The Mech Touch

After Melkor broke through and became the only combatant of the first major cultivation rank on the battlefield, the entire dynamic of the skirmish had taken a decisive turn.

The native aliens had already fallen into a disadvantage after getting split into two without warning and losing much of their cannon fodder phasefighters.

The destruction of one of their puelmer combination gunships had caused the enemies to lose one of their trump cards, while the other two combination craft were currently under heavy siege!

Although their powerful first-class armaments devastated many of the melee mechs that attempted to wear down their overlapping azure energy shields, the gunships were not able to cope with so many quasi-first-class mechs at once!

"Slaughter these puelmer bastards!"

"Vengeance for the fallen!"

"Teach these aliens that our clan never loses!"

No matter whether it was the combination gunship that was located inside or outside of the active spell array, the Larkinson mechs swooped in on them with righteous fury and prevented them from escaping!

From the moment they became affected by over a dozen space suppression fields at once, much of their attacks and defenses became a lot feebler.

In the end, both combination warships chose to split apart from each other, causing them to splinter into 7 smaller vessels that subsequently fled in multiple directions.

There was no way the Larkinson mechs were willing to let these puelmers bastards get back alive after all of the mechs and clansmen they killed!

"Pursue!"

"WAIT!" Melkor sent out a priority transmission! "Back off! Their power reactors are heating up. Their safeties have been overridden. They are about to explode!"

The warning could not come too soon. Many of the melee mechs had already begun to fly away before 14 elite puelmer craft simultaneously self-destructed!

This was the most correct decision that their fighter pilots had made. There was no way any of the craft would be able to overcome the blockade of all of the mechs that surrounded them from every angle.

Since the puelmer fighter pilots were about to die, they may as well take as many enemies down with them as possible, and there was no better moment than now when there were so many mechs in their vicinity.

The early warning helped, but the power reactors used to feed all of the advanced energy-hungry systems along with the remaining energy reserves of the elite phasefighters were akin to energy bombs by themselves.

When the puelmers deliberately induced all of these parts to blow up in the most violent way possible, their final gestures shattered the armor of many melee mechs that failed to get away in time!

A handful of machines suffered so much damage that there was nothing intact in their highly deformed mech frames. Their cockpits automatically ejected their mech pilots at the highest possible speed in order to prevent the pilots from suffering the same fate!

Melkor winced a bit when he saw how much damage just 21 puelmer elite phasefighters had inflicted on his forces.

While the puclmers had the backing of cannon fodder from other native alien races, the fact remained that this skirmish had pressed the Larkinson forces under his command a lot harder than they should have been capable of doing.

It appeared that the latest wave of reinforcements consisted of much stronger assets than usual!

Though costly, the decision to confront the native alien phasefighters head-on in this asteroid belt was ultimately the right decision.

The Avatar Commander and his forces had gathered detailed up-to-date intelligence about the latest technological advancements that the puelmer race managed to realize.

If the puelmers had brought more of their sophisticated elite phasefighters, or if the elite phasefighters developed by other races possessed similar advantages, then the decisive battle that was on the horizon would probably be a lot more hard-fought than everyone expected! ᚱаꞐǒＢЁʂ

This was a concern for later. For now, Melkor needed to consolidate his gains and clean up the battlefield.

Though both sides had suffered severe losses, the native aliens had lost the only reason why they remained competitive in the battle.

Without the oppressive combination gunships, the remaining phasefighters lacked the strength and the numbers to overcome the battered but vengeful Larkinson mechs! There was no need for Melkor to keep the confinement spell array active anymore. He chose to deactivate it in order to prevent it from suffering any further strain.

He already knew that the formation anchors had suffered damage as they struggled to resist the earlier attacks. They had paid the price to contain so many powerful attacks. He did not look forward to retrieving them and inspecting the damage. He

Developed an attachment to the very first spell array that he deployed in battle.

While the mysterious white mist quickly cleared up, the additional clarity did not provide much relief to the alien fighter pilots.

Their leaders had perished!

Without the strength and the leadership of the puelmer fighter pilots, the rem aliens lacked the authority, rank and gravitas to command the remaining alien

Phasefighters!

It was situations like these where the quality of soldiers became most pronounced.

If the Larkinsons ended up in this situation, then they would have appointed one of their own as a temporary commander without a problem. Letting anyone take charge was better than letting everyone run like headless chickens.

The clansmen also shouldn't have too many problems with following orders due to their strong trust and camaraderie towards each other.

No matter what, even if a battle had taken a turn for the worse, it would take much more extreme conditions for the Larkinson mech pilots to lose all semblance of order! Commander Melkor temporarily set aside most of his thoughts related to becoming a combat spell array master and focused on his more immediate leadership duties. He made sure to dismantle the resistance of the enemy phasefighters as much as possible while keeping any further losses to a minimum.

