The Mech Touch

The biomechs owned by the Roving Hunters all possessed flight capabilities.

This was good. Flight translated to mobility, and mobility was essential to flee the most dangerous areas of Veoline quickly.

Each biomech stood silently while locked within braces extending from the walls. The braces supported the biomechs while at the same time keeping them in place so that they wouldn't be able to go out without authorization.

It turned out that one of the reasons why the Roving Hunters failed to get their biomechs out of the braces was because they didn't have the right codes to unlock them! Competitive teams were only allowed to bring their mechs out if they received permission from the arena.

"As you can see, our biomechs are stuck." Captain Cecil Rivington stated the obvious. "Usually, an arena official will come and unlock the braces for the mechs that are scheduled to make an appearance. The rules are so strict because an incident occurred in the past."

Ves raised his eyebrow. "What happened?"

"There used to be a team that went on a 12-match losing streak. It got so bad that the team risked getting relegated to a lower league. When that happens, you lose your sponsors, mech pilots, fans and a lot of potential income. Suffice to say, the team will pretty much be ruined, and the owner and team leader will lose the most."

"I guess that team leader didn't take his impending relegation too well."

"Correct, sir. The short story is that the team leader went bonkers and started to hop into his biomech. Back then, the braces were still there, but they were under the control of the team, so he easily managed to free his machine. I won't detail all the damage that ensued, but he was able to inflict a lot of damage before internal security intervened."

All of this meant that Ruuzon Arena had become a lot more strict towards rogue biomechs since then! Not only were teams compelled to store their mechs in strong and secure braces, but they also had to implement other locking measures that prevented the machines from being used on an impulse.

Removing all of these locking measures took time, and some of them couldn't be removed without the cooperation of an arena inspector!

Ves' suited form looked up at the mass of bone-like cages that kept the Roving Hunter machines in captivity.

"If this is the case, what was your plan to free your biomechs from these contraptions?"

"We figured we could cut through enough braces to free an arm or something. Once one of our biomechs is able to move a limb, it could use its own strength to break the other braces. It will still take time to unlock the other locking mechanisms, but our mech technicians can handle those aspects."

Ves glanced at the crew responsible for maintaining the biomechs of the Roving Hunters. They consisted of a mix of young interns to seasoned specialists.

While biomechs were famed for their low maintenance requirements, that didn't mean that every problem could be remedied by dumping them into a feeder pool.

Regardless of whether they were made of metal or flesh, competitive mechs frequently incurred damage. Their battle frequency was so high that their wear and tear reached an insane level. And this did not even take into account the battle damage they suffered!

Due to the peculiarities of biomechs, fixing major issues such as missing limbs required a lot of manual intervention. For example, reattaching a new limb and trying to integrate it with the older body not only demanded specialized knowledge, but also lots of practical experience.

Every biomech was unique. Their growth always diverged from the template and as they aged, they became more distinct. Every injury healed in different ways and every replacement part caused the biomech to diverge even further from their starting point.

In most cases, these changes might have detrimental effects on the performance of a biomech, but as long as the problems weren't too exaggerated, the impact was negligible enough.

It was different for competitive mechs. Every fighting machine had to be deployed in their best possible shape because every disparity in performance could have a measurable impact on the chances of victory.

A competitive team that did not do their best to keep their mechs in peak condition risked suffering many preventable losses!

A team of the caliber of the Roving Hunters actually employed over a hundred specialists to care for their biomechs. Due to the complexity of organic machines, each biomech technician specialized in a narrow field.

For example, there were biomech technicians who only trained in servicing and repairing joints. Others specialized in healing and servicing the biceps of biomech limbs.

It couldn't be helped. The knowledge that someone needed to learn to master every essential aspect about servicing biomechs was too immense! The use of a decent-quality cranial implant was essentially mandatory to be able to become the highest grade of biomech technicians in the LRA! They had essentially become biotechs experts themselves after they mastered all of this knowledge!

This was one of the many reasons why most people outside of the LRA didn't bother with biomechs. While an ordinary mech was also a complicated product of engineering, mech technicians didn't need to know how all of it worked in order to straighten a piece of armor plating or replace a damaged component.

Therefore, even though the crew answering to Captain Rivington were merely biomech technicians, Ves did not look down on them. As proud as he was in his ability to work with mechs, his expertise in machines made out of flesh and bones was vastly inferior to that of these 'humble' techs!

That said, Ves was not completely useless in this instance.

He might know little about organic machines, but electronic machines were much more familiar to him. The arena systems mainly operated on conventional systems, which meant they were difficult for the biomechs to deal with but familiar enough for Ves to manipulate.

With Lucky's hacking capabilities, the security suite posed little hindrance to Ves. He tore past the blockade and accessed the controls to the mech hall.

