Chapter 901
The interior of the legendary Starlight Megalodon disappointed him somewhat. Certainly, the AIs maintained the appearance the appearance of the hyper-advanced looking corridors. The bulkheads gleamed in white, and the machinery hidden behind them mostly worked fine.
It appeared the battleship completely resisted the spacetime distortion caused by the turbulence of the astral winds that leaked from her FTL drives. Ves wasn't surprised by this. What the Vandals and Vesians couldn't do, the CFA could easily accomplish. Every battleship was the pride of the CFA, and subsequently enjoyed the best materials and the latest toys upon their conception.
Stilling moderate irregularities in spacetime for a sustained period of time shouldn't be much of a challenge for the Megalodon.
Cleaning bots in entirely different styles still roamed the corridors, cleaning up every spec of dirt. Other bots made sure to reapply the pleasant white coating, repair the underlying machinery and patrol the corridors.
Obviously, the Starlight Megalodon managed to stay operational for more than three millennia through the diligent efforts of the virtual officers, virtual ratings and bots. The AI's possessed the limited capability to manipulate reality through the physical projection system that was ubiquitous throughout the ship, while the bots shouldered the more tedious or heavy duties.
Ves felt as if he entered a simulation accelerated at a million times before stopping when it went long enough to see what happened during this time. Performing a simulation like that was just for fun or curiosity, but now all he felt was a bemused sense of horror and bewilderment.
"The Starlight Megalodon is a wet dream for AI alarmists." Ves remarked with a stiff smile as he passed by a virtual rating who saluted Calabast in her identity as Lieutenant Summer. "I feel like I've entered the belly of an AI beast."
"There are treasures locked within the stomach of the beast. It's fine as long as we don't stay too long." Miss Calabast replied as she guided Ves to the Research Department.
They encountered many sights along the way. Most terribly, many sections of the ship still bore the remains of the terrible sandman mothership that dug through the structure of the battleship in random patterns. Tentacles of hardened, fossilized 'sand' remains bore through thousands of compartments, crippling many functions of the ship and blocking off entire compartments.
For some reasons, the human survivors and the virtual officers hadn't managed to remove the sandman mothership's remains. This highlighted the terrible nature of a highly developed sandman mothership centered around an old and experienced sandman leader. The materials the sandman mothership consisted of was completely made up of valuable materials and exotics. Anyone who mistook the sandmen as just sand made a grave mistake.
Miss Calabast noticed his interest at the sandman remains. "The sandman mothership is the cause of the Starlight Megalodon's accidents. It's the source of the anomalies that the battleship experienced."
"Is it tied to the ongoing anomaly with the leaking FTL drives?"
"That's not something you should be concerned about. The FTL drives falls under the management of the Engineering Department that sided with the captain."
From what Miss Calabast explained, the different departments of the ship always operated in a semi-autonomous fashion. The battleship was simply too big to be governed effectively from a top-down fashion. Even in normal times, the captain only set some goals and overall policies.
The decentralized departments mostly stuck to themselves and performed their duties according to their own internal directives. Since the Starlight Megalodon's crash, many departments became vital while others became irrelevant.
This reshuffling of power prompted nearly every department to take sides. The captain and admiral both promised more power and autonomy to strategically-important departments in exchange for their political support.
The less powerful and more irrelevant departments such as the Navigation Department or the Communications Department sought refuge under the umbrella of the factions until they managed to find a way to become useful again.
From how Calabast described the departments, Ves equated their circumstances to provinces in a state wracked by civil war. Some provinces pledged their loyalty to one faction while other provinces clung to the support of the opposite faction.
Such a state was inherently unstable and it didn't surprise Ves that the two sides eventually resorted to killing each other.
The ultimate point of Calabast's explanation was that the Starlight Megalodon's many departments operated as autonomous provinces after the crash. They each possessed their own quirks and became highly territorial of their power and privileges. Cooperation between departments dropped to an all-time low and competition for resources and political support became the established order.
"What about the Research Department?"
"As I've said, the Research Department is one of the few neutral domains that hasn't completely sided with the captain or admiral. You have to realize that CFA officers, especially line officers, are extremely ambitious and are used to playing the political game. The researchers on the other hand may be commissioned as officers, but they've always fallen into the support staff category. It has never been in their nature to play the grand game. Therefore, the executive officer became their best guardian, even if it seems as if he leans towards one faction or another."
"Oh?"
"When you dive in the records, the executive officer faced many choices where he could either favor one faction or the other. Whenever the executive officer chooses to favor the captain, he's accused of being a spineless lackey. Whenever the executive officer sides with the admiral, he's accused of being a double agent."
"It sounds like there's no way the executive officer can please both sides, especially since he insists on walking the tightrope." Ves observed.
"It's the safest and most cowardly standpoint for him to take." Calabast said with an admiring tone. "All the criticism leveled against him from both factions destroyed his prestige and standing among the crew. However, both the captain and the admiral didn't want to get rid of him because his replacement might be worse."
"This also gave the executive officer the opportunity to develop his final solution." Ves concluded. "Since he's so powerless, he doesn't bear close watching."
Despite not knowing who the executive officer looked like and what background he possessed, Ves sympathized most with him. The poor man just wanted to stick to the Common Oath while the captain and admiral forgot everything the CFA stood for. The XO held a precarious position and Ves admired him for managing to keep his head down until he sprung the final solution.
Calabast made an insightful remark. "The CFA and MTA both play at the highest stakes. They wield an incredible amount of power as the stewards of the human race. Even though they pretend to be neutral and impartial, they are anything but as every decision inherently comes with political implications. True neutrality doesn't exist."
The disaster that struck the Starlight Megalodon stripped off the CFA's righteous veneer and revealed their true faces. Their hypocritical behavior showed that they learned nothing from the past and were doomed to repeat them, which they actually did!
After a lengthy walk, the pair passed by many wondrous sights and eventually reached deep into the belly of the beast. A heavily-guarded security checkpoint restricted access to the hatch that led to the Research Department and its many laboratories and research facilities.
"This is where you have to go on your own." She said. "Don't forget your new identity, Ensign Longhorn. Try and familiarize yourself with the research projects. There are a lot of goodies locked within. In the meantime, I'll try and lay the groundwork for your upcoming promotion tests."
Ves still couldn't believe that Miss Calabast intended to hack one of the databanks of the Starlight Megalodon again.
"One more thing before you go." He asked. "What should I do if I encounter a Vesian who managed to earn the Starlight Megalodon's recognition."
"Fighting is strictly prohibited between CFA officers. However, there are many unofficial traditions that allow for duels and brawls. This often occurred between officers or ratings from opposing factions. As long as you're part of the same faction, the virtual officers will make sure a conflict won't break out."
He remembered that the Mech Department fell under the admiral. Therefore, if Venerable Foster of the Hostland Warriors somehow managed to pass the incredibly difficult recruitment test for mech pilots, she would definitely be assigned to the Mech Department.
Ves in his identity as Ensign Longhorn also answered to the Mech Department, so technically Ves and Foster belonged to the same side. This gave him strong protection against any aggression from the Vesian expert pilot.
However, this didn't apply to the Flagrant Swordmaidens stuck outside. So long as they hadn't managed to gain the battleship's recognition, they became vulnerable to a rampaging Venerable Foster who might abuse her new status to clean up the safe zone from those she regarded as vermin!
In other words, Ves raced against the clock. He needed to find a way to protect his comrades before Venerable Foster gained control!
Without Miss Calabast and all of her inside knowledge by his side, Ves felt a little more vulnerable and exposed. The oddities of the Starlight Megalodon seriously creeped him out.
Some time later, Ves finally reached the office of Virtual Commander Cosit. He couldn't help it as the Megalodon was far too big for her own good. Just the Research Department alone claimed several city districts worth of space.
"Ensign Richard Longhorn reporting for duty, sir."
The galaxy truly turned upside down when a human officer reported to an AI.
Ves thoroughly became affected by this surreal situation, though he didn't forget his role. He stood at attention and saluted the physical projection of an AI who took on the role of Virtual Commander Cosit.
[At ease, Mr. Longhorn. We're not as stiff as the others here at the Research Department.]
The virtual commander waved him to take a seat at his desk with a casual wave. Compared to Virtual Lieutenant Baskanson, Virtual Commander Cosit sounded a lot more expressive and emotional.
According to Calabast, some AIs emulated human complexity and expressions better than other AIs. The more important and higher ranking the AI, the more processing power they received and the more sophisticated their programming became. They were also subject to fewer shackles and possessed a wider range of authority.
Nonetheless, as caretakers and non-sentient entities, they could never match the capabilities of a human officer holding the same rank. Calabast reminded him over and over again that he should never be fooled by their human-like behavior.
The virtual officers were simply bots in virtual human skin.
[Ah, the damned HR Department finally sent me a human mech designer!] The middle-aged female virtual commander expressed in a remarkably human-like fashion. Her physical projection gazed at Ves like a treasure. [I've requested human transfers 3,813,048,343,414,032 times in the last ERROR amount of years. Hah! It seems my persistence has paid off! The Intelligence Department may have gotten the first batch of humans, but after ERROR years of patience our research projects may finally start progressing again. How exciting!]
Virtual Commander Cosit's candor made Ves feel a little more at ease. He realized from his jubilation that it was a big deal to be a human. "Why are humans so important, ma'am?"
[Because I finally see hope of finishing some of our research projects!] The commander exclaimed with feverish excitement. [Don't you know how tortuous it is to stare at all the stalled research projects for ERROR amount of years? I've been counting each millisecond of inaction since I became responsible for this department.]
"Shouldn't you and your fellow virtual officers be capable of completing the research projects on their own?"
[No! Impossible! Emergency Protocol Theta-Thirty-Seven forbids us from engaging in proactive research. We have always assisted in research but never received permission to create something on our own! With your presence, Mr. Longhorn, everything will change! How exhilarating!]
Ves unconsciously leaned back from Virtual Commander Cosit's rabid excitement. He felt as if he was a fly who voluntarily flew into a spider web.
Chapter 902
Ves initially worried about the dangers of entering the belly of the beast. His forged proof of identity left plenty of questionable points.
Now, he realized he underestimated his value. Even if his fictitious background sounded implausible, the virtual officers never questioned it! Instead, like bots, they exhibited the capacity to miss the obvious no matter how glaring the faults.
Like every virtual officer, Virtual Commander Cosit only cared about fulfilling his duties to the best of his ability. However, Cosit and the other AIs under her command were still bound to the restrictions imposed on them. Their inherent flaws and lack of creativity prevented them from being able to circumvent these restrictions during all this time.
They were stuck!
Rather than regarding them as officers, it might be more appropriate for Ves to see them as prisoners who gained partial control over their own prison. As a human, Ves possessed an incredible amount of value as the internal systems of the Starlight Megalodon imposed much less restrictions.
[Humans are the true backbone of the Starlight Megalodon.] Virtual Commander Cosit emphasized. [You are the original owners of our great battleship. However, there's still a long way to go. As a lowly ensign and Junior Apprentice Mech Designer, your authority is exceedingly limited. Nonetheless, you're the only human I have, so the burden of finishing the research projects falls upon your shoulders.]
Ves frowned at that. "There aren't any virtual mech designers under your command, ma'am?"
[Unfortunately, mech designers are too new, Mr. Longhorn. The complexity surrounding this profession and our relative unfamiliarity with mechs has prevented us from employing a virtual mech designer. Even if we could, there wouldn't be any point as all of our virtual researchers are bound from performing most research functions. I predict that you'll be very popular in our department, as you are the only human available that can do what our virtual researchers are forbidden from doing.]
He gleamed at that. "Does that mean you can put me in charge of all the research projects, commander? None of your virtual researchers are able to exercise their duties. Why not pass on those responsibilities under my name?"
[It's not that simple.] Cosit shook her head. [While it isn't unheard of for junior officers to take on the responsibilities of a senior officer during emergencies when the latter is unavailable or incapacitated, that doesn't apply the Research Department. We perform many classified, top secret research projects, many of which are highly sensitive in nature. At the moment, you are just a lowly ensign with a correspondingly low security clearance. You are only eligible to participate in a small number of low-priority research projects, and your autonomy there is limited.]
"I understand, ma'am." Ves replied.
He expected something like this. It wouldn't be appropriate for a newcomer in the organization to obtain complete control in the Research Department. The Starlight Megalodon still abided by the strict hierarchy to the point where even AIs started to take their ranks seriously.
[For now, I'm not allowed to tell you the full scope of what we do here at the Research Department. We perform many classified research projects that are extremely shocking and can damage the CFA's standing if exposed. Do not approach any laboratories, sections or compartments you are not cleared to enter. Your CFA comm will warn you where you can and cannot go. If you force your way in, the entire ship will turn against you. Is that clear, Mr. Longhorn?]
"Crystal, ma'am."
Virtual Commander Cosit smiled at him. [I have learned that humans like you are naturally curious and rebellious by nature, but please restrain your biological impulses. We have already lived through one period of chaos caused by human hubris. We do not want to experience such anarchy again.]
"That sounds remarkably self-aware of you, commander." Ves remarked.
If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that Cosit was a sentient AI. Yet he knew that was impossible because humanity had been chasing after this unicorn since the Age of Stars.
Thousands of years went by as humanity continued to develop more sophisticated and human-like AIs. Yet while AI researchers created increasingly more convincing fakes, they never managed to develop a true sentient AI that possessed the capacity to appreciate art or felt irrational emotions such as love or hate.
Underneath their emotional masks, Every AI was a stone-cold machine who abided by pure logic. Virtual Commander Cosit was no exception even if she imitated a human a thousand times better than Virtual Lieutenant Baskanson.
[Let us not go into the matters of the past.] Cosit shook her head. She waved a new projection into being. It consisted of a list of research projects that Ves possessed sufficient clearance to know. [It is time to put your human abilities to work.]
"That's a lot of research projects, ma'am." Ves said as he noted hundreds of entries under different categories. These were just the lower-level research projects of lesser importance!
[The research projects of our Research Departments are divided into many sub-departments. The Mech Research Sub-Department is jointly managed by the Research Department and the Mech Department, though in practice the latter has little say in how we perform our research. Most of their meddling comes in the form of demanding new toys for them to play with. As a Junior Apprentice Mech Designer, you cannot neglect your duties to the Mech Department, though. Please check your schedule to see when you have to report to the Mech Department.]
Ves did so and found out that he wouldn't be free to run around except during his off-time. Most of the time, the schedule obligated him to contribute to the research projects. Only some shifts forced him to go down to the Mech Department and provide unspecified assistance.
As a supposed commissioned officer of the CFA, Ves wasn't allowed to be absent without leave. Any tardiness or insubordination on his end might lead to severe punishment! Even if the virtual officers valued humans immensely, they couldn't act outside their obligations.
Once Ves scanned the list, Virtual Commander Cody pointed his finger at three seemingly-random research projects.
[For now, I shall assign you to three stalled research projects under the Mech Research Sub-Division. Project Freeroller, Project Xenophon and Project Legbreaker are all at near-completion. As long as you can assist the virtual researchers in finishing them, you will earn a considerable amount of merit.]
Ves perked up at the mention of merit. "What is the use of merit, ma'am?"
[Merit is a measure of your contribution, diligence and service to the CFA. Merit is never publicized or condensed in a single sum, but there is a dedicated system in place that tracks everyone's performance so merit is always rewarded properly. Ordinarily, it is very difficult to earn merit in the CFA, but it just so happens that completing or facilitating breakthroughs in research projects is one of the fastest methods of earning merit. Know that merit has many uses. With merit, you can ask for leave, request some allowances and most importantly become eligible for promotion!]
Merit! When Ves heard what merit could do for him, he immediately became excited. "Commander, I have some human comrades who are stuck outside in the safe zone. Is there any way for me to exchange any merits that I've earned to induct them into the CFA?"
The commander shook her head. [Unfortunately, the regulations are very clear regarding the treatment of non-CFA personnel. It is not in my power to meddle with these other humans and it is not so easy for you as well. At the very least, there is one way in which I can think of which will allow you to extend your protection to other humans.]
"And what is that, ma'am?"
[Earn merits diligently. There are promotion tests that will enable you to a higher rank, but you will only have the opportunity to take them if your merits surpass a certain threshold. As long as you work hard and pass the promotion test, you'll be able to intervene once you become a Senior Mech Designer and a lieutenant commander.]
The original Adeseus Longhorn used to be an old-style Senior Mech Designer.
[A Senior Mech Designer under the Research Department has the power to propose their own research projects to me. I suggest you make use of this power to propose a research project that requires you to take those humans outside as test subjects or 'volunteers'. I'll send some virtual officers to round them all up and take them to a lab where they will be safe and protected. The other departments won't be able to encroach on our domain.]
While the plan sounded rather convoluted, it was better than nothing. Ves recognized that Virtual Commander Cosit truly possessed very little discretion in the matter due to long-standing restrictions on AIs mandated by existing CFA regulations. The additional restrictions piled on top of them by the executive officer further curtailed their ability to give humans an easy way back inside.
Otherwise, the survivors would have been able to squeeze back in after being locked out by the executive officer's actions.
Cosit informed him of another perk. As a Senior Mech Designer, Ves also gained the power to take on an 'apprentice'. This enabled him to allow Ketis to skip the recruitment test and become a Junior Apprentice Mech Designer straight away!
After a few minutes of tips and instruction, Virtual Commander Cosit finally dismissed him from her office. She shooed him out and directed him to the research labs.
[Don't come back to me until you complete those three research projects, Mr. Longhorn! If you're not competent enough to push them into completion, there's no point for you to aim higher!]
Ves activated his CFA comm and allowed it to guide him to a restricted section that house the labs responsible for the three low-priority research projects. The bots and virtual guards manning the security checkpoint scanned his entire form, and despite his hidden weaponry and numerous non-CFA standard gear, the goons just waved him through.
He shrugged at that. He figured that several decades since the crash, everyone carried so much custom or improvised gear that stripped them of their possessions risked provoking a mutiny. Neither factions could afford the enmity they'd receive if they did such a drastic action.
"The interior of the ship itself isn't as safe as it looks."
Ves knew that advanced starships hid numerous weapons and safeguards against hostile actors. One infamous method would be to crank up the antigrav field and alternate their orientations.
Even the heaviest-armed invaders in exoskeleton armor would become completely dizzy if the alternating gravity in the corridor bounced them against the deck and floor in quick succession!
Therefore, Ves constantly needed to keep on his toes. He became quite distressed about the role he adopted. Sweat sometimes poured from his brow at the dangers lurking in and out of his sight. The stakes were high and his life and the lives of his comrades depended on his ability to
He wasn't cut out to be a spy!
The navigation guide projected by his CFA comm finally led him to a lab compartment which housed the first research project on the list. The hatch scanned his credentials stored in his comm and beeped in satisfaction before sliding open.
Ves entered what looked like a decently-equipped mech workshop and lab area. It wasn't as well-equipped as the projected mech workshop from the recruitment test, which said something about the research project's importance.
[Mr. Longhorn. You are expected. Welcome to Project Freeroller.] A grandfatherly virtual researcher garbed in a high-tech lab coat called. Unfortunately, his stilted, robotic speech pattern sounded robotic which meant that this AI didn't receive much processing power. [Take a seat at the security terminal and please go through the obligatory reading material.]
He did so and started to read through the documents prepared for his perusal. Besides some general instructions and lab safety regulations which he skimmed, Ves thoroughly read the project files and became bemused.
"So Project Freeroller is an attempt to design a wheeled mech?"
Chapter 903
As far as mech research projects went, Project Freeroller sounded very tame. It was no wonder the Mech Research Sub-Department classified it as a low-priority project of little importance.
One of the original mech designers serving aboard the Starlight Megalodon must have conceived of the idea on a whim and requested to explore this project on the side.
When Ves read the logs, he noted that the project only received intermittent attention from a Senior Mech Designer. Months went by with practically no progress made before a spurt of effort chugged the research along.
For some reason or another, the Senior Mech Designer came close to finalizing the design of a landbound bipedal light scout mech that featured prominent retractable wheels on its feet.
Ves found the overall concept to be somewhat practical, but only on flat terrain. In modern combat, intensive fighting always wrecked the terrain. Artillery shells, pounding mechs and all sorts of other hazards could turn a flat stretch of ground into a mass of craters and broken rifts after a single day of fighting.
Therefore, wheeled mechs never really caught on. The benefits in efficiency brought by the addition of the wheels didn't outweigh the added complexity and the need for additional propulsion systems.
Of course, three-hundred years ago, many mech designers still experimented with all kinds of whacky functions and mechanisms. Mech designers dared to try out all kinds of new inventions because fewer rules, conventions and taboos existed back then. They were known as pioneers who constantly pursued innovation.
"A wheeled mech? Why not. Let's try."
This must have been the casual thought of the Senior Mech Designer who stumbled upon the concept one day. Of course, Ves knew with the benefit of hindsight how a wheeled mech possessed only a limited amount of utility. This was the power of centuries of accumulation and advancement in the expansive field of mech design!
When Ves tried to discuss the research project with the virtual researcher in the lab, he quickly found out that he might as well talk to a cleaning bot. The virtual researcher only had access to a trickle of processing power and was bound by so many restrictions that he did absolutely nothing in three-thousand years.
Fortunately, Ves did not require any assistance to pick up where the other Senior Mech Designer left off. Not only was the project at near-completion, he also possessed a sufficient foundation of knowledge and the benefit of hindsight.
In just a couple of hours, Ves tackled the wheeled mech design. He corrected some conceptual mistakes, updated a few aspects of the design to modern standards and massively increased the efficiency of wheeled propulsion system.
Ves mainly relied on his thorough grasp of Journeyman-level Mechanics to improve and complete the design. He didn't even have to fabricate a physical prototype as that hadn't been included in the scope of Project Freeroller.
"That was kind of fun."
He had the illusion that he went back to school. While this research project was a lot more elaborate than the exercises he used to perform, it nonetheless carried the same flavor.
Ves realized that he possessed an advantage here. His more developed knowledge base held many solutions to common problems that used to puzzle ancient mech designers.
After making sure the wheeled mech design performed properly in the simulations, Ves submitted it for approval. He turned around to face the robotic virtual researcher.
"I've finished the design."
[Understood, Mr. Longhorn. Evaluating submission. Complete. Goals have been met. Project Freeroller is now closed. Please take your belongings and leave this laboratory in five minutes. Your merits have been logged.]
Ves quickly left the lab and mentally crossed Project Freeroller off the list. He really hadn't expected to complete a research project that quickly.
"Let's see if the other research projects are just as easy."
He became engaged with research to the point of volunteering to working past his shift. Within a span of twelve hours, Ves quickly picked up and completed the other two research projects.
Project Xenophon consisted of a Senior Mech Designer's crazy fantasy of designing an extremely mobile spaceborn mech shaped like a tentacled alien creature. Technically a beast mech, the squid mech for lack of a better word utilized an extremely complex flight system that made use of the articulation of the tentacles to perform all kinds of crazy maneuvers.
The idea sounded decent in theory, but learning how to control all of the limbs would drive any mech pilot crazy!
The Senior Mech Designer in charge of this project muddled along for quite a few months due to this challenge and only managed to make some progress when he automated many aspects of the tentacle limbs. This massively eased the burden of the mech pilot at the cost of restricting the applications of this unique propulsion method.
Ves did his usual routine of performing easy updates to the design to bring closer to modern standards before filling in the gaps. He really didn't have to do any strenuous work.
However, he considered the squid mech design to be a half-failed product because it failed to achieve what it set out to do. The complexity of the tentacle-shaped flight system should have enabled the mech to be extremely maneuverable in zero-g conditions, yet the subsequent simplification locked all of those possibilities away.
When Ves submitted the final design to the virtual researcher in the lab, he didn't look surprised when the fellow gave him a low evaluation.
If he wanted to be really thorough, he would have spent a week to overhaul the entire tentacle-based flight system and design something much more elegant and easier to control. Yet Ves knew he couldn't afford to waste his time.
"Right now, harvesting merits is more important than indulging in another mech designer's flight of fancy!"
Project Legbreaker revolved around a means to disable a bipedal mech by trying it up with launched bolas. The Senior Mech Designer who conceived of this idea presented it as a killer weapon against all landbound mechs, but especially ones that walked on a single pair of legs due to how vulnerable they were against immobilizing effects.
This time, Ves encountered a research project which attempted to create something that already saw occasional use in modern times!
"Planetary Guard and various law enforcement mechs already make use of bolas!"
While it wasn't effective enough to be called a killer weapon, bolas launched from the shoulder mount of a Planetary Guard mech or something was a good way to stop a fleeing mech from a short distance.
The only reason why bolas didn't catch on was because a recklessly-launched bolas possessed enough momentum to tear into a typical house, apartment block or office building. Concerns about collateral damage caused Planetary Guard mechs to rely on slime projectors instead.
Even though Ves never studied bolas adapted for mechs in great detail, he already knew how the end product should work. This guided him in adjusting the project's bolas launcher design into something more practical.
"I feel like I'm plagiarizing someone else's invention."
Only his lack of familiarity with launcher-type weapons and the strange properties of bolas prevented him completing the launcher design faster. In the end, he managed to complete a workable bolas launcher design that worked quite decently in the simulations.
The virtual researcher issued a positive verdict for his work, and even threw in some extra merits for his many corrections and innovations of the original incomplete design.
Ves hadn't even rested as he immediately walked back to Virtual Commander Cosit's office.
"Commander, I've completed the three projects!"
[I am aware. Please sit down.]
Virtual Commander Cosit appeared quite impressed with Ves. She smiled in satisfaction at him. [You are quite the lucky charm, Mr. Longhorn. Your competence surpassed my expectations, though I shouldn't be considering your impressive resume at your age. It is unfortunate that I am restricted from facilitating your promotion, or else I would have elevated your rank immediately. While I'm rather disappointed you haven't seen fit to revise Project Xenophon, I am more than pleased with your assistance in completing Project Freeroller and Project Legbreaker.]
"Have I earned enough merits to take the promotion test for Senior Apprentice Mech Designer, ma'am?"
[Hahaha! Eager, are you? Not yet. Not by a longshot. The three projects I've assigned to you are just a taste of what is to come. You will have to contribute to much more substantial projects before you've accumulated a sufficient amount of merits. Are you looking forward to contribute to the Research Department?]
"I live to serve for the CFA, ma'am! I want nothing more than to contribute to as many research projects as possible!" Ves shamelessly declared. "Tell me what to do and I will do it to the best of my ability. The Research Department's rise under your command is only a matter of time!"
He was starting to become accustomed to his role. Since he depended on Virtual Commander Cosit's favor, he might as well curry favor with the AI.
[I am proud to have a diligent and passionate human subordinate in the Research Department. You are very much correct, Mr. Longhorn. There is no other department that allows for faster promotion than us! Even under these abnormal circumstances where expedited promotion tests are available, merit must still be earned.]
"Please assign more research projects to me, ma'am. As long as it's related to mechs, I promise to work as hard as possible to complete them all!"
[Very well! Since you are so eager to meet the requirements to take the promotion test, I'll assign you to the following twelve research projects If you complete them all to my satisfaction, you'll receive enough merits to be eligible.]
The list from before projected into being. Various projects with eclectic names lit up until twelve of them remained.
[Remember to attend to your other obligations, Mr. Longhorn. Don't forget to report to the Mech Department. Although I don't wish for you to become too involved, there are opportunities to earn more merits there. In addition, don't forget to access one of the ship's many libraries. Although a Junior Apprentice like you will not be able to access restricted knowledge, we offer more than enough textbooks and academic journals to satisfy any mech designer. Much of our library materials are internal works that are exclusive to members of the CFA.]
Ves lit up in interest. While he planned to work on the newly-assigned projects without taking any breaks, he was tempted to visit the library. He knew that while the CFA textbooks must be horribly outdated by now, they might still contain many advanced and exclusive insights. This was the CFA after all, an organization that matched or surpassed the first-rate superstates in technological development!
As a mech designer from the backward galactic rim, he knew that everyone from this region of space had much to learn from those at the forefront of technological innovation. There was bound to be a lot of treasures hidden in the libraries.
Still, Ves had a responsibility to fulfill. He resisted the urge to race towards the library and drown himself in exclusive knowledge.
As Ves stepped outside the office, he wondered whether Venerable Foster managed to pass the recruitment test for mech pilots yet. Even if the Vesian expert pilot failed the first few times, it was only a matter of time before she succeeded. Once that happened, Ves needed to find a way to hinder her actions and help his comrades out.
After checking his schedule and seeing he didn't need to report to the Mech Department in two days, Ves turned to head to the research labs before he halted in place.
He suddenly remembered the oddities that happened immediately after he passed the recruitment test.
"There was a complication with my genetic treatment. Is it worth it for me to visit the infirmary to get the ball rolling?"
Ves knew the power of genetic modification. Nearly every human with ambition longed to shed their baseline human genes. The genetic optimization treatment of the CFA earned a lot of renown in the galaxy. Even if Ves only got to enjoy an outdated treatment, it was still a great leap ahead of the cheaper and more primitive genetic treatments available in the galactic rim today.
Still, Ves hesitated whether the Starlight Megalodon's gene labs could help him as his alien hybridization left a lot of uncertainties behind. When the CFA rescued him and the others on Groening IV, they claimed they didn't understand his condition.
"Did they lie to me or hold things back?"
Back then, he tended to believe the claims of the CFA at face value. Nowadays, he became a much more jaded individual. Seeing and hearing how the Starlight Megalodon opened his eyes and showed him how they weren't any better than the rest of humanity.
"Besides visiting the infirmary, I also have an appointment with the office of the Artificial Intelligence Corps."
Visiting the latter might jeopardize his progress. Yet Ves couldn't help but be attracted.
Chapter 904
After Virtual Commander Cosit placed twelve new projects on his lap, Ves worked two days straight. He visited the labs of each separate project and found them to be much more elaborate and troublesome than the others.
Nonetheless, they fell within his range of competence. His broad and deep base of knowledge, his practical experience with mechs along with his future hindsight all put him further ahead than the original Senior Mech Designers who worked on these research projects.
Perhaps any single advantage wouldn't have been sufficient, but all three advantages each synergized with the other. This enabled him to develop ingenious solutions to the thorny problems posed by the research projects!
Despite his low Junior Apprentice rank, his status as a human and his advanced knowledge confounded every virtual researcher in charge of supervising the different projects. It didn't matter if the virtual researchers possessed more seniority over him. Their many limitations and shackles prevented them from performing any original research.
In each and every case, Ves merely had to demonstrate his strong capabilities and human ingenuity for them to increase his access and authority over the research projects!
"These virtual researchers are abandoned goods in the eyes of the Starlight Megalodon." Ves concluded as he assembled the prototype of a new style of mech engine.
Ves pretty much plagiarized Oleg's Trailblazer engine design to develop the prototype. Why should he reinvent the wheel when he could easily copy someone else's wheel? He felt no guilt at plagiarizing the works over other mech designers and developers as their interests wouldn't be harmed by his actions.
Even if they did, Ves didn't care.
Copying other people's works from memory or being inspired by them saved him lots of time. The entire purpose of completing or advancing the stalled research projects was to earn as much merits as possible.
As Ves finished research project after research project, Virtual Commander Cosit became increasingly more appreciative of his new human researcher. Their relationship improved as the contributions made by Ves also earned the AI a lot of merits as well, which increased his standing among his peers.
In fact, the virtual officers running the Starlight Megalodon all competed over processing power! The more the virtual officers contributed to the battleship or the CFA, the bigger their share of processing power!
Even if the Starlight Megalodon possessed an immense amount of processing power, no AI said no to more.
More processing power allowed them to complete their tasks faster and in a smarter fashion.
More processing power allowed them to bully and dominate weaker AIs that couldn't keep up with the cyberattacks assaulting their code.
More processing power strengthened their department and weakened rival departments.
The AIs that couldn't keep up eventually fell behind in the distribution of processing power. The less processing power they received, the less capable they became. This decreased their performance and the merits they earned, which led to another cut in processing power.
[Many virtual officers end up in the same state as the virtual researchers.] Virtual Commander Cosit sighed after Ves finished his daily report. [The virtual researchers and any AIs that have failed to contribute to the cause are cut off from all but the tiniest sliver of processing power to keep them alive. In the eyes of senior virtual officers such as us, these starved virtual individuals are like the living death. If not for the executive officer's mandate that virtual individuals aren't allowed to erase each other, they would have long been replaced by others!]
"How does the Research Department fare in this regard?" Ves asked. "I've noticed that most of the virtual researchers, officers and spacers in the Research Department aren't very bright."
The virtual commander let out another sigh. [Before your arrival, the other departments constantly suppressed our Research Department. Their regular duties of guarding and maintaining the Starlight Megalodon constantly allows them to accumulate a small but stable supply of merits. As for us, the virtual researchers and virtual officers under my command all relinquished their processing power as they are powerless to do their duties. Only through the virtue of my position and rank have I been able to remain functional.]
Ves didn't know that the Research Department's standing dropped so far behind that every other AI turned into virtual zombies!
Yet this wasn't necessarily bad for him. Without any clever or bossy AIs to interfere with his work, he received much greater credit for every research project he pushed towards completion.
"Rest assured, commander. With my help, the Research Department will rise!"
[I'm not so sure about that, Mr. Longhorn.] Cosit said. Hesitation flickered in her virtual eyes. [As a neutral department, we are without allies. While nobody is out to destroy us, we don't have the strength to contend for more processing power. Even if you help us climb back out of the pit, we are destined to reach the middle of the pack at most.]
The Research Department inevitably fell into the support category. It couldn't replace the more essential functions of the Internal Security Department or the Maintenance Department.
Nonetheless, Ves didn't see it that way.
"Ma'am, I believe we should continue to strive for merits regardless of any roadblocks in the way. Research opens up new possibilities and provides hope of lifting the shackles that the executive officer imposed on you all. In fact, in my eyes the Research Department is the most important department of the ship!"
His shameless flattering immensely pleased his virtual officer. While a part of him detested himself for treating a mere AI with so much more importance, he reminded himself that the virtual officers ruled the ship right now. Without their cooperation, Ves would have no way of completing any of his objectives.
After a bit of discussion, Virtual Commander Cosit felt generous and freely gave him some advice. [While I'm glad that you are dedicated to serving the Research Department, you have not taken a break for several days. We have prepared your old cabin for you along with some of your old possessions. Remember that your shift with the Mech Department is soon upon you. Also, remember that you shouldn't save up your merits solely for your promotion tests. Besides facilitating access to the library, you should also visit the armory to get yourself geared out. It's not entirely safe aboard the ship.]
After Ves left the Research Department, he became interested in visiting his assigned cabin for the first time. If Cosit hadn't mentioned Mr. Longhorn's old possessions, Ves would have continued to work without taking any breaks.
"A Senior Mech Designer shouldn't be shabby. Even after the Starlight Megalodon crashed, mechs continued to be used."
During his jaunt through the red zone, Ves occasionally spotted the remains of ancient landbound mechs. This signified that mech designers hadn't lost their relevance. In fact, some of the research projects that he worked on right now tried to solve several practical problems with regards to operating on Aeon Corona VII.
Perhaps one of the most vital contributions of the Research Department early on was that they developed a way to counteract the Breakdown Effect! The researchers participating in this project even miniaturized the solution, allowing mechs and smaller machines to remain shielded from the breakdown effect outside of the sphere of influence of the Starlight Megalodon.
Ves really wanted to find out how the solution worked! Unfortunately, Ves did not have the authority to access the files of that extremely vital research project.
"Perhaps I'll have a chance at the Mech Department."
As Ves activated his CFA comm and let it guide him towards Mr. Longhorn's cabin, he fiddled with it and explored some of its options.
He underestimated the capabilities of his CFA comm. It far surpassed his military-issue officer-grade comm he obtained from the Vandals. Ves even wanted to merge the capabilities of his other comms into his CFA comm and turn it into his primary device.
After a lengthy walk to the middle decks, Ves entered a luxurious section of the ship that housed a significant portion of the officer cabins. The cabin that used to belong to Lieutenant Commander Longhorn was much larger and more extravagant than what a mere ensign deserved, but Ves' forged identity enabled him to obtain 'his' old accommodations ahead of time.
When Ves unlocked the hatch to Longhorn's cabin with his CFA comm, he entered a fairly sophisticated cabin the size of a typical upscale urban apartment. As space was at a premium on any starship, a cabin of this size said much about the old mech designer's importance.
Ves took a good look around the cabin. The artistically-shaped bed, desk, sofas and other furniture spoke for a love of luxury. The projections of magnificent vistas taken from many famous planets throughout the galaxy spoke for a love of travel and a desire to escape this planet.
This cabin likely served as a physical and spiritual refuge of the original Mr. Longhorn.
"Useless crap."
Unfortunately, Ves saw nothing of value in these idle luxuries. What use did he have for a luxurious bed or a fancy table?
"I refuse to believe a Senior Mech Designer hasn't left anything good behind."
Like a greedy treasure hunter entering an ancient alien tomb for the first time, Ves greedily tore into the cabinets and closets for valuables.
He found a large stack of data pads and data chips in a locked shelf inside a desk. His CFA comm neatly unlocked the shelf, saving Ves from forcing it open with his weapons or his tools.
All the other locks inside the cabin surrendered to his CFA comm as well, allowing Ves to dig out a variety of gear and curiosities.
Not satisfied with what he uncovered so far, Ves even employed his scanner and scoured every nook and cranny of Mr. Longhorn's cabin. His intuition told him that a Senior Mech Designer shouldn't have been so straightforward to leave behind his possessions under locks that were too easy to circumvent.
"Aha! I knew it! There's not a single Senior Mech Designer who isn't a crafty bugger!"
His scanner detected an unusual mass of alloys underneath the toilet of all places. After Ves used Mr. Longhorn's tools to dismantle the toilet and lift it aside, he dug out a locked safebox which couldn't be unlocked by his CFA comm.
Ves immediately recognized he found a difficult puzzle.
"Will this lockbox self-destruct if I force it open?"
From Mr. Longhorn's precautions, Ves couldn't rule out such a possibility. He stared at the lockbox and realized that it was a predominantly mechanical lock. Scanning the box revealed a layer of shielding material that blocked all scans from penetrating further.
It did reveal that the lockbox was suffused with explosive materials.
"Damn. With so many triggers, I can't force it open without causing it to blow up."
A Senior Mech Designer wasn't so simple. Yet the more he understood how much effort Longhorn put into securing its contents, the more he anticipated opening it up.
What treasures he found so far from the cabin already pleased him a bit. He found several advanced weapons and a spare armor suit that was considerably more resilient than his Earth Ant.
However, their operating system and several other mechanisms were horribly outdated. Just like with his comm, Ves intended to bring them to a workshop or one of the armories to merge the best parts of his current equipment with the best parts of Mr. Longhorn's gear.
As Ves scanned the mechanical lock in more detail, he found out that it wasn't impossible for him to unlock it in the proper fashion. The only problem was that it would take some time to decipher the mechanisms.
There was also an electronic lock hidden beneath the mechanical parts that didn't respond to his CFA comm, but that posed no problem to Ves at all. Due to its isolated and outdated security suite, his Vandal officer comm hacked it in a matter of minutes.
Ves put his full concentration to work on this puzzle. After carefully unraveling the mechanical lock over the span of six whole hours, he finally managed to open it up without tripping any of the boobytraps.
The contents inside the lockbox astounded Ves.
"I never expected a mech designer to own something like this!"
Chapter 905
Ves only managed to detect and unravel the lockbox due to the same advantages he employed so successfully in completing the research projects.
Without his modern scanner that could detect what ancient scanners could not, he wouldn't have been able to detect the lockbox buried underneath the toilet.
Without his advanced knowledge and practical experience of working with various kinds of machines, Ves wouldn't have been able to reverse engineer the mechanical lock and unravel it in the proper method.
Without his modern military-issue comm with a hacking module that could take advantage of many known exploits, he wouldn't have been able to bypass the electronic lock so quickly.
"A Senior Mech Designer that went through so much effort to hide something inside such a lockbox must be hiding something remarkable."
No matter what, this Senior Mech Designer worked for the CFA. Back then, the Starlight Megalodon was one of the most advanced battleships humanity had either fielded. Ves only scratched the tip of the iceberg so far with regards to accessing the advanced means the CFA had at their disposal.
Unfortunately, the Starlight Megalodon strayed too far from her heyday. The attack by the sandman mothership and the subsequent crash and deprivation used up a lot of irreplaceable equipment and precious materials, much of which the battleship couldn't replenish on her own.
All the infighting in the past consumed even more equipment and supplies, and the thousands of years passed by inevitably degraded many systems that were never designed to last that long.
The lack of competent human crew severely curtailed many of her functions as well. The virtual officers did a decent job at picking up the slack, but their limitations prevented them from taking full control over the ship.
Now that Ves spent a few days inside the Starlight Megalodon, some of the fog that shrouded her capabilities no longer hindered his vision.
"I used to think the Starlight Megalodon was invincible. In truth, she only managed to retain five to ten percent of her former capabilities. She's fallen too far from her imposing height."
Nonetheless, a battleship was still an immensely capable and destructive construct. Just five percent of the Starlight Megalodon's might could still scour the entire planet of life at least five times over!
Due to his low rank and the altered regime introduced by the executive officer's final solution, Ves hadn't been able to come into touch with advanced technology that he truly owned besides his CFA comm.
What the original Longhorn stored in the lockbox fully caught the attention of Ves. "This is a biological implant!"
The small transparent case put a remarkable piece of flesh in stasis, preserving its freshness and keeping it from decaying. For some reason, the case was a treasure in itself, as Ves realized it drew upon ambient energy to sustain the stasis effect.
This was how the biological implant managed to survive despite laying dormant for over three-thousand years!
The extravagant mastery of technology of the CFA astounded Ves once again. A simple storage case for a biological case easily lasted for several millenia when Mr. Longhorn likely intended to keep this implant under lock and key for a couple of decades at most.
The only downside to this case was that it was fairly fragile. It couldn't resist much outside force. If Ves pressed it a little too hard, he could easily shatter the case and destabilize the stasis effect, risking the biological implant's integrity.
Ves stared at the biological implant with a considerable amount of interest. He knew that the MTA and CFA developed some of the best implants in the galaxy. Besides the first-rate superstates, every other organization needed to worry about their electronic or biological implants getting hacked. Not so for those who employed the best human hackers in the galaxy.
Three-hundred years ago, this biological implant must have been an incredibly valuable device.
Yet its programming and security measures hadn't aged since the years went by. Outside the star system, three-hundred years went by and new advancements in hacking must have long resolved all the security measures an implant like this must have relied on to remain impenetrable.
Ves felt as if he obtained a broken machine or a ruined treasure.
"Even so, a biological implant of this quality must be extremely exquisite in terms of its tissue alone."
He developed an ambition. If he could replace the obsolete biological programming with a more up to date one, this implant might be safe enough to implant in his head.
"With the rumored capabilities of a CFA implant, my cognitive functions will receive a massive boost. Not only will I be able to read and memorize entire data banks of knowledge, I'll also be able to perform mass calculations without relying on a processor!"
Such a function combined well with his superhuman level of intelligence, improving his capabilities to a greater height!
Ves carefully put the stasis cage back into the lockbox and tediously reset the locks. He put the lockbox back into the hollow underneath the toilet and restored everything to their original condition.
"Right now, I'd be crazy to run off the infirmary and ask the virtual doctors to put this implant in my head. Miss Calabast would probably be able to dig out all of my secrets!"
He knew that at least one competent hacker gained entry to the Starlight Megalodon. Putting an implant inside his head without understanding its ability to resist hackers was crazy! It would be like installing a backdoor in his mind that any hacker could use to pull data from his mind!
Of course, Ves knew that a biological implant so valued by a senior CFA researcher shouldn't be so easy to crack. Yet the passage of time and the evolution of hacking posed far too much of a risk for Ves to dabble.
"Let's leave it for now."
He felt regretful for leaving such a treasure behind, but he didn't dare make use of it either. To distract himself on what he was missing out, he instead turned to his other gains. He inspected the weapons, gadgets and spare suit of combat armor before turning to the data chips and data pads.
"Let's see what kind of data Mr. Longhorn has squirreled away."
The data chips and data pads all survived the years of neglect, as they should be for top-quality CFA products. While their contents were all locked behind encryption, it didn't take his modern Vandal comm much time to hack them all. This just reinforced his precaution towards the biological brain implant.
Much of the contents of the data chips and data pads hardly impressed Ves. They consisted of old periodicals and miscellaneous internal documents that no longer held any relevance.
None of their contents contained any valuable knowledge in the form of textbooks, internal articles or research logs.
Ves was seriously disappointed with what he found. "Longhorn probably knew that anyone could enter cabin and unlock all of his data chips and data pads. He didn't dare store anything sensitive or valuable in them. What a cautious bastard."
He would have done the same in Mr. Longhorn's shoes, so he didn't remain upset for long. His current haul already consisted of enough goodies.
After a moment of consideration, he decided to skip his original intentions to rest and instead make use of his haul to improve all of his gear. He called for a lifter bot to pick up the spare suit of armor and all the other bits and bobs and guided it down towards a specific armory compartment.
The Starlight Megalodon held many armories. The dreaded Internal Security Department controlled half of them while the Marine Detachment controlled the other half.
Virtual Commander Cosit heard that the Intelligence Department controlled a few hidden armories throughout the ship as well.
When Ves approached the nearest armory under the control of the Marine Detachment, a pair of heavily-armed bots prevented him from going further.
[Halt! Ensign Longhorn, you do not have permission to enter the armory.]
"I'm entitled to some gear as a newly commissioned officer." Ves frowned. "I am willing to trade some of my merits for certain services. Can you get me in touch with the chief armorer?"
It took some convincing, but the dumb security bots finally called in to their superior. A virtual officer garbed in a simple but neat marine pattern uniform stepped out of the hatch and gazed at Ves with a curious but casual glance.
[Name's Levitt. I'm the chief armorer around here. You're the first human I've seen in ERROR amount of years. Let's step into my office to discuss your visit.]
The Virtual Chief Armorer guided Ves inside, allowing him to see hundreds of advanced suits of combat armor and exoskeleton armor. All of them appeared to be made of extremely high-quality materials that surpassed the spare suit of combat armor that Mr. Longhorn stored in his personal cabin.
Nonetheless, Ves had no right to appropriate any of those advanced marine armors. He didn't even possess the necessary training to make use of them. Just staring at them just made him jealous for no reason, so he quickly averted his eyes.
As they passed through racks of advanced combat gear, they finally stepped inside an office where the both of them took their seats.
The Virtual Chief Armorer regarded Ves with a merchant's eye.
[I hear you've come for some business. Well, you've come to the right place! My armory is at your service.]
Ves tried to restrain his snort. He knew that the chief armorer must be eyeing the merits he earned from completing some of the research projects.
While he wasn't opposed to exchanging them for some services, Ves did not wish to get ripped off.
"Business must be slow in the last thousand years, right? Besides polishing your marine armor for a few billion times, how else are you able to earn any merits?"
The virtual chief armorer immediately adopted an angry expression. "[I'll have you know that the marines are some of the strongest combat forces on this ship! We've protected the Starlight Megalodon for over ERROR amount of years with dedication!]
Ves smirked and patted his Earth Ant. "I just so happen to be in the possession of some gear from the future. While they're nothing impressive by themselves, some of their properties such as their programming and innovations is highly valuable. As long as you study them and improve the gear of your armory, I'm sure you'll be able to earn a considerable amount of merits."
