The Mech Touch novel Chapter 593

The Harkensen System in the Reinald Republic welcomed many visitors every year. From tourists looking for excitement to outfits dropping by to conduct business, the lively star system was one of the most popular destinations in the region.

Many outsiders who weren’t fans of mechs or the shady transactions, they regarded the Harkensen System with contempt. "That den of thieves and greedy merchants is a hollow place. There’s no honest work to be found there! If the sun went supernova one day, nothing of value in the Komodo Star Sector is lost!"

Obviously, the Harkensen System seemed like a place where only thugs and thrill seekers gathered. There was hardly a sense of class to be found, and what luxuries Harkensen I offered appealed more to the nouveau riche than the true power brokers.

This was the Harkensen System on the surface. To the vast majority of the Komodo Star Sector, this was all there was to it. Such a shallow destination required little consideration.

However, all of this was a facade. _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}

To be more precise, the Harkensen System operated on several different levels. What everyone saw could only be considered as the shallow layers. What was observable from the surface meant nothing to the secrets hidden below.

To those who operated on the highest level, the Harkensen System was not as pleasant and tourist-friendly as everyone had thought.

"Did you hear? The honor duel between a captain from the Flagrant Vandals against some Vesian deserter has just started!"

"If I hadn’t blown my entire budget at the casino earlier, I would have been able to afford a ticket!"

"Those blood-sucking Reinaldans! Who is crazy enough to pay 20,000 credits for a single seat?!"

Right now, a significant part of the Harkensen System became enthralled with the duel that happened in the arena underneath Black Belle City.

In other words, the duel diverted a lot of people’s attention, leaving others free to move in the dark.

On the other side of Harkensen III, a group of fit men and women walked through the streets of a medium-sized city. Their path led them from a commercial district to a decayed industrial district. This area of the city used to be a prime location for smaller mech manufacturers, but all of them folded one by one in the last couple of decades.

Many old factories looked shuttered and emaciated. The decay and blight attracted many lowlives who hung out in these streets due the lack of monitoring. The sensor network in this area hadn’t been updated and had long been tampered with long ago. Each gang that took up residence in the factories installed interference devices that blocked most small devices from making recordings or patch into local communication network.

This basically turned this blighted district into a lawless place.

Some thugs noticed the newcomers and approached them while holding their hands over their guns. They were about to bark the group of strangers away, but halted when one of them held up a token.

"We’re expected."

The lead thug huffed at that. "Hmph. The boss is at the end of the street."

Not a single gang member looked for trouble with the outsiders as they walked by. Nobody made any rash movements. Any group in possession of a token was allowed to enter their territory. That was the rule.

Ten minutes later, the group reached a fallen factory that looked no different from the others. Nonetheless, the newcomers shoved aside the rusted gate and entered the main structure.

The darkness inside made it difficult to navigate the factory floor. However, none of them activated any lights. Instead, they each took measured steps in the dark, relying on nothing but memorized instructions to get through the invisible maze. Not once did they bump into anything.

Once they reached the entrance to another hall, they went through a door on the left, which finally led them into a bare metal room with not a single piece of furniture inside.

The only sight that greeted them was a dozen men in heavy combat armor standing guard from the opposite side of the room. Two men in business attire greeted the newcomers.

"Welcome, welcome. I am glad to see you’ve made it here in time, Major Verle."

Impressively, the man in the center of the group in plainclothes turned out to be the commanding officer of the Verle Task Force! This man who led over ten-thousand Vandals had declined to attend the duel with the honor of his mech regiment at stake!

"The situation has changed." Major Verle grimaced at the person on the opposite side. "Too much attention is being cast on the Flagrant Vandals. Though the attention-grabbing duel has disrupted many of our plans, it has given us a good opportunity to sneak to this meeting."

"Were you followed?"

"Do you doubt our professionalism?"

The room fell into a brief silence.

"Let’s move on." The man on the other side said. "Our next step required us to bundle all of our strengths. After all, the Starlight Megalodon rests for no one. If we don’t hurry up, others will reach the derelict first."

Everyone present in the room pumped up once they heard that name. The Starlight Megalodon was not a casual phrase to be uttered whenever someone felt like it! Even now, the name remained a legend in the frontier.

"The Starlight Megalodon..." Major Verle uttered. "I really can’t believe we’re on the trail to that legendary battleship. A partially-intact derelict of the Common Fleet Alliance. Even if she’s a few hundred years old, the treasures we can recover is enough to overturn the entire star sector!"

"It all depends on whether we can get our hands on the keys." The other man said and turned to the person standing next to Major Verle. "Isn’t that right, Lord Javier?"

The Vesian noble had surprisingly accompanied Major Verle without any restraints or restrictions. "Relax, I know where to find the Things you are looking for. I know for sure that one of them is on this planet."

"Good, good. As long as we can gather all the keys, we can reconstruct the final route of the Starlight Megalodon!"

There was a reason why everyone looked fervent at the thought of tracking down the Starlight Megalodon. That was because she was a battleship packed with wondrous materials and technologies into the size of a small city! Over a dozen kilometers long and armed with massive planet-cracking weapons, the CFA predominantly utilized this ship class to wage decisive battles against tough alien civilizations.