Bentheim!

The Sand War reached its most intense stage at Bentheim!

The battles at the frontlines had turned into a sideshow compared to the great collision between two civilizations in a single port system!

Bentheim was like a black hole that sucked in numerous sandman fleets and human reinforcements on a continuous basis. Its mere existence seemed to warp the surrounding regions, depriving them of most sandmen that would have ordinarily attacked the lesser star systems.

Whether this was a good or bad development for the Bright Republic remained to be seen.

While many vulnerable citizens temporarily escaped the threat of annihilation, the Bentheim system turned into one of the most terrible warzones in the Sand War!

Dozens of sandman fleets poured into the star system every day. While most of them were individually weak, collectively they pressured the defenders to the brink of despair.

"There are too many sandmen!"

"The attacks never end!"

"Sand! Sand! Sand! I never want to see a single grain of sand in my life ever again!"

Almost all of the Bentheim mech divisions had been recalled to bolster the critical port system's defenses.

The planet itself had turned into a hive of war production. Mechs, starfighters and supplies constantly poured out of its many factories. The supply of valuable goods and war materiel not only sustained the defense of Bentheim, but many other vulnerable star systems!

As long as Bentheim stayed in human hands, it continued to supply the entire state!

For this reason, the Bright Republic invested everything possible to strengthen its defenses.

Transport ships towed many defensive platforms in the orbits of planets and moons. The government coerced or incentivized all kinds of gangs and underground forces to defend their homes.

No one ever deciphered the full might of Bentheim's underground community. The smuggling organizations, black market associations, dark mercenary corps that hid in some of the deepest cracks of Bentheim never revealed their presence in the open.

Until now.

No matter how averse they were to fighting alongside the authorities, they couldn't let the sandmen overrun their turf and destroy all of their accumulations.

The most clever underground organizations had already evacuated well in advance. Those who were slower to leave simply couldn't anymore due to how tightly the authorities controlled the local space.

Not a single ship was able to escape Bentheim without the consent of a government institution!

Not even stealth ships managed to get away due to the near-constant scanning taking place in Bentheim's orbit! Many of the defensive platforms orbiting above the planet frequently swept their surroundings for any anomalies.

No matter how much energy the platforms expended in their scans, the government simply didn't care about the costs.

Not when the survival of the entire Bright Republic was at stake!

A dozen or so clashes took place in the outer system. The Mech Corps, Starfighter Corps, Planetary Guard and assisting forces did their best to prevent the sandmen from advancing further.

The casualties were significant. The attrition warfare the sandman seemed so eager to impose on their opposition grinded against the morale of the mech pilots and starfighter pilots who bore the brunt of the fighting.

The glows of the Desolate Soldiers and Prideful Soldiers could do so much to stave off the deterioration of their fighting spirit.

Inspiring one's patriotism and duty could only do so much against the onset of hopelessness!

After recognizing this problem, the government tried many possible remedies.

One solution that seemed effective was to promote the heroes leading the resistance against the sandmen.

Many expert pilots and military commanders made a name for themselves in recent weeks!

Venerable Ghanso Larkinson, who survived the fall of Sydney Superior, held nothing but vengeance in his heart!

"Never again!" He exhorted every warrior. "We must never allow Sydney Superior to happen again! Fight until every moving grain of sand is destroyed!"

Other Larkinsons distinguished themselves as well. Under the stimulation of constant battles, Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson and Porellia Larkinson were becoming more and more remarkable every day.

Their will to defend the Bright Republic and protect the people became stronger and stronger as more and more people placed their hopes on the shoulders of the young expert candidates.

"My predecessors bled and died for our Republic! I will not let their sacrifice go to waste!"

"I must advance as soon as possible! We need more expert pilots to stem the tide!"

The initiative to promote the heroes in their ranks successfully inspired the rank-and-file to persist.

Hope was like a candle that threatened to be snuffed out at any moment.

However, through the constant displays of heroism, the individual soldiers suffering all the hardships had someone to look up to when they needed it the most!

Expert pilots were by far the most popular role models.

While everyone admired expert pilots, they were also jealous at their luck and fortune.

Many people were born as norms. They never had a chance to become the favored people of this Age due to their lacking genetic aptitude.

Those who not only became mech pilots but also took a step further and advanced to expert pilots were considered to be double lucky!

This made expert pilots rather detached from the common folk.

They were heroes. They were noble. They also stood on a far greater height than the rest of humanity. They weren't called demigods for nothing.

While they still inspired a lot of hope, they were far too lacking in the human touch.

The problem wasn't a lack of empathy or sympathy. Expert pilots were still human in their roots, and they hadn't lost their human emotions as they advanced.

It was just that each of them possessed a quality that unconsciously caused people to look up at them. They were far from the common man or woman who someone could have a beer with, for example.

Recently, an ambitious mech pilot stepped into this void in a bombastic manner.

"Pff! What is this flashy display mech doing here?!"

"What the hell?! What is up with that belt?! Why does it look so..?"

"Ricklin's Rollers? Never heard of them! Where do they come from?"

"Wait! I recognize the name! It's Vincent's new outfit! The bastard is back!"

"Terrorist!"

"The BLM killed my parents!"

"He owes me a mech!"

The entry of Ricklin's Rollers provoked a lot of chatter, both good and bad. Their former allegiance to the Bentheim Liberation Movement was no secret.