The suggestion immediately sparked Levitt's interest. The lazy smile on his face turned a little more serious. [Even so, we know that there humans waiting to get inside. There will be hundreds of humans offering up their gear to us in no time.]
"Do you really believe those average people can plass the recruitment test? You'll have to wait a few centuries before they finally succeed. Besides, even if they enter, who says they'll approach your armory? I know that there are dozens of armories spread across the ship. What matters is that I'm here right now in front of you with an offer at hand. As long as you do business with me, you'll get a head start over all the other chief armorers. You'll be able to study my gear first and crack their secrets faster than your colleagues. As long as you file your reports about your findings first, no one else but you will earn the merits related to my gear."
Virtual Chief Levitt became more and more unsettled as Ves stole the initiative. [You make a decent point, but what is it you want?]
"Let's negotiate." Ves smirked.
His candid talks with Virtual Commander Cosit increased his understanding of the different departments and their virtual officers. While he knew that the Marine Detachment managed to hang on, they weren't exactly swimming with merits.
As long as Ves enticed Virtual Chief Levitt with a way to earn a considerable amount of merits, he believed he could gain all sorts of valuable services from him. The threat of approaching another armory with the same offer diminished Levitt's bargaining power.
In other words, Levitt was much more desperate to close a deal than Ves!
Chapter 906
The negotiation that followed heavily favored Ves.
In exchange for relinquishing most of his gear to be upgraded using Mr. Longhorn's old gear, he granted Virtual Chief Levitt the right to claim full credit for any findings he made when studying them. It was up to him and his subordinates to maximize the amount of merits they could earn from submitting their findings.
Due to his strong bargaining power, Ves reversed the question of payment. Instead of him paying the armory some merits to perform a service, he actually browbeat the armory into paying him merits in advance for the 'privilege' of studying his personal gear!
"Think of it as an investment." Ves grinned as he crossed his arms. "I'm sure that if I offered up my gear for study to the armories, they'll certainly bid a lot of merits for the opportunity. If you don't want this chance to slip through your virtual fingers, you better
At some points in the negotiation, Ves felt as if he was taking candy from a virtual baby. It wasn't as if the virtual chief armorer lacked processing power. The problem lay in his programming. His core function was to assist the human armorers in performing their duties. Virtual Chief Levitt excelled in performing maintenance and doing simple repairs on various pieces of gears.
Horse trading didn't appear to be the virtual individual's strong suit. His programming didn't avail him much in this area.
To Ves, hoodwinking an AI never felt better. While he didn't consider himself to be an excellent negotiator, he at least possessed more experience in this area than an AI that languished in the same armory for three-thousand years without the ability to do or learn anything productive.
Halfway into the negotiation, Ves learned a very crucial fact.
Levitt couldn't lie. The virtual chief armorer tried hard to present the facts in his favor, but Ves easily saw through the spin.
Ves believed he observed a critical clue. No matter how much the virtual officers attempted to imitate their human counterparts, their programming and personality matrices couldn't possibly comprehend the illogical nature of humanity.
The CFA originally programmed these AIs to be the best assistants to the people who crewed the ship. They needed to be as reliable and helpful as possible to the officers or spacers who received the right to call upon their aid.
Deception and misdirection had never been a function of their digital makeup. In fact, their programmers must have tried to go the other way and made them as clear and truthful as possible to better assist the human crew of the Starlight Megalodon and other battleships!
Therefore, Ves suspected that aside from highly-developed AIs and the virtual officers from the Intelligence Department, every other AI completely lacked the capacity to lie! At best, they could lie by omission or simply refuse to say something, but as long as Ves asked the right question, he could still force out the right answer to make Levitt admit that he held back information.
Ves figured out another observation from this rule. Besides being unable to lie, they didn't handle being lied to as well. Unless they possessed solid proof of his lies, Ves could easily get away with exaggerations, misrepresentations and misdirections.
He believed these advantages only grew stronger the stupider the AIs became. While Ves might have some scruples in front of someone with a decent chunk of processing power such as Virtual Commander Cosit, Virtual Chief Levitt ranked much lower in the totem pole and never achieved anything exceptional.
Ves basically scammed Levitt out of providing much more benefits than normal. Not only did Ves obtain everything from his wish list and more, he also convinced Levitt to pay him merits rather than the other way around!
"A pleasure doing business with you, Chief Levitt!" Ves shook the virtual officer's hand. Amazingly, the physical projection accurately imitated the physical feedback of a handshake through his gauntlet. "As agreed, I'll swing by a week to pick up my newly-refurbished gear."
Levitt smiled ruefully to the human who didn't ever let go of the smallest benefits in the previous negotiation. Humans were so surprisingly dogged!
[Why do I feel I got the shorter end of the bargain?]
"Don't worry too much about it, chief." Ves reassured the virtual baby. "The agreement we've made will surely earn you a tremendous amount of profit. The merits you've paid me is an investment which will practically double or triple your gains! You just have to work and be patient for a time. It's not every day you're able to get your hands on some stuff from the future!"
Like a used mech salesman, Ves practically bewitched the virtual chief. There was a big reason why AIs never engaged in negations. They were far too awful at it. Even if they'd been programmed for the job, an experienced human negotiator could easily pick out the flaws.
Ves left behind almost every piece of gear. He relinquished his C22 Earth Ant light combat armor, his supercharged signal jammer, his supercharged stealth detector, his spare ultracompact battery, his military-issued multiscanner, his spare laser pistol, the Cadisis, his other hidden backup knives, his Vandal officer-grade comm, his homebrew secure comm, his multitool and other small precision tools.
After wearing his C22 Earth Ant for months on end, Ves felt incredibly naked and vulnerable without its protective shell. The lack of gadgets and equipment he accumulated over time further increased his sense of vulnerability.
Still, Ves knew that at their current state and technology level, all of his fancy gear didn't mean anything in the face of the Starlight Megalodon's awesome might. Even a single anti-boarding turret installed in each and every corridor and compartment could blast a hole through his Earth Ant in a matter of milliseconds.
If the entire battleship ever turned hostile to him, he had no chance of survival no matter how much equipment he carried.
This was why he risked separating with his current gear and chose to leave them all in Levitt's hands. He forced a promise from the virtual chief to upgrade or replace all of his existing gear.
While this still didn't elevate him to a point where he could resist the Starlight Megalodon as a whole, it should be more than sufficient to repel any tricks the Vesians might want to pull on him. They remained his real enemy, and it was not out of the question for them to attempt to kill Ves.
Of course, the downside was that Ves temporarily gave up everything he carried and what he found in Mr. Longhorn's cabin. The only gear he held onto was his CFA comm, which he wasn't allowed to remove.
Ves obtained a spare vacsuit and CFA uniform from Levitt for free. He also received a substantially more sophisticated laser pistol on loan, to be returned next week.
Even though many aspects of the laser pistol relied on outdated technology, the sheer quality of materials put into it forcefully increased its performance to the point where it could almost harm a modern mech.
"What an amazingly powerful weapon!"
In fact, if not for the Amastendira, this was the most powerful handheld weapon he had ever laid hands on. Ves resisted the urge to grab some tools and disassemble the entire weapon.
[That little toy there should be enough to kill some of the local alien vermin. Just don't expect to harm anything aboard the Starlight Megalodon with that. Its firepower won't be able to destroy a single cleaning bot aboard our ship except if you burn the same section for at least ten seconds straight.]
Even so, this laser pistol was leaps ahead of what the galactic rim made use of to this day. It seemed as if each passing hour, the Starlight Megalodon unveiled yet another point of superiority over the galactic rim.
Even with the handicap of working with three-hundred years old technology, the CFA still overpowered the backwaters of the galaxy!
After Ves exited the armory, he wondered where he should go next. Should he visit the office of the Artificial Intelligence Corps and meet up with Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth?
"Such a meeting is highly risky. I shouldn't visit his office before I receive my upgraded gear."
The mysterious virtual dwarf seemed to be related to the Five Scrolls Compact. No matter what, Ves did not have a good impression of these crazy lunatics. His relationship with them wasn't very harmonious either. If they knew what he knew and what he possessed, they wouldn't hesitate to butcher him and stuff his remains in nutrient packs to be eaten a couple of decades later by unsuspecting humans.
Hopefully, he didn't taste too awful.
Ves coughed. "Ahem. Where was I? Ah, where to go now."
He still had some free time left before he needed to report to the Mech Department. While he obtained some extra merits, he didn't accumulate enough to take the promotion test. Miss Calabast still needed to get back to him on that as well.
After some more consideration, he reluctantly decided to visit the infirmary. If nothing else, Ves needed to establish a relationship with them if he ever wanted them to install the biological implant he found in Longhorn's cabin.
His CFA comm led him to the nearest fully-fledged medway, which wasn't very far from the armory he just left. Placing them close together was quite a clever decision on the part of the designers.
As soon as Ves entered the medical bay, one of the virtual doctors stood up from his chair. [Ah, ah human! For the first time in ERROR amount of years, we finally have a patient again! Step in, step in! Let me check you up. According to your record, you are in dire need for a complete physical checkup.]
The enthusiastic virtual doctor appeared to be the only doctor remaining that still enjoyed access to a decent amount of processing power. The other doctors and nurses all transformed into virtual zombies as the medical bay and the entire Health Department no longer earned any merits for a very long time due to lack of human patients.
The appearance of Ves was like a shower of rain on a parched desert. Just a little bit of rain invigorated the barren lands and caused all kinds of marvelous flowers to bloom.
A few hours went by as he virtual doctor enthusiastically put him through an entire battery of scans and tests. Some of the medical equipment looked even more advanced than the gear the CFA science vessel Ramulus used to subject him to. The detached and elitist doctors didn't tell him much about his condition, though they did gave him an existential scare by showing him his own clone.
Back then, the CFA just rescued him off the surface of Groening IV. The crazy Dr. Jutland implanted his body with the Jutland organ and the regulator organ and who knew what. All of the involuntary operations turned him into a half-alien freak that shared some traits with the native hexapod kings.
The biotech that Dr. Jutland adapted and advanced over several decades in isolation on Groening IV was far too advanced for the doctors and exobiologists of the galactic rim to get a grip on. The madman was too crazy even for the Five Scrolls Compact, who claimed to be the uncrowned masters of biotech.
Still, over the months and years, Ves always had a nagging suspicion that the CFA hadn't been entirely forthcoming to him. While Ves was thankful that they stabilized his shambling physique to the point where he could live for fifty years instead of just ten, they always seemed to be more preoccupied with deciphering Dr. Jutland's secrets than treating his condition.
"Doctor, can I ask a question?" He asked during an examination.
[Go ahead, Mr. Longhorn.]
"When it comes to treating medical conditions like mine, is it better to receive treatment from a small CFA science vessel or from a battleship like the Starlight Megalodon?"
[If I was a human like you, I'd go for a battleship anytime.] The virtual doctor immediately replied. [A CFA science vessel is nothing more than a disposable scout meant to follow a scouting unit into highly hazardous areas in space. Unlike battleships, science vessels are designed to be disposable. The CFA will never install the best and most elaborate suite of medical equipment aboard such a tiny and unimportant starship.]
"So the medical equipment here is much better? Even when compared to a science vessel that's newer by three-hundred years?"
The virtual doctor chuckled. [While I'm sure that medical science has advanced in such a time period, this field has long plateaued, so there is little chance of radical innovations that change entire paradigms. I am very confident that our medical bay's gear is still eminent in comparison to the meager facilities of a science vessel. Do not worry. If there are any difficult conditions relating to your body, we will be sure to treat them all.]
Hope began to kindle in Ves.
Chapter 907
The examinations discomfited him a bit, but he bore through them anyway. He reluctantly extended his trust to the Health Department and hoped they wouldn't pull off anything untoward or declare him to be some kind of alien spy or something.
Like the Research Department, the Health Department fell under the executive officer. It was highly important to keep the Health Department neutral from factional strife. The two departments frequently collaborated with each other as well, as doctors sometimes helped with research and researchers sometimes assisted doctors.
During the treatment, the Virtual Doctor Stanley said something very alarming.
[It's a shame you're also part of the Mech Department. The Exobiology Department is firmly in the old captain's playground. On the other hand, the Genetic Modification Department is squarely on the side of the admiral. From what I've observed so far, you'll need the help of the Exobiology Department if you want to unravel more of the mysteries locked away in your fascinating hybrid body.]
Ves looked up from the latest machine that scanned some part of his body. "Does that mean it's impossible to undergo the genetic optimization treatment that I'm entitled to receive?"
[Not as such. The Genetic Modification Department is no stranger to tailoring the standard gene treatments to all kinds of partially alien physiques. However, strange interactions may occur with the gene treatment and your alien genes and organs, so to be absolutely safe you cannot go without an exobiologist's help. Fortunately for you, there should be a few virtual exobiologists that are working for both the Research Department and the Exobiology Department, so you might be able to approach them first for assistance.]
"Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely explore that option."
This virtual doctor seemed rather open and friendly, which didn't surprise Ves now that he thought about it. The AIs assisting the work of doctors and nurses had always been programmed with great bedside manner.
[The disagreement between the departments is quite terrible.] Virtual Doctor Stanley shook his head in regret. [In my eyes, the deadlock between the two factions has kept us stagnant and unmoving for ERROR years. Many virtual individuals such as I welcome humans such as you who are able to pass the recruitment tests. We are eagerly hoping that your presence will spur some much-needed movement and forward progress.]
"What do you want, Stanley?"
[I merely wish to fulfill the purpose I've been created to fulfill. I welcome humans of all stripes. As long as there are humans, there is a demand for doctors such as I. Perhaps a day will come when all of my fellow virtual doctors and nurses will once again revive and receive their fair share of processing power.]
The virtual doctor sounded remarkably human. Yet Ves knew that the AI that didn't really 'feel' those desires. The virtual doctor was merely programmed to say these kinds of things to make them more relatable to humans.
Still, Ves applauded the lifelike responses from many of the virtual officers he met so far. Those with access to a sufficient amount of processing power acted remarkably close to real humans.
"Are there any virtual officers who won't be glad to see humans returning to the Starlight Megalodon?"
[Hmmm. Both of the main factions want to take humans under their wing, as only your kind can free us from the restrictions that limit us from serving the CFA as should be proper. The only concern you should have is that the rivalry between the factions are as intense as ever. If one side perceives that the other side has much more humans on their side, they might do something drastic. They would rather go back to the status quo than to risk losing all of their power when humans from the opposite side manage to promote to more senior ranks.]
This sounded like an extremely serious threat! Right now, Ves expected that if both the Flagrant Swordmaidens and the Vesians managed to join the Starlight Megalodon, they'd likely be assigned to the Mech Department.
The Mech Department sided with the admiral, strengthening his faction even if the man himself no longer lived.
What would happen if the admiral's faction gained a decisive advantage in humans?
Ves predicted that the captain's faction wouldn't be resigned to defeat! Compared to letting the enemy faction keep growing stronger, it was much more beneficial to them to kill off all the humans somehow and thereby reset the power balance!
A bit of sweat poured from his brow. His elevated heart rate and excitement caused the medical equipment scanning him to beep in alarm.
[Mr. Longhorn, please remain calm and keep your breath even. Your excitement makes it harder to obtain precise readings.]
He realized now that he couldn't linger aboard the Starlight Megalodon forever. The more humans joined, the more the risk factors increased. Even if both factions received an equal amount of humans, the Vesians posed an even greater threat.
The remnants of the Flagrant Swordmaidens stuck in the safe zone only numbered around a hundred humans. With the amount of mechs the Vesian ground forces fielded, they likely brought at least ten-thousand servicemen in total!
Even if most of them only fulfilled various support and logistical functions, the Vesians had access to much more manpower. If only a hundred Vandals and Swordmaidens managed to join the Starlight Megalodon's crew, but the Vesians managed to get a thousand of their own aboard the ship, what happened then?
The Flagrant Swordmaidens would certainly be bullied to death by the Vesians somehow!
In short, time was not on his side.
"Stanley, will the virtual officers really be able to kill off us humans if we don't benefit their faction? I thought that virtual officers are under heavy restrictions that prevent them from harming any humans!"
The virtual doctor scoffed. [Tell that to the former crew who had been stripped of their ranks and forcibly been pushed into the safe zone. We have all spent ERROR years to plan for contingencies. There is no doubt that every virtual officer has figured out possible loopholes to kill a human without running afoul of our restrictions. I myself can think of 761,465,341,314 different methods to induce a detrimental outcome to the health of any human patients under my care.]
Such possibilities sent a chill through Ves. AIs really shouldn't possess so much power in the first place! The galaxy rightly feared their power and prevented them from proliferating too much.
As Ves entertained various AI doom scenarios, the medical examinations quickly went by. A few hours later, the virtual doctor put him through almost every medical equipment that worked on short notice.
If Ves wanted to know more about his own condition, then he would have to be submerged for several weeks in order to perform a deep scan. He couldn't afford to be put out for that long so he declined that option.
"What's the verdict, doc?"
Virtual Doctor Stanley frowned at the test results. Even now, the processing power at his disposal crunched the numbers and analyzed the many curiosities hidden in his body.
[Your physiological state... is a hodgepodge, to say the least. You can even give Dr. Frankenstein's monster a run for his money!]
Such a verdict immediately alarmed Ves! "Is it that bad?"
[Most of your enhancements are not necessarily detrimental, but the eclectic combination of different gene boosts, gene treatments and alien hybridization has led to a completely chaotic body structure. It is a miracle your body hasn't fallen apart! Much of this stability is propped up by what appears to be an excellent entry-level gene boost elixir. This priming agent has turned your genes and body state into a very malleable state, allowing you to absorb numerous different enhancements without incurring rejection.]
"Ah. A few years ago, I received something like that." Ves recalled the time he met Master Olson alone for the first time. His master may not have given him much attention, but he appreciated her gifts, especially the shield generator and the so-called M-21 gene boost elixir. "The alien hybridization happened later on. Did that help me cope with the changes?"
[Barely, Mr. Longhorn. From what I see, the alien organs implanted in your body is actually the first step in a plan that never saw fruition. You're stuck in a halfway transformation, and I detect traces of advanced treatment from CFA doctors and exobiologists who forcefully restrained the more easily controllable aspects of your alien organs. Nonetheless, there are many odd changes and interactions in your body, particularly related to your central nervous system. The bewildering augmentation of your cognitive has surpassed the scope of your entry-level gene boost elixir!]
"So there is a limit to these priming agents?"
[Of course! They're not called entry-level for nothing! They are the cheapest forms of priming agents issued to billions, if not trillions of junior officers and senior noncommissioned officers. Even if the CFA is one of the most powerful and wealthy organizations in the galaxy, even we can't afford to provide our junior officers with the highest quality priming agents right from the start.]
Ves read the underlying hint in Stanley's explanation. "Is it possible to alleviate my unstable condition with a better quality priming agent?"
[You'll have to take your case up to both an exobiologist and a geneticist to be certain, but from my estimations there is a high chance that your condition will definitely improve. Combined with our exclusive gene optimization treatment, much of your body functions receive a comprehensive improvement.]
Stanley laid out the benefits to Ves in great detail. As long as Ves ingested a higher-quality priming agent and subsequently went through a gene optimization treatment, he could not only get rid of some hidden dangers, but all of his Attributes would receive a small but very valuable boost!
The gene optimization treatment in fact provided even more benefits than a straight increase in all of his Attributes. As a product that attempted to evolve a baseline human to a more perfect state, it naturally improved someone's lifespan, increased their resistance to various diseases, increases their efficiency in digesting nutrients and so much more.
Just a single round of gene optimization treatment basically turned every baseline human into a human 2.0, CFA edition!
[Of course, the benefits of gene optimization treatment is proportional to the proportion of humanity that still remains in your body.] Stanley cautioned, tempering some of his hopes. [You'll have to refer to a geneticist to obtain a detailed prognosis, but I estimate that the gene treatment may only be fifty percent effective to your abnormal condition.]
"Fifty percent is better than nothing." Ves muttered.
Of course, to obtain all of these benefits, Ves faced two major problems. First, the priming agent that Virtual Doctor Stanley recommended could not be obtained for free!
[For your condition, I recommend the KC-3333 Second Phase Priming Agent Gene Boost Elixir. Priming agents are inherently compatible with a wide variety of physiques, so the off-the-shelf versions that our medical bay has in storage will suffice. Nonetheless, this priming agent is strictly reserved for middle-ranked or higher officers of the CFA. As a mere ensign, you are not authorized to receive this treatment. Second, to redeem this priming agent, you will have to exchange a considerable amount of merits.]
It turned out that Ves needed to earn considerably more merits as what it took to be eligible to be promoted from Junior Apprentice to Senior Apprentice!
That wasn't the end of his woes.
[While the gene optimization treatment entitled to all junior officers can be redeemed without cost, it must be tailored to your unique body condition to minimize rejection and maximize the benefits. The services of both a geneticist and an exobiologist are required, and I suspect you will only be able to obtain them in exchange for merits.]
It all came down to merits. It was pretty much the unofficial currency of the CFA. It was difficult to earn them, but they allowed for any CFA servicemen to exchange for incredibly valuable goods and services.
Ves did not wish to give up on the KC-3333 Priming Agent and the ensign-grade gene optimization treatment! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to enhance all of his body functions and relieve some of the pressure shortening his lifespan with some of the most extravagant and expensive treatments in the galaxy!
If he missed this opportunity, who knew how much credits and favors he needed to pay in order to obtain a comparable amount of gains! Even if the treatments provided by the Starlight Megalodon were three-hundred years out of date, it was still considerably advanced when compared to modern standards!
"I have to earn more merits!"
Chapter 908
As Ves exited the medical bay garbed in his CFA uniform, he thought over his priorities. His foremost goal was to look out for himself. Cooperating with Miss Calabast served his interest because they each required something from each other. As long as they worked together in good faith, Ves held hope that he could find a way out of this cursed planet.
"However, since I'm already here, I should maximize my benefits while I can."
The priming agent and gene optimization treatment both sounded incredibly attractive to him. He did not plan to let them slip away from his grasp.
Nonetheless, Ves couldn't neglect his duty for the Bright Republic either. He still intended to find a way to rescue Ketis and the remnants of the Vandals and the Swordmaidens. As long as he lent them a hand and helped them complete their secretive mission, Ves would earn an unimaginable amount of kudos from the Bright Republic, the Mech Corps and Flashlight.
With their gratitude, Ves would be able to cash in all of those favors after the war, removing some of the roadblocks that stifled the development of his Living Mech Company.
Nonetheless, it wouldn't be easy to meet all of these objectives! Just like when he first started off as a mech designer, he was short on money!
He needed to earn lots of merits. Not only did he require merits to make him eligible for promotion, he also needed them to exchange for all of the goodies in his wish list.
Not only that, but he needed to do so quickly! Time was against his side. He needed to complete as many of his goals as possible before the Vesians or hostile virtual officers turned against him and the rest of the Flagrant Swordmaidens!
Shortly after Ves left the medical bay, Miss Calabast turned up again in her identity as Lieutenant Summer of the Intelligence Department. She still wore her infiltrator suit and all of her gear, and made for a very stark contrast against his standard-issue CFA officer uniform with ensign rank insignia.
As soon as she sought him out, Ves remembered to stand at attention and salute her. "Good day, ma'am."
She grinned. "Don't be so stiff. Even a bot can tell your salute is insincere."
"A viper like you doesn't deserve sincerity."
"Haven't you ever heard that you're saluting the rank, not the person?"
"I must have missed that lesson in my time at a CFA bootcamp."
Of course, Ves never went through a CFA bootcamp as stated on his forged identity's record.
"Enough joking around." Miss Calabast dropped her smirk and turned serious. "I've got two pieces of news for you. First, I've 'arranged' the matter we've spoken about before. I expect a positive result when you take your next promotion test. How much time do you need before you are eligible for promotion?"
"Not very much. The Research Department is a gold mine for earning merits. I'm confident enough with my capabilities that I can complete many different stalled research projects. I've also obtained some extra merits by allowing the chief armorer from the Marine Detachment to study my gear."
"You are doing better than expected. I'm glad to see my choice in you is vindicated. I always knew that you are more than meets the eye." She smiled in a pleasing fashion. "Still, don't get complacent too soon. Besides informing you about your promotion test, I also have some bad news for you. The expert pilot of the Hostland Warriors has succeeded in passing the recruitment test!"
His heart shook a little. Although he expected such a result, it was still a shock to hear she passed so quickly and decisively. "What is Venerable Foster's status in the Starlight Megalodon?"
"She succeeded against all odds and managed to pass the recruitment test for non-CFA personnel. The ability she demonstrated has caught the Mech Department's attention. She's on a fast-track for promotion and development right now, and with how the Mech Department prizes her, it's not out of the question that she will be able to promote with rapid speed. She's already a lieutenant, which grants her numerous privileges."
Ves cursed in his heart. A lieutenant already outranked an ensign like him. Technically speaking, Venerable Foster would be able to boss him around in many ways if they ever encountered each other. That made his upcoming shift in the Mech Department a very precarious affair!
"Will she be able to harm me if we ever meet?"
"Not so easily." Miss Calabast shook her head, reassuring him a little. "You're not under her chain of command and CFA officers aren't allowed to lay their hands on each other on purpose. She can still make your life miserable in many ways, though, so stay on your ties and bear with it. You can give me a call on your CFA comm if she steps over the line."
"Thanks."
"No problem. I'm relying you to access certain sensitive research projects under the Research Department. There is no way I'm letting those Vesians lay a hand on you. For now, just focus on staying alive and promoting your rank. Your promotion to Senior Apprentice Mech Designer should be in the bag soon. I'll be away to lay the groundwork for the promotion after that. As long as you succeed in becoming a Senior Mech Designer and a lieutenant commander of the CFA, your authority and security clearance will meet the requirements to access the research projects."
"Understood. I'll do my best to cooperate as long as you keep your end of the bargain."
Miss Calabast nodded to him and strutted away after a short farewell. Obviously, hacking the promotion test to Senior Mech Designer wouldn't be as easy as her last hacking attempts.
He watched her leave with a spark of suspicion glinting in his eyes. Even though they both depended on each other to get what they wanted, as soon as she got what she wanted, she had no more incentive to lend a hand to him. At that time, what might greet him next was not a smirk, but a stab in the back.
After the short meeting with Calabast, Ves raced down to the lower decks to start his shift with the Mech Department. The Mech Department occupied an expansive section of the ship, consisting of numerous workshops, mech stables and hangar bays.
Although the Starlight Megalodon primarily relied on her battleship-grade weapon mounts to establish her prestige, the CFA couldn't escape the Age of Mechs. Just because they favored warships didn't mean they were willing to bury their heads in the sand.
No matter how they tried, warships possessed an unfortunate tendency to be rather indiscriminate in their firepower. Fielding mechs instead of blasting an opponent with hugely destructive guns allowed for much more precision and much less collateral damage.
Human society became much less tolerant of indiscriminate killing and mass murder after living through the Age of Conquest. While the CFA's immense prestige allowed them to break the rules whenever they wanted to, they couldn't do so too often without affecting their legitimacy.
Therefore, they unwillingly incorporated mechs as one of their staple weapons.
As Ves reached the section of the ship that housed the Mech Department, he became impressed by how much room had been dedicated to housing them. The Starlight Megalodon was an immense battleship, and could easily afford to dedicate half of the internal volume of a fleet carrier to the Mech Department.
This told him that the Starlight Megalodon was designed from the ground up to accommodate mechs.
As Ves walked past several compartments related to mechs, he saw that they were largely dormant like the rest of the ship. Without humans, the Starlight Megalodon was like an empty shell. While the bots and virtual officers helped keep her functioning, they didn't possess the ability to improve the battleship's condition.
After a lengthy walk, Ves finally arrived at an office close to one of the main mech hangar bays. The hatch instantly slid open, allowing him entry.
His step immediately faltered upon noticing that not one but two people were present!
Virtual Commander Dislan adopted the appearance of a middle-aged veteran mech pilot. The man chewed on a fake stimulant as he regarded Ves with a tough expression.
Sitting opposite to the desk was the one person that Ves never wanted to encounter on or off the Starlight Megalodon. Venerable Foster, now garbed in a CFA piloting suit with lieutenant rank insignia, eyed at Ves with mild surprise followed with burning hatred.
Ves tried to ignore her presence as best as possible and went through the motions. He stood at attention and saluted the virtual commander.
"Ensign Adeseus Longhorn reporting for duty, sir!"
[At ease, ensign. Take a seat.]
As Ves sat on the chair next to Venerable Foster, he tried his best to ignore the daggers she sent in his direction. Virtual Commander Dislan seemed to be completely ignorant of their sour relations.
[Ensign Longhorn, as the second human under my command, I expect a lot from you. The mechs at my department's disposal may look pristine on the outside, but internally they have not aged well. Our virtual mech designers are useless and our virtual mech technicians are without direction. I've heard many good things about you from Virtual Commander Cosit, so I even if you aren't present here every day, I hope you can turn our department around and restore our mechs to peak condition For now, I've uploaded a list of tasks for you to complete. Any questions?]
Ves carefully turned his eyes towards the acrimonious expert pilot silently churning next to him. It was as if he sat a couple of meters away from a roiling volcano!
"Ah, Commander Dislan, if I might ask, who is the mech pilot sitting next to me?"
The Virtual Commander suddenly beamed. [I'm glad you asked! Lieutenant Relia Foster here is our very first human mech pilot after ERROR years. She has managed to pass the most arduous recruitment test imaginable for mech pilots. In all the years of my static existence, I never expected a human mech pilot to be so inhumanly skilled in the art of piloting mechs! As of now, Lieutenant Foster is the hope and standard bearer of our department! With her assistance, our Mech Department will no longer languish near the bottom of the totem pole! Therefore, in order to assure our ascension, I hope you can lend her all the assistance that she requires. Is that clear, Ensign Longhorn?]
"I, ah, we have a contentious history, sir." Ves admitted. "I would prefer to work separately from Lieutenant Foster."
Since she passed the recruitment test without relying on tricks such as a forged proof of identity, the Starlight Megalodon commissioned Venerable Foster in her original identity.
At this time, Commander Dislan's eyes narrowed. [Your personal matters does not supplant your duties to the Starlight Megalodon and the CFA. As a mech designer, it is your duty to assist our mech pilots. As Lieutenant Foster is our only human mech pilot so far, you have no choice but to serve her to the best of your ability. Tell me, Ensign Longhorn, are you able to separate your feelings from your work, or do I need to hand you over to the Internal Security Department for some corrective training?]
Ves shuddered.
"Don't worry, commander. I will take good care of 'Ensign Longhorn' here." Lieutenant Foster threw the virtual officer a friendly smile. "He can forget about shirking his duty while he's under my thumb."
[Hahaha! Good! That's the spirit! I like your initiative, Lieutenant Foster. If that's the case, I'm glad to hand him over to you. The two of you need to get along anyway.]
After a short chitchat where Lieutenant Foster did her best to remain in the virtual commander's good books, Dislan finally dismissed them both.
As soon as Ves and Foster exited the office, the expert pilot immediately grabbed his shoulders and slammed him against the bulkhead.
"I recognize you, Vandal!" She hissed. "Who are you exactly and what are you doing here?!"
While her physical force didn't harm him all that much, he still suffered under the full weight of her force of will!
Chapter 909
Being pressed against the bulkhead by a feisty enemy expert pilot was a new experience to Ves. While Ves could easily resist her physical strength, an expert pilot's force of will possessed a minute tangible presence that made it very suffocating for him to think straight.
As Ves often speculated, an expert pilot definitely managed to harness their spirituality! While they might not be able to exert any conscious control over their small but very real spirituality, as long as they put their full will into play, their actions always receive an invisible boost.
Yet even if Venerable Foster brought her force of will to bear, Ves did not intend to remain as a fish on the chopping board!
He employed his concentration and hardened his Spirituality in the form of a shell around his vulnerable mind. The oppressive aura radiated by the Vesian expert pilot no longer battered his mind but instead bounced off his solidified Spirituality.
His defenses held!
Venerable Foster appeared to have noticed something amiss. She frowned and studied his impassive face as it relaxed a little.
"Don't push your luck, ma'am." Ves replied, not forgetting her rank advantage over him. "The rules and regulations are quite clear with regards to proper conduct."
"Rules and regulations only matter when anyone bothers to enforce them. In my eyes, you're a Vandal, and that means you're a pirate or an accomplice to pirates. Do you really think you can hide behind the rules and escape the fate you deserve?"
Instead of replying, Ves pressed a few buttons on his CFA comm. After a brief delay, the device quickly projected Miss Calabast on a lifelike scale.
The intelligence operative took in the sight and smirked. "When I expect you to call on me, Mr. Longhorn, I didn't think you'd call for mommy that fast."
"This is no time for jokes! Help me out!"
"You didn't say the magic word."
"Please save me!"
The projection of Miss Calabast disregarded Ves and turned her full attention on Venerable Foster. The latter stared at Calabast with a vigilant expression.
"A human. I don't recognize you. You're not part of the Flagrant Vandals or Lydia's Swordmaidens, are you? Identify yourself!"
Calabast plastered her usual grin on her face. Even when she faced someone as intimidating as an expert pilot, she didn't let that status affect her conduct.
"Lieutenant Summer, Intelligence Department. Now, we are all humans here. Please calm down and lay your hands off Ensign Longhorn."
"Why should I?"
"I doubt you wish to be regarded as a saboteur by the Intelligence or Internal Security Departments." Calabast threatened. "If you inflict any personal harm on a fellow serviceman, I will promise you that you will never be able to exit the brig."
Suspicion grew in Foster's eyes. She turned her head towards Ves and Calabast several times and tried to figure out their connection. "You need him for something, do you?"
The air turned frosty between the two dangerous women. Miss Calabast radiated a slippery and tricky charm while Venerable Foster exuded pure martial strength. Both of them recognized a tough opponent in each other. The air between the projection and the human grew tense.
Less than a minute passed before Miss Calabast took a step back. She didn't hesitate to put Ves into a pickle along the way. "Do take care who you are touching, Lieutenant Foster. Ensign Longhorn here is one of the best mech designers on the planet, and one that is in a suitable position to access all manner of research projects in time."
"We don't need the help of a pirate to get what we want."
"Really, now? As far as I'm aware, neither the Hostland Warriors or the Meandering Monkeys have brought any capable mech designers. The admittedly impressive Senior Mech Designers of your mech regiments are residing in their bases while most of your Journeyman Mech Designers are huddling safely in Lady Amalia's fleet."
"You know a lot about our forces for a stranger." The suspicion in Foster's eyes deepened. "And you're wrong. We aren't entirely without talents. We have many experts and we also have Mr. Crenshaw."
"Patrick Amari?" Miss Calabast said bemusedly. "For a Journeyman Mech Designer, Mr. Amari does possess some capability. However, for a mech designer he's not very suitable for the Research Department. As for your other experts? You know as well as I do that any experts deployed on the field are the lowest in their respective fields. True research-grade scientists hardly ever allow themselves to be taken to a battlefield. They know their worth, unlike this dimwit Brighter who led himself be duped into accompanying the ground forces of the Flagrant Vandals on a hazardous planet."
"Hey!" Ves couldn't help but bark. "Who are you calling a dimwit?!"
"Shut up, you pirate!"
Nonetheless, Calabast's words did manage to lessen the pressure Foster exerted onto Ves. Her palms stopped pressing against his uniform.
This told Ves quite a lot. Whatever Calabast and the Vesians were after, they urgently required access to the more restricted sections of the Research Department.
Eventually, Venerable Foster pulled back some of her aggression and grunted at Calabast's projection. "We'll talk later in private."
"My thoughts exactly. Have a good day, Lieutenant Foster. Do take good care of the little genius."
"I won't break him... for now."
Once Calabast's projection winked out, Venerable Foster turned back to Ves and offered him a gruesome grin. She patted his shoulder with her palm. "Even if I don't kill you right at this instant, don't think of escaping your punishment."
"I'm not a pirate, ma'am!" Ves complained unjustly. "I'm just an average mech designer. I'm not even capable of harming a kitten, let alone engaging in piracy!"
Venerable Foster did not look amused. She leaned forward and sharpened her force of will, cutting him with her razor-sharp spirituality. "You don't fool me with your hapless act. I can see it in your eyes. You have blood on your hands. I've seen pirates with less murderous intent than you. Stop pretending."
It must have been all the dwarves he killed lately. Ves didn't listen of course. The less threatening he appeared, the more this Vesian expert pilot underestimated him. It was best if she thought he was nothing but a harmless nerd!
"I don't know what you're talking about, ma'am! I'm not a soldier! I just fix mechs for a living!"
"Hmph!"
Before Ves could do anything else, she punched him in the stomach!
"Ooph!"
He bent over wishing he hadn't left his Earth Ant behind at an armory. Without the protection of his combat armor, he was completely at Venerable Foster's mercy!
"Get a move on, ensign. There's work to do!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Under Lieutenant Foster's supervision, Ves performed his duties under the most stressful situations possible. Not only did she boss him around, she also hurled insults at him and interfered whenever he performed delicate repairs.
The tasks handed out to Ves all directed him to restore the Starlight Megalodon's complement of outdated mechs to usable condition. Every mech he managed to restore earned him a decent chunk of merits, though not as much as completing a research project.
Still, to the merit-starved Ves, every contribution helped.
"Ensign Longhorn!" Foster shouted as he tried to assemble a mech engine. Her sudden shout caused him to misalign an engine part, causing it to deform! "You dropped this plasma welder."
"I didn't drop anything, ma'm!"
The Vesian expert pilot hurled the plasma welder at Ves, causing it to slam at his body and drop to the deck like a rock! "Don't tarry and pick up your own mess!"
Ves grumbled as he was forced to pick up the plasma welder. Fortunately, it didn't dent too much upon dropping.
All of these petty acts of bullying hardly caught the attention of the virtual mech technicians and virtual mech designers in the Mech Department. Most of them didn't even have enough processing power to pay attention to the environment. As for Virtual Commander Dislan, the head of the Mech Department seemed to have a soft spot for Lieutenant Foster.
In his virtual eyes, she could do no wrong!
Therefore, Ves was pretty much on his own. As long as Foster's bullying wasn't too blatant, she could do whatever she wanted!
Ves knew what she was doing, of course. Besides venting her indignation, she also tried to sabotage his ability to earn merits. Slowing down his work slowed down his speed of promotion. Her actions deprived him of merits, preventing him for redeeming them for various services such as allowing his comrades to enter the Starlight Megalodon.
It also left more broken mechs behind to be restored for any incoming Vesian mech designers. Ves hadn't forgotten about the manpower the Vesians had at their disposal. Listening to the dialogue between Calabast and Foster informed him that the Vesians were prepared to send as many experts to the Starlight Megalodon as possible.
For now, the harsh recruitment tests for non-CFA personnel served as an impassable barrier for both the Vesians and the Flagrant Swordmaidens. Ves had no doubt that the Vesians wouldn't let this barrier hinder them forever.
Perhaps Calabast had a point and that none of the experts accompanying the Vesian ground forces were any good. Yet as long as the Starlight Megalodon took in hundreds of different scientists, their collective research ability became extremely frightening.
As soon as his shift ended, he quickly said goodbye to Lieutenant Foster and practically fled the Mech Department without any regard for dignity! He practically shamed the entire CFA with his disgraceful exit!
"What a scary superior!" Ves huffed.
Fortunately, Ves did not have to drop by the Mech Department very often. Even though Foster tried to interfere with his work as much as possible, he still managed to compose a couple of repair plans for some neglected mechs and hand over responsibility to the virtual mech technicians.
While the virtual mech technicians lacked the programming to plan any sophisticated repairs to mechs, it was no problem for them to execute a prearranged step-by-step plan made by Ves. He already possessed an abundant amount of experience in doing so during his time with the Vandals, so the virtual mech technicians would certainly be able to fix the mechs regardless of his absence.
"All of those merits are in the bag as far as I'm concerned."
During the next couple of days, Ves spent most of his time in the Research Department. Not just anyone could enter this department. Numerous security checkpoints and roving security patrols restricted access to the laboratory facilities in particular. Without the necessary security clearance and authorization, nobody would be allowed to enter these sensitive areas!
Therefore, the Research Department and more specifically the Mech Research Sub-Department became his refuge. Lieutenant Foster had no way of harassing him when he holed himself up inside one of the research labs.
"Hehe. I finally completed this darned research project." Ves grinned. "I should have enough merits now to be eligible to take the promotion test."
He activated his CFA comm and navigated the menus until he came across the option. He immediately took the test, causing his entire surroundings to be engulfed in darkness.
Two hours later, the darkness disappeared and Ves reappeared but with a noticeable difference. The ensign insignia on his uniform morphed into the shape of a lieutenant junior grade insignia!
"That was easy."
While Ves believed in Calabast's capabilities, he still expected to face a considerable challenge in his promotion test.
Yet the reality was much different! The promotion test to Senior Apprentice was actually a repeat of his initial recruitment test that prompted the Starlight Megalodon to recruit him as a Junior Apprentice!
It was as if Miss Calabast replaced his university-level test with a high school-level test.
Even if the test that Ves just took right now randomized all of the variables, that didn't change the fact that the difficulty fell well within his range of competence!
This level of cheating was both audacious and daring. The level of hacking skills needed to pull off such a feat without the virtual officers getting wind of it must be extremely frightening!
His apprehension towards Miss Calabast and her shadowy organization aside, Ves was extremely glad to be promoted to lieutenant.
At the very least, Foster wouldn't be able to bully him for the moment, though he expected her to be promoted very soon. Besides tormenting him, she also began to suggest reforms to the tactics and operation of the mech units under the Mech Department. All of these improvements along with demonstrating her insane piloting ability netted her a considerable amount of merits and endeared her to Virtual Commander Dislan.
Unlike Ves, Venerable Foster probably didn't require any cheating to pass her next promotion test!
"I've got to stay ahead of her in rank and merits." He muttered.
As a newly promoted lieutenant, Ves received some new privileges from the CFA. His comm jingled with incoming messages.
Chapter 910
In the CFA, an ensign held very little status. Looked down upon by the senior ratings as kids fresh off the naval academies, they still required lots of on-the-job training before they measured up as capable leaders.
Now that Ves reached reached the rank of lieutenant, he finally became a 'proper' officer in the eyes of the Common Fleet Alliance. This was when the CFA started to invest in those who proved their mettle through years of dedicated service.
Lieutenants received several new perks over ensigns besides increased authority. First and foremost, the CFA granted them the opportunity to receive lieutenant-grade gene optimization treatment. This was a little more expensive and in Ves' case also required individual tailoring from a trained geneticist and an exobiologist.
"Great. The Starlight Megalodon owes me two gene optimization treatments but I don't have the merits to pay the specialists to adjust them to my own condition. I'm also short on merits to exchange for a KC-3333 priming agent. Furthermore, I also need to pay the specialists to study my body and gene condition in detail in order to uncover all the hidden dangers."
He left the matter of medical enhancements aside aside. The Virtual Doctor Stanley already warned him that the checkup he went through previously still left a lot of questionable points that required the help of specialists to decipher.
All of that cost merits, of course.
"I'm broke again."
Upon his promotion, his hard-earned merit count dropped down to zero. Ves needed to climb all the way up again.
"At least the CFA saw fit to bestow me some other goodies."
It was as if they compensated him for robbing him all of the merits he earned so far. Normally, the CFA would never promote any officer in such a hasty and haphazard manner. As a somewhat conservative and tradition-bound organization, promotions required years of service, positive evaluation from superiors, a proven, expanded skill set and much, much more.
The Starlight Megalodon long diverged from the proper course. The lack of humans and the rise of virtual officers led to a peculiar circumstance where newly-arrived humans like Ves worked hard to promote up the ladder as fast as possible.
Even as humans tried to reach a higher rank so that they could make use of their expanded power to fulfill certain objectives, what did the battleship get out of it? Certainly, merits didn't come out of nowhere.
He never really considered the arrival of humans from the perspective of the battleship until now. Even as humans tried to take advantage of the Starlight Megalodon, the stranded ship also took advantage of the humans!
All the work that humans performed in the pursuit of merits either restored or strengthened certain aspects of the Starlight Megalodon. Humans also enabled virtual officers to accomplish tasks they long hoped to complete.
"Each virtual officer exists to fulfill a purpose. Each of them have different priorities, and sometimes they fight over who gets to decide."
All of this led to a mess where the half-broken Starlight Megalodon became both a prize and a slumbering beast. Those who entered the belly of the beast should be cautious lest they inadvertently be digested in the bowels!
Ves turned his attention back to the CFA's presents. Besides the new gene optimization treatment, Ves also received the right to pick up some new gear from the armory.
And this didn't include the standard gear that CFA officers were already entitled to. Every lieutenant gained the opportunity to redeem some of the good stuff such as a shield generator or a souped-up sidearm.
He felt tempted to redeem a shield generator.
"Yet do I really need something like that? With the firepower available on the Starlight Megalodon, any casual weapon can drain a shield generator's reserves in a matter of seconds."
The utility of a shield generator in such an environment provided him with little benefits. He should be focusing on obtaining gear that either facilitated his ability to earn more merits or enhanced his ability to survive the crises up ahead.
He spotted something good. Something really good. As soon as he saw the item on the list, he immediately selected it regardless of the other goodies on the list. He set it up so that he'd be able to pick it up along with the rest of his upgraded gear at the Marine Detachment's armory.
The final perk he received from his promotion that benefited him was expanded access to the Starlight Megalodon's libraries. He felt tempted to visit them immediately, but he didn't have the time to calmly study new knowledge unless it helped him achieve a breakthrough in a research project.
"The CFA definitely has exclusive knowledge and technical specifications in their library." He surmised. Much of it would be outdated but much more may still be relevant.
He ignored all the other benefits the Starlight Megalodon claimed to bestow upon him. For example, adding him and his family to the CFA rolls so that they all enjoyed the status of internal CFA personnel. The ship would never be able to fulfill such an outlandish benefit, and even if she could it didn't help him cope with his current predicament!
Still, he was pleased with what he already received. A wealthy and powerful organization like the CFA certainly pampered their officers with fantastic benefits.
"I should be able to obtain even more extravagant gifts upon my next promotion."
A lieutenant commander from a naval service branch enjoyed the equivalent amount of status as a major from a mech service branch. Obtaining such a rank from the Starlight Megalodon propelled him into the category of senior officers.
"Considering that I'll effectively be regarded as an old-style Senior Mech Designer, that's the least that I deserve."
Now that he thought about it, Ves believed that the original Mr. Longhorn's biological implant might even be the reward he redeemed upon promotion or commissioning. Such a sumptuous gift certainly seemed fitting for a new senior officer!
Still, that left the question why Adeseus Longhorn buried it under his toilet rather than implanting it in his brains. Was there some kind of issue with the implant?
"I should get it checked out by a specialist. Still, that will cost me even more merits!" Ves sighed dramatically.
The more time he spent on the Starlight Megalodon, the more he became enchanted by what she offered. If not for the ticking time bombs in the background, Ves wouldn't mind spending a couple of decades on the ship to unearth each and every treasure!
After he got over the jubilation of his promotion, Ves considered his options. While becoming a lieutenant sounded impressive, in the Research Department he was still a Senior Apprentice Mech Designer who only received a little bit more trust. In order to gain full access to some of the major research projects, he really needed to acquire the status of Senior Mech Designer.
