The Mech Touch

Now that Saint Tusa had been brought up to speed on all the important upgrades and changes to his Dark Zephyr, it was time to discuss where he would get deployed next.

"Frankly speaking, I would like to transfer you to New Constantinople and keep you at Diandi Base for at least a year." Ves said. "I have taken a much more prominent role in leading red humanity, and that has put a greater target on my head. However… the Bluejay Fleet is already doing a fine job of guarding me, so it is not necessary for you to come. I can also take care of myself decently enough in a pinch. It is a waste to keep you in a peaceful location all of the time."

Ves probably didn't need that much protection as long as he stayed at a relatively safe location.

Tusa nodded in agreement. "I will need time to retrain myself with the Dark Zephyr. The performance boost is so large that I need to relearn how to fight with my battle partner. I also need to play around with Erlemin and learn how to banish stuff."

"That is why I am thinking about loaning you and your Dark Zephyr out to a first-class power that truly needs all of the help it can get. There are numerous first-class war theaters that are being hard-pressed by the aliens. The entry of a first-class ace mech that is filled with cutting-edge and experimental technologies can make a huge difference and relieve a lot of burdens. This is where you can make the greatest contributions in the short term. Are you okay with fighting under another flag, at least on a temporary basis?"

"This sounds similar to General Ark offering his services to the Colonial Federation of Davute."

"There are similarities." Ves agreed. "The difference is we will send you, your ace mech and a trusted team of Larkinson mech technicians out, but not much more. The terms are also very relaxed as ace pilots such as yourself can always expect to receive good treatment. The deal I have in mind is a little bit more comprehensive than just letting you fight on the battlefield."

"What else do you want?"

"I see. You want to treat me like a pioneer of first-class battlefields. All of the third-hand accounts that you have access to can't compare to seeing how a true first-class living mech fares on this battlefield." Tusa summed up. "I agree. I will play the pioneer for you. Observing the Dark Zephyr's performance will also help you tweak and upgrade his systems in the future. The native aliens are becoming smarter and deadlier. I feel it is only a matter of time before more weapons like 'Saint Piercer' show up in the hands of other phase lords. Do you know how well such a weapon can pierce the defenses of my ace mech?"

"Your Dark Zephyr is the first first-class mech of the Larkinson Clan to fight on a genuine first-class battlefield. There are many 'firsts' to this, and we don't know enough about what we are doing. I want your ace mech to gather a lot of data and transmit them back to us so that we can observe and learn from what has happened. We intend to closely monitor the performance of your Dark Zephyr and pay specific attention to the effectiveness of new and experimental design applications such as the Ultimate Module, the Solus Gas integration, the archemetal conversion, the Mikael Reactor and more. Much of what we learn from your experiences on those battlefields will teach us how to design subsequent first-class mechs that are better suited to fight under such chaotic circumstances."

"I see. You want to treat me like a pioneer of first-class battlefields. All of the third-hand accounts that you have access to can't compare to seeing how a true first-class living mech fares on this battlefield." Tusa summed up. "I agree. I will play the pioneer for you. Observing the Dark Zephyr's performance will also help you tweak and upgrade his systems in the future. The native aliens are becoming smarter and deadlier. I feel it is only a matter of time before more weapons like 'Saint Piercer' show up in the hands of other phase lords. Do you know how well such a weapon can pierce the defenses of my ace mech?"

Neither Ves, Gloriana and Master Benedict had any solid answers.

Ves sighed. "We know too little about that. However, given the performance of Patriarch Reginald Cross and the Mars, the Saint Piercer should not pose too much of a threat to you. Hardly any phase lords can keep up with your insanely high mobility. Unless the native alien foolishly tries to treat a Saint Piercer-like weapon as a javelin and tosses it to you, there is no way you will allow it to get close to you unless that is what you want. However, its effectiveness against conventional defenses is also high. The azure energy shield may actually be stronger at repelling the spear than your Saint Kingdom, but the weapon will still slice through with disturbing ease."

"The azure energy shield generator installed inside the Mars is stronger and better powered than the one installed in your Dark Zephyr." Master Benedict revealed on his own initiative. "Yet the Saint Piercer cut through regardless. I believe that it does so by relying on a deeper and less orthodox application of phasewater than normal. Unless we manage to study and reserve engineer a Saint Piercer and develop counters to this new weapon type, it is best not to rely on any form of hard defenses to save your ace mech. The only somewhat effective impediment we have observed is excellent armor. However, the Mars was able to keep up with the Tireless Engine by relying on its layers of tough alloys. Your Dark Zephyr is considerably thinner and much less able to withstand solid attacks. It is better to make a tactical withdrawal or rely entirely on evasion to keep your machine safe and intact."

The first Larkinson ace pilot had studied the footage of the botched operation many times. Tusa had mentally simulated the act of fighting against an enemy like the Tireless Engine wielding the Saint Piercer.

Though Patriarch Reginald performed well enough in his duel against the nunser phase lord, Tusa actually felt he was much better able to deal with such an opponent.

The Mars was not fast and elusive enough to outrun the Tireless Engine or evade all of his attacks when the latter had shrunk down to more reasonable proportions.

