The Mech Touch

It only took less than a day for the Mirror Raiders to annihilate the Roid Rats as a local gang.

Though plenty of sc.u.m had shook off their Roid Rat armbands or uniforms, no one cared about these smaller figures. The locals never believed in permanent loyalty, just like real pirates. They soon knocked on the doors of other gangs and managed to join them with ease, though their new employers placed them in the bottom of their hierarchies.

The quick and ruthless strikes initiated by Lieutenant Sendra had swept over the Roid Rats with undaunted aggression. The actions of the Swordmaidens completely forced the rest of the Mirror Raiders to play along in order to prevent any defeat due to splitting their strength.

In the aftermath of the sudden attack, the Mirror Raiders tentatively conquered much of the turf and some of the material possessions of their opponents.

A fair amount of Roid Rats had raided the armories and storehouses of the gang before they fled. The value of these goods were not that much, so no one bothered to follow up on these thefts.

What truly bothered Abis was the reaction from the true masters of Ulimo Citadel. Provoking the Roid Rats before annihilating them sparked a significant disturbance in the public area of Ulimo Citadel!

He decided to convene his command group.

Ketis, Dietrich, Rodan and Sendra gathered in one of the private rooms of the Roid Rat stronghold.

The corpses that used to dr.a.p.e over the table had already been removed, but the cleaning bots hadn't managed to wipe away the drying smears of blood.

Everyone except for Ketis glowered at Sendra. The Swordmaiden mech officer had completely defied Abis by acting out her own plans. Just because she succeeded did not mean that her actions were right!

The situation of the Mirror Raiders was precarious to begin with. Each and every one of them were Larkinsons. After attacking so many established pirate groups, the Larkinson Clan had turned into one of the most hated presences in the Nyxian Gap! Hardly any pirate would tolerate Larkinsons in their midst!

This meant that maintaining their cover was vital to the Mirror Raiders. Abis wanted to take it slow and steady, but Sendra disagreed from the start.

The Flagrant Vandal officer thought that the Swordmaiden lieutenant would abide his command. Why not? The chain of command was clear and Major Verle had unequivocally put him in charge.

Unfortunately, the Swordmaidens simply did what they wanted with little regard for his own priorities!

Back in the Mech Corps, such behavior was tantamount to insubordination!

Rodan looked at everyone with a tinge of guilt. As a Black Cat, he should have anticipated the willfulness of the Swordmaidens. His failure to anticipate Sendra's determination to executive her own plan was a massive oversight.

Even though they were all Larkinsons, that only meant they had something in common. There was still a lot of diversity in the clan and everyone developed different ideas on how to embody its values and principles.

He began the meeting.

"According to our investigations, the disturbances that emerged as a result of our war against the Roid Rats have not reached the upper levels of Ulimo. Their sights are set on far greater concerns than what is happening in their backyard. Aside from the concern shown by the middle and lower officers of the Dry Snakes, the pirate authorities largely don't pay much mind to turf wars at this level."

The Roid Rats were fairly weak and forgettable to begin with. They only occupied a tiny slice of the poorest sections of the marketplace. Capturing some gambling dens and killing a few hundred sc.u.m did not affect Ulimo's operation in the slightest!

The news caused Abis to sigh in relief. "That is good news. The last thing we can afford is to attract scrutiny from the Dry Snakes."

Lieutenant Sendra smirked. "I told you that the bosses wouldn't pay attention. Taking baby steps is completely necessary. If you want something, take it! That's the pirate way!"

"What if we lost?!"

"Then we only have ourselves to blame for lacking judgement and being too weak."

The Swordmaiden officer was completely unrepentant! Abis already began to feel a headache from this. Including the Swordmaidens into the ranks of the Mirror Raiders sounded great in theory. The words spoken by Sendra made it clear that she possessed a true pirate mindset.

Yet Abis would have rather kept her and her fellow Swordmaidens out of this mission! They were too high-profile and way too daring for his liking.

Just one mistake could spell their doom. In such a situation, it made sense to minimize their risks. Each step they took could end up triggering a landmine. This was why Abis deliberately wanted to move slowly.

As for Sendra? She just pointed her finger at a direction that she felt right before sprinting straight through a minefield!

To Abis and most of the Mirror Raiders, the Swordmaidens only managed to avoid stepping onto the many mines due to luck!

Abis argued with Sendra for a few minutes. The atmosphere in the room grew hotter as their opposing mindsets clashed.

Rodan stretched his hand in order to interrupt their shouting. "Stop! We have already fought the Roid Rats. Our enemies are no more and we have managed to avoid attention from the bigshots. What we should do now is to continue playing with the hand that we have been dealt."

"Do you have any ideas?"

"Maybe we can make use of the territory we have conquered to set up a foundation in Ulimo. Once we take over the properties of the Roid Rats and operate them ourselves, we can become a permanent fixture in Ulimo Base."

"What does that matter?" Abis looked confused.

