The Mech Touch

"How can this be?! The intelligence collected by the Gemini Family is too far off!" Saint Kalasandra Boojay scowled as she finally lost her composure. "We're not dealing with a battlecruiser here. The V'gahnt-Zezne is closer to a battleship!"

A battleship!

It was not that much of a surprise for Saint Boojay to make this conclusion after witnessing the defensive capabilities of the successive layers of segmented energy shields up close.

It was as if the V'gahnt-Zezne was an aquatic creature that was covered by three layers of fish scales!

That wasn't all. The monstrous fish could not only regenerate every destroyed scale after a short period of time, but it could also rotate its fish scales so that it became impossible to break through the defenses by attacking the V'gahnt-Zezne from a single angle.

Though there were major differences between a human battleship and the V'gahnt-Zezne, as long as the effort required to break their defenses were at the same level, then the Unspoken flagship should actually be classified as a battleship!

There was a fundamental difference between a battlecruiser and a battleship. If it turned out that the temporary coalition had initiated a fight against the latter, then the cost of attaining a victory may be far greater than anyone initially expected!

When Saint Kalasandra Boojay shared her latest findings about the V'gahnt-Zezne to the other ace pilots and leaders of the temporary coalition, the explosive news sparked a small commotion.

It was not every day that a bunch of pioneers could stumble upon a battleship!

"Calm down, everyone!" Patriarch Kobal Gemini of the Gemini Family spoke over the command channel! "The Unspoken flagship may be more resilient than we thought, but she does not have the full spectrum of weapons and auxiliary modules of a battleship that we are used to seeing. The fact that the V'gahnt-Zezne doesn't have any effective means to repel the Jedda Sandivar and the Royal Jeem is enough to show that the V'gahnt-Zezne is far from being able to defeat all of us single-handedly."

Matriarch Sena Gemini affirmed her brother and husband's words. "The effort needed to defeat the V'gahnt-Zezne is greater than we have anticipated, but eliminating her is not a necessity for the time being. The Jedda Sandivar and the Royal Jeem are still able to occupy the attention of not just the orven battleship, but also the rest of the Unspoken fleet."

The fact that two ace mechs could tie up the strongest individual pirate fleet was a huge contribution to the battle!

The orvens had little choice but to continue in their efforts to fight back against the Jedda Sandivar and the Royal Jeem.

This was because if the Unspoken dared to shift their attacks to other targets, the ace light skirmisher and the ace spearman mech could fully concentrate on chipping away at the defenses of the V'gahnt-Zezne.

No matter whether she was protected by three successive layers of segmented energy shields, the two ace mechs would definitely be able to find a way to get through eventually, so the orvens had little choice but to employ all of their might to keep the two threats at bay!

As a result, both sides entered into a stalemate. Most of the alien pirates were probably happy that their side managed to tie up two threatening ace mechs. The human coalition was also glad that a fairly powerful alien battleship and accompanying ships were taken off the board.

"Look at the progress we are making elsewhere. We have gained the upper hand in all of our other confrontations against the alien pirate fleets." Matriarch Sena Gemini said.

She was right.

The Santana Group with the Thunderer Mark II was making short work of all of the starfighters and warships that attempted to get closer.

The overwhelming ranged firepower of the Santana mechs was simply too much for the aliens to contend against.

While the damage of a single attack might not be the greatest, the sheer quantity of guns that the Santana Group could bring to bear against its immediate enemies was so great that many aliens began to lose heart!

Already, dozens of starfighters had begun to turn around and flee towards safety.

Though the other aliens quickly made short work of the cowards, the fact that some of them wanted to give up on this attack run was already a sign that all was not well with the enemies.

The Golden Skull Alliance was also doing great. Though there were seven light cruisers among the pirate armada that was bearing down on the Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers, the Mars alone completely dominated the 1854210 pirate fleet's warships!

Two of the seven light cruisers had already been downed. The Mars was merrily in the process of dismantling a third one while evading the attacks from the remaining alien warships in the vicinity.

The Gemini Family and the Lehrer Foundation were also doing fantastic.

The former enjoyed the protection of the Embodiment of Love and the Embodiment of Sacrifice.

The teamwork that both ace mechs exhibited in combat was far greater than the ad-hoc cooperation between the Jedda Sandivar and the Royal Jeem.

During the ongoing battle, the Gemini Saints fully demonstrated the amazing potential that love could bring forth. The ability for both of them to not only merge their Saint Kingdoms together, but borrow from each other's power was massive!

Whenever the Embodiment of Love's powerful energy rifle launched an attack, the energy beam never failed to punch through the energy shield of a fully operational alien cruiser and inflict serious material damage to the hull!

Not a single ace mech could achieve this result aside from maybe the Thunderer Mark II!

The reason why the Embodiment of Love could inflict so much damage was because Saint Kaia Gemini was never alone in her efforts.

Saint Sandro Gemini was of the same mind as her. Whenever his sister was about to launch an attack, he lent his true resonance to the Embodiment of Love.

The co-mingling of two different but highly compatible sources of true resonance produced mysterious effects.

