The Mech Touch novel Chapter 300

Time was of the essence. Ves immediately entered the comm center and sent a priority message to the Mech Corps through the hardline connection that ran from the Whalers.

His message passed on to the Blood Claws, who didn’t dare to delay its transmission in any way given the import of the claims that Ves had made.

Just a couple of minutes later, Ves received a receipt from the base commander herself. He had to sit tight and wait for transport. They wanted to bring him over to verify his invention with their own eyes.

Since this might be the last time he’d stick with the Whalers, Ves quickly sought out Walter and filled him in about his breakthrough.

"You really did it? That’s great news!" Walter laughed and embraced the mech designer in a meaty hug. "We won’t get to blow up anymore!"

Ves didn’t have the heart to hide the designs for the undercharged energy cells from Walter. He passed the gang leader a secure data chip that contained all of the technical specifications.

"You can hand that over to any decent mech technician. They’re easy to fabricate but it will take some time before you’re able to replace all of your existing cells."

At least they solved this pervasive problem. Ves also granted the Whalers an opportunity to butter up to the Blood Claws by presenting the designs to them a little early. The sooner everyone replaced their energy cells, the safer everyone would be.

Ves and Walter quickly discussed some logistical matters. The Whalers dearly lacked some technical expertise, but this time Walter actually listened to the critique.

"I’ve been thinking about that as well. Our mechs fared worse than the others in the pirate base assault. We’ve got a lot of shaping up to do. If I hand over your invention to the Blood Claws, I can probably get them to lend us some of their senior technicians. Heavens know we need someone who can take over what you’ve done for us so far."

They parted with each other on amicable terms. Ves quickly packed his meager luggage and sought out Lucky who’d been digging for exotics near the mines. His gluttonous cat must have eaten tons of the stuff already, but he hadn’t gained any weight at all.

"You must be chock full of energy right now." Ves grasped hold of his silvery mechanical cat. "We might be moving to the red zone soon. Don’t run around randomly, okay? There’s a whole bunch of military men running around there so you might be spooking them if you’re trespassing into a restricted area."

"Meow!"

His cat appeared to look forward to entering the red zone. As for tripping alarms and alerting the guards, Lucky didn’t seem to be worried about that. He only had more exotics in mind.

Fadah and the rest of the Whalers who raided the pirate base hadn’t returned yet, so Ves couldn’t say goodbye to the inheritor of his Blackbeak in person. Ves composed a quick message and addressed it to Fadah’s comm, which would receive it as soon as it returned to the local network.

The only complication that remained was that Ves had to leave Melkor and his Stanislaw behind.

"It’s fine, Ves." Melkor replied as he leaned against the foot of his mech. "The Mech Corps and I aren’t exactly buddies since they cashiered me. It’s best I stay away from their premises in order to avoid any misunderstandings. I’ll stick with the Whalers and try to help out Raella whenever possible."

Ves felt reassured that Melkor didn’t blame him for bailing out. "That sounds good. Don’t forget the contingency plans. I strongly suspect this base won’t hold against a determined attack. More and more pirates are descending upon the Glowing Planet. It’s going to get awfully crowded soon."

They both heard the news that trickled down from the Blood Claws. Tens of thousands of ships had appeared in the Glowing Zone. Most of them didn’t seem to acknowledge any authority except for their own. Even Ves could tell that the Mech Corps had no way of holding back the sheer number of pirates on their way to the Glowing Planet.

They said their goodbyes before Ves left for the landing on the surface in his hazard suit. He only had to wait a couple of minutes before an armored shuttle escorted by a couple of aerial mechs descended on the pad. A uniformed officer appeared from the hatch.

"Mr. Larkinson, please step inside. Do you have the samples?"

"They’re over there." Ves pointed at the bots holding the pair of energy cells that fared best in his previous test. "I’ve already drained their charge, but it’s best to handle them with care."

The shuttle sent out their own set of bots who grabbed hold of the samples with extreme care. They carefully placed the cells into purpose-built boxes before closing them up with an abundance of locks.

Once Ves and Lucky stepped inside and the boxes had been stowed away into the shuttle’s cargo compartment, the shuttle lifted off.

Neither the officer nor the guards appeared talkative, so Ves remained in his seat and stroked his apprehensive gem cat. Lucky must be feeling apprehensive at being stuck inside a shuttle full of armed guards and countermeasures. It became clear to Ves that the Mech Corps treated his invention with utmost importance.

It didn’t take too long for the shuttle to arrive at the center of the sprawling fortification in the middle of the red zone. The closer they got to the center, the more Ves become more uncomfortable.

"Over thirteen energy fields are being projected from the red zone." The officer commented when he noticed Ves having trouble keeping himself together. "As far as we’re aware of, they have minimal effects on human physiology, but it will take some time to get used to them. The side effects will fade within a day."

Somehow, Ves didn’t think the regular rules applied to him. His main source of discomfort came from his recently-diminished internal energy cycle. For some reason, something underground exerted an attraction on the energy. Like a magnet pulling metals from their place, Ves found that the unknown attraction field attempted to pull his internal energy away from his chest.

It hurt quite a lot.

He groaned a bit and tried to flex his body to cope with the changes. His energy cycle had become deformed, and it took quite a bit of effort for his body to get used to the new configuration.