The Mech Touch

5861 The Ideal Fusion

The entire third round came and went without incident.

When the Dominion of Man was stuck on the defensive, the massive dreadnought pretty much behaved like a giant target.

This taught Ves that dreadnoughts, with the notable exception of the Indignation of Righteousness, were not designed to serve as defensive bulwarks. As incredible as their defenses may be, they were better used as hammers to smash their opposition by relying on brute force.

In any case, the Dominion of Man soon proved why she was one of the most formidable warships in the Red Ocean.

9 waves of lightning monsters got shredded by the dreadnought's point defenses with ease.

Even when the quantity and power of the tribulation manifestations continued to multiply with each subsequent wave, the Dominion of Man benefited from centuries if not millenia's worth of accumulation in anti-small craft measures.

As Ves continued to witness this awe-inspiring demonstration of power, he quickly figured out that Dread Captain Argile and his officers were taking this encounter very seriously.

The only weapon systems the Dominion of Man employed so far were her rapid-fire laser cannon batteries.

Ves had stuck around long enough to know that the dreadnought had way more measures to eliminate large swarms of small craft.

From more hard-hitting plasma turrets to wide-area electrical field generators, the fleeters explicitly designed their dreadnoughts to survive encounters against any sizable first-class mech force.

However, they could see the giant alien face as well as Ves. The Subjugation King was watching and studying the Dominion of Man like a hawk.

It was unnerving to look at the three eyes that glowed in the same tint as the pale green lightning bolts.

Ves always had a creepy feeling that he was staring directly into the eyes of the God King himself despite the fact that he was just looking at a projection.

More than that, anytime he tried to examine the Subjugation King, he began to brush against the powerful entity's domain.

It was anything but pleasant to come into contact with the tyrannical God King's domain.

There was so much power and depth behind it that Ves knew without a shadow of a doubt that he could get permanently lost if he ever fell into it. Illusions of chains and endless rows of immobilized alien slaves gave him a hint of what his own fate would be if the alien tyrant ever managed to converge onto his latest soul mark.

There was also another component to the Subjugation King's domain that made Ves feel sick.

It did not appear to be an intrinsic component of the alien's power. There was an air of… tarnish around the Subjugation King that suggested that the alien tyrant had fallen from grace.

The most likely theory that Ves could come up with was that the Subjugation King used to be a lot more powerful, but either got punished or committed an overreach.

It was not difficult for Ves to imagine a God King with an ego the size of galaxy biting off more than he could chew.

Perhaps his long distance conquest expedition may be part of an effort to atone for his mistakes and get rid of the tarnish that contaminated his domain.

Ves shook his head. He was speculating way too much again. It was foolish to make too many assumptions with so little information on hand.

A brief lull ensued after the Dominion of Man effortlessly defeated the 9th and final wave of the 3rd round.

Ves became impressed by how the Dominion of Man conserved her resources and employed maximum efficiency by resorting to one of her weakest weapon systems to fend off the successive waves of lightning monsters.

The dreadnought's powerful shield generators likely received enough of a reprieve to fully restore azure energy shields.

Though the tertiary laser gun batteries had accumulated heat at a speedy pace, they were still able to cool down at a prodigious speed so long as they paused their fire for a time.

The other weapon systems remained in tip-top shape as they had not fired even once.

Ves took a brief glimpse at the enormous storm clouds.

The tribulation storm hardly abated at all. It was clear that it still had plenty of power left to rain down on the resilient dreadnought.

If this event was anything like the last one that Ves experienced, the 4th round should present an entirely different challenge.

Ves wondered how extensively the God King would be able to tweak the subsequent lightning manifestations. If the Subjugation King had the ability, he should certainly try to present a threat that countered the tertiary laser cannon batteries.

"The lightning storm is releasing another type of lightning construct! It's… it's a giant lightning bird!"

Calling it a bird was a stretch. The flying creature did possess wings, but their surface lacked any sort of wings.

There were two traits that immediately stood out from this latest threat.

First, it was huge.

The tribulation storm only spat out a single creature this time, but it had definitely concentrated all of its power into this lightning construct.

Second, the 'lightning bird' did not appear to be slow at all. As soon as it began to flap its prodigious wings made out of green lightning, it set off from its position and dove straight at the Dominion of Man at a speed that surpassed most first-class multipurpose mechs!

Of course, the tertiary laser cannon batteries had opened fire on the lightning bird as soon as possible.

Though the multitude of transphasic hyper laser beams were definitely chipping away at the massive lightning body, the collective attacks hardly seemed to faze the lightning bird.

It did not even matter that none of the laser beams missed or that many of them concentrated on the same sections.

Their individual firepower was too weak to repel this kind of opponent!

Ves and many other fleeters winced as the lightning bird followed a straight trajectory that ended up in a powerful collision against the energy shields facing the creature!

The segmented azure energy shield did a remarkable job at repelling this attack, but it clearly looked as if it had seen better days.

