The Mech Touch novel Chapter 863

Ever since the scout mechs brought back footage of one or more large dwarf tribes marching together with the Caged Tongs, the analysts among the Vandals tried to figure out the relation between the two disparate forces.

Foreigners from the stars had nothing in common with the nomadic wildling tribes! For what reason would they work together all of a sudden?

Most of the Vandals immediately believed the dastardly pirates coerced the helpless, innocent dwarves into fighting on their behalf. A large tribe may be a force to be reckoned with against other native threats, but any half-decent mech force could run rings around them, especially from a distance.

It would be too easy for a mech force to subdue a dwarf tribe no matter how many wild gods they bonded with. Even the Flagrant Swordmaidens came up with a couple of contingency plans of this nature if they hadn’t already gained the cooperation of Qilanxo.

What puzzled the Vandals the most was that the dwarves and their bonded wild gods all seemed to march into battle with fervor that did not fit with a narrative that revolved around exploitation.

"Are those dwarves brainwashed or something? They don’t look like prisoners or slaves! It’s as if they are completely dedicated to the cause!"

The best guess the analysts came up with was that the Caged Tongs somehow hoodwinked the dwarf tribes and their bonded wild gods into worshipping them as a greater authority. Everything about the foreigners from the stars impressed the natives, from their powerful metallic mechs to their amazing medical technology that could cure a lot of old ailments.

"The natives are like frogs in a well. When someone outside the well drops inside, how can the frogs not worship the outsider as a higher being?"

Whatever the case, the frogs no longer ruled the inside of the well but yielded power to the seemingly omnipotent outsiders!

While the energy levels of the wild gods as the Akkara mechs kept wearing down their energy fields with accurate laser fire, the exobeasts just didn’t go down fast enough!

"Ma’am, the Swordmaidens aren’t responding to our hails. What is your command?"

Captain Byrd fell into a difficult dilemma. They drafted the original plan in order to handle the most unstable factor first. Once the wild gods succumbed to massed lasers, the rest of the enemy force fell within their calculations.

Yet the Swordmaidens didn’t see it that way. They never backed down against challenges and never showed fear against new and unknown threats!

It wasn’t as if they never gave into their fear, but they didn’t see the need in holding back at this time!

"Send out our melee mech companies after the charging Swordmaiden mechs." Captain Byrd finally decided. "Let the Swordmaidens absorb the initial brunt of the clash and back them up after they stall. Make sure to keep our own mechs on the second line. Don’t let them get caught up in whatever wide-area powers the wild gods have in store."

The Vandal melee mechs moved out rather helplessly as they trailed after the charging Swordmaidens.

The battle entered a heated phase as the ranged mechs from both sides scored much more hits as they entered medium range. Vandal and Swordmaiden mechs started suffering serious damage from the laser impacts hitting their frames, but their armor managed to hold out long enough for them to pull back before the damage proved fatal.

While Captain Byrd felt confident enough about their chances for victory, she wanted to minimize the damage and lose as few mechs as possible. Every mech that sustained substantial damage or had their armor broken received orders to pull back before they got trashed.

In the perspective of the mech technicians, it was much easier to replace a lot of broken armor plating than to repair a single crippled mech with serious internal damage!

Of course, if the battle went sideways for some reason, Captain Byrd wouldn’t hesitate to throw the damaged mechs back into battle.

The Swordmaiden mech pilots roared as they endured the lasers hitting their mechs and rapidly closed the distance. The diminishing amount of pirate mechs armed with lasers already had their hands full surviving against the coordinated laser volleys of the Flagrant Swordmaidens, so they couldn’t divert much of their firepower against the closing the swordsman mechs.

"The mist around the wild gods is dispersing!"

The wild gods came back into view. Most of their bodies started to look ugly and scorched as some of the potent damage from the laser beams bled through their energy fields. Their energy reserves already dipped to less than forty percent!

However, that was still too much in the eyes of the Vandals. Some of the wild gods started glowing as they channeled their unique abilities against the closing Swordmaiden mechs.

"Five wild gods are channeling their powers!"

"Divert all of our Akkara mechs on two of them! Prioritize draining their energy reserves! Allocate a ranged mech company to assist their efforts!"

The Akkara mechs stopped targeting the wild gods randomly and evenly and instantly brought their cannons to bear upon two of the glowing wild gods at the front. Now that the range shortened considerably, the targeting systems of the Akkara mechs delivered pinpoint accuracy for each hit.

Two wild gods each suffered the combined attention of five Akkara mechs each. When the laser beams spread out among their ranks, the wild gods didn’t show any fear. Yet now that the heavy cannoneers started focusing their firepower, the two targeted wild gods abruptly flustered.

Shortly after that, over thirty laser rifleman mechs hit the wild gods with a flurry of weak but rapid-fire laser volleys.

The might of each individual laser beam fired from the rifles might not be very powerful, but the horrendous volume of repeated laser beams practically blinded the targeted wild gods into a stupor! Their glow diminished as the bewildered wild gods aborted any attempts at offense in order to channel their full power towards bolstering their rapidly diminishing energy fields.

However, even as the Vandal ranged mechs managed to stall the devastating attacks of two of the exobeasts, the other three wild gods faced no hindrances at all. After gathering their strength for twenty seconds, they each unleashed the full might of their abilities!

"Pull back!"

Surprisingly, the Swordmaiden mechs at the very front moved seconds earlier than the Vandal mechs trailing after them from a distance. It was as if the Swordmaiden mech pilots already planned their abrupt reversal beforehand!

Each of the three wild gods called down different powers onto the battlefield.

One of them summoned a corrosive wind that spread out over hundreds of meters. The strange properties of this acid wind rapidly ate through armor plating of the Swordmaiden mechs that fell into range!

Most of them managed to escape the affected area looking like sorry, rusted junkyard machines. A handful suffered worse than others. When their gravitic backpacks or their leg joints failed, the mechs lost all of their mobility. The Swordmaiden mech pilots helplessly ejected their cockpits before the corrosive winds ate through the ejection mechanisms.

Many Vandals groaned as the Swordmaidens incurred unnecessary losses from these incidents. Why couldn’t they hold themselves back and wait for their ranged mechs to take out these wild gods and their bewildering powers from a distance? _{fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm}