The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5108

"We're in for a hard fight regardless of how we approach the yurzen raiding fleet." General Herman Foraine remarked as the current situation of the enemy fleet became clear. "Compared to the time when we rolled over the wheednar raiding fleet, the circumstances are considerably more adverse for us this time. Our ace mechs should be able to reluctantly contain one puelmer warship, but they cannot contain both of them at the same time."

"It is worse than that." Matriarch Rezzie Boojay added. "If we greenlight this operation, we will most certainly need to send out our ace mechs for the sole purpose of containing the second puelmer heavy cruiser. We absolutely cannot let this vessel outmaneuver our forces and strike our large and vulnerable core fleet."

The leader of the Boojay Family made a good point. The starships that comprised the expeditionary fleet were their biggest weaknesses. It was especially bad for the Larkinson Clan as it dragged along a lot of fairly vulnerable civilian capital ships such as the Dragon's Den and the Vivacious Wai.

While ships like these provided an incredible amount of utility, comfort and convenience to the expeditionary fleet when they were roaming far away from civilization, there was no way to avoid the fact that enemy ships could easily shoot them down if they were in the right position to launch their attacks!

This was why space combat among the natives of the Red Ocean often devolved into grueling and lengthy matches between two fast-moving fleets.

The hit rates were low since both sides preferred to keep their distance from each other.

Even if the warships struck their targets by coincidence, so long as the transphasic energy shields remained up, they would slowly be able to recover and resist similar attacks without causing any permanent damage.

The expeditionary fleet could not possibly fight their foes in this fashion. The alien warships were all specialized towards this mode of combat. The range and absolute firepower of their cannon batteries exceeded that of almost any mech. Size mattered a lot in these kinds of contests.

As the various leaders argued about how they could possibly tackle the yurzen raiden fleet without suffering excessive casualties, they eventually narrowed their options to a couple of possible approaches.

"Pulling out is always a viable option." Master Benedict Cortez said to everyone. "There is no shame in respecting the capabilities of our enemies and choosing to fight another day. We are not obligated to defend the colony on Corellix III and destroy the yurzen raiding fleet. We will only incur the opportunity cost of missing out on a combined reward of a billion or so MTA merits. We can easily make up for that loss by tackling other, less challenging alien raiding fleets."

This was the most logical and rational option. Ves and the other leaders didn't want to abort the operation that they had invested a considerable amount of effort into setting up. They especially did not want their journey to the Corellix System to be in vain.

Although it was nice to obtain a damaged archeship as a consolation prize, it was not enough to satisfy everyone's expectations for this trip.

Marshal Ariadne Wodin mentioned another suggestion. "We can choose to call in backup. We have all cooperated with other pioneering organizations in the past. If we had a strong group like the Gemini Family by our side, then we wouldn't have been so troubled over the need to contain the intact puelmer heavy cruiser. Our scouts have already identified numerous rival pioneering fleets operating in the vicinity of the Corellix System. The only issue is that it will take at least 3 days or a little more for them to arrive and link up with our fleet, but the added security and the spreading of risk will be worth the wait."

The other leaders did not object to this option as much as before. While they were still greedy to claim the rewards for themselves, as long as they could reduce a lot of damage in exchange for sharing 20 to 30 percent of the spoils with a third party, the deal would still be profitable in the end!

"Our Black Cats have performed the same investigation on these third parties." Director Calabast spoke up at this time. "There are a few pioneering fleets that are fairly suspect. They are led by inexperienced leaders or lack frontier experience. It will be difficult for us to put our trust in their commitment and their fighting ability."

"There are also other pioneering fleets that have proven their strength against the aliens." The Glory Seeker leader retorted.

"That is correct, but they will most certainly demand a greater share of the spoils. We won't be able to earn much profit in the end."

That left the third option and one that Ves still favored, if only reluctantly.

"We can still attempt to attack the yurzen raiding fleet despite all of the complications that have occurred." General Verle said as the central projection displayed a different battle plan.

Ves sat upright as he studied the alternative plan proposed by Verle. It was a lot different as it not only depended a lot more on the ace mechs of the Golden Skull Alliance, but also required the Spirit of Bentheim to play a frontline role!

"The biggest element that is working against us is that intact puelmer heavy cruiser. So long as she remains extremely mobile and on guard, we cannot attack the rest of the alien fleet with ease. This is why I propose we start this operation with harassing this key alien asset. This job is best performed by a mobile but also fairly resilient cruiser armed with a full set of transphasic laser cannon batteries."

Master Benedict frowned. "We don't have that, general. You have just described the configuration of the lead enemy vessels. We are at an enormous disadvantage in this aspect."

"You are correct if you only limit your consideration to warships, but we have ace mechs that are just as strong." General Verle replied with a smile. He swiped his arm at the projection to set aside a representation of the Spirit of Bentheim and the Macharia Excelsia. "Our clan has recently upgraded our flagship into a quasi-first-class vessel. Her defenses are exceptionally notable and her new superdrives along with her sub-light propulsion systems give her the means to keep up with a puelmer homeship in terms of speed. The only real shortcoming is her lack of warship-grade weapons, but that is what the ace rifleman mech is for. If we pair up these two assets, the combination should reluctantly be able to fight against the puelmer heavy cruiser."

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The plan sounded absurd on the surface. The Spirit of Bentheim may have undergone a lot of upgrades due to Ves' profligacy, but she was still an industrial vessel in nature!

A factory ship was never meant to fly into the thick of battle and duke it out against other enemies!

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