The Mech Touch novel Chapter 655

As the Flagrant Swordmaidens brought their combined fleet closer to the only public space station in the star system, some of the fleets around them showed some reaction.

Many fleets proactively moved their parking orbit further and further away. Lydia’s Swordmaidens enjoyed a decent amount of notoriety in the frontier, while the Flagrant Vandals always seemed to cause death and chaos wherever it went.

Leaving religion aside, humanity had never fully shed its tendency to believe in superstition. Pirates leaned on them all the time, and right now they came under the sway of the supposed cloud of misfortune that surrounded the Flagrant Vandals.

Ves saw the dots representing the positions of their ships and scoffed at their behavior. In an age like this, almost every form of superstition had been systematically debunked. Nonetheless, humans could be as stupid and impressionable as ever.

"Please tell me a bit more about the pirate factions that rule over the Faris Star Region. Which pirate faction is depraved enough to take these Red Tongues under their wing?"

The horned woman sighed. She unconsciously dragged over her floating scabbard and raked its surface with her fingers.

"I’ll give you the short version. Pirates don’t tend to like being under the thumb of someone else. By far most of the pirate groups like to stay independent and do their own thing."

"How do these independents manage to stay alive?"

"Well, most of them crash and burn pretty soon. Some are lucky enough to survive through the cracks. Most try and make pacts with fellow pirates. The Swordmaidens are kind of like that. We created a web of allies that looks out for each other in case any of the big boys want to bully one of us."

That didn’t sound very stable to Ves. These fair-weather friends only stuck together so long as the situation benefited them. They would certainly drop support for the Swordmaidens if someone threatening enough put blades against their throats.

"The independents number the most, but the most powerful pirates are actually two different pirate blocs. They’re massive alliances centered around the biggest pirate groups in the Faris Star Region. The ones that subjugated the Red Tongues is the Ravienne Alliance."

Ves looked up in recognition at the mention of Ravienne. He occasionally saw that name pop up in the news. "I’ve heard of her name before. Isn’t she that madwoman from the Hexadric Hegemony who was so crazy that even her fellow matriarchs couldn’t stand her any longer?"

"Ravienne is one of the scariest pirates in the Faris Star Region and you should never refer to her by any insults. If any of her underlings like the Red Tongues hear you call her that, they’ll jump on you and tear you apart before sending off your bleeding flesh to Ravienne as tribute."

"She has that much sway in the region?"

"Her influence in unimaginable. Even though she’s bloodthirsty and cruel, she’s also a brilliant strategist and tactician. The rose up from nothing and took the entire star region by storm when Ravienne’s Ravagers became the leader of a new bloc of pirates. By now, the Ravienne Alliance is the largest and most powerful gathering of the vilest scum and trash that call themselves pirates. If you think the Red Tongues are bad, the other subordinate gangs are worse."

The picture she painted of the Ravienne Alliance made them sound both powerful and chaotic. Even their leader was prone to mood swings and outbursts of violence. If not for her former background as a matriarch of the Hegemony, she might have long lost control over her own organization.

"How are they able to stay together?"

"Well, they don’t, really. There’s lots of infighting going on in the alliance. Every gang wants to prove to the Ravagers that they’re crueler and more conniving than the others. They frequently kill each other, but they never seem to run out of fresh blood. Many pirate groups are clamoring to become a member of their alliance."

This sounded awful to Ves. If Ketis described the truth and the subordinate gangs under Ravienne did indeed eliminate the weakest among them, eventually her organization would be left with the toughest, meanest and most adaptable pirates.

Perhaps Ravienne deliberately fanned the flames in order to let natural selection take its course.

"You mentioned there are two major pirate alliances." Ves spoke, not wanting to dig further into Ravienne’s gruesome culling methods. "Which pirates are brave enough to fight against Ravienne?"

The Dragons of the Void." She replied. "Hmm? You heard of them?"

"I even encountered them in the flesh several times. They’re true bastards who treat their men like cannon fodder. Somehow, they’ve gotten really good at brainwashing their fellow pirates. Is it true that everyone in their sway gets turned into drones?"

Ketis adopted a distasteful expression. "That’s one of their scariest aspects. The Dragons of the Void own a lot of space stations in the local star region. At the end of a raid, pirates still need a place to sell their loot, resupply their exhausted inventory and fix up their damaged mechs and ships. The space stations set up by the Dragons are all placed in strategic star systems. It’s easy to enter the system, but not so easy to leave."

"The last time I saw them, they were literally throwing thousands of mech pilots and mechs against several military mech divisions! How come they’ve brainwashed so many pirates, and how do they get away with it in the first place?!"

"That’s one of the hazards of operating in the frontier." She shrugged. "The Dragons of the Void claim they are snatching pirates at their space stations because they broke the rules or can’t repay their debt. I don’t know if I buy that. Mayra once told me that if the space station is too quiet, the Dragons pick a random pirate group and attempts to take them into custody on some trumped-up charges. Nobody is around at these times to dispute the charges, and nobody has ever succeeded in disproving the accusations."