The Mech Touch

Whenever the Charlemagne and the Scara, the local Fridaymen forces always cheered for their arrival!

The blue-and-gold expert rifleman mech and its ever-present honor guard became an extremely iconic sight on the battlefields of Marrakath III. Even the propaganda broadcasts of the Friday Coalition started to parade the magnificent sight. There was just something about seeing an expert mech acting in complete coordination with many other quasi-expert expert mechs that allowed the combination to stand out!

"It's Venerable Larkinson!"

"What an impressive unit!"

"We're saved! Those Hexers are doomed!"

Just a year ago, a third-rater such as Ghanso could only look up at the second-class mech pilots of the Friday Coalition. His humble birth and origin caused him to develop the impression that the Fridaymen were all giants in his mind.

Yet now that he had the privilege to pilot a fantastic if demanding second-class expert mech, he no longer felt lesser to his current comrades.

The Fridaymen were human as well. Their mech pilots might enjoy a better upbringing and gone through far more rigorous training, but the differences weren't as great as he imagined.

Even so, he still felt strange when the Fortune Legionnaires all cheered at him in the same way the soldiers of the Mech Corps used to do so. No matter their class, they respected his battle prowess and the efforts he made to support them in the field.

Ghanso felt proud he could make a difference in this foreign battlefield.

He was also glad he could help the Fridaymen win the war. No matter the current nature of his status, he still considered himself a Brighter at heart. Both were enemies of the Hexadric Hegemony.

Even if Ghanso hadn't been compelled to serve under the Coalition Reserve Corps, he still would have rooted for the Fridaymen, because the Hexers posed an existential threat to the way of life of his home state!

Therefore, even if he fought under the flag of the Friday Coalition, he still performed his duty to the Bright Republic!

The same could not be said for the derelict Larkinson Family and the outright treasonous Larkinson Clan, but that was something for Ghanso to consider for another day.

Right now, his Charlemagne and the Scara flew low over the partially-cratered battlefield of some sort of urban stronghold. Whatever civilians who lived here had long been pulled out, thereby allowing both sides to fight against each other at higher intensities.

Ever since the Battle of the Marrakath Systems moved to the surface, the fighting actually took place on both land and in space!

Up above his head, the spaceborn elements of the Opal Tridents and the Wrathful Doves constantly struggled for orbital supremacy. Neither side went all-out as orbital supremacy could never be truly achieved until all of the enemy ground forces were defeated.

The threat of deploying hidden surface-to-orbit weapons on any point of the globe was not negligible!

This was especially so in second-class warfare where the power levels of weapons was significantly greater. Back in the Bright Republic, the same threat was much less acute due to the difficulties in overcoming so much air, gravity, distance and other practical constraints.

All of this meant that Ghanso and every other surface combatant did not need to worry about getting shot at by a rifleman mech floating in high orbit.

That said, the Hexers did everything they could to overrun Marrakath III! After establishing a beachhead at great cost, the female-led forces expanded in every direction and constantly wrestled away fortified city after fortified city from the entrenched defenders.

Each city, built and reinforced with strong exotic alloys that were just as resilient as mechs, practically turned into ruins by the time the Hexers succeeded in forcing the defenders to pull back!

No matter how hard the defending forces resisted the indomitable Hex Army, the latter always threw more and more mech regiments at the defensive lines until the job was done!

"Break through no matter the cost!"

"The Marrakath Systems belongs to the Hegemony!"

"Boys must submit!"

Whenever Ghanso heard the Hexer mechs broadcast these slogans, his blood boiled.

The Hexers were evil! They sought nothing less than to repress every man! Such a travesty must not spread in the galaxy!

His comm crackled as one of the CRC officers assigned to coordinate his actions directed him to his next battle.

"Venerable Larkinson, there is a local underground industrial complex called the Beehive that is under heavy attack. While the Fortune Legion anticipated that the Hexers would prioritize the Beehive during their general advance, we did not expect them to form a spearhead and thrust ahead of their main line so soon. A considerable amount of industrial equipment and supplies are still being loaded onto transports."

"Am I being sent to relieve the defenders of the Beehive?"

"Not quite, Venerable. Our strategists believe that the Hexers have grown impatient and overconfident this time. The forces they invested in this assault are overextended and can easily be cut off as long as we block off their escape route."

Ghanso frowned. "I'm not sure whether it's wise to underestimate the Hexers. This smells like a trap."

"Even if that's the case, we need to grasp at every opportunity to delay the Hexers. The Opal Tridents has already mustered a strike force to cut off the Hexer assault mechs, but we would like you to be present as well in order to guard any accidents and thwart any Hexer expert mechs that might appear."

"Roger that. Send me the coordinates and route."

A short beep sounded out in the cockpit as the Charlemagne received the files.

The Charlemagne and the Scara accelerated slightly and flew along the route designated by the CRC. It was usually a bad idea to stray from an assigned route as there was a decent chance of stumbling upon Hexer mechs.

While Ghanso did not mind beating up Hexer mechs whenever he caught sight of one, he could not let these minor encounters delay him from fulfilling his primary goal!

As the Charlemagne continued to generate hopeful cheers and well wishes from the Fortune Legionnaires on the ground or in the air, he soon reached the Fridaymen mech forces that had gathered to cut off the escape route of the attacking Hexers!

"It's Venerable Larkinson!"

Ghanso performed his customary greeting with his fellow comrades before he piloted his mech to a small collection of Friday Men expert mechs. A knight mech, a swordsman mech and a light skirmisher supported the operation.

"Hello."

"Larkinson."

Ghanso frowned. "Three melee mechs is not enough to cover the thousands of regular mechs marching underneath us. Why aren't there more ranged mechs of our caliber?"

