The Mech Touch

ounded out throughout the camp.

Only after Ves saw the aggrieved and hopeless expressions of the other Vandals did Ves realize the immense amount of harm his request had wrought.

His actions led to the death of one of the biggest pillars of the Flagrant Vandals!

The news leaked out to the rest of the Flagrant Swordmaidens just minutes later.
A news as explosive as this couldn ’t be hidden for long, and Captain Byrd figured it was better to release the news right away rather than to have it explode at a more inopportune time.

All the mech officers went out in force to rally the men and prevent them from acting out, but there was no question that their morale plummeted like a rock sinking into an ocean!

Surprisingly enough, hatred against the Vesians intensified.
The assassination of an expert pilot crossed all the lines, and the Vandal mech pilots each vowed to take revenge for their fallen champion.

They would not rest until they killed as much Vesians as they could on the battlefield!

In the meantime, Ves suggested he do something about the Pale Dancer to Captain Byrd.

”Captain, none of our mech pilots can pilot the Pale Dancer anymore.
Even an expert candidate like Captain Orfan is unable to do anything with it.
I suggest we process the expert mech and render it useless. ”

Captain Orfan looked incredibly haggard as she tried to prevent the collapse of the Flagrant Vandals.
”You want to spoil the Pale Dancer before the Vesians get their hands on it? Is there truly no way of making use of the mech? ”

Ves shook his head.
”You know as well as I do that it takes an exceptional mech pilot to be able to pilot an expert mech.
Advanced pilots can just forget about it.
The strain will fry their nerves before they can even make the Pale Dancer take a single step. ”

The mech captain paused in indecision.
The Pale Dancer was Venerable Xie ’s personal expert mech, and originated from the Dark Plasma Star Sector.
Its presence served as a symbol, even with the death of its original owner and mech pilot.
To dismantle it meant that the Vandals admitted that they didn ’t believe themselves to be capable enough to protect Venerable Xie ’s legacy.

The expert mech of any fallen expert pilot would never be discarded like a piece of trash! The highest honor an orphaned expert mech could enjoy was to assign it to another compatible expert pilot so that its mission upon inception continued.

This was the respect that expert mechs deserved!

While Ves respected mechs like any other, he prioritized his safety even more.
Even if Ves wrecked the neural interface or replaced it with a fresh dummy, a good mech designer would still be able to notice the discrepancies.
Expert mechs came with so many advanced systems that Ves couldn ’t insure that any one of them left some clues behind that hinted at his misdeeds.

Therefore, Ves wanted to be extra certain and destroy the mech, just in case.

As for Captain Byrd, seeing as defeat loomed over their heads, she eventually nodded.
”Do it.
Don ’t leave any useful scraps behind for the Vesians. ”

With her permission, Ves brought over a couple of mech technicians and depressingly began to dismantle it piece by piece.
Using other mechs and heavy tools, they practically vandalized the Pale Dancer.
Delicate parts got smashed or stepped upon, hardy armor plating became deformed or melted into a puddle of slag under the application of extreme heat.

Such a crude way of destroying the components of an expert mech partially ruined the special traits of the highly valuable exotics laced in their structure.
Exotics with their myriad of effects and remarkable properties served as the core of the functioning of any expert mech, and all of them possessed some energetic activity.

Due to their active states, exotics needed to be handled carefully.
The moment their energetic activity leaked or ran out of control, the exotics degraded into mundane minerals.

What Ves directed over the course of three hours was the systematic spoiling of tens billions of credits worth of exotics.
Each second that passed, millions of credits worth of exotics got ruined due to their incredibly rough treatment.
This was pouring money down the drain!

At the end of the spoiling process, nothing remained of the pristine white mech.
The fast, accurate and agile rifleman mech suffered an ignoble death off the battlefield, just like its former master.
Neither Venerable Xie or the Pale Dancer deserved to meet their ends behind enemy lines.

Yet they both fell at the hands of Ves because they posed a threat to his freedom and safety.

”I ’m not sorry. ” He whispered to himself as he watched the pile of slag and crushed components being carted onto a fast transport to be scattered over a wide area.

Why should he feel sorry? He was merely defending his interests.
Even the prestige of an expert pilot didn ’t stop him from requesting Miss Calabast from arranging an expert pilot ’s death.

Ves was merely surprised she acted so decisively and with such overwhelming success.
She even managed to leave no trace behind, allowing the dastardly Vesians to take the blame instead.

He admired her capable and elegant handling of this problem.
Ves could learn a thing or two about her methods.

”Still, she ’s extremely well-equipped and has a lot of capable subordinates under the wing.
I ’ll have to build up my own capabilities before I can replicate such a feat. ”

His fear and apprehension towards the inscrutable Miss Calabast increased, but his admiration rose as well.
If Ves possessed the same capabilities, he would have a lot more options available to him.
At the very least, he wouldn ’t be forced into a helpless state when confronted with the hostility of an expert pilot.

The thrashing of the Pale Dancer inspired the rest of the Vandals and Swordmaidens.
Though they didn ’t wish to contemplate defeat, they began to make arrangements in the event the Vesians overrun the camp.

The engineers rigged the power reactors to overload on command, while Chief Dakkon prepared to spoil the god crystal generators by infecting them with a murky crystal.
Others began to tidy up the databanks and rigged them up to blow.

If the enemy managed to obtain a victory, then they could forget about taking over their valuables!