[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 183: Pressure

"I know."

The mad doctor aimed to force the expedition to give up on Ves through applying continuous pressure. His strange ability to control the local wildlife gave him a decisive edge in the field. Currently, he made the hunting parties suffer miserably whenever they set off.

"We won't serve you on a silver platter to Jutland." Ensign D'Amato spoke from the side. He carried a stun baton around these days in order to deter the mercenaries from doing something stupid. "It's counterproductive to empower the doctor by allowing you to repair the Kaius. He'll immediately employ his strengthened chimera mech against our base."

The analysts and psychologists who studied Doctor Jutland's behavior believed that he wanted to wipe out everyone who trespassed his territory. The doctor fully believed that only he possessed the right to enjoy the fruits of his underground kingdom.

Ves huffed under his breath. "Tell that to the mercs."

The tense standoff couldn't be maintained for long. After calling back the mercenaries in the field, Commander Tregis let slip that he intended to go on the offensive. A strong strike force centered around the hunting platoon and its partially repaired Olympians would go out and confront the Kaius away from the base.

Ves imagined not a lot of people would be willing to sign up for such an arduous mission. Indeed, almost none of the mercenary groups signed up. Only the mercenaries with close ties to House Kaine such as George's Cavalry and the Stray Phantoms expressed any willingness to join the strike force.

With no other choice, Commander Tregis conscripted a third of the mercenaries who shied away from the job. Through a combination of naked threats and generous rewards, he managed to augment the strike force with fifty mechs of dubious quality.

The strike force gathered at the main entrance of the base. Such a large gathering of mechs posed enough of a threat to topple many smaller planets, but against an anomaly like Doctor Jutland and his steed, they barely qualified as cannon fodder.

Captain Kaine walked over and conferred with Chief Ramirez about the particulars of the hastily patched up Olympians.

"It's best to employ the Olympian who took a breath weapon in the face as the primary tank. Its armor has largely held up apart from a few critical sections. It's just the internal components close to the surface that have gone bad."

"What about the other machine?"

Both Ramirez and Ves grimaced. "The leg is rather shoddy. We haven't been able to replace nearly as many plates as we wanted. While it's able to bear the Olympian's full weight, I don't recommend it use that leg to absorb the impact of a charge. It's liable to snap in that case."

They discussed a few other concerns that Captain Kaine had to shoulder. Her elite Cathrec mech also received a touch-up. House Kaine prioritized its repairs, and allocated several mech technicians in other departments to replace its molten hand in record time. Out of all of the recently repaired mechs, only the Cathrec enjoyed a better treatment than the Ajax Olympians.

Once she finished her discussion, she returned to her mech and boarded its cockpit. After raising the Cathrec's spear, the strike force finally left the base.

The departure of a large amount of mechs caused the base to quiet down. While the mech pilots waited for the results to come in, the mech technicians quietly resumed their repairs. Ves also did his part by lending a hand at the other workshops.

While Ves supervised the overhaul of a partially crippled mech, Melkor spoke out. "Do you think the expedition has any chance of success?"

"I don't think highly of their chances. Doctor Jutland might be missing a few screws, but he isn't the type to take the bait."