The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4436

"The Adelaide Third Fleet has deployed its ace mech as well!"

If the Thunderer Mark II was designed to be the ultimate heavy ranged weapon platform, then the Jedda Sandivar was its opposite in almost every way.

The Jedda Sandivar possessed a slim humanoid mech frame that was covered by a dull black coating.

Though it had access to a pair of laser pistols, the twin kamas wielded by the ace mech betrayed its identity as a powerful light skirmisher!

"Wow! It's just like the Dark Zephyr, but much stronger!" Andraste chirped.

"That's not entirely correct, Andraste." Ves corrected his daughter. "Just because they are both light skirmishers doesn't mean that their configurations and design concepts are similar to each other. There are many differences between light skirmisher models, and you need to be more careful about distinguishing them from each other. If you leave out the differences originating from the tier of the mech and the properties of the mech pilots, how does the Jedda Sandivar differ from the Dark Zephyr?"

"Uhh… the Jedda fights with small pointed axes while the Dark Zephyr fights with daggers."

Ves chuckled. "Well, that is one obvious difference. The kamas wielded by the Adelaide ace mech not only possesses a lot of different possibilities, but can also surprise an opponent that has never dueled against a mech armed with those weapons before. This is a relatively minor change, though. What else makes the Jedda Sandivar different from the Dark Zephyr?"

"Uhh… the Dark Zephyr has grenades."

"That is also a clear difference. The reason why I equipped the Dark Zephyr with all of those grenades and grenade holsters is because its offensive power can't keep up with the opponents we fight nowadays. Imagine Venerable Tusa's expert mech trying to attack a large warship. It won't be able to make any significant progress for a long time if it has to carve through the hull with daggers alone. That is why I gave it the option to bring along a lot of powerful explosives. The last battle amply demonstrated why that was a good idea."

"Why doesn't the Jedda have any grenades?"

Ves directed an envious glance towards the live feed showing the Jedda Sandivar in all of its glory.

"That's because ace mechs don't need to rely on those cheap tricks anymore. Saint Marissa Lewandoski has become so powerful that she can easily cope with ace mechs and other enemies without the use of explosives."

"How?"

"The Jedda Sandivar is primarily designed to complement Saint Lewandowski's Saint Kingdom. You see, when the ace light skirmisher gets close to a target, its domain field will generate a lot of special smoke that acts as a blinding element. A lot of sensor systems won't be able to see anything anymore when it is caught in this 'smoke cloud'. It is said that even ace mechs aren't exempt from this effect. This allows the Jedda Sandivar to fight anything while getting exposed to fewer attacks in return."

It was an interesting dynamic and one that turned the Jedda Sandivar into a nightmare to fight against. As long as it was able to get close, it could employ its disruptive Saint Kingdom to pull any powerful combatant into an isolating smoke field. This not only prevented the enemy from observing the rest of the battlefield, but also cut it off from outside help!

Ves found its design concept to be a rather refreshing and surprisingly effective interpretation of a high-end light skirmisher.

No matter what rank or tier they reached, it was undeniable that a mech that was smaller and lighter was inherently more fragile than its peers.

Such mechs needed to rely on other solutions in order to reduce the chances of getting hit by strong attacks.

Ves addressed this problem by amplifying the Dark Zephyr's evasion capabilities. By relying on several resonance-based solutions, the expert light skirmisher could still fly in the open but evade many ranged attacks that were supposed to strike its resonance shield or mech frame.

Though many of these solutions weren't as effective at close range, the Dark Zephyr's inherently high acceleration and evasive capabilities made up for that. Its ability to maneuver around an opponent was fantastic and allowed it to keep the initiative in almost every mech duel.

The Jedda Sandivar on the other hand followed a completely different track. Saint Lewandowski's ability to envelop it into a powerful, reality-defying smoke cloud meant that most opponents had to guess where they needed to aim in order to hit the ace light skirmisher hiding inside.

Suffice to say, most attacks were destined to miss the mark!

The Jedda Sandivar became even scarier when it got close. Isolation was the name of the game as the ace mech could cut off other mechs or even entire starships from help as soon as they became engulfed in Saint Lewandowski murky influence!

In fact, Ves even learned that her Saint Kingdom could spread its effects past the hulls and bulkheads of enemy starships!

This meant that every crew member that had fallen within the range of the domain field effectively became cut off from their work stations and each other!

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