“I don’t want to die!”
It was fortunate that Vincent Ricklin closed his transmission capabilities, because the other Larkinsons would definitely become scandalized if they heard his words!
The Bright Warrior he piloted flew as part of a ranged mech company of the Avatars of Myth. Even though it was piloted by an expert candidate whose skill and capabilities had risen beyond the human norm, Vincent’s contribution to the massive battle was not remarkable enough to stand out from the massive crowd.
In a major battle that involved over 50,000 mechs, it was impossible for a single expert candidate to attract much attention.
In fact, as soon as the Ferril AIs recognized that Vincent Ricklin’s mech performed better and hit more dwarven mechs than other Bright Warriors, they designated it as a priority target that needed to be taken out quickly.
The switch happened abruptly. The mech company that Vincent previously moved with only received moderate return fire up until now. The distance between the ranged mechs of both sides was still far enough that it was difficult for both sides to reach a high hit rate.
Vincent expected that this pattern would continue to remain the same until the distance narrowed to the point where they could focus their fire on specific mechs.
It was therefore a complete surprise to him and his fellow Avatars that three Slug Ranger mech companies simultaneously directed their fire in his direction!
The incoming fire wasn’t particularly precise, but Vincent could already tell that he had become their common target!
“Damnit!”
He stopped concentrating on his aim in order to perform the most desperate evasive maneuvers of his life!
Though he missed his Adonis Colossus, he knew that the large and sluggish hybrid mech wouldn’t have fared well in this situation. Vincent became more charmed with his Bright Warrior as he successfully used its capabilities to avoid a lethal blow.
The Bright Warrior Mark I Version B was a balanced mech design. Even though different configurations had their own strengths and weaknesses, the change in parameters were not as extreme as in more singular mech designs.
This meant that while the Bright Warrior moved a little slower than comparable rifleman mechs, its ability to withstand damage was noticeably better!
This probably saved Vincent for the moment as his Bright Warrior got hit by a dozen different rounds despite his best efforts to dodge. In fact, trying to evade the incoming attacks was largely useless as the sheer amount of projectiles fired in his direction were so imprecise that many of them ended up hitting the mech company he was attached to. Several Bright Warriors had already shattered or fell out of formation after taking one too many hits.
Though Vincent’s own mech began to look increasingly more shabby, another Avatar mech company had finally come to their aid. The Bright Warriors clad with thicker plating and carrying imposing tower shields finally flew in front of the beleaguered ranged mechs.
Though the shields wouldn’t last forever, they offered the surviving rifleman mechs a crucial reprieve.
Once the battered mech pilots regained their composure, they directed their mechs to fire back at the dwarven mechs that caused them a lot of misery.
Though the dwarven ranged mechs were much less maneuverable than even the Bright Warriors, they had a lot of armor to spare. The Slug Rangers did not ascribe to the convention that mid-ranged rifleman mechs needed to be swift and maneuverable.
Instead, just like many of their other dwarven mechs, their rifleman mechs were built like tanks!
This put the rifleman mechs of the Larkinson Clan at a heavy disadvantage because they were almost entirely armed with energy weapons.
Laser weapons and positron weapons were powerful in their own ways, but were not the best at punching through thick armor. The energy they unleashed tended to spread across wider surface areas which caused a lot of general damage but none of them specific enough to breach thick enough armor.
As a result, all of the mechs armed with energy weapons had to fire at their targets consistently in order to achieve real results. Just damaging their targets was not enough. They had to persist until they finally burned or melted through the thick frontal armor of the Slug Ranger mechs!
When Vincent saw how much effort it took for him to take out a dwarven rifleman mech despite his superior precision, he cursed.
“Why the hell don’t I have any of those newfangled crystal weapons?!”
Every ranged mech specialist in the Larkinson Clan had become impressed with the new luminar crystal rifle paired with the Amaranto. The news that the clan would be issuing a batch of standard luminar crystal rifles to specific units was greeted with great fanfare.
However, much to his surprise, Vincent was left out of this allocation despite his strength as an expert candidate!
“It’s unfair!”
Different from Vincent and the many mech pilots who were stuck with firing ordinary weapons, the Eternal Redemptions continued to shine throughout this battle.
The cannoneer mechs piloted by the best ranged specialists of the Penitent Sisters were capable of unleashing heavy blows at the cost of a slow firing rate.
This was ordinarily a major problem if they had to fight against fast and agile targets, but in this situation they had a multitude of ideal targets! Their Samheim ultra-heavy gauss cannons fired proprietary ammunition that inflicted greater kinetic damage than usual as long as they hit their targets.
The slow but sturdy Slug Ranger rifleman mechs were the ideal prey for the Eternal Redemptions! Every unit of dwarven mechs that got targeted by the Penitent Sisters quickly experienced a similar kind of hell that Vincent had just experienced.
“Requesting cover!”
“We need backup!”
“Those cannoneer mechs need to be taken down or else we will all go back to Vulcan’s side!”
Though there were only several hundred Eternal Redemptions, each of them had quickly turned into as much of a priority target as the Transcendent Punishers!
