Chapter 510 Mech Doctrines

"The Venidse Mech Legions try their best to pull their enemies into a contest of attrition. Theyre good at slowing or hindering their opposition so that they wont be able to get away in time. Once theyve trapped the enemy mechs, theyll deploy their killer strike."

"Ah, the old cla.s.sic hammer and anvil tactic." Ves nodded in recognition. "The anvil pins the enemy forces in place while the hammer slams them from the rear."

"I wouldnt it a hammer, sir. Its more of a poisonous dagger. Venidse is very good at forming stealth squads that act like commandos. These stealth mechs are piloted by exquisitely-trained elites who make it their lifes work to sabotage critical enemy infrastructure. They have a habit of a.s.sa.s.sinating enemy leaders if they can get away with it. Their stealth technology is so good that theyve become something of a terror."

"I have to admit, that sounds very dreadful." Still, Ves recognized a couple of shortcomings. "Venidse must have poured a lot of resources and training into establis.h.i.+ng these stealth squads. They should be their most prized elite. If it isnt necessary, they would not deploy these precious mechs."

Stealth mechs gained the ability to avoid detection by sacrificing their armor. Instead of utilizing conventional armor plating, they replaced them with active stealth plating. This turned them into fragile machines that absorbed less damage than a light mech.

A surprise attack involving an entire squad of stealth mechs needed to be planned and carried out to perfection, because it wasnt cheap to build them up. Any failure reflected badly on the commanding officer.

The question was whether Venidse found it worthwhile to commit their most valuable stealth units to stop the Vandals in their tracks.

"Weve got to hope for the best but plan for the worst." Ves summed up. "While theres no guarantee that Venidse will go as far as to employ their stealth mechs against us, we should bolster our stealth countermeasures regardless."

Even so, countermeasures only worked up to a point. Since Venidse committed to this strategy, they would have gained a lot of proficiency in developing countermeasures against the countermeasures.

"Ugh, thats another headache." Ves rubbed his head. "Is there anything else about Venidse that I should take into account?"

"Not really, boss."

"Okay, so after pa.s.sing through Imodris and Venidse, whats the next territory in our way?"

"That should probably be the Klein Duchy, sir. Different from the other two duchies, the Klein Duchy is a peripheral territory. It falls outside the core regions of the Kingdom and isnt as prosperous or as developed. It occupies a lot of s.p.a.ce, though. Well have to spend some time traversing their domain."

Ves read up on the Klein Duchy on his terminal. It was larger but spa.r.s.er, sort of like a backwater region to the Vesian core region. It didnt offer any noteworthy resources or industries.

"The Klein Duchy isnt an economic powerhouse, so they cant be as wasteful as Venidse which happily engages in costly battles of attrition. Theyve poured their limited resources into their long-ranged firepower doctrine. Their main mechs are lightly armored but have extreme reach reach. They favor keeping their enemies in sight and at long range. The moment any mechs come closer, they collectively pull back in order to maintain their range advantage."

Ves laughed at that. "What a conservative strategy! Sure enough, the Klein forces will be able to maintain their strength this way, but will lead to a lot of lost ground as well. They cant keep backing off in a defensive situation. They have to stand their ground in some cases."

"Oh, they do maintain some decent defensive units, but theyre fairly bog standard so you dont need to employ a specific strategy against them. Klein focuses most of their development in strengthening their long-ranged units, and to be fair theyve become quite good at that. They mainly rely on lasers because their beams travel at light speed, but they also throw in plenty of kinetic and explosive firepower into the mix. Their heavy artillery mechs form the crown jewels to every mech legion."

Their long-ranged prowess sounded very worrisome. They couldnt let the Klein mechs pull the Flagrant Vandals into their game. Ves started flitting through ideas. "Light mechs will do the job. Theyre fast and their high evasion will allow them to close the distance."

"Oh, dont rely on light mechs only, boss. Plenty of enemies have tried to do so, but the House of Klein still manages to hang on to their duchy. I suggest you read up on their past battles to find out how they dealt with light mechs."

Iris reminded Ves that he shouldnt take these generalizations as truth. The territories adopted these mech doctrines as a high-level development strategy. The actual mech forces at their disposal doubtlessly exhibited a greater variety of mech types. In addition, private sector outfits pursued their own strategies that might run counter to that of the military.

It would be a mistake to paint every duchy in a broad stroke.

"Even though the Klein Duchy sounds fairly tricky, theyre not as strong as Imodris and Venidse, right?"

"Thats correct, sir. The Klein Duchy needs to defend a lot more territory but has fewer mech legions at their disposal. The only downside is that they havent sent as much mechs to the frontlines as the core regions, so there is probably a high chance we will b.u.mp into one of their patrols."

Ves took note of that and more. Plans continued to whirl inside his mind, and the more he learned, the more he fleshed out his own strategies.

"Then if thats all there is to Klein, whats the next territory in the way?"

"The Hafner Duchy borders the Klein Duchy on one end and the Reinald Republic on the other end. Its a border territory, and is as spa.r.s.e as the Klein Duchy. The only problem is that because it borders the Reinald Republic, the Kingdom subsidizes its mech forces in order to strengthen their border defenses. Hafner is therefore stronger than Klein, though their military cant match up against Imodris or Venidse."

