The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5663 The Waste of Warships

Thousands of people had come to attend a product reveal organized by Isthmus Manufacturing.

Unlike the public events that Ves typically liked to hold, Isthmus had its own way of doing things.

As a successful and prestigious mech manufacturer, its reputation and brand awareness were already solid. The company had no need to rely on flashy gimmicks or exaggerated theatrics to boost its profile any further.

At the current stage of the company, it became a lot more important to maintain its high reputation and avoid any unnecessary risks that could threaten its leading position.

Though Micky Tarukan had made the bold decision to introduce the latest mech model in person, he did not want to imitate its designer too much.

Keeping the audience relatively small and limited to upstanding members of the mech community gave this occasion a much more professional atmosphere.

The chief executive officer smiled as he faced the crowd of Rubarthans. More than a few of them had received more than just a few hints on what was to come.

In the previous few months, many people within Isthmus Manufacturing secretly worked on preparing to bring their latest completed mech design to market.

Even if each of them were sworn to secrecy, it was impossible for so many people to all remain quiet, especially if more than a few of them secretly worked as spies and informers for other organizations.

In truth, Isthmus Manufacturing operated a secret industrial espionage department that engaged in the exact same activities!

It was pretty much standard practice in companies of this scale. Everyone high enough knew about this open secret, but they still worked hard to maintain a relatively clean and harmonious impression in order to maintain consumer confidence.

Nobody benefited when all sorts of dirty business started to spill in the public domain.

In any case, what mattered was that the public and all of the potential buyers throughout human space still remained in the dark about the upcoming product reveal. They had little to no idea what Isthmus Manufacturing wanted to release next, and that was good because Micky wanted to bank on the surprise factor to build up a lot of momentum at once.

As the experienced businessman easily captured the attention of all of the invited guests seated before him, Micky continued his speech.

"Everyone here before me is a part of our great mech community. I believe that each of you is aware that we do not have all the say anymore. The Auxiliary Fleet Program introduced by the Red Fleet has given mechs stiff competition in second-class and third-class warfare. As the first auxiliary warships have begun to resist the lesser aliens invading into our space, more and more people have begun to question the primacy of mechs."

That certainly caused a lot of expressions to frown or grow uneasy. Many members of the mech community struggled with these doubts.

"Are mechs still capable enough to resist the challenges of the future? Why must we continue to rely on glorified small craft to defeat lots of titanic alien warships? Some of these mighty vessels possess cannons whose barrel diameters are so immense that entire mechs can fly through their length! How can our comparatively tiny mechs possibly stand a fair chance in a fight against warships?"

This product reveal started out strange. Why was the CEO of one of the largest mech manufacturers in the Rubarthan Pact casting doubt on his main product category?

If the man did not turn his argument around quickly enough, he would become known as one of the sinners of the mech industry pretty quickly!

Micky Tarukan knew exactly what he was doing, but he chose to persist in this risky strategy. Only by setting up a proper context would he be able to produce the greatest impact.

"Warships are the scourge of humanity." He said with genuine belief in his voice. "Warships offer easy power, they also come at a ruinous cost. Everyone is aware of the history of the Age of Conquest, so I shall not waste your time by repeating it. A greater reason to reject warships is that our civilization as we know it cannot support their widespread usage."

Projections came to life that displayed various circumstances that supported his argument.

One of them showed select pieces of footage of the battle between an auxiliary fleet and an alien raiding fleet.

Relying on superior intelligence, the auxiliary fleet had laid an ambush and successfully interdicted the alien raiding fleet.

The resulting battle was fought on red humanity's terms. Despite not enjoying a numbers advantage, the auxiliary fleet commanded by its fleeter commanders utilized superior tactics, technology, warship doctrines, control and initiative to completely overwhelm their alien foes!

The enemy warships had been slow to get up to speed because they had genuinely been caught off-guard. A lot of alien crew members hadn't even reached their stations before the bombardment launched by human warships demolished their own vessels!

However, once the remaining alien warships started to fight properly, the human warships began to experience real pressure!

The main point of the ambush had been to stop the alien raiding fleet from reaching a vulnerable colony settlement.

Aside from planting minefields that quickly got swept away due to the near-indiscriminate attack salvos, the human fleet had been unable to stack the deck in its favor any further.

Many differences had become irrelevant at this time. Tactics, maneuvering and so on became meaningless in a straightforward clash between dozens of alien warships trying to pound each other flat.

In this grueling confrontation between two different fleets of warships, the only factors that mattered were the numbers of warships, how many guns they possessed and how well they could take a beating!

"The aliens are concentrating their fire on our flagship! Her energy shields have already broken and are starting to suffer more and more hull breaches!"

"Cover the Alpha Rex's retreat with haste. She is only our battlecruiser. The cost of losing her is too big for us to contemplate."

