The Mech Touch

What was it like to enter and fight on a real battlefield?

Every mech cadet wanted to know this as soon as they started their studies. No kid could restrain their curiosity and yearning towards actual combat.

Unfortunately, there was no way that any responsible mech academy would bring any of its students to the battlefield. The risks were far too great and there was no way to control everything that took place in such a chaotic environment.

The battlefield was not a classroom! It was not a place for underaged and immature mech cadets either!

The only real taste of large-scale battles that mech cadets ever got to experience was when they entered into the ones prepared by their simulation systems.

Of course, it was well-known to all of the mech cadets that the simulated battles were nowhere comparable to the real experience.

Every mech instructor and every mech pilot consistently warned the cadets to never believe what they learned and experienced in the simulators could fully prepare them for the actual battles to come.

While Mickey Lankos tried his best to keep this lesson in mind, he found that he simply couldn't shake off the impression that he had truly traveled back in time and ended up in the middle of one of the most famous and iconic battles of the Larkinson Clan!

When Mickey had done his research on the mysterious Larkinsons, he didn't really understand the context of the Battle of Fordilla Zentra.

He became much more distracted by the scale of the battle and all of the cool and powerful mechs that appeared on the public battle footage.

Seeing them fight against each other when playing back archival footage was one thing.

Seeing the same mechs fight against each other in the best simulation system that he had ever experienced was another thing!

Almost all of Mickey's senses came alive as he immersed himself in the chaos and energy of the massive battle.

He could feel the heat radiating from the laser beams and positron beams that zipped past his body.

He could feel the crushing impacts as lancer mechs drove their long weapons into the frames of their targets.

He could feel the anger and fury of the dwarven mech pilots as their short but well-armored mechs slowly crushed their way through the defensive lines of the Larkinson mechs.

It was a pity that space did not transmit sounds, or else Mickey would have been able to hear the sounds of combat to a finer degree than ever before.

Little Five appeared just in front of his floating body and gazed at the unfolding battle as well.

"I see that you have done your research. What a diligent student! What you see is indeed a reconstruction of the Battle of Fordilla Zentra. What you are currently experiencing is a part of what every Larkinson and soldier of the former Vulcan Empire felt when they fought against each other."

"Is the current simulation a fully accurate reproduction of that battle?"

"No." Little Five immediately replied. "We have taken a few… creative liberties with the mechs and the sequence of the battle. Since this is a real battle involving mech models that are still being actively used by the Larkinson Clan, the MSTS cannot show you more of their capabilities than what is already known to the public. We fudged some of their parameters so their actual performance is quite different in reality."

Mickey didn't care about that. All of the Bright Warriors, the Ferocious Piranhas and the Valkyrie Redeemers all looked just as cool and powerful as in the footage he had recently watched!

"Is this what real mechs are like, Little Five?"

"Many high-quality and expensive simulation systems claim to be able to reproduce the sensation of fighting in an actual war, but none can come close to what you are experiencing at this very moment. This is much closer to what true combat is like. Don't you agree, cadet?"

Mickey couldn't help but nod. There was a quality to the simulated events that felt much more real to him than what he experienced in all of the other virtual battlefields.

He wasn't a scientist or an engineer so he couldn't figure out why this was the case, but as a mech pilot he instinctively felt this was indeed a more accurate reflection of what he might stumble upon in the future!

As he gazed into the distance, he noticed several distant spots of light that somehow thrummed with power.

"Are those.. expert mechs?"

"They are." Little Five grinned. "Sadly, our MSTS is not able to portray them well enough to give you a closer look at them. That is still a work-in-progress. You can examine the other mechs if you wish."

Though Mickey felt tempted to move his body closer to one of the places of the battlefield and see the human and dwarven mechs clash against each other up close, he remembered his original purpose.

"Uhm, I don't want to remain a spectator anymore. Can I start piloting a mech?"

"Why certainly! Pick any standard mech you like."

Mickey's simulated eyes blinked. "What did you say?"

Little Five's miniature face grinned as he floated around the mech cadet. "Did you think that this is just an opening cinematic that we'll breeze past once you're done admiring it? Think again! Just this once, our MSTS is granting you an opportunity to take part in this massive battle and let you wield the power of a real combat mech, with liberties of course!"

"Really?"

"Try it out for yourself, Cadet Mickey! Just look around you and pick out a mech that interests you. You can choose from both sides."

Mickey found it difficult to make a choice. There were so many awesome mechs involved in this battle that he didn't know where to begin.

"Do you want to experience what it is like to pilot a heavy melee mech that can crush other machines with a single swing of its heavy maul? Do you want to pilot one of those interesting dwarven beast mechs that are fighting at the flanks? Do you prefer to stay in the back and bombard your opponents with heavy gauss cannons instead?"

Though the dwarven mechs fielded by the Ferril Provincial Army all looked powerful in their own way, Mickey was not attracted to their style and their shapes.

He was not a dwarf, after all!

"Can I try out one of the mechs of your Larkinson Clan?"

"Why certainly! Which one has taken your fancy?"

As a younger mech cadet, Mickey had not yet formally chosen his specialization. He was still at a stage where he was learning the fundamentals in piloting both melee mechs and ranged mechs.

The Larkinson Clan fielded numerous interesting mechs, of which three of them stood out to Mickey.

The Bright Warrior model was the most prevalent on the battlefield. It came in the form of four different configurations that could fight at range and up close.

Though these mechs looked fairly strong, they were not as remarkable as the other mechs fielded by the Larkinson Army.

The Valkyrie Redeemer was the next mech model that caught the young cadet's attention.

Though its vibe was completely different from that of the Bright Warrior, the Valkyrie Redeemer nonetheless presented an interesting combat approach.

