The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1770

One space knight, one striker mech, two rifleman mechs and two light skirmishers formed a fairly small but effective team.

As Ves studied their appearances, energy signatures and other data captured by the Scarlet Rose’s sensors, he continually discovered new aspects and nuances that distinguished their designs.

"They’re not civilian designs. They’re built according to a higher standard. Not military, but reasonably close to it. Their designs also don’t share anything in common."

Each design was the product of a different mech designer, or rather design teams. All of the mechs featured mature designs with hardly any pronounced weaknesses aside from the ones inherent to their mech types.

The degree of optimization in their technical makeup caused Ves to feel a lot of professional respect for their designers.

"These are some really great mechs!"

Their designs were definitely the work of Seniors, which only increased the disparity between the mechs and his battle bots.

Though Ves modified the Kravon, Seltzer, Paravin and Fliskin considerably, they still retained the characteristics of their original designs.

Lady Aisling Curver designed and built each of the mechs. Though she employed some of the best tech and materials a direct disciple had access to, her design style still showed many traces of immaturity. Her professional experience simply couldn’t catch up to those Seniors who were predominantly over a century old!

To be honest, this was a problem that could hardly be solved aside from collaborating with an experienced mech designer.

Even the mechs designed by Ves and Gloriana still contained some quirks that weren’t very ideal. Fortunately, Gloriana’s specialty excelled at stamping out faults, which allowed each of their recent products to approach the quality and polish expected from a mech designed by a Senior!

Ves did not enjoy that advantage right now. In a serious battle, the shortcomings of the four former mechs designed by Aisling Curver would probably become critical vulnerabilities to his opponents.

"The CRC is definitely aware of the characteristics of Aisling’s works!"

Right now, Ves faced a pretty severe information disparity.

His opponents knew almost everything about the original designs of his battle bots.

In contrast, Ves could only glean the properties of the six enemy mechs by observing their surface appearances.

If Ves had to analyze third-class mechs, then he would immediately feel at ease. Not only did he grew up with third-class mechs, their low tech base, cheap construction and large components didn’t leave much room for complexity.

By looking at a third-class mech on the surface, Ves confidently believed he could glean at least 80 percent of their characteristics.

It was different this time. Watching the six approaching mechs gave him the feeling as if he was only perceiving the outermost layer of an onion.

His lack of fluency with regards to second-class mechs and their inherently higher complexity prevented him from making solid judgements about their internal characteristics.

He did not forget the lessons he learned from Gloriana, Tristan and the textbooks left behind by Aisling.

Second-class mechs rarely featured only one main system. Due to their higher tech and material base, many essential components had been miniaturized, thereby freeing up a considerable amount of internal volume that could be filled with all kinds of offensive and auxiliary systems.

His four battle bots each incorporated multiple weapon systems and auxiliary systems, so the mechs deployed from the Terrinac should be no different!

While Ves had to painstakingly tease out the secret capabilities of the enemy mechs, his opponents held no such burden!

The six mechs formed into a loose formation and steadily sped up to the vainly-fleeing Scarlet Rose as if the outcome was already set in stone!

Though Ves felt affronted by the arrogance radiating from the Fridayman mechs, he had no right to speak at the moment.

"I should focus on the battle instead of depressing my confidence."

He knew that if he continued to lament his inferiority, the Fridaymen didn’t have to defeat him. He already defeated himself in his mind.

In order to remain stable, Ves concentrated his mind and started to cast out most of his unnecessary thoughts.

Only the battle mattered!

It was time to enact his plan!

"Deploy defensive fixtures." He commanded.

The mech hangar disgorged a pair of containers, which the battle bots quickly grabbed hold of. Under his direction, the machines placed the containers on the hull of the Scarlet Rose, upon which the magnetic nodes installed on their bottom surface anchored them against the surface of the ship.

The bots carefully opened the containers and began to pull out moderately thick metal sheets before pressing them against the hull.

The bots continued to place more and more metal sheets against the hull, each of them shaped in a way that allowed them to slot together like puzzle pieces!

Within minutes, a very clear shape came into existence.

The four battle bots pieced together a bunker!

The bunker stuck on the hull of the ship like an ugly pimple. The aesthetic of the Scarlet Rose was completely ruined by this crude metal bunker made out of modular sheets.

Ves tried to guess what his opponents thought about his actions. They must be scratching their heads right now!

He already guessed from the configuration of the team dispatched by the Terrinac that his opponents aimed to capture him and ship intact.

As long as they destroyed his battle bots, they could easily restrain the Scarlet Rose long enough to transfer over a team of commandos!

Since they wanted to avoid damaging the ship, Ves did not have to worry too much about the Scarlet Rose suffering an excessive amount of damage.

Only two out of six enemy mechs consisted of ranged mechs, and Ves already observed they wielded dual-type laser and particle beam rifles.

"It’s similar to the rifle of the Selzer."

The two enemy ranged mechs clearly acted as fire support. The three melee mechs clearly played the main roles, while the striker mech with its devastating close-ranged firepower acted as a reserve if the opposition was more formidable than expected.

The key here was that the latter four mechs were only effective at close range!

While the battle bots under his control lost out badly in terms of close-ranged combat strength, at longer ranges his side actually held the upper hand!

"If I want to win this battle, I’ll have to maximize my ranged advantage!"