The Mech Touch

Red humanity was at war.

In fact, humans had been at war with the native alien races of the Red Ocean since they secretly arrived decades earlier.

Yet even after the opening of the new frontier, humans never really took the local opposition seriously.

Humanity was the giant of the Milky Way. The race had managed to conquer far more territories than the alien hillbillies of the Red Ocean had ever traversed in their lives.

How could a war against the phase whales and the other quaint aliens of this tiny galaxy make the humans feel concerned about the outcome of the so-called war?

The only uncertainty that people held during the Age of Mechs was how many years it would take before the superior humans managed to conquer every corner of the Red Ocean!

Everything changed when the Red Cabal pulled off the Great Severing, yet this statement was not quite true.

People's perception of the conflict between humans and the native aliens had most definitely shifted, but the change in mentality did not go far enough.

A lot of humans may have begun to refer to it as the Red War, as if this conflict had become serious enough to be referred to by a more formal name, but far too many people did not feel threatened enough to take the alien menace seriously enough.

On the 37th day of the 3rd year of the Age of Dawn, the native aliens finally kicked off the dreaded Red Tide.

The big offensive shook red humanity awake.

Though many people who were already asleep would probably learn about the explosive events later, it was undeniable that the entirety of human society in the Red Ocean paused in shock for a collective moment.

Then, pandemonium erupted as everyone tried their best to figure out how the alien offensive affected their lives!

As more news erupted, the public became informed about the huge amount of alien warships and phasefighters bearing down on the fortified star systems that firmly kept the zones at the border in the hands of human civilization.

Despite all of the time, effort and resources spent on bolstering the defenses of the star systems that would inevitably attract alien aggression, many people had little confidence that the defenders would be able to hold out for long.

The quantity of alien opposition was too great.

As Ves continued to read through a lot of news reports from many different sources, it became clear that the initial wave of the alien offensive could not be dismissed as easily as other alien incursions.

Different from the ramshackle alien raiding fleets, the assault fleets were much better equipped and crewed!

Every assault fleet was clearly comprised of more standardized and uniform modern alien vessels. Each of them incorporated at least some degree of stolen and adapted human technologies.

While every alien warship was at least as tough and threatening as the orven vessels of the late Torment Fleet, the good news was that a lot of hulls were dispersed throughout many fleets.

The Red Cabal did not dare to concentrate too many expensive alien warships in a single humongous armada.

That would just make it easier for a god mech to intercept the armada and wipe out all of the warships at once!

By dispersing the threatening alien warships across so many different fleets before sending off to attack many different star systems, every god pilot stationed at the border could only mop up so many alien warships at a time.

The Red Cabal clearly understood that relying on their huge numbers advantage was the best way to gain the upper hand.

It worked. The public news reports already started to mention that several god pilots had taken action, but their actions only temporarily saved a few strategic star systems from getting breached and razed by the vengeful aliens.

There were hundreds more star systems that were under imminent threat! How could a handful of god pilots possibly reach them all in time to relieve the assaults?

This was the downside of relying too much on a very low quantity of super champions to lock down a lot of territories!

Fortunately, the Red Fleet's dreadnoughts were picking up the slack, but they were not as overwhelmingly strong.

On many battlefields where the defenders had to make do without such powerful backup, the fighting turned intense or desperate at a rapid pace!

At this time, Ves had left Diandi Base hours ago. He left Gloriana behind to soothe their restless children while he allowed himself to get teleported to the Tarrasque in orbit.

The RA heavy cruiser clearly entered into a heightened state of alertness. More armored troops patrolled the corridors and the crew members all looked busier than ever.

The atmosphere in the glaringly white and pleasant interior of the warship had clearly taken a turn for the worse. The mechers, as powerful as they may be, could not repel the Red Tide by relying on their own forces alone!

This caused them to feel frustrated. All of them were long-standing members of the Mech Trade Association before the Great Severing occurred. It was much harder for them to shake off the veneer of absolute superiority that they previously took for granted during the Age of Mechs.

It was only now that the native aliens launched an offensive of such a massive scale that even the forces of the Red Association were swamped by the quantity of attackers.

Even though several hundred star systems were under siege at the start, there were already plenty of signs that more alien assault and raiding fleets were crossing the border!

Perhaps the incredibly numerous fleets did not encompass a large quantity of warships, but that was not the sole problem.

As the initial fighting erupted in the orbits of strategically valuable planets and moons, Jovy Armalon pointed out a massive problem shortly after Ves arrived at one of the ship's operations centers.

"The native aliens have learned more from our race than our tech." He spoke. "They have also gained a strong appreciation of our reliance on small craft."

He gestured towards a projection that displayed one of the many battles occurring in space.

