The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4325

As the Larkinsons continued to preoccupy themselves with launching planetary raids and handling the aftermath of the battle in orbit, Ves eventually attended an important meeting.

Enough hours had passed for the Larkinson Army to rescue its trapped mech pilots and tally most of the gains and losses.

"Let's start with the unpleasant news first." Ves spoke shortly after he entered the virtual meeting room. "How many ships have we lost?"

The Larkinsons attending the virtual meeting turned all their heads towards Chief Minister Abigail Evern.

As the most senior naval expert in the clan, Abigail possessed the greatest understanding of the states of all of the starships that participated in the battle.

"At least 12 of our combat carriers have sustained serious damage to the point where they have lost power, FTL travel capability or both." The woman reported. "The good news is that our engineers are confident that they can restore 4 of the aforementioned starships to a state where they can keep up with the fleet by themselves, but that still leaves us with 8 burdens."

The possible permanent loss of 8 combat carriers was a serious blow to the Larkinson Navy.

"How far gone are the 8 most seriously damaged starships?" General Verle inquired.

"That differs from case to case, sir, but they can all be restored in time." Chief Ship Designer Vivian Tsai replied. "We can even restore them in-house if you want. Our Diligent Ovenbird doesn't even have to transform back into stationary mode in order to conduct the necessary repairs. The biggest downside is that we can only fix them one by one, which will take at least a year and a half. The efficiency is too low. It is best to leave this job to dedicated repair yards, but it is notoriously difficult to contract their services."

Ves smiled. "We may be able to swap our damaged or derelict hulls for intact ones."

Both Abigail and Vivian were familiar with the type of service that their patriarch references.

"If we can conclude a deal with those companies, then that is indeed possible." Abigail Evern looked thoughtful. "These kinds of swaps involve trading starships for time, which is unprofitable in the long term but incredibly useful for parties that need to increase their combat power as quickly as possible such as us. If we want to proceed with our original plan of embarking on the Trailblazer Expedition after we have concluded our participation in Operation Saturday Market, then it is not a bad idea to engage in this business."

Though there were Larkinsons who felt that the ship wholesalers were definitely getting the better end of the deal, there were no better alternatives available to them. This was just a part of the reality of the persistent lack of supply of starships in the Red Ocean.

The Larkinsons continued on to talk about the state of their other starships.

"Our other sub-capital ships have received various degrees of damage." Chief Minister Abigail continued. "Some have merely received scratches while others have lost entire compartments into space. Many of them are designed to take a beating, so there is no particular need for concern. We can repair the majority of the damage ourselves. There are only a small number of cases where it is recommended to put them in a drydock to perform more extensive repairs."

"How are our capital ships doing?" Ves asked. "I've noticed that several of them have taken an awful beating."

Abigail nodded. "That is indeed the case, but that is exactly how they were meant to be used. All of our armored vessels such as the Gorgoneion, the Graveyard, the Wild Torch have all received heavy damage to their exterior. However, all of this is within a controllable range. The crews have responded well to the pressure exerted by the Sundered Phalanx and made sure that none of our enemies were able to damage their critical systems."

The hulls of these capital ships were so large and thick that they could endure an unimaginable amount of incoming damage as long as enemies weren't able to concentrate their attacks on specific sections.

The Larkinson Clan actually owed a lot to Task Force Fury for providing a lot of cover during battle. The Hexers attracted the brunt of enemy firepower.

When Ves learned more about the condition of all of his capital ships, he became reassured that none of them had turned into liabilities that could slow down his fleet.

After holding a brief discussion on the damage sustained by the ships of their allies, the meeting soon turned to the losses sustained by the Larkinson Army.

General Verle took over the word at this point. "I won't go into too much detail, but in general our casualties are well within acceptable range. We entered the battle with around 10,000 fully operational mechs. Around 5000 of them have returned in good condition. 3000 more have received light to moderate damage that our clan can easily repair with the capabilities we have on hand. The remaining 2000 or so mechs are scrapped to the point where it makes more sense to fabricate new replacements rather than to bother with rebuilding the mechs from their broken scraps."

Ves paused for a moment as he took in the numbers. "The loss rate is on the low end of our expectations."

"That's not a surprise, sir." General Verle proudly grinned. "Our mech legions have all gained the upper hand when fighting against their Sundered Phalanx counterparts. As long as one side in a battle is able to gain a considerable advantage, their loss rate is drastically reduced. What is particularly commendable is that not a single of our mech legions fell behind at any point during the battle. We have made good use of all of our advantages. With excellent training, powerful mechs, high morale, good preparation and considerable assistance from allies, it would be a surprise if we lost more than a mech regiment's worth of machines. Our clan excels at building mechs. We can easily make up for the losses in a matter of months so long as we have enough carrier capacity."

Several people including Ves and Commander Casella Ingvar frowned.

"Our mechs are all alive." Casella noted. "At least, they are supposed to be. If we were anyone else, then maybe we can dismiss the loss of 2000 mechs without any further thought. This is not the case. Those mechs are all alive as you and I. We can't treat the fall of mechs like the Shield of Samar as a numbers game. We need to do more to honor their sacrifice in battle."

General Verle looked doubtful. "What are you suggesting?"

"Give them a funeral. Emphasize their contributions during our memorial service. All I ask is that we treat them as soldiers rather than our equipment."

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