The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2224

Chapter 2224 Decisive

The Battle of Xiphard Base ultimately did not lead to the massive losses that the Larkinson Clan had feared.

With much of its defenses and secret weapons crippled, the Crona Lords stood no chance against the Penitent Sisters. Their mechs, despite outnumbering the second-class mechs by five-to-one, only served to give the exiled Hexers more exercise.

The mech pilots of the Crona Lords mostly died in vain. Their feeble attacks did not cross the threshold that allowed them to overcome the superior armor of their opponents.

Certainly, with quantity they might have been able to circle around and attack the weak points of the Penitent Sister mechs, but they needed at least twice or thrice as much mechs to pull off such a plan.

The reinforcing mechs of the Allidus Alliance fared little better. Even though the Avatars had finally met their match for once, the Larkinson Clan had brought more forces. Commander Dise clevlerly recognized an opportunity to hammer the Allidus mechs from the flanks despite the modest number of her Swordmaidens.

That left only the assault on the trade and escort vessels of the small Allidus convoy fleet.

The cargo vessels served little use in battle, but the light and medium carriers constantly pushed the Living Sentinels back.

The reason? Many of the pirate ships were armed!

The three considerably powerful destroyer-grade Judgement Lasers forced the Living Sentinels to escape from their line of fire.

Though the Judgement Lasers were well-protected in their recessed bow positions, this also meant that the medium carriers that mounted them had to rotate their entire hulls in order to aim their unwieldy weapons.

As long as the Living Sentinel mechs attacked from the rear, there was no risk of getting taken out by a massive laser!

Yet as the Living Sentinels discovered at the cost of dozens of mechs and almost just as many lives, the Allidus escort vessels held more weapons in reserve!

Only a handful of mechs remained to cover the ships. When Ves and Major Verle saw that the Allidus Alliance had foolishly dispatched too many of their mechs away, they thought the pirates overestimated their capabilities.

It turned out that Lord Drogen did have something to rely on after all. From secondary batteries that fired slugs at a rate of fire that equaled the output of a mech squad to strange missiles that created localized anomalies, the Living Sentinels who confronted all of this unorthodox firepower became confused. _{freeweɓnøvel.com}

"Get your heads back together, Sentinels!" Commander Magdalena Larkinsons admonished her flagging mech pilots. "Those ships aren’t as formidable as you think! Keep your distance and take out the exposed weapon batteries one-by-one. Don’t come close."

There was no telling what might happen if hundreds of melee mechs swarmed the armed vessels. The Allidus Alliance had already shown that it did not respect the taboos set by the Big Two. In the Sentinel Commander’s opinion, such people were capable of doing anything.

Though the casualties suffered by the Living Sentinels distressed Ves a bit, he knew that the pirate ships did not have the power to stop hundreds of Sentinel mechs.

The carrier vessels weren’t true warships. The weapons mounted on them at various places on their hull were jury-rigged in place by force.

In terms of energy supply, ammunition, protection and other factors, the weapons no longer threatened the Living Sentinels once they got their act together.

With methodical and coordinated ranged attacks, the relatively stationary weapon batteries were easily focused down. When even the thick layers of hull plating around the Judgement Lasers no longer held, the formidable weapons which managed to take out a Penitent Sister mech in a single shot no longer existed.

After stripping the vessels of all of their weapons and shooting their exterior sub-light propulsion systems into pieces, the Larkinson Clan successfully disarmed and immobilized the Allidus trade convoy!

Yet despite surrounding the pirate ships, the Living Sentinels received strict orders not to approach.

Ves stood up from his chair and hailed the flagship of the Allidus trade fleet once again.

When the oddly-dressed pirate commander appeared once again, he didn’t look nearly as confident than before.

"Larkinsons. You dare to affront the Allidus Alliance. You do not know the gravity of the mistakes that you have made." Lord Drogen hissed as his projection seemed to cross across distances in order to bore a hole through Ves. "Lord Hivex has already been informed of your.. Transgressions."

"Oh. I’m scared." Ves flatly replied. "Now can we get all of the bluster and posturing and discuss the terms of your surrender? As a rule-abiding galactic citizen, I give you my word that I will keep you and your men alive while affording you the dignity that you do not deserve. You are more valuable to the Peacekeeper Association alive than dead."

"You think you can force me onto my knees? Hah! Grow a beard before you talk big!" Lord Drogen snorted and began to tap his fingers onto a console out of the sight of the projection. "Make no mistake. Retribution is assured and will not take long in coming. The Big Two may reign over civilized space, but our asteroid-filled void shall forever remain free!"

The tone that the pirate leader adopted reminded Ves awfully of fanatics. A very grave possibility came to mind.

"Wait a minute, Lord Drogan! Let’s not be hasty here! All of your men don’t need to suffer from your mistakes!"

Lord Drogen contemptuously sneered at Ves. "You may think little of us pirates, but we have our own honor. Lord Hivex! Forgive us for failing in our mission! Let us serve you one last time. For Allidus!"

During the pirate commander’s decisive speech, Major Verle had already hastily commanded the Living Sentinel mechs to withdraw from the crippled Allidus trade vessels.

"We are aware of the risks. We will attempt to intimidate them into surrendering voluntarily. Usually, surrounding the ships with lots of mechs is an effective way to break the nerves of trapped ship crew."

Even if Supreme Lord Roda became determined to go down with the ship, his fellow Crona Lords might not agree!

"What about the base?"

"We are deploying our infantry en masse in order to secure and pacify Xiphard Base. While it wasn’t a high priority, we made sure not to neglect the training and outfitting of our foot soldiers."

Even if the outcome of the Battle of Xiphard Base had become clear, tens of thousands of unruly pirates still remained alive on the crippled ships, defensive posts and the base itself.

As long as they were able to use tools and weapons, they could accomplish an untold amount of mischief before they surrendered!

This meant that pacifying them was a very high priority. Ves did not want the desperate pirates to overload a power reactor, blow up an ammunition depot or vent all of the oxygen in Xiphard Base into space.

Their lives were precious to Ves! He already considered the soon-to-be-captured pirates to be one of his most valuable spoils of war. He could not bear the thought of losing so much precious assets!

As the Larkinson forces started to wrap the battle up, Ves saw no need to supervise the remaining operations. "Make sure to tally our losses as well. We will honor the clansmen and Penitent Sisters who have died."

"Yes, sir."

The Battle of Xiphard Base ended in an overwhelming victory for the Larkinson Clan. Yet Ves knew that much of his clansmen wouldn’t see it that way.

For the first time since they entered the Nyxian Gap, Larkinsons had died. Broken mechs could be fixed or replaced, but the loss of a precious mech pilot was not so easily remedied.

Ves looked down at the Larkinson Mandate resting on his lap. The Golden Cat closely felt the deaths of the clansmen who fell in battle. Her bond with them broke as their minds permanently turned silent and their spirits dissipated and moved to another realm.

Even Ves didn’t know what happened after these valiant clansmen died. He faintly hoped that at least a portion of their lives could be preserved through the Larkinson Network, but as he questioned the Golden Cat, it seems that not everyone could sustain a life after death like his mother.

Nyaaaa...

"It’s okay, Goldie." He whispered and spiritually stroked her head. "Death is a natural consequence of life."