The Mech Touch

While the juregs clearly wanted to wrestle control over the New Cartegena System by wresting away control over the second planet, they did not advance at their best speed.

Their warships and carrier vessels slowed down and maintained their distance for the time being.

The alien carriers began to launch remarkably large strike craft that the fleeters had already classified as gunships.

Different from the much more common interceptors and increasingly more prevalent bombers, gunships tended to be larger craft that already began to take on a few trappings of warships.

Jureg gunships preferred to exchange blows with enemies, trusting that their superior transphasic defenses and punishing kinetic weapons would cause them to outlast any direct contest!

Naturally, the jureg race only deployed their best and most expensive gunships in the New Cartagena System. Every large strike craft performed just low below a typical first-class multipurpose mech. What they lacked in mobility and versatility, they made up for these shortcomings with superior attack weight, superior penetration capabilities and superior defenses!

Tusa couldn't imagine how much phasewater and other high-end resources the juregs invested into these craft to build so much of them. While they were not abundant enough to defeat the human first-class multipurpose mechs alone, they provided excellent cover to their warships.

"The juregs enjoy a headstart on modern small craft development as they have always fielded armed aquatic submersibles." Lieutenant Daria spoke over a communication channel. "Their initial strike craft were hastily converted from their existing submersibles, but they have since designed and produced dedicated gunships designed for space combat."

Despite their formidable performance, Saint Tusa still believed his Dark Zephyr could defeat them in the field with little effort. Their lack of mobility alone made them easily abusable by his ace light skirmisher.

However, he had no expectation of wiping them out by the hundreds. There were just too much of them, and they were just hardy enough that his Dark Zephyr would have to expend a notable amount of power to eliminate every transphasic gunship.

"Do not be concerned. Our ranged mechs may experience challenges when trying to whittle their numbers from a distance, but our melee mechs can get past their defenses much easier by relying on their space suppression modules."

Red humanity's heavy reliance on space suppressors to even the scale was the entire reason why the native aliens attacked New Cartagena II!

The destructive mining of the crumbling planet was partially complete. It was too difficult to quickly break the planet up and sort out all of the CopCop from the regular junk.

The more time the defenders bought, the more CopCop and subsequently first-class space suppressors became available. It was worth making a stand in the orbit of this dying planet.

"The first phase is beginning soon." The lieutenant said. "The probing phase may drag on as both sides seek to test each other with long-ranged attacks and skirmishes at the flanks."

Neither side was willing to commit too much as of yet. They mostly took potshots at each other with their most effective long-ranged energy weapons.

Most of the shots ended up missing due to the extreme range and lack of precision of the armaments, but the few strikes that ended up hitting stuff revealed lots of small details that could be of use in the later rounds.

Both sides already had a pretty good idea of the performance of each other's hardware, but the probing attacks continued as the native aliens wanted to make sure there were not too many new and unexpected surprises.

The Dark Zephyr Mark III Revision II even had to spin out of the way and dance in space as numerous jureg warships had received orders to land an attack on the ace mech.

None of the attacks ever landed, but that already told the aliens quite a lot. Their warships suspended their fruitless endeavors and directed their attention elsewhere.

"The juregs may have recognized the silhouette and appearance of your Dark Zephyr. It is best to assume they know what your old self was capable of. They will expect to face a fast and highly maneuverable light mech that cannot pose a significant threat against greater phase lords."

"Then they are working on outdated information. My Dark Zephyr has gained a powerful trick up his sleeve." Tusa grinned.

He wanted to prove the intelligent crustacean race wrong!

The Terran light mechs were still multipurpose, but their armaments were pretty mild compared to their bigger and heavier counterparts. They lacked the raw attack power to quickly eliminate a lot of gunships, but they did their jobs when they obtained more detailed scan data of the enemy fleet composition.

The probing attacks began to fall off after half an hour of exploration.

The most exciting part of this phase was when the Terran light mechs tested the flanks of the jureg armada.

Tusa wanted to be a part of them, but that was no longer feasible anymore. His Dark Zephyr was too far removed from these standard mechs to blend in with the crowd.

The Terran light mechs were still multipurpose, but their armaments were pretty mild compared to their bigger and heavier counterparts. They lacked the raw attack power to quickly eliminate a lot of gunships, but they did their jobs when they obtained more detailed scan data of the enemy fleet composition.

The command net began to bloom with greater details. Old ships got readily recognized while new hulls received other markings.

All-in-all, it appeared the juregs did not carry too many surprises to this battlefield today.

"Careful. The juregs like to employ one of several different strategies at this stage. They may choose to halt at this distance and bombard our forces from long range in an attempt to lure out our melee mechs. They may also choose to rush forward and launch an astronomical amount of missiles that will detonate among our lines just before the jureg transphasic gunships and warships assail us with their heavy kinetic guns at a distance that makes it harder for them to miss."

Tusa grunted. "What do you expect to happen? What is my role?"

