The Mech Touch

The coalition only had 18 mechs left by the time they repelled the Ruuzon Guard mechs. The Brakkard Consortium lost two biomechs while the Right Siders lost a metallic mech.

The remainder all incurred varying degrees of damage. While the Optimon only got shot at a few times, other mechs withstood powerful hits or lost limbs!

There was no way for this diminished coalition to repel the ultralifer mech company that Ves knew for certain was coming!

Ves transmitted the sensor readings to all of the friendly mechs. "We're not in a condition to fight off forty mechs. Let's depart from this location. We should fly as far away as possible from downtown Veoline while we still can!"

He deliberately used the word 'we' in order to strengthen the suggestion that they were all in it together. Whether it made a difference or not, Ves wasn't sure, but they were all following suit.

The Roving Hunters took the lead as the Perringer and the Optimon picked up the rabbit shuttle again. The other groups automatically followed as this appeared to be the most logical decision they could make.

In times of uncertainty, it was always better to group with friendlies! No one wanted to bump into a larger unit of hostile mechs.

If the coalition didn't exist, then every group had only three to five mechs at their disposal. While this represented a lot of power in isolation, it was nothing compared to the larger elements that the other organizations were fielding!

Even though Prosperous Hill VI did its best to prevent mechs from proliferating too much, the sheer amount of people living on the planet made it inevitable that there were at least thousands of them in Veoline alone!

Now, the city had turned into a warzone. As Ves examined the feeds of the city, he noticed plenty of rumblings in the distance.

Tiny specs that represented mechs were dancing around each other while firing their weapons or closing in to swing their blades.

Several tree structures collapsed as mechs collided against their trunks or explosions cracked them in half.

More structures were burning as laser beams, positron beams, destructive incendiaries and more caused the fire-resistant growths to become engulfed in flames!

The idyllic green city that used to project order and peace was groaning from the ravages of war!

Prosperous Hill VI had never been engulfed in a destructive conflict of this scale!

All of that clearly showed as the citizens didn't know what to do, the authorities were split and fighting amongst themselves and all kinds of fringe groups were free to inflict as much destruction as they wanted!

"What a dumb place." Ves quietly sighed before turning to a nearby biomech technician. "Hey, how is the shuttle takeover going? Why haven't you guys made any progress?"

"We don't know! An ordinary shuttle shouldn't be difficult to take over, but for some reason the owner of this rabbit vehicle upgraded its security suite! Apparently, this shuttle belongs to an elite school, so it has to be resistant against any form of hacking or tampering in order to satisfy the strict safety standards imposed by the government."

What the hell?! When Ves initially encountered the rabbit shuttle, he didn't think much of it. Its fluffy appearance and childish interior caused him to underestimate it. No one figured out that its security suite did not lose out to premium vehicles until it was too late!

Boom!

The shuttle suddenly shook as one of the two biomechs that held onto it had shifted!

"What's going on, Jannzi?!"

"We're under attack!" Venerable Jannzi responded. "A squad of unidentified yellow biomechs are attacking us from long range!"

"Who are they?"

"I don't know! I already asked the others but they are in the dark as well."

"Are there other attackers on the way?"

"We haven't detected any so far. The yellow biomechs haven't moved from cover."

If the yellow biomechs weren't determined to take their targets down, then why were they shooting in the first place? They were provoking way too many enemies if they fired indiscriminately at other mechs!

Ves didn't bother to decipher their logic.

"We need to reduce our visibility! Lose altitude and fly close to ground level. We won't be easy shots anymore if we're in the midst of all of these tree structures."

The temporary coalition was already doing so. They flew lower until they were close to touching the ground. The reason why they didn't land was because flying was faster for many of the mechs and biomechs. 

What annoyed Ves quite a bit was that the surrounding tree-like houses were too low to cover the upper portions of mechs. Depending on the height of the houses, the heads, shoulders and even chests of biomechs poked out of the treeline!

This allowed the distant yellow mechs to continue to fire at the Roving Hunters and the other groups with abandon.

Due to the superior cover of the enemy, there was hardly any point in shooting back, especially when every friendly mech was running low on resources.

Everyone just wanted to get to safety at this point!

As the distance from the annoying ranged mechs increased, the threat they posed dwindled. Eventually, their attacks were no longer effective as most shots missed or struck a tree house, wiping out any occupants if they were inside.

The incidents didn't cease. Veoline was a massive urban center and its outskirts were the size of provinces. There were plenty of tree structures in the distance no matter what direction they flew in. Some of them were even tall enough to rival the office structures of downtown Veoline!

There were sporadic signs of fighting in every district. The coalition distinctly avoided any sites of active fighting and tried to avoid any large concentrations of biomechs.

Unfortunately, it was unavoidable for them to bump into smaller concentrations of combat machines!

Ves felt nervous whenever he approached them, but he didn't need to be as the outnumbered biomechs made their way on their own accord. None of them wanted to mess with eighteen mechs!

