“The Superior Mother is with us.” Mech Captain Dorsa Avinx prayed.
“The Superior mother is with us.” Her subordinates echoed.
The Hexer mech pilots weren’t praying in front of an idol or statue or anything. They weren’t praying in a church.
Instead, the Hexer mech pilots of the Wrathful Doves Mech Army Group were kneeling in the middle of a mech hangar. In front of them rested a large number of brand-new aerial mechs.
No other mechs with wings resembled these new machines. While the machines took on the contours of a woman, the design style of the mech diverged from the Hexer standard in many ways.
However, one look at the heads of the mechs was enough to realize why the mechs looked different from the norm.
The dark third eyes placed in the forehead of the mechs resembled the third eyes of the Blessed Squires. The black hexagon surrounding the third eye exemplified the Hexer nature of the mech, not that Captain Avinx and her subordinates needed the visual cues.
This close to the mechs, every single Hexer kneeling in front of them felt the glows of the machines. With so many glows overlapping with each other, the slight differences between them caused the mech pilots to be doused in their majesty.
Compared to the Blessed Squire, the new mechs projected a different air.
The Blessed Squire was mainly a supportive mech. It projected six different glows depending on the situation. Most of the time, the glow encouraged the Hexers and inspired them to fight more ferociously.
The new mech was a bit different. It only projected a single type of glow, and it happened to be a bleak one. The Hexers who were praying in front of the aerial mechs did not feel as if their blood was pumping.
Instead, the newly-introduced Valkyrie Redeemers carried an air of doom and inevitability towards its enemies.
Every mech pilot who had secretly tested and trained with the new machines for a couple of weeks had to get accustomed to the different mindset the mechs inspired.
Ordinarily, aerial mech pilots tended to be hotheated and excited. At the same time, they needed to keep their heads cool in order to maintain situational awareness.
Combat in the air was very precarious. Cover was very scarce in the air. Any mech that recklessly flew over the battlefield easily attracted fire from many different places.
Even so, the advantages of flying meant that no one wanted to give up contesting in the air.
When Captain Avinx initially piloted the Valkyrie Redeemer, she thought that the marauder mech was mainly suited for harassment.
It wasn’t until later that she discovered that it could be so much more.
As the praying session ended, the mech pilots rose up to their feet. Captain Avinx turned to her mech pilots. Each of them looked quiet but eager.
Almost all of her mech pilots consisted of women. Only a handful of boys stood at the back. Due to their inferior height, their heads did not peek out over the shoulders of the female mech pilots at all. It would have been easy to discount their presence from the front.
In the Hexadric Hegemony, the superiority of women had to be maintained in as many ways as possible. How could their boys possibly be taller than the superior gender?
For this reason, the matriarchs mandated that boys were not allowed to grow taller than 1.66 meters.
Only a small number ‘good boys’ were allowed to grow taller, but only under exceptional circumstances. This was also a good way to distinguish them from other boys.
At the same time, every adult woman had to be at least 1.70 meters tall, though most were far taller.
If not for the fact that being too tall was a hindrance to mech pilots, the Hexers would have all chosen to be at least 2 meters tall!
The Hexers invested considerably in biomedical technology in order to impose this standard across their space.
By creating a distinct disparity between height, the women felt much more assured in their own superiority. After all, it was hard to respect boys when they were physically shorter and weaker.
“You all know what is at stake.” Captain Avinx addressed her women. “Our grasp on the Leemar System is rapidly weakening. With the Sundered Phalanx pushing us back in space and the Konsu Clan beating us back on land, our sisters are rapidly losing ground. The additional expert pilots the Fridaymen scraped from the lesser states are also pressing us hard. Are any of you afraid?”
“No!” Her women immediately replied.
“Good.” The mech officer smiled. “We have all familiarized ourselves with the power of the Valkyrie Redeemer. This new mech model is blessed by the Superior Mother. Not only that, it’s a female mech, which means we can finally borrow the Supreme’s power more directly.”
She had fought hard for her unit to be one of the first to pilot the new mechs! While the Wrathful Doves were trying to produce more Valkyrie Redeemers at a rapid pace, not every aerial mech company had the fortune of receiving a batch of the new machines.
Although their training should have taken longer, the rapid reversal meant that they couldn’t wait any longer.
Despite the hasty change in orders, Captain Avinx wasn’t afraid. She and her women all believed in the Valkyrie Redeemer. Though the mechs might not be able to fight an expert mech, the Hexers were still confident in their ability to defeat every other foe!
“Our time is up. Let’s move out and hunt some Fridaymen!”
Soon enough, thirty-six Valkyrie Redeemers and four support mechs flew out from the massive hanger.
The aerial mech company flew in a moderately tight formation as it flew across friendly territory.
Down below, numerous mechs and vehicles moved back and forth. Several transports were already being loaded up with valuable supplies and expensive production equipment.
The Wrathful Doves knew they couldn’t hold onto this territory anymore. In order to stand a chance at stalling the attacking Oni Guard, the Hexers had to pull back and tighten their defensive lines.
The role of Captain Avinx’s mech company was to fly into the vicinity of the battlefield and pick off any targets of opportunity.
The Fridaymen had to be slowed down in every way possible. Even delaying their advance by one hour was enough to evacuate billions of hex credits worth of war materiel!
