The Mech Touch

The fall of the Neo Amadeus plunged the Sundered Phalanx into despair!

Many Gaugers already understood that they had lost the battle from the moment Saint Jeremiah Gauge met his demise at the hands of Patriarch Reginald Cross.

The chances of being able to salvage a victory under these circumstances were not great. The Mars, though heavily damaged and partially crippled, was still a formidable asset on the battlefield.

Perhaps it did not possess the strength to challenge another ace mech in battle, but if the Fridaymen had stationed another one in Pima Prime, it would have showed up long before Saint Jeremiah actually perished!

Under the current circumstances, even if ace mechs stationed elsewhere in the Friday Colonies had already been dispatched to Pima Prime, they would arrive too late to save the local garrison from getting defeated!

"From now on, we are no longer fighting to preserve our homes. Our new job is to buy time so that we can evacuate as many talents and critical industrial machinery. Pima Prime may be on the verge of falling, but Rotes Cewma and New Rammes are still standing strong! Our Gauge Dynasty shall rise from this defeat and avenge the killing of our great and honorable Saint, but our ability to do so will heavily depend on our ability to stall and disrupt the invading troops as much as possible. The only way to prevent the Hexers from claiming total victory is to ensure that we can make a comeback!"

"We have managed to turn the tides against the Hexers before, and we can do it again! Our enemies will grow overconfident and complacent after their initial string victories once again. This will leave them open to a counterattack as long as we bide our time and recover what we have lost. Last time, it was the Carnegies and the Vermeers who were suffering the brunt of Hexer aggression. This time, it is our turn to suffer the wrath of our archenemies. Let us show the other Fridaymen that we are just as capable of picking ourselves up after a defeat!"

Though the mech pilots and support personnel of the Sundered Phalanx suffered a massive hit to their morale from the moment the Neo Amadeus fell, they were still professional soldiers who did not forget their duty.

Under the urgent exhortation of their leaders, the Gauger mech pilots did not collapse or fall apart, but bonded closer to each other as they focused on executing their mission.

The colonial administration had already commenced emergency evacuations. A long train of starships, either civilian or military, had been emptied of all redundant cargo and other junk so that they could be stuffed with as much expensive and valuable assets as possible.

The people on the ground hastily brought away whatever valuable goods they could pull out in a short amount of time such as high-grade exotics, high-end processors, specialized lab equipment, modern superfabs, unique experimental specimens and more.

"We can't pull out this mass alloy compressor, chief! It's too big and it's completely affixed to the foundation! We can't dislodge it by force or else we'll break too many internal components."

"Scrap it, then! Rig it up to blow or call down a mech to tear it down! We are not leaving our stuff to the Hexers!"

Already a lot of crews were proactively destroying whatever valuable assets that they couldn't take away. Millions of MTA credits worth of industrial infrastructure were getting blown up in a matter of hours, but the Gaugers simply didn't have enough personnel to demolish everything on the list.

Even though it was clear that the Hexers would probably leave Pima Prime after a short stay, the Gaugers truly did not want to give the Hexers the satisfaction of looting a huge amount of valuable booty from Pima Prime V!

"Why are we destroying everything that we have built? Won't we come back again once the Hexers are done with the place? They can't possibly steal all of our stuff! They don't have enough cargo space to empty our entire planet."

"We are trying to make a point to our enemies. Our goal is to discourage the Hexers from launching another massive attack on the Friday Colonies. The less they are able to recoup their losses from looting our colonies, the less likely they will come back to plunder us again."

The Gaugers in charge of this chaotic process made a lot of ruthless decisions that dismayed a lot of colonists that had committed to Pima Prime.

One of the most heartless decisions of all was the instruction to reserve most of the available volume of their evacuation ships for cargo instead of people.

Though the Sundered Phalanx already tasked a small portion of the available ships for the evacuation of important leaders, high-ranking mech designers, important researchers and engineers, surviving mech pilots, other military servicemen and so on, all of these vessels quickly filled up especially once they took on the families of the aforementioned people!

System Governor Mabrius Gauge had already written off millions of colonists who had moved to the Red Ocean in the promise of starting a new life.

None of them possessed the skills, wealth, connections or influence to make it worthwhile for the evacuation forces to reserve a seat on their outgoing ships.

"We underestimated the threats in the Red Ocean." Mabrius Gauge frankly admitted as he witnessed the unstoppable decline of the defending troops from the Palace of New Beginnings. "Our dynasty is strong in the Komodo Star Sector. No one dares to threaten us in our native territory. It is different in Magair. Here, we have only stationed a limited amount of forces. With most of our military assets a galaxy away, we have failed to deter the Hexers into launching a massive raid. We must not make this mistake again."

The Gauge Dynasty had learned many painful lessons today. The leaders back in the old galaxy were rethinking their entire strategy and approach towards the new frontier.

