Chapter 5520 Perseverance The Skinny Rattlers clearly earned a lot of success in the past by making use of the advantages of the mechs sold by the LMC. Yet their most valuable gains only became prominent when they were facing a lot of headwinds. It was in times of adversity where people's true character came to light! The Skinny Rattlers transitioned from a successful mercenary outfit into defenders for hire. Though its mech pilots were still soldiers of fortune, they no longer fought against other human forces, but made the determination to fight against the alien menace! The strength, numbers, composition and tech of the alien raiding fleets were all over the place. This was because many of them consisted of warships that belonged to all kinds of strange and exotic minor races. Each of them were forced to obey the directives of the Red Cabal and send out their warships to attack human space one way or another. While many of the alien raiding fleets were not as powerful and unbeatable as the defending side initially expected, the risks of fighting against them were still higher! It was difficult to match the superior firepower of ship-mounted weapon batteries. Odd alien starfighters also swarmed the human mechs in considerable numbers. While the quality and defenses of many starfighters were generally worse than mechs in the same class, there were still outliers. The elite starfighters that relied on their own inbuilt transphasic energy shields to shrug off damage often tore apart entire squads of mechs with relative ease! Many people in the audience who had fought similar battles in the past year all felt as if they were reliving their nightmares. The Skinny Rattlers incurred more losses in these dire months than they had in entire decades! The main reason why the Skinny Rattlers managed to persevere despite suffering so much attrition was because the rewards for participating in the defense of vulnerable human colonies were much higher than anything they earned in the past. Commander Powell remained grim in the face of all of the living mechs that got destroyed in the battle footage. "We never had any complaints about our earnings during the last year. We earned far more cash than what we needed to replace our lost mechs. We also earned large amounts of MTA merits for the first time. We upgraded our augmentations, bought a few batches of transphasic weapons and increased the pensions for the relatives of those who sacrificed their lives." The Skinny Rattlers did not perform exceptionally well in the first few months. Their living mechs conveyed limited advantages due to their lack of strong firepower or other hard features. While the mercenary company partially compensated for these weaknesses by purchasing more powerful mechs sold by other mech companies, they never gave up on living mechs. "We lost a lot of good men during those difficult times. The friends I knew for decades disappeared in the blink of an eye when warships annihilated their mechs. We had to hire a lot of mech pilots, promising them much higher pay along with the glory of defending our race. More of them died, but we did our part to slow down the alien advance." Just like many other outfits that volunteered for service, the Skinny Rattlers started to improve after each and every battle. The aliens exposed all of their weaknesses and forced the mercenaries to squeeze out their potential. The Skinny Rattlers started to purchase standalone luminar crystal rifles in bulk in order to arm all of their machines with guns that could fire disruptor beams. These energy beams were more efficient at draining transphasic energy shields. The more elite mechs piloted by the veterans of the mercenary outfits all began to utilize transphasic weapons that enabled them to make a much greater impact on the battlefield. The Skinny Rattlers also did not hoard their MTA merits, but exchanged them for valuable support in upgrading and modifying the designs of their living mechs. More powerful and customized versions of familiar models such as the Ferocious Piranha and the Crystal Lord started to demonstrate their power. They pressured their alien targets much more effectively than in the past, allowing them to attain much better results than before. Yet still the aliens pressed on. Their raiding fleets were so numerous and their warships were so difficult to take down that it seemed as if a tide of enemy bulwarks were about to break through the frontlines! It was during these pressing times where the mechs and mech pilots of the Skinny Rattlers started to show their true potential! The projection systems depicted a chaotic battle in space. Numerous defensive stations tried to hold back the incoming alien warships. Thousands of mechs deployed in the field. The Skinny Rattlers only contributed a few hundred of them, and over half of them were piloted by rookies whose genetic aptitudes previously limited their job prospects. Nonetheless, under the glows of the Desolate Soldier and other mechs, they fearlessly fought against the alien warships! What was notable was that the Skinny Rattlers had altered the designs of their favorite mechs so much that they had developed a style of their own. The Desolate Soldiers, Doom Guards, Ferocious Piranhas and so on all put greater emphasis on speed rather than defenses. This made them more elusive and difficult to strike, but it also made them vulnerable against the fast-firing weapon systems of alien starfighters and warships. At one point, the mechs belonging to the Skinny Rattlers suddenly became assailed by a small formation of elite starfighters! Though their numbers were much less, the elite starfighters took full advantage of their high acceleration and transphasic energy shields to shrug off most of the incoming attacks! The attack passes made by the elite starfighters destroyed many mechs without incurring a lot of damage in return. Many observers could see that if nothing else happened, the elite starfighters would definitely be able to crush the mechs of the Skinny Rattlers! The former mercenaries fought back as best as they could. The mech pilots maintained their composure and tried to increase their hit rates as best as possible, but there were limits to what they could do in this situation. Seeing comrade after comrade getting torn apart by the rapid-fire laser beams