The Mech Touch

Compared to the decisiveness of Lord Drogen of the Allidus Alliance, Supreme Lord Roda was much more prone to equivocating.

The negotiators of the Larkinson Clan constantly tried to tempt the powerful pirate commander into offering his surrender.

Even though there was little chance that the Supreme Lord would be able to remain alive for the rest of his old age due to all of his violations, a man could still dream.

Unfortunately, Roda's grasp on the Crona Lords had already begun to slip as the Larkinson Clan won the battle and neutralized every mech or weapon that could pose a threat.

Just before the Supreme Lord was almost ready to offer his surrender, three of his confidantes aboard his ship had suddenly pulled out pistols and shot their former leader to pieces!

The pirate commander's flamboyant uniform that was decked with various trophies might look impressive, but it offered relatively little protection against attacks! The man had spent far too much time in the safety and comfort of Xiphard Base to take precautions against betrayal from his own side.

It didn't help that his bodyguards didn't lift a finger to save his life either!

The Larkinsons who saw the bloody spectacle unfold through the communication feed were only mildly upset at this turn of events. Supreme Lord Roda probably held a lot of secrets and understood the Nyxian Gap better than any of his other subordinates. Losing him was a substantial but not particularly catastrophic setback to the Larkinson Clan.

What little order remained among the Crona Lords evaporated after the Supreme Lord's passing became known.

Though the Larkinsons treated his title with contempt, the man held a considerable amount of authority among his own men. His ignoble death had caused the surviving Crona Lords to lose their main source of confidence!

Though some of the directionless pirates had become a lot more violent and irrational after losing their greatest leader, the infantry sent to pacify them eagerly took advantage of their lack of organization.

Every form of resistance had been crushed! Though some of the infantry sustained losses when they tripped some boobytraps or came under attack of industrial equipment, as a whole Xiphard Base and the immobilized starships slowly ceded ground to the Larkinson Clan.

What stood out to the Larkinsons the most was how much less resistance the infantry encountered at Xiphard Base. Lucky had single-handedly caused the pirates residing in the base to experience what it was like to be haunted by a ghost!

Ves and the leaders of the task force received increasingly more detailed reports on what kind of mischief Lucky had been up to. The cat abused his elusiveness for hours, causing the increasingly-hapless security forces of the base to feel as if they were being led around circles all the time!

Once the Larkinson infantry secured the interior of the main base, Lucky did not bother to return to Ves. Instead, he had phased straight into one of the vaults of the massive base in order to partake in his reward!

Who knew what kind of valuable and rare exotics ended up in the gem cat's belly. Ves felt tempted to enter the base right away in order to prevent his cat from eating everything of value, but he refrained from doing so out of caution.

He patiently waited for the infantry to completely secure and sweep the interior of Xiphard Base of any possible threats.

Even though the clan was already pretty sure that the base did not incorporate any self-destruct mechanisms, it was best to verify Lucky's scans and see if the pirates hadn't improvised something on the spot.

He only transferred over when an entire day had passed. As the mechs and shuttles of the Larkinson Clan scoured over the battlefield in order to sift through the expanding debris fields.

Salvaging the wrecks of their own mechs was the main priority of the salvage teams. Even if the mech technicians and mech designers couldn't restore them to functionality, at least they could recycle the parts and materials to repair other mechs.

As for the debris that originated from pirate mechs, there was relatively little of value for the Larkinson to take. In general, the clan wasn't interested in making use of Kavenit alloys. The only exception was the considerably more powerful armor plating of the mechs of the Allidus Archons.

The elite mechs offered protection that was far superior to any regular third-class armor system, though it was very inefficient to produce.

That said, once they were made, they were usually built to last.

Another notable spoils was taking over control of the partially-intact ships of the Crona Lords. While they weren't great vessels and weren't functioning properly, the sabotage that Lucky inflicted was very targeted, thereby leaving most of the core parts intact.

This meant that it didn't take too much time and resources to reverse the sabotage and restore them to working condition.

Whether the Larkinson Clan actually intended to take over the ships remained to be seen.

A handful of passenger shuttles landed in one of the main hangar bays of Xiphard Base. A considerable number of guards emerged from them first in order to secure the premises.

Though they were only repeating the actions of the infantry that arrived before, it didn't hurt to be careful.

When Ves and twenty-six assistant mech designers finally stepped out, they all looked with awe and fascination at their new surroundings.

Due to safety concerns, everyone who entered the base had to wear a hazard suit or something sturdier. No one was allowed to walk around unexposed in case some pirate trap released poison in the air or caused some volatile component to explode.

Though the suits elicited a lot of discomfort among the mech designers, Ves valued the extra layer of protection.

Various mechs, shuttles, mining vessels and maintenance equipment had been left behind in the spacious interior. The Crona Lords maintained fairly decent standards, so the hangar bay was actually rather clean and orderly.

