The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5120

5120 /7079

Ves finished his little break.

When he left the forward observation chamber, he not only managed to center his mind, but also gained a greater awareness of what was at stake.

This upcoming operation had massive implications to the future trajectories of both the Larkinson Clan and the Hex Federation.

As long as they secured a decisive victory in this upcoming battle, both the Golden Cat and the Superior Mother would gain a rare reward that would strengthen them further!

More importantly than that, the Larkinsons and the Hexers would gain more confidence and momentum. They would hold their heads higher and become more willing to confront powerful foes!

The fact that the Larkinsons and their allies were readily willing to confront a substantial fleet of alien warships was already a sign that their esprit de corps had broken through an important threshold!

No average troop or outfit would be willing to put themselves within the effective range of the formidable guns of any warship, let alone many of them! Their courage and their belief in their superiors were way too inadequate to keep them in a serious fight!

As Ves thought about this further, he became increasingly more convinced that this may become one of the key factors that set his clan apart from many other pioneering organizations.

Of course, what made his clan a lot better in this aspect was that it had Goldie, a growing spirit that directly and tangibly personified the nebulous concept of esprit de corps!

Ves even speculated that spirits such as the Golden Cat might be able to play a substantially greater role in combat than before!

It all depended on how extensively exotic radiation changed the game.

He ate a quick meal before he strode into the expanded bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim.

Compared to before, the bridge held additional workstations and personnel. All of this was necessary in order to ensure that all of the departments of the flagship and her contingent of mechs maintained perfect coordination with each other.

The Larkinson servicemen were already hard at work to prepare for the first proper contact with the distant alien fleet.

On top of that, the Spirit of Bentheim also had to maintain a constant connection with the main fleet that was approaching the target coordinates at a much slower pace.

"What is our ETA?" He asked as he ascended up to his elevated command throne and took his seat like a returning sovereign.

"We are in the process of weakening the warp bubble generated by the active superdrive, sir. According to our latest projections, we will emerge from warp travel a few light-seconds away from the central location in approximately seven minutes."

"Understood. Are our scouts and hidden listening posts in place?"

"Not entirely, sir. The Hidden Smile has already spread a small network of sensors that can give us a short warning of any approaching ships in warp travel in the immediate environment. Some of the starships equipped with superdrives will take longer to get into position, particularly those that are assigned on the far side of the starship."

"Have the aliens responded to those movements?"

"We have yet to catch any sign of that. We think that there is a high likelihood that the aliens are wary of splitting up their warships only for the detachments to get defeated in detail."

That was not good news. It was yet another indication that the aliens were on high alert.

Ves briefly thought about how that might affect their upcoming steps. It might be a little more difficult to provoke a serious reaction from these vigilant aliens.

He activated a few projected control panels and glanced at the data. Everything looked fine so far. The crew reported no major issues that could hinder their next steps.

"Five minutes until we emerge from warp."

"All of our mech pilots have activated their mechs and completed their diagnostic checks."

"Three minutes until we emerge from warp."

"Our hidden listening posts are detecting movements from the alien fleet. Stingray 2 is circling around Stingray 1 and her yurzen escort ships at a faster velocity and a greater radius."

Stingray 1 was their designation of the puelmer heavy cruiser that the Phobos managed to mess up. Her warp drives were presumably still under repair, which caused the ship to remain a sitting duck for all intents and purposes.

Stingray 2 was the much greater threat. Her intact warp drives granted her a lot of mobility in realspace and made her difficult to catch.

Although the Spirit of Bentheim was not necessarily slow anymore after she had received a set of superdrives, her relatively long and massive hull still caused her movements to be sluggish.

The puelmer heavy cruisers were considerably smaller in volume. Although their defenses likely weren't too strong, they were much more nimble and maneuverable in space.

It was impossible for the Spirit of Bentheim to catch up to Stingray 2 if the latter truly wanted to make a getaway! _{freewebnøvel.com}

This was why the only way to force Stingray 2 into a fight was to threaten Stingray 1.

As the Spirit of Bentheim finally exited from warp, the factory ship took a moment to scan the surroundings and take stock of the immediate situation.

After confirming that the aliens hadn't laid any nearby mines or prepared any other dangerous traps, the mechs carried by the Spirit of Bentheim began to prepare to fire.

There was no chance in hell that any mech could land a hit at a warship at this distance.

Energy beams would quickly disperse and spread apart after traversing hundreds of thousands of kilometers while kinetic projectiles traveled far too slow to maintain reasonably hit rates in a space environment.

Nonetheless, there were exceptions for everything.

Ves knew that the energy weapons of most mechs such as the Transcendent Punisher and the Amaranto were not completely perfectly aligned.

Minor marks of wear-and-tear and tiny misalignments during the fabrication process inevitably caused these weapons to be unable to produce perfectly straight and concentrated beams.