Chapter 3261: Subtle Approach

The latest phase of the battle had grown a lot more chaotic than the previous ones. The neat and tidy lines and formations of the Vulcanites had been disrupted. Too many dwarves died at once and the successive psychological attacks inflicted on their minds didn’t help any matters.

As a result, even though the dwarves still enjoyed a slight superiority in numbers, the invigorated human mech forces had managed to gain the upper hand for the first time since the start of the battle.

Many Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers finally saw hope of victory and fought with as much determination as possible. They all recognized that their highest priority was to transform their temporary advantage into a permanent one. As long as they eliminated enough enemy mechs when the latter was weak, it would be the humans who decisively outnumbered the dwarves!

Of course, if the expeditionary forces were able to figure this out, then so did the dwarves who remained sober.

General Kebrinore gripped his fists until they shook. The casualty figures were continuing to rise upwards as he saw that many of his mech were slow to get back into fighting condition.

According to the evolving statistics, 27 percent of the surviving Vulcanite mech pilots were fighting significantly below their usual performance levels. They fought at least twenty percent worse than normal due to a combination of terror, doubt and unstable emotions.

What was worse was that 5 percent out of all of the Molten Hammers pilots had stopped fighting or piloting their mechs entirely and 57 dwarves even began to turn their weapons against their fellow comrades!

“Order our men to disable the mutinous mechs with prejudice! Inject stimulants into the bloodstream of the remaining underperforming mech pilots.” Kebrinore ordered as he swept his thick and stubby arm! “If these men cannot regain control of themselves, then we will push them over the edge ourselves!”

“Sir, that’s illegal!” A tactical officer hastily responded. “The forcible injection of combat stimulants in the bloodstream of a dwarven mech pilot is a violation of our military code. It’s barbaric!”

“We’ll die if we don’t turn ourselves into barbarians!” General Kebrinore roared. “I will take full responsibility for what happens. We cannot allow our ineffective mech pilots to remain paralyzed. They will lose their mechs and die regardless if we don’t force them to defend against the advancing enemy mechs!”

Back in the old days, the dwarven mech pilots were a lot less disciplined and courageous than before. Not every dwarf who fought to create a dwarven state was as willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause.

This was why the dwarven rebels started to take advantage of stimulants that amplified the battle lust of their mech pilots. There were countless different formulas available that could induce a variety of different mental states that made mech pilots fight a lot harder.

Of course, the repercussions were als severe. Not only did they encourage mech pilots to take a lot more risks, but they also caused them to fight less rationally and become less responsive to orders.

The man-machine connection also grew more unstable as the wild fluctuations of the mech pilots severely impacted their coherent control over their mechs.

All in all, the use of combat stimulants especially without the consent of the mech pilots in question was an extremely controversial subject in the galactic mech community.

General Kebrinore couldn’t afford to consider those matters at this moment.

His orders soon took effect. The more sober and loyal dwarven mech pilots all moved quickly to suppress and disable the comrades that had become bewitched by the human deceiver. 

The stimulants loaded into the cockpits of the dwarven mechs also entered the bloodstream of the unsuspecting pilots. The drugs were fast-acting and took immediate effect.

“Haa… death to the tall folk!”

“For Vulcan!”

“Heretics must die!”

Many dwarven mech pilots that had previously fought half-heartedly or not at all suddenly became a lot more frenzied. Their mechs fought more explosively and ferociously than before, startling the human mech pilots who thought they could harvest easy pickings.

The Ferril mech forces regained a lot of momentum all of a sudden, especially in the center!

“Stand fast, Vulcanites! Victory will be ours as long as you follow us into battle!”

The dwarven expert pilots also picked up the slack. The simultaneous entry of the Gatecrasher and many other dwarven expert mechs immediately reversed the local hotspots that threatened to turn into a runaway collapse if they weren’t reinforced!

With each expert mech repelling dozens of human mechs at a time, the heroes of the Ferril Provincial Army instilled a lot of hope in the hearts of the dwarven soldiers who had never truly experienced the horror of real warfare.

The unblooded dwarven mech pilots slowly managed to regain their composure due to these emergency measures. Though their cohesion and coordination had not returned to their old levels, many dwarven mech units at least regained a significant degree of battle effectiveness.

Ves was not pleased to see this recovery. Though his stratagem had definitely caused a lot of disruption, he did not expect the dwarves to mitigate the consequences so quickly.

Fortunately, he did not waste his time. Many Larkinsons could tell what happened when a lot of dwarven mechs suddenly fought like berserkers. Their out-of-control mech pilots did not exhibit any patience and exhibited a lot of difficulties in trying to stay in formation.

While the mechs piloted by drugged enemy mech pilots were individually hard to fight against, they had ultimately turned into wild animals that were easier to take down than if they fought as solid soldiers.

It was the enemy expert mechs that gave the expeditionary forces a lot of consternation!

Though the Golden Skull Alliance had already planned and anticipated their arrival, it was still difficult to adjust to the major swing in battle.

Collectively, the thirteen dwarven expert mechs represented the greatest threat to the expeditionary fleet now that two out of three mech divisions had been cut down to size.

