The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2690

Chapter 2690: Unease

The fighting still continued long after the Battle of Reckoning was decided.

This was also the reason why everyone still wore their protective suits. No matter how safe the situation looked, there were still Fridaymen and Garlaners out there who were firing shots at the expedition forces!

Thousands of Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers were still actively fighting their opponents in some way. Whether it was chasing down the routed starships or bombarding the hostile mechs that remained intact, people were still being killed hours after the initial confrontation!

The only difference from before was that the proportion of losses heavily tilted in the favor of the Golden Skull Alliance.

The rats fleeing before them no longer possessed the strength to win the battle, let alone preserve their lives! All of the chases devolved into a one-sided shooting match where the outcome was already set. This was how many space battles ended. There was no escape so long as one side was able to prevent the other one from transitioning into FTL travel.

One of the most notable operations was the attempt to take over the Auralis.

Inside and around the eerily-silent fleet carrier, the golden vessel had suddenly become active without any warning!

The boarding parties that were slowly making their way to the bridge, the primary engineering bay and several other important compartments had no clue that a cat had overtaken them. They were still breaching one hatch after another.

They thought that even if the Golden Skull Alliance won the battle, it would take a lot longer for their infantry troops to make any progress inside.

This was because unlike the Fridaymen, the Hexers and other foreigners would be met with active resistance from the ship's internal defense systems!

Of course, the expeditionary forces could also choose to employ a more destructive approach by breaching through the interior by borrowing the power of mechs.

This was an incredibly destructive approach that would inflict a lot of collateral damage to the Auralis. That was not conducive to taking over the ship in the best condition possible.

"Will they really keep their mechs out?" A CRC marine softly wondered.

"I don't know. I dare not say. Perhaps the AIs will see sense when the enemy is tearing the ship apart from the inside. I hope the ship will unlock all of these hatches for us so that we can reach her critical compartments within minutes."

Nothing seemed to have happened so far, so the boarding parties were still progressing slowly.

"Hm? Did you hear that?" A combat engineer raised his helmet. "My sensors are picking up faint activity above and below us. Something is vibrating beneath the deck."

"What is your best guess?" A marine captain stepped forward while holding his rifle ready.

"According to my judgement, it's as if a large mechanical system is about to activate beneath us. The only possibility that I can think of is.. oh no! This is bad! We need to exit this hallway as soon as possible! The security systems are about to go online!"

The remainder of the boarding party didn't hesitate. Even if they had doubts, they weren't about to question the word of an expert.

Unfortunately, it was far too late! Before the engineer running in front managed to cross half of the distance to the entrance they came from, the entire deck shoved upwards all at once before squashing straight against the ceiling!

"AAAH!"

Sounds of pain, fear and agony spread out for less than a single second as the deck pressed their armored forms into the ceiling with great force!

Miraculously, none of them died, though plenty were dealing with broken bones or uncomfortable positions. The force that drove the deck into the ceiling wasn't powerful enough to flatten the tough combat armor worn by the marines.

This condition didn't last too long. A large laser projector emerged from a hidden port at the end of the hallway. It charged up briefly before firing a powerful beam that swept every trapped body in the narrow corridor!

It only took a couple of seconds for all of the protection to melt and burn under the sustained attack!

In the end, the deck receded back to its original position. Only several piles of slag and ashes remained out of the boarding party.

In another compartment of the Auralis, another boarding party suffered its end.

Their deaths were much more straightforward. Turrets emerged from the ceiling. They instantly locked on to the Fridaymen that the ship considered intruders and began to open fire!

"Crap! The Hexers took control of the ship!"

A torrent of laser beams and small explosive shells impacted the boarding party. While the marines fired back, the turrets were too well-protected!

Their firepower was also vastly superior to any weapon that could be carried on foot. They chewed through the resilient armor of the marines with great efficiency!

The Fridaymen were being killed off rapidly throughout the rest of the ships. Hundreds of visitors who wanted to take the Auralis away or at least deprive her from the enemy were completely at the mercy of the powerful internal defense systems.

There was no escape!

It only took a minute to dispose of every enemy aboard the ship. Calabast observed the projections of the active incidents with satisfaction. Military starships of this caliber always featured extensive internal defense systems. Their lethality against hostile visitors was so great that successful boarding operations rarely happened in wars.

Of course, these internal defense systems did not wake up under normal conditions. There were plenty of safeguards and locks in place to prevent them from activating by mistake.

A ship could easily kill most if not all of her crew if it was hacked or glitched!

For this reason, the internal defense systems only activated when a human gave them permission to do so. In this case, Calabast was easily able to do so once the Auralis mistook her as the captain of the vessel.

The permission of the captain was the greatest and most authoritative. If she assumed the identity of an ensign, then it was very difficult to get any of the internal defense systems to fire upon other people!

"It's too easy." She muttered as she closed the projections.

While she couldn't guarantee that every intruding Fridayman was killed, none of them should have been able to reach the critical compartments of the ship. The Auralis wouldn't be at risk of blowing up if that was the case.

"Alright, Black Cats. The Auralis is under my initial control, but don't lower your guard. There may be infiltrators and other survivors scurrying about. It's impossible to sweep the entire Auralis with the manpower we have at hand, so just hold the critical compartments such as the bridge, the command center and the engineering bay until the rest of our fleet is able to dispatch follow-up parties. I've just registered your new identities to the Auralis so that you'll be recognized as her officers and engineers. That should be sufficient to unlock every hatch in your way."

The Black Cat operatives quickly entered deeper inside the Auralis. Unlike the Fridaymen who were blocked at every entrance, the hatches automatically slid open when a Black Cat came close.

This was the privilege that crew members recognized by the Auralis enjoyed.

Along the way, they encountered plenty of bodies along the way. What was notable about all of them was that their physical bodies were still alive.

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