The Mech Touch novel Chapter 457

Battles between two hostile fleets had always been rare even during the golden age of warships. Space was too vast and ships moved at a snail’s pace compared to the scale of an average star system. Though technology advanced and ships these days traversed a lot faster than their predecessors from the Age of Conquest, it was safe to say not a lot of battles actually took place.

The main reason why was because fleets often saw each other coming. Space was empty, so therefore an approaching enemy would always be spotted many hours before they actually arrived at their targets.

Accounting for the lag due to the speed of light needing time to travel from the outer system to the inner system couldn’t be applied. A well-defended star system was littered with sensors that relayed their up-to-date readings to a hidden quantum entanglement node that instantly sent the observations to the inner system. _{frёeweɓηovel.coɱ}

Basically, surprise attacks were rare and hard to pull off. Most battles in space happened because the two sides thought they both stood a chance of winning it. Once a side believed that they didn’t stand a chance of winning the impending battle, they wouldn’t hesitate to cut and run.

"Cowards!" Major Verle swore and slammed his fist against the armrest of his command chair. A myriad of projections appeared before his eyes. He studied them rapidly before issuing new commands.

In the meantime, the flagship of the Vandals relayed new deployments. The Vandals would split off as many ships as it took to run down each escaping Vesian vessel and crush them into bits. Due to the differences in speed, the Vandals would still be able to go after the individual ships. It would just take a lot more time and bring some of their ships off-course.

"The Vesians are delaying the inevitable." Alloc explained to Ves. Though Ves had seen a lot more action on the ground, Alloc had sat in a command center for more than two-dozen times in his career. "Splitting up their fleet is a test of our priorities. While the Vesians are letting us mop them up one by one, they’re forcing us to spread out mech forces thin. One of our combat carriers won’t be enough to defeat one of the Vesian combat carriers without sustaining severe losses."

"So we are sending out two ships in pursuit of each Vesian ship?"

"Exactly. That’s the only way we can insure a crushing victory with very few losses."

Already, the Vandals started to redeploy. Many combat carriers split up from the main fleet and spread out into pairs. Each pair moved to intercept the frantic Vesian combat carriers.

While their defeat wasn’t in question, the delay they imposed on their timetables meant that the Vandals suffered a very consequential setback. They only had four days at most to accomplish their objective and be on their way out before the Vesian reinforcements arrived.

"How long will we be delayed if we try to stick to the plan?"

"Not sure." Alloc grunted. "I’m not an expert in complex space maneuvers. At a guess, I would say that if the Vandals are keen on sticking together, we might be delayed by as much as half a day."

This placed a decent amount of pressure over Colonel Lowenfield’s shoulders. Either she would wait until they completely chased down the Vesians and annihilated them, or she would decide to split up the fleet into three.

Two of the detachments would move towards the two inhabited planets as planned, but the third detachment that consisted of the chasers would linger in the outer system until they completely mopped up the garrison fleet. After that, they should return to the other two detachments as fast as possible, but due to the differences in relative speeds, it would take a while for them to catch up.

At the very least, the stragglers wouldn’t be able to assist the other two detachments as they initiated their battles against the remnant loyalist forces on those planets.

Ves did not envy Lowenfield’s position. Both choices came with a lot of risks that could make or break this bold assault.

"What would you choose to do, sir?"

"I’d take the safe option and stick together. There’s no guarantee that the intelligence that the rebels have gathered is accurate. The Vesians might have buried a hidden base somewhere, and offer a stiffer resistance than we expected."

Too many things could go wrong during this operation. What Alloc mentioned was only one of the ways in which the battle could turn against their favor. Ves thought back on the rebels and questioned whether they would truly be able to suppress the loyalist forces that were keen to root them out. It was an unquestioned fact that the rebels would never be able to subvert the mech pilots. They enjoyed too much privilege to turn against the local regimes.

Eventually, Colonel Lowenfield came to a decision. New orders showed up which stated that the rest of the Vandal fleet would continue according to schedule, but with around six-hundred Vandal mechs less.

The Stubby Growler took on an important role within second detachment that headed towards Detemen IV. The command center buzzed and grew busy as they tried to coordinate their formation after the loss of vital spaceborn assets. Missing a few hundred mechs put a severe dent into their defensive envelope.

As the larger offshoot of the Vandals raced towards Detemen IV, Ves and Alloc paid a keen amount of attention to the relentless chase.

The garrison fleet might have been able to divert some of the Vandals, but they payed a grievous price for it. With each ship looking out for themselves, they all faced twice as much mechs.

For the first time in his life, Ves finally witnessed the Inheritors in action in a live battle. Even as he kept his eyes on the live footage, he also kept analyzing the readings that continued to pour in. With his help, the AIs refined their identification and determined the exact mech models used by the Vesian garrison fleet.

"They’re goners for sure." Alloc remarked as he beheld the list of mech models. "All of these are second-line designs. They’re cheap and haven’t been updated in years."

The battles that ensued underscored the disparity in strength. Each fleeing Vesian combat carrier fell behind in terms of the quantity and quality of mechs they could deploy.

The Vandals employed their advantages as hard as possible. Hordes of Inheritors sprung from the hangar bays and raced around the the trajectory of their prey, seeking to cut off its escape route.

Their extremely high speeds allowed them to outpace the best efforts of the fleeing ships. In the meantime, the Hellcats accompanied by a diverse menagerie of mechs stolen from Vesian factories and depots harried their rear.