The Mech Touch

Chapter 4217: Titan Shields

Many Larkinsons had never participated in an operation of this scope, let alone fight in a battle that involved more than a handful of mechs!

Even the veterans who had taken part in battles that involved over 10,000 mechs did not have the confidence to be able to strike at so many targets during a brief invasion.

They needed to cover too many targets!

This was bad because the Larkinson Clan had always been at its strongest when it was able to concentrate all of its mech forces in a single location.

While it was possible for every mech legion and individual mech company was able to spread out and complete different objectives, the Larkinson Army simply didn’t have enough training, experience and institutional support to effectively complete such complex operations.

It was impossible for General Verle to miss these truths, so he quickly made it clear that the Larkinsons held different responsibilities.

The man waved his arm, causing a hypothetical invasion force to appear at the edge of the star system.

Thousands of starships of different sizes and ship classes appeared in rapid succession!

These were the carriers and support vessels that made up the Hex Federation and Golden Skull Alliance’s massive invasion force!

Once they arrived in the star system, they collectively headed towards the inner system where the most valuable targets resided.

That didn’t mean they continued to gather in one gigantic formation.

There were lots of secondary targets in the star system that could easily be taken out as long as the attackers spent a little effort.

Soon enough, the sped-up simulation showed over a dozen different carrier squadrons splitting up from the main formation in order to head towards numerous different valuable sites in the outer system.

“As you can see, the Hex Army is already prepared to send detachments to ruin all of the mining posts, military space stations and other outlying strategic assets. As long as the leaked intelligence is still accurate and not too out of date, the Hexers should be able to bring just enough mechs to guarantee success without drawing too much strength away. Once these detachments have completed their objectives, they will converge back to the main fleet and provide any aid as needed.”

This would take quite a bit of time, so thousands of Hexer mechs would not be present in any opening battle.

“Make no mistake, soldiers. Our time is limited.” General Verle stated. “A port system is much more valuable to a state than a regular star system. Ruining it will deal untold damage to the Gauge Dynasty, but the downside is that it is much easier for different elements of the Sundered Phalanx to reinforce Pima Prime. The longer we remain in the star system, the more Gauger mechs will come to salvage a victory from this ruinous tragedy.”

The point he was trying to make was that while the attackers might be able to overcome the initial opposition, the constant flow of reinforcements from the surrounding star systems made it increasingly more dangerous to linger in Pima Prime.

“We believe that it is highly unwise to stay in the port system for more than a week.” The general continued. “We do not necessarily fear the reinforcements dispatched by the Gauge Dynasty, but the longer the Hexers continue to violate the Friday Colonies as a whole, the more it becomes unreasonable for the other coalition partners to stand by and do nothing. We expect the troops of the Konsu Clan to move fairly quickly while the ones belonging to the remaining four coalition partners will try to delay as long as possible. However, the Carnegies and the Vermeers and so on cannot pretend to procrastinate forever.”

The Carnegie Group, the Vermeer Group, the Vanguard Group and the Puffer Clan were all part of the same state as the Gauge Dynasty.

As much as they had begun to compete against each other in different areas, they were still nominally comrades-in-arms. They were all obligated to dispatch reinforcements in the event one of their own got attacked.

Perhaps the states might get away with delaying their troop movements for a day or two, but any longer than that would make their lack of action too unreasonable. The Friday Coalition might fall apart directly as a result and that was an outcome that none of the coalition partners wanted to see for the time being.

This was not great news for the Larkinson mech pilots. They needed to be able to get in, do their jobs and get out before help from all over the Friday Colonies arrived.

There was no way to conduct a slow and patient siege that best reduced the risks and dangers as much as possible.

The good news was that the Golden Skull Alliance wasn’t expected to do much during this assault.

The expeditionary fleet would remain close with the main fleet of the Hexer invasion force and continue to move towards the most important and critical planet in the star system.

The Gaugers built three significant settlements in the port system.

Pima Prime IX-C was a moon orbiting a gas giant that the Fridaymen converted into a gas processing complex and depot.

Specialized gas mining vessels routinely skimmed the outer layers of the nearby gas giant in order to collect and filter out valuable substances.

Once they filled up their cargo holds, the gas skimmers returned to Pima Prime IX-C where they delivered the raw materials to the fuel production plants.

A lot of Fridayman mechs and starships made use of the different fuels produced from Pima Prime IX-C!

However, due to its outlying position, it was easy for the Hex Army to destroy it, so General Verle did not waste his time on this part of the plan.

He pointed towards one of the planets.

“There are two significant colonies in this star system. Pima Prime IV is the administrative hub of the port system. It also hosts a sizable military presence where numerous mech divisions are situated. If possible, the Hex Federation will send a detachment to overrun it and raze it to the ground, but there is not that much infrastructure on this planet to merit much attention.”

