Chapter 7317: Gamma Scorcher Adaptations Pandemonium. The battlefield was massive. It encompassed the extended orbit of an entire terrestrial planet. The orbital defense network was being pressured from all directions, though the Goliath Hive’s main attack vector aligned with the trajectory of the Voribug Organic Battle Moon. Ultimately, victory and defeat hinged around whether the defenders could stop this gigantic organic satellite. Though the defenders carefully directed every unit and asset on the battlefield, it was difficult for ordinary soldiers to identify any form of order and precision within their viewpoints. Mech units flew in every direction while the orbital defense network had grown increasingly more ragged. Warships carefully flew forward only to withdraw in haste as they began to get mobbed by voribug upon voribug. At this phase of the ongoing battle, the Rubarthans had finally deployed their reserves. The entry of many different elite mech units on the battlefield instantly changed the equation in numerous different sectors. At one angle, the Gamma Scorchers dispatched by the Cybernetic Empire finally let loose with their modified graser rifles! Whereas many Rubarthan mechs had tuned down the power settings of their energy weapons in order to increase their staying power, the Cybers had chosen to make different adaptations. Their incredibly advanced mechs and weapon systems gave them enough flexibility to modify their signature gamma laser weapons. The Gamma Scorchers had evidently chosen to make two separate variants of their standard rifles. Half of the Gamma Scorcher mechs wielded smaller versions of their regular rifles. It was easy to deduce that they had been downsized in order to dial down their power levels. While they were still capable of firing gamma laser beams, they were no longer powerful enough to penetrate through transphasic alloys or irradiate shielded targets. Instead, it appeared that the Cybers had chosen to return to simplicity. The relatively low-powered gamma laser beams had become a lot thinner, but that also allowed them to accurately piece through distant targets with less wasted energy. The Gamma Scorcher mechs armed with these precision armaments acted like marksman mechs. They hung back and took up relatively safe positions in order to surgically remove strategically valuable enemies. Even though the vast majority of voribugs consisted of nearly worthless cannon fodder, there were still millions of bugs that were a lot more impactful on an individual basis. These bugs fulfilled many functions, from healing wounded friendlies to generating interference. The most strategically valuable bugs outside of the Goliaths were the artillery bugs. They were larger and possessed the capacity to launch large plasma bolts at stationary or slow-moving targets. Even though their accuracy was atrocious, their quantity alone allowed them to launch dozens if not hundreds of plasma bolts at any significant orbital structure! Although the existing defenders were putting in a significant effort to clear them all out, there was always more in the background. What was even worse was that there were lots of cannon fodder bugs that voluntarily acted as their shields and bodyguards! This made it difficult to directly target them. Many attacks had to go through the bodies of lots of bugs before reaching the plasma artillery bugs, but by then they had either weakened or got blocked entirely. The only way to effectively eliminate these cannon fodder bugs was by relying on overwhelming firepower, which was very inefficient, or get close enough to defeat them at close range. The Gamma Scorchers adopted a different approach. Their precision rifles carefully aimed at their targets before opening fire. Thin but powerful gamma laser beams shot out and pierced through the bodies of many cannon fodder bugs before accurately striking at different sensitive parts of the real targets! Due to their specialized function, the plasma artillery bugs were not that good at taking damage, especially their glowing bellies, sensory organs and other delicate parts. Despite all of the cannon fodder in the way, the Gamma Scorcher mechs surprisingly managed to maintain a 90 percent hit rate. A lot of plasma bugs suddenly faltered or outright exploded shortly after getting hit! Out of all of the mech units in the field, the elite Gamma Scorchers eliminated more plasma artillery bugs The only regrettable part about this impressive display was the disappointing quantity of Gamma Scorcher mechs armed with precision rifles. Their numbers were not high enough. If there were ten times as many of these machines, then the plasma artillery bugs would no longer pose a problem to the defenders stationed in one or two quadrants! The other half of the Gamma Scorcher mechs wielded larger and more massive weapons that purposefully defocused their emitters. This turned the guns into energy shotguns, making them extremely suitable for swarm-clearing duty. The Gamma Scorchers armed with this exciting weapon eagerly moved forward and took considerable risks in order to bring as many voribugs within their effective range as possible. Once these machines pulled the trigger, all of the enemies in front of the modified armaments immediately got blasted by a lethal dose of gamma radiation! All of the bugs within the firing cone did not even get to suffer. The energy pumping through their weak and fragile bodies got exposed to so much energy that they instantly vaporized. The bugs located much further away that managed to avoid this outcome did not do much better. Their bodies either got burned or got exposed to so much radiation that it blasted their alien DNA and other sensitive biological properties into pieces! Many bugs immediately grew weaker. Their coordination worsened and their bodies no longer possessed as much strength and vitality as before. Depending on how much radiation they absorbed, they could still display a good amount of combat power, but as soon as they suffered the slightest injury, they collapsed right away. The Gamma Scorchers managed to alleviate a lot of pressure with the help of the modified energy weapons. They were particularly helpful in rescuing orbital fortresses that were being swarmed and bombarded at the same