The Mech Touch novel Chapter 495

His colleague from the same batch of conscripted mech designers led him around the temporary base. Ves thought that someone like Pierce who grew up under a mech designer from the Friday Coalition should have experienced a lot of sights, but the man behaved like a kid who entered a candy store for the first time.

"Look at this Ves! This scrapheap is all the mechs they’d been able to salvage from the defenders of the city’s manufacturing complexes. Most of these scraps aren’t very valuable, so the Vandals plan to leave them behind."

The sheer amount of mechs and mech parts piled up showed Ves that the Vandals overwhelmed a lot of complexes. They took back the goods they produced and the most valuable materials used in their production. They also dragged back any spare wrecks and raided the most valuable components out of their hulks.

The mech graveyard in front of him appeared notable in that over half of their mechs lost their armor plating. The Vandals must have stripped them out because they incorporated valuable exotics.

Pierce showed him several other sights, all the while describing the battles the ground forces fought. The young man was visibly enamored with all that had happened.

Ves was different. What Pierce described was actually a routine invasion against a semi-prepared but inferior defense force. The mechs aligned to House Eneqqin put up a valiant fight, but their lack of numbers skewed the battles against them from the start. There was no doubt that the Vandals would gain ultimate control over Neron City.

He had to stop himself from shaking his head or giving Pierce a patronizing look. After living through harrowing times on Groening IV or the Glowing Planet, what happened on Detemen IV seemed like a cakewalk.

This was the benefit of experience, he guessed.

A mech designer that saw more of the galaxy possessed a wider perspective. This extra life experience broadened their vision and numbed them to the mundane things that others found special.

It also made Ves feel as if he stood apart from an inexperienced mech designer like Pierce. Though the man helped design many mechs while under the employ of a large mech manufacturer, it also isolated him from experiencing the outcome of his own work.

Ves felt that was important somehow, especially now that he compared his own life experience to Pierce’s.

At the end of the tour, Ves and Pierce waited to be sent back into space. Once they finally received a message to board the next transport that would lift off into orbit, Ves eagerly headed towards the vehicle.

"Whoa there, Ves! What’s the hurry?"

"I don’t want to miss my ride!"

Ves became a bit paranoid about being left behind on this awful planet. While not as bad as some of the places he visited, he still didn’t wish to linger any longer than he had to.

More than an hour later, Ves finally transferred over to a combat carrier. While he would only be aboard the ship for a few days, he already felt as if he returned home.

The Flagrant Vandals accumulated many different models of combat carriers, so every ship looked unique. Different from the Stubby Growler, the Antecedent took on an even fatter shape. This reduced her maneuverability under atmosphere, but in the vacuum of space, most of her mobility remained unaffected.

Though Ves possessed little expertise in spacecraft, he traveled aboard many different ships. In some, he even got the opportunity to be part of the crew, so he picked up a few things here and there where his expertise in mech design overlapped with ship engineering.

Ves didn’t know anyone aboard the Antecedent, and the Vandal officers didn’t spare a glance at them. Ves and Pierce mostly stayed holed up in their cabins as they waited for the Vandals to depart from the star system.

An alarm quickly blared over their heads, only to shut off a second after.

"What’s that?!" Pierce jumped up.

"I don’t know, but if the captain of the ship shut off the alarm right after, it’s nothing serious." Ves guessed.

They both left their cabins and wandered over to the mess hall where spacers simply couldn’t shut up. There, they overheard the reason why the alarms had been tripped.

"The Vesians reinforcements have arrived."

A bit sooner than expected, the first Vesian fleet arrived at the outer regions of the Detemen System from the closest star system.

"They’re here fast. I thought they would be taking their sweet time."

"This system’s neighbors can’t be seen dragging their feet too blatantly. They’ll fall out of favor with the Duchess if they scorn her commands."

"How long do we have?"

"Jimmy told me that we’ve got to scram within four hours. Any longer and we’ll get caught by the leading elements of the reinforcement fleet."

Four hours was a very short time. The ground forces needed to evacuate with extra haste and leave behind their less valuable loot at this rate. While unfortunate, the early arrival of the reinforcement fleet was well within their expectation.

Though Ves hated to admit it, the constant insistence on haste worked in their favor. Though their operations on Detemen IV didn’t proceed very smoothly, they hadn’t suffered many delays. Everything proceeded roughly on schedule, and the Vandal presence on the ground rapidly diminished as every working mech got boosted into orbit.

With cargo holds laden with mechs, materials and other goods, the fleet element under the command of Major Verle started to approach the nearest Lagrange point.

Ves and Pierce returned to their cabins for safety and looked at the fleet’s progress on a small projector that displayed their position in the star system.

"I think so. I can’t tell you much about the guy except to say that most of the stereotypes about him are probably true. He’s a real piece of work." _{freewebnovel.cσ๓}