The Mech Touch novel Chapter 180

When Ves was young, he used to watch a lot of dramas about mechs. Some of the staple villains of the shows piloted irregular mechs built with strange materials. The idea of cannibalizing a formidable alien creature’s corpse and using it to form a chimera mech often horrified and fascinated the impressionable kids that watched these broadcasts.

He had never thought to come across an actual chimera mech in a serious setting. The maniacal Dr. Jutland sat on a crudely crafted chair welded to the top of the dinosaur-shaped hexapod king. The massive creature resembled an unholy amalgamation of rotted hide and rusting metal.

Despite its shoddy construction, the base materials exceeded those used by every other mech on site. Despite colliding with the intact Ajax Olympian several times, its entire frame simply took no damage. An unknown but potent power source kept the chimera mech running at an astounding level.

"Hand over your mech designer!" Doctor Jutland raged as he ordered his chimera mech to bash through the Olympian standing in its way.

Through a combination of guts, the hunting platoon avoided getting bulldozed by the extremely powerful chimera mech. The Empyreans tried to pin it down with their railguns, but the chimera mech hardly took notice of the high-powered kinetic projectiles. Even shooting at its head didn’t work, as some kind of energy shield bounced away anything that could threaten the mad doctor.

Only Captain Kaine achieved some progress in pushing the monstrosity back. Her gleaming white Cathrec possessed a remarkable combination of speed and power that allowed it to threaten the chimera mech’s incredibly tough exterior with its powered spear.

"Get out of the way!" The doctor bellowed as his chimera mech shied away from a deadly spear strike. "My subjects! Heed my call! Destroy these interlopers!"

Half-a-dozen adult hexapods answered his call and stormed the hunting platoon. The Volmars had their hands full fending off the berserk beasts. Unfortunately for Jutland, the sole functioning Olympian and the Cathrec continued to fend off the chimera mech.

The Olympian’s shield looked increasingly tattered, but the Cathrec landed a couple of solid blows in exchange.

Evidently, the damage pained the doctor to the extreme. He wailed and shrieked in an inhumanly loud pitch that caused the nearby hazard suits to dampen their sound transmissions. Even Ves started to feel dizzy for a reason.

"Get back, Ves!" Ensign D’Amato urged as he showed up by his side. His other hand held a ballistic pistol that appeared completely useless to the situation at hand. "Doctor Jutland is trying to kidnap you. The last thing we want is to see you ending up in his hands!"

Under the ensign’s guidance, Ves reached the base of a massive tree and holed up inside a hollow.

"What’s going on? Who’s Doctor Jutland?"

The ensign carefully watched the surroundings for approaching hexapods and considered his answer. "There’s no use hiding it any longer. He’s a survivor of the previous expedition that previously travelled the Groening System. We never expected him to cling to his life in this way."

Ves had so many questions. How could anyone survive for twenty-seven years straight on this planet? "Is he still alive or is he some kind of AI?"

"He’s still human, for a given definition of it." D’Amato quickly explained. "He’s an exobiologist who already extensively modified his body before he signed up for the previous expedition. Like many scientists, he flocked to the frontier in order to escape his past. He’s vastly overqualified for the job. Our logs show that he conducting a small number of very reckless experiments during the previous expedition."

The battle continued to rage around the two. Mechs fought against hexapods while the chimera mech continued to chip away at the Olympian’s shield.

Meanwhile, the mechs from George’s Cavalry reluctantly offered their aid. They assisted the Volmars into repelling the maddened hexapods, allowing the hunting platoon to mop them up one at a time.

Though Ves still had questions about the doctor, D’Amato didn’t know anything more. Instead, he turned to the chimera mech. "Who’s controlling that monster? It doesn’t appear that Jutland is controlling it directly."

"That’s one of the questions we are wondering about as well. Take a good look. What’s your judgement as a mech designer?"

Ves took a very good look at the chimera mech. Once he got past his shock, his fascination started to grow. For a mech that lasted more than two decades, it exhibited an astounding level of resilience.

"Jutland isn’t employing a neural interface, nor is he using any physical controls. If we leave out the metaphysical possibilities like telepathy, then I’m guessing something else is piloting the chimera mech. Is he using the hexapod king’s own brains to control the chimera mech, or is another survivor piloting the monster from within?"

Both possibilities sounded horrifying. If Jutland implanted a brain from a dead beast, then technically the chimera mech was an undead creation.

On the other hand, if a human pilot controlled the chimera mech from within, then he might be even madder than Doctor Jutland. Who knew how much a twenty-seven year isolation from human space took a toll on their psyches.

Ensign D’Amato held his hand over his helmeted head. He received new instructions. "Ves, Captain Kaine is ordering you to analyse the chimera mech’s weak points. She wants to know the best way to disable Jutland’s ride."

"I can do that."

He wanted this ordeal to be over a quickly as possible. Ves didn’t relish being kidnapped by a mad doctor who had been stewing among the hexapods for so many years. The faster the hunting platoon destroyed the chimera mech, the faster he’d be able to repair the crippled Olympian and return to the highly guarded base camp.

Ves started to study the mech in greater detail, paying attention to the various holes in the rotted creation. "The chimera mech looks to be in an awful state, but don’t let its appearance deceive you. The hexapod king’s hide and bones haven’t degraded to the point where they are easily broken."

This time, Ves determined another weak point. "I’m fairly certain the head is the cockpit. That must be the reason why it’s protected by a shield generator." _{ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm}