The Mech Touch

While Ves and the Roving Hunters were trying to bring a number of biomechs online in order to defend themselves against an approaching threat, elsewhere in the area the fighting still raged as hot as ever!

The conservative faction lost a lot of credibility after losing the design duel and having their dirty laundry aired by Master Brixton. As a result, their leaders and authority figures no longer held sway over their organizations.

Many subordinates either ignored the instructions from above or even rebelled against the current order! With so many people acting outside of the established pattern, the leaders lost so much control that their orders no longer conformed to the situation on the ground!

This was why communication had turned into a mess. With leaders unable to determine whether their underlings were traitors and vice versa, trust in both sides of every relationship had dropped to the lowest point in the history of the LRA!

Due to this breakdown, many units had to fend for themselves. They no longer transmitted information to each other or requested orders. This caused many contested planets in the LRA to enter a period of darkness where chaos reigned.

While the more rural and monolithic regions of the state were spared from the violence, the citizens there were watching in horror as the more developed and more fractured regions were becoming more engulfed in the fires of war!

The situation had gone out of hand!

The glorious and righteous revolution that impatient leaders like Master Brixton had envisioned in their plans had morphed into something much uglier! It seemed that as soon as the rebels tore down the veneer of civility that had long suppressed their society, all kinds of shady interest groups popped up to pursue their own vendettas!

After so many centuries of peace and stagnation, a lot of rot had built up in the LRA. Now that this filth gained license to do whatever they wanted, they pursued their own goals without any restraint!

A pushback was inevitable. All of these troublemakers not only tarnished the noble cause, but also made the state vulnerable to outside intervention.

No matter whether the conservatives or the opposition won in the end, neither side wanted the neighboring states to take advantage of their weakness!

Fortunately, the core military of the LRA remained staunchly neutral. While not every military unit was clean, it helped that both sides formed an unspoken pact to leave the main military forces out of the conflict. While some went on to squash the various fires that had broken out in important star systems, most mech divisions remained stationed at the border.

Due to this vigilant posture, the neighboring states refrained from taking action. Their best option was to stand aside, because the LRA was already doing a very good job at wrecking itself.

Once the revolution came to a close, the LRA would definitely be weakened! The only important variable was to what extent it diminished.

While the fighting at Ruuzon Arena intensified for reasons that no one understood, at a certain area, a number of damaged mechs were stashed.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten about the damaged and broken mechs that had just starred in the design duel that precipitated the revolution. Their importance had faded the moment they fought in the matches and achieved victory or defeat.

The Lifers generally weren't interested in Dr. Navarro's dueling mechs. They already had plenty of biomechs and they could have bought one from his mech company if they happened to be fans of his work.

As for the mechs prepared by Ves, the fact that they were mechanical limited their attraction to the locals. Only foreigners and a small number of Lifers comprehended their value and uniqueness, but few were in a position to do anything about it. The site where the arena personnel stashed the dueling mechs was largely inaccessible!

The arena took the security of its dueling mechs seriously. There were too many instances in the galaxy where saboteurs and hackers managed to tamper with competitive mechs just before they participated in a match.

This was why many competitive venues employed tight restrictions surrounding mechs that were employed in a recent match. Everytime something happened under their watch, the arena would receive a lot of blame!

Of course, at this time, hardly any arena employee could spare any attention towards safeguarding any dueling mechs. In fact, with all of the killing and destruction going on, they probably abandoned their posts and holed up in the nearest stronghold or bolthole from their positions!

Strange glows enveloped one of the ten mechs. The Valkyrie Redeemer, which had previously fought a thrilling battle against the Frokyn, disappeared in a matter of seconds.

A moment later, a shimmering glow began to envelop the Ferocious Piranha before taking it away.

The two Bright Warriors soon followed suit before it was the turn of the Transcendent Punisher!

Only a minute passed before the mechs had been whisked away. Whoever was responsible for the theft did not even let up the broken parts and debris that had been piled in a corner!

The entire space fell dormant again. No unusual glows or disappearances occurred again. The five damaged and broken biomechs of Dr. Navarro was left alone as if they were unwanted children.

Several kilometers away, Ves was completely ignorant of what had happened to his work. In fact, he had long forgotten about his five dueling mechs as he was currently too far away to reach them and put them to use. Rather than dream about resources and assets that he would never be able to reach, he felt it was much more useful to focus on the more immediate situation!

"The enemy mechs are rapidly closing in!" Ves shouted as he eyed the progress of the nine invading biomechs. "You need to move out now! This space is too small for you to fight and exert your strength!"

