The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5682 The Power of the Ultimatums

The Grimly Brothers weren't as stupid or as ignorant about mechs as the native aliens.

Before they stabbed the Hullsi Wardogs in the back and exposed their true allegiance, the troops of the Grimly Brothers kept up with the news and acted like any other mercenaries.

They followed the latest developments in the mech industry as avidly as other mech pilots. They knew about the Ultimatums and listened to many of the wild claims about its performance.

Yet now that they had begun to fight against these mechs themselves, the troops of the Grimly Brothers learned that these mechs fully deserved all of the hype!

The hyper spaceburst shells launched by the modern heavy artillery mechs were not only relatively fast, but also exploded across a wider volume of space than the explosive shells of the previous generation.

The E energy empowering the explosive ordnance of the Ultimatums significantly increased the lethality of every explosion!

It was as if every explosion directly weakened every affected armor plating to the point where they were only partially as effective as before.

Perhaps more powerful quasi-first-class mechs may be able to withstand this power, but the relatively ordinary second-class mechs of the Grimly Brothers were not equipped to withstand this power.

"The Ultimatums are tearing the Grimly mechs apart!"

"Why didn't we buy our own batch of Ultimatums? They are definitely worth far more than 30 MTA credits per copy!"

"Don't let the Grimly Brothers wreck these precious mechs! Provide cover for them as much as possible!"

As the ranged mechs of the Grimly Brothers tried to take down the Ultimatums one by one by focusing as much of their attacks on them as possible, they experienced even greater pushback from the ranged mechs of the four mercenary outfits.

In order to give the heavy artillery mechs enough breathing room to eliminate the incoming melee mechs, the rifleman mechs of the Pellicky Praetorians as well as their allies went all-out!

They increased their firing rates as much as possible. Their kinetic weapons fired as three-quarters or even half-charge in order to rain more projectiles at their opponents!

Though the power and the muzzle velocities of these hasty attacks were not as great as before, they produced greater suppression than before as the Grimly mech pilots found it much more difficult to focus on eliminating the bunker mechs when they came under heavy fire.

The rifleman mechs armed with energy weapons either overloaded their guns or simply reduced the charge rate of an individual energy beam.

They managed to land a lot more hits onto their Grimly counterparts as a result, making it even more difficult for the enemy pilots to concentrate and focus on their mission.

Despite these measures, two more Ultimatums became overwhelmed by a torrent of mixed ranged attacks.

The custom rifleman mech piloted by Alexander Grimly happened to inflict much more effective damage than the surrounding machines.

"Damn! Alexander never told us that his custom mech was equipped with a transphasic laser rifle. This weapon is chiefly responsible for carving open the protective bunkers that our heavy artillery mechs are relying upon for protection."

Though the Ultimatums were doing an increasingly better job at blasting enemy melee mechs apart, Commander Pellicky winced with every machine that got wrecked.

That was 30 MTA credits down the drain!

"Instruct the three regular Ultimatums stationed on our flagship to focus their attacks on the mechs of both Grimly Brothers. They are too threatening to leave alone."

While the remaining Ultimatums continued their mission to whittle down the other melee mechs, the three machines that somehow fed off the large amount of destruction E energy attracted by the mutated machine focused their full efforts into taking down the leading traitor mechs.

This was a much harder mission!

No matter whether it was the fast and agile transphasic rifleman mech or the tough but also fairly mobile offensive space knight, neither of them allowed the attacks to stop or slow them down.

The mercenaries soon made another concerning discovery.

"The kite shield held by Cory Grimly's mech is transphasic! It is able to resist much more damage than normal alloy shields!"

That was bad because the mech continued to lead the other melee mechs of the Grimly Brothers forward.

Once Cory Grimly managed to get close enough to the Hooligan Barke, it could continue to rely on its transphasic kite shield to fend off a lot of attacks while utilizing its axe to hack at the bunkers that protected the other Ultimatums.

"Please confirm whether the axe held by Cory Grimly's space knight is transphasic."

"According to our scanners, there is a 80 percent probability that it is a low-transphasic bladed weapon."

"Take it down first!"

"Our heavy artillery mechs are trying, but their progress is too slow due to a lack of transphasic weapons. The custom space knight is expressly designed to endure a large quantity of attacks without losing too much combat effectiveness in the process. Even if we manage to wear out the transphasic kite shield, the mech's remaining armor should be able to resist enough attacks."

Damn!

Commander Pellicky sensed a growing degree of threat from that machine.

While the transphasic rifleman mech piloted by Alexander Grimly could only take potshots from afar, the mech piloted by Cory Grimly posed a much greater threat to the Hooligan Barke!

Having a transphasic offensive space knight tear its penetrating axe through the hull of a starship was the worst nightmare of any mech commander!

"What is the status of Ultimatum One?!"

"The abnormal mech has moved past its peak. Its power levels are slowly decreasing, though it has already managed to inflict significant material damage to the nunser battleship. Its progress is significantly delayed by the other alien warships putting their hulls in the way. While the quantity of enemy warships is dropping at an accelerated rate, the most powerful enemy vessel is clearly taking advantage of the temporary reprieve."

This was not good news! Pellicky glanced at the projection of the mutated machine and saw that it was indeed showing signs of flagging.

