The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4920

Ves had always wondered how strong a companion spirit could become after undergoing many years of growth.

If nothing else, Irene Mox provided him with a fantastic opportunity to conduct a bastardized longitudinal study on this interesting research subject!

Though Ves had no way of monitoring the growth of Irene's new companion spirit at regular intervals in the following 2 centuries, it was already enough for him to be able to observe the difference in the far future.

Of course, that depended on whether Ves was able to observe enough clues from the Destroyer of Worlds once he returned to his present time. It might be a lot more difficult for him to complete this ambitious study than he wished.

Still, Ves strongly believed that granting Irene her own companion spirit would help her a lot, though he did not exactly know in what manner.

There were only two examples of companion spirits attached to human demigods before he jumped through the Time Gate.

Respa assisted Venerable Dise in combat by allowing her to form her own battle network with her fellow Swordmaidens.

Sharpie enabled Ketis to pursue the path of a swordmaster while still following her original trajectory of a mech designer.

Neither of these cases provided Ves with a good idea of how Irene's new companion spirit might assist the future god pilot. The new cat could do anything from acting as an extra supercomputer to helping the Destroyer of Worlds make accurate targeting predictions.

As the heavy-duty transport landed on the ground and allowed the Iron Hedgehog along with several other heavy artillery mechs to disembark, Ves briefly interrupted his study of Irene's cute new companion spirit in order to issue a complaint.

"Emma is not a dignified name!" Blinky protested.

Miew…?

Venerable Irene frowned at the purple cat. She possessed a much better understanding of what she was dealing with now that she had gained her own companion spirit.

"What sort of name do you propose instead, 'Blinky'?"

The Star Cat gestured with his paws. "How about something awesome like 'Ascalon' or 'Doom Cat'?"

The expert pilot did not look impressed. "You must come from a man. I am not changing my mind. My cat shall be known as Emma and nothing else. It is not as if many people will even know of her existence. Given that I have never seen or heard anyone able to pull out a cat from their heads, I assume that I need to keep her existence a secret."

Blinky nodded. "Yes. What I have just bestowed you is a method of augmentation that is highly experimental and difficult to replicate. It will literally take centuries to refine this innovative process to the point where it is stable and mature enough to be publicized and made available on a wider scale. Once that happens, the potential of humanity shall undergo a qualitative transformation. Many humans such as you will gain the capital to fight against the greatest threats to our civilization. However, there are many groups that do not wish to see this happen, so I humbly request that you keep this new capacity of yours a secret to everyone, from your own comrades to the most powerful leaders of the MTA."

All of this sounded incredibly profound and distant to Irene. She was far from the god pilot that she would become in the future, so any talk related to the survival of the human race and the affairs of the Mech Trade Association went right out of her head!

Perhaps her older self might interpret Blinky's words differently in the future, but that would happen long after his Mastery experience had ended.

An hour passed by as the Quillim troops that arrived at New Kreon immediately dug in and prepared to greet the advancing enemies.

The city was half-ruined like many of the other population centers that had a starship crash on top of them. Many structures were utterly ruined and lots of debris clogged up the streets.

What also posed a hindrance were all of the craters and uneven elevation that complicated the urban landscape. They made it difficult for mechs to traverse from one location to another, though they also provided additional cover against ranged attacks.

Currently, the Iron Hedgehog along with a dozen or so heavy artillery mechs readied themselves for action.

As the mechs with the longest range out of the forces deployed in New Kreon, it was up to these machines to soften up the Bontue mechs that were advancing from afar.

The intelligence gathered by the Quillims were accurate. The Bontues had indeed sent forth a vanguard consisting of all of the mechs that could quickly be dispatched to Dershin.

The Bontue vanguard was not meant to defeat the Quillim invaders outright, but to entangle and pin down their foes to allow for a follow-up force to catch up and deliver the coup-the-grace!

As such, it was vital to prevent the enemy vanguard troops from taking over New Kreon and use it as a springboard to siege Dershin!

"Venerable Mox, are you able to deplete the numbers of the advancing enemy mechs from this range?"

Irene evaluated the request as she studied the data fed through the command net.

The scout mechs tried their best to fend off the harassment of their Bontue counterparts. The real-time observation data was extremely precious and could theoretically enable her to make a lot of enemy lives miserable.

Still, she did not think that opening fire at this point was practical.

"How much ammunition do I have at my disposal?" She asked first.

It took a moment to call up the most up-to-date answer.

"Much of the special ammunition reserves for your Iron Hedgehog became lost after the destruction of your prior mech battalion. Our headquarters managed to scrounge up enough gauss rounds and explosive shells to give your expert mech two full reloads."

That was way too little. Heavy artillery mechs chewed through ammunition like nothing else. They relied on their volume of fire to rain down as much death onto the enemy positions as possible!

Irene Mox had always been accustomed to bringing a sufficient amount of spare ammunition to every battlefield. This allowed her to cast aside all concerns about restraining her firepower.

This was clearly not a good idea if she needed to count her projectiles.

"Then let us wait until the enemy troops come closer." She replied over the communication channel. "The probability of damaging a mech at a range of over a hundred kilometers is too low. This is especially the case when the Bontue mechs are dispersed and ready to perform evasive maneuvers. I will only be able to strike a target once every thirty or forty shells under these conditions."

"Understood. Inform us once you are confident enough to make your shells count."

She felt bad for allowing these distant enemies to come close without pressuring them with an over-the-horizon bombardment.

Irene understood quite well that even if she wasn't able to attain a high hit rate, the suppression effect could do wonders in sapping the confidence of her adversaries. This was why she was always in favor of shelling her enemies early.

"Be patient, Irene." Blinky said as he hovered inside the cockpit. "You may as well bring out Emma and play with your new cat."

The mention of her new 'companion' caused Irene to recall all of the questions that she wanted to ask.

Her intuition told her that Blinky might not hang around for much longer, so she needed to cherish this opportunity to gain the clarification she needed.

"What is Emma exactly?" She asked. "On one hand, I feel as if she is myself. On the other hand, she has a mind of her own. Will she ever grow strong enough to go her own separate way?"

"No. That won't happen. It is difficult to describe who she represents, but you can treat her like a second personality of yourself. Emma is still you, but she happens to come in the form of a cat. It is highly unlikely for you to rebel against yourself unless you suffer from severe personality disorders."

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