[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 303: Expert

"Alert! High energy emission detected!"

"Incoming comet!"

"That's not a comet, that's a mech!"

A bright blue-white flare approached the section of space where Ghanso and his comrades fought against the foreigners. Their collective sensor readings quickly resolved the incoming contact as an unknown mech of a unique design. One thing stood out the rest. It outputted as much energy as five heavy mechs.

"Oh mother! We've kicked the hornet's nest!" Alex exclaimed. "HE'S COMING STRAIGHT FOR US!"

The comet-like mech crashed straight towards Alex's mech. Its extreme relative speed hardly allowed anyone else to respond to its appearance in time. Ghanso narrowly engaged his mech's flight systems to back up, just in time to evade a narrow glowing stripe that passed just in front.

While the comet mech darted away, the space knight that had always stood by Ghanso's side suddenly parted in half from the waist before exploding in a violent conflagration.

"No!" Ghanso yelled as he couldn't believe how fast his partner's space knight had been killed. "Alex!"

Old Man Alex didn't have the time eject. His odds of survival was nil.

Captain Rynsel's squad suddenly stopped and turned around. "Fairfax! Disengage right now! You just got hit by an expert pilot! He's turning around for another pass!"

Everyone panicked when they heard they faced an expert mech. Lieutenant Fairfax swiftly ordered everyone to split up and flee in separate directions. Even with Alex's mech, the entire squad stood no chance of surviving against a single expert pilot.

"Aarghh! I'm ejecting!"

One of their squadmates had to eject because the foreigners that had continued to circle around them took advantage of their loss of cohesion. The orange-striped elites had shifted their aim so smoothly that Ghanso suspected that they must have practiced this tactic.

"He's here!"

This time, the expert mech slashed two of their mechs in quick succession. Only one of their squad mates ejected in time. The other perished when his mech blew up.

Ghanso felt immense pressure to eject, but he held back due to the obligation to bring back his machine intact. The Mech Corps took a dim view on those who wasted their expensive war materiel. He continued to pray that the expert pilot wouldn't target him next.

In the next couple of minutes, the expert pilot targeted their reinforcements. Captain Rynsel feebly tried to resist, but eventually had to eject.

Just when Ghanso thought he made it away, the expert pilot curved his high-speed trajectory in a straight path towards his Vhedra-S.

"He's on to you, Ghanso!"

"Eject already! You don't stand a chance against this expert!"

Ghanso didn't want to abandon his mech so soon. Even if his fellow Starhawks wouldn't blame him for the early ejection, it still would have left a stain in his heart. As a mech pilot born to the cause, the last thing he could tolerate was to carry a brand of shame. Such a shame had a high chance of affecting his potential advancement to expert pilot.

The Vhedra-S threw all caution to the wind and fired beam after beam at the swift and relentless expert mech. No matter what tricks Ghanso pulled off, the expert pilot dodged his aim again and again. It was as if the expert read his mind!

Even then, Ghanso never gave up his attempt to land a single hit. He even increased his rifle's rate of fire to a ruinous level. Even if he stopped firing right now, both his mech and his rifle had been ruined irrevocably.