The most important effect was that Saint Kaia and Saint Sandro were able to resonate with each other and combine their forces in a way that amplified their output!

The pirate warships that attempted to run down the Gemini Family's mech forces steadily crumbled apart as the Embodiment of Love continually crippled them one after another.

In the meantime, any effort by the aliens to concentrate their firepower and retaliate against the Gemini Family's ace rifleman mech failed to achieve any substantial results.

The Embodiment of Love was fast enough to evade the brunt of the attacks while the Embodiment of Sacrifice dutifully blocked the rest from getting through.

The reason why the Gemini Saints hadn't managed to clean up all of the pirate forces that had foolishly attempted to attack in this direction was because their help was needed to assist the other pioneering groups!

Since the Adelaide Mercenary Company and the Boojay Family had both sent out their ace pilot to contain the Unspoken pirate fleet, their mech forces lacked the immediate protection of their greatest trump cards.

Though their expert mechs and regular mechs tried their best to take down the aliens bearing down on them, it took too long to break open the defenses of the larger and more powerful cruisers.

"We need more help!" General Herman Fontaine pleaded to his allies. "If you cannot spare the firepower to get rid of at least two of the light cruisers that are threatening my forces, we can't promise you that the Jedda Sandivar will keep harassing the orven battleship."

"The same goes for us." A leader of the Boojay Family said. "Maybe the Jedda Sandivar is enough to keep the V'gahnt-Zezne. Let us recall our Royal Jeem so we can teach these filthy aliens that sending their warships in our direction is a grave mistake."

"There is no need for the two of you to threaten a break from our plan." Matriarch Sena Gemini admonished the leader of the Adelaides. "We cannot afford to let either of your ace mechs suspend their current tasks. A single ace mech cannot threaten a battleship of this caliber. It takes two of our great machines to fully lock down the Unspoken fleet."

"Then why aren't you sending out your Embodiment of Love and Embodiment of Sacrifice?! The teamwork of your Gemini Saints is far better than our two ace pilots."

"Because even the power of love cannot punch through three layers of energy shields at once!" Patriarch Kobal Gemini told them all. "Our science officers have analyzed the new data and revised their estimates of the V'gahnt-Zezne's defensive capabilities. Unless we have the patience to wear out the orven battleship's shield generators and power supply, it may take up to four ace mechs to breach her defenses."

"Four ace mechs?! That's crazy!"

"We should be lucky that defense is the only area the V'gahnt-Zezne excels at. Her ability to fight against other warships is great, but her ability to take down ace mechs that are flying closely around her hull is much worse."

Seeing how vital it was to contain the orven battleship, the Gemini Family, the Santana Group and the Golden Skull Allliance all gave the Adelaide Mercenary Company and the Boojay Family a hand.

The Embodiment of Love, the Thunderer Mark II and the Mars utilized their potent ranged firepower to launch periodic strikes at the warships that threatened the last two pioneering groups.

The situation across the battlefield soon became a lot stabler and more even. The pirates were suffering horrendous losses while the human mech forces were suffering relatively little damage in return.

The only instances where the human mech forces began to experience more difficulties was when the alien combat drones and starfighters finally came close enough.

Though the human mechs quickly proved their superiority over their counterparts, they were outnumbered by the alien small craft!

Still, the difference in performance was too great. It was only a matter of time before the aliens lost their fighter screen.

Everything went well. None of the pioneering forces experienced any major crises. It appeared that the Gemini Family's extensive planning and preparation work largely paid off as there were no signs that the aliens could overturn the current trend.

That was until the Gemini Family somehow gathered a crucial piece of intelligence that completely changed the way the human coalition approached the Battle of the Boryan Balt.

"Enemy reinforcements are on the way!" Patriarch Kobal Gemini announced. "They will be arriving much sooner than we anticipated. They may reach the Palace of Shame in as little as 17 minutes."

"What?!"

"Can you tell us more about these reinforcements?" Ves urgently asked.

"Certainly, Patriarch Larkinson. We already took into account that the pirate groups would call for help, but our estimates of the nature of the reinforcements were off. We thought that the Unspoken and the other pirate groups would be in a hurry to recall their hidden patrol ships on patrol throughout the Boryan belt. Now that we have received further information, we have found out that our opponents have requested aid from another alien power."

"Who?"

"Please take into account that we cannot confirm this piece of news, but if our intelligence is accurate, then the alien group that created the Palace of Shame in the first place may have dispatched a small but powerful relieving force to our location. We do not know what the force comprises, only that it is powerful enough to motivate all of the pirates that are risking their lives to defend their stronghold."

"The enemies we are fighting against at this moment have all come to believe that they will all be saved as long as they can hold out for a period of time." Matriarch Sena Gemini explained. "If we cannot eliminate all of these pirate warships in time, then our ace mechs and other mechs will need to split their attention, and that will substantially increase our casualties as well as lower our chances of winning this battle. We must be ready to fight against whoever is coming to help the Palace of Shame with all of our ace mechs. This means that we must not only take out all of the alien warships, but also find a way to destroy the V'gahnt-Zezne in the time we have left!"