The Mech Touch

With temperatures cooling, the post-battle activities proceeded smoothly.

Neither side let down their guard, but neither of them had a reason to continue hostilities either.

The dwarves were not entirely unwilling to die for their cause, but they didn't want to throw away their lives for abstract gains when the alternative was much more attractive!

Even the strongest believers in the dwarven god suddenly learned that keeping hold of their precious existences in the face of all-out warfare was a far higher priority than proving their zeal!

Ves continued to stay on the bridge as he observed the search and rescue operation unfolding before his eyes. A lot of Larkinsons had already died, but there were more who were trapped or injured who could still be saved. All kinds of mechs and shuttles were strung out across the debris field which stretched for quite a distance. Several combat carriers even had to travel all the way towards the other end in order to facilitate the retrieval of personnel in a timely manner.

The Larkinsons also did more than picking up lost clansmen. Ves paid special attention to the salvaging operation. Though his fleet had lost a lot of ships and therefore a lot of cargo capacity, he did not let off picking up high-value debris.

"Make sure you pick up every scrap of Unending alloy or pieces of our expert mechs as possible!" Ves transmitted his command directly to the salvaging parties for the seventh time. "Our strongest scanners have tracked each and every fragment of Unending alloy that has broken loose. Don't return until you have swept them all up to the last dust particle!"

This was a highly inefficient command, but Ves didn't care. There were only so many mechs, shuttles and other vehicles that could be allocated to salvaging missions but even a single finger's worth of Unending alloy was far more valuable than picking up a hundred Bright Warrior wrecks in his eyes!

One of the many lessons he learned from this battle was that he and his clan developed an overreliance on Unending alloy. This strange material that originated from the Nyxian Gap possessed both top-notch defenses and enabled an extra form of resonance. The combination of these features resulted in such a huge amplification of performance for his expert mechs that the expeditionary fleet simply couldn't have won this battle without its existence!

He only needed to compare the performance of the Dark Zephyr, the Riot and the First Sword to the expert mechs fielded by the Cross Clan or the Ferril Provincial Army.

"The performance gap is too wide."

Though the three Unending alloy expert mechs were designed with mid-tier performance levels in mind, each of them had actually approached the level of a high-tier expert mech in real battle circumstances!

"This is quite impressive."

There were two caveats, though. First, the performance parameters were too uneven. Second, their pilots were still inexperienced and underdeveloped compared to most of their peers.

When Ves tried to imagine a matchup between his current expert mechs and genuine high-tier machines such as the Bolvar Rage or the Gatecrasher, he would have to put his bets on the latter two. Perhaps their defense might not be so exaggerated, but their performance was almost uniformly high, which effectively translated into no exploitable weaknesses.

The fact that the duel between Patriarch Reginald and Venerable Orthox lasted so long with neither of their expert mechs incurring critical damage was a testament of their battle prowess!

"Well, even if my expert mechs can't beat the likes of the Gatecrasher, at least they're better than the average. That counts for something." He muttered.

The Larkinson Clan didn't have enough expert mechs relative to its total size. The best way to strengthen the champions of the Larkinson Army was to strengthen their expert mechs as much as possible, and Unending alloy was an excellent means in that regard!

Ves wasn't worried about the performance of his Unending alloy expert mechs at the moment, but that might change over the years as they got into more scraps.

This battle had already showed that Unending alloy was not invincible. While it was too difficult for regular mechs to crack this material, the same did not apply to expert mechs. Their ability to empower their attacks with true resonance caused them to acquire reality-defying properties. This was the most effective way to break the unbreakable!

"Expert mechs and expert pilots are too unreasonable!"

Therefore, each battle in which an Unending alloy mech incurred battle damage was another instance where their armor coverage diminished.

The Riot lost three limbs and incurred a lot of other battle damage. It was likely impossible for the salvaging parties to pick up all of the scraps of Unending alloy that got loose.

The Valkyrie Prime was also in an awful condition. Considering that an expert axeman mech hacked it apart, there were bound to be a lot of shards that had flung loose! If they blended with other wrecks or battle debris, then there was a significant chance that the Larkinson fleet's sensors lost track of them. It was too troublesome to scour the entire debris field just to search these missing scraps! This was especially the case when they only had a limited amount of time!

Ves glanced at the timer and saw that the expeditionary fleet didn't have nearly enough time to complete all of the post-battle operations that should be done.

The Larkinsons had to concentrate on their greatest priorities and leave many other goals behind.

For example, there was no way his clan could pick up all of the broken Larkinson mechs. There simply wasn't enough time to salvage them and hull space to store them in. None of the Larkinsons forgot that they were still operating on hostile turf and that they were not welcome in these parts!

In contrast, the Vulcanites owned the entire space and could dispatch large salvaging fleets to sweep up all of the valuable salvage at their leisure. This was also why the Ferrils did not bother to perform too many salvaging operations. Their fleet largely comprised combat vessels and they had neglected to bring their logistical ships.

As the two sides continued to retrieve the people and goods that they prized the most, a slight moment of tension arose when numerous Larkinson salvaging parties attempted to pick up the remains of dwarven expert mechs.

Ves specifically had to instruct General Verle to claim the valuable dwarven expert mechs.

