The Mech Touch novel Chapter 631

The combat carriers of the Vandal fleet had taken a beating from the Vesians over the course of several battles. Sending them to the repair yards of Harkensen III had done them a lot of good. Though they hadn’t returned to their original condition, there was no question that they could take a beating.

The ranged mechs of the Caged and soon after the Masters of Combat tried their best to whittle down the incoming force of Vandals and Swordmaidens. The ranged Vandals mechs deployed in space didn’t particularly excel in long-ranged combat. They half-heartedly fired their laser rifles at the distant enemies, and hit perhaps about one out of fifteen shots.

Those armed with ballistic weapons didn’t even bother firing yet. Anything other than a railgun or a weapon that fired rounds that traveled at relativistic speeds had a chance of hitting the targets. However, that would soon change as the range between the two forces decreased.

The ranged mechs of the Caged and the Masters of Combat predominantly relied on laser weapons. The Caged went for accuracy while the Masters of Combat emphasized staying power. While some of their mechs were capable of firing shells or kinetic projectiles, their influence in the battle could be ignored.

The Vandal ships getting raked by long-ranged fire absorbed the laser beams like champions. The combat carriers spun around like a drill as they followed evasive patterns. This made it difficult for laser beams to penetrate through the armor plating and reach inside the compartments.

By spreading the damage around in this manner, the combat carriers with the thickest armor lasted several minutes against a sustained barrage from the Caged Masters. The only reason why this interval was so short was because the enemy deployed over three companies of ranged mechs.

"Our ships can’t sustain this beating for long!" Captain Rakeshir said over the comm channel. The senior ship captain never forgave Major Verle after he ordered the carriers to be used as shields. "By the end of this battle, the cost of replacing the damaged armor plating will reach more than several billion credits! And that’s if we assume we can afford to send our ships back to repair yards!"

The mech commander dismissed the complaints. "The price is worth it if we can injure the Caged and take out the Masters of Combat. Don’t forget what we are fighting for, captain. Resources are meant to be used."

That put an end to Rakeshir’s objections. The captain turned his attention to micromanaging the formation of the combat fleet.

Though Ves was not a specialist in ship maneuvers, their current formation wasn’t hard to understand. Lydia’s Swordmaidens needed to be protected. Their only combat carrier was their flagship, and the vessel happened to be an aged, second-hand rustbucket. The remainder of their vessels consisted of a mix of light carriers and converted cargo haulers.

In other words, tin cans in space. It wouldn’t take the rifleman mechs of the Caged a very long time to burn through the scrap that posed as their armor plating.

Only the combat carriers of the Flagrant Vandals possessed the bulk to absorb all of the laser fire. They flew in front, each combat carrier taking up the vanguard position for a couple of minutes before falling back. This was a very clever arrangement as it was meant to handle the heat transferred through the laser beams.

Therefore, even if the battle looked as if the Vandals took a beating for no reason, the actual damage amounted to using up a lot of expensive armor plates

"The same can’t be said for the Caged Masters." Ves shook his head.

He felt pity for the enemy for getting caught up in a battle where they were outclassed in almost every aspect. The Vandals basically bullied their opponents, having caught them when they were unable to display their specialization. No matter how strong they performed on land, no matter how many landbound mechs they could field, the Vandals would never fight a battle at an environment of their choosing.

The Vandal spaceborn mechs consisted of a mixed bag of mech models centered around a trio of internally developed mech models.

Right now, the Vandals put the Akkara heavy mechs on reserve. The landbound mechs had already slotted themselves into the bunkers placed along the hulls of the combat carriers. While their firepower was prodigious, their impact was best at close range.

Their other ranged mechs steadily put pressure on the thickly-armored mechs of the Masters of Combat. The Vandals couldn’t get at the fragile mechs of the Caged once they decided to hide behind their bulk. However, the well-armored Masters of Combat mechs couldn’t never outmatch a combat carrier in armor.

"The Venidsan mechs are straining against our barrage! Half-a-dozen mechs have already sustained heavy damage! They’re pulling back from their formation!"

Ves inspected the sensor readings of the damaged mechs. He had already pulled up the mech model from the central database.

The mainstay mech model of the Masters of Combat consisted of Nyven Skrat multipurpose space knights. In general, any mech type with the multipurpose prefix was just a way of saying that it carried a mixture of weapons.

Similar to hybrid mechs that sought to marry several weapon systems in a single frame, these multipurpose mechs attempted to offer a high degree of flexibility on the battlefield. They didn’t pop up that much in the galactic rim because technological, material and financial limitations prevented them from reaching their full potential. A minimal degree of investment was necessary to make them viable against single-purpose mech types.

"Evidently, the Masters of Combat ignored this rule."

The elite mercenary corps fielded the Nyven Skrats in great numbers. They took advantage of scale to simplify their logistics and unify their training.

The Nyven Skrats featured four different weapon systems: a sword and shield, a laser rifle, a warpick great for piercing armor and a pair of missile launchers embedded in the torso.

All of these options turned the Nyven Skrats into a souped-up hybrid with plenty of options that could react to many different situations. Only extremely well-rounded mech pilots would be able to pilot them proficiently. This didn’t hinder the Venidsan mercenary corps as they predominantly recruited veterans from the Vesian mech legions.