As the mech company began to observe distant explosions and weapon discharges, it was no longer safe to fly in an open manner.
“You know your orders. Split up and choose your targets carefully.”
“Yes, captain!”
The mech company split up into four separate squads consisting of nine Valkyrie Redeemers and one support mech.
The Valkyrie Redeemer piloted by Captain Avinx herself led the other nine remaining mechs closer to where the main battle took place.
They approached a small but ruined city. Though there weren’t many tall buildings to provide them cover, the aerial squad was not deterred.
“Pilot Anders, activate the stalking field.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The lightly-armed male mech flying in the center of the squad began to activate its backpack module.
A strong energy field suddenly wrapped around the Valkyrie Redeemers. Different from glows, this technological field did not have a strong effect on humans.
Instead, the stalker field caused the mechs to become harder to see. While the squad hadn’t become outright invisible, most long-ranged sensors would definitely fail to pick up their energy signatures!
This was enough for the aerial mechs.
Aware that the stalker field drained a lot of energy from the support mech, Captain Avinx became more hurried in her search.
Though her mechs were straying dangerously close to the sites where active fighting took place, she quickly stumbled upon a suitable target.
“Enemy supply train up ahead! Distance, 8 kilometers.”
“Detecting three supply transports and sixteen Oni Guard mechs up ahead! Eight of them are melee mechs while the other eight are ranged mechs.”
Captain Avinx immediately became more focused. Her squad of mechs ascended higher in order to gain a steeper angle on the detected enemy mechs.
“Target the melee mechs. I will designate individual targets for each of you.” She commanded. “Ignore the ranged mechs for now. While these Konsu mech pilots are notoriously difficult to shake, we have faith in our Valkyrie Redeemers. We’re women, not boys. The glows of our mechs are stronger!”
As the squad of mechs gained enough altitude, the Valkyrie Redeemers began to dive towards the enemy supply train.
A short time passed by as the Oni Guard mechs remained oblivious of what loomed overhead. It wasn’t until the sensors of some of their mechs started to detect something unusual in the air that they finally noticed the incoming threat.
“Enemy raid!”
The mechs of the Konsu Clan reacted quickly! The melee mechs all formed protectively in front of the ranged mechs.
Numerous positron beams hit the Valkyrie Redeemers as they approached. Though the hits all caused the mechs to lose some chunks of their armor, none of them sustain any fatal damage.
The diving Valkyrie Redeemers did not bother to retaliate. Their pulse submachine guns were too weak and inaccurate to deal any meaningful damage under these conditions.
Instead, the mechs gripped their spears and shields tightly as they descended from above.
“Mark your targets!” Captain Avinx ordered. “Let us show them a taste of death!”
Each female mech pilot transmitted a mental command to their mechs.
Soon, the third eyes of the Valkyrie Redeemers suddenly brightened up. Though the mech pilots had the option to hide this effect, the Hexers didn’t mean to do so this time.
Strong, narrow beams of light shot out from the third eyes and instantly landed on the melee mechs that were positioning to meet the incoming charge.
As soon as the light beams landed on the Oni Guard mechs, their mech pilots suddenly experienced a sense of doom and discomfort.
Though each of the Konsu Clan’s mech pilots had gone through special training in order to firm up their minds, the glow of the Valkyrie Redeemer was something different.
It reached much further ahead. In addition, it was also new and relatively unfamiliar. Due to the narrowing of the glow, much of the intensity was directed towards a specific target.
Though the Konsu mech pilots did their best to maintain their grip on their emotions, they couldn’t help but begin to sweat and feel uncomfortable.
It was too difficult to resist this new glow!
“This glow.. wait! This is a new mech!”
As the Valkyrie Redeemers came closer, the targeted glows became more intense. The defending mech pilots not only had to resist this effect, but also fight against the psychological fear of trying to resist a diving attack.
The famed discipline of the Oni Guard began to fray a bit as the mech pilots of the melee mechs lost focus. The creeping sense of doom disordered all of their hearts.
They didn’t have much time! As soon as the Valkyrie Redeemers came close enough to unleash their targeted glows, it didn’t take long for them to reach the surface!
“Death to the Fridaymen!”
With thunder and might, the Valkyrie Redeemers slammed their spears through all of the melee mechs!
Even the thickest knight mech failed to come out unscatched as its shield only managed to block the thrust of a single Valkyrie Redeemer.
Another Valkyrie Redeemer piloted by Captain Avinx herself managed to impale the mech from another angle!
Loud impacts sounded as the shock-absorbing systems of the Valkyrie Redeemers tried their best to keep the mechs together as they landed. Their feet sank deep and various other systems came online to prevent the mechs from collapsing.
As for their targets, their inability to brace themselves resulted in devastating damage!
Five of the Oni Guard mechs were downed entirely. The spears either ran straight through the cockpits or hit something vital enough to disable the machines.
Three other mechs weren’t better off. Even though they still showed signs of life, they received so much damage that they weren’t able to put up a resistance when the Valkyrie Redeemers impaled them a second time!
“Hahahaha! These mechs were sitting ducks! So much for the discipline of the Konsu Clan!”
With the simultaneous takedowns of the melee mechs, the ranged mechs were sitting ducks! Though each of them possessed at least some close combat capabilities, they stood no chance against the might of superior mechs!
It was a complete crush!
