[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 181: A Shoulder to Lean On

The departure of Doctor Jutland and his gigantic Kaius mech gave the hunting platoon a much-needed reprieve. Mech technicians and supplies continued to pour down the transport at a steady rate. A maintenance team replenished some of the depleted energy cells of the battered mechs. They also replenished the Empyreans with ammunition for their railguns.

As for the Ajax Olympians, they both suffered badly in the last engagement. One heavy knight laid down on the ground with a mangled leg while the other stood haplessly with a scorched exterior. Both mechs required an extensive overhaul, something which Ves couldn't do in the middle of an alien jungle.

In order to bring the damaged mechs back home, Ves prioritized restoring some mobility to the mech with the crippled leg. The limb suffered grievous damage, but the readings the scanner module spat out showed that he had a way out of this mess.

"Looks like the chimera mech's teeth haven't cut very deep." Chief Ramirez muttered as he stood next to Ves. He gestured to the center of the wireframe leg. "While much of the outer sections are in disarray, the internal frame of the limb is still intact."

Both of them had worried about this possibility. Since it functioned as the leg bone of the aforementioned limb, a broken internal frame meant that the mech couldn't support its weight on the limb even if they fixed some of the internals. The Olympian simply couldn't walk in this condition without snapping its hastily propped up leg in that case.

Fortunately, the scans revealed that the leg suffered from extensive but shallow wounds. Ves already adjusted his preliminary repair plans.

"We can get this Olympian back up its feet if we replace the broken control modules and repair some of the tears in its musculature." Ves explained and pointed at the most critical components to repair. "At a minimum, we have to fix these areas in order to raise the load-bearing capacity of the leg. That's the real challenge that we're facing at the moment. Even with some patches and improvised repairs, the mech might never be able to walk on its own feet without crippling the leg again."

Ramirez nodded, though his hazard suit hardly bobbed. "It's this damn heavy gravity. I reckon we won't be able to bring the mech up to a state where it can walk under its own power. A couple of Volmars are needed to support the Olympian on its way home."

"Are you certain that the Volmars won't get crushed under all of that weight? The moment the Olympian diverts more than twenty percent of its weight onto a Volmar, the latter mech will get crushed."

"Let's run the numbers then. You're a wizard at math, right? Let's say we fix the Olympian so that it will be able to stand and walk with assistance. If nothing else, we can employ the other Olympian as a support as well. Only a heavy mech can support another heavy mech's weight."

"I don't think Captain Kaine will like that proposal." Ves carefully replied. "We're in a bad spot right now and Doctor Jutland might be cooking up another attack. Pinning down our remaining heavy knight leaves the hunting platoon with no viable tank that can meet the chimera mech's charge."

Both of them had to keep in mind that they faced a lot of constraints. Not only did they have to make repairs in the field with hardly any proper facilities at hand, they also had to keep in mind the constant threats from the environment.

"I'll go begin to prep the leg and clean up all the ruined parts. You should stay here and refine the repair plan."

They split up to perform their own tasks. With a mech designer like Ves on hand, Chief Ramirez didn't have to perform a haphazard repair job that might work out for a couple of days but quickly broke down afterwards. While Ves modified the Olympians to perform beyond their safety margins, the heavy knights still had to last for at least another month.