The Mech Touch

Part of the reason why Ves was so persuasive was because he truly believed in his words. He was not putting up an act, nor did he try to channel Vulcan by putting on a mask.

He was too tired of that. His stunt with Blinky caused him to become mentally and physically drained. In fact, he was in an uncommonly sober and calm mood after his emotions became dull due to his current state.

If he retained a lot more energy, then he might have been inclined to order his troops to keep pushing their advantage and to pay back the dwarves tenfold for the losses they inflicted on the Larkinson Clan!

As it was, Ves did not see any purpose to that. Destroying all of enemy mechs would yield nothing except for useless salvage and satisfying some pointless urges.

Destroying or capturing the enemy ships also yielded little use. Though Ves and his clan were always hungry to acquire more combat-oriented capital ships, it was impossible for them to get what they wanted today. The dwarven fleet carriers were probably filled with traps and didn't even offer ceilings that went high enough to accommodate tall folk!

Ves fully agreed with General Verle that their goals lay elsewhere and that there was little to gain from persecuting the Ferril punitive fleet anymore.

They achieved the basis of victory at this point. Ves did not think about continuing his ill-advised trip to the Paramount Province anymore. Compared to doing the System a favor, he much preferred to preserve his life, his clan and his fleet!

He could figure out another solution later. First, he had to bring the expeditionary fleet out of the Vulcan Empire as fast as possible!

His giant projection made a compelling case to the dwarves, but it was time for them to make their choice.

"Well, what have you decided, dwarves? We humans are willing to give you a reprieve, but not if you insist on continuing this fight. If you agree to a cease fire, we will not only let you disengage without any further attacks from us, but we will also let you retrieve your fallen and trapped soldiers from the various wrecks. Of course, you must extend the same courtesy to us. If you agree, then pull back your mechs and ships."

A tense mood descended over the battlefield. Many human and dwarven mech pilots had fallen into thought as they tried to remain as alert as possible. This temporary pause in hostilities could easily resume if one side or the other began to open fire again!

"You have thirty seconds." Ves spoke to whoever was in charge in the enemy fleet. "If you don't order your fleet carriers to slow down and abort their suicide charge, then we will not mind slaughtering more Vulcanites for no good reason except for your stubbornness. Choose well."

After he issued his message, everyone waited and prepared for the response of the dwarves.

At this stage, no dwarven mech pilot chose to defy the humans out of their own initiative. Even the most fanatical believers of the Dwarven God Cult were too shocked and traumatized by the successive blows to their confidence and beliefs.

Some of them even started to wonder whether they had been believing in the wrong version of Vulcan all along! The power displayed by the mechs of the Larkinson Clan were truly unreal! They had never seen anything like the mechs deployed by this strange human organization.

"I'm tired…"

"We can't win anymore. Let's just go back."

"Wait for instructions. It's not up to us to decide whether to throw in the towel."

As the dwarves waited for their superiors to make a choice, the humans were still on guard.

The mech pilots of the expeditionary forces had already gained a measure of their opponents. The Ferrils they fought against were tough and stubborn soldiers who never gave up easily.

There were plenty of human mech pilots who wanted to punish their opponents for attacking their fleet and killing their comrades, but there were even more who had grown tired of the killing. They hoped that the dwarves would make the most prudent choice.

After twenty seconds had passed since Ves last spoke, the dwarves finally showed their response.

Their surviving dwarven mechs all drew back at once. Some of the more damaged machines that weren't as mobile as before were being helped by more intact mechs.

More remarkably, the Ferril fleet carriers all cut their forward acceleration and even began to turn away from the expeditionary fleet, thereby causing them to undergo a slow turn that made it impossible for them to continue their ramming course.

Even the Great Ram which looked ready to put her giant head to use had moved away from trying to ram the Spirit of Bentheim head-on!

Perhaps the observers who were eager to see the two animal-headed capital ships collide against each other were disappointed, but many people on both sides felt a lot of relief!

Though the dwarves never transmitted any official correspondence to the expeditionary fleet, their actions rang loud and clear. Now that their forces had all drawn back, it was impossible for them to pose a significant threat to their opponents anymore.

Considering the current situation, the Golden Skull Alliance held a decisive firepower advantage. The Slug Ranger mech division had been savaged to such an extent that there was no way they could stop the Transcendent Punishers, Eternal Redemptions and other human ranged mechs from bombarding much of the dwarven fleet and mech units to pieces!

The Amaranto alone served as a powerful deterrent to the dwarves. This powerful and seemingly inexhaustible masterwork expert rifleman mech not only posed a lethal threat to all of the dwarven expert mechs, but could easily bring its prodigious firepower to bear against other dwarven assets such as their surviving artillery mechs or even their starships!

"It's over…" Commander Melkor sighed in relief.

"Indeed." Commander Casella smiled.

