The Mech Touch

Despite his success in charming three separate groups of mech pilots in joining his side, Ves felt anything but secure. He would only feel safe when he returned to Gentle Lotus Base.

While Gentle Lotus Base was hardly a bastion of safety due to a critical lack of mechs, Ves would at least be surrounded by his own Larkinsons!

Ves didn't have to worry about treason from his own men. Even if they held their own individual ambitions that weren't quite in line with the Larkinson Clan, Goldie made sure that no one harbored any treacherous thoughts!

Since these people weren't a part of his clan right now, he wasn't able to extend the same level of trust to them. They were complete strangers who only made a verbal promise to join up with him. Ves encountered many situations where people said one thing to him but did the opposite.

He briefly turned his gaze to Nitaa. His bodyguard was still carrying the Larkinson Mandate. If he wanted to, he could immediately induct the new mech pilots into his clan.

The problem was that if the induction attempt ever failed for some reason, then the hidden traitor would definitely become exposed. This might trigger a fight that Ves did not want to see!

This left Ves with an unpalatable choice. In order to avoid spooking anyone into acting drastically, he had to assume a confident image and pretend that everything was going according to plan.

Only by bluffing everyone would he be able to exert enough authority to ensure everyone's compliance. It would be a lot more difficult for anyone to start anything drastic when it appeared that everyone else would come to his aid.

As the mechs of the Trezin Showstoppers, the Right Siders and the Combinants reached his side, his temporary coalition ballooned to fifteen mechs!

The Ruuzon Guard, the Brakkard Consortium and the unknown purple outfit happened to have the same amount of biomechs.

Still, Ves had gained the allegiance of enough mechs to feel assured that none of the remaining groups wanted to provoke a fight.

Just as Ves wanted to instruct the mechs on side to advance as a single collective, his Odineye suddenly picked up concerning activity.

The Omni Sensor picked up a large amount of indirect activity. Vibrations, gravitic signals and more suggested that a large amount of mechs were on the way!

Ves didn't know who they belonged to or what their intentions might be. All he could tell was that there were at least forty of them and that they all moved in unison!

A lot of thoughts passed through his mind. The apparent direction and speed of these unknowns suggested that they were moving with purpose.

Why would anyone dispatch a mech company in this direction?

Ves didn't think that anyone here was their target. Neither the Roving Hunters, the Trezin Showstoppers or anyone else was worth hunting down. They were all grunts. Perhaps the only possible question mark was the identity of the mech pilots of the purple biomechs.

Yet it was too improbable that they were the target of the incoming mech company. The purple organic machines didn't appear to be too expensive and power.

No, the most likely possibility was that this was another attempt by the ultralifers to take him down. Since the initial mech squad failed to defeat him and his new allies, the ultralifers probably decided to dispatch a full mech company this time!

"Damn crazies." He muttered under his breath.

Ves knew he had to make a quick decision yet again. He decided to follow his instincts and transmitted the sensor readings to every mech regardless of their allegiance.

He decided to take another gamble!

"An unknown force of mechs are advancing on our position." Ves quickly broadcasted. "According to our sensor readings, they are closing in fast and are likely armed to the teeth. Unlike you guys, many of these distant readings are similar, which indicates that they are identical copies of the same model. In other words, these forty or more mechs are all united."

His words exerted a considerable degree of pressure on the others. Regardless of whether they had joined Ves' side or decided to stay apart, none of them had the strength or numbers to resist an entire mech company by themselves!

In fact, even if all thirty mechs in the hangar pooled their strength together, they would still be ten mechs short!

Even with the help of Venerable Jannzi, it was very unlikely that a band of outnumbered mechs that weren't even unified would be able to resist the might of a coordinated mech company!

This was especially considering that every mech here had already endured combat before. None of them were in pristine condition while there was a considerable chance that the incoming enemies were fresh!

Ves knew that he had to give everyone an impetus to move. In a situation that was rife with uncertainty, no one wanted to make a rash decision.

"I know you guys shot at each other." He spoke. "Perhaps you even killed someone's comrade. I'm not asking you all to set your grievances aside or anything. I just think that none of you want to get embroiled in a pointless fight while an entire mech company of possible enemies is boring down on your position. Any pettiness we show right now will only play into their hands. Now, do you want to live or do you want to die in this worthless hole?"

His Odineye detected a burst of private signal exchanges. The Showstoppers were speaking with the Roving Hunters. The Ruuzon Guard spoke with the Brakkard Consortium and the Combinants.

The only group that wasn't communicating with anyone was the one that fielded the unknown purple biomechs.

