The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3059

Chapter 3059: Bootleg Pendants

Just before the air battle broke out in earnest, the Avatar and Vandal mech pilots took advantage of the short reprieve to reorganize their lines and form a new battle plan.

The surviving mechs of the first wave were no longer fresh and battle ready as before. They had performed valiantly against the black mechs and it was unreasonable to ask them to fight as hard as before.

It was a pity that the current situation of the Larkinsons didn't look favorable. The second wave brought around 320 mechs to the battlefield, but that still left them considerably outnumbered by the 500 formidable-looking Diyast mechs!

Though the aerial mechs that had showed up also featured bland designs that lacked inspiration, their overall quality was still high enough to give any Larkinson mech a run for its money.

As many analysts and mech designers of the Larkinson Clan began to perform rapid estimates of the enemy's expected battle performance, their overall conclusions weren't optimistic.

"In terms of value, the two sides are roughly even. Our Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas are qualitatively better. In terms of numbers, the story is different. Missing a hundred or so mechs matters significantly when the gap between the mechs of both sides isn't overwhelmingly wide… The Diyasts will be able to take advantage of their superior numbers to gain the initiative and maneuver much more freely on the battlefield."

This was exactly what happened when both sides began to fight in the air!

The Diyasts didn't bother to communicate with the Larkinsons. Ernesto Diyast and his trusted men were completely consumed by their need to take revenge against the Purnesse Family! Nothing, not even a foreign clan with an unusual battle style would be allowed to stop the reason why they had invested so much time and effort in this attack!

As far as the Diyasts were concerned, the Larkinsons were just extensions of the Purnesse Family. Anyone and anything that dared to stand in their way of completing their revenge had to be eliminated!

The aerial battle began with a furious exchange of fire. The Larkinsons mostly employed energy rifles while the Diyasts continued to favor kinetic rifles.

Beams seared through the exteriors of Diyast mechs while solid projectiles cratered against the tougher armor of the Bright Warriors.

After the first few volleys, it became clear that the advantage in numbers allowed the Diyast mechs to exert considerable greater pressure at range. The Avatar ranged mechs had to invest more effort into dodging incoming attacks or sheltering behind other mechs in order to remain operational.

The different weapon types mattered a lot in this battle. Gauss rifles and other physical ranged weapons were heavily limited by the amount of ammunition that the mechs were able to carry.

However, as long as their rounds didn't run out, the rifleman mechs were able to inflict a formidable amount of damage in a short amount of time!

Positron rifles and laser rifles packed less punch on average. The beams had a tendency to spread out across the surface of a target and modern mechs were quite good at coping with excess heat.

It took time for the damage dealt by energy rifles to become telling. This was not a long time, but in a situation where the enemy possessed a greater punch, the Bright Warriors armed with ranged weapons would definitely be routed if this pattern continued.

[This damn mech model is too slow!] Mavelon complained as his mech got impacted by a gauss round that shattered some of its surface layers. [If I was piloting my old mech, I could have dodged this blow with ease!]

[Stop complaining and shoot these new enemies down! We might actually be defeated by these yokels if the Larkinsons can't get their act together.]

The four MTA mech pilots who took part in this operation endured a lot more pressure due to the changing circumstances. Even if they had the option to eject from their mechs, suffering defeat in their first deployment would become a huge stain on their records.

Their colleagues back in the Association would never ever take the four seriously again if they knew what happened!

Many other Larkinsons were aware that they had to do something special in order to reverse the current trend.

"Vandals!" Commander Melkor shouted over the command channel. "Suppress their rifleman mechs! Take them out if you can, but don't let them fire at us unopposed!"

"We're already on our way, commander! The enemy light mechs are running interference against us but we Vandals will make quick work of them. Just watch!"

The Vandals deployed in the field all piloted the Ferocious Piranha, which many Larkinsons considered one of the best mech models of the Larkinson Clan.

In their initial confrontation against their Diyast counterparts, the orange-and-grey mechs actually exhibited a slight but crucial edge in speed and acceleration.

The enemy light mechs were faster!

Yet when the range between the two groups of swift mechs decreased, the Flagrant Vandals actually gained the advantage!

Their hateful glows forced every enemy mech pilot to alternate between feeling abnormally calm to getting engulfed by overpowering fury.

Getting subjected to one of these glows was already bad enough, but the rapid switch between the two threatened to drive the mech pilots crazy!

Though the Diyast mech pilots were not weak by any means, the constant pressure exerted onto their minds imposed a significant handicap on their performance.

It was as if they were forced to waltz while their feet were stepping on heated coals! Who could possibly maintain a completely even cadence under those conditions?

The furious, high-speed dogfight that ensued resulted in rapid strikes and rapid takedowns.

Soon enough, the Diyast light mech specialists realized that they suffered from another disadvantage.

"Hah!" A vandal mech pilot laughed. "It takes more than that to drive your knife through my armor plating!"

The armor system of the Ferocious Piranha model was substantially better than that of the opposition.

It was extremely expensive to mount quality armor onto mechs that had to be as light as possible. Yet Ves was willing to invest more than most people spent on light mechs to ensure that his Ferocious Piranhas would not fall apart so quickly.

This was one of the reasons why the Ferocious Piranhas managed to fell more Diyast light mechs while their opponents failed to perform as brilliantly. The Ferocious Piranhas were much more suited for dogfighting than the opposing mechs!

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