Even if this horrible machine managed to produce as much power as an ace pilot paired with an ace mech, it was ultimately not as strong. The foundation of the half-organic monstrosity was much poorer and unable to sustain this exceedingly high level of energy consumption.

While a part of Commander Pellicky grew hopeful that there might be a way to rescue Yuri from this warped machine once it had exhausted its power, that could only happen if they won this battle.

In order to do that, the mercenaries needed to destroy the Grimly Brothers!

It all came down to the two leading mechs. Both of them needed to be destroyed in order to eliminate the greatest threat towards the Pellicky Praetorians!

Unfortunately, the secret cosmopolitans had invested so much in the development of their custom mechs that they could not be taken down in a short amount of time!

Transphasic weapons and armor still retained their superiority in the Hyper Generation. This was especially the case when only a single side had access to this kind of gear.

There was not much time left. The transphasic offensive space knight piloted by Cory Grimly only needed to cross a moderate distance before it arrived right at the doorstep of the Hooligan Barke!

The relatively modest amount of melee mechs left behind to screen the combat carriers could only block a portion of the incoming enemy machines, but it was impossible for them to stop a genuine transphasic mech!

Commander Pellicky suddenly recalled another important feature about the new Ultimatums.

"Gilbert. Anastasia. Rofan." She called the names of the other mech pilots assigned to the other Ultimatums on the Hooligan Barke. "Are you able to use the predictive targeting systems of your mechs to land a direct hit on Cory Grimly's mech with your Onyx Cannon? Respond with yes or no."

"No."

"No."

"No."

Pellicky furrowed her brows. "Reason?"

"According to what I can surmise from my living mech, there is so much destruction E energy around us that it has displaced everything else." Anastasia replied. "The Ultimatum needs another kind of E energy to leverage its other embedded ability. This... is partially our fault. If we had more practice and proficiency in piloting the Ultimatum, we wouldn't have to rely on this crutch. There are rumors that genuine Ylvainan mech pilots don't need to resort to this measure at all to establish a connection with their prophet."

Commander Pellicky dismissively waved her hand. "It is not your fault. Forget about the custom mechs piloted by the Grimly Brothers. Turn your focus back on intercepting the other mechs. They are weak enough for you to be able to eliminate with great efficiency."

"What about the transphasic mechs of the Grimly Brothers?"

"We can only rely on one asset to take them down." Pellicky responded. "Helmsman, turn the Hooligan Barke around. Give Ultimatum One a clear shot of the enemy transphasic mechs!"

"Commander, doing so will reduce the pressure on the nunser battleship."

"Our melee mechs have almost reached the alien raiding fleet. Tell them to concentrate on tearing her apart while her transphasic energy shields are still down!"

There was a risk that the friendly melee mechs might fail, but that was a risk that she had to take. Ultimatum One was the only truly reliable asset she had left.

The Hooligan Barke spun around and prevented the monster mech from firing any further shots towards the heavily damaged nunser battleship.

At this angle, the biggest threat towards the monstrosity was the two transphasic mechs. There was no way for the mutated heavy artillery mech to fire her cannons at the alien raiding fleet positioned at the opposite side of the battlefield.

Though the strange mech expressed its frustration by stomping its uneven legs against the deck of its bunker, it soon began to shift the angle of its Onyx Cannon.

Suddenly, Alexander Grimly sensed an acute threat. His rifleman mech began to put more power into its flight system while at the same time firing a transphasic laser beam that lost half of its strength before it accurately carved into the bunker that protected the source of his discomfort.

The Ultimatum One fired.

An attack that was almost just as powerful as the initial strikes lanced through space and almost managed to land a direct hit onto the transphasic rifleman mech!

"Miss, no, partial hit! Ultimatum One's empowered attack managed to sever a leg off Alexander Grimly's mech."

The transphasic rifleman mech made a lot more irregular movements while it furiously struck back. The domain field surrounding Ultimatum One sapped a lot of strength from the incoming attacks, but it had been growing weaker at a steady rate, which meant that the attacks were becoming increasingly effective.

However, just as Alexander Grimly was about to pull the trigger yet again, he immediately sensed danger and tried to juke his mech in another direction.

Unfortunately for him, the monster mech just happened to predict his evasive trajectory and fired its mutated Onyx Cannon at the right angle and the right time!

The empowered super-heavy gauss round directly struck the torso of the transphasic rifleman mech!

As impressive as its defenses may be relative to non-transphasic mech, there was no way a ranged mech like this could withstand a direct hit from an attack that had the power to breach the defenses of alien warships!

The custom mech outright disintegrated upon impact!

So much kinetic energy transferred into the inadequate defenses of the ranged mech that it immediately shattered into millions of broken and separated parts!

When Cory Grimly became alerted by what had happened to his brother, he immediately became overtaken by the loss!

"BROTHER! No! You promised we would fight side by side to bring humanity to the light!"

Even cosmopolitans could feel sad!

However, Cory shook his head shortly afterwards and concentrated on the fight. This was no time for him to mourn! The mission came first!

"You will pay for that! Our righteous cause shall prevail no matter how much blood must be spilled! FOR A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY!"