The Greatest Mecha-Chapter 56: The Battleship Departure

Alto lay on the bed listening to the retelling of the duel as Any did not miss any detail, he smiled as he listened to her. Aside from her Kram was also in the room with them but he had a number of bandages over his body and face, he was happy to brag about his victory. There were also faces he had not seen before like Vexar and Denise who wanted to see the one person the two top scorers of their friend cared so much about. Eleven was also in the room but he kept quiet through the entire conversation.

"Thank you Kram." Alto said for what had to be the tenth time already.

Kram as usual shut him down with a proud snort. "Who said I was doing it for you, I just wanted to beat that guy up. Now you know just how strong I am."

"And I won’t forget it." Kram almost caught Kram smile back at him but he looked away almost instantly.

Amy changed the course of the discussion. "So how are you holding up? When will you be out?"

Alto’s face darkened slightly, "I’m not sure yet but I’m doing fine. I had Eleven sir keep me company here." He gestured to Eleven who stood a bit far from the crowd but close enough to hear their conversation.

All eyes turned to Eleven, "It’s you!" Amy almost screamed.

Alto’s interest was piqued. "You know him?"

Kram nodded, "Guy’s a total creep, don’t tell me he’s your friend."

Alto thought of how to refer to him as, the only thing he could come up with was. "He’s also an aspiring mech designer like I am, he might seem a bit quiet but he’s a good guy. Took him three years to warm up to me."

Amy smiled at Eleven and he returned the gesture with a light nod. Just then Vexar walked forward and stretched his hand to Alto, "Hi I’m Vexer, a fellow cadet of this nimrod here." He gestured to Kram who stared daggers at him.

Alto shook his hand gently, "I’m Alto. Pleased to meet you."

Amy gestures to Denise. "This is Denise, she’s a mute but also the most lovable person in the group."

Denise blushed slights before giving Alto a nod, Alto smiled back at her. They talked for a few minutes before a knock sounded on the door, in stepped two figures no one expected to see. They were Kendall and Marie.

Kram as well as the others were shocked to see that Kendall was almost healed, only sought bruises could be seen on his face. "Now what are you doing here?" Kram asked distasteful.

Kendall and Marie bowed their heads to Alto much to everyone’s surprise. Kendall was the first to speak, "We would like to apologise for the hostility showed by our general. After how you treated us we felt ashamed to have been put in such a position, I can not explain how relieved I felt to know I would not be facing you in battle."

Alto looked at them in silence for a few seconds before saying. "No need to apologise, you were just following orders. Besides we’re all friends here."

Kram hissed. "We are?"

Kendell and Marie raised their heads. This time Marie chose to speak, "We will be leaving the mech dision first thing tomorrow morning and we hope we’ll meet again in future perhaps you as an accomplished mech designer."

Kendall smiled proudly as he turned to Kram, "Same goes to you. Next time let’s fight with actual mechs."

Marie looked at Amy for a moment, the silence between them speaking volumes. She then turned to face Alto, her face darkening, "I have something important to say, do you trust everyone in this room? It has to do with why we’re really here.

Alto’s interest was piqued, he took one quick glance around the room and gave her a nod.

Marie took in a deep breath before she chose to speak. "I really shouldn’t be saying this but I have taken a liking to you, a week ago we detecting a powerful electromagnetic pulse from this planet’s mech division and we estimated it to be a level five tech at the least and the only one capable of such a feat is the silver seat mech designer Maria Alberta Einstein. We came here to investigate on the matter but that was only the first part of it, the second part is simply to shut down mech division #1056."

The room was swept up in a wave of shock.

A few hours later Officer Shirley Sanderson stood in the hanger bay looking at the sky, by his side was officer Pedro Lascara looking a little unsteady.

He turned and looked at his superior and asked, "Sir, something feels fishy."

Officer Shirley continued to look at the sky for a few seconds watching the battleship disappear from the planets gravitational field. "And what part of this do you find fishy officer Lascara?"

Officer Lascara thought deeply about his next choice of words before speaking. "If their battleship is really in a bad shape why would they need to come here?"

Just then a third party appeared next to them, officer Lascara almost jumped back out of fear. The figure spoke. "Of course it’s a damn ploy, why would anyone come to this backwater rock you call a planet."

Officer Shirley looked at the figure and spoke. "Professor, you’re sober for once."

The professor looked at both men before saying. "A battleship in this star system is impossible since there’s no war here in the first place, I never did understand the humour the embassy shared so please Officer Shirley explain to me what this is really about."

Officer Shirley sighed and spoke. "As we know the Embassy is the most powerful human force in the world. They are the militaristic human government force overseeing mech production and deployment and the current world power. Ever since the most powerful families formed them, they have branched out, unifying planets and controlling the mech divisions."

Professor Einstein waved a finger in the air and said. "I did not ask you to lecture me you old geezer, cut to the chase."

Officer Shirley looked as stern as he responded to her, officer Lascara on the other end paid deep attention to what he was about to hear.

"As you know the power source of mechs can be mines on planets where the minerals are found, and mining such minerals in mass quantity makes the planet unfit for living. This planet is under such a category, many years ago I was given the order to evacuate this planet, instead I chose to establish a mech division on this planet to help preserve it while being new talents to the embassy."

Officer Lascara who was hearing this for the first time was confused. "I don’t understand, were they planning on emptying the planet? It sounds absurd."

Officer Shirley chuckled at the mention of those words. "Absurd, just because you have such fate in the embassy does not make them clean. Things like this are very common, the only reason it’s not known is because it is done to planets such as this one. Unknown planets."

The professor laughed at his words, the two officers looked at her, clearly confused as to what she found amusing. "Cut the crap old geezer, why are they coming here now. And under false pretence?"

Officer Shirley grunted at her abruptness before speaking, "The number of genotes produced by this planet had greatly reduced. The last batch we released were those kids three years ago. Me not being able to produce new mech pilots to the embassy as perhaps encouraged them to take action."

Officer Lascara pitched in after a long moment of silence. "If we can show them our prominent mech pilots they’ll leave the planet alone right?"

The professor laughed again, "Why ask such an obvious question, what’s coming here is no battleship but a transport vehicle. The embassy could care less for what this planet’s residents have to offer, but the minerals here are far more important. I should know, I’ve been mining them too." freёnovelkiss.com

Officer Shirley’s eyebrow widened as he looked at her.

The professor barely shrugged as she spoke. "Well, you would have figured it out one day."

Officer Shirley chuckled softly before continuing. "Still the same troublemaker you were back in the day."

"They are not going to stay out are they?" The professor asked.

Officer Shirley responded. "No, they are not. They will return eventually, hopefully we have a lot of time before then."

The professor turned around and started to walk away, her face darkened as she walked away. "Old geezer if you were to stall them--"

"I couldn’t even if I tried." Officer Shirley responded.

Officer Lascara was even more confused as to what that meant, why would the professor who wanted nothing to do with the planet want to stall for time? He could see his superior was not in the mood to say more so he kept to himself. But he knew that there was something on the planet that he had no knowledge of.