The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-6479

The journey from Yernstall to New Constantinople proceeded without incident so far. The Red Association and more notably the Red Collective had already deployed more scout vessels than last time to keep a close eye on the star systems situated in between.

Not only were they trying to make sure that the cosmopolitans and the native aliens wouldn't be able to sneak close to launch another ambush, the RA and the RC also sought to hunt down the remnants of the enemy forces that had snuck behind enemy lines two weeks prior.

Not all of the phase lords and alien warships had crossed the border and returned to alien space. This concerned Red Two... err, Red Three a lot as these enemies could inflict a lot of damage on supply convoys and unprepared warfleets transiting to the border regions.

The current suspicion was that many of the phase lords and alien warships had fallen back to a nearby pocket space.

There were still many pocket spaces spread throughout the entire dwarf galaxy. Red humanity had only mapped out a fraction of them as they almost gave no clues of their existence.

These phase whale enclaves posed a substantial hidden threat to red humanity. Uncovering them and collapsing them had always been in high priority, but it was easier said than done.

Only expensive and specialized scanning devices could detect these well-hidden pocket spaces, but space was so vast that it took far too many vessels to manually scan so many star systems in a reasonable amount of time.

The lack of assets and the urgency of the Red Tide Offensive diverted far too many soldiers and mobile assets to the frontlines. The only vessels the RA and RC could spare for this chore was dispatching a lot of cheap easily mass producible frigates.

As small and fragile they may be, they possessed a considerable advantage in speed and numbers.

While it was mostly the heavy cruisers and battleships that got showcased in the news articles, it took too much time and resources to fabricate them on a large scale, especially since red humanity's industrial capacity was still deficient.

This meant that frigates and destroyers happened to be the most numerous warships fielded by humans. They were handy little ships that possessed enough power to defend themselves but still remained affordable enough that losing a dozen of them practically did no harm.

Unfortunately, everything had a price. The smaller escort ship classes offered much

less room for weapon systems, so their ability to punch above their weight and take down larger enemies was very limited. They had a lot more in common with mechs than capital ships, and were only truly suited to fend off strike craft other escort vessels in most cases.

The only notable exception to this rule was warships equipped with spinal-mounted

cannons.

The Mennis Rebode, the latest RF destroyer to join the Bluejay Fleet, was exactly such a vessel.

During the journey, Ves contacted the recently promoted Commodore Zonrad Reze and managed to get his hands on the basic design schematics and technical specifications of the siege-oriented destroyer.

While the documents transmitted by Sigrund mostly contained publicly available information, the additional details provided Ves with enough understanding of what the Ygritte Balsen-class vessel was capable of under ideal circumstances.

The ship only truly possessed one big gun, but if fully charged, the Mennis Rebode may actually fire a shot powerful enough to breach through the Tarrasque's azure energy shield and damage her exterior plating!

This was great for creating gaps in the defenses of enemy assets.

Even if the Mennis Rebode was not powerful enough to strike down enemy warships with a single blast, other mechs and warships could launch follow-up attacks based on the opening created by the transphasic hyper laser spinal cannon.

This was highly respectable damage for a destroyer that was only a fraction as large or expensive as the Tarrasque!

"It's a pity it takes too damn long to charge the main cannon."

The Mennis Rebode had to charge her spinal cannon for at least 6 minutes to fire a massive laser beam.

The upsides were that the spinal cannon was remarkably precise and accurate for a weapon of this exaggerated scale.

The naval designers paid a lot of attention to this as they originally envisioned the Mennis Rebode to serve as a siege weapon in smaller flotillas.

Most frigates and destroyers possessed enough firepower to swat down mechs and beat up warships of the same sizes.

Unfortunately, they usually lacked the punch to bring down fortified space stations and groundside fortresses.

This was where ships like the Mennis Rebode came in. As long as the target was stationary, her spinal cannon could blast open the defenses at a luxurious range that ruled out nearly all forms of direct counterattacks.

If the target happened to be a large moving starship, then the Mennis Rebode could still play a useful role, though the probability of missing was much higher.

It was actually better for the Mennis Rebode to fire her spinal cannon at quarter power in these cases. The higher attack frequency reduced the consequences of missing the target while also exerting more pressure.

All in all, Ves could have used this vessel during the Battle of Mazepan. The Mennis Rebode was able to launch precise, long-ranged attacks that inflicted damage comparable to tactical weapons of mass destruction.

It would have been great if the Bluejay Fleet had an entire squadron of Ygritte Balsem-class destroyers at its disposal!

If Ves had a dozen of these destroyers on hand during the last battle, then the defenses of those annoying arche phase lords would have been cracked much sooner!

"Warships can still be useful, isn't that right, Lucky?"

"Meow." The gem cat yawned as he aimlessly floated around.

Ves rolled his eyes and turned to Vector Loban, who had entered the design lab in order to provide an update on various matters.

