The Mech Touch novel Chapter 945

Once Ves left the shuttle bay and entered his office for the first time in a very long time, he noticed some changes since the last time he visited.

It was as if someone else took over his home.

"Well, it’s not like this office is my personal home." Ves shrugged.

Soon enough, Ves keyed himself to the office and logged into the terminal. The first thing he wanted to find out was the disposition of the mechs at the disposal of what was left of the Flagrant Vandals.

The second thing he wanted to find out was their actual condition in space. Besides some short descriptions from Major Verle, Ves hardly knew where the remnant allied fleet still stood in the Aeon Corona System.

As Ves summoned up a plot of the star system, he studied the known and estimated positions of all the human and sandman ships in local space.

"Seems like Aeon Corona VII turned into a hive of sandman motherships."

He had no idea what really went on there, but for some reason a large majority of sandman ships in the system continued to converge in orbit of Seven. They didn’t descend to the surface nor did they chase after human ships. Instead, they just orbited the planet as if they turned into satellites for some reason.

"Hmph. I bet that dwarf lover has something to do with it." Ves threw out a guess.

Ves only recently freed the sentient AI from its prison. Sigrund wasn’t completely free of all of his shackles, and probably still needed some time to adjust his state.

Then, he would probably leave and go as far away as possible. Sigrund wouldn’t possibly be stupid enough to stay here considering that a CFA warfleet would definitely arrive in the system sooner or later.

If there was one thing that could get the CFA’s rocks off, it was the existence of an actual sentient AI! Such a development was the culmination of one of their greatest dreams!

The intense concentration of sandman ships orbiting over Seven practically ruled out any continued human presence in the vicinity of the planet.

As the Shield of Hispania beat a desperate retreat, they observed many distant battles as other fleets fell from the onslaught of sandman motherships. Vandals, Swordmaidens, Vesians and pirate vessels all succumbed to the overwhelming number of alien aggressors.

It didn’t look good to the remaining cohesive force of Vandals and Swordmaidens. The two flagships survived as well as an additional Vandal combat carrier and two Swordmaiden light carriers.

"Five carriers in total. No transports, no cargo haulers, no logistics ships. Damn."

In the short term, the absence of their supply train wouldn’t affect them that much. Yet in his position as head designer, Ves knew how vital it was to bring along an abundant amount of supplies.

This went double or triple for any operations in the frontier, where there was a dearth of space stations where the fleet could resupply!

Ves already started to develop a headache at the thought of trying to keep the Vandal mechs in fighting conditions as fuel, energy, materials and replacement parts began to dwindle quickly.

Worse, each battle the Vandals fought accelerated the consumption of supplies. The Akkara heavy cannoneers especially spewed bucket loads of laser beams and ballistic shells in rapid succession!

Though the loss of so many carriers meant that the remnant fleet didn’t have to support so many heavy mechs anymore, what little they still possessed was more than enough to empty their reserves in a couple of intensive battles!

He came to an important conclusion after making this observation. "We need to avoid battle whenever we can! The more we fight, the faster we run out of supplies. It would be best if we didn’t have to fight at all!"

Sadly, pirates and the deserters gunning for the remnants of the Flagrant Swordmaidens did their best to force the opposite.

As Ves played out the maneuvers the fleet and its pursuers performed in the last couple of days, it became clear to him that no matter where they turned, the ships aligned to the Dragons of the Void always moved in a way to intercept their prey.

This dogged determination led Ves to believe the pirates strongly suspected or outright knew what the Flagrant Swordmaidens managed to retrieve from the surface.

"They’ll never give up pursuit if that’s the case."

Even if the remnant fleet managed to transition into FTL, the pirates would sure be following right behind.

It was no wonder that Major Verle expressed an intent to battle. It was best to get rid of these jackals sooner than later!

Despite what was best for the fleet, Ves couldn’t see any way that Major Verle would be able to get out without a fight. The pirates at the rear and the Finmoth Regal blocking the direction ahead became necessary obstacles for them to overcome.

"At least the pirates shouldn’t outnumber us as much."

The Dragons of the Void suffered just as must as any force when calamity struck. Even so, losing most of their ships didn’t deter the remaining pirate vessels from giving up the spoils Vandals and Swordmaidens obtained at great cost.

Ves considered all of the information he gathered and tried to figure out a way out of this hole they stumbled into. Yet no matter how hard he thought, he failed to come up with a viable idea.

"Even if we know everything about the Finmoth Regal, so what? We can’t hack their mechs or sabotage the combat carrier from remote."

Mutiny, desertion and rebellion was one of the worst things that could happen to a mech regiment! All of the investment put into building up the Finmoth Regal and her mech roster not only became moot, but was even being turned against the original owners!