The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5666 Affordable Shipkiller Mech

BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM!

BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM!

BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM!

Just as everyone expected, it took over a dozen of slow salvos for the alien battleship to be finally stripped of her most important defenses.

Even though it took way too much time to attain this result, what if a mech force had more of these heavy artillery mechs at its disposal?

What if the firepower of other ranged mechs helped to wear down the defenses of the target?

The alien battleship definitely would not have been able to last this long under more realistic combat conditions!

In any case, what mattered the most at this moment was that her hull became naked and exposed to outside attacks!

While a human battlecruiser or battleship would have been able to resist a lot more attacks at this point, the aliens were still far too slow in utilizing superior exotic alloys to massively bolster the damage resistance of their material sections.

BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM!

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

This time, the heavy artillery mechs spread their aim to an extent and allowed each of their attacks to strike along the length of the hull!

The exterior plating deformed immediately before the super-heavy gauss rounds unloaded their huge amount of kinetic energy on lots of nearby compartments!

Many of them either got shattered or became deformed to such a degree that nothing inside remained in working condition anymore!

Though the alien battleship possessed so much redundancy that she was still able to maintain her orbit, her condition had obviously deteriorated.

Each surface-to-orbit strike punched through the exterior plating and wreaked massive damage to the interior of the vessel.

The more the super-heavy gauss rounds struck the same section of the same, the more the damage became compounded as the lack of structural integrity made it easier to spread the damage around.

It became clear that the 9 heavy artillery mechs did not pursue maximum efficiency this time. Instead, they attempted to showcase their dominance as much as possible by utilizing the entire hull of the orbiting alien battleship as a canvas to their art of destruction!

Perhaps the only regret to this impressive display was that the uncrewed warship never exhibited any proper signs of resistance.

She did not attempt to move in any evasive patterns that could throw off kinetic shells that had to waste a lot of time and energy to overcome the forces of gravity and air resistance.

Her crews had not attempted to bring any transphasic shield generators back online that could have prevented the shots from continuing to drill through the hull.

No damage control teams ran around to put out fires and close breaches. The lack of immediate repairs and mitigation actions caused the vessel to accumulate damage at a much faster rate than it should.

Yet none of these factors diminished the pure destructive potential of the newly introduced second-class heavy artillery mech.

The people invited to attend this product reveal in person all possessed a good understanding of the current state of mechs.

Many other heavy artillery mechs could not attain the same level results as the ones on display!

Even the latest hyper heavy artillery mechs did not exhibit drastically better performance than the machines released during the Phasewater Generation.

The more astute experts in the exhibition center even determined that the new model mainly distinguished itself by offering noticeably better accuracy and damage potential.

Not only were the 9 machines able to space out their shots so that they accurately struck specific sections of the hull with only minor deviations, the kinetic damage inflicted by these impacts was also considerably higher than what the the caliber of the main cannon should be able to produce.

The huge damage inflicted by these second-class mechs actually looked quite familiar to many of the guests.

This was because this sort of damage was what they normally expected to see from a genuine first-class multipurpose mech!

It was incredibly impressive for a second-class mech to be able to punch as hard as a first-class multipurpose mech.

The latter might be able to fire its highly potent main weapons at a considerably faster rate, but even the most barebones version of a first-class multipurpose mech typically sold for at least 20 million MTA credits!

In contrast, the price range of a typical second-class heavy artillery mech typically amounted to just a handful of MTA credits!

Of course, a first-class multipurpose mech had a lot more going to it than just its offensive potential.

The truth was that such a mech actually sacrificed a lot of opportunities to strengthen its attack power in order to make sure that it was well-rounded enough to operate in practically any environment.

Second-raters could forget about fielding these extravagant vessels. What they needed the most was a mech that could close the firepower gap as much as possible and give them the ability to wear down alien warships at range.

So far, it appeared that this heavy artillery mech met most of their requirements.

This belief became stronger when the ruined hull of the orbiting alien battleship finally collapsed and broke into several pieces.

Nearby first-class salvaging vessels quickly jumped into action and moved to absorb or tow any pieces of debris that could pose a threat to the planet or other orbiting vessels.

As the cleanup process up in orbit commenced, people's attention turned back to the 9 mechs whose formidable main cannons had suddenly attracted an intense amount of interest!

A lot more people had begun to tune into the broadcast.

Many of them were recent fans of the LMC and came in order to admire the latest product released by Professor Larkinson.

Others were avid Rubarthans or admirers of their culture who gained a lot of interest when a rumor spread that this heavy artillery mech had relations with a certain god pilot.

However, a lot of working professionals insisted on watching this broadcast because the demonstration had already shown that this singular mech model had already shown its ability to upend the mech landscape!

