The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2289

Chapter 2289: Magnanimous Promise

Ves dreamt of different trees in the night before his fleet was ready to launch its attack.

His active imagination produced many different varieties of trees. Tall trees, short trees, wide trees, narrow trees, burnt trees, purple trees and more whipped past his vision.

What kind of tree did he want to grow?

How should he develop his design philosophy?

He truly wasn't sure.

It was easy for him to visualize the trees of other mech designers such as Ketis, Master Olson and Professor Ventag. Each of their design philosophies already put them on the path to growing a specific tree.

Yet Ves was still confused about the growth of his own one. It was not as if he lacked some solid goals. He just felt that multiple approaches were viable. Either of the two most common trees could become a good fit depending on how he wanted to develop his specialty.

When he woke up in the bed of his stateroom, he came no closer to resolving his doubts. This annoyed him quite a bit, even though Master Willix told him not to overthink this matter.

So far, he believed his development trajectory equated best to a short but wide tree. Though Ves felt a bit doubtful about growing a height-challenged tree, if this was how his specialty in the future, then it was best not to resist this trend.

"Who cares if my tree is short." He muttered under his breath. "The total volume of my tree is not any worse than a tall and narrow tree!"

He rose from his bed and followed his usual morning routine. His grooming bot took exceeding care in shaving off his stubble. Since today was the day that Task Force Predator launched its attack on Ulimo Citadel, Ves wanted to make sure he presented himself at his best!

After enjoying a brief breakfast, he strode to the bridge where Major Verle was already in the process of putting all of the pieces in place.

"Good morning, sir." Verle greeted him. "The Avatars, Sentinels, Battle Criers, Vandals and Swordmaidens are in the process of prepping and launching their mechs for battle. The Penitent Sisters are taking a little longer. The women have wasted too much time on their prayers this morning."

"Huh?"

"Apparently, they wish to gain the Superior Mother's blessing."

Ves chuckled at that. "The Superior Mother is asleep right now. They should try again later."

He sat down at the central seat that Major Verle vacated and watched the bridge officers make their final preparations.

The bridge of the Scarlet Rose was not exactly set up to direct a major battle involving thousands of mechs on both sides. Therefore, after a brief chat with Ves, Major Verle departed to the hangar bay in order to transfer to the much larger Redfeather.

Ves patiently tapped the armrest of his seat. Hundreds of mechs launched into space. More were on their way, though the 'bandwidth' of the carrier ships constrained their launch speed.

As far as the Black Cats were aware of, the Dry Snakes and their underlings were capable of fielding up to 4300 mechs, though their variability was great. The greatest source of uncertainty came from the newly-erected Ulimo Militia which gathered a number of previously-independent pirate outfits.

The Mirror Raiders had become a part of the Ulimo Militia as well. It was one of the major reasons why the Larkinson Clan gained greater access to the pirate stronghold's defenses.

As for the Task Force Predator, the Avatars, Sentinels, Battle Criers, Vandals and Swordmaidens were only able to muster around 1300 mechs.

Of course, this did not take into account the Penitent Sisters. They had suffered the fewest losses of any mech force so far. Their amazingly resilient mechs bullied every pirate mech they encountered due to their impenetrable defenses.

The only way for pirates to defeat their second-class mechs was to employ their superweapons!

This was why the Black Cats invested several weeks in undermining Ulimo Citadel's defenses.

A few minutes later, Calabast stopped by the bridge. Her black uniform caused a few people to turn their heads, though they quickly went back to their duties.

"Ves. The big day has come. Are you sure you want to proceed with this attack? Once you let your boys loose, you won't be able to go back."

"They aren't my boys. They are the soldiers of our clan. They fight on behalf of every Larkinson."

"Sure. Whatever you say, kid." Calabast crossed her arms. "Though we have managed to infiltrate many sections of Ulimo Citadel, not all of it is completely within our grasp. We cannot rule out the possibility that the pirates are still able to deploy weapons that are powerful enough to wipe out several of our mech companies at once."

Ves let out a deep breath. "I'm aware of the risks. I take responsibility for whatever consequence we suffer. I'm happy as long as we win this battle without losing the majority of our mech pilots."

In fact, even Task Force Predator lost 90 percent of its mech pilots, Ves could still live with the results!

He mainly wanted to preserve the expert candidates of his clan as well as some other key figures such as the Ingvar siblings and Dietrich.

As for everyone else, they were largely expendable in his eyes. Their lives and deaths only saddened him on a general basis. He doubted whether he would shed an actual tear.

The bigger reason why he wanted to avoid losing most of the lives of his clansmen was because he wanted to retain his standing in the clan.

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