Chapter 2923: Lack of Rigor
The 'majestic' airfleet of the Larkinson Clan resembled a giant animal armada.
Almost every vehicle and mech was organic in nature. Their exterior either consisted of resilient flesh, skin or bone. Combined with the deliberate bestial aesthetic that the local designers adored, the airfleet might as well consist of hundreds of primal creatures!
Though the vehicles looked incredibly disturbing to humans who weren't citizens of the Life Research Association, the local citizens were accustomed to seeing them. The sight of the massive airfleet awed and reassured many people, especially as the Larkinsons started their peacekeeping operations.
Over the weeks, the newly-inducted clansmen increased the cohesion of the fleet in various ways. Aside from unifying command and control, seasoned Larkinsons such as Commander Casella Ingvar paid close attention to the uniforms and color schemes of the recent additions.
Issuing the same uniforms to every new recruit was a great way to increase everyone's belonging and identity to their new clan!
The Larkinsons also changed the color scheme of every biomech and vehicle in order to match the standard red color scheme of the Larkinson Clan. This caused the airfleet to look like a tide of red. The extra touches of white, black and golden motifs broke the monotony and made the biovehicles look more impressive.
In truth, the airfleet was just a giant caravan of random biomechs and refugee vehicles. The only reason why it gained a reputation of strength was because it had never clashed against a strong adversary.
This became very evident when chaos started to spread after the airfleet got shelled!
The biovehicles under fire quickly began to perform evasive maneuvers regardless of the fact that they were in the middle of a formation!
Some of the fleet elements left the protective envelope and flew away from the crowd. Other vehicles paid so little attention to where they were moving that they almost collided against other vehicles! If not for the automated safety and anti-collision features of these advanced organic vessels, a lot of passengers would have lost their lives due to the mistakes of fellow clansmen!
Ves witnessed all of this happening by looking at the projections in the command center. The proud and famed airfleet he managed to build up over the course of his forced stay on the surface of Prosperous Hill VI was already starting to fall apart at the seams!
The newly-recruited Larkinsons showed their lack of rigor at this time. Unlike the Larkinsons in the expeditionary fleet who had been baptized in war, these former Lifers did not undergo any training and experiences where they could toughen up their mentalities.
The original Larkinsons that Ves brought to the surface tried their best to reassert control.
Commander Casella urgently issued new instructions on the command net. "Spread out but don't move on your own initiative! Follow your new track and await further orders!"
As shells continued to rain down the airfleet from afar, a couple vehicles that got hit multiple times already started to crack, bleed or even fall apart!
Numerous smaller shuttles which were more fragile than other vessels even began to crash to the ground!
Some clansmen managed to evacuate their vessels in time, but the initial volleys already harvested the lives of hundreds of Larkinsons.
"Knight mechs! Shield the most vulnerable vessels!" Venerable Jannzi roared as her Bright Warrior flew in front of a damaged biotransport that carried dozens of families!
Under the rallying cry of an expert pilot, many mech pilots regained their composure and performed their duties.
The biomechs with shields covered the beleaguered air vessels as they spread out and slowly lowered their altitude.
The mechs with ranged weapons either fired back at the calculated origin point of the enemy shelling or tried to intercept the incoming ordnance.
Ves was not satisfied with the slow and sluggish reactions. The quality of the clansmen at his disposal was worse than he thought. The irregular recruiting effort along with the lack of veteran Larkinsons in the ranks caused him to have an overinflated impression of their competence.
Their first true setback as a member of the Larkinson Clan cruelly exposed their actual readiness!
While bombardments were scary, the airfleet was not without the means to resist. Ves and his leaders based their current strategy around the assumption that they would be able to deal with this kind of situation.
Unfortunately, the mostly-civilian mech pilots they employed in recent weeks rarely encountered this kind of situation.
Getting shelled by heavy mechs only happened in wars, not small-scale skirmishes between private outfits!
The shock and surprise factor caused many of them to believe that they were being attacked by an entire mech army!
Though the Larkinsons in the airfleet slowly began to sort themselves out, the speed at which they did so left much to be desired. They were acting like headless chickens who only formed up because others were forcing them to move to the right spot.
Ves became rightfully pissed, but this was not the time for him to blow up at his own subordinates. Right now, they needed to resolve the immediate crisis!
"Tusa!" He directly called his cousin.
"Your orders, sir?" Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson replied as he jumped inside the cockpit of his mech.
"Get out there and lead a bunch of fast-moving mechs to annihilate the attackers!"
"Will do, sir, but let me warn you that our other mechs won't be able to keep up with my machine."
"It doesn't matter, just go ahead first! If my guess is correct, the ultralifers have deployed modest-sized detachments of artillery mechs and escort mechs. You don't have to touch the latter but you must absolutely neutralize the former! The faster the shelling stops, the more lives you save. Speed is of the essence!"
Venerable Tusa welled with fury. "You've gone to the right person for that. I'll take care of it pronto!"
When the Piranha Prime emerged from a mech transport, it zipped forth at full speed, not even bothering to wait for backup to gather.
