The Mech Touch novel Chapter 860

The ground expedition immediately halted their march. Preparations for battle already went underway, but due to the distance between the main convoy and the approaching enemy force, it might take six or so hours before a battle commenced.

Due to the urgency of the situation and the preparations that needed to be done, Captain Byrd held an emergency briefing by remote. Instead of gathering at the mobile headquarters, everyone entered a virtual conference room from their current positions, no matter if they were offices or mech cockpits.

Within fifteen minutes, most of the mech officers, chiefs and important experts attended the virtual meeting.

To Ves, the projection systems in his office weaved an elaborate illusion that completely changed the small decor of the office into a large and sprawling conference room.

The projections gave the illusion that he could look at people in the face while he addressed them. The only downside was that he couldn’t walk up to them and touch them, but who wanted to do something like that during a crisis?

Captain Byrd quickly began the meeting. She began with a brief summary of what their scouts managed to spot a fair distance away from the center of their supply train.

"Two of our scout mechs have managed to spot an incoming procession of mechs, wild gods and dwarves on godling mounts. We can pretty much ignore the threat of the latter, but the former two pose a very real threat. We are absolutely certain that they are bee-lining straight towards the center of our formation. They know our position."

Many Vandals grimaced.

"How many mechs and wild gods are on their way, captain?"

"We’re not entirely certain." Captain Byrd admitted. "Our scouts don’t dare to come into range of the incoming enemy force. They’re keeping an eye while maintaining extreme distance. For now, the analysts that have poured over the initial sensor readings estimate that up to twelve wild gods and three-hundred landbound mechs are on the attack!"

"Three-hundred landbound mechs!"

While that sounded a lot, the Flagrant Swordmaidens combined numbered almost five-hundred mechs. While they lost a bunch of mechs due to the orbital bombardment raining down on their heads a few months ago, they still retained most of their strength.

Still, even if the odds were in their favor, the Vandals didn’t express too much confidence. Even though they outnumbered the enemy, a battle could go in any direction.

Besides, the unexpected cooperation with one or more large dwarf tribes threw a wrench in their equations. How should they estimate the threat of the bonded wild gods? How close were the wildlings cooperating with the rival force?

All of these questions made it difficult for everyone to judge whether they still held the advantage.

"Do we know who’s attacking?"

Captain Byrd nodded to a sensor officer, who answered in an uncertain tone. "The sensor readings from our scouts makes it difficult to be sure. There’s too much interference in the air to get a clear view of their forces. From the markings and quality of the mechs that we’ve managed to observe, I can say with eighty percent certainty that we are dealing with a combined force of the Caged and the Red Tongs."

"Those bastards again!"

"Hah! They’re trapped on this planet now that an antimatter torpedo annihilated their spaceborn forces!"

"Idiot! That just makes them more desperate! They have nothing to lose!"

The Vandals argued among themselves about the significance of this revelation. They couldn’t judge the intentions of the Caged and the Red Tongs with common sense.

The landbound remnants of the Roppongans and the Ravienne Alliance-oriented pirates lost their means of escaping from this planet. With no way out, what were they up to? Did they decide to settle permanently on Seven or did they intend to fight even harder in order to open up an opportunity to evacuate on different terms?

None of the Vandals expressed any confidence in their guesses, and Captain Byrd finally stepped into the chaotic discussion. "There’s no point in questioning the motivation of the Caged Tongs without encountering them in person. All that matters is that they are inbound on our forces in an unmistakably aggressive approach. Let us decide on our defensive strategy."

Because calling the allied force of the Caged and the Red Tongs was a mouthful, the Vandals conveniently called them the Caged Tongs instead.

The Vandal mech officers cobbled together a defensive strategy. Since they knew the enemy was coming, they could spend crucial hours on setting up the battlefield to their advantage.

"We’ve already recycled down the artillery cannons." Chief Dakkon said when asked. "There is no way we can fabricate a new battery of artillery guns in less than a week."

As for addressing the hostile wild gods, one of the mech officers turned to Dr. Tillman. "Can we poison the wild gods like last time?"

"It’s worth a try." She said. "We haven’t spent any research on improving the formulas for the so-called candy bars. If the hostile wild gods are instinctive creatures, then they shouldn’t be able to resist the bait. However, if they are smart enough to fight against their instinct, they can resist the urge to eat the adulterated candy bars."

"The Caged Tongs won’t allow it. They aren’t stupid. They’ll destroy the candy bars before they can tempt the wild gods."

The Vandals decided not to repeat the trick. They may be able to the wild gods if they were only by themselves or accompanied by some primitive dwarves, but this time they faced a modern force!

Even if the Caged Tongs consisted of criminals and pirates, they operated under modern conventions of war. Although it seemed like they were storming at the Flagrant Swordmaidens in a straight charge, who knew what they really had in mind?

Therefore, the Vandal officers threw away all of their contempt and started treating the Caged Tongs as a serious threat.

"Even if the Red Tongs are a modern mech force, they’re not as thorough as a military unit. Their scouting efforts are lackluster and their strategy doesn’t seem to be more sophisticated than throwing all of their mechs at us in a single overwhelming attack."

"They might split up and flank us when the battle commences."

"Then let them! If they attempt to flank us, they’ll only be splitting up their forces into easily digestible chunks. We outnumber them, remember?!"

Even if the Flagrant Swordmaidens wiped out the Caged Tongs with ease, if the pirates managed to destroy their supply train, they may have won the battle but would have certainly lost the war! _{freeweɓnovēl.coɱ}