The Mech Touch

Two light carriers slowly flew past the asteroids as they made their way to a famous pirate stronghold.

The Bloody Fang and the Cruel Intention were light carriers that served as the main possessions of the Mirror Raiders, a small and forgettable pirate outfit. There were so many different pirate gangs operating in the Nyxian Gap that it didn't matter if the Mirror Raiders possessed no prior history.

Due to the inherent instability of pirate society and the devastating consequences of losing battles, a lot of pirates were used to forming and disbanding outfits within the span of a few years.

The larger pirate organizations that managed to build and protect a stronghold possessed much more permanency. Once they began to become productive members of the rudimentary pirate economy of the Nyxian Gap, they were no longer under the threat of falling apart due to suffering a single, devastating mishap.

Not everyone could be like the Dry Snakes. Bottom feeder outfits that barely managed to eke out a living were much more common.

In that regard, the Mirror Raiders were slightly better off despite their damaged state. They had two sh.i.p.s instead of one, and both of them were light carriers. Even though they suffered moderate 'battle losses' that dwindled their protection to just 57 mechs, that still provided them with enough strength to fend off many opportunistic enemies!

Even so, the carriers were not in good shape. The Cruel Intention still looked rather decent, as most of the damage only marred her hull plating. The Bloody Fang was worse off as one of her thrusters suffered some direct hits that impaired her mobility.

What was worse was that the rest of the Bloody Fang's propulsion system had begun to deteriorate!

Any naval engineer who looked at the Bloody Fang would immediately know that the ship would soon become dead in the water if she did not receive timely repairs.

The damaged pirate sh.i.p.s along with the decent but shabby-looking pirate mechs that escorted them looked no different from any other pirate outfit that was down on its luck.

That did not mean the Mirror Raiders was on the verge of falling apart. Their battle scars told of a hard fought battle which they eventually won. A considerable amount of containers rested in the cargo holds of the Bloody Fang and the Cruel Intention. Each of them was filled with either Kavenit or a random assortment of other valuable minerals.

This was the capital the Mirror Raiders relied upon to replenish their strength and rise up from their setback.

Before their arrival at Ulimo Base, the five most important members of this fake pirate outfit gathered in a meeting room aboard the Bloody Fang.

Ketis wore her upgraded Rising Red Dragon that had been decorated with numerous pirate trophies. She looked completely unlike a mech designer with her large laser pistol and her broad cutlass.

She now went by Avery, and her official function was infantry captain. Absolutely no one should ever be able to know that she was technically adept and a very capable mech designer!

Dietrich wore the lighter Sparous Vize which had been modified to look deliberately more gauche. It looked like a poor pirate's attempt at adding some class onto a serviceable suit of combat armor.

He played the role of Bo, the heir to the Mirror Raiders and a slightly foolhardy and inexperienced pirate.

Sitting quietly next to him was Lieutenant Sodo Rodan, a Black Cat intelligence officer trained by Calabast. While he didn't excel in fighting, he was very good in hacking and communications. He played a key role in trying to scope out Ulimo Citadel's defenses.

Leaning against the side of the bulkhead was Lieutenant Sendra, a rough-looking woman who clearly hailed from the Swordmaidens. She only looked kindly at Ketis and her fellow Swordmaidens. She put up a gruff face to everybody else, which didn't make her very popular.

Sendra took on the guise of Captain Itris, the strongest mech pilot and the second-in-command of the Mirror Raiders.

The final person to enter the compartment was Lieutenant-Commander Abis Firelight, a mech officer of the Flagrant Vandals.

Major Verle chose the commanding officer of the Mirror Raiders carefully. After contemplating several options from several mech forces, he settled on Abis. Not only did Verle know him well, but he was also known as a calm, thoughtful leader who rarely made any mistakes.

Though it sounded rather strange to put someone timid in charge of the Mirror Raiders, Major Verle and several other people believed that acting too boldly in Ulimo Citadel was just a recipe for disaster!

Abis adopted the role of Commander Domis, the founder and leader of the Mirror Raiders. His history was a bit murky, but he possessed obvious military traits which suggested that he was a military veteran or deserter.

All of them were Larkinsons. All of them were in disguise.

"From the moment we split up from the task force, our mission has begun." Abis began. "Please embody your role as best as possible and do not let down our guard. Call each other by the new names that we have received, but do your best to avoid them as much as possible. The only way to minimize mistakes is deprive them of opportunities."

The other four nodded in acknowledgement.

"Let us begin by reviewing our initial steps. Our first hurdle is to pass the initial inspections and land at our designated zone. Then we need to pay our fees and arrange transportation to the marketplace. Once there, we need to establish a foothold in the local community while ostensibly seeking repairs for our damaged sh.i.p.s and mechs."

This was a simple plan, but a lot could go wrong at every step of the way. With their 57 refurbished pirate mechs, here was no way they could last more than a minute against 3,000 enemy mechs!