The planet located in the 1st defensive band was surrounded by a ring of defensive platforms and fortifications. Together with a small garrison of RF warships and lots of different linefighter mechs, the defenders should have been able to keep the native aliens at bay for at least several days if not a week.

However, the aliens did not just bring over their warships this time. Accompanying them were massive alien cargo haulers.

These massive vessels with enormous cargo spaces did not carry any ordinary goods, though.

It turned out that the native aliens converted each of these former transportation hulls into improvised carrier vessels!

Regardless of who these kilometers-long cargo haulers and mass conveyors belonged to in the past, they were all included in one of the many alien fleets for the sole purpose of bringing over as many phasefighters as they could fit!

The converted alien carriers were clearly terrible compared to modern human carriers. The former's defenses were paper thin and did not properly secure all of the phasefighters. Any major accident could destroy hundreds of not thousands of small craft!

Not only that, but the former cargo vessels did not carry too many supplies and lacked the facilities to service and repair the small craft at a high pace.

All of this meant that as long as the human defenders managed to weather the initial assault, the subsequent attacks would probably decrease in severity as the unqualified alien carriers struggled to service and rearm all of the returning phasefighters!

Unfortunately for red humanity, this did not happen very often.

The reason for that was that the assault fleets all deployed an overwhelming amount of phasefighters!

For example, the battle in the projection showed how over a hundred-thousand phasefighters were blitzing the orbital ring in a single massive attack run!

The defending mech forces could only deploy a third as much mechs in comparison!

Sure, the human mechs could count on the orbital defenses for support, but the alien phasefighters were also able to rely on the accompanying warships for additional firepower!

The warring became intense and the losses mounted at a dizzying pace. Hundreds of mechs and phasefighters blew up by the minute.

Due to the huge amount of alien phasefighters, the defending mech forces were unable to launch any serious attacks on the threatening alien warships.

This was bad as every alien armed vessel could rely on their powerful transphasic primary and secondary armaments to demolish the relatively immobile orbital defenses with ease!

There was so much happening during this fast-paced battle that Ves could not focus everything at once.

He decided to direct his focus on the mechs in particular.

"They're outnumbered. They're badly outnumbered." Ves grimaced.

"Yes, they are." Jovy said in a serious tone. "The native aliens are well aware that their immature phasefighters are unable to win against our mechs in fair fights. This is why they have resorted to their own form of cheating by bringing at least twice as many phasefighters that are stationed on every star system. This is not a coincidence. Every planet under attack is being besieged with phasefighters that outnumber the defending mechs by a very obvious margin. Just the sight of all of those phasefighters is enough to shake the confidence of every human mech pilot."

As assaults like these unfolded across many different star systems, Ves noticed that the aliens utilized their phasefighters a lot better than before.

The native aliens not only increased their winning chances by bringing a lot more phasefighters, but they also developed or retrained a set of simple but highly effective tactics!

For example, when the alien phasefighters enjoyed such an enormous advantage of numbers against the human mechs, the former could employ all kinds of strategies and tactics that fully leveraged their ability to outflank or surround their enemies.

This made it so that the quantity of phasefighters mattered more than their quality. Their shortcomings became irrelevant as the aliens continually ganged up on the outnumbered human mechs whenever possible.

In the face of all of this overwhelming aggression, the human commanders had little choice but to pull back their mech units.

"So this is where the native aliens spent so much time and resources on." Ves surmised. "They want to crush our mechs by swamping us with phasefighters. I cannot imagine how much the aliens invested their phasewater and other previous resources into mass producing so many small craft. I don't think it is worth it if their quantity is only on par with our mechs, but now that they have fully leaned on throwing as many of these phasefighters into our lines as possible, the individual strengths of our brilliant mech models don't matter as much anymore."

Jovy looked troubled. "The situation at the border regions is not optimistic, I admit. However, the native aliens have yet to attack or pass through the 4th and 5th defensive bands, so the frontlines are unlikely to get breached entirely. I am more concerned about the complete isolation of Bridgehead One."

"That is clever of the aliens. Their main assault on the border regions will force us to commit most of our available forces in this war theater. It will be a lot more difficult to divert forces to Bridgehead One. Do you know what sort of enemies are attacking it? They are definitely targeting the greater beyonder gate. I hope you guys have taken our warning seriously."

"I can assure you that your unconventional assistance has resulted in changes." Jovy replied. "I cannot say whether we have made enough preparations. Early signs indicate that multiple ancient phase whales have arrived in Bridgehead One before completely isolating the entire star system from the rest of the dwarf galaxy."

"How many god pilots are assigned to defend the greater beyonder gate?"

"One."

"Just one?!"

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