The Mech Touch

5863 War Games

Out of all the possible events that could happen during this ongoing tribulation event, Ves and many other people never expected an infantry force to land on the exterior of the Dominion of Man!

While the storm clouds gathered above the dreadnought continued to roil, thousands of lightning creatures had descended and begun to launch an assault on the outer layers of the vessel.

Of course, a seemingly primitive infantry force that was armed with spears, swords, hammers and other archaic weapons did not possess any obvious sieging or armor breaching capabilities.

It was absurd to think that any infantry force could penetrate hull plating that was easily dozens if not hundreds of meters thick!

The Dominion of Man was not as tough as the likes of the Indignation of Righteousness, but she was still designed to withstand attacks from the most powerful threats imaginable. Neither god mechs nor other dreadnoughts ought to be able to punch through her titanic armor belt with ease!

Yet that did not mean that the infantry force was harmless. Not only were they powerful enough to wreck the weaker and more exposed surface modules, they were also accompanied by alien specialists who planted all sorts of energy seeds onto the surface.

Once these seeds began to sprout, a network of E energy- draining plants began to spread across the surface.

Not only did they absorb any E energy in the vicinity to fuel their rapid growth, but they also possessed the capability to drain hyper materials and compromise the integrity of other materials!

Even though the latter effect took a lot of time to produce results, the implications to the dreadnought were horrific.

The plants continued to grow as they sucked more energy from the environment as well as the hull, thereby becoming more effective as well. Preliminary calculations showed that if this pattern continued, they would eventually be able to grow to the size of mechs by the time they engulfed the entire hull!

Even if the tertiary and secondary gun batteries were able to scour large portions of the hull of these energy plants, there were still a lot of sections that could not easily be cleaned up due to obstacles in the way.

While the Dominion of Man could fire a lot of missiles to clean up these blind spots, there were only a finite amount of them available. The collateral damage would also be considerable.

This was why Dread Captain Volkert Argile quickly resorted to deploying his Dread Marines to the contested site.

Despite being outnumbered 5 to 1, the Dread Marines who teleported a short distance away from the swarm of lightning soldiers blasted into their opposition with an arsenal of armor-mounted weaponry!

The Medium and Heavy Dread Armors worn by the more assault-oriented units of this regiment primarily carried offensive loadouts.

Many of their modules consisted of plasma cannons, positron beam cannons, back-mounted missile launchers and more.

The firepower was devastating for an infantry force.

Each and every well-trained Dread Marine coordinated their fire. Every fire team focused their fire on the more vulnerable looking lightning soldiers.

Since the targets in question did not deploy any lightning shields, the tarnished green lightning apparitions quickly blew apart from all of the attacks!

Even as hundreds of lightning warriors perished in quick succession, the intruders did not remain idle.

They fought back.

A large contingent of lightning spear soldiers stayed behind and launched lightning bolts at the Dread Marines.

The damage inflicted by these lightning bolts was surprisingly high, mostly because of the destruction energy attached to them. Yet the potent azure energy shield generators integrated into every Dread Armor allowed the human soldiers to resist the tribulation lightning attacks for a time.

Surprisingly enough, the lightning spear warriors exhibited coordination that was close to the standards of an elite human infantry force.

Like the Dread Marines, they concentrated their fire and sought to overwhelm the azure energy shields and armor plating of individual targets.

The lightning spear warriors were clever enough to focus on the Dread Marines that carried fancier loadouts, displayed a bit more color on their Dread Armors or clearly acted like commanding officers!

One Dread Captain almost yelped as hundreds of lightning bolts struck his azure energy shield from many different directions!

The concentrated strike was so overwhelming that the azure energy shield shattered in an instant!

Amazingly enough, the Dread Armor held, though not without incurring serious damage. Tribulation lightning fried many components and vaporized the outer armor layer.

The fact that the frontal plating still held was a testament of the excellent alloys used to produce the Dread Armor. The Common Fleet Alliance and subsequently the Red Fleet invested an immense amount of resources to develop the best infantry equipment possible.

All of that clearly paid off as the Dread Captain and other targets marked for death relied on their excellent protection to retreat behind other Dread Marines or receive additional protection in the form of remote azure energy shields.

Support-oriented Heavy Dread Marines quickly responded to the enemy tactic by providing additional protection while generating various kinds of interference.

Dust particles began to spread from the marine force, making it harder for outsiders to discern their positions.

Jamming fields came online that could disturb all manner of electronic signals.

Grenades landed amidst the concentration of lightning warriors before generating gravitic waves that were designed to disorient nearby hostiles.

None of these interference methods seemed to produce any noticeable effect. The lightning infantry soldiers did not appear to employ any conventional technology. They fought like an army of cultivators who relied on a combination of personal strength and augmented equipment.

The assault regiment did not possess a lot of other means that could effectively debilitate such an infantry force. Their only means of defeating the invaders was to demolish them with their formidable arsenal.

"Keep firing! We must keep up the pressure!"

"Concentrate fire on their plant-growing 'shamans'! Do not let them spread more seeds!"

