The Mech Touch novel Chapter 114

Lading with treasures, the Barracuda exited the lifeless star system and followed the route back home. Both Ves and Dietrich were satisfied with their gains. Lucky was content with the promise of food and went back to chewing Master Olson’s gift.

During the rest of the trip, Ves went back to improving his Physics and Electrical Engineering skills. The Society’s Star Library offered many books that Ves could borrow for free. He liberally made use of this privilege to rapidly expand his knowledge base.

In order to puzzle a Dortmund back together, it was essential that he knew what he was dealing with. Improving his Electrical Engineering skill helped him in making sense of the Dortmund’s blueprint. This allowed him to refine his tentative reconstruction plan and avoid some elementary mistakes.

Shortly after he upgraded both skills to Apprentice-level, the ship sounded an alarm. Ves immediately shut down the projection of the Dortmund’s blueprint and raced down to the bridge. Lucky and Dietrich arrived seconds later.

"What’s up Ves?" Dietrich asked as he scratched his loose blond hair. "I thought this was supposed to be a lightly inhabited system."

"Lightly inhabited or not, but the Barracuda detected a lot of dormant engine signatures coming to life."

The Barracuda arrived at the edge of this system only fifteen minutes earlier. The coordinated response that followed their entry originated from a nearby asteroid belt.

"The ships are refusing to respond to our hails." Ves stated grimly. "It’s safe to say they aren’t coming with good intention."

"Pirates." Dietrich spat. Normally, he enjoyed a scrap or two, but the ships and mechs they carried grossly outnumbered them. "Is there any way we can get away without a fight?"

Ves seated himself behind a console and ran the numbers. "Assuming that the pirate vessels are accelerating at their maximum rate, they won’t be able to catch up to us if we start running. My ship is a lot faster than theirs."

Ves ordered the Barracuda to flip around and run past the edge of the star system. Her engines started boosting with substantial power. As a modern corvette, his ship was capable of outperforming any rustbucket in the hands of scum.

"These pirates are rather tricky. Even with our engine superiority, we don’t have much of a lead. The pirate vessels already followed a ballistic trajectory before our arrival."

"What does that mean?"

"That means that the pirates have a running start. If my ship is just a standard third-rate corvette, then they might be able to overtake our ship before we can transition into FTL."

The Barracuda’s FTL engine only took two hours to finish its cycling process. A regular corvette might take at least three hours to do the same.

"The pirates shouldn’t be aware of this discrepancy. While they are still thinking of getting close, we’ll already be waving them goodbye."

Even as he explained their situation, Ves was not quite reassured. As a mech designer, he knew very little about ships. For example, the pirate vessels might be keeping powerful short-range boosters in reserve.

He also had to consider their mech contingent. "With the relative speeds we are working with, there’s no chance the pirate ships can catch up if they aren’t hiding any surprises. What we’ll likely see is mechs joining the pursuit."

"The ships won’t be able to catch up to us, right? What about their mechs?"

Ves inputted some new numbers to the calculator. "We don’t have to worry about medium mechs or heavier. The only light mechs stand a chance of overtaking the Barracuda, and that’s only when they are geared for speed."

This was good news. They could disregard most of the hardware and focus on fending off the light mechs. While the amount of speed-focused light mechs in pursuit was still up in the air, Ves doubted he’d face more than half-a-dozen of them. A pirate gang of this size shouldn’t be carrying too many light mechs. _{freēwēbnovel.com}

"Haha, if those flies want to catch up, then they’ll be easy targets!" Dietrich exclaimed once he realized he only had to deal with a handful of chasing light mechs. "I finally get to put my marksmanship to good use!"

The situation at the moment devolved in a slow and drawn-out chase. The sensor plot showed that the Barracuda was vastly outnumbered, but if the ship could keep her systems running, she could make it out of the system.

The key was to stall the impending light mechs without sustaining damage. The Barracuda was a corvette, which meant it mainly focused on speed. Her designers never prioritized her armor.

A concentrated barrage by a couple of pursuing mechs could easily damage her vulnerable rear. Ves and Dietrich wanted to prevent a situation where the corvette was forced to stop accelerating due to suffering too much damage. If the pirates manage to inflict critical damage on the thrusters, then the Barracuda would be hamstrung.

Both men descended onto the hangar bay. Dietrich entered the cockpit and optimized his Harrier’s settings for deep space action. He already had some experience with fighting in zero gravity.

Meanwhile, Ves ran some checks over the Harrier’s exterior and made sure the aerial mech performed up to spec in vacuum. There were many nuances involved in space combat. Ves only scratched the surface in this area. He applied only a limited amount of fixes.

Lucky remained at his owner’s side. As a gem cat, his role in the upcoming battle was to keep Ves safe. As the ship’s chief security officer, Lucky did not appreciate being taken away from his favorite food.

Due to its extensive rework back in Leemar, the Harrier was in its best shape in years. Ves had already inspected the mech a few weeks ago, so the mech was structurally sound.

"There’s nothing else I can do for your mech." Ves finally said as he pulled back from the mech. "I’ll return to the bridge and manage the ship from the captain’s seat. Good luck."

The Harrier gently slapped the butt of its ballistic rifle. "Hah! I’ll be back in no time! Just make sure I still have a ship to return to!"

Ves left the cargo bay with Lucky in tow and returned to the middle deck. After reaching the bridge, he forced the navigator bot off the captain’s chair and claimed the seat for himself. He summoned a projection of the pirates and studied them in detail.

The corvettes and light transports in pursuit looked ramshackle. A lack of maintenance and patchwork repairs gave Ves the mistaken impression that these vessels were about to fall apart. In truth, the pirate ships exhibited lots of creative engineering. Most of the ships in pursuit sported additional thrusters that gave them an extra kick.

"These aren’t professional mercenaries moonlighting as pirates." Ves informed Dietrich over the comm after scanning each ship’s construction. Their quality fell short, which indicated that this gang lacked access to a legitimate market. "They aren’t well-funded either if the ships are only capable of accelerating so much."

A speaker flared to life as Dietrich connected to the bridge. "How many mechs are they carrying?"

"They’ve only brought five light transports which they are likely using as mech carriers. They should each have space for about four to six mechs, so they’ve brought thirty mechs at maximum."

Only a couple of them were speed-focused light mechs, but the numbers still mattered if the ship suffered a slowdown.