The Mech Touch

ator, the other high-ranking mech designer on the ground mainly bossed around the remaining mech technicians.
Though the man ’s behavior was rather loathsome to Ves, the ambitious mech designer made sure that none of the mech technicians slacked off.
Under his strict supervision, every technical personnel working on site exerted their utmost into keeping everyone ’s mechs running.

”He ’s way too abusive, but maybe that ’s the only way to keep everyone ’s productivity high.
There ’s no room for soft-heartedness in the middle of a risky operation. ”

All in all, the mech designers all fulfilled their roles and prevented any major jams.
Transports and shuttled landed and departed from the landing site with hardly any delays.
It wouldn ’t take too long for the Vandals evacuate from the planet.

His only regret was that the Vandals weren ’t able to retrieve all of their fallen mechs.
Many of their wrecks were strewn at least an hour away from the oval scar.
The roaming monsters and dense trees made it far too dangerous for them to send out transports to pick up the valuable wrecks.

While the Vandals gained a tiny bit of earnings by salvaging the mechs from the training camp, it far outweighed the losses they sustained so far.
Ves roughly estimated their casualties to reach up to half of their landbound contingent!

”Leaving so many mechs behind will hurt our finances a lot. ” Ves murmured.
”Venerable Foster hasn ’t been merciful to our mech pilots either.
She deliberately targeted the cockpit whenever she saw an opportunity. ”

The latter led to a lot of nasty glared towards the unconscious body of Venerable Foster.
Still, most of the mech pilots would never condone any mistreatment of an expert pilot.
Even if they ended up in captivity, they still retained their dignity!

More importantly, the Mech Trade Association paid close attention to the treatment of any expert pilot in enemy hands.
The organization cared little if someone executed any captives on the battlefield or in a cell.
Honestly speaking, the population of humanity had reached a mind-boggling figure.
Even if only three-and-a-half percent of them could call themselves a potentate, that left way too many people left.

”An individual mech pilot is worth nothing.
An expert pilot is worth an entire mech division. ”

This was only a figure of speech, but it highlighted the extreme valuation of expert pilots at the state level.
The worth of a young and promising expert pilot such as Venerable Foster might reach as high as ten-thousand mechs!

Of course, this reference value could only be taken loosely, as states rarely paid so much in ransom for a captive mech pilot.
The actual ransom payments were much more modest as states only paid a ransom up to a certain point.

Nonetheless, their captive was a real prize for which both the rebels and the Hafner Duchy would fight hard to gain.
The Vandals directly gained the power to affect the balance of power over this territory.

Right now, the ground forces hurried up to evacuate their beachhead at the oval scar.
They successfully managed to evacuate over half of their mechs so far.
After driving away the timid garrison mechs, the Vandals bought enough time to evacuate the other half of their mech force.

The ground force left a lot of supplies and other goods in their hasty evacuation.
They simply didn ’t have the time to attend to these matters as the Silent Starpiercers and the Hostland Warriors

”We ’ve retrieved all of our essentials from the surface, sir! ”

”Begin our departure from the system! ”

The Verle Task Force moved towards the nearest Lagrange point.
However, just like on the surface, the Vandals also needed to be wary of the garrison fleet that miraculously kept themselves alive during this operation.
Their fast and nimble combat carriers continuously played hide and seek against the spaceborn mechs the Vandals sent in pursuit.

Right now, they formed the largest threat to their escape.
As long as they continued to pester the Vandals, they could easily prevent any transitions.

”These cowardly garrison combat carriers are a thorn in our sides. ” Major Verle stated.
”It ’s a good thing we ’ve come up with a plan. ”

The only way the Vandals could halt the pestering was if they made some sacrifices.
At first, they retracted all of their spaceborn mechs as the fleet moved towards a Lagrange point.

This lured the garrison fleet closer to the Vandals.
It didn ’t take too much time for them to enter into range.
Some of their mechs already started firing at the Vandal combat carriers.

”Begin! ”

However, just as the Hafner spaceborn mechs began to get comfortable, all of the Inheritors and Hellcats boosted from the fleet and overloaded their flight systems! Their rapid acceleration towards the garrison fleet alarmed the Hafner mechs.
They quickly boarded their high-speed carriers in an attempt to dance out of reach.

Due to the modest head-start of the Vandal mechs, the garrison fleet risked getting caught.
This only prompted the stripped-down Hafner combat carriers to accelerate even faster.

This chase lingered on for half an hour.
The Vandal mechs had ceased to overload their flight system, but they still posed a large threat to the Hafner mechs.

Just then, the Vandal mechs collectively turned around and burned back to the task force.
They never intended to catch up to the garrison fleet!

As the Inheritors and Hellcats burned their way back to their motherships, the garrison fleet halted their acceleration in confusion.
Eventually, they realized what the Vandals were up to and frantically turned around their ships to return to the vicinity of the Vandal fleet!

”Hah! I knew they were scared! ” Major Verle exclaimed.
”Just like their landbound force, the spaceborn garrison fleet is full of rot.
They clearly treasure their lives over the mission. ”

The Vandals gained a decisive delta-v advantage through their maneuvers.
Simply said, the garrison fleet had run away so eagerly that it took a lot of time for their ships to turn around and catch up to their targets.
It would take at least fifteen to twenty minutes for their mechs to be in range to disrupt their enemy ’s attempt to transition into FTL.

”Too late! ”

The entire task force successfully entered into FTL with more than enough time to spare.
The impotent garrison fleet could only watch on as their cowardice allowed their prey to slip away untouched.