Even though he still didn't have access to a genuine expert mech, Tusa had gained an abundant amount of confidence in his ability to defeat regular mech units.
The crimes and depravities he witnessed during his stay on this planet parsed through his mind. Recalling each of these incidents caused him to accumulate more and more indignation.
He had an especially strong dislike towards the ultralifers. What did Ves and the Larkinsons do to them? Why did they insist on launching unprovoked attacks over and over?
"These ultralifers need to be cleaned up!" He growled. "If these radicals think that the Larkinsons are willing to continue taking hits, then they have another thing coming!"
It took a lot to make Tusa truly angry. The more he stayed on Prosperous Hill VI, the more he questioned his ideals. The reality of the situation brutally crushed his overly-optimistic views on freedom and put him in a cycle of confusion and self-doubt.
Yet at this moment, the expert pilot pushed all of those difficult questions aside.
His clansmen were under attack!
Though the refugees who recently joined the clan barely qualified as Larkinsons in his eyes, he still had an obligation to treat and defend them like any other clansman!
Seeing the newest batch of Larkinsons suffering and dying in front of his eyes sent him over the edge! As he urgently piloted his light mech to cut through the air and fly over hundreds of different tree structures, he gradually realized that his earlier dilemmas were distracting him from what truly mattered.
His doubts faded from his mind. While he still hadn't resolved the questions in his mind, he recognized that some freedoms mattered more than other freedoms.
The freedom to live was one of the most essential rights of humans. Tusa strongly believed in his principle.
Yet his attempts to police this planet had taught him that there was only so much a single expert pilot could do. In addition, a lot of scum didn't deserve the freedoms they enjoyed.
He was not an ally of justice or a beacon of righteousness. It was futile to try and make everything right in human space.
He recognized that he should focus on activities that were within his capacity to fulfill.
"I can't fight for every innocent human in the galaxy, but I can definitely fight on behalf of my family and comrades!"
As a trueblood member of the Larkinson Clan, it was his right and duty to stand up for the Larkinsons. He saw nothing wrong with showing favoritism. The freedoms he enjoyed such as the right to pilot the unique Piranha Prime came from the clan to begin with. There was no future for him if he did not ensure the freedom of his fellow clansmen!
Righteousness burned from his force of will as it flowed into his prime mech. Its receptive Unending alloy began to resonate with his burning fury.
"The ultralifers must be punished!"
Although the Piranha Prime did not excel in aerial combat, the mech that Tusa piloted was an upgraded variant. It contained a lot of high-end parts that forcibly elevated the performance of the prime mech!
It took less than five minutes for the Piranha Prime to reach the hostile artillery unit.
Venerable Tusa rapidly took in the numbers, mech composition and positions of the enemy force.
Just as predicted, the ultralifers fielded around three biomech companies. Only fifteen consisted of heavy artillery mechs, though they barely fit this description.
The six-legged biomechs looked similar to the Swarm Monarch that Doctor Navarro deployed in the design duel. The only difference was that the artillery mechs in the hands of the ultralifers were smaller, slimmer and apparently more mobile. The artillery cannons mounted on their backs were smaller in caliber but dangerous nonetheless.
Each of them were loosely surrounded by a plethora of light and medium humanoid and bestial biomechs. The escort force consisted of many different mech models, but Tusa did not spot any signs of disorganization despite the sporadic counter-fire they received from the airfleet's counterattack.
He knew that would change very soon.
"Catch me if you can!"
His prime mech dove towards one of the artillery biomechs, dodging numerous shells, positron beams and kinetic rounds along the way. Though some of the attacks hit the mark, the Unending alloy layer ensured that none of them dealt a lot of damage.
"DEATH!"
The Piranha Prime came close enough for its heavy, disorienting glow to affect every nearby mech pilot in the vicinity.
Tusa noticed that the ultralifer mech pilots didn't expect to get exposed to suppressive glows. He grinned wider as he saw that numerous mechs momentarily froze or lost control.
The daggers of his prime mech sunk into the artillery biomech without effort! The force of the Piranha Prime's dive practically forced the poor insectile machine to its knees. The attacking mech kept stabbing the wounded mech at various points until it collapsed while bleeding a copious amount of blood.
"Next!"
The Piranha Prime jumped into the air and soared onto the next artillery mech, completely ignoring the futile counterattacks by the escorts.
Every melee mech that attempted to come close quickly collapsed as their mech pilots were unable to handle the duel pressure of a heavy and suppressive glow.
Every ranged mech that attempted to fire their weapons at the rampaging light mech either missed their shots, held their fire for fear of hitting friendly mechs, or simply achieved no observable damage due to their target's unreasonable defensive properties.
It took less than two minutes for the Piranha Prime to silence all of the heavy artillery units! Their limited mobility ensured that none of them were able to retreat before Tusa exacted his retribution!
By the time the first wave of Larkinson reinforcements arrived, the nightmarish Piranha Prime was already in the process of slaughtering the escort mechs.
Now that the ultralifers were finally aware that the single high-quality light mech was not something they could deal with, their commander decisively ordered the surviving biomechs to scatter!
The attackers who ambushed the Larkinson airfleet were running like dogs!