"So I no longer have any pressing assignments, is that correct?"

"That is true, Ves. The Evolution Witch has issued no further demands to you, so you are free to do what you want as long as you make sure to allocate enough time to fulfill your duty to the Red Collective. You are currently regarded as her agent within the new organization, so many of your actions will reflect back to her. So do not neglect your responsibilities and pay attention to what you are saying."

Ves nodded in understanding. "I will make sure to do that. I don't have time to mess around in the Red Collective anyway. There are a bunch of old mech design projects that I really need to complete, and I also have to design a bunch of new Carmine mechs to satisfy the demand of richer and more powerful norms."

He also had to fabricate a custom Yellow Jacket in order to complete a past transaction, but that was a minor chore that he could complete over the course of the

journey.

"It is good that you are not letting your newfound power and authority dominate your attention. You are still a mech designer, so the best way you can continue to make contributions to the war effort is by doing your original job." Vector agreed with Ves' decision before glancing over at the projected design interface. "By the way, what are you planning to design? Is that another Carmine mech? This... is a contradictory design. It not only lacks a Biodome, but it is also based on another low-end mech, although you have chosen a humanoid shape this time. The demand for this mech will not be as great when the Yellow Jacket models are already released on the market." Ves did not expect for the Transhumanist to talk about his draft design for the Rule

Breaker Project.

Perhaps he had been a little careless about working on a mech design that clearly

looked out of place.

However, since Ves dared to work on this mech design in the Red Ocean, he was not

afraid of exposure either.

Who knew how many secret intergalactic communication channels that humans from both galaxies had managed to retain.

Not everyone in the Milky Way had obeyed the order to destroy these rare and technologically advanced communication methods. There were bound to be more people than just Ves and his mother that were able to connect with people who

resided in the other galaxy.

This meant that once Ves published the illegal mechs he designed for his Rule Breaker Project in the Milky Way, the people of the Red Ocean would find out sooner or later!

It would be better if Ves exposed this dangerous mech design project to the Red Association right at the start. Being transparent would build a lot of trust and remove

the surprise factor.

"The Oblivion Gate Consortium commissioned a series of special Carmine mechs for use in the Milky Way." Ves briefly explained. "There's a lot of complicated stuff ssociated with this project, but it shouldn't directly impact the Red Ocean

I can say. The Evolution Witch knows more, so you can go to her if you want more

answers."

all

That was a nonsense statement. Ves was not even able to get a hold of her most of the time. Professor Vector Loban did not have enough status in the Transhumanist Faction to earn the privilege of speaking to a god pilot directly.

He knew that as well, so he decided to drop the conversation even though he already detected a number of alarming clues in the draft design.

"Very well... have you already begun to outline the Carmine mechs for the premium segment of the expanded mech market?"

"Not yet." Ves shook his head. "I have a few tentative ideas in mind, but I still plan to

wait a few weeks to observe how red humans are reacting and making use of the Yellow Jackets. Their strengths and shortcomings will help me design premium Carmine mechs that are capable of filling in some of the gaps that the Yellow Jackets cannot cover. I don't have enough market information at the moment to define the premium Carmine mechs that our target audience truly needs."

"That is a prudent approach, but do not wait too long. Demand for Carmine mechs

remains high. It would be a shame if all of the talented and better trained elites resort to piloting Yellow Jackets because of your slow progress."

"Every norm starts out from scratch, Vector. Perhaps there are norms that have spent

a lot of time on playing virtual mech games, but you know as well as I do that most of the piloting skills can't be transferred over due to the highly simplified control systems." "You are correct, but we have already found that there is one broad group of people that are able to adapt faster to piloting Carmine mechs. Their preexisting skillsets, discipline and fighting spirits even allows us to remove two or three years out of the training period needed to transform them into acceptable Carmine mech pilots."

Ves already had a good clue of what sort of people the Transhumanist was talking

about.

"Are you talking about the Swordmaidens?"

"Much more than that, Ves. I am speaking of infantry troopers. Any professional soldier trained for infantry combat possesses adequate to excellent fighting skills. The majority are adept at close quarters combat and they have also gained enough proficiency in marksmanship. They know how to fight as a team, they are good at following orders and they understand the importance of hierarchy. Since they do not require too much weapons training to get accustomed to handling the weapons of the Yellow Jacket models, they can spend much of their time on learning how to control the machines themselves. This does not require 5 or 10 years as long as the training is focused enough. Best of all, there are so many infantry troopers that we can quickly raise a large amount of Carmine mech regiments that can be made battle ready in just.

2 or 3 years. We plan to allocate more Carmine mechs to these soldiers and future Carmine mech pilots."

That actually sounded really fantastic. Prioritizing shipments of Carmine mechs to

already trained and capable infantry soldiers was a good way to reduce the amount of years it took to flood the frontlines with cheap and semi-disposable Carmine mechs!