The Mech Touch

at the frontlines.

Their increased mobility not only allowed them to close the distance faster, but also made them very hard to hit with projectile weapons.

Even though the drones were so fragile that one or two knocks could take it out, they were so darned agile that even light mechs had to admit defeat!

Not only that, but their incredibly loose formation meant that the powerful cannons of the Apocalypse Heralds wasted the bulk of their firepower.

Against a larger sandman vessel, their heavy mechs could easily damage ten or twenty drones worth of sandmen!

Yet because the sandman admirals dispersed their strength into tiny, disposable drones, each and every round wasted the bulk of their damage potential!

Due to all of these reasons, the swarm configuration was actually superior in firepower, mobility and defense! Against a large but cumbersome unit like the Apocalypse Heralds, its effectiveness skyrocketed!

Unlike the Stripes of Humanity that gave the civilians hope, the swarm configuration ’s shower of laser beams impacted the defending forces like a rain of death!

The worst-off in this engagement were the starfighters!

Small, cheap and fragile, the starfighters lacked the mobility to confuse the sandman ’s targeting methods and the resilience to withstand too many attacks.

Even though the sandman drones only fired very weak lasers, their volume and firing rate was incredibly powerful!

Casualties mounted rapidly as the starfighter regiments faced their natural counter!

Even though the mechs and starfighters hit back hard, too many lives and machines were being lost!

The Starfighter Corps reaped what it sowed.
By pursuing a strategy of fielding as much cannon fodder as possible, their pronounced weaknesses exacted an incredibly painful toll in this battle.

Hundreds of starfighters succumbed after absorbing five or more hits!

In fact, some starfighters even collapsed entirely if the sandman drones just happened to penetrate their poorly-armored cockpits!

With the rapid rise in losses, the formation of defenders began to destabilize.
The poorly-trained starfighter pilots especially broke down first!

They were too green and barely better than a civilian! Against an ordinary sandman fleet where victory was almost assured, they easily remained confident even if a number of unlucky starfighter pilots got shot down.

Yet now that a sea of laser beams pelted their fragile starfighters at a very worrisome frequency, their morale quickly dropped to rock bottom!

Already, more than fifty starfighter pilots lost their nerves and turned around to flee the battlesite, leaving their comrades in the dust!

Even though they couldn ’t flee very far due to their limited reserves and lack of FTL capability, humans who broke down a battle didn ’t pay attention to logic anymore.

They only obeyed their primal instinct to flee!

With the sudden and chaotic departure of so many starfighters, the formations they left began to destabilize even further!

”This is bad! We have to bolster the starfighter regiments before their pilots crack! ”

Just as an entire wing of starfighters showed signs of succumbing to the fear of death by laser, an astounding heavy mech with glowing wings positioned right in front of them! Its massive polarized tower shield soundly resisted the weak lasers targeting the craft piloted by the wing commander!

”Get your act together! ” Jannzi Larkinson shouted as her scarred Shield of Samar continually resisted laser beam after laser beam.
”There ’s nowhere you can run once the swarm sweeps over this entire star system! Our carriers won ’t evacuate any cowards who abandoned their comrades when they most needed your help! Hold the line and keep firing your weapons! ”

Her intervention managed to sober up the wing commander, who quickly rallied his men.

Though the wing still appeared a little shaky, Jannzi could not afford to coddle them any further.
Her Shield of Samar slowly flew elsewhere as she spotted another faltering starfighter wing that already lost half their numbers!

Unfortunately, she was just a single mech pilot.
Even if she was a promising expert candidate, in a large-scale battle against the swarm configuration, her ability to affect the outcome of the battle was too small!

”Come on! We have to hold! Billions of innocent Brighters will die if we don ’t hold! ”

While the casualties among the starfighters reached the hundreds, the swarm configuration did not fare that much better.
The number of drones visibly dropped with each passing second.
Their rain of lasers grew lighter, thereby reducing the pressure on the defenders.

Yet because so many starfighters had fallen and more were getting struck every moment, the intensity of the battle was still incredibly high!

As long as the starfighter regiments held formation, the sandman swarm would inevitably run out of drones.

”We have to endure! Don ’t give up too early! We ’ve almost reached the light at the end of the tunnel! ”

Unfortunately, the shaky starfighter pilots, most of whom used to be laborers, shuttle pilots, customer service representatives and the like, had already reached the brink of their brittle courage.

Just as the surviving starfighter units reached their tipping point, the Desolate Soldiers that used to fight in the center of the formation had finally dispersed to cover the bulk of the starfighters!

A surge of duty and obligation filled every shaky starfighter pilot ’s heart.
The glow affecting their moods banished some of the terror that threatened to overwhelm their minds.

”Do your duty, pilots! The battle is not yet done! ”

Though the Desolate Soldiers couldn ’t prevent every starfighter pilot from breaking down, their intervention nonetheless prevented a complete route, at least for the moment!

With the Desolate Soldiers propping up the shaky starfighter units, the defenders persisted long enough to strike a number of sandman admirals, thereby severely weakening the already-diminished sandman swarm.

The battle had turned for the better!

”We ’ve won! ”

It was a costly victory.
At the end of the day, the starfighter regiments lost over a thousand spacecraft.

The Bright Republic hadn ’t lost so many machines and pilots in the Sand War until this battle!

If not for the crucial intervention of the Desolate Soldiers deployed by the local Planetary Guard, the battle could have taken a much more awful turn!

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