The stubborn dwarven soldiers were driving Ves crazy!
On one hand, he admired their bravery, their discipline and their willingness to keep fighting under unfavorable circumstances.
On the other hand, these were exactly the qualities that caused the Larkinsons and their allies to keep losing mechs and lives even after the outcome of the battle was unlikely to change!
The Ferril punitive fleet even decided to send their capital ships on a suicide charge in order to create an opportunity for the dwarven soldiers to escape from the battlefield with their lives intact.
The Great Ram was one of those vessels. Her command center had become a lot more somber than before after General Kebrinore issued the order that would likely doom the vessel.
The various officers and operators all faced their leader as he addressed them for the last time.
“Our courier vessels are ready to load our most crucial personnel in order to evacuate them from this star system.” He announced. “Our expert pilots, our engineers and our other talents must be preserved. As for the remainder of our personnel, they will have to take their chances on our combat carriers.”
The dwarves no longer sought to achieve victory. Instead, they attempted to minimize their losses as much as possible.
The greatest priority lay in the personnel that represented the core of the three mech divisions. The Molten Hammers, the Slug Rangers and the Hivar Roarers did not want to be erased from existence after this battle.
The surviving expert pilots who either managed to retreat in time or managed to return alive after ejecting from their expert mechs shouldered a great burden of propping up their mech divisions while bearing the shame of a catastrophic defeat.
General Kebrinore did not have the mind to pay attention to the stigma that would likely haunt the fleeing survivors for the rest of their lives. As someone who had lived through the worst of the original rebellion, he cherished the lives of his fellow dwarves a lot more than preserving their illusionary ‘honor’!
Though some of their fleet carriers possessed dual FTL drives that allowed them to transition out of the star system in an instant, the current chaos on the battlefield created too many gravitic disturbances that made it impossible for them to escape.
Any ship that wanted to enter FTL travel had to distance themselves from the action, and that was impossible to accomplish for the capital ships!
They were far too prominent to the enemy. The vengeful humans would never let them go, so the dwarves decided to use these great ships as decoys in order to allow hundreds of dwarven combat carriers to split up and run in many different directions.
It was unlikely that the human force would be able to chase after so many sub-capital ships and take them all down in time for them to finish cycling their FTL drives and successfully making it out of the Fordilla Zentra System!
This was what the dwarves were fighting for. If they did not do everything in their power to stall the advancing humans, then there was a great likelihood that no Ferril soldier would be able to make it out of this battlefield!
“The Vulcan Empire shall never fall as long as it has enough soldiers to defend its sovereignty.” He told his men. “I never wanted this outcome to happen, but dwarves like us are never graced with luck. The way for us to survive is not to stubbornly fight to the last man, but to preserve the essence of our strength so that our dwarven state is not deprived of all of our soldiers.”
This was why as soon as secure communications had been restored with the rest of the fleet, he ordered his forces to prepare for an all-out counterattack just so that they could maximize the chances of evacuating their key personnel!
General Kebrinore looked down onto the deck. “This is the cruelty of warfare in space. The winner usually gets everything while the loser risks total annihilation. We can’t settle for half-measures. We must cut our losses and make use of any assets that will be lost to the enemy anyway.”
He sighed as a bot floated towards his position. The sturdy bot began to do something that shocked all of his staff.
The bot shaved off his giant, majestic grey beard!
The beard that conveyed so much authority and prestige to the old war hero was pretty much a national treasure to the Vulcanites. To see the famed and celebrated general shave off his entire beard was a mark of shame was that so consequential in Vulcanite culture that several dwarves even came close to fainting!
“Noo!”
“General, stop!”
“This isn’t your fault!”
General Kebrinore did not command the shaving bot to stop. He ruthlessly kept his head still as the bot not only cut off his impressive facial hair that pooled all the way to the deck, but also held his broad and masculine chin still as the bot shaved it clean!
The simple change caused General Kebrinore to look almost unrecognizable to the servicemen. A clean-shaven dwarf was an extremely rare sight in Vulcan society. Only the most detestable failed dwarves would ever go as far to remove their beard to this degree.
The fact that the general went as far as cutting off his mark of honor and accomplishment signified that he was taking full responsibility for this defeat!
The general kept looking down. The once-proud beard that had graced his body for decades lay dead on the deck as if it was a fallen warbanner.
The shaving bot picked up the beard and moved over to a younger dwarven officer.
“Please bring my beard back to headquarters and tell high command that I am sorry.”
Though the dwarves around the respected dwarven general tried to persuade him to come with them, Kebrinore adamantly refused.
“Someone must take the fall for this defeat, and I will not allow any of you to bear the greatest fault!” He retorted! Even without a beard, he was still a legend in the Vulcan Empire! “I am old and have already done my part for my people. There is little more that I can do to help our state in the times to come. Let me make one final contribution before it is too late.”