While it wasn't strange to see former BLM cells taking up arms against the sandmen, the Rollers attracted a lot more attention than usual.

Most of their mechs were rather ordinary. They consisted mostly of Prideful Soldiers, whose unified aura gave the Rollers an aggressive and eager air. Yet these sights were hardly unique due to the many underground organizations that adopted this popular mech model.

It was the mech flying at the head of their formation that ignited a lot of controversy!

"What an impressively large mech!"

"It's slow though. How much armor is tacked onto its frame?! Is the mech pilot afraid to die or what?!"

"It's like an ancient statue floating in space. Just look at the abs of that mech!"

"You know, didn't Vincent used to pilot a similar mech in the past? If I recall, that mech came with a…"

"Codpiece! What an abomination! Is he trying to overcompensate or something?!"

Soon, a lot of people found out that the V-shaped 'belt' of the Adonis Colossus served no practical purpose. A number of mech designers inspected it very carefully and came to the universal conclusion that it was completely superfluous!

In other words, it was a codpiece!

"Look at this record! It says the designer of the previous codpiece mech is the same designer of this new machine!"

"Ves Larkinson! What perverted mech designer! As expected of someone called the Devil Tongue!"

"How could the designer of the best-selling Desolate Soldier stoop to designing such a vulgar mech?!"

"Not only that, but look at the other lead designer! A woman also took part in its design!"

"Hexers are crazy!"

Despite the controversy he provoked, Vincent Ricklin ate it all up! As soon as he piloted his mech, he felt supremely confident in himself.

Nothing would stop him from debuting his heroism in battle!

Flying at the head of a mech company of Prideful Soldiers, the Adonis Colossus seemed to siphon off a huge portion of their glows. The masculinity exuded by the custom mech took on an aggressive and battle-hungry shine.

No matter what everyone thought about the Adonis Colossus, the sandmen soon confronted the force it was a part of. Battle commenced and both sides began to fire thousands of lasers and projectiles!

A large sandman swarm surrounding a dodecahedron-shaped monolith advanced indomitably towards the inner system. The smaller swarm fired countless rapid-fire laser beams at the mechs and starfighters while the larger monolith fired more powerful lasers at the distant ships at a relentless firing rate!

Unlike the more primitive monoliths, this more sophisticated one erected a firing rod on each of its sides!

Each time one of the rods discharged a heavy laser, the monolith changed its orientation, allowing another pre-charged firing rod to fire another heavy laser strike at a vulnerable carrier!

The constant rotation not only allowed the monolith to fire as soon as it changed its orientation, but also spread out the damage to the outer layers of its mass!

It would take an incredible amount of firepower to go through all of the upper layers. The most central portion which presumably held the sandman admirals controlling the monolith remained absolutely safe!

The ten-sided monolith therefore inflicted a huge amount of damage to the carriers over time, forcing the expert mechs to go into action early in order to accelerate the collapse of this abnormal configuration!

In the meantime, a single hybrid mech flew out of formation and almost reached the diminishing starfighter screen!

"This looks like a job for Ricklin's Rollers! Missiles, launch!"

The Adonis Colossus opened the battle by firing its entire first salvo of missiles! The small but very powerful and very expensive missiles streaked across the battlefield and impacted the surface of the monolith with considerable fury!

Hardly any mech pilot noticed the detonations, let alone track the source of the missiles.

The damage inflicted on the monolith was considerable, but far from matching all of the other projectiles that slammed onto its surface.

The actual effect of this missile launch was minimal in the greater scheme of things!

Not that Vincent actually admitted it. "Haha! Take that, sandmen! I hit you right in the face, you manless freaks!"

His Adonis Colossus began to fire its Sandbreaker rifle next. Some of the shots missed the huge monolith in the distance as Vincent forcibly deactivated the assisted targeting system that came with the mech.

A true hero didn't need to rely on automation to win!

Eventually, the sandmen noticed the Adonis Colossus flying close to the starfighters at the vanguard.

The large mech possessed such a large sensor signature that a number of sandman drones automatically diverted their fire in its direction!

"Ouch! Hey! Bad sandman!"

Vincent vengefully diverted his aim from the easy-to-hit monolith to the incredibly swift and agile sandman drones!

None of his shots hit a single target! Each of his Sandbreaker rounds flew through the swarm and continued on its journey out of the star system and into interstellar space!

The sandmen didn't have that problem. The large Adonis Colossus began to attract more than fifty laser attacks within the span of a few seconds!

"Hey! I'm sorry! No more, please!"

In his panic, Vincent barely remembered the defensive system the mech incorporated. He hastily activated the mental command, but his mind was so jittery that his mech couldn't interpret it correctly!

"Damnit! There's got to be a button somewhere!"

Perhaps anticipating that Vincent would have trouble operating his mech in battle, Ves mindfully incorporated a very large red button in the left console of the cockpit interface.

As soon as Vincent slammed his fist onto the button, a large amount of fluid poured out of the ports of the mech. The fluid soon hardened into a solid crystal-like shield in front of the Adonis Colossus.

Vincent activated the function just in time! Though the Adonis Colossus featured high-quality armor, its surface was already starting to melt and crack due to the huge amount of damage it absorbed.

Fortunately, the consumable Lasponge shield blocked a lot of laser strikes, giving Vincent enough time to gather his wits and fly back to his fellow Rollers!

"I'll get you next time, sandmen! Only men deserve to win this war!"