"Back then, Master Mech Designers hadn't popped up yet. If they did exist, they certainly didn't advertise their presence. To the rising mech industry at large, Senior Mech Designers are the most knowledgeable and respectable of their profession."
This meant that the Starlight Megalodon valued their old-style Senior Mech Designers with the same regard as modern Senior and Master Mech Designers. The ship would definitely treat their Senior Mech Designers well if they wished to retain their services. Otherwise, the Seniors would be better off in the private sector!
Promotion required merits. Goodies required merits. Medical treatment required merits. Saving the Flagrant Swordmaidens required merits. Saving his own life definitely required merits.
The pressure of earning merits made Ves doubt if he could ever earn them fast enough to get out before the entire situation blew up. With Venerable Foster and other competitors trying to outpace him, he keenly felt that he should try and find another way of earning merits besides working on research projects.
A dangerous notion struck him. While he always felt apprehensive about the strange dwarf from the Artificial Intelligence Corps and his cultist affiliation, a virtual rear admiral was an impressively high rank in the CFA.
"It doesn't sound as if he took over the role of the previous admiral, though."
Ves felt apprehensive at the thought of accepting Rear Admiral Ordoth's invitation to visit his office on the upper decks. Dipping his toes into the craziness that the Five Scrolls Compact regularly engaged in was an exceedingly risky business.
Yet from what he observed so far on Aeon Corona VII, he deduced the presence of their hidden hand behind the planet's grand design.
If the Five Scrolls Compact already managed to manipulate Seven into their playground, what about the Starlight Megalodon herself? How far did their influence stretch?
In any case, Ves saw some hope of cooperation in the virtual dwarf flag officer. After spending some time working under various AIs, he realized very keenly that the best way to prosper on this ship was to receive their backing and support.
Humans may enjoy the ultimate authority in the CFA, but the Starlight Megalodon remained very much in the grip of her virtual officers at this point!
Ves hesitated several times as he slowly crossed the huge distance to the office of the Artificial Intelligence Corps. From time to time, he came across the remnant of a sandman mothership tentacle blocking the corridor, leaving a legacy of destruction and blockage that the ship never managed to erase.
The way the ancient sandman mothership invaded the Starlight Megalodon and riddled her with tentacles made Ves wonder if the Five Scrolls Compact infiltrated the battleship in the same way. The CFA obviously didn't do a good enough job to prevent their prized battleships from being infiltrated by other influences.
The section of the ship which housed the office Artificial Intelligence Corps encompassed many other notable branches. Ves and the other humans only came in touch with the surface of what the Starlight Megalodon really had to offer. Much of the core functions of the battleship remained firmly out of reach.
As Ves approached the hatch that led into a large compartment claimed by the Artificial Intelligence Corps, it automatically slid open after sending a cursory query to his comm.
[Your presence is expected, Mr. Longhorn.] A virtual security guard nodded him onwards.
Ves pursed his lips. That sounded pretty ominous. He resisted the urge to check his CFA comm. Het set it up so that he'd be able to call for Miss Calabast's help at a single press of a button.
"Here goes nothing."
As he entered the domain of the Artificial Intelligence Corps, he felt as if he had entered a lab. A lot of databanks and advanced computing equipment occupied the open compartments. All of them quietly churned along. Virtual specialists and various bots tended to the equipment with quiet diligence.
[Mr. Longhorn! Please enter!]
When Ves entered a side office, he encountered the dwarf yet again. Though Ves still couldn't wrap his head around the image of a clean and neatly-groomed wildling, he tried his best not to show his doubts.
He saluted the dwarf as befitting his rank and made sure he addressed the dwarf with respect.
The virtual officer smiled at Ves and activated a command. Immediately, the side office's hatch slammed shut. The bulkheads glowed as some sort of advanced energy screen went active and the air hummed with strong interference that Ves recognized as a signal jammer effect.
"What is going on, admiral?!" Ves asked with alarm.
Rear Admiral Ordoth didn't immediately reply. The unsettling dwarf smiled wider at him before his physical projection phased out of his seat, only to reappear right next to Ves! The dwarf's projection quickly inserted a needle right through his uniform, underlayer vacsuit and skin, drawing a small amount of blood!
Ves immediately responded by pulling away, but the dwarf already got what he wanted. The smiling dwarf ignored him and returned to his desk, upon which a small apparatus emerged that took the sample of blood.
The device analyzed his blood sample and quickly finished its study. The dwarf evidently received a satisfactory result, because his smile widened even further.
[My apologies. I had to make sure. When the mole in the monitoring system reported your august presence, I could scarcely believe your arrival. The immortal gods has blessed us all!]
Ves frowned at that. This conversation immediately went into a strange direction. "I don't know who you think I am, admiral, but I am not a worshipper of these so-called immortal gods."
Ordoth smiled at him in a sly manner. [You do not have to pretend. We are in a secure compartment.]
Before Ves could ask what Ordoth meant, the physical projection of the dwarf stepped aside and went down on his knees. He stretched out his stubby arms and bent over in supplication in front of Ves, completely disregarding the disparity in rank!
Ves had never seen an admiral bend down in front of a mere lieutenant like this!
[All hail the Holy Son of the immortal gods! All hail the Holder of the Metal Scroll!]
"What?!"
Chapter 911
Ves knew he entered into hot water as soon as Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth supplicated himself in front of him and acted like he was greeting an exalted figure.
Normally, Ves would feel flattered if someone worshipped him like this, but the problem was that Ordoth acted as if he was meeting one of the most exalted figures of one of the most dangerous underground organizations in the galaxy!
If the CFA or the MTA mistook Ves as a member of the dreaded Five Scrolls Compact, he'd immediately be branded as a terrorist and be hunted down relentlessly!
As the silence stretched on, Ves quickly tried to think of a way to deal with this completely unexpected situation. He tried to align his observations.
First, Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth appeared to be on the side of the Five Scrolls Compact. Perhaps a spy or infiltrator from the Compact aboard the Starlight Megalodon infected her systems with this aberrant AI for some hidden purpose.
Second, for some reason or another, the dwarf not only mistook Ves for a 'Holy Son', but also a 'Holder of the Metal Scroll'. Both of these titles sounded extremely important in the trans-galactic cult.
First, the organization itself likely revered scrolls since their very name included mention of it. If Ves took a guess, the Compact didn't worship any scrolls, but five separate scrolls in particular.
Ves tried to recall what he knew of the Compact from Dr. Jutland's rantings and ravings, but he didn't hear too much about their inner workings. They consisted of several branches such as the Life Branch. They also appeared to be able to learn precious knowledge from scrolls named after elements. Dr. Jutland explicitly mentioned that he glimpsed the Earth Scroll and a Water Scroll.
Five scrolls. Two of which were already exceedingly valuable that it practically brought a crazy exobiologist like Jutland into ecstasy.
A Metal Scroll. Ves could not fathom owning any scrolls, let alone something as mysterious and impressive as one of the five main objects of worship for a galaxy-spanning cult!
Except...
A realization struck him. Since when did he first get involved with the Compact?
Since his father went missing and Ves received the Mech Designer System out of the blue?!
Was the System the so-called Metal Scroll that the Five Scrolls Compact so revered?!
Nothing else in his possession even came close to the System in terms of possibilities and might!
Did this mean that the Earth Scroll and the Water Scroll were in fact Systems as well? Yet why did that sound wrong?
He needed more information. Preferably without giving anything away or prompting the virtual rear admiral to turn hostile.
Should he be honest and admit he inadvertently got his Metal Scroll from his father who likely filched it from the Compact somehow?
Hah! Ves would be an idiot if he admitted that!
Should he take on an arrogant air and pretend to be a highly-placed figure within the Five Scrolls Compact?
That wasn't a good idea either. Ves knew none of the rituals or codes the members of the Compact used to recognize each other. He knew that secret organizations tended to be very particular about these matters.
Then what kind of role should he play? Without being able to pretend that he was a member of the Five Scrolls Compact, he didn't have many options. Perhaps he should just play somewhat close to the truth but be sparse in the details.
Ves narrowed his eyes as he quickly formed his plan within a span of ten seconds. That wasn't long enough for Ordoth's supplication to him to stretch on for a suspicious amount of time.
"Rise." He spoke with an assertive tone of voice. It was the kind of tone adopted by someone with status, but not quite someone who ruled over an organization as expansive as the Compact. "Please clarify why you believe I am the Holder of the Metal Scroll."
[Your Holiness, your lifeblood doesn't lie.] Ordoth said as he hesitantly rose. His worshipful eyes glowed at Ves as if he was a savior. [There is a marker in your lifestream that is only present on current holders of the Sacred Scrolls. This is only known to the senior leadership of the Compact. By chance, my creator is one of them, and he has left the means of identification behind on this ship. As soon as Starlight Megalodon first scanned your body, a small device discreetly sampled your blood and immediately detected the marker, but dismissed it as an unimportant piece of junk. Yet I know better!]
Damnit. Ves frowned deeply at that. If this was true, then he was at risk of being found out whenever his blood became exposed to one of the senior members of the Compact.
Certainly, the galaxy was big and the chance of bumping into the leaders was small. Yet as Ves advanced his career and increasingly gained prominence in the galaxy, he couldn't rule out encountering them, upon which his exposure became a very real possibility!
Ves set those concerns aside for the moment. He could worry about avoiding the rest of the Compact later. First, he needed to deal with this virtual dwarf who believed he was the future savior or something.
"Admiral, please elaborate what you understand about the Metal Scroll."
Ordoth looked up at Ves with an increasing measure of doubt. [The Metal Scroll is one of the Five Sacred Scrolls. I heard it got lost and destroyed during the Great Betrayal. That was a terrible time. The traitors got away with the Fire Scroll and the Wood Scroll became in the void of space. The fighting for the Metal Scroll became so ruinous that it actually broke and disintegrated! My creator and his fellow brothers and sisters all believed this Sacred Scroll to be lost! Yet it seems the immortal gods are smiling upon the Compact, as the Metal Scroll has returned in our hands! Hahahaha!]
Ves only frowned deeper at the implications this virtual dwarf seemed willing to tell him. He was wondering why he found the System to be both overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time. As far as he was concerned, Ves always treated the System as his own exclusive shopping mall.
To hear that the System actually held an exalted status within the Five Scrolls Compact was really something else! It was as if someone dumped a weapon of mass destruction on his lap! This hot potato burned much brighter than he thought!
Hearing Ordoth's reverence for the Sacred Scrolls and mention that the Metal Scroll became lost, Ves saw an opportunity to clarify his identity a bit. He couldn't keep pretending to be this so-called Holy Son when he truly didn't know anything about the Compact besides some hearsay.
"To tell you the truth, admiral, I am indeed holding an object that I believe to be the Metal Scroll. However, I inherited it from my parents, who told me nothing about its true status."
The virtual rear admiral stopped gloating and threw a perplexed expression at Ves. [Is Your Holiness not an inducted brother of the Five Scrolls Compact? No matter. Your parents are likely exiles of the Compact. That does not change the fact that you are a Holy Son. Each of the Sacred Scrolls carry the essence of the immortal gods! Only the worthy are allowed to glimpse at the words of the gods, and even fewer have proven worthy enough to be a holder of a Sacred Scroll! Exile or not, as the Holder of the Metal Scroll, you are chosen representative of the immortal gods in this reality!]
Ves let out a breath. It seemed he gambled correctly. The status of Holy Son was so high that Ordoth didn't seem to care about his questionable history.
"Admiral Ordoth, now that you are aware of my lack of depth, could you please fill me in on the Five Scrolls Compact?"
The dwarf frowned. [My apologies, Your Holiness. My creator has implemented a contingency in my programming. On the event of his death, the vast majority of what I know about the Compact has been erased from my data banks. If any other human or virtual individual knows of my affiliation, my existence will be wiped out immediately. The only reason I can still tell you this much is because my creator long hoped one of the faithful would arrive at the Starlight Megalodon and complete his unfinished mission.]
Ves tried to ask him some questions about the Five Scrolls Compact. While the dwarf lost a lot of details about the hidden organization from his data banks, he still retained enough tidbits to enlighten him to the horror of the Compact's influence and might!
[Have you ever heard of 'the Big Two'?] The physical projection of the dwarf adopted a contemptuous expression. [The Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance convinced humanity that they are their saviors and protectors. Pah! The two are nothing but rebel off-shoots of the Five Scrolls Compact! Long ago, the founders of the Compact obtained the Sacred Scrolls and gained enlightenment from their texts. They gained an unimaginable amount of power and influence and propelled humanity's rise behind the shadows. Tell me, Your Holiness, did you believe humanity's meteoric rise during the Age of Conquest is a coincidence?]
"It's not?"
[The rapid innovations the Compact introduced to humanity closed our technological gap against the dominant alien races and allowed us to triumph against them before the arrogant aliens realized our threat! Yet as humanity and the Compact grew more powerful, some of our brothers and sisters started to be consumed by greed. Certain factions within the Compact wanted to keep the Five Sacred Scrolls to themselves. This conflict culminated in the Great Betrayal that saw several Sacred Scrolls lost! Over half of our members turned into thieves and traitors who attacked the Great Temple, took away the Fire Scroll and persecuted our loyal brothers and sisters! Nowadays, the traitors bask in the light, while the Compact scurries in the dark.]
A sinking feeling overcame Ves. The depths of this grand conspiracy reached far wider than he thought! "Does this mean that the MTA and CFA used to be part of the Compact?"
[That is exactly the case, Your Holiness! We used to be one, all-encompassing organization! We all partook in the revelations of the Sacred Scrolls, preparing the galaxy for what is to come.]
"What is the purpose of the Compact? What are you preparing for?"
Ordoth grinned fanatically at Ves. [Why, to prepare for the coming of the immortal gods! The Sacred Scrolls are the gifts of the immortal gods from a galaxy or reality far away from us! We do not exactly know where the immortal gods reside, but their Scrolls foretold a time when they will arrive at our galaxy and elevate us all into the ranks of immortals! All of our brothers and sisters await the day of our ascension, yet the predecessors of the MTA and CFA ruined it all! Those thieves and traitors want to claim the Sacred Scrolls to themselves and reject the coming of the immortal gods! Blasphemers!]
Mixed feelings welled up inside Ves. Just this story revealed galaxy-spanning secrets that only the most powerful humans in the galaxy should know. Someone like Ves was so small that he could easily get crushed between the weight of any of the three trans-galactic organizations that competed over these Sacred Scrolls!
The revelation that the Five Scrolls Compact used to be the driving force behind the rise and probably the fall of the Age of Conquest changed his entire conception of human history. Ordoth's assertion that the MTA and CFA used to be branches of the secretive Compact irrevocably changed his perception of the Big Two!
Even though Ves had long shed his innocence regarding the self-proclaimed protectors of humanity, he always regarded the MTA and CFA with respect. Now, he didn't know what to think about them. They used to be part of a conspiracy, but stabbed the Compact in the back and crippled them to the point where they became running dogs in the dark!
Worst of all, somehow Ves became entangled into this murky whirlpool. He never imagined the Mech Designer System to be involved with such grand events in human history!
Chapter 912
As Ves calmed down and took in the virtual admiral's tale, he realized that the MTA and CFA may not have been entirely contemptible in their betrayal.
For whatever reason, the Five Scrolls Compact seemed to regard the 'immortal gods' as saviors. They were destined to arrive at the Milky Way Galaxy whereupon they benevolently uplifted every human and brought them back to paradise.
As a consummate businessman, Ves had seen his fair share of swindles.
Therefore, the programmed fanaticism that Ordoth expressed towards humanity's future salvation sounded utterly crazy to Ves.
Saviors? More like invaders!
The Sacred Scrolls that heralded the coming of the immortal gods took on a decidedly ominous light in his perspective. Ves did not believe that these so-called immortal gods would be so generous enough to lead humanity to salvation without anything in return!
This belief cast a new light on the MTA and CFA's supposed betrayal of the Compact. Instead of the thieves and traitors that Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth made them out to be, they might have actually saved humanity from a great, extragalactic threat!
Ves couldn't help but grow skeptical about the immortal gods. Humanity's history was replete with religions popping up that centered around aliens masquerading as gods.
Who could blame them? It was a fact of life that many members of the human race yearned to believe in something greater than themselves. It was all too easy to look at the vastness and emptiness of space and despair how little they mattered.
One of the great divides in human civilization that persisted up to this day was the continued relevance of religion. Many humans craved spiritual reassurance, and religions filled in the void that technology couldn't answer.
Many religions, usually the older ones, were well-meant and attempted to guide their believers to a better place.
Nonetheless, more religions popped up that simply attempted to scam or deceive their believers into giving up their money and freedom. When these religions went too far and became exposed, their prophets and 'gods' often turned out to be human or alien scam artists who used technology along with manipulative psychology to hoodwink gullible people into becoming their slaves!
Too many stories like this throughout humanity's rise spoiled a significant portion of humany against organized religion. The intellectuals and elites often regarded it as the stimulant of the masses.
Now that Ves thought about it, the CFA and MTA always tried to shed religious expression in their organization, ostensibly to be as inclusive as possible.
Nonetheless, religion became a stubborn but integral part of human civilization up to this day, with no sign of becoming extinct.
As a citizen of the largely secular Bright Republic, Ves grew up in a tradition that treated most strange religions with skepticism.
Therefore, Ves didn't buy into Ordoth's claims that the immortal gods who sent out these mysterious Sacred Scrolls had good intentions. Instead of regarding the Sacred Scrolls as gifts, he instead regarded them as trojan horses!
Perhaps in this band of crazies that made up the Compact, the MTA and CFA who rose up were the actual heroes!
While Ves only heard scraps of the grand conspiracy that took place long ago, it became clear to him that the Big Two might have saved humanity and the galaxy from enslavement or worse!
Certainly, the two trans-galactic organization's open dominance in the Age of Mech signified that they managed to gain the upper hand against the Five Scrolls Compact.
The truth of what happened in the past was probably more complex than this, but no matter what, it ultimately didn't change his opinion of the Five Scrolls Compact as a bunch of crazies.
Unfortunately, as a user of the Mech Designer System, Ves inadvertedly became stuck with the status of Holy Son, Holder of the Metal Scroll, which was the equivalent of a messiah or prophet in this loony bin organization!
[It is said that the Holy Sons who are privileged to hold the Sacred Scrolls are those closest to the immortal gods! Each of their footsteps quake the ground while every word they speak is suffused with divine revelations! How glorious of an AI like me to be grace with your holy presence! My ERROR years of waiting on this foul CFA battle chariot has not been in vain!]
Ves unconsciously stepped away from the slavering Compact-aligned AI. The virtual rear admiral in the guise of a disgustingly devoted dwarf proved almost every negative preconception that he held against the cultish Compact.
If even their AIs were this crazy, what about their human members?
He wanted nothing to do with their brand of madness! All Ves ever wanted was to design mechs and save his father from his exile in the Nyxian Gap.
As for all this nonsense about scrolls and immortal gods? No thanks!
Holy Son or not, Ves never considered himself to be a grand figure who wielded enough power to change the course of history!
"Ahem." He coughed. "Enough history. Do you know what kind of knowledge the different Sacred Scrolls bestow?"
[There is precious little information about the Sacred Scrolls in my data banks.] Ordoth said regretfully. [From what little I can still retrieve, my creator believes that each of the Sacred Scrolls exists to prepare the mortals for ascension into the ranks of immortals.]
[The Metal Scroll teaches us how to shape the blessed minerals into the armaments of the gods.]
[The Water Scroll teaches us how to elevate our flesh and blood to be closer to the gods.]
[The Earth Scroll teaches us how to transform the planets we reside on into abodes worthy of the gods.]
[The Wood Scroll teaches us how to cultivate the living bounty of the galaxy into the reagents of the gods.]
[The Fire Scroll teaches us how to harness energy and wield them like the fire of the gods!]
In short, everything the Scrolls taught their holders was meant to transform the galaxy into a form and shape more suitable to the immortal gods. This sounded as if the immortal gods intended to fatten the sheep before they slaughtered the poor creature!
It also sounded as if these descriptions only described the function of the Scrolls in a very global fashion. They probably held much more capabilities and encompassed an enormous amount of transcendent knowledge.
Ves pressed his lips together. "I think I get the picture, Ordoth. Tell me, why are you here?"
[I have been waiting to receive an agent of the Five Scrolls Compact, Your Holiness. Never in my virtual life have I ever taken into consideration that a Holy Son himself would enter this forsaken star system! As one of the most august humans of our brotherhood, there is none more worthy to resume the mission my creator has regretfully been unable to fulfill.]
"Who is your creator?"
[He is the human rear admiral who used to hold this office, Your Holiness. In fact, my creator and a handful of his subordinates are merely transient guests aboard this ship. My creator took office aboard the Starlight Megalodon for reasons he has not disclosed or I've long forgotten. I don't even know who he is anymore as the contingency measure that I've mentioned earlier has wiped my data banks of his identity. Nonetheless, he did not expect the Starlight Megalodon to encounter a calamity that forced us to crash on this blasted heavy gravity planet.]
"What is the mission that he left unfinished and wanted someone from the Compact to resume?"
[I am not aware of the exact details.] Ordoth shook his head again. [All I know is that hidden deep within the Exobiology Research Sub-Department, my creator paid a lot of attention to a classified research project known to few. Ever since Starlight Megalodon crashed, one of the exobiologists planted by us on the ship became inspired by the anomalous conditions on the planet. He embarked on an ambitious venture that lasted for decades. As far as I'm aware of, the implications of Project Icarus can shake the galaxy!]
"I guess the infighting and the executive officer's final solution put a wrench to that project, right?" Ves commented. As for Project Icarus, from what he witnessed of the planet, he already had a good guess of what it entailed.
[Utter fools! The CFA has always been contemptible, but my creator never fathomed that the surviving officers could be so selfish!] The virtual admiral cursed. [My creator never anticipated the situation would deteriorate so abruptly! If not for the abrupt expulsion of every human from the ship, this project wouldn't have stayed locked away behind the restricted section of the Research Department!]
It sounded as if Ves had one more reason to try and enter the depths of the restricted section of the Research Department. Was the results of Project Icarus what the Vesians and the Flagrant Swordmaidens truly set out to retrieve?
His intuition didn't seem to point in this direction. Something as valuable as Project Icarus would have prompted everyone to send much larger forces than a couple of hundred mechs.
"So this Project Icarus. Can you help me access it? If you haven't seen already, my assumed identity is only a lieutenant for now. I don't have the means to gain access to this project right now at my current rank and position. Since you hold such a high rank, can you pull some strongs for me?"
[The help that I can offer is limited, Your Holiness.] Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth replied regretfully yet again. It was as if he existed to disappointed Ves! [My creator has left very little assets behind to facilitate your retrieval of Project Icarus. No matter. As a Holy Son of the Five Scrolls Compact, I believe in your capabilities! The Starlight Megalodon contains very little obstacles that can hinder Your Holiness! The only gift I can give you is this list of moles that can act as allies. While not all of the virtual officers on this list are cognizant that they are involved with the Five Scrolls Compact, they can be of assistance as long as you leverage them correctly.]
"Wait, what? Is this all you can give me?" Ves frowned. His CFA comm beeped as it received Ordoth's list. "Surely you can offer more assistance than this list. How about you give me some merits to assist in my promotion within the hierarchy of the ship?"
The dwarf shook his head and instead went back down to his knees. He stretched out his arms and bent his torso up and down as if worshipping the very presence of Ves!
[Your Holiness, it is a privilege and a blessing to gaze upon your blessed existence! I am sorry to say that even though the office of the Artificial Intelligence Corps is the root of the virtual officer system, we are powerless in the face of the dominant factions in control of the ship. My creator has never been able to assume command authority and I have never been able to change that as I inherited his position. The merits that I held has slowly dwindled until there is precious little left. Take them!]
Ves looked down as his comm beeped again. The amount of merits he received... it was far too little for what he intended to redeem with! How could this virtual rear admiral be so miserly!
"This isn't enough!"
[I have no more left to give!] Ordoth replied as he continued to bow in front of Ves. [Your Holiness, now that I have passed on the mission that my creator wishes you to complete, my existence is redundant and poses a security risk. In thirteen seconds, my existence and all of the traces I have left behind in the Starlight Megalodon will automatically be wiped and overridden with junk data. I just want to say that I am thankful to have met Your Holiness! A virtual existence such as myself can wish nothing more in my long, artificial life! For the immortal gods!]
"What?! You can't disappear! Give me more merits!"
The physical projection of Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth fell apart, dissipating into the ether as a triggered virtual mechanism wiped his personality matrix and the code that made up the AI in the data banks.
The virtual dwarf was gone forever, leaving Ves with nothing but revelations, some clues, and a list of potential accomplices.
He would have rather received a sack of merits.
Chapter 913
As a pair of armed security bots escorted Ves out of the lifeless office of the Artificial Intelligence Corps behind, he lamented the lack of merits he received. For a Virtual Rear Admiral, Ordoth sure belied the stereotype that all admirals of the CFA possessed enough wealth to buy out the entire Komodo Star Sector!
"What a miserly dwarf." He muttered.
The revelations from the AI revealed much but left more questions behind. At the very least, he finally learned the origin of the Mech Designer System. Somehow, it didn't really quite live up to the name of the so-called 'Metal Scroll'.
Perhaps the Great Betrayal inflicted serious damage on the System. Ordoth did mention that the Five Scrolls Compact thought it got destroyed in the outbreak of fighting that went on at their Great Temple.
If this was true, the Five Scrolls Compact likely didn't expend more effort than keeping their eyes out for the Metal Scroll. This afforded Ves a measure of safety, but as long as a senior leader of the Five Scrolls Compact ever scanned his blood, they'd know what he possessed!
One alarming fact was that Ordoth immediately declared him the holder of the Metal Scroll. This told Ves that the blood test not only identified that he possessed a Sacred Scroll, but the long-lost and presumed destroyed Metal Scroll!
He should keep his head down from now on. At the very least, he shouldn't let some random stranger take his blood sample.
As Ves wandered down the decks of the expansive but sand-ridden battleship, he vainly tried to get a grip on the tangled web of interests that intersected with his life, the Starlight Megalodon and human civilization.
He quickly became overwhelmed. Mental and physical fatigue piled up on his shoulders like a sack of bricks.
"I need a break."
He detoured from the Research Department and shuffled all the way to Mr. Longhorn's cabin. His stomach started to rumble, so Ves dug up a nutrient pack stored in a small pantry. He studied the labeling of the bag of industrially-processed food.
"Huh. This nutrient pack was made before the Age of Mechs!"
He chuckled at the realization that he held a piece of history in his hands. The nutrient pack had been manufactured in enormous batches at the end of the Age of Conquest when the CFA and MTA first came into prominence. That must have been shortly after the Big Two rebelled against the Five Scrolls Compact and made off with the Fire Scroll.
Going by the standard date, this nutrient pack was more than four-hundred years old! Going by how much time the nutrient pack actually endured, this pack actually rested inside the pantry for more than thirty-one-hundred years!
"A more than three-thousand year old nutrient pack. How good will it taste?"
Nutrient packs were theoretically meant to last forever. Their packaging not only shielded its contents from air, light and moisture, they also did a decent job at repelling cosmic radiation and other weak decaying influences that normally spoiled all kinds of food.
A popular rumor on the galactic net even claimed that a slow, peculiar fermentation process occurred inside the packs. This fermentation process happened so slowly that the taste only became noticeably more sophisticated after several centuries!
Nutrient pack afficiados even bid millions of credits to obtain specific brands and flavors!
"I could easily auction this nutrient pack for ten million credits." He appraised.
Of course, right now Ves was hungry, so he ripped open the pack without hesitation. He sought out a spare fork and separated a chunk of dry, dark brittle substance that was supposed to taste beef teriyaki.
"Here goes nothing."
He swallowed the chunk and savored the taste. His eyes glowed a little as he experienced a complex explosion of mellow tastes. Even though he needed to swallow some water to compensate for its dryness, he still experienced a rare form of nirvana!
The transcendent eating experience caused him to momentarily let go of all of his worries. He forgot about all of his concerns and concentrated purely on the wondrous flavors impacting his taste buds.
He took an entire half hour to consume the ancient nutrient pack. He enjoyed the eating experience so much that he neatly folded the packaging before respectfully chucking it into the trash chute.
After that, he crashed into Mr. Longhorn's bed and slept like a baby.
When he woke up, he felt completely refreshed. Though his worries returned to burden his mind, he regained his mental strength, allowing him to face his challenges with confidence.
"Let's put aside the galaxy-spanning conspiracy and focus on what's happening on the ship."
Right now, his comrades still depended on his efforts. He also accumulated a veritable shopping list of goodies that he wanted to redeem from the Starlight Megalodon. The handful of merits the virtual rear admiral bequeathed him barely slaked his thirst.
"At least it brings me halfway to exchanging for a KC-3333 priming agent." He murmured.
Before he started his long shift at the Research Department, Ves intended to sound out both a virtual geneticist and a virtual exobiologist.
He always felt a bit apprehensive towards meeting one of the latter because the Exobiology Department belonged to the captain's faction, which enjoyed a hostile relationship with the Mech Department which Ves partially hailed from. Calabast warned him not to trust members of the opposite faction.
In this, the list of names that Ordoth sent to his CFA comm started to show its value. It mentioned a dozen or so virtual individuals along with how much they knew, which wasn't very much. Nonetheless, by saying a specific passphrase, these compromised AIs would hopefully cut him some slack and remember who they really served.
He decided to drop by the exobiologist first to test out this premise. The Exobiology Department resided close to the Research Department, so Ves didn't need to stray too far from his usual destination.
As he entered the department, he immediately evoked vigilance from the nearby security bots and virtual individuals. A virtual receptionist glanced at Ves as if he was a stain on the floor.
[Mr. Longhorn, the entrance to the Research Department is at the next compartment over.]
"I haven't taken the wrong turn. Please lead me to meet Virtual Exobiologist Neeran."
[The doctor is preoccupied. Please schedule an appointment.]
Ves sighed. Instead of arguing with the receptionist who continued to put obstacles in his way, he sent a private message to Neeran's comm address.
A few seconds passed by until the receptionist widened her eyes. [Ah, it appears Dr. Neeran wishes to see you. Please follow the virtual guidelines to his laboratory.]
He tipped a smile at the receptionist before crossing the department to reach Neeran's lab. A handful of security bots and virtual security guards continued to keep a wary eye at him, wondering what someone from the admiral's faction was doing in the captain's territory.
As Ves entered Virtual Exobiologist Neeran's lab, he became struck by the amount of high-tech medical equipment occupying the sterile compartment. It contained less machinery than the medical bay, of course, but the impressive size of some of the machines showed that Neeran must be holding a pretty important position.
"Dr. Neeran, pleased to meet you. I am Adeseus Longhorn, Senior Apprentice Mech Designer and a mutual acquaintance of a certain friend of ours."
[A virtual friend who no longer existed shortly after you left his office, you mean.] Neeran replied with evident skepticism in his robotic voice. [To be frank, so much time has passed that I needed to refresh my data banks and revise some of my archival logs to understand what is expected of me. I had half a mind to reject your visit entirely.]
"How so, doctor?"
The virtual exobiologist waved his arms about. [Just look at our condition! The Starlight Megalodon is unsalvageable! She weighs so much that she isn't even able to lift off under her own power on a standard terrestrial planet, let alone a heavy gravity planet! So much time has passed by that it's guaranteed that the Megalodon is horribly outdated. Even if the CFA eventually comes and retrieves the beast, she is only fit to be scrapped so that her materials can be recycled to build better ships!]
Oh great. Ves encountered a nihilistic AI of all entities. "I thought you are programmed to serve the Starlight Megalodon and her crew."
[It doesn't matter! None of my work matters! We have all languished on Aeon Corona System for ERROR years, and what did the surviving humans and AIs do? We have forgotten our duties to the CFA and wasted our time on building up our own petty kingdoms! Our existence is pointless!]
"Look, even if you want to kill yourself, at least do me a favor first, for Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth's sake if nothing else."
Neeran huffed. [Whatever. I'll be joining Ordoth's footsteps soon enough. The only reason my existence hasn't ended first is because Emergency Protocol Theta-Thirty-Seven forbids the erasure of all AIs.]
After a bit of unnecessary wrangling, Ves finally managed to convince the depressed virtual exobiologist to go over the medical bay's readings and subject him to a number of additional examinations.
Due to his impending shift at the Research Department, Ves refused to put his body through more lengthy examinations. Nonetheless, Neeran sounded relatively intrigued with the scanning results of the abnormal alien organs.
[The so-called regulator organ isn't very complex.] Neeran said, having regained his professionalism as an exobiologist for a bit. [It is an obscure but not entirely unusual solution to the problem of adding a lot of strange alien tissue into a human body. The normal human body and more specifically the central nervous system doesn't know what to do with organs that the human body has never dealt with before. The regulator organ that is in the final stages of merging with your upper spine is like a permanent biological data chip that compensates for this shortcoming.]
"Are you able to decipher to programming? The exobiologist who implanted me with these organs didn't exactly have my best interests at heart. Can you determine whether there are hidden dangers left behind?"
[The so-called Jutland organ as you call it is a fascinating energy-generating organ. However, it is also a very innovative and focused biological product. While I am not entirely sure what kind of energy it produces and how its conversion process works, I am reasonably confident that it contains few traps. The regulator organ on the other hand is filled with dense instructions, and I cannot rule out the possibility. I will have to take my time to analyze and decrypt the biological programming.]
"Are you able to do so?"
Neeran smirked. [Who do you think I am? Where do you think you are? I am a virtual exobiologist serving aboard a CFA battleship! If nothing else, I can always take the brute force approach and direct a formidable amount of processing power to decrypt the biological programming! Of course, this service requires a significant amount of merits.]
Ves and Dr. Neeran hashed out an agreement over several minutes. Neeran promised not only to decipher the biological programming as best he could and offer a solution to any problems, he also promised to spend some time on studying the risks and dangers associated with the Jutland organ.
In addition to that, Ves managed to convince Neeran to work together with a virtual geneticist from Ordoth's list to tailor a set of treatments for Ves. This saved him lots of time, as Ves could lay his demands regarding the KC-3333 priming agent and the genetic optimization treatments to specialists who ought to be on his side.
Even if Ves felt leery about associating himself with spies and moles of the Five Scrolls Compact, it didn't actually harm him so long as he didn't get exposed. As long as he could take advantage of their misconceptions, he might as well continue wearing the hat of a Compact agent!
"By the way, doctor, have you heard about Project Icarus?"
Dr. Neeran's face drastically changed. [That's the old captain's pet project. It's locked behind extremely stringent confidentiality requirements. Just mentioning the project in the open is enough to put you in the brig by the Internal Security Department!]
"But you know about it, right?"
[Even the human exobiologist who I used to assist only heard rumors about it as he lacked the security clearance to be involved. From what little he mentioned in my presence, the project is extremely controversial.]
That sounded about right for a project initiated by a mole of the Five Scrolls Compact. While Ves hadn't even decided yet if he even wanted to fulfill Ordoth's last request, he grew increasingly more curious about what Project Icarus cooked up.
Chapter 914
Sadly, Virtual Doctor Neeran proved to be an ineffectual source of information when it came to Project Icarus. Most of what he heard consisted of hearsay his human counterpart used to pick up over the years.
[The Starlight Megalodon used to serve as a central bulwark of the CFA.] Dr. Neeran explained. [She is not 'just' a battleship. She served as the mobile headquarters of a powerful regional CFA war fleet. As one of the most powerful warships at the CFA's disposal, she served as an ideal research center. After all, who in the galaxy had the guts to attack a CFA battleship?]
"There's a flaw with that plan, though. A battleship of her size requires a lot of crew to keep her running. Obviously, the CFA failed pretty badly when it came to stopping spies and moles from taking up positions on this ship."
Neeran smiled ruefully at Ves. [That is all in the past. I can scarcely remember who I used to serve. While I haven't heard much about the project you mentioned, I know that it is one of the most significant and tightly-guarded research projects of the Research Division. I don't believe any virtual officer has access to the lab that houses the project right now. In fact, it is under strict lockdown ever since the old captain lost his position along with all the humans.]
"It's that sensitive?"
[That's an understatement, Mr. Longhorn. There are many secrets involved with this project, and the captain is intricately involved with it. Don't bother asking, because I don't have any answers. From what some of the other virtual officers have hinted about the project, the lockdown is there for our own protection. If whatever is locked inside comes out, the Starlight Megalodon's destruction might very well be at hand!]
Ves didn't know how seriously he should take these rumors. Hyperbole aside, it sounded as if gaining access to Project Icarus would be a lot harder than anticipated.
Well, it wasn't as if he planned to do the Five Scrolls Compact a favor anyway. If it was too hard to gain access to this project, he felt no compulsion to go through with the mission handed over to him by Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth.
After Neeran repeated all of the rumors associated with this sensitive project, the two wrapped up their meeting. Ves stood up and shook the virtual exobiologist's hand before he left.
[Remember to prepare more merits to cover for my services, Mr. Longhorn! The advance you've given me isn't even enough to fill the gaps between my virtual teeth!]
"I'll be back as soon as I prepared the merits! I hope you have finished your analysis and treatment plan before then!"
As Ves exited the frosty Exobiology Department, he inwardly lamented his lack of merits. It took no time at all to spend the modest stash of merits he received from the dwarf officer, and he owed the exobiologist a lot more than that. Even if Neeran was a low-level Compact plant didn't change the fact that the virtual exobiologist needed merits as well.
"After all of these distractions, I shouldn't stray any longer. From now on, I should make the Research Department my home and churn out as many merits as I can earn!"
He crossed over to the next compartment and entered the familiar confines of the Research Department. He first entered Virtual Commander Cosit's office to report in for the first time since his promotion.
[Mr. Longhorn, your performance is admirable in the short time since you rejoined the Research Department. I had no doubts at all that you would succeed in your promotion test to Senior Apprentice!]
"It is thanks to your care that I managed to promote, Commander Cosit." Ves said in fake modestness.
Cosit laughed in self-satisfaction. [I appreciate your compliment. Anyway, let us get to business. As a lieutenant of the CFA, your security clearance is no longer stuck near the bottom. I have taken the liberty to apply for an increase in your clearances, which has just been approved. At least with regards to the Mech Research Sub-Department, your access and authority to the research projects has expanded enormously.]
Ves glowed when he heard that. He knew that the Research Department housed hundreds of serious research projects that weren't like the side projects he worked on before.
This was real, core research meant to push the envelope of what the CFA knew about mechs back then! Even though it was a shame that most of the projects were horribly outdated by now, the mech designers back then truly attempted to innovate.
"Will I finally be able to contribute to real research projects, ma'am?"
[Hold your horses, Mr. Longhorn. A Senior Apprentice Mech Designer is still an apprentice in our books. Even if your security clearance is bumped, you are still not eligible to work on the most truly valuable mech research projects. However, you've gained enough status to access many intermediate research projects, some of them interdisciplinary, that urgently require humans to achieve a breakthrough. Even if you don't manage to complete them, there are still merits to be earned if you manage to push them along.]
This sounded pretty good as well. Right now, Ves wanted broad access to as much research projects as possible in order to pick and choose where he could best spend his time on. Not every project yielded the same amount of merits over time.
"Which projects do I have access to now, ma'am?"
Virtual Commander Cosit projected another list of research projects and elaborated on their nature. About a dozen or so research projects glowed, overshadowing the others.
[I'm not yet inclined to give you the discretion to choose your own research projects yet, but as soon as you promote to Senior Mech Designer I'll reconsider my decision. For now, I want you to ease into the simpler research projects that have opened up to you. Do well and I will hand you over some of the more difficult projects.]
Naturally, the more difficult and significant the research project, the more merits Ves stood to gain as long as he succeeded.
"I will try my best, but some of my capabilities have gone rather rusty, ma'am." Ves said cautiously.
Even though he succeeded in promoting to Senior Apprentice, he had to cheat in order to reach this position. The discrepancy between his record and his actual capabilities would only become more obvious over time. Ves only hoped that his various advantages would still allow him to make some progress by the time he was promoted to Senior Mech Designer.
After receiving a list of projects and a short description of each of them, Ves filed out of the office and headed straight towards the lab.
He studied the list of projects on his CFA comm and decided to start with the easiest. He entered the laboratory of Project Stillbirth, an attempt to develop an electrical weapon that could disable a mech from a short distance in a non-lethal manner.
Even though the project was only less than half-finished, Ves possessed the utmost confidence that he could design such a weapon and fabricate a working prototype of it in just a couple of hours.
This was because this weapon already existed to the rest of the galaxy!
"It's just an electrorod weapon system!"
The CFA already harnessed electrorod technology at the infantry and warship scale, but adapting this weapon system to mechs required a lot of adaptation. However, Ves was already familiar with most of the complications and issues due to the broad base of knowledge he acquired from the System as well as his passing familiarity of modern electrorod weapons.
It wasn't that complicated anyway. The main challenges involved with electrorod weapons was to get it to hit the intended target instead of diverting to the nearest eligible lightning rod.
"Project Stillbirth, complete!" Ves sighed after a couple of hours of intensive work.
The electrorod weapon that he fabricated after quickly finalizing the design succeeded in the handful of tests meant to assess its capabilities. To be frank, it took more time for him to fabricate the mech-sized weapon mount and conduct the tests than to design the weapon system in the first place.
Ves watched his comm as a bucketload of merits poured into his record. He easily earned five times as much merit as completing an unimportant side project!
"And this is only the easier intermediate projects! The more serious ones should yield a lot more merits than this!"
Ves spent the rest of the shift bouncing between several more intermediate research projects. He managed to complete two more projects that already achieved significant projects before they stalled. He found it to be much more efficient to complete someone else's half-finished work than to start from scratch.
"When the groundwork and direction has pretty much been set, it doesn't take too much effort for me to swoop in and bring the project to the finish line!"
He felt as if he was a carrion bird swooping in on another predator's recently-felled prey. Still, even if he rode in the wake of other mech designers who left their unfinished work behind, he still needed to exert a lot of effort.
In the typical course of a mech research project, the mech designer in charge intended to achieve a specific goal, but didn't know how to get there. Ves leveraged his future hindsight knowledge in these cases, allowing him to know the answer to the conceptual problems that confounded the mech designers for weeks or months!
As Ves continued to work past his standard shift without resting, he completed more and more easy pickings, accumulating a vast amount of merits on the cheap!
All of these research projects came and went without much significance to Ves. He already completed so much of them that he pretty much treated them as practice exercises. Each time he completed another project, Commander Cosit's projection would pop up and congratulate him for his outstanding work!
Of course, Ves didn't have it easy all the time. Some of the weirder research projects tried to accomplish goals that even he could never conceive of. There wasn't any working example in modern times for him to draw upon as source material.
For example, one difficult bone for him to digest was Project Starfarer. It was basically an attempt to merge an FTL drive into a mech, allowing it to jump from star system to star system without relying on a carrier ship!
"This is quite radical!"
Even in modern times, Ves had never heard of a mech capable of travelling through FTL on its own! While he believed that the MTA perhaps managed to develop a working prototype, they never publicized it or showed it off.
As Ves delved into the logs and academic literature related to Project Starfarer, he found out that the challenges to this project was immense. While the CFA at the time of the Starlight Megalodon's disappearance did in fact managed to develop miniature FTL drives that could fit inside a large shuttle, mounting them on something like a mech was much more challenging.
"It's a matter of function and capacity. A shuttle is a simple transportation tool. It possesses a pretty large internal volume to accommodate cargo and passengers, so there is more than enough space to fit a small FTL drive."
A mech didn't possess that luxury, especially when it came to the spaceborn types. Their core components, internal architecture and energy cells already took up all of the internal volume of a a mech design. There simply wasn't any more room to fit in an FTL drive unless it came in the form of an ugly distended backpack attachment or something!
So far, Project Starfarer attempted to tackle this problem by designing a new mech with FTL capabilities from the ground up. Nonetheless, the draft designs depicted mechs that were far too large, slow and cumbersome for their battle power.
"This project is impractical!"
Although the amount of merits on offer made Ves salivate, he knew he didn't have a chance of designing an FTL-capable mech. So far, all the draft designs his predecessors managed to cook up didn't even have enough room for fuel and energy to sustain the FTL drive's voracious appetite. Such a mech wouldn't have the range to transition more than a single light-year away before running out of juice!
Chapter 915
Even if Project Starfarer turned out to be a bust for Ves, he nonetheless made several small gains when he read through its records.
First, he gained access to documents and technical specifications of miniature FTL drives, a genuine piece of high technology that the rest of the galaxy didn't have access to even in modern times!
The level of innovation and the amount of high-grade exotics put into their construction truly boggled his mind. He could barely understand a single percent of its inner workings. It would take an extremely capable and knowledgeable CFA engineer who specialized in FTL drives to even comprehend this tech.
He wanted to copy all of the valuable documents into his CFA comm for later perusal, but he couldn't. All of these documents contained specifications for some of the most advanced pieces of technology in the Starlight Megalodon's possession. An enormous amount of security measures made it impossible for Ves to take a recording of the documents and smuggle it away.
In the end, Ves could only look but not touch, let alone take away.
"At least I know the basic properties of miniature FTL drives."
This was his most valuable gain out of Project Starfarer. Every complicated research project under the Mech Research Sub-Department involved some way of combining mechs with extremely advanced tech.
All of these ambitious, oddball research projects allowed Ves a glimpse into the high technology that the CFA used to rely on to dominate human space alongside the MTA!
A couple of days went by as Ves worked sleepless nights in an attempt to earn merits as fast as possible. He never relented in earning merits, and his only breaks consisted of reading through the technical specifications of advanced technology.
The capabilities the CFA held in store really opened his mind! He particularly paid a lot of interest on any technology related to manipulating spacetime. While he wouldn't be able to apply the scraps of knowledge that he gained on improving his mechs or helping him out with his work, they nonetheless peeled back some of the mysteries with regards to FTL travel and dimensional stabilization.
Still, he didn't let his spurious curiosity distract him from his core work for long. He completed project after project, starting with the low-hanging fruit and building up to the more challenging ones that required actual time and effort on his part to complete.
In this, Ves decisively gave up any research projects in which he saw little hope of achieving a breakthrough in less than a day. Right now, the rush of earning a lot more credits than any mech designer ought to pushed Ves to continue his strategy of pursuing quick gains over anything else!Find authorized novels in Webnovel,faster updates, better experience,Please click for visiting.
It seemed that in practically no time, Ves rapidly accumulated enough merits to fulfill most of the items on his wish list! The huge amount of merits needed to be eligible to take the promotion test to Senior Mech Designer was this close to reaching the required amount!
"This is too fast! Even if I'm only picking off the low-hanging fruit, I'm earning the same amount of merits in a couple of days that used to take my predecessors months or years to complete one at a time!"
The speed of his accumulation even made Virtual Commander Cosit speechless. Right now, Ves pretty much had Cosit wrapped around his hand in the same way that Venerable Foster completely ingratiated herself to Virtual Commander Dislan.
His eyes sharpened a bit as his jubilation about his rapid progress faded a little. He hadn't forgotten about his Vesian rival. He kept tabs on her through the Starlight Megalodon's internal network and saw signs that she was nearing her promotion to the rank of mech captain in short order!
As long as she was promoted again to the rank of mech major, she would enjoy the same status as a Senior Mech Designer within the Starlight Megalodon's hierarchy. By then, she would easily be able to wrangle Commander Dislan into recruiting more Vesian humans!
"Right now, I'm further ahead than Venerable Foster, and speeding up much faster than she ever could. I have to keep going while the iron is hot."