of the elite starfighters, several Crystal Lords that were mounted onto floater platforms couldn't take it any longer. They took decisive action! The machines turned their weapons against each other and disabled the safety mechanisms that inhibited friendly fire. They fired laser beams at the crystals mounted onto their exteriors. As the Crystal Lords started to glow brighter and brighter, they unleashed all of the accumulated energies in the form of large concentrated energy beams that struck a number of the elite starfighters and broke through their defenses at once! The sudden turn of events took the alien pilots by surprise and completely disrupted their rhythm. Other ranged mechs armed with luminar crystal weapons pounced on the opportunity and proceeded to whittle down the remaining elite starfighters until the beleaguered aliens chose to retreat. "Our mech pilots did not choose to fire their guns at each other. The living mechs made that decision themselves." Commander Powell made an admission that shocked a few people. "Our pilots could have superseded the decisions of their machines, but they chose to trust their battle partners instead. We are all glad they did, because those Crystal Lords were able to channel all of that rampant energy into powerful but accurate beams." This was just one of many instances where the living mechs started to do more than take the lead of their mech pilots. In another battle, a troop of Ferocious Piranhas that had been seeking to close in on an alien warship while carrying powerful explosives came under heavy fire! A handful of tertiary gun batteries sought to intercept the light skirmishers with continuous streams of kinetic shards. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 The Ferocious Piranhas did everything possible to evade the storm of metal shards, but they only had to make a few mistakes before they started to malfunction. Once their mobility became compromised, it became easy for the alien gun turrets to finish off the fragile machines! As the mech pilots of the light mechs struggled to maintain their composure when they were being targeted by such a powerful threat, the surviving Ferocious Piranhas suddenly started to evade a little better than before! The difference was rather subtle, but less of the mechs got struck than before. "As our men continued to pilot their living mechs, they began to experience changes in their relationships with their machines. The LMC mechs suddenly became alive on a whole other level. They became smarter and more talkative. Whenever that happened, they were able to cooperate more effectively with their mech pilots. The mech became a body controlled by two complementary minds. Each of our pilots were able to concentrate more on what was important, trusting that their machine partners will take care of the rest." The approaching Ferocious Piranhas eventually managed to get close enough to launch their prepared bombs at the enemy warship at close range. The bombs that were all laced with small amounts of phasewater exploded in a violent fashion. Once the alien warship lost its relatively unsophisticated transphasic energy shield, the ranged mechs of the Skinny Rattlers immediately took advantage of the opening and punched through the inadequate armor of the enemy vessel. Commander Ikeon Powell moved on from this battle and highlighted several more where the Skinny Rattlers managed to overcome difficult odds. In one battle, A relatively untalented pilot of the Desolate Soldier broke through, much to many people's surprise! When the Desolate Soldier became flooded by the power of forced resonance, the mech utilized its supercharged luminar crystal rifle to shoot down elite starfighters and save friendly mechs from destruction. In another battle, the same mech pilot who was utilizing an upgraded version of the same machine managed to break through yet again! The successive breakthroughs fueled the evolution of what was originally just a basic Desolate Soldier! During the second and most important breakthrough, the Desolate Soldier seemed to come to life in a way that was difficult to describe. "He was not the only one." The mech commander spoke. "More of us broke through. They not only managed to fulfill their dreams and become expert candidates or expert pilots, but also transformed their living mechs in the process. It is as if the mechs of the LMC can break through as well. No words can describe how amazing that is. If we had more time, then we would have been able to show you one of the expert mechs that we have upgraded from one of our living mechs." Breaking through was the dream of many mech pilots. However, they still found the concept that mechs could undergo breakthroughs difficult to accept. Were living mechs that amazing? The expansive projection systems slowly retracted their illusions now that they had run through the highlights of the Skinny Rattlers. Commander Ikeon Powell began to wrap up his story. "Dozens of mercenary outfits that I know of have collapsed after suffering heavy defeats in the Red War. Our Skinny Rattlers could have been one of them, but we managed to hold ourselves together and survived the worst that the aliens have thrown at us. We have proven our mettle many times. Our living mechs backed us up when we needed their strength the most. After we proved our courage and our effectiveness in battle, we finally earned the recognition that we deserved." Projections of the Skinny Rattler mechs came to life. Each of them looked considerably better and received a lot of upgrades. They had also been marked by a prominent new emblem that showed that they belonged to a different organization than before! "More than a month ago, I agreed to a buyout offer that transferred my mercenary outfit to a new owner. My men and I gladly accepted this offer because Duke Rigel Armaus appreciated our performance. In exchange for becoming his loyal retainers and subjects, the nobleman awarded us with control over a modest planet called Hark Sotho VI. I have been appointed as the governor of this agricultural planet. So long as I continue my service, it is only a matter of time before my rights to rule over my dominion becomes fixed. I can become a hereditary baron who is permitted to establish my own noble house!" This inspired many ordinary people among the audience!