The Mech Touch novel Chapter 749

Through a heroic effort by the engineers on hand, they managed to save both the Linever Swan and the Finmoth Regal. The logistics ship and combat carrier respectfully both played vital roles that couldn’t easily be replaced if lost.

Unfortunately, the engineers at the Antecedent hadn’t been able to pull back the venerable combat carrier from her doom. The acolytes of Haatumak demolished their ranks so severely that the ones who survived and managed to stay conscious lacked a deep understanding of power reactors.

Remote assistance or transferring chief engineers from other ships to the flailing Antecedent only resulted in delaying her inevitable violent death. If the chief engineer of the Antecedent had reacted immediately to mitigate the sabotage, then the ship could have been saved like the Finmoth Regal and the Linever Swan. Unfortunately, the chief engineer died right at the start of the crisis.

The displacement of so many crew, mechs and whatever supplies they managed to evacuate in time needed to be stashed somewhere else. For now, the other ships temporarily took in the excess, but they had to sacrifice precious space reserved for securing the spaceborn mechs currently deployed in great numbers around the fleet.

They needed to throw as much mechs in space not just to deter the neutral pirates from taking advantage of their temporary disarray, but also to clear up more space!

This couldn’t go on. The Swordmaidens had it worse because they lost three whole carriers due to sabotage. While the acolytes who ambushed the Swordmaidens mostly got chopped apart before they could kill too many of their officers, their engineers were obviously less adept, as they mostly failed to fix the sabotage done to the power reactors of their starships.

The Swordmaidens either employed enslaved men as engineers or female combat fanatics that mostly earned their engineering chops by following free lessons on the galactic net. The difference between a pirate engineer and a military-trained engineer was like night and day!

If the Church of Haatumak stationed more acolytes on the Swordmaiden vessels, then they could have probably crippled their entire fleet!

Sadly, they rightfully regarded the Flagrant Vandals as the greater threat, and prioritized eliminating their key officers and chiefs at a critical moment. The esoteric stealth methods of their acolytes likely gave the cultists boundless confidence in their ability to defeat the Flagrant Swordmaidens in a single blow before they departed for the Aeon Corona System with the all-important key in tow.

Of course, the other Vandals also began to figure out that the acolytes had been placed aboard their ships as a supplementary attack to the main threat!

"The Temple of Haatumak and her swarm of pirate escorts must be on their way right now." Major Verle concluded with a grim face. Everyone felt the pressure. "We need to move fast! Capture the marked-out pirate vessels and load in our mechs and supplies. Start using the key and configure our FTL drives for the jump to the Aeon Corona System."

"Yes, sir!"

"Major, our Swordmaiden allies report that some of their ships have lost their FTL drives! They will need at least half a day to rig up their spares!"

"That’s too slow! One of our chief engineers to each ship that requires a replacement drive."

"Sir, we lost five chief engineers during the ambush! Almost all of our surviving and unwounded chief engineers are occupied with replacing the FTL drives for the Finmoth Regal and the Linever Swan!"

"Spare what we can. It matters little if we get our FTL drives up faster if the Swordmaidens can’t keep up. We have traveled too far to abandon our comrades now."

The sensor officer spoke up then. "The pirate ships have ceased their salvage attempts, sir. They are attempting to flee from our approach!"

The pirate scavengers always remained skittish as they attempted to loot the spoils of the Flagrant Swordmaidens. According to custom, the salvage belonged to the victors, so the neutral pirates always maintained a wary posture in case the winners changed their mind.

Besides, the pirates constantly observed the movements of the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet. The sudden evacuation and collapse of four whole starships caught their attention instantly.

They knew the implications of floating in the vicinity of a force with too many mechs and too little ships. Such a force would immediately seek to steal someone else’s ships!

So they made the logical decision and ran!

"Hehe. Look at these fat tubs run! They’ll never be able to get anywhere!"

The independent pirate vessels mostly consisted of cheap and dubiously shipworthy converted carriers. The Vandals and the Swordmaidens each possessed more discerning tastes, so they outright ignored these ramshackle ships that began their lives as cargo haulers and moved on to the slightly more upscale light carriers.

Despite being called light, this quality only referred to their relative place among the carrier classes. Compared to the beefier combat carriers or the capital ship-sized fleet carriers, the light carriers formed one of the favorite mech carrying starships for the serious mercenary or pirate commander.

Although the pirates as a rule never took great care of their ships, the Flagrant Swordmaidens weren’t spoiled for choice. While the light carriers out-accelerated converted carriers by a wide margin, they couldn’t outrun the Inheritors and the Misty Slashers! Ships may have the advantage in terms of reach, but in shorter distances the superior acceleration of mechs trumped the sluggish vessels which needed a long time to get going.

Neither Ves nor Verle nor any other Vandal or Swordmaiden expressed any concern about the success of their mechs. The pirate scavengers all spread out and claimed their own little territory across the debris field. They also didn’t trust each other, so they would never united and face a common threat.

Their low-quality mechs, their low-skilled mech pilots, their inferior numbers, their low morale and complete lack of coordination all resulted in a complete collapse within minutes of contact.

The Inheritor light skirmishers developed an intuitive cooperation with the Misty Slasher swordsman mechs. While the Inheritors distracted the pirate mechs and hemmed them in, the Misty Slashers collapsed on the bewildered pirates and cut them into ribbons!

In most cases, the Hellcat hybrid knights arrived too late to contribute to the battle.