The Mech Touch

Thirty mechs flew through a long and dark tunnel. Each of them belonged to several different groups that had previously turned their weapons against each other.

Perhaps they would have continued to shoot and fight each other until they suffered a mutual defeat if outside factors hadn't interfered!

The intervention from Ves along with the approach of a strong external mech force prompted the groups to lay down their previous grievances. By accepting the offer to pool their forces together, the mech pilots stood a better chance of preserving themselves.

This did not mean that their grievances had melted.

Even when he was stuffed inside the cramped rabbit shuttle, Ves could feel the underlying tension and vigilance of the different groups of mech pilots. Their formations remained tight and maintained a healthy distance from each other.

Of all of the groups that Ves had persuaded along the way, only the Roving Hunters were truly worthy of his trust. They had fought alongside the Larkinsons once before and they did not exhibit any signs of betraying him. Captain Rivington and his men came across as some of the most decent and normal Lifers that Ves had met so far. This was quite an accomplishment.

While Ves was used to dangerous situations where he didn't have as much reliable protection as he liked, he felt a lot more out of his element this time.

What frustrated him was the type of mechs that everyone utilized. The overwhelming number of them were biomechs, with only the Right Siders fielding purely metallic mechs.

Since Ves was not very familiar with the finer design paradigms of organic machines, he wasn't able to make detailed judgements of the biomechs utilized by the other groups.

For example, he could tell that the biomechs fielded by the Brakkard Consortium were cheaper and less refined than average, but he didn't know to what extent. Were they on the lower end of a midrange mech? Were they upper budget mechs? He wasn't able to make a definitive judgement!

In a dangerous and uncertain situation, every scrap of data was worth its weight in exotics. The more nuggets of intelligence he had at his disposal, the more informed decisions he could make.

Right now, the overall lack of solid information caused him to feel as if he was as blind as a bat! He had no idea where he was careening towards, both figuratively and literally.

Ruuzon Arena should already be pretty far away! If Ves and his current allies ascended to the surface, then the odds of encountering an ambush should be low. The only acute threat he had to be concerned about is getting shot at by aerial ranged mechs that were flying high above the premises of Ruuzon Arena and elsewhere.

"Mr. Larkinson, can you really hold all of these people together?" Captain Rivington asked through their private communication channel. "I have serious misgivings with your decision to put all of these different groups of mechs together. They were enemies to each other before you arrived!"

Ves sighed behind his helmet. "Beggars can't be choosers. I'm aware of the risks, but we can't be too picky. As long as they are willing to play along, I won't mind their presence."

"Look up. I think we are nearing an exit."

The tunnel noticeably curved upwards. There was obvious light at the end, so the exit wasn't obstructed.

Pretty much everyone had grown tired of the tunnels and underground environment. It was too confining and limited the performance of many mechs. Once the mechs reached the open sky, they could quickly get their bearings and navigate towards their destination with much more flexibility and choices than before!

The mechs flew a bit faster. They reached the open exit and passed through the gates without any effort.

Daylight and open skies graced their forms once again! The organic machines seemed to revel in their return to an open environment.

"We're free!"

"We made it out!"

Just as Ves expected, the tunnel that they had chosen to travel through led to the outskirts of Veoline. When Ves patched into the feeds, he observed that the district they were in was largely made up of low-class residential structures.

The area was largely made up of simple tree-like houses and apartment buildings interspersed with basic gardens and other touches of greenery. The tree structures were all smaller and less sophisticated than the ones in downtown Veoline, but other than that they were well-maintained due to the help of caretaker beetles.

However, this period of celebration lasted only a short time before the mechs detected a substantial group of mechs in the distance!

Alarms sounded and the mechs all adopted a vigilant, battle-ready posture while maintaining a very low altitude.

No one dared to fly high at this moment. Anyone who flew above the urban sprawl would merely turn into an open target that could be shot at from any position!

Even though the tree structures in this residential district weren't high, they were still massive and numerous enough to provide some cover.

As Ves examined the images of the distant biomechs, he quickly recognized their colors and markings.

"Those mechs are identical to the ones belonging to the Ruuzon Guard!"

"What are they doing out here?"

"Look at them. They must have gone through one hell of a fight."

The Ruuzon Guard weren't supposed to be stationed all the way here unless they were assigned to guard the tunnel exit.

The conditions of the distant biomechs did not look good. Many of them bore scorch marks, impact wounds and cuts. Blood of varying tints covered their organic frames. Their equipment didn't look in good shape either.

"Who did they fight?"

"I don't know."

Both sides were able to observe each other. The Ruuzon Guard stationed on the surface seemed to be taken aback at the emergence of a gathering of different groups.

