[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 179: Field Repair

When Ves thought he'd continue to improvise solutions for the rest of the expedition, Ensign D'Amato suddenly received an emergency transmission.

"Ves, put down your work. You're needed elsewhere."

"Is there an emergency?"

"A critical one. The hunting platoon encountered a mishap. One of the Ajax Olympians suffered critical damage. Captain Kaine used up her only high-powered signal device to relay her help request to the nearest mercenaries, who eventually relayed her message back to base."

The news came as an unpleasant surprise. Ves worked so hard to upgrade the heavy knight's parameters. "What's the damage?"

The ensign consulted his comm. "Its entire left leg received extensive damage to the point of immobilizing the machine. The mech can't walk back to base and its too heavy to be hauled over. The rest of the hunting platoon is staying by its side, but the site highly unsafe."

As a heavy mech that weighed about five times as much as a medium mech, Ves knew that nothing they had on hand could bring it back to base. The 1.4 times gravity complicated the situation even more. The mech effectively weighed forty percent more on this planet, which made it impossible for any hauler platform to bring it back to base.

They made their way over to the eastern gate of the base camp. "What's the plan?"

"Commander Tregis has already formed a rescue party. You will lead a repair team over to the hunting platoon and bring the damaged Olympian back up its feet. It's vitally important that the heavy knight regains enough mobility to walk back to safety."

"I have to perform repairs on the spot?!" It sounded outrageous to Ves that he had to leave the safety of the base camp's walls and be forced to traverse an alien jungle.

"I'm aware that we're demanding a lot from you, Ves. You'll be safe inside an armored transport that will also bring the necessary supplies to facilitate the repairs. A couple of mechs will accompany the transport on the ground to make sure that no indigenous life forms will intercept the vehicle."

It still sounded crazy, but Ves had no choice but to follow orders. The success of the entire expedition hinged on the Olympians.

Commander Tregis worked fast. He commandeered an armored transport scheduled to ship their current harvests back to orbit and emptied it of its entire cargo. Chief Ramirez took over at this point and ordered his subordinates to load it up to the brim with tools, machines and materials.

Once Ves arrived at the transport, he wondered why they didn't intend to pick up the damaged mech from its current location. It sounded much more convenient to him if they could bring the mech back to base before attempting repairs.

"There's too many metal trees in the way. They're so tough and resilient that it's nearly impossible to form a clearing without creating a huge commotion." The chief replied as he supervised the loading process. "Instead, the transport will be hovering above the site, allowing us to drop in our gear one by one."

The transport also wouldn't be sticking around for long. Once it unloaded all of the gear, the pilot had orders to return back to base. Otherwise, the transport risked attracting the attention to a flock of hexabats.

The expedition learned pretty early that their flying craft attracted the hexabats like moths to a flame. The heat from the thrusters and other active systems formed an irresistible attraction to the small but dangerous beasts.

Everything had to be done quickly. Ves barely took stock of the damage readings when Ensign D'Amato forced him to board the transport. Fortunately, Melkor also came along with his Stanislaw while Lucky slept in his embrace.