Chapter 2169. Easy Pickings (1/2)
A horde of over 300 panicked pirate mechs stormed right in the direction of around 120 Living Sentinels mechs.
Aside from being fortified by a number of Bright Warriors belonging to the Avatars of Myth, the rookie pilots who had donned the grey-and-white uniforms of the Sentinels had to fend for themselves!
Most of them consisted of commoners from the Sentinel Kingdom that the Larkinson Clan had picked up at Cinach VI. Though they had received a heap of piloting training and received a lot of indoctrination, none of them had been bloodied in their short careers.
The Larkinsons sought to hire talents. Though all of them possessed enough potential to become second-class mech pilots, raw ability was not enough to succeed.
The mech pilots had to be able to pull the trigger when it counted!
Even though the Sentinel mech pilots had killed thousands, if not tens of thousands of virtual mechs in simulations, it was entirely different now that they confronted real mechs piloted by actual humans!
The stakes were higher. Unlike before when the only suffering they inflicted was on a bunch of computer bits, now they needed to bring their weapons to bear on machines that possessed the power to end their lives!
Everyone in the expeditionary fleet paid attention to the ensuing clash. Each of them wanted to see how the outnumbered Sentinels mechs dealt with Davy's Ghosts.
Would their inexperience lead to blunders and unnecessary casualties? Would Davy's Ghosts collapse and split apart after realizing the Sentinels weren't soft at all? Anything could happen!
Within the design lab of the Scarlet Rose all of the assistant mech designers aboard the ship had gathered together. Each of them watched the plethora of projections that showcased the battle from multiple angles while at the same time presenting technical readouts as sophisticated scanners deciphered every observable attribute of the pirate mechs.
”I hope that each of you have developed a good impression of the pirate mechs.” Ves spoke like a teacher. ”Now, what can you tell me about their overall state?”
”The pirates don't have a mech designer. If they did, their mechs wouldn't be in such an awful state!”
”They don't have enough mech technicians either. Aside from the mechs that are presumably piloted by their sergeants and officers, the lowest-performing mechs are also those that are neglected the most.”
”There are too many different models in their lineup. There is hardly any synergy at all. I think Davy's Ghosts likely stole them from their victims or salvaged them from the battlefield.”
”How could they possibly salvage the mechs themselves?! They are clearly devoid of technical personnel!”
Ves clapped. ”Alright, everyone here has made some good points. Almost all of what you have said has matched my judgement. Now, in many confrontations like this, the pirates usually outnumber their opponents by at least two-to-one. Yet the quality of their mechs isn't even half as good. Victory and defeat depends on many more variables. Now, my question here to you all is to make a judgement. Who do you think will win this clash? How many losses do you think our Sentinels will suffer before the pirates will go down? Will our Sentinels be able to succeed in blocking the pirate mechs from breaking through?”
A projection appeared in front of everyone's faces. Ves had already prepared a form for them to fill. The assistants soon began to input their answers according to their judgement.
Shortly afterwards, the projections disappeared. A small AI routine rapidly scanned through the answers and determined the overall sentiment.
Ves smiled in an amusing fashion. ”Well, it looks like you are all confident in our Sentinels! Do you really think that 120 Sentinel mechs will be able to demolish 300 pirate mechs while only losing 5 to 10 mechs at most?”
That was a huge disparity in losses!
Someone raised her hand. ”Sir, the Sentinels might be outnumbered, but they are piloting premium mechs in excellent condition. Almost all of them are clad with compressed armor, which can take a lot of punishment, so they won't go down quickly. If any Sentinel mech is in trouble, the other Sentinels will come to the rescue. That is how they are trained.”
”The condition of the mechs matter as well. The Sentinel mechs are all new machines that the clan has acquired in the last four months. Not only are the mechs at the beginning of their product life cycle, but they have each received excellent care from our well-trained mech technicians. As for the pirate mechs, most of their fodders still feature unrepaired battle damage. It is trivially easy for our Sentinels to exploit the holes in their defense.”
If both of these factors were taken into account, then it was indeed plausible that the Sentinel mechs could overcome the pirate mechs with ease!
”Let us see whether your optimism holds true.” Ves said and turned his attention towards the main projection.
By now, the ranged mechs of both sides opened fire. An abundance of weak but rapid-firing laser beams sizzled against the resilient armor of the Sentinel mechs, blackening and vaporizing their silver coating in quick order.
To their credit, the ranged mechs of Davy's Ghosts exhibited at least some coordination. Every squad focused their fire on their designated targets. Though the accuracy of their weapons during flight and at longer ranges left much to be desired, numerous scorching red laser beams still impacted the targeted Sentinel mechs with alarming frequency!
The Sentinel reacted according to their training. The space knights in the formation shifted their positions and covered the targeted mechs with their shields.
This largely frustrated the pirates. It took way too many laser beams to chew through the defenses of the space knights!
The pirates began to shift their targets, but the space knights kept covering every focused target with ease.
Eventually, the coordination of the pirates fell apart, and their lasers just crashed against the entire formation of Sentinel mechs with hardly any discernible pattern!
Though the rain of incoming laser fire looked intimidating, in truth the pirates had given up any hope of disabling a Sentinel mech before both sides collided against each other.
The Living Sentinels weren't as helpless. Their rifleman mechs, though much smaller in number, all focused their firepower at the mechs in the center of the pirate formation.
The momentum of the pirate mechs soon began to flag a bit as the lead mechs came under intense fire!
The disparity in power between the beams quickly became evident. Most rifles in the hands of the pirate mechs were not only cheap, ill-maintained and lower-powered, they were also outdated!
The new mech generation had only swept the galaxy for a year. While the mech forces in civilized space promptly swapped their older models for modern ones at a decent pace, the pirates were much further behind!