[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 197: Jaded Serpent

The missiles continued to wreak havoc while the mechs that launched them stayed far away. A couple of light mechs acted as relays that sent back targeting data for them to focus their missiles on. The Empyreans harassed them with their extremely powerful railguns, but they had little effect against the agile mechs.

"Something has to be done against those missiles!" Ves screamed over the din as the missiles started to drift over their direction. He imagined that the pirates brought plenty ordnance in order to force the base into a quick surrender.

Boom!

A large explosion set off in the distance. The volleys of missiles suddenly cut off. A couple of nearby officers cheered.

"That's the hunting platoon at work! They succeeded in sneaking up on their artillery!"

Ves looked around and noticed that the Cathrec had quietly disappeared from the walls. Captain Kaine must have brought the Volmars along to strike at the artillery mechs quickly before they could seek refuge from their guards.

The Cathrec and its fellow melee mechs returned triumphantly a half hour later. From the rumor mill, Ves heard that they not only took out the artillery mechs, but also destroyed some of their spare supplies.

"It's a pity their transports are tightly guarded. They're holding back a solid number of mechs to keep their escape route open."

The removal of the artillery mechs and the earlier mishap that had befallen the aerial mechs had taken out a lot options for the pirates. They ran out of tricks to pressure the base except for a straight-on slugging match.

A normal commander would have pulled back and given up the fight. The losses far outweighed the gains, unless they heard an inkling of the windfall the expedition earned so far. So many kilograms of monoexurite made plenty of people see red.

In fact, Jaded Serpent even urged his mechs to intensify the attack. "Stop pussyfooting around! Get closer and disable all of the turrets! We won't be able to bypass the walls with them intact!"

As the champion of the pirates, his sleek black adorned with twin red dragons attracted a lot of fire. However, the pirate commander possessed a sly sense of evasion, managing to dart in and out of cover just in time to spoil the aim of the most heaviest guns arrayed against him. Sometimes his mech even dodged in a bewildering pattern that made Ves spin his eyes.

"That's the Roulette Spin! Not every advanced pilot knows how to perform that maneuver!"

The Roulette Spin could only be done with light and medium mechs focused on agility and flexibility. The mech half-spun into arcing paths that made it difficult to predict how far the mech moved and where it would orient itself next. It worked great against automated targeting systems and less skilled pilots, which happened to include most of the local mercs.

"That Jaded Serpent is a tough customer." An analyst remarked. "His mech can outmaneuver most of our melee mechs that focused more on brute force than finesse. Even our Volmars would be hard-pressed to match blows against his mech."

The firefight faded out another hour later when most of the turrets facing the direction of the pirates got destroyed. The pirate mechs also burned a number of holes in the solid walls of the base, though it took an extreme amount of energy to accomplish such a feat. The pirate mechs finally drew back to their landing site in order to replenish their ammunition and energy.

"They'll be back soon." D'Amato noted with grim resignation. "Our base is not in good shape at the moment. It's going to get ugly once the knife-fighting starts."

With the temporary reprieve, the defending side took the opportunity to replenish their own mechs. Mech technicians also received some of the mechs that sustained damage, though the missile barrage destroyed most of their workshops. This forced them to perform rudimentary repairs in the field.