[401-600] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 425: Hellcat

The corvette entered a lifeless star system with no known settlements. Ves and the mech designers weren't allowed to know where it was located, which underscored the importance of this seemingly empty system.

After another day of coasting towards the inner system, they stopped by a vast asteroid belt that ringed around the dull yellow sun. From there, Ves expected to enter some sort of secret asteroid base, but instead the corvette came face to face with one of the largest industrial ships he had ever seen.

"Is that a factory ship?"

"That, and more. You're looking at the one and only Wolf Mother."

The so-called Wolf Mother was imposingly large. Larger than a fleet carrier, even, though both her hull and armor couldn't compare to a ship dedicated for battle.

As a factory ship, the Wolf Mother was basically a manufacturing complex compressed in a single hull with some thrusters and and FTL engine slapped to her. The Wolf Mother's design looked rather crude, displaying many gaps in the hull that led to empty cavities that hadn't been filled since her commissioning.

"So this is where the Vandals design and produce their mechs?" Ves asked in a weird voice.

"That's right."

"That's not possible! A ship of this size can't service an entire regiment's worth of mechs!"

A normal regiment fielded around two-thousand mechs at a time, but that didn't take into account the spare parts and spare mechs that would be necessary to keep the unit at full strength.

Despite its massive size, only a tiny portion of the factory ship could be dedicated to the production lines. Each production line expended an enormous amount of power and resources, so Ves estimated that the Wolf Den only held two production lines at most, and that would be straining the ship.

To that, the spacer sent a cheeky smile at Ves. "Who said we need to rely on our own mechs to fight?"

"Oh."

Ves forgot about the usual conduct of the Flagrant Vandals. They were so cut-off from conventional supply lines that they needed to steal or scavenge everything for themselves. This also applied to mechs.

The imposing manner of the Wolf Mother only grew as the tiny corvette approached one of her docking spaces. The factory ship looked so immense that her hangers even offered enough space to let in the Bloodless Dagger, not that they did so this time. The Bloodless Dagger didn't require any servicing.

"How old is the Wolf Mother?" Pierce asked.

"She's over thirty years old. She's actually a product of the previous war."

Ves didn't know whether he should feel afraid or reassured at that fact. The vessel definitely looked like she had been through a war. Much of her armor looked like a patchwork construction where different holes and battle scars had been covered up by any available armor plating the Vandals could get their hands on.

This led to a very shabby appearance. If not for her size and solidness, Ves would have mistaken the Wolf Mother for a floating junk heap.

The interior of the ship looked a little better compared to her exterior. Once the Bloodless Dagger docked with the factory ship and let out the mech designers, Ves felt as if he entered a cross between the Mech Nursery and a fleet carrier.

The Wolf Mother was completely geared towards logistics. Massive grinders and other processing equipment broke down asteroid chunks and extracted every useful materials from the remains. Elsewhere, mighty production lines churned out part after part for both mechs and ships.