The Mech Touch

Ves never encountered an ace pilot and ace mech before in his entire life.

Back when he lived in the Bright Republic, these existences were too powerful and distant to the likes of him. They only showed up occasionally in second-rate states, but even then they were treated as the trump cards and the crown jewels of their respective people.

Whereas an average citizen still had the opportunity to get in touch with an expert pilot if they tried hard or if they were lucky, ace pilots were too grand and special for others to approach!

The descriptions that Ves had read about ace pilots was that they were much more closer to gods than humans. There was no way that anyone could mistake them as average and that they were noticeably less bound by human constraints and conventions than normal!

Their willpower was legendary, and it took an unimaginable amount of struggle and introspection for them to rise above the height of other expert pilots.

They were so driven to pursue their goals, ideals or convictions that not even reality could stop them from fulfilling what they perceived to be their duty!

They were living Saints, inhuman warriors and soldiers whose excellence put them close to the apex of human society no matter their origins or background!

Each of them possessed an incomparably honored status in the Mech Trade Association. Should they ever feel disgusted or become alienated with the states they originally owed their loyalty to, ace pilots always had the option to become a part of one of the Big Two, which would completely propel them to entirely new heights!

It was because of the latter that cultivating and keeping ace pilots into service was incredibly challenging. Third-rate states simply couldn't afford the resources required to commission and maintain a powerful ace mech!

Even second-rate states were enormously burdened by the huge amount of requirements they had to fulfill in order to retain a small group of ace pilots.

Yet it was worth it. To those who could afford the enormous expense and trouble, the value of an ace pilot equipped with a fitting ace mech was immeasurable, both on and off the battlefield!

In times of peace, an ace pilot was a national symbol, a hero beyond compare and a model that every mech pilot in a state aspired to follow.

No one knew how to pilot mechs and fight with them better than an ace pilot. Their piloting skills were so inhumanly powerful that they could even guide the training of expert pilots!

This meant that the expert pilots who managed to obtain the tutelage of a Saint faced fewer bottlenecks and could potentially save years of groping around in the dark. Ultimately, this led to a collective increase of strength in the high-level combat strength of an entire state.

This was also the main reason why Patriarch Reginald Cross was close to advancing to ace pilot himself. The tutelage and training provided by his father played an indispensable role in his relatively rapid advancement.

Yet no matter how close he was to becoming an ace pilot, the enormous wall in front of him couldn't be overcome with just a casual push!

There was a vast difference in strength between high-tier expert pilots and the freshest ace pilot.

What was more horrible was that once an individual managed to succeed where thousands if not tens of thousands of expert pilots had failed, their impressive qualifications enabled them to enjoy a rapid period of development right afterwards, causing their effective combat strength to soar in a single decade!

Once they became a halfgod, it would be a long time before they encountered another bottleneck.

While junior ace pilots were noticeably weaker than senior ace pilots, properly speaking both of them still belonged to the same broad tier.

Whereas Senior Mech Designers had to struggle immensely in order to realize their design philosophies, a junior ace pilot only needed a good ace mech and a good training environment to slowly work to becoming a senior ace pilot.

Once they reached this point, a senior ace pilot had become one of the foremost mech pilots of human civilization.

Since god pilots almost never showed their might in human-to-human conflicts, ace pilots were the pinnacle soldiers that states could deploy in their wars.

This led to a custom where ace pilots were treated in a similar fashion to weapons of mass destruction. They were too destructive and risky to deploy in battle, so they were most often used as a form of deterrence.

The existence of a sufficient number of ace pilots was often enough for a losing state to give its opposition some scruples.

"A state or organization with an ace pilot is a completely different beast."

There were many reasons for that, but just their amazing combat power was enough to upend the equation of many battles!

When the expeditionary fleet initially discovered that an unknown dwarven frigate and dwarven ace mech had emerged from hiding and aggressively accelerated closer, every human panicked.

Even though an ace mech was just a single machine, no one dared to take it lightly!

The emergence of the dwarven frigate at this time was obviously not a coincidence. The fact that this new group was heading directly towards the intruding human visitors did not bode well for the latter.

No one had forgotten that Ves had essentially triggered the collapse of the Vulcan Empire and the deaths of a huge number of dwarven citizens!

How could a Vulcanite ace pilot ever stand by when the culprit responsible for ruining his or own state happened to be so close?

"We need to get out of here!"

"We're evacuating towards the nearest Lagrange point, but our larger and slower vessels can't exceed the acceleration of an ace mech and a frigate-class vessel! According to our current estimates, the unknown enemies will enter our defensive envelope 40 minutes before our main vessels can jump out of this star system! Only our faster and smaller sub-capital ships can evacuate safely!"

