The Mech Touch

"Meow..."

Lucky yawned as he laid on the armrest of the cockpit chair.

Numerous days had passed since the Hidden Smile split away from the expeditionary fleet and raced towards the target star system with the help of her superdrive.

The Hex Federation had just introduced this new class of stealth frigate into service. Utilized by intelligence agencies such as DIVA, ships like the Hidden Smile not only boasted more modern stealth systems, but could also reach their destinations faster than many other ships!

Stealth vessels like these were hard to come by in the private market. Their development and production required the support of too many large state institutions. The colonial states who invested a lot in them also weren't stupid enough to hand over their most sensitive and proprietary pieces of stealth tech to third parties.

Out of all of the partners of the Golden Skull Alliance, only the Glory Seekers had any chance of getting their hands on specialized starships of this caliber.

They had truly done much to pull their weight in the alliance as of late. It was as if they were afraid that they would lose their value and become irrelevant if they did not work harder to prove their value to the rest of the Golden Skullers.

Whatever the case, the addition of the Hidden Smile added whole new options for the expeditionary fleet.

It made it possible for Venerable Zimro Belson and his feline teammate to sneak up on a powerful alien raiding fleet in transit.

However, catching up to a group of starships that were traveling faster-than-light in realspace was easier said than done!

The sheer complexity and challenges that the group assigned to this mission were hard to overcome were too great.

After quietly arriving at the target destination and stopping at a certain location that was situated in the probable zone where the alien fleet would be passing by, the Hidden Smile remained in stealth.

Although a lot of alien raiding fleets were so haphazardly run that they rarely bothered to send scouts, the Golden Skullers couldn't assume the yurzen raiding fleet was the same.

The puelmers may possess a reputation for brutality and irrational behavior, but they had also shown greater cunning and prudence in their previous clashes against the Red Two.

The Hidden Smile had therefore lowered the power settings of many of her ship systems so that she could run as silently and unnoticeable as possible.

While it was not necessary to dim the lights and force everyone to whisper to each other, the DIVA crew members did so anyway because it put them in the proper mindset.

While Venerable Zimro Belson remained on standby in the cockpit of his expert mech, he thought back on the bewildering discussion he held with the captain of the Hidden Smile.

Every important officer and analysts had gathered in a briefing room. Each of them stood around a square table and projector that displayed a map of the star system where they intended to ambush the incoming aliens.

"This is the Corellix System." The DIVA captain explained. "Though surveyors have yet to detect any phasewater, it is still regarded as a resource rich star system due to its large and easily accessible deposits of bulk metallic ores. The only occupied planet is Corellix III. A medium-sized settlement has been built on the surface that is mostly oriented towards mining."

"What is the size of its garrison?" Venerable Zimro Belson asked.

The female captain did not look annoyed at the expert pilot for interrupting her presentation.

"The pioneers who founded the colony on Corellix III have sought to pull out and depart back to the rear of human-occupied space. If not for the resistance shown by the soldiers and the emergency directive imposed by the Red Two, the pioneers would have brought away as many mechs as their carriers and starships could carry away. As it is, the pioneers have agreed to a deal where they have surrendered all of their colonial properties to the Red Association in exchange for the right to take away a third of their mechs and all of their starships."

That caused Zimro to raise his eyebrows. "What of the remaining troops?"

"Many of them have volunteered to stay and defend Corellix III to the end in order to protect their friends and families who aren't able to evacuate from the vulnerable colony. They also chose to stay because of other reasons such as upholding their honor and doing their duty. It also helps that the Red Association has promised to reward them and grant them greater privileges once the mechers have sent a relief force to fortify the star system into a border stronghold."

Zimro smiled when he heard that. "I see. They have made a difficult choice, but their cause is just and honorable. I hope that they will be rewarded for their commitment to their service."

As an expert pilot, Zimro fully understood the sentiments of those mech pilots. While they were all humans who possessed a real fear towards death, it was unacceptable for them to cut and run when so many colonists depended on their protection.

Such a stain on their records would haunt them for the rest of their careers! It would be a lot less likely for any of the cowardly mech pilots to make any breakthroughs in the future.

Sure, it was almost impossible for ordinary mech forces to resist the might of alien starships, but as long as the chance was realistic enough, they owed it to themselves and the people under their protection to stand their ground!

The captain of the Hidden Smile continued with her presentation. Several lines appeared on the map that depicted the probable trajectories that the incoming alien raiding fleet would take in order to reach Corellix III.