Lieutenant Rodan spoke first. "Passing through the initial checkpoints should not pose a problem. Our sh.i.p.s contain few traces that allude to the Crona Lords or the Larkinson Clan. The only uncertainty is that Ulimo Citadel is on high alert at the moment. It is very likely that the pirate patrols will perform much harsher inspections. We might also be limited by the amount of mechs, sh.i.p.s and personnel we are allowed to bring to the surface."

"We will adapt according to the situation. We can do no better than that. If the Dry Snakes impose too many demands, then I have the discretion to abort the mission and turn us back."

The meeting proceeded as the five Mirror Raiders discussed various problems. Many of them were already aware of what they faced. They merely brought the issues up again in order to refresh their memories and make sure that everyone was on the same page.

The discussion soon turned to another important step, which was to establish some sort of footing in Ulimo Citadel.

"While the Dry Snakes don't like it when stronger pirate groups knock on Ulimo's doors, they are actually quite tolerant towards smaller groups. The public areas of Ulimo is home to tens of thousands of people. Most of them consist of unwanted pirates, escaped slaves, lost refugees or descendants of the above. This has led to the emergence of a chaotic city that is ruled by several gangs."

"That sounds messy." Dietrich remarked. "How does this benefit the Dry Snakes?"

Lieutenant Sendra snorted. "The livelier a pirate base, the more secure it is to visit. If the Dry Snakes and their lackeys are the only one who occupy Ulimo, then that alone would scare away any visitors. There is no protection against an unscrupulous base owner! It's much easier to get rid of their victims as well."

A bigger base that was home to a thriving community of outsiders provided a lot of reassurance to pirates. This meant that the pirate authorities protected the property rights and other rights of outsiders. Another benefit was that it was much harder to cover up a misdeed on their part with so many people around!

This was good to the Mirror Raiders in several ways. They could not only blend in with the local pirate community, but also seek to infiltrate it. The best option would be to investigate one of the strongest factions and attack the weakest ones so that the Mirror Raiders could take over their position!

Ketis, Sendra and Rodan knew that this presented them with the best follow-up opportunities to investigate the restricted sections of Ulimo Citadel. The Mirror Raiders needed to join the hierarchy of Ulimo before they could even begin to do anything else!

"I say we should just march up to the weakest-looking local gang and just beat them up straight away!" Sendra shouted. "We don't have much time and we don't need to delay that much. All of us are strong. All of us are prepared. There is no way that the weakest faction in Ulimo can resist our attacks!"

Abis held up his hand. "This option is too risky!"

"How so?" The Swordmaiden questioned back. "Pirates don't care too much about laws and rules. The Dry Snakes won't stop us if we launch an unprovoked attack. In fact, they might even cheer us on! Strife among the lowlives who rule the public marketplace keeps them in check. If the local factions are constantly eying each other, then that means they spend less time questioning the authorities from above!

"That does not mean we should initiate a surprise attack just after entering Ulimo!" Commander Abis exasperatingly replied. "There are better ways to usurp a local gang's place."

As a Black Cat, Rodan agreed with this assertion. "We can employ trickery and subterfuge to undermine one of the local gangs. From assassinating an important cadre to inciting competitors to gang up on our target, there are many ways to effect change without directly shooting at them. We might even avoid most of the blame."

"Too slow!"

Though Commander Abis wanted to adopt a low-key posture upon arrival, not everyone agreed. While he was nominally in charge of the Mirror Raiders, his authority was actually rather weak.

This was one of the adverse consequences of mashing different people from different forces together. No one knew each other well aside from the folks who already worked and fought alongside each other.

Dietrich slowly began to frown as he witnessed the growing contradiction between Commander Abis and Lieutenant Sendra. The Flagrant Vandals and the Swordmaidens may have a history with each other, but their mindsets differed a lot.

The Vandals still possessed a core of military discipline and expectations, while the Swordmaidens had always clung onto their savage pirate heritage.

Still, despite their quarrels, Dietrich believed that they knew better than to mess around. Once they arrived at Ulimo, they all needed to cover each other's backs.

"Ketis." Commander Abis changed the topic. "Aside from Lieutenant Rodan and his Black Cats, we will be leaning on you to keep your eye out for any details the task force needs to know."

"I know what to do." She replied. "I will do my best to stay in the background and pretend to be a dumb guard."

"I'll assign you to act as Dietrich's bodyguard. He will be heading out with a small group in order to make new 'friends' among the locals. It would be best if we can befriend a direct member of the Dry Snakes, but that will be challenging. Whatever you do, don't stray in the more dangerous parts of Ulimo. From what we know, the security and monitoring system of the marketplace is quite good, but the more remote portions can be jammed long enough to launch an ambush and leave before the base patrols arrive to enforce order."

The monitoring system mainly existed to prevent pirates from unleashing mass destruction. As long as the visitors and locals refrained from making excessive moves, the Dry Snakes didn't care whether someone shot another person on the street.

The law and order on Ulimo was very mixed!