The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2684

Chapter 2684: Loyal to the End

The battle had devolved into a giant frenzy at this stage. Even though there were thousands of wrecks floating in space, the search and rescue operation was only a sideshow compared to the current undertaking of the expeditionary forces.

This time, the hunters had become the hunted!

Initially, the Fridaymen and the traitor clans entered the battle in high spirits. They confidently banked on their elite mech units and their superior amount of expert mechs to crush their opponents.

Against any other enemies, their plan may have worked. Even if they suffered a lot of casualties to earn their victory, it was all worth it as long as they were able to achieve their primary goals.

Yet once they fell victim to the unconventional methods that the Larkinson Clan had never unveiled in public, the attackers suffered too many setbacks!

A pallid shadow cast over the crews of the fleeing starships.

Aboard the Eager Condemnation, Aisling Curver ignored the frantic activity around the command center.

The Coalition Reserve Corps was hardly the best military branch of the Friday Coalition, but its professionalism was beyond doubt. The personnel taking part in Operation Head Crusher were hand-picked for both their competence and loyalty.

Their loss would no doubt hurt the CRC considerably, but they could also be counted upon not to leave anything valuable behind to the enemy.

Even now, the bridge officers were in the process of wiping out valuable data, installing booby traps and facilitating the upcoming end of the Eager Condemnation.

General Pierce did not even want to leave a single scrap of useful material to the enemy. Blowing up the ship was the best possible way to spite their enemies and prevent them from gaining more loot.

While it was still possible for the winners to pick up the fragments from the expanding debris field, this was a very time-consuming ordeal that would likely take months to complete!

As more time went by, the debris of the destroyed ship would keep spreading further apart, making it even more difficult to pick up the pieces.

"The Larkinsons and Hexers will never waste the time to pick up our scraps."

"Even if someone comes to salvage the remains of our grand ship, I would rather let the local scavengers pick our bones!"

Their deaths loomed close, but the remaining CRC servicemen were determined to withhold as many benefits from the winners as possible.

It had practically become an obsession to the doomed crew members!

"Hahaha! Our engineers have just trashed our deep strike FTL drives! We're not going to let any Larkinson or Hexer use our own tech to travel through the stars!"

Aisling widened her eyes when she heard this news. This was an incredibly serious measure. Destroying the FTL drives of a starship was nothing less than cutting off their own legs!

Even though it was clear that everyone was already resigned to meet their doom, she was still surprised at how quickly and decisively the crew of the Eager Condemnation had moved.

No hesitation!

No procrastination!

No excuses!

As soon as it became 99 percent certain that they wouldn't be able to bring back their fleet carrier to the Friday Coalition, the people in charge immediately destroyed their own means of getting away.

"Ah!"

A low rumble rang throughout the ship. This was definitely a sign that another propulsion system had been taken out by the enemy artillery mechs. _{freewёbn૦νeɭ.com}

There was no way to prevent the enemy from firing their guns at their main thrusters.

The only way for the Eager Condemnation to run from their pursuers was to turn their backs to them. If any ship attempted to shield their vulnerable propulsion systems by pointing their noses at the enemy, then they wouldn't be able to fly away anymore!

The only way to mitigate the damage somewhat was to fly away at an angle. This made it a bit more difficult to immobilize the starships completely.

Right now, this was exactly what Task Force Umbra was doing.

Each fleet carrier had split up. Aside from the silent Auralis, the other four Fridayman fleet carriers had opted to fan out in different directions. This forced their pursuers to make the difficult decision to spread out their pursuit forces. This was risky and dangerous considering that each Fridayman vessel still retained some bunker mechs and other damaged mechs.

Unfortunately, the Larkinsons and Glory Seekers were not deterred. Even though their mechs weren't in good shape and their mech pilots were very exhausted, they were determined to take revenge and maximize their gains!

Splitting up only delayed the inevitable. Even Aisling could see that. She considered her own fate.

She had a responsibility as well.

Master Huron briefly transmitted a message to her just before the crew of the Eager Condemnation trashed the quantum communication nodes.

"...I deeply regret your loss, but I will make sure your family and dependants are well taken care of. As the main technical supervisor of Unit L, you must wrap up this project as properly as possible. Please see to it that all of the spare parts, data banks, manuals and any other equipment related to the asymmetrical neural network project are properly disposed of. We cannot allow even an inkling of my research to fall in the hands of the enemy. The Gauge Dynasty and I expect you to do your duty. The Friday Coalition will prevail. Farewell, Aisling."

Due to the sensitive moment, Master Huron was only able to transmit a brief message. The rest of the bandwidth of the quantum communication nodes was already taken up by the need to transmit as much data as possible about the battle. Every sensor reading, every battle log and every other scrap of data had to be preserved to allow the Friday Coalition to figure out how they lost this battle.

If the Hex Army adopted the powerful methods of the Larkinson Clan one day, the Coalition had to be ready with a response!

None of the Fridaymen wanted to get caught with their pants down again. The introduction of the Blessed Squire and the Valkyrie Redeemer had already caused untold damage to their forces. Now that they gained a preview of some of the Larkinson Clan's next innovations, they had to make as much use out of this intelligence trove as possible.

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