As Isthmus Manufacturing successfully commanded the attention of a much broader swathe of the public, Micky Tarukan finally addressed his audience once again.

The people were hungry for answers, and he was more than willing to satisfy their burning curiosity.

"There can be no victory without destruction." He spoke. "To win the Red War, it is not enough for our mechs to become trickier and more elusive to shoot down. Ultimately, a battle can only be won when one side is able to force the other side into submission. The introduction of the Hyper Generation has made mechs more capable of fulfilling this condition by granting them access to space suppressors. Melee mechs have gained a resurgence as their ability to overpower transphasic energy shields as close range has come at the right time."

This was indeed the case. Enough time had passed for melee mechs to attain lots of successes. As long as they managed to survive the arduous approach, they could quickly gain the advantage and exert much greater pressure onto enemy warships.

"However, what should we do with our ranged mechs? Should they be relegated to providing fire support? They can do so much more, but they have always been constrained by their firepower. That may not be the case anymore after this day. As these 9 fine machines have already demonstrated to you, Isthmus Manufacturing is finally ready to announce the release of our most powerful standard second-class mech model! It is a living mech designed by the most talented young mech designer of his generation, and it is a marvel of modern design and engineering."

The 9 heavy artillery mechs gradually locked down their smoking main cannons and steadily stomped their heavy legs until their fronts all faced the audience at once.

Even if none of their guns were directly pointed at the seated guests, the Rubarthans nonetheless became intimidated by the latent threat of these 9 shipkiller mechs!

After all, a human body was much more fragile than an enormous alien battleship!

Few personal shield generators were rated to resist the excessive power of a transphasic super-heavy gauss round.

"The purpose of this developing and releasing this new mech model of ours is nothing less than to give our brave soldiers the firepower they need to catch up to their adversaries." Micky continued to speak. "The Red War shall not end unless we destroy enough of the enemy's vaunted warships. Our second-class mech forces will no longer be limited to sending out their melee mechs alone. From now on, they can employ our latest product release as their bunker mechs and make it much more viable for them to crush distant warships by relying on their firepower alone!"

This was a bold claim, but the previous demonstration put a lot more weight behind it. Tarukan fully earned the right to boast about the performance of his latest product after his company sacrificed an entire alien battleship to make his point!

"The release of our latest heavy artillery mech goes beyond adding another income stream to Isthmus Manufacturing. It is a statement that signals to the aliens that our race is more than capable of fighting back despite our many limitations. Our heavy artillery mech model possessed an unparalleled capacity for destruction among second-class mechs. Few if any alien raiding fleets will look forward to raiding the middle zones of the Rubarthan Pact and beyond once our ubiquitous distribution networks have delivered our products to many customers across the new frontier."

People could almost imagine the terror that many aliens must feel once they started to confront human fleets equipped with lots of copies with this explosive new mech model.

Similar to how the Fey Fianna tormented the aliens by wasting far too many of their shots on low-value fey, the newly introduced living mech had the literal potential to shake the foundations of many warships by virtue of their excessive firepower alone!

It was a pity that Micky Tarukan could not address any foreign aliens directly at this time. He would have paid dearly to observe their live reactions to his speech!

"Make no mistake. This release will not only make our second-class mech forces much more dangerous to confront by aliens, but it can also improve the self-defensive capabilities of human settlements spread across many different globes. The matching Onyx Cannon of our new model is expressly designed to operate in space as well as on land. Orbital defense will no longer become a joke once a colony deploys a few hundred of our heavy artillery mechs across the planet. No matter what their intentions may be, the invading aliens will quickly learn that they will suffer the ultimate punishment if they violate our sovereignty. Let our new heavy artillery mech serve as the Ultimatum to any foe that dares to challenge our supremacy!"

The CEO aroused a strong human superiority sentiment with his words. Many people who listened to him at this time felt a lot more proud to be human at this time!

At the same time, a projection appeared above the 9 heavy artillery mechs that finally revealed their official model name!

[ULTIMATUM UDS-550]

This was clearly the first and most original version of this impressive new line of mechs.

Millions of people spoke this name within seconds. Each of them felt more defiant and courageous as they did so. It was as if they directly issued a challenge to the native aliens!

Normally, they wouldn't have acted so boldly, but the supreme firepower demonstrated by the new Ultimatums made such a powerful impression that they had regained their belief in human power!

How could the aliens possibly pose a threat to red humanity when they must overcome millions of Ultimatums?

No alien armada should be able to withstand this degree of collective firepower!

As the hype surrounding the Ultimatum spread far beyond Rubarthan space, Micky Tarukan finally began to explain the specs of the UDS-550.