It was highly unfavorable for the Larkinsons and Roving Hunters to fight the hostile mechs when bottled up in this mech hall. With only a single exit, the enemy would be able to blockade those inside and wait for reinforcements.

It was much more preferable to take the fight to a more open space such as the loading hall where his honor guard had recently fought against the invading footsoldiers.

The heroic-looking Taragon piloted by Captain Rivington walked out first. The floor thundered as multiple tons of dense exotic-reinforced flesh walked from one end of the hall to the other end. The swordsman mech already held out a thick blade in anticipation of imminent combat.

The Bluestar piloted by Carlie Jinten followed suit. The marauder mech held a carbine for now, but its mace was within easy reach if it ever needed to whack an enemy mech up close!

The Optimon piloted by Oliver Vlambeer followed at a more hesitant pace. The rookie that the Roving Hunters recently took on not only lacked dueling experience, but also felt apprehensive about fighting his first 'true' battle.

Unlike the veterans of the competitive team, Oliver hadn't built up the acc.u.mulation of fighting experience required to face the battle head-on. He had never killed an enemy mech pilot in his life, but the situation he was thrust upon might force him to do so in order to defend his life!

While Ves wasn't able to observe everything the mech pilots felt, he was still able to pick up some signs as he observed the three biomechs moving out.

"Mr. Vlambeer is the weak link of this team."

He couldn't do anything about it. Captain Rivington should doubtlessly be aware of the younger mech pilot's nervousness, so Ves didn't feel the need to intervene.

He focused on his own mech pilots instead.

The Perringer was a mech that diverged substantially from the current and future incarnation of the Shield of Samar.

Compared to his first original mech design, the Perringer was many times more refined. As a second-class mech, the mech was not only capable of flight, but also resisted a lot more damage even when it faced other second-class mechs!

"Maybe I should design another offensive knight mech as well." Ves idly muttered. "The Aurora Titan is still important, but it's just too slow to participate in offensive actions."

That was something left for later. For now, Ves wanted to make sure that his mech pilots were able to get a grip on their first biomechs.

As an expert pilot, Venerable Jannzi's adaptability was much better than ordinary mech pilots. The reading materials she skimmed through had taught a lot of basics to her, so she easily managed to get past the oddities and gain functional control of her biomech.

The Perringer moved forward. Its steps were shaky and its posture wobbled a bit. Some of the nearby biomech technicians frantically moved backwards in order to stay well out of the way if the biomech ever lost balance!

Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened. Knight mechs were some of the easy mechs to pilot, and the Perringer did not possess any complicated gimmicks or unusual modules that complicated Jannzi's life.

The only significant shortcoming that displeased both Ves and Jannzi was that the mech lacked a shield generator. Aside from that, the mech possessed solid and relatively balanced specs, which allowed the mech pilot to adopt any approach they wished.

"How are you doing, Jannzi?"

"It's odd. The Perringer is… an entirely new experience. It feels wrong for me to pilot it. I'm not used to fighting such a light and fast knight mech, but I can handle it. I am getting more and more accustomed to its operation with each passing second."

One of the greatest shortcomings was that the biomech was silent. As her powerful mind interfaced with the Perringer, she constantly expected the machine to welcome her presence and respond to her mental impulses.

Instead, she fell into a void where nothing happened outside of the programming of the mech.

While the mech obeyed her instructions well enough, it didn't convey anything extra. The mech didn't tell her whether it was worried, lonely or anything. The Perringer didn't even have the capacity to remember its own mech pilot on an emotional level, which prevented it from forming deep relationsh.i.p.s with anyone!

Since Venerable Jannzi was so used to working together with the Shield of Samar as a living partner, her discomfort with her current mech never abated. She didn't know how that would affect her performance in the upcoming battle, but she hoped that her strength as an expert pilot would be enough to make up the difference!

This was also why she didn't share any of her concerns and irritations to Ves. She didn't want him to assume that she would fail to do her part.

Even if she was forced to pilot a biomech, she was still a far better mech pilot than anyone! Her pride did not allow her to admit her weakness to lesser mech pilots!

As her conviction grew firmer, her force of will enveloped the hardy flesh and bone of the Perringer. The effect of this was rather minor as the competitive mech did not incorporate any resonating exotics, but it nevertheless allowed Jannzi to gain a greater feel over her temporary new biomech!

Seeing that Jannzi managed to get to grips with the Perringer, Ves no longer doubted her combat ability.

When he wanted to see how the Rotenring was doing, he turned his gaze just in time to see the striker mech lose its balance and fall to the floor! A loud and earthquake-inducing impact rattled the underground mech hall as the entire biomech fell flat on its face!