The Mech Touch

The meet and greets between mech pilots and starfighter pilots proceeded… tamely.

There were huge differences among them, but most people managed to get along with each other due to their shared willingness to step up and fight on behalf of red humanity.

There were no cowards among either group. The more reluctant conscripts that had been forced to participate in the frontlines were still being mobilized for the most part.

Whether they were mech pilots or starfighter pilots, they would soon have to depend on each other to defeat the enemy. The interservice rivalry that a lot of people feared might break out among these groups remained relatively tame, at least for the time being.

The most they did to each other was light ribbing.

"So all you can pilot is a stick with engines on it or a fat armored shell, is that right? What a big industry. I am sure that there are tons of starfighter designers waiting to cater to all of your needs."

"You might be laughing now, but I don't think you will be laughing quite as hard 5 or 10 years from now. When the aliens keep pressing against our lines, way more mech pilots will fall in battle than your vaunted mech academies can replace in the same amount of time. You will have far more mechs than pilots to control them. Who do you think will be shouldering most of the burden by that time? Compared to the 3.5 percent of potentates among our population, the remaining 96.5 percent of people are almost all able to pilot starfighters!"

"Mechs are great and all, but don't count our starfighters out yet. Once we get to pilot small craft that are just as fully featured as your machines, we won't necessarily lose in battle. The alien phasefighters are already giving your mechs a run for their money, and I don't see how things can be any different for our own starfighters. Our craft has become a big new thing. Mechs are old news now. You had your days during the Age of Mechs. They should called this era the Age of Starfighters, because both us and the aliens clearly recognize the superiority of our fighter craft!"

Relatively light-hearted discussions like this took place in many corners of the Arvest Lima System.

The initial attempts to coordinate with each other did not exactly go well, but it was better that they worked out the kinks when the native aliens were still waiting for reinforcements than to screw up when they had to fight for real.

Mechs tended to prefer more static combat while starfighters wanted to stay on the move at all times.

The former excelled at standing battles while the latter preferred to make hit-and-run attacks.

Most mech pilots already had a decent idea of what they were working with as they had been fighting against alien phasefighters for a while.

The biggest difference that the mech pilots had to adjust to was that human interceptor craft were just too damn fragile. They lacked even the most rudimentary transphasic energy shields that could typically be found on even the lower-quality craft employed by the lesser alien races.

While the interceptor craft did come installed with hyper shield generators, the defensive properties of this small and weak module were so poor that it was useless for anything other than blocking the occasional pieces of space dust that threatened to collide against the fighter frame!

The bombers were a lot more respectable, but they were much lower in number. Trying to defend them was also a huge pain.

While they had to be maneuverable enough to perform evasive maneuvers in order to prevent themselves from getting blasted by a giant primary or slightly less humongous secondary cannon battery, the acceleration rate of bombers was not that great. They performed best when they could accelerate forward in a straight line for a long time before focusing on evasion and fine-tuning their trajectories as they closed in on their targets.

Their guided munitions were extremely effective, though. Seeing the bombs equipped with pulse space suppressors generate a powerful localized energy wave that destabilized transphasic energy shields like nothing else for a second before blasting apart the weakened energy barriers shortly afterwards never got old!

Plenty of mech pilots grew jealous at how the Armadillos were the only craft that got to play with the fancy upgraded munitions.

Perhaps the new bombs and missiles equipped with pulse space suppressors might eventually roll out in the mech community as well. It was unconscionable to deny such a useful advancement to mechs when the survival of the human race in the Red Ocean was at stake.

As the mech pilots and starfighter pilots continued to learn how to get along with each other, many of the latter actually admitted their envy towards the former.

"Do you think I truly want to pilot a starfighter such as the Seditch interceptor for a living?" A starfighter captain who was over 60 years old asked the Larkinson officer standing to his side.

Both looked over the ramp of a busy starfighter hangar bay as they familiarized themselves with each other.

Oh?" Commander Melkor said as he shifted his gaze to the starfighter captain. "You told me earlier that you used to be a spacer. You first worked your way up to become the helmsman of numerous starships. Then you managed to complete enough training programs to get certified as a navigator where you spend a lot of time plotting out FTL transitions and interstellar travel routes. You could have still done well in either capacity during wartime. For you to abandon all of that just to get in the cockpit of a starfighter is… well, at your age, it is an extreme career shift."

Melkor couldn't understand it. Becoming the navigator of a starship was a big deal. Navigators made sure that starships ended up at the right destinations at the right times. Battles could be lost and profit margins could easily evaporate if the navigators botched their planning and calculations.

Being able to work your way up to a navigator was like becoming the executive of a company.

Both positions breached past the middle layers and firmly cemented their places at the upper layers of the hierarchy.

It was not impossible for Lukas Sokoli to earn the qualifications to become the captain of a ship in a decade!

However, Lukas' expression made it clear that he had no regrets about putting aside his old career trajectory.