"So this is a pirate base. It doesn't look much different from a mercenary facility."

"Most of the stories I've heard about the Nyxian Gap is that they can't distinguish a plasma welder from a multitool."

"I heard that pirate groups always keep a lot of slaves. Where are they?"

None of the Braves had ever been exposed to pirates up close. For all of their uncommon daring and courage, they still spent most of their time in design labs.

Though Ves had already taken them on a couple of tours, Xiphard Base was different from a regular pirate ship.

It was huge. Its scale was on another level than a typical pirate-owned carrier or haphazard asteroid base.

Xiphard Base had long served as the headquarters, castle and mining center of the Crona Lords. Its size and development reflected the decades of investment that Supreme Lord Roda had poured into it. As his crown jewel, he tried his best to take good care of it and avoid the usual neglect that less-disciplined pirates tended to exhibit.

Two younger clansmen joined the tour as well. They followed curiously behind Ves as they gawked at all of the abandoned pirate machines.

"Wow. How much profit can we make if we salvage or sell off all of this gear?" Maikel asked.

Ves quickly turned around and gently knocked his fist on the Larkinson seed's helmet.

"Of all the questions you could have asked, this shouldn't be the first one to escape from your mouth. This is just a fraction of the spoils that we have obtained from our victory! It's very likely that we'll be leaving all of this gear behind. The cargo holds of our ships can only accommodate so many goods. We need to take stock of our spoils and prioritize the most valuable goods."

"We've captured a lot of pirate ships, right? We could use them to store additional loot. The extra supplies might be sorely needed in the future." Zanthar Larkinson remarked.

"It's not that simple." Ves shook his head. "While you are right that carrying more supplies is better, the cost of doing so might be greater. Those pirate ships that you believe are for the taking are built and crewed by pirates. If you have paid any attention to the battle yesterday, then you should know that these depraved people are capable of doing anything. Who can say that the pirate ships aren't boobytrapped? Even if we have performed extensive scans on all of the vessels, I can think of many ways to circumvent the security sweeps."

Maikel brought up another argument. "They're also sluggish and old. They will only slow down the task force if we bring them along."

"Correct. I have always believed that we should always prioritize mobility whenever we venture into hostile territory. When you're too slow, you just make it easier for your local enemies to converge on you and cut off your escape routes. Now that we have provoked the Allidus Alliance, we need to take this threat seriously."

No one expected a trading partner of the Crona Lords to arrive at that time. The intervention and subsequent defeat of the Allidus trade convoy spelled bad news. He had already received an earful from Calabast on the risks of retaliation of a major core power of the Nyxian Gap!

That was something to worry for later. Right now, Ves just wanted to take a look at his harvest and enjoy the fruits of his victory.

"Let's proceed forward. This is just the entrance to the base."

The group of mech designers strode forward. They exited the massive hangar bay and moved further inward. After passing through some massive corridors and a couple of abandoned security checkpoints, they entered the heart of the hollowed-out cavern that had been dug out from the interior of the asteroid that hosted the base.

"Wow!"

The asteroid was actually quite large. The Crona Lords selected a good rock to build their base. A large stretch of structures had been built inside the base. While there were lots of sections that resembled the interior of starships, at least the main floor looked spacious and inviting.

Ves could tell that the pirates deliberately built this floor in order to alleviate their homesickness. The structures built on the main floor resembled an urban city district more than anything else. The pirates had even allocated space for some parks, though the weird purple exoplants did not look particularly inviting.

He wondered what Merrill O'Brian would say. As a former pirate designer, if unwillingly, she must have visited plenty of pirate bases when she was trapped in the frontier.

Sadly, she wasn't among the Braves who followed Task Force Predator into the Nyxian Gap. Ves already saw that Merrill was starting to fall into the camp of the Erudites.

As they walked through the pacified streets of the main floor, Ves and the mech designers finally encountered the people who resided in the base.

The clan infantry intimidated the locals into surrendering and shot anyone who resisted the inevitable.

The Larkinsons didn't really have the means to process tens of thousands of captives in a short amount of time. Therefore, the infantry simply rounded up the pirates and slaves and stuffed them into large cages."

The mass of prisoners sitting hopelessly onto the dirty floor caused some of the more sympathetic assistant mech designers to show some pity.

"How many of them are slaves?"

"That's to be determined." Ves shrugged. "From the intelligence we've gathered, the slaves outnumber the pirates. The problem is that there are many cases where the two labels overlap. The Crona Lords actually recruit a considerable amount of their men from the slaves that work under them. As long as they performed well and displayed plenty of loyalty to their masters, the slaves gained more rights and privileges under the pirate regime. This allowed them to work towards a better life."

A better life towards piracy, though. No matter how desperate these former slaves were, once they embraced piracy in any form, they became a part of the problem.

Ves did not intend to be merciful towards these folk.