The Mech Touch novel Chapter 307

Close to the final moment before the devourers tore into the Gregarious Wrath, Ves gained a new idea. "Chief! Can the dimensional smoothers be overloaded?"

"Huh?"

"The dimensional smoothers that protect us from wrinkles in spacetime! Can their power be cranked up any further?"

"It’s not that simple!" The chief shook his head. "We borrowed them from the MTA under punishing conditions. If we damage them in any way, there’s hell to pay!"

"Well, the energy snakes are about to breach inside the Wrath, so I hardly think this is the time to hold back!"

The chief faced a lot of pressure with this decision. The devourers wouldn’t give him enough time to discuss the option with the captain. His eyes hardened as he decisively took action. His fingers brushed across a couple of options in the projected panel.

"Let’s see what happens if we dial the power up to a 150 percent!"

As soon as the dimensional boosters received an influx of excess power, they reacted by emitting vastly empowered restrictive fields. The three dimensional smoothers placed along the length of the Wrath ensured the entire tunneler became covered in this enhanced fields.

As the snakes finally reared forward, they bumped head-long into the newly empowered field. While they initially kept flying forward, the sakes quickly halted as their bodies warped out of shape.

"It’s working!" Petrisc shouted with awe. "How did you know that would work?"

"The devourers look like they have one foot in the material dimensions and another foot in the other dimensions. I figure they are existences that straddle both sides in order to take advantage of their best parts. This kind of semi-corporeal state can only be maintained if there aren’t any barriers between the material dimensions and the upper dimensions."

In truth, Ves had been thinking of a way to fight back against his ’mother’ if she ever appeared before him again. All those hours of brainstorming eventually produced results, of which Ves applied one of them. The success of his measure strengthened his confidence against the ghost.

Perhaps his next encounter with his mother wouldn’t turn out to be one-sided.

The snakes exhibited signs of deep discomfort. Whatever the dimensional smoothers did to solidify the local space, the devourers deeply behaved as if they got scalded by hot water. Only after they shifted back a fair distance did their bodies stop looking like they would fall apart.

"How long can the dimensional smoothers hold?" Ves asked.

"Not long. They have in-built safeties that will forcefully regulate their power intake after forty-five seconds."

"That’s not long enough!"

"At least you bought us some time. It’s all in the hands of the mech technicians that are putting back the Fire Worm together."

Ves had no more rabbits to pull out of his hat. Any other measure he could suggest wouldn’t work due to a lack of means. Even his impromptu suggestion to overload the dimensional smoothers had been a fluke as he knew almost nothing about their properties.

As the seconds passed, the crew of the Wrath prepared for a ruinous outcome. Chief Petrisc ordered the emergency deactivation of all but one of the power reactors, thereby forcing the tunneler to a halt.

"Ten more seconds to go."

Sweat poured from Ves as he readied his own countermeasures. He made sure that Lucky stayed nearby before holding his fingers atop his comm. He would instantly activate his stealth module as soon as one of the snakes emerged in the engineering bay.

Suddenly, the status projection sent out an audible ping.

"The Fire Worm is ready! Venerable Drake has lifted off!"

Through a hidden hatch at the rear of the Wrath, a colorful orange mech emerged into the tunnel. Ves scoured his eyes over the frame of the mech and noted that it could only be the Fire Worm.

The mech appeared to be an aerial striker, though it actually wielded a combination of laser rifles and flamethrowers embedded in its arms. Forces primarily utilized such mechs to harass the rear lines of their enemies and disrupt their supply lines. Only rarely would any force employ aerial strikers in a frontal clash.

"Aerial strikers don’t have the room to accommodate both their lasers, flamethrowers and flight systems. It takes too much energy and fuel to feed all of these systems." Ves mused.

However, the rules didn’t apply to expert mechs. As long as a designer applied sufficiently advanced technology, all of those limits could be overcome.

Naturally, these benefits always came at a ruinous cost. The Mech Corps could only afford to provide these treatment to their rare and valuable expert mech pilots.

Ves always dreamed of designing a tailored expert mech for one of the Venerables of the Republic. Now, he’d be able to witness one of those mechs in action.

Despite weighing as much as a medium mech, the Fire Worm accelerated at a rate on par with a light mech. The lighter gravity helped somewhat, but the model’s incredibly powerful systems enabled it to surpass ordinarily limits without any strain.

It took seconds for Venerable Drake to reach the closest devourer. Chief Petrisc already ceased overloading the dimensional smoothers, so the devourers quickly recovered from their momentary discomfort.

At the Fire Worm’s approach, the devourer appeared to be alert. Somehow, it detected a high level of energy from the approaching machine. The ethereal snake faced the Fire Worm with a gaping maw, ready to absorb anything it threw in its way.

The Fire Worm didn’t play by its rules. Venerable Drake held back his fire and flew his mech past the maw in an arcing path. Only after his mech turned around did he open fire.