The Mech Touch

Chapter 6423 The Combat Role of Hunters

"There are soldiers and there are Hunters." Vice Director Redmond tried to keep his cool under the weight of all of the accusations. "Neither of them are any less necessary than the other. Both are doing what is necessary to defend our civilization. We Hunters may not publicize our 'battles' as much, but I will not allow you to devalue our accomplishments."

"I disagree! While I don't ascribe to your rigid Hunting Code, I am of the opinion that I am a much greater hunter than you, Talas! What hunts have you completed that can come close to the enemies that I have felled in personnel combat as well as the head of a large mech force? No one else in this headquarters aside from myself deserves to be called a hunter as far as I am concerned! You are all pansies who avoid conscription into the war by pretending that culling exobeasts is an essential job! Why haven't you ever turned your hunting weapons against the much more powerful native aliens?!"

"The Huntsman-"

"YOU ARE NOT THE HUNTSMAN!" Ves barked back! "You are pathetic wannabes who never follow him where it matters the most, which is hunting down the true enemies of red humanity at the frontlines! While you pampered Hunters keep hunting down the same kind of mutated beasts in the carefully tended gardens that you call hunting preserves, real soldiers are fighting to take down alien phasefighters, enormous alien warships and despairing powerful phase lords!"

"We value the contributions made by the servicemen who bravely fight to defend our borders, but our responsibility is no less important."

"It is not the same!" Ves scowled. "Unlike Hunters who have the luxury to downgrade their equipment so that they can gain a slight amount of thrill in their hunts, those mech pilots out there cannot afford to do the same! They are constantly outnumbered and overpowered by our real enemies! The fact that many of them are able to persist and even kill their formidable enemies under adverse conditions makes them the true hunters as far as I am concerned! Just admit it, Talas. You Hunters have been playing parlor games far away from contested territory, doing very little to help the real soldiers and hunters negate the threat posed by the native aliens. If our defenders falter one day, it will be because 'Hunters' such as yourself have been killing your prey for sport instead of duty!"

The vice director of the regional headquarters had a duty to defend the honor and the mission of the Hunting Association.

He found that to be increasingly more challenging as Ves a number of very pointed accusations.

While this was not the first time that a critic had lodged these accusations towards the Hunting Association, Talas Redmond still found it a lot more difficult to refute them than normal.

In most discussions, the vice director could easily intimidate his counterparts by showing off his many impressive hunts.

That was a lot more difficult to do against the only Senior Mech Designer who not only managed to fight against several phase lords in person, but also contributed to the deaths of several of these powerful foes!

Even though the circumstances of that recent battle could never be equated to a proper hunt or a formal duel, Ves was right that true combat was never fair or perfectly arranged in advance.

The old man eventually let out a sigh.

"Whatever you are attempting to do, it is not working, Ves. It is childish to think that a single outburst can magically make your problems disappear. You seek to shame us and guilt trip us into agreeing your concessions. That will never work because there is no direct relation between your accusation and the possibility of the Hunting Association agreeing to place itself under your Red Collective. We can address your points of criticism just fine without subjecting ourselves to the rules and regulations of another authority besides the Huntsman. We already have plans to participate more directly in the defense of our border with the native aliens. We only require more time in order to raise a large enough quantity of Hunters of notable strength to materially affect the war effort.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Ves openly laughed.

"This is not meant to be a joke."

"Well it sure sounds like one to me, Tallas! What the hell are a few million or even a few million 'Hunters' supposed to do? No matter how much stronger they have become with the help of your Hunter's Code, that doesn't change the fact that they are still stuck in their tiny human forms! Tell me honestly. Are these Hunters of yours strong enough to defeat a mech in single combat?"

"They can." The vice director defensively said. "Do not underestimate their power. The extent of their growth is greater than you can imagine. Every Hunter draws power from the prey they have slain. Complete enough hunts, and the power a Hunter is able to accumulate is expansive."

"Well, congratulations, then. You have just raised a Hunter that may or may not be able to beat a mech... up close... that chooses to fight a superhuman where it holds the least amount of advantages. The native aliens won't be as silly. They will take advantage of the superior firepower of their phasefighters and warships to blast all of your tiny and vulnerable hunters to pieces. As for phase lords, they can use their enormous bulk or their vast spatial powers to slaughter any formation of hunters."

Vice Director Redmond shook his head in denial. "We are Hunters. We are not soldiers. We do not seek to replace or imitate mechs. We are smaller and subtler. We are much more suitable to help the war effort by fighting as saboteurs as opposed to frontline soldiers. We can sneak behind enemy lines in stealth vessels so small that enemy detection measures cannot pick up their signatures. We are accustomed to operating in the wild with no backup and support structure, so we can infiltrate enemy planets and strongholds by ourselves and engage in all manner of sabotage and assassination before we exfiltrate as quietly as we came in. If we do this often enough, we can slow down and hinder the alien offensive and give our forces more time and space to repel the enemy attacks."

That.. did not sound too bad, actually. If the Hunting Association was truly serious about this, they could do a lot of damage behind enemy lines.

However, Ves did not take this measure all that seriously.

