The Mech Touch

Chapter 6028 Phasefighter Counters

Ves harbored a lot of ambitions for the upcoming deep strike expeditions.

In order to accelerate his progress, improve his status in human society and gain the strength needed to overcome the pursuit of the Subjugation King, he needed to become a lot more proactive than his peers.

Plunder was by far the fastest way to speed up his progress.

It was also the most dangerous activity to undertake.

All of the alien raiding fleets that met their end after bumping into powerful mech forces served as clear examples how insufficient strength could quickly doom any attempt at enrichment through plunder.

Ves therefore placed a lot of importance on building the strongest possible first-class fleet by the time the greater beyonder gate enabled red humanity to undertake deep strike expeditions.

Obtaining the phasewater organs was important, but not too much. Ves still did not know whether it would be possible for him to participate in a deep strike expedition himself.

He felt it was necessary to be present in some capacity at the very least, but his value to red humanity had risen so much that the mechers and the fleeter would never allow him to risk his life in such a reckless manner!

This was one of the many disadvantages of becoming too high profile. Ves could no longer move wherever he wanted to. He could only hole up in safe locations within human space. The mere thought of entering alien space probably spooked a lot of tier 1 galactic citizens who saw a lot of promise in his work.

Ves at least needed to realize his design philosophy before he became more dispensable!

Unfortunately, Ves had no confidence in his ability to break through to the rank of Master Mech Designer within the next half decade. He could clearly feel that his accumulation was not even close to satisfactory. He also needed to absorb a lot of knowledge and design a lot more mechs in order to gain parity with other Masters.

All of that could be considered later. Now that the Battle of Torment had come to an end, the Larkinson Army collected enough data to hold multiple after action reviews.

Several hours after their last meeting, Ves met with Commander Casella Ingvar again.

Several other legion commanders entered the small conference room inside the Spirit of Bentheim as well.

Commander Melkor of the Avatars of Myth looked particularly morose. He was one of several Larkinsons who did not take much joy from vanquishing the Torment Fleet.

He was far from the only soldier to feel sad. Hundreds of mech pilots died and thousands of ship personnel perished as well. The Gorgoneion had been hit particularly hard, so much so that it remained doubtful whether the large defensive ship could still travel back to the Bortele System under her own power!

However, a leader such as Melkor should already feel accustomed to the loss of subordinates. The air of depression hanging over him felt a lot more personal. Both Ves and Casella already had a good idea why the Avatar Commander acted like he suffered a loss in this battle.

Commander Sendra did not look too good either. Her Swordmaidens had performed admirably during this battle, but the attrition rate was much higher this time. She had lost a lot of good sisters, each of whom had taken a lot of effort to train up to the standards of her mech legion.

No other legion commander attended this private and semi-formal gathering, but Ves did not mind. He only really needed to hear from a couple of voices in order to gain a decent overview of how the Larkinson Army acquitted themselves during this battle.

"Legion commanders." Ves' physical projection addressed the three. "Thank you for taking time off your busy schedules to meet with me. From what I have learned, your opponent this time was much more reflective of what the native aliens intend to roll out in the near future. As our enemies continue to get rid of a lot of weak and horribly outdated transphasic warships, their comparatively massive industrial engine will begin to produce large amounts of modern hyper battleships that have been specifically designed to counter large amounts of mechs. In addition, their phasefighter designs have improved at a remarkable rate. The newest ones they fielded earlier today are not yet up to par against second-class mechs, but what about next year?"

The appearance of those modern hyper battleships and elite phasefighters spooked the Golden Skullers a lot!

Their enemies had been slow to adapt to red humanity, but they had time on their side. Enough months had passed for the major alien races to finally kick their technological doctrinal reforms into gear!

Ves gazed at the three legion commanders in the eyes. Each of them formed different thoughts and conclusions from the earlier battle.

"Well, let's start this meeting by discussing the smallest change, which is the introduction of updated and improved phasefighters. From what I can observe from the battle footage, the Torment Fleet's phasefighters are much more numerous and much more up to date than average. Their elite phasefighters are especially powerful. The aliens have apparently learned how to compensate for their lack of killing power against mechs by loading them with transphasic missiles. How well do you think our mechs can cope against these enemies?"

Commander Melkor felt the obligation to speak first as he and his fellow Avatars had fought directly against the phasefighters.

"The normal phasefighters are a pain to fight against. Their defenses used to be relatively weak, but once the aliens invest real money into them, they can legitimately stall or even defeat our mechs. I can tell you right away that if we hadn't started to roll out quasi-first-class mechs such as the Fey Fianna and the Storm Swords, those phasefighters could have caused a lot more losses before we were able to take them down. The intervention of Venerable Brutus Wodin and a few other expert pilots from our alliance partners also eliminated so many phasefighters that the alien pilots quickly became demoralized. If our regular mech units had to fight against the phasefighter squadrons, it is much harder to say how much of us will be left."

Everyone's expressions grew serious.

