The Mech Touch

The plan proposed by General Verle combined a lot of different advantages together in the hopes of producing a remarkable result!

As long as the Spirit of Bentheim loaded up with a lot of powerful ranged mechs, she could theoretically compete against an alien warship so long as the opponent was not too powerful!

The problem was that the aliens had a lot more ships at their disposal.

"Those yurzen warships won't remain idle if the Spirit of Bentheim begins to harass the alien fleet." Master Benedict pointed out. "What if the aliens dispatch dozens of yurzen warships to back up the puelmer heavy cruiser under fire?"

This was a legitimate concern, but General Verle already took this possibility into consideration.

"That's also fine." He said with a grin. "In fact, I hope the enemy will be foolish enough to commit to a chase. If we can lure a portion of the alien warships away, we can effectively split up the enemy forces. That will make it easier for the rest of our fleet to attack the diminished forces left behind."

The central projection briefly played out this scenario. It showed the souped-up Spirit of Bentheim flying close to the yurzen raiding fleet before pulling away.

The aliens somehow hated the taunting human factory ship so much that one of the puelmer heavy cruisers along with two-dozen yurzen warships broke away and started to get led further and further away from their compatriots!

This granted the rest of the expeditionary fleet a golden opportunity to swoop in and overwhelm the crippled puelmer homeship along with the reduced number of yurzen warships keeping her company!

"This is wishful thinking." Marshal Ariadne Wodin shook her head in disapproval. "The puelmers may have a reputation for being angry and impulsive, but they are also highly intelligent. They know what we are capable of. I do not think that the aliens will be stupid enough to split up their forces. Even if the other puelmer heavy cruiser can be led away to an extent, what can we do to stop her from turning around and going back to repel our main assault?"

"That is the beauty of this scenario." General Verle continued to smirk. "One of the reasons why I insist on using the Spirit of Bentheim in this capacity is because she is equipped with an advanced Gravity Net developed by Morton Tech. It is a powerful warp inhibitor that has an effective range of 30 kilometers. As long as the puelmer homeship is close enough, she will have little choice but to drop out of warp travel and lose most of her effective mobility."

"Thirty kilometers is too short." Marshal Ariadne Wodin said with great concern. "At this relatively short range, the puelmer heavy cruiser will effectively be able to land all of her shots at the Spirit of Bentheim. No matter how well your factory ship can resist attacks, it is impossible for her to withstand too many direct hits."

General Verle nodded. "This is why the range must be carefully controlled. We do not intend to reduce the range to 30 kilometers right away. We can save it for later after the exchange of fire has already dragged on to an extent. It is a trump card that we intend to employ just before the alien vessel wishes to distance herself."

"That still doesn't address the possible interference from other alien warships. If multiple yurzen vessels get within a closer range of the Spirit of Bentheim, their cannon batteries will quickly wear down the defenses of your flagship no matter how awful they are. The quantity is too much."

"That is why we do not intend to get into closer range unless we absolutely have to, marshal. This is not a fixed plan, but a flexible one that contains many different responses to many different possibilities. If we find that the other alien warships have become a greater hindrance, we can direct our firepower at them instead. The yurzen warships are considerably weaker. The Macharia Excelsia alone should easily be able to penetrate their defenses in a relatively short amount of time."

The discussion continued as General Verle explained how their side should respond if the aliens made a specific move.

It all sounded a bit complicated to Ves. The sheer amount of possible decisions that the aliens could make led to many possible permutations on how the situation would unfold.

Ves no longer bothered with keeping up with the specific scenarios. He trusted that Verle and his staff figured everything out. If they weren't confident enough that this would work, the general would have never presented it in the first place.

After half an hour of discussion, the leaders reluctantly became persuaded by the plan.

The key variable was whether the Larkinson Clan was willing to risk its incredibly valuable and crucial flagship to such a risky operation.

The consequences of failure were great, especially if Ves and other key figures of the Larkinson Clan insisted on staying on the very same ship!

Though Ves understood that it was stupid for him to stay on his flagship while she was being used as bait, he possessed a lot of confidence in the Spirit of Bentheim's survival ability.

He invested hundreds of millions of MTA merits to upgrade her to this state! He knew exactly how much punishment she could take!

With Ves acquiescing to this risky plan, General Verle received the support he needed to pull off this bold and risky plan!

Of course, it went without saying that the Larkinson Clan was entitled to earn a greater share if they successfully managed to defeat the yurzen raiding fleet with this stunt.

Combined with the earlier successes attained by Lucky and the Phobos, it might be possible for the Larkinsons to claim 40 percent of the total spoils this time!

