The Mech Touch

Integrating the Rage of Ayef gem into the Mars made an enormous difference to the Golden Skull Alliance.

The ARCEUS System of the Mars was already considerably powerful due to its extremely high specifications and the fact that it integrated 650 grams of phasewater in total.

The designers of the Mars would have to make far too many sacrifices in order to increase the firepower of the Mars by just 5 or 10 percent.

Yet after successfully installing a single gem in the ace mech, its firepower truly increased by 50 percent without any side effects!

During a few short but highly impactful testing sessions, Master Benedict's jaw dropped so many times that it should have been dislocated by now! The Master Mech Designer simply couldn't explain how such an unassuming object could produce such a massive difference!

"This doesn't make any sense!" He roared as he studied the incoming telemetry and sensor readings. "The ARCEUS System isn't consuming any additional power! Its efficiency hasn't increased. All of its parts are exactly the same. The Magma Vein System and the Endex System are both operating exactly as before. Heat levels have remained within normal parameters. How can the output of all nine integrated energy weapon modules increase by a factor of 0.5?! There isn't even any variance in the amplification factor between the different hardpoints! The tiny energy weapons mounted on the head of the Mars have been boosted by the exact same proportion as the main energy weapon module mounted in the middle of the chest!"

Perhaps a younger and less accomplished mech designer may have been ignorant and flexible enough to accept the changes without asking any critical questions, but Master Mech Designers were different.

Their understanding of mechs had reached an insanely high level, and it was because of their strong ability to comprehend their mechanisms that they could not handle these situations well.

It would have been one thing if Ves brought out an alien device salvaged from an alien ruin or a product of high technology that he had redeemed from the MTA.

At least there was a solid technological basis that Master Benedict could eventually deconstruct and reverse engineer.

This was different!

The gem was not only as small as a thumbnail, but also did not contain any obvious presence of mechanical components, advanced circuitry or pocket dimensions that could be hiding an enormous machine.

It was just a gem!

Ves looked at the increasingly more unhinged Master with evident amusement. Even people at this level could still be stumped by unexplainable phenomena.

"Don't bother yourself too much over my gems. You need to possess a certain kind of expertise in numerous obscure fields before you can unlock the truth about them. As good as you are at designing mechs, I doubt you have been able to master every field of science like the Polymath."

In fact, Ves doubted whether the Polymath was up to the task of cracking the secret behind Lucky's gems, but he did not need to mention that little detail.

Master Benedict eventually closed his eyes and sighed. "You are correct. I suppose you know better since you hold them in your possession. I am still curious about them. Are you open to trading one of them to me? I will owe you another favor."

"No thanks." Ves shook his head. "It's not easy for me to get my hands on them. If it wasn't for the risk factors of Operation Saturday Market, I wouldn't have chosen to offer one of them to you guys."

In fact, a part of him even regretted the decision to allow Patriarch Reginald to choose his own gem.

Though the Rage of Ayef gem undoubtedly matched well the Mars, the problem was that its compatibility with the Promethea was even higher!

The fire-oriented expert rifleman mech placed an even greater emphasis on energy attacks. It did not have any good offensive solutions aside from relying on its luminar crystal rifle and flamethrowers to defeat its opponents.

The Mars was a much more rounded mech in comparison. Though the ARCEUS System was its bread and butter, it possessed so many other options to beat up its opponents such as its transphasic axe and its powerful shotgun.

Given how the design of the Mars was stuffed with so many powerful transphasic mech systems, Ves would have chosen to integrate it with the Tear of Nerys gem that could directly increase their overall performance by 25 percent across the board!

Ves did not actually regret the current outcome, though. If the origin or the 'character' of the gem also played a hidden role in how it functioned, then it obviously made sense to match an aggressive gem with an aggressive mech pilot!

Besides, the Tear of Nerys gem was also powerful in its own right. It was not a bad choice to reserve it for the moment he was able to develop another 'phasewater supermech' comparable to the Mars for his own clan in the future!

After confirming that the Rage of Ayef gem did what it was supposed to do, Ves no longer paid attention to the Cross Clan and went back to handling his own affairs.

Time continued to pass until all of the primary fleet elements of the Golden Skull Alliance and the Hex Army gathered together in an empty star system.

At this location, they were only one FTL transition away from entering the Pima Prime System.

If they wanted to, the combined assault fleet could still change course and head to other, more vulnerable star systems.

Rotes Cewma and New Rammes remained attractive choices, but the attackers could also opt to attack many other core colonies within the Friday Colonies if they wished.

Still, most of those choices weren't port systems, which meant that it took a lot more time to reach those targets.

If all of the starships chose to travel to Pima Prime at this junction, then that was the equivalent of crossing the Rubicon.

There was no turning back from this point!

All of the leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance as well as the Hexer general in charge of the massive Hexer task force gathered together one last time to confirm their decision.

