The Mech Touch

t approached them from the flanks.

Around fifty more pirate mechs met their end within ten minutes of chaotic fighting and fleeing!

Though hundreds of pirate mechs successfully managed to disengage, the Flagrant Swordmaidens managed to smash their spirits so thoroughly that they only thought about running.

They picked the wrong force to ambush!

”Our mech captains wishes to pursue.
The Misty Slashers are already racing to run down the stragglers.
What are your orders, sir? ”

”Halt pursuit.
Rein in our melee mechs and have our Akkaras and our other ranged mechs focus down the pirate carriers.
Inform the Swordmaidens of our intentions and advise them to pull back their swordsman mechs before they overreach.
Eliminating these pirates won ’t benefit us as much as our possible rivals.
Let these bottom feeders scurry back to their holes.
We have bigger fish to fry. ”

Slowly, some order emerged out of the chaotic outburst of combat that began right at the start of their emergence in this star system.
Small debris fields already drifted away from the victorious Flagrant Swordmaidens.

Once the remnant pirate alliances dissolved into individual outfits and vessels and split away from each other, the battle finally came to an end.

A couple of search and rescue teams emerged from the ships and started to police the battlefield, prioritizing haste over thoroughness.
There wasn ’t much to salvage from the debris fields anyway, considering most mechs consisted of junk to begin with.
The mechs needed to be at least ten times more valuable to start becoming interesting to the discerning salvage connoisseurs of the Vandals.

”The bottom feeders have left, but different insects are about to descend upon the carcasses. ” Ves remarked.

”What do you expect? ” Ketis snorted.
”You ’re letting hundreds of thousands of K-coins worth of salvage drift away.
Which pirate would be crazy enough to let them drift off into deep space? ”

Of course, one man ’s trash was another man ’s treasure.
The uninvolved pirates that hung around the periphery already to approach the direction where the debris field drifted to.
Since the Flagrant Swordmaidens showed little interest in the junk, the neutral pirates already started feeling bold and approached the furthest reaches of the debris field to begin picking up some bargains.

While the pirates gave in to their scavenging instincts, the search and rescue teams focused on retrieving the ejected cockpits of any of their allies, of which there was mercifully few.
They actually spent most of their efforts on capturing the mech pilots stranded inside ejected cockpits of pirate mechs.

The complete rout by the pirate forces left them with very little opportunity to rescue their stranded comrades, which the Vandals ruthlessly took advantage of by capturing scores of prisoners!

In the meantime, the Swordmaidens and the Vandals each took stock of the local situation.
This dim star system that was situated so far into the deep frontier hosted a surprising amount of uninvolved people.

It signified a serious breach in the confidentiality of the race to salvage the treasures of the Starlight Megalodon! The CFA might be informed even now and prepared to send out a warfleet possibly!

”Who brought all of these dummies here? ” Major Verle grumbled before he barked at his subordinates to hasten the interrogation of their captives.
They needed to know as soon as possible where these riff raff came from and what they were after.
”And throw the pirates out of the airlock once you ’re done with them! These scum deserve nothing less and I don ’t want crowd our brig with useless lowlives! ”

Early interrogations already started from the moment the surviving mech pilots got dragged into the shuttles of the Vandals.
Through a mixture of coercion and intoxication, an incoherent set of intelligence poured in.
They told them less than they liked.

”Most of these pirates have indeed followed the trail of larger fleets, but they don ’t know what lays ahead.
Furthermore, they lack the navigational key that will allow them to jump towards where the other major fleets have gone ahead. ”

Interrogating the prisoners further about which forces they saw painted a small list of all stars the Flagrant Swordmaidens needed to pay attention to.
None of the forces mentioned possessed a simple background.

A small list of outfits and alliances spread among the crew.

”Well, we already know about the Caged and their recent team up with the red Tongs. ” Ves said as he perused the list.
Most of the outfits mentioned in the list held no meaning to Ves.
He never heard of these outlandishly named groups before.
”Fortunately, there aren ’t any military units among the listed groups.
We can beat the pirates as long as they don ’t unite. ”

Due to the navigational restriction required to dial-in the coordinates of the Starlight Megalodon, only five different outfits or alliances actually made the jump.
That didn ’t preclude latecomers from joining in at the party at a later date, but for now these five groupings became the focal point of the Flagrant Swordmaidens.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

Major Verle summoned the officers for another conference meeting in an hour.
It should be the final one before they made the jump themselves, because the longer they lingered at the gates, the longer they remained vulnerable to another bottom feeder assault.

It took a few more hours for the FTL drives of their supply train to finish cycling.
Those slow transports and cargo haulers that carried all of their essential supplies had pretty much slowed them down from the start, allowing the other participants of the game to overtake their progress.

Still, the Vandals remained unconcerned as the extra supplies gave them a lot more depth and lasting power in a long campaign, which the Vandals possessed a lot of familiarity with.
Most pirates on the other hand had a tendency to neglect logistics, with the excuse that they could always raid the supplies of another force if they ran out of stuff.

This also happened to make the supply train a juicy target to pirates.