Fortunately, the cannoneer mechs hadn’t moved forward with the main wave. Instead, they hung close to the fleet and used the hulls of ships such as the Graveyard and the Spirit of Bentheim as cover. Most of the incoming fire originating from the Slug Riders ineffectively bounced off the sturdy hulls of the starships of the Larkinson Clan.
“Continue firing, sisters! The Superior Mother watches over us all! Let us slay these wicked dwarves!”
“For the Larkinson Clan!”
“For the Superior Mother!”
Kinetic rounds flew back and forth, causing huge amounts of valuable alloys and other materials to break and shatter. A trailing debris field had already formed that could earn any salvaging fleet a fortune if they were allowed to pick the most valuable scraps for just a couple hours.
Yet neither side cared about the recyclable treasures that were floating further and further away from the active engagement. Not even the rescue parties dared to launch their shuttles out of the ships they were docked at. As soon as any of their vehicles showed up in space, a mech was liable to shoot them! Getting hit just a single time was enough for them to crumple!
Not too far away, Venerable Jannzi grew annoyed as she stayed with the Living Sentinels that were also sticking close to the fleet. Her Shield of Samar functioned as a beacon of hope and a formidable shield for the Quint which was calmly firing its rifle at the Slug Rangers.
The reason why the expert pilot was displeased was because the dwarves hadn’t spared much attention to the Living Sentinels!
“It makes sense for the dwarves to ignore us.” Commander Casella Ingvar noted. “We’re not moving forward like the Avatars and the rest. This will change as long as the dwarves are able to breach past our forward lines and reach our rear. Don’t slack off too soon.”
The dwarven mechs had the advantage of numbers and were too tough. This made it difficult to block their advance. As long as they pushed hard enough, they were bound to break through!
At that time, Commander Casella knew that her Sentinels would have to bleed hard once again. They functioned as both the reserves and the final line of defense. Once the enemy mechs managed to break past her units, only the bunker mechs stationed on the starships themselves would be able to fend off the approaching attackers!
Determined not to let this happen, Casella kept her attention on the evolving battle while at the same time making sure that each of her shots landed on the same enemy mech.
The Quint wasn’t armed with any of the new luminar crystal rifles for special reasons, but that did not make it weak! Casella already sensed the differences in the first few times she piloted the masterwork mech for practice purposes.
Though the living mech hadn’t actually spoken to her after her first interfacing attempt, she could constantly feel that the Quint was by her side. The rifle she wielded fired positron beams that were considerably powerful in their own right. The improvement was just enough for her to avoid the frustration experienced by other mech pilots such as Vincent.
However, the overall lack of progress in whittling down the enemy mechs caused her to feel increasingly more concerned. Her leadership responsibilities forced her to constantly maintain situational awareness, so she was able to extrapolate the current results.
Her estimations were not optimistic.
“Fire faster! Don’t think about energy consumption right now. If necessary, you can go back to your carriers in order to replenish your energy cells and transfer any excess heat when your mech is only halfway spent. It will still take some time for the dwarven mechs to push through our first wave.”
The Sentinel mechs armed with ranged weapons fired their weapons faster as a result. The dwarves soon started to acknowledge the increased threat of the Living Sentinels, but still focused most of their firepower on the Larkinson mechs that were in the process of advancing forward.
One of the units that was already being put under fire was the Valkyrie Redeemers piloted by the Penitent Sisters. The Valkyrie Prime flying in the middle of the formation received a lot of focused fire due to how much better it looked compared to the rest.
Venerable Joshua remained cool under fire. He knew that it was not yet time for him to serve as the center of an active battle formation.
“We need to get closer first. We also need to wait until the dwarven mechs have closed ranks. Temper your speed and don’t fly too close to the Avatars. Let them collide against the Molten Hammers first.”
The Valkyrie mechs weren’t good in frontal engagements. Though they were excellent at performing charges, it was harder to leverage their advantages in space.
For now, they held their circular shields up front in order to block the hefty rounds slamming in their direction. They also raised their pulse submachine guns forwards and fired weak but rapid energy particles in the direction of the enemy formations.
Hardly any of the pulses struck the enemy mechs, and if they did they hardly damaged the exterior. The Valkyrie Redeemers had to get much closer in order to deal effective damage!
Strangely enough, the lack of effective firepower at this range caused the Slug Rangers and the other dwarven mechs to dismiss the Penitent Sister mechs as a threat. Less and less dwarven mechs fired at the Valkyrie Redeemers. They obviously recognized that the Hexer mech model was a marauder mech and wouldn’t become a priority until they got close.
Joshua mirthlessly smirked when he realized this. “These dwarves…”
He genuinely felt pity for his opponents. He did not look down on them like many other humans. To him, they were truly human and worthy of respect. Although the Vulcan Empire wasn’t exactly pleasant, the dwarves had good cause to adopt a hostile posture against the tall folk.
In a different situation, Joshua would have wanted to befriend the Vulcanites and attempt to melt their hatred against normal humans. It was unfortunate that he would never have the chance.
“Poor dwarves.”
