The Mech Touch

As the stealth shuttle quietly circles across the Duqaste System in order to reach the Ghirard Assault Fleet's staging point in this war zone, General Ark continued to check up on the other expert pilots in order to confirm they were ready for the upcoming challenge.

His most recent talk with Patriarch Reginald reassured the head of the 77th Warborn that the only ace pilot among them could be relied upon to stall the phase lord known as the Tireless Engine.

Though Reginald sounded more than confident in his ability to fight and even defeat the nunser warlord, General Ark did not completely dare to assume that the enemy phase lord would not be able to interfere with the operation.

Every phase lord was different. Just like ace pilots and their eclectic ace mechs, phase lords tended to come from all sorts of backgrounds.

Their races, their upbringing, their combat experience, their wealth and their relations with the phase whales all determined their development trajectories as phase lords.

The picture painted by the intelligence gathered by the mechers suggested that the Tireless Engine was a scrappy fighter through and through.

Ghirard was not one of the more erudite and intellectual phase lords who disdained making use of their exaggeratingly large physiques and preferred to manipulate the battlefield through remote spatial manipulation.

The Tireless Engine deliberately took advantage of the strong physical base of the nunser race and amplified it further by implanting phasewater organs that strengthened his brawling capabilities.

From developing thicker muscles to installing organs that massively increased his stamina, the Tireless Engine loved to use his enormous bulk to smash enemies apart!

This kind of hard opponent was among the most difficult to deal with at closer ranges. The best way for the Mars to deal with the Tireless Engine was to maintain its distance and utilize its integrated energy weapons to pelt the phase lord with repeated energy beam attacks.

However, Ark knew that adopting a cautious strategy had never been Patriarch Reginald's style. The aggressive ace pilot always tried to close the distance even if that would put him and his ace hybrid mech at a tactical disadvantage!

It worked most of the time because ace pilots were usually powerful enough to defy the rules. Light skirmishers were able to tank brutal amounts of damage. Swordsman mechs were able to eliminate enemies at a distance by releasing sword energy attacks. Heavy artillery mechs could crush enemies up close.

When the disparity in strength between an ace mech and an enemy was too great, the latter had no chance of winning regardless of how well the configuration of the latter countered the former.

However, these matchups usually worked out because the opponents of the ace pilots were usually weaker!

When the disparity in strength between an ace mech and an enemy was too great, the latter had no chance of winning regardless of how well the configuration of the latter countered the former.

That did not mean that the strengths and weaknesses of an ace pilot and an ace mech became irrelevant. The matchup between the Mars and the Tireless Engine appeared to be slightly favorable towards the former, but if Patriarch Reginald insisted on dueling the enemy phase lord up close, then the odds of winning would drop!

This meant that there may be a situation where Reginald needed backup in order to cope with the Tireless Engine.

There were not many expert pilots that would fare well if they were asked to hold back a powerful brawler-style phase god. Ideally, none of them would be needed to resist the furious attacks of the nunser warlord.

Nonetheless, anything could happen on the battlefield. Different from fighting around the orbit of Duqaste VII, starting a fight around Duqaste XI was much more perilous due to the lack of control over the environment.

The enemy maintained extensive control over the rocky planet and its orbit!

The Ghirard Assault Fleet could hide all manner of surprises at their staging point. The intelligence gathered by the mechers were limited, so there was a considerable chance that they may have overlooked a few crucial details.

General Ark was not naive enough to assume that events would unfold according to the best case scenario. Accidents were bound to happen, so he wanted to make sure that the expert pilots participating in this operation were ready to step up when their services were required.

"Rosa." Ark spoke as he stopped by the female expert pilot. "You appear to be reluctant at times. Are you having misgivings about this mission?"

"Of course I have. Anyone with a brain can tell this op is not necessary at all. Sure, it would be nice if we can take out all of the supplies of the invading aliens, but that is not what this is about. This mission is just an excuse for you to test your limits on a challenge that you initiated yourself. I have no problem with that as it is your choice on how far you want to push yourself, but since you dragged other expert pilots like myself along, it has become our problem as well."

General Ark could not refute this accusation. The Red Two never asked him to launch such a risky assault. The mechers and the fleeters only wanted the linefighters to hold their positions and rely on their defensive advantages to stall or grind down the alien assault fleets.

Ark chose differently. He wouldn't be able to make much progress if he kept fighting low to medium-intensity skirmishes. He also did not think it was enough to participate in a single pitched battle.

He needed to do more in order to overcome his stubborn bottleneck. Launching a raid in enemy territory without bringing any of his mech regiments along was exactly the sort of break in routine he needed to shock his systems. He had indeed been thinking about satisfying his own interests first when he set up this risky operation.

That did not mean that he was being entirely selfish. His other arguments rang true as well.

"Our clan needs to grow faster." Ark stated. "Ves agrees with this and so do many others. High-ranking mech pilots like ourselves cannot afford to be as complacent as we were back in the Age of Mechs. History is changing so quickly that we will get overtaken by it if we don't have enough ace pilots to resist future calamities."

