The Mech Touch

Mech Captain Arbid Hovan-Gauge was having the worst day of his life.

The week had already been going downhill as soon as the massive Hexer invasion fleet arrived in the star system.

“This isn’t supposed to happen!” He complained as his Favored Son mech became surrounded by hot and sticky flames.

Though the powerful HiCap energy shield generated by his heavy halberdier mech easily resisted the thermal damage generated by the hot temperatures of burning propellant, the huge release of energies not only made the surrounding space a confusing mess, but also blinded his Favored Son’s sensor and communication systems!

“Pull back! Pull back! Requesting fire support! Requesting expert mech support! We need help!”

No matter how many orders or requests he issued, none of his messages were able to get out! As long as the flames kept surrounding his entire mech without any gaps, it was too difficult for the Favored Son to successfully transmit any signals through all of the interference.

It was as futile as trying to transmit a signal through a burning star!

Without being able to communicate with any of his subordinates or superiors, he felt more vulnerable and alone than ever.

He had never faced such a challenging moment in his life.

As his name suggested, Arbid was born into a collateral branch of the Gauge Dynasty.

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While that meant that he was destined to never climb too far in the hierarchy of his dynasty, it was not bad to administer a wealthy city or govern over a planet in the future.

However, the Gauge Dynasty held high standards for these positions and earning lots of merit was indispensable.

As a potentate, Arbid possessed a much easier path to earning merits than anyone else, and that was by accumulating them through military service!

There were two kinds of scions who went on to become mech pilots.

There were those who became enthralled by the mythos and the duty of becoming a soldier.

The strong who possessed superior training and education opportunities such as themselves automatically assumed the responsibility of setting an example and leading the Gauge Dynasty’s troops in battle!

There were also those who believed that they were destined to be the movers and shakers of the Gauge Dynasty.

Becoming a battlefield grunt was beneath their birth and station in life. Even the descendants of side branches such as Arbid Hovan-Gauge received opportunities that grassroots citizens could only dream about.

Fighting and dying should be left to the masses. Why should the life of an average soldier be worth more than the life of a highly educated scion like Arbid? Their capabilities were completely different!

“Becoming a mech pilot was supposed to be a career building exercise. How did I end up in a survival game?!” The highborn mech officer complained.

As a relatively young scion of the Gauge Dynasty, Arbid just happened to have the fortune of being too young to be sent to the frontlines at the start of the Komodo War.

What was even luckier was that he also happened to be old enough to participate in the last months of the greatest conflict the Friday Coalition had ever fought since its inception!

By participating in a couple of easy campaigns that amounted to nothing more than bullying the increasingly crumbling mech troops of the disintegrating Hexadric Hegemony, Arbid easily earned the coveted status of a war veteran by the time the war had come to an end!

While this was already good enough for him to retire with honors after he ended his tour of service, the problem was that he was far from the only member of the dynasty who earned the same accolades.

Many other cousins also earned this distinction!

As such, in order for Arbid to increase his chances of receiving a lucrative posting once he returned to civilian life, he needed to brush up his record and strengthen his military accomplishments.

He at least needed to double the amount of medals on his chest!

Though there were plenty of pacification assignments available in the newly conquered territories of the former Hexadric Hegemony, it would take at least two decades for Arbid to get anywhere.

Compared to muddling around in the Friday Coalition’s backyard, Arbid decided to accept a more exciting offer and head to the Red Ocean.

Compared to the situation back at home, the Friday Colonies was completely different in terms of promotion opportunities!

The Gauge Dynasty saw a lot of promise in its colonies, especially once it became clear that phasewater became increasingly more practical and essential to the continued development of mechs.

All of the colonies in the Magair Middle Zone and all of the towns and cities on major planets such as Pima Prime V needed to be led and supervised by capable and trustworthy leaders.

Who better than to lead an important industrial settlement than a former war hero who also moved to the Red Ocean and integrated in the local community in advance?

One of his uncles had personally promised that Arbid would be able to become the mayor of a middle-sized town if he served in the Pima Defenders mech division for five years.

If Arbid was willing to serve for ten years, then getting appointed as the mayor of a small city was not impossible!

“This was supposed to be my golden ticket to life. Why did the Hexers decide to attack Pima Prime of all places?! Can’t they pick on an easier target like New Rammes?”

Seeing how the battle unfolded so far, the golden ticket that Arbid envisioned increasingly morphed into a black slip of death!

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Many people around him described Pima Prime as the crown jewel of the Gauge Dynasty in the Red Ocean. Such jewels deserved the highest degree of protection, and the strength of the local garrison gave Arbid a lot of confidence that he would be able to pass through his frontier service in almost total peace.

“I should have never accepted the offer to move to the Red Ocean!” The mech officer complained as his Favored Son’s HiCap energy shield was enduring constant stress.

There was little he could do under the current circumstances. Without being able to communicate and without knowing what was going on outside his mech, he did not dare to move his machine.

He just hoped that his comrades who weren’t affected by the sticky flames would come and cover for him during this sensitive period.

It was a pity that the Pima Defenders hadn’t really responded up to this point. The planned maneuvers of the Avatars of Myth happened way too quickly for the passive Fridayman officers to adjust.