"The attack has reduced the integrity of this segment by around 35 percent. The shield generator is restoring the active energy barrier as soon as possible, but we cannot let it get hit in quick succession by progressively more powerful lightning birds."

"Our tertiary transphasic laser cannon batteries have failed to hinder the lightning bird. Their ability to track fast-moving targets is commendable, but their absolute firepower leaves much to be desired."

"The next lightning bird emerging from the storm has considerably higher energy readings!"

The dread captain issued a new set of instructions from his imposing command seat. "Intercept the bird with our secondary energy weapon batteries! Start with the laser cannons and employ our plasma cannons if necessary. Do not employ our kinetic, missile, gravitic and other weapons unless instructed. We need to expose as little of our capabilities as possible."

"What of our tertiary gun batteries?"

"Silence them and give them time to recover. It is probable that we will need their firepower once more." Dread Captain Argile said.

In contrast to the tertiary gun batteries, the secondary ones were large enough to make them less suitable to be employed against swarms of nimble mechs.

They were instead designed to pummel sub-capital ships in various different ways. Their tracking speeds were fast enough to keep up with most starship hulls, and their firepower was just enough to present a nice balance between impact and firing rate.

Dozens of thicker and stronger laser beams struck the lightning bird in an instant.

Unfortunately, the relatively short distance between the storm clouds and the dreadnought meant that the secondary gun batteries only had an opportunity to fire a single salvo before the damaged bird crashed against the energy barriers of the dreadnought!

At least the straight-line trajectory of the lightning bird prevented it from inflicting damage on the damaged segmented energy shield. The Dominion of Man had already spun her hull in order to present an undamaged side to the tribulation storm.

"The eruption of energy released by the lightning bird is 63 percent weaker than the previous one. Our last attack volley must have dissipated much of its offensive power."

"We must increase our distance from the storm clouds. Distance is our ally. Our warship fares better when she is at least tens of thousands of kilometers away from the storm."

"We can't run from this storm! We have already moved as far away as we are allowed to do so. Retreating any further will only cause the storm clouds to follow our ship."

This was an unpleasant realization. The relatively close distance between the tribulation storm and the Dominion of Man prevented the latter from utilizing her immense range advantage to the fullest.

The third lightning beast was emerging out of the portal.

This time, the Dominion of Man opened fire the instant the 'beak' of the tribulation manifestation emerged from the clouds.

A full blast of laser beams struck the lightning bird when it had yet to launch itself towards the Dominion of Man.

Already, the barrage of strikes had damaged much of the lightning bird's wings.

That did not stop the battered but unbroken creature from diving straight at the Dominion of Man once again!

With the secondary laser cannon batteries still requiring a bit more time to release another full-powered transphasic hyper laser beam salvo, the dreadnought finally decided to open fire with another set of weapon systems!

Plasma bolts rapidly launched from gun batteries that previously remained dormant.

Each of these plasma bolts had the power to vaporize and melt entire second-class starships with a single hit.

When a multitude of them struck the lightning bird in the middle of its rapid flight, the entire construct instantly burst apart!

"Our plasma bolts have proven to be considerably more effective against the lightning manifestations!"

"As long as the lightning manifestations travel in a straight line, we can ensure 100 percent accuracy from our secondary weapon batteries."

It was at this time that the Subjugation King showed a bit of emotion in his enormous expression.

"Be careful! The next wave may be different!"

This time, the bird did not emerge right on top of the dreadnought, but instead a hundred kilometers away.

If this was an attempt to catch the Dominion of Man off-

guard, it failed right away as many of the secondary gun batteries only had to turn their weapon mounts a little bit before they opened fire at the correct coordinates!

Each laser beam struck the lightning bird in the distance!

Though the larger and more formidable tribulation manifestation was able to accelerate much faster than its predecessors, that still did not prevent the secondary plasma cannons from accurately striking the poor bird before it had crossed the half-way mark!

The plasma bolts managed to destroy the bird with a bit of power left to spare.

"Good job, but do not get complacent. It is taking more and more damage to put these birds down."

Since distance clearly did not give these lightning birds any advantages, the next wave saw them appear directly above the Dominion of Man again.

This time, two smaller but still fairly formidable lightning birds emerged!

The Dominion of Man smacked both of them down. The dreadnought had intelligently split up her firepower in order to inflict just enough damage to put both birds down without any wasted energy!

"Damn…"

Ves felt incredibly grateful that the Red Fleet's dreadnoughts had never been deployed against human forces, at least that he knew of. It wasn't just their overwhelming firepower that frightened him. Their efficiency was astounding!

This was why the Red Fleet invested a disproportionate amount of resources into the development of AI, both sentient and non-sentient. It was a clever way of boosting the effective combat power of a warship without piling more expensive resources onto their hulls.

Dreadnoughts such as the Dominion of Man represented the Red Fleet's ideal fusion between absolute power and perfect control, especially after Ves managed to upgrade the Brain Trust!

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