The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3055

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Chapter 3055: Barbarians at the Gates

The situation on the battlefield careened in a direction that neither anticipated!

The black mechs that sought to break the Violet Estates and destroy the core of the Purnesse Family did not back down even when confronted by a small force of powerful Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas.

Instead, they stubbornly stuck around regardless of the losses they incurred. This signalled to everyone that the mastermind behind the black mechs was quite determined to complete their mission!

"They're not mercenaries, that's for sure." Ves grunted.

If the pilots of the black mechs were simply soldiers of fortune, they should have retreated after encountering serious opposition. While they actually outnumbered the arriving Avatars and Vandals, it was not easy for them to defeat a force of higher-quality mechs. Even if the unknown force managed to eke out a win, they would definitely suffer significant losses!

That might not sound so bad if they insisted on completing the mission, but the movements of the Larkinson Clan in space couldn't be hidden! Anyone with a decent monitoring system in space would be able to notice the second wave of combat carriers arriving hot on the heels of the first wave.

Then there was the rest of the expeditionary fleet to consider!

Why would any opponent stick around knowing that they might have to overcome thousands of high-quality mechs?

The Larkinsons weren't stupid. Ves, General Verle and many other clever minds deduced the possible reasons behind such behavior.

If the black mechs were piloted by actual crown terrorists, then their current suicidal behavior shouldn't be a surprise. The brainwashed idiots only cared about inflicting the greatest amount of damage. They did not possess any sense of preservation when they were 'activated'.

However, after the analysts of the Larkinson Clan studied the characteristics of the black mechs as well as the behavior of their mech pilots in battle, their conclusions were very clear.

"These unknown combatants are well-trained even by second-class standards. While they lack the intimate coordination and brotherhood of military servicemen, their skill and teamwork are clearly better than a typical mercenary force. The most probable identities of these mech pilots are long-standing members of a family organization's household troops."

This guess fit the image that Ves had built in his mind. The household troops of families, clans and noble houses tended to be extremely loyal to their cause. It was rare for them to be as skilled as military mech pilots, but their employers usually invested substantial amounts of money in their training.

"Calabast, have you been able to figure out the culprits of this attack? Who is behind these black mechs?"

"We haven't gathered enough data to figure that out." The woman spoke as she sat next to Ves. A panel of projected screens constantly bombarded her with footage and raw data. "While the few clues we've ascertained up until now have narrowed down the list of possible enemies who have reasons to target the Purnesse Family, there are too many interests in the Grand Loxic Republic."

"Damn."

Knowing who the Larkinson Clan was facing would have been quite helpful in predicting the enemy moves, intentions and amount of mechs it was willing to deploy. His clan had entered the conflict with too much haste and suffered from the gap in intelligence.

It couldn't be helped. The situation of the Purnesse Family was too dire. If the Larkinsons hadn't made haste, the Violet Estates would have collapsed by now!

"The arrival of the second wave is crucial. The black mechs are obviously banking on reinforcements to bail them out, but they aren't the only ones who are relying on follow-up troops to gain the upper hand." General Verle's projection stated as he continued to command the overall situation from the Graveyard.

Calabast frowned. "The problem is that our maneuvers are in the open and the enemy's movements are in the dark. Our opponents can roughly predict how many of our mechs are on their way while we have no clue how many enemy reinforcements are on the way. We don't have any suitable sensors in place that can detect an incoming wave of enemy troops."

This was something that Ves noticed as well. In fact, the Avatars of Myth and Flagrant Vandals weren't performing well against the amphibian mechs at all at the moment!

"We didn't enter the battle with the most appropriate mechs and loadouts." He gestured towards the main projection.

Larkinson mechs were helpless to prevent the black mechs from diving into the water whenever they got into trouble!

The Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas were quite weather resistant. They were designed to fight under stormy conditions and on untamed planets with fairly hostile environment conditions.

However, they were not designed to submerge in a large body of water!

Once they fell in, there was a significant chance that they wouldn't be able to get out!

If the Larkinsons were fighting against regular landbound mechs, then this battle would have unfolded a lot differently. Mechs on land couldn't swim through solid ground, so there was no way for them to escape a determined assault.

Yet because the Larkinson mechs were fighting against amphibian mechs that used the very oceans as their inexhaustible fortification, they were unable to down the black mechs quickly enough!

The Avatar and Vandal mech pilots who clashed against the black mechs began to grow more and more frustrated. Each time multiple Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas ganged up on a black mech, the target in question simply dove into the water and neatly avoided getting attacked on all sides.

Each time a lancer mech charged against an amphibian mech, the latter simply dipped below the surface and reemerged right after the threat had flown past its head.

The only downside to doing this was that the black mechs weren't inflicting as much damage to the Larkinson mechs as before, but it was still a good way to prevent themselves from getting defeated by a qualitatively superior mech force!