[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 150: Man Against Machine

The ones employed by the storage yard weighed heavier than medium mechs and featured very robust limbs. They might not be able to outrace an aircar, but their heavy arms and legs allowed them to lift hefty loads without straining their frame.

The stealth field fizzled out just as they reached the lifter cables that could bring them up to the cockpits. "It's out! We're exposed now. Melkor, can you hack into these mechs?"

"I should be able to, but I might need your help."

Raella rapped her knuckle against the scratched and dirty surface of one of the machines. "Are we really going to hijack an industrial mech? They don't even have neural interfaces, let alone armor that is able to withstand an infantry-grade railgun!"

"If you can point out an actual combat mech, then be my guest!"

That quickly shut her up. Melkor quickly put his foot down on a step, which promptly zipped up the cable until he reached the cockpit. The step then climbed down, allowing Ves to follow after his older cousin.

For now, it appeared the sniper hadn't caught up to them yet. Ves quickly squeezed inside the narrow cockpit and analyzed his surroundings. The omission of a neural interface meant that the cockpit offered a lot more manual controls. He didn't bother figuring out what they did and instead tried to find out how to force the mech online.

After some fiddling, Melkor spoke out. "I've cracked the digital codes, but the mech isn't turning on. The owners of the mech must have installed some kind of hardware lock!"

Ves took over at that point. He swept the consoles until he found a plain mechanical lock underneath the main screen. Using an old-fashioned lock and key was a fairly easy way to secure an industrial mech. It prevented them from being taken for a joyride at the very least. Even a mech technician could install something as simple as this setup.

He forced open the lock in thirty seconds. Such a simple mechanism didn't faze him in the slightest. As the mech started booting up, the two Larkinsons descended using the same stepper cable.

"Raella, take this mech and stand guard for us!"

"On it!"

The woman zipped up the cable and entered the booting mech.

"You better get inside your own mechs before they catch up!" The hatch in front of the torso quickly closed up. It gave her a measure of safety against a railgun attack, though Ves doubted its worthless armor could withstand such a strike.

"They're already on their way." Melkor grimly replied as Ves and him climbed inside the cockpit of another mech. "We won't have time to unlock a third mech, so get yourself comfortable Ves."

Even if he could, Ves had no doubt he'd probably trip his mech. Even industrial mechs needed a fair amount of training before anyone could pilot them proficiently. An untrained norm like him had no business trying to turn one into a hazard.

After they both disabled the various locks, they settled in as best they could in the cramped space. Ves had to squeeze to the side in order to provide Melkor enough room to operate the industrial mech.

The screens showed various settings that Melkor efficiently tweaked to his liking. Once he finished his modifying its settings, the lumbering mech finally started to move.

Raella had already turned her mech towards the incoming enemies. The same mercenaries who tried to corner them in the warehouse had tracked them down to the storage yard. A large number of hard-faced thugs armed with rifles and pistols followed after the heavily armed mercs.

"Look at that mech! It's moving!"

"They're inside!"

"Shoot the rust buckets!"