Mickey liked the thought of harassing enemies from a distance with a gun before swooping in and impaling a vulnerable opponent with a spear as soon as there was an opening!

However, the Larkinson mech that attracted him more than any of the others aside from the distant expert mechs was the heavy artillery mech that pounded the enemy mechs and ships from the rear!

The awesome gauss cannons and the searing positron cannons of the Transcendent Punisher made a profound impression on Mickey.

It wasn't just its firepower that was impressive, but also the uncanny accuracy that they demonstrated.

The Land Cracker, Ship Cracker and Mech Cracker models fielded by the elite dwarven Steel Rain Mech Regiment tried their best to keep up with their enemy counterparts, but did not entirely manage to do so. The punch and firepower of the former two dwarven artillery mechs were awe-inspiring, but their hit rates could not come close to that of the Transcendent Punisher  model!

Mickey not only became attracted by the excellent performance of the Transcendent Punisher, but also figured that it was easier for a mech cadet with limited skills to pilot a heavy artillery mech.

After all, compared to the complex maneuvering that was needed to make full use of the Valkyrie Redeemers and the Ferocious Piranhas, the Transcendent Punisher merely had to stay in one place and aim its heavy armaments at the right targets!

"That one." Mickey pointed in the direction of one of the Larkinson Clan's ships. "Can I try out one of those heavy artillery mechs?"

"Excellent choice." Little Five responded. "I will transfer you in a moment. Get ready to unleash fire and fury!"

The transition happened in an instant.

Previously, Mickey was floating at a vantage point that made him feel a bit detached from the heat of the battle.

No more. This time, he truly felt as if he was interfacing with heavy artillery mech at the moment!

He could feel his body entering into a simulated cockpit that was attached to one of the heaviest mechs on the battlefield.

While the dwarves fielded even heavier and more massive mechs in this battle, the Transcendent Punisher was definitely a powerhouse of its own on the side of the Golden Skull Alliance!

Mickey barely had time to adjust to the plethora of new sensations and experiences when a nearby impact suddenly shook him and his mech from their paralysis!

It turned out that a distant dwarven Ship Cracker mech managed to slam a heavy gauss round against the surface of the front bunker cover that protected his Transcendent Punisher.

Little Five materialized inside the cockpit and placed his metal hands on his metal hips. "This is no time for you to space out and get distracted! Did your instructors not tell you that getting distracted will get you killed?"

"Ah, I'm sorry! This is all new to me. I am still trying to get my bearings in this simulation mech. I have never piloted a heavy artillery mech before, even in a simulation!"

"That won't be a problem for you." Little Five reassured the mech cadet. "The MSTS has simplified the control scheme of your Transcendent Punisher for the purposes of this introduction sequence. You don't need to pay attention to the smaller details that professional mech pilots are expected to manage. Just concentrate on the essentials that you have learned in your classes and fire away!"

As Mickey cautiously extended his mind to the simulated artillery mech, he soon figured out that it was like playing one of those virtual games. Though everything still felt a lot more real than the simulations he tried in the past, the controls had been simplified to the point where he could truly start participating in the battle without falling behind!

He soon became completely engaged in the immersive experience. Though he still needed to pay attention to managing the heat levels, energy reserves and ammunition reserves of his Transcendent Punisher, the heavy artillery mech was so generous with these factors that Mickey did not have to worry about them too much.

"This is more of a gun platform than a mech!"

Mickey soon learned that the Transcendent Punisher was all about its heavy armament.

He controlled six different cannons, of which four of them were suitable for long-ranged bombardment.

Whenever he fired the twin gauss cannons, he became incredibly satisfied when his rounds smacked into an unsuspecting dwarven mech!

Whenever he fired the twin positron cannons, he felt a special sense of satisfaction when they melted a hole through the frame of a light mech.

Surprisingly enough, Mickey found it a lot easier to land his hits at ludicrous distances. The Transcendent Punisher actively nudged his aim whenever he concentrated on a specific target.

Was this part of the simplification that Little Five talked about?

"You're wrong, Cadet Mickey." Little Five told him. "Although it feels like cheating, what you are benefiting from at the moment is a close approximation of what it is like to pilot a real Transcendent Punisher. Can you feel its glow?"

Mickey tried to feel out his mech and noticed that it felt a lot different from the War Squire he initially piloted.

"I think I do. This glow… is giving me a sense of certainty. The more I feel it out, the more I feel like I know how to punish my enemies!"

"The secret to piloting living mechs is to embrace what they tell you." Little Five revealed. "As long as you build a good relationship with any LMC mech, you can always count on them to have your back. Let us see whether you can achieve a 80 percent accuracy rate by the end of this session. Open yourself up to the Transcendent Punisher and its glow. The key to mastering this heavy artillery mech lies in recognizing that you are not alone and that your mech is actively helping you. Come on, cadet! If you can disable or destroy 30 more dwarven mechs, I'll give you an extra reward."

Mickey's eyes burned with determination. Now that he received a concrete goal, he wanted to do his best to fulfill it. With how powerful the simulated Transcendent Punisher made him feel right now, he felt confident enough to succeed!

"I can smash a whole starship with this artillery mech!"

As Mickey shot down mech after mech while learning more about the nuances of the gauss cannons and positron cannons at his disposal, Little Five continued to provide tips and advice that continually improved his effective performance.

Mickey and many other mech cadets became completely lost in the power fantasy that the MSTS had presented to young and impressionable teenagers!

Years from now, each of them would look back fondly at this moment and always associate the MSTS to this unforgettably immersive experience.

Each of them yearned to become the mech pilots that they pretended to be when they 'fought' in the Battle of Fordilla Zentra.

To them, this was not a game.

This was a preview of their future careers!