"We already have Tusa and Isobel. Isn't that enough for our clan for the time being? We are not as weak as we were in the past when we didn't have any ace pilot watching over us. I am not saying you're wrong, but I don't fully understand the rush. There are so many things that could go catastrophically wrong in this operation. You are forcing us all to balance on a razor's edge."

"This is an opportunity for you and the other expert pilots as well, Rosa. You are constrained by your bottleneck, so do almost every other expert pilot on this stealth ship. I am hoping that at least one of us gets to break through this time. It does not even have to be me. One way or another, our clan will become stronger after completing this operation."

Rosa pinned Ark with a judgmental stare. "Even if not all of us will be able to get away from Duqaste XI alive?"

A moment of silence ensued as Ark needed time in order to convey his thoughts in a tactful manner.

"There are always sacrifices in war." Ark said. "As a veteran of the Bright-Vesia Wars, you should know that as well as I do. We do what is necessary to stop our enemies no matter the price. We used to suffer significant casualties during those wars, but did you hear any of us complain about how many of our comrades died? No. We didn't. We weren't happy about it, but we accepted the losses because that was the price of war."

Rosa scowled and crossed her arms. "This is different! The Red War is nothing like the Bright-Vesia Wars of old! Back then, the Bright Republic's Mech Corps stood alone against the Vesian Mech Legion! We needed to step up and fight the Vesians head-on because there was no one else that was willing and able to fight on the frontlines. Our situation is much different in the current war against the native aliens. It is the mechers, the fleeters and other first-raters that are responsible for most of the fighting. Second-raters like ourselves that are not fully part of the military of a state aren't expected to do much aside from making up the numbers. This operation is completely outside of our responsibilities. You are volunteering us all for an unnessary suicide mission!"

General Ark was not shameless enough to deny his culpability in this matter, but Rosa's remarks did not do anything to change his mind on his decision.

"Every expert pilot at our stage needs to answer our calling and go above and beyond to prove ourselves worthy of attaining sainthood. We may as well do this sooner rather than later."

"Hah! Says the uncle of the best mech designer of our clan. An uncle who just so happened to have received a fancy new quasi-first-class high-tier expert mech not too long ago. Even if you screw up during the upcoming operation, your powerful Lionheart can easily bail you out of a bad situation. The rest of us don't enjoy this particular luxury. Our expert mechs are old, weak and designed for us back when we were low-tier expert pilots. If we end up in trouble, our ability to fight our way out of an encirclement is much weaker!"

Realization dawned on Ark's face. He figured out the driving reason why Rosa Orfan grew so upset about this mission.

"You disagree with the timing of this operation. No, it is more than that. You resent me for foisting this dangerous mission on your lap. The reason why is because your expert mech is due for an upgrade in less than half a year."

Rosa Orfan sneered at Ark in a distinctly unpleasant manner. "Did you not think about that at all before you chose to setup a mission to satisfy your need to unleash the full capabilities of your modern Lionheart? It is not just me that is upset about the thin margin of safety. Vincent, Kolak, Imon and the pair of Crosser expert pilots are also anything but happy about this operation."

General Ark tried to reassure the female expert pilot. "I won't deny that we are heading straight into danger, but I have confidence in your strength and the strength of everyone else. None of us are inexperienced rookies. We are champions. We are able to defeat the undefeatable. No victory is out of our grasp. As long as our willpower is strong enough, we can vanquish any enemy. The risks may be greater for you and the rest, but that also means that the benefits are greater as well. Even if you aren't able to break through in the next battle, you will receive such excellent tempering that you will get that much closer to punching through your bottleneck."

"That sounds nice… if we are able to come back alive, that is." Rosa simply responded. "Look, I am not a coward, but I was perfectly fine with sticking to my routine for the next 5 months or so until the Design Department is finally ready to upgrade my Riot to his much more powerful Mark III form. If you asked me to take part in this suicide mission after that, I would have gladly embraced this opportunity to stretch my mech's news modules, but since you are so impatient to break through yourself, my evaluation of you have changed."

"In what way?" Ark softly asked.

"You don't live up to your noble reputation. I have been serving in the Warborn for several years now, and while there are parts about you that justifies all of the hero worship that you have received, you are more selfish and self-centered than people have been led to believe. It is not that you mistreat your subordinates. You just don't care about us. Not truly. You project the right image in public and say all of the nice words, but when the time has come to prove that you consider us brothers and sisters, you instead treat us as pawns that you can use up and discard at will. It is profoundly… disappointing."

"..."

Rosa Orfan became so disgusted with Ark that she began to move away.

"Commander Casella Ingvar is ten times the better leader than you as far as I am concerned. She cares, while you do not. I wouldn't be surprised if she breaks through sooner than you. Her heart is much bigger than yours. I don't think you care too much about the Larkinson Clan in the first place. After all, it is Ves' clan, not yours. I think you are just treating it as a vessel to fuel your own ambitions."

"..."

"Good luck in the next fight, 'general'. I am not worried about whether you'll be able to come back from Duqaste XI alive. Your Lionheart is too strong for that. You should worry about whether my Riot Mark II or the other weaker expert mechs will be able to make it back in one piece. After all, you dragged us into this firepit. It is your responsibility to ensure we can make it out again."

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