The Mech Touch

6017 Target Set

The meeting lasted for two hours.

After Saint Tusa had acquainted himself with the other two ace pilots of the expeditionary fleet, he sat down and listened as the various leaders of the expeditionary fleet explained the current circumstances to the newcomer.

The leaders not only gave Tusa a greater understanding of the current and future state of the expeditionary fleet, but also gave him a very thorough briefing on the upcoming major operation.

This was privileged information that expert pilots usually never received in advance!

The fact that this gathering felt it was not only worthwhile, but necessary to clue Tusa in was a reflection of his profound change of status.

Ace pilots were no longer ordinary grunts anymore. They had truly risen to the upper echelons of the hierarchy. It could even be argued that their voice was greater than that of the nominal leaders!

Throughout the briefing, everyone paid close attention to Saint Tusa. They wanted to know what his personality was like now that he had beca powerhouse in his own right and whether he wanted to meddle into the affairs of the Golden Skull Alliance.

Fortunately for everyone involved, Tusa did not exhibit a strong desire to lead or even make his own requests. He was fine with letting others make all of the big decisions. He was only responsible for fighting at the highest level as far as he was concerned.

When Tusa finally learned about the ambitious goal that the expeditionary fleet had set, he couldn't help but grow skeptical.

"Are you sure we can finally pin down the Eminence of Torment?" He questioned. "We attempted to corner him and his elusive fleet multiple times, but he never managed to get caught by us and all of the other mech forces that were seeking to claim his bounty. That alien may be an incompetent phase lord, but he is first-class when it comes to avoiding confrontation."

General Herman Foraine responded with a confident smile. "You are correct that the Eminence of Torment has proven to be remarkably skilled at evading pursuit, but the Red Cabal is on the verge of launching a major offensive. The orven phase lord cannot keep shirking his responsibilities and set a bad example for all of the alien fleets that have been assigned to his command. According to intelligence gathered from numerous sources, the Red Cabal is dissatisfied with the Eminence of Torment due to the fact that the raiding fleets under his supervision have produced the least amount of results."

"Partially thanks to our efforts." Marshal Ariadne Wodin smugly spoke. "Our fleet is not alone to cover this particular border region, but we have crushed so many alien warships that we have saved many border colonies from destruction."

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Saint Tusa still looked uncertain. "Be that as it may, I doubt the cowardly phase lord will change his habits all that much. How can you guarantee that we will corner him this time?"

"Ylvaine has shown us where the Torment Fleet and the phase lord may be found at different points in the future. The Eminence of Torment's movements have becmuch easier to grasp now that he is forced to travel to numerous alien strongholds on the other side of the border." Commander Casella Ingvar stated. "When we combine the Great Prophet's predictions with other sources of intelligence, we can roughly trace the approximate course of his Torment Fleet. We have at least 80 percent chance of intercepting our primary objective at numerous different locations."

The leaders of the expeditionary fleet might not pay much heed to Ylvaine alone, but as long as his predictions were backed up by a lot of supporting data from different sources, then they were willing to pay much more credence to the human design spirit!

This was the correct way to make use of a prophet whose predictive abilities had been proven.

It was never an idea to reply to a single source of information alone, but as long as the intelligence provided by other people did not contradict Ylvaine's claims, then that gave them greater certainty in grasping the trends of the future.

This was one of the reasons why the expeditionary fleet never fell into a catastrophic trap or ambush during the past years!

The native aliens weren't completely stupid. They occasionally 'cheated' by dispatching much more powerful punitive fleets that easily possessed the power to crush every second-class mech force operating in and around the Torald Middle Zone!

The losses inflicted by warships powerful enough to give the Red Two a run for their money were massive!

"What if the Eminence of Torment learns about our interception attempt in advance? He might prepare an ambush for our arrival."

The acting leader of the Larkinson Army smiled. "That is where you cin. Your breakthrough has given us a fairly hidden trump card that we can rely upon to respond to any unexpected emergencies. The Eminence of Torment is known as a defective phase lord, but he still commands a fleet that is more formidable than we have fought in the past. You have gained much greater offensive power as of late, is that correct?"

"Yes. Don't askhow it works. I think it is better if I show you all what my Dark Zephyr and I can do during a live practice session. I can already tell you that it will take much less tforto dismantle larger alien warships than before."

"That is good to hear." Commander Casella nodded with satisfaction. "With the departure of Patriarch Reginald Cross, we have lost a strong offensive top asset. Your breakthrough and the Dark Zephyr's technological upgrades will give us another sharp edge that we can use to eliminate the more powerful threats first."

Tusa felt the need to give them all a warning.

"I won't be staying here for long, commander. Ves wantsto join his Premier Branch once my Dark Zephyr has completed his conversion into a first-class ace mech. If the old rules still apply, then I am not allowed to fight alongside your forces anymore."

That caused several people to look upset.