Let alone issuing orders to rescue their beleaguered comrades, they didn’t even dare to stray close to the intensive disruptor beam storm that was shredding the HiCap energy shields of the Pima Defender mechs like a grinder!

Soon enough, a collision occurred that caused the HiCap shield of Arbid’s Favored Son to ripple in a violent manner.

“Hey, watch out, Pilot Carpenter! What did I tell you about shoving against other mechs?!”

Though his Favored Son still couldn’t see anything, Arbid still remembered which mech pilot was in control of the Modal Firmament at the front.

Normally, there should have been plenty of space between the first row and the second row of their formation to prevent accidental collisions. Battles in space tended to take place across much greater distances so it was rare for mechs to be packed together.

Had Carpenter panicked due to the flames engulfing his heavy space knight and sought to rotate to the rear while still remaining in a blinded state?

That was stupid choice! The training of the Pima Defenders constantly emphasized that mech pilots should never casually move from their place without authorization!

Strangely enough, the pressure of Carpenter’s Modal Firmament quickly disappeared. Had the pilot regained his senses and returned his heavy space knight to its proper place?

It was frustrating for Arbid to remain in the dark while his Favored Son continued to be surrounded by an excess of light.

The irony of the situation was not lost on the mech captain!

A short time later, the situation for Arbid worsened.

Disruptor beams began to splash against the strained HiCap shield from the front!

“What?! Why am I getting hit? What are you doing, Carpenter! Why aren’t you blocking these shots for me? It’s your job to shield my mech from danger!”

His increasingly more distressed demands fell into the ears of nobody. Though the incredibly active propellant was already starting to show signs of running out, that did not help Arbid in the slightest now that the heavy space knight that was supposed to withstand enemy attacks had mysteriously disappeared!

Arbid grew angrier by the second. He immediately concluded that Pilot Carpenter had lost his cool and flown out of formation.

There was no other explanation why a heavy space knight disappeared so quickly! Such a formidable defensive machine should have lasted a lot longer even if its HiCap shield got drained prematurely.

The physical tower shield as well as the thick frontal armor of such a mech were not made of paper!

After the barrage of disruptor beams finally exhausted the HiCap shield of his Favored Son, the flames mostly faded away as the magnetic attraction no longer existed.

Before Arbid could do anything meaningful, his Favored Son suddenly got struck by several hooks that had captured all four limbs as well as the torso of his machine!

“What?!”

The sensors of his heavy mech just cleared up enough to see that eight golden Larkinson mechs had approached and used special grappling poles to skillfully hold tight onto his Favored Son!

“Let go, you filth!”

His heavy mech vigorously tried to break the hold and shake itself loose, but it was too late at this point.

The thick and strong grappling tools had maintained such a firm grip over Arbid’s mech that it had become incapable of overpowering the forces that kept it constrained!

Even though a heavy melee mech like the Favored Son was able to exert a huge amount of physical strength, it was hard to move its limbs when it had to fight against the combined strength of eight different Bright Warrior Mark II’s!

There was no chance for the Favored Son to swing its formidable halberd at all. If Arbid was able to see the grappling tools coming, then the heavy mech would have been able to block or break these tools before they could take hold.

Unfortunately, the Larkinsons moved too quickly!

As the specially-equipped Catcher Squads grabbed hold of their prey, they utilized all of their power to pull their prizes away from the enemy battle line!

Though the Larkinson mechs endured a lot of shots due to their high-profile actions, they received plenty of cover from other friendly mechs.

As such, the Catcher Squads not only managed to retrieve and isolate a bunch of Pima Defender mechs, but also keep them place for the Redaxes to approach with their characteristic red-bladed weapons.

One of them already flew towards the trapped and vulnerable Favored Son mech.

“What… what are you going to do with that, Larkinson?”

The Redaxe’s intention was obvious. It lifted up its massive two-handed axe and was about to circle around to the rear so that it could deliver a powerful, armor-breaching blow to the Favored Son’s exposed rear!

Captain Arbid Hoven-Gauge no longer had any faith that his comrades would come to rescue his heavy mech from its predicament. He activated the eject command in an instant, which caused his cockpit to explode out of the back of his heavy halberdier mech!

At this point, he no longer cared how shameful it looked to eject from his mech without even landing a single attack on an opponent.

His life was more important than his duty!

When the sensors of his ejected cockpit detected that he was far from the only one to have made this choice, his depression faded a bit.

“My superiors won’t blame me for making this decision. I held out as long as I could.” Arbid consoled himself as his cockpit peacefully flew back towards the rear.

In any case, the fall of Pima Prime had nothing to do with him. Even if the invading forces won this battle and razed the entire port system to the ground, Arbid could count on his dynasty to arrange a place on an evacuation ship.

Though Arbid did not dare to say this out loud, perhaps it was a blessing for him to bail out of this battle at an early stage!

He knew enough about battles from the Komodo War to know that the probability of mech pilots meeting their end became much higher at the end!

Seeing that his life was no longer at risk, Arbid completely put away his thoughts on the battle and started to think on how to preserve his career opportunities.

“Pima Prime will be a goner after this, and life in the Friday Colonies will be a lot more difficult for everyone after today.”

Should he apply for a transfer back to the old galaxy?