A third gang approached, then a fourth, then a fifth.
Not just gangs, but also other small-sized outfits joined. Biomechs that belonged to various mercenary corps, security companies and other random organizations all seemed to think there was safety in numbers.
The fact that Ves accepted all of them only encouraged more groups to join the growing collection of biomechs!
At some point, the new additions weren’t confined to mechs.
"Will do, sir. We’d like to bring our crew and families along as well. Do you have room for a couple of extra shuttles?"
"Sure." Ves answered. "Hey, do you have a spare shuttle?"
"Uhm, I think we have one lying around here somewhere."
Ves, his honor guard and the biomech technicians of the Roving Hunters no longer had to cram themselves in the rabbit shuttle.
They all gave up on the blasted biovehicle and moved over to other shuttles that were already accessible. Even though there was a small risk that the vehicles came with backdoors, Ves didn’t think that a local gang was sophisticated enough to hatch such a scheme.
Since they were no longer stuck in the underground hangar, Ves and the others had access to many more vehicles. If they wanted to, they could have approached and subverted any other parked vehicle on the street!
Ves and the Larkinsons decided to occupy their own shuttle. Now that they weren’t forced to share space with the Roving Hunters, they enjoyed a lot more room.
"Finally!" Vincent looked relieved. "I can move on my own again!"
An honor guard who was trained in piloting shuttles took the helm. Even though an organic shuttle was very different from a conventional shuttle, most of the basic controls were virtually identical. Standardization stretched across tech bases. There was no reason for bioshuttles to adopt a completely different control scheme when the standard one already did the job.
After an entire hour went by, the coalition somehow grew from 18 mechs to 150 mechs.
150 mechs!
At least twenty-five different groups of mechs applied and joined the growing army of mechs and biomechs.
They also brought over 50 different shuttles, transports and other vehicles! Each of them were occupied with lots of people and some very valuable goods and supplies.
All of these groups had pretty much formed a spontaneous refugee train! Ves didn’t even have to micromanage all of these different elements. Officers and underbosses rose up and organized the chaotic train on their own accord!
Under ordinary conditions, gathering elements from so many different gangs, outfits and other organizations would definitely stir up a lot of friction.
This was especially considering that there were plenty of rivals and natural opponents in the train!
Yet despite the underlying hostility between some of the elements, no one thought of pursuing their vendettas at this time!
While there were plenty of fringe groups that wanted to take advantage of the chaos, there were many other people and organizations who just wanted to keep their heads down and stay alive!
Right now, they were absolutely getting what they wanted. After the refugee train surpassed 100 mechs, no one with aggressive intentions in mind dared to approach the mechs that were nominally under the command of Ves.
There were way too many mechs!
Even if some people suspected that the mechs in the refugee train weren’t united at all, no one wanted to put that assumption to the test!
Numbers were scary. Each and every mech in the refugee train was a working second-class killing machine. Even the cheapest and smallest one was already capable of destroying a lot of tree structures!
Ves became more and more worried that this house of cards would fall. Any strong opponent that could field at least two mech companies could easily make the refugee train fall apart!
Yet none of that happened. To his considerable amazement, they never encountered any mechs from powerful organizations such as the political factions or a highly-militarized organization like the ultralifers.
As Ves and his growing band flew further and further away from Veoline, it appeared there was nothing in the surrounding areas that were worth fighting.
That did not cause Ves to feel reassured, though.
As Gentle Lotus Base would soon come within sight, he had to face a very difficult dilemma.
Should he break up and disband the refugee train or should he bring them all back to his stronghold?