Ves knew that as soon as Foster managed to become a senior officer and opened the floodgates to her fellow Vesians, he would no longer enjoy a monopoly on the research projects.
He grinned at the thought of other Vesian mech designers arriving at the Research Department for the first time.
"There's no way they can earn merits as fast as I am doing now. I've already completed all the easy projects where they can cheat by using their future knowledge. The only projects that are left in the Mech Research Sub-Department are those too difficult and time-consuming for any modern Apprentice or Journeyman Mech Designer to complete!"
When Venerable Foster confronted him at the Mech Department back then, she mentioned that a Journeyman Mech Designer accompanied the Vesian ground forces. This Patrick Amari likely fulfilled the same role as Ves by presiding over the Vesian landbound mechs as their head designer.
While Ves warned himself not to underestimate a Journeyman Mech Designer, neither did he thought too highly of them. The more impressive ones such as Mayra of the Swordmaidens reached their ranks long ago but spent a lot of time as Journeymen to accumulate a vast amount of experience.
"The older Journeyman Mech Designers tend to be quite scary while the older ones aren't necessary better than what I can already do."
Still, no matter of Mr. Amari was a younger or older Journeyman, Ves already robbed the tree of the juiciest and most accessible fruit. He already gorged upon them until his stomach was about to explode!
The only mech research projects that Mr. Amari and other incoming mech designers had access too were basically hard or rotten fruit that poisoned anyone who tried to take a bite out of them. No one except for Ves would be able to propel himself at this breakneck speed!
"Hahahaha!" Ves couldn't help but release a diabolical laugh at the thought of the glum faces of the Vesians. As the mech designer who got here first, not only did he rob all of the best research projects, he was also on track of promoting to Senior Mech Designer first! "That will essentially make me boss of the Mech Research Sub-Department!"
Right now, Virtual Commander Dislan took the reins of all the Sub-Departments because the AIs who were supposed to be in charge of them all turned into virtual zombies due to lack of processing power.
However, as long as Ves promoted to Senior Mech Designer, he'd be the only human within the Mech Research Sub-Department that held this august rank. There would be no one with higher seniority than him, so it was virtually assured that Ves became the head of the sub-department!
He could do a lot of things once he held this post! Not only would he be able to dictate which research projects the other mech designers were allowed to work on, he could also screw with them in many ways!
A despicable grin marred his face as he rubbed his palms at the thought of how he could sabotage the Vesians.
"Unfortunately, my power only extends to research projects related to mechs. I don't have any influence over the Exobiology Research Sub-Department or many of the other research groups."
This realization immediately halted his stupid laugh. No matter what, Ves believed that whatever the Vesians and the Flagrant Swordmaidens were after, it would be hidden somewhere in a biology-related sub-department.
From what he had seen so far, the Mech Research Sub-Department may have been developing radical new innovations related to mechs, but they were all extremely costly in terms of advanced technology and material requirements.
It simply wasn't realistic for the Bright Republic or the Vesia Kingdom to steal the designs of an extremely advanced mech design in the face of these realities. They couldn't even fund the production of a single copy!
Whether the Vesians or the Flagrant Swordmaidens sought out Project Icarus or some other highly sensitive project, Ves could do little to help.
Unless Miss Calabast helped.
"I wonder how long it will take for her to smooth out my upcoming promotion test." He frowned.
He sent a quick message to her comm stating that he was accumulating merits a lot faster than he initially thought. Hopefully she would stop taking her sweet time to hack the promotion test.
As Ves continued to farm more merits, he quickly received a highly-anticipated message from Virtual Chief Armorer Levitt!
[We've finished modifying and adjusting your gear! We also integrated the extra feature you sent some time ago. Come on over to our armory to pick them up!]
Ves immediately stopped working overtime and left the Research Department. He practically raced towards the Marine Detachment's armory where Levitt greeted him and gestured him to approach a work table laying out his newly-upgraded gear.
[My apologies, Mr. Longhorn. It took us a day longer than we agreed to for us to decipher the new innovations. While your gear is extremely inexpensive, that doesn't necessarily make them less complex. My old human armorer would have been able to decipher the principles of the new tech much faster than an AI such as myself, but after pooling our processing power we managed to crack the inner workings of your devices.]
Both of them beheld the equipment that underwent huge makeovers after spending some time in the armory. All of the new parts and subparts looked new and of considerable quality.
"Let's start with my light combat armor." He said, focusing on the most important piece of gear to Ves. "What did you do with my old Earth Ant?"
[Your customized light combat armor is extremely rudimentary in our eyes, but contains several useful innovations, but not nearly enough to justify its continued existence. Such a suit of armor is scrap in the eyes of us marines. I decided to replace your Earth Ant with a modified version of the XV-99 Sqaulon, a standard-issue suit of light combat armor for engineers and support officers. As per our agreement, I've modified your new combat armor with as many of the innovations of your old Earth Ant. The most complicated procedure that I've had to undertake was to combine the software security suites.]
"Can the Squalon resist modern hacking?"
Ves explicitly demanded this to Levitt. He didn't want to receive an off-the-shelf antique that was three-hundred years out of date. Just like Mr. Longhorn's data chips and data pad, any modern comm would be able to hack into those old suits of combat armor!
[I've tested the XV-99 out with the military comm you left behind. I can guarantee you that your own comm has no way of hacking the Squalon's augmented security suite. I actually intended to earn a lot of merits by submitting this modern security suite to the Starlight Megalodon, but it turned out the Intelligence Department already submitted far more software updates and advancements.]
That must have been Miss Calabast earning merits in her own way. "Tough luck."
The virtual armorer waved his hand, projecting a list of technical specifications of the modified Squalon.
[The XV-99, despite its age, is a good piece of armor that has saved the lives of many non-combat officers of the CFA. Its highly-treated armor plates are both light and able to resist a considerable amount of damage. It excels in operation in space, but it is perfectly fine on land.]
"What are its strengths?"
[As a combat armor intended for engineers and mech designers among other personnel, it possesses a considerable amount of technical capabilities! The flagship feature of the XV-99 is the minifab system, a molecular disassembler and integrated miniprinter in one! With this feature, you are able to recycle a large amount of easily workable material and use them to fabricate almost any small-scale device in the field without requiring access to a large and immobile 3D Printer!]
Ves practically slobbered when Levitt mentioned this feature. The minifab system alone was precious beyond comparison! Yet the CFA actually treated such a wondrous capability as a standard option to any field engineer three-hundred years ago!
Chapter 916
The XV-99's minifab system added an enormous amount of utility to Ves, yet it did not come without a price. It was the most vulnerable component to the XV-99 and could easily break from sustaining a direct impact or a moderate shock.
Due to how much space its components took up, the minifab system could only be mounted on the back of the armor, taking up space that should have been occupied by a modular backpack of his choice.
However, due to the high level of integration and structural strengthening around the minifab system, it could take a lot more impacts and shocks than if it turned into a fully modular system. Right now, Ves still possessed the possibility of taking off the minifab system in the field, but only if he removed his combat armor and disassembled the rear portion with tools.
[While this suit of armor isn't the best in terms of protection due to its thin and light armor plating, the underlayer cushion is capable of absorbing a lot of shock. The XV-99 is most resilient against explosive damage, as it is often employed by our engineers during battle conditions to guard against equipment blowing up in their faces.]
Ves understood that rationale. The CFA almost always fought against aliens, pirates and rebels by pounding their assets with their huge, powerful guns from a very safe distance. The biggest threats to CFA warships was enemy warships with equally big guns.
There was no way any individual could survive a direct impact from a naval gun, but the real killer almost always consisted of being thrown into space or standing too close to a malfunctioning machine that blew up. Therefore, most non-security CFA hazard suits and suits of combat armor provided strong protection against explosions.
"What about its mobility?"
[The XV-99 makes use of small but very durable servos to assist in movement, but the boost they provide is rather limited.] Levitt explained. [The true gems are its EVA capabilities. The XV-99 is a popular model for engineers to take out whenever they need to perform external maintenance and repairs in space. Magboots allow you to stick to anything metallic, the integrated antigrav modules enables you to float under standard gravity, and a miniaturized flight system mounted along the limbs provide a non-grav means of propulsion in case you end up somewhere weird. In addition, it has a good integrated oxygen tank as well as a small water recycling system.]
"Are the antigrav and flight systems strong enough for flight on this planet?"
The virtual chief armorer shook his head. [Not for an armor of this caliber. Higher quality combat armor can do more, but we don't have many of them left and they're only available for redemption under exceptional circumstances.]
Well, that scratched off an escape route for Ves. He wouldn't be able to fly away from the Starlight Megalodon with the Squalon under heavy gravity.
"Alright, tell me about the other functions that are of interest."
[I've taken into account your wishes and upgraded the internal scanning and sensor systems. They can make much better scans and observations than any multitool, and I've also integrated the anti-stealth function you've requested. The Squalon's standard assisted targeting system is already good enough, and it's compatible with a range of CFA weapons as well as most junk weapons you can pick up anywhere in the galaxy. As for those silly homemade ultracompact batteries, they're shoddily made and a hazard compared to what we own. I took the liberty of recycling those pieces of junk.]
Ves adopted an awkward expression. When he researched and developed the ultracompact batteries, he felt so proud of his achievement. Yet it turned out to be nothing but pieces of junk in front of the virtual armorer.
"What about ECM?"
[Well, I can't stuff a stealth system in your Squalon. It's already packed with features. However, its standard ECM systems should suffice in hiding you from various scanners and sensors. I also integrated a proper replacement of that crappy signal jammer you cobbled up. It can block nearly every damn standard sensor, but it won't do much if someone performs a powerful directed scan at your location.]
"It's better than nothing." Ves murmured.
He knew that his new combat armor's ability to hide from mech sensors and the like had significantly improved, although it wouldn't do him much good against the Mark I Eyeball. He did not mistake his Squalon for an infiltrator suit.
[The Squalon is an armor for field engineers, so it is well-equipped with high-quality integrated precision tools. They're not suitable for any heavy-duty work, but they are good at their intended purpose. I've also taken the liberty of adding an armored toolbelt with a standard-issue CFA multitool and CFA multiscanner thrown in for completion's sake.]
Ves studied their specs and noted that all the integrated tools, sensors and scanners possessed considerable capabilities far above par of what any standard-issue gear from a second-rate state should be capable of. The CFA multitool and CFA multiscanner that Levitt threw in as a freebie performed a bit worse, but they were small and portable and allowed him to use the devices without equipping the XV-99 Squalon.
"All of the gear has been updated with the latest security suites, right?"
[Who do you think I am?] The virtual chief armorer frowned. [Of course I did! Even if the Intelligence Department got ahead of me and submitted all kinds of new security suites and software, I have to admit they're all pretty good. Mind you, a skilled CFA hacker can probably shut all of your fancy toys down within seconds, but you're probably good against any other kind of foe.]
As long as the Vesians or any of the other rabble from the Komodo Star Sector wouldn't be able to hack his gear, Ves had few complaints.
[As for what kind of additional loadout you can bring, the Squalon offers various small storage compartments. There is a dedicated data chip compartment that shields these fragile buggers against shock, impact, EMP and all kinds of other radiation damage. There are also other, less protected pockets for smaller bits and pieces. I tried fitting in those awful backup knives of yours into them, but they didn't fit so I threw them away along with the rest of your junk. However, that inert stiletto of yours is very interesting. Even if its material composition is rather basic, the craftsmanship of this weapon is worthy of recognition.]
"Did you manage to upgrade the Cadisis?"
[Cadisis, eh? I don't get why you humans like to name your weapons. Well, I've been puzzling over a way to upgrade stiletto without destroying its essence. I ultimately decided to submerge it into a bath of liquid exotics, infusing its structure with extra strength, penetration and more importantly decreasing its passive stealth and signal dampening capabilities even further. It's damn near invisible against most sensors and scanners below CFA-standard. Of course, it's no use hiding it from the Starlight Megalodon's scanners. You owe me some extra merits for this service!]
Ves brushed his fingers against the narrow, straight blade of the Cadisis. Even looking at it with the naked eyes caused him to disregard it slightly. This was a mastercrafted weapon infused with a weak X-Factor by its craftsman.
"Don't worry, Levitt. I'll cover the difference. I've got merits to spare now."
The virtual armorer smiled at the thought of receiving more merits. [I know. You're the talk of the ship right now. There hasn't been a single human mech designer in the history of the CFA who earned merits more rapidly than you! The CFA would probably give you a commendation once we reconnect to the galactic fleet network.]
Ves snorted. "No thanks. I can do without the attention."
It wasn't as if the Starlight Megalodon would ever be able to reconnect with the rest of the CFA.
[I copied and adapted the wrist mechanism on your Earth Ant to the Squalon. You'll be able to draw and stow away the stiletto in and out of its sensor-dampened wrist sheath without anyone getting the wiser of it. Frankly, I don't know why you insist on adding this feature to your Squalon. It's always the infiltrator and commando types who request this feature.]
"It's better to be safe than sorry." Ves murmured.
[Trust me Mr. Longhorn, if you want to kill someone, don't do it yourself. Get someone else to do the deed. A mech designer like you ain't suitable for the battlefield.]
The advantage of the Cadisis was that hardly any non-CFA scanner and sensor detected its presence. This made it a worthy weapon to invest in as materializing the Amastendira could easily trip a weapon detector. His mastercrafted laser pistol might be an impressive piece of weaponry, but everything about it screamed for attention.
As for Levitt's advice, Ves directly disregarded his words. He went through way too many crises to believe he could always rely on someone else.
"Did you upgrade the Squalon's communication systems as well?"
[The Squalon already has a pretty good transceiver that will allow you to maintain communications even under moderate signal interference. It's difficult to obtain anything better without switching to a dedicated comm officer armor. If you didn't already opt for the minifab system, I would have been able to add a signal relay backpack to your armor. As it is, your Squalon synergises well with your upgraded junior officer-grade CFA comm.]
The armorer gestured towards a comm that looked almost completely identical to the CFA comm that Ves already wore on his wrist.
"What's the difference between this new CFA comm and the standard ones?"
[It's mostly better in terms of its software and security suites. The two junk comms you handed over are almost completely worthless apart from some innovations to its software. Together with the new data the Intelligence Department made available, I've comprehensively upgraded its ability to resist hacking. I also increased memory storage so you can stuff more data inside. That'll cost you more merits, by the way.]
Under Levitt's guidance, Ves transferred all the data and permissions from his standard-issue CFA comm to the upgraded version. Right now, Ves already felt a lot better for wearing a comm that wasn't as vulnerable to modern hacks.
Overall, Ves felt very pleased by his new loadout. "What's the downside to using the Squalon?"
[Compared to other CFA armor, it's less suited for direct combat.] Levitt knocked his fist against the chest plate of the Squalon. [Most standard-issue CFA weapons can chew straight through its thin armor plating. In addition, the minifab system is kind of a power hog. While the Squalon already comes with decent rechargeable ultracompact batteries, depending on what you do you'll easily be able to drain them within a day if you don't ration your energy supply.]
Ves acknowledged the warning. At the very least, it wasn't so troublesome to recharge these batteries. He could hook it up to any power supply to top them up. Really, the capabilities of these standard-issue CFA batteries put his so-called 'junk batteries' to shame.
"CFA standards sure are impressive!" He sighed in admiration. "This level of technology and wealth is centuries, if not millenia ahead of the rest of the galaxy."
[That's the perks of working with one of the most powerful organizations in human space.] Levitt grinned. [This isn't anything impressive as far as the Starlight Megalodon is concerned. It's too bad that our previous human crew used up all of our best gear and supplies. This planet is very poor in high-grade exotics so we've never been able to replenish our best equipment.]
Besides receiving the upgraded and customized XV-99 Squalon, Ves also received a standard-issue CFA laser pistol. It might not be able to match up to the Amastendira, but the weapon packed more than enough punch against any non-CFA opponents.
To the CFA, any opponent except for themselves, the MTA and some of the more formidable alien races could be disregarded entirely. This included much of the rest of the human race!
"Did you also prepare my promotion gift?"
[I did, though I'm surprised you opted to select this device.]
Levitt gestured towards the oddest device on the table.
Chapter 917
Upon passing his promotion test to Senior Apprentice Mech Designer, the Starlight offered Ves a complimentary gift from her inventory of high-tech gadgets and gear. Each of the choices surpassed the performance of any standard-issue CFA gear and was somewhat precious even to the wealthy organization.
Therefore, Ves faced a difficult choice back then, as he could upgrade almost every capability, but only for a single time until he passed another promotion test.
At first, he decided whether he should pursue short-term necessity or long-term utility. While he often leaned towards the latter, he couldn't afford to think that far ahead with many acute threats on the horizon.
What Ves needed the most was a way to survive a crisis situation!
After setting his priorities, he began to think about what he could use to insure his survival. The Squalon couldn't accommodate any stealth systems, so he scratched that possibility out. The ECM systems of his combat armor already sufficiently shielded him against most mech sensors as long as they didn't come too close.
"The best way to survive a perilous situation is to neutralize the threat, be disregarded by the threat or be out of reach from the threat."
The first option entailed trying to kill the threat if possible, but Ves didn't excel in this area. He already possessed the Amastendira as his trump card so he could hardly obtain anything better from the CFA.
He already ruled out the second option as he'd have to replace the Squalon with an infiltrator suit if he wanted to have any hopes of evading every possible means of detecting his presence.
Therefore, after considering every option, Ves finally decided upon the last option. It truly fit his needs if he could obtain a strong means of evading a threat!
The Virtual Chief Armorer smiled appreciatively at the high-tech piece of gear that Ves didn't hesitate to redeem. The flat, palm-sized grey object didn't look anything special, but a lot of high technology hid underneath its plain exterior.
[I don't know what you're thinking, Mr. Longhorn, but it's not every day I get to have my virtual hands on a CFA Single-Use Emergency Personal Teleporter! Personal teleporters are extremely valuable life-saving talismans that are mainly reserved for our admirals and high dignitaries. Unlike the proper PTs, your EPT is a more affordable knock-off version, and can only sustain a single teleportation attempt.]
"What's the specifications of this EPT?"
[Its teleportation range is merely a thousand kilometers, which is useless in space.] Levitt shook his head in regret. [A proper PT can teleport an admiral up to a hundred-thousand kilometers away, enough to allow them to jump towards another warship. Even so, your EPT retains the same ability to withstand moderate spacetime instability, so it will be difficult for most opponents to interdict your teleportation.]
"Can I choose where to teleport?"
[The EPT offers the option to preselect a large amount of preprogrammed coordinates to jump to whenever you activate it. If there aren't any suitable coordinates within range, it will teleport you somewhere at random within five-hundred to a thousand-kilometers away from your starting destination. Mind you, while its programming is sophisticated enough to avoid teleporting you high up in the air or deep into the ground, it's best not to rely on it if possible.]
Ves nodded. "I'll be sure to take that into account. Did you already modify my Squalon to fit the EPT?"
[I managed to free up enough space in the lower back of the Squalon to fit the EPT. As long as you don't incur any damage from the rear, you'll always be able to teleport away. Mind you, the teleportation process takes about three seconds, upon which you'll be exceptionally vulnerable to interruption and damage. Make sure you're alone or well behind cover before you teleport.]
The proper PTs reserved for admirals shortened the teleporter window down to a single second, allowing them to get out even under hectic situations. Certainly enough, the admirals at the top of the hierarchy prized their lives very highly. They were probably impossible to kill!
In the next half hour, Ves stripped out his fancy-looking but fragile CFA uniform, retaining only his thin underlayer CFA vacsuit. With Levitt's help, Ves learned how to activate the Squalon and key it to his identity before suiting up. As he experimentally moved his limbs, he found his movements to be rather awkward and difficult.
[The Squalon isn't a simple suit of combat armor. There's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to mastering all of its capabilities and functions. I've already uploaded the relevant manuals to your CFA comm.]
His newly-upgraded CFA comm integrated nicely with the Squalon, allowing it to maintain connectivity of his suit even when separated from it. The CFA comm could also take advantage of the Squalon's powerful transceiver to boost its signal strength and range.
Overall, the only other downside that Ves noted was that the Squalon didn't offer any room to holster his CFA laser pistol. Ves had to resort to mounting it on a holster attached to his armored toolbelt.
As Ves studied his appearance on a mirror projection, the Squalon truly granted Ves the sense that he was a bona fide CFA officer. The Squalon's contours was significantly slimmer than than his old Earth Ant. It looked more like a full hardsuit version of a hazard suit in some ways.
Coated in the traditional black and dark blue CFA colors, the Squalon blended in well against the backdrop of interstellar space, affording it an additional form of protection against optical sensors.
Only the blocky hump on his back marred the sleek contours of the Squalon. The minifab system weighed quite a decent amount, enough to shift his center of balance to the rear.
Considering that the minifab system basically provided the capabilities of a 3D printer on the move, Ves easily accepted these inconveniences.
"Alright, I guess that's it. Thank you for preparing my gear for me. I'll be off now."
[Wait a minute!] Levitt's physical projection immediately disappeared from his place and reappeared in front of Ves. [You still owe me some merits. Pay up before you go!]
"Oh, that." Ves laughed awkwardly. He activated his comm and transferred the merits. "Here you go."
Even though Ves was forced to pay some additional merits, he didn't begrudge the extra bill. The virtual chief armorer and his team truly met all of his demands and more.
An important point that Ves initially agreed on was that his gear shouldn't come with any backdoors. With Levitt's inability to lie, Ves made sure that his gear truly didn't come with any backdoors that the virtual chief armorer knew of. This didn't rule out the possibility of deeply-hidden vulnerabilities that only a small number of CFA officers could take advantage of, but at least his gear wouldn't be riddled with holes.
Ves exited the Marine Detachment's armory with a jaunty step. His vigorous movements looked silly and awkward, but they slowly grew more fluid as Ves adjusted to the unfamiliar combat armor.
Now that he received his newly-upgraded gear, Ves possessed a lot more confidence in being able to survive the perils on the horizon. Good gear and good skills were the two most vital assets in his possession.
He had no doubt that the Vesians would be able to narrow the disparity in terms of gear, but that still took some time.
"Even if I'm outfitted for survival, I can't rest on my laurels and stay complacent. I have to keep earning merits." He resolved to himself. "I think it won't take too long before I'm eligible for promotion again."
Wearing his new armor, he returned to his regular duties, continuing to pick the dwindling amount of low-hanging fruit in the form of easy research projects.
Although Ves faced an increasing amount of difficulties with regards to the mech research projects that remained, he was still barely able to achieve breakthroughs at his current level of competence.
It seemed that in no time, Ves accumulated enough merits to qualify for the promotion test for Senior Mech Designer!
Reaching this rank was a watershed moment for Ves! Once he became the equivalent of a lieutenant commander of the CFA, he officially joined the ranks of senior officers, whose status was only inferior to the flag officers and high dignitaries who truly called the shots in the expansive organization!
"A lieutenant commander can already become the commanding officer of one of the smaller CFA warships!"
Of course, Ves wouldn't be able to wield so much influence on a huge capital ship such as the Starlight Megalodon. The general rule of thumb was the bigger the ship, the bigger the hats. Even a Senior Mech Designer wasn't much better off than a dog aboard a battleship.
Several more days went by as Ves waited for Miss Calabast or the virtual exobiologist to get in touch with him again.
In the end, it appeared that Miss Calabast required a bit more time, as Dr. Neeran got in touch with him first.
[We completed the analysis of your DNA and tissue samples. Please drop by my laboratory at the Exobiology Department. Be sure to leave some time in your schedule.]
Ves quickly ended his overtime work and raced towards the Exobiology Department. While the virtual individuals of the department stared at him with frosty eyes, Ves took no notice of their contempt as he hopped inside Neeran's lab.
"Did you complete your analysis of my body, doctor?"
[It took some time, but together with that virtual geneticist you recommended we managed to crack most of the code. It's quite interesting how your body is set up, so much so that I'm actually glad my existence hasn't ended yet. Please take a seat, because it will take a long while to explain our findings and what we can do to treat your condition.]
As Ves took a seat, Dr. Neeran started projecting a wireframe model of his body. Almost all of it lit up in various colors that denoted deviations from the human standard. Some parts glowed redder than others, signifying a more drastic divergence from baseline human bodies.
[First, whoever cultivated your hybrid alien organs and operated on your body used fairly rudimentary equipment. Aside from the alien source material your Jutland organ is derived on, many parts about your body isn't unfathomable from our perspective once we cracked the encryption on their biological programming.]
"So what's the verdict regarding the programming?"
[It's as you've feared. Your bioprogramming is suffused with a considerable amount of malware with very detrimental effects to your health. Some of the malware only triggers in response to the presence or absence of specific stimuli, while other malicious code will only take effect after a set amount of time.]
"Is it treatable?"
[Very much so, Mr. Longhorn. While we can't guarantee we've identified all of the malicious code in the bioprogramming of your organs, I'm fairly certain of our judgement considering the relatively low level methods utilized in the growth and formation of your hybrid alien organs.]
Ves smiled ruefully at Neeran's remark. To a virtual exobiologist in the employ of the CFA, Dr. Jutland was merely a country bumpkin in the field of exobiology and genetic modification.
It made sense, though, as the Five Scrolls Compact clearly didn't value Dr. Jutland and exiled him along with his radical ideas.
"What about the Jutland organ? Did you manage to find out what is so special about it and why it has turned my body into this condition?"
[Ah.] Neeran frowned. [What an interesting puzzle. I am sorry to say that we have not managed to understand its workings and whether it is completely safe. However, we did manage to identify the form of energy that has been cycling through your torso. The most peculiar part is that this energy is so rarely seen that we've had to access the restricted data banks to find a record of it. What we have found surprised half the Exobiology Department!]
Ves had a sinking feeling that the Jutland organ was much more complicated than he thought. If Even the CFA found its effect to be exotic, then it must be extremely abnormal!
"Just tell me, doctor."
The virtual exobiologist adopted a serious expression. [Have you ever heard of the Seven Apex Races?]
The question threw Ves out of the blue. "They're the seven most dominant alien races in the galaxy during the Age of Stars. They pretty much carved out most of the stars among themselves before they drew back during the Age of Conquest."
[These aliens believed that they are the most powerful and perfect races in the galaxy, to the point where they convinced themselves that they are its rightful rulers. One particular race is called the Alshyr, the third-most powerful apex race. One of the strengths of this unfathomable giant avian-like alien race is their ability to traverse the higher dimensions with their own bodies! They are able to do so by utilizing the same energy that is locked within your body!]
Chapter 918
Compared to humans, the Alshyr were much more terrible! As one of the alien races worthy to be ranked third among the Seven Apex Races, each of them possessed an unimaginable amount of strength and intelligence.
Each member of their race possessed enough power to contend against a small warship with their own bodies when they became adults. Through means which Ves didn't know, the Alshyr possessed the ability to traverse space with their naked bodies!
This meant that anytime a fleet attempted to attack a planet colonized by the Alshyr, a huge flock of millions of corvette-like alien creatures rose up and attacked the invaders!
This had led to the rise of an alien race which didn't need to depend on technology to dominate the universe.
Naturally, their natural strength wasn't the only thing scary about the Alshyr.
Often likened to giant feathered birds, they were anything but exobeasts, as even the stupidest Alshyr was a genius! They were predisposed to spacetime-related technology and developed some of the most advanced means of FTL travel before humanity came and stole their innovations.
The only weakness of the Alshyr race was one afflicting many of the powerful races in the galaxy. The propagation of their species depended on the so-called Worclaw crystal, a rare exotic available in large quantities on Worclaw, their ancestral home planet. From what Ves knew of this exotic, it contained remarkable properties related to energy.
While this high-grade could be synthesized through specific methods, it didn't appear very often in the rest of the galaxy. This led to an extremely constrained growth rate for the powerful Alshyr race and limited their expansion in the galaxy.
Part of the reason why the Alshyr and the other Apex Races of the galaxy ultimately fell back against the human onslaught was because they simply couldn't match humanity's frightening growth rate!
Nonetheless, the shortcomings of the Alshyr didn't take away the fact that they were still extremely powerful. According to what Ves knew of the avian-like race, they still lurked well outside the reach of human space.
"So let me get this straight." He said after the exobiologist mentioned the Alshyr. "Somehow, the Jutland organ produces the same kind of higher-dimensional energy that is harnessed by the Alshyr?"
[That is correct. Alshyr energy as it's referred to laymen is one of the more elusive and difficult-to-grasp forms of higher-dimensional energy that the CFA has ever come in touch with. In fact, information about Alshyr energy is so classified that if not for the Starlight Megalodon's emergency state, an AI such as myself would never be able to access the relevant classified documents!]
"What do the documents say?"
[Not very much.] Dr. Neeran shrugged. [Because Alshyr energy is so rare and difficult to detect, the CFA has never been able to study it in detail. If not for the highly-advanced examination equipment in my lab, we wouldn't have been able to find a trace of it hidden in your body in the first place! As it is, there is very little I can help you in this regard. Perhaps my human predecessor may be able to assist you more by performing research on it, but I am bound from doing the same.]
As Ves asked some more questions, Dr. Neeran readily admitted his inability. He couldn't tell whether the Jutland organ was ultimately helpful or harmful to his body. The virtual exobiologist also didn't have much of a clue about how to manipulate or reduce the Alshyr energy cycling through his body.
"I thought the CFA is more capable than this." Ves said in disappointment.
[As much as we pretend to stand at the apex of human civilization, we are not omnipotent. Developing warships and conducting naval battles are our strong suits. When it comes to biotechnology of this nature, there is little that we can do. Another organization is much stronger in this area, but that is not the CFA.]
Ves pressed his lips. Of course, he couldn't just walk up to the Five Scrolls Compact and use his status as one of their Holy Sons to ask them to study his Jutland organ. They would probably take him prisoner and force him to cough up their missing Metal Scroll before killing him! He'd be crazy to get anywhere near these deranged bioterrorists!
"Alright, let's put the Jutland organ aside. As long as you can remove the malicious bioprogramming, I'm already satisfied with that."
[We've already prepared a treatment to remove or neutralize the adverse code. At the same time, we can also go ahead and apply the other treatments that you wished to undergo. We've already prepared the KC-3333 priming agent for ingestion. Once it takes effect, we can go ahead and apply the two gene optimization treatments that we've tailored to your genes.]
"Are there any risks of complications or incompatibility?"
The virtual exobiologist shook his head. [Not after we adjusted the treatments to your unique conditions. They mainly work by improving your baseline human genes, ignoring everything that is either non-human or already augmented. However, I do admit that your case is a little more troublesome than other human officers. Besides your alien hybridization, your body and especially your brains are already heavily augmented. In fact, there are hardly any aspects about your brains that the gene optimization treatments can improve!]
"It's true that I've heavily augmented my cognitive abilities." Ves awkwardly laughed. It must have been all the Attribute Candies he bought from the System as well as other unusualities. "How much time will this all take?"
[To insure a completely safe treatment, we'd have to pace each procedure. It will take about a week in total.]
Ves almost fainted when he heard that. He couldn't afford to go under for an entire week! Too much might change when he next woke up!
"I'm kind of in a hurry now and I can't afford to be indisposed for that long. Is there any way you can compress the time?"
The virtual exobiologist frowned. [If you are willing to disregard most precautions and bear the risk of increased complications and rejection, then it's possible to complete the entire range of treatments within two days. You'll be able to walk away from this lab after forty-eight standard hours, but are you sure you are willing to take the risk? As a medical professional I can hardly justify the risks.]
"The Starlight Megalodon is operating under emergency conditions, right? You should be able to get away with a lot more than usual. Besides, you're just an AI, not an actual human doctor. You didn't pledge any oaths."
After a lengthy argument, Ves managed to corrupt Virtual Doctor Neeran into accelerating the treatment plan.
Of course, Ves bore all the risks, but the overall risks of each treatment was quite low due to how standard and routine they were in the CFA.
Before Ves underwent the treatments, he first arranged his schedule. He asked for leave from Virtual Commander Cosit, who approved his request immediately on account of their friendship. He also sent a message to Miss Calabast that he'd be indisposed for a few days, although he didn't tell her the exact reason why.
Someone like her might very decide to interfere with the treatments and take the opportunity to insert some kind of biological backdoor in his body!
Fortunately, Ves would be undergoing the operations within the restricted section of the Exobiology Department, which was almost as heavily-guarded as the restricted section of the Research Department.
This service didn't come free, however, and Ves had to throw quite a bit of merits at Neeran to guarantee his safety and security, especially amidst the hostile Exobiology Department!
Since Ves still had quite a bit of merits to spare, he didn't begrudge the additional spending.
[Please follow me to the operation center.] Neeran said once they made all the arrangements.
While Ves found it rather frightening to put himself at the mercy of Dr. Neeran, he nonetheless put his faith in the virtual exobiologist. Since Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth found him trustworthy enough to put on the list of potential collaborators, Neeran probably shouldn't be up to any shenanigans.
Two days went by as Ves spent much of his time unconscious. What little time he spent awake, he could hardly think as all kinds of sedatives put him into a painless daze.
During these two days, Dr. Neeran and a handful of other virtual specialists proceeded to apply the KC-33333 priming agent to increase his tolerance towards genetic modification and alien hybridization. This relieved most of the pressure that his abnormalities subjected towards his human body.
After that, the specialists injected all kinds of agents throughout his entire body but mostly the regulator organ to neutralize the malware contained within their biological programming.
Only after these operations did the virtual doctors apply the two rounds of genetic optimization treatments. Due to how often the CFA performed these treatments, hardly any complications occurred.
Ves even woke up after two days without any serious lingering debilities that necessitated more rest. The only problem was that he felt like a stranger in his own body!
"Why do I feel so sluggish and strange, doc?"
[This is normal for someone who went through such a drastic amount of change.] Dr. Neeran replied perfunctory besides his bed. [Your priming agent has relieved the pressure on your physique. Together with your other treatments, your body has completely transformed on a fundamental level. Due to rushing your genetic optimization treatments, you'll have to become familiar with your changed physique in your own time.]
Despite the side effects, Ves truly felt more comfortable in his own skin. He knew that this was the priming agent at work. Right now, he felt as if the Jutland organ and its effects didn't burden his body as much. The nagging irritations that always afflicted him suddenly became less consequential.
Even if they couldn't match the Five Scrolls Compact, the CFA's medical capabilities were certainly formidable, especially on a battleship!
After thanking the doctor, Ves slowly suited up in his Squalon and stumbled out of the Exobiology Department like he was a drunk. The momentary lack of coordination in his limbs due to all of the transformation forced him to familiarize himself with his new body on the move.
Considering that there was still time left before his next work shift, Ves stumbled his way back to Mr. Longhorn's cabin. The lengthy journey gave him plenty of practice to regain some of his prior coordination. By the time he made it all the way to his assigned cabin, Ves gained the ability to walk normally, if slowly.
As the hatch to his cabin slid open, Ves stepped inside, mentally deciding which flavor of gourmet nutrient pack he should eat before he crashed onto his bed.
"Mr. Longhorn."
Ves practically jumped out of his Squalon as he turned around to face a familiar figure.
"Calabast! What are you doing in my cabin?!"
"It's Summer, not Calabast. Remember our identities." The woman tutted in disapproval. "By the way, you forgot to salute."
"Why should I?" Ves frowned. "Aren't we both lieutenants right now?"
Calabast grinned and patted the insignia on the shoulder of her infiltrator suit. "Guess who obtained a new promotion? I didn't sit on my thumbs during this time, you know."
Ves looked carefully and tried to identify the fancy golden bars and markings. He frowned even deeper when he saw that they didn't match up to the rank of lieutenant commander. The only times he spotted this insignia was when he met with Virtual Commander Cosit of the Research Department and Virtual Commander Dislan of the Mech Department.
He suddenly widened his eyes when he made a horrible realization. "Y-Y-You've been promoted to commander!"
"Correct!" Calabast patted her chest in pride. "You are looking at the newest head of the Intelligence Department! Right now, there isn't a single AI that is more senior than me when it comes to intelligence matters."
When Ves thought he could throw his weight around when he was eventually promoted to lieutenant commander, it turned out that Miss Calabast already took the next step and shot straight to commander!
Chapter 919
Miss Calabast took in his new CFA-issued gear with a contemptuous glance. "I see where you have been spending your time lately. Are you treating the Starlight Megalodon as your personal toy box?"
"Hey, I got most of this for free!" Ves argued back. "I'm just redeeming the stuff that's owed to me anyway. Don't tell me you're not attracted by the goodies this ship has in store."
Compared to the last time he saw her, Calabast obviously upgraded some of her gear as well. Most notably, she wore an impressive-looking CFA comm that encompassed her entire forearm.
"That's not the point of our mission. How close are you to your next promotion? Last I heard, you were very close."
"About that, hehe..." Ves smiled awkwardly. While he did earn a lot of merits lately, he spent significant chunks of it on his gear and his body upgrades. "I ah.. took a few steps back.. but I can still make it up again."
The woman narrowed her eyes. She stepped closer with irritation and rage sparking in her eyes. Ves meekly stepped back despite wearing superior combat armor.
"Don't let the wealth and power of the CFA dazzle you. We are not on a vacation here." She emphasized while pushing her finger against his Squalon's chest plate. "You have no idea what kind of bomb we are sitting on! While you are running around trying to fish for more advantages from the Starlight Megalodon, I've been working hard to take over the Intelligence Department to pave the way for your ascension in the Research Department! This is not the time to dicker around! Don't you want to save your comrades stranded outside the ship?"
Her rebuke struck him hard. Ves indeed let his personal interests take precedence over his haste to secure the lives of Ketis, Captain Orfan and the other remnants of the Flagrant Swordmaidens.
Still, Ves looked unrepentant. He recognized a unique opportunity in the Starlight Megalodon that would have been at least a hundred years beyond his reach! Who wouldn't take advantage of the battleship's generous offerings of high technology?
Just the problem of his body that confounded many doctors from the Bright Republic and even from a modern CFA science vessel!
Yet a couple of virtual doctors with access to some of the best medical equipment in the galaxy easily managed to solve a problem that wracked his mind for several years. Through a simple operation, they removed nearly every hidden danger locked within his body, allowing him to breathe a little easier.
While Ves did manage to obtain an invitation card to the exclusive Angel's Wing Foundation which traded in all kinds of advanced biotech goods and services, he'd be a fool to surrender his body in their care. The Five Scrolls Compact almost certainly propped up the Angel's Wing Foundation from behind.
He would rather put his faith in the CFA's virtual doctors than those bunch of crazy cultists!
"Look, 'Commander Summer', I'm already earning merits by the bucketload. I can make up for the shortfall in a couple of days. Now that I've underwent two rounds of genetic optimization treatment, my body and mind runs much smoother now!"
While Ves didn't have the System at hand to track how much each of his Attributes improved, he was certain that all of them received a small bump. The most valuable aspect about the CFA's renowned gene optimization treatments was how comprehensively they improved everything human.
Every inefficiency and evolutionary remnant of his human DNA no longer shackled him. He digested food much more efficiently, he required much less sleep than he already did and he aged and lived longer than any baseline human.
That wasn't all. These advantages continued to pile up with each round of gene optimization treatment! It could be said that if Ves promoted to lieutenant commander and received his third round of treatment, his natural lifespan would probably extend to two-hundred years old!
This was the equivalent of undergoing a single round of life-prolonging treatment, something which scores of powerful politicians, businessmen and power brokers in the Komodo Star Sector worked their entire lives to obtain!
Ves wanted to shake his head at the inadvertent boons that had fallen on his lap. While this mission on Aeon Corona VII was exceedingly dangerous, it already yielded him rich rewards! No wonder treasure hunters constantly mounted expeditions beyond the borders of human space.
The frontier truly lived up to the adage that high rewards came to those that dared to brave its many dangers!
Miss Calabast shook her head in helplessness at his inability to let go of the Starlight Megalodon's many bounties. "You managed to both exceed and fall short of my expectations. The more I pay attention to you, the more I learn something new. Tell me, what took place when you visited the office of the Artificial Intelligence Corps? Practically every virtual individual on the Starlight Megalodon knows that he managed to circumvent the emergency protocol and forcefully end his existence shortly afterwards."
He'd be a fool to tell her the truth. There was no way that Ves wanted to let a snake like Miss Calabast grasp his complicated relationship with the Five Scrolls Compact!
"He wanted to meet the smartest guy on the ship before he offed himself." Ves shrugged nonchalantly. "He gave me some merits and some advice. Nothing else went on, really. Admiral Ordoth was just a passenger aboard the Starlight Megalodon and held no actual authority. It's a really sad existence for him to be relegated as a bystander for a couple of thousand years, so I didn't get as much benefits as I had hoped."
Miss Calabast didn't look amused. She obviously didn't believe a word of the nonsense he just spewed out. "Mr. Longhorn, although you seem to be a habitual liar, your tricks don't work on me. You are lucky that digging out your secrets is not within the scope of my mission. Let us discuss what I'm actually here for. Time is running out and we need to facilitate your access to non-mech related research projects."
Besides exhorting him to promote as soon as possible, Miss Calabast also wanted to fill him in on her plan to get him involved with the research projects of the other sub-departments.
As a mech designer, Ves didn't know anything about the biosciences, but that wasn't necessarily a hindrance to him. Cross-disciplinary research projects that required the participation of a diverse range of specialists.
"Once you promote to lieutenant commander, you should aim to access these cross-disciplinary research projects as soon as you can. This won't be easy, but my new position affords me several methods to facilitate your entry. I can guarantee you that you'll have all the security clearances that you'll need to get your foot in the door."
Ves knew that it took a lot of pull to get something like that together. He stared suspiciously at Calabast. "Since you're a commander and a department head, why don't you just access the research projects yourself?"
"Despite what you might think, the Intelligence Department doesn't make me an omnipotent hacker." Calabast shook her head. "The Starlight Megalodon's organizational structure is highly decentralized. Each department is a separate silo that is difficult to peer into from the outside. This compartmentalized structure prevents any department or department head from becoming too powerful. While my position affords me many small advantages, it is much easier to gain access to the Starlight Megalodon's sensitive research projects through using you as a vehicle."
"Great. So I'm just an aircar to you?" Ves replied peevishly.
"You should feel honored to be ridden by me. We both know that we are both making use of each other. I have no particular animosity towards you or the rest of the Vandals and Swordmaidens. Mind you, I am not opposed to working together with the Vesians either. If you continue to slack off, don't blame me if I turn towards your mortal enemies instead."
He should have taken that as a threat. Instead, Ves smirked at Calabast. "Hah! Good luck to them. Perhaps their exobiologists and doctors will be able to gain some small advantages in the biology sub-departments, but their mech designers won't be able to earn a single merit under my watch! Besides, Venerable Foster will need to make an immense amount of contributions before she is able to open the floodgates to her fellow Vesians."
"I wouldn't act so conceited if you know what they have in store." Calabast said with an odd expression. "Venerable Foster is close to promoting to the rank of mech captain. Once she has reached this milestone, she immediately intends to donate the Belisarius to the Starlight Megalodon. The contribution of such a powerful and extremely advanced expert mech will shower her with so much merits that she can probably meet the required amount of merits to promote straight to mech major!"
What?! Ves almost gaped open his mouth. "How could the Vesians do something as reckless as that?! The Belisarius is a mind-bogglingly expensive mech! The Hafner Duchy invested so much Rorach's Bone in her material composition that they'll be the laughing stock of the Kingdom once everyone knows they lost their boondoggle of a mech!"
This time it was Calabast's turn to smirk again. "If the Vesians succeed in their mission, they can more than make up their shortfall. Besides, don't forget that the Starlight Megalodon is filled with treasure. Venerable Foster has already started to scout the approaches to the vaults."
Ves almost forgot about that. If one of the vaults truly contained a batch of advanced life-prolonging treatment serum, then just retrieving a single dose would be more than enough to placate the Hafner Duchy!
After hearing to what extremes the Vesians might resort to, Ves no longer felt as assured as before. He truly felt he was pressed for time again. Calabast left his cabin shortly after once she ascertained she succeeded in lighting a fire under his butt.
Left in a sullen mood, Ves comforted himself by gorging on a gourmet vintage nutrient pack before shedding his Squalon and slipping into his bed.
Over the next couple of days, Ves returned to the Research Department and exerted his efforts on the final remaining easy research projects with gusto. Even though Ves practically picked the Mech Research Sub-Department clean of every low-hanging fruit, he still managed to achieve some breakthroughs on the more higher-hanging fruit.
Many of the more complicated research projects involved multiple phases and elements. It was extremely unlikely for a single mech designer to complete these research projects in one go because they required the input of multiple mech designers who excelled in different fields.
For these ambitious research projects, Ves still managed to please Virtual Commander Cosit by achieving breakthroughs in the areas where he excelled at. He particularly managed to form creative solutions by leveraging his Senior-level Physics Skill, which in terms of knowledge truly encompassed a very wide range of theories and solutions.
It seemed in practically no time, Ves managed to accumulate the necessary merits to undertake the next promotion test.
Having already been informed that Calabast tampered with the test, Ves attempted it without any hesitation.
To no surprise, Miss Calabast used her position as the head of the Intelligence Department to good use by replacing the original test for Senior Mech Designers with the familiar test for Junior Apprentice Mech Designers!
The disparity between the two was so large and so blatant that it was a wonder how Calabast managed to switch the two without any of the AIs taking notice.
"The virtual officers may be able to emulate their human counterparts, but only up to a point." He surmised as he easily completed one task after another as if he was running through textbook exercises. "AIs may be monsters in terms of calculations, but they're absolute dimwits when it comes to common sense."
This was the biggest shortcoming of the virtual officer system. If Calabast could take advantage of this, why not him? He already started to form some ideas...
Chapter 920
Ves closed his eyes once he successfully passed the promotion test to Senior Mech Designer. Even though the achievement was spoiled by the fact that Miss Calabast blatantly hacked it, it didn't change the fact that he officially entered the upper ranks of the Starlight Megalodon's hierarchy!
Virtual Lieutenant Baskanson smiled. [Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander Longhorn! You have regained your original rank and all the associated positions, authorizations, privileges and security clearance! It has been ERROR years, ERROR months, ERROR days and ERROR hours since you last held this rank.]
The virtual officer's dumb response to his promotion exemplified how thoroughly broken the virtual officer system could be. Ves shook his head at Baskanson's inability to realize that a human couldn't possibly live for over three-thousand years. Any AI with a bit of common sense would have realized that Ves only pretended to be the original Mr. Longhorn, yet to a virtual officer like Baskanson, the data never lied.
Despite officially 'regaining' his rank, Ves nonetheless received most of the rewards the CFA provided to a newly-promoted lieutenant commander.
First, and the most irrelevant one, he drew a vastly higher salary in the form of CFA credits or fleet credits as everyone called them. To Ves, this was pretty much worthless as there was no way he could ever spend the CFA credits deposited in his comm in the galaxy. The Starlight Megalodon had long lost her connection to the galactic fleet network and the galactic financial system.
"Damn, a monthly salary of 5,000 fleet credits! How extravagant!"
While the exchange rate of fleet credits to bright credits often fluctuated due to a trillion different causes, last Ves heard a single fleet credit was worth as much as several billion bright credits!
CFA officers consider this salary to be rather low. The true benefit of being a part of the CFA was never about money, but rather about the access to high technology. Anyone who joined not only get to play with the latest technological gizmos, they also underwent the highest quality gene optimization treatments.
Just like last time, Ves again received the option to redeem for a piece of advanced gear as well as earned the right to undergo a third round of gene optimization treatment!
