The Mech Touch

On the other side was the complex collection of alien pirate organizations of the hidden asteroid base called the Palace of Shame.

Ves and the rest of the Larkinson Clan possessed a clear understanding of the combat strength of their own side.

Led by the main fleet of the Gemini Family, the fleets of the Golden Skull Alliance, the Adelaide Mercenary Company, the Santana Group, the Lehrer Foundation and the Boojay Family all followed their prearranged instructions and moved to encircle their primary target.

The human coalition deployed over 1000 individual starships and well over 60,000 mechs!

Though the human pioneers did not intend to expose their precious starships to the powerful guns of their alien adversaries, the abundant quantity of mechs alone represented a potent amount of combat power!

However, mechs were not the most effective weapons to deploy against warships. The pioneering groups had to make clever use of their small and vulnerable combat assets. A single careless decision could easily allow the powerful alien warships to shred thousands of exposed mechs into pieces!

Though the human mech forces intended to make abundant use of the nearby asteroids as cover, it was impossible for the opposition to be ignorant of this possibility.

When Ves thought about the strength, technology, tactics and preparations of the opposing force, he soon looked troubled.

"I don't know what we are about to deal with. I don't think anyone, including the aliens themselves, know what they have at their disposal."

This was a reflection of the sheer variety and lack of unity of all of the alien individuals that had found their way to the Palace of Shame!

There were far too many alien races and pirate groups to mention. However, the strongest among the pirates was undoubtedly the Unspoken, a rather mysterious group founded by the supposedly exiled members of the powerful orven race.

Ves previously thought that his next encounter against a major alien race would set his troops against the nunsers or the puelmers.

Both of these powerful races were rather prevalent in this corner of the Red Ocean.

The nunsers were herd animals with a strong collectivist mindset and a penchant for living on massive vertical structures that also doubled as their starships and warships.

This gave the furred intelligent species a strong ability to form a massive warfleet, split off into many different detachments or rendez-vous at a central location in order to form a massive doom armada!

Ves feared the nunsers the most after the phase whales due to the sheer quantity of 'warship homes' they had at their disposal!

The puelmers preferred to concentrate their resources into swarms of smaller but more advanced sophisticated warship homes. Their vessels might not be as large as the warship homes of the nunsers, but they were packed with different technologies, some of which could threaten entire planets!

This approach meant that it was extremely difficult to gauge the effective combat power of a puelmer warship.

There were stories about pioneering fleets stumbling upon a single puelmer warship home, only for the human mechs and fleets to get swallowed by artificial black holes!

The huge disparities in tonnage and numbers were no longer effective indicators of strength when fighting against the puelmers and many other alien races for that matter.

One of the most important lessons that much of humanity had learned for the first time after arriving in the Red Ocean was that the aliens did not abide by the same taboos!

Both sides only had a few rules in common. Aside from that, the alien forces did not uphold any taboos concerning the scale of warships, the limitations on the firepower at their disposal or the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Though the individual alien civilizations may enforce their own set rules upon their subjects, it was doubtful whether any alien law had effect on the lawless pirates of the Mysterious Palace.

"They shouldn't have too many weapons of mass destruction at their disposal." Ves guessed.

The analysts surmised that the Palace of Shame shouldn't contain too many nuclear bombs and other destructive armaments.

The reason for that was because these superweapons threatened the Palace of Shame and its many pirate gangs far more than any external enemy!

There was no way the Unspoken and the other vested interests of the pirate base would permit the existence of so many threatening weapons in the vicinity of their shared home. What if a pirate group decided to engage in blackmail and threatened to blow everything up from the inside?

Aside from that, the production and maintenance of highly destructive weapons that were powerful enough to threaten modern forces were too great. A ramshackle asteroid base did not provide the necessary infrastructure to support the development of too many weapons of mass destruction.

That was no excuse for the human attackers to grow complacent, though.

Distance was the best form of protection against the vast majority of superweapons. This was why almost every mech was ready to fight their opponents from afar.

Even the most quintessential melee mechs such as the First Sword, The Rigid Wall, The Rigid Spine and the Lucid Rage temporarily set aside their melee armaments for energy rifles!

As every ship and mech slowly moved to their respective positions, many humans waited for the first shot to be fired.

Ves sat in his usual chair on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim.

He was not sitting alone as his wife and children also accompanied him this time. He wanted them to stay close to him so that he could always be reassured that no weird alien weapon affected them away from his presence.

The children were remarkably more behaved than before. They all wore their cute little protective suits and had all been strapped to their own little chairs.

Ves arranged a simple projected interface for each of them where they could easily browse between different feeds of the upcoming battle.

"Miaow..."