"I can see the value in doing this, but only to a certain extent. At most, you will slow the aliens down. That does not mean you can defeat them. First, there are too many space stations, planets and star systems that the native aliens are using to supply their fleets and keep their offensive active. Second, these hunters may be able to act as fine saboteurs and assassins, but messing around in hostile territory can only inflict limited damage. Even a hundred Hunters cannot destroy all of the factories, warehouses and other important facilities on a single industrial planet unless they stick around for years." "Are you dismissing the contribution they could make as saboteurs?"

"I think the Red Cabal and most alien leaders will dismiss the trivial damage that your Hunters can inflict on a tiny proportion of their total infrastructure and continue to invest much of their available fighting forces into battering down our defensive lines. Once we lose the border regions, the native aliens will go on a frenzy. All of those raiding fleets and assault fleets will fall upon the star systems colonized by red humanity like hungry sharks. Our scattered mech forces and warfleets will try to defend our territories, only to get shredded due to lack of numbers. Who cares about all of the fires you start behind enemy lines. The native alien dominions are so big that they can easily absorb the damage."

Vice Director Redmond defiantly crossed his arms. "I do not entirely reject your projections, but you do not know what you are talking about. You may look down on our hunting traditions and the way we manage our hunting preserves, but they have created a large and endlessly renewable pipeline for strong and combat capable Hunters. As irregular combatants, they are much more useful when they can employ all of their

strengths."

"Sure, they can do a bit of damage behind enemy lines, but they can do even more damage if they fight against our enemies at the front." Ves argued. "These Hunters are excellent warriors and possess excellent martial skills. Pairing them up with a Carmine mech designed to synergize with their distinctive skills and extraordinary abilities can generate a massive amplification of their combat power. Instead of wasting their time on bombing factories or assassinating mid-level officers, they can participate in truly challenging and worthwhile hunts by taking down formidable alien warships or even stronger phase lords. Killing a single native god should not only be the ultimate culmination of a Hunter's journey, but will also help the war effort far greater than

wrecking the key institutions on a couple of enemy planets."

A brief moment of silence followed as Talas Redmond seriously considered the proposaln/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

made by Ves.

The temperature in the office had dropped now that Ves was not shouting at the

Hunters anymore.

While Ves failed to persuade the Hunting Association from suspending their current policy of obstructionism, he at least managed to shake up the vice director just enough for him to discard his original game plan and approach this problem from a fresh

perspective.

"Let us hold a more carnest talk, Ves." Talas Redmond suggested in a calmer tone. "Maybe we can make more fruitful progress if we just skip all of this arguing and start right at the point where you are going to present your proposed mech to us. If your idea does not possess sufficient merit, then your remaining arguments will not be able to convince us to change our plans. We can end this meeting early right away if that is the

case."

In the end, it all came down to this. Ves could either win over the Hunting Association with a mech that was attractive enough to change its policies, or he would end up leaving the regional headquarters without any gains.

"Very well, Talas. Unlike the product reveal I held not too long ago, I do not have any complete mech designs or fancy display mechs to dazzle you. I only have a basic mech concept that can become much more as long as I work on it for half a year!"

Ves used his comm to project a rudimentary draft design.

Despite the lack of definition and precise details, the sketch immediately revealed a

number of interesting traits.

First, the draft design consisted of a full biomech.

It did not contain any obvious mechanical or metallic components on the outside.

Second, it was humanoid in nature.

Its appearance was so lifelike that it looked more like a giant human rather than a biomachine optimized for warfare.

Third, the biomech appeared to have mutated to the point of assimilating the natural

weapons of several formidable exobeast species.

It featured serpentine eyes that could perceive a lot more detail than typical organic

optical organs.

Its left hand had mutated into a reptilian limb that featured long and sharp claws.

Its right arm had mutated into a biocannon that could launch energy projectiles.

It also featured a segmented bone tail that ended in a spike so sharp that it looked as if it could pierce right through the hull of a warship.

"What... is this monstrosity?"

"This... is the ultimate hunting mech. Ves grinned. "You Hunters take so much joy and satisfaction from absorbing the strength of your slain prey. However, it is impossible for this process to be 100 percent efficient. I bet that a lot of energy ends up getting wasted. Investing resources into your human self alone also requires lots of time to produce a truly powerful Hunter. I am confident I can design a living biomech that can do a better job at absorbing the tangible as well as the intangible resources of a dead exobeast. Not only will it be able to absorb a large proportion of the 'spirit' of the exobeast, but it can also assimilate and adapt the superior physical organs of the same prey. You are what you hunt. You discard or sacrifice the parts of the prey that are weak, but assimilate the parts that are stronger. Do this long enough, and your hunting mech will not only turn into a collection of trophies, but also a unique war machine that concentrates the best attributes of your strongest prey!"

The unnamed mech concept that Ves had come up with a whim was the first proper

biomech that he truly felt motivated to design!

Previously, Ves came up with several ideas for biomechs, but quickly argued that he could design an equivalent that worked just as well if it was based on conventional technology.

This was different. No conventional mech or cyborg mech could serve as a hunting mech

as well as a real biomech.

If the Hunting Association gave Ves a chance to realize this mech concept, then he would promise to give the Hunters a definite weapon!