"Make way! The braces are coming off!"

The biomech technicians near the machines quickly flew back to a healthy distance. The entire hall rumbled for a tiny moment before the bone-like braces gradually retracted from the organic machines they clutched. The braces smoothly retracted into the wall.

Ves only freed five out of the twelve biomechs. While it would have been nice if he was able to take away the rest, they simply didn't have the means to transport them at a time!

Rather than leave them open for other parties to subvert, it was best to leave them locked so that delinquents wouldn't be able to use them for destructive ends.

Three of the biomechs were reserved for the mech athletes. Captain Cecil Rivington was a swordsman mech specialist. As the team leader, he not only possessed the highest skill, but also knew how to take charge.

His swordsman biomech was the most impressive unit of the twelve. The Taragon's sculpted uncovered muscle drew admiration from Vincent, though he was quite distressed to see that there was nothing between the legs. 

A woman called Carlie Jinton was his second. She was a ranged mech specialist but knew her way around if an enemy ever got close.

Since pure ranged mechs were a bit impractical in competitive matches, she usually piloted marauder mechs. The Bluestar was typical of this mech type. The speed-oriented biomech was capable of wielding both a mace and a carbine, though not at once.

The third mech pilot was a younger man called Oliver Vlambeer. He was the rookie of the Roving Hunters and did not possess any exceptional fighting capabilities. His talent might be good, but at this point the 28-year old could not compare to the likes of Venerable Jannzi.

He piloted a fairly sturdy spearman mech called the Optimon. It was a slower, more defensive-oriented mech that carried both a spear and a medium shield.

Obviously, the Roving Hunter mech pilots were slanted towards melee combat, which was fine in the arena but not very ideal in the open.

Ves couldn't do much about it, though. After discussing with Jannzi and Vincent, he set his sights on two spare biomechs.

The first one was a knight mech, of course. Different from the Shield of Samar, the primary defensive mech of the Roving Hunters was a rather speedy and agile biomech.

"Most of the time, ranged mechs are of limited use in group matches." Captain Rivington explained as he gestured towards the knight mech. "The Perringer isn't designed to stay put and absorb damage. In the arena, every mech must constantly stay on the move. It's impractical for a slow and heavy knight mech to be of use in these conditions. Our knight mech therefore serves a peeling function. They have to charge forward, get in the face of another mech and keep it occupied as long as possible, thereby peeling away an opponent that could threaten our more vulnerable units such as the Bluestar."

"I see." Ves murmured. "It's meant to be annoying, then. I'm a bit disappointed by its defensive capabilities, though. I can see why it's classified as a knight mech but to me it's a bit too skinny for my tastes."

Captain Rivington shrugged. "As I said, the current competitive meta favors mobility above all else. The Perringer is damn good at charging, and its slightly-conal shield is great at ramming into other mechs."

"What do you think, Jannzi?"

"I would rather have the Shield of Samar." She grumbled. "I don't like to pilot other mechs, you know that. In fact, if it wasn't an emergency, I wouldn't be willing to pilot another mech at all. I'm sure the Perringer is a decent mech, but I have no bond with it, and it's not even living."

"Just do the best you can. You can get back to the Shield of Samar soon enough once we solve our immediate problems."

Ves turned to Vincent. "Are you ready to pilot your first biomech?"

The crippled expert candidate was hastily browsing through a beginner's guide on piloting biomechs. The more technical explanations all went right over his head!

"I don't know! These biomechs are so different from the mechs I know that I'm not sure whether I can fight with any of them! Isn't there a normal mech around here somewhere?"

"Don't complain. I want to get my hands on a classical mech as well, but there aren't any within range. We have no choice but to make do with what we have, and right now that means you should get ready to pilot the Rotenring."

"That's a stupid name, by the way."

The oddly-named Rotenring was a bit of an oddball among the competitive mechs of the Roving Hunters. It was a striker mech armed with a shotgun that also incorporated a chainsaw.

The Rotenring possessed good protection but lower-than-average mobility. This was fine though as the mech was meant to act as a finisher. Its arsenal allowed it to deal disproportionate damage against damaged opponents. The shotgun was able to inflict considerable damage to open wounds while its wicked-looking chainsaw could grind through entire limbs!

However, its lack of maneuverability meant that it had fallen out of favor as of late.

"The Rotenring might be rusty since it has been months since we last deployed it." Captain Rivington cautioned.

"What does that mean?"

"The biomech should be fine, but the Rotenring might come across as stiff to its mech pilots. Just give it some exercise to loosen it up. Once a biomech gets moving again, it will gradually become more responsive."

As the biomech technicians prepared all five biomechs for deployment, Ves began to study them as well. He referenced the manuals and technical schematics and tried to see whether he could add to their strength.