The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2171

Chapter 2171 Limit Testing

The Sentinels lost 15 mechs in battle. Though all of them were still in salvageable condition and could be restored in working condition in a matter of weeks, the fact that the pirates managed to overwhelm them in the first place was a huge problem!

Commander Magdalena was livid. The Living Sentinels should have easily been able to wipe out Davy's Ghosts with their accumulated advantages. Yet the rookies had all shown that they were less prepared for battle than everyone thought!

Certainly, in a more normal battle, the rookies might have performed closer to standard. Under the command of Ves, Major Verle had deliberately stacked the deck against the rookies.

First, instead of dispatching three ordinary mech companies, he instead pulled out every rookie spread among the Living Sentinels and grouped them together.

The rookies had all trained alongside veterans and more experienced mech pilots. Now that they had been robbed of this pillar, they had no one reliable to turn to for guidance!

Second, Major Verle deliberately deprived the rookies from the supportive glows that they had been exposed to on a daily basis. They had to fight against the pirates without a single form of moral support!

It became clear that the rookies had become far too pampered by the glows. Their unexpected absence left them with little time to adjust, causing them to lose their composure to a greater degree than they should have.

These reasons and more all resulted in a fairly awful result. Major Verle had basically set up his own men!

As the person responsible for ordering Major Verle to screw over the rookies, Ves felt no remorse. He was always a believer in practical lessons, and there was no better way to drive a lesson home than to show the worst that could happen!

He didn't care whether the rookies shamed and dishonored themselves. Ves would rather humiliate his own men than to fawn over them and inflate their egos. Once they deployed in a serious battle, the failure they experienced today might take place with much more lives at stake!

The assistant mech designers that Ves had brought along this expedition all looked thoughtful and introspective. None of them experienced any actual battles up close. The most they knew about battle all came from viewing and studying archival footage during their student days.

As much as Ves resented the Bright Republic for its insistence of drafting as many low-ranking mech designers to the frontlines as possible, he was grateful for the harsh lessons he learned back then. The Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens had allowed him to acquire a much more comprehensive use of mechs and the difference that mech pilots could make.

Now, he hoped that all of his assistants learned some of the same lessons that he did in this practical demonstration.

"This is true mech combat." He told them. "They are never as clean or standard as the battle footage that you have seen before. The truth is that many of your teachers have never experienced a mech battle up close. When they select which footage to show to you, they are often affected by selection bias. They do not always understand the importance of the human element either."

This couldn't be helped. Ordinary mech designers had no place on the battlefield. The more talented and capable they became, the more they stayed away from battle.

As a result, a disproportionate amount of successful mech designers had never experienced any serious danger in their long lives. They always spent their time on stable planets and designed their mechs in well-guarded compounds.

Many of the academics and the theorists in the mech industry developed fantastic innovations and made amazing achievements. Yet when it came to understanding the messiness of actual battle, they were far inferior to the mech pilots they supposedly served!

Fortunately, not every mech designer possessed this shortcoming. Mastery experiences that allowed mech designers to relive the experiences of veteran mech pilots allowed the former to experience the complicated nature of battle at minimal risk.

In addition, a mech designer could always hire consultants or advisors who had lived through many battles. As long as the mech designer sincerely listened to the words of wisdom of various veterans, their mech designs would doubtlessly be better adapted to a chaotic battlefield!

Though Ves could have relied on these alternate methods to wisen up his assistants, he decided to aim for a practical demonstration.

Not just his assistants, but the rest of the Task Force Predator also learned their lessons!

Just because they were part of the Larkinson Clan didn't mean they were invincible! Compared to their counterparts from other third-rate states, the circumstances of the Larkinson mech pilots were numerous times better. Their mechs were all excellent compared to the machines fielded by regular outfits.

This was something that Ves had always dreamed of. He wanted to invest in a strong, loyal mech force that could help him survive the challenges to come. _{freewёbnoνel.com}

Yet Ves knew that all of that building up was partially meaningless if the rapid expansion in strength remained untested.

The outcome of the battle against Davy's ghosts only confirmed his suspicions.

His clan had grown too rapidly. If the mech pilots that engaged the pirates all consisted of trueblood Larkinsons, they would have never exhibited so many mistakes!

Cleaning up the aftermath of the battle only took a few hours.

The exhausted Living Giants expressed a bit of wariness towards the Larkinson Clan until they finally verified their rescuers weren't pirates themselves!

Commander Ulbert Rilven wanted to speak to Ves in person to express his gratitude, but the clan patriarch didn't bother himself with this trivial chore. Major Verle took over in his stead.

Instead, Ves decided to pay a visit to the crestfallen Living Sentinels. He boarded a shuttle with Lucky which quickly reached one of the light carriers of the Living Sentinels.

The hangar bay descended into silence as every rookie that participated in the battle had gathered together. Commander Magdalena Larkinson adopted a stony expression as she conveyed her disappointment in her men without speaking any words.

When Ves finally appeared, she saluted him. "My apologies, clan patriarch. My Living Sentinels have failed your test."

He dismissively waved his hand. "Tests are meant to push limits. Sometimes those limits break. That is not an inherently bad outcome. What is more important is to learn the right lessons from them and make sure the same outcome doesn't happen again."

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