"We can't! The enemy warships have dispersed their formation. They are concentrating their fire at the Alpha Rex from multiple angles!"

"Focus fire on the alien warships with the heaviest armaments. We need to relieve the pressure on our flagship as quickly as possible. We are still winning this battle! We have already won half of it by pulling off this ambush. Now we need to secure this victory as cleanly as possible!"

Sadly for the people involved in this battle, they had not managed to attain a clean victory. The aliens knew that there was no escape and put up a ferocious resistance to the very end!

Their warships may have fallen one by one at a remarkable pace due to being focused down by the guns of dozens of warships, but the aliens employed this tactic as well!

The expensive flagship that had been built and put into service at great speed had not even managed to complete her first proper battle before she already sundered apart!

Nine more warships got blown to pieces as well by the dying struggles of the ambushed alien warships.

In many cases, the collapse proceeded so quickly that less than half of the crew members successfully boarded the escape pods and abandoned ship in time.

The rest got buried in their gigantic metal coffins!

"This is what we can expect from space battles between human warships." Micky Tarukan spoke as the footage ran its course. "Do you know how many tons of precious exotics and hypers it takes to construct a battlecruiser that is several kilometers long? Do you know how much capital and manpower it takes to construct such a massive vessel? Dozens of shipyards that previously utilized their precious capacity to produce carriers, transport ships and other essential vessels have now transitioned to producing armed warships on a permanent basis. That may seem fine to you, but how can we possibly treat these enormous endeavors as cost-effective when they can already succumb to enemy fire in their first, second or third engagements?"

That was a good question. The middle zones and the lower zones were inherently not endowed with a lot of valuable resources. Mundane materials such as iron, nickel, platinum and so on were still easily enough to obtain in large numbers, but warships that were largely made with ordinary materials could only fight in ordinary third-class battles at best.

The structure and hull plating of warships had to consist of much more valuable materials in order to keep up with their alien counterparts, and they were not exactly abundant!

"Now, I know what you may be thinking about. As long as we win a battle, we can claim all of the debris floating across the battlefield as our spoils. The remains of alien warships can be repurposed to bolster the defenses of our own warships instead. However, is this truly a sustainable approach? Recycling is not perfect and will always produce losses. Our shipyards that has just devoted a month or more to producing individual warships have effectively wasted much of their labor due to the rapid takedown of recently produced vessels. Please ask yourself this. Can we afford to maintain this high rate of consumption?"

Many people frowned. As mech insiders, they were naturally inclined to believe that warships were all wasteful. The argument presented by Tarukan highlighted how much resources it took to construct warships that would eventually get pounded in short order.

"Warships are not efficient!" The man concluded. "They offer a great degree of power, but their strength is not proportionate to the amount of benefits they grant in return. We can easily produce thousands if not tens of thousands of mechs with the funding allocated to the production of a single warship."

A lot of people nodded their heads in agreement, but they were anything but impartial.

What Micky Tarukan aimed for was to win the support of the majority of the viewers tuning into the live broadcast.

In order to do so, he needed to advocate on the behalf of mechs!

"Now, the question is whether a warship can keep up with the performance of an equivalent amount of mechs in terms of materials. Can the latter defeat the former?"

"No!"

"I agree! Mechs are far smaller and cheaper to construct than any warship. They may be relatively fragile in a modern space battle, but they are often far more agile and maneuverable than the clumsy warships they are fighting against. The only limitation that can be difficult to work around is their dependence on mech pilots, but I consider this to be a strength as only the best human soldiers are able to deploy them into battle."

The projection changed to show multiple space battles involving ordinary mech forces.

In one, the mech force won an overwhelming victory. In the other, the mech force suffered grievous losses.

However, the damage was ultimately limited in the end because the real losses were merely confined to mechs and mech pilots.

"Red humanity cannot engage in attrition warfare on the enemy's terms." Micky Tarukan insisted. "Instead of seeking to return to the past and embrace the warships that had almost caused us to go extinct, we here at Isthmus Manufacturing believe it is better to commit to mechs! Their efficiency, affordability and flexibility are ultimately more appropriate for a civilization that is not large enough to support a large enough production base for warships!"

The more enthused guests began to clap! This was a speech that many people sorely needed to hear! The rise of warship fanatics had annoyed a lot of mech insiders and resulted in frequent disturbances in public discourse.

If those stupid warship lovers understood how much of a burden that their beloved vessels imposed on the economy of a state, they might not cheer as hard as they did today.

"Warships are so wasteful that we will bankrupt ourselves before we can ever win the Red War! We cannot proceed any further in this direction! We must reject the brutish allure of warships and embrace the efficiency of mechs! To that end, our latest product will serve as a powerful weapon convince the doubters that mechs have not lost their crown!"