Only a couple of them did not take the initiative to move away. In some cases, they were compelled to defend a fixed structure or location.

In other cases, the unknown groups of mechs noticed the diverse composition of the coalition and started to have ideas!

"Hey, are you trying to get out of this place? We'd like to join you guys. We have three sturdy biomechs! We can be of use to you! Please take us in. We've got money!"

Ves hesitated, and so did many others. After a biomech technician told him that the mechs belonged to a small-time gang, he decided to accept their entry.

His coalition had already lost a fair amount of mechs and the remaining ones were in poor shape. Adding three fresh mechs to his lineup inserted some much-needed strength to his hand.

It turned out that this was just the first instance of groups requesting to join his mob.

Another gang had observed how the temporary coalition did not hesitate too long before accepting the strangers into the fold.

"We'd like to join as well! If you can take in the Moonsharks, you can count on us as well!"

The second gang brought five biomechs, which was enough to make Ves feel nervous. He only relaxed when he noticed that they were all weaker machines. The Taragon and the Perringer could probably chop them all up in an even fight!

"Fine." Ves responded. "You can join our lineup, but don't make any aggressive moves towards us. Watch where you are pointing your weapons and keep a healthy distance from the rest. If you decide you want to leave, then notify us in advance."

"Alright, boss!"

The growth of the coalition not only caused everyone who was a part of it to feel more secure, but also started to draw in other groups.

A third gang approached, then a fourth, then a fifth.

Not just gangs, but also other small-sized outfits joined. Biomechs that belonged to various mercenary corps, security companies and other random organizations all seemed to think there was safety in numbers.

The fact that Ves accepted all of them only encouraged more groups to join the growing collection of biomechs!

At some point, the new additions weren't confined to mechs.

"Will do, sir. We'd like to bring our crew and families along as well. Do you have room for a couple of extra shuttles?"

"Sure." Ves answered. "Hey, do you have a spare shuttle?"

"Uhm, I think we have one lying around here somewhere."

Ves, his honor guard and the biomech technicians of the Roving Hunters no longer had to cram themselves in the rabbit shuttle.

They all gave up on the blasted biovehicle and moved over to other shuttles that were already accessible. Even though there was a small risk that the vehicles came with backdoors, Ves didn't think that a local gang was sophisticated enough to hatch such a scheme.

Since they were no longer stuck in the underground hangar, Ves and the others had access to many more vehicles. If they wanted to, they could have approached and subverted any other parked vehicle on the street!

Ves and the Larkinsons decided to occupy their own shuttle. Now that they weren't forced to share space with the Roving Hunters, they enjoyed a lot more room.

"Finally!" Vincent looked relieved. "I can move on my own again!"

An honor guard who was trained in piloting shuttles took the helm. Even though an organic shuttle was very different from a conventional shuttle, most of the basic controls were virtually identical. Standardization stretched across tech bases. There was no reason for bioshuttles to adopt a completely different control scheme when the standard one already did the job.

After an entire hour went by, the coalition somehow grew from 18 mechs to 150 mechs.

150 mechs!

At least twenty-five different groups of mechs applied and joined the growing army of mechs and biomechs.

They also brought over 50 different shuttles, transports and other vehicles! Each of them were occupied with lots of people and some very valuable goods and supplies.

All of these groups had pretty much formed a spontaneous refugee train! Ves didn't even have to micromanage all of these different elements. Officers and underbosses rose up and organized the chaotic train on their own accord!

Under ordinary conditions, gathering elements from so many different gangs, outfits and other organizations would definitely stir up a lot of friction.

This was especially considering that there were plenty of rivals and natural opponents in the train!

Yet despite the underlying hostility between some of the elements, no one thought of pursuing their vendettas at this time!

While there were plenty of fringe groups that wanted to take advantage of the chaos, there were many other people and organizations who just wanted to keep their heads down and stay alive!

Right now, they were absolutely getting what they wanted. After the refugee train surpassed 100 mechs, no one with aggressive intentions in mind dared to approach the mechs that were nominally under the command of Ves.

There were way too many mechs!

Even if some people suspected that the mechs in the refugee train weren't united at all, no one wanted to put that assumption to the test!

Numbers were scary. Each and every mech in the refugee train was a working second-class killing machine. Even the cheapest and smallest one was already capable of destroying a lot of tree structures!

Ves became more and more worried that this house of cards would fall. Any strong opponent that could field at least two mech companies could easily make the refugee train fall apart!

Yet none of that happened. To his considerable amazement, they never encountered any mechs from powerful organizations such as the political factions or a highly-militarized organization like the ultralifers.

As Ves and his growing band flew further and further away from Veoline, it appeared there was nothing in the surrounding areas that were worth fighting.

That did not cause Ves to feel reassured, though.

As Gentle Lotus Base would soon come within sight, he had to face a very difficult dilemma.

Should he break up and disband the refugee train or should he bring them all back to his stronghold?