Marshal Ariadne Wodin shook her head in disapproval. "The artificial division between third-class, second-class and first-

class is a relic of past ages. It is creating far more divisions than we need. We are at war against alien empires that do not strictly divide their forces in the sclasses. We can do much better if we are able to field first-class mechs and equipment. We can afford it due to all of the earnings we have made."

"The class division doesn't exist to help humanity deal against the aliens. It exists to separate humans from each other." Matriarch Rezzie Boojay explained to everyone. "To be more specific, it protects weaker human powers from the stronger ones. Otherwise, the Terrans and the Rubarthans would have taken over many second-rate and third-rate states that they have taken a liking to. The first-raters have little choice but to compete against other first-raters."

"That is only the case in peacetime. Now that all of red humanity is being threatened by a strong external enemy, we need to unite with each other."

Master Benedict Cortez knocked his fist against the table. The discussion immediately halted.

"This is not the tand place to discuss politics. Are we still in agreement about commencing our operation? If we set off today, we have a large chance of intercepting the Torment Fleet. The tradeoff is that Saint Tusa will have less tto familiarize himself with his newfound strength."

"Do not delay this operation on account of me." Tusa spoke up. "It is true that I am still new to this all, but I can already pull my own weight in battle."

The leaders decided to proceed with the current plan. They had already arranged everything without taking Tusa's recent breakthrough into account. His massive increase in strength was a welcbonus, but did not necessitate a change in strategy.

Now that the course of the expeditionary fleet was set, the meeting soon cto an end.

The two female ace pilots made their way out, but not before demanding that Saint Tusa participate in their training sessions.

Compared to expert pilots, ace pilots had a lot of new options at their disposal. It usually took years before the latter was able to get started with developing their new capabilities.

This lengthy interval could easily be shortened as long as the fresh ace pilot received targeted lessons on how to develop and use his new domain.

Tusa understood this quite well, so he did not reject this demand out of pride.

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Ace pilot or not, he was uncomfortably reminded that he was the weakest out of the three!

Finally, only Tusa, Commander Casella and Master Benedict remained in the conference room.

"Now that the rest have left, let us discuss the state of the Dark Zephyr." The command-oriented expert pilot spoke. "I have received an information package on the general capabilities of the Dark Zephyr Mark III, but much of it is vague and not precise enough. What I need to know is how much the light skirmisher is limiting your ability to fight as an ace pilot."

"The Dark Zephyr has a large amount of high-performing archemetal components. I am more than satisfied with my living mech's base parameters such as thrust power, evasive ability and toughness. Ves and Gloriana toldthat the biggest shortcoming is the continued use of old resonating materials, though I personally haven't felt that they are holdingback all that much. I am not entirely sure how much of a difference it makes if my Dark Zephyr has been upgraded with a batch of ace mech-grade resonating exotics."

Both Tusa and Casella turned to Master Benedict. As a Master Mech Designer, he possessed the qualifications to develop ace mechs. He had already done so for the Mars, so he should have a good understanding of this matter.

"Resonating exotics are the defining components of high-

ranking mechs for good reasons." The older man explained to the two Larkinsons. "The better they are, the easier it is for mech pilots to resonate with their respective machines. Expert pilots can stably generate true resonance with the help of weaker resonating exotics because the latter are easier to control. When expert pilots attempt to resonate with more powerful resonating exotics, they often suffer backlashes because their willpower cannot withstand the activity generated by more volatile and energetic resonating exotics. However, it is precisely because these dangerous resonating exotics hold more power that they are an excellent complement to ace pilots."

Understanding dawned on both of the faces of the Larkinsons.

"That sounds similar to the issues related to controlling high-

tier Destroyer weapons." Saint Tusa observed. "Only a strong enough will and mech can tthese dangerous weapons by force. More powerful resonating exotics can easily produce accidents if they are not adequately controlled, but their downsides mean nothing to actual ace pilots."

Resonating exotics held far too much power to be safely controlled, but ace pilots could negate their greatest shortcoming and take full advantage of their more potent effects!

It was an excellent combination that produced a fantastic amount of synergy!

"There is another factor that you must pay attention to." Master Benedict said. "Ace mech-grade resonating exotics have a disproportionately high influence on the development of an ace pilot's Saint Kingdom. Selection must be done with great care as the properties of the replacement resonating exotics will directly affect how you will develop your powers and your domain in the future. It is not impossible for you to develop your Saint Kingdom without relying on resonating exotics, but your progress will slow down as a result."

"I see." Tusa frowned. "So this is also one of the reasons why it is not a good idea forto pilot the current version of the Dark Zephyr for too long. His old resonating exotics will not helpshape my new powers."

"Correct. You will only truly be able to leverage your Saint Kingdom to the fullest when you have an ace mech that can fully channel it. Your current domain field is partially limited by the constraints of your high-tier expert mech."

If that was the case, then Tusa wanted his Dark Zephyr to convert into an ace mech as soon as possible!