The Mech Touch

Even though the Larkinsons had good cause, it was still illegal for them to break the taboo on weapons of mass destruction.

This was an absolute rule, and one the Big Two had never compromised on. Even when Ves pleaded to Master Willix to give him permission to employ these destructive weapons, it turned out that she lacked the authority to consent to such a controversial request!

Still, many of those superweapons were very potent. Turning some of them against Ulimo Citadel would definitely make it easier to breach the main stronghold's defense network.

Ves pushed on regardless. Eventually, Master Willix promised to advocate on his behalf to an upper administrator at Centerpoint.

Whoever she talked to, Master Willix eventually returned to Ves with an offer.

"The MTA is ready to grant this exception to you on a temporary basis, but only at a heavy price."

"How much?" Ves asked.

"2,000,000 MTA merits."

"That much?!"

"This is a reasonable price considering the consequences of this decision. This price is non-negotiable, Mr. Larkinson!"

Surrendering 2 million MTA merits just to be able to make use of every superweapon they captured from the pirates was almost unbearable to Ves! The only reason why he didn't reject this insane demand was because he knew that it was an investment.

Of all of the taboo weapons at Ulimo Citadel that the Black Cats had tallied so far, the estimated merit bounty of them far surpassed this sum of merits!

Ves briefly entertained the notion of turning down the MTA's offer. Without permission, the Larkinson Clan risked annihilation if they still decided to make use of the pirate-owned superweapons. He could never take such a reckless decision.

As for setting the powerful superweapons aside, that was not in his consideration!

The pirates played dirty and possessed too many advantages.

"I… agree." Ves eventually decided. "Can I make another request as well?"

Ves and Master Willix eventually forged a deal that greatly increased Task Force Predator's chances of victory.

Though Ves instantly lost more than half of the merits he acc.u.mulated up to this point, he believed it was worth it. The potential gains of conquering Ulimo Citadel would allow him to recoup his investment several times over while suffering much less losses.

Still, obtaining a temporary pass from the MTA was not enough. Ves had to put a lot of effort into convincing his fellow clansmen to hijack and make use of prohibited weapons!

Breaking taboos was as easy as shaving his stubble to Ves. In contrast, many other clansmen had grown up with the taboos ingrained in their very souls. It was very difficult for them to accept the notion of making use of prohibited weapons, even if they only intended to use them against the sc.u.m of the galaxy.

Fortunately, Ves possessed a lot of clout and authority within the clan. As long as he pressed hard enough, enough clansmen volunteered to taint their hands. Of course, they received plenty of bonuses such as Larkinson merits for their trouble.

The vault, though well-protected, opened up without a fuss. The Black Cats had already thoroughly hacked the security systems as well as the fail safes with the help of Lucky.

Once they gained access to the contents of the vault, these weapon techs directed various heavy-duty lifter bots or other transportation vehicles to take out a select number of superweapons.

Most of them consisted of bombs and missiles. The Larkinsons retrieved only a couple of warship-grade laser cannons because there weren't that many stored in the vault. Instead, the Dry Snakes usually made other arrangements for them since most of these heavy weapons were mounted on starsh.i.p.s.

At this time, the main stronghold went on full alert! The Dry Snakes and their allies finally faced the threat they had been preparing for all of these weeks.

Even though Grand Protector Roshaw had heard about the formidable sabotage abilities of the Larkinson Clan, he never expected the vault defenses to fail so extensively.

His grand coat decked with expensive exotic-laden trophies shook as he realized that his pirate stronghold might actually fall today!

"This is impossible!" One of his pirate officers responsible for setting up the defenses stated. "Our men have checked those systems over and over! It shouldn't have been possible to tamper with them to such an extent that they failed right when those bastards decided to launch their attack!"

"They managed to succeed regardless." Roshaw angrily grumbled. His men were already in disarray due to the huge failure in preventing the Larkinsons from taking over their outer vaults! "You promised that our defenses would hold. You failed."

Before the pirate officer could offer any further excuses, the leader of the Dry Snakes pulled out a resplendent-looking hand cannon and shot the man in the head!

Bang!

Grand Protector Roshaw may have become old, but he was still a pirate! His furious eyes raked over his other subordinates, but none of them wanted to attract his ire.

"Inspect every single defensive system and other critical systems." The Grand Protector commanded. "Preemptively load every hardware and software backup that can be applied in thirty minutes. If any of you fail me to this extent, your fate will be the same!"

The pirates inside the main base entered into an even greater frenzy! At the restricted sections that the Mirror Raiders failed to penetrate, the highly loyal Dry Snakes weapon operators each checked and reconfigured their respective defensive systems.

Others began to gear up and ready themselves for a difficult fight.

The Mirror Raiders were no exception! The Dry Snakes ordered them to deploy their two mech companies and join the rest of the loosely-organized Ulimo Militia.

Of course, the Dry Snakes did not trust the members of the hastily-formed militia force entirely. The Mirror Raiders were stationed far away from any core Ulimo positions.

None of the disguised Larkinsons minded this assignment. Lieutenant-Commander Abis, Lieutenant Sendra and Dietrich all entered their pirate mechs and obediently followed the arrangements of their supposed pirate overlords.

In order to discourage any trouble, the various mech outfits that had chosen to join the Ulimo Militia had to split up their mechs by squads. This caused the Mirror Raiders to be unable to keep all of their mechs together.

