The Mech Touch

A community of hungry and languishing citizens raised their hands and expressed their jubilance at the biomechs that had defeated their demons!

Many of them had been locked inside their cells for more than a week. Their captors and abusers used to be a part of a defeated gang that had fled its original territory.

Angry at the fact they got beaten up so badly, the thugs vented their frustration on the helpless!

During the entire period the criminals remained in charge, the killings and other depravities never ceased. Even if the delinquents knew that their acts would not go unanswered, it was difficult for them to think too far in the future!

Unfortunately, they miscalculated.

Out of nowhere, an entire company of biomechs swooped in from nowhere and overrun the thirteen shabby biomechs that the gang used to possess!

The element of surprise, the difference in readiness along with the enormous number disparity caused the battle to be over shortly after it had begun.

A new force was in charge now. Unlike the previous occupants, the newcomers weren't interested in mistreating the innocent.

In fact, it was the opposite. They came as saviors!

A couple of shuttles arrived that brought enough food and emergency supplies to ensure the freed civilians had the capital to survive.

The rescue force even dispatched doctors in order to treat the civilians as best they could. Each of the medical specialists used to be Lifers. Even though they renounced their citizenship a short time ago, they still had enough common ground to earn the trust of their patients.

Jamie Knox, a teenage mech cadet who incurred a broken arm along with some bruises during his time of captivity, looked astonished at all of the activity surrounding the former occupant site.

"Who are you guys?"

"We're the Larkinson Clan, son." The doctor answered with a gentle smile as he carefully applied a fleshy apparatus to the broken limb. "Careful now. This will hurt, but it will be over soon."

After performing a few checks, the doctor activated the apparatus. The flesh squirmed and performed all kinds of other procedures beneath the surface. 

"AAAAAAHHH!"

"Hang on, son! Just five more seconds!"

"Damn, have you ever heard of anesthesia?!"

"I've already injected you with some mild sedatives. I can't give you anything stronger or else the chance of complications will increase considerably during this rapid treatment. Just tough it out. You can take it, son!"

The experience ended soon enough. While Jamie felt an awful itch across his entire arm and particularly the area where the breakage occurred, his distress reduced considerably when he saw that his bones had merged back together!

The doctor brought out a thin fleshy band and wrapped it around the hastily-healed arm. "There, that should do it. Keep wearing this organic bandage for a week. Make sure to feed it with water and nutrients according to the indicators on its display. If all goes right, your arm will become as good as new. The band will automatically fall off and deflate, so you can throw it into the recycler."

The mech cadet nodded in understanding. "Thank you, doc. You really didn't have to do all this. It's difficult to imagine that there are still good people out here who haven't gone mad with power."

"You should thank my new clan." The older man said as he prepared to treat another patient. "Even though our leader did not enjoy the greatest of hospitality from Prosperous Hill, he is still a decent man. I do not regret following him at all. It feels nice for me to serve the citizens of the LRA one last time before I bid farewell to my former state."

When Jamie left the treatment area in order to allow the next patient to step in, he wandered the liberated streets for a time. He encountered a few people who belonged to the rescuing force and asked a few questions.

No matter who he approached, the Larkinsons all said that they were helping others out without expecting anything in return.

They were truly trying to save people, one occupied territory at a time!

Perhaps the only loot they cared about was the biomech wrecks that were left behind. The more salvageable ones could easily be restored as long as some work was done to them, so the Larkinsons all loaded them into cargo transports before bringing them back to their rumored base.

At one junction, he saw the Larkinsons bringing in some very familiar-looking people. Jamie's hands clenched as he recognized the scraggly, bearded faces of his tormentors!

"Where are you taking them?" Jamie asked one of the guards.

The armored and helmeted figure barely paid attention to the mech cadet. "We're bringing the prisoners back to answer for their crimes."

"Why bother with all of that? They're already guilty! We have proof and eye-witness testimony right here! Just give me a weapon and I'll take revenge for myself!"

The guard abruptly turned and carefully placed his bone-plated hand onto Jamie's shoulder. "Calm down, kid. Justice will be done, have no doubt about that. What we're doing is a formality at most. I can tell you that 95 percent of these thugs will be sentenced to death by the end of the day."

"Then why go through these formalities at all?!" Jamie shouted back as he struggled under the strong grip. "Why can't you give us the satisfaction of gutting their bellies with our own hands? It's the least these monsters deserve for what they have done to us! My friend.. I have to take revenge for him! I won't let these filthy beetle fodder get off easily!"

He continued to push against the grip, yet the guard held him tightly. The trained soldier had a dozen different ways to handle an unruly person.

