The Mech Touch

"We're in for a hard fight regardless of how we approach the yurzen raiding fleet." General Herman Foraine remarked as the current situation of the enemy fleet became clear. "Compared to the time when we rolled over the wheednar raiding fleet, the circumstances are considerably more adverse for us this time. Our ace mechs should be able to reluctantly contain one puelmer warship, but they cannot contain both of them at the same time."

"It is worse than that." Matriarch Rezzie Boojay added. "If we greenlight this operation, we will most certainly need to send out our ace mechs for the sole purpose of containing the second puelmer heavy cruiser. We absolutely cannot let this vessel outmaneuver our forces and strike our large and vulnerable core fleet."

The leader of the Boojay Family made a good point. The starships that comprised the expeditionary fleet were their biggest weaknesses. It was especially bad for the Larkinson Clan as it dragged along a lot of fairly vulnerable civilian capital ships such as the Dragon's Den and the Vivacious Wai.

While ships like these provided an incredible amount of utility, comfort and convenience to the expeditionary fleet when they were roaming far away from civilization, there was no way to avoid the fact that enemy ships could easily shoot them down if they were in the right position to launch their attacks!

This was why space combat among the natives of the Red Ocean often devolved into grueling and lengthy matches between two fast-moving fleets.

The hit rates were low since both sides preferred to keep their distance from each other.

Even if the warships struck their targets by coincidence, so long as the transphasic energy shields remained up, they would slowly be able to recover and resist similar attacks without causing any permanent damage.

The expeditionary fleet could not possibly fight their foes in this fashion. The alien warships were all specialized towards this mode of combat. The range and absolute firepower of their cannon batteries exceeded that of almost any mech. Size mattered a lot in these kinds of contests.

As the various leaders argued about how they could possibly tackle the yurzen raiden fleet without suffering excessive casualties, they eventually narrowed their options to a couple of possible approaches.

"Pulling out is always a viable option." Master Benedict Cortez said to everyone. "There is no shame in respecting the capabilities of our enemies and choosing to fight another day. We are not obligated to defend the colony on Corellix III and destroy the yurzen raiding fleet. We will only incur the opportunity cost of missing out on a combined reward of a billion or so MTA merits. We can easily make up for that loss by tackling other, less challenging alien raiding fleets."

This was the most logical and rational option. Ves and the other leaders didn't want to abort the operation that they had invested a considerable amount of effort into setting up. They especially did not want their journey to the Corellix System to be in vain.

Although it was nice to obtain a damaged archeship as a consolation prize, it was not enough to satisfy everyone's expectations for this trip.

Marshal Ariadne Wodin mentioned another suggestion. "We can choose to call in backup. We have all cooperated with other pioneering organizations in the past. If we had a strong group like the Gemini Family by our side, then we wouldn't have been so troubled over the need to contain the intact puelmer heavy cruiser. Our scouts have already identified numerous rival pioneering fleets operating in the vicinity of the Corellix System. The only issue is that it will take at least 3 days or a little more for them to arrive and link up with our fleet, but the added security and the spreading of risk will be worth the wait."

The other leaders did not object to this option as much as before. While they were still greedy to claim the rewards for themselves, as long as they could reduce a lot of damage in exchange for sharing 20 to 30 percent of the spoils with a third party, the deal would still be profitable in the end!

"Our Black Cats have performed the same investigation on these third parties." Director Calabast spoke up at this time. "There are a few pioneering fleets that are fairly suspect. They are led by inexperienced leaders or lack frontier experience. It will be difficult for us to put our trust in their commitment and their fighting ability."

"There are also other pioneering fleets that have proven their strength against the aliens." The Glory Seeker leader retorted.

"That is correct, but they will most certainly demand a greater share of the spoils. We won't be able to earn much profit in the end."

That left the third option and one that Ves still favored, if only reluctantly.

"We can still attempt to attack the yurzen raiding fleet despite all of the complications that have occurred." General Verle said as the central projection displayed a different battle plan.

Ves sat upright as he studied the alternative plan proposed by Verle. It was a lot different as it not only depended a lot more on the ace mechs of the Golden Skull Alliance, but also required the Spirit of Bentheim to play a frontline role!

"The biggest element that is working against us is that intact puelmer heavy cruiser. So long as she remains extremely mobile and on guard, we cannot attack the rest of the alien fleet with ease. This is why I propose we start this operation with harassing this key alien asset. This job is best performed by a mobile but also fairly resilient cruiser armed with a full set of transphasic laser cannon batteries."

Master Benedict frowned. "We don't have that, general. You have just described the configuration of the lead enemy vessels. We are at an enormous disadvantage in this aspect."