The reason why Tusa felt different about it was that he was confident his Dark Zephyr would never get struck with a melee weapon!

It was ultimately still a quasi-first-class ace mech. The maximum output of its power reactor heavily bottlenecked its maximum output!

The reason why Tusa felt different about it was that he was confident his Dark Zephyr would never get struck with a melee weapon!

As long as his mobility advantage became high enough, a duel no longer held any challenge anymore!

A phase lord or phase whale usually relied on wide-area spatial attacks to handle swift but relatively fragile opponents, but the Dark Zephyr Mark III Revision 2 was anything but fragile!

Even the normally lackluster attack power of a light mech no longer applied to the Dark Zephyr anymore!

With the help of the Dark Wind Module, Tusa had a killer weapon on his hands.

The only downside was that employing an Ultimate Ability strained his willpower a lot, so he had to make his offensive attempts count.

Still, when Tusa put himself and his new ace mech in the place of the Mars during the operation, he was very confident that he could easily assassinate a lesser phase lord like the Tireless Engine within minutes.

Not even the nunser phase lord's powerful raiment and multi-layered energy defenses posed a hindrance against the Dark Zephyr. A single activation of the Leap of True Freedom was enough to completely bypass those energy barriers!

Compared to beating the crap out of the Tireless Engine, Tusa was a lot less confident about breaking the Ghirard Fleet.

The Mars was much more suitable for destroying lots of lesser enemies. Its ARCEUS System could massacre entire swarms of small craft, and the Mars also possessed the raw attack power to quickly overcome the defenses of many different warships.

The greatest strength of the Mars was its staying power. Its energy consumption was high, but Master Benedict Cortez relied on his Original Energy Bridge System, Magma Vein System and many smaller energy-related improvements to massively increase the endurance of the ace hybrid mech!

The Dark Zephyr Mark III Revision 2 may have gained a much stronger power reactor, which also happened to make the light skirmisher last longer, but its ability to take on entire fleets was still worse!

This was the limit of the Dark Zephyr's mech type. Banisher Edition or not, the ace mech had always been designed with the intention of targeting weak points and taking out high-value targets.

Perhaps in time, Saint Tusa may be able to figure out how to vary his attack methods by leveraging the versatility of his Saint Kingdom, but it would always be a subpar solution compared to the means available to the Mars.

14:09

It was not designed to inflict mass destruction. It had no weapon systems at all that were suited for this purpose. Its Dark Wind Passage ultimate ability was a trump card reserved for singularly powerful opponents, while its knives only allowed it to eliminate one enemy at a time.

Perhaps in time, Saint Tusa may be able to figure out how to vary his attack methods by leveraging the versatility of his Saint Kingdom, but it would always be a subpar solution compared to the means available to the Mars.

"I want to fight in a war theater where phase lords are more prevalent." Saint Tusa decided. "What are my options?"

Ves smiled. "Our clan has reached out to numerous potential partners. Everyone is eager to receive the assistance of an ace light skirmisher, especially one that can completely bypass the annoying azure energy shields and spatial barriers that make phase lords so difficult to kill. You will first need to decide which part of human-occupied space you want to fight in. The border regions of the Rubarthan Pact is the safest as it is guarded by two Rubarthan god pilots. The Red Ocean Union has the largest but also the least united warfront, so it is the place where you can best build up a reputation and attract a following. The Terran Alliance is doing the worst as the Light of Sol has to cover the entire warfront. The RF has reassigned numerous dreadnoughts to Terran space, but that is not a perfect solution."

There were a lot of nuances to the different fronts, and the circumstances also differed from region to region.

Saint Tusa did not spend too much time weighing his choices.

"Put me in the Terran Alliance."

"Are you sure?"

"I am not the kind of person to reconsider after making my choice." Tusa said with an annoyed expression. "Now tell me where I will go and fight."

"Whoa, we're not there yet, Tusa. Don't be in such a hurry. There are numerous Terran ancient clans that are receptive to your participation. I am trying to elicit an offer from them to assign one of their ace pilots to mentor you for a few months."

"I do not not need any mentoring." Tusa frowned deeper. "I am an ace pilot. I know what I am doing."

Ves shook his head after he heard that. "You are taking this too lightly. I am sure you can handle yourself in 95 percent of the situations, but what about the 5 percent? I don't want you to end up as the next Venerable Imon Ingvar due to lack of preparation and a chronic underestimation of your enemies. You need another ace pilot to show you the ropes on how to fight alongside first-class forces against the much more powerful native alien fleets on the battlefields of the Upper Zones. You need to get used to the sheer variety of powerful high technologies available to both sides and not get caught off-guard by them. You also need to learn about and integrate in the very exclusive community of first-class champions."

Out of all of the groups of high-ranking mech pilots, first-class ace pilots enjoyed an exceptionally distinguished status.

This was because they were the most likely to spawn god pilots!

Tusa grew a little less upset after thinking over this argument. "Maybe… you have a point. I can tolerate a short mentorship. As long as it doesn't last too long, I can stomach it so long as I am eventually allowed to go loose and fight my own battles."

"That's fine. I just don't want you to arrive at the frontlines of the Terran Alliance and immediately dive into a trap."

"Oh, come on. I am not that stupid, Ves!"

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