The Dread Marines seemed well-equipped to overpower the lightning soldiers. Though their adversaries tried their best to take down individual Dread Marines through focused fire, the human troopers were just too damn skilled and well-equipped to suffer any serious losses.

The lightning spear warriors ultimately did not possess the firepower necessary to inflict any permanent casualties onto the Dread Marines.

At most, they suppress and force individual Dread Marines to retreat from the front and move back to the rear where specialized bots and support troops rapidly repaired all of the battle damage.

However, the confrontation soon took on another dimension as a horde of bipedal lightning warriors armed with a variety of swords, hammers, shields and more exotic alien weapons managed to close the distance!

"Incoming melee shock troopers!"

The Dread Marines had already formed a defensive line in anticipation of meeting this obvious charge.

The powerful troopers had deployed temporary barricades that had been teleported into place or erected from specific sections of the hull.

The barricades weren't meant to form a total blockade. That would only cause the lightning shock troopers to go around.

It was better to funnel these lightning soldiers into a prepared battle line.

Rows of Medium Dread Marines armed with a variety of melee and ranged weapons prepared to meet the incoming charge.

Just before the enemy shock troopers managed to crash into the half-barricades, a series of mines, laser beams, kinetic projectiles, plasma bolts and explosive shells struck their formation!

Hundreds of lightning warriors perished despite their lighting shield protection!

Others incurred severe damage that slowed or stopped their advance.

Though not all of the enemy shock troopers suffered any serious harm, the concentrated attacks nonetheless managed to break up the charge and reduce their momentum!

A Dread Captain raised his giant sword and let loose a battle cry!

"Show these lightning aliens how true humans fight!"

"For Humanity!"

"Dread our wrath!"

The subsequent collision was glorious.

Ves along with anyone else who had the privilege to watch the feed at their stations grew relieved to see that the Dread Marines gained the upper hand.

The Dread Marines at the front wielded a variety of plasma swords, electrified spears, gravitic hammers and other melee armaments that clashed against the weapons of the enemy shock troopers and frequently overpowered them outright!

The shock troopers were no slouches, though. Their weapons hit hard and frequently stressed the azure energy shields protecting the individual dread marines.

Still, even if a bunch of aliens managed to gang up on a Dread Marine and overwhelm the latter's azure energy shield, the trooper quickly pulled back and allowed a Dread Marine in the second row to plug up the gap!

This ensured that the battle line remained strong and cohesive.

For whatever reason, the two infantry forces did not try to outflank each other. Neither were they eager to lift off the surface of the hull and attack their opponents from above.

Ves gradually narrowed his eyes. He increasingly felt as if he was watching a wargame as opposed to a serious battle.

It did not take much time for him to figure out what was truly going on. He looked at the giant face made out of storm clouds and sensed a certain degree of curiosity from the powerful alien.

The Subjugation King… sought to gather more intelligence. He must have deliberately sent out Messier 87's equivalent of an infantry force in order to draw out the Dread Marines and see how these proud human soldiers fought.

However, this did not come without a cost. Not only did the tribulation soldiers expose a lot about the infantry combat doctrine of at least one alien civilization from Messier 87, their deaths also released small explosions that bathed the surrounding Dread Marines as well the nearby hull section with creation energy!

Unfortunately for the Dread Marines, their active azure energy shields blocked much of this beneficial effect!

Ves reopened his communication link with the master of the Dominion of Man.

"I am not sure whether you have already figured it out, but the big alien watching from above possesses a keen interest in learning how our infantry forces fight."

"Let them see." The Dread Captain dismissively said. "We are not that afraid of exposure. It is more crucial for us to understand the enemy from beyond this dwarf galaxy. Our headquarters have already gathered a wealth of useful data from this ongoing… clash."

"The next waves are only going to get larger and tougher."

"That is good. We have many more Dread Marines in reserve. We do not fear a pure infantry battle. We have many powerful special units in reserve that are equipped with much heavier arsenals. If that is not enough, we can employ more direct measures to eliminate the foreign threats."

The dread captain sounded a bit too overconfident. Ves did not think that the later waves of this round could easily be felled, particularly because a force of cultivators tended to emphasize quality over quantity.

However, that was a concern for later.

"By the way, the defeated lightning soldiers always release bursts of beneficial energy. They are strengthening the hull underneath just fine, but they can't get to the Dread Marines because their azure energy shields get in the way. I highly advise you to command the Dread Marines to deactivate their energy shields unless they are in danger."

"Good observation, professor. Our analysis suggests that our Dread Marines will begin to suffer real casualties, but… but the gains may be worth it. We have already reached the limit on how extensively we can improve the performance of our Dread Armors. Bathing in tribulation energy may be the push they need to increase their superiority even further."

The Dread Marines had already begun to drop their azure energy shields.

Of course, they also started to incur real damage to their thick armor plating, but the soldiers all knew the risks.

The frequent lightning discharges began to spread across the exposed Dread Armors and already began to strengthen them in mysterious ways.

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