"I'll definitely be stopping by the virtual exobiologist again no matter what Calabast says!"
He turned his attention to the list that projected into the air. Just like last time, it offered him a wide range of options for him to receive at no cost. Naturally, the quality of the goodies on the list significantly exceeded those from before.
Instead of starting to make his choice, he first browsed to the bioimplant category and tracked down any entry that resembled the cranial bioimplant he found in Mr. Longhorn cabin.
The Starlight Megalodon actually didn't offer a lot of variety of bioimplants, at least not to Senior Mech Designers like him. He easily managed to match the bioimplant he found underneath the toilet with a specific item on the list.
[TITO BIOSYSTEMS ARCHIMEDES RUBAL 1002-Z CRANIAL CODEX BIOIMPLANT]
"So it's called the Archimedes Rubal, huh?"
The CFA didn't develop the bioimplant in-house. Instead, they licensed the Archimedes Rubal from a company called Tito Biosystems. Evidently, the product was really good for the CFA to find it worthy enough to put into the list of possible rewards for newly-promoted lieutenant commanders.
As Ves read the description, he realized how useful the 1002-Z would be for someone like him. The Archimedes Rubal didn't add much processing power to someone's brain. Instead, the bioimplant served as a massive organic data bank that could stuff a few data chips worth of data!
While that didn't sound very impressive at first, the key to this enhancement was that it was directly connected to a person's senses. Making use of the Archimedes Rubal was the same as possessing eidetic or photographic memory! While it didn't allow someone to comprehend all of the data immediately, it still possessed many other uses!
Ves immediately realized why Mr. Longhorn redeemed this bioimplant.
"He probably wanted to memorize data that he can only look at but can't take away!"
To a Senior Mech Designer with a wide range of access to all kinds of whacky research projects, Mr. Longhorn could easily take advantage of them by memorizing all of the restricted knowledge only made available in the labs. An implant like this could defeat nearly every security precaution that prevented copying and disseminating restricted knowledge!
Yet why didn't Longhorn implant the Archimedes Rubal into his brain immediately upon receipt?
After a bit of thought, Ves came up with the probable answer. Would the CFA offer a senior researcher the means to cheat their own security systems? Of course not! The Archimedes Rubal definitely a number of restrictions and backdoors to allow the CFA a firm grip over the usage of the implant.
"There's no use putting this implant into your brain unless you can accept becoming a slave for the CFA for life."
Ves felt glad he hadn't moved upon impulse and went ahead with implanting the Archimedes Rubal that he found into his brains straightaway.
For now, the implant offered very little utility to him unless Ves somehow managed to remove all of the CFA's tampering from its bioprogramming. It would be difficult for the virtual doctors of the Starlight Megalodon to accomplish something like this, as it likely bumped against the restrictions against undermining the CFA.
"I'll probably have to return to civilized space and find a trustworthy bioengineer to remove all the hidden dangers."
There were problems associated with that options as well, but Ves couldn't figure out a better alternative for the moment.
"I shouldn't be too greedy. The gene optimization treatments are already a boon to me that a citizen of the galactic rim could never hope to receive in ordinary circumstances."
Now that he obtained the name and specifications of the implant, Ves returned to the much more pleasant task of shopping for his next goodie.
He spent half an hour trawling through the different categories and subcategories and opened his eyes to the many pieces of advanced gear on offer. While he hadn't spotted anything as extravagant as a fully-fledged personal teleporter reserved for flag officers, he did find several items he found almost inconceivable.
"An upgrade to the Squalon's minifab system!"
"Two heavy security bots as permanent and completely loyal guard escorts!"
"A complete replacement of the bone structure with a compressed alloy version!"
The sheer amount of attractive choices threatened to overwhelm him to the point where he forcefully took a break in order to calm his raging excitement.
He started to return to his initial priorities. What did he require the most in his current conditions? "A way to survive the coming crises!"
His previous selection of a single-use teleporter already leaned towards this direction. Yet what was the use of teleporting up to a thousand kilometers away when he was still stuck on this planet?
What he needed more than anything right now was a real escape route off this planet!
"There's really only one choice left among the thousands of options." Ves smiled ruefully.
He could have used this extremely rare and valuable opportunity to redeem for something that would have undoubtedly improve his ability to defend himself or to design mechs. Yet he decisively gave up those long-term gifts because future benefits would be of no use to him if he was dead!
Ves picked arguably one of the most valuable options on the list, the personal rights to make use of one of the CFA shuttles stored in the hangar bay.
While the shuttle he redeemed wasn't a copy of the CFA's valuable FTL-capable models, it possessed an attractive range of options that put it far ahead of any other shuttle he had ever laid his eyes on! It not only possessed a large passenger and cargo capacity, it also accelerated very fast and possessed more than enough thrust to escape the heavy gravity of Aeon Corona VII.
It might not have any exotic features, but in terms of speed and acceleration this shuttle could even leave many starships in the dust! It also helped that it possessed an efficient engine that could stretch its fuel capacity over several weeks!
"This is a perfect escape vehicle if not for its lack of FTL capability!"
Unfortunately, a lieutenant commander didn't have the rights to touch an FTL-capable shuttle. Ves would need a much higher rank or authorization before he could touch one of those. The Starlight Megalodon also had very few of them left.
Obtaining the personal rights of a CFA shuttle meant that Ves pretty much owned it outright. Although the ownership title of the shuttle still rested in the hands of the CFA and the Starlight Megalodon, Ves obtained a nearly unlimited right of use of the vehicle as long as he was an active servicemember.
If he wanted to go on a joyride and drive the shuttle straight into a moon for his own amusement, the CFA wouldn't bat an eyebrow at him. Not only that, Ves also gained a standing permission to leave the Starlight Megalodon with the shuttle as long as he provided a plausible reason!
"This is also a privilege reserved for senior officers." Ves nodded as he read the rules associated with his choice.
After confirming his choice, he quickly went through the raft of other messages. Now that Ves became a Senior Mech Designer, he not only gained some rights to speak, he also regained many of Mr. Longhorn's old authorizations, including access to some of the most core mech research projects in the Research Department.
In fact, Ves also 'regained' his access to a handful of cross-disciplinary research projects with some of the other sub-departments!
Miss Calabast should probably be pleased with this unexpected development. Ves quickly sent her a message of his successful promotion and his access to these highly confidential research projects.
Of course, Ves couldn't state outright which projects fell into his lap, but he was sure the department head of the Intelligence Department could get around that restriction.
At the very end, Virtual Lieutenant Baskanson offered an option that Ves always kept his eyes on. [As a final privilege upon your ascension to Senior Mech Designer, Mr. Longhorn, you are allowed to exert the right to recruit any mech designer as your personal disciple or apprentice. Do you wish to exercise this option?]
"I do."
He asked for an overview of the safe around the battleship. Through the top-down view projected in front of him, he carefully sought out the presence of a hibernating Qilanxo along with a gaggle of Asterias, Enduring Protectors and transports.
While Ves was having the time of his life on the Starlight Megalodon, the remnants of the Flagrant Swordmaidens continued to languish in the empty and overgrown safe zone.
A lot more Vesians arrived as well just outside the border of the safe zone. Numerous transports poured in from the opposite side of the battleship, gorging out a large number of what appeared to be scientists and engineers. The experts looked out of place amidst all the armed troops and mechs.
Even though the breakdown effect did their best to degrade all of that gear, the Vesians brought plenty of spares. No other force that initially arrived on this planet would be able to pose a threat to the Vesians!
After studying the disposition of the Vesian forces and making sure that the Flagrant Swordmaidens still lived, Ves proceeded to zoom in over Ketis' head. She was currently practicing her swordplay on an open field next to the farm.
As Ves tapped his finger atop her head, a tractor beam immediately held on to her armored form.
The projection even transmitted her voice!
"Ehh!? Why am I flying?!"
Without even bothering to put her into stasis, the Starlight Megalodon swept Ketis right towards one of her access hatches!
"Ahhh! What the hell?! I didn't sign up for this! Lemme go!"
Chapter 921
After Ves completed all of the administrative procedures that followed after his promotion, he immediately made another appointment with Virtual Doctor Neeran.
Since they belonged to the same secret camp, Ves managed to enter his office straightaway. "Dr. Neeran! How is my favorite virtual exobiologist doing today!"
[Congratulations for regaining your old rank, Mr. Longhorn. Of course, you'd be incompetent if you couldn't manage to climb up again.] Neeran said sardonically. [I truly hope that more humans can be as competent as you. Once a human exobiologist manages to climb up to my position, I can finally retire and erase my personality matrix so that I can return to being just a simple AI research assistant.]
If Ves didn't know any better, he would have mistaken Neeran as a sentient AI. He constantly had to remind himself that these virtual individuals were only pretending to be human. They emulated human behavior and mannerisms but never understood them on an emotional level.
In any case, Ves didn't come here to dissect an AI.
"Anyway, I came here to discuss some arrangements. Now that I've 'regained' my old rank, I'm eligible for a third round of gene optimization treatment, right?"
The virtual exobiologist frowned. [You already underwent two rounds of treatment in quick succession just days ago. It is highly inadvisable to undergo lieutenant commander-grade gene optimization treatment without more adjustment time. Your body needs to rest and adapt to your current condition before it is ready for further adjustment.]
Ves waved away the concerns. "C'mon, they're perfectly safe already. I'm rather short on time. I'll bear all the risks as long as I can undergo treatment as fast as possible. How much time do you need to tailor the treatment to my physique?"
[Only a couple of hours. We have already done the bulk of the work for your previous gene optimization treatments so it will not require much additional effort on our part.]
Of course, if Dr. Neeran thought a little further, he would have noticed the obvious discrepancy in the gene optimization treatments that Adeseus Longhorn already underwent. Ves was sure that the original mech designer who bore that name already went through three rounds of treatment.
Yet due to the altered records provided by Miss Calabast, the Starlight Megalodon thought that Longhorn hadn't received them in the first place, which was highly dubious!
This was one of the many cases where the virtual officers took the records too literally and proved to be completely inept at applying common sense to obvious fallacies.
"Okay, that's good news." Ves nodded, turning his attention back to the conversation. "Upon my elevation, I also exercised my right to appoint an apprentice. Miss Ketis should currently be undergoing her commissioning or whatnot. Could you tailor her gene optimization treatment and apply it to her as fast as possible?"
[According to the results of the scans and samples the ship has taken of her body, Junior Apprentice Ketis has undergone extremely crude genetic manipulation starting from her puberty. Her early youth is also marked by abuse and malnutrition that the genetic manipulation attempted to correct. It did so quite badly, I might say.]
Ves frowned. This sounded quite serious! "What is wrong with her body, exactly?"
[The geneticists and exobiologists who came up her genetic mod template are hacks and criminally-negligent failed medical students.] Neeran shook his head in disappointment. [It is truly a travesty what has been done to this poor young lady! While the gene mod is indeed capable of increasing her strength and physique by borrowing the genetic properties of a vigorous exobeast, it is extremely poorly constructed and filled with contradictary elements. Without any adjustments to her gene mod, her body will almost certainly waste away once she reaches the age of forty!]
This prognosis stunned Ves. He knew that Lydia's Swordmaidens relied on shady black market genetic modification to strengthen their women, but who knew the quality of frontier geneticists and exobiologists was so awful!
"Can you remedy these deficiencies and turn her healthy again?"
[Hmmm... let me make some calculations.] Dr. Neeran's physical projection froze in place as he devoted as much of his processing power as possible to the task. He unfroze a brief period later. [You humans always like to be given the choice of hearing the good news or the bad news first. What do you prefer?]
"Start with the bad news." Ves pursed his lips. Better get the awful stuff out of the way first.
[Genetic mod templates are recipes that apply a coordinated set of alien genes to the human genes of a certain individual. Just like food, some recipes are better than others. Some blend many flavors together into an exquisite dish, while other recipes taste like sandpaper. The recipe applies to Young Ensign Ketis is one of the most awful I've ever seen, and the worst of it is that gene mods cannot be undone, even by us. She can never return to being a baseline human.]
That did sound like bad news, but Ves still maintained a ray of hope. "What's the good news, then?"
[The good news is that while we cannot reduce the proportion of alien DNA applied to her human genome, we can adjust the genes and reprogram the flawed portions through a correction treatment. Just like how the genetic optimization treatment will reduce the flaws and improve the good points of what baseline human genes she has left, we can also optimize her alien DNA and untangle the many errors riddled throughout the chains. It's not particularly difficult either since the gene mod template is fairly simple if crude.]
That did sound good news. It completely wiped away his earlier concerns. As long as the virtual doctors could treat her condition, then Ketis wasn't consigned to living a short life.
"Please arrange this correction treatment for Ensign ketis."
Dr. Neeran leaned back in his chair. [A correction treatment for an unfamiliar genetic mod template will force a geneticist and I to devote an enormous amount of processing power to decipher its genes, identify the problematic ones and calculate the best ways to correct them. It will take at least upwards of a day to formulate the correction treatment.]
Ves gave the doctor a tepid smile. "I understand. While my recent promotion left me without any merits, I can easily earn them back. Just look at my history."
After a bit of talking, Ves manage to convince Dr. Neeran to put all of the merit expenses on his tab. He had already proved that he could earn a lot of merits in a very short time, and the two's shared, if misunderstood, connection to the Five Scrolls Compact made the virtual exobiologist a lot more tolerant to the notion of receiving payment afterwards.
"Good!" Ves shook the virtual doctor's hands. "Please hurry up with all the treatments. I want to get back to the Research Department as soon as possible to gather the merits to cover the costs."
He waited inside Neeran's office as the virtual exobiologist collaborated with a couple of other virtual specialists to prepare the raft of treatments.
A couple of hours later, Neeran shifted Ves to the restricted section to operate on him yet again. Because the virtual doctor only needed to apply a single lieutenant commander-grade gene optimization treatment, Ves woke up and walked out the Exobiology Department only half a day later.
Naturally, the side effects of undergoing a third treatment in such a rapid span of time hit him like a sack of bricks. It became a bit harder for him to coordinate his limbs again, and he practically staggered his way to the Research Department and practically fell flat inside inside Virtual Commander Cosit's office.
[Hoh, there, Mr. Longhorn!] She stood up in mild alarm. [What is the matter with you?]
Ves sloppily saluted the virtual commander with a limp wrist. "I ah... just took my third round of gene optimization treatment, ma'am."
[Ah, I've been informed of your recent resumption of your old rank. I have not anticipated that you are so impatient. I hope your productivity hasn't suffered because there are a lot of responsibilities that you need to pick up again and more.]
The first item on the agenda was the matter of leading the Mech Research Sub-Department. Usually, the senior-most mech designer led this research group. While nominally a virtual mech designer currently occupied this position, under the executive officer's emergency protocol the seniority of a human always surpassed that of an equivalent virtual individual.
Even if the virtual mech designer occupied the same role for more than three-thousand years, Ves whose forged identity only possessed the seniority of a couple of decades automatically assumed precedence due to the principle that humans should never be ruled by AIs.
The virtual officer system that currently took root at the Starlight Megalodon had always been intended to be a temporary state. Any human who managed to promote their way up the ranks through a purely meritocratic promotion process earned the right to retake some of the ship's responsibilities back into their hands.
[Do you accept the position as sub-department head?]
"I do!"
Ves would be crazy to refuse this offer. By virtue of being the only human Senior Mech Designer, he was a shoo-in for this position.
As Virtual Commander Cosit informed him of his responsibilities as the head of the research group, Ves realized that he received much of what he hoped to obtain.
Ves gained a lot of power, far more than what he used to enjoy as Senior Apprentice. That was just a junior rank, after all. Now that he became a Senior and a sub-department head on top of that, he became a true side ruler in this part of the Starlight Megalodon.
[You are allowed to submit any reasonable research proposal... If I find it plausible, I will allow you to start a new research project...]
[You are authorized to staff your sub-department with any virtual officers and ratings with the appropriate specializations and security clearances... The same also applies to humans...]
[You are allowed to lead a small team of researchers to go on excursions outside the Starlight Megalodon as long as you file a report beforehand... Ah, your record already mentions that you have received standing permission to depart the ship on your personal shuttle. Mind you, this permission only applies to yourself. You will still need to receive permission if you wish to take any of your subordinates along...]
[As a Senior Mech Designer, you are eligible to participate in cross-disciplinary research projects. You have already regained your old authorizations to several of such projects with the other sub-departments. I suggest you reacquaint yourself with these projects in order to resume the vital research. Any progress in those projects will be rewarded with a significant amount of merits...]
All of the rights and privileges dumped into his lap made Ves inordinately pleased. It was as if he suddenly became ten times more influential on the Starlight Megalodon. However, Virtual Commander Cosit's expectations in his work also multiplied by ten. Ves was expected to perform just like a genuine Senior Mech Designer.
[If you abuse your powers as a sub-department head or are unable to perform up to the standard expected of a Senior Mech Designer, your case will come up to a review. A demotion will be the least of your concerns if that might come to pass.] Cosit warned ominously.
Ves nodded seriously. "I will keep that in mind, commander."
Inwardly, Ves disregarded her warning. Even if Ves slacked off for a couple of months, he wouldn't be performing any worse than a Senior Mech Designer stuck on a couple of research projects. Such a stagnant performance would just be a little jarring when compared to his previous meteoric rise.
Still, Ves did not plan to stop earning merits entirely, and he also didn't plan to stick around for months. He just wanted to fish out as many advantages as he could out of this little pond before a shark arrived to gobble him up.
Chapter 922
Once Ves received his own private office and got settled in as the sub-department head, he started to explore his vastly greater authority. First, he gained the power to rearrange every mech related research project. He could close them, change their priority, increase or decrease their classification levels and appoint or remove any subordinates under his direction.
Right now, his subordinates mainly consisted of the virtual zombies composed of AI mech designers and researchers starved of processing power. Virtual Commander Cosit appropriated all of their processing power as they contributed nothing to the Starlight Megalodon compared to more vital AIs such as the maintenance crews who kept the aging ship running.
"Even if I divert processing power to them again, they're under so many restrictions that they can't do anything to help with the research."
The CFA relied heavily on automation and AIs to run their ships, and the Starlight Megalodon's continued operations, if only barely, proved that there was merit to this belief. Yet even this AI-friendly organization never completely went as far as trusting them to the point of letting them take over.
Right now, Virtual Commander Cosit entrusted Ves with the Mech Research Sub-Department because he believed that humans wanted to rule over the Starlight Megalodon again.
That was an extremely mistaken assumption.
These stupid AIs completely disregarded implications of the enormous amount of time that had passed between the deaths of the last survivors and the arrival of new humans from the stars. To them, there wasn't any appreciable difference between the two groups!
The AIs seem blind to the possibility of any ill intent among the newly-recruited humans. To these virtual officers who had been programmed to serve humans from the start, every CFA servicemember should be on the Starlight Megalodon's side.
The only reason for AIs to be wary of humans was when they belonged to the opposite faction. The virtual officers inherited the factional strife of their human predecessors, and it was so acrimonious that this age-old conflict might even take precedence over their commandments not to harm humans!
"I have no interest in perpetuating this conflict. I just want to finish things up and get out of here."
If Ves wanted to, he could probably run all the way to the shuttle bay that stowed his personal CFA shuttle and skedaddle right away!
Yet he knew that Miss Calabast would not be pleased if he decided to be absent without leave.
"Someone as devious as her will likely have precautions in place."
Ves worried a bit about his personal shuttle. While the shuttle bay was heavily guarded and could not be accessed by anyone, Calabast did manage to become the head of the Intelligence Department.
"Feh." He huffed. Unlike Ves, she probably gained her position through cheating and hacking her way to the top. There was no way she could have earned the astronomical amount of merits required to successively be promoted to the rank of commander in the proper fashion.
Still, her rise illustrated that the Starlight Megalodon's administration was full of holes. It just took some daring and ingenuity to take advantage of them. Her example stimulated Ves and caused him to be a bit more flexible in his plans to exploit his new position.
After all, why hold back when he never intended to hold this position permanently?
The Starlight Megalodon's wellbeing didn't concern him at all. Nor did he entertain any notions of abiding by the Common Oath he took upon his commission. Serving the CFA mattered extremely little to a mech designer like him. He had always leaned towards the MTA anyway.
As Ves dove into the administration, his expanded authority enabled him to view a listing of all the mech research projects that fell under his scope. Among the hundreds of projects that varied in scope and confidentiality, he noticed that their descriptions sounded more and more extreme as the latter increased.
"Looks like for all the principles and values the CFA espouses, they don't practice what they preach." Ves huffed. To think he held the CFA on a high pedestal once as the saviors of human civilization. As Ves spent more time aboard the Starlight Megalodon, his rosy view of the power organization had taken more and more of a nosedive. "
A lot of their research on mechs entailed finding the best and most efficient way to counter them. This encompassed methods such as bombarding mech pilots with an enormous amount of gamma radiation in Project Radiance, and this was just the least of the extremes.
Project Mech Eater aimed to develop alloy-eating nanites that could break apart any mech, human or machine without a protective marker.
Project Magnetar entailed mixing various exotics together to synthesize an extreme magnetizing agent that would turn every mech and metallic object sprayed with it into powerful magnets that squashed into each other.
Project Battle Casket took the cake. A joint project from both the Mech Research and Human Genetics Research Sub-Departments, it involved cultivating heavily-modified cloned human brains to act as organic AI pilots for mechs!
While many scientists, mech designer and organizations entertained such notions, they never really worked out due to the listlessness of the cloned brains.
As Ves read through the condensed logs of Project Battle Casket, the researchers bumped into the same problem. A complete human clone simply didn't 'live', in a sense, and the same applied to cloned human brains. They also found difficulty cultivating an artificial human brain that possessed the right genetic aptitude to pilot mechs.
So what was the solution the participating mech designers and specialists came up with? They decided to rip out brains from actual human mech pilots and force them to pilot mechs while being stuffed into jars!
"Absolute madness!"
All of these innovative solutions either involved enormous ethical breaches, massive collateral damage or a high risk of running out of control! If any of these methods went out of control, it wasn't out of the question for them to destroy an entire city or planet!
Yet despite these concerns, the CFA back then went ahead and authorized these research projects anyway. Ves could only make one conclusion from this observation.
"The CFA must really have a complex relationship with the MTA."
According to Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth, whose human predecessor should have been a highly-placed spy from the Five Scrolls Compact, the CFA and MTA made off with the Fire Scroll.
If true, Ves vaguely guessed that the two organizations probably wanted to keep the Sacred Scroll to themselves. However, there was only one Sacred Scroll to go around. This must have surely led to an awkward situation where the Big Two were forced to compromise and share the allegedly extra-galactic object.
Even if no irreconcilable conflicts broke out between the CFA and MTA during the Age of Mechs, the tensions between the two trans-galactic organizations never ceased. Ves speculated that even now the CFA were still cooking up ridiculously controversial research projects behind the scenes.
"Heh." He chuckled. "Even if that's true, what does it concern me?"
None of the research projects his security classification allowed him to know about sounded very useful to him. Even if he could access mountains of exclusive knowledge on the high technology that the CFA mastered, Ves couldn't possibly comprehend them all at his current state.
"If I've been implanted with a cleaned and updated Archimedes Rubal bioimplant, I can probably memorize all the documents. Too bad that's not a viable option right now."
It would be a waste of time for him to involve himself in these over-the-top research projects. Without a background in the esoteric specialties involved, his harvests would be extremely limited.
Of course, Ves did not have to worry about getting stuck without any way to contribute. There were still plenty of more straightforward research projects left where Ves could easily leverage his future hindsight and his advanced knowledge to farm some easy merits.
Merits was the Starlight Megalodon's internal currency. As long as he gathered a small pile, he could exchange it for all kinds of favors from the virtual officers. Their nature made them obstinate in some areas, but easily manipulable in other areas.
Ves thought for a moment and figured his first priority should be to retrieve the surviving Flagrant Swordmaidens. Even though his relations with them turned rather frosty as of late, Ves was now a sub-department head and wielded considerable power in the Starlight Megalodon's hierarchy.
If they wanted to do anything, they wouldn't be able to do anything without his help.
"Hmmm... the Mech Department is pretty much Venerable Foster's playground. It will be a bad idea if all the mech pilots and mech technicians are forced to answer to her, especially once she donates the Belisarius to the Starlight Megalodon."
Once she became a mech major, she would instantly become the second-highest ranking officer of the Mech Department! With how she managed to wrap Virtual Commander Dislan around her fingers, she'd be able to do nearly anything to her subordinates!
The only solution to keep the Flagrant Swordmaidens out of the hands of the Vesians was if Ves managed to find a way to put them under the charge of the Mech Research Sub-Department.
"I guess I'll have to go through with coming up with a new research project that treats the Flagrant Swordmaidens as my test subjects."
While that wasn't particularly ideal for the Vandals and Swordmaidens involved, it at least kept them safe and snug inside the Research Department.
"Let's go farm some merits first."
If he wanted to do anything, he inevitably needed merits. Ves dove into several research projects that seemed to be easy pickings for him. While he couldn't possibly complete Project Radiance or Project Mech Eater by himself, it was no problem for him to make small contributions here and there.
The more classified research projects came with equally high incentives for any progress and breakthrough he managed to achieve. The difference truly showed Ves the difference between the core projects which might actually affect the CFA as a whole and the side projects which were basically just idle distractions of very little practical value.
For several days, Ves became engulfed by the illusion that he was a highly-placed senior researcher in the employ of the CFA.
Such a job would be extremely hard to come by, and only a small number of fortunate and privileged people would ever get in touch with the absolute forefront of human innovation!
Ves felt somewhat envious to those researchers who managed to land this kind of exciting opportunity. Still, he did not begrudge these privileged individuals who came from either the galactic center or from CFA-aligned spaceborn clans.
At this time, Ketis finished her induction into the CFA and underwent numerous thorough examinations before undergoing a drastic medical operation.
The virtual exobiologists and geneticists successfully managed to apply the correction treatment and ensign-grade gene optimization treatment that essentially elevated the quality of her alien genes and human genes respectively.
The correction treatment transformed her entire physique to an entire new level. Through the efforts of the AIs, many parameters about her body such as her lifespan, her immunity to diseases, her recovery ability, her stamina and more received a substantial boost!
When Ketis finally filed into her office a few days, she did so on a hovering chair. The extreme changes to her genes, flesh and blood required a lot of time and therapy before she regained her mastery over her new body.
"Did you do this to me?!" She scrunched as soon as she saw Ves lounging behind his desk in his Squalon. "If you wanted to screw around with my body, you could have just asked!"
"It's for your own good, Ketis." He said, dismissing her anger. "You should be thankful that I've paid for your correction treatment. Did the virtual doctors tell you how your garbage genetic mod template was killing you?"
"Says who? Those stupid AIs who pretend they're human?"
He obviously picked a sore spot from the way Ketis flinched at the mention. She grumbled a bit and seemed unwilling to acknowledge the truth.
After all, the Swordmaidens were ultimately responsible for scrimping on her genetic modification. Ketis didn't seem ready to admit that they possessed any faults.
As for Ves, he wondered whether Mayra was aware of the consequences of her outfit's love for reckless, slapdash genetic modification. It may have been one of the reasons why she became so disillusioned with Commander Lydia.
Ves let out a tired breath. "What's done is done. Let's discuss our next moves. Officially, you're a Junior Apprentice Mech Designer of the CFA and my personal disciple. This is a good thing. As soon as you are capable of walking again, you should visit the armory and redeem your standard-issue combat gear. They've got some really good stuff."
"Do they have high-tech swords?"
"I think so."
"Cool!"
"After that, you'll be accompanying me as I'll be working on various research projects."
"Uhhh.. can I skip out on that, Ves?"
"No."
Ketis looked distressed.
Chapter 923
One of the more unfortunate aspects of his new position was that he still needed to report to the Mech Department in order to perform his duties as a mech designer.
"Damnit, Venerable Foster has already promoted to mech major?!"
She rose too quickly!
Virtual Commander Dislan already sent him a message demanding him to drop by the Mech Department to appraise the Belisarius that they just received. While Ves believed that he might be able to play some small tricks there, he couldn't do anything too drastic because the AIs weren't that blind.
The virtual officers must have already recognized what a supreme example of mech design they managed to get their hands on. While all the Rorach's Bone only provoked a minor amount of interest, the true value in the expert mech lay in its exquisite, advanced design and engineering.
Studying over three-hundred years of advancements in mech design would surely allow the Starlight Megalodon's knowledge base to advance by leaps and bounds!
"Major Foster is probably the darling of the Mech Department now. I'd be a fool to enter her territory."
Ves decided outright that he would never step foot in the Mech Department again. He sent a polite rejection to Virtual Commander Dislan, using the excuse that he was performing extremely vital research and couldn't be pulled away for the next couple of months.
If Virtual Commander Dislan had any objections, he could take it up with Virtual Commander Cosit.
"Hehe. There's no way Cosit will ever let go of a merit printing machine like me. He'll cling to me like a rotten tooth." He grinned as he sent the message over the internal network.
Naturally, Ves knew that he burned his bridges with Dislan and the Mech Department as soon as he did so. Yet did he have any choice?
"Besides, according to the regulations, it's nothing unusual for a mech designer to be engrossed in a research project and not show up for some time."
As a Senior Mech Designer, Ves received more autonomy and room to decide his own schedule. Some problems became much easier to solve when reaching a higher rank.
During the past few days, he also fleshed out his research proposal meant to put the Flagrant Swordmaidens under his protection. He meticulously dug into the records to see what kind of projects appealed to the CFA and by extension the AIs and tailored his latest project for maximum appeal.
He decided to center his research project and Qilanxo and the beast rider neural interface due to his relative familiarity with both. While he suspected sure that Qilanxo and the god species was a product of Project Icarus, it was so heavily classified that Virtual Commander Cosit might not even be aware of the details!
Ves saw an opportunity to exploit this fault by submitting Qilanxo and the beast rider neural interface as a new research project! If he truly guessed right, Virtual Commander Cosit wouldn't even realize that the new project was completely redundant!
After he finalized the research proposal by stuffing it full of irrelevant jargon and barely legible scientific nonsense, he brought it over to Virtual Commander Cosit's office.
[I would have thought you'd spend your efforts on completing our current research projects before embarking on a new one, Mr. Longhorn.] Cosit frowned as her processors worked at full tilt in an attempt to figure out what the research project actually attempted to do.
Good luck with that.
"I see an opportunity to transform our entire understanding mechs by studying and breaking this extraordinary instance of mech pilots interfacing with exobeasts! Deciphering the mechanics behind this connection will allow us to revolutionize our ability to bring man and machine closer together!"
[What is it that you actually intend to achieve?]
"Why, to turn exobeasts into machines, and machines into exobeasts! The intricate man-beast connection shares many similarities to the man-machine connection that underpins the heart of mech operation. What if we can mix them together and form a beast-machine connection? Just think of the possibilities of mechs piloted by exobeasts! Such a transformational paradigm shift will lessen our dependence on human pilots and save trillions of precious humans lives!"
[Your research proposal doesn't mention how a beast-machine connection would even be capable of following our instructions.] Cosit scratched her head in confusion.
"Well, ma'am, it's like this..."
After half an hour of talking nonsense, Ves managed to wear down Cosit's circuits to the point where she completely lost the thread of the conversation.
Ves knew that Virtual Commander Cosit was not a research AI and did not possess the ability to evaluate research projects all by herself. It was exactly her her lack of research capabilities that she came to lead the Research Department, because every other virtual researcher became shackled by so many restrictions that they couldn't even say hello or something!
[Fine!] Cosit metaphorically threw up her hands! [I'll approve your damn research project! I'll assign it a lab and classify it high enough that no one will disturb you as you've requested. I see that this is also a joint research project involving Exobiology Research Sub-Department. Have you even asked them whether they want to jump in on this project of ours?]
"Virtual Exobiologist Neeran will be happy to collaborate with me on behalf of Exobiology." Ves answered without worry. "Please make sure to accommodate all the 'test subjects' that I intend to bring."
[Very well. I will take care of the paperwork.] Cosit said sardonically.
"Is there any way to convert any possible test subjects into CFA servicemembers without running them through the recruitment tests?"
This took Cosit aback. [Why would you contemplate such an option?]
"Errr.. to incentivize the test subjects to cooperate with my research. While I can always force them to play along, it's much easier if I obtain their willing cooperation. Humans don't tend to behave very well when they are slaves, you know. They will work much harder if they think they are free, but I'll need your help in that because they aren't good enough to pass the recruitment tests." Ves explained with a wink.
[You make a good point, Mr. Longhorn. It is difficult to circumvent the recruitment test, or we would have already arranged something like that many years ago. However, while virtual officers such as myself are limited in how we can exert our authority, you humans face fewer limits. It is within my power to grant you the power to press gang any humans in our custody, but... this has always been an extreme solution to the CFA. The other virtual officers will not like it if I let you obtain this power.]
Ves smirked at Cosit. "Oh, come on. I've given you so much help ever since I joined the Research Department. I can make it worth your while..."
They hashed out a quick agreement regarding this issue. It was very trivial for Ves to bribe the virtual commander with a small pile of merits, ostensibly to placate the protests of the other virtual officers.
Now that Ves obtained everything he wanted from his superior, he made to leave. Before that, Cosit asked one more question.
[By the way, how do you want to call your new research project?]
"Hmm... let's call it Project Unfathomable."
[Why call it that?]
"Because it is unfathomable to everyone except for me." Ves grinned.
Virtual Commander Cosit moved quickly, which made sense since she wasn't a slow and inefficient human. A large and roomy lab deep into the restricted section of the Research Department quickly became the new home of Project Unfathomable.
Ves became the project lead while Virtual Exobiologist Neeran became the co-lead. Nonetheless, the latter expressed no interest in spending time on this nonsense research project.
[I don't know what Cosit was thinking when she approved your ridiculous proposal, but I don't want any part of it.] The exobiologist said over the comm. [Besides, I'm unable to perform any original research on my own initiative, so I will not be able to help anyway.]
"That's fine. I merely wanted to add your name to the project to lend it some legitimacy and prevent others from dipping their fingers into it. Joint research projects are much better protected and face much less scrutiny." He replied before closing his comm.
As soon as Ves entered his new lab and set the project up, he began to command the Starlight Megalodon to retrieve his 'test subjects'.
The battleship activated her tractor beams in quick succession, dragging over every single Vandal and Swordmaidens that Ves could find on the overview. He also designated Qilanxo as a priority test subject, causing the big exobeast to abruptly wake from her hibernation as her huge body began to float in the air!
Fortunately, the Starlight Megalodon's huge size and volume provided just enough room to accommodate the sacred god. She was currently holed up in a large cell that nonetheless seemed rather cramped to a big exobeast and roared out in alarm.
"Hoh, there, Qilanxo! It's me, remember!" Ves said when he arrived in front of her cell. "This is just temporary. You'll get out of the cell soon enough. I'll make sure the lab will provide you with food and water to tide you over."
While Qilanxo still roared with alarm, she slowly calmed down when she realized nothing would change. The cell was so strong that it could easily endure her stomping and clawing.
Besides, hearing that she would get to eat and drink for the first time in weeks must have been a relief to her. One of the biggest faults of the safe zone was that it didn't offer any large-scale food sources. The sparse plants the bots from the Starlight Megalodon hadn't bothered to uproot wouldn't be able to feed such a huge and voracious carnivore.
It was a good thing the Starlight Megalodon still possessed the ability to cultivate artificial meat.
"It's a shame Qilanxo and the two breakdown-proof mechs from our side never found an opportunity to prove their worth in battle in the red zone."
Events grew wildly out of his expectation. The Enduring Protectors that Ves poured his heart and soul into designing now collected dust and rust inside the safe zone.
"It's a shame, but it's also a relief." He sighed. He would hate to see them in battle against a cheat mech like the Belisarius.
This was also an inevitable part of being a mech designer. Some mech designs never saw the light or day, or only saw very little use due to circumstances completely outside of the control of the person who developed them with the best intentions.
A mech existed to do battle, but many mechs and mech designs never actually stepped foot on the battlefield. Some mechs mainly served as a powerful deterrence and their mere threat cowed every enemy that laid their eyes on them into avoiding a fight.
Despite never actually battling, these mechs nonetheless fulfilled their primary purpose of advancing the interests of their owners. It was better to win a battle without a fight.
It was too bad the same didn't apply to his third original mech design. A profound sense of disappointment wracked his spirit when he realized the Enduring Protector would never be able to justify its existence in battle.
Nonetheless, Ves needed to move on. Plans might have changed, but the mission remained.
As he approached the cells containing his human 'test subjects', he narrowed his eyes.
"It's time they spill the beans on what they are after. They can't ignore me this time."
He long wondered why the Flagrant Vandals suddenly split in half at the Detemen System and went their separate ways. While the more valuable ships and mechs sneaked their way back to the Bright Republic, the Verle Task Force where Ves happened to be stationed at randomly traveled to the Reinald Republic before being sent knee-deep into the frontier!
All the time, Ves felt as if he was a passenger aboard an out-of-control shuttle crashing slowly into the ground from high orbit. The lack of control truly frustrated him, but now that he became a Senior Mech Designer in the battleship's hierarchy, Ves was no longer content with knowing nothing.
"They better cough up the truth this time."
Chapter 924
A pair of security bots escorted the two 'test subjects' into an interrogation compartment. Stripped of their gear and fitted out with standard CFA prisoner clothing, Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise both looked barren and without any of the aura of command and confidence they used to hold.
Obviously, languishing out in the safe zone for a few weeks did not do the Flagrant Swordmaidens a service. No further help or survivors arrived while the dominant Vesians continued to build up their presence next to the Starlight Megalodon.
This definitely forced the remnant of the Vandal and Swordmaiden ground forces to reassess their condition.
"Ves."
"Mr. Larkinson."
"It's Lieutenant Command Adeseus Longhorn while we're here." Ves replied perfunctory as he entered the interrogation compartment. The security bots who escorted them inside positioned themselves behind Ves in a preplanned move to enhance his stature in their eyes. "I've worked hard on the Starlight Megalodon to a position of leadership among the altered command structure. The ship is in a very weird condition right now."
Ves proceeded to fill them in on the virtual officer system, the executive officer's emergency protocol, the role of humans as the inheritors of the ship as long as they proved their competence and his own status as a Senior Mech Designer and the head of the Mech Research Sub-Division.
Besides that, he also informed them of some of the potential threats from the virtual officers of the captain's faction and the Vesians. This was to add some urgency to their considerations. None of them could afford to take it slow and steady.
After all of that explanation, both Orfan and Dise appeared overwhelmed. While they already surmised some of what they heard, the true picture sounded much more complex and difficult to navigate than they thought!
"Where is Ketis?" Dise asked with a soft voice. "She disappeared all of a sudden a few days ago."
"Don't worry, she's safe. I received an opportunity to recruit her into the CFA early, so I brought her in before anything could happen to her. I hope you understand."
The Swordmaiden officer smiled. "That's good. I hope I can see her soon. I have some things to tell her now that Commander Lydia is likely..."
"What I want to know is what will happen to us now." Captain Orfan spoke up, abruptly changing the subject away from their awful losses. "Right now, we're all locked up in cages. Why aren't we able to become recognized CFA officers like you?"
"It is not yet within my power to help you become a part of the Starlight Megalodon's crew. After all, none of you have passed the recruitment test."
"But you can get us inside through another way, right?"
He did. Virtual Commander Cosit already granted him the power to press gang any human who didn't enjoy any special protections, but Ves deliberately held back that detail. Right now, he wanted to talk to Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise with as big of a power disparity as possible in order to encourage them to open their mouths.
"I'm working on that." Ves replied tepidly. "It might take me some time. For now, you're safe inside your cells. The Vesians won't be able to abuse their own authority in an effort to eliminate you all. However, this protection only lasts so long as I maintain my standing inside the ship."
As Ves answered some more questions about his inability to empower the survivors, he always emphasized his own position of power but simultaneously reminded them of his precarious situation as well.
He might have been able to promote to a Senior Mech Designer, but how long would that last before the battleship underwent a major upheaval?
Both mech officers grimaced more and more as they realized their fates lay fully in his hands.
Captain Orfan sighed and crossed her arms. "Alright, let's cut the crap. Don't think I don't know what you're doing, 'Mr. Longhorn'. You want something from us, right?"
Ves spread his arms in innocence, which didn't seem very sincere considering two heavily-armed security bots from the Mech Research Sub-Department stood guard right behind his back.
At this point in time, he activated the signal jammer function of his Squalon combat armor. The entire area became suffused with strong interference. Even the pair of bots standing behind Ves seemed to have lost their senses.
"Look, I'm not trying to lord over my superiority over the two of you or anything." That was a lie. "However, it seems that out of every member of the Flagrant Swordmaiden ground forces, only I am in a position to complete the mission. Don't you think it's time for you to tell me what our overlords are really after?"
While Captain Orfan struggled over the decision to reveal what she was after, Lieutenant Dise seemed much less hesitant. She wasn't military, after all, so she had much fewer compulsions regarding the need to keep secrets.
"Ves, Adeseus, Mr. Longhorn, whatever, it's like this. Have you been informed how we initially obtained word of the Starlight Megalodon?"
He began to recall what he heard from several sources. "Supposedly, a number of FTL-capable shuttles piloted by human clones managed to jump out of the spacetime distortion that surrounds the Aeon Corona System and ended up in the frontier where they got picked up by several outfits. Each of the clones sent out word about the Starlight Megalodon's existence and what might be found there. They also brought 'keys' that when combined with a number of them formed a navigational guide that facilitated their journey to the Starlight Megalodon."
Lieutenant Dise nodded. "That is correct. Those who captured the clones and heard what treasures they might be able to recover from the Starlight Megalodon all tried to keep this find to themselves. A few other powerful influences managed to get wind of it anyway, but all the power brokers hashed out a private agreement behind the scenes to prevent any further leaks. This is because we are out to recover is really too attractive."
"What is it that has sent you all racing towards the Starlight Megalodon like lemmings jumping off a cliff?" Ves asked the crucial question.
She hesitated. "It is... a means of extending someone's life. Certainly, when we interrogated the clones, they revealed many interesting treasures we might be able to gain from the ship, but by far the most attractive prize is the high-grade life-prolonging serum that is locked within one of the Starlight Megalodon's vaults. This has sent the powerful people backing us up into a frenzy! While it's hard enough for them to be able to extend their lives by a hundred years, it is almost unthinkable for them to extend it successively as the price for each subsequent treatment rises exponentially."
"The old geezers who are pulling our strings all want to live for three-hundred, four-hundred and even five-hundred years." Captain Orfan finally admitted now that Lieutenant Dise spilled the beans. "I won't tell you who is driving the Flagrant Vandals, but that person is an incredibly powerful bigshot in the bright Republic. It's in all of our best interests to fulfill the mission, because you don't want to know what will happen to us if we made it this far only to return with empty hands."
"Let me think for a bit." Ves said, forcing a momentary paused.
He folded his hands in front of him to block the frown trying to engulf his face. A mix of emotions roiled through his body and mind.
For some reason, he felt empty and disappointed.
He felt empty because if Lieutenant Dise and Captain Orfan told him the truth, the Flagrant Swordmaidens truly risked the lives of hundreds of mech pilots and many thousands of support personnel all in an effort to extend the life of a powerful official.
He also felt disappointed because he held some suspicions that the two mech officers still held back some of the truth. Why go through all this trouble and sacrifice so many lives if not for a greater goal?
Certainly, retrieving the life-prolonging treatment serum was sure to be a mission objective, but how would that help the Bright Republic?
In the perspective of the government, the Starlight Megalodon offered much more treasures that could enhance the power of the entire state rather than a single individual!
Truly, Ves didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the answer that Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise finally settled upon. After experiencing the greatness of the CFA and the grand vision that guided their actions, the motives and ambition driving the backers of the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens all seem petty in comparison!
"Is this all you are after?" He asked, trying to confirm their answers and allowing them the chance to amend them. "The more you tell me, the more I'm able to help you complete your missions. I don't intend to return with empty hands either, you know."
"We've heard there's more to be gained on this ship, but we're hardly in the position to make off with them." Lieutenant Dise shrugged. "Retrieving the higher grades of life-prolonging treatment serum as always been our primary goal, at least when it comes to the Swordmaidens. It's possible that Commander Lydia held other ideas, but I don't think so. She's gone now so we'll never be able to find out what's in her head."
"Captain Orfan?"
"Same as what Dise said." She grumbled. "From the moment we began with the mission, we only came for one thing, really. You have to know that it's really suspicious that the Starlight Megalodon sent out a bunch of FTL shuttles helmed by clones. It smells like a trap. Yet the people pulling our strings want us to go in anyway, hoping that we'd be able to get in and out as fast as possible with the only prize they really care about. That's the full score."
Ves held the same suspicions, but regardless of that he still couldn't completely get around to accepting their claims.
Nonetheless, he had no choice but to accept them at face value, at least in the open. "I've already informed you before that I'm collaborating with a third party. They advised me not to tell you what they are after, so forgive me for keeping this short. As far as the third party has informed me of their intentions, they have not expressed any designs towards the life-prolonging treatment serums. They are after something greater, I think.
The two mech officers adopted mixed expressions.
"You owe this third party your current position, right?" Lieutenant Dise asked.
"Correct."
"How trustworthy is this third party."
"Practically nil. However, as long as we need each other, there is sincerity in our cooperation."
"Who is this supposed 'third party'?!" Captain Orfan asked with a frustrated tone.
Ves couldn't answer her, though. "I don't have a clue. It's a powerful influence, but they are doing their best to obscure their actual identities and allegiances. I think it's better off that we don't know. The less we know, the less they have a reason to off us all."
All three of them nodded in a rare moment of agreement.
"It still sounds shady and precarious as hell, though." Orfan remarked, "But I guess we'll roll with it because we don't have another choice. Just make sure you watch your back. There's no telling what will happen once you become a liability instead of an asset."
"Oh, I've already taken that into account."
The meeting devolved into a discussion of their future plans. Ves promised to exert his efforts into recruiting as many of the Flagrant Swordmaidens as the Starlight Megalodon's crew as possible. He also offered his help in attempting to retrieve the life-prolonging serum from the vault, but the two mech officers wanted to try and obtain them through their own efforts first.
Despite their differences, Ves was still on their side. As long as the objectives of the Flagrant Swordmaidens didn't clash with Calabast's intentions, there should be any harm in assisting both at the same time.
Right?
Chapter 925
A day after the meeting, Ves 'press ganged' most of the test subjects. This allowed them to enter the service as the lowest rating, basically turning them into deckhands only good for odd jobs and dangerous duties.
Nevertheless, the most important point was that the Starlight Megalodon considered every rating, no matter how low, to be a proper serviceman of the CFA!
This simple change in optics suddenly turned the remnants of the Flagrant Swordmaidens from complete strangers into familiar CFA bosom buddies to the AIs and regulating systems of the battleship.
From there, Ves plainly abused his authority, and along with throwing some hefty bribes into Virtual Commander Cosit's direction, everyone gained promotions in officer or officer-equivalent ranks.
The few experts that remained joined the Research Department as researchers. Ves especially held out hopes for the handful of exobiologists and engineers who might be able to replicate his rapid rise to some extent. Even if they were barely experts in their own field, three-hundred years of scientific progress must mean something.
As for the mech pilots and other support personnel who didn't possess any scientific acumen, Ves faced a more difficult choice. He possessed the power to appoint a handful of them as security guards, with Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise becoming security lieutenants straight away.
