The Mech Touch

ime.

Of course, they also overheated very quickly and expended their energy or munitions rather fast, but in a short raid like this, endurance didn ’t matter too much.

The only reason why the defenders maintained their ground was because the cheap construction of the frontline mechs also made it easy to take them out.
Plenty of mechs turned inoperable after sustained concentrated fire, but the Chausseurs continued unabated.
They had already steeled themselves for some losses.

To the Mech Legion, losing a couple of frontline mechs was nothing, as each of them came with a unit price of around ten million credits or less.
Their mech pilots mostly managed to eject well in time, so the Vesians actually hadn ’t lost any lives at this point in time.

”Watch your fire! Don ’t aim too high! We can ’t afford to hit their cockpits when they eject! ”

The Mudriders and the Sanyal-Ablin mechs purposefully avoided targeting the cockpits of the Vesian mechs.
Neither groups wanted to incur any more enmity than necessary.
If news came out that they excessively slaughtered too many enemy pilots, then they would certainly be hunted down by the 3rd Imodris Legion.

The Mech Legion on the other hand held no such scruples.
If they saw an opportunity to eliminate an enemy pilot, they would gladly do so in order to damage the Bright Republic ’s vitality.

At this time, imposing manner of the Vesians reached an oppressive level.
Many of the mech pilots stationed on the walls started to vacillate.
Why did they even need to resist the Vesians in the first place? Neither the quality nor the quantity of their mechs could match the combined force of the Chausseurs and the Monkeys.

Melkor tried his best to firm up their side ’s resolve, but everyone knew that the battle might take a turn for the worst once the enemy melee mechs came into play.
To the Chausseurs, their frontline mechs only played a side role.
The regiment invested most of its resources in cultivating their melee mechs.

Ves quietly stood in front of the central projector of the command center and balled his fingers into fists.
”Come on, buddy.
Make your move before it ’s too late. ”

Just as the Vesians were about to make their final sprint, one of their heavy knights suddenly halted.
Even though the mech ’s shield had almost been chewed apart from withstanding all of the enemy fire, the frame itself only suffered a couple of scuffs.
The mech still possessed a lot of fight, and shouldn ’t have halted to suddenly.

The momentary halt of that mech caused the entire column of Chausseurs to come to an uneven halt.
Many of their pilots turned their attention to their halted comrade, unsure why the mech turned into a statue.

Moments later, fumes started to leak from the frame.
Small explosions erupted deep within the frame that destroyed vital components.
The heavy knight abruptly powered down and fell over facedown like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Everyone was taken aback, including the defenders.
What had happened to that seemingly invincible mech?

Moments later, a tiny blur escaped from the chest of the fallen heavy mech.
It darted towards the next heavy knight, only to be met with a barrage of fire from a couple of quick-thinking mech.
The fire went straight through the tiny blur, forcing it away from its original course.
In order to escape the fury of the Chausseurs, the blur instead changed course and dove deep underground.

”I knew you could do it, Lucky! ”

His pet managed to succeed in taking out a heavy knight! Even though his sneak attack only worked once, the consequences for the Vesians were dire.
With the takedown of one heavy mech, the remaining one now became the focus of the defending mechs.
They all diverted their firepower to that heavy, blasting apart its shield in short succession and started working away at the mech ’s heavy armor plating.

While the Vavulan Chausseurs fell into a brief bout of confusion, to their credit they regained their senses extraordinarily quickly.
They all became enraged at the strange attack and switched tack almost immediately.
Their mechs all charged forward at their full speed, leaving the defending melee mechs scrambling to meet the charge.

”Hold the line! Set off the traps! ”

The ground before the Vesian mechs briefly exploded as mines hidden just below their feet became armed.

Although the explosions all hit multiple mechs, their power left much to be desired.
In order to hide them from the Vesian scanners, they only came in relatively small packages.

Still, even if the mines mostly failed to breach the armor of the stricken mechs, they ddi succeed in slowing their charge.
Ultimately, this caused the Chausseurs to clash against the defensive line with less than perfect force.

Still, the line almost buckled then and there as the handful of knights failed to withstand the impact of the chargning mechs.

For a moment, both sides recovered from the charge, but then the true melee began.

”Hold them back! Don ’t let them through the gap! ”

The previous artillery bombardment opened up a wide gap in the defensive walls that the defending mechs struggled to stopper up.
However, the intensity in which the Chausseurs pressed down upon them indicated that they wouldn ’t be able to hold for long.

Ves frantically studied the mechs of the Chausseurs, but found to his disappointed that they ’d been too well-designed to expose any obvious weak points.
Only upon sustaining damage would vulnerabilities begin to show, but that was easier said than done as the Vesians constantly rotated the mechs that faced the front.

As soon as a mech sustained a heavy blow, it pulled back and another mech of the Chausseurs filled its place.
This spread out the damage and prevented the Chausseurs from suffering a loss in combat effectiveness.

This way, they managed to maintain a constant level of pressure to the defenders, who all lacked the numbers to pull off the same tricks.

The mechs of the Oodis Mudriders suffered the most out of this exchange.
They possessed relatively few medium mechs, and most of them hadn ’t been designed for a stand-up battle.
Several of their mechs succumbed in quick succession, prompting Melkor to make his move ahead of time.