The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4617

What Ves had neglected to mention to his expert pilots was the situation was way more complicated than they thought.

The Mech Trade Association maintained a rather strict separation between second-class mechs and first-class mechs, especially in the Red Ocean where everything could easily get mixed.

Before pioneers gained their privileged status from the Big Two, they had to sign a set of agreements that subjected them to additional rules.

One of the more troublesome ones to Ves was that pioneers were not allowed to employ mechs that exceeded their class.

A third-class pioneer couldn't save a lot of money and invest in a squad of second-class mechs which they could use to bully their peers.

The same applied to second-class pioneers who were not allowed to invest in a first-class mech that was powerful enough to demolish an entire second-class mech regiment!

Of course, no one prohibited first-class pioneers from fielding inferior mechs against other first-class pioneers. They could do what they wanted as long as they didn't bully second-raters and third-raters.

Though rules like these already existed in the old galaxy, they were more informal and relaxed over there. The Mech Trade Association likely tightened the reins in the new frontier because the region was much smaller and more compressed.

Ves suspected that one of the more important intentions behind this rule was to prevent third-class and second-class expert pilots from getting killed with ease by ordinary mech pilots that piloted vastly superior mechs.

The mechers consistently put a lot of effort into protecting high-ranking mech pilots against unreasonable challenges as much as possible.

Skill was important, but once the differences in performance became too great, no amount of human power could bridge the enormous gap!

Of course, while the Big Two could enforce this rule against any human pioneers, they held no jurisdiction over the indigenous aliens.

It was solely the responsibility of the pioneers themselves if they entered into battle against a first-class alien warship!

Fortunately for Ves, the Big Two was thoughtful enough to carve out small exceptions.

Second-class pioneers such as Ves were allowed to field second-class mech that incorporated a relatively small proportion of first-class tech and materials. The latter was only limited to 10 percent of the total mass of the mech in question.

Ves could do a lot with this allowance. It probably wasn't realistic to clad a second-class mech with expensive first-class armor plating, but it should be easy enough to equip it with a serviceable first-class weapon.

Additionally, every pioneer was only allowed to equip up to 1 percent of their total mechs with overpowered equipment.

This was enough. The additional power of a small amount of first-class weapons was what the Larkinson Army needed the most at this junction. As long as his troops gained the ability to overpower strong energy shields, they would be able to destroy a powerful warship the conventional way!

"All we need is to take down the Tower of Babel."

Right now, the strike force was about to initiate an action that many people would call mad.

Even a damaged warship still had a lot of teeth!

"Are you ready, Reginald?"

"I was ready hours ago, Benedict." The ace pilot replied in an impatient tone. "Is it finally time for me to launch?"

"Let us check the connection to the external energy pack. Alright. The module is firmly attached to the rear of the Mars. Remember the plan. Once you deploy into space, don't hesitate to accelerate and enter into warp travel and initiate combat at full power. I suggest you use up the spare energy reserves as fast as possible so that you can detach the pack when you are done. You will need all of the mobility that you can get once you get close."

"You don't need to remind me. I'm not that stupid."

Master Benedict knew that. Reginald's real problem was not that he was lacking in intelligence, but that he allowed his desires to override his good judgment far too many times!

Once Reginald received the necessary reminders, he finally received permission to launch into space.

The powerful dark red-coated ace mech entered into open space as if it was a champion about to perform in an arena!

The ace mech made for a substantially more heroic sight than the Unrelenting. Its circle-patterned armor plating, its segmented shoulder plating, its human-masked face and the vertical crest on its head all made the machine look like an ancient warrior that had undergone an extreme round of modernization.

If that wasn't enough, the ace mech also projected a cape that fluttered behind its back as if wind was blowing through space!

Ves rolled his eyes. "Move already!"

Once Reginald satisfied his vanity by posing his ace mech in front of his men, the Mars finally blasted forward and proceeded to warp towards the Tower of Babel.

There was still a lot of distance between the Antonio Cross and the alien battleship.

The reason why the plan called for deploying the Mars early was because they needed the ace mech to test and verify the combat effectiveness of the Tower of Babel.

The ace mech probably didn't possess the firepower to overcome the defenses of the alien vessel. Perhaps its new Stormsurge Missiles might help, but it was better to save them until additional help arrived.

What Ves and the others were confident in was that the Mars was likely capable of holding on for a long time.

The ace mech's energy reserves were abundant despite its relatively high consumption and its Saint Kingdom along with its Abasis Armor provided a generous buffer against mistakes.

The only wildcard as far as the Golden Skull Alliance was concerned was the alien phase lord that repelled the Unrelenting a few days ago, but the analysts speculated that this potent combatant was not good at ranged combat.

It took quite a bit of time for the Mars to get close enough to start pestering the Tower of Babel. The Pulsvar V-1HE flight system was putting its enhancements to good use by helping the ace mech reach its destination faster.

As the Mars used up the additional energy provided by its detachable energy pack, the distant alien battleship had yet to take any offensive actions.

That would change soon enough. Both sides were waiting until they got close enough to launch attacks that had a reasonable chance of actually hitting their intended targets!

Ves joined Master Benedict in the command center of the Antonio Cross and sat behind a spare workstation.

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