"So what are they good at?" He asked. There was no way their final stop would be so simple.

"Hafners mech legions are geared towards deterrence and anti-piracy efforts. They follow a two-p.r.o.nged mech doctrine. First, they employ a lot of light mechs. Skirmishers, saboteurs, light riflemen, you name it, Hafner has it. Their light mechs never gather together in the scale of regiments or legions, but rather operate in smaller batches in order to patrol the border systems and chase after individual pirate s.h.i.+ps."

"I see. Since these light mechs are aimed towards pirates, they dont fare well against a frontline mech regiment."

"True, but dont forget the Flagrant Vandals isnt a normal mech regiment either." Iris warned. "Our mech composition is ideal for raiding, which just happens to match the modus operandi of pirates. In Hafners eyes, the Flagrant Vandals are no different than pirates. Were just better organized, thats all."

Just like how the Vesian mech forces became good at some aspects and bad in other aspects, the Vandals exhibited their own dimensionality. As a raiding regiment, they exhibited a lot of speed, but wouldnt last in a battle against tough opposition.

The Hafner mech legions pursued a familiar mech doctrine to the Vandals.

"Hafner has an enormous hatred against pirates because they suffer a lot from their raids near the border. You can imagine that their light mechs are all fast. Yet anti-piracy is only one of their missions. They need to show off their strength against the foreign states at the border as well, so theyve poured in some of their resources in hard-hitting cavalry."

In mech terminology, cavalry meant mechs that hit hard and fast.

"Ah, so theyre focused on shock attacks, is that right?"

"Guessed it right, boss." Iris nodded with a smile. "As you can imagine, the Hafner shock troops are predominantly medium mechs that excel in charges. They take some time to build up their momentum, but once they get going, theyre almost impossible to stop without suffering more damage in the process. Still, Hafner hasnt managed to circ.u.mvent the shortcomings around this strategy."

Medium mechs that specialized in shock attacks didnt necessarily have to be light, but they couldnt carry too much armor either. Most of the time, their frontal armor was very decent, but their flank and rear armor was as thin as light mech armor.

Furthermore, while these mechs exhibited a high level of peak performance, they quickly ran out of steam. They never lasted very long in battles of attrition.

Despite these obvious weaknesses, Ves kept frowning as he mulled over Hafners mech doctrine. "They dont sound very defensive."

"Thats because they believe a good defense is a good offense. Hafner is very aggressive. They attack in order to defend."

Out of all the mech doctrines that Iris listed out, Ves worried about the one developed by the Hafner Duchy the most. The Flagrant Vandals could easily manage to work around the other doctrines, but the strategies employed by Hafner formed a direct counter.

"The final step will be the hardest. Out of all the different territories in our projected route, the Hafner Duchy poses the highest threat to us."

As mech designers, both of them understood what a bad matchup it was. If Hafner brought enough mechs to bear on the Vandals, the task forces very existence was at stake.

More than that, Hafners extensive focus on chasing pirates turned them into excellent trackers as well. Ves imagined that the Vandals wouldnt be able to hide from Hafners scrutiny as they tried to cross their territory. Several pitched battles might very well erupt between them before the Vandals finally reached the Reinald Republic.

Ves scratched his chin. His plan needed to be changed now that he became aware of Hafners strengths. "Every territory is challenging, but its important to maintain our strength up to the end. We need all of the mechs we can get to get through Hafners blockade."

He dove into his studies and investigated the territories further. Now that Iris provided an introduction on each of them, Ves had no trouble interpreting the data. He drew on the central database of the Mech Corps to obtain estimates on the mech disposition of each duchy.

"d.a.m.n!" Ves exclaimed. "The Hafner Duchy hasnt s.h.i.+fted any of their mech legions to the front! Theyre essentially at full strength!"

Iris was already aware about this fact. "It wouldnt make sense for the Hafner mech legions to cross the entire Kingdom to reinforce the front. They have their own responsibilities. The Duke of Hafner wont be able to rea.s.sign too many mechs from the border. Otherwise, the Reinald Republic and its neighbors might take advantage somehow."

Perhaps that might be a silver lining to the Flagrant Vandals. Iris was right in that most mechs that belonged to Hafner needed to defend the border. They wouldnt easily be pulled from their posts to pursue the the elusive Vandals.

"Okay, so we still have a chance."

As long as they had an opening, Ves would do his best to squeeze the Vandals through the gap. He refined his understanding of the opposition and dove into the disposition of the Vandals. By comparing them with each other, he drew up a variety of ideas.

Not all of them would be workable. The most ideal solutions also happened to be the most expensive ones. Ves was forced to discard most of his fantasies because the Vandals faced a lot of limitations.

"This is harder than I thought."

Ves hadnt even factored in the expert pilots yet. Every expert pilot was unique, and most of the times their mechs didnt conform to conventional strategies. Ves had never seen Venerable OCallahan in action. The one time when the Vandals wanted him to deploy, he outright refused to exit the s.h.i.+p.

"Im going to have to talk to his design team." He grumbled.

He wanted to know why they guzzled up so many resources.