"Then transfer our civilians as well as any non-essential personnel we can spare to these swift boats and get them out of here first!"

"We'll strain their life support systems if we do that, sir. They can't take on too many passengers without performing time-consuming modifications."

"Then put them into vacsuits and transfer additional supplies over to them! Be creative. This is an emergency right now and we can't risk our civilians!"

The entire expeditionary fleet was scrambling due to the appearance of a single mech. It sounded absolutely ridiculous for the Golden Skull Alliance to become so spooked by a single machine, but this was no joke. Even if the enemy ace mech wouldn't be able to beat tens of thousands of mechs, it could certainly wipe out a huge chunk of the fleet in the process!

When a shuttle speedily returned to the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves and Lucky raced to the bridge.

Every ship in the fleet had entered red alert. Alarms were ringing through the corridors and red lights flashed as if to emphasize the urgency of the moment.

For now, the expeditionary fleet considered the current threat to be no weaker than the Ferril punitive fleet they fought off earlier!

"How strong is an ace mech?!"

"I have no idea."

"I heard they can fight against a thousand mechs at once."

"Pff. Just a thousand? Try at least ten times as much!"

"I've heard stories where they wiped out entire mech armies by themselves!"

"That's only under ideal circumstances where the ace mech is able to force the enemy to fight on its terms."

Not many Larkinsons possessed a clear idea on the actual combat performance of ace mechs. This was a deficiency in knowledge that couldn't be helped.

Though ace pilots and ace mechs were famed and admired throughout human space, much of the public information about them was too general. Even the footage of ace mechs in action hardly clarified anything. They just existed to propagandize the Saints and make them look cool.

Ves wasn't any better off. The mech design universities didn't teach anything about ace mechs because the chance that any graduate would ever get to work with them was too miniscule!

This kind of high-end knowledge simply wasn't accessible to Ves and everyone else in the Larkinson Clan.

This was a potentially fatal flaw. knowing your enemy was extremely crucial in finding a way to beat it. Without knowing the properties of an ace mech, Ves couldn't be sure what measures he needed to take to defeat such a monstrous opponent.

Fortunately, the Larkinson Clan wasn't alone.

"Marshal Ariadne Wodin! Patriarch Reginald Cross! We need to talk on an emergency channel!" Ves shouted in a priority channel as he continued on his way to the bridge.

The current crisis situation did not provide him with the luxury to calmly talk about the current issue. Every minute counted as the enemy at the rear continued to close in at a steady rate!

Once Ves reached the bridge and sat on his observer's seat, he set up a privacy screen and accepted an impromptu conference call between the other leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance.

He quickly noted that Patriarch Reginald had brought along Professor Benedict as well. He didn't mind the added presence as a Senior Mech Designer most certainly possessed a greater insight on ace mechs. Together with Patriarch Reginald's second-hand information on ace pilots, the duo from the Cross Clan definitely knew more about their current opponent than anyone else in the fleet!

"You did it again, Ves. You provoked another powerful enemy." Professor Benedict tiredly sighed.

Ves felt quite miserable about that. How could he know that a frigate carrying an invaluable ace mech had been hiding in this asteroid belt for months if not years just to see whether someone would come and sniff around?

There was definitely something fishy about this, but the immediate crisis was too acue for him to get distracted about these superfluous topics!

"We don't have much time, so let's put the non-essential matters aside." Ves said with a touch of urgency in his voice. "What can you tell me about the enemy closing in on our heels?"

"You don't want to fight against a proper ace mech." Reginald said with a grave expression. His eyes turned gloomy as he thought about the distant enemy. "Even I don't want to fight against this dwarven machine. The gap in strength is too big."

Ves looked a bit shocked. He always saw the Cross Patriarch as a gloryhound obsessed with challenging strong opponents to stimulate a breakthrough. Another powerful enemy had come to his doorstep now, but instead of accepting the challenge like usual, Reginald resolutely refused to contemplate the idea of fighting an ace mech!

"Are ace mechs truly that strong?"

The three older people in the conference call shared deep glances with each other.

"You have no idea, Patriarch Ves." Marshal Ariadne shook her head and broke the silence. "In the Komodo War, the ace mechs of the Friday Coalition or the Hexadric Hegemony only took action a handful of times so far. Each time they acted on their opponents, an ocean of mechs fell without inflicting any harm. Not even a whole mech division has a chance of victory against such powerful machines. This is no longer an opponent where overwhelming numbers can ensure victory."

The pressure on Ves grew heavier now that he became a little more aware how dreadful it was to be targeted by an ace mech!