Ves narrowed his eyes in their direction. Their lack of identifiers or obvious markers seemed very suspicious. He felt a bit uncomfortable towards them. His inability to figure out their organization and motives did not sit well with him, but at this point he had little choice but to welcome them if they decided to play along.

A mech of the Brakkard Consortium took a few steps forward. "Larkinson! We've made a decision. We don't want to abandon our roots and leave our home, but we're okay with leaving together until we have moved far enough to go our separate ways."

"That's fine. I fully respect your decision."

With the acceptance of the Brakkard Consortium mechs, the remaining two groups were even more outnumbered.

One of the Ruuzon Guard mechs transmitted a resigned-sounding message.

"We shall work with you to extract ourselves from these premises."

The purple mechs didn't transmit anything at all, but they conveyed their meaning by stepping forward in an unthreatening fashion.

Ves grinned. "Good! The only way for us to make it out alive is to band together! Enemies are everywhere, so we must put up a united front as long as we are at risk. Don't split up until we have reached the final tunnel exit!"

Even though Ves sensed plenty of tension between the groups, they were clearly willing to compromise at this moment.

Since none of the mechs were making any aggressive moves anymore, Ves and the other people on foot quickly surged forward. He wanted to find a ride that could bring him away as soon as possible!

He quickly encountered a problem.

"Damn, I don't know how these organic vehicles work!"

Every shuttle or other vehicle that looked reasonably intact were all organic in nature!

While there used to be a few metallic shuttles in this space, all of them had fallen victim to collateral damage. Even if Ves was capable of repairing them, it would take hours before Ves could make them flight-worthy!

"You guys." He gestured towards the biomech technicians of the Roving Hunters. "Help us find an escape vessel that can fit us all. Don't worry about finding the perfect one. We just need a fast and survivable escape vehicle that you can subvert as quickly as possible."

The most senior technician frowned. "We've already examined the most intact vessels. The best bioshuttles are fast and tough, but these upscale vehicles are notoriously difficult to steal."

If the vehicles were mechanical in nature, then Ves could have gained control over them himself. If that wasn't enough, he could always rely on Lucky's hacking suite.

The programming of a biomachine was partially the same as modifying a living organism. Biotechnology adopted so many different paradigms that many purely technological approaches simply didn't work against biomachines!

"What can you give me?" Ves asked.

"It depends on what you want more. We don't have the skills and tools to hack into anything fancy, so we can only set our sights on the lower-end vehicles. Do you want to ride on a fast and flimsy shuttle taxi or a big and sluggish transit bus?"

"I take it the latter still won't be tough, right?"

"No, but it might prevent a single mech attack from killing everyone inside."

In the end, Ves chose for speed. The biomech technicians rushed forward and approached a modest-sized bioshuttle that was adorned with a rabbit head of all possibilities.

The organic vessel was covered in snow-white fur that remained surprisingly intact despite all of the marks of damage nearby.

Normally, Ves would rather die than be caught riding such a silly vessel, but this was not the time for him to be picky!

It turned out that the rabbit shuttle was a vessel that was especially designed to taxi children. Once the biomech technicians worked their way inside, they encountered a pink interior and lots of cute little seats that wouldn't fit anyone but children under the age of ten!

"Tear out these seats." Ves commanded. "They're in the way and won't allow everyone to fit inside."

His honor guard moved to remove the silly seats by force. Their swords and daggers were sufficient enough to separate the seats from the deck.

Meanwhile, the biomech technicians crawled all over the rabbit shuttle. Some of them entered the c.o.c.kpit in order to take over the controls. Others inspected the main thrusters while a couple more were examining the rabbit head.

Ves checked the Odineye and saw that the incoming mech company had come a lot closer!

"Damn! Everyone, get inside the shuttle. The unknown enemies will come in less than two minutes. If we don't get out right now, we'll be visible in their sights!"

"We can't! The shuttle isn't ours yet! The bioprogramming of this vehicle is a lot more difficult than we anticipated. We need at least five minutes to gain preliminary control!"

"We'll be dead if we continue to stay here for this time! Just get inside and lock the hatch. We don't need to gain control of this shuttle in order to evacuate?"

"How?"

"You'll see." Ves grinned.

Everyone stuffed themselves inside the shuttle in less than thirty seconds. The honor guard occupied a lot of space due to their large and bulky combat armor. Ves hardly had any space to move. He and Lucky were practically pressed in the middle.

Outside, two different biomechs carefully approached. The Optimon and the Perringer had both freed up an arm in order to grasp the rabbit shuttle and lift it up until the vehicle was securely in their grasp.

The two biomechs began to fly in the air and accelerate forward.

Even though it looked precarious, it worked! The shuttle and its passengers accompanied the rest of the mechs to the exit tunnels!