The Mech Touch

em of a white-and-black dragon ’s head.

”Turrets, focus on the rabble.
Leave the Dragons of the Void to us! ”

As the mechs started to fight around the broken ramp, Ves hurriedly sought out Chief Ramirez.
The man had hunkered down behind a control terminal.
He hastily tried to activate various settings only to encounter error messages.

Ramirez cursed.
Everyone on the local channel heard his frustration.
”The pirates knew where to strike! The earlier explosion wrecked the primary power channel to the ramp.
The damage the pirate mech inflicted to the mechanism shouldn ’t be able to cripple the ramp if it still had full power! ”

Perhaps the random attacks hadn ’t been so spontaneous.
All of the evidence so far pointed out that the local mercs weren ’t the only ones dealing with questionable loyalties.
Still, Ves shook his head.
Now was not the time to sniff out any traitors.
Ramirez just pointed out an area where he could be of use.

”Calm down! ” Ves demanded and put his hands over the chief ’s broad shoulders.
”We have to repair the broken power channel! ”

”What? Now? ”

The repair work had to be done out in the open where almost any mech could fire a stray shot at the location.
Chief Ramirez didn ’t dare to send out any men to fix the broken channel.
Even if he cut every possible corner, the work would still take over ten minutes of frantic working!

”If the ramp stays open, the pirates will keep pouring in! The longer this goes on, the higher the chance our Ajaxes will suffer damage! I don ’t need to tell you how much it will set back the expedition.
Chief, make a decision.
We have to get that ramp moving again! ”

Ves had a very good point.
Even as the Ark Horizon threaded her way out of the pirate formation, the large amounts of reckless pirates deployed in space ensured that a trickle of enemies would always squeeze through the opening.

The chief gritted his teeth.
”Fine! ”

The man finally got his head back together and ordered a team of his most solid mech technicians to grab some tools.
Meanwhile, Ves and Ramirez entered one of the storehouses and retrieved the materials to replace the broken power channel.
They couldn ’t lift the load by hand, so they piled it on top of a loader bot and brought it with them back to the main hangar.

”Let ’s go, boys! ”

The group of technicians tried their best to remain inconspicuous.
They slowly neared the main entrance of the hangar and entered the area affected by the initial explosion.
The wounded had already been retrieved while the dead still lingered where their breaths snuffed out.

Most of the dead wore simple vacuum suits covered with simple work coveralls that provided them with an abundant amount of pockets.
They provided little protection against a serious blast like the one that broke the power channel.
Ves felt a little queasy walking past the unfortunate dead.

Lucky on the other hand revelled in his newfound freedom.
The harness had irritated him for weeks, preventing him from running around without restriction.
Now that Ves had cut off his bonds, he eagerly took the lead and made sure that the repair team encountered no other threats.

Too bad he couldn ’t help if a pirate mech decides to shoot in their direction.
Ves might survive on account of his shield generator, but everyone else only had their hazard suits to protect their bodies.

Once they reached the affected portion, Ves and a number of competent technicians turned on their plasma cutters and separated the wrecked portion of the power channel.

They worked for several minutes, trusting their comrades to cover their back.
Melkor in particular shot at every mech who turned their weapons to the work team, drawing attention away from their vital effort to secure the hangar.

Captain Kaine also intervened with her top quality machine.
Unfortunately, her mech lacked a flight system and had to borrow a spare ballistic rifle in order to fight back against the pirates.

While she might be an excellent warrior with a spear, her marksmanship barely sufficed.
Many of her shots missed her target and traveled on to hit the deck or bulkhead.
Despite her abysmal hit rate, she succeeded in distracting the pirates, causing them to forget about the puny humans who worked out in the open.

Everyone in the repair team made brisk progress trying to improvise a new channel.
They couldn ’t afford to go through a checklist of procedures.
They merely settled for a crude and improvised channel that would hold up to the stress of channeling a significant amount of power.
It already sounded good if it lasted for an hour before burning out.

”Skip the safeties! Work faster! Don ’t wait for the couplings to settle in.
Just skip to the next part! ”

While Ves possessed a vast amount of theoretical knowledge, the best mech technicians surpassed him in handling the tools and conducting the actual repairs.
The mech designer had been pushed in a supervisory capacity and made sure the mech technicians took the right actions to repair the power channel quickly.

Several minutes flew by as the ugly-looking kludge took shape.
Once the power channel finally took shape, Ramirez raced to the nearest console and forcibly tried to order the ramp to close.

The half-broken ramp shook, then abruptly moved as its remaining mechanisms powered through.
The few remaining pirate mechs tried but failed to sabotage the ramp again.
Reinforcements arrived just in time to contain the rogue mechs.

The ramp finally slid shut and powerful locks kept the heavy cover in place.
The hangar bay now enjoyed as much protection as the rest of the ship.

The repair team led by Ves and Chief Ramirez collapsed on the ground.
The stress of working under fire completely drained their energy.
After giving everyone a minute of rest, Ramirez started to kick his men up their feet.

”Get up! This is no time to sleep! We still have work to do! ”

The battle wasn ’t over yet.
The Ark Horizon paid a significant price in her attempt to cut the pirate formation in half.
While the expeditionary fleet succeeded in disintegrating the enemy formation, a lot of ships and mechs suffered various amounts of damage in turn.