Once the eager Avatar, Swordmaiden, Penitent Sister mechs managed to break apart most of the phasefighters, the battle was all but over.

Melkor instructed the Vandal mechs to pursue the remaining stragglers that were desperately fleeing away before instructing the remaining intact mech units to set up patrols and perform search and rescue operations.

It was only after the Light Hunter mechs of the Flagrant Vandal Mech Legion reported that no other enemy phasefighters were present in the surroundings that he relaxed

For a bit.

He did not dare to lower his guard entirely in case there were secret stealthed archeships lurking around, but it was unlikely that those ships would bother to enter

The asteroid belt.

"We've won, sir." Captain Sara Koltov of the Flagrant Vandal transmitted. "We annihilated the alien phasefighters, but we're down to less than half our mechs. This is not an ideal victory, but it is the best we can get in the Red War." Commander Melkor did not feel this was anything worth celebrating about.

"How many of our mech pilots who piloted those destroyed machines managed to preserve their lives?"

"Too much, but it could have been worse, sir."

"We paid too great of a price just to take down 21 puelmer elite phasefighters." The Avatar Commander bitterly said. "I suppose we managed to get ahead according to the calculus of war, but it doesn't feel this way."

"At least you managed to become a formation master. We have all seen what you have

Been able to do by yourself. What you have done is a feat that not even an expert pilot can do. If you can do this again but on a larger scale during the next big fight, then you can definitely teach the aliens a hard lesson."

"It's not that simple, captain. Melkor corrected the Vandal mech officer. "Do you know how many merits it took to redeem the cultivation method? Do you know how much MTA credits our clan had to spend in order to commission the production of the formation anchors? I won't bore you with the specifics, but this single set of formation anchors costs millions of MTA credits."

"Oh."

"You get what you paid for." Melkor begrudgingly admitted. "You have to understand that it is really amazing to be able to deploy a sealing spell array over a large volume of space. Large as in relative to human size, not strike craft size. It was also able to withstand a lot of punishment, far more than what a typical army of footsoldiers can produce. This was a spell array that overwhelmingly relied on the use of high-grade hyper materials to perform so well. This is the only way to make it effective in a battle like this. It is too fragile and limited in scope to be de 1 in a larger battle or in a

Fight involving many more first-class combat assets" "Oh. That is disappointing to hear. Does that mean that your nifty spell arrays are only useful in the Middle Zones and the Lower Zones, and only in smaller engagements?"

"Not exactly, captain. This is just what I am capable of at the start. If I have time to progress my cultivation, learn more theories and order more advanced spell arrays, I can do the stuff that you mentioned. The latter can get very expensive, though. I am not a full formation master, so I can't make my own spell arrays. Training other Larkinsons as formation masters won't help too much because the biggest reason why the costs are so high is that it takes serious money to acquire the raw materials." "So you are suffering the same problem as many other first-raters. There are too many buyers and not enough sellers."

"Correct." Melkor sighed. "It all comes down to resources. This is why we are fighting so hard to defend the frontlines. If we are getting pushed back, then we will not only lose access to the resource-rich star systems in the vicinity, but also expose the star systems further in the rear to native alien incursions. Once these new locations are turned into battlefields, it is no longer viable to mine resources or produce goods anymore. That will further exacerbate our resource problems.

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Promote the Formation Master Series among the general population.

As it was, it was completely impossible for ordinary or even moderately wealthy civilians to become formation masters!

Despite the obvious value and demand for spell arrays and battle formations among a

Growing number of far-sighted groups, it took far too much capital to raise a large

Number of formation masters!

While many people may be able to justify the price given that a formation master was able to produce as much of an impact on the battlefield as an expert pilot, that

Argument was only valid for wealthy parties!

Ten minutes passed as the mechs assigned to retrieve the formation anchors buried in

The surrounding asteroids returned with their precious prizes.

Melkor frowned as he studied the conditions of the anchors.

"They're almost scrapped. They can still be used, but they will probably break entirely

If they are being subjected to similar strain."

The good news was that even if the formation anchors broke, some of the high-grade

Hyper materials could still be recycled and reused.

His mech forces also managed to retrieve the largest pieces of scrap from the puelmer

Elite phasefighters.

The Larkinsons could have earned a much greater profit if it managed to preserve much of the integrity of these high-tech phasefighters, but the pilots had been too vengeful to hold back at the time.

Melkor did not blame the pilots. He hadn't issued any orders to capture them intact.

"Be prepared to leave this site after we complete our S&R operations. It is meaningless

For us to remain as we are no longer in a state to fight another battle. The native aliens will send a considerably stronger force of phasefighters to clear this sector. They are determined to sweep the entire asteroid belt as soon as possible. We do not want to be here when the next alien force arrives."

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