The Mech Touch

"Why are we not allowed to go with you?! It's not fair!" Andraste whined while holding Lucky in her arms.

"Meow."

Ves let out a breath and knelt down in front of his second daughter. He patted his redheaded girl on the head, though she did not look particularly pleased at this gesture.

"Hey, your time to fight has not yet come. It is one thing to watch a hunt taking place while sitting in a shuttle high above the air. It is another thing to take an active part in a hunt. I had to negotiate with the mechers for a long time before they agreed that I can ride along our hunting team by sitting inside the cockpit of an auxiliary mech. Do you want to spend hours squeezed inside a cramped and boring coffin?"

"That does not sound boring at all, papa. It sounds fun!"

Ves patted Andraste on her head yet again. "Let's wait until you are a few decades older. Children are not supposed to take part in stuff like this. Be a good girl and keep your brother and sister company, okay? 1 promise 1 will let you go on hunts like these when you are older and able to take care of yourself?"

He argued with his stubborn girl a bit longer before he sent her away. Her disgruntled expression showed that she did not like this outcome at all, but what else could he do? There was no way he wanted her to risk getting hurt after that debacle in Davute.

"Our mechs are ready to go." Captain Gheri of the Swordmaidens reported to Ves. "Thank you for taking the time to tune our mechs. They look better than ever. I can feel their eagerness to test out their strength."

"I am pleased to hear that you approve of my work. I was afraid that I would change so much that you would lose your familiarity and tacit cooperation with your machines. I have refrained from making any drastic upgrades for that reason."

Ves knew enough about mech pilots that they would always have to spend weeks if not months on retraining whenever their mechs went through substantial changes.

An upgrade may improve the technical parameters of a mech, but if those changes were disruptive enough to mess up the mech pilot's performance, the net performance gain might go into negative territory!

He knew that this was an especially great factor in situations where highly skilled mech pilots were paired with mechs that featured high skill ceilings.

In cases like these, the absolute performance of a mech was not as important anymore. What Ves should actually be paying attention to was how extensively the mech pilot was able to utilize the existing properties of a mech to the best effect.

This was why tuning up the machine was the best way he could help her out. The Monster Slayers and the Crystal Lords he worked on still performed in the same way. Ves even made sure to preserve the unique modifications that increased their fit to their assigned mech pilots.

What he did was to increase the fault tolerance of the mechs, allowing them to become more reliable under great pressure. It was only in the most stressful situations that relatively minor adjustments could mean the difference between victory and defeat!

Of course, Ves also did more than that in the workshop. This hunting trip was of great importance to him. It was unlikely that he would visit this planet again, so he intended to make the most out of his only stay on this memorable hunting planet.

"Our transport is due to arrive in ten minutes. We shall be ready to load our mechs and supplies before we depart to the Chasseur Continent. Once we drop of! at the entry point of the Sorara #390 Hunting Ground, we will need to remain on high alert at every hour of the day. I cannot emphasize to you enough that there is danger in every corner. There are powerful beasts that have learned how to hide themselves in order to better ambush our mechs."

Ves looked surprised at that. "The sensor systems of our mechs aren't the best, but I am pretty sure the Huntmaster has a pretty good array that excels at picking up life signs."

"That may be so, but we have encountered mutated beasts that our sensors have failed to pick up until they were right on top of our mechs. We have learned not to rely too much on tech to do the work that we should be doing in the first place. We constantly have to pay attention to the environment while utilizing our own judgment. We will not be able to accommodate your requests by that time. You may be our leader, but once we step into the field, I will be in charge. Is that clear?"

Ves gave the Swordmaiden captain a reassuring smile.

"I am not a hunter. I do not presume to know better than you, so I fully agree with the decision to put you in charge of your hunting team. That said, do not disregard my feedback. I will refrain from challenging your authority in the field, but I am highly knowledgeable in both technical and more esoteric matters. I possess unique insights in the application of E energy, which allows me to gain a better understanding of what our prey is doing during a fight."

Captain Gheri nodded at that. "I have heard that you know your way around a battle, so I shall trust you to not say anything that interferes with our combat approach."

Now that they had reached an understanding, they waited until the transport vessel arrived from above.

The vehicle had been adapted for combat. It was not as big and comprehensive as a combat carrier, but it was capable of bringing a modest amount of mechs and supplies into contested territory.

Ves took one last look at his children and the cats.

Similar to yesterday, they would be watching the hunt from above. Ves had made a special deal with President Tarich in order to let his children watch from a distance.

He knew that his kids would become incredibly upset with him if he just left them with their nannies while he simply went off on an exciting hunt.

Of course, a real hunting trip largely consisted of trekking across dangerous territory while only spending a fraction of that time on killing beasts.

He made sure that his kids would have plenty of ways to entertain themselves while they remained stuck inside for so many hours.