"What I do for a living does not match my passion." The older man said as he waved his arm down at the Seditches that were being serviced. "These craft might not look like much, but they are the closest that I can get to realizing my dreams."

Realization dawned on Melkor's face.

"You wanted to become a mech pilot."

"Who doesn't want to become a mech pilot?" Lukas ruefully smiled. "I don't know if you mech pilots are aware of it or not, but of the 96.5 percent of people who have been deemed ineligible to pilot mechs from the very beginning, at least half of them still regret their disqualifications to this day. When the Red Fleet announced the formation of the Starfighter Corps, I couldn't resist, as did many other colleagues who possess the same yearnings."

The Avatar Commander started to feel sympathetic towards the starfighter captain.

The starfighter officer shrugged. "Don't you think we know that? Of course starfighter controls are inferior in every way. Pushing buttons, pulling levers and eye tracking are all we can rely upon to make our craft listen to our commands. I suppose it is the excitement of piloting a small craft and putting one's life on the line in the frame built for war that makes it worth it for me and other like-minded pilots. It is easy enough for me to pretend as if I am piloting a light mech at times. The limitations don't stand in the way of my enjoyment. Each time I launch from the hangar bay with my personal Seditch, I feel as if I can fulfill my dreams to take down enough enemies to become a celebrated hero."

"Why? You have to know that piloting starfighters is just a pale shadow of what it is like to pilot a real mech. The lack of a neural interface and a man-machine connection deprives you from most of what makes piloting mechs so satisfying."

The starfighter officer shrugged. "Don't you think we know that? Of course starfighter controls are inferior in every way. Pushing buttons, pulling levers and eye tracking are all we can rely upon to make our craft listen to our commands. I suppose it is the excitement of piloting a small craft and putting one's life on the line in the frame built for war that makes it worth it for me and other like-minded pilots. It is easy enough for me to pretend as if I am piloting a light mech at times. The limitations don't stand in the way of my enjoyment. Each time I launch from the hangar bay with my personal Seditch, I feel as if I can fulfill my dreams to take down enough enemies to become a celebrated hero."

Hearing the older man speak so earnestly about his desire to pilot mechs despite being a part of the Starfighter Corps made Commander Melkor feel as if there was no fairness in life.

"You should have become a mech pilot. You earned it. I know tons of mech pilots who don't have a tenth of the amount of passion and love for mechs as you. If not for your genetic aptitude…"

"I already resigned myself to the fact that piloting mechs will forever be denied to me." Lukas Sokoli said in a calm and controlled voice. "You 3.5 percenters are so lucky. I do not begrudge potentates such as you for being blessed to pilot mechs. I suppose mechs have become all the more desirable because of how many people are unable to make use of them. It makes it extra painful for norms such as myself to live through the drudgery of our mundane lives."

"Being a mech pilot is not as glamorous as you think, Lukas." Melkor softly said. "Mech pilots have their own troubles and burdens. There are a lot of people among my kind who graduate from the mech academy with great ambitions, but fail to make any serious progress due to many different reasons. Only a few of us are truly able to rise above the occasion and become more than mortal."

"At least you have a chance, Melkor. I would not regret it as much if I was able to become a mech pilot but fail to break through in the end. I would know that my journey has at least been eventful, if not fruitful. As a norm, I am denied this step, and that will always hang over my head like a mark of shame. I have come to terms with it, but that does not mean I like it. Maybe my impulsive decision to pilot starfighters is a form of escape for me. If I can make it big as a starfighter pilot…"

The future of starfighter pilots was nowhere near as bright as the future of mech pilots.

The latter were able to break through step by step until the best of them were able to completely transcend their mortality and become god pilots.

The former would always remain mortal no matter how many aliens they killed or how many feats of bravery they pulled off on the battlefield.

This was the real tragedy for starfighter pilots like Lukas. Even if they possessed the spark of greatness, it would always remain dim and inactive so long as they did not do anything that could activate this hidden seed.

Lukas eventually stepped back and gently patted the younger man on the bank. "Don't let an old man like me burden you with unfulfilled dreams. There is ultimately more to life than piloting mechs. Starfighters are pretty awesome if you think about it. They are much more satisfying to pilot than big and lumbering starships. If you feel regretful about my inability to pilot mechs, then do your best to make the best use out of your own chances now that you are still in your prime. I am rooting for you, kid. Go and show them what a hero you can be when you are in the cockpit of your own mech."

"I… will. I truly think that you could have become a great mech pilot yourself." noveℓ.com

"Maybe in my next life." Lukas casually responded. "I have no chance in this one. In the four centuries since mechs have been invented, not a single Star Designer managed to break the necessity of neural interfaces and genetic aptitude. The chance that this will change is much lower now that we only have a fraction of Star Designers and scientists left in this dwarf galaxy. I have already resigned myself to living and dying as a starfighter pilot."

Melkor inwardly shook his head. If it was up to him, he would watch out for Lukas and make sure that the dying part never happened under his watch!

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