The Mech Touch

"The unclean whale must die."

The Golden Skull Alliance, the Adelaide Mercenary Company and the Boojay Family were firmly in favor of permanently eliminating the dangerous alien monstrosity as a threat.

The local leaders of the fleets hailing from the Santana Group and the Lehrer Foundation initially wanted to derive more benefits from this valuable prize, but the powerful appeals from their ace pilots 'persuaded' them to prioritize their safety over any potential increase in value.

No one held back in their attacks. The only relief obtained by the unclean whale was that most of the ace mechs no longer attacked the monster's body and surviving phasewater organs.

They were too valuable to spoil.

Instead, the ace mechs focused on cutting off the connections between the organs and the larger body while also trying to breach the hard and massive skull that housed the brain.

According to different sources, it was rare for phase whales to grow second brains. While it wasn't entirely unheard of, only the smartest and most advanced of their kind were able to develop and integrate these difficult components.

Ves paid close attention as the ace mechs drilled through the thick and naturally transphasic bone.

Upon the moment the Mars finally managed to penetrate through the thick skull matter with the Whale-Cutting Saber, the cyborg cat moved into action.

Enough time had passed for the camouflaged divine artifact to sneak past every obstacle and infiltrate the massive brain cavity of the unclean whale.

Though the cat hadn't been able to phase through the brain matter itself, it was enough to get inside and study the brain carefully in order to figure out how to kill the cannibal whale with the least amount of damage.

Ves still wanted to preserve as much of this brain matter for his own if possible.

"It's time."

As the Royal Jeem began to stab its spear through the massive and disgusting-looking brain from the top, the cyborg cat secretly started to inflict targeted damage, including severing all of the nerves that connected the brain to the rest of the massive creature's body!

The effect was immediate. The entire bulk of the unclean whale started to go stiff as if it was a mech that had lost connection to a mech pilot.

As the whale slowly died, the cyborg cat became more alert even as it used its camouflage ability to hide in the surrounding biomatter.

The divine artifact opened its tiny maw and began to suck a large and powerful spirit into its gullet!

The effort of trying to contain the spirit of a recently deceased unclean whale was massive, but the cyborg cat somehow managed to keep it inside its body without breaking it down any further!

This was one of the many new abilities that Ves had bestowed on his divine artifact. Though the cat was clearly struggling to contain the powerful whale spirit, it was not a problem to keep the traumatized entity contained for the time being.

The cyborg cat discreetly phased away while keeping its camouflage abilities active.

Though a couple of nearby ace pilots such as Patriarch Reginald and Saint Kalasandra Boojay noticed a few oddities, they were mainly concerned with the state of the unclean whale.

"The beast is dead." Reginald stated as he could clearly feel the spread of death throughout the carcass.

"Let us make sure that is the case."

Once the ace pilots tentatively confirmed that the whale had perished, the battle was finally and truly over.

That didn't mean that every possible threat had been neutralized, but the human coalition had gained extensive control over the battlefield.

Even if there were still plenty of aliens alive, they could no longer muster the mechs or warships to threaten the invading human forces.

Search and rescue operations finally commenced as the fleets of the temporary coalition converged upon the broken asteroid base from six different directions.

Many mechs had returned to their respective motherships in order to resupply the machines or put them out of the way for the time being.

However, the human forces did not completely stand down their mech forces. They had all agreed to keep at least half of their remaining combat troops in the field.

Many mech pilots remained on guard in case the remnant alien pirates were planning to launch a counterattack.

There was also a significant chance that enemy reinforcements might drop in. Everyone's greatest fear was the possibility that a phase whale might enter the star system to check up on the Palace of Shame and its prisoner.

If that happened, the human mech forces would definitely be in for a difficult fight!

Still, for all of their preparations, many other people no longer put any thought on attacks and instead directed attention to more relevant matters.

For example, the battle produced an extensive amount of alien loot and debris!

Broken starfighters littered the battlefield, with many of the disabled machines steadily soaring away on a ballistic course until they collided against the many asteroids in the surrounding environment.

Few people were interested in the starfighters, though. The better ones might possess interesting alien tech, but what truly fascinated the salvage parties were the broken but intact warships!

Hundreds of warships littered the battlefield. Though many of them were rather small and unimpressive, there were also numerous more that were large and powerful enough to contend against high-ranking mechs, if only barely.

The 3.2 kilometers wide battleship known as the V'gahnt-Zezne was the grand prize.

Despite the extensive amount of damage she had incurred, the orven warship still retained enough structural integrity to preserve a lot of alien tech and valuables!

Already, every coalition partner had dispatched large and heavily armed boarding troops to the damaged battleship.

The V'gahnt-Zezne still boasted plenty of surviving ovren crew members, and they had already begun to arm themselves to repel the intruders!

What was even more serious was that the crazier orvens had even begun to sabotage their own ship as they wished to deny anything useful to the hateful humans!

This was why it became important for the human boarding troops to wipe out the alien opposition and stabilize the damaged battleship before she deteriorated any further!

With all of the fuss that happened with Ves and everything else, few people noticed that a certain Larkinson mech designer had already left the Spirit of Bentheim.

