The Mech Touch

The lesser phase lords failed to heed the call of the Protector of Karnak.

Not only did they refuse to stand their ground and form a united front against the superdimensional ace mech, they all but abandoned their fleets and fled in different directions!

This was an incredibly clear display of cowardice and miscoordination that disappointed a lot of their mortal soldiers!

Their morale plunged and their faith in their accompanying gods deteriorated at a rapid speed.

While most of the alien soldiers proved themselves to be professional enough to perform their duties despite this setback, they had become significantly less enthusiastic and coordinated than before. The alien spacers and officers had definitely become a lot more distracted than before.

Saint Dise fulfilled one of her objectives.

She grinned wider even as the annoying lesser phase lords continued to split further apart from each other!

Regardless of whether she could only claim the heads of two or three lesser phase lords at the end, the fact that she was able to kill any of these younger native gods in an instant turned her battle partner into an ace mech that had to be avoided at all cost!

With so many lesser phase lords cutting and running, the two approaching human fleets recognized their opportunity to make a mark and accelerated forward at an even faster pace than before!

Given how much weaker the remaining organized alien forces had become, the Saint Commander decided to take advantage of the current situation.

Instead of staying in the bridge of the Tortuous Scream, the ace command mech made her way out and quickly launched into space!

This exposed the Minerva Mark II to the enemy forces, but the Saint Commander considered this to be inconsequential.

The appearance of the ace command mech above the flagship of the Premier Fleet immediately boosted every friendly human's morale!

Unlike the phase lords of the enemy, their own champions had demonstrated bravery!

Saint Dise continued her fight while being outnumbered on all sides.

The Minerva Mark II on the other hand became a symbol of the indomitable spirit of the Larkinson Clan.

She also painted a giant target on her front!

Ace command mechs always remained high-priority targets on the battlefield, yet the Saint Commander believed she needed to set an example for both the humans and the aliens.

It worked. The disparity between morale on both sides widened even further.

The human soldiers received overwhelming proof that their champions were much braver and more fearless.

On the other hand, the native alien soldiers felt even more demoralized due to the contrast between their champions and that of the enemy.

Even though they belonged to very different species, many native alien races developed similar ideas and perspectives on bravery and honor.

Right now, their own gods demonstrated behavior that would have gotten mortals executed if they tried to flee without authorization on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the human forces had brought just two of their 'false gods', but already set positive examples that transcended borders and race.

The consequences were subtle, but not negligible.

What was important was that there were many different consequences. Enemy soldiers reacted slower. Their leaders became less inspired. They all began to make more mistakes.

All of these problems might not sound too serious, but when they began to add up, their efficiency and combat readiness had dropped by a significant margin!

As for the Larkinsons and their allies, they performed better than usual. Not only were they overflowing with confidence, they were also eager to capitalize on the openings created by Saint Dise.

As the fleet slowly entered into more proper engagement range, the Saint Commander finally decided to properly deployed her Command Field.

Everything changed as far as the human soldiers were concerned.

Each of them felt the presence of Casella as if she was whispering in their ears, but deeper.

Her presence was not overpowering or overbearing.

Instead, she occupied an empty slot in the awareness of those she could reach with her Command Field.

She had made sure to keep her Command Field gentle. If there were mech pilots and other soldiers who felt uncomfortable with another person watching over their shoulders all of the time, then they could easily opt to reject her domain field.

Very few did so. Only civilians and the people who felt the need to hide the truth so badly ultimately chose to have nothing to do with Casella.

Very few Larkinsons of the Premier Fleet made this choice. There were not too many civilians among them, and their trust in their own ace commander was nearly absolute.

The people serving in the Bluejay Fleet were very different. It was natural for high-ranked officers such as Rear Admiral Gori Tensen or civilian mech designers like Jovy Armalon to politely decline to invite Casella into their heads.

However, the Saint Commander's reputation was so high among the mechers, fleeters and collies that plenty of them opened themselves up to her, though not without holding many parts about themselves back.

Casella did not attempt to pry. These people placed their trust in her, expecting her to utilize their strength without violating any of their strict rules.

In fact, each of the Red Three probably had a rule that should have prevented themselves from opening themselves up to an ace commander that did not belong on their side, but nobody had any desire to enforce this regulation.

As Casella's Command Field began to elevate the strength of every machine but particularly the mechs, many of the soldiers of the Bluejay Fleet got reminded why they chose to participate in this offensive operation against the native aliens.

They were doing what was necessary. This was more than a mission to them. It was a calling.

Defending red humanity against the alien menace was one of the noblest actions they could take.

As the Saint Commander's presence grew more intimate, many of these soldiers suddenly learned that Casella Ingvar shared the same ideal.

"Larkinsons or otherwise, it matters not. Today, we are red humans and comrades in arms. We fight for many different purposes, but one stands above all, and that is to fight for the continuation of our civilization in this dwarf galaxy. We fight so that our children and grandchildren will still have a friendly human territory to go home to and feel at peace. This is a future that each of you wish to come into fruition, so take heart and pay no attention to our differences. So long as you fall under my command, I promise that I shall leverage your strength to the best of my ability."

