The Mech Touch

he expert pilot instead abandoned his gun for the lance, a weapon that he never excelled in unlike the previous pilot of his mech!

Instead of making a few half-hearted charging passes, Venerable Xie fought with all his might, not even considering his own safety in his efforts to destroy the mothership from up close!

All of his actions exemplified the courage, honor and valiance of an ideal mech pilot! While the expert pilot may be fighting hard on behalf of the Flagrant Vandals, in actual fact each of his reckless heroics undermined Major Verle ’s authority and threatened to undermine the Vandals ’ original command structure!

If Ves didn ’t know any better, he would have suspected that Venerable Xie intended to plot against the existing leadership!

”That ’s not possible, however. ”

He recognized that the tampering he performed on the neural interfaces may have affected the expert pilot ’s judgement.
Ultimately, Karol Xie should have remained loyal to the Flagrant Vandals.
The only flaw that Ves had overlooked was that loyalty to the Flagrant Vandals was an open-ended question that could be answered in many different ways!

For example, if Venerable Xie thought that Major Verle was no longer qualified to lead the task force, then he may feel just in attempting to take it over!

Ves knew he ’d be getting a lot of flack from their commanding officer after this battle..
but first, they had to win it! Right now, the Parallax Star had less than fifteen seconds left before its emitters reached their limits!

Fortunately, salvation came from an unexpected angle.
The sensor officer immediately stood up! ”Sir! My men and I have identified the probable location of the sandman admiral on the mothership ’s structure! It ’s oriented near the top of the hollow structure! ”

Major Verle didn ’t even glance at it when he issued his next order.
”All mechs, fire at the sandman admiral! ”

The mech pilots started to become clued in to the fact that their expert pilot had landed in a lot of trouble.
Thus, when the order came to fire upon the sandman admiral ’s suspected location, not a lot of Vandal and Swordmaiden mech pilots showed any reluctance this time.

Over eighty percent of all available guns fired at the top of the sandman mothership.
Though the vessel adjusted its structure quickly after being targeted by so much mech, it reacted far too late! Huge gouts of sand the size of mechs chunked away from the main amalgamation.

The mothership visibly shrank and became filled with holes as the rounds kept impacting the vessel.
A volley of missiles impacted the mothership from the top, causing a rumble of explosions that cut off an extremely hard portion of the mothership from the rest of the structure.

The mothership immediately lost cohesion!

”Sir, we ’ve separated the sandman admiral from the mothership ’s structure! It ’s currently attempting to flee! ”

”Send in the Inheritors and finish off the admiral! ” Major Verle immediately ordered with a swipe of his palm.
”Don ’t let it hide within the astral winds! Once it has been rendered inert, send in a specialist retrieval party to recover the crystallized remains of the sandman admiral.
What is the status of the Parallax Star? ”

”It ’s in a bad shape. ” Ves reported.
”When the sandman admiral became separated from the main mothership, it turned into an independent entity without strong control.
While Venerable Xie has managed to extract the Parallax Star from the belly of the ship, its energy field failed at the end.
Some of the sand has managed to inflict material damage on the exterior of the expert mech, but its armor held up long enough for the machine to escape intact. ”

Some expressed relief at the expert pilot ’s successful escape, but neither Ves nor Major Verle smiled.
Ves already estimated the repair bill and it wasn ’t cheap, while Major Verle still glowered over his inability to control the expert pilot.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

Both of them needed to reflect after the battle, but right now they still needed to take care of the aftermath.

Verle maintained a confident expression as he issued a series of orders.
”Order our mechs to continue to pound on the leaderless mothership until it ’s completely rendered inert.
Tell our near-perimeter patrols to be vigilant against any approaching streams of sand.
Dead or not, fire upon them and force them to disperse.
I don ’t want to risk any surviving sandmen slipping into our vessels. ”

Small detachments of sandmen had a tendency to burrow into ships or mechs unnoticed.
They could do a lot of damage if left unattended.
This was why the Vandals and the Swordmaidens inspected every mech returning to their berths.

Fortunately, not a lot of mechs came into close proximity to the sandmen escorts or motherships.
None of the mechs came back with a hitchhiker so far, though checking out the Parallax Star was a very different matter.

The damaged mech looked as if it withstood a lot of sanding.
Streams of sand had rubbed away the original coating to reveal a silvery metallic tint intrinsic to the top layer of its armor.
While the sand lacked the punching power to burrow through the extremely resilient compressed armor, they achieved a little more success when they attempted to bore through the softer joint sections.

All of that damage took both time and resources to repair, something which the Vandals were in short supply.
Ves already planned to board a shuttle to the Gorgon ’s Gaze in order to assist in the repairs!

”Sir, our retrieval party has secured the crystallization of the sandman admiral.
They are on their way back to the Shield of Hispania. ”

”I will meet them personally at the shuttle bay.
Don ’t let the remains out of their sights until I arrive. ” Their commanding officer said before turning to Ves.
”Mr.
Larkinson, please join me at the shuttle bay.
We have matters to discuss. ”

”Yes, sir. ” Ves almost sighed and stood up from the observer ’s seat.

After instructing Ketis to stay put, he followed after the armored form of the overburdened mech officer as they made their way out of the command center.

The battle against the sandmen fleet revealed a lot of deficiencies, ones they needed to address before they bumped into larger threats.