Chapter 3731: Commandeering Mechs
After half an hour of experimentation, Casella and the other Larkinsons figured out the basic rules of her Command Field effects when applied to the fullest.
Ves even had to come up with numerous new terms to describe this key effect.
"Commandeering describes the act of empowering a friendly mech. A Commandeered mech is a unit that Casella has already strengthened through this method."
The terms quickly spread among the Larkinsons. The Sentinel Commander did not object to them either.
The more they explored the power of Commandeering, the more everyone saw the potential in this ability!
However, while it was a powerful means of enhancing the battle strength of friendly mechs, the effects varied depending on many different variables.
Whether the mech was alive or not played a major role.
Whether the mech pilot had a lot in common with Commander Casella played another role.
A Commandeered mech did not receive an equal degree of strengthening in every aspect.
Attacks received the greatest degree of strengthening.
After performing many different tests, the Lakrinson found out that both melee and ranged attacks received the same degree of empowerment.
In comparison, the defenses of a Commandeered mech did not receive a drastic boost.
Cautious tests showed that Commandeered mechs became a bit tougher, but only to the extent of resisting a couple more laser strikes.
From what Ves could observe, the glow surrounding a Commandeered mech should be the partial manifestation of a resonance shield.
If Casella had grown much stronger and if the Minerva was a much better expert mech, then this secondary resonance shield might become powerful enough to massively increase the damage resistance of Commandeered mechs.
For now, the defensive boost was a bit tasteless. Ves did not take it seriously for now as it was unlikely for Casella to make any drastic improvements in these aspects.
Finally, the mobility of a Commandeered mech gained the least degree of strengthening.
This was no surprise to anyone knowledgeable of expert mechs. Unless they were specifically designed with mobility in mind such as the Dark Zephyr, true resonance did not amplify their speed and acceleration that much.
Aside from boosting these basic attributes, Commandeering also improved many other properties.
The mech pilots gained a portion of Casella's tremendous skills.
They coordinated with each other as if they were under a perfectly unified command.
The mech pilots all gained greater awareness of themselves and the battlefield.
Casella was even able to communicate directly to their minds!
All in all, the Command Field cemented the Minerva's role as an expert command mech.
With the power of Talasmir, the Minerva did not even have to enter into combat in person. Commander Casella could delegate all of the extraordinary power produced by her and her expert mech to give other friendly mech units the strength to challenge powerful foes such as hostile expert mechs!
Although there were doubts about the point of doing so, Ves was happy to add another combat solution to the Larkinson Clan.
At this point, adding another expert rifleman mech or expert swordsman mech would not create a lot of ripples. Enemies could easily make plans to counter the existing expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan if they bothered to do their research.
Commander Casella's Command Field brought a different combat method to the table!
Expert command mechs were rare to begin with and Ves wasn't sure if other ones were able to function as well as the Minerva.
What valued the most in this signature ability was its sheer versatility.
After testing it out on numerous different mech units, Ves understood that Casella was able to team up with practically every mech legion!
Although her compatibility with some of them weren't great, Ves was certain that this could be remedied through repeated training sessions.
Once the self-assured Swordmaidens tasted the power of getting Commandeered, they would not be quick to reject Commander Casella in the future!
Casella could even apply her Command Field to mechs that belonged to other organizations such as the Cross Clan!
Of course, the difficulty of Commandeering them was much higher and the effectiveness was much lower, but there were ways to improve this so that it became a viable backup option.
To someone like General Verle, the greatest value in this ability lay in its versatility! Once Commander Casella and the mech legions gained a measure of proficiency in cooperating with each other, they could essentially choose to apply the Minerva's Command Field in different ways!
For example, during the Battle of Orange Tulip, it would have been extremely helpful for the Minerva to Commandeer the Transcendent Punishers.
Once the heavy artillery mechs gained a considerable offensive boost, each of their heavy positron cannons could tear through hull plating like nothing else!
In case the Larkinsons fought against a more conventional mech force, Casella could choose to Commandeer the Swordmaiden mechs and have them cut through the toughest enemy mech formations like a hot knife through butter!
Ves' eyes lit up as he imagined all of the possibilities of the Command Field. The versatility of this resonance ability was directly related to the variety of friendly mech models available.
"The more mechs we design, the more options we have!"
Naturally, the main emphasis of applying Commander Casella's abilities should still lie on increasing her cooperation with her own troops.
Her command over the Living Sentinels brought her closer to them than anyone else. The Commandeering resonance ability displayed its greatest degree of effectiveness when applied to Sentinel mechs!
Gloriana happened to make another observation. "The range of the Minerva's Command Field is too short." She said. "That doesn't matter much when it is used to Commandeer ranged mechs, but what if you want to apply it to melee mechs?"
"Ah. Yes. That is not an ideal scenario."
A range of a couple of kilometers was nothing in space!