The General turned towards another planet.

“The focus of Operation Saturday Market is centered around Pima Prime V. The fifth planet from the local star is where the Gauge Dynasty has decided to base most of its trade and industrial facilities. It is equivalent to Davute VII in a sense. If you imagine the planet where we have lived on for multiple years, then you will get a quick idea on what Pima Prime is like. Of course, the details are still different.”

A lot of Larkinson mech pilots turned grave at the thought of invading a planet that was similar to Davute VII.

The degree of urban development was so great that the defenses were bound to be formidable!

“Let’s talk about the orbital defenses first.” General Verle said as the surroundings zoomed in to display a clear view of the layout of Pima Prime V. “Once our main fleet approaches this orbital region, we will first have to go through Pima Prime V-A and Pima Prime V-B.”

The man pointed at the outer moon.

“Pima Prime V-B serves as a convenient trading and logistical hub for intersystem trade. It is basically a drop-off point for bulk cargo that is meant to be shipped to another destination. The cargo deposited in the warehouses built across the surface of this moon are generally raw materials or processed materials that are mostly reserved for planetary construction. Most of it isn’t valuable so the moon’s defenses are rather limited.”

Verle then pointed at the inner moon.

“Pima Prime V-A is different. It has a considerable strategic value because it not only hosts a major military base, but also large manufacturing and assembly complexes dedicated to shipbuilding. While a lot of shipbuilding takes place in orbital drydocks, a significant amount of parts are produced and assembled on this moon for convenience and to achieve economies of scale. By our count, there are at least 24 moonside shipyards, many of which are responsible for constructing combat carriers and other sub-capital ships.”

The value of Pima Prime V-A was great!

Though it did not host any of the really big shipyards that were capable of building capital ships, crippling these shipyards would deal a devastating blow against the Gauge Dynasty’s ability to project power!

“The problem is that the Gauge Dynasty knows extremely well how important it is to protect these shipbuilding facilities, so the main complexes are all located underground. Not only that, they are built adjacent to a major military base that not only possesses a formidable amount of defensive turrets, but is also covered by a titan shield generator or city-grade shield generator.”

A titan shield was basically the biggest and most formidable energy shield that could be formed by humanity.

Derived from the same technology that allowed shield generators to protect massive battleships, every titan shield generator was an incomparable huge, expensive and strategic defensive asset!

They could not only protect an area spanning up to dozens of square kilometers, but also withstand an insane amount of punishment!

If the titan shields did not have to withstand an excessive amount of damage in a short amount of time, they could theoretically run continuously for many weeks! This was because their massive generators were extremely robust and supplied with an abundance of power.

As long as the defenders hooked up enough power reactors to the generators, it would take way too long to exhaust the titan shields over time!

Every mech pilot was already familiar with the properties of titan shields. They even practiced a few siege scenarios where they were tasked with breaching different strategic sites that were covered by these massive shields.

While it was fairly easy to overwhelm these titan shields by pounding them with a lot of mechs, the enemy would never make it easy to accomplish this task!

General Verle grimaced. “While we can theoretically bypass Pima Prime V-A, it is impossible for us to allow an enemy stronghold to remain intact at our ‘rear’. For better or worse, we must overrun Crosshair Base and demolish all of its hangar bays and turrets before our main invasion force can proceed. Naturally, the Hex Army will take the lead. They have brought more than enough ranged mechs armed with kinetic or explosive armaments that can quickly and efficiently overwhelm titan shields as long as they are able to do their jobs uninterrupted.”

That last word was extremely important.

Tens of thousands of mechs showed up in the simulated scenario. The mech troops of the Sundered Phalanx did not appear to attack the main invasion fleet head-on. Instead, they did their best to maintain their distance but harass the attacking force as much as possible!

“In our estimation, the Sundered Phalanx will not choose to make their stand so soon. The Gaugers will likely use Pima Prime V-A and Crosshair Base as an opportunity to consume our resources. By letting the defenders of Crosshair Base take out as many Hexer mechs as possible while also expending a lot of energy cells and ammunition, our main invasion force will enter the next phase of the operation with less strength than before.”

This wasn’t pleasant news. Pima Prime V-A may be important due to its shipbuilding facilities, but it was not worth the price of losing hundreds if not thousands of mechs.

Venerable Joshua studied the different arrows and hypothetical movements and noticed an important detail. “Will we take action at this time, sir?”

“No.” The general shook his head. “The massive Hexer force should be able to handle this task by themselves. We should remain in reserve and save as much as our resources for the next phase of the operation. It is only after we have moved past Pima Prime V-A that we will probably approach the main defensive line of the Sundered Phalanx.”

The real battle started from this point as far as the planners of Operation Saturday Market was concerned!