The Mech Touch

>Within a range of thousands of kilometers, the entire space around the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet rippled with invisible waves.

Nothing became visible, but that didn ’t mean nothing was there!

”We ’ve detected several anomalous signals to the rear of our ship! Range, two-hundred kilometers! ”

”Akkara mechs, open fire at the suspect coordinates! ”

The heavy mechs entrenched in the bunkers of the Shield of Hispania and the other Vandals ships all erupted their heavy cannons in the direction of the anomalous readings.
Hundreds of laser beams and physical rounds saturated the region.

Within a spread of tens of kilometers, one explosive shell hit something other than empty space.
A stealthed objected immediately lost its transparent visage and became visible to the naked eye!

”It ’s a stealthed boarding shuttle! ”

The explosive shell had ripped through the thinly-armored shuttle, blasting apart its entire frontal section! The continuous volleys of the Akkara mechs soon hit other stealthed shuttles.

By the time the heavy artillery mechs fired ten volleys in quick succession, the entire area around the first shuttle became riddled with pieces of shuttle wreckage!

”What is the result? ”

”Sir, our Akkara mechs have taken out seven stealthed shuttles in total! There are no survivors! ”

The Vandals in the command center grinned when they heard how many precious stealth shuttles they destroyed.
These high-tech toys cost a pretty penny to produce.
Ever since the Flagrant Vandals aimed at the Masters of Combat, they did not believe a word about their inability to acquire stealth tech on their own.

”The Masters of Combat are made out of elite veteran Venidsan mech pilots.
If any mercenary company has access to stealth tech, then they should be at the front of the list! ”

Ever since Ves returned to the fleet, his trauma against stealth technology had compelled him to hit the books.
He crammed through several books on anti-stealth tech.
He still retained his position as head designer, so much of the knowledge library of the Mech Corps was open to him.
Though the central database prohibited the dissemination of knowledge on stealth tech, books on how to counter them was readily available.

”Though I only had a day to read through a couple of books, that is more than enough to install some upgraded sensors on a handful of light mechs. ”

His paranoia paid off.
The Venidsan mercenary corps had indeed planned to perform a fatal strike from stealth! Ves couldn ’t even imagine the damage the invisible shuttles could unleash to the unsuspecting Vandals.

Catching them off-guard and shooting them down before they could run or close the distance was the best outcome possible!

Ves softly laughed as nothing remained of the expensive shuttle and their well-trained boarding parties.
The sensor readings could barely pick up the minute pieces of rubble.
He enjoyed getting the better out of sneaky bastards attempting to ruin his life.

”It feels good to catch these Venidsan mice.
I should make these sensor upgrades more prevalent among the Inheritor mechs. ”

The only reason why he couldn ’t upgrade all of the light skirmishers was because it was a fairly expensive upgrade.
Ves had made a conscious decision as head designer to deviate from Professor Velten ’s standard design templates.
Though he could justify his decision if it only affected a small portion of the Vandal mechs, if he insisted on making it a standard feature, then he would violate a bunch of rules, the most important of which was budget stipulations.

”If five million extra credits per mech allows me to sleep better at night, what does it matter? ”

This didn ’t sound like a lot, but it increased the costs associated with the Inheritor mechs by twenty-five percent.
The powerful sensor arrays were also very delicate, requiring frequent servicing in order to keep them functioning at their optimum states.

”It ’s not economical to arm a hundred Inheritors with this upgrade. ”

The Inheritors were meant to be cheap and disposable.
Turning them all into expensive detection platforms was a step too far to the Vandals.

”Keep sweeping our perimeter with active scans.
I don ’t want any space rock left unturned! ”

Though a follow-up attack seemed unlikely, the Vandals did not mind wasting their energy on continuous scans.

The mech battle up ahead entered into the final stage.
The Masters of Combat had been holding out hope that their stealth shuttles were able to turn the tide of the battle.
Now that the Vandals wiped them all out before they could complete their missions, the Venidsan mercenaries had nothing left to throw at the Vandals!

Nonetheless, the Vesians stoically kept fighting even as the Vandal mechs took over from the exhausted Misty Slashers.
While the Swordmaidens recalled their mechs, the Masters of Combat began to buckle.

Their multipurpose space knights endured a lot of hits, but their lack of mobility became their downfall.
In front of the coordinated might of the Vandals, they were unable to move and had to force themselves into a spherical formation with every mech facing outwards.
While this prevented the Vandals from striking at their rear, the relatively rigid formation fared very poorly against ranged bombardments.

The Vandal ships soon entered into firing range.
The Akkara mechs unleashed volley after volley of heavy firepower.
The Nyven Skrats didn ’t last.
The continuous outpouring of laser cannon beams and high-explosive shells shredded their thick tower shields and pounded their frames until they broke up into pieces.

The Vandals didn ’t ask for surrender, and to their credit the Vesian mech pilots didn ’t ask for any.
There could be no reconciliation between Brighters and Vesians, especially when the stakes were so high.
They did not fight on behalf of their states right now.
All of their decisions were being influenced by the players in the shadow.

”Sweep the battlefield and prepare to catch up to their ships. ” Major Verle commanded.
”Tell Commander Lydia to pursue their combat fleet.
Their escort mechs shouldn ’t be a hindrance to them.
Make sure she understands to take the flagship intact.
Inform Captain Rakeshir to separate from the Swordmaiden fleet in order to pursue the support ships.
If we hurry up now, we might be able to catch up to them before they transition into FTL. ”

The Flagrant Swordmaidens managed to secure their first victory ever since they joined forces! Though everyone was already salivating about the spoils, not everyone seemed pleased by the outcome.