"Our think tank predicts that there is a 73 percent probability that the juregs intend to commit to a costly assault and attempt to close the distance on us. They shall fire many missiles into space but hold them back until they can crash into our ranks. The fighting will be hectic and both sides will suffer extensive casualties."

This sounded like a critical battle!

The outcome of this fight may very well determine how long New Cartagena remained in the Terran Alliance's hands!

Tusa certainly got what he asked for when he requested a posting at a location that experienced heavy fighting.

He just wished he enjoyed a week or two of training time so that he could optimize his new fighting style with his upgraded living mech.

"Most of the tactics and maneuvering does not concern you too much." Lieutenant Daris reminded him. "Our forces can handle the onslaught of warships and transphasic gunships. What they cannot respond to are the two greater phase lords. The Diffraction Lord is able to perform an ability similar to one of your old ones. He is able to manipulate space and diffract signals in a manner that makes him, along with any other friendly assets in the vicinity, appear in over a dozen places at once."

"Shouldn't the Messenger of Silence be able to find the actual Diffraction Lord and snipe his giant shell?"

"It is not as simple as it sounds. The Diffraction Lord is not only able to mask his presence well, but also employs a subtle form of teleportation that allows him to swap places to his decoys, thereby turning false into reality. In previous battles, we have learned that the Diffraction Lord cannot take too many allies with him as he teleports away, and he cannot use it too often."

"That is good to know. What about the Biopod Mother?"

"Her body is much larger and more massive. Her personal fighting capabilities are mediocre, but she makes up for it by being able to spawn and launch many of her biopods. These are many small organic missiles that seek to bury into unshielded starship hulls and large structures. Once the biopods reach their destination, they will unleash terrible biomonsters that can feed off any people they catch and spawn more copies of themselves. While a biopod is individually weak, the Biopod Mother is so enormous that she can spawn millions of them without paying a significant price."

"I see. So the Diffraction Lord is covering for the Biopod Mother, is that it?" Tusa asked.

"Yes. The juregs are already notable for developing a large reliance on missile weapons, but if the Biopod Mother launches her own organic projectiles, then our point defenses will be stretched past their limits. Although the spores are unable to penetrate through energy shields, they are extremely debilitating to unshielded and vulnerable ships and structures. We once had to completely scuttle dozens of sub-capital ships and 20 defensive installations in order to eliminate all of the spores left by the Biopod Mother's 'children'."

"Has… has the Messenger of Silence ever managed to get close to killing the two greater phase lords?"

"He has come close enough, but only when he was lucky enough to lock onto their real bodies. It is always uncertain whether he is targeting the real greater phase lords, and whether the Diffraction Lord has secretly teleported himself and the Biopod Mother away. His intuition is strong, but it cannot avail him in this confrontation."

"Have you tried to send scout mechs or probes in their vicinity to feed more accurate and detailed sensor data to the Whispering Willow?"

"We did, but few of our mechs can return unscathed. The two greater phase lords are also threatening at closer distances. This is where you come on, Saint Tusa."

"Wait… are these the reasons why you accepted me as your guest?! You want me to play scout for the Messenger of Silence?"

"It is true, saint." Daria confirmed. "You are not obliged to accept, but our great champion believes you may succeed where others have failed. Despite your lack of resonance strength and experience, evasion is one of your greatest strengths, and your ace mech is much more modern and equipped with notable high technologies. Your Dark Zephyr is not only alive, but also an archemech as well as a masterwork mech. With all of these qualifications, the Messenger of Silence at least expects you to be able to withdraw safely if you find yourself outmatched and overwhelmed."

Saint Tusa felt burdened by pressure. He had his misgivings about taking an Ark-style risk by diving head-first into the two greater phase lords without sufficient preparation, but he understood the necessity of this assignment.

The native aliens were playing for keeps, and New Cartagena II may very well slip out of Terran hands if he did not make enough contributions in this battle!

As Tusa tried to weigh his decision as rationally as possible, he felt the approach and change of aura from the Whispering Willow.

The Messenger of Silence understood Tusa's concerns, but reassured him. The peak ace pilot would do his best to cover the Dark Zephyr from the rear.

Somehow, the absolute confidence along with the earnest trust and expectation conveyed by the mute ace pilot reassured Tusa.

He was not alone in this. With one of the most powerful ace pilots covering his back, Tusa gained a margin of error that vastly increased his chances of making it back alive and unharmed!

Saint Tusa remembered that he was not strictly fighting for himself or the Larkinson Clan anymore. He was also fighting for the good of red humanity as a whole.

The greatest human heroes needed to step up and do more in order to help their race survive.

If Tusa did not possess the courage and altruism to act in a similar fashion, then he had no right to regard himself as one of those great heroes. This was not conducive to his growth!

"Thank you, Saint Dostoevsky. You have taught me another lesson."

"..."

Saint Tusa slowly began to accelerate his Dark Zephyr forward in preparation for a risky assignment.

Although his mission sounded dangerous, it was more than worth it in his opinion. The synergy between a marksman mech and a light skirmisher was high. Tusa believed he could accomplish even greater feats if he was able to team up with the Messenger of Silence!

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