"These are the five most probable routes that the yurzen raiding fleet might take." She explained. "We have formulated these routes based on historical patterns, studies on the racial biases of the puelmers and yurzens, the stellar landscape of the Corellix System and other data sources. As you can see, several of these routes diverge wildly from the others. They are also surrounded by large zones that loosely depict the enormous variance in trajectory. If we are fortunate enough to select the correct route to intercept the alien fleet, we may still miss its passage because we have parked our ship several light-minutes too far away from the actual trajectory."

Intercepting a fleet traveling through space was difficult.

Intercepting a fleet traveling through space in warp travel was even more difficult.

Doing so while maintaining complete stealth was practically impossible!

"The best chance to intercept the incoming alien fleet is to engage in warp travel ourselves, but doing so will expose our existence to the enemy fleet without any doubt." The captain seriously stated. "Warp travel works on the basis of bending space in a contorted shape. This produces obvious spatial distortions that can easily be detected by multiple different sensor systems. The puelmer heavy cruisers are known to possess a comprehensive suite of sensors and detection arrays, so the aliens will know that we are trying to catch up to them despite keeping our assets invisible."

Trying to sneak up to an enemy fleet in warp travel was like trying to approach a military fortress by digging a tunnel under the ground.

Perhaps the approach might not be obvious from the surface, but the vibrations and other disturbances generated by digging activity could not be hidden!

Venerable Zimro Belson frowned. "We can't intercept the alien fleet in warp travel unless we use it as well. We will just get left behind while the aliens quickly reach Corellix III and overwhelm the outgunned defenders."

"That is not entirely correct." The DIVA captain shook her head. "There is another scenario where we can approach the alien warships while maintaining at least some element of surprise. This measure will likely put our adversaries on guard, but so long as they do not maintain their guard for too long, there will be a window of opportunity for your Phobos to approach undetected and strike before the fleet resumes its warp travel."

She pointed at one of the routes, which glowed brighter while the other ones dimmed.

A simulation took place where the yurzen raiding fleet entered the star system and traveled exactly along the estimated route.

Yet halfway through their journey to the inner system, previously hidden transphasic mines came online and exploded just in front of the incoming alien fleet!

The spatial disruptions caused by these mines not only damaged the alien starships in the vanguard, but also forced many of the vessels to drop out of warp travel!

It was at this time that the nearby Hidden Smile quietly flew closer on a relatively fast ballistic trajectory before launching the Phobos that had already activated his stealth systems.

In an ideal scenario, neither of the puelmer heavy cruisers overseeing the 112 yurzen warships had activated their transphasic energy shields.

The Phobos first approached one of the key alien warships in order to drop off Lucky.

The expert stealth mech then proceeded to sneak up on another puelmer warship and knock out all of the alien vessel's warp drives in quick succession!

Zimro frowned. "Is it realistic to expect the puelmer warships to keep their transphasic energy shields down when they have just stumbled on a minefield?"

"We do not know. This is why the success rate of this operation is not high to begin with. If you find yourself unable to sabotage either of the puelmer warships, then we recommend that you attempt to disable the warp drives of the largest yurzen vessels that you can affect."

That was anything but ideal as the yurzen warships weren't worth that much to begin with. As long as the puelmer homeships retained their full mobility, the difficulty of defeating them was much greater!

As Zimro continued to listen to the briefing, he couldn't help but fixate on the greatest point of uncertainty of this difficult operation.

"All of this sounds good, but we won't be able to do any of this if we cannot select the right route and plant your transphasic mines at just the right coordinates. How can you possibly make the correct determinations? Space is too wide and vast to just get it right."

The only realistic way to actually hit a fleet traveling through space was to prepare an ambush close or right on top of its end destination.

The problem with doing that in this case was that the colony on Corellix III would still get raided by the aggressive yurzens.

This meant that the Golden Skull Alliance could say goodbye to the huge bonus rewards for stopping the aliens before they could commit their awful deeds.

The DIVA captain was well aware of how difficult they were making this for themselves.

However, she was confident that they could make this improbable interception attempt happen.

"The Supreme Son has informed us of a measure we can take that can significantly increase our success rate. He told us that you are carrying a totem on your person. Can you show it to us, please?"

It took a few seconds for Zimro to understand what they were referring to. He reluctantly reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a hand-sized Unending alloy totem of Ylvaine!

A sense of purity and sacredness immediately spread in the immediate area.

The DIVA captain's eyes lit up as she beheld this small icon.

"Venerable Belson, please commune with the Great Prophet. We sincerely request his guidance. Which of the five routes will the alien fleet traverse? Which coordinates should we plant our mines, and what ballistic trajectory should the Hidden Smile take in order to ready for a swift but unnoticeable approach?

"..."

The expert pilot couldn't believe that all of these serious and professional DIVA operatives were willing to gamble on the success of this entire operation by listening to the predictions of a prophet!

A male prophet at that!