[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 394: Silver Lining

The local press called the 3rd Imodris Legion's failed attempt to raid the Mech Nursery the Battle for Cloudy Curtain. They certainly had a flair for the dramatic, as the name suggested that the Vesians had been on the cusp of conquering the planet.

Just as everyone thought that the Vesians would stomp the LMC flat, the up-and-coming mech company surprisingly held them off.

Although the outfits hired by the LMC sustained a lot of losses, it became a fact that they actually repelled two Vesian mech companies!

Every citizen in the Freslin area swelled with pride. Their tiny rural planet actually contributed to the war in a splendid war. A company founded by one of their own citizens hadn't flinched against the invaders but instead fought back with endless ferocity!

"Hahaha! Cloudy Curtain still has some teeth! We're more than a bunch of farmers who only know how to cultivate cloud rice!"

"Who said that people from Cloudy Curtain can't fight? We've smacked the Vesians right in the face!"

Compared to the jubilation of the citizens in Freslin, the mood turned much grimmer over at the other side of the planet. Orinoco suffered a substantial loss. Worst of all, it had likely been done by their own side.

The spaceport, the planetary assembly building, all those company headquarters and all kinds of infrastructure turned into hollow craters and fields of debris. Many of the pieces that erupted from the blasts even went on to damage the surrounding structures.

Tragedy swept the entire capital city as emergency services worked day and night to rescue those buried underneath the wreckage.

Although the occupants of the buildings had been warned of the bombs, they only had two minutes of time to evacuate their workplaces, which was much too short for most of them. The only reason why the casualties hadn't surpassed a thousand was because most workers stayed away from work due to the raid.

Blame and recrimination hadn't started flying yet, but the undercurrent already started surging. The political and economic alliance that dominated Cloudy Curtain for so many years started fraying apart as each side blamed the other for setting off the bombs.

"I don't know why you have the shame to show yourself in public! Instead of risking your own lives to fight the Vesians, you blew up your own structures and killed your fellow citizens! If I didn't know any better, you're likely working for the Vesians!"

"Don't point your fingers at me! Our company has suffered the worst of all! What about you? Your company headquarters somehow got away unscathed. Don't think we're clueless about your ambitions. You've always wanted to supplant us over the years. The Vesian raid was the perfect excuse to do us in!"

Throughout the Bright Republic, the 3rd Imodris Legion's shocking raids unsettled the entire Bentheim region. The near-simultaneous raids strained the Mech Corps, which had to choose where to send their forces quickly and in enough numbers to make an impact.

The Mech Corps largely failed.

The raiding forces went in and out as quickly as possible while inflicting as much damage as they could. They mostly struck smaller star systems with barely any defenses. While that meant they only caused a marginal amount of damage, the damage to everyone's morale was enormous.

The 3rd Imodris Legion basically terrorized the entire periphery around the Bentheim System while suffering very few losses. This changed the aspect of the current war, as the citizens of the various rural systems finally realized that even they couldn't escape its horrors.

The Bright Republic moved quickly to support the stricken star systems. Cloudy Curtain was no exception, as a handful of ships arrived from Bentheim to support the disaster relief and begin to rebuild some of the infrastructure on Orinoco.