"Are you sure that the Macharia Excelsia is enough to cover the Spirit of Bentheim?" Master Benedict Cortez questioned. "Your safety margin will be much improved if the Jedda Sandivar or the Royal Jeem can accompany your flagship as well. They can independently harass the enemy warships and provide an additional defensive buffer with their Saint Kingdoms."

General Verle looked a little less certain. "You make a good point, Master, but doing so will deprive our main fleet of a powerful protector. I ultimately think it is better to keep the two ace mechs together so that they can work together to quickly contain and wear down the defenses of the damaged and less mobile puelmer heavy cruiser. One ace mech is not enough to constrain her completely."

They talked a bit more about the plan. General Verle fine-tuned a few details based on the feedback provided by the other leaders, but the general idea remained the same.

The only variable that truly concerned everyone was whether the native aliens still possessed hidden assets that could take the Golden Skull Allliance by surprise.

Marshal Ariadne Wodin asked an important question. "Ves, have you asked your friend Ylvaine whether there are other archeships hiding in this star system?"

"I did." He replied. "He previously did not look for this, because none of us thought that the aliens would make such an extravagant move on a relatively small and unimportant battlefield, but now that we know better, I specifically requested the design spirit to sweep for additional surprises. He hasn't detected any so far, but I should caution you that his foresight is not completely reliable. We should still rely on our own scouting efforts to keep an eye out for any hidden enemies."

The discussion ended shortly after that. Once the revised plan spread across the fleet, the controversy it generated was not light!

However, an operation like this was not completely out of the ordinary for the Larkinsons. It was not exactly routine, but it did not exceed their psychological boundaries either.

It was as if they already expected for their patriarch and their leaders to commit to an extreme action every once in a while!

Everyone became a lot busier due to the sudden changes in the plan.

Buttoning down the Spirit of Bentheim became a high priority. A lot of different crews ran around to lock down and secure any objects that could possibly fly loose and hit people during combat.

The Larkinsons shifted a lot of fragile goods and valuable assets to other starships whenever possible.

All non-essential personnel had to go as well. There was no reason to subject them to the same risks as the crew that were essential in keeping the Spirit of Bentheim functional.

Gloriana along with her lovely three children all wore their protective hazard suits as they prepared to shuttle over to the Indigo Tremor.

The mother clearly did not like any part of this insane plan to risk the Spirit of Bentheim in battle.

She also did not like it that Ves insisted on staying on the ship during this dangerous ordeal!

However, she knew better than to argue against him. If he set his mind on this lunatic act, then there was nothing that could pull him away from the thick of all of the excitement!

"I want to stay as well!" Andraste whined. "If papa thinks it is okay for him, then I should be okay as well!"

Gloriana firmly smacked her daughter's head with her palm. "Shut up! This is no game! You may be born for greatness, but you are still two decades too young to participate in a serious military operation. You will stay with me. Your aunts over at the Indigo Tremor will make sure you will enjoy your stay among the Glory Seekers."

"Aww..."

"She's right, pumpkin." Ves said. "You need to have qualifications if you want to take part in a fight. We never allow incompetent people to undertake any serious responsibilities during battle. They will just get in the way of people who are actually doing useful work. Just listen to your mother and just watch the battle from afar, okay?"

"Okay, papa..."

He looked a lot more brave and imposing now that he had changed into his Unending Regalia.

Practically no one would believe that he could be a nerdy mech designer. Although he did not possess the characteristic disciplined bearing of a career soldier, Ves conveyed a strong image of a warlord at this time!

It was no wonder that Andraste became enthralled by this operation. She wanted to become just as awesome!

Gloriana meanwhile still looked concerned due to all of the possible accidents that could happen.

"If the aliens prove to be more difficult to deal with than you expected, you will turn back, alright?"

Ves nodded. "Don't worry. We may be bold, but we are not suicidal. We won't push ourselves to the brink in order to chase after a victory that we don't really need. If the heat becomes too much, we will try to disengage and get away. The Spirit of Bentheim might not be able to catch up with the expeditionary fleet straight away. We might have to rendez-vous in another star system."

It all depended on how much the aliens were willing to disregard other priorities in order to take down the Spirit of Bentheim.

The Golden Skullers needed to be careful about this. Attracting too much hatred would land the Spirit of Bentheim into trouble. Attracting too little hatred would make it difficult to split up the alien raiding fleet.

Ves was not too worried, though. At most, he would find a way to trigger one of the weapons of mass destruction that he would soon be able to get into his possession.

Although it would be a little difficult to explain how a superweapon suddenly appeared and destroyed a bunch of powerful enemy warships, Ves hoped that the mechers wouldn't pay too much attention considering that the aliens suffered all of the damage.

However, that was merely an option of last resort. It was best if Ves did not use up these valuable strategic weapons in this battle. He could think of much better uses for these taboo armaments!