[401-600] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 463: Heavensfall

Basically, they were on course for planetary entry, wrapped in shells that might or might not survive the incredible amounts of heat generated from the friction of their breach into the atmosphere.

Inside one particular crash ball, Ves tried to stretch his body but couldn't do anything due to the strong padding that surrounded his hazard suit. With hardly any room to move, Ves focused his full attention to the head-up display projected by his helmet. It interfaced with the electronics in the crash ball, allowing him a glimpse of what happened outside.

Its basic systems managed to determine that there was a really big planet in its path. It even managed to call up a pre-installed map of the planet, and trace out the crash ball's approximate trajectory.

If nothing changed, the ball would likely crash in the middle of an ocean.

"That's not good. I'll either be left alone for weeks or be taken prisoner by the Vesians."

With the Vandals unlikely to rescue him before his crash ball started its descent, Ves intended to rely on his own. He couldn't do anything in the middle of the ocean.

He needed to change course.

"Crash ball! Set destination to Neron City!"

[ADJUSTING COURSE.]

Tiny boosters affixed to the exterior of the crash ball spurted out tiny jets. This caused it to spin and alter its trajectory. Ves saw that it adopted a shallower angle in order to arc its ultimate end point away from the ocean and closer to the capital city of Detemen IV.

[COURSE CHANGE COMPLETED. RESERVE FUEL: 27 PERCENT REMAINING.]

The crash seat even allowed Ves to finetune his landing point, though the crash ball didn't make any guarantees. Ves only took a moment to select a mech workshop district in the outskirts of Neron City.

As a mech designer, Ves fared best when surrounded by mechs or other machines. Though it was extremely risky to mix with the local Vesians in one of the most densely-populated cities of Detemen IV, it beat landing in complete wilderness.

"Without anyone watching my back, I only have my skills and my Amastendira to rely on."

While he could have gone for the much more massive manufacturing complexes located nearby, Ves thought it would be too risky to sneak inside those places. From what Ves had gathered during his stint at the Stubby Growler's command center, most of those complexes still enjoyed protection from their company forces.

And since these prosperous manufacturing complexes attracted a lot of attention, any place that fell would be overrun with rioters and robbers. That was not the kind of people that Ves wanted to mix with. He merely wanted to scrounge some machines together in order to protect himself long enough for the Flagrant Vandals forces on the ground could pick him up.

The crash ball started to encounter an increasing amount of air. As a terraformed planet, Detemen IV contained nearly the exact same atmosphere as Old Earth. Therefore, the crash began to be slowed down by drag but also started heating up because of that.

The heat began to scorch the white surface of the ball, but the emergency device had been built to withstand just these kind of situations. Almost every crash ball flung to the planet endured the heat generated by friction.

Some of the poor sods in the hazard suits had it worse. As much as the hazard suits had been designed to endure all manner of damage, in the end they weren't as robust as full exo-skeleton suits.

The main issue with the suits was that it couldn't deal with the heat. Everyone that fell towards the planet without a crash ball started heating up inside their suits. Some of the older units based on outdated hazard suit designs even failed as certain fragile components suddenly broke under all of the stress.