The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2824

Chapter 2824 - Fog of War

When the honor guard returned to the underground mech hall, they dragged a couple of limping and infirm comrades.

Against the onslaught of the ultralifers, the newly-formed and equipped honor guard performed quite decently.

After all, it was not easy to fight against opponents who outnumbered them several times over. Although the Larkinson soldiers mainly had Lucky to thank for their quick victory, they did not come out unscathed during the entire incident.

Ves remained impassive as he saw the varying states of his own men. Some had lost limbs. Others suffered internal injuries after an attack penetrated their combat armor.

One body didn’t move at all. The honor guard had suffered its first casualty when the soldier that initially got struck through the c.h.e.s.t suffered several gunshots to his head. The enemy troops managed to pierce the helmet and deal irreversible damage to the head.

There was no going back after that.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem that count would go any higher. One of the honor guards also qualified as a medic. Together with the high-tech treatment capabilities of their armored suits, none of the injured clansmen risked dying anytime soon. No matter what damage they suffered, as long as the head was intact, everything could be fixed or replaced once they returned to safety.

Nitaa looked disappointed as she marched up to Ves. "Sir, we successfully repelled the hostile infantry, but half of us have lost combat effectiveness."

"I know. I tracked the battle. You performed quite well against second-class opponents, I think. You killed 52 enemy troopers while only losing one of your own in return. That’s an excellent ratio. There is no need for you to feel ashamed of yourself."

"You don’t need to be gentle to us. Our performance is not up to par. We need to do better in order to live up to the expectations of our role. We cannot remain dependent on Lucky all the time."

"Meow." Lucky nodded his head.

The gem cat didn’t want to fight all the time either. Taking action was tiring, risky and not even his main purpose. Just because he had become good at it didn’t mean he wanted to kill people left and right whenever Ves encountered trouble!

Ves knew that Nitaa made a very good point. Up until recently, Ves invested much of his attention to strengthening the Larkinson Clan’s mech forces. His constant efforts paid off and his mech forces had become much stronger as a result.

He thought about what he had done to foster the growth of the Avatars of Myth, Living Sentinels and so on. He designed Larkinson-exclusive mechs that possessed unique advantages. He developed prime mechs that allowed his expert pilots to exert their strength to a greater degree. He invented battle networks to allow his mech pilots to pool their strengths and exert greater power than ever before.

On top of that, he also directed the attention of his clan to strengthening his mech forces. Many Larkinsons endeavored to expand and improve these vital troops since the founding of the clan. The leadership and institutions of the clan had become so fixated on strengthening the Larkinson Clan’s mech forces that other priorities didn’t get as much attention!

The lack of development of the Larkinson’s infantry forces had become more acute than ever now that Ves ended up in this situation. In a place where his own mechs were far away and where many indoor spaces only allowed the entry of human-sized combatants, he began to feel awfully exposed!

"I’ll allocate more resources and attention to strengthening my guard forces." Ves promised to her. "Considering my growth in status along with all of the dangerous areas we might enter, my threat level will only continue to rise. I’m already satisfied with the trajectory of our mech forces, so I don’t need to invest as much attention to them. Providing you with better gear is already on my list."

There were many more aspects that his honor guard and his other infantry forces had to work on besides acquiring stronger equipment. However, it took time and lots of continuous effort to raise the standard of his infantry from an afterthought to a reliable and powerful combat asset.

Ves thought about one of the discussions he held with General Verle. Considering how little attention his infantry received so far, he felt it was better if they stepped outside the shadows of his mech forces.

Even if the division complicated security matters, his infantry should nonetheless gain their own identities! Only in this way would they be able to take pride in their service!

Ves quickly studied the sensor readings from his Odineye to figure out what happened, but aside from seeing lots of people fall over or run around like headless chickens, he failed to spot a threat.

"I need to supply more power." He concluded.

Being able to observe several hundred meters in every direction was very valuable, but it left him dangerously ignorant of threats lurking beyond! The area outside of the Odineye’s current detection range was completely shrouded in darkness as far as he was concerned, and that was a very major deficiency!

While the underground mech hall he was in right now was not as well-equipped as a proper mech workshop, it still offered several useful amenities meant to make it easier to service giant machines.

Power supply was one of the most essential functions. Some tools and equipment required lots of power to function, and it would be inconvenient if they couldn’t be used because there wasn’t a source of secure and stable power output nearby!

Ves looked around and quickly marched over to the side. He reached out and peeled away a biometal panel that hid an industrial power outlet.

Such outlets were present in pretty much any area where mechs were being worked on. The only complication was that the outlet in this case was organic in nature!

"Well, electricity is electricity. It doesn’t matter if it’s being channeled by a regular cord or an organic cord."

Despite not knowing too much about biotechnology, the design of the power outlet mirrored that of a conventional one. After a few seconds, he roughly understood its operation and pressed a few buttons.

He performed some diagnostics and experimentally channeled external power to some inconsequential modules. After confirming that the external power source worked normally enough, he cautiously directed more and more power to the Odineye.

Due to its relative size, Ves had little choice but to mount it to the back of his combat armor. Right now, the orb glowed brighter and brighter as Ves received more sensor input.

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