The Mech Touch

Across Marrakath III, a brand new mech model appeared on the surface!

No word of the new Hexer mech had spread to the Fridaymen. The Hexers in charge of bringing them to the battlefield had done an unusually good job at hiding their movements.

The Fortune Legion who considered Marrakath III to be their turf were completely floored. The Friday Coalition's intelligence agencies always managed to warn them in advance whenever the Hex Army revised an existing mech line or introduced a new model that the matriarchs approved.

Yet this time, the spies had failed!

On the surface, this wasn't necessarily a disaster. Some mech models were more influential than others.

The main assault mechs that were piloted exclusively by female Hexers were critically important. Their impact on the battlefield was great and each revision forced the Friday Coalition to adopt slightly different battle tactics in order to cope with the improved machines.

In contrast, most male Hexer mechs weren't that consequential. Whether they came in the form of a knight mech, rifleman mech or support mech, the machines piloted by the repressed boys usually didn't amount to much. Their budgets were cheaper and their performance was noticeably worse.

In most cases, the Hex Army employed their male mechs as cannon fodder. The only debate that raged among the Hexer commanders was how expendable they were.

Some argued that male mechs were completely worthless and should just be used up whenever convenient. In the eyes of militant Hexers, it was worth it to sacrifice the lives of their entire pool of male mech pilots as long as the Friday Coalition fell!

Others argued that the Hexadric Hegemony did not possess limitless manpower and resources and that they should really make an effort at conserving the male mechs. The more cautious Hexers did not disagree that male mechs were expendable, but they should at least aim for the highest return on investment.

Ghanso had encountered Hexer battlefield commanders of both camps during the Battle of the Marrakath System.

He felt enormously disgusted at the first group, but did not think much better of the second group either!

Both kinds of Hexer leaders treated their boys as lesser, and both of them had to be toppled in order to save the Komodo Star Sector from their gender-based tyranny!

Yet today, Ghanso witnessed something that confounded this paradigm.

The Hexer mechs, whether male or female, rallied around a notable new mech model as if it was the bannerguard of their respective units!

This strangely-looking knight mech looked a bit slimmer than the other knight mechs of the Hex Army. It possessed two strange tentacles that extended from its waist. Its sharp spikes gently interfaced with the external ports of the Hexer mechs that had taken a number of steps back from the firing line.

What was the new mech doing? Was it supplying energy to the other machine?

"It's a support mech as well?"

Ghanso even noticed the new mechs plunging the sharp tips of their tentacle appendages through the exterior of the mechs that had been downed. According to the powerful sensors of his Charlemagne, a power flow emerged that caused the new mech to supplement its reserves.

"This!"

As a mech pilot that had taken part in three wars, Ghanso instantly became aware of the enormous implications of this new mech model.

One of the most persistent flaws of the Hex Army was that their female mech pilots were too aggressive. This not only caused them to launch a lot of attacks, but also pilot their mechs in a wasteful manner.

Blocking the ferocious Hexers and letting them tire themselves out was one of the favored strategies the Fridaymen employed against their hated rivals!

Yet it was not so easy to accomplish. If the Hexer mechs were able to top up their spent energy on the frontlines, then they would easily be able to sustain their aggression, making it much more likely that they broke through!

This reality was already unfolding before his eyes as the most reckless but also the most aggressive Hexer mechs unleashed their might without holding back at all. It didn't matter how much energy they expended. As long as one of the new mechs was close, they could always prolong their offensive!

What was worse was that their actions played right in the hands of the new mech model. The more enemy mechs the aggressive Hexers defeated, the more immobile energy sources the new mech model could tap into! Even if the energy transfer process was fairly slow and inefficient, it made a huge difference in the later stages of the battle when the Fortune Legion mechs started to lose steam.

This was already enough for Ghanso to prioritize the new mech model. What he heard from the communication channels made him realize that the threat of this new machine was much, much worse!

Before he joined the CRC, he was a loyal mech pilot of the Mech Corps. He fought alongside more Desolate Soldiers than he could count during the frantic days of the Sand War.

Their glows, though artificial and forceful in his opinion, brainwashed the mech pilot and people around them. They fought much harder against the sandmen and died at a higher rate as a consequence!

Ghanso thought he had rid himself of his loathsome cousin's influence. The Fridaymen would never make use of the products of their enemies and the Hexers were well-known for rejecting the products made by boys!

"Yet why has his damned mech showed up here?!"

He couldn't understand it! Had the Hexers ignored their own rules?!

His eyes went red as he saw how big of an influence the mechs exerted on both the Fortune Legion and the Hex Army.

The former fought as if they had weights on their shoulders while the latter simply gained more confidence!

"It's different from the Desolate Soldier."

Yet no matter what, the presence of this glow posed a major threat to the Fortune Legion mechs sandwiched between two Hexer forces!

He couldn't hold back any longer. The Hexers may not have deployed their expert mechs as of yet, but Ghanso had to do something before the Fridaymen lost!

"I'm going in! Those new tentacled knight mechs have to be taken out at all costs!"

The three other Fridayman expert pilots were floored.

"What?! It's too soon! Their expert mechs will gain an advantage if you expose yourself!"

Doing nothing is exactly what they want! Can't you see? We're already losing!" Ghanso admonished his colleagues. "Those new mechs are force multipliers. Even one of them is enough to affect fifty other mechs!"

He ignored their subsequent responses and commanded his mech and his Scara to fly forward! As soon as he reached an acceptable range, he immediately commanded the Charlemagne and his slave mechs to fire!

Fifty-one bright beams momentarily descended onto the Hexer mechs from above! Ghanso tried his best to target as many of his cousin's new mechs as possible, but at this angle he could only target twelve of the abominable machines.

The mech his Charlemagne targeted instantly fell onto the ground with a huge hole through its chassis. The power of an expert mech's rifle was too much for even a knight mech to withstand!

The quasi-expert mechs had mixed success on the other hand. Five of the new mechs fell down, but the rest only suffered varying degrees of damage.

The knight mechs still possessed a formidable amount of defense. In addition, the Hexer commander in charge of the reinforcements was already aware of the importance of the new mechs and assigned several ordinary knight mechs to guard the machines that emanated glows.

"Damnit, Ves! Your mechs are heinous! I'll remove every single mech that is based on your designs!"

His Charlemagne and Scara recklessly flew closer in order to reach more of the new mechs, but the Hexers didn't sit still!

They responded quickly. Every single new model mech soon became surrounded by numerous sturdy mechs.

Not only that, the Hexers finally dispatched their own expert mechs!

"Venerable Larkinson! Alert! Incoming resonance signatures!"

Three Hexer melee mechs rapidly advanced to intercept Unit L.

"So you're the famed woman killer, eh?" A short-ranged communication channel voiced. "You may have caught some of our sisters by surprise, but we know what you are capable of! We won't fall for tricks again!"

The Hexers sent three offensive melee mechs! With two swordsman mechs and one lancer mech, the enemy expert mechs wanted to eliminate the Charlemagne up close regardless of the risks!

"Venerable Ghanso! We'll hold them back! Go eliminate the new threat. Our lines are already faltering!"

Though only a short amount of time had passed, the unexpected enthusiasm of the Hexers along with the modest but unexpected suppression exerted on the Fridaymen made a huge difference!

The surprise factor was too much to the Fortune Legion mech pilots. They never fought under the influence of a glow, and the first time was always the most dramatic.

If they fell back to their training and properly organized their minds, then they would have been able to fight close to their peak.

Yet the destabilizing influence of the new mechs along with the unrelenting aggression from the offensive Hexer mechs delivered twin punches to them in quick succession.

This caused the Fridaymen mechs to lose all of their initiative! Aside from putting up a desperate defense and stepping back, there was nothing else they could do to reverse the tide!

As Ghanso and his Scara resumed his aerial assault, the urgency of the situation grew greater. There were thousands of mechs involved on both sides and the influence of Unit L could not single-handedly repel all of the Hexer mechs!

"I don't have to shoot down every Hexer mech! As long as I destroy my evil cousin's work, then that's enough!"

The Hexers began to counterattack. Their ranged mechs lessened the pressure on the enemies in front of them in favor of shooting the ostentatious expert mech and quasi-expert mechs in the air!

Though the Charlemagne's armor easily held for now, the Scara was not as resilient!

"I have to fly lower!"

The mechs of Unit L descended in unison until they floated closely above the heads of his enemies. This made it much more troublesome for the enemy Hexer mechs to fire on the Charlemagne and the Scara.

As the mechs of Unit L descended above a company of Hexer mechs, the Scara ruthlessly shot the machines that prevented them from firing on the new mech.

This was too abnormal! Not just the male mechs, but the female mechs were putting their frames in the way as well. It was as if the new mech was something inviolable!

"Get out of the way!"

The resonance around his mech grew brighter. His rage fueled his determination to fight. Even though his mech's energy reserves drained faster and his headache escalated rapidly, Ghanso didn't care at all! He just wanted to crush his cousin's mech!

Once every obstacle had been dealt with, his mechs flew closer. Ghanso did not hurry to eliminate the new mech immediately. Instead, he wanted to experience its glow in person.

As soon as the Charlemagne and the front-most Scara came into range, they briefly paused.

Ghanso's face grew uglier. He felt as if he was back in the past when he was just a young boy at the Larkinson Compound. He remembered pulling down his pants in order to relieve himself on some plants in the backyard.

Of course, compound's monitoring system captured everything. When his mother stormed over, the disapproval she directed towards him had always brought him shame!

Now, the glow of his cousin's new mech had caused him to dig out this awful memory from the depths of his mind.

"THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!"

Even if the glow of the new mech did not pressure his strong mind at all, the faint associations it brought up nevertheless disturbed him to an incredible degree.

"And it's not just me! The Scara are affected as well!"

It was as if he was being affected by the glow at least a dozen times over! It practically drove him crazy!

"ALL OF YOU MUST DIE!"

The Charlemagne and Scara had already been charging for a powerful resonance attack. Ghanso had quickly accelerated the buildup and unleashed his mightiest attack to date!

In an instant, fifty-one empowered positron beams not only bore through the frame of the new mech, but pierced through the ranks of other Hexer mechs!

Over 120 Hexer mechs fell at once!