The Mech Touch novel Chapter 453

During his shifts at logistics, his expertise often needed to be employed to streamline the mass overhaul projects. If not for his understanding of what it took to perform each overhaul, the planners would have delivered an uneven mix of materials or allocated too many mech technicians to a particular project.

Despite this, the sheer scale of this undertaking meant that screwups happened plenty of times. Shuttles delivered batches of materials to the wrong logistics ship. A chief technician suffered an accident that left him indisposed. Mech pilots of two different squads got into a giant brawl over an argument on whose mechs should undergo an upgrade first.

These incidents revealed that not all was well with the Flagrant Vandals. As much as they showed a lot of outwards strength, internally the rot had already started to set in. Discipline was tight, but not as tight as a proper mech regiment of the Mech Corps.

As Ves spent more days among the wizards who tried to make sense of what went on within the vandals, he became jaded to the incidents. The strain over the last couple of years took a toll on everyone. He didn’t take the annoyances to heart.

While every workshop aboard every ship worked to transform their Inheritors, Hellcats and Akkaras, the massive Vandal fleet continued to transition in and out of FTL.

Guided by their rebel allies, their approach had remained undetected so far. Observation ships and drones that should have detected their presence had long been co-opted by the local rebels who called the shots around these places.

Despite running through the territories of over half-a-dozen different rebel groups, so far none of them seemed to have ratted out their presence in the middle of Vesian territory.

Ves truly didn’t know how the Vesian Revolutionary Front even managed to do so. So many people knew about the intrusion of the Vandals that it should have been impossible to keep a lid under the news, but nevertheless not a single ship of the Mech Legion arrived to confront the intruders.

Anticipation and eagerness started building up among the servicemen of the Vandals. They lived to raid, and the upcoming operation would be one of the most expansive attack since the foundation of their mech regiment.

To attack a prepared industrial star system was entirely different from raiding an underdeveloped system. With industry came wealth. With wealth came strength.

Even the least impressive industrial systems would be able to rally thousands of mechs in their defense. Naturally, only a fraction of them consisted of mechs from the Mech Legion and their local version of the Planetary Guard. Much of the mechs on these planets actually tended to be owned by gangs, mercenary corps and company forces.

Ves had witnessed their strength and behavior in the Glowing Planet campaign. When it came down to it, they always prioritized their own benefits. He envisioned that in the upcoming attacks, most of those outfits would stay put and defend their own stretches of land.

Even if their neighbor got attacked and overwhelmed by a group of Vandal mechs, as long as they didn’t turn their rapacious hunger to them, these forces wouldn’t lift a finger to help.

Thus, the effective amount of mechs arrayed against the Flagrant Vandals should be just a fraction of the star system’s total strength.

The only problem was that a highly developed planet always supplemented their mechs with non-mech garrison troops. As long as the defenders threw enough infantry, tanks and aircraft at the Vandals, their assault would be heavily stymied.

However, this problem would not apply this time. According to the occasional loose lips that escaped from the mouths of the specialists at logistics, all of these regiments had in fact been infiltrated by the rebels to such an extent that they could instantly suppress the loyalists among their ranks and take effective control over their regiments.

Instead of being an asset to the star system’s defense, they would instead aid its downfall. As a cherry on top, the rebels would prime this sequence of events by employing their off-planet assets. Ships and spaceborn mechs disguised as pirates would distract the system’s defenders and stretch them out and defeat them in detail.

Ves did not hear much more of how the Vandals and the rebel movements would do the defenders in, but the audacity of their plans and the scale of their operation truly frightened him. Were it not for the signs that the Vandals and the VRF have possibly planned this move for years, Ves would have tried to weasel his way out.

"The Wolf Mother won’t be staying too far away from the fighting."

This was an operation which required all hands on deck. Besides the hidden force of a thousand mechs, the entire public strength of the Flagrant Vandals would be put to use. The Vandals couldn’t afford to hold back the Wolf Mother and the other logistical ships in a nearby abandoned star system. That would require supplementing their defense with escorts, which would take away too many mechs from the actual assault.

No. Colonel Lowenfield decreed that the logistical ships would travel behind but close to the main fleet. This would allow them to remain in the protective embrace of the main Vandal fleet while simultaneously also providing timely support services.

Of course, they also needed to be close to load up on all the loot the Vandals obtained from the industrial system.

No one expected the Wolf Mother to be threatened, but plans rarely went according to plan. Still, Ves was reasonably assured that she wouldn’t be blown apart. The Vandals valued her too much to let her get scratched.

With a week or so to go until they arrived at their final destination, Ves reached the end of his shift and left the restricted area. As he walked back to the design department, an officer stepped in his way and barred his path forward.

Ves tried to shuffle to the side, but the man who stood in his way moved in the same direction. He started to frown and studied the officer. His shoulder pips designated him as a mech captain, one who led over an entire company of mechs.

"Please make way. I have to return to my assigned compartment."

"Mr. Larkinson, please wait a moment." The officer said. "My name is Captain Branser. On behalf of my men, I just want to express our gratitude to you. We’ve heard of your efforts to attract some attention to the Inheritors that some of my men are piloting. Ever since the mech technicians returned them to our hands, we’ve noticed the difference you’ve made."

"I, ah, that’s good to hear." Ves blinked. "Captain, I’m just doing my job. I should be thankful to your men for their willingness to fight for the Republic."

Branser smiled in a cynical fashion. "For the Republic? Hah, as if. The Republic has done nothing to help us survive. It’s only through the colonel’s efforts and your help that we’ll be able to come back home with most of our lives intact."