[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 178: Base Camp

The construction site bloomed into existence as the first shipments arrived. The prefabs took little effort to put together, though they took up a large portion of the cargo. The extremely rigid ground and soil made it highly difficult to dig through, but the construction team achieved some progress with the help of high-powered diggers.

The first wave of mercenary mechs arrived shortly after the shuttles finished hauling the construction materials. Despite the insufficient facilities, the plan called for unpacking them immediately in order to help secure the base.

As expected, a lot of hijinks happened in the process of taking the mechs out of their containers. The partially detached limbs required a bit of finesse to put them back into their sockets. Having to work in the awful conditions outdoors made everything worse.

"No no no, don't put that back together without cleaning the joints! All of the gunk in the air has fouled the connectors. We're not working in a modern workshop environment right now!"

"Have you forgotten how much gravity we're dealing with right now? Those loaders aren't rated to lift at maximum capacity under our current gravity levels! It's a wonder they're even lifting off in the first place!"

"Start with the light mechs first! They're easier to put together and we need them to scout the perimeter. Doesn't matter what outfit they're a part of, start with the lightest mechs and work your way up!"

The heavy workload kept Ves up all night. House Kaine wanted every mercenary mech up and running within three days, which he found utterly unrealistic. Around two hundred different mechs in total joined the operation. If it hadn't been for the previous battle, that number could have reached as high as four-hundred mechs.

Compared to the mechs belonging to the forces from the Grey Willow Star Sector, the local variants didn't seem impressive. None of the Komodo mercenaries belonged to the elite. Some mercenaries piloted their mechs so badly that Ves wondered how they graduated from the academy in the first place.

"This is a real mess." Melkor commented in a disdainful voice. "I bet that half of the mercs have embellished their track record. There's no way that the expedition accepted them otherwise."

The lack of training and professionalism among much of the mercenaries also caused the slowly emerging base camp to be a rowdy site. The security officers keeping the peace had their hands full trying to prevent the various grudges between individual mercenaries to come to blows.

In order to keep the mercs busy, Commander Tregis sent out the mercs to begin their first hunting expedition. Tregis took charge of the entire base as it slowly took shape. Under his leadership, the mercs stopped brawling with each other and cleaned up their act.

Ves found him to be a highly competent leader. As the man in charge of the expedition's only settlement, Tregis eased into the job like his entire life revolved around the role. The man must have prepared for the job many years ago. It showed when he argued with the civil engineers on how to tweak the existing wall designs to accommodate their current terrain advantages.

The base camp sat on a low hill that overlooked a vast swathe of terrain. The metallic foliage surrounding their site obscured much of the wildlife, but the view afforded them plenty of warning should a hexapod king decide to attack their base.

On the second day, the first team of mercs arrived from their successful hunt. Everyone put down their work and welcomed the squad of mechs that came back with a bunch of scratches on their coating. They dragged over two incredibly formidable corpses of hexapods that instantly attracted everyone's attention.

Even Ves came over to touch the recently perished hexapod. While they weren't as impressive as a king-sized beast, the regular adults posed a significant threat against isolated mechs. Only through teamwork could the mercs hunt these beasts without incurring significant losses.