[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 323: Keep Your Enemy Closer

Back aboard the Happy Jelly, Ves constantly monitored the situation in space. He even turned his attention to the expert pirate mechs when they flew into range.

Their incredible performance and amazing construction dazzled his imagination. He continuously tried to figure out their principles but failed to make any progress beyond some rudimentary generalizations.

"My study into metaphysics and exotic alloys are still too shallow for me to understand designs at this level."

He still had a long way to go before he reached the threshold of understanding and designing his own expert mech.

And this was just the start of elite mechs. Ace mech pilots and god mech pilots demanded their own specialized machines in order to make full use of their strengths.

The ambition welling inside Ves kept burning brighter as he witnessed the extraordinary performance of each expert mech. The battle became much more exciting once the Mech Corps sent out their own experts.

Only three arrived because they hardly required additional help. The Mech Corps sent out the Fire Worm against the pirate swordsman mech because it directly countered its type.

In the same vein, they sent out an expert skirmisher to deal with the enemy rifleman mech and an expert rifleman to suppress the enemy space knight.

"Even experts can't escape the limitations of their type." Ves concluded as he witnessed the pirate mechs getting beaten back by the well-chosen expert mechs from the Republic.

The pirates only had themselves to blame for sending out their expert pilots first. The main reason it took so long for the Mech Corps to respond was because they kept their experts back in their hangars until they saw fit to deploy them. They could have sent twice as many experts, but that would have revealed their trump cards.

Neither Ves nor the Mech Corps forgot that the Mech Legion constantly monitored their performance.

The Brighters and the Vesians continuously fended off the pirate waves as they neared each other's position. No matter how many mechs the pirate alliances threw at them, they never managed to break through their defensive lines.

Though the pirates continuously bled the ranks of both military fleets, they suffered at least twice as much casualties in return. Eventually, their cowardice overshadowed their greed, and many of them cut and run without a hint of any organized retreat.

Still, it mattered little as the Mech Corps wasn't in a shape to pursue. The pirates pushed them close to their breaking point and required a lot of rest and replenishment before they regained their strength.

The battle against the pirates had ended, but the struggle against the Mech Legion only started from here. With the pirate alliances in disarray, they failed to stop the two military fleets before they converged.

Naturally, the Mech Corps kept its distance from the ships and mechs of their rivals. A tense half hour went by as the commanders of the two fleet negotiated behind the scenes. Once they came to an accord, the two fleets flew closer, but not enough to merge their assets into a single whole.

Rather than consider their formation a combined fleet, Ves figured it was more as if they reluctantly chose to use the same bathroom at once. The Brighters and the Vesians hardly trusted each other to maintain their current state of ceasefire.

The only question was who would pull the trigger first.

"Sparks will fly at the end of this retreat." He surmised. Once the fleets reached the edge of the Glowing Zone, they'd be able to engage their FTL drives and transition back to friendly territory. "I bet the Vesians can't resist at that point."