The suited form of Clixie nervously rested on Aurelia's lap. She hated the thought of entering into battle against enemies that wielded weapons of enormous power.

She could still claw out a bunch of hostile aliens on foot, but when it came to a warship that was the equivalent of a battlecruiser, there was no way her tiny claws could rend through hull plating that was several meters thick!

"Meow meow."

Lucky on the other hand looked forward to the epic clash that would ensue. His tail swished with excitement as he rested on the armrest of Andraste's chair. He knew that when the human mechs defeated the alien warships and defensive installations, he would soon gain an opportunity to enter the Palace of Shame and have his pick of the spoils yet again!

Even though his last feast left him with a tummy ache that went on for months, the cat had pretty much forgotten about that awful experience.

Ever since his digestion system ejected a number of gems, his stomach turned into an empty void. No amount of food could make him feel full and sated.

Perhaps this upcoming battle might give him the opportunity to fill up the void in his belly.

"So many mechs. So cool." Marvaine spoke as his suited arms held a dinosaur plushie.

The little boy forgot all about his toy as he became completely engrossed in the large variety of mechs, many of which he had never seen before.

Though Marvaine still thought that the mechs designed by his parents were the best, the machines deployed by the other pioneering forces were not weak by any means!

Whereas their children were only able to appreciate the different mechs on a surface level, Ves and Gloriana could glean much more details from their designs.

Ves found his attention drawn to the Santana Group at first.

He still hadn't forgotten how the Santanas drove a hard bargain and forced the Larkinson Clan to cough up 150 MTA credits in exchange for 3 pathetic alien prisoners.

His interactions with the Santana Group taught him that much of its decisions were based on financial considerations.

This did not sound too abnormal at first. every pioneering group had to watch their finances in order to keep their mechs and starships afloat.

A severe gap in money could easily spell the end of a pioneering force even if all of its mechs and starships were still in working condition.

As a holding company, the Santana Group owned many subsidiary companies, of which there were numerous successful security companies.

Compared to other mech forces, security companies generally did not invest too much money in elite mech pilots or extremely powerful mechs.

The missions and assignments they tended to undertake were mostly boring and lengthy but provided a stable flow of income.

For this reason, security companies tried to offer a good degree of protection in the most cost-efficient manner possible.

The mechs deployed by the Santana Group's fleet reflected this frugal approach.

"The Santana Group sure likes to employ a lot of guns." Ves remarked.

"That is an understatement." His wife said.

The thousands of mechs that launched from the carrier vessels of the Santana Group possessed one common trait.

They were all hybrid mechs. Entire mech companies formed up that all consisted of machines that were armed with multiple guns.

A combination of energy weapons, kinetic weapons and missile weapons adorned their frames in different configurations.

Of course, the Santana Group vastly preferred to make use of energy weapons because they were the cheapest and most convenient ones to replenish.

Backing up the hybrid mechs in the field was a small number of space knights and other melee mechs, but their numbers were so small that they could only delay an intercepting force for a short amount of time.

Much more significant were the heavy artillery mechs that were rooted in the bunkers of the serviceable Santana carrier vessels.

Ves did not spot anything special about the artillery mechs. Their mass, firepower, armor and other parameters were worse than the Transcendent Punisher Mark II, but that was hardly a surprise.

The Larkinson Clan's staple heavy artillery mechs were costly investments. Ves put a lot of trust in the Eye of Ylvaine pilots when he designed the powerful machines.

The Santana Group evidently did not trust its mech pilots as much, because the heavy artillery mechs they handed out to its troops were equipped with a greater quantity of cannons but did not pack as much of a punch.

"The Santana Group's mech doctrine basically centers around bringing as many guns to bear on their opponent and rely on massed firepower to grind the opposition down from a distance."

"You sound as if you disapprove, Ves."

"It is a simple and cheap approach that is designed to be as foolproof and standard as possible. There is too little tactical depth to the mech composition of the Santana group. Mech pilots also have very little room to overperform or turn the tide with a single feat of brilliance. As long an enemy is able to outgun the Santana mechs or get close to them somehow, it is game over for hybrid mechs and heavy artillery mechs. Their ability to defend against opponents at close range is abysmal."

Gloriana viewed the Santana mech forces in a more favorable light.

"The Santanas are making the best use of the resources that they have available, which is not that much. The vast majority of conventional opponents won't even be able to close the distance in the face of so much firepower. The excessive number of guns makes it so that the difference in skill no longer matters. No matter how much the enemy mechs try to evade the Santana attacks, they will always get hit by at least some attacks. Besides, their expert mechs and ace mechs are much more special. Those businessmen are at least sensible enough to invest in their brightest talents."