The Mech Touch

The Vandals tried to come up with some other plan besides the latest harebrained scheme that came out of Ves. Now that he suggested something like overloading the power generators to unleash an explosion so furious that the camp would definitely be affected by the shockwave and other emissions despite the distance, a dam had broken.

Several engineers and other people who ordinarily never said anything came up with several crazy ideas.

An exobiologist suggested they pool the contents of five-thousand nutrient bars and lace it with a liberal amount of toxic metals and substances sure to fatally poison even the deadliest exobeast! Theyʼd serve the giant beast candy and hope to hell that one of them would be curious enough to eat it especially after the exobiologists incorporated juicy meaty smells to the adulterated food.

”Itʼs worth a try. Do it.” Captain Byrd waved her hand dismissively.

Though it didnʼt sound like the idea would work, it was better than resorting to the potentially catastrophic solution of sending all of their melee mechs into action. Sacred gods with widespread terrain manipulation powers like the great Pairixan could potentially bury them all under the ground in an instant! That was why the Flagrant Swordmaidens were so adamant about keeping their distance!

In fact, they had long begun the process of evacuating everyone and everything that could easily be moved. However, numerous supplies and large amounts of heavy equipment that took too much time and effort to dismantle couldnʼt be brought away so soon, and they still had a large amount of damaged mechs that couldnʼt be moved at all.

The reason why they made their stand was because those damaged mechs were vitally important, because they directly translated to strength when they faced their real enemies.

The natives and the sacred gods werenʼt their real enemies!

The orbital bombardment by the late fleet of the Caged and the Red Tongs reminded the Flagrant Swordmaidens that their actual enemies still awaited. They must have certainly landed their landbound mech forces somewhere on this massive planet.

There was no need to seek them out, because all their paths led to the same destination. The Starlight Megalodon. The battleship that everyone thought was dormant but proved them all wrong.

The fact that the unscrupulous orbital bombardment provoked a reaction from the Starlight Megalodon hinted that those running the ship still took the CFAʼs mission seriously. Widespread use of weapons of mass destruction at Seven to the point of devastating an entire region might cause them to launch another antimatter torpedo at the offenders!

This was also why the Vandals felt uneasy about the suggestion of overloading a power generator. Technically, doing so deliberately in order to cause mass destruction definitely went against the rules upheld by the CFA.

Ves could only shrug at their hesitation and opposition. ”I think the reason why the Starlight Megalodon moved into action was because the orbital bombardment threatened to depopulate an entire region of life. If Seven is an experimental ground as some of us have speculated, then those who are running the experiments donʼt want them to be ruined by an outsider. What we are doing will only devastate a small area at most and kill a bunch of sacred gods. Samar still has Pailanon and the rest of the Western Samar Pantheon to take charge.”

Speaking of Pailanon, the older brother exited the western gate with two subordinate sacred gods a while ago.

”What is the status of Pailanon? Is he approaching our direction?”

”Pailanonʼs group has halted, maʼam.” Someone who kept an eye on Pailanon through spy drones and scout mechs reported. ”They are maintaining their distance.”

No one knew why Pailanon exited the city and stalked in the direction of Pairixan and the Flagrant Swordmaidens.

One thing was for sure. The Flagrant Swordmaidens likely wouldnʼt be able to handle both the older and younger brothers at the same time!

”I think heʼs waiting. If Pairixan wins easily, Pailanon wonʼt go in or even help him clean us up. If Pairixan is facing more opposition than expected, then Pailanon may help us do his younger brother in! Heʼs being opportunistic!”

”Is there a way to draw Pailanon on our side?”

No one could come up with an answer to that besides letting a scout mech approach the volatile sacred god. However, according to past behavior and all the stories they heard so far, the metal controller might very well take control over the mech and treat it as his toy!

By now, the fast transport carrying the dwarves and ʼdiplomatic envoyʼ dropped off the dwarves somewhere close to the sacred gods before beating away as fast as its legs could carry!

Though it appeared that Pairixan wanted to stop the big shiny transport, several changes happened that caused him to pause.

The Flagrant Swordmaidens also stopped their shelling and laser discharges all of a sudden. This sudden change threw the besieged sacred gods and beast riders off-guard.

What was happening? Why did the attacks stop hammering their defenses?

Despite the temporary respite, Qilanxo studiously maintained her barrier up despite the continued drain on her energy reserves. She remained vigilant against sneak attacks like the initial opening salvo of the artillery cannons. Their opponents didnʼt play by the rules as their species had fought for generations!

”What are the sacred gods doing?”

”I think theyʼre befuddled by the dwarves because they came out of one of our fast transports. They canʼt equate the dwarves having any relations with functional machines.”

”Do you mean they think that they are mistaking us as the cursed people?”

”Who knows.”

It certainly sounded weird. When the Flagrant Swordmaidens initially tried to open dialogue with the sacred gods of Samar, they only showed up in giant mechs. The outsiders never showed their human forms inside their mechs!

Ves tried to imagine what it would be like if the dwarves took the place of the Vandals and the Swordmaidens. They might be able to gain control over the mechs if they adopt the right thinking pattern, though succeeding in interfacing with a mech didnʼt gain them any mastery in the fundamental skills required to pilot a mech.