Just as Ves thought that this stalemate would continue, his Odineye detected an encrypted signal being transmitted between one of the Ruuzon Guard mechs in the distance and one of the Ruuzon Guard mechs flying a short distance away from his rabbit shuttle!

Ves had a bad feeling about this. He already knew that many official organizations had been subverted by different factions and interest groups. Plenty of them had abandoned their duties in order to fulfill objectives that had nothing to do with their official responsibilities!

He needed to know what the Ruuzon Guard mech pilots were saying to each other. However, since the mechs communicated through organic systems, it was not possible to hack them utilizing ordinary measures!

"Lucky." He sent a discrete signal to the gem cat slumped on his shoulder. "Can you tap into the transmissions between the two biomechs?"

"Meoww…"

Though Lucky did not sound enthusiastic, the conditions were much more favorable this time. Since it was just a short time after the biomechs exited the tunnel, they were still relatively close to each other.

This meant it was much easier to intercept the tightbeam signals that the two mechs were transmitting to each other.

Unfortunately, the situation didn't work out the way he anticipated. While it was possible to intercept the signals, they were highly encrypted. Even though Lucky possessed formidable hacking powers, his brute-force cracking capabilities weren't impressive.

This meant that without a key or a clue on how to crack the encryption, it would take at least hours to decipher the lock!

"Meow…"

If Lucky was able to hack biocomponents, then this would have been a different story, but since this wasn't the case, Ves couldn't use him to listen in on the conversation that must be taking place!

Ves already noticed that the temporary coalition had slightly shifted their positions. They were slowly opening up some distance to the three Ruuzon Guard mechs they traveled with. If these biomechs joined forces with the twenty-one damaged mechs in the distance, then they might be able to overpower everyone else!

Just like everyone else, Ves wanted to know whether he could still regard the Ruuzon Guard as friends or foes. If the latter was the case, then he needed to know as soon as possible!

He suddenly came up with an alternate idea. He looked at the feeds and examined the distance between his rabbit shuttle and the Ruuzon Guard mechs.

"It's not too far.. but not too close either. Will it work?"

Some time ago, Ves came up with a class of spiritual creations he labelled as spiritual augments. These were temporary spiritual constructs that he slotted into his mind in order to channel his Spirituality in very specific applications.

He generally avoided using them because they took the essence that made him such a good mech designer and used it for another purpose!

However, this was an emergency situation and he wasn't designing any mechs at the moment. He decided to go through with this idea and pulled out an old design file stored in the deepest parts of his cranial implant.

A spiritual ear appeared out of nowhere. The simple spiritual recorder projection was capable of conveying sounds to him even if he put it in a different room.

The only issue with it was that its range was fairly limited.

"Jannzi."

"Yes?"

"I need to get closer to the Ruuzon Guards. Can you fly your mech a little closer in their direction? The closer, the better, but don't look suspicious."

"Why would you do that, Ves? The Ruuzon Guards aren't necessarily our friends anymore."

"I know, but just do it! Oh, and make sure the Optimon follows along."

The Perringer and Optimon continued to hold the rabbit shuttle as the biomech technicians were still working on gaining control over it. Ves didn't know how long it would take for them to be able to operate the shuttle independently, but he hoped it would be soon!

Since the groups weren't maintaining a constant position, it was easy enough for the biomechs holding the shuttle to drift a few meters closer at a time.

Ves concentrated on extending his spiritual ear to the Ruuzon Guard mechs. Just as he feared, his range fell short, though he found to his surprise that it was a bit longer than he initially expected.

His growth in Spirituality led to a growth in range. It was too bad that this was not enough to carry his ear all the way forward.

"Jannzi, forget about being discrete. Just fly twenty meters closer to them. If you get my shuttle this close, I can patch into their communications. I need to know what they are talking about!"

Though Venerable Jannzi knew this was an extremely risky course of action, she knew the urgency behind it. The Ruuzon Guard mechs had been transmitting a lot of signals to each other. Whatever they were discussing might be very important.

When the Roving Hunter mechs all moved closer to the Ruuzon Guard, everyone else became more vigilant. Were they joining forces with the arena guards or something?

Even the three Ruuzon Guard mechs appeared to be spooked. They were already flying away in order to open up some distance again.

This meant that Ves only got close long enough to listen in to a brief verbal exchange!

"...What are you doing? Don't give these rabble any indication that we are waiting for our allies to reinforce us. You only need to hold out for around five more minutes. By then, we can box these sc.u.m in and wipe them all out, starting with the foreigner.The revolution has begun, and we must make a statement."

Uh oh. This sounded very bad. The officer who spoke these words sounded quite determined. It was highly likely that he definitely belonged to a camp that was hostile to Ves!