"Have the aliens already started to catch up in terms of small craft?" Ves softly asked.

"I am not a tech geek like you, Ves, so I can't tell you anything specific. What I can tell you as a mech pilot who personally faced them in battle is that we shouldn't dismiss the native alien version of starfighters as inferior fighting machines anymore. Sure, they don't have the advantages of our mechs, but so long as they incorporate both phasewater technology and hyper technology, they can do a good job at reducing the gap with mechs. At that point, which craft will win or lose is dependent on other factors such as numbers, mech types and cost."

Ves presented a scenario. "Let's say that a force of mechs is roughly equal to a force of phasefighters in every factor that counts. In which circumstances will the latter be able to win against the former?"

"Slow melee mechs will probably fare worse against phasefighters." Commander Casella spoke up. "Unlike mechs, phasefighters never fight while stationary. They are constantly on the move. Their comparatively powerful thrusters allow them to accelerate much faster than most of our mechs, so they possess a strong mobility advantage. This allows them to make swooping attack runs against slower melee mechs without needing to fear retaliation."

The other two legion commanders nodded in agreement.

Commander Sendra of the Swordmaidens also looked a bit concerned.

"Our Stormblade Samurais will struggle to catch up to those phasefighters. They will have to employ tactics such as flanking and boxing them in to allow their blades to touch the agile alien craft. Our Storm Swords have a better chance at catching up to the alien small craft, but that is no longer an equal fight anymore."

The Storm Swords were the elite quasi-first-class mechs of the Swordmaidens. They should be matched up against the elite phasefighters of the Torment Fleet in order to make a fairer comparison.

"The Flagrant Vandals actually attained considerably greater success in containing and eliminating the phasefighters." Commander Casella remarked. "The phasefighters are strong if they can keep their enemies at distance, but weak when mechs have gotten close. The Ferocious Piranhas were remarkably effective at catching up to the phasefighters and overcoming their transphasic energy shields by relying on their space suppressors. The disorienting glow of the Ferocious Piranhas have also proven to be fairly effective at disrupting the concentration of the orven mech pilots, though I have to note that it is gradually losing effectiveness against most alien races."

E energy radiation caused every life form's spirituality to gradually grow stronger over time.

A suppressive glow was nothing more than the inherent suppression of a superior life form towards lower life forms. If the latter started to grow stronger, then the gap wouldn't be as great anymore.

All of this meant that it became harder for the Ferocious Piranhas to incapacitate enemy pilots over time.

Of course, Zeigra and Lufa were also growing stronger, but their rate of improvement had slowed down a lot as it became a lot more difficult to make progress at their current states.

Ves formed his first conclusion. "Native alien phasefighters can be countered by light melee mechs. The phasefighters are not designed to fight at point-blank range, so any melee mech can tear them apart. The key is to be fast enough to close the distance. Only light mechs have a chance of getting within striking distance."

The legion commanders all nodded in agreement.

"What about the Stingrippers?" Ves asked.

"Their performance is decent, but they have produced noticeably less results than our Ferocious Piranhas." Casella answered. "The Stingrippers are equipped with small space suppressors as well, but since they always keep a certain distance from their targets, this module was not able to make any difference. Their relatively weak and light luminar crystal rifles are lacking in punch, so it takes a significant amount of time for their guns to break a transphasic energy shield and destroy the alien small craft. The main reasons why the Stingrippers still proved to be useful is because they were able to rely on focus fire and the fact that they do not need to waste time on fully catching up to their targets in order to land their attacks."

"Have the Stingrippers suffered a lot of losses?"

"No, sir. You should already have a good understanding of their evasive and misdirection capabilities. The phasefighters are not properly equipped to increase their hit rates against the Stingrippers. The Flagrant Vandals have lost a greater quantity of Ferocious Piranhas as they are not as elusive."

"I see."

Ves was glad that the Stingrippers still managed to achieve results against the phasefighters. The former were probably a lot cheaper than the latter. The Stingripper design had yet to be upgraded with phasewater technology and hyper technology, so his lastgen mechs effectively managed to gain the upper hand against currentgen phasefighters!

"There is one more observation I need to share with you, sir." Commander Casella spoke up again. "The Ferocious Piranhas and the Stingrippers already performed quite well when fighting against the alien phasefighters in isolation. However, the Flagrant Vandals always pair them up so that they can synergize with each other. They have proven to be especially effective this time. The Ferocious Piranhas can weaken the transphasic energy shields and disturb the mind of the pilot. The Stingrippers can subsequently focus their firepower on the afflicted enemy craft, causing its defenses to collapse much faster and easier than before."

In short, combining close-ranged suppression with lots of ranged fire support was a killer combination against these pesky phasefighters!

"It sounds like the Flagrant Vandals have become more indispensable in this age." Ves remarked with a smile. "They are well-positioned to become our best anti-phasefighter solution."

Light mechs definitely had a role to play in this new age of warfare!