The Mech Touch novel Chapter 392

The nobility enjoyed an exalted status in the Vesia Kingdom. They stood above the vast majority of commoners in each single aspect. Even the non-hereditary knights who earned their titles through merits also operated within the Kingdom with impunity.

Wealth, power, status and more became within reach if one acquired a noble rank. As a citizen of the more egalitarian Bright Republic, Ves and the rest of his state simply couldn’t wrap their heads around why the Vesians accepted the rigid caste-like division of society.

When the experts spoke about the noble phenomenon, they simply shrugged their shoulders and explained it was a matter of culture. In other words, every citizen of a kingdom state had been brainwashed from birth to accept such a backwards-sounding structure.

After all, with the continued advance of science and technology, the ancient justifications such as the Mandate of Heaven, the Divine Right of Kings, superior bloodlines and other such excuses had been debunked as pure excuses.

The various states set up as feudal monarchies simply couched their privileges in more modern terms. Most of the times, the various kingdoms justified their right to rule by pointing out their investment in terraforming the planets and establishing the colonies.

Once the initial population accepted the rulership structure, it slowly became a given that their state would always be ruled by so-called royals and the aristocracy. Humans possessed the capacity to accept all kinds of absurdities as long as everyone else around them believed them as well.

Right now, the entire battle for the Mech Nursery entered a brief pause at the sudden entrance of the Vesian commander. Ves zoomed in on the projection and studied the mech in more detail.

It was definitely a mech that surpassed the typical premium price point. The abundance of jewels and decorative alloys alone must have cost as much as a Blackbeak, but they only made up a portion of the exterior of this flamboyant-looking mech.

Ves peered at the epaulet on the left shoulder of the mech. It depicted a hand holding aloft a notched sword being shone upon by a single golden star.

"So it’s a knight."

That meant the noble certainly earned his knighthood through his own efforts. Ves would have rather faced a baron than a knight, because the latter often turned out to be mediocre descendants of brilliant mech pilots.

"Sir Ravanac!" The Chasseurs broadcasted in the open. Their morale instantly surged while the morale of the defenders plummeted.

This Sir Ravanac calmly stepped forward as if he was approaching a picnic instead of a battle. His mech consisted of a mace-wielding medium melee mech. It carried a heavy two-handed mace that looked heavy enough to crunch the armor of any unmech. Only comechs such as the Blackbeaks appeared to be sturdy enough to withstand a direct hit.

The more Ves studied its design, the more his expression soured. "This mech is too high-class!"

He should have anticipated that the raiding force would be led by a noble who piloted a powerful mech. His machine alone could wipe out every defending mech with ease as long as the rest of the Chasseurs and the Monkeys tied them down.

Ves knew he had to intervene in person. He turned away from the central projectors and moved to exit the command center.

"Tell Melkor to stall the noble as long as he can!"

As he ran through the halls and reached the surface, he stepped on a small but swift floater platform and commanded it to convey him right towards the breach.

The speed of the platform caused the wind to whip against his form, but the floater platform’s sophisticated antigrav modules and inertial dampeners allowed him to comfortably remain on his feet.

Even as he travelled to the front, Ves kept his eye on his comm, which projected what happened once the noble reached the battle.

Melkor tried to approach and drag out the fight by engaging in a conversation with the kngiht, but Sir Ravanac did not brook any further delays.

"Enough! Press the attack! Wipe out these Republican dogs and smash this entire factory into pieces!"

The Chasseurs resumed their fight with twice as much vigor now that their noble commander personally took charge.

The mechs from Sanyal-Ablin had almost reached their breaking point, and this sudden push only accelerated their inevitable defeat. Even with the Avatars of Myth backing them up, they wouldn’t last very long.

Sir Ravanac’s mace-wielding mech entered the fray as well. Melkor quickly decided to command his two knight mech pilots to divert the noble as long as possible.

The two Blackbeaks moved to stall Sir Ravanac’s mech. Unlike before where they faced a sluggish heavy mech, Sir Ravanac possessed a much better balance between power, speed and armor. Sir Ravanac’s abundant experience also allowed him to maneuver around the chaotic battlefield in a way that prevented the Blackbeaks from pincering it from two different directions.

While the Chasseurs led by their commander almost overran the defenders, the battle at the flanks fared no better for the defenders.

Dietrich, Fadah and the handful of veterans failed to stiffen the backs of their rookie pilots. The quick and agile mechs of the Meandering Monkeys constantly played tricks on the newly recruited Whalers. In every area short of weight class, the mechs of the Whalers fell short compared to the Vesian machines.

"Sorry Ves!" Dietrich sent out as his aerial marksman supported his rookies from a low altitude. If he flew any higher, he risked being shot from the air by the frontline mechs that supported the light mechs from the rear. "We can’t get rid of these Vesian light mechs! It’s taking all we can to preserve our mechs!"

With no further hope for reinforcements, the Mech Nursery was about to be broken through. Without a cohesive force of mechs to stop the raiding force, the Vesians would easily be able to penetrate past the gates and wreak havoc inside the underground floors.

The various defenses and barriers integrated in the tunnels would only slow down the Vesians up to a point. Only mechs could defeat other mechs. That was the ironclad rule in these kinds of war.