"We'll be on the same side as the Dry Snakes!" Sendra shouted with a grin. "Don't you realize what I have been trying to do? The first way to get closer to the pirates in charge of Ulimo is to become a part of Ulimo! Now that we are able to do this, we might have a chance to receive invitations from the Dry Snakes. They might recruit us or ask us to become their subordinates. If we're lucky, some of us may even be assigned in the core sections of Ulimo!"

Ulimo Citadel was not a single underground stronghold. Instead, the pirates dug up multiple caverns in the moon-sized asteroid that they called home. There was a fair distance between the public marketplace and the restricted core sections of Ulimo.

Sneaking into the latter was incredibly difficult for that reason! Not even the Black Cats dared to use their infiltrator suits and stealth gadgets to cross over. Rodan and his fellow intelligence operatives had already scouted out some of the security checkpoints and discovered that they were partially manned by security experts of the Xona Stalkers.

The Black Cats weren't confident enough that their own stealth suits would be able to circ.u.mvent the anti-stealth measures employed by the subordinate pirate outfit!

Therefore, in order to complete their mission, the Mirror Raiders had to find a different way to get into the restricted sections.

Everyone in the room realized that they could only proceed onto the path opened up by Lieutenant Sendra.

"Fine. We will do what you say." Abis gritted his teeth. "I want you to be upfront and forthright about your intentions from now on. I will not tolerate any further independent actions. Have I made myself clear, Itris?!"

The disguised Swordmaiden officer continued to look smug. "Don't worry. I know my loyalties. I will do anything that allows us to complete the mission. Just keep in mind that I have been in the pirate business longer than all of you. All of you have been acting as if we are in the shadier parts of civilized space, but that is completely wrong. The rules are different in the Nyxian Gap. Since we pirates dare to employ taboo weapons, what else won't we do?!"

She made a very clear point. Abis felt as if it might not have been a good idea to put him in charge of this mission. Major Verle had good reasons to appoint him as the leader of the Mirror Raiders, but his understanding only stretched up to a point.

Standing at the side, Ketis and Dietrich didn't bother with joining this discussion. They were younger than the rest and didn't possess enough of a voice in command decisions.

They opened a direct channel with each other in order to chat in private.

"Your fellow sister's actions have really caused us all a lot of trouble." Dietrich said.

"She makes complete sense, you know." Ketis calmly replied. "The Nyxian pirates are the same as pirates in other places. Don't let Ulimo Citadel lack of anarchy fool you. Any law and order you see on the surface is just a shallow means of staying in power. The Dry Snakes possess cold hearts and really won't be bothered if we wipe out a single gang. They will only step in when the operation of the marketplace is under threat. As long as we don't affect their bottom line, we can do anything!"

That was something that Dietrich felt was a step too far. "You women are playing a dangerous game. I did not sign up for this. Will your sister keep stirring up trouble?"

Ketis chuckled. "I know her well. She has already plotted out her next three steps. As soon as she leaves this room, she'll immediately engage her follow-up plan."

The Swordmaidens disliked waiting around. They were women of action!

Her words only made Dietrich more worried. Before he signed up to the Larkinson Clan, he was just the son of the leader of Walter's Whalers. Back in Cloudy Curtain, his old gang didn't really amount to much. This modest background had quickly caused him to feel out of depth.

This mission was far more dangerous than he thought. With teammates such as Sendra who just did what she wanted with little regard for Abis' authority, who knew what enemies they attracted next!

Abis eventually put an end to the discussion. "Alright, that's enough. Let us proceed with taking over the former assets of the Roid Rats. We will have our hands full in the next couple of days. If we want to prove we are in it for the long run, then we will need to recruit a lot of locals to run the facilities that we have taken over. Let's do this quickly so we can proceed to the next step of our plan."

The meeting ended shortly after that. Everyone split up, though Ketis quietly met with Sendra somewhere quiet.

"I'm proud of you, sister." Sendra placed her gauntlet onto the mech designer's armored shoulder. "I missed seeing you in action, but when I saw the footage, I could feel you are truly in tune with your new sword."

"Adapting to a one-handed sword was easier than I thought."

The older Swordmaiden smiled at that. "It's a shame you aren't a mech pilot. You would have become a great swordsman mech pilot if you possessed the right genetic aptitude."

"It's okay, sister. I can do so much more for us after studying under my new boss. Just wait. After a year or two, I will completely transform the way we fight!"

The Swordmaidens all had high expectations of Ketis. With someone as good in mech design as Ves guiding her, there was no way she would become a mediocre mech designer in the future!

"Let's head out before the rest gets suspicious."

In the following days, the Mirror Raiders quickly made their apparent intentions known. The locals, visitors and rival gangs all heard how the newly-arrived pirate outfit intended to establish a foundation in Ulimo!

When it became clear that the Mirror Raiders truly wanted to join Ulimo's power base, the Dry Snakes finally sent an envoy to discuss important matters.