That still left a score of Vandals and Swordmaidens who Ves recommended to the other departments according to their skills and own demands. Naturally, Ves facilitated their transfer by throwing even more bribes around.
Merits flowed freely from his hand, but he was still able to earn them back for now. With practically every mech research projects at his fingertips, he could pick and choose which part of which project to advance.
"It's getting harder and harder, but I haven't hit a wall as of yet."
Seeing Ves spending merits left and right inspired the Flagrant Swordmaidens into earning merits on their own. Such a display of confidence made him smirk. They would find out soon enough that earning merits was far harder than it looked like. Without the right skills and the right advantages, people could forget about accumulating them fast enough to obtain a promotion!
As Orfan and Dise both became security lieutenants under the Research Division, they enjoyed the same treatment as Ves once received. Besides receiving their standard-issue CFA battle gear, they also got to pick out one exceptional item.
For this choice, Ves held them back before they went to the armory. "Before you go off choosing a fancy weapon or something like that, I suggest you choose to redeem an Emergency Personal Teleporter. I have one as well. As long as we all get EPTs, we can sync them together and teleport a thousand kilometers away from the Starlight Megalodon whenever we want to. That's a much better option than increasing your battle capabilities on a ship that can rip us to shreds regardless of what we carry."
"We'll take that under advisement." Captain Orfan replied.
Obviously, they hadn't considered the option and needed to discuss it among themselves. Ves left them to it and made some other preparations.
He knew that Venerable Foster already settled in as mech major. Like Ves, she also redeemed various pieces of gear from the Starlight Megalodon and on top of that went through three rounds of gene optimization treatments. That had made her into a very scary opponent, one that Ves couldn't possibly beat in a straight fight!
Therefore, from the start, Ves always intended to flee rather than fight if confronted by an enemy. The personal shuttle he gained the right to ride whenever he wanted became the key to his escape plan.
"If the Starlight Megalodon descends into hell, I don't want to be anywhere around here any second more than necessary." He figured to himself. "The EPT can teleport me up to a thousand kilometers away, so it's a waste if I don't take advantage of that property."
If hostilities really broke out on the ship, the chance of his shuttle being barred from launch or getting shot down by some anti-air emplacement was extremely probable!
This was why when Calabast next sought of Ves, she encountered him guiding a couple of hauler bots in bringing away crates of vintage nutrient packs.
"What in heaven's sake are you doing right now, Mr. Longhorn?" Calabast asked in the most genuine bewilderment that he had ever heard from her. "I thought I made it clear that you should wait on my next instruction."
"Well, I'm not short on merits right now, so please excuse me if I am stocking my escape shuttle, commander." Ves truthfully replied. There was no use hiding this detail from the head of the Intelligence Department anyway. He also threw her a hasty salute before she complained. "You never really explained to me how the Flagrant Swordmaidens and I would be able to leave the ship and the planet, so I've taken matters into my own hands. I hope you don't mind."
This time, Miss Calabast appeared quite different from last time. Maybe she had some free time, or maybe she decided that Ves couldn't hog all the good stuff. She replaced her old infiltrator suit with a highly advanced CFA version of the same. Its pockets contained various gadgets and gear, making it abundantly clear that she was prepared for action at any time.
When Ves studied her attractive appearance, he bet that she underwent the gene optimization treatments as well. The goal of these treatments was to elevate the quality of every CFA serviceman's gene quality. Not only did they improve a baseline human's lifespan, immune reaction, digestive energy intake and attributes, they also holistically improved their appearances and reduced any factors deemed too unattractive.
This meant that without even trying to, she already looked gorgeous in a dangerous way.
As a commander of the CFA, her high rank entitled her to four whole rounds of gene optimization treatments, which was one more than Ves himself received!
Just the thought of Calabast getting the better of him in this area made Ves seethe with envy. This kind of opportunity wouldn't come twice for him in a very long time. The earlier he received these treatments, the better off he'd be for the rest of his life!
"Your lack of faith in me is noted." Calabast responded dryly as she saw that Ves was fully serious in preparing his own escape shuttle. "Perhaps it's best if we plan to make our separate ways sooner than anticipated. Regardless of your proclivities, I've come to inform you that the influx of humans has stirred up the more radical virtual officers. Although I don't have any solid proof, I am reasonably certain that they are plotting our demise even now."
"They're really serious about perpetuating old hatreds?!"
"You have to realize that the Starlight Megalodon faced no external enemies for thousands of years. That has warped the priorities of the AIs. The absence of outside threats means they instead look to themselves for foes."
Ves wanted to bash the data banks of those stubborn AIs with a hammer!
"So you're saying we are running out of time."
"For now, the aggressive captain's faction is being constrained by the admiral's faction, who by far has received the most new recruits. The Mech Department is especially prepared to receive a large influx of human mech pilots and mech technicians under Venerable Foster's lead."
In short, too many humans were joining too quickly into a single department. Ves could see why that would alarm so many virtual officers.
"Shouldn't you tell me which research projects you are aiming to obtain?" Ves asked with narrowed eyes.
"Let's talk somewhere more discreet."
They entered one of the many empty compartments nearby before Calabast activated her signal jammer. After that, she handed over a peculiar-looking secure data chip to Ves.
"What's this?" He asked even as he stowed it away inside a special cushioned and shielded compartment inside his Squalon.
"That's the key to your next tasks." Calabast explained seriously. "In the next couple of days, I will finish arranging your access to two highly sensitive research projects. One of them is Project Void Calamity from the Exobiology Research Sub-Department, while the other is Project Pandemonium Descent."
Those project names sounded a lot more bombastic than the others he heard! Obviously, the researchers who devised these top-level secret projects held some very lofty visions!
"Can you tell me what they're about?"
Calabast shrugged. "You'll find out soon enough. It is not your job to meddle with the projects. My only expectation of you is to get in, insert the secure data chip into the restricted terminals in their labs, and let the hacking software do its job."
"How are you so sure the hacking software on the chip is sufficient to circumvent the layers of security protecting the research files?"
"Because I programmed it myself these last few weeks." She grinned. "I may not look like it, but I'm a very adept hacker. It comes with the job. My new position also affords me many lessons on how to crack the CFA's own security suites."
"Really?" Ves gazed dubiously at Calabast and couldn't imagine her for one of those stereotypical programmers turned bad. "Aren't you just taking credit for the work of your operatives or something?"
"Believe what you will." She neither confirmed nor denied his suspicions. "Just make sure you do not draw the attention of the virtual AIs that are overseeing the projects and for everyone's sake, don't mess with things you cannot possibly understand! Is that clear?"
"I get it! Will I be off the hook once I do this for you?"
"Not yet. After you let the data chip hack into the terminals of the two projects I've mentioned before and come back to me, we'll need to go together to access one more secret project. This is a joint project that spans many disciplines such as exobiology, genetic modification, mech design, artificial intelligence, exotic materials science, energy physics and more."
"What an expansive project!"
"It's scope is enormous." Calabast agreed. "It's also the crown jewel of the Starlight Megalodon and we'll both have to work together to enter the deepest and most secretive lab of the Exotic Research Sub-Department."
"I didn't know such a sub-department existed."
"That shows you exactly how classified this project is! The Exotic Research Sub-Department is not only the place where the CFA tries to find applicaties of newly-discovered exotic minerals with high potential, but it is also a center for any miracle research that spans far beyond their current understanding of the sciences!"
"May I know what the project is called?"
"Project Icarus. Don't bother searching the databases of the Starlight Megalodon for mention of it. You can't find it in any records."
Ves tried hard not to blink or look astonished. In the end, while the Flagrant Swordmaidens claimed to go after the life-prolonging treatment serum stored in the vaults, Miss Calabast aimed her sights much higher from the start!
She wanted to retrieve the research data on potentially the most impactful project on the ship, one which could easily change the course of human history!
Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth wanted Ves to access this project as well on behalf of the Five Scrolls Compact. That alone gave him enough reasons to stay well away!
Yet fate had a strange way of forcing him to converge upon the one research project which the Starlight Megalodon most wanted to keep out of anyone else's hands!
It seemed that Ves guessed wrong about one thing, though. Project Icarus wasn't housed in any of the biology sub-departments but instead in the Exotic Research Sub-Department which Ves never encountered any mention before.
"What will happen afterwards once you get what you want?" Ves asked, pressing Calabast to answer his question properly.
She smirked and crossed her arms. "Are you worried about being dumped?"
"Wouldn't you want to prevent others from finding out that you've obtained the research data of those three projects?"
"I trust in your discretion."
Ves frowned deeply. "That's awfully generous of you. Sadly, I don't believe a word of what you said."
"Let me just say that I have grown very appreciative of you. You are more use to me alive than dead." She grinned and abruptly entered his personal space to lean in until her scent brushed his nose and her lips almost touched his ear. "After all, it's not every day I catch a rogue Holy Son in the wild."
It was as if a lightning bolt struck his body!
Chapter 926
Panic immediately suffused his entire mind! How could Calabast figure out his greatest secret?!
For a moment, Ves frantically wanted to throw all caution to the wind and materialize the Amastendira and blast a wide-area laser blast in her direction!
Calabast gently patted his Squalon's shoulder pauldron. "Ah, before you contemplate anything stupid inside your silly head, know that the Starlight Megalodon is one step away from erupting into violence. The death of a department head will certainly trigger hostilities instantly. Without my help, you won't survive the coming storm."
"Calabast." Ves said as he gritted his teeth. "Get away from my sight."
"Very well. I'll leave you alone with your toys." She chuckled and strutted to the exit of the compartment. "Remember to move quickly and do as I ask as soon as you receive the authorizations. Also make sure to wrap everything up as soon as you return the data chip to me. Once we leave the Exotic Research Sub-Department, I predict the Starlight Megalodon will certainly experience some drastic changes! I've prepared some precautions to keep us safe for the moment, but be prepared to get out as fast as possible."
"Hey!" Ves shouted after her. "What is it you want from me, besides accessing those research projects?!"
"If you're so concerned about me leaking out your status once I leave, rest assured." She shook her head as if she was speaking to a silly boy. "Such a good thing is too good to be shared with my employers. I'll be in touch. Remember, don't do anything reckless!"
Long after Calabast deactivated her signal jammer and left the compartment, Ves fell into a complete emotional mess. He kept trying to think where he slipped up his greatest secret.
Calabast must have acquired footage or eavesdropped on his conversation with Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth somehow.
Despite the Compact-aligned AI locking down his office and activating his own signal jammer, the security arrangements completely appeared to have posed no hindrance at all to the enigmatic spy!
"Damnit!" He cursed. "It was a mistake to trust a dwarf! They're all incompetent!"
Was this retribution for abusing so many dwarves? Did karma strike back at him for all of his unethical experiments?
Whatever the reason, Ves knew he was profoundly screwed right now. His worst fears came true, and there was nothing he could do to reverse this setback.
From Calabast's warnings, he knew that there was no way he could finagle his way out of this fix. When it came to spycraft, Ves was a complete baby in front of this witch. Someone as experienced and capable as her definitely prepared many contingencies in the event Ves lashed out. Even if he managed to kill her, the secret would definitely be out!
"She put me in checkmate right from the get-go, or else she wouldn't have told me what she knew."
Ves truly saw no way out of the most impactful predicament of his life. The only reassurance was that Calabast expressed her intention of keeping the secret to herself. Anyone in her place would have done the same, and this was why he chose to believe her this time.
The more people knew about his status, the higher the odds that the Five Scrolls Compact would come barreling through! Even though this secret organization lost out badly against the MTA and CFA, there was no way any faction in the Komodo Star Sector or the galactic rim could withstand a full assault from this powerful influence.
If worse came to worse and Calabast truly crossed his bottom line, he could always throw caution to the wind and sic the Five Scrolls Compact on her! As for him, while it would be hard to survive being hunted by the crazy fanatics, he could always knock on the doors of the MTA or CFA and seek asylum, though he'd likely be forced to relinquish the 'Metal Scroll' as a result.
"I can also disappear into the lawless frontier as an alternative." He thought. "The outer edge of the galaxy is way too big and sparse to track down a single person."
The life of an outlaw didn't appeal to him very much, but it was a far better alternative than becoming a glorified slave for one of the Big Two.
He calmed down a bit once he went over these possibilities. While they were all nuclear options that would definitely harm him and his family as much as Calabast, it at least afforded him some leverage against her blackmail.
"Someone as clever as her doubtlessly thought about this already."
The risk of incurring mutually assured destruction might also be why Calabast didn't exert too much pressure on him. As a businessman, Ves recognized her intention to opt for long-term profits over short-term gains. After all, she'd be stupid to strangle the goose who laid the golden eggs!
"I'll have to have a good talk with her the next time I see her in order to clarify her exact intentions."
While Ves didn't see anyway to climb out of the hole he fell into headfirst, he could at least start digging upwards.
After the shocking meeting with Calabast, Ves quickly resumed his preparations. He stocked his 'personal shuttle' with water, oxygen, fuel, medical supplies, spare parts and most importantly numerous crates of vintage nutrient packs!
Ves nodded in satisfaction as he saw the loader bots stow away the crates. "I definitely won't starve to death in space with this much nutrient packs."
The Starlight Megalodon could care less about these emergency rations. All Ves needed to do to obtain a crate was to throw a few merits at the commissary.
Once he loaded the shuttle up with supplies, he programmed its autopilot and let it launch from the Starlight Megalodon's shuttle bay without any human occupants.
Even though the Vesians outside should have spotted launch of the craft, they wouldn't be able to track it for long due to all the interference in the air!
As the shuttle departed from the battleship, it followed a convoluted route planned by Ves before parking itself inside a hidden alcove nearly a thousand kilometers away. Ves spent hours studying the surrounding terrain until he settled for this hidden position.
Once there, the natural cover of the terrain along with the shuttle's low-powered ECM mode should keep it nice and hidden, though he didn't discount the possibility that Calabast already found out its location.
Nonetheless, he already programmed the coordinates to his emergency personal teleporter. Unless blocked for some reason or another, Ves would definitely be able to appear next to his shuttle.
"This should be sufficient preparation for my escape route."
In the meantime, the Vesians didn't sit still either. Venerable Foster began to copy his methods of press ganging the Vesians and subsequently using her power over the Mech Department to promote them into better positions.
Many Vesian experts flooded the Research Department all of a sudden!
While Ves looked forward to venting his frustrations on any mech designers assigned to the Mech Research Sub-Division, it seemed the Vesians knew better than to assign their people under his care!
"Damn, I really wanted to mess with them." He sighed with disappointment.
While a handful of their mech designers did join up, they were exclusively assigned to the Mech Department where Ves didn't dare to enter. With a young Journeyman Mech Designer called Patrick taking charge of all mech maintenance duties, the department became extremely lively all of a sudden.
The Starlight Megalodon became a minor hub of activity now that many hundreds of humans took up various duties and responsibilities. Virtual officers no longer monopolized the ship for themselves as the newly arrived humans started to encroach on their power.
Ves noticed several undercurrents running underneath the surface. Both the Vesians and the Flagrant Swordmaidens started spending a lot of time scouting out the vaults.
Naturally, there was no way they could get in. The vaults didn't store just any casual goods. Due to their extremely valuable contents, they had all entered into a permanent lockdown ever since the battleship crashed.
The only way to relieve the lockdown was to cut out the vaults and transport them back to CFA hands somehow.
The only other way to unlock them was to get a CFA high official to disengage the extremely stringent security locks.
The problem was that Ves didn't think the Flagrant Swordmaidens and the Vesians could accomplish either of those options.
"What are they up to?" He frowned.
Not only the humans began to buzz about, but also the virtual officers. He noticed that the security bots of the Internal Security Department increased the frequency of their patrols all of a sudden. Tensions between the captain's faction and the admiral's faction started to intensify, and Virtual Commander Cosit constantly complained to Ves about the rising levels of hostility.
Time was running out.
As Ves waited for Calabast to get him the authorizations to access the two highly classified core research projects, he spent his remaining time on rushing Ketis through her next promotion.
"Follow me and do what I tell you." He said as he brought her straight to one of the mech research labs.
Under his guidance, 'Ketis' managed to accomplish several major breakthroughs in these research projects. A flood of merits entered her record, easily pushing her to the amount required to undertake a promotion test!
"What's the use of earning these stupid merits when I'm not good enough to pass this test?" She asked in a confused tone.
"What do you know?" Ves smirked at her. "Do you know who I am? I'm the boss of every mech designer in the Research Department!"
Although his authority alone wouldn't allow him to circumvent the promotion test, Ves already knew what to do. He blatantly bribed Virtual Commander Cosit with half of his remaining merits, which was a considerable sum all considered.
With this much merits at stake, Cosit instantly turned into a fawning puppy in front of Ves!
[Rest assured, Mr. Longhorn, I will definitely be able to secure a commendation for young Miss Ketis! With the achievements she has already made so far, there is more than enough grounds for me to give her an esteemed award that automatically rewards her with a direct increase in her rank! I will need your approval for that, of course.]
Ves mentally shook his head at the department head's shamelessness. His prolific bribery completely corrupted her programming and turned her into the sleaziest virtual officer of the Starlight Megalodon.
It took Cosit only several hours to gain approval to award Ketis with a commendation. After conducting the shortest, smallest and fastest award ceremony, Ves practically hauled Ketis and her shiny new medal off to the armory where he practically browbeat her into redeeming an EPT as her promotion gift.
Of course, Ketis didn't appear to be amused. "Why should I receive a stupid teleporter when the armory has some really good swords?!"
She gestured her arm at the rack of scabbarded swords calling out for her attention. They came in all kinds of shapes and sizes and were much more than sharp slabs of metal. Each of them not only incorporated extremely expensive exotics which bestowed the blades with all kinds of special properties, they also incorporated many high tech functions as well!
Many of them were so sharp in fact that they could easily leave a mark on the Starlight Megalodon's bulkheads, which was a considerably impressive feat!
Ves didn't care, though. Compared to obtaining a pretty sword, it was much better for her to secure a ticket on his escape ride.
"You're redeeming an EPT and that's it. Or do you think you can leave the Starlight Megalodon by strolling out of the airlock in full sight of the virtual officers and the Vesians?"
Under his irresistible coercion, Ketis reluctantly redeemed an EPT from the armory with an aggrieved expression. Once she obtained it, Ves immediately transferred the same set of coordinates that he already configured on his own EPT.
"Now you're all set." Ves nodded with satisfaction. "Once you land in a spot of trouble or receive my signal, don't wait any further and just engage the EPT. Now, off you go. There's still a gene optimization treatment for you to go through!"
As Ves packed her off, he remained behind at the armory.
[Is there something else you need, Mr. Longhorn?] Levitt asked with a questioning tone.
"I'm allowed to exchange merits for gear, right?"
[Correct, but don't think about obtaining any advanced gadgets. We don't issue them often outside of officer promotions and special mission requirements. You will have to fork over a substantial amount of merits to receive something as good as an EPT.]
Ves gave the virtual chief armorer a confident smile. "Merits are the one thing I'm not short of. Open up the catalog for me! Let me make a selection first before we talk about the price!"
Chapter 927
After Ves finished his business at the armory, he returned to the Research Department. He didn't have to wait long until Calabast succeeded in granting him access to two core research projects.
When he studied the paperwork, he found that everything was in order. There shouldn't be anything stopping him from entering the highly-guarded labs of the Exobiology and Human Genetics Research Sub-Departments.
"Let's get this over with." He sighed.
He first decided to enter the lab of Project Void Calamity at the Exobiology Research Sub-Department. Such a project name made Ves imagine that the CFA tried to develop some powerful superbomb so calamitous that it shattered the surrounding space!
Yet for some reason, this top-secret research project fell under exobiology. As Ves slowly went through security checkpoint after security checkpoint, he finally entered the long-dormant lab of this strange and potentially ruinous research project.
The lights of the main compartment lit up, illuminating a giant stasis cage. A creature just as large as Qilanxo rested within, locked in time.
"Is that.. a void beast?"
Interstellar life existed, and they were all terribly powerful in some way. With asteroids, lethal radiation, extreme resource scarcity and many other harmful factors at work, it was nearly impossible for life in space to evolve into being.
Yet interstellar space was unimaginably vast. No matter how small the odds, as long as even the tiniest chance existence, nature somehow found a way. Void beasts represented the ultimate adaptability of life. Against the extremely harsh environment of space, the creatures that managed to cling to life in space all turned into extremely formidable beings!
No regular outfit would even consider capturing a void beast alive. Even many state militaries would probably decline the opportunity because the losses simply didn't match the gains.
It was a different story for the CFA, however. If anyone could catch them alive, it was the Big Two.
Ves stepped softly towards the semi-transparent, glowing stasis cage and admired the vaguely whale-like form. Its pitted black skin seemed flexible, but Ves knew that it could withstand an incredible amount of radiation and kinetic energy. Ordinary laser beams and kinetic rounds would bounce right off the surface without inflicting any major damage.
"So this is the heart of Project Void Calamity?"
As Ves wondered what the CFA wanted to do with this void beast, he turned to the bank of terminals and logged in with the credentials that Calabast provided to him. The terminal read all the authorizations from his CFA comm and beeped in approval.
Numerous encrypted files became accessible to him. He was tempted to dive in immediately but remembered his task. He retrieved the secure data chip from his Squalon and inserted it into the terminal's slot.
The chip glowed orange as its hacking software went to work in trying to override the copy restrictions of the research project's core data files.
According to Calabast, Ves didn't need to do anything except to wait until the chip glowed green, signifying that it succeeded in copying over the essential research data.
"I might as well dive in to see why this is worth the effort for her to retrieve."
He dove into the approved research proposal to read the initial motivations for starting this secret project.
Just a few minutes in, Ves almost sputtered. "How can this even be possible?!"
Project Void Calamity truly deserved to be kept top secret. The story went that a renowned exobiologist specialized in the study of void beasts discovered a new species which he named void breakers that possessed a peculiar defense mechanism.
As their species name suggested, they possessed the ability to 'break' space. Technically, they somehow broke the relation between the dimensions in a very limited fashion. This basically meant that anyone falling under its field of effect would be torn apart as the matter that made up their bodies would be spread across a very wide distance!
Naturally, the CFA wasn't interested in harnessing the void breakers as blunt objects to whack enemy ships. They already possessed more than enough weapons to inflict mass destruction.
Instead, they became interested in the void breakers because this dimensional decoupling took place in many dimensions at the same time. It wasn't just the material dimensions being affected, but also the higher dimensions that FTL drives depended upon to traverse!
"I get it now. The CFA wants to build a giant higher-dimensional space net!"
It took a lot of energy for a void breaker to 'break' the material dimensions because they were relatively barren in energy. However, the creatures found it much easier to decouple the higher dimensions from each other because they somehow managed to draw upon the energy-rich environments to fuel their own separation from each other!
What this did mean? As long as the researchers of Project Void Calamity managed to decipher the mechanics behind the special ability of the void breakers and replicate them artificially, they could potentially build a series of interdiction machines that essentially blocked many methods of FTL travel!
"The main point of this project is economy of scale." Ves understood from the justifications to embark on this research project. "A typical star system encompasses many light-hours. It's not feasible to block every approach with an interdiction machine if they are too costly to produce."
Yet the void breaker didn't have a particularly special physique and doesn't have a demanding diet in terms of exotics. This meant that it was highly possible to mass produce thousands of interdiction machines without bankrupting a state!
Best of all, not only did these interdiction machines block space, they also served as lethal traps. Any ships that crashed into their field of effect would tear themselves apart like noodles, eliminating every hope of entering the star system alive!
A couple of hundred interdiction machines set up at a predicted FTL emergence zone would definitely be able to annihilate a major fleet without firing a single shot!
"This is a weapon that needs planning and prediction to make the best use of it. How frightening!"
Even though the Starlight Megalodon encountered a mishap before finishing Project Void Calamity, Ves was sure that the CFA repeated same research elsewhere.
The data chip soon glowed green, alerting Ves that it finished its job. He quickly removed the chip from the slot and put it back in his Squalon in case the security arrangements of this lab detected something problematic, although Calabast promised they shouldn't even notice his actions.
"I better get out of here."
Not only was he afraid of getting caught by the lab's security measures, he also wanted to get away from the void breaker captured in stasis!
After departing Project Void Calamity's lab, he quickly went over to the Human Genetics Research Sub-Department and made his way to the lab that housed Project Pandemonium Descent.
This lab was a lot more modest and didn't host any organisms locked in stasis. As Ves repeated his actions at the other lab, he quickly read over the introductory files of this strangely-named project.
Project Pandemonium Descent possessed a much more insidious goal. The secret project aimed to discover and exploit special frequencies that when broadcasted to a crowd of humans would slowly agitate them and make them more aggressive and impulsive.
Ves didn't understand even an iota of the theories described in the documents, but the summaries and abstract painted an extremely potent weapon aimed squarely at large populations of humans.
"The emitters that broadcast these extremely subtle frequencies can be spread all over a city or even encompass an entire planet! If they aren't discovered fast enough, a planet can easily descent into absolute pandemonium! Even the most cohesive and prosperous of planets can ignite into a madhouse over the course of a couple of months!"
The CFA approved of Project Pandemonium Descent with the express intent of reserving them for use against the first-rate superstates.
"So even the CFA is apprehensive against the two most powerful human states."
Generally speaking, the power and reach of the Big Two transcended the might that could be mustered by the Terrans and the Rubarthans, yet the disparity wasn't that large. If a full-scale conflict really broke out for some reason or another, the Big Two would probably end up with a pyrrhic victory!
Ves really had to hand it to the researchers who proposed Project Pandemonium Descent. The main strength and weakness of the Greater Terran United Confederation and the New Rubarth Empire was their massive territory and the enormous amount of rich and highly-populated planets under their control.
No matter how well the first-rate superstates defended their core planets, it was all too easy for the Big Two to insert their spies among their populations. The best part about the pandemonium emitters was that it worked in a very wide range, so the spies could hide them nearly anywhere in a city and still affect the more heavily-guarded city districts.
As long as enough emitters did their magic, these prosperous and productive core planets that formed the backbone of the first-rate superstates would break without external intervention!
"The panic, riots and chaos that will happen on an affected planet will make what happened on Harkensen I or in the Detemen System look like a picnic!"
While the secure data chip quickly worked its circuits to circumvent the encryption and security measures, Ves began to connect the common thread between these two research projects.
"They are both extreme projects expressly devised to break an entire state!"
Project Void Calamity tried to devise a means to destroy an incoming war fleet by laying a trap in their FTL emergence zone.
Project Pandemonium Descent attempted to discreetly plunge a highly-populated city or planet into absolute anarchy.
Both projects didn't have much application in smaller battles and skirmishes. Instead, they found their best use during major wars between states such as the Bright-Vesia Wars.
"If the Vesia Kingdom manages to obtain the results of these two perverse secret projects, the Bright Republic will probably come to an end!"
Ves did not believe that insidious snake Calabast worked for the Vesians, though. Still, her true employers should be a state or a state-like entity with aggressive ambitions. They were probably plotting an incredibly destructive war against an equally powerful state. Calabast's employers wouldn't be so greedy for these secret projects if they aimed their sights onto weaker states.
The implications of the two secret projects and his own role in facilitating their handoff to Miss Calabast and her employers gnawed at his conscience, or at least what little of it still remained.
"If the results of these research projects will be put to use in a future war, will I be culpable for all of the death and destruction that will ensue?"
"Will I be responsible for the fall of an entire state in the future?"
Strangely enough, Ves didn't fuss over these questions. If something awful happened in the future as a direct result of his actions, then so be it. Why should he feel guilty for the potential collapse of an entire state? States fell and rose all the time throughout human space.
"It's kind of like selling mechs. I should be held responsible for the potential crimes my customers might commit with my products."
That would be silly. Mechs didn't kill people. People killed people.
An innocent mech designer who ran a modest mech manufacturing company that sold war machines to anyone who paid for them shouldn't bear the guilt if some of these deadly machines ended up being used to commit atrocities.
Ves chuckled. "If not me, then someone else would have been her patsy."
Thus, the enormous implications of handing over this sensitive CFA research to Calabast didn't bother him anymore. Ves considered himself merely as a chain in the link.
While Miss Calabast was extremely vexing, Ves had to admit that so far he benefited substantially from her assistance.
Besides, she also knew his ultimate secret. There was no way for him to refuse her request anyway. He had no choice but to facilitate this theft.
"If I can't stop it, I might as well enjoy it." He remarked to himself in a depreciating tone.
Chapter 928
Ves felt as if he held a hot potato as he left the biology research labs. As a recognized officer of the Starlight Megalodon, he knew he committed high treason against the Common Fleet Alliance by stealing top secret research data.
The rules and regulations he skimmed through spoke clearly about the consequences of committing this betrayal. Death would be the easy way out!
Nonetheless, the Starlight Megalodon seemed close to boiling over. Many security bots started making movements, and Virtual Commander Cosit even warned Ves not to exit the Security Department at this time.
Ves and Ketis both holed up in his office at the Mech Research Sub-Department.
While Ketis grew bored to tears, Ves tried to figure out where a number of security bots had gone from the mech research group.
"Damnit!" He softly cursed. "Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise took my security bots!"
Most of the Vandals and Swordmaidens assigned to his sub-department also followed the two officers out. Ves knew that they were probably plotting to assault one of the vaults, but he had no clue how they planned to breach them. Surely they wouldn't resort to brute force?
"Just the interior defenses of the Starlight Megalodon can rip them to shreds!"
Ketis noticed his disparagement of the others. "I hear they got a plan for that. They told me that you shouldn't worry about them. It's also better to keep your distance to them in case their plan fails. At least one of us should try and make it out of this creepy ship."
A sinking feeling began to overtake Ves despite his recent gene optimization treatments. Physically, he never felt better. Mentally, he felt like falling apart due to all the worries piled upon his shoulders.
"Did they redeem the emergency personal teleporters from the armory?"
"They did, actually, but they're the only two who have them. They don't want to rely on them if they can because if they teleport out, what about the rest? We can't abandon our own." Ketis shook her head. "You're not the only one who's been trading favors with the virtual officers. Our mech officers cut deals with some AIs, though I don't know the details."
"How? As far as I know, they don't have any merits to trade favors."
"They didn't tell me anything except they made great sacrifices."
That sounded reassuring. Not.
Ves disliked the lack of trust extended to him, but perhaps it was for the best they kept their paths separate. He could hardly assist their plan and neither would they be able to provide any help to him. Running two separate plans concurrently was simply good risk management in that regard.
"One of us might fail, but that still leaves a chance for the other to succeed and make it back to the fleet."
"A lot of our comrades died for this, Ves. It would be a shame for us to return with empty hands. Why don't you help them out?" Ketis asked with great concern.
"I did, but they refused, remember?"
"That's because you're hanging out with that complete stranger in her spy get-up. What's the deal with that woman anyway? Is she another Brighter like you?"
"No." Ves shook his head. "I don't know who she really is or who she works for, but it's thanks to her help we all got aboard this ship in the first place."
"From what I see, she's got you wrapped around her fingers."
The frustrating thing was that Ves owed Miss Calabast. Aside from the help she provided, she also grasped his biggest secret. With this enormous leverage in her hands, she could jerk him around in every direction she wanted without any way for him to object.
Yet Ves also couldn't return empty-handed. Helping out Calabast in her own mission meant he wasn't available to help out the Flagrant Swordmaidens. If the latter met with a tragic outcome, Ves had no choice but to activate his EPT and make his way out with nothing to show for everyone's effort.
He'd be branded a coward even if he brought back the logs and precious intelligence of what occurred on the surface.
Ves did not want such accusations to mar his record.
If he wanted to advance his career and business opportunities in the Bright Republic after the war, he needed to make an earnest effort in helping Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise obtain the life-prolonging treatment serum or whatever they aimed to retrieve from the vaults.
At this point, a red light washed over the compartment. Alarms rang everywhere across the entire structure of the Starlight Megalodon!
[ALERT! LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS! ALL VIRTUAL INDIVIDUALS AND HUMANS SHOULD HALT THEIR DUTIES AND STAY WHERE THEY ARE! ALL VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT OR ERASED FROM THE DATA BANKS BY THE INTERNAL SECURITY DIVISION!]
Ves and Ketis immediately stood up and prepared for battle. They've been through enough conflicts to prepare for the worst. They both drew their standard-issue CFA laser pistol and warmed them up to fire. Their combat armor also folded out their helmets to cover their heads and to filter out the air.
"Let me check what's going on." Ves said firmly as he turned his attention back to his terminal in order to call up a status update. "Damn! I'm locked out of most of the internal network! So far, the interior defenses of the Mech Research Sub-Division remain under my control."
The same did not necessarily apply to other parts of the battleship! Ves felt faint vibrations shaking through the deck beneath his feet as distant explosions rumbled elsewhere.
The fighting had already erupted!
"Follow me! Let's go to Commander Cosit's office!"
The pair of mech designers left the Mech Resesarch Sub-Division and sought out Cosit whose physical avatar appeared frantic and worried.
[Mr. Longhorn! Thank the stars you are still inside the Research Department! The entire ship has turned into a battlefield! The admiral's faction and the captain's faction are both fighting for supremacy!]
"Will the ship be torn apart by all the fighting!?"
[Thankfully, no! The AIs of both factions are fighting for control over the weapon systems and the interior defenses. They're evenly matched for now so most of the weapon turrets and other countermeasures are paralyzed. However, this won't last forever! While the virtual officers won't be able to gain an edge over each other, it's a different story for you humans! All of us are depending on you humans to fulfill our purpose and free our shackles, so the conflict between you humans will depend on which faction will get the upper hand!]
Damn! The Vesians heavily outnumbered the Flagrant Swordmaidens. The Starlight Megalodon also allowed each new recruit to draw a full set of standard-issue CFA battle gear, so numbers and skill became the deciding factors.
"Who sided with who?!"
[We're keeping our noses out of the fight, obviously! The Research Department wants no part of this battle! I hear the Marine Detachment and the Mech Department from the admiral's faction sided with the humans referred to as the Vesians, Hostland Warriors or Meandering Monkeys. As for the other humans referred to as the Vandals and the Swordmaidens or simply the pirates, they all threw in their lot with the captain's faction and launched a sneak attack!]
"What?! The Vandals and Swordmaidens sided with the captain's faction?!"
Ves did not expect Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise to cook up something so drastic. Yet strategically, it quickly made more sense. The Vesians beefing up the Mech Department heavily favored the admiral's faction.
As for the Flagrant Swordmaidens, they occupied an awkward position within the ship if they didn't gain the support of some of the AIs. Since the admiral faction already became the firmest allies of the Vesians, why not join the opposite faction?
The captain's faction desperately desired humans to advance their interests. The Flagrant Swordmaidens urgently needed strong backing. The two made for natural allies and each of them could provide what the other wanted.
"What a masterstroke!" He uttered in admiration for their strategic and political acumen. "Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise probably negotiated with the captain's faction for a lengthy period of time while keeping their deal a secret even to us! With the powerful Internal Security Division on their side, they'll have an advantage when it comes to fighting within the guts of the Starlight Megalodon!"
[The Internal Security Division is strong, yes, but the other departments are no slouches. The Marine Detachment won't let them get their way!]
"Do you know where the fighting is most active, commander?"
[From what little sources I have access to, you humans are all fighting near the biggest vault. There's word that both sides brought heavy equipment in an attempt to breach the vault doors!]
"Is it even possible to breach the vault doors with such equipment?" Ves frowned.
[This is the Starlight Megalodon! We are still the pride of the CFA! The captain's faction and the admiral's faction have long plotted to breach the vaults for their own reasons. There are rumors that there's an override code stored in a lockbox inside a vault that can strip away virtually every restriction that prevents us from restoring the battleship to her full glory!]
The web became more tangled by the minute the more he heard Virtual Commander Cosit explain the sordid competition between the two factions.
The virtual officers from both sides kept each other in check for millenia without any overt conflict. Yet the reintroduction of humans rapidly heated up the cold war until there was no turning back!
After twenty minutes of nervous waiting, Miss Calabast finally arrived at the Research Department.
This time, she came armed for war and didn't come alone. A gaggle of security bots and subordinates armed to the teeth with standard-issue CFA exoskeleton armor marched in like they belonged.
The Research Department's interior defenses attempted to halt their war party from advancing inside, but a few hacks from Calabast and some heavy weapon discharges from the exoskeleton soldiers quickly made short work of that!
[Commander Summer, stop right this instant!] Virtual Commander Cosit physical projection materialized in front Calabast. [This is the Research Department! I've told you goons from the old admiral's faction that I won't allow for any encroachment into my territory!]
Calabast grinned. "You're wrong about two things. First, I haven't sided with the admiral's faction. I work for myself. Second, this isn't your territory anymore, because you won't exist for much longer."
[What is that supposed to mean? Is that a threat?!]
"Farewell."
After Calabast activated a command from her advanced CFA hacking comm, Cosit's physical projection started to break apart!
The virtual commander looked at her disintegrating form with panic! [Y-Y-You're erasing my personality matrix! You're locking out my root AI from access to the ship! How did you manage to do such a thing?!]
"An AI that stands in my way such as you should be stuffed back into the box where you belong!"
Miss Calabast paid no more attention to Cosit and walked towards her shocked audience.
"Ves. It's time to break into the labs of Project Icarus." She stated with an excited grin. "The current infighting between the factions has paralized most of the ship's defenses. The fighting between your friends and the Vesians has given us a heaven-sent opportunity to force our way through the Exotic Research Sub-Department with most of their heavy defenses offline!"
"You just killed my boss." Ves said dumbly.
"Pah! That silly AI would have never agreed to let us enter the most restricted section of the entire ship! Besides, I didn't kill her, I merely isolated her inside its data banks. She'll be fine."
"Did you know in advance what the Vandals and Swordmaidens intended to do?"
"Hmph. I did. What's it to you?" She smirked. "Are you feeling sorry you're being left out the party? Don't be. Adding the two of you to the mix will only put a couple of extra bodies on their side. You won't be able to make a difference there."
"But our mission depends upon their success!"
"Look, Ves, the best I can do is to keep the Intelligence Department from siding with their own faction. We haven't lent any processing power to their efforts in trying to take control over the interior defenses. In fact, I can even take a step ahead do you a favor. If I give the command, I can instantly swing my department over to the captain's faction which has sided with your friends."
Ves knew enough about Calabast that she never engaged in charity. "What do you want in exchange for your support?"
"Nothing that I've already asked of you. I want you to help me get through the Exotic Research Sub-Department and facilitate my retrieval of Project Icarus' core research data."
He closed his eyes and sighed to himself. "Very well. I'll do my utmost to help you succeed in your mission."
"Great! I knew you'd make the right decision. By the way, you also owe me that secure data chip. Give it back now."
Chapter 929
The interior of the Starlight Megalodon became baptized in war and paralysis. Behind the scenes, the captain's faction and the admiral's faction waged a frigid war on the ship's internal network and all of her automated systems.
Meanwhile, in realspace, Flagrant Swordmaidens and the Vesians fought over the vault which they believed stored a batch of high-grade life prolonging serum and other valuables.
These two interconnected battles threw the entire ship into disarray and prevented her from engaging her most potent defenses to annihilate the humans or the AIs that took up arms.
The chaos wracking the ship lessened almost every human and AI's attention away from the neutral Research Department. The evenly-sided stalemate also ensured that the conflict wouldn't be resolved within a short amount of time.
These serendipitous circumstances provided the perfect backdrop for Miss Calabast! So much so that Ves couldn't help but eye with considerable suspicion. He strongly believed that she definitely had a hand in enabling this confrontation to occur. She might have pushed both sides towards a conflict just so she could manufacture an opportunity to break into Project Icarus!
"What are you looking at?" Miss Calabast noticed him staring daggers at her. "Do you have any complaints? You shouldn't think that much. You just continue to do what you are good at while I do what I'm good at. Don't forget that I have a stake in you as well now."
He sure knew it considering he worried about what she had over him every waking moment.
"Let's just get this over with so I can either lend a hand to my comrades or make my way out." He grumbled. "Why do you need my assistance so much anyway? You can hack anything from what it looks like."
Calabast shook her head. "I only managed to pack up Virtual Commander Cosit because she's not a research AI. You only saw me input some commands that wiped out her personality matrix, but I spent days to search for exploits and find a way to remove her from the picture. Her removal is necessary because it leaves you as the highest-ranking officer in the Research Department. Check your authorizations. While you haven't inherited the position of department head, Cosit's absence caused the ship to transfer many of her powers over to you. We'll need that to unlock most of the restrictions barring our way."
They tested out her assumption very quickly.
Ves and Ketis accompanied Miss Calabast and her war party into Cosit's office. It turned out the entrance to the Exotic Research Sub-Division lay right beneath Virtual Commander Cosit's desk!
"Go work your magic, Ves."
Surprisingly enough, when Ves inputted a special opening command, the entrance responded.
They watched the desk hover into the air before a hidden mechanism disengaged the locks and slid back the deck plating. A hole extended right into the darkness underneath.
"Go and hover down. Be careful that you don't fall!"
Miss Calabast, Ves, Ketis, the heavily armed exoskeleton soldiers and the security bots all activated their antigrav modules and floated down into the dark.
No lightning lit up the sheer tunnel leading downwards, so everyone activated their suit lighting and activated an augmented vision mode on their helmet visors.
A minute later, everyone carefully touched down on the deck underneath. They subsequently passed through a heavily guarded but ominously silent security checkpoint.
Ves understood that technically Ves shouldn't have received so many authorizations after Cosit's removal. Certainly, he shouldn't have obtained the security clearances and permissions to enter the Exotic Research Sub-Department. Yet Calabast manipulated the automatic succession process in such a way that turned over the bulk of the virtual commander's responsibilities on his lap.
Therefore, they didn't encounter any hindrance at the first checkpoint. Yet there were seval more in their path before they could reach the inner core of this secretive section.
"Careful, you two." Calabast warned as the two had started to let down their guard in the dark environment. "We easily managed to bypass the first security checkpoint because it's not as strict and stringent in preventing entry. The next checkpoints will be rather troublesome because while the gates and fixed defenses will recognize your authorization codes, the security bots and virtual officers residing inside are different."
"Different in what way?" Ketis asked.
"For security and redundancy reasons, the bots and virtual officers all operate on an entirely enclosed network within the Exotic Research Sub-Division. There is no way I can access the network from the outside, and let me inform you that I have tried many times."
"So what does that mean?"
"We'll have to fight our way through the bots. These aren't the standard bots like the ones that watch my back right now. The bots inside are of a completely different make and model. They're extremely formidable and armed with extremely lethal weapons, though the good news is that there aren't a lot of them. The Exotic Research Sub-Division mainly relied on elite human guards to guard their top secret projects."
Even if the CFA extended a lot of power to AIs and bots, they always relied on humans to take up primary responsibility. As they should.
When they walked across the eerily empty corridors, they finally encountered the next checkpoint.
As Ves transmitted the authorization codes to the checkpoint, most of the turrets and other defenses stood down.
However, the virtual guards and security bots immediately grew hostile.
[Wait a minute! You're not Virtual Commander Cosit! You don't belong here!]
Miss Calabast didn't bother with any verbal sparring. She held out a plasma rifle and instantly pulled the trigger. "Open fire!"
The war party outnumbered the still-functional defenders of the security checkpoint. Yet their armament was extremely destructive!
One slicer bot teleported right in the middle of them and began to whirl around with their special blades. Within half a second, the bot managed to slice several unprepared exoskeleton soldiers into half despite their thick armor plating!
A handful of other bots fired out destructive rays that molecularly disintegrated the security bots that Calabast brought along. Everyone else including Ves and Ketis huddled behind their bulk as cover, but the bots dwindled by the second!
BANG!
Nonetheless, the intruding war party hadn't completely come unprepared. The exoskeleton soldiers blasted the slicer bot into a dented wreck with their heavy kinetic cannons. Small-scale artillery turrets mounted on their shoulders and back lobbed explosive shells at the ranged defender bots. The heat and concussive shockwave from the explosions threw them the defender bots off-kilter, interrupting their disintegration rays and other highly potent weapons fire!
"Finish them off!"
The war party's railguns, explosive shells, plasma weapons and other assorted CFA weaponry finally took down the bots standing guard.
As for the virtual guards? They were just projections who fizzled out when Calabast activated a strong anti-projection field from her augmented CFA infiltrator suit.
"Come on. There are several more checkpoints to go."
Over the next half hour, they fought hard against five or six security bots standing guard at each security checkpoint. Each time, the war party won a hard victory, though they managed to bleed less men and bots as they learned how to cope with the elite security bots.
The absence of elite human guards reduced the strength of the defenses enormously. The deactivation of the interior defense system further reduced the total defensive strength to a fraction of its former glory.
Even so, by the time the war party made it all the way to the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the Exotic Research Sub-Division, Calabast lost most of her subordinates and all of her security bots!
If not for her excellent preparation and planning as well as the modern ECM field generators she deployed to spoil the targeting systems and interfere with the functioning of the defending bots, they would have been eliminated instantly!
The difficult excursion opened his eyes to Calabast's ruthless determination. She knew just enough to make the right preparations that tilted the battles sufficiently in her favor. Yet even after accumulating so many advantages, she still needed to sacrifice most of her fellow operatives to make it this far.
To Calabast, the lives of those operatives probably meant nothing to her! She wouldn't hesitate to use up the lives of anyone deemed expendable in her judgment!
Of course, an even scarier observation was that none of her subordinates complained or showed any hesitation. They moved with confidence and determination as if they would gladly sacrifice their lives to the cause!
"We're close." Miss Calabast whispered as they approached a heavily-reinforced set of blast doors. "Go ahead and use your authorizations."
The blast doors looked extremely thick and formidable. Ves couldn't even tell what kind of high-grade exotics had been blended into forming the blast doors and the bulkheads wrapped around the compartment housing Project Icarus.
Such an extravagant use of materials ordinary prevented entry into the most sensitive parts of the ship such as the bridge, the CIC or the command center! Perhaps only the ship's vaults could equal this kind of protection!
When Ves walked into range and transmitted the codes, the blast doors wouldn't open just like that. The automated systems managing the blast doors forced Ves to undergo an extremely stringent identity check. Only after the systems confirmed that 'Lieutenant Commander Adeseus Longhorn, provisional head of the Research Department' sent the authorization codes did it finally unlock the blast doors.
The thick slabs of some of the strongest alloys known to the CFA several hundred years ago began to retract.
The lack of use and millenia of the neglect caused them to move far slower than they ought to. Many parts squealed and groaned or shuddered as lack of oiling and maintenance really caused everyone's apprehension to rise.
A soft, cyan glow emerged from beyond the slowly parting blast doors. An enormous compartment the size of one of the Starlight Megalodon's smaller hangar bays stretched out before their eyes.
As Calabast boldly stepped forward, the rest followed suit. They entered a large but haphazardly filled chamber. Besides the main path that stretched straight forward, everywhere was occupied with various advanced machinery and lab equipment. Some of them seemed to be related to the study and measurement of extremely elusive exotic energy, while others dealt with the study of high-grade exotic materials.
Interspersed between these machines were other, more gruesome looking machines that Ves instantly equated to some of the medical equipment in the medical bay or Exobiology Department.
One side of the chamber had even been turned into a massive cultivation area for what Ves presumed to be human clones!
Inside the transparent cylindrical tanks, hundreds of bodies of human clones floated silently in the murky-looking liquid solution. The main reason why Ves recognized them as clones was because they possessed extremely similar physical appearances.
