The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3332

Chapter 3332: Ves the Plague Carrier

The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers entered the territory of their enemy once again.

Not many of them thought this was a good idea. They all retained bad memories of their first entry into the Vulcan Empire.

However, the circumstances were different this time.

The expeditionary fleet might not have been able to get back up to its previous strength, but the mercenaries contracted by the Larkinson Clan made up for a lot. With at least ten-thousand extra protectors by its side, the Golden Skull Alliance became even less appealing as a target! _{freeweɓnovēl.coɱ}

"You're moving in too soon, Ves." Chief Minister Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson said to Ves over the comm.

"Relax. The Vulcanites have greater threats to contend with than us." Ves replied to the projection. "Even if they have finally smarted up and stopped their ridiculous civil war, there are way too many human invaders for them to spare any attention to us. We'll be avoiding all of the major hotspots where most of the dwarven troops are concentrated."

"What if there are Vulcanites that will stop at nothing to take revenge on us? We have attracted a lot of heat if you didn't know that already."

"We're spending a lot more effort scouting the way ahead. Also, we're a lot more on guard against the dwarves this time. The Black Cats are constantly monitoring different indicators to see whether there are any dwarven forces going after our fleet."

"All of that sounds nice, but I have heard nothing that makes me confident that our safety is guaranteed. You are relying on too many assumptions about the dwarves that we won't end up well if any of them turn out to be wrong. That is also why we almost met our end last time."

Ves grimaced. Raymond indeed made a good point. They had been too overconfident and did not assume that the dwarves would be crazy enough to attack the expeditionary fleet despite obtaining a special permit.

"Back then, we did not fully account for the internal dynamics of the Vulcan Empire. We know a lot more about the dwarves now that we're entering their territory for the second time. I think we can trust our intelligence organization to account for all of the ways the dwarves might plot against us, assuming they can even spare the attention."

That was still highly questionable. All of the core star systems held by the dwarves were under threat! The Vulcanites could not afford to lose too many of them and had decisively concentrated most of their mech forces to these key nodes.

Under these circumstances, it was stupid to withdraw at least four mech divisions to go after the Golden Skull Alliance and its mercenary escorts! Even if the Vulcan Empire had a lot more forces at its disposal, its military forces had to cover a lot of important star systems. Removing 40,000 from the defensive line might lead to an early collapse and loss of a strategic location!

Even though the war situation looked awful to the Vulcanites, the stubborn dwarves did not intend to lie down and let the human invaders walk all over their stocky bodies. As long as they withdrew their forces from their outlying provinces and concentrated their defenses in the center around the Uriburn Province, they could still hold out for a moderate amount of time!

As long as they bought enough time and forced the human invaders to occupy a large amount of dwarven territory, the invasion would inevitably slow down.

It was not easy to hold all of those conquered dwarven territories! The dwarven residents of all of the conquered planets did not like their new human overlords and did not hesitate to take up arms and mechs to form local resistance movements!

The only way to clean up these troublesome planets was to wipe out all of the dwarves who lived there, but no one dared to do so. Not only did the MTA take a dim view on war crimes, butchering Vulcanites wholesale was extremely bad optics.

It was one thing to take down the Vulcan Empire. It was another thing for humans to wipe out every dwarf in the Fermi Star Cluster! No matter how much the local humans hated their dwarven neighbors, they still had to make sure their conduct conformed with the galactic norm.

In any case, there were plenty of ways to make the dwarven problem disappear after the main invasion was done. Just like how the Vulcanites slowly displaced the human population when they took over Smiling Samuel, the human invaders finally had the opportunity to turn the tables!

Of course, none of the aftermath had anything to do with Ves. He just opened up the Vulcan Empire for his own purposes. Just as the Empire of the Lost and all of the other human states took advantage of his deeds, Ves also exploited their invasion to attract all of the attention of the dwarves away from him and his fleet.

Due to this, the relationship between the expeditionary fleet and the other human forces were a bit complicated.

For example, no one wanted to get close to the supposed masterminds of the Vulcan Empire's fall from grace.

Whenever the Golden Skull Alliance encountered another ship or fleet, the latter always tried to keep its distance!

It was as if those other human forces were afraid of causing misunderstandings and attracting the ire of the Larkinson Clan and its increasingly infamous patriarch. Not even well-equipped military fleets wished to remain in the presence of the foreigners that had upended the entire geopolitical situation of the Fermi Star Cluster.

"Why are they avoiding us so much?"

"Isn't it obvious? The states that have dispatched these troops are afraid of setting you off. They don't want to become the next Vulcan Empire!"

That was a ridiculous reaction. Ves didn't think he was that scary.

Of course, the leaders of the Ferril Province also held this sentiment and paid for it. With the Vulcan Empire as the grand prize, the leaders of the various human states did not want to take any risks. They had all instructed their own troops to avoid the Golden Skull Alliance like the plague.

Sooner or later, Ves would leave this star cluster and continue his journey to the Red Ocean. The people of the Fermi Star Cluster couldn't wait for him to finish his business and send him off! The sooner this walking disaster left their neighborhood, the better!

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