Whether the Gaugers would choose to strengthen their commitment or pull back their investment in the Friday Colonies was a discussion for another day.

For now, doom and gloom descended over Pima Prime V. The highly developed colony that almost caught up to Davute VII in terms of prosperity and economic activity would no longer be able to remain as big and influential to the regional economy as before.

This was such a crucial setback that Pima Prime's chance of becoming the main trading hub of this corner of the Magair Middle Zone had dropped to zero!

As the Gaugers tried everything they could to mitigate their losses, Task Force Fury and the Golden Skull Alliance still had a tough fight ahead of them. The defending mechs weren't showing any signs of flagging.

In fact, it was the opposite. The Sundered Phalanx mech units fought as if there was little holding them back anymore!

With many of its combat carriers reserved for the evacuation of critical personnel and assets, the Sundered Phalanx was unable to bring away as many mechs as before.

This was why the Fridayman mech pilots received the order to push their mechs as hard as possible and eject once their machines finally reached their limits!

"Don't be afraid of losing your mech! Just make sure you take down at least one Hexer mech with you and eject in time. We can still build another mech for you in the future, but we need you alive and well to defend our remaining colonies in the future."

This change of attitude caused the Sundered Phalanx mech divisions to stop their gradual retreat as they no longer tried to make their mechs last as long as possible.

Instead, mech divisions such as the heavily battered Medallion Guards and the barely recovered Nidin Vergers fearlessly threw whatever operational mechs they had left to the advancing enemies!

"Damnit, these Fridaymen are fighting as if there is no tomorrow!"

"Consolidate our lines and wait for reinforcements."

"Don't fall into their trap and exchange wounds with each other. It's not worth it to lose one of your mechs for one of theirs."

The Sundered Phalanx did not have too many concerns about losing its mechs because the Gaugers were in the middle of friendly territory. There were enough friendly forces in the region to provide them with safe harbor.

This didn't apply to the attacking forces. As long as Task Force Fury and the Golden Skull Alliance lost too much strength, the other coalition partners would doubtlessly be tempted to 'avenge the fallen'!

This actually caused the attacking forces to slow down their progress and fight less ferociously.

It was strange to see the Hexers and their allies holding back when they clearly held the advantage on the battlefield, but they too were becoming more concerned about minimizing their losses.

"Keep it slow and steady, men." A Larkinson mech captain reminded his subordinates. "We've already lost enough mechs as it is. We won't be able to proceed with our Trailblazer Expedition if we have nothing left to fight against the aliens of the new frontier. Just hold the line and let our artillery do the work."

Many Larkinson mech legions such as the Avatars of Myth and the Flagrant Vandals were unable to press the attack despite the fact that they were most comfortable when they were on the offensive.

Lanie Larkinson breathed deeply as her battered but still operated Lucid Rage mech had flown behind the mech formations of the Avatars of Myth.

After fending off an enemy expert candidate, her mech not only depleted most of its energy cells, but also lost a tonfa. Lanie had little choice but to pull back to her mothership so that a maintenance crew could resupply her machine and quickly patch up the largest breaches in her armor.

When her Lucid Rage deployed into space for a second time, Lanie looked forward to challenging other Fridayman champions and expert candidates, but it didn't appear that she would have much luck with that. There was much less room for independent action!

Initially, Lanie thought that the remainder of the battle would play out as a slow grind. The furious enemy counterattack was unsustainable. The Sundered Phalanx would run out of mechs sooner or later.

All of that changed once thousands of Fridayman offensive mechs gathered together and swung around the main lines in order to advance towards the invading fleet!

"The Gaugers have gone crazy! They're launching a suicide attack on our fleet!"

"What is their target?!"

"Their offensive is aimed straight at the Spirit of Bentheim! Their goal is clear. They want to decapitate our clan!"

"What?!"

Many mech pilots including Lanie became shocked when they learned of the Gauge Dynasty's final attempt at resistance.

The attack made sense in a way. Patriarch Ves Larkinson, the mech designer responsible for empowering the Hex Army with living mechs, was closer to the Fridaymen than ever before.

This was their best opportunity to assassinate an important figure to the Hexers and salvage at least one unambiguous victory out of this fiasco of a battle!

Many mech pilots of the Sundered Phalanx willingly took part in this offensive even though their chances of making it out alive was much smaller.

Their duty compelled them to offer themselves up and do whatever it took to permanently weaken the Hex Federation!

"Champion Lanie!" Commander Melkor directly addressed her over a communication channel. "I am dispatching you and your fellow champions back to our main fleet to protect our patriarch. Do whatever it takes to keep him alive!"

"I'm on it, commander!" Lanie promptly replied as she regained her sense of urgency.

Many more mechs hailing from the Larkinson Clan and their allies peeled away from the frontlines so that they could do their part to prevent the Gauge Dynasty from getting the last laugh from this battle!

"Protect our patriarch!"

The last dance was about to commence.

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