time. While the mechs couldn’t do much to block the plasma bolts launched by dedicated voribug subspecies, they were still able to clear away millions and millions of the more basic cannon fodder bugs. Energy shields crackled as errant bursts of heat and radiation pressed against them. With so many mechs and bugs fighting against each other, it was impossible to completely avoid collateral damage. Nonetheless, the Cyber mechs were well-protected enough to be able to withstand the pressure with ease. This was especially the case when all of the machines were equipped with support link technology. Of course, unlike other mechs, the Gamma Scorchers did not have to worry too much about getting swarmed. As long as their energy reserves lasted, they could keep firing their powerful energy projectors. In order to ensure that these mechs did not drain themselves too quickly, the Cybernetic Empire’s combat carriers and warships followed the machines from a moderate distance. The vessels carefully controlled their firepower. Their role was not to act as artillery platforms, but to serve as giant energy batteries. Their formidable power generators allowed them to channel a lot of energy through the links with the Gamma Scorcher mechs. This massively boosted the performance and staying power of this powerful mech unit! Due to the abundant energy output of all of those starships, the mechs in the field effectively operated without an energy limit. They could fire their powerful gamma energy blasts as fast as their armaments allowed! The only real limitations that the advanced machines had to worry about were overheating and breakdowns. Unfortunately for the Cybers, most repair functions could not prevent the mechs from gradually suffering more malfunctions and breakdowns after several hours of continuous fighting. The Rubarthans made many adaptations to their existing mechs. These changes were supposed to improve their ability to withstand attrition, but the relentless pressure exerted by the Goliath Hive had caused even the most perfect systems to falter for inexplicable reasons. Mechs that had been designed to operate for days, weeks if not months without requiring serious maintenance had been failing left and right after a few hours of high-intensity combat. It couldn’t be helped. While the voribugs were individually weak, their vast quantity could only be cleared away through lots of attacks. Far too many mechs were being pushed to perform way above their original level. Humans had become far too accustomed to fighting two kinds of battles. There was the classical decisive battle where both sides fully committed their forces and achieved a resolution in an hour or several hours at most. Then there was the slow grind where both forces held back and tried to nibble at each other over weeks, months or years. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺 Humanity had not encountered an enemy like this for a long time. The mutated voribugs were bizarrely capable of applying intense pressure over a much longer interval than typical decisive battles. This also explained why so many well-designed mechs failed so badly after several hours of continuous fighting. The disgusting tactics employed by the voribugs were not particularly tricky or intelligent, but they could only be defeated by relying on hard power. This was also the reason why an elite mech force such as a detachment of the Gamma Scorchers only took action at the start of the latest phase of the battle. If they had already been fighting since the start of this assault, the powerful machines would have been worn down to the point of struggling to clear away so many voribugs. To be honest, Ves was not quite sure whether the Cyber mechs would last until the end of this battle. These machines were packed with high technology. This caused them to gain a lot of power, but also made them a lot more complex and prone to suffering malfunction when pushed beyond their limits. It appeared that not even the Polymath anticipated that an enemy as different as the mutated voribugs would emerge and put her empire’s technologically superior mechs to the test. The performance of the Gamma Scorcher mechs made it clear that the Cybernetic Empire had no competitive advantage when it came to adapting mechs to this new style of warfare. The Cybers were on the same starting point as everyone else, which caused many people to lower their judgment on CE tech. Of course, anyone intelligent enough understood that CE tech still had its advantages. It was genuinely a lot further ahead in many technological fields. The biggest problem was that it had all been developed in isolation based on battlefield realities that had already become outdated at this time period. Ves inwardly sighed. Even he suffered from the same problem. While he was not able to observe much from Blinky’s perspective, he could still see that all of the other elite mechs had not received enough adaptations to thrive in this new mode of warfare. Their weapons were too powerful. From plasma weapons to gauss weapons, many of their armaments had been designed for the express purpose of draining azure energy shields and piercing through transphasic alloys. This was considered a necessity when fighting against native alien or rival human forces, but it was severely overkill when employed against the mutated voribugs! In fact, Ves believed that practically all first-class weapons systems were overkill when used against the voribugs! The Rubarthans and their helpers were better off if they employed second-class or even third-class weapon systems. It was just that their inherent elitism and superiority complex prevented them from resorting to this solution. They would rather downgrade the power settings of their fancy weapons than to swap to weaker armaments outright! "Silly." As a former third-rater, Ves did not possess an aversion to utilizing second-class or third-class solutions. However, he was aware that first-raters thought very differently on this matter. Their pride simply wouldn’t allow it. The Rubarthans used to be one of the leaders of the human race. That compelled them to counter the voribug threat by exploiting their technological superiority rather than borrowing the weak and pathetic solutions of their lessers!