The Mech Touch

The RA stealth carrier quietly reached the edge of Duqaste XI's perimeter.

In order to reduce the probability of detection as much as possible, the ship disabled non-essential systems. From the lighting to the antigrav systems, nothing was allowed to give away any hint of the vessel's presence.

The temperature turned cold. The lack of gravity made navigating through the ship a lot more cumbersome. Everyone had to wear vacuum-sealed suits that also kept them warm, fed and clean.

The carrier's stealth capabilities were impressive, but that was no reason for the mechers to grow complacent. They followed all of the rules and guidelines and acted as cautiously as possible.

The crew members no longer bothered to communicate through sound or through wireless signals. They mostly exercised their own responsibilities according to a predetermined plan. At most, they resorted to economic hand signals and subtle exchanges by physically connecting their slim armored suits to each other.

All of these efforts helped to reduce the load on the active stealth systems and minimized the occurrence of slight blips that could potentially alert the monitoring systems of the enemy starships in the vicinity.

The humans had already employed stealth vessels and stealth mechs against the native aliens many times in the past.

While the results were mostly gratifying, the downside was that most of the major alien races had become a lot more guarded against stealth attacks!

It had become standard procedure for any alien fleet or base to deploy a combination of escort ships and phasefighter squadrons out on patrol.

Since the aliens usually saw no need to hide their tracks, their vessels openly employed active sensor and scanning systems at medium intensity in order to track stealth vessels trying to sneak past their perimeter.

The effectiveness of these measures varied depending on the tech, quantity of patrols and environmental factors.

The native aliens didn't care too much about catching enemy infiltrators on approach. Their primary concern was to deter stealth attacks by showing that they are alert and ready to respond the instant they detected a hidden threat.

Right now, the RA stealth carrier had slowed down. The captain of the ship grew pensive as the quantity of alien patrols around Duqaste XI made it unlikely that his vessel would be able to maintain secrecy all the way.

General Ark Larkinson was the only mech pilot who had not yet boarded his mech. He needed to be on the bridge in order to remain up to date on the developing situation and issue instructions if necessary.

Seeing that the stealth vessel had slowed to a relative stop outside of the perimeter of the target planet, Ark slowly floated forward until he came close enough to place his armored hand on the captain's shoulder plate.

[Is it safe to advance?]

[Not at the moment.] The captain replied through a very subtle signal transmitted through physical contact. [The density of patrols is putting out too many detection signals in the surrounding space. According to our calculations, the risk of detection is 0.5 percent per minute. That does not sound too much to you, but keep in mind that we will be lingering in this area for a longer duration than that. The risk of detection also rises the closer we move to the mission site.]

General Ark frowned. It would be bad if they got stalled at this distance. If the stealth carrier proceeded no further, then her safety would be assured, but it would also make life harder for him and his fellow pilots.

The Mars and the expert mechs assigned to this mission were usually loud and obvious. There was no way to hide their obvious heat signatures and other emissions once they became active.

The only way to keep them hidden for a short while longer was to gently eject them from the hangar bay of the stealth vessel. By refraining from activating the cold and silent mechs, they might be able to coast along for a dozen seconds or a little longer without getting detected right away.

This was not enough for the high-ranking mechs to get much closer to their objectives, but it was enough to reduce the probability of exposing the exact location of the stealth carrier.

Even so, Ark was not satisfied with this situation. He knew that the native aliens would wake up and begin to mobilize all of their available combat assets as soon as they sounded the alarm.

Precious minutes would pass by as the Mars and the expert mechs crossed the distance and entered into low orbit of Duqaste XI. That was enough time for the native aliens to make a lot of progress to form a blockade and get ready to encircle the human intruders as best as possible.

[This ship needs to get closer.] Ark conveyed. [What are our options?]

[We can choose from three possible courses of action, general. The most passive and safest option for the ship is to maintain our current distance and launch your mechs into space. Another low-risk option is to wait for the Ghirard Fleet to dispatch more of its warships to Duqaste VII. The most dangerous option is to deploy one of your mechs to generate a distraction that will allow my ship a greater chance to sneak closer without setting off any enemy alarms.]

None of the three options sounded ideal to Ark. He already ruled out the first option. That meant he could either choose between waiting for a change in circumstances or create a distraction that could go very right but also very wrong.

The last option was the most proactive one that promised to deliver quick results, but Ark felt hesitant to take such a dangerous gamble.

The plan called for splitting up the already limited mechs. There would be at least one less machine to raid the surface of Duqaste XI and fight their way out of an encirclement.

While an argument could be made that creating a diversion may draw more alien assets away from the planet, thereby making it more vulnerable, that meant the isolated mech would attract even more danger!

Ark much preferred to stick to the original plan as much as possible. That meant keeping all of the mechs together.

