes he expected such as with the Eternal Redemption model. When he originally designed this large, fat and expensive cannoneer mech, there were plenty of doubts whether the concept was sound and if the Larkinson Clan even needed a ranged mech that sacrificed mobility and flexibility for high impact damage and excellent penetration.

The Eternal Redemption performed well in almost every front that Ves had aimed for in its design. Aside from the regret that he completed its design before he managed to achieve a breakthrough in luminar weapon technology, the cannoneer mechs with their imposing Samheim ultra-heavy gauss cannons served as a great counter for the tough but relatively low-mobility mechs favored by the dwarves.

However, the views that Ves enjoyed also highlighted the various tragedies and setbacks that his men suffered in battle. His heart ached when he observed the various shortcomings of his Bright Warrior Mark I Version B contributing to the defeat or death of the mech pilots who entrusted their lives to his work.

It was hard not to take these losses personally. Though the Bright Warrior model still provided many advantages to his clansmen that they wouldn't have easily obtained if they piloted someone else's work, both the good sides and the bad sides of every mech design were on full display today.

What especially commanded his attention was the performance of his prime mechs.

In previous battles, their strengths had become highly pronounced. Though they weren't equal to the expert mechs fielded by the Friday Coalition and its temporary buddies, the Valkyrie Prime and so on performed admirably against ordinary second-class mechs.

This time wasn't the same, though. The Ferrils entered the battle with thirteen expert mechs at their disposal. While the Gauss Baron had been taken off the board relatively quickly, that still left a huge disparity in numbers that had been pushing the expeditionary forces to the brink!

It would have been helpful if the Golden Skull Alliance had enough regular mech units to throw at the enemy expert mech, but that was not the case this time. Aside from the ranged mechs of the Battle Criers, every other unit was fully occupied with containing and blocking the still-numerous dwarven mech divisions.

The ongoing firefight between the artillery mechs and other ranged mechs had proceeded unabated since the beginning. Ves did not even want to shift his attention to this lengthy confrontation because he would only grow more depressed at seeing his ranged mechs getting picked off over time.

The battle at the flanks proceeded unevenly. While the right flank was dominated by the expeditionary forces, the left flank was doing considerably worse as it had not been graced by the Swordmaiden battle formation. The largely-intact Crumbleshells were continuing to spin like frisbees while unloading their cannons onto any human mech in the vicinity.

Only a single friendly expert mech in the form of Venerable Linda Cross' Amphis was there to stop the dwarven expert mech deployed on this flank to overrun the expeditionary fleet's faltering flanking units.

There was only so much an expert knight mech could do to support the entire left flank. When avian mechs constantly attacked the Larkinson and Glory Seeker mech units from every direction and when the Curmbleshells relentlessly broke down every strong formation, the chances of reversing the tide was slim without additional backup!

The quality of the mechs and mech pilots weren't at fault here. They just didn't have the numbers and the refined battle tactics and thought-out mech configurations to keep up with a professional military mech division like the Hivar Roarers.

From a larger perspective, this battle served as a benchmark to the expeditionary fleet's current combat capabilities.

Doing well in this benchmark meant that it would likely fare better against the harsh and intense competition in the Red Ocean.

Doing poorly against a bunch of stubborn dwarves who occupied a corner in the edge of the galaxy did not reflect well on the preparedness of the Larkinson Clan and its allies!

The immense scale of the battle along with the high degree of organization displayed by the dwarves diminished the importance of the two remaining prime mechs to a minimum.

Nothing needed to be said about the lack of agency of the Shield of Samar. Venerable Jannzi was relegated to the role of a bystander most of the time as the Slug Ranger mechs didn't even deign to waste their firepower on her useless prime mech.

Venerable Joshua was a bit better off as the adequate mobility of the Valkyrie Prime allowed him to take part in the offensive maneuvers of the Penitent Sisters.

Yet in the fighting that took place after the Penitent Sisters pulled off their battle formation, the Valkyrie Prime's performance was distinctly lackluster in scale and impact.

Sure, it dominated the scene wherever it fought, but its killing efficiency was not that impressive compared to a real expert mech. Prime resonance provided Venerable Joshua and his trusted machine a distinct advantage, but the expert pilot could have just relied on pure skill to achieve similar results.

Perhaps the only genuine advantage brought by the Valkyrie Prime was that it was so different from the other Valkyrie mechs that it attracted a lot of attacks from the enemy. The dwarves loved to take it down due to the key role it played in the prior battle formation, yet most of their attacks either missed or bounced off harmlessly against the Valkyrie Prime's armor.

"At least it's good for something in this battle." Ves muttered.

The more attacks the Valkyrie Prime attracted, the less the dwarves were directing them elsewhere. This was pretty much the most important contribution that Venerable Joshua was making at this stage of the battlefield.

The expert pilot wasn't satisfied with this. In previous battles, he had played a pivotal role where each of his actions profoundly affected the final outcome. To be relegated to nothing more than a stronger grunt in this massive engagement did not sit well with him. He was still a human, and every human possessed ambition.

"I can do more!"

The Valkyrie Prime's agency happened to put the hungry expert pilot in a position to come to the rescue of the Battle Criers as the Burza Fens was laying waste to their mechs!

The clash that ensued did not quite go according to Venerable Joshua's expectations, much to the dismay of the expert pilot along with many other Larkinsons paying attention to the Valkyrie Prime's exploits.

Now that the short and one-sided duel between the Valkyrie Prime and the Burza Fens ended in a crushing defeat of the former, Ves would have preferred that the occupants of the Shield of Samar and the Valkyrie Prime switched places for this engagement!

The maddened dwarven expert pilot of the Burza Fens had nothing else but vengeance in mind! The ghosts of thousands of Molten Hammer battle comrades haunted him from behind, their lives cut off prematurely after the apparition of a giant human female god reaped their lives as easily as culling a garden of weeds.

Fueled by hatred and driven by the need to exact retribution, the dwarven expert pilot's will and emotions were flying so high that his killer axe strike had gained a huge power boost.

Anyone who looked at the glowing, power-filled axe would instinctively get the impression that it could shatter an entire planet.

While its actual power level was not so exaggerated due to the limited resonance strength of the expert pilot, it still enabled the Burza Fens to execute a meteoric strike that was squarely locked on the feeble cockpit that was depending a lot on its meager thrusters to bring it back to safety.

As the axe chopped down like a divine guillotine that was set to execute one of the principal agents responsible for slaughtering almost a third of the Molten Hammer mech pilots, Ves couldn't control himself anymore.

"Noo! Joshua!"

Of all of the expert pilots in the field, Ves could least afford to lose Joshua! Not only was he one of the few Larkinsons who grew up on the same home planet as him, but he also developed a life domain that offered great promises for the future.

To see him perish when he was still young pained Ves deeply. 

"He still owed me many decades of useful service!"

Ves hadn't even gotten a proper return on investment yet! There were so many more wonderful mechs with unique life-based innovations that he could have designed in the years to come. All of the Design Department's work on the Chimera Project would pretty much have to be thrown in the trash if the person it was based upon was no longer in the picture.

Ves almost closed his eyes when the axe was just about to strike the fleeing cockpit!