"You are correct if you only limit your consideration to warships, but we have ace mechs that are just as strong." General Verle replied with a smile. He swiped his arm at the projection to set aside a representation of the Spirit of Bentheim and the Macharia Excelsia. "Our clan has recently upgraded our flagship into a quasi-first-class vessel. Her defenses are exceptionally notable and her new superdrives along with her sub-light propulsion systems give her the means to keep up with a puelmer homeship in terms of speed. The only real shortcoming is her lack of warship-grade weapons, but that is what the ace rifleman mech is for. If we pair up these two assets, the combination should reluctantly be able to fight against the puelmer heavy cruiser."

11 11

...

The plan sounded absurd on the surface. The Spirit of Bentheim may have undergone a lot of upgrades due to Ves' profligacy, but she was still an industrial vessel in nature!

A factory ship was never meant to fly into the thick of battle and duke it out against other enemies!

Ships like these were solely meant to stay in the rear and avoid battle at all costs!

Still, who made it so that the Spirit of Bentheim was the only proper quasi-first-class starship in the expeditionary fleet?

The other alliance partners invested their hard-earned MTA merits in many other areas! None of them had put any significant effort into getting their hands on much better starships because the costs were too prohibitive at the moment!

"Are you Larkinsons truly willing to expose your flagship to considerable risks just so that you can harass or grind down the second puelmer heavy cruiser?" General Foraine asked in a doubtful tone.

Such risky and extreme behavior went against his mercenary instincts. People in his business never pulled off crazy stunts like these. It never worked out if mercenaries consistently assumed greater risks as it only took a single failure to ruin their entire business!

However, the Larkinsons were anything but normal. When Ves studied General Verle's unconventional battle plan, he found that it was oddly feasible.

"If the goal is to sap the defenses of one of the puelmer warships from a distance, then the Macharia Excelsia should be able to undertake this duty alone." Matriarch Rezzie Boojay said. "An ace mech equipped with a transphasic flight system can move just as quickly and its Saint Kingdom can resist a fair number of direct warship attacks that the powerful machine hasn't been able to evade."

General Verle already considered these arguments. "You are correct about that, but the firepower of a single ace mech may not be enough. I expect it will take more firepower to wear down the defenses of the enemy vessel. Our clan can contribute more firepower by relying on our Transcendent Punishers to break our targets a little faster. Their collective firepower against a fully functional warship is not that great, but their hit rates at extreme range are far better than any of our other standard mech models. Besides, we still have a way to upgrade their firepower to the point where their luminar crystal cannons can actually hurt our adversary."

He turned back to the projected map and dragged over the Minerva to the Spirit of Bentheim.

"Commander Casella Ingvar can qualitatively transform the firepower of our Transcendent Punishers by Commandeering them. She won't be able to keep this up for too many hours, but she can still go on rotation if the skirmish drags on for too long."

Her Commandeering ability was not entirely perfect. Casella cooperated well with her own Living Sentinels, but her compatibility with the mech pilots of the other mech legions tended to be a bit worse.

There were extensive differences in philosophy, religion and values between Casella and the Eye of Ylvaine. The only reason why they were able to cooperate with each other at all was because they were all Larkinsons who fought for the same clan.

Even so, it was better than nothing. Commander Casella had trained and honed her Commandeering ability extensively in order to make it effective under a lot of different circumstances. Ves did not expect her to falter in this duty.

"That helps, but that won't be enough I believe." The leader of the Boojay Family remarked.

General Verle dragged over a few additional expert mechs.

It went without saying that the Amaranto was also highly suited for this mission.

The Promethea was another expert rifleman mech that could contribute a decent amount of firepower.

The Star Dancer Mark II might not be as capable in long-ranged slugging fests like these, but it hardly cost the Spirit of Bentheim anything to host an additional expert mech.

The Spirit of Bentheim was starting to look a little scary. Not only did she possess the mobility and the defenses of a quasi-first-class warship, but her offensive power had become comparable to that of an actual alien warship!

The Macharia Exelsia not only provided a lot of additional defense to the Spirit of Bentheim, but could also act as the capital ship's incredibly powerful and accurate primary warship cannon battery!

The Minerva, Amaranto, Promethea and the Star Dancer Mark II could effectively function as the factory ship's secondary warship cannon batteries.

The Transcendent Punishers Commandeered by Casella Ingvar pretty much filled the role of the Spirit of Bentheim's tertiary warship gun batteries!

It was a luxurious lineup of mechs for a single capital ship. The Golden Skull Alliance still had the option of adding additional ranged expert mechs, but the main fleet had to remain adequately protected.

Ves suddenly thought of an additional variable that could play a helpful role in this daring operation.

"We should bring along the Everchanger as well. I've recently upgraded his firepower a bit. His new gun should be able to inflict effective damage to the enemy through unconventional means."

General Verle took the patriarch at his word and immediately shifted over the Everchanger as well.

The 'warship' in control of the Golden Skull Alliance might not look like it, but Ves and many other people believed she was fully capable of defeating or at least going even with one of the puelmer warships!