[We wait.] He decided. [The troops guarding Duqaste VII are still in the process of subtly trying to draw the attention of the invading aliens. They are not done yet with luring the enemy forces over. Give them more time to work. We will proceed as soon as the defenses here have lessened to the point where the risk of detection is low enough.]

[We may remain stuck here for days or longer, general. An opening may not appear until the Ghirard Fleet is ready to launch a full assault.]

[Then so be it. I will not subject ourselves to excessive risks in an already dangerous operation.]

Ark stayed around a little longer in order to convey additional instructions and demands. He then proceeded to leave the bridge and move over to his Lionheart.

There was no reason to stay inside the bridge any longer. Ark would rather remain on standby in his Lionheart and make sure the rest knew that they needed to do the same.

Hours passed by as Ark remained inside the cockpit of his excellent mech. His Lionheart became so quiet and lifeless when it had been put in a dormant state.

Unlike the more classical living mechs such as the very boisterous Riot, the Lionheart was a so-called post-living mech according to Ves, who was the only authority on this subject.

This phrase essentially meant that the Lionheart had the roots and many of the trappings of living mechs, but diverged in important ways.

Ark had requested to turn the Lionheart into a second skin mech for specific reasons. He did so despite the amazing popularity and appreciation for living mechs that could think and potentially fight for themselves.

It was not that Ark hated the idea of living mechs or anything. He could see how well it complemented pilots such as Tusa, Jannzi, Joshua and many others.

Ark simply did not feel the need to change his modus operandi.

He was raised as a champion and a hero ever since he first demonstrated his talent. He had learned to pilot ordinary mechs and steadily worked his way up by piloting one lifeless mech after another.

He had achieved a great amount of success with mechs like that and built up a lot of muscle memory and other routines as a result.

Ark would have to change too many aspects of his piloting style if he switched over to piloting living mechs. He would have to unlearn many important lessons and painstakingly build up a lot of new habits.

He also had to split his time and concentration on building up an amicable relationship with his 'battle partner'.

The expert pilot did not look forward to making so many changes to his established formula.

He had seen how Patriarch Reginald was able to make his Mars work so well despite having killed off the machine's independent personality.

Ark did not regret his decision to pilot a mech similar to that of the Mars.

The Lionheart was powerful beyond doubt. Its lack of independent personality did not make Ark feel as if he was missing out on anything important. The fact that it fit him like a glove allowed him to assume considerably greater control over the machine than he had ever attained with any other mech.

It was not easy to pilot the Lionheart for that reason. Ark had to invest more attention and focus on controlling all of its functions, but the benefit of doing so was that he could make it move and behave exactly according to his intentions.

As a command-oriented expert pilot, Ark was not afraid of higher control requirements. It also helped that unlike Commander Casella, he did not need to spend a large part of his attention and focus on micromanaging so many different subordinates. He was able to invest most his resources into piloting the Lionheart and turning it into the most powerful and well-controlled machine on the battlefield.

Only Patriarch Reginald was able to get more out of his own second skin mech than Ark, and that was solely because the ace pilot had transcended further!

In any case, Ark knew that he would have to squeeze the most out of his excellent control over his expert command mech than he had done in the past.

The difficult conditions of this operation demanded no less. The circumstances were brutally unforgiving towards mistakes, and Ark was not able to utilize the Lightbringer resonating ability anywhere close to full power due to lack of support from his subordinates.

Ark resigned himself to the fact that he able to become the brightest presence on the battlefield during this dangerous operation.

The Mars would definitely take the crown this time. The Mars was especially notorious for outputting a lot of light and other emissions due to its heavy energy expenditure.

The ace hybrid mech was an energy hog, making it all the more challenging for the Lionheart to outshine the older post-living mech.

Although these circumstances were anything but ideal for General Ark, this was exactly why he needed to tackle this challenge. He needed to participate in at least one difficult fight where he was unable to rely on the amplification of tens of thousands of subordinates who empowered him with their hopes and beliefs.

Ark wanted to prove that he could still be strong enough on his own. He was willing to bet his life on this assumption.

As the minutes continued to pass by in silence, a very loud and screeching alarm suddenly shook Ark and the other waiting mech pilots out of their reclining postures.

"What is happening?!"

"General!" The captain communicated through a newly opened communication channel. "The Ghirard Fleet somehow found our presence somehow. Multiple enemy patrols are inbound. Many alien warships and carrier vessels are beginning to enter into a heightened state of alertness. More enemy assets will soon converge on us, making it exponentially more difficult for our stealth carrier to sneak away unnoticed."

"WHAT?! How could they have detected us when we are so far away from their detection range?!"

"We do not know, but you need to make a decision quickly. Do you wish to proceed with this operation and launch out of our hangar bay, or do you want us to turn around and attempt a silent retreat?"

General Ark immediately fell into a time-sensitive dilemma.

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