"I suggest you step back and let us handle it." The Larkinson Guard said. "What you need is justice. Not revenge. Taking matters into your own hands might feel nice for a time, but it will make you feel empty and can even twist you into something worse. Instead of descending into a spiral of negativity, you should focus on picking yourself up and building a new life for yourself. Step out of the darkness and return to the light."

This was a tough response for Jamie to swallow. Once the prisoners had all been guided into a specially-prepared shuttle, the vehicle ascended into the air and left the liberated area under escort.

The chance for Jamie to take revenge had slipped from this grasp!

Though a part of him felt crushed, another part of him felt as if a burden had been lifted off his shoulders.

He didn't know what to think. Was it truly right for him to be deprived of the opportunity to pay back his tormentors in person?

"Remember who you are." The guard spoke. "You are a human, and a civilized one at that. Don't descend to their level. It's not worth it. You still have a promising future ahead of you. If you are able to let go of the darkness in your heart and instead allow this incident to motivate you further, you'll become great enough to prevent a repeat. The LRA needs good people like you to make sure that this travesty never happens again. Only someone who lived through this kind of experience will do everything to ensure it won't happen to anyone else on his watch. Will you be this person?"

"I… don't know if I can. You are asking a lot from me. I don't even know if I'll be able to survive this civil war."

"Every war has an ending. Once the fighting dies down, the state needs people like you to get this place back on track. Would you rather leave this job in the hands of the same kind of people who sparked this violent revolution in the first place, or would you rather try and take charge yourself so that your fellow citizens are better served?"

With that, the guard turned around and left. The Larkinsons had finished sweeping the area and were about to depart.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Jamie hastily asked.

"Our work isn't done. We're on our way to liberate another site. Our patriarch personally stated that we won't rest until every area and district around our airfleet is freed!"

"Why? I still don't understand why you Larkinsons would risk your biomechs and expend so much resources. The Planetary Guard doesn't seem to care about us. Why should you be any different?"

Jamie's faith in the institutions that had governed the LRA had taken a severe hit during this past week. It was very hard for him to imagine that there were still people on this planet who were capable of showing goodwill!

"You're wrong, kid." The guard shook his head. "While you can argue that we didn't have to fill the void left by the authorities, we can't stand by while justice is being trampled upon. We are Larkinsons. While we cannot save the entire galaxy, we cannot stand by and let evil proliferate at our doorstep. As long as we have the power, our duty and honor compels us to act."

The guard sounded proud of this. His sense of belonging to the Larkinsons grew stronger as he saw how many people they were saving. The Larkinson Clan definitely proved to its new recruits that it was more than just a self-centered organization.

It was noble and compassionate! Every Lifer who got in felt lucky to be a part of such a righteous and honorable clan. This was a lifetime opportunity for many of them. Along with its bright future, there was no one who felt any remorse for becoming a Larkinson!

The Larkinsons were also serious about alleviating the suffering of the common folk. Even as other forces neglected the plight of civilians in favor of achieving more strategic goals, the clan detached five different mech companies and spread them out to eliminate the gangs and groups that held sway in the outskirts.

The amount of progress the five detachments had accomplished in just a couple of days was massive! Hundreds of square kilometers worth of territory breathed easier now. While the planet as a whole still wasn't safe, the citizens living in the outskirts at least didn't have to live under terror!

As the five mech companies defeated or scared away every hostile element in their path, a fleet of vehicles continually brought back loot and prisoners.

While the amount of loot captured by the detachments was relatively modest, the amount of prisoners brought back sometimes surpassed a hundred heads!

Most criminals and gang members folded easily once they recognized that they were on the losing side.

This was especially the case when they lost all of their biomechs. The thugs on foot couldn't do anything to fight back against the enemy mechs that drew closer. They couldn't run!

This resulted in the capture of a large number of prisoners. Not every Larkinson agreed with the directive to take them back in order to put them all on trial. Yet they did so anyway because the patriarch ordered it and because it was the right and honorable thing to do. If they wished to enact justice, then they had to do it right!

For their part, the prisoners weren't subjected to a kangaroo court. The Larkinsons had gathered plenty of evidence of their misdeeds, and presented them in full during expedited trials.

The ones who didn't act as depraved usually got away with a prison sentence. These folk were mostly guilty for following the wrong people, so they weren't entirely irredeemable. The Larkinsons would just hold on to them long enough until they were ready to hand them over to the LRA.

As for the true murderers and ringleaders, they weren't allowed to get away so easily. The Larkinsons took it upon themselves to execute them if they were deemed guilty.

While their right to take the law in their own hands was extremely dubious, no one in the clan thought it was wrong. To them, they were all doing what was right!

"Justice shall prevail!"