The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2656

Chapter 2656: Old Survivors

Two different fleets were locked in struggle!

Task Force Umbra along with extra forces dispatched by the Praetor Clan and the Planat Clan barreled down onto the Golden Skull Alliance's fleet with hatred driving them onwards.

The Fridaymen hated the Larkinsons and their leader!

The Praetors and Planats resented the Crossers!

Much of the excitement that took place in the beginning phases of battle centered around the Komodans. The result of the artillery duel between the Transcendent Punishers and the elite ranged mech troops of the Friday Coalition had far-reaching effects.

Despite involving a relatively small quantity of mechs, the clear advantage secured by the Ylvainan artillery mechs left them free to train their prodigious firepower against the advancing carriers and mechs of the opposition!

That did not necessarily mean that the thousands of other Fridayman ranged mechs were incompetent. They just excelled in a different form of combat. They placed less emphasis on long-ranged precision and more on medium-ranged suppression and skirmishing.

The rifleman mechs of the 1002nd Holvein Grenadiers, 77th Corundian Giants and other elite mech regiments numbered much more than the contingent of 125th Destiny Hammers and 219th Witch Slayers.

Yet much of their laser beams and gauss rounds slammed ineffectually against the thick hulls of the opposing starships.

While the damage onto the Larkinson vessels kept accumulating, the lifespans of the targeted combat carriers in question did not diminish fast enough!

Even if the combat carriers finally succumbed under all of the weight of fire, their destruction accomplished little else besides robbing their owners of a bit of cover.

Escape pods launched towards the rear minutes before the vessels drifted out of control or ruptured when their structure was methodically torn apart.

Billions of pieces of debris flung in each direction as other starships exploded as critical power reactors or other volatile components reached critical levels!

Not every evacuating crew member managed to make it back to the Spirit of Bentheim.

Plenty of escape pods were shot down by errant attacks or deliberate shots.

Deadly debris could also shred the vulnerable shells keeping their occupants protected against the hazards of space.

Sometimes, escape pods arrived at the flagship of the Larkinson Clan intact, only to deliver a corpse as an intense burst of radiation turned its occupant dead!

The battle was becoming more and more tragic as the range between the two fleets continued to shrink!

As destruction rained down on both sides, a group of expert pilots gathered together in the hangar bay of the largest capital ship on the battlefield.

The Hemmington Cross was at least a kilometer longer than the Spirit of Bentheim. The fleet carrier was also considerably thicker, though that came at the expense of mobility and other properties.

The ship endured significant attacks from the beginning. The Praetors and Planats had focused much of their firepower on the pride of the Cross Clan, but their bombardment only resulted in surface damage.

The ship may not be as well-armored as other fleet carriers, but she was still a vessel built for war!

It was not a problem for the huge vessel to endure the firepower outputted by thousands of enemy mechs for an extended amount of time!

If that wasn't enough, the Crossers also adopted the same tactic as the Larkinsons. Numerous combat carriers flew in front of the Hemmington and used their considerable bulk to block the enemy from compounding the damage inflicted onto the Crosser flagship!

Of course, the Crossers did not have much luck in felling the enemy capital ships eithers. Both the Praetors and Planats had committed one fleet carrier each to this operation.

The Praetors had dispatched two different capital ships. The first one was the Vindicator 35, a fairly average fleet carrier with a total capacity of 500 mechs. Despite her lack of strengths and weaknesses, the Vindicator 35 was a versatile and useful capital ship that served the Garlener clan well.

The second fleet carrier was even bigger. Capable of carrying 700 mechs, the Palmis Crislin was almost just as ludicrous as the Hemmington Cross. She also happened to possess the same faults as her armor and mobility were not very good.

The Planat Clan dispatched just a single capital ship. Compared to the other capital ships, the Soaring Eagle performed below average, reflecting the relative weakness of the Planat Clan. Capable of holding 450 mechs, the Soaring Eagle was a fleet carrier that was past her time. Her aging hull may still be serviceable in contemporary battles, but she was destined to be replaced at any time!

If the two clans of the Becker Tribe only brought these capital ships, then the Crossers would have gone on the offensive by now. Yet the clans that had turned their coats had also brought 51 combat carriers, though several of those vessels were already taken out of action!

Both sides knew that this was just the prelude. They had clashed many times after the Cross Clan lost its warlord and ace pilot. They roughly knew what both sides were capable of. As clans who used to be part of the same tribe, the intelligence they possessed on each other mechs, starships and mech pilots was still relevant.

The Crossers knew that they were the disadvantaged compared to their opponents, but they were already used to these circumstances.

Venerable Linda Cross was a space knight specialist. With a piloting career spanning over three decades, she and her expert mech were countless times more formidable than Venerable Jannzi Larkinson and her Shield of Samar!

Venerable Linda's expert mech, the Amphis, was a formidable medium space knight that boasted unparalleled defense but also considerable offensive capabilities.

The most notable weapon system on the Amphis was its compact shoulder-mounted laser cannon arrays. Able to output 6 powerful laser beams at the same time, the Amphis was capable of suppressing powerful enemies or wiping out many weaker opponents without needing to close the distance!

Venerable Banner Cross was responsible for providing more powerful ranged solutions. The Leskin, his expert rifleman mech, was armed with a special heavy multi-rifle that was able to output many different types of damage. The Leskin was also incredibly fast and mobile, allowing it to outpace every other expert mech aside from lighter machines!

The oldest surviving Crosser expert pilot also happened to pilot the fastest expert mech in the possession of the Cross Clan. Venerable Imaris Cross may be over 80 years old, but his slightly-declining reflexes was still good enough to pilot the Conavis Mer, a very agile light skirmisher. Even if Imaris fumbled for some reason or another, his expert mech's formidable active and passive ECM systems had always managed to rescue him from a difficult situation.

As for Patriarch Reginald Cross, his expert mech was the most formidable and most valuable expert mechs of them all. He boarded the cockpit of the Bolvos Rage, a hefty medium hybrid mech that possessed a myriad of close and medium range solutions!

The Bolvos Rage's most formidable weapon was an axe made out of mysterious exotics and other materials. The weapon did not possess any special gimmicks, but it didn't need any. The axe was both hard and sharp, allowing the Bolvos Rage to hack through most shields in a single blow!

The hybrid mech also carried a shotgun. The weapon was notable for its huge threat against other expert mechs. It was capable of firing specially-manufactured pellets that was very effective in exhausting resonance shields!

The only downside was that the defection of its high-ranking mech designers left the Cross Clan with no means to produce additional shotgun shells. _{freewēbnoveℓ.com}

The Crossers had lost the formulas.

Patriarch Reginald had already requested Professor Cortez to reconstruct them or develop a viable alternative. That would take time, however, so the expert mech only had a limited amount of shells at its disposal.

The Bolvos Rage actually integrated several other weapons and modules in its frame. The high-tier expert mech surpassed the narrow specializations that the local mech community favored. Hardly any enemies knew what to expect when they faced the expert hybrid mech in battle!

Patriarch Reginald Cross briefly closed his eyes before fury entered his gaze!

"Our time has come. Let us launch and meet our old enemies!"

Four glowing stars rocketed out of the hangar bay of the Hemmington Cross and formed up in front their fleet!