The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4333

Hundreds of artillery mechs steadily bombarded one of the last industrial districts of Ardam with their cannons. A continuous stream of straight and powerful disruptor beams struck the titan shield, causing it to wobble and destabilize at a rapid rate.

Different from the models employed by the Hex Army, the Transcendent Punisher Mark II did not possess any 'traditional' artillery armaments.

This was not a surprise considering that the Larkinson Clan designed it to function as a bunker mech first and foremost.

Battles in space tended to start at longer distances. Terrain features were almost entirely absent in the void. Both of these factors meant that the best artillery mechs tended to be outfitted with weapon systems that could accurately pound distant targets that were within line of sight.

If there was any desire to attack targets that happened to be blocked by other obstacles, a mech force would usually field machines that were equipped with missiles.

Currently, the use of missile weapons happened to have dropped off in the Red Ocean. Though it was cheap and easy to build them and to equip them onto mechs, making use of them required the constant consumption of costly missiles.

It took a good amount of money to produce missiles that were fast and powerful enough to threaten mechs and other targets. Their warheads had to incorporate volatile exotics that were troublesome or expensive to source.

In a region that was suffering from a galaxy-wide resource shortage, it could be at least ten times as costly to make use of missile-based mechs as opposed to other kinds of ranged mechs!

As such, neither the Hexers nor the Golden Skullers fielded missileer mechs in larger numbers. They most definitely had their uses, but they simply weren't economical yet to earn their place on the battlefield.

This left the Larkinson Army in a rather awkward position. The Transcendent Punisher Mark II did not possess the capability to inflict heavy damage through indirect fire.

Sure, it was possible to utilize its gauss weapons as siege weapons by pointing them at high angles in the air so that their projectiles eventually dropped on top of their targets, but the specific weapon systems weren't designed or optimized for this kind of usage.

The Hexer heavy artillery mechs were able to remain in the outskirts of Ardam and fire their explosive or incendiary shells at any target in the city regardless of the obstacles in their way. The tall structures of the more developed parts of the urban districts could not block the arcing shells in the slightest.

In fact, the Hexers didn't mind destroying every structure in the way. The only reason why they did not waste too much time on it was because their time was too limited to pound everything to rubble.

This was why they utilized incendiary shells instead. They only had to fire a few salvos to engulf a rich commercial district in flames that were hot enough to slowly melt fortified buildings!

"The titan shield is about to collapse." Commander Melkor Larkinson spoke to his fellow legion commander. "Be sure to have your men knock out the turrets inside as soon as possible. They have already dealt enough damage to our knight warriors."

Commander Taon Melin curtly nodded. "Our artillery mechs have already set their targets in advance. We are already familiar with this routine."

The Avatars of Myth led the assault on this specific industrial district, but they did not particularly excel in siege warfare.

This was why the Eye of Ylvaine had split up its artillery mech units and attached them to numerous different assault groups. Otherwise the other mech legions might take ages to overcome the strong and resilient titan shields that the Fridaymen used in large numbers throughout their settlements.

Though the remnants of the Sundered Phalanx still retained a good amount of combat power, neither of the legion commanders took their opposition seriously anymore.

The Fridaymen had dispersed their mech units too much for any of them to be able to stop the attacks on different strongholds.

For example, according to the intelligence gathered by the Black Cats, the industrial district in front of the Larkinson mechs was occupied by just 200 or so mechs, with at least half of them consisting of Planetary Guard mechs.

The Avatars of Myth along with the Eye of Ylvaine brought almost twice as much mechs in total, and their overall combat power was greater than that of the machines of the opposition.

"The titan shield is collapsing in three, two, one, go!"

A loud frazzled noise spread throughout the air as the mighty titan shield finally succumbed from getting attacked by all of the disruptor beams fired by the Transcendent Punisher Mark II's.

The heavy artillery mechs no longer fired any disruptor beams from their luminar crystal energy cannons, but that did not mean their role had come to an end.

The Ylvainan mech pilots immediately opened fire with their gauss cannons and instantly bombarded the exposed laser turrets that had been firing at the Larkinson mechs on a continuous basis!

Meanwhile, the Avatars of Myth took action as well. Their melee mechs advanced forward at a steady pace and mostly focused their efforts on defeating the Fridayman mechs that were putting up a futile effort to defend their stronghold.

Though the defenders initially enjoyed a considerable defensive advantage due to the presence of walls, bunkers and other defensive fixtures, the Transcendent Punishers easily blasted them open by relying on concentrated bombardment.

After that, the Avatars of Myth sent forth Redaxes in order to widen the breach and chop apart any enemy mechs in the way.

In the end, the Avatars and Ylvainans succeeded in uprooting all forms of heavy resistance from the industrial district.

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