Many other Larkinsons and humans expressed clear relief at this rather boring but welcome ending to the battle.

The MTA mech pilots who had been trying their best to survive while all of the madness took place around them had practically collapsed into their piloting seats.

"Finally!" Jessica Quentin let out a deep breath. "These Larkinsons are too crazy, but at least they still know when to stop."

General Verle was relieved as well. He already predicted that Ves had a high chance of succeeding in his attempt to persuade the Ferril punitive fleet to end hostilities. It was the most logical choice that best served the interests of the Ferril Provincial Army and it was also a decision that the demoralized dwarven soldiers wanted the most. They hardly had any fight left in them and pushing them to sacrifice their lives for their state would be a futile gesture.

"Commence search and rescue!" He ordered. "Don't focus too much on picking up salvage. We don't have the ships and cargo space to carry all of the valuables anymore. Prioritize the rescue of our trapped but living mech pilots and the evacuation of any heavily-damaged starship that is no longer spaceworthy. Speed is of the essence. Our situation can turn around in an instant if a second hostile dwarven force arrives, so make sure that we are always in a state to transition out of this star system with our core vessels!"

Only one more fight had to be resolved. Ves, General Verle and many leaders in the expeditionary fleet knew that Patriarch Reginald Cross could not be easily restrained.

This was why they opted to go for this approach without expressly consulting the Cross Patriarch.

The effect of seeing both sides cease fire and backing off from each other was profound. Now that the combatants had switched over to performing search and rescue activities, the temperature in the battlefield had cooled even further.

The battle fever generated by tens of thousands of mechs trying their best to destroy each other was no longer present!

This made it a lot harder for the two high-tier expert pilots to maintain the same degree of urgency and desperation as before.

Venerable Orthox De Massie quickly cooled down as he saw that many of his comrades might not perish on this worthless battlefield after all. A sense of peace, resignation and contentment overcame his mind that caused him to care less about overcoming his current opponent.

What did it matter if this hateful human expert pilot wrecked his Gatecrasher and took his life? Just like his old friend General Kebrinore, he was more than willing to sacrifice his life if that was what it took to appease the angry humans and satisfy their desire to take revenge!

As long as enough of the dwarves he vowed to protect would still be able to return home with their lives intact, he would not die unjustly!

The Gatecrasher no longer fought as intensely as before. It slowed down and put up less of a fight as it became increasingly clear that Venerable Orthox no longer needed to go all-out to save his fellow Vulcanites.

"Kill me if you want." He transmitted to the Bolvar Rage. "I don't care anymore. If you want my head so badly, then I'll give it to you on a platter."

Patriarch Reginald, who had previously been so engaged in this peak duel against an opponent that was equally as powerful as him, frowned as he sensed the diminishing fighting will from his opponent.

The resonance affecting the Gatecrasher grew weaker and weaker until the damaged expert mech no longer exhibited any form of empowerment anymore!

In this state, the expert mech's performance was no longer amplified in any way. Reginald could easily defeat the dwarven expert space knight if it remained in this powerless condition.

"Tch! There is no glory to be found in this duel anymore!"

Patriarch Reginald felt sick to his stomach as he saw that his chance was being denied to him. He felt unfulfilled in a way that momentarily caused him to harbor a lot of resentment towards the Larkinsons who must have been pushing for an end to the hostilities!

However, as his temper cooled down and his powerful will no longer dominated the entirety of his mind, he began to remember his responsibilities as the patriarch of the Cross Clan.

When he looked up how many Crosser mech units had survived and how many of them were taken out of action, he looked a bit pained.

"More brothers have died…"

Patriarch Reginald was no longer in the mood to fight, especially when everyone else had already ceased hostilities. He allowed the Gatecrasher to turn around and fly away without any further interruption on his part.

The two high-tier expert pilots observed each other's machines as they moved further and further apart.

Eventually, the Bolvar Rage raised its axe. "Good fight." 

"I never want to see you again." Venerable Orthox responded.

As time went by, it became clear that neither side had any intentions of breaking the unwritten cease fire agreement. Some of the dwarven and human mechs no longer retreated back to their surviving motherships.

Instead, they lingered on the battlefield in order to assist with the search and rescue efforts.

Some carefully took hold of wrecked mechs and dragged them back to their fleet. Others carefully pried open the ruined frames of fallen mechs so that their cockpits gained enough clearance to eject.

In some cases, ejected cockpits that sustained damage or mech pilots who somehow managed to float in space with just their piloting suits had to be picked up as well.

A shuttle even went out on its way to pick up an aggrieved Lucky!

"Meowwww!" The injured gem cat complained as his shivering body settled on a padded chair.

When the cat got back to the ship, he intended to ask for a huge amount of compensation from Ves! The mission that he performed and the risks that he took was way too much this time!

"Meow!"