Time passed by as the transport and the shuttle made their way to the Chasseur Continent.

Along the way, both visible and invisible mechs escorted the vehicles and watched out for the approach of any threatening exobirds.

While it was rare, it was not unheard of for vehicles in transit to get assailed by flight-capable mutated beasts!

During the trip, Ves spent a bit of time on familiarizing himself with all of the mech pilots handpicked by Captain Gheri.

Though none of them stood out to him, each of them were veterans of plenty of battles and hunts.

The 6 Monster Slayers were all piloted by Captain Gheri and her veteran Swordmaidens. Though not all of them were part of the old guard that went all the way back to their original pirate days, the ones that joined up later had already spent years of training and fighting in the Swordmaiden tradition.

The three Crystal Lords were piloted by the best marksmen among the mech pilots assigned to the Ocanon VI Branch. Each of them happened to be former members of the Living Sentinels.

The sole Huntmaster was piloted by a Flagrant Vandal, which was a good fit.

Captain Gheri even replaced the rookies who were previously assigned to the Hymenonteras with a pair of reliable Heavensworders. They could fill in for any of the previous mech pilots if any accidents occurred.

This was the complete composition of the hunting team. Aside from carrying their handful of equipment, the mechs also carried heavy packs filled with spare energy cells and other supplies.

Although the hunters did not intend to stay in the Chasseur Continent for a long time, it was still prudent to carry extra gear, including field repair tools that could be used to conduct simple fixes in the field.

That weighed down the mechs considerably. Ves could hear the joints and plates of the mechs groaning from all of the extra tons of weights mounted onto the back of the machines.

The Hymenopteras had to bear the greatest burden, but they were designed for this job. The base model had been designed to haul around heavy containers in factories and logistical centers. The variant utilized by the hunting team was much better equipped to carry all of that weight on its back.

The biggest downsides were the drop in speed and maneuverability of the mechs.

This was why the Huntmaster and a couple of Monster Slayers only carried lighter packs on their backs.

They served as scouts as well as the vanguard. They only needed to stall the approach of a powerful beast long enough to give the other mechs time to dismount their heavier packs.

Ves never took part in such an expedition. Most of the mech battles he became involved in largely consisted of straightforward battles where his mechs sortied from their carriers.

This was a new experience, and Ves savored it while constantly learning more about the conditions of an actual hunt.

The Huntmaster that possessed the most sensitive array soon transmitted a warning.

"Detected a single large heat signature underground. Unlikely to be strong."

"Walk around. We do not have the time to clean up any rabble."

The mechs marched past without incident.

Perhaps the underground creature could have sprung out of the ground and chased after the mechs, but that would have exposed it to all of its enemies.

The mechs still remained vigilant in case this actually happened, but their worries were unfounded this time.

"Stay sharp. Not all exobeasts are smart enough to lay low when catching sight of a superior number of indigestible mechs."

As the machines continued to go uphill on the arid hills of the Sorara #390 Hunting Ground, they indeed encountered a few 'stupid' exobeasts.

They were usually large and clumsy beasts that had mostly relied on their bodies rather than their underdeveloped brains to win their fights.

There was no need for the hunting team to go all out against these crude beasts. The two Monster Slayers in the vanguard took it upon themselves to solve these obstacles.

The two swordsman mechs always moved forward in a pincer and straightforwardly slashed their powerful greatswords on the same beast at the same time.

None of the beasts attacked in this manner had been able to defend against sword strikes from two opposing directions!

Not even the panicked but powerful tail attacks could strike a Monster Slayer when its veteran mech pilot skillfully evaded them before they came close enough to deal crushing damage.

Cleaning up the exobeasts once they exposed themselves was easy.

The harder part was to maintain high focus against any nearby threats when the latter had yet to reveal themselves.

The mech pilots could not afford to rest or lower their concentration for fear of getting ambushed by an exobeast that was stronger than the norm.

Still, as several hours slowly went by, such exceptions never occurred.

The frequency of exobeast encounters rapidly dropped from the moment they approached the crater that served as the lair of the Giant Stone Eater.

Somehow, this massive beast was able to claim its own territory. This was good for the hunters because the probability was low that any other beast would show up and band together against the hunters.

Captain Gheri began to issue her orders. "Lower our packs. Let us leave them in that depression before we climb up the hill. Bring only the essentials and nothing more. We will need to preserve as much mobility as possible in order to evade the Giant Stone Eater's artillery strikes."

The tension within the hunting team rose as they had come close to challenging one of the powerful mutated beasts of this hunting ground.

Survival could not be guaranteed. Now that they had decided to conduct a valid hunt, the Hunting Association had made it clear that the hunters needed to start and end their own business.

This was a sacred ritual in which the mech pilots intended to prove their worth as hunters with their highest leader as a witness!