The Mech Touch novel Chapter 176

The majority of the Dragons of the Void fought to the death. They clung to the heels of the expeditionary fleet and tried to gnaw through as much flesh as possible before they perished. This diehard behavior was completely uncharacteristic of opportunistic pirates who only cared for money and their lives.

After the vanguard led by the Ark Horizon completed their firing pass, much of the pirate fleet lost their coordination. Every ship and every mech on their side ended up in random positions. They couldn’t gather into a cohesive formation anymore that could withstand the concerted efforts of House Kaine.

Most of the other pirate gangs fled. They made for easy pickings and more than half of the pirates never made it very far before they got shot to pieces.

In contrast, every mercenary corps suffered losses. Lord Kaine hired them to hunt hexapods, so they possessed the wrong loadout to fight a space battle. Combined with the defection of some other mercenaries, the expeditionary fleet lost about half of its original force of local hired help.

The mercenaries hadn’t signed up to be cannon fodder. They were just about to mutiny until Lord Kaine granted them full salvage rights. Every wrecked ship and mech that belonged to the pirates were free reign. The clever measure placated them and caused most mercs to descend on the derelicts like bees in a hive.

After all, any wreck contained a lot of untapped treasure. Any mech or ship contained many millions of credits worth of exotics. Even if they lacked the facilities to extract the most valuable resources out of the wrecks, they still cut away the juiciest bits and intended to sell them to a professional salvager once the expedition returned to civilized space.

Ves found out that Keller’s Blades distinguished themselves in battle. They possessed a small number of spaceborn mechs and helped put down the traitors when they caused a ruckus. The Vesian mercenaries even received a public commendation from Lord Kaine.

As for the Ark Horizon, the fleet carrier adopted a somewhat somber mood. A small number of spacers and mech pilots lost their lives in the ensuing chaos, not helped by Lord Kaine’s abrupt decision to plunge the flagship into the enemy formation. While his maneuver succeeded in breaking the pirates, it also left much of the crew unprepared for a pitched battle.

"You should go with us to the funeral service." Chief Ramirez said as he wore a dress uniform. Around sixty people lost their lives in total, half of them killed by traitors who set off explosives. "You and your cousin fought alongside us. Even if you’re not a part of our crew, you’re comrades nonetheless."

"Alright."

Ves and Melkor switched their antigrav clothes to something more appropriate before joining the rest of the maintenance department. They entered the largest hangar bay where a large space had been emptied near the ramp. Although a security screen kept the vacuum out, everyone wore skintight vacsuits underneath their dress uniforms just in case.

As soon as Ves saw the coffins, he started to turn a little numb. When Lord Kaine arrived and presided over a brief ceremony, he kept staring at the coffins with morbid fear.

"I could have ended up in one of those coffins."

Only now did the danger of the expedition truly sink in. They hadn’t even met the sandmen in battle and already the expedition lost half of its peripheral mercenaries. Though House Kaine and their core mercenary partners hadn’t lost too many assets this time, they might not be so lucky next time.

After sending off the coffins into the endless road of stars, everyone resumed their duties. The mech technicians became twice as busy as several mechs came back from the battle in a damaged state.

Even Ves and Chief Ramirez had to make do with fewer mech technicians as every department became short-handed. Still, the overhaul of the Ajax Olympians still continued largely on schedule. Lord Kaine personally sent them a memo telling them not to reassign too many men away from this project.

"The big man himself wants to see these mechs up and running before we set foot on Groening IV." Chief Ramirez told Ves. "There will be hell to pay if we end up holding up the timetable. We’ve already suffered too many delays."

Everyone soon got over the deaths and went back to work with determination. This time, the hunting platoon didn’t regard Ves as a busybody who had no place in their midst. While Captain Kaine still avoided him like the plague, he got along a bit better with the rank and file.

Even Ensign D’Amato mellowed out. He gave permission to Melkor to carry his personal sidearm and allowed Lucky to stroll around with just a tracking collar. Ves appreciated the amount of trust House Kaine extended to him. He felt a little safer now that Melkor could respond immediately.

"Will the expedition still be viable?" Ves asked the ensign one day. "We lost an awful lot of mercenaries. Will Lord Kaine be able to hunt enough hexapods to make up for his massive investment?"

"I’m not privy to the costs, but from what I know, Lord Kaine has already taken the loss into account before we even set off for this expedition. We always knew that we’ll be losing a lot of mercenaries along the way. They’re not exactly the most trustworthy bunch."

His remark made Ves look up at him. "You guys intended to cull the mercenaries from the start."

It sounded really devious now that he thought about it. He always wondered why Lord Kaine hired so many mercenaries to begin with. The man appeared to invite disaster by keeping so many potential enemies close. Now it seemed that the wily old fox had other intentions in mind.

The ensign smirked. "There might still be some people with questionable loyalties among the mercenaries, but they won’t have the numbers to threaten our fleet. We’ve already cleaned up the worst of the bunch together with their pirate associates."

A few questions remained, however. Post-battle analysis revealed that much of the Dragons of the Void fought to the death except for the flagship of the pirate group. The pirate commander ruthlessly threw away his entire force and fled without a single shred of decency.

Once investigators began to dig in to the wrecks, they found to their surprise that much of the crew had been hopped up with stimulants. The poisonous cocktail fanned their aggression and lowered their inhibitions. In particular, they stopped fearing death.