"Your pretty mech and your groupies already have that covered." One of the Fridayman expert pilots explained. "We're basically here to prevent any of the witches from getting close to your mechs."

"I don't need your protection." Ghanso stated.

"Let us be the judge of that. If you think you have seen everything the Hexers are capable of in just a couple of weeks of fighting, then think again."

The hasty effort organized by the Fortune Legion went smoothly. Ghanso and his expert colleagues remained on standby as the regular mechs overwhelmed the small number of mechs that had been assigned to patrol and guard the supply line.

Whoever was in charge of planning the attack on the Beehive did not spend much effort into guarding the rear of the assault force!

The Hex Army was in trouble. Thousands of mechs were trapped at the Beehive. While the Hexers were no doubt sending reinforcements to smash through the blockade, the Friday Coalition was moving in as well!

As long as the blockade could be maintained for an hour or so, the Fortune Legion could move over enough forces to annihilate the overextended Hexers!

"Here they come."

The Hexer lines moved. Numerous Hexer mechs moved forth and began to probe the blockade forces.

After deploying temporary barriers and other fixed defenses, the Fridaymen mech forces were already tough to deal with. The Hexers continued to sustain severe losses as their preliminary attacks were all crushed!

Ghanso directed the sensors of his Charlemagne to the fallen mechs and grimaced.

"They look like male mechs."

The Hexers callously expended a lot more male mechs than female mechs! The Hexer mech pilots who had fallen in this initial probe consisted predominantly of boys as well!

After testing the strength of the Fridayman blockade force, the Hex Army did not throw away more mechs.

An hour quietly passed by. At this time, the Fortune Legion was supposed to encircle and overwhelm the Hexers who attacked the Beehive, yet the news that Ghanso received sounded very different!

"This is bad, Venerable! The Fortune Legion's other lines have come under heavy assault! The forces that they have assigned to sweep the Beehive of Hexers have been redirected to defend more important sites!"

"What?! This late? They should have been here by now!"

"Their progress was slower than anticipated as the Hexers at the frontlines have already been making some aggressive movements. Ah, I have just received a revised instruction. The Fridayman mechs that you are overseeing must lift their blockade and make an orderly retreat to friendly lines. Their strength is sorely needed elsewhere!"

"What about the Beehive."

"We have already evacuated the most expensive and irreplaceable production equipment. The rest are being scuttled as we speak. We—"

"..."

As Ghanso patched into the other communication channels, he received varying amounts of static. That usually meant that a lot of jamming went up in the surrounding territories.

"Enemies approaching!"

"They're coming from two sides!"

The Hexers had finally made their move! Just as Ghanso expected, the Hexer assault forces wanted to break through the Fridayman blockade force with the help of reinforcements from the other side.

While Ghanso felt relieved that the reinforcements only consisted of a couple of thousands mechs, getting pressured on two sides was not easy to deal with! If the Fridaymen weren't careful, they might get encircled instead!

"Have the Hexers gone crazy today? They're already attacking dozens of fortifications at once!"

"Hey, Hexers are always crazy. It's probably their general's time of the month today, so they're being extra crazy this time!"

After scanning the numbers of every force, Ghanso estimated that the Hexers had brought just enough mechs to rescue their blocked compatriots, but not much more.

The ranged firefight proceeded normally. The Fortune Legion mechs directed the majority of its ranged mechs towards the reinforcements in an attempt to suppress them and slow their advance.

It did not work that well. The Hexers, eager to rescue their fellow sisters, pushed through the storm of fire by the hundreds, then the thousands!

The Charlemagne gripped its rifle tighter. Ghanso readied himself to resist the expert pilots that inevitably accompanied the masses of regular machines.

The moment that two tides of melee Hexers mechs crashed against the Fortune Legion from opposite directions, it was as if a sandwich had formed.

The fighting at the two fronts had become incredibly violent as thousands of melee mechs tried to smash each other apart as brutally as possible!

Cockpits already launched from the backs of fallen mechs left and right. Right now, few mechs paid attention to them as the enemies in front of them posed a much more immediate threat!

Considering the relatively even numbers, Ghanso expected the Hexers to get stalled.

His expectations were off.

One of the Fortune Legion's lines actually started to buckle!

The reinforcements that advanced from Hexer-occupied territory fought harder and more valiantly than their Fridayman counterparts. At the same time, the Fortune Legion mechs that had already faced off against Hexers several times seemed to move a bit more lethargically than usual.

This shouldn't be possible!

"What is the matter?! Why is the Fortune Legion losing ground?"

The pushback the Hexers had already accomplished so far was incredibly alarming to the Fridayman commanders. If the Fortune Legion was already faltering at this point, then a total rout was inevitable!

A small hunch came over Ghanso. He rapidly scanned the mechs deployed by the Hexer reinforcements. He spotted several familiar-looking standardized Hex Army mechs. He already memorized their main characteristics. His cranial implant stored the rest of their properties and also contained detailed guides on how to exploit their weak points.

Yet despite the relatively complete database in his implant, Ghanso nevertheless failed to identify a distinctly new mech model.

It was rare for the Hex Army to field a new mech model!

Though it looked like a middling male knight mech, the way the Hexers and Fridaymen mechs fought around it was very unsettling.

Through the heavy jamming in the air, Ghanso finally managed to hear some disconcerting statements.

"These Hexer mech pilots are fighting twice as hard today!"

"What is this pressure? I feel like I'm being stared at by mother!"

"I feel it as well! The moment my mech steps closer, this sensation grows stronger."

"Just ignore it! Remember your training and steel your minds!"

A dreadful realization dawn on Ghanso.