The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4433

The Many Guns Doctrine adopted by the Santana Group also applied to its high-ranking mechs.

Since the expert pilots working for the Santana Group advanced while they were piloting the ranged mechs of one of its security companies, all of these demigods all transitioned into piloting the expert mech versions of their former machines.

Gloriana had glossed over the mediocre mechs of the Santana Group but paid close attention to their expert mechs.

"The mech designers who designed those expert hybrid mechs and expert heavy artillery mechs know what they are doing." She said after a time. "It is a pity that their corporate masters have restricted them from implementing too many of their own ideas into the designs."

Ves understood what she meant. The Santana Group's expert mechs all looked similar to each other. It was as if they all started off from the same standard template before subsequently being modified to fit the unique circumstances of every individual expert pilot.

While this was a relatively fast, reliable and cheap approach to designing expert mechs, there was far less room for innovation, personalisation and creativity.

Ves merely had to look at his own eclectic mix of expert mechs to see how much better they were. Each of his Larkinson expert mechs shared little to no resemblance to each other. They were all designed with their pilots in mind from the ground up and also incorporated unique design solutions that sometimes demanded drastic changes to an entire mech frame.

The Larkinson Clan's approach towards the development of expert mechs was much costlier and more time-consuming, but everything was worth it in the end when fantastic machines like the Amaranto and the Everchanger burst with incredible power as they fully complemented the talents and fighting style of their respective expert pilots.

Fortunately, the Santana Group was not completely stupid. The stronger the expert pilots, the more investment they received.

The high-tier expert mechs no longer showed any signs of standardization. They were truly unique machines that only resembled the lower tier expert mechs because their pilots had already gotten used to the same style of machines.

"All in all, the Santana Group is well-positioned to defeat swarms of starfighters and whittle down the defenses of smaller warships." Ves analyzed. "However, the relatively low calibers of all of their guns makes it a lot harder for them to deal effective damage to the larger warships of the alien pirate forces and the defensive installations of the Palace of Shame."

In short, the Santana mechs excelled the most at bullying weaker opponents, but suffered a great disadvantage as soon as they encountered stronger individual opponents.

This made Ves and many others worry because the force composition of the Santana Xenoarcheology Division Fleet did not excel at stopping breakthroughs.

As long as the alien pirates were smart enough, they would gather as many ships as possible and throw them all in the direction of the Santana mech forces!

Though the enormous massed firepower would mostly give the alien ships a lot of trouble, as long as the largest and most heavily armored vessels took the lead, many of the other ships would be able to escape destruction!

Fortunately, the Santana Group was aware of this as well and tried its best to split up its artillery mechs so that they would fire upon any approaching enemy vessels from multiple directions.

By setting up crossfire positions, the hybrid mechs and heavy artillery mechs could not only target the more vulnerable vessels in the rear, but also attack their weaker side hulls as opposed to their stronger prows.

Ves could vaguely feel the moods of the Santana mech pilots as he observed their mechs through the live feeds.

Vague hints of dread and resignation ran throughout their ranks. The Santana mech pilots had voluntarily applied to join the Santana Xenoarcheology Division Fleet after getting lured by higher salaries, excellent hazard pay and fantastic pensions for their families if they perished in battle.

The offer seemed like an incredibly good deal at a time as the salaries for regular service was not as nearly as generous.

Now that the reality of what they were being paid for began to dawn upon the mech pilots, they became considerably less enthused about their current assignments.

Their professionalism, their training and the encouragement of their mech officers kept them in line. Ves believed that they would hold, but he did not expect much brilliance from their performance. They were all cogs in a giant corporate machine, nothing more and nothing less.

When Ves gained a radically different impression when he looked back to his own mech legions. Pride filled his heart when he observed how each mech legion possessed its own character and how every mech pilot fought for far greater purposes than money.

A new projection came to life.

"Patriarch Ves, our troops and the troops of our partners are all in position."

"What is the response from the Palace of Shame?"

"There are many signs of activity at the alien asteroid base. We do not have a clear picture of what is taking place inside, but there are many indications that a large amount of movement is happening inside its halls. The alien pirates are mustering their personnel and readying their combat assets for a hasty deployment."

"Have any of the alien pirate groups sent out their warships?"

"No, sir. They have done the opposite. They have recalled all of their ships back to their respective berths at the Palace of Shame."

The asteroid base was large enough to function as a small province. The abundant amount of volume and surface area enabled every major pirate group to claim their own slice of territory and build their space docks and fortifications.

This caused the Palace of Shame to look like a miniature moon occupied by several rival powers.

Right now, the pirate groups probably found out fairly recently that the humans had finally arrived and intended to launch an assault!

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