The Mech Touch novel Chapter 328

In a battle between forces comprised of over one division, the worth of a single mech had been reduced to almost nothing.

Mechs continued to fall and ships sustained more and more damage. The willingness to fight on and inflict more casualties to the opponents continued to burn unabated.

From the initial explosive start, the battle had turned into a lower-intensity battle of attrition. The two fleets widened the distance between each other and started rotating their spent mechs in and out of their carriers in order to replenish or perform some emergency repairs.

Even though the Mech Corps and the Mech Legion worked their mechs and mech pilots to the bone, they only had each other in their sights. No matter how much they suffered, as long as their enemies suffered with them, their willingness to get back in space remained steady.

The momentous battle had a profound effect on Ves, especially when Dietrich returned with wounds.

"Will he make a recovery?"

"He’s still in one piece." Someone said. "That’s good, right? When a cockpit is breached, the pilot is always dead. Dietrich only got away with a couple of hard bumps so he should be back on his feet in no time."

Ves truly hoped his friend would recover. The Whalers had suffered enough on the Glowing Planet and losing another ship from the Vesian sneak attack put them in a very somber mood.

He left the hangar bay and returned to engineering before stepping up to the command console again. Once he activated the plot of the local space, he noted that the two fleets still hadn’t shown any signs of retreating.

From his observations of this battle, he made two conclusions.

First, the mercenary corps and gangs stood no chance against a military force. While the mechs of the Mech Legion didn’t always trump over the mechs of the private sector, the level of training, discipline and coordination became a huge force multiplier that mowed down any undisciplined group of mechs.

"No wonder Dietrich hadn’t made it. As far as the Mech Legion is concerned, he’s a lone wolf with nobody else to back him up."

Second, the battle also showcased that the best mechs didn’t always prevail. Some of the bigger outfits like the Blood Claws fielded advanced mechs piloted by their best champions. These mechs cost about the same as the Bloodbeak and featured compressed armor and a robust flight system.

They should have stolen the show when they faced a squad of cheaper Vesian mechs, but in actuality the opposite happened. The Mech Legion had no scruples in ganging up on these elites with an abundance of frontline space mechs.

These frontline space mechs utilized designs that barely looked like mechs. They resembled spacecraft with arms, as their legs had been made redundant entirely. Instead, the designers extended the waist and stuffed some extra thrusters to enhance their forward acceleration.

Ves estimated that frontline space mechs like these shouldn’t cost more than 15 million credits. On the plot, eight of them managed to isolate an advanced mech from its escorts. They pelted the unfortunate mech from all sides and quickly overwhelmed its defenses, shooting it into pieces.

The unlucky mech pilot managed to eject in time, but the Mech Legion didn’t let it off and sent out a single frontline space mech to tear it to shreds.

"Numbers and skill matter more than quality in a large scale battle like this. The value of an advanced is marginal in these circumstances."

At best, a comech with compressed armor lasted a little longer in battle. If they pilot didn’t possess the skill to back up his daring, even a comech wouldn’t be able to save his life.

Ves understood now why the Mech Corps and the Mech Legion utilized frontline mechs and employed regular mech pilots with no prospect of advancing into a higher tier.

He also understood why the military let go of the advanced mech pilots who possessed some talent.

"It’s better to form a large, cohesive force than a smaller number of unruly elites."

The entire battle lit up a light inside his mind. His conception of mechs and their use on the battlefield evolved to take into account a new kind of situation. Even though Ves had read the theory on the use of mechs in massive battlefields, he almost entirely forgot about it. Only when he truly came in touch with mass death and slaughter did he admit that he’d been wrong.

He kind of understood the System’s insistence on proliferating his designs. A top mech designer should not only aim to design the most exquisite mechs for the most elite pilots, but they should also be able to design affordable mechs for the common mech pilots.

Witnessing hours-long struggle fanned his desire to design a cheaper mech. The quality and performance between the different bottom-tier designs varied wildly.

Ves had already seen the worst in the mechs of the Whalers. The designs utilized by the Mech Corps and Mech Legion possessed a lot more refinement without letting the cost get out of control.

Seeing them in action taught Ves a lot about how the mech pilots squeezed every bit of potential out of their modest mechs. From moving in unison to focusing their fire, the importance of teamwork could not be overstated.

He also understood why mech pilots enjoyed much more prestige than the mech designers who made their machines.

"The differences between mechs don’t matter that much compared to the training of the mech pilots who use them.

Just when Ves thought this battle would continue until the losses grew to an unsustainable level, a sudden accident on the battlefield changed the entire equation.

The Mech Legion occasionally launched a volley of torpedoes at the ships of the Mech Corps. Most of the time, the Volari Starhawks and the other regiments of the Mech Corps whittled them down before they impacted a ship, but the extended engagement had reduced their number to half.

In those circumstances, the Mech Corps still expected to be able to shoot down the torpedo volleys.

Yet the Mech Legion didn’t send out a regular volley this time. They held back beforehand to lull the Mech Corps in a sense of complacency.

Their next volley carried fifty percent more torpedoes this time.

The moment the Vesians launched their latest volley, the Mech Corps knew they’d fallen into a trap.