The Mech Touch novel Chapter 750

As everyone in the command center of the Shield of Hispania constantly put out the fires as they came, Major Verle suddenly received a priority message. The commanding officer took one look at it before he instantly discolored.

He quietly cursed and jumped out of his command seat.

"Maintain your duties and keep the fleet from falling apart."

The latest crisis must be a really huge one if the big man himself had to depart from his command seat. The Flagrant Vandals could still manage without him, but his constant presence and his measured confidence had done much to disperse the confusion and stabilize their flagging morale.

Right now, the Swordmaidens and the Vandals each focused a large amount of their efforts into breaking in their newly-captured light carriers they liberated from their previous owners.

Of course, pirates being what they were, practically all four carriers were cesspools of filth, junk and other unpleasant goods. Cleaning up the compartments and throwing away the junk into space took much longer than they thought. This was in addition to the expansive inspection of all of their systems.

The Boiled Duck, the unflattering name for the light carrier handed over to them by the Swordmaidens after they killed the original crew, hid a large number of boobytraps. They already caused some of the Swordmaidens some grief when they took over the ship, and they became an enduring headache for the security officers slowly sweeping them up and defusing their deadly mechanisms.

Ketis didn’t look surprised. "Every decent pirate captain boobytraps their own ships to hell and back. It’s standard procedure out here where every large pirate gang won’t hesitate to take over your ship if you’re alone. Filling up your ship with traps will at least make others hesitate in trying to take over your baby."

"How come you Swordmaidens easily managed to board and take over the light carriers?"

"We’re very good in boarding combat." She grinned. "Our swords are sharp enough to bore through the thinner bulkhead sections that allows us to circumvent choke points entirely. Besides, those pirates aren’t very well geared in the first place. At least half of them likely aren’t wearing anything heavier than a hazard suit. The captains don’t want their underlings to be too well-armed, you see. They might think they’re strong enough to demand a greater share, or force a change in leadership."

Ves scoffed at that. "I don’t envy pirate captains. Even their own crew are constantly suspect in their eyes. It’s a wonder they can remain afloat under those conditions."

Half an hour went by as they returned to their individual duties. He tasked Ketis with cataloguing and profiling the pirate mechs still in space in case they ever launched an attack, while he himself started to manage the other mech designers. They needed to be more proactive in order to avoid the mech technicians from sinking into an abyss due to the elevation of incompetent mech technicians to chiefs.

He encountered a lot of obstacles while doing so, as most mech designers simply didn’t have what it took to take on a leadership role. _{fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm}

Still, if they didn’t step up, then who would be able to serve as a check against some of the idiotic decisions the new chiefs had already started issuing?

Almost every ship and every department dealt with the consequences of losing so many experienced Vandal leaders. Their only consolation was that many of the wounded would see a full recovery in the next couple of weeks.

Yet even this absence hurt the Vandals a lot as the mission had reached a critical moment. It was like showing up to a mech arena match with three out of five star athletes taken out of commission because they boarded a shuttle while drunk and crashed it into an ocean.

The reserve athletes who replaced the incapacitated mech pilots couldn’t measure up to the original lineup. It would be good enough if they exhibited half the skill of the original star athletes!

"This is going to result in a lot of screwups down the line." He muttered.

Just as Ves went back to riding herd over his mech designers who appeared unable to show any initiative during a crisis, he received a high-priority alert on his comm.

"What? Major Verle wants me to come down to the infirmary?"

Did he change his mind about granting Ves permission to inspect the corpses of the acolytes? Probably not, since the security officers likely inspected them at their own department. The message also explicitly summoned him with urgency, so he doubted it had anything to do with an autopsy.

"Stay put." He instructed Ketis. "I’m being called elsewhere. If I’m delayed for any reason, I’ll tell you what to do."

"Okay, teacher."

"You don’t have to call me teacher anymore. You’ve graduated from my instruction. You can call me Ves if you like." He smiled.

"Really? That seems rather disrespectful.. Mayra always told me you civilized folk like to keep it stiff and formal."

"That’s with strangers. We’re long past that stage. Besides, Brighters aren’t as stiff as the Vesians and many other states. None of the Vandals will turn up their noses if you call me by my first name."

"Okay then, Ves!" She chirped.

As Ves navigated through the corridors of the Shield of Hispania, he walked past many busy work crews in full gear. Security officers in bulky exoskeleton armor swept the corridors with a variety of means, forcing Ves and the other Vandals to press themselves against the bulkheads to go past their ranks.

A strong undercurrent of concern spread among the crew. The Vandals all anticipated the imminent arrival of either the Temple of Haatumak and her many pirate escorts or some other force that worked on their behalf.

The Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet herefore tried to boost as far away from the emergence zone as possible. Any force that followed their exact same route would likely transition out of FTL within that zone and be in easy engagement range to the allied fleet if nothing changed.