The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4249

4249 /7079

4249 Progressing Too Fast

As the fight began to get hotter and hotter, the amount of casualties suffered by both sides increased at a faster rate.

Surprisingly, the amount of lives lost by both sides were fairly tame.

Many of the combat carriers of the Hex Army and the Golden Skull Alliance were already being run by skeleton crews. If the starships suffered so much damage that they no longer became operable, then a small number of crew members could still evacuate with ease.

Even the artillery mechs stationed inside the bunkers still had a way out. As long as they managed to flee in space, they could rely on standalone floater modules or other auxiliary flight equipment to continue their participation in battle.

Of course, these exposed artillery mechs attracted a lot of enemy fire as well. Their large size along with their awful flight characteristics in space meant that it became easy for mech units such as the Blackened Reapers to demolish their frames!

As a result, hundreds of cockpits ejected out into space with each passing second. While the enemy would love to shoot them down as well, any firepower spent on killing a bunch of mech pilots that did not pose any threat by themselves meant that far more threatening enemies would be able to continue to do their jobs!

As a result, the ejected cockpits, escape pods and evacuation vehicles launched by both sides were mostly left alone. The Fridaymen and Hexers had fought against each other during the Komodo War so many times that they had already developed an unspoken understanding about this matter.

It was not too late to round up the surviving enemies after winning the main battle!

"How are we doing so far, general?" Ves asked as his expression grew a lot more serious as the fight had reached a much hotter state. "We're losing a fair amount of valuable combat carriers As this artillery duel proceeds. Soon enough, we won't have enough ships left to proceed with our Trailblazer Expedition!"

Ves had already ordered his guards to send his children back to their mother. Though he would have loved to keep Marvaine and the others around to teach them the reality of warfare, it was too tiresome for him to supervise three energetic toddlers.

The little devils distracted him so much that he felt it was best to foist them onto Gloriana!

Now that the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim had become a lot calmer, Ves could finally focus on what was important.

"The problem is not as severe as it looks, Ves." The projection of General Verle replied as he continued to monitor the unfolding battle. "We have made sure to instruct the crews of our combat carriers to fall out of the battle line before they have lost total maneuverability. The ships are still operational to a degree, and whatever holes have formed in their hulls can quickly be patched up during emergency repairs. As long as they are still FTL-capable, we can restore them at our leisure."

"That won't help us if we lose this battle." Ves grimaced. "We will have to abandon a lot of hulls if we have to flee this star system. In fact, even if we win, we still have to leave behind a lot of derelict starships and mechs."

There simply wasn't enough time and capacity to salvage the enormous debris that would undoubtedly litter the orbit of Pima Prime V!

The huge amount of broken matter would serve as a consolation prize for the Gaugers regardless if they won or lost the battle.

Of course, as long as the Hexers demolished most if not all of Pima Prime's industries and infrastructure, then the Gauge Dynasty would not be able to do anything useful with the salvage for a long time. This was the ultimate goal that the Hex Federation set out to accomplish!

General Verle soon supplied Ves with an update. "The Sundered Phalanx have increasingly redirected their fire against the mechs on our side. It has become a lot more viable to shoot at our mechs and the mechs of the Hex Army at this range. The Gaugers know that destroying the opposing starships is not conducive to securing a victory."

"Damn."

"The damage we are taking is still manageable, sir. While our Transcendent Punisher Mark II's are more powerful than the equivalent models utilized by the Hex Army, they are much tougher and better protected. Rather than expending a lot of effort to destroy our relatively limited number of bunker mechs, the Fridaymen mech units are mostly focusing their firepower on the more abundant Hexer bunker mechs."

Ves looked at the large projected map and studied the lines and arrows that represented where different mech units directed their fire towards.

Since the Golden Skull Alliance's starships were partially taking shelter behind an enormous screen of Hexer vessels, it was already fairly difficult to target his Transcendent Punishers.

This gave Ves a bit of relief. The Hexers were upholding their end of agreement. After all, the Hex Federation possessed a lot of shipbuilding capacity and could replace their lost combat carriers a lot easier than the Golden Skull Alliance!

"When will we start the next phase of our deployment?" Ves asked.

"It won't be long now, sir. We will wait for General Alisky Victrix to dispatch the mechs under her command first before we follow suit. Our mid-range mechs and our melee mechs are fully prepared to fly out in the open and meet the enemy on the open battlefield. Our pilots have all trained for this. The difference this has made is not that obvious at this stage of the battle, but once our melee mech units collide against that of the enemy, it is highly likely that we will be able to gain an immediate advantage."

Ves silently agreed with this assessment. The actual performance of the Sundered Phalanx mech units did not veer too far outside of his expectations. The intelligence they gathered on the enemy was accurate so far and it truly did not seem that the mechs fielded by the Gaugers were unreasonably powerful.

However, there were still a lot of variables that could throw a wrench in all of their plans!

"How about the ace mechs?" He asked.

"We have not managed to detect any sign of the Neo Amadeus so far. Until the Gauge Dynasty releases it onto the battlefield, we are not in a hurry to present our Mars either."

Ves frowned in thought. "The Mars should be powerful enough to knock out several intact orbital space fortifications in quick succession. No matter how fast the Neo Amadeus can respond, Patriarch Reginald can easily inflict a lot of mass destruction on the Sundered Phalanx and the Kosic Ring in a short amount of time."