The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5130

The harassment operation had entered its most crucial phase at this time!

The entire point of sending out the Spirit of Bentheim to the enemy fleet in advance and at great risk was to tempt the puelmers into separating their homeships from each other!

Stingray 1 was in a vulnerable position, but so long as Stingray 2 kept hovering around, the two vessels would still be able to support each other during a full assault.

The fact that the Spirit of Bentheim was able to weather the attacks of many alien warships including Stingray 1 and Stingray 2 did not mean that the firepower of the opposing side was weak.

The factory ship's abnormally high defenses combined with the additional protection granted by the Macharia Excelsia's Saint Kingdom were the only reasons why the ship and all of her crew hadn't been blown into pieces!

No other ship in the entire expeditionary fleet was capable of enduring hundreds of full-powered energy beams fired by vast arrays of warship-grade cannons.

The transphasic energy shields of the Spirit of Bentheim had actually taken a serious beating during this time. If not for the fact that the first-class shield generators as well as the all-important first-class power generator were brand-new and in peak condition, the energy shields might have slipped, causing the hull to suffer actual damage!

The Spirit of Bentheim would have retreated sooner or later if the aliens failed to take the bait. It was quite fortunate that the combined actions of the Promethea, the Everchanger and all of the other mechs finally frustrated and enraged the aliens to such a degree that they no longer stuck to the most rational course of action!

As the Spirit of Bentheim rapidly sped away from Stingray 1 and her remaining escorts, the ship received a much-needed breather.

The distance between the Spirit of Bentheim and the alien pursuit force did not increase all that much.

The main reason why the Spirit of Bentheim no longer faced as much danger as before was because most of the incoming damage was now directed towards the stern area of the factory ship.

The crew deliberately tried to preserve the transphasic energy shields that covered the rear part of the capital ship as much as possible for this precise scenario.

Not only that, but a lot of threatening warships had been left behind in order to maintain a protective envelope around Stingray 1.

Due to the damage inflicted by the Everchanger, it had become even more certain that the partially crippled puelmer heavy cruiser would not be able to regain her full mobility anytime soon!

Nonetheless, the consequences of enraging the puelmers were quite serious. As the two sides tried to speed away as fast as possible, it quickly became evident that the second-class superdrive of the Spirit of Bentheim was not quite up to the task!

Ves looked at the map that displayed the relative positions as well as the movement data of the ships involved in the case.

His lips curled downwards as he noticed that the picture was not looking too optimistic.

"We are being dragged down by our superdrive." General Verle shared his opinion with Ves. "There is nothing wrong with it, but the fact that it is a second-class product that is trying to be both an FTL drive and a hyperdrive at the same time is not doing it any favors. The only thing it has going for it is the fact that it incorporates 3 kilograms of phasewater, which is more than enough to cover the entire hull and increase the upper warp factor limit. However, it takes too much time to build up the warp factor. The more efficient warp drives utilized by our enemies are much better in this regard."

Ves understood these faults quite clearly. The Spirit of Bentheim was not a sleek corvette or a slender warship designed to intercept enemy ships in warp travel. Her hull was relatively large and heavy to accommodate a lot of production lines and various different goods.

A lot of her capacity was not dedicated to more combat-relevant functions at all. This meant that her defenses and mobility were nowhere near as good as a dedicated combat vessel with a comparable amount of volume!

As Ves studied the data on the pursuing ships, he understood that the upcoming hour or two would likely turn into a serious ordeal to the crew and mech pilots.

"Stingray 2 is able to accelerate so fast on account of her smaller hull and relatively powerful warp drive. She should be able to overtake and flank us soon." He guessed. "The yurzens have made a careful selection and sent out a large chunk of their fastest destroyers and light cruisers. Their firepower and defenses might not be as good as that of their larger ships, but they are so fast that we can't shake them off our tail."

Mobility was incredibly important in space combat, particularly when both sides engaged in lots of maneuvers!

Both Ves and General Verle understood how much of a disadvantage the Spirit of Bentheim was in now that it became clear that the aliens gained a crucial advantage.

As the alien warships tried to spread out and surround the Spirit of Bentheim from multiple different angles, the mechs did not remain idle at this time.

The Amaranto, the Everchanger and the Promethea had all left their previous bunkers in the cat head prow and instead emerged outside and anchored themselves onto the hull.

They exposed themselves in order to attain better firing angles.

The Transcendent Punishers on the hand remained in the same bunkers as before. Their spread positions meant that there were always a bunch of heavy artillery mechs that were unable to bring their guns to bear against the enemy warships, but enough of the mechs were able to fire at the pursuing enemy warships that it didn't matter too much!

The two sides exchanged a lot of firepower while they were on the move. The warp bubbles surrounding all of the ships along with the fact that they were maneuvering a lot more actively than before caused both sides to drastically miss a lot more shots!

A lot of firepower went to waste as the mechs and ships had to struggle a lot more to land a hit on their adversaries.

While the human mechs did better in this regard due to extraordinary skill or guidance, even they could not keep their hit rates as high as before due to all of the movement and vibrations.

"Yaaaa!" _{ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm}

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