The Mech Touch novel Chapter 889

Ves and Ketis ran out of the workshop with their packs slung behind their backs. The Swordmaiden mech designer attached the floating scabbard that usually floated after her on her back this time.

Caught up in their panic, fear of death and gleeful vandalism, the Vandals and Swordmaidens around them didn’t notice the odd pairing. Those who left instinctively grouped up but didn’t really care about who they fled with. Others didn’t bother about running and resolved to wreck as much gear as possible.

"Run, brothers! Live on and tell our tale! Don’t let our mech regiment forget about our sacrifice!"

The centuries of hatred fermenting between the Brighters and the Vesians along with the sensitive nature of the mission insured that few would live past this day. Perhaps in civilized space the two sides didn’t dare to go too far, but out here in the deep frontier the Vesians anything could happen.

A lot of servicemen and pirates already evacuated beforehand on the fleeing fast transports. Though they wouldn’t make it far into the red zone, they still hoped to reach the fabled safe zone.

Nonetheless, plenty still remained behind to perform some final errands. They also figured that the Vesians would pursue the fast transports first. They gambled upon fleeing in a neglected direction and use their field craft to hide their presence from Vesian pursuers. The hilly, craggy, half-broken and complex terrain in the red zone easily allowed small figures to squeeze through the cracks and hide themselves from most scanners.

With so many Vandals and Swordmaidens fleeing in the red zone, Ves figured there might be a decent chance for a handful of them to make it to the Starlight Megalodon. No matter what, the intense breakdown effect and the interference in the air enormously complicated any searches.

"Where are we going?!" Ketis asked as she followed after Ves.

"The third party I’ve contacted is waiting for us at a specific location! Let’s hurry up because she won’t linger around forever!"

Both of them jogged out of the collapsing camp and headed into the red zone at an angle. They avoided the straightest route towards the Starlight Megalodon and instead honed in on the outer edge.

Not many Vandals and Swordmaidens fled towards this direction as it didn’t bring them towards the safety of the red zone.

Right now, the mechs of the Flagrant Swordmaidens no longer maintained their combat cohesiveness. The Hostland Warriors and Meandering Monkeys surrounded them in order to annihilate them to the last mech.

Some of the Meandering Monkeys already turned towards the enemy camp. Their approach was only a matter of time!

"It’s here!" Ves said after they ran for ten minutes straight. "Calabast! Where are you!"

A stealthed vehicle emerged into view. It consisted of a small, slim aircar-sized crawler. Six sturdy legs supported a narrow chassis.

Ves immediately recognized the exquisite application of stealth technology. The Six-Sided Dice he jointly developed with Chief Avanaeon was like a horse cart in front of this crawler in terms of stealth refinement!

A hatch opened up, revealing Miss Calabast sitting behind the controls. "Get in quick! The Meandering Monkey mechs are already surrounding the perimeter. The sooner we go the smaller the chance we get caught!"

While Ketis looked stunned at the appearance of the stealth crawler, Ves shoved her inside and squeezed in after her. The interior of the crawler obviously underwent some hasty modifications. The rear portion of the interior should have held a crash seat or the like, but someone crudely cut away the fittings in order to make room.

Even then, Ketis and Ves barely fit in the rear! Their armor pressed and chafed against each other as they tried and failed to get comfortable. Ketis even had to detach her scabbard and place it on her lap at an awkward angle to make room. The crawler had never been designed to accommodate more than two people!

"I see now why you said we couldn’t bring Mayra along." Ketis uttered with barely any emotion. "If this vehicle was bigger..."

"Sorry doll, but this stealth crawler is a state-of-the-art all-terrain infiltration vehicle." Miss Calabast said from the front. Garbed in her semi-flexible reinforced infiltrator suit, she looked completely out of place from the passengers wearing rigid combat armor. "To be frank, we only ever use this crawler to sneak in or extract solo operatives. It’s capacity may not be much, but its stealth systems are top-notch. Bigger isn’t always better!"

As someone who studied stealth technology from the ground up, Ves knew what she meant. The larger the vehicle, the more energy and processing power required to sustain active stealth.

A crawler like this was obviously designed to minimize all possible forms of emissions on land. A stealth shuttle may be faster and possess more reach, but the disturbance thrown up in the air by a passing vehicle in flight was a lot harder to cover up.

Obviously, its long but narrow profile was a deliberate design feature. The small size of the crawler also allowed it to squeeze through narrow terrain features or even smaller alleyways. Stealth vehicles stereotypically consisted of broad, squat shuttles so a crawler like this fell out of most people’s expectations.

"What’s this vehicle called?" He asked with evident curiosity in his voice. "Who designed this crawler?"

"Wouldn’t you like to know." Miss Calabast smirked.

Evidently, she knew more but kept her mouth shut. This crawler was a highly sophisticated stealth vehicle designed by a considerably powerful organization. Calabast didn’t dare to mention any names because that might allow someone to trace its origins.

The crawler engaged its stealth systems again and began to plod slowly into the red zone. Ves noticed that the crawler moved fairly briskly under a complete antigrav field.

"Isn’t it risky to run a full antigrav field? Any mech with a decent set of gravitic sensors will be able to detect its presence." Ves questioned.