The Mech Touch

Chapter 6030 Missile Resurgence

Any mech designer who thought about this weapon type would instantly associate it with the words 'powerful' and 'expensive'.

Missiles did not necessarily have to be powerful, but they could be so long as their warheads were filled with highly volatile exotic substances. There was an endless variety of unstable materials that could produce huge exothermic reactions under the right conditions.

In fact, different human powers had managed to discover so many effective combinations that they had to be deemed taboo in order to prevent their excessive destructive power from depopulating entire cities and planets!

If the law did not hold back the use of powerful missiles, then their cost most definitely acted as another restraint.

Transphasic missiles were especially costly as all of the phasewater put into their warheads would essentially be gone forever!

"Missiles." Ves repeated the world. "The Battle of Torment has exposed the power of alien missiles. The elite phasefighters launched transphasic missiles that are powerful enough to destroy mechs in a single impact. Some of their larger warships are able to launch large torpedoes that are capable of wiping out hundreds of tightly packed mechs. All of this shows that the native aliens have become more willing to invest serious resources into defeating their human opponents. Given how effective the transphasic missiles and torpedoes were during this battle, I think it is inevitable that the Red Cabal are already in the process of pushing missile warfare on a large scale."

This was a big deal! Missiles were nightmares to fight against. Even though it was possible to intercept them, if at least a couple of them struck their targets, they could inevitably inflict a lot of damage!

The other legion commanders looked serious when they thought about the prospect of having to fend off missiles.

"We need more effective countermeasures against missiles." Commander Melkor said. "When my mech got targeted by a set of transphasic missiles, I noticed that our ability to intercept them was very poor. Our ranged mechs are all equipped to fight against phasefighters and warships. Their luminar crystal weapons are mostly designed to fire high power shots at relatively low firing rates. That works best against larger targets, but it is awful at intercepting small and fast missiles. The mechs that actually have the best chance of intercepting missiles is the Stingripper. Their rapid-fire luminar crystal rifles can easily track missiles as they dance in space."

Commander Casella Ingvar concurred with Melkor. "Interception is the most reliable way to stop missiles from damaging our mechs, but it is not our only means. We can employ ECM and other defensive countermeasures to interfere with the targeting systems of the missiles. The Fey Fianna can quickly be allocated to ECM duty after pairing them with the right fey models. We also have other ECM mechs that can serve a similar purpose, although they are considerably outdated. If the aliens incorporate enough modern human tech in their missile designs, then it will not be easy to neutralize them by relying on ordinary countermeasures."

Ves looked thoughtful at that. "I am aware that the Buzzy Bee and other ECM mechs I have designed a while ago have not kept up with the times. They will get updated sooner or later, but they are not particularly high on the Design Department's priority list. For now, it is much easier to rely on the modular nature of our Fey Fiannas and Bright Warriors to add more ECM measures to your mech units. This should help with coping against missiles the next time you confront a more modernized alien fleet."

It was times like these where the advantages of modular mechs became more apparent. The Larkinsons were also well-suited to respond more quickly to changing trends as the Spirit of Bentheim could easily fabricate all of the necessary ECM fey in the field with her own production lines.

"This is not enough." Commander Sendra spoke. "Intercepting and misdirecting missiles is okay and all, but what do we do if those missiles hit their targets? Can we do nothing else but rely on our defenses to withstand the transphasic explosions?"

Ves shrugged. "I do not have a magical solution for you, Sendra. I suggest you look into adding more space knights to your mech legion. A thick transphasic hyper tower shield and larger azure shield generators can cope with these deadly missiles a lot better than an offensive swordsman mech. Other than that, you should either field a few ranged weapons equipped with rapid-fire weapons or team up with the mech legions that can fulfill this responsibility in your stead."

That was an unpalatable suggestion to Commander Sendra. The Swordmaidens had always been fanatic about relying on sword-wielding mechs and rejecting the use of ranged weapons.

If the aliens started to make heavy use of transphasic missiles in the following years, then the Swordmaidens would find it much harder to maintain their current policies!

They would all fall into a difficult dilemma. Should they stick to their original stance and suffer greater losses due to their inability to intercept powerful missiles? Or should they make an exception to their rules and add at least one missile interception mech model to their mech roster?

Ves did not want to make this decision for the Swordmaidens. This was a problem that they needed to address themselves. Perhaps Ketis might be able to whip up an innovative new solution that would allow her sisters to have the best of both worlds.

"Is there really no other effective way to defend against transphasic missiles?" Melkor asked.

"Not for second-class mechs, at least. First-class mechs have many more options available. Shield link technology is particularly useful in this case. As long as the mechs are not clumped together, much of the destructive power of a missile will get dispersed as an entire collective of mechs will share the burden."

Again, the technology existed, but it was not practical or economical enough to be applied at the second-class level.

Ves never really thought about it in the past, but now that he became more familiar with first-class mech design, he understood much more how much second-class mech pilots were missing out on! They were denied so much high technology and so many wonderful features simply because they were too poor to afford anything better!

The Larkinsons were not the only ones who struggled with the problem concerning missiles, so Ves did not struggle over it for long.

The Red Association most certainly understood how easy it was for the native aliens to invest a considerable part of their resources to arm lots of phasefighters and warships with lots of transphasic missiles.

