The Mech Touch novel Chapter 293

The loss of Hoyler and the way he died left the Whalers in a somber mood. Ves hoped their rude awakening would push them to work more meticulously, but the Whalers showed a remarkable ability to move on from tragedy.

They held a festive party over the night where over half of the Whalers drunk themselves into a stupor. By the time they woke up the next morning, the pain at losing Hoyler had become a distant pang.

Everything went back to normal, although the Whalers heightened their alertness. No more pirate vessels fell from the sky in their vicinity.

In fact, every descending carrier aimed to land in the middle of unclaimed terrain. The ships that crashed near the Vesians or the Brighters had been forced to veer from their original trajectories due to the damage they suffered from the battle up in space.

This left everyone with a bit of reprieve. Until the pirates recovered from their landings and gathered together, they posed no threat to the Whalers.

Fadah and Ves gathered at the stables where the Blackbeak rested. The mech didn’t suffer anything more than a couple of scratches at the hands of the pirates. It actually sustained more damage from its fall when Hoyler’s mech blew up, and that had to be fixed.

"I can fix the Blackbeak up in half a day." He said, eying his own work with a new sense of appreciation. The lack of armor didn’t seem so bad now that he knew that Fadah would be able to make the most of it on the Glowing Planet. "Is there anything else you’d like to be modified while I’m at it?"

"No." Fadah lethargically shook his head. "The Blackbeak is still in a pretty good shape. Just do the basics and move on to fixing the other mechs."

"Alright."

Ves quietly went to work, though inwardly he sighed again. Fadah expected too much from him. He wasn’t a miracle worker. The Whalers piloted cheap and badly maintained mechs. Their workshops lacked a lot of advanced tools and the mech technicians resembled bums more than professionals.

Still, he kept his complaints to himself and tried to make the best of it, knowing that he might need to get accustomed to working under trying circumstances.

With his penchant for diving into trouble, he might be put into situations where he’d be forced to work on a mech without any tools or supplies.

A couple of days went by as Ves modified mech after mech. Nothing much happened on the ground.

The pirates that landed on the surface gathered up and formed a series of underground bases. Occasionally, the Mech Corps and the Mech Legion up in orbit bombarded their positions, but the sheer amount of distance and some unknown influences from the Glowing Planet caused most shots to miss their mark.

It was a waste of time and energy to bombard the pirates unless they gathered at least an entire regiment. _{frёeωebɳovel.com}

However, whenever they did so, the pirate fleet that remained in the vicinity of the Glowing Planet would move in and threaten the mechs. This led to complicated orbital maneuvering where the three sides tried to box each other in to no avail. All of the fruitless course adjustments frustrated the pilots that had to remain on standby like Ghanso.

"When will this ever end?!" He moaned inside his Vhedra-S.

"It’ll end when the pirates slip up." Old Man Alex replied.

"Like that’ll ever happen. Those Dragons of the Void bastards are cunning as hell, and slippery to booth. They keep bluffing us over and over and we keep falling for their tricks."

"That’s spaceborn combat for you. It’s not as if we’re on land where we’ll halt our movement once we shut off our engines. Everything is in motion. In order to thrive in space, you have to understand the mechanics behind all this stuff."

"Do you?"

"Nah. Are you crazy? I’d rather improve my piloting skill than to go back to school. Leave the thinking to Lieutenant Fairfax and Captain Rynsel. I heard they took some extra courses in order to qualify for promotion."

That opened up some doors in Ghanso’s mind. He understood the need to become more familiar with how movement worked in space. The basic courses taught in the academies only scratched the surface of what had happened here.

"Maybe I’ll register for those classes as well."

"Good luck, then. You’re young enough to keep learning, so make the most out of it while you still can. Don’t ever stop improving!"

Ghanso detected some regret in Old Man Alex’s voice. Perhaps the man missed a lot of opportunities in his youth. "Thanks for the guidance."

"It’s nothing. You Larkinsons are able to figure things out sooner or later. If not me, then some other relative of yours would have clued you in."

That did not detract from the value of Alex’s advice. Ghanso opened up his comm and browsed for the next available openings for the classes he had in mind.

While a stalemate continued to persist in space, back on the ground, Ves took a break after modifying the tenth mech that passed in his hands.

"Alright, this is enough. Go take the rest of the day off!"

The exhausted mech technicians whooped as they dropped their tools on the deck. Ves winced at the careless treatment of their gear. If only the Whalers had a proper chief to knock some sense into their skulls.

Lately, Ves did all of his work underground. The Whalers finished tunneling a coupe of secure mech-sized halls, and finishing moving most of their surface assets to these empty spaces. Ves felt better for having layers of rocks stand between his head and a laser beam from orbit.

"Melkor!"

He met Melkor by the entrance of the workshop. Lately, his cousin had been volunteering to go on patrols. Even though Lucky had run off to dig up highly valuable exotics, Ves hardly felt any threat from the Whalers. Thus, he allowed Melkor to volunteer for other duties.