As for the non-mech pilots of the Mirror Raiders, the pirate authorities made different arrangements for them. This was why Ketis, who was ostensibly just a powerful bodyguard, was put on pacification duty. Her job was to keep the civilians in the public marketplace contained and in control.

She was hoping to do more. The time wasn't right, but she already looked forward to unsheathing her cutlass and cutting her way through every opposition!

Time passed as the Larkinsons and the pirates both prepared for the second round of fighting.

So far, the pirates completely failed to prevent the attackers from overwhelming the vaults!

Their unexpectedly rapid collapse not only led to the death or capture of many weapon operators and technical personnel, but also caused the pirates to lose around 360 mechs at once!

The latter was a painful loss, as that meant the pirate defenders were only left with around 3900 mechs!

The huge setback caused Grand Protector Roshaw to recall the relief forces that were making their way to the vaults. It had already become clear that it was a mistake to split his forces up, because he recognized that the Larkinson mechs were superior on an individual basis!

It was at this time that the Larkinsons unscrupulously began to make use of the superweapons they retrieved from the vaults!

In contrast, the pirates were only able to bring a portion of their base defenses online. Several defensive networks and enormous base cannons failed to initiate as the software of these weapons rebelled!

Due to various limitations, only a small proportion of base defenses experienced hardware failures.

Of course, several critical defensive systems remained untouched. After performing some extensive checks, their operators immediately attempted to bring their weapons to bear against the enemies within reach!

At this time, it was extremely dangerous for any mech to be out in the open.

The mechs of both sides therefore withdrew from the line of sight of any destructive superweapon and huddled behind some of the larger asteroids floating around in the region.

The vulnerable machines moved just in time to escape the first exchange of blows!

More than a dozen warship-grade laser beams instantly impacted the conquered vaults! The Dry Snakes were very proud of their Judgement Lasers. Each of them possessed the power to take out a second-class mech with a single full-powered blow.

"Taste our Ghostring missiles!"

Hundreds of missiles launched into space. Some of them bore conventional warheads, but at least a handful of them hosted nuclear warheads!

Due to some clever means, it was difficult to identify which missile contained an enhanced payload.

Even so, the Larkinsons were already prepared. Their ranged mechs peeked out from behind their asteroids to intercept as many missiles as possible.

The Penitent Sister ranged mechs performed the best! Their superior targeting systems and splitting laser beams caused them to take out at least seven missiles per shot!

"Hahahaha! Is that your best?!"

Asteroids continued to bear more and more marks of catastrophic laser impacts. It did not matter. There were so many asteroids floating around in Maynard Fields that the Larkinson mechs simply flew behind another one if their current rock was starting to look shaky.

The Larkinson weapon techs quickly brought more and more weapon systems online. While they were very cautious about employing the warship laser cannons they retrieved from the vault, they were much more haphazard when it came to launching other weapons!

Since much of the weapons in the vault were made by various pirate groups, their diversity was great.

Missiles with varying nuclear and other dangerous payloads launched towards the defenses of Ulimo Base.

Various turrets and thousands of pirate mechs urgently intercepted the incoming ordnance! Though their accuracy was not as good as that of the Larkinsons, their superior numbers along with the reduced amount of missiles from the vaults caused Ulimo Citadel to remain unaffected.

Dozens of radial explosions soon filled up the surrounding space. Though many of the nuclear missiles had been shot to pieces without triggering their dangerous payloads, other ones still managed to explode midway, throwing up lots of energy and interference in the areas between the vaults and the main stronghold!

"Ahh! Our sensors are frizzing up! We're firing blind!"

As more and more nuclear and exotic ordnance silently turned a patch of space into hell, the pirate sensor systems became less and less able to distinguish what went on. They could only fire their weapons at fixed locations.

The Larkinsons suffered from this problem as well, but only up to an extent. They already accounted for this outcome and made preparations accordinarily. They deployed purpose-built sensor arrays, spread out a huge network of electronic eyes in every direction and borrowed the powerful sensor systems of the Penitent Sisters to pierce past the expanding interference field!

More missiles and powerful lasers continued to fire from both sides. What was different was that the pirates failed to hit anything important while the Larkinsons accurately brought their hijacked superweapons to bear against the fixed weapon emplacements!

Numerous Judgement Lasers collapsed as deadly laser beams and tactical nuclear missiles succeeded in taking them out!

The threat of the pirates rapidly diminished as their functional superweapons became less and less. Grand Protector Roshaw looked distressed as Ulimo Citadel rapidly lost their most powerful form of protection!

Unfortunately, the party for the Larkinsons did not last long. The vaults did not carry that many superweapons. They quickly exhausted the stolen missiles. The huge laser cannons also succ.u.mbed as they couldn't avoid exposing their locations after firing huge, linear laser beams.

Though many of the weapon operators anticipated this outcome and did their best to control the weapon systems by remote, more than a hundred of them still lost their lives!

The second round had passed. The Larkinsons exhausted all of their stolen superweapons, but the price had been worth it. Ulimo Citadel only retained a fraction of their most threatening arsenal!

Grand Protector Roshaw looked grave as Ulimo Citadel began to get stripped apart piece by piece.

Even so, the pirates still managed to retain all of their mechs and enough defenses to keep putting up a fight.

The pirates also retained another trump card. Roshaw began to clench his fist. "If I resort to this option… I'll have to give up everything."

If possible, he didn't want to resort to his final option until there was no other choice!