Nobody was able to sway the old general. The staff eventually left the command center and joined many of the other crew in evacuating from the ship. The Great Ram slowly emptied to the point where only stubborn old fools and personnel who played an essential role in keeping the fleet carrier on a collision course were left.
Just as the beardless old dwarf settled into his command chair in order to face his impending death with dignity, the opposing humans changed their approach.
Much to the surprise of many Ferrils, the enemy human mechs no longer advanced as aggressively as before.
Previously, they held the upper hand. The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers had all suffered badly in the previous phases of the battle.
Now that the demoralized dwarves had lost a lot of strength, the human mech pilot rabidly pressed their advantage in order to make sure their enemies did not make a comeback!
The restraint also applied to the expert mechs of the human forces. The Riot had already retreated to the Spirit of Bentheim, but many other powerful machines still had enough fight left to butcher the vulnerable dwarven mechs.
Yet upon receiving a surprising order, the Dark Zephyr, the First Sword, the Amphis and the Conavis Mer all ceased their advance and remained static as they allowed the befuddled dwarven mech pilots to pull back their machines without getting hounded.
“What is going on? Why have they ceased their counter-attack?”
“I don’t care! Let’s just thank Vulcan for giving us a break!”
“Why have humans stopped?”
Not even the Amaranto continued to fire its incredibly lethal crystal rifle!
After the dwarven expert mechs had mostly cleared the field, Venerable Stark no longer fought as intensively. However, even the Amaranto’s regular, most efficient shots were still able to down a single regular mech with ease!
The Amaranto had mostly directed its firepower towards eliminating the remaining artillery mechs of the Slug Rangers. The Steel Rain mech regiment had sustained steady losses throughout the entire battle but managed to bombard many human to pieces as well.
As long as the Steel Rain no longer existed, the Eye of Ylvaine would be able to bombard the enemy carriers with impunity! The Slug Rangers simply didn’t have any other ranged solutions left to destroy the surviving Transcendent Punishers.
Yet in a time where the Amaranto should have made maximum use of its firepower supremacy, it had put down its rifle and went on standby!
Although the fighting between the two forces had stalled in every part of the battlefield, there was one clear exception.
The Gatecrasher and the Bolvar Rage were still going at it! Patriarch Reginald Cross ignored every message transmitted to his expert mech. He only cared about a single goal, and that was fighting his current opponent to the death so that he could find his chance!
Even though the Cross Patriarch had not experienced any breakthroughs as of yet, the furious battle against Venerable Orthox had allowed him to advance his battle methods further and push his limits to the point where he had slightly managed to exceed his previous performance!
Patriarch Reginald was so addicted to these gains that he never thought about stopping! His constant aggression was continually pressuring Venerable Orthox to fight back with equal fervor lest he fall against this powerful human expert pilot!
Despite this ugly exception, the remaining mechs no longer continued their struggle.
Soon enough, a familiar sight appeared into view. The giant projection of Ves armored in his Unending Regalia and holding a very distinctive hammer appeared in front of the expeditionary fleet.
This time, the surviving dwarven mech pilots no longer jeered at the sight. They were all tired, defeated and even afraid of their lives.
Though not many of them took the armored human’s claim that he was Vulcan seriously, their mental states were so low that the more traumatized and less stable of the dwarven soldiers began to develop weird thoughts as they watched the giant projection.
“Soldiers of the Vulcan Empire. You have fought bravely and with honor today. Even though I do not agree with your cause, I respect your willingness to fight for your state, province and beliefs. You are true soldiers and I admire your willingness to fight to the end. I encountered a lot of human trash that don’t possess a tenth of your courage.” Ves began in a generous and forgiving voice.
The dwarves expected to hear gloating from the human pretender. They didn’t expect the pretend Vulcan to speak in a different way from all of the stories they heard about evil and violence-loving tall folk!
“I think there has been enough fighting for today, Vulcanites. There is no need to sink to our lowest points. Our fleet just wants to survive and leave this state in peace. We aren’t interested in your destruction. Don’t forget that you started this battle on your own accord. Think about the cause you are fighting for. Are you truly fighting for the right reasons?”
It was clear what Ves was trying to do. Many dwarven senior officers already recognized that the human leader was trying to erode the fighting will of the dwarven mech pilots.
“Are we attempting to launch an attack on your planets? That’s absurd! We’re not an invasion force and we are far too weak to pose a threat to your state! What you are actually trying to do is to advance the goals of a select group of politicians who want to profit out of your misfortune. Is it truly worth it to fight and die to the bitter end just so that a cabal of Vulcanite leaders can take advantage of your deaths? You are not protecting the Vulcan Empire when you have chosen to fight against us! You are endangering it instead!”
Previously, a lot of dwarves reacted to the giant human projection with deficiency or denial.
It was different now. Ves no longer tried to question the beliefs of the devout Ferril soldiers and instead appealed to their reason and desire to live.
He was a lot more persuasive this time.
