The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3268

Chapter 3268: Dwarven Gang Fight

While the Larkinson mech pilots fought to defeat the enemy mechs, the spacers who served aboard the various vessels tried their best to keep their rides together.

Though their careers were not as glorious as that of the primary combatants, the humble ratings and officers who kept the crucial starships operational played a critical role in keeping the expeditionary fleet alive.

Tens of thousands of crew members dispersed across several different berths tried their best to mitigate all of the damage inflicted on the hulls of the various vessels.

"Fix those power lines now! Our #8 shield generator is depending on that juice!"

"Close the breach in compartment 36-3 ASAP!"

Damage control parties scurried forth in protective hazard suits in order to put out fires, close damaging breaches and prevent crucial systems from exploding and worsening the conditions of their ships.

Those serving aboard the various sub-capital ships had it much harder than their colleagues serving aboard the capital ships. The former were not only severely understrength, but also worked in places where there was previously little protection.

As long as an enemy artillery mech bombarded the sections the damage control parties were performing their duties, the loss of life was practically guaranteed!

Still, these humble but courageous Larkinsons did their duty without letting their fears dictate their decisions. Sure, they wanted to survive this bloody battle, but they knew that the best way to preserve the fleet and the clan was to make their ships last as long as possible!

Throughout the Larkinson fleet, many more individuals who decided to step up could be found. Some worked in the vacuum of space and others tried their best to keep the engines of their vessels running even if enemy bombardment had snapped off the front half of their ships!

The situation on the capital ships were different. As these vessels were the capital upon which the Larkinson Clan relied upon to succeed in the Red Ocean, there were many more active spacers keeping them together. A lot of personnel evacuated from the sub-capital ships had gone on to reinforce the existing work crews or formed into additional damage control parties.

The role of the latter was crucial to any space-faring vessel. Damage to ships could come in many forms. As starships were inherently large, technologically complex and interconnected, an initial enemy strike that only inflicted moderate damage at first could easily lead to a catastrophe if left unattended!

The primary role of damage control was to suppress and fix these dangerous incidents in a timely manner. Thousands of brave crew members address any serious issue such as short circuiting, fires, toxic chemical leakage and many other hazards. They did so despite feeling the vessel rumbling from sustained bombardment or facing the threat of getting voided into the cold embrace of vacuum if one of the enemy attacks landed close to their location.

The clansmen all did so knowing that they were making a substantial difference in keeping their fellow Larkinsons alive and well!

Aboard one of the most badly-affected capital ships, a team of technicians led by a low-ranking mech designer rushed to an outer compartment that had been rent by one of the Gauss Baron's final barrages!

The damage control party forcibly pushed open a jammed hatch only to enter a compartment that was missing a huge chunk of hull structure!

When thely looked to their left, they could see the ships and mechs fighting in the distance. Continuous explosions and bright energy beams constantly lanced from one side of the battlefield to the other side. Less visible gauss projectiles traversed this stretch as well but they were too difficult to track with the sensors mounted on their hazard suits.

"Stop gawking and get to work! We need to erect a temporary bulkhead, fix the power and fluid lines and reinforce the damaged deck structure."

"Why bother?"

The mech designer dinged the helmet of a techie with a multitool. "Because the Graveyard is falling apart too quickly. We need to weld more scrap onto her hull but we can't do that if there are too many holes and not enough support on her hull. Got it? Then get to work!"

A combination of humans and bots began to perform rapid makeshift repairs. The assistance of the latter played a crucial role in speeding up their progress and getting more work done.

Even as distant artillery mechs continued to pound upon the heavily-damaged Graveyard, the ship kept rotating around her axis to prevent any single side or hull section from turning into easy targets. This considerably increased the survival chances of the Larkinsons working to fix up the breached compartment.

"Hurry up! Command has just sent a priority request for us to remove a stuck pillar."

As the work crews almost managed to close the breach with replacement panels, a random gauss round slammed right into the weak barrier and instantly tore through them until it finally collided against the inner bulkhead!

The enormous impact and transfer of kinetic energy was so violent that the bots and bodies of the work crews instantly shattered into pieces!

The entire damage control party had been wiped out by a single attack from a dwarven Ship Cracker mech. Not only that, but the attack not only negated all of the dead clansmen's hard work, but also exacerbated the damage! Half-a-dozen more compartments had been breached and the secondary damage that resulted from this initial impact were still tearing through the hull of the Graveyard.

The hardy defensive salvage ship was taking a greater and greater beating with each second that passed!

General Verle remained stoic as he split his attention and tracked all of the important events taking place across the battlefield. He might not be an engineer, but he trusted the defensive capabilities of the Graveyard. The vessel was built to withstand a lot of punishment and he would take comfort in that as long as the captain of the vessel did not order an evacuation.

The pressure on his shoulders was far greater than before. A battle involving multiple mech divisions and twenty expert mechs was beyond anything he had ever commanded.

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