While the ace commander did not add much substance to her words, she was able to convey her sincerity and belief in their common cause to everyone.

The Larkinsons but especially the soldiers of the Red Three loved her even more for it. No matter how wary they may feel about opening themselves up to her Command Field, much of their hesitation melted away as they truly felt that they should not nitpick over their many differences.

"Arise, my Knights, and take up my banner. Your faith in me shall be rewarded. I freely grant my strength to you. Use it to exact devastation on our foes."

The mechs of the Bluejay Fleet opened fire first. Their resonance-empowered energy weapons packed a punch and many of them were also unerringly accurate at longer ranges.

The long-ranged energy beams did not rake across the orbital space station or the distant enemy battleships.

Their firepower at this range was not good enough to seriously deplete any of the energy shields.

No. Saint Commander Casella Larkinson instead imbued her Knights with more than a fraction of her true resonance.

She pushed on their mech pilots to accept her skill and judgment, but the combination between the two enabled the mechs armed with long-ranged armamemts to accurately strike and take down enemy phasefighters!

"So many."

Phasefighters had become a lot more ubiquitous compared to the previous ages. The gathered intelligence estimated that there were at least 13,000 of them in the star system.

The estimates turned out to be accurate.

So many phasefighters had begun to advance. Their alien pilots were not content with waiting until the human mechs got closer.

The alien pilots did not expect their advance to go unanswered. The humans often tried to whittle down their numbers, but there was only so much their weapons could do from a distance.

Normally, energy beams had a hard time trying to hit any of the strike craft, particularly when they adopted loose formations and allowed the pilot to fly forward in an unpredictable manner.

Yet this time, the Commandeered mechs struck with the power of quasi-expert mechs and the accuracy of an actual expert mech!

This potent combination resulted in a hit rate of over 30 percent, which was quite respectable under the circumstances!

Phasefighter after phasefighter collapsed after getting struck several times in a row by unerringly accurate energy beams.

This shouldn't be happening either!

Each of the craft had been designed to fight against first-class humans, so their designs reflected this ambition. The azure energy shields that these modern phasefighters relied upon were tuned to withstand dozens if not over a hundred attacks launched by first-class multipurpose mechs!

Yet what actually happened was the long-ranged attacks launched by a couple of hundred mechs only needed to land three to six hits to strip the energy shields from the phasefighters.

As soon as they lost their protection, it only took a single accurate strike to cripple or destroy them outright!

The native aliens, already unbalanced by the cowardice demonstrated by their native gods, scrambled to adapt.

They put more effort into performing individual evasive maneuvers.

While this caused the alien pilots who were bad at it to become particularly attractive firepower magnets, it at least enabled the more skilled phasefighter pilots to survive longer.

Yet when the distance between the two sides started to close, the phasefighters became even more miserable.

The Commandeered mechs began to unleash even more weapons in their direction.

On the side of the Premier Fleet, the Dracoloids and the Omega Threshers began to showcase their strength in different ways.

The Dracoloids advanced forward with open aggression. The Commandeered dragon mechs might excel in short-ranged combat, but they were far from helpless while they were still attempting to close the distance to their enemies.

As soon as the leading elements of the enemy phasefighters entered into medium range, the Dracoloids struck with a modest ranged weapon complement of 4 integrated gauss cannons and 2 integrated plasma guns.

Although the Dracoloid did not have that many weapon systems, each one definitely inflicted serious damage upon impact.

Of course, since they all fired slower-than-light projectiles, their accuracy was normally difficult to maintain even at medium ranges.

Yet when Casella put her superhuman marksmanship skills at the disposal of the Dracoloids and their Larkinon mech pilots, the dragon mechs found ways to raise their hit rates.

The resonance-empowered gauss rounds and plasma bolts took an even greater toll on the energy shields than the native aliens calculated.

Then there were the Omega Threshers.

The other combat-oriented first-class multipurpose mech chosen by the Larkinson Clan was this model.

It had many different ranged weapon systems. The Omega Thresher boasted 6 integrated Omega Laser Cannons, and Casella instructed the machines to make sole use of this weapon system.

The performance of the Omega Threshers at long range was already impressive due to their potent combination of signature weapon systems.

The Omega Lasers hit harder than conventional laser weapon systems. They also expended energy like nothing else, which meant that the Omega Thresher often found itself forced to leave its other weapon systems dormant just so the pilot could focus fully on hitting the formidable aliens with his most accurate weapon systems.

Under the control of the Saint Commander, the Omega Threshers easily managed to down one phasefighter after another after landing only 4 attacks from the Omega Laser Cannons!

The phasefighters continued to lose numbers like crazy. Only a short time had passed, and already they had lost over a thousand strike craft.