As long as the Larkinsons and their allies were able to control the enemy expert pilots, they had a good chance of routing the regular dwarven mech units!

The expert mechs of the Golden Skull Alliance immediately went into action!

The Amaranto began to fire at the various expert mechs that had flown to the front of the dwarven lines. Though alternating her targets resulted in reduced pressure to each, the suppression she exerted with her powerful shots still forced the dwarven expert pilots to restrain their aggression.

The First Sword immediately sought to do battle against the Paravad, thereby causing the powerful mid-tier avian expert mech to become too preoccupied to retaliate against the elite Swordmaiden mech company that was ravaging the crippled Hivar Roarer mechs.

The Riot charged right into a hammer-wielding Molten Hammer expert mech, its speartip fluctuating with unstable resonance that inflicted a lot of damage to the dwarven expert mech’s resonance shield.

The Dark Zephyr acted much more discreetly. Whereas the other expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan ostentatiously confronted the nearest dwarven expert mechs, Venerable Tusa only had one target in his sights.

“The Gauss Baron is mine.” Venerable Tusa whispered as his expert light skirmisher swung around the thick of the battle.

The Dark Zephyr advanced towards the dwarven fleet with only a single purpose in mind. The expert mech had to reach the Lemogo Distat that was positioned in the center of the Slug Raider formation.

This was a daunting prospect as the Dark Zephyr would not be accompanied by the Speed Demons or any friendly unit.

Trying to avoid detection and evade as much incoming fire as possible was just the first hurdle. Since the Dark Zephyr was flying right towards the Slug Raider fleet, Venerable Tusa had to be prepared to get targeted by hundreds if not thousands of powerful cannons that want to get close to the Lemogo Distat.

The second obstacle that Venerable Tusa had to get past was the horde of defending melee mechs. The Slug Raiders did not limit their mech roster to ranged mechs. They still fielded plenty of melee mechs that were solely there to defend their ships from getting raided by enemy melee mechs.

Though the Dark Zephyr was powerful enough to bypass many of these obstacles, if the mech pilots did not hesitate to give their all, they could form solid walls of mechs that could pose a heavy hindrance to Tusa’s attempt to reach the Gauss Baron!

Destroying the escorts would take too long. The Dark Zephyr was an assassin, a skirmisher and a raider. It was not designed for mass destruction and did not contain any weapons or abilities that assisted in this role.

“I need to get around them as much as possible somehow.” He murmured.

The difficulties didn’t end when he got close. The Gauss Baron was situated in the most solid and well-protected bunker on the Lemogo Distat. A lot of mechs had attempted to fire upon it but the bunker cover was made out of the same quality materials that was used to make expert mech-grade armor!

“I’m going to need a lot of help for that perhaps.”

If he was somehow able to bypass the thick and sturdy bunker cover, he still had to finish the job. The Gauss Baron may look like a formidable heavy artillery mech that didn’t carry any weapon systems aside from its eight formidable gauss cannons, but looks could be deceiving.

An expert mech was never simple, and bigger ones like the Gauss Baron likely contained at least a handful of surprises against potential assassins such as the Dark Zephyr!

Any ordinary mech pilot would quake if he received the task of overcoming all of these obstacles to assassinate the most powerful and well-protected heavy artillery mech in the enemy fleet.

Not Tusa. As an expert pilot, his will had undergone many trials and tribulations and evolved to the point where he no longer felt fear.

To him, a mission was either doable or not. Even if there was only a 5 percent chance of success, he would still attempt to fulfill it to the best of his ability because he knew that only skill and guts would allow him to grasp that slim opportunity!

This was no suicide mission. This was a very necessary task that only he could do out of all of the other expert pilots.

In fact, a part of him even felt eager to test himself against the might of the Slug Rangers. He had practised his and his mech’s evasion capabilities several times against his clansmen, but this was the first time he put his powerful capabilities to the test against real enemies!

“Failure is not an option! Success is the only outcome that I must attain!”

The Dark Zephyr sped up but did not accelerate too hard. Its energy signature remained low as Venerable Tusa tried to control his expert mech’s temperature, speed, flight path and other emissions as much as possible. He deliberately did not activate the resonance shield as well for that reason. Nothing stood out more in the dark of space than a glowing light show!

He even began to employ trickery by following a trajectory that swung around in an arc that suggested that he was attempting to flank the Molten Hammers from below.

It wasn’t until his flight path did not hit the rear of the Molten Hammer lines as ‘planned’ but instead arced towards the Slug Ranger fleet that the dwarves finally detected the incoming threat!

“Detecting incoming expert mech! It’s… it’s a light skirmisher and it’s heading right for the Lemogo Distat!”

“It’s attempting to assassinate our Gauss Baron!”

“Reinforce the escort around its bunker. Venerable Leiva and her crucial expert mech must never be touched, do you understand?!”

“Yes, sir!”

Venerable Tusa immediately recognized that the game was up when a lot of artillery mechs began to open fire in his expert mech’s direction.

However, if the dwarves thought they could pick off the Dark Zephyr with ease, they had another thing coming!

“We missed!”

“That’s impossible. My aim is solid!”

“It’s the expert mech. We’re looking at an illusion. The real enemy expert mech is probably hiding nearby!”

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