The Mech Touch novel Chapter 493

Some of the shipwrecked Vandals stranded in the rebel base requested to be sent back to their comrades. Now that their forces took out most of the anti-air turrets controlled by the household troops, it was a lot safer to fly some transports in the air.

Certainly, many enemy mechs and turrets remained intact, but their owners lacked the guts to fire upon Vandal or rebel assets. Everyone who survived up to now tried their best to bury their heads in the sand while their enemies run amuck in the city.

"Are you sure you don’t want to leave with our batch?" Lieutenant Burke asked Ves. "Our job is done here."

Ves shook his head. "I’ll follow you out in the next transport. I want to be there while the rebels interrogate Lord Javier. I’ve managed to convince the commander that my presence would be useful if Javier spills out anything related to mechs."

His help was integral in catching the the little lordling. Ves built up a substantial amount of goodwill with the Detemen League. When he asked to be present at Lord Javier’s interrogation, the rebels easily accepted his lame excuse. To them, Ves was pretty much one of them. This was an amazing concession of them because they refused the presence of every other Vandal aside from Captain Orfan.

When the lightly-wounded captain entered the base, Ves became affected by certain emotions. He was very clear that Captain Orfan didn’t give a damn about him. The captain barely nodded at him before she resumed her discussion with Addy.

Ves didn’t need her to like him, but he at least wanted her acknowledgement.

"Well, I don’t need her to recognize me anyway."

It was in the nature of mech pilots to forget the existences of norms, those who fell under the vast majority of people who would never be able to pilot a mech. Some potentates possessed stronger biases than others.

The most extreme cases called for a drastic rearrangement of human society in the model of Ancient Sparta. In their delusional imagination, only mech pilots deserved to be free. As the only citizens of the state, they possessed all the rights in exchange for shouldering the obligation of piloting mechs.

As for everyone else, they would be destined to carry the label of slaves. Anyone without the potential to pilot mechs was expendable. Even the most renowned mech designers that enabled the mech pilots to exert their skills enjoyed no extra rights. In the perspective of the ruling class, mech designers were slaves as well, only with a bit more value.

The crazy thing about this imagined utopia was that a number of human states tried to implement such a society.

Every attempt ended in ruin. In truth, depressing the potential of over ninety-six percent of the population caused these extremist states to stagnate. Slaves without any sense of belonging never worked to better their masters as much as a free man.

Numerous examples throughout the Age of Mechs illustrated that humanity needed to work for every human, not a tiny subject with a mutant brain.

Sadly, it appeared that Captain Orfan didn’t get the message. She barely treated Addy with respect, something the observant rebel woman noted fairly quickly. Regardless, Addy flexed her diplomacy and managed to convince the mech captain to rest somewhere in piece. Once she got rid of Orfan, she strayed over to Ves.

"I never really did thank you for your help. You’ve really saved us, Mr. Larkinson."

Ves smiled at that. "Any other mech designer could have done the same."

"Yet you’re the only one who’s here."

That soured his mood a little. "Have you ever found my colleague Alloc?"

He tried to look up the Journeyman Mech Designer’s whereabouts. As his mentor within the Vandal design department, Ves appreciated Alloc’s insightful lessons. The lack of news regarding his status concerned Ves a lot.

Through the rebel base’s communication channels, Ves contacted the Flagrant Vandal fleet in orbit several times. Each time, they told him that they hadn’t picked up Alloc’s crash ball in space. Since Alloc sat next to Ves in the command center of the Stubby Growler, there was a high possibility that Alloc’s crash ball followed the same trajectory as the one that held Ves.

"Maybe he landed somewhere else over the planet."

Not everyone who crash-landed onto the surface of Detemen IV chose to converge at Neron City. Those with timid hearts chose to land somewhere desolate, and await for pickup from a Vandal shuttle. It was a much safer option than landing in the vicinity of the most important city on the planet.

"He’s here!"

A familiar armored shuttle entered the vehicle bay of the underground base. As soon as it touched down, a full squad of armed infantrymen hauled the unconscious form of Lord Javier.

In a minor gesture of decency, they clothed his previously-naked form with generic grey clothes. Nonetheless, the drab fabric only accentuated his fall from grace. His matte blond hair was normally styled in exquisite fashion in public. Now, they looked tousled and sweaty beyond recognition.

A number of rebels that hadn’t shipped out yet goggled at Lord Javier’s beaten form. They hardly believed that they actually managed to capture such a powerful figure. Though they worked together with Flagrant Vandals to accomplish this feat, it was still an exceedingly rare achievement for a local rebel movement.

Every commoner of the Kingdom learned early on that the dignity of a noble should not be sullied. Profane acts such as questioning their sexuality might even prompt a Vesian judge to sentence them to death!

Thus, witnessing the powerful Lord Javier being dragged to the medical bay like a dog was a very transformational moment for the rebels. Everyone present made up the cadre of their organization, so they all believed in the cause with the depths of their hearts.

They just never imagined that they could pull down a noble from his pedestal in their lifetimes.

"He’s really here. I still can’t believe it."

"We did it... we did it!"

"None of the other rebel groups can boast what we’ve done!"

Some of the members of the Detemen League grew emotional and knelt down. Others cried and hugged each other. After living in Detemen IV like rats, they showed that they still possessed teeth.