"Are you sure you want us to do this, sir?" Verle frowned.

"We beat them fair and square. We aren't leaving the Vulcan Empire empty-handed. Although I don't have much use for the wrecks, their materials are still valuable."

"We shouldn't lack high-quality materials."

"I know, but I won't say no to more. Who knows whether those dwarven mechs contain any specialty products that aren't available anywhere else. Just grab as many as you can, general. The dwarves won't kick up a fuss. They're afraid of us. They're not going to restart a battle that they will surely lose just because we're claiming our rightful spoils. Besides, just look at the battlefield. The damned Ferrils can gain a lot more broken salvage from our fleet and mech forces! At least this way we can obtain a measure of satisfaction."

Though General Verle did not think it was wise to provoke the dwarves in this manner, he reluctantly instructed the salvaging parties to pick up the broken dwarven expert mechs that were still ripe for the picking.

It began with the enemy machines closest to the fleet. Several shuttles escorted by a squad of replenished Avatar mechs proceeded to the two Slug Ranger expert mechs that had been keeping the Amaranto in check for a long time.

The crews aboard the shuttles secured and brought back the smaller fragments while the Avatar mechs took hold of the broken expert mechs themselves before steadily dragging them back to the Spirit of Bentheim!

"Sir, the Ferrils are lodging a complaint! They are protesting our theft of their expert mechs!"

Ves dismissively waved a hand. "Tell them to stuff it. If they want to stop us, then they're welcome to pick up their weapons again!"

He was confident in his judgement that nothing would come from the enemy fleet, and he was proven right.

The Ferril mech soldiers were mentally beaten and their numbers were no longer sufficient enough to crush the tall folk.

The Amaranto had returned for a quick resupply and flew back into space in order to make it clear that this nightmare from a distance was more than ready to go for a second round!

When it became clear that the dwarves didn't intend to do more than lodge complaints, the Larkinsons became more scrupulous. Multiple reinforced salvaging parties fanned out and began to approach their targets as fast as possible in order to beat their dwarven counterparts!

Different wrecks and major chunks of broken parts quickly fell into the hands of the Larkinson Clan. At the end of this brazen operation, the salvagers brought back the remains from the Burza Fens, the Paravad, the Morko Mark II, the Domingo Daren as well as the aforementioned Slug Ranger expert mechs.

"It's a pity we missed out on the Trementine, the Bashravar and the Firemason." Ves regretfully shook his head.

The three Molten Hammer expert mechs that previously ganged up on the Riot had never fallen. Venerable Stark merely crippled their mobility on account of their high defense parameters.

When the cease fire was announced, the numerous friendly Molten Hammer mechs had approached the crippled dwarven expert mechs and helped drag them back to the dwarven fleet.

"Still, getting 6 out of 13 high-value prizes doesn't sound so bad." Ves muttered.

The utility of those expert mech remains wasn't so big to him, though. He still had a couple of broken Fridayman expert mechs in storage that he had never really touched. Now, he was about to dump more broken expert mechs into his storage bays.

"I should really think of a way to make use of them." He muttered.

Several hours quietly went by. The Golden Skull Alliance slowly completed its rescue and salvaging operations. The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers also sorted out their fleet in order to make sure that they moved all of their personnel and important assets to the starships that were still space worthy.

The Larkinsons had to abandon and scuttle many of their ships. Ves winced when he saw that his fleet eventually had to say goodbye to over 60 sub-capital ships.

The Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan also had to bid farewell to around 20 or 50 ships respectfully.

"Well, we still have enough carriers left to accommodate our surviving mechs, so at least that's not a concern."

After making sure they scuttled every ship that was still reasonably intact but not spaceworthy, the expeditionary fleet finally departed the Fordilla Zentra System without any further interruption.

Aside from the Ferril fleet, only a couple of other starships remained in the system.

Aboard the Dented Coin, Olivier and Utha Persham along with the rest of their crew had remained in shock long after the battle had concluded.

The director of the Persham Chamber of Commerce sat next to his daughter as they watched a rerun of the raw battle footage.

"We managed to broadcast this footage to the galactic net without hindrance, right?" Olivier shakily asked her daughter.

She nodded. "Yes, father… I'm not sure whether we made the right choice. The things we have seen… if I don't know any better, I would have seriously thought that the human clan leader was truly Vulcan."

"HE IS VULCAN!" Olivier shouted as he grabbed onto the shoulders of his daughter. His eyes went wild with fervor! "He's just like the god described in the old stories! Just look at the miracles performed by his mech forces! Just look at the supreme craftsmanship of that colorful expert rifleman mech! Those aren't the works of mortals. Only a god can bestow so much power on second-class mechs!"

Utha looked at her father as if he was an idiot. "You're crazy! That's a human boy! He wasn't even born when Vulcan first enlightened the first dwarven rebels. There's no way this makes any sense."

"The means of a god are unimaginable for humble mortals like us! I'm telling you, my dear." Olivier shouted before despair marred his face. "We have been graced by our god, but our fellow Vulcanites were simply too blind to realize the truth. Now we have driven him away. What a disaster!"

The middle-aged dwarf couldn't imagine what might happen now that the Vulcan Empire had unwittingly spurned their god!