The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3045

3045 /7079

Chapter 3045: Pre-Battle Planning

The Larkinson Clan did not immediately look forward to rescuing this unknown Purnesse Family.

Ves and the clan had already stumbled several times when they became involved in great, state-wide affairs.

The clan and its twenty-thousand mech pilots may be incredibly powerful compared to many other private organizations, but it was impossible for its forces to catch up against the military might of entire states!

The Larkinsons only had to make one mistake before they set off the military of an entire state against them! Seeing as how the Purnesses were likely under attack by forces that might become the next ruling power of the Grand Loxic Republic, the probability that the military might intervene was not zero!

"It will be fine." Ves consoled himself. "The Loxians really don't want to escalate the unrest in their state too much. There are several other rival second-rate states in the Winged Serenade Star Sector that can easily attract a lot of organizations that might get cold feet if they think that the Grand Loxic Republic is no good anymore."

Besides, dispatching a lot of official military units against the Larkinsons might end up in disaster as the latter had already toppled a military strike force in the past!

This time, the effective strength of the Larkinsons and its allies had grown drastically. Any reasonable military strategist who studied all of the information available in public would conclude that not even an entire mech division would be enough to destroy the entire expeditionary fleet!

It was not worth it to dispatch even more forces and suffer guaranteed losses in return for allowing a troublesome family to leave the sphere of influence of the Grand Loxic Republic…

At least, that was what Ves hoped. Who knew if the masterminds behind the attacks on the Purnesse Family were irrational or had other goals. The Larkinsons might not even be able to complete its operation without suffering substantial losses if the opposition was much greater than expected.

"If we had more mechs, we wouldn't be stuck in such an awkward position." He muttered.

The fundamental strategic problem was that the safety of the expeditionary fleet had to be guaranteed at all cost. If the clan dispatched all of the mechs that it could field down to the surface, who would protect all of the immensely valuable and vulnerable ships in orbit?

Any assailant could easily deal crippling damage to the Larkinson Clan by downing lots of sub-capital ships or destroying just a single capital ship!

"Meow." Lucky sagely commented as he clung on Ves' shoulder.

"You're a cat. What do you know about our strategic considerations? Stop thinking about stuff beyond your expertise and worry about the next time you need to use the toilet!"

"Meow!" Lucky hissed.

Ves ignored his cat's displeasure and exited his shuttle now that it had touched down.

The Graveyard was a big ship, and one that possessed a distinctly different architecture and atmosphere than Hexer-built vessels like the Spirit of Bentheim.

The best way for him to describe the overall interior design of the Graveyard was that it was quite basic and industrial. Even though she was a thick and heavily-armored capital ship, her original owners did not spare much thought or attention on increasing her splendor.

Though that made the Graveyard unsuitable as a platform to receive foreign visitors and dignitaries, she possessed a no-nonsense air that ensured that everyone aboard remained focused on their respective tasks.

Right now, there were no opportunities to put much of her salvaging capabilities to use, so the combat side of the Graveyard was the most active at the moment.

An abundance of mech pilots and combat crew were moving about. They were working a little harder than before as they had all received word that they would soon take part in a new combat operation.

The Graveyard wouldn't be descending from orbit, though. Her formidable defenses were essential in defending the fleet and she was too big and massive to survive atmospheric descent anyway.

Ves moved past the hangar bay and navigated to the upper decks on his own. He had downloaded the complete map of the Graveyard and visited the vessel enough times to know his way around. He didn't require any special guidance from the crew either.

"Hello, patriarch."

"Hi, Lucky!"

"Whoa, the boss is here!"

The Larkinsons he came across greeted him with varying degrees of formality. Ves merely nodded to each of them before moving past. He was not obligated to do anything more and he was on business anyway. Gloriana did not allow him to stay out of the design lab for long so he had to make sure he could conclude his upcoming meeting and return before he exhausted his quota.

He eventually entered a spacious strategic planning compartment. Dozens of Larkinsons who specialized in many important areas such as logistics and tactics were already planning and gaming out their upcoming deployment on Trieden II.

It was rare for the Larkinsons to hold the initiative for once. Since they weren't getting ambushed by enemies coming out of the blue, the clan was determined to make extensive preparations!

"Over here, sir." Commander Melkor Larkinson waved from the other side of the giant projected battle map in the middle of the compartment. "You came just at the right time. We have just settled most of the details."

Ves approached his cousin while Lucky jumped from his shoulder and explored another area of the compartment. He carefully looked over at the projection which seemed to show the entire globe of Trieden II.

He could see the entire expeditionary fleet maintaining orbit while staying as far away from other artificial satellites over the paradise planet. Since Trieden II did not attract a lot of business, it only had some commercial space stations and some other inconsequential assets above its skies.