The Mech Touch novel Chapter 315

Ves sent out a flurry of messages on his comm. First, he contacted Melkor, as he could trust his cousin to brief him without any bias.

"Are you safe, Ves?" Melkor asked over the comm. His projected bust radiated fatigue.

"I’m fine. I’ve had some close shaves, but we’ve dug up a fortune in exotics. Even if they have to relinquish the majority to the MTA, they’ll still make it off with a tidy profit."

"That’s good to hear. It’s been rather hectic on our end. As you can see, this base hasn’t fared well in the last couple of weeks. The pirates under the instigation of the Dragons of the Void have ganged up on us. They wiped out the smaller outfits first before they tackled the main forces of the Mech Corps."

"Is everyone else okay?"

"Raella suffered a minor injury when her mech got swarmed by enemy mechs. She managed to eject in time, but she’s suffered a bruise to her ego."

"As long as she’s breathing, I’m fine with that." Ves replied with relief now that he confirmed that both his family members survived. "What about the Whalers?"

"Walter’s Whalers had been one of the first gangs to go. They lost most of their mechs and a decent amount of pilots. They didn’t eject in time."

Ves bowed his head. He predicted such an outcome, but he didn’t wish it turned into reality. The Whalers truly hadn’t been prepared to fight a grueling campaign. Hopefully they took their losses to heart and implement some reforms. They needed to shape up really quickly if they wanted to survive the impending war.

"What about Walter, Dietrich and Fadah?"

"They’re doing great. They’re better than the rest, and their mechs are of much higher quality than the walking pieces of junk they ordinarily use. Together with Raella, they’ve made a name for themselves among the Blood Claws. Even the Mech Corps took note of their contributions."

"Sounds like you didn’t fight alongside them. What have you been up to?"

"Nothing remarkable." Melkor shook his head. "The Blood Claws needed volunteers to patrol the outskirts and reconnoiter the approaches to the bases. I signed up for those duties because I’ve received prior training in these tasks."

Melkor earned a lot of contributions on his own by sniffing out enemy scouts. Even though he only skimmed over actions, Ves knew that Melkor had definitely risked his life a few times.

"Well, now that the Gregarious Wrath has returned to the surface, I think it’s safe to say the Mech Corps will evacuate us any day now."

"There’s only six days left on the clock. We don’t want to be here when the armadas from the Hegemony and the Coalition arrive. DOn’t forget that there are no Lagrange points in the Glowing Zone, so we have to take the long way if we want to transition out of here."

A Lagrange point was basically a point in space where the gravitational force between several stellar objects canceled each other out. For example, a planet with a moon would have a Lagrange point somewhere on the line between the two. Such points in space provided ships with a quick and convenient way to transition into FTL.

The problem here was that the Glowing Planet had gone rogue. It obviously used to orbit a star system like other planets, but it had been cast out into space on its own. The lack of Lagrange points served to delay their departure significantly. _{ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com}

"This is something that the big guys upstairs will have to tackle. We don’t have many options but to go along with whatever they have planned.

Although Ves could stuff the Stanislaw and a couple of people aboard the Barracuda, he held no confidence his corvette could make it out of the Glowing Zone on her own. Too many pirate ships lurked in the Glowing Zone like an endless school of sharks.

"I’ll go meet with the Whalers. Since I originally contracted with them, it’s best I stick with them to the end."

Once Ves hung up on Melkor, he sought the encampment within the base that held the Whalers. He found them at a distant corner. A sad collection of ships and broken mechs greeted his sights. Even now, the Whalers still acted like cheapskates by trying to take along the wrecks that belonged to their opponents.

"At least they have good taste." He nodded as he noted the overall quality of the wrecks. Much of them could be sold for ten million credits in the salvage circle. If Ves worked to restore them to a functional state, he could easily increase their value by twenty to thirty percent. "The margins are too low for me to bother."

He already ran a profitable business selling brand-new mechs of his own design. Only mech designers who couldn’t afford to license any mechs or components dove into the repair industry. As long as they mastered some basic skills and possessed some common sense, they could comfortably make a decent profit.

It still represented a dead end in terms of career progression. The mech industry rarely appreciated the repair business. It didn’t take much to establish a footing there and there were countless of competitors.

In any case, Ves sought out Walter, who looked like he had taken a massive blow. All of those casualties had obviously took a toll on the gang leader. He even looked like he lost some weight!

"Walter. I’m sorry for your losses. I don’t think any of us had really expected there would be so many pirates."

The burly man snorted a bit and chugged down another gulp of his cheap beer. "It reminds me of my worst days back on Bentheim. The things I did... back then, I was just a jumped-up grunt."

Ves remained silent as he took a seat at Walter’s cafeteria table.

Walter burped. "Well, it’s not your fault and none of your business. I can take care of my own house. So what brings you here?"

"Did you receive any word on how the Mech Corps is planning to get off this planet?"

"Hahaha!" The gang leader laughed. "Oh, they did, and it’s a doozy. I’ll send you the outline of their plan, though do try not to spread it around. It’s sort of classified."