Even if it cost a lot of money to launch an entire salvo of missiles, the native aliens could still withstand the consumption of resources due to the fact they held so much territory!

This was one of the frustrating parts about attrition warfare. The side with much greater resources at its disposal could employ all kinds of high-cost but also highly effective solutions at will!

"There are also the transphasic torpedoes that we need to be concerned about." Commander Casella reminded Ves. "Compared to the smaller missiles, the torpedoes can only be launched by warships, but they are so well-protected that it is not easy to intercept them. If an enemy fleet launches over a hundred transphasic torpedoes, it is questionable whether our fleet can intercept them all in time, especially if they possess high acceleration."

Commander Sendra grimaced at the mention of this powerful weapon type.

"The huge explosions unleashed by these torpedoes are especially deadly against our battle formations. I never realized it before, but it seems obvious in hindsight. In order to execute a battle formation attack, many mechs need to fly alongside each other in a rigid formation. The distance between mechs varies, but it is generally not too much. The need to stay close and follow a fairly straight and predictable trajectory makes it very easy for the mechs to get eliminated wholesale with a single powerful explosive device. We need to be much more careful about employing battle formations in the future."

This was another adverse development for the Larkinson Clan. Battle formations had been one of the most significant advantages that the Larkinson Army relied upon to achieve better results in combat.

Entire battles had been won due to the dramatic results of pulling off successful battle formation attacks. The Glory Seekers had practically turned it into their core strength due to how well they were able to summon the power of Helena.

"Battle formations are becoming less effective anyway." Ves mentioned. "The onset of hyper technology and the spiritual awakening of every sentient life form in the Red Ocean has given everyone a better chance at withstanding the power of our battle formation attacks. They can still be effective in many circumstances, but the results will probably not be as dramatic as before. Combined with the fact that the mechs that form battle formations are actually much easier to target with wide area attacks, you guys need to be more prudent about pulling them off going forward."

They had little choice but to do so. The native aliens possessed their own intelligence. The Larkinsons had fought against them so many times that many of their strengths became common knowledge.

"Is there a way you can improve battle formations so that they become less vulnerable to giant explosions?" Commander Sendra asked.

She had good reasons to do so, because the Swordmaidens were known to employ their own battle formations.

"It is not outside of the realm of possibility, but… it requires a lot of focused effort and research to produce new results, and this is not even guaranteed." Ves responded. "Battle formations work precisely because they compel mechs to form into mysterious formations that produce some sort of resonance with a design spirit. I have a feeling that these formations cannot easily be scaled so that there is a lot more distance between individual mechs. I need to explore a lot of possibilities, but I do not have the time to engage in this kind of research. Perhaps Ketis can figure this out even if she does not possess all of the required expertise."

He had no strong reason to revisit battle formations. He had very little ideas on how he could improve them. Perhaps he might be able to upgrade them once he advanced to Master Mech Designer and obtained a lot of new capabilities.

After they finished their discussion on missiles and torpedoes, they briefly touched upon the evolution of alien warships.

"If the aliens have wised up by developing and producing a large amount of anti-mech warships, then all of us will be in deep trouble soon." Ves ominously said.

Commander Sendra made a pained expression. "We must not fight those hyper battleships up close. Many of our Swordmaidens died when their mechs got shot down by transphasic laser beams salvos. Those small transphasic laser cannon turrets can shoot down our swordsman mechs with greater ease. Our mechs must get close, but they are constantly blocked by the powerful azure energy shields of the enemy ship. It can take minutes for hundreds of our mechs to exhaust the energy defenses. This buys plenty of time for those deadly tertiary gun batteries to assail our mechs at very close ranges."

"It is indeed inadvisable to dispatch melee mechs against such warships." Commander Casella affirmed. "We can reduce our losses by a large extent by relying on our heavy artillery mechs and other ranged firepower to wear down their defenses at greater ranges. The tertiary laser cannon batteries do not pose as much of a threat in those circumstances, but without any melee mechs exposing the enemy azure energy shields to space suppressors, it will take much longer to overcome the defenses of the enemy ships."

Time was of the essence. The longer it took for ranged mechs to destroy the alien hyper battleships, the more losses the Larkinsons would suffer!

"In this case, I think we should rely more on our Redlances and Transcendent Chargers." Ves mentioned after a moment of thought. "Ranged mechs are not efficient enough, and melee mechs will suffer enormous losses due to prolonged exposure to the deadly tertiary laser cannon batteries at close range. The most optimal answer should be to employ melee mechs that can inflict a lot of damage in a very short interval of time. Our lancer mechs should be able to do the job, but this is hardly an ideal solution."

Lancer mechs came with their own set of problems. Ves was not really satisfied with relying on them despite the fact that they appeared perfect for this job!

He believed that there may be a much more effective way to counter anti-mech warships.

One of them was to employ a warship that excelled at taking out warships like the Torturous Scream, but the Larkinson Clan was only allowed to field one such vessel.

Ves wanted to develop a more effective counter based on mechs, but how could he possibly reduce the lethality of those laser cannon batteries?

He suddenly gained an idea.

"Wait a minute. Solus Gas may be able to offer an effective response against threat posed by both anti-mech warships and transphasic missiles!"