The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2269

Chapter 2269: Unified Doctrine

Ves gained much from his short visit to the Princely Jackal. Observing the Akkara heavy cannoneer mechs of the Flagrant Vandals not only granted him a better feel for huge machines, but also sparked a fruitful discussion with two different people.

He found it rather surprising that both Zanthar and Commander Orfan helped expand his views on heavy mechs. The two weren't known for their wisdom and wealth of knowledge. Yet their different perspectives and life experiences caused them to illuminate new angles that Ves previously overlooked.

On the shuttle ride back to the Scarlet Rose, Ves briefly activated his comm in order to call for a meeting with Major Verle. He had a lot to talk about and wanted to get started right away once he returned.

"Meow."

Meanwhile, Lucky squinted his glowing green eyes as Zanthar eagerly tickled his pale bronze exterior. Even if the surface felt like a mix of solid bone and metal, the mechanical cat appeared to be quite sensitive!

"Can I have a cat like Lucky too?" Zanthar smiled as he enjoyed this moment.

"Lucky is unique. You can't afford a cat like him. Perhaps it will be different when our Larkinson Clan becomes a first-class power, but don't get your hopes up. If you want a pet, then you are better off looking for something organic."

Ves had received this question many times ever since he obtained the gem cat. There was no way that he would tell anyone the truth. He would simply tell people that Lucky was a Rubarthan product or something. That quickly ended the questioning.

"Awww…"

The teenager looked disappointed, but many people simply couldn't have nice stuff. The galaxy was filled with space peasants who looked at Terrans, Rubarthans, other first-raters, the true spaceborn, mecheers and fleeters with envy.

Ves knew it was pointless to feel jealous at those who were born at a much higher station than himself. Rather than engage in unproductive behavior, he might as well invest in himself in order to improve his ability and qualifications. Slowly but steadily, he would catch up and even surpass those privileged people.

Once the shuttle arrived at his personal ship, Ves exited the vehicle and quickly returned to his stateroom. With Lucky wandering off and Nitaa taking up an unobtrusive guard position, Ves readied his thoughts until Major Verle arrived.

"Please take a seat, major."

The middle-aged man in uniform did so. "What's this about, sir? You sounded quite eager over the comms."

"I developed some doubts in the process of designing our upcoming heavy artillery mech. I decided to seek some consultation and received some advice…"

Ves quickly explained what he had been up to. He also enumerated the most important insights he gleaned from studying the Akkara mechs.

"Several aspects of heavy mechs stand out to me. First, heavy mechs are incredibly specialized. By sacrificing mobility, they also sacrifice flexibility. Using them effectively in battle becomes more challenging, and many options simply aren't available due to their limitations."

Major Verle nodded as if he had long understood this point. "It is very easy to squander heavy mechs. Commanders need to pass special courses in order to gain the qualification to command them. They are so valuable that their loss can easily cripple a unit."

"This leads me to the second point. To make effective use of their pronounced strengths, we need to put more effort into manipulating the circumstances of the battle in our favor. Heavy mechs are assets that require time and patience to employ. Once we have set up the perfect circumstances, their extreme firepower or other strengths can be played to the fullest!"

"That's why heavy mechs exist, sir. A smaller formation consisting of heavy mechs can actually achieve far greater results than a larger formation of medium mechs. This is because you can concentrate much more firepower or defenses in a much smaller area."

"Thirdly, heavy mechs aren't very good by themselves." Ves pressed on. "They lack mobility and flexibility, hence they can't take the initiative. Heavy mechs perform at their best when they are part of a larger unit that boasts faster mechs. Combining different mech types and different mech classes is the key to achieving victory against many different opponents. In order to do that, our clan needs to develop a coherent strategy and configuration to make sure all of the pieces of the puzzle fits together."

Major Verle looked quite pleased when he heard that. "This is something that I have been working on in the past few months. Ever since you gave me permission to establish the Military Bureau, I haven't spent all of my time on unifying our personnel management and establishing rudimentary cooperation and coordination between our mech forces. With the help of some of the commanders and senior officers in the clan, I have been drafting a unified mech combat doctrine for the Larkinson Clan. The battles we have fought recently have allowed me to test, verify and refine its principles."

A unified mech combat doctrine!

Ves sat up a little straighter from his chair when he heard that. So far, the mech forces of the Larkinson Clan each fought in their own distinctive way. While the various battles against the Nyxian pirates allowed the Avatars of Myth, Living Sentinels and the others to become accustomed to working together, there was still a lot to go before they reached the same standard as the military.

"Tell me what you have come up with, major."

Whenever he designed a mech for the market or a specific client, Ves paid much more attention to the needs of his customers. Skipping this essential step when he designed a mech for his own clan was an unforgivable mistake. _{frёeωebɳovel.com}

The Battle of Marrakath System also highlighted the drastic difference that glows could make through this effect!

While it sounded great to achieve an easy victory through waging psychological warfare, Ves did not immediately embrace the notion.

"What if the enemy fields some sort of counter to our glows? The Friday Coalition's Masters and many other mech designers are already starting to research methods on how to counter my specialty."

"That's okay. I don't believe your glows can be negated so easily. At the very least, it is likely that those counters require very special solutions that only work against LMC mechs. The enemy will have to invest considerably in those counters in order to fight us on even ground. That is time and resources that they could have spent on something deadlier. Besides, I doubt most of our opponents will have sufficient counters ready. From our understanding of glow interactions, quantity is also a factor. Proportionally, no one fields more LMC mechs than our clan!"

That was true. Even if Master Olson and her fellow colleagues developed an effective counter to glows in the form of a mech, then one copy likely wouldn't be enough. An enemy would have to field hundreds, if not thousands of copies in order to effectively mitigate the Larkinson Clan's most notable advantage!

Against ordinary opponents such as pirate outfits, Ves doubted that any of them bothered to field any counter mechs. The only reason why they would do so was when LMC mechs became very popular in their region. Even if that was the case, that just meant the Larkinson Clan had become even wealthier, allowing it to field even stronger mechs!

Major Verle raised an important caveat. "We should be careful not to over rely on the advantages given by your mechs. Do you remember our first battle in the Nyxian Gap? We dispatched some Sentinel rookie mech pilots against some pirates in the company of some Bright Warriors from the Avatars. In the final moment, we ordered the Bright Warriors to withdraw, causing the rookies to become unbalanced by the sudden absence of glows."

"I remember." Ves grimaced a bit.

"As a result of that, Commander Magdalena and every other commander has made sure to prevent our mech pilots from getting too complacent. They need to fight well regardless of the presence of glows. This does not mean that our emphasis on psychological warfare has reached a dead end. Humans and aliens have waged psychological warfare before the emergence of your glows. There are many other levers that we can manipulate in order to obtain advantages on this front."

Propaganda, training and many other measures could all achieve some of the effects of glows. The main difference was that glows were much more directly applicable during battle while those other options had to take place beforehand.

On top of that, the Larkinson Clan also possessed another advantage that Major Verle wasn't entirely aware of. The Larkinson Network that bonded every clansman to the Golden Cat and with each other could also play an important role!

All of these measures had the potential to overlap, resulting in a qualitative disparity that was difficult to surmount. Ves readily agreed with Major Verle that the Larkinson Clan should pursue this advantage to the fullest!