The Mech Touch

The mech units that answered to the colonial government reacted considerably better towards the current crisis.

Unlike the parade mechs that were mostly piloted by mercenaries or ordinary company employees, the military mechs acted more decisively and more brilliantly.

Even if the machines did not fare too well against the most powerful transphasic warbeasts, their bravery and their dedication to their duty demonstrated the quality of Davute's finest soldiers!

One of the unanticipated surprises of this sudden outbreak was the outsized role played by the humble Pacifier mechs.

The law enforcement mech model had become a popular staple for many Planetary Guard organizations in and outside of Davute. It had even become an increasingly more common product among mercenary outfits who found many lucrative uses for it aside from policing a settlement!

One of the known uses for the Pacifier was subduing wild beasts.

For example, hunting groups that received a contract to capture valuable exobeast specimens on an alien planet used to experience a lot of difficulties in completing their assignments.

Large and strong exobeasts were so ferocious that they could easily break through nets or resist a lot of paralyzing attacks!

If a hunt went poorly, then the hunting group might incur a lot of damage to its mechs, thereby wiping out all of the profits that could be made.

However, the presence of a single Pacifier could completely change the game!

Against many different exobeasts, the calming influence of the Pacifier's glow often worked to reduce the hostility and degree of resistance against any adversary.

Although willpower, instinct, mental resistance and many other factors determined how extensively the exobeasts became affected by the glow of the Pacifier, in most cases it played a useful enough role to make it worthwhile to take along!

Right now, these Pacifiers were showing their worth in various ways. Weaker exobeasts with more subservient attitudes became so cowed that they slowed down, causing them to become easy pickings for mechs.

The larger, more formidable and more aggressive beasts did not relent so easily, but their drive to attack and slaughter any nearby humans or mechs became noticeably more subdued.

Not only that, but the Pacifiers also played a massive role in stopping the spread of panic among the packed crowds of the people that had jammed into the Government District!

Too many people were running mindlessly on the streets or flying haphazardly in the air. Either way, they often got in the way of the mechs that had been tasked with stopping the warbeasts from continuing on their rampage.

"Get out of the way, you fool!"

"You are in the line of fire! I will open fire if you don't move out this instant!"

"Don't shoot! Everything is being recorded. Our superiors will have our heads if we deliberately fire on innocent civilians!"

It was only when the calming glows of the Pacifiers reduced the sense of panic and fear that the mindless civilians regained their wits. They obediently followed instructions and headed straight towards the entrances of underground shelters.

However, the Pacifiers only played a limited role due to their limited numbers. There were Planetary Guard units stationed all across Kotor City. The Pacifier mechs assigned to them would never be able to make it to the Government District in time!

Of the units that managed to respond more effectively against the unleashed warbeast than most, none could match the prowess of the expert mechs and ace mechs stationed in and around the Government District!

"Defend the innocent!" General Ark Larkinson roared as he led his barebones command to eliminate any nearby beasts in the vicinity.

He issued a rapid series of commands that caused the subordinates assigned to his mech unit to move in a coordinated fashion.

He had already learned that standard mechs were not effective against the most powerful warbeasts, so he instructed them to wipe out the weaker beasts first before focusing on distracting and luring the stronger creatures away from any nearby concentrations of civilians.

At the same time, he exerted all of the strength and power of a high-tier expert pilot and directly challenged the most threatening creatures!

"Come at me, you lizard!"

His Travon Exine flew forward while firing its integrated laser guns at the monster that massed more than a heavy mech!

Unfortunately for the defending side, the resonance-empowered laser beam salvo failed to inflict serious enough harm against the massive creature.

Its transphasic scales resisted the Travon Exine's might with great efficiency!

Though Ark did not give up and instructed his high-tier expert mech to fire its ranged armaments repeatedly against the same wounds it created earlier, the scales resisted the incoming energy attacks way too effectively for his liking.

This wasn't working!

"Phasewater is too ridiculous!" The Larkinson expert pilot grunted in frustration.

Although Ark could foresee that his expert hybrid mech's ranged attacks would eventually be able to burn off the creature's resilient scales, it would have taken far too much time to finish the job.

In the meantime, a lot of other powerful warbeasts would be left unopposed!

His heart burned with the strong desire to protect and safeguard the citizens of the state that he had recently pledged to serve.

It had always been his nature as a professional soldier to protect the innocent!

As such, his Travon Exine retrieved a spear from its back and initiated a short-ranged charge that built a lot of momentum in a short amount of time!

"BREAK!"

"RHUAAAAAAAAAA!"

The overgrown lizard roared in pain as the sudden charge of the high-tier expert mech succeeded in overcoming the enhanced resistance of the lizard's scales!

It helped that General Ark deliberately drove his resonance-empowered spear through the scales that had already been scorched by earlier intensive attacks.

Before the lizard could launch a devastating counterattack that was sure to damage the integrity of the expert hybrid mech's resonance shield, the Travon Exine quickly pulled out its spear and leaped to the side.

"Our new general did it! I knew the Larkinsons were strong!"

The warbeast had incurred a penetrating wound!

