Chapter 6101 Repressed Fire

Chapter 6101 Repressed Fire

Venerable Isobel Kotin was one of the many expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan.

She was not the most prominent among her kind.

She was not a trueblood Larkinson like Venerable Jannzi.

She was not an inspiring hero like Venerable Joshua.

She did not possess any leadership ability like Commander Casella Ingvar.

She also could not connect to ordinary soldiers as well as Venerable Vincent Ricklin.

As an expert rifleman mech pilot, Isobel could not even inspire a lot of other mech pilots with ranged weapon specializations.

Her power application was too weird and unusual for most. Few Larkinson mech pilots expressed an interest to play with fire.

Instead, a lot of rifleman mech pilots preferred to admire the skills and feats of Venerable Davia Stark or Venerable Brutus Wodin.

The two exemplified two different specializations in ranged combat.

Venerable Stark attracted a huge amount of admiration for the precision and power of her individual shots.

The Amaranto might not fire a lot of shots, but each pull of the trigger always produced a dramatic light show that either collapsed a transphasic energy shield or drilled a huge hole in the side of an enemy warship.

Many rifleman mech pilots dreamed of being able to launch attacks that were just a fraction as powerful!

The Star Dancer Mark II may be piloted by Gloriana's brother, but it was the epitome of the most common kind of rifleman mech. Its attacks might not hit as hard, but the machine was so fast that Venerable Brutus was able to outmaneuver every opponent.

His expert mech came close to achieving a perfect balance between firepower and mobility. The Star Dancer Mark II was one of the most self-sufficient ranged expert mechs in the expeditionary fleet. That mattered a lot to mech pilots that wanted to survive in the long run.

As for the Promethea, the expert mech possessed slightly greater firepower, but did not boast any exceptional mobility. The living mech performed rather mediocre in most aspects when compared to her peers.

The only truly special trait about the Promethea was her Ignitron luminar crystal assault rifle, but even this weapon lacked the flair that it used to possess. It was quite powerful when it first came out, but technology advanced so rapidly in the ensuing years that it had become dull and weak, just like the Everchanger's Vitalus luminar crystal rifle.

All of this brought a greater burden on Venerable Isobel Kotin's shoulders. The mech pilots of Task Force Solus all hoped that her outdated and underpowered Promethea would be able to burn an entire calamity plant down.

However, Joshua did not want to break Isobel's trust. He felt honored that she chose to share her vulnerabilities to him. The best he could do was to serve as a good listener and allow her to vent her true feelings.

"Do you wish you would have gained a different talent upon your breakthrough?" Joshua asked.

"I... am not entirely sure." Isobel spoke. "There are times where I truly hate that I gained an unwanted affinity for fire. I felt that I was born in the wrong era during the Age of Mechs. It is only recently that I feel better about my power. The Age of Dawn is a new beginning for all of us. We have been fighting against so many alien fleets in the past few years that I always enter into battle with a quota on how many warships I am allowed to burn. The quota is always far too low in my opinion, but at least it is better than nothing."

"You still do not sound satisfied."

"Because I am not. Do you know that I have been thinking about leaving the expeditionary fleet? I don't want to become a source of excessive collateral damage and wipe out everyone's profits. Maybe there is an outfit or an army out there that doesn't care about preserving the wrecks of enemy warships."

Joshua grew alarmed. "Are you truly going to leave?"

"Maybe not. Everyone is afraid or apprehensive about the upcoming alien offensive, but whenever I think about it, I look forward to it. I feel guilty for reacting this way, but I cannot help it. I know that once human space gets flooded by thousands of alien fleets at once, we will become so hard-pressed that people will welcome my flames. The battles won't be about profit anymore. They will center around survival."

She made a reasonable point. It would become a lot harder to stay on the battlefield and salvage all of the wrecks. There may be times where the expeditionary fleet fought a hard battle, only to be forced to evacuate in a hurry, thereby leaving lots of valuables behind.

Few mech forces wanted to fight such a thankless and unprofitable battle.

Fortunately, the Red Two already announced that they would multiply the war merits issues to linefighters that held back the aliens during the upcoming period. That changed the equation just enough to attract more defenders.

"Since you love nothing more than burning as much stuff as possible, shouldn't you look forward to the upcoming assault? The clan is essentially giving you a license to burn down the entire the Emperor Tree."

Venerable Isobel gave Joshua a rueful smile.

"You would be right... if not for the fact that the tree is so strong. This is not a typical alien warship we are talking about here. All of the vessels I burned down in the past were nothing more than large metal tubs. Their transphasic energy shields are annoyingly difficult to break, but once their outer defenses are cracked, their hulls are all vulnerable to my flames. There is little these big but unwieldy ships can do to shake off my fire, especially if I send out my companion spirit."

"The Emperor Tree is made of wood. That is arguably a lot more flammable than those alien hulls."

"You would think that, but when it comes to E energy manipulation, there is no comparison. Warships upgraded with hyper technology are harder for me to burn down, but they are ultimately delaying the inevitable. I do not think the Emperor Tree will succumb so easily. It not only possesses a massive reserve of wood energy, but it is also able to wield it skillfully. I am not sure whether my flames are strong enough to overcome the tree's resistance."

"You don't think your attribute advantage is enough?"

"Who knows." Isobel shrugged. "We can only find out tomorrow. I will do my best to burn the Emperor Tree. I do not want to ruin one of the few opportunities I have to burn my enemies without any restraint from our clan. That said, if the power gap is too great, I will not be able to live up to everyone's expectations."

"No one will blame you for failing, Isobel. You are not the only one who is unable to harm the tree. My weapons can do even less against this outrageous tree. I should feel even more inadequate than you as far as I am concerned."

Why were the Larkinson Clan's enemies becoming so much more powerful and difficult to deal with? It became increasingly harder for their existing mechs to cope against the opposition in this new and brutal age.