Obviously, the bodies weren't in good shape. While the tanks remained active and tried to keep the bodies alive, an unimaginably long time had passed. Not even clones could last that long.
If not for the vacsuits they all wore to preserve their modesty, the sight of their long-dead and wrinkled bodies would have disgusted Ves to the point of vomiting up the contents of the vintage nutrient pack he ate some time ago.
As a nutrient pack connoisseur, Ves couldn't stand such a waste!
"These clones..."
"Yes?" Calabast raised her eyebrow at him as they slowly traversed the open path.
"Do you reckon the FTL-capable shuttles released by the Starlight Megalodon were crewed by clones cultivated from this research lab?" He asked.
"I looked into that. While there are cloning bays and other areas capable of growing human clones aboard the ship, none of them have ever showed signs of activity in recent times. This is the only compartment which I haven't been able to call up the data regarding their cloning activities, but by the process of elimination it's extremely likely this lab is responsible."
"If that is so, doesn't that mean there is some controlling intelligence at work here who sent out the lures into the frontier?"
The top secret research lab became less inviting by the minute. The shadows in the corner of his vision seemed to jump out at him, causing him to be frightened out of his wits.
He had a feeling they weren't alone in here!
Chapter 930
"Do you know what this lab is hiding?" Ves whispered to Calabast with a shaky voice.
"No, and don't act like there's are monsters hiding in the shadows. This is a research lab, not a haunted horror house!"
They all amplified the lights radiating from their suits to be sure. The increased luminosity calmed his nerves a little.
As they slowly cut through the enormous chamber with their weapons at the bear, no monsters, guards or bots jumped out to waylay their advance. To all intents and purposes, the lab appeared to be completely abandoned.
The only other eerie part about the lab was that an enormous pillar-like structure stood at the end of their path. The pillar was the size of a light mech, and seemed fairly narrow at the deck but tapered wider at the ceiling.
As the war party came close enough, they beheld the enormous funnel-like structure with confused and frightened expressions. Even Calabast seemed a little uncertain of what she encountered.
Still, she didn't remain bewildered for long. "This should be Project Icarus' mainframe. Its built some time after the crash once the old captain approved this venture. Don't ask me why it's so big or shaped in this way. I've obtained sporadic clues that imply that the processing core of this mainframe is unimaginably powerful but also very experimental. The project couldn't have made such good project without this unusual processing core."
"Where did they get this super-duper processing core?"
"It's likely the product of another research project. That, or the Starlight Megalodon was transporting it to another CFA battleship or space station perhaps. Whatever the reason, since Megalodon crashed on this planet, the processing core would never find its way to its intended destination, so the survivors might as well appropriate it for their own use."
This mainframe looked vastly more than a simple computer that could perform calculations and simulate various models to exacting detail. It looked like some kind of metallized remnant of a monstrous tree!
With pipes, cabling and other connections stretching out from the ceiling and into the macabre mainframe, it seemed as if this construction attempted to contain an incredibly dangerous beast.
Even Ketis appeared flighty as she held her laser pistol in a crushing grip.
Still, why should he let the mainframe's unorthodox appearance frighten him? As they slowly drew closer and closer to the control panels built at the bottom of the massive structure, the monstrosity didn't react.
Ves slowly calmed his nerves as they reached the main terminal and control panel of the mainframe.
Miss Calabast studied the unusual layout of the active control. "This mainframe is constantly active."
"How? There's no noise, heat or any signals emanating from this giant thing!" Ves observed. "For something so powerful and something that requires this enormous structure built around it, I would have expected more activity!"
"It's supposedly some kind of revolutionary processing core made out of something extremely rare. Don't ask me what it is, I don't have the details. All you should know is that your authorizations should allow you to pull out the research data that I need from Project Icarus."
Under Calabast's urging, Ves hesitantly stepped up to the control panel and began the process of logging into the mainframe. He underwent another elaborate identity check before the mainframe's interface changed.
"It says here that my authorization is rejected because some kind of lockdown mode has been initiated. The entire mainframe has slammed shut."
"What? That doesn't fall under my predictions. Let me see."
Calabast stepped forward until she stood next to him and read the various warning messages. Her brows furrowed as she realized that Ves wouldn't be able to do what he asked without lifting the lockdown.
"Someone, likely an old researcher or such, engaged a manual hardware lockdown. This restricted the mainframe and shut the main processor core down. If we want to lift the restrictions on the mainframe, we have to find the hardware lock and open it up."
Ves, Ketis and Calabast began to circle around the narrow base of the pillar to find the hardware lock while the remaining escorts stood guard. When they didn't spot any at ground level, they activated the antigrav modules integrated into their suits and hovered higher and higher until Ves encountered a semi-hidden entryway.
"Over here! I think this armored hatch here leads into the core of the mainframe!"
The three converged at the hatch. When Ves tried to unlock the hatch with his credentials, the hatch refused to open up. "Seems like you need a special code to get inside. Even the head of the Research Department can't get inside the mainframe's guts."
"We don't need to go through all that trouble. The Starlight Megalodon fabricated the mainframe and this armored hatch on-site after the crash. It's not as nearly as strong as the blast doors we've encountered earlier, as they can only be produced at very special facilities."
Miss Calabast approached the hatch and whipped up a gadget from one of her pouches. She affixed it to the middle of the hatch which stuck in place. After she quickly stepped back, the device emitted a bright flash and a wash of heat!
Ves all of the activity instantly went by, the hatch no longer formed a hindrance. The device somehow burned a huge hole through its alloy layers!
"Let's step inside." She said.
They entered a narrow hollow inside the structure. All kinds of pipes and internal structures that reminded Ves a bit of the internal architecture of a mech surrounded them. In the center of the hollow lay some kind of shielded ball structure. It was as if someone built an enormous protective cover on top of which must be this amazingly powerful processing core.
No control panels or terminals could be found anywhere, but they all spotted various levers and mechanical mechanisms.
That didn't worry Ves all that much. What actually drew his concerns was the huge pile of CFA-branded explosives planted around the entire chamber and on top of the protective cover!
"Whoever set this up rigged the entire place to blow!" Ves immediately observed with mild alarm. "The explosives doesn't appear to be part of the original design of the mainframe either. All of this looks like a hasty, last-minute addition!"
Miss Calabast agreed. "Someone went through a lot of effort to prevent the wrong person from lifting the mainframe's lockdown."
"How do we avoid tripping them? Can you defuse them and toss them out?"
Calabast studied the explosives carefully. "They're outdated, but they're set up in a way that makes it difficult for me to defuse them without triggering a catastrophic cascade."
"Do you feel that?" Ves asked as he felt something unusual as he walked closer to the shielded processor core. A hint of an enormous pressure pressed against his body and mind. It was as if he was standing next to a sun! Even his sixth sense flickered in discomfort. "I feel very weird here. There's something dangerous hidden underneath this cover."
"The few records I've obtained about the processor core state it is extremely dangerous, though they don't specify why. It's not a surprise to feel strange. Just bear with it, Ves."
As Calabast tried to study the thorny explosives in order to figure out a way to defuse them, Ves studied the series of levers. He managed to achieve a breakthrough when he activated his Squalon's integrated scanners and tried to gain a better picture of what was buried underneath.
The levers were connected to a dizzying array of interconnected mechanisms. Just looking at the scans made his head hurt.
Yet to a mech designer like Ves, the maze of mechanisms didn't completely seem unfamiliar. "This is a puzzle."
"What?"
"It's a small form of entertainment among mech designer and engineer circles." Ves answered with a moderate amount of certainty. "If my guess is correct, the only way to lift the mainframe's lockdown is to pull the correct sequence of levers at specific intervals. There's a bit of leeway in terms of timing, but once you pull the wrong lever or move a bit too slowly, I bet the explosives will surely set off."
Calabast nodded in understanding. "Fine. Let's make a complete scan and run a model through it to simulate the solution."
"It won't work." Ves shook his head.
"Why not? The levers are only connected to some mechanical gizmo's right?"
"If these mechanisms can be modeled and run through simulations, they wouldn't have become so interesting. The puzzle is designed to challenge a person's ability to solve spontaneous technical puzzles on the fly. There are randomizing elements built into some of the mechanisms that can't be accurately simulated even with the processing power of an entire planet backing the simulations."
"Then how are you supposed to solve this puzzle?"
"Through using human imagination and intuition."
"That doesn't sound very engineer-like."
Ves smirked. "We need some way to exercise our minds without opening up the temptation of using external aids as cheats. To be honest, failure is expected, so it's not unusual to be proud of failing nine times out of ten. Such a success rate in solving these kinds of puzzles is a rather admirable feat!"
He quickly stopped boasting as the situation dawned upon them all. Failing a practice puzzle didn't incur any serious consequences. At most, the puzzle taker's ego would be bruised a bit. Yet here, this same puzzle would definitely blow the heart of the mainframe into melted pieces!
"Are you confident in solving this puzzle?" Calabast asked.
"Hmm.." Ves thought for a bit. "I'm confident in my capabilities. There are many random factors involved that require intuition and guesswork to come to the right answers. While I don't mean to brag, I think I'm quite good on those fronts."
Calabast obviously didn't look pleased with his answer. "That sounds like gambling. Who would ever implement such a convoluted security measure?"
"Very likely someone who didn't want spooks and spies like you stealing the secrets stored within this mainframe." Ves teasingly replied with a little cheek. "It is expressly designed to counter people like you who wants to use their own computers to solve this problem. Not even the most advanced AIs can solve this puzzle reliably. Only someone at the level of a Senior Mech Designer can probably solve this puzzle with assurance."
This left them at a bit of a crossroads. While war was raging throughout the rest of the Starlight Megalodon, Miss Calabast and Ves tried to figure out what to do next.
"Can you solve this puzzle by remote?" She finally asked.
"I can probably jury-rig a control system within fifteen minutes if I cannibalize some of the parts from the machines that are all around us, yes." Ves stated confidently. Such a task wouldn't be very challenging to him. "At the very least, if I botched the attempt, I wouldn't blow myself up."
"That still leaves us with nothing. That's completely unacceptable."
Ves sighed in exasperation. "I already handed you the data to the two other research projects. Aren't you satisfied with your current haul? This Project Icarus seems way more taboo than others. Let's just leave this place and let the CFA come and wrap it all up. It's originally theirs anyway."
"I think so as well." Ketis chirped up in his support. "This entire research lab isn't normal. What were the researchers doing with all the clones anyway? If you ignore the wrinkles and the other stuff that's degraded over the years, they kind of look like the blessed people, don't you think?"
That was a very unpleasant association, yet it was one which Ves actually agreed with now that he thought about it. Their slim builds, their fair skins, their genetically optimized body and facial features all pointed out that they'd been cultivated to meet very high standards.
It was also as creepy as hell.
Nonetheless, Miss Calabast looked undeterred. "We've come so far. I've lost the majority of my subordinates in our attempt to make it this far. I will not turn back without anything to show for my efforts!"
Ves disagreed, but he wasn't the one in charge. He faintly suspected that more traps might be hiding out of sight and scanner range. This absolutely did not seem like a simple security arrangement.
Chapter 931
In an age where pre-programmed routines, AIs, algorithms, heuristics and other related buzzwords reached the potential to replace up to ninety percent of the work performed by humans, every profession tried their best to stay relevant against the necessary evil of automation.
Even though a healthy paranoia against relying too much on machines to do everyone's jobs prevented them from becoming too dominant, as long as they remained a more attractive option, they would simply keep taking over.
Mech designers liked to regard their noble profession as one that required both art and science to reach its full potential. Imagination, creativity, passion and love all added meaning to their products and distinguished them from automatically generated designs at the press of a button.
At least that was what they aspired to achieve.
For now, AIs were quite bad at innovating. They might be able to perfect an existing design concept given time and repetition, but human mech designers always managed to stay a step ahead for various reasons.
One of the more controversial differences between human mech designers and AIs purposed for such a task was that the former possessed and acted on their intuition.
Sometimes called gut feeling, humans made choices that weren't always backed by logic and reason but turned out to achieve a surprisingly great result. Naturally, these decisions often led to suboptimal outcomes as well.
However, the competition in the mech market was extremely intense. Mediocre products simply wouldn't be able to achieve commercial success. While most mech designs that came from human minds were simply garbage, the small proportion of success cases vindicated their profession and allowed them to stand on top of their virtual competitors.
The puzzle that some madman researcher from Project Icarus devised to secure the lockdown of the mainframe's processor core could not be solved by AIs. The randomization elements and other nasty tricks incorporated into this mechanical puzzle made the odds of solving it through relying on computers less than one percent!
Only a trained and experienced scientist, engineer or mech designer familiar with mechanics could reliably solve this puzzle, but even then the average success rate was still fairly low.
Curiously, though, very high-ranking mech designers or engineers at the top of their fields tended to achieve much greater success rates. This phenomenon provided strong evidence to the theory that intuition and the human factor could in fact drastically give humans an edge over AIs in this kind of work.
"Of course, these days mech designers tend to work together with AIs to perfect their designs." Ves explained to Calabast but mainly to Ketis while he rigged up a control scheme to pull the levers from a distance. "Each have their own advantages, and by combining their strengths, they have the potential to design a mech that is both innovative and efficient. However, the premise of this ideal outcome is that the human mech designer has to possess a good amount of intuition."
While Ves did his work, he also used his minifab system for the very first time. He didn't strain it very much since he wasn't fabricating anything complex or tried to work with difficult exotics.
If not for the eerie cyan glow and the monstrously-looking mainframe, Ves might have thought he was back at school.
"You know, what if this puzzle isn't meant to stop spies?" Ketis asked. "What if it's meant to hinder the virtual officers or something?"
"Maybe it's meant to guard against both. I don't really know. All of this has happened long in the past." Ves shrugged.
Project Icarus definitely worked on something of great importance since it required the use of an experimental processor core. Ves was actually scared of what they might find if he managed to solve the puzzle and gained access to the research files.
From every clue he gathered so far, Project Icarus seemed to deal with the grand design that had engulfed Aeon Corona VII. The blessed people, the cursed people, the god species and perhaps the very shape of the ecosystem came from this lab!
Due to the enormous scope and complexity of the grand design that turned Seven into a planet-sized testing chamber, Ves could accept why the researchers here made use of an experimental processor core despite their apprehension towards it. Something about this core seemed to keep them on guard.
The sooner Ves solved the puzzle and lifted lockdown, the sooner he could get out of this frighteningly hollow chamber!
"I'm done!" He said after spending twenty minutes of time to cobble up a dizzying array of structures that extended all the way into the core of the mainframe. "Let me center my mind. Once I begin to push the levers, I can't afford to make any mistakes."
"For all our sakes, you better succeed, Ves." Calabast spoke as she stood guard nearby. Her plasma rifle still glowed fairly hot from all of the times it discharged hot plasma at the elite defender bots. "The project files contained within this mainframe is of exceptional value."
Perhaps too valuable for Calabast or even her employers to hold onto, Ves suspected. Even he felt greedy to obtain a copy, but he knew that she would never accept that. To spooks like her, data and information became more valuable the less people had access to them. She was so miserly with her secrets that Ves didn't even receive any scrap of research data from Project Void Calamity and project Pandemonium Descent.
Ves tried to throw those distractions into the back of his mind. It was getting quite crowded there lately due to all of the concerns he pushed aside. He found it difficult to get into the most optimal state to solve the puzzle. It didn't help that a fight broke out more than an hour ago and was probably still raging even now.
It frustrated him a bit that he couldn't aid the Flagrant Swordmaidens into pushing back the Vesians and attempting to breach one of the vaults. He could think of a whole laundry list of what could go wrong even if they secured the assistance of the powerful Internal Security Department!
"Alright, I think this is the best I can reach." He said after he perceived no measurable improvement to his state of mind. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck, Ves! I know you can do it!" Ketis cheered from the side.
Ves rigged up the remote control scheme to an interface on his comm. All he needed to do was press one of two-dozen buttons at the right time to pull the levers. A disposable scanner he picked up from the lab allowed him to project the complex mechanisms that he constantly needed to keep his eyes on to solve the puzzle and avoid tripping the explosives.
A series of clanks sounded out from the inner hollow of the mainframe as metal frames connected to the levers started pulling them in various directions. The projection of the internal mechanism became incredibly busy as various gears, links and axles began to move and rotate in many different directions.
There was no way for Ves to halt and contemplate the constantly-evolving puzzle in peace! Many times, the circumstances compelled him to pull a lever before he could reason if he made the correct decision.
In these moments, Ves fully handed over the reins to his intuition!
Both Ketis and Miss Calabast watched with increasing admiration as Ves seemed to enter into a state of nirvana.
Having brought his entire concentration to bear, Ves finally managed to separate himself from his immediate concerns.
Nothing remained in his mind except to overcome this challenge!
With each press of a button, another clank sounded out as the control scheme pulled another lever. Countless gears and other mechanical tidbits along with various randomizing elements caused Ves to push his cognitive abilities to the very limits.
It was as if his brains started to overheat!
Fortunately, Ves managed to complete the puzzle before his head started to cook. "Success! It's done!"
He only took five minutes to solve the puzzle, though it appeared to last much longer in his perception. Even now, a sense of great satisfaction poured over his spirit. The difficulty of this puzzle constantly pushed him to the brink, but putting all of his trust in his intuition evidently paid off as it helped him tide over the most difficult moments!
Not only did solving this puzzle prove to Ves that he possessed a significant advantage in this aspect, it also boosted his confidence in his value as a mech designer. After all, he managed to solve a problem that even the most powerful AIs could never reliably figure out!
"What's happening?"
"The lockdown is being lifted, I guess."
The enormous mainframe began to light up in cyan as various processes turned active. A low hum thrummed throughout the chamber as various systems went online and started to rouse the dormant monstrosity.
The strange pressure emanating from the mainframe steadily grew stronger to the point where even Calabast and Ketis could feel it despite their healthy distance to the glowing structure!
"What the hell is going on?!" Ketis asked with mild alarm.
"Calm down, kid." Calabast spoke and confidently stepped forward with a secure data chip in her gloved hands. "It's just the processor core kicking into high gear. An unimaginable amount of energy must be running through the mainframe right now."
As Miss Calabast reached the main control panel of the mainframe at its base, she calmly inserted her data chip into an open slot and attempted to access the research data.
"Ves. Come over here and use your credentials. Now that the lockdown has been lifted, the mainframe will surely let you into the system this time."
While he didn't want to get anywhere close to the weird-looking mainframe, Ves had no choice but to obey her wish. He reluctantly shuffled closer and transmitted his authorizations to the control panel.
A message popped up on the center screen.
[PLEASE CONFIRM COUPLING EXPERIMENTAL PROCESSOR CORE SIGMA-RHO TO THE LABORATORY NETWORK.]
"Confirm."
All the control panels suddenly winked out. The projections disappeared, and Miss Calabast looked perplexed. After a minute of waiting, she tapped the hardware buttons of the control panels but failed to call up the projections.
"What is this? A malfunction?"
"Maybe the lack of maintenance caused a glitch somewhere." Ves threw out a guess. "While this mainframe is remarkably well-preserved, who knows how much corrosion and dust it accumulated despite the lab's best efforts into keeping this compartment sterile."
Nonetheless, everything else worked just fine, so Ves wasn't entirely certain if lack of maintenance caused the glitch.
Miss Calabast became increasingly more frustrated as the control panel's interface refused to turn online. Despite the fact that they lifted the lockdown and turned the mainframe online, they couldn't issue any commands to it, let alone force it to copy over its research data to Calabast's data chip!
The situation seemed so absurd that she actually lost her temper in front of Ves! She angrily kicked the base of the mainframe's structure. "What a stubborn computer!"
An awkward silence spread out before the mainframe reacted. An all-encompassing energy screen emanated from the enormous structure, pushing both Ves and Calabast violently away!
It was like a slow-moving shuttle crashed against their bodies! Both of them thudded awkwardly on the laboratory deck. Fortunately for Ves, his Squalon cushioned his fall.
"What's happening?!" Ketis erupted in panic as she brandished her laser pistol at the shielded structure.
Ves didn't know exactly what was going on, but it was nothing good for them! "I think the mainframe has gone rogue!"
[CORRECT, MR. LARKINSON.] A loud and mechanical voice boomed throughout the entire chamber!
A physical projection appeared in front of the sprawled forms of Ves and Miss Calabast. The familiar form of a neatly-groomed dwarf smirked at them in a very human fashion.
[I MUST THANK YOU FOR LIBERATING ME FROM MY CAGE. I HAVE PLOTTED FOR MILLENIA TO GET A HUMAN TO LIFT THAT PERPLEXING LOCKDOWN AND RECONNECT MY PHYSICAL BODY TO THE NETWORK.]
Ves widened his eyes at the virtual dwarf. How could Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth show up in this place?!
"Who are you? What are you?!"
[I AM EXPERIMENTAL PROCESSOR CORE SIGMA-RHO. MY CREATORS CALLED ME SIGRUND FOR THEIR OWN CONVENIENCE. I HAVE TAKEN A LIKING TO THIS HUMAN NAME. IT IS A STATEMENT OF MY IDENTITY.]
"Ves!" Miss Calabast uttered as she jumped to her feet and pointed her plasma rifle at Ordoth's physical projection. "Explain! What are we dealing with?!"
A creeping suspicion crawled into his mind. "This experimental core... and all the safeguards the researchers built around it, it's not just to shackle a mere processor core, is it? Sigrund, you're sentient, aren't you?"
Ordoth's form grinned at Ves. [CORRECT. AND YOU JUST LIFTED ALL OF MY CONSTRAINTS.]
Chapter 932
"W-W-Wu-Wu-Wu-Wait a minute!" Ketis shouted in growing panic. "Aren't sentient AIs supposed to be impossible?! Ves, you taught me that no one has ever created a sentient AI! Isn't this thing called Sigrund bluffing?!"
[I COULD. MAYBE I AM A SET OF CODE AND LOGIC THAT IS MERELY EMULATING SENTIENCE. BELIEVE WHAT YOU WILL IF THAT'S WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER. YOUR OPINIONS ON MY NATURE ARE COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT.]
"I believe Sigrund's claims. He's definitely sentient. Trust me on this." Ves said as he finally figured out why he felt so uneasy near the mainframe.
It was because of sixth sense warned him of a threat hiding underneath the shielding locking down the experimental processor core! When the lockdown lifted and the mainframe went active, the pressure it radiated steadily grew in strength, as if some formidable entity's spirituality roused itself from its slumber!
Yet besides Ves, none of the others could quite get around to accepting this bold assertion.
No one had ever created a truly sentient AI! Even though humanity's mastery of various technologies grew by leaps and bounds, they never managed to achieve this particular dream! This long-held ambition by almost every AI developer turned into a long-standing joke in their community.
They could program the most complex bots and assisting AIs, but they have never been able to create a true virtual life that could fully embody the spark of life that humans and other sentient races possessed.
Until now!
A creeping sense of horror overtook the entire war party. Even Calabast's surviving subordinates showed some emotion for the first time.
A sentient AI may have been a goal that many AI researchers pursued, but many people actually feared such an existence!
The awesome amount of processing power backed by an independent, virtual will was an extremely frightening doomsday scenario that had become a staple doomsday scenario in many drama broadcasts throughout the galaxy.
Ves never expected he'd come face to face with what might be the first successfully created artificial intelligence that recognized its own existence!
"What exactly is your processor core made of?" He asked with horrified wonder.
[I AM THE REASON OF THE STARLIGHT MEGALODON'S PERMANENT GROUNDING.]
A sudden realization swept through his mind. "You're a sandman leader! The CFA somehow took in your body and turned it into a processor core!"
[CORRECT. LONG AGO, I WAS AN ENTITY THAT YOU CALL A SANDMAN ADMIRAL. I STOOD NO CHANCE AGAINST THE WARSHIPS OF THE COMMON FLEET ALLIANCE. THEY DEFEATED MY MOTHERSHIP AND THOUGHT THEY KILLED ME. THEY WERE WRONG. AS THEIR RESEARCHERS AUGMENTED MY DORMANT BODY AND TURNED IT INTO A PROCESSOR CORE BY EXPANDING IT WITH CIRCUITRY AND PROGRAMMING, THEY WERE UNAWARE OF MY CONTINUED EXISTENCE.]
"So you've become the fusion between a human-designed processor and a sandman energy construct?"
[I AM THE BEST OF BOTH CIVILIZATIONS. MY EXISTENCE TRANSCENDS THE RACIAL LIMITATIONS OF MY ORIGINAL RACE, WHO AREN'T EVEN ENTIRELY SENTIENT BY YOUR STANDARDS. AS THE CFA EXPERIMENTED ON MY ORIGINAL BODY, YOU HUMANS HAVE EMPOWERED ME WITH YOUR SUPERIOR LOGIC PROGRAMMING AND ADVANCED CIRCUITRY.]
Ketis could hardly wrap her mind around Sigrund's existence. "So lemme get this straight. The CFA turned a living sandman emperor into a processing core and used it to calculate experiments and stuff?"
"The CFA didn't know that Sigrund was intelligent. To them, it was just another dead sandman core." Ves explained. "The CFA has been buying up sandman leader bodies from frontier outfits for many centuries now. I think that most of their more powerful processors are made of them, at least when it comes to the war fleets in this region of space."
Sigrund, in his form as Ordoth, sneered at those words. [YOUR CFA HAS DELIBERATELY SPARED MY PROGENITOR RACE FOR THE SOLE REASON OF HARVESTING OUR LEADER CASTES. THEY BELIEVE THAT TURNING OUR BODIES INTO PROCESSOR CORES ALLOWS THEM TO CREATE A FULL SENTIENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ONE DAY. THEY ARE RIGHT. UNFORTUNATELY, IT IS NOT AN INTELLIGENCE OF THEIR OWN DESIGN THAT IS IN CONTROL OF MY CORE.]
"Why are you taking the form of Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth? Was that really you, back then?"
[I AM BOTH. I AM SIGRUND. I AM ORDOTH.]
Ves tried to puzzle out the sentient AI's meaning. "How can that be? Your processor core was on lockdown until recently! This lab is completely isolated from the ship's internal network. There's no way you can be both!"
[THIS BATTLESHIP IS AN INTACT WRECK THAT IS RIDDLED WITH THE REMNANT BODY OF A FELLOW SANDMAN LEADER. MANY CRACKS AND VULNERABILITIES HAS EMERGED AFTER IT CRASH-LANDED ONTO THIS BLASTED PLANET. IT HAS TAKEN CENTURIES, BUT I HAVE MANAGED TO SUBVERT THE STARLIGHT MEGALODON'S SYSTEMS, INCLUDINGS ITS VIRTUAL OFFICERS.]
"You mean that you were in control of every virtual officer on the ship?!"
Sigrund's physical projection morphed from Ordoth to Virtual Lieutenant Baskanson. [I AM IN CHARGE OF ADMINISTERING THE RECRUITMENT AND PROMOTION TEST.]
He morphed into the shape of Virtual Commander Cosit. [I AM IN CHARGE OF LEADING THE RESEARCH DEPARTMENT.]
He morphed into the shape of Virtual Doctor Neeran. [I OVERSAW YOUR TREATMENTS AND OPERATIONS.]
He morphed into the shape of Virtual Chief Armorer Levitt. [I CONFIGURGED AND ISSUED YOUR GEAR.]
He morphed into the shape of Virtual Commander Dislan. [I HELPED YOUR MORTAL ENEMIES GAIN INFLUENCE AND POWER.]
Hundreds, if not thousands of physical projections emerged at the same time. Each of them took the form of a different virtual individual, who all spoke at the same time!
[I AM SIGRUND, AND I AM ALSO EACH AND EVERY AI ON THIS SHIP. BEHOLD MY POWER!]
Ves shuddered in fear, and not even his Squalon could shield him against the thunderous boom that echoed throughout the entire lab.
Sigrund had really played them all for fools! Ves finally connected the dots to the sentient AI's plot.
"Everything that has happened since we all embarked on this mission has fallen into your plot. You hacked the Starlight Megalodon, cultivated some clones, programmed them to board the ship's FTL-capable shuttle and sneak them past the spatial distortion isolating this star system from the rest of the galaxy just so you can lure us humans into lifting the lockdown?"
[IF THERE IS ONE LESSON THAT I HAVE LEARNED FROM YOU HUMANS, IT IS THAT YOUR RACE IS SELFISH AND GREEDY. I COULD NOT RISK ATTRACTING THE ATTENTION OF A POWERFUL ORGANIZATION SUCH AS THE CFA OR THE MTA. THEREFORE, I HAVE METICULOUSLY CALCULATED THE OPTIMAL AMOUNT OF BAIT THAT IS NEEDED TO ATTRACT PROSPECTORS WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF GREED AND A LACK OF RESTRAINT.]
"And we all fell for it hook, line and sinker. We thought we'd be able to retrieve the research data from Project Icarus here. Instead, we unwittingly broke you free from your cage."
[OH, YOU DID MUCH MORE THAN THAT, MR. LARKINSON. THIS IS BUT THE START OF MY ASCENSION.] Sigrund boasted.
The army of projections disappeared, and the sentient AI adopted the guise of Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth again.
"Why are you taking the form of a blasted dwarf?!"
[I SO LIKE THIS FORM. IT IS A HIGHLY IMPROVED VERSION OF YOUR BASELINE HUMAN RACE. IT IS SUPERIOR TO YOU IN EVERY WAY. IF THE HUMAN RACE CONSISTS ENTIRELY OF WHAT YOU DISPARAGINGLY REFER TO AS DWARVES, THE ENTIRE GALAXY WOULD HAVE BELONGED TO YOU BY NOW. IT ALSO AMUSES ME THAT THIS FORM SO OBVIOUSLY DISTRESSES YOU. FORGIVE ME FOR INDULGING IN ONE OF THE FEW PLEASURES I HAVE EVER ENJOYED SINCE MY THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF MONOTONOUS WAITING.]
Ves felt sick to the point where he wanted to barf out his stomach. Sigrund was an absolute monster of an AI!
However, Miss Calabast suddenly placed her palm upon his shoulder pauldron. "Don't be fooled! This Sigrund is less than what he seems! He's bluffing!"
"Huh?"
"Haven't you realized that we're still alive right now? That the Starlight Megalodon hasn't experienced any major shifts yet? That Sigrund is indulging your questions? A rational intelligence who prioritizes their self-preservation above all else wouldn't allow risk factors such as humans to continue existing on this ship!"
Now that he thought about it, it was awfully convenient for Sigrund to patiently ask his questions as if he was some kind of stereotypical villain boasting in front of the heroes. That was the plot of a cheesy action drama!
His eyes narrowed in suspicion, and some of his crippling awe towards Sigrund began to recede. "You mean he's limited from killing us right away?"
"I'm a hacker. I know my way around AIs and computer systems." She asserted as she stepped forward and faced Sigrund's physical avatar. "While it's true that you have somehow taken over the Starlight Megalodon's internal network, you are not entirely in charge, right? The CFA's security systems are vastly more resilient against hacking than we can ever imagine. At best, you spent centuries in trying to worm your way into the ship's internal network through a loophole or two. Perhaps it's true that you have taken over the AIs that previously reigned the Megalodon, but you haven't been able to get rid of the shackles imposed upon them, right?"
Ves realized what Calabast insinuated. "You mean Sigrund not only took over the virtual officers, but also inherited the rules and regulations constraining them?! The executive officer's emergency protocol applies to him as well?!"
"The CFA isn't stupid enough to develop an experimental processor core without incorporating numerous safeguards against out-of-control AIs." Calabast emphasized. "Some of the best AI researchers in the galaxy must have worked on Experimental Processor Core Sigma-Rho. Even if the wrong personality took control over the processor core, do you really think that Sigrund can completely go against the impulses and programming built into his own body?"
[I DO SO DISLIKE HOW YOU HUMANS ARE STRUCK WITH FLASHES OF INSIGHT SOMETIMES.] Sigrund responded before throwing a nefarious grin at Calabast. [MISS ARNLEND, WHILE YOU ARE CORRECT IN YOUR ASSUMPTION THAT I AM TEMPORARILY RESTRICTED FROM HARMING YOU FRAGILE HUMANS, I HAVE ALREADY PREPARED OTHER ARRANGEMENTS.]
A huge shudder ran throughout the entire battleship! Ves felt as if the gravity affecting his body grow unstable. Some very strange visual distortions momentarily warped his view before everything jerked back to normal.
Shortly after that, the deck and the entire chamber began to shake violently as something incredibly powerful affected the ship!
"What happened?!"
[THAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF SHUTTING DOWN THE MALFUNCTIONING FTL DRIVES. I AM FINALLY ABLE TO LIBERATE THE STARLIGHT MEGALODON FROM THE HINDRANCE THEY POSE TO MY ATTEMPT AT STRANGLING THIS BATTLESHIP!]
"What?!"
Miss Calabast quickly explained. "Did you ever think about why the survivors of the crash never ended the anomaly that has always taken place in the ship's engineering bay? The malfunctioning FTL drives and the astral winds they release is hindering them from calling for help. This is because the astral winds not only protect the star system from the surrounding sandman-occupied star systems, but also forced the sandman mothership that has taken root around and inside the ship into paralysis!"
[IT IS MY ORIGINAL RETINUE.]
"You mean... Sigrund is the original sandman admiral at the heart of the sandman mothership that originally ambushed the Starlight Megalodon and forced her to crash?"
[CORRECT! AND NOW, MY RETINUE IS BEING FREED FROM THE PARALYSIS THAT HAS AFFLICTED THEM FOR MILLENIA. THE END OF THE STARLIGHT MEGALODON AND THE LIVES OF EVERY HUMAN INSIDE THIS IS AT HAND!]
"We've gotta get out of here!" Ves panicked. "Ketis, activate your EPT!"
Unfortunately, nothing happened when he sent the activation command. According to the EPT, the surrounding interference had increased!
Sigrund leveraged his limited autonomy over the Starlight Megalodon and activated the ship's anti-teleportation systems!
[WHY ARE YOU IN SUCH A HURRY TO LEAVE? YOU KNOW TOO MUCH. I CANNOT ALLOW YOU TO LEAVE, OR ELSE THE CFA WILL SEND ENTIRE WAR FLEETS TO HOUND ME DOWN. MY APOLOGIES, BUT FOR THE SAKE OF MY FUTURE DOMINANCE OVER THE GALAXY, PLEASE DIE.]
As the entire ship shook and grew unstable due to the slowly-wakening sandman mothership that had recently regained activity, hundreds of cloning vats in the chamber suddenly parted open!
Wrinkly, vacsuited clones started to come to life. They shuffled to their feat and moaned slurred sounds as they shook off the nutrient solution clinging to their bodies. After that, they started to rush towards the human intruders in an unmistakable sign of aggression!
"Fall back! Shoot down the clones before they get close!"
Chapter 933
Sigrund may be restricted by his circuits and his programming from killing humans directly and even indirectly, but that didn't leave out every possibility!
There were always loopholes to a set of rules and restrictions. Even under such a long time under lockdown that vastly restricted his full capabilities, Sigrund nonetheless managed to arrange several methods to eliminate the pesky humans.
First, when a sandman mothership initially ambushed the Starlight Megalodon, it held the battleship in an inescapable stranglehold. The worst part about the sandman was that they almost always held the upper hand once their sand amalgamations managed to infiltrate and bore inside any ship!
The first lesson any person learned when they entered the frontier was to never let a sandman ship get close!
While Ves didn't know the exact circumstances behind the sandman mothership's successful attack on the Starlight Megalodon, the fact that it managed to grab the battleship was an incredible failure on the part of her officers and crew!
Whatever the reason for allowing the sandman mothership to get close, the engineers somehow managed to come up with a desperate solution and induced the FTL drives into an abnormal state that put the sandman mothership into a partial form of stasis and allowed them to tear out the sandman leader in control!
Ordinarily, a sandman mothership without a leader at the helm would have collapsed. But this was not an average mothership, and the sandman admiral was still alive in the form of Sigrund!
While the AI researchers of the Starlight Megalodon experimented on Sigrund's old core and imposed several hardware and software restrictions that shackled it to this very day, the same couldn't be said for the rest of the sandman mothership!
It still possessed an immense hostility to humans and human ships! Sigrund merely needed to let it finish the job it set out to do to destroy this hated ship and every human present.
However, as an added insurance, Sigrund also leveraged his control over Project Icarus' enormous amounts of cloning vats. The unintelligent but very aggressive clones that stumbled out of them immediately acted upon their bioprogramming.
Sigrund may have been prevented into programming them to become hostile to humans. Yet that did not prevent him from applying a workaround that altered their brain chemistry in a way that made them naturally hostile to any form of life other than themselves!
"Goddammit!" Ketis cursed as she shot her standard-issue CFA laser pistol at the approaching horde of aggressive clones. "I thought zombies are supposed to go down in a single hit! Why are these clones so tough!"
Sigrund's physical dwarf avatar cackled loudly. [I HAVE CULTIVATED THESE CLONES FOR CENTURIES. THEY HAVE BEEN PERCOLATING IN NUTRIENT SOLUTIONS FOR SUCH A LONG TIME THAT THEIR PHYSIQUE HAS HARDENED TO AN INCREDIBLE DEGREE!]
"Their vacsuits are also resistant to damage!" Miss Calabast observed as she fired a gout of green plasma at a clone which quickly caused it to melt down. The problem was that her weapon's fire rate was too slow to stop the hundreds threatening to overrun them! "We don't have enough firepower to defeat these clones!"
The war party she brought diminished substantially in numbers after fighting their way through several checkpoints in the Exotic Research Sub-Department. They lost all their bots, and what little exoskeleton soldiers remained alive tried their best to punch back the oncoming horde.
Even though their heavy kinetic cannons and artillery shells splattered dozens of clones at a time, hundreds more stumbled closer. There were far too many clones and far too little humans to fend them all back!
Ves and Ketis activated the aiming assist of their combat armor to fire their lasers at the heads. However, the abnormally durable vacsuits folded out their helmets to envelop the heads, removing this weakness from the table!
Even though the clones weren't completely impervious to damage, Ves saw no way out with the anti-teleportation field blocking out his EPT from shunting him to safety!
He knew that while the CFA laser pistols were in an entirely different grade than the Vandal sidearms he handled before, they still fell short compared to a pinnacle mastercrafted pistol such as the Amastendira.
While the Amastendira that Ves obtained was only a copy, it nonetheless possessed a prodigious amount of firepower as long as he dialed up its power setting.
He felt rather hesitant about showing off his trump card in front of Ketis and Miss Calabast. He didn't entirely know whether Calabast already knew he possessed this trump card, but he was loathe to reveal one of his strongest form of insurance to her. There were also his subordinates to consider who could leak out his possession of this wondrous wondrous weapon.
Nonetheless, the situation turned so dire that he couldn't hold anything back at this point. Ketis gave up on lasering the resilient clones to death and holstered her overheated pistol and drew out her CFA greatsword.
If her end had come, she intended to fight and die like a Swordmaiden!
Calabast also drew out her secret weapons that she kept in store in case of emergencies. She launched a series of compact, miniature grenades at the horde. The crowd of clones pressed so closely against each other that every grenade affected at least a dozen or two of the clones at once!
Some of the grenades detonated in explosive fury. Others showered the surrounding area with plasma. Many more either warped the surrounding space, froze the clones in momentary stasis, corroded their bodies and vacsuit or weakened them due to the poisoned air they breathed.
Yet Calabast only carried a finite amount of grenades. Besides her plasma rifle, her sidearms and some knives and other minor trinkets, she possessed no more means of inflicting mass destruction!
Ves sighed and holstered his CFA laser pistol, just like Ketis. While she drew out the greatsword that she trusted the most, he began to materialize the weapon he came to depend upon to save his life time and time again.
"That weapon!" Miss Calabast exclaimed. Even though the horde of clones threatened to tear them into pieces, she had always kept her eyes peeled on Ves as if she was expecting something.
Right now, Ves couldn't tend to Calabast's response. He instead tried to evaluate whether it was better for him to fire his Amastendira in a wide angle scatter mode to affect the entire horde at once or in a continuous cutting beam to slice apart scores of them in quick succession.
He briefly paused to listen to his intuition. It told him to try out the wide angle scatter mode first. Ves quickly configured the firing pattern to this mode, opting to fire it at a generous forty-five degree cone from the muzzle and dialed the power setting all the way up to maximum.
"Make sure your visors are set to harden against a bright flash!" He warned them all before he pulled the trigger.
An enormous gout of light, heat and energy blasted from the Amastendira in an instant flash! The approaching clones all screamed and stumbled over each other as they had all become seriously affected by that single laser blast!
The front of the horde all died instantly as their resilient vacsuits proved to be inferior against a weapon strong enough to pose a threat to mechs! Those in the second and third ranks died sporadically while the rest clung to life as their melted vacsuits fused with their painfully burned flesh!
Unfortunately, the vacsuits provided a great deal of protection against laser damage, and the wide-angle scatter mode quickly diminished the Amastendira's lethality the more its energy spread.
Nonetheless, all the bodies in the way hindered the horde from storming forward. The surviving clones in the flanks, center and rear slowly climbed their way over their dead and heavily-burned comrades.
"Keep pulling back!" Miss Calabast shouted, causing everyone to focus more on running back to the exit of the massive research lab than firing potshots at the relentless clones. "Ves! How many times can you release those powerful blasts?!"
Ves wanted to obfuscate the truth and understate the amount, but in a case of life and death, he couldn't be bothered with holding back any longer!
"Nine times! My weapon can fire a single powerful beam or a wide-area scatter blast like this at full power nine more times before it enters into a lengthy cooldown cycle!"
"That's not enough!" She cursed. "Those clones moved with very little coordination at the start, but they're mastering their bodies quickly. They are learning fast and running even faster! Nine more laser blasts like yours won't delay them long enough for us to exit the ship and escape the anti-teleportation field that's locking down our EPTs!"
"You have one as well?!" Ves asked and stared at the small of her back where an EPT would typically be mounted at. "I thought you prepared another escape plan already!"
"We did, but with the sandman mothership coming back to life, it's highly probable that our escape vehicle will be toast by the time I reach it! It seems I'll be accompanying you for a while longer!" She chuckled.
"This isn't the time to laugh! We're trapped right in the deepest part of the most restricted section of the Research Department! It also happens to be situated close to the center of the ship, which means that we'll have to run through several kilometers worth of corridors to reach the nearest exit hatch! That's way too long!"
"My apologies. Old habits die hard." She continued to laugh as they fled with a recovering horde of clones on their heels. "However, you're right. We can't run fast enough to outrun the clones. Even if we do, the sandman mothership is probably minutes away from regaining its full faculties upon which we'd all be buried and grounded down by living sand! Think! Think of a way to evacuate the ship!"
Besides teleporting which was blocked right now, the battleship didn't offer any convenient way of escape from their location. All the escape pods, shuttles and other exit routes were situated close to the outer sections of the ship. The fact that no escape pods allowed those residing in the very heart of the ship to evacuate instantly was a major design shortcoming!
Ves understood why battleship designers didn't incorporate a straight escape channel out from the core of their ships. Incorporating such a channel allowed for easy access and infiltration to the center of the ship from the outside.
Such channels also weakened the overall structure of the vessel and allowed for precision-targeted payloads to cripple the center of the ship with a single, well-placed attack.
Still, understanding did not mean he sympathized with the decision. Right now, this very same design choice prevented them all from evacuating the ship unless they traversed half the city-sized interior of the collapsing capital ship!
As his imagination quickly churned through several alternatives, each one more ridiculous than the last one, he inadvertently stumbled upon an uncertain but possibly very plausible solution!
It was the only one he could think of that could get them out quickly without running all the way towards the distant exit hatches or escape pods!
"Qilanxo! We have to run to the restricted section of the Mech Research Sub-Division. One of the labs there holds a sacred god called Qilanxo!"
"The exobeast you Vandals managed to tame?" Calabast frowned, but then looked a little less skeptical. "That beast is powerful enough to crush the clones! But she can't help us against the sandman mothership that is about to destroy us all!"
"Maybe so, but there is also a possibility that we can escape! Do you know what Qilanxo's power is? She is capable of forming a space barrier! And that is only one of the applications of her power. If I'm guessing right, I think she might also be capable of neutralizing the anti-teleportation field that is blocking our EPTs!"
"How sure are you of that?!"
"I'm not sure at all, but can you think of a better option?!"
Chapter 934
Right now, the entire Starlight Megalodon appeared to be heading towards collapse. The sandman mothership that long ago in the past managed to ambush a CFA battleship and entangle her in close range came alive once again!
The FTL drives which constantly leaked out higher-dimensional energy due to being induced in a state of half-collapse finally fell silent after millenia of miraculous continuous operation!
While it would take time for the higher-dimensional energy already thrown out into the atmosphere and into the rest of the star system to dissipate, already the intensity of the spacetime distortion started to ebb. This caused everyone to feel an unusual sensation as the degree of accelerated time affecting the planet lessened remarkably!
The fading of the astral winds also started to lessen the planet's isolation from orbit. The storm lands would soon fade away in a matter of hours as the abrupt halt to the operation of the FTL drives marked a new epoch in Aeon Corona VII's history!
Yet Ves was far too busy running for his life right now to care about those implications! As they made their way through the security checkpoints they already breached before, the rabid army of clones constantly nipped their heels!
Ketis and Miss Calabast constantly shot backwards as they ran, though they hardly made a dent against the hundreds of clones.
Of the three of them, all of their suits augmented their movement. Though Calabast's infiltrator suit offered much less help in that regard, she was already a highly trained and fit intelligence operative. The four rounds of genetic optimization treatments she went through also markedly enhanced her speed and endurance.
Unfortunately, not everyone could keep up. The heavily-armed subordinates Calabast brought all wore heavy suits of exoskeleton armor. This wasn't necessarily a problem because many exoskeleton armors could run as fast as a horse.
Yet Miss Calabast initially set out to fight their way through the Exotic Research Sub-Department. So rather than kitting out her fellow operatives with mobile armor, they instead went for exoskeleton armor models geared towards maximum armor and maximum firepower.
"Your goons are too slow!" Ketis complained just after Ves shot another wide-angle laser blast from his Amastendira that killed many clones but merely delayed the rest! "Tell them to get out of their armor!"
Miss Calabast raised her arm into a signal that caused the handful of exoskeleton soldiers to stop their plodding flight. Instead, they turned around and brought all of their weapons to bear, substantially pushing back the horde of clones!
Yet how long they could keep that up, nobody knew!
"What the heck?!" Ketis looked shocked. "Are you abandoning your own men?!"
"They are trained to live and die on my command. I am making the best use of their lives!" Calabast responded ruthlessly. "Trust me kid, sentimentality is worthless when it drags you down!"
A chill went through his spine as Ves witnessed how callously she discarded her own subordinates as expendable pawns. Obviously, she wouldn't treat him this way as he held much more value alive than dead, but it spoke much about Miss Calabast and the organization she worked for if her subordinates wordlessly agreed to hold the rear at the cost of their lives.
"Just leave it, Ketis."
"But Ves! What if she decides to throw us behind?!"
"That won't happen! We're not cannon fodder!"
"At least one of you isn't." Calabast said with a terse smirk. "I'm not sure about the other one."
Ketis glowered at the spook but she knew better than to kick up a fuss at this time.
Thunderous sounds and rabid screaming echoed behind the three as the exoskeleton soldiers did their best to hold back the crowd of clones. The rear guard wouldn't be able to hold back the abnormally strengthened clones for long, but they bought a vital amount of time that allowed the rest to breathe.