Alien blood slowly spilled out of the hole, and though the creature's specialized biology quickly tried to plug the gap, it was undeniable that the beast had become a lot more vulnerable to attacks than before!

"Ranged mechs, focus fire on the weak point of this warbeast." General Ark quickly commanded the nearby military mechs regardless of whether they fell under his command. "The scales of this feral beast may be impervious to your attacks, but the same cannot be said for his inner flesh!"

After the surrounding mech units suffered a lot at the hands of these abnormally tough and deadly warbeasts, a lot of mech pilots built up an intense hatred and animosity towards these man-eating monstrosities.

Many of them felt helpless about the fact that their regular mechs lacked the punching power to inflict true harm on these purpose-built warbeasts!

Now that an expert mech's spear charge successfully opened a wound, the military ranged mechs all concentrated their fire on the wound, which inflicted a lot of additional pain on the creature!

"It's working! Look at how much blood we are spilling!"

"The beast is turning around. Make sure to surround it on multiple sides!"

"It is hunching over and using its forepaw to cover its open wound. We can't hurt it anymore!"

"BREAK!"

General Ark had already anticipated that the warbeast would hunker down, so he had moved his Travon Exine away and circled around.

This allowed the expert hybrid mech to charge forward and sink its spear through the thicker transphasic scales covering its back with great power!

"There's a second wound now! There is no way the beast can defend against all of our attacks!"

The Larkinson expert pilot no longer bothered to entangle with the large lizard anymore. The creature possessed way too mass for his expert mech to kill with ease. It was better to let the regular troops finish the job and give them a greater sense of accomplishment in the process.

Ark went on to target another warbeast that possessed flight capabilities.

Although the flight-capable ones tended to be a little smaller and a lot lighter than the ones stuck on land, they were also a lot faster and harder to pin down as a result!

The Travon Exine opened fire with its integrated laser gun suite. Twelve resonance-empowered beams struck the creature's thinner wing membrane with unerring accuracy, burning several holes through the transphasic leathery surface!

"SQUAAAK!"

The wings were much less resilient than the scales of the previous creature, but destroying them did not cause the flying warbeast to lose altitude.

The developer of this bioengineered product seemed to have taken this possibility into account a long time ago! As such, the flying beast still managed to retain its flight capability by relying on a biological jet engine in combination with other organic lifting mechanisms.

The attack angered the creature and caused it to fly straight towards the Travon Exine at an accelerated rate by forming a quick warp bubble around its body!

General Ark widened his eyes and just managed to lift up its spear and sword to meet the incoming creature!

Bang!

"SHREEEEEE!"

The warbeast cried out in pain as its skull had almost been punctured by the Travon Exine's spear!

However, the creature also managed to inflict a lot of damage onto the Travon Exine's resonance shield!

The transphasic charge attack caused the expert mech to lose a lot buffer. Its resonance shield may still be holding on, but it lost the ability to resist a second attack of this magnitude!

General Ark Larkinson could have never imagined that a single warbeast could inflict so much damage onto his high-tier expert mech.

He grew more and more disappointed with his machine. Though the Travon Exine had served him well back when he served for the various warlords of the Garlen Empire, the lack of phasewater tech was hampering his efforts more and more.

If the colonists had begun to augment their warbeasts with phasewater, then their mechs would certainly be worse in this regard!

"Ves needs to design my new expert mech sooner rather than later." He concluded.

It would be devastating if the war between the colonial states started early as a result of this incident. Ark was not ready at all and his command wasn't even properly up and running as of yet. He needed much more time to fill up the ranks of his mech division and train them into a cohesive whole.

As Ark commanded his expert hybrid mech to turn around and fire another salvo of laser beams at the flying warbeast, he became a little more determined to upgrade from his current machine when he saw that the strike had only caused surface damage at best.

The expert pilot readied to meet another charge. If the warbeast was just as fast as before, then it would be extremely difficult to prevent his expert mech from incurring damage again.

Yet just before the enemy creature could pull off its fearsome charge, a bright resonance-empowered positron beam accurately nailed the warbeast in the head, causing it to get killed in an instant!

"ARK!" An incoming transmission sounded in the cockpit. "GOOD JOB, BUT LET ME DO THE REST!"

A much more powerful and radiant red machine had appeared over the distance!

The sight of the impressive caped masterwork ace hybrid mech inspired a lot of hope and optimism among the people that were struggling to fight or run away from the hardier warbeast.

Unlike other mechs, Patriarch Reginald Cross and his ace mech possessed more than enough power to punch through the resilient transphasic defenses of the berserk warbeasts with a single attack!

Its ARCEUS System did what the laser gun hardpoints of the Travon Exine could never accomplish and accurately strike down more than half-a-dozen beasts within line of sight with each and every discharge!

Once the Mars quickly cleared the most threatening warbeasts with contemptuous ease, the ace hybrid mech flew away in order to clear other section of the large and expansive Government District.

Though a part of General Ark felt empty after being robbed of his responsibility, a greater part of him was grateful for the intervention.

"I can wield this strength too one day..."

He just needed to pilot the right mech.