"OUT OF THE WAY."

The boarding team that attempted to breach an armored hatch hastily stepped out of the way as soon as they heard the command.

The female voice exuded so much steel and power that they automatically did as instructed.

A squad of elite Swordmaidens in heavy armor stomped through the corridor. Each of the footsoldiers wore black and menacing suits of medium combat armor that provided a good balance between defense and mobility.

Their characteristic alloy greatswords all looked hungry to carve through enemies.

Normally, the squad of Swordmaidens should have attracted a lot of attention, but this time they were all overshadowed by the singular powerful armored warrior that wore a contrasting red suit of combat armor.

The bloody greatsword held by this leading warrior actually started glowing as it began to exude the overwhelming need to cut!

With a wordless cry, the female swordwielder chopped at the thick hatch that was covered by a strong and protective energy shield!

The blade not only managed to slice straight through the energy shield as if it was a piece of paper, but also hacked through the thick alloy hatch itself!

The powerful swordmaster hacked the wide and circular hatch several times before lifting her armored leg so that she could launch a powerful kick!

A large rectangular piece of metal fell onto the other side.

"Watch out, Ketis!"

It turned out that the orvens holed up on the other side of the hatch had already prepared an ambush.

The dozen or so desperate alien crew members were unusually well-armed. Not only did they acquire plasma weapons that could easily melt through the combat armor of a typical footsoldier, but they also had access to other powerful toys!

First, a group of alien bots flew forward and began to hack at the intruding human forces with strange and deadly looking electrified batons!

Second, a pair of orven spacers had managed to deploy a crew-mounted plasma machine gun behind a sturdy work console. Several deployable gadgets erected strong energy shields around this emplacement, allowing the powerful plasma machine gun to fire straight through the barriers without worrying about getting hit in return!

Third, the remaining orven spacers had spread across the compartment and hid behind different forms of cover, allowing them to fire their deadly plasma rifles at the humans that were pouring out of a single point of entry!

The ambush should have been able to shred the first human troopers to enter the compartment. Armor or not, the arsenal of the defending orvens were too powerful.

It just so happened that the alien crew members were fighting against a greater enemy than they were accustomed to. From the moment the red armored human entered the compartment, nothing was going according to plan!

Ketis lifted her glowing Bloodsinger. She resonated with her blade, allowing it to suck up and absorb all of the electric energy outputted by the alien bots.

"Hah!"

With a single sweep of her blade, she unloaded all of the electric energy her weapon had caught, frying the bots with their own attacks!

Meanwhile, a torrent of plasma bolts rained down on her position from multiple directions.

Ketis had already begun to sidestep the initial attacks and continued to stay on the move in order to frustrate the aim of the enemy crew members as best as possible!

Though she wasn't able to dodge every attack, the plasma bolts that got too close were either blocked by a barrier produced by her willpower or an energy shield generated by the inbuilt defensive systems of her combat armor.

"Hahahaha! I've missed this so much!"

Ketis had become so immersed in this fight that she had even started to bat aside some of the plasma bolts that threatened to exhaust her defenses!

She couldn't keep this up forever, though. The large machine gun alone could have shredded all of her accompanying Swordmaidens, so she rapidly sprinted closer until she was about to collide against the alien energy shields that protected the emplacement!

Instead of slowing down, Ketis continued to sprint faster!

"BREAK!"

Before her armored form collided against the energy shield, her Bloodsinger sang once again and cut straight across the barrier, causing it to fizzle out in an instant!

The two orven crew members that wanted to shoot Ketis down with the machine gun suddenly found themselves vulnerable.

The panicking aliens shouted alien words as they pulled out several weapons ranging from a plasma cutter and a grenade.

Neither weapons saw any use as Ketis rushed up faster than what the inadequately trained orven crew members could pull off with their respective weapons.

Swish!

Only a single, smooth cut was all Ketis needed to slice her Bloodsinger through the armored torsos of the hapless aliens!

With the greatest threat down, the remaining Swordmaiden troopers easily dealt with the remaining opposition.

Plasma bolts struck over half of the aggressive Swordmaidens, but their fast movements and sturdy armor protected them from actual injuries.

Each of the greatsword-wielding soldiers approached their respective targets and swung their weapons to put an end to the resisting aliens!

Many of them found that one cut was already enough to eliminate their opposition. The few Swordmaidens who had to launch a second attack felt ashamed for needing to swing their weapons again!

Ketis did not rush to compete for their kills. Instead, she looking down at her fresh alien kills so that she could savor this moment.

Her Bloodsinger shook as Ketis grew more and more excited at all of the surviving aliens that she could kill.

She truly hoped that the orvens wouldn't take the initiative to surrender. It would be a lot less excusable to cut down enemies when they had already expressed their willingness to admit defeat.

She needed to hurry up and kill the diehards before the other troops put them down!

"Let us proceed to one of their data vaults and secure what is left." She commanded her troops. "We cannot allow these orvens to wipe their databases clean! For Lydia!"

"FOR LYDIA!"

The Swordmaidens recovered as best they could before following their champion further inwards!