The Mech Touch novel Chapter 567

The Flagrant Vandals made it out!

Those who fought on the surface almost couldn’t believe they made it out of hell. Pretty much all of the mech pilots came out of their mechs in a broken state. Though they admirably held themselves together on the field due to their training, once they returned to safety the trauma seeped through the cracks.

Ves and Chief Haine stood on a ramp overlooking one of the hangar bays of the Shield of Hispania. They watched on as mech technicians carefully peeled open the cockpits of heavily damaged landbound mechs to reach the mech pilots trapped inside.

Throughout it all, the overall mood in the hangar bay was depressing. While the inherent resilience of the Flagrant Vandals prevented them from lashing out or doing anything drastic, Ves sensed nothing good from the men.

"Have the Vandals always sustained so many losses in a single campaign?" Ves asked.

"Plenty." The chief technician replied. "Just not in big battles like this. Ordinarily, we don’t like to move in huge formations and pit our mechs against anything tough. Normally, we split up in smaller squadrons and spent most of our time raiding Vesian shipping lines. Sometimes, we’re able to catch a juicy convoy, and in other times, we end up bumping our noses into a patrol. All of those skirmishes takes a toll on our numbers."

"I see. So the Vandals are used to losses, but only in bite-sized packages."

The chief glanced at Ves with a cool expression. "Mr. Larkinson, we are soldiers above else. We aren’t cowards who value our lives above anything else. Even if the Mech Corps doesn’t regard us very highly, within ourselves lies the hope that we can prove ourselves to be equal to those shining mech regiments that have become household names in the Republic."

Mech regiments such as the Stellar Lancers, the Infernal Hellhounds and the Volari Starhawks all enjoyed significant renown back home. Their funding and support was incomparable to the Flagrant Vandals.

Ves could see how the pride of those who had been forced onto the Vandals had been impugned. If Ves was a mech pilot who had been thrown into this garbage bin of a mech regiment, he too would have wished to prove himself in battle.

"I mean no disrespect, Chief Haine. It’s just that the civilian in me can’t get used to seeing so many comrades fall. How can the Vandals push on and keep their heads high?"

"Everyone deals with loss in a different way. The survivors are taken care of. We’re not clueless in that regard. Soldier or not, humans are fragile. From the moment our civilization has ascended to the stars, we’ve become very good at handling trauma."

Ves nodded. He could see that a number of mental health specialists already started receiving the mech pilots who emerged from the cockpits. Ves ordinarily ignored the specialists since they hardly did anything but take up space, but right now they were worth their weight in gold.

"A lot of our landbound mechs got trashed. You’ve got a lot of work ahead of yourself if you want to salvage something out of this mess."

"I know." Ves laughed sardonically at himself. "I don’t even look at the latest figures anymore. I’m scared I’ll get a heart attack once I see how many mechs we’ve lost and how many wrecks we need to restore. Those giant monsters on the Kamwin continent aren’t gentle at all."

A large proportion of mechs that got trashed consisted of melee mechs that received an awful battering from the monster hordes. The monsters attacked with a combination of blunt and cutting forces that combined resulted in some of the most awful sort of damage to the mechs.

"The damage to the melee mechs that got smacked around by the monsters is incredibly arduous to fix. It’s different from the mechs that Venerable Foster managed to down. That feisty girl always tried to finish off her opponents as expediently as possible, so most of the damage we’ve incurred from her is concentrated on a small set of critically damaged components."

Ves understood her point. "On the other hand, the mechs that incurred damage from the monsters require a complete overhaul. All of that blunt force has penetrated through the surface armor of our mechs. The damage to their internals is extensive, and it will take lots of time to pin down which component needs to be replaced."

Leaving out the wrecks that the Vandals had been forced to leave behind, the Vandals hadn’t sustained too much material damage. Any damaged mech they managed to retrieve could be fixed up over time as the mech technicians could easily take out a damaged parts and recycle them in order fabricate replacement parts.

The only problem was that this would take way too much time with their current equipment and manpower.

Without the industrial capacity of the Wolf Mother, the Verle Task Force needed years to make up all of the losses they sustained. Their landbound contingent was in shambles while their spaceborn contingent never regained their prime.

"Our spaceborn battle efficiency isn’t too bad, so it is not the end of the galaxy." The chief patted his back in an attempt to console him. "Repairing the landbound mechs is a megaproject. No one expects you to fix everything up. Right now, it’s more important to finish our mission and return home before we can consider rebuilding our forces."

She was right. The Vandals went through hell and almost reached the gates that led to heaven. Once they crossed the borders of the Hafner Duchy, they would finally be able to breathe easily as they didn’t have to worry about constant ambushes from the reigning power in the region.

Though the Reinald Republic wasn’t exactly an ally of the Bright Republic, their shared enemy kept their relations fairly cordial. It wasn’t uncommon to see Brighter ships trawling about in Reinald space and vica versa.

Many of the larger Brighter companies established subsidiaries in the Reinald Republic. The Flagrant Vandals would be able to gain preferential treatment from them. The Vandals counted on this to be their deliverance after this ordeal was over.

"What happens next?"

"That depends, Mr. Larkinson. We’ve captured an expert pilot at a very great cost. If I was the Major, I would be very eager to trade her away for some much-needed concessions."

"Major Verle is going to try to play the rebels against Hafner, I bet."

"He’ll be playing a very dangerous game. The thing about negotiating is that it works best if nobody is aware of what others want. Right now, it’s plain to see that every side wants."