If Commander Casella wanted to help out friendly melee mechs, then her Minerva either had to accompany them when they charged towards the enemy or have the mechs maintain a defensive posture at the rear!
The only way to resolve this shortcoming was to extend the radius of the Command Field, which wouldn't happen anytime soon.
"Commander Casella should probably stick to Commandeering ranged mechs if our future battles are similar to the last ones we fought." Ves concluded. "So long as we continue to fight in space, our ranged mechs are pivotal to defeating enemy warships and other large threats."
The Larkinsons could figure out the best tactics later once they registered all of the parameters of the Minerva's Command Field.
Ves suddenly paused. "Wait a second. Does Commandeering work on targets other than mechs and mech pilots?"
In order to test this out, Ves ordered a squad of infantry soldiers to board a shuttle and move to the testing site while other trials were taking place.
When the shuttle finally neared the Minerva, every mech halted while the armored combat soldiers boosted out into space.
The footsoldiers were all armed and armored with heavy gear, but they were still too small and weak to pose a threat to mechs!
The point of this test was not to pit them against mechs. Ves just wanted to test a new hypothesis and see whether the Minerva's Command Field could take effect on other combat assets!
"Begin."
Ves carefully studied the visual feed. He could faintly see a golden corona around the individual soldiers.
In order to gather more data, each of the soldiers were equipped with different loadouts. Some of them wore plain vacsuits while others wore heavy combat armor.
However, regardless of the soldier, Casella failed to Commandeer them like she had done with mechs. Although it looked as if it was about to succeed a few times, she eventually ceased her attempts.
"I am unable to do it." She reported. "I can feel their minds, but trying to latch on to them is like trying to use the wrong key to open a door. There's something about them that makes me feel that we aren't compatible."
Ves looked disappointed. "Oh. It's okay. You'll probably reserve this ability for mechs anyway, but it is still useful to know your limits. We can explore the reasons behind this distinction later."
His fantasy of empowering warship cannons were shot. Oh well. It wasn't as if he would get his hands on a battleship or something and be compelled to use her most powerful weapons against a monstrous enemy or anything.
Once they finished testing the Commandeering ability on mechs at rest, Ves wanted to see how they fared in a more realistic battle scenario.
"Commander Casella, Commander Melkor, order your men to get ready for a live sparring session. Make sure to show enough restraint, but try and show as much superiority as possible."
This was one of the highlights of this testing session. Two-hundred mechs from each side squared off against each other.
During previous sparring sessions, the Avatars always gained the upper hand from beginning to end. The skill and confidence between the two mech legions were too far apart!
However, Ves and many other people had a feeling that this time would be different.
"Start!"
The mechs from both sides sprung into battle!
To their credit, the Avatar mechs did not show any timidity! Even as their machines charged forward, every Avatar mech pilot immediately invoked the Golden Cat!
This caused them to gain a portion of the skills of the best Larkinson mech pilots! After many months of practice, this little trick had become second nature.
This had always been their capital to defeat other mech units! Given the same level of mechs, an increase in combat skill could give the Avatars a decisive edge in many confrontrontations!
However, compared to the failed attempt to replicate a battle formation, the Command Field generated by the Minerva was much more impressive!
Instead of relying on the relatively weak minds of average mech pilots, the Commandeering ability shoved all of the burden on Commander Casella, who was much stronger than all of the Sentinel pilots put together!
This produced a strengthening effect that went far beyond boosting the skills and coordination of the Sentinel mechs!
Although their defenses and mobility hadn't increased that much, each of their attacks landed with additional power.
Even if the Sentinel mechs held back, both their ranged and melee weapons gained an extra bite that induced a lot more pressure on the Avatar mechs.
If an attack boost was the only effect of the Minerva's Command Field, then the Avatars might still find a way to blunt the offensive.
The problem was that Commander Casella provided a lot more benefits than that through her resonance ability!
Not only did the Sentinel mech pilots display more skill, they also exhibited much closer cooperation with each other.
Though the Minerva had yet to make a move during this sparring session, Casella had become more active than ever. She tracked and issued regular orders to the mech units under her command, causing the Sentinels to employ various different tactics to dismantle their current adversaries.
The difference in coordination alone was massive!
Whereas Commander Melkor had to track what was going on through interpreting the data from his mech before issuing orders through several different layers, Commander Casella was able to command her subordinates directly!
She did not even need to rely on the mech officers to execute her intentions. Although the strain was not light, she was able to display an impressive degree of multitasking by keeping track and commanding every individual mech in the field!
In the short time Casella was able to keep it up, the Living Sentinels completely shed their image as the weakest mech legion of the Larkinson Clan and crushed the best the Avatars could offer!
Even if the Avatars possessed an advantage in skill, the Sentinels benefited even more by enjoying an increase in their attack power as well as exhibiting exquisite coordination!
Each Sentinel mech had willingly become an extension of Casella's will!
"Too strong!"
"This… this is the ultimate command mech!"