Of all of the people who had gathered in the conference chamber aboard the Mother's Wrath, the massive flagship and fleet carrier of Task Force Fury, only three of them were powerful enough to affect the actions of the combined forces.

Patriarch Reginald's assent was absolutely crucial. His role was so important that his disapproval could single-handedly sink this entire endeavor.

Ves held significant sway in both the Golden Skull Alliance and the Hex Federation, so his voice was also fairly great.

Mech General Alisky Victrix officially led Task Force Fury that the Hex Army had formed for the upcoming operation.

As her name suggested, Alisky Victrix was a member of the highly militant Victrix Matriarchal Dynasty. Not only that, she was a member of its main branch, which meant that she possessed the background and prestige to command all of the scattered Hexer mech divisions whether they came from the Vraken Matriarchal Dynasty or the Wodin Dynasty.

To be honest, Ves did not have a good impression of General Alisky Victrix.

It started with her matriarchal dynasty. The Victrixes had an awful reputation among outsiders. The stories about how they castrated all of their boys, diminished their proportion of the total population within their territories to just 30 percent and never extended any courtesy towards the male prisoners of war that ended up in their hands were not rumors, but facts!

Though Ves had heard that the Victrix Matriarchal Dynasty had gone with the times and 'phased out' a number of their ridiculous policies, he had little doubt that a lot more needed to happen before boys were able to regain their dignity.

To be honest, Ves did not even look up how the boys under the Victrixes fared in the Hex Colonies.

He was afraid he might stumble upon unpleasant news that would cause him to revise his decision to fight alongside the Hex Army.

In any case, the new trend had already been in motion for a number of years. The less extreme and more secularist groups of Hexers such as the Vraken Matriarchal Dynasty had shifted faster than the other ones.

Eventually, even the slowpokes had to complete the reforms! It would be unacceptable for parts of the Hex Colonies to remain stuck in the past. The other matriarchal dynasties would certainly put a lot of pressure on the more backwards Hexers to change their ways.

This was a matter for the future, though. For now, Ves and everyone else in the combined fleet had to accept the fact that the Hex Army put General Alisky Victrix in charge of Task Force Fury.

Problematic origin or not, her competence could not be called into question.

There were many prominent mech generals in the Hex Army that had proven their ability to keep up with the enemy during the Komodo War, and General Alisky was definitely a suitable choice.

According to the Glory Seekers, General Alisky was a firebrand military leader who constantly advocated for proactive action over passivity.

She had first earned her chops during the early stages of the Komodo War. The mech units under her command blitzed through the territories of the Carnegie Group, smashing aside the defending Fortune Legion time and time again!

Each star system occupied by her command eventually turned into ruins that were filled with bodies and especially male bodies!

In the later stages of the Komodo War, she had done her best to reverse the losing trend by organizing and launching desperate counterattacks.

Though most of those attempts failed in the end, General Alisky still earned a lot of appreciation from the higher-ups for her earnest efforts to swing the war back into their favor.

A high-risk high-reward attack attempt such as Operation Saturday Market was right in her ballpark.

Her rich track record for brute-forcing her way through fortified defenses and leaving absolute devastation in her wake was exactly what the leadership had in mind for Pima Prime!

"According to our scouts, spies and informers, the Gauge Dynasty has not made any unexpected movements during this period. The Fridaymen have not conducted any major troop transfers or made any significant alterations to their defensive setups." General Alisky Victrix spoke in her steely voice. "If this is the case, Operation Saturday Market will proceed to the next phase as planned. Any objections?"

"No." Patriarch Reginald spoke. "Let's get this show on the road. The sooner I can challenge Jeremiah Gauge, the better!"

His eagerness to test his mettle against the Gauge Dynasty's trump card had risen to a meteoric height now that his Mars turned into an even greater powerhouse than before!

"You will have your wish, patriarch." General Alisky reassured the ace pilot in a patronizing tone.

The female leader clearly regarded the Cross Patriarch as an attack dog that could go out of control as soon as he slipped his leash.

Of course, it would be ideal if General Alisky was the person holding the leash.

"I don't have any objections either." Ves shared his opinion. "The only concern I have is that we should make certain that we are fully able to monitor all of our possible escape routes. Achieving a victory in Pima Prime is only half of the battle. Getting out alive and without bumping into any further Fridaymen units is another ordeal. Once we suffer significant losses in the upcoming battle, we will likely lose a lot of deterrence. If there is any chance for the Fridaymen to pool their forces together and drive us into a trap, it would be after we have finished our jobs!"

"Our preparations are sufficiently thorough in that regard." General Alisky said in a neutral tone. "This is far from the only deep strike operation that we have launched against the Fridaymen. Besides, with how cowardly, treacherous and selfish the different coalition partners have behaved up until this point, they won't have the guts to intercept us after we have demonstrated our overwhelming superiority in Pima Prime!"

Ves truly hoped that was the case.

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