Any ten-year old tested for genetic aptitude possessed the ability to interface with any mech. In theory.

However, any who did so immediately caused their mechs to trip or perform some other calamitous maneuver. It would be like a random person gaining complete control over the helm of a starship.

If the dummy mode hadnʼt been engaged, the ship might overload her reactor or collide into a space station because the person at the helm didnʼt have any clue what to do!

It took ten to fifteen years of training for most mech pilots to qualify to pilot something as complex as a mech. The dwarves, for all of their inborn abilities to interface with both mechs and exobeasts, could never make up for at least a decade of dedicated training.

The dwarves wouldnʼt be able to fulfill any of the support services as well. Never mind operating the machines or maintaining the mechs, they wouldnʼt even know how to operate the kitchen!

The absurd thought distracted Ves from the initial interaction between the dwarf captives and the sacred gods.

”Itʼs working! The dwarves are buying time for us!”

To some of their amazement, the sacred gods and their beast riders fell into an internal discussion after the dwarves showed up out of the blow.

As for the captives, a handful of them noticed that they were free from their cells and instantly tried to make off!

The sight of the dwarves running away with their stubby legs amused the sacred gods. Pairixan applied his power over the earth and caused the area around the dwarves to be ringed with a round earthen wall.

The dwarves were too short to climb over the smooth walls!

”Thatʼs a lot of precision.”

Some of the dwarves mindlessly continued their attempts at climbing over the walls, while the other ones had gone senseless at the sight of several sacred gods.

Pairixan continued to move closer, forcing the other sacred gods to move with him in order to stay under Qilanxoʼs umbrella.

A few minutes passed as the beasts roared with each other and their riders chiming in. Ves got the sense that they were trying to make sense of the sudden appearance of the dwarves. One of the riders even yelled something at the dwarves, though he didnʼt receive any response.

Suddenly, Pairixan decided he had enough. He extended his dragon-like head and snapped nine closely-grouped dwarves into his gullet!

The remaining dwarves yelled and tried to climb over the earth walls, to no avail! Pairixan dove in again and continuously chomped on the remaining dwarves with rapt pleasure.

Evidently, dwarf meat tasted good for the sacred gods!

”Well, at least the captives bought us some time.”

Even a five-minute delay helped them out a lot. Chief Dakkon and the engineers rushed to unmoor the power generators while keeping them running with all of the safeties disengaged. This was exceptionally hard to do in a short amount of time because the power generators were designed to shut down as safely as possible if anything went wrong.

What the engineers essentially tried to do was to hack the power generators into doing the exact thing that all of their programming and hardware tried their best to prevent!

Checking on the progress of the engineers, Ves realized that they still needed some time.

With a heavy voice, Captain Byrd issued the next order. ”Alright, send in our diplomat.”

The suited Vandal who emerged from the fast transport hadnʼt volunteered for this duty. In fact, the man was kind of a delinquent in that he frequently got into trouble with his loose mouth and slacking ways.

The Vandals included more of their ilk than was strictly healthy. Their productively left a lot to be desired and their screw-ups often set a task back rather than progress it forward. They were more trouble than they were worth, but the Vandals had no choice but to continue to employ them to make up the numbers.

Now, the only chance this unlucky chump ahd to make it out alive was to fast talk his way out of getting eaten by Pairixan. If he somehow bought the Vandals enough time to finish their preparations, then he and his dependents would be heavily rewarded.

When the chump garbed in a hazard suit with an active gravitic backpack came close to the sacred gods, the man almost fell to his knees.

”Donʼt eat me!”

The appearance of the man caused the sacred gods to halt yet again. The dwarves had intrigued the sacred gods, but once the novelty faded, Pairixan just ate them all without any further interest.

It was different for the Vandal that showed up out of the blue. The man possessed the same stature as the blessed people, but was garbed in a technological suit that was unlike anything the Samarrans had seen before!

Due to the interference and space barrier hindering most of their observation methods, the Vandals couldnʼt tell what the beast riders were saying to each other. The remote connection to the diplomatʼs suit also increasingly turned to noise the closer the sacred gods came to the man.

”The beast rider of Pairixan is calling our diplomat forward.”

With an uncertain gait, the Vandal slowly stepped forward, trying hard to keep his gaze away from the bloody maws of the Pairixan, Qilanxo and the other sacred gods.

Once he walked underneath Qilanxoʼs space barrier, the Vandals lost connection to the manʼs suit.

”Now, letʼs hope he can stall them long enough for us to complete our plan.”

One minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Three minutes passed.

From certain sensors, they managed to find out that the diplomat was gesturing wildly while engaging the beast riders in conversation.

Seven minutes passed before the diplomat amazingly retreated without getting chomped upon by the sacred god! The man even dragged it out by walking backwards with slow, measured steps.

By the time nine minutes had passed, the Vandals finally regained comm connection to the hazard suit of their diplomat.

”What did you talk about?” Captain Byrd immediately asked.

The Vandals only hastily gave him some instructions on what to talk about. None of them really held out any hope that it would matter, but it at least gave the diplomat something to waste more time.

”I went with the third suggestion.” The man said with evident exhaustion. ”I managed to convince Pairixan that we can help him kill his older brother!”