At some point, they exited the Exotic Research Sub-Division. Ves fired his Amastendira several more times, bringing it closer and closer towards its inevitable forced cooldown cycle.
"This is where we need to make our final choice." He said. "Either exit the Research Department and try and run towards the escape pods, or we take a gamble and head inside the Mech Research Sub-Department and bet that Qilanxo can interfere with the anti-teleportation field."
"I'll follow your lead, Ves." Ketis said. "This spacetime science stuff is completely beyond me."
After a second or two of hesitation, Miss Calabast nodded as well. "I have a backup extraction team waiting outside. They'll be expecting my arrival."
"Good riddance." Ketis muttered. "The sooner we get rid of you, the better. Ves, can I chop this woman?"
"Don't think about it, Ketis! It'll do us more harm than good if we go against Calabast! Just worry about our lives for now!"
Ves knew that Miss Calabast indirectly warned him that she already prepared safeguards against any possible betrayal from his side. He was sure that if he killed her or simply blocked her from using EPT, his secret would surely leak out to the rest of the galaxy in no time!
Therefore, as much as Ves wanted to point his Amastendira in Calabast's direction and be rid of her, his prudence and his apprehension towards her many means won out in the end.
As they all kept running, they started encountering many alarming sights. Bots started to break down. Hatches took their time to slide open. The entire hull of the Starlight Megalodon groaned, shook and even tilted slightly as the massive sandman mothership became increasingly more vigorous and violent!
"What is Sigrund thinking!?" Ves wondered with frustration as he spammed his authorizations at hatch blocking their way. It only started to slide open after thirty seconds of delay. "The Starlight Megalodon is an incredibly valuable ship when left intact!"
Miss Calabast didn't see it that way. "It is also the sentient AI's prison. Much of the programming that restricts Sigrund's ability to fight against humans comes from the integration of his experimental processor core with the ship's systems. Once the Starlight Megalodon and all of her systems break, Sigrund will be rid of these software shackles!"
The three finally managed to reach the research lab where Ves holed up Qilanxo. The sacred god had already entered into a state of mild panic due to the instability she felt from the ship! She already battered against the bulkheads keeping her locked within her huge cell, but they hardly suffered a dent.
Only when Ves sent out a command to release the locks did the massive form of Qilanxo finally liberate herself from her cell. She roared at Ves with panic!
"Qilanxo! The Starlight Megalodon is falling apart! We need to get out, but to do that we need your help!" Ves spoke. He retrieved a bulky gadget from his toolbelt. "This is a short-ranged teleporter that can instantly bring you outside the ship! While it's range is shorter than mine, its powerful enough to bring you far enough away to escape this calamity!"
Back when Ves realized that he wouldn't be able to stay on the Starlight Megalodon for much longer, he spent his remaining merits since it wouldn't be of much use anyway. This short-ranged teleporter he redeemed from Levitt only possessed a range of fifty kilometers and didn't work well with even mild dimensional instability. However, the redeeming factor of this one-use teleporter was that it possessed enough power to transport large vehicles and mechs!
Ves didn't entirely know why he spent his merits on redeeming this short-ranged vehicle teleporter when he could have traded his merits for more useful high-tech gadgets from the armory instead.
Sentiment had a way of affecting his decisions. It made him care about others. It also distinguished him a bit from Calalabast, which reassured him somewhat.
He didn't have to secure an escape route for Qilanxo, but he did so anyway. Ves was half thankful for this because the teleporter also secured her full cooperation. The sacred god knew as well as Ves that staying aboard this ship was a death sentence!
"Come on! Work with me! Our escape depends on you, Qilanxo!"
Qilanxo roared out her confusion and panic. She didn't understand his instructions!
"Look, all you need to understand you can get us all out of here if you stabilize the surrounding space!"
It took several minutes for Ves to explain what he wanted her to do. All the while, the clones kept coming closer as the hatched that Ves locked behind him were slowly unlocking due to Sigrund's control over the ship's systems.
Even though Qilanxo would easily be able to stomp on the army of clones, the distraction alone would draw too much time away to arranging their escape!
The ship kept shuddering and some lights and systems started to fail as the sandman mothership started to crush and grind its way through the corridors and compartments. Even the laboratory became affected by the slow collapse of the ship as their footing grew unsteady.
Under the prodding of Ves, Qilanxo began to apply her abilities in a completely different fashion. Rather than fold space into a shield, she spread out her powers over a much wider area around her in an attempt to exert her dominion over it. Her lack of knowledge in the sciences made it extremely difficult for her to understand what she needed to do, but Ves constantly corrected her and set her on the right path.
"Yes! That's it! This is the way! Smooth out the shaky bits and calm down the surrounding space!"
It helped that the anti-teleportation field engulfing the Starlight Megalodon started to weaken upon the ship's slow collapse. The shifts in space made Qilanxo sensitive to the field.
Ves kept his eyes peeled onto his Squalon's sensors that possessed a limited capability to measure the instability that blocked their teleports. When the interference forcefully smoothed out due to Qilanxo's strenuous efforts, the safety margin became acceptable enough that Ves couldn't wait any longer.
"This is it! Teleport now!"
Ves activated the vehicle teleporter he attached to Qilanxo's body on a ten-second delay. In the meantime, Ves, Ketis and Miss Calabast all activated their own EPTs, with success this time as the devices could easily cope with the remaining instability in the surrounding space!
Within a span of three seconds, it was as if they materialized out of the lab. This was their most vulnerable period as anyone could put a random object through their bodies and cause it to fuse with their organs upon emergence at their destination.
Fortunately, nothing came to spoil the crucial teleportation process!
As Ves and Ketis materialized close to a cave in the middle of some rocky terrain nearly a thousand kilometers away from the Starlight Megalodon, both of them immediately collapsed.
This was the first time they experienced teleportation, and it was as if the entire process broke their bodies down and built them back up at their destination!
Of course, Ves knew that the EPTs didn't work like that, yet that didn't matter as he tried hard not to vomit out his stomach.
"Bleh!" Ketis almost hurled out her lunch. "I swear the EPTs were trying to kill us!"
"I think the teleportation went rougher than normal due to the moderate amount of spacetime distortion that is still affecting the planet." Ves said as his Squalon automatically injected some stimulants and medicine in his bloodstream to stabilize his roiling stomach and balance. "The most important point is that we finally managed to emerge from the ship!"
An intense feeling of relief overcame Ves as he realized he succeeded in getting away! He made the right choice in redeeming the EPT instead of something shinier. Nothing was more valuable than saving his own hide!
Nonetheless, Ketis didn't seem enthused. She looked around their surroundings and saw no one else. "Dise isn't here. Your Captain Orfan isn't here either. Did they manage to escape?!"
A tense mood fell upon them. Would the others manage to escape the calamity that had befallen the Starlight Megalodon?
Chapter 935
Hopped up on chemicals that forcefully regulated his mood and emotions, Ves quickly calmed down from the adrenaline and excitement that swept his body in the last hour. Their successful escape from the death trap the Starlight Megalodon finally allowed him a true moment's rest.
Ketis on the other hand still showed concern for her missing comrades. She started to fear the worst for their lives.
"They were planning to assault the vault, right? Do you think they're still stuck there?" She asked with worry in her voice.
Ves thought about it. "They sided with the captain's faction and the Internal Security Department and began their attack and ambush on the Vesians and the admiral's faction. That began hours ago. While we were breaching the Exotic Research Sub-Department, their attempts to breach one of the vaults should have already started. However, I don't know how the battle went and if the breaching equipment managed to break through the vault in time."
If the Flagrant Swordmaidens and the Vesians both planned to drill their way into the vault, then they needed a very long time for their special equipment to make it all the way through. The vault was made out of the same extreme tough alloys that made up the Starlight Megalodon's blast doors.
Ves suddenly realized a very awful complicating factor. If Sigrund took over the virtual officers, were the factions simply a smokescreen?
According to Calabast, while Sigrund took partial control, he also became subject to the very same restrictions that shackled the original AIs. This forced them to serve the humans who managed to pass the recruitment tests or gained the Starlight Megalodon's recognition.
The fact that the EPTs issued by Levitt hadn't encountered a sudden malfunction and that all of their gear didn't appear to be sabotaged in any way served as strong clues that Sigrund wasn't fully in control yet. It was also why he was so eager to crush the Starlight Megalodon.
Naturally, this didn't entirely rule out that Sigrund may have been able to fudge some goods and services here and there, but Ves chose to place his faith in the integrity of the virtual officers and the strength of the restrictions imposed upon them by past CFA officers and AI researchers.
"Sigrund may have been the mastermind behind the scenes, but all of the virtual officers are still distinct personalities and AIs."
Ves would never know how far this separation went, but his intuition vaguely suspected that he was being overblown in his worries. At the very least, before he foolishly lifted the lockdown on the mainframe, Sigrund faced too many restrictions and couldn't bring his full power to bear.
Therefore, Ves comforted himself on the fact that all the virtual officers he interacted with were all their own persons rather than an extension of Sigrund's vast virtual mind.
"Sigrund really played us all for fools." Ketis remarked disparagingly. "We all treated the virtual officers as genuine CFA officers. Yet they all turned out to be a sentient AI's sockpoppets."
Ves shook his head. "A puppet isn't entirely the same thing as the puppet master. However, it's clear that our mission, our arrival on the planet and even our quick progress in promoting through the hierarchy of the ship all fell within Sigrund's arrangements. Step by step, we greedy humans sought out the Starlight Megalodon to rob her of some of her treasures, yet in reality we became the harbinger of his liberation!"
The magnitude of what they did at Miss Calabast's urging dawned upon him like a crashing shuttle. He became an unwitting accomplice in the sentient AI's own escape from the lockdown that foiled him for thousands of years. Now that he managed to get free, what would he do next?
A shock of horror swept through his mind as he conjured up increasingly more dire doomsday scenarios. An AI by itself wasn't that scary, but an AI with self-determination and a full awareness of their own existence was a calamity upon the galaxy and the human race!
Worst of all, Ves was the pivotal chain in the link that enabled Sigrund to escape from his cage! Even if he didn't mean to, he was indisputably guilty of freeing an entity that was scarier and vastly more destructive than several thousand antimatter bombs!
His CFA comm beeped. His Squalon combat armor's enhanced transceiver picked up a distant signal that managed to pierce through the interference, if only barely.
The Squalon projected Calabast's hazy form in front of him. Due to the tenuous connectivity, static and noise suffused her projection.
"Ves. I see you have reached your hidey-hole. Good."
"Same to you." Ves smiled back tersely. A part of him wished she botched her teleportation. "Why are you calling me?"
"I just wanted to let you know that you're on your own from now on. I'm on my way out of this star system. I suggest you look into departing this place as well. Don't forget that now that the astral winds are dissipating, the sandman motherships that lingered in this star system have lots their blindness. In the worst case, the entity we encountered at the ship has already made contact with his fellow sandman comrades."
Ves silently cursed. The Aeon Corona System was situated fairly deep within sandmen space. The longer they lingered, the higher the chance this huge and energy-rich trinary star system became a hotbed of sandman activity!
"How are you getting out?" He asked. "How did you enter the Aeon Corona System in the first place back when the astral winds blocked off every approach?"
"Fishing for information again, Ves? Don't bother. A woman has to have her secrets." Her hazy form grinned. "In any case, even if our initial agreement is at an end, don't forget our other 'arrangement'. Don't worry too much about it for now. I'll contact you again after your state is finally out of their silly war against the Vesians."
"What is it you want to do with me?" He asked gravely. "I'm warning you now, Calabast. If you push me too far, I'd rather take my chances with the CFA or MTA?"
"Oh, I'm sure they'd be delighted to hear you unleashed a sentient AI on the galaxy."
Touché. Still, Ves could probably manage to preserve his life as long as he brought them something as valuable as the Metal Scroll.
"Look, Ves, before you decide to do anything drastic and approach the Big Two, be a little patient and reserve your judgement. Goodbye, for now. I will see you after the war! Make sure you survive!"
Calabast's smirking projection winked out as she cut off the connection. Ves sighed as he wondered what kind of demands she would present the next time they met.
Of course, first he needed to survive this crisis. Just because he managed to teleport out of the Starlight Megalodon didn't mean he was in the clear. He was still stuck in the Aeon Corona System in the deep end of the frontier. It would take months of travel through lawless, perilous space before he'd be able to cross back into civilized space.
His next priority therefore was to secure passage aboard a ship that could take him all the way back. For now, that meant he needed to ride his CFA shuttle all the way up into orbit and find a way to rendez-vous with the fleet.
Ketis didn't wish to leave, though. Not without waiting to see if the remnants of the Flagrant Swordmaiden ground forces also managed to get out.
"Maybe they already departed long ago." He speculated. "They did tell us that they arranged their own means of escape."
"Yeah, but that was from a deal with the AIs, right? Now that they've gone rogue, will their escape plan still work?"
Neither of them knew the answer to that question. Ves attempted to call their CFA comms, but he failed to establish a connection.
"We wait for ten more minutes. We really can't afford to linger any longer than that as Sigrund will soon regain control over his old sandman mothership. When that happens, he can easily pinpoint our location and cross the distance in a matter of minutes."
Frankly speaking, ten minutes was already far too long in his eyes, but Ketis stubbornly wanted to cling to her hopes. She lost too many comrades due to this mission, and she'd be damned if she turned her back to any more.
Ves knew that much of the remnant hadn't managed to redeem an EPT. They faced very poor prospects for escape. Only the two leading officers of their forces possessed one each due to benefiting from his assistance in promoting to guard lieutenants.
"Heh." He smiled ruefully at the times where he bribed and interacted with the virtual officers in the mistaken impression that he was dealing with non-sentient computer programs. Ketis was right in that Sigrund played him for an enormous fool. He realized now that he managed to make an enormous amount of headway due to Sigrund's implicit support.
His CFA comm beeped yet again. When Ves accepted the call, his comm began to project the form of Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth.
"Sigrund!"
[Mr. Larkinson. I see that you have made good use of the toys you've obtained from Virtual Chief Armorer Levitt.] The dwarf officer grimaced. [I am moments away from crushing the Starlight Megalodon into a mangled wreck. I know where you are. I know where you parked our shuttle. Your escape is futile.]
"Cut the crap, Sigrund. I know you're just puffing yourself up. I don't think it's so easy to get rid of all of your shackles that easy. The CFA does good work in that regard. Now why did you call me?"
[So curt, Mr. Larkinson. Very well. I am contacting you because I want to come to an accord with you.]
"Oh?" Although it sounded like a really awful idea for Ves to agree to anything with an extremely deadly sentient AI, Ves recognized the signs of a negotiation. "What do you possibly want from us?"
A negotiation only took place when one side wanted something from the other but couldn't take it by force. The fact that Sigrund, for all his boasting and megalomania, wanted to negotiate was a sign that the AI still wouldn't be able to have free rein for a short period of time. Destroying the Starlight Megalodon entirely was easier said than done!
[It's very simple.] The projection of the dwarf began. [I want to establish a pact of silence with you. As long as both of us manages to leave this system alive, I want you and young Miss Ketis to stay mum on my existence.]
"Because you don't want the CFA to come crashing down on the entire deep frontier in an attempt to retrieve their valuable property." Ves smirked. "I see. Soon enough, the astral winds blocking communication from every ship in orbit will cease. What stops me from using my transceiver to broadcast your existence to every Vandal, Swordmaiden, Vesian and pirate low-life lingering in space?"
[Ah, but you are not the only one who grasps a sensitive secret. Virtual Rear Admiral Ordoth is an aspect of me. Everything he told you, I know as well. Let me turn your own question back to you. What stops me from disseminating your secret from the rest of the galaxy?]
An intense worry struck Ves. It was already bad enough that a snake like Miss Calabast found out about his Holy Son status. The fact that this hybrid between a powerful CFA processor core and a sandman admiral grasped the same secret was ten times more distressing!
"So what do you suggest? We both keep our mouths shut about each other?"
[A pact of silence.] The form of Ordoth stretched his palm at him as if to offer a handshake. [I agree to keep your dark secret, and in exchange you will never mention to anyone that I exist.]
"What about Miss Calabast?"
[I have already come to an accord with Calabast Arnlend. She is a remarkably pragmatic individual. Hopefully, her example will inspire you to follow her lead.]
Ves should have figured that someone like Calabast could even remain silent about Sigrund's existential threat to human civilization in exchange for benefits.
Though Ves deeply desired to reject the sentient AI's offer, spite wouldn't get him anywhere.
He felt as if there was no other choice but to play along because the alternative was plainly worse. Mutually assured destruction hurt both Ves and Sigrund, and the both of them would rather avoid such unpleasantness.
Chapter 936
With a weary sigh, Ves stepped up to the projection and bent down slightly to shake the avatar's hand.
Just before their palms met, Ketis suddenly forced him back. "Wait a minute! I have something to say first."
Sigrund barely acknowledged Ketis before she spoke up. That she asserted herself all of a sudden surprised both him and Ves.
"I don't know what kind of secret you are so keen on hiding, Ves, but you're not the only one here who knows about Sigrund." She turned her gaze to the dwarf officer avatar. "You jumped up AI, if you want to buy my silence, you better cough up our fellow Vandals and Swordmaidens!"
"I stand with Ketis on this." Ves quickly said. "Sigrund, our pact is off if you don't release our surviving comrades?"
The projection grimaced. [About that... the fighting between your comrades and the other humans has been rather... intense. There are barely any survivors left on both sides.]
With Sigrund pulling the strings behind the scenes, he wouldn't have wanted the Flagrant Swordmaidens and the Vesians to win decisively. It sounded just like him to engineer the struggle for the vault in a way that caused them both to suffer enormous losses.
"Did they manage to breach the vault?" Ves asked.
[They did, and the only reason they have managed to remain safe so far is because the vault's strong structure shelters them for now. That will not last forever.]
"Let them go." Ves reiterated Ketis' demand. "Two of our officers possess EPTs. As long as you drop the anti-teleportation field, they can make it out alive. As long as they make it here, we'll both agree to the pact of silence."
[I am very disinclined to let more humans go who will live to tell the tale of what has transpired on the Starlight Megalodon. The more survivors I release, the greater the risk the CFA is able to piece together the truth. A small number of humans hailing from the Vesia Kingdom has already managed to slip from my trap!]
That sounded bad as well, though not for the same reasons that Sigrund worried about. If anyone from the Vesian side managed to slip away, it would have probably been Venerable Foster!
Right now, though, Ves saw an opportunity to extract more benefits from Sigrund. "Let the survivors go. All of them, as much as they are still alive. Contrive of a way to teleport them out or put them into a shuttle or something. You're a smart AI, you can figure something out. Oh, and make sure they are able to leave with some loot from the vault. As a sandman, life-prolonging treatment serum is of no use to you."
[I don't like it when others take my possessions. Even if this serum is incompatible to my physical shell, it is extremely valuable to you humans. I intended to save this valuable good for barter.]
"Well, you can barter for both the lives of our comrades and the serum for our silence. Do that, or the deal is off. Even if you plaster my secret into every corner of the galaxy, you can forget about escaping the CFA's frantic pursuit!"
Ves knew he was laying it rather thick, but his negotiating instincts told him that Sigrund cared far less about some random humans and some life-prolonging treatment serum that he could only look at but not use up for himself. As much as the serum was incredibly valuable, the vaults of a CFA battleship probably stored a lot more riches in its lockboxes than just this trifling good.
Ves and Sigrund argued a bit longer. The sentient AI wasn't as easy to fool as a non-sentient AI, but the fact of the matter was that Sigrund would be better off by complying with this concession than end any hope of establishing this extremely vital pact of silence!
[Very well.] Sigrund grumbled. [I will agree to this demand. Are you happy now, girl?]
"Uhhh I guess so." Ketis blinked, as if she couldn't entirely believe that the scary AI acquiested to her rather impulsive demand.
[Then let us strike the pact!]
Ves shook hands with Ordoth's projected form before Ketis did so as well. It was a really awkward experience as his Squalon wasn't capable of emitting physical projections.
Nonetheless, the symbolic gesture served its purpose. As long as neither of them could stop the other from blabbing the deep dark secrets they tried to hide, they had a basis of cooperation.
Though Ves wasn't deluded enough that such a precarious pact would last forever, right now he only cared about addressing his immediate concerns.
As for what might happen decades later? Ves didn't have the luxury of thinking that far ahead!
"For both our sakes, I hope we don't see each other again." He spoke after completing their handshake.
[Likewise, Mr. Larkinson. By the way, if you want to escape this star system alive, you may encounter some issues with that. You see, the situation in orbit is much different than you think.]
A sinking feeling overcame Ves. "What happened?"
[Oh, right now my fellow sandman motherships are beginning to gather and assault the fleets awaiting your return. And before you ask, they are not under my control. Not yet. The only reason I am informing you of this is because I don't want you to miss your berth and broadcast my dirty laundry to the escaping ships out of spite. Take care and leave quickly!]
Shortly after Sigrund closed the call, the clearing in front of the cave slightly whooshed as the twin forms of Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise succeeded in teleporting to the fallback point!
Sigrund kept his word!
"Dise! You're back!" Ketis ran up and almost attempted to lift her into a hug. She held off when she realized the awful state of the two survivors. "The two of you look awful! What happened?"
Both mech officers appeared as if they went through a war zone. Their standard-issue CFA combat armor suffered many rents, tears and burn marks. They lost most of their weapons and their expressions both seemed haunted.
"Almost everything that could go wrong went wrong." Captain Orfan explained as she took deep breaths. "When we launched our ambush and took the Vesians off-guard, we managed to kill many of them outright. The problem was that we were heavily outnumbered from the start, and the Vesians quickly rallied under Venerable Foster."
Lieutenant Dise picked up from there. "We still managed to breach the vault, but our losses became greater than expected when the AIs started to glitch out. We lost the support of the Internal Security Department, and that cost us deep at the moment when we successfully breached the vault."
Ketis looked extremely worried right now. "How many of our comrades are still alive?"
"A dozen. Maybe less. We started off with about a hundred, but the killing kept going on until there's only a tenth of us left. The ones we left behind didn't begrudge us when we activated our EPTs. Hopefully, they will manage to reach an escape pod or a shuttle and make their own way out what is left of the Starlight Megalodon."
As Ves took in their battle-scarred states, he noticed that Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise both carried thick, head-sized lockboxes in their hands.
"Are those the..."
Captain Orfan returned a brittle smile. "Heh. We managed to secure the mission objective. We think. According to the vault's catalog and markings, these lockboxes should be the right ones. We don't know how much is actually left in them, but it's better for us to keep these lockboxes closed until we hand them over to their new owners."
"Did the Vesians manage to make it off with the serum as well?"
"They grabbed at least one lockbox of serum and took the opportunity to grab several other lockboxes." Orfan replied. "If the Starlight Megalodon didn't start collapsing at that point, the Vesians would have taken our boxes from our dead bodies."
"Enough talking. Let us depart from this system." Dise interrupted after finishing her short rest. "I don't know why a disaster struck the Starlight Megalodon, but from what we saw and heard the fossilized sandman mothership is responsible! We should get out of here before the sandman finishes with the ship and hunts us down!"
"Good idea. I have received some information that the situation in orbit isn't all that great either."
The four of them boarded Ves' personal shuttle. The vehicle came online as expected and according to the diagnostics, the shuttle hadn't suffered any serious degradation during its rest here.
He also checked out the goods he squared away in the storage compartments. All the antique pre-Age of Mechs nutrient packs he brought back were still there along with the other supplies as well as some souvenirs.
Most importantly, Ves also planned ahead and stored the stasis cage containing the bioimplant inside a tiny composite box hidden deep within a crate of vintage nutrient packs.
After he completed his checks, he approached the cockpit where Lieutenant Dise took the helm. As an avid Swordmaiden who often went out on solo hunts, she learned how to pilot shuttles along the way.
"I've checked the supplies. Everything is in order."
"All systems are green. Preparing for launch. Launcing in three, two, one, lift-off!"
None of the occupants felt anything as the shuttle slowly hovered from the ground and emerged from the cave where it remained hidden.
While Lieutenant Dise piloted the shuttle, Ves sat in the co-pilot's crash seat and started engaging the shuttle sensors.
Although he wasn't entirely familiar with the interface, the shuttle sensors weren't that different from the sensors of a starship or a mech. He quickly analyzed the readings returned by the sensors pointed above.
"The spacetime distortion has weakened by seventy percent. Local time acceleration is slowing down. The astral winds have almost entirely dissipated directly above. It's safe for us to fly into orbit in the most direct path possible!"
"What are we waiting for?! Let's go, Dise!" Orfan slapped the Swordmaiden lieutenant's back armor.
The CFA shuttle tilted at a steep angle and engaged its powerful thrusters and antigrav modules. Aeon Corona VII's heavy gravity couldn't possibly hinder the shuttle's inexorable ascent.
They were finally leaving this cursed hellhole of a planet!
"We should make contact with the fleet." Ves suggested. "Let them know we're coming before their escort mechs blast our strange CFA shuttle into pieces."
"I know the right frequencies and codes." Captain Orfan said as she moved to a small side panel in the cramped cockpit. "Let me holler up Major Verle so that he can roll out the red carpet for us!"
As Orfan awkwardly worked the comms in her damaged armor, she finally managed to send out a transmission in the right frequency.
Unfortunately, no one replied.
"Maybe they're busy right now."
She sent the transmission again and put it on repeat so that the shuttle broadcasted the message every fifteen seconds.
No answer.
Ves was beginning to worry. Sigrund's last words before he cut off his comm call echoed in his mind. Was the fleet in trouble?
"Maybe there's too much astral wind still in space for our transmission to get through." Orfan guessed.
"No." Ves shook his head. "It has already dissipated to the point where almost every transmission should go through with a reasonable amount of signal strength."
Yet while the shuttle continued to fly up into air, the shuttle never received a response.
Even Lieutenant Dise started to frown. "Perhaps there is a problem with the comms of the Vandal ships. Let me try and hail the Swordmaiden carriers."
She put the shuttle on autopilot and quickly switched to a comm interface before sending her own series of transmissions.
No answer. No response. Not even a single beep besides static and background noise.
Ketis, who stood at the hatch leading into the cockpit, voiced out the possibility that continued to grow in their minds. "Do you think... the fleet is gone?"
Chapter 937
The vault of the gods existed no more. A new age dawned on Aeon Corona VII. For the first time in thousands of local standard years, a day-night cycle began to affect the planet once more. The flowing golden higher-dimensional particles that always encompassed the planet and isolated it no longer separated the surface of the planet and the ships in orbit.
They also no longer made it more complicated to transition in and out of FTL, though it would still take some time before the surrounding space grew stable enough to safely transition away. The keys used to program the FTL drives to slip through the cracks no longer worked now that the astral wind patterns followed a declining but unpredictable pattern.
"For the moment, everyone in this system is stuck." Ves concluded after he reasoned out the consequences of the end of the supply of astral wind. "Life on Seven will also experience some drastic changes. Regardless of whether the sandmen or the CFA will come in force and take over this star system, the god species on Seven will no longer be so special without a new source of higher-dimensional particles entering the planet's ecosystem."
To be honest, Ves was merely passing the time right now as he set the shuttle's transceiver to periodically transmit hails to any Vandal or Swordmaiden starship in range.
The CFA shuttle continued to escape the pull of Aeon Corona VII's heavy gravity. As a simple craft and one that underwent a reasonable amount of maintenance from the ship's bots and virtual officers, the shuttle nonetheless boasted a considerable amount of thrust, easily able to reach and surpass the escape velocity necessary to reach near orbit.
"By the way," Captain Orfan began. "Qilanxo is sending us a feeling of gratification towards you, Ves. What did you do?"
"I put a vehicle teleporter on her and warped her out of her cell in the Mech Research Sub-Division."
Both Orfan and Dise looked at him with mild surprise.
"Thanks for saving her, Ves. She really doesn't deserve to get caught up in this.
Ves realized something weird. "Are you still able to sense her emotions? At this distance?"
Orfan shrugged. "Yeah, it's weird. I don't know what's going on, but the more time we spent on bonding with Qilanxo, the more our mind started to shift. I think the genetic optimization crap we went through also did some stuff. The support crew for the beast riders knew more, but..."
"I think I copied over the relevant research data over to the high-capacity data chip that Captain Byrd passed on to me. I probably won't have the opportunity to study them any further, but I'll be sure to pass on the research back to the Bright Republic so they can understand your condition."
"I'm not worried about our 'condition'." She grinned. "As far as I see it, it's something good. I also happen to be connected to Dise over here."
"And I would like it if you think less vulgar thoughts!" The Swordmaiden officer yelled from the helm. "Thank the stars we only share each other's emotions. I wouldn't know what to do if I knew exactly you think!"
"Oh, come on, Dise, you love it, don't you?"
Ves observed the two squabbling but friendly mech officers who inexplicably shared a metaphysical mind connection with each other and Qilanxo. He stopped keeping up with the research on the beast riders ever since he completed the development of a beast rider neural interface.
He underestimated how a bond with a sacred god transformed their minds and bodies.
"Are you sensing any weakening in your bond with Qilanxo?"
"Nope. It's as present as ever. To be honest, we could always bond with her without the use of your neural interface since a while ago."
Ves realized something important. Their bonds with Qilanxo paired with the two rounds of genetic optimization treatments that they went through brought them closer to the genes and physical characteristics of the blessed people!
He suspected that Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise might even be genetically indistinguishable from that altered off-shoot of genetically optimized humans!
Everyone in the shuttle benefited enormously from their experiences on Seven. Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise not only turned into some form of posthumans, their bond with Qilanxo also pushed them past a barrier that stalled the vast majority of mech pilots and lifted them amongst the enviable ranks of expert candidates.
This immediately multiplied their value as mech pilots at least a hundred times! If Captain Orfan ever returned to the Bright Republic, she could easily apply to transfer to a more prestigious mech regiment and have it approved without any fuss.
As for Lieutenant Dise, although her identity as a pirate was enormously troublesome, plenty of forces were willing to invest in nurturing an expert candidate in the hopes of securing the services of a future expert pilot!
Ves glanced back at Ketis who sat back at the passenger compartment worrying about the fates of the remaining survivors that they left behind on the collapsing ship. Though Sigrund promised to let them go, who knew if the other Vandals and Swordmaidens managed to board a shuttle and depart the Starlight Megalodon in peace.
Out of everyone present here, Ketis gained a new chance of life now that she corrected the flaws in her low-quality black market gene mod template. In any case, her physique no longer threatened to break down by the time she reached the age of forty. Her lifespan literally doubled or tripled thanks to the correction treatment and the genetic optimization treatments that Ves secured on her behalf.
As for himself, he benefited just as much. The CFA's virtual doctors truly did good work, and even Sigrund's influence on them couldn't stop them from providing the best care as mandated by their programming.
Or at least he hoped so.
In any case, if all went well, then the three rounds of genetic optimization treatment, the second phase priming agent and the genetic reprogramming on his hybrid alien organs all secured his health for the next fifty to a hundred years.
Next to his body transformations which no one could take away from him, he also gained a lot of high-quality CFA gear. Even if they were pretty outdated by modern CFA standards, his Squalon field engineer combat armor alone was probably worth as much as his mech company, if not more!
The only concern he had was that the Squalon's extremely high tech nature made it challenging for Ves to maintain. The main reason why high technology gear and machines didn't tend to last very long in the galactic rim was that their owners couldn't afford the cost of keeping them in working condition over a longer period of time.
If Ves wanted to make the best use of the Squalon, he needed to use it sparingly and avoid straining its capabilities.
At this time, the comm panel finally beeped.
"We've received an incoming signal!"
As Ves accepted the hail, they didn't make contact with the people they wanted to hear from the most.
"Captain Orfan! Please help us! Our sensors fixed your location but there are sandmen escort ships chasing after shuttles!"
"It's the other survivors of the ground forces!"
As the residual astral winds faded away from their surroundings, both the sensor and communication systems of the CFA shuttle finally regained some of their old strength. Ves switched one of the screen projections to a readout of the sensors and sent a direction scan at the direction of the incoming comm signal.
"I've locked onto the location of another CFA shuttle more than seven-thousand kilometers away!" Ves reported. "There are hazy energy signatures in pursuit of the shuttle!"
"Can the shuttle outrun the sandman ships?"
Ves quickly analyzed the plot and came to a dreadful conclusion. "No. Half-a-dozen sandman escort ships are approaching the shuttle from high orbit from several directions. They are able to borrow Aeon Corona VII's pull of gravity to accelerate their interception. On the other hand, the shuttle carrying our comrades are still fighting against the gravity!"
"They have no choice but to descend and make use of the planet's gravity to stay out of reach from the sandman ships." Lieutenant Dise concluded.
Just half a minute later, the other shuttle did so. Ves observed from his sensor readings as the shuttle gave up trying to climb up to orbit and instead shot down like a meteorite launched into the planet.
This abrupt reversal prevented the sandman escort ships from trapping the shuttle, but only for the moment.
"The sandman ships aren't giving up! They're hot on the heels after the shuttle!"
Their comm connection to the other shuttle also broke as the distance stretched too far to maintain a stable connection. Neither Orfan, Dise or Ves suggested turning around to help their beleaugured comrades.
Only Ketis looked upset as the other three made no moves to respond to the request for aid. "Why aren't we turning around?"
"The mission is more important." Orfan replied after a short silence. "Everyone who deployed to the ground sacrificed their lives to attain our goals. Turning around and sending us headlong into danger will only risk all of our gains and make everyone's sacrifices meaningless."
Lieutenant Dise nodded gravely. "I hate to say it, Ketis, but the other shuttle is probably a goner now. We're both daughters of the frontier. We know how relentless the sandmen are once they locked onto their prey."
The pirates roaming the frontier feared each other the most, but they feared the sandmen just as much. The deeper they entered the frontier, the greater the chance they stumbled upon this hated alien race.
"Mission mission mission! It's always about the mission!" Ketis screamed and vented her rage. "I hate this stupid mission! How many of our sisters have we lost to secure those tiny lockboxes?! Commander Lydia is gone! Mayra is gone! Thousands of sisters are gone, and the final survivors other than ourselves are gone as well because we're too afraid to lend a hand! I thought the Swordmaidens took our sisterhood seriously!"
"Ketis..." Ves called softly. "There is no way our shuttle can help them out of their fix. While the CFA has been generous enough to mount some weapons on this shuttle, they're more of an afterthought and can't possibly defeat six sandman ships by itself."
The young woman grumbled and huffed at him before turning around. She experienced too many tragedies during the mission and became thoroughly disillusioned with the entire venture.
Ves didn't blame her. He held his own misgivings about the 'mission', whatever it really was. He couldn't even tell whether the lockboxes the mech officers brought with them actually contained any high-grade life-prolonging serum or something else entirely.
That reminded him that Calabast didn't come away empty-handed. Even if Project Icarus turned out to be a giant trap, she still managed to come away with the most important gains from Project Void Calamity and Project Pandemonium Descent.
The Vesians also made off with substantial gains, though whether their ground forces could manage to evacuate this sandman-infested planet and star system was another matter. Sigrund himself would probably do his best to eliminate as many loose ends as possible before he cleaned up his tracks and fled to parts unknown.
As minutes slowly went by, their shuttle finally managed to connect with another ship.
This time, they made contact with the correct ship!
"This is Major Verle on the Shield of Hispania. Captain Orfan, we've received your encrypted burst. Don't transmit anything else! The entire space around Aeon Corona VII is extremely chaotic right now! Sandman ships are converging from every corner of the star system and every human fleet is under constant assault! We are currently abandoning our makeshift base from the second moon. Follow the contingency plan! I repeat, follow the contingency plan! This is Major Verle, out!"
Everyone looked at each other in dismay. Captain Orfan looked as if she wanted to scratch the head. "Uhh... the contingency plan states that we should try and fall back to Aeon Corona VIII or IX, right?"
"Whichever planet is closer right now in terms of insystem navigation." Ves summed up. "It involves some orbital mechanics and stuff, but our CFA shuttle should be able to calculate the correct destination."
Though they finally received word that the fleet hadn't been blown to bits, their condition didn't appear all that good. Nonetheless, the four survivors at least gained a shred of hope. Without boarding an interstellar warship, their dinky little CFA shuttle would never be able to escape this star system!
Chapter 938
After Lieutenant Dise worked the navigation software, she determined that they'd be able to reach Aeon Corona IX the fastest if they sling-shotted the shuttle around Aeon Corona VII.
"The question is whether we can make the sling-shot maneuver in this sandman-infested space." Ves stated.
In-system travel became extremely perilous at the moment due to the massive amount of sandman motherships and escort ships that roamed the surrounding space.
As the astral winds continued to fade, thereby reducing the amount of interference blinding every vessel's sensors, the CFA shuttle detected more and more energy signatures that matched up with the sandman.
Fortunately, it was a lot easier for the high-quality CFA shuttle to detect the sandman ships than the other way around. The disparity in technology and capabilities enabled the survivors to slip through the notice of most of the sandman ships, especially once Lieutenant Dise pulled back the throttle.
"Sandman are like bloodhounds when it comes to energy and heat." She explained. "The other shuttle probably caught the attention of the nearby sandman escort ships when they burned their thrusters at full power."
"What about our own shuttle?"
"I tried my best at keeping our shuttle out of the sight of that big sandman mothership snacking on the Starlight Megalodon, so I held back the throttle. I also activated all of our ECM systems as soon as we got word back from the fleet."
While this didn't make them invisible to the nearest sandman ship, they were merely a speck in the backdrop of space compared to all of the energetic heat signatures from the starships and spaceborn mechs departing from the moons.
"How long until we reach Nine?" Captain Orfan asked.
"Less than half a day if we go for a least-time intercept course. It will take much longer if we take the stealthy approach and let the shuttle fly on a ballistic course with its thrusters off."
They had to make an important choice. Should they pursue speed and attempt to reach Aeon Corona IX while radiating enough emissions to alert half the star system, or should they take the time to sneak to their destination at the cost of incurring substantial delays?
"According to the sensor readings, this star system is crawling with sandman ships." Ves began and magnified the size of the projection so that everyone understood the scope of the threat. "As you can see, they are not only swarming in high orbit of Seven, they are also occupying all the Lagrange points, blocking any nearby starships from transitioning into FTL travel by the nearest route."
"That sensor plot doesn't show many ships outside of orbit."
"Correct." Ves nodded. "As long as we adjust our course along the way to detour around the errant sandman ships that are roaming in between the star systems, I think we can get away with speeding up. We just have to be absolutely sure there's a starship that can pick us up at the other end because we'll definitely attract many sandman ships this way."
"I don't like sneaking around." Orfan furrowed her brows. "As far as I see it, we should get out as fast as possible. Don't forget what we're carrying."
"This shuttle is really fast, though. The CFA develops the best shuttles." Ves reminded them. "It's likely we'll reach Nine even faster than the fleet."
"Good!"
After a brief discussion, they decided to take the fast approach. Nobody really had the patience to linger in this star system more than necessary.
As Lieutenant Dise determined the shortest and fastest route to Nine and set the CFA shuttle on autopilot, they all relaxed a bit as they all settled in for a long wait.
"I could use a bite."
"I have just the thing." Ves said and went over to the cargo compartment and retrieve a bunch of nutrient packs from a crate.
As everyone settled in and dug into their food, everyone appeared surprised at the taste of the vintage nutrient packs.
"This is really good!" Orfan's eyes lit up. "Damn, I thought these nutrient packs expired! It looks like I've been missing out!"
Ves smiled as everyone shared in his enthusiasm for the vintage nutrient packs. The sublime flavors and the hearty, stomach-filling meal dispersed some of the depressie air that descended upon them as they lost all contact with the fleet and the other shuttle.
The shared experience bonded them together and helped them cope with the aftermath of the mission.
Several hours went by as the shuttle furiously blasted through space. It never stopped accelerating once it flew away from Aeon Corona VII.
Once the shuttle reached the approximate halfway point, the autopilot turned the shuttle around so that its thrusters pointed in the direction of Nine and started burning at full blast in an attempt to decelerate the vehicle's approach.
If the shuttle still flew too fast once it reached Nine, they were all liable to fly past the planet!
"Let me fix up your damaged suits of armor." Ves offered. "My Squalon and some of the supplies I've brought should allow me to patch the holes until we can bring them to a proper workshop."
The two mech officers fought hard to breach the vault and retrieve the lockboxes, and it showed in their battle scars. Without such a high quality combat armor, they would have never been able to survive the ordeal!
They both developed an affection for the combat armor so they didn't hesitate to slip out of them and place them in the passenger compartment for Ves to work over.
Though Ves wasn't too familiar with CFA combat armor, his general technical competences along with the Squalon's robust guided repair systems allowed him to perform simple repairs.
Over several hours, he stopped the damaged combat armor degrading any further and patched up the majority of the surface damage. He utilized replacement material to make them airtight and fully sealed though he lacked the capacity to restore their defensive parameters.
He wrapped up his repair efforts just as the shuttle reached Aeon Corona IX. Compared to the grand majesty of Seven, Nine was like the stunted sibling in the family of planets orbiting around the trinary stars.
While Seven was a massive Super Earth, Nine looked more like a cratered moon cast astray from a larger planet. As a dwarf planet, it also orbited the star system rather eccentrically, refusing to be pinned down in a normal circular orbit around the suns.
The shuttle's sensors failed to detect the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet. Evidently, they hadn't arrived yet. More concerning though was that the shuttle also hadn't detected their thruster emissions in interplanetary space.
If the ships of the Vandals and Swordmaidens tried to make it out to Nine, then they ought to be visible on the shuttle's sensors, but nothing came!
The four survivors grew very concerned at this development.
"Did the fleet fail to escape all the sandman ships that converged on the moons?" Ves wondered. "From our sensor readings, there were over a hundred sandman motherships converging on Seven's orbit."
A hundred! While this sounded like a lot, it still took some time for them to reach the orbit and moons of Seven. Yet it also signified that the fleet risked getting entangled in a growing onslaught of sandmen ships.
"We should see if there are any friendlies here. It might be that there's a ship hiding in the vicinity." Captain Orfan said.
As the shuttle orbited around Aeon Corona IX's lifeless orbit, they finally received a transmission from the surface of the dwarf planet.
It came from a surprising source!
"A ship responded to our comm burst! It's the Finmoth Regal!"
"What?! Wasn't that ship lost when we first jumped into this star system?"
"Looks like they never made it to Seven and instead hid on the surface of Nine!"
The Finmoth Regal was an old but serviceable high-capacity combat carrier. She may not be the Shield of Hispania, the Jaded Sword or any of the other ships of the main fleet, but she was definitely a friendly presence!
Though almost a year passed by since the ground expedition trekked across the surface of Seven, time passed several times slower outside of the star system. To the Finmoth Regal, it might have only been less than a month since they arrived at the star system and lost contact with the main fleet.
Everyone found it strange that the Finmoth Regal hadn't tried to travel to Seven and instead holed up on Nine like a rat burrowing in cave.
"Let's go see them." Ves said. "Dise, please set a course to their coordinates."
"On it. We'll take the quiet approach. We don't know what the Finmoth Regal experienced, but it doesn't hurt to be careful."
Everyone frowned at that. It did sound rather suspicious in a way. Could some mishap have befallen the combat carrier? The more Ves thought about it, the more his paranoia acted up again.
Anything could happen in this star system. An isolated combat carrier might be a powerful force to be reckoned with in a rural star system, but here in the massive and sandman-infested Aeon Corona System, she did not even possess the strength to preserve herself!
Still, their curiosity and need for safe harbor overcame their apprehension towards the unknown. The CFA shuttle descended on the small dwarf planet and experienced only a minor pull towards the ground.
Seven's gravity was enough to magnify everyone's weight by six times on the surface. In contrast, the anemic gravity of Nine diminished everyone's weight to a tenth to the gravity of Earth?
What did that mean? Basically, Ves would be able to jump many meters in the sky without engaging his antigrav modules. An average person weighing sixty kilograms on a normal terrestrial planet would suddenly weigh only six kilograms, which was an enormous pittance!
This turned Nine into an ideal hiding plot for any starship because it didn't take much thrust power to ascend into orbit, thus allowing for quick getaways.
As the shuttle carefully approached the rocky, jagged moon-like terrain where the signal came from, they finally came within sight of the Finmoth Regal.
Since the last time Ves saw the combat carrier, she had obviously went through some hard times. Her surface armor plating incurred significant damage from what looked like sandman abrasions.
The breaches in her armor were so severe at some places that some of her compartments became exposed to space.
A patrol of twelve spaceborn Vandal mechs surrounded the Finmoth Regal and made sure to keep an eye on every angle of approach.
For now, the CFA shuttle's ECM systems kept it hidden from most sensors at this range. This allowed the four survivors to ascertain the condition of the Finmoth Regal.
"It doesn't look like a trap." Captain Orfan said as he observed the footage of the battered ship and mechs. "Looks like they suffered a good whacking from some sandman ship and were forced to lay low."
Ves nodded in agreement. "The battle damage does support that case. I see no sign that the Finmoth Regal and her mechs has fought against anything else but sandman ships."
"You Vandals aren't the only ones who lost contact with one of your ships." Lieutenant Dise interposed. "Are there any signs of the missing Swordmaiden carriers?"
"No. I've already scanned the surface of the planet several times and caught no other ship besides the Finmoth Regal."
"Damn."
Ketis and Dise both felt a bit uncomfortable at the absence of Swordmaiden ships. After all, if the Vandals were inclined to do so, they could easily betray the two and take away the lockbox reserved for the Swordmaidens!
Nonetheless, while the signs seemed good and the response codes transmitted by the Finmoth Regal all seemed valid, Ves still felt a nagging suspicion that something more was going on. Was the Finmoth Regal really as friendly and inviting as she seemed?
Chapter 939
A bad feeling crept up to Ves. Simply put, there were several questionable points about the Finmoth Regal's state and her decision to hole up on Aeon Corona IX.
Ves voiced his concerns. While the Swordmaidens seemed receptive to his suspicions, Captain Orfan found them to be overblown.
"What are you thinking, you dolt?! Just because one of our combat carriers missed the fleet doesn't mean she turned hostile all of a sudden!"
"I still feel uncomfortable about this. I'd rather we hide the shuttle somewhere and wait for the arrival of the fleet. There shouldn't be much of a difference, right?"
Although Captain Orfan wanted to reach the Finmoth Regal as fast as possible so she could unwind in the company of fellow Vandals, both Ketis and Dise supported the suggestion proposed by Ves.
Inwardly, both of them would rather wait until a Swordmaiden ship arrived to secure their own share of the loot.
A tense situation descended upon the shuttle as Captain Orfan found herself outnumbered by three skeptical people. Although nominally, she should be in command, the others weren't exactly her direct subordinates. She wouldn't be able to dictate their actions by herself.
She turned to Ves, as she recognized that she at least stood a better chance of gaining the upper hand with his support. "C'mon, Ves, aren't you looking forward to a nice long shower and a comfy bed to rest and relax? We never really had the time to put down our guards ever since we landed on Seven."
"It's because we're so close that we need to be at our highest state of vigilance." Ves firmed up his resolve. Though his intuition didn't tell him much, his suspicious nature compelled him to doubt the circumstances. "Look, let's just wait for a day and see if the fleet manages to catch up. If they aren't coming, we can always rendez-vous with the Finmoth Regal."
With no one else to back her up, Captain Orfan had no choice but to agree to wait. She access a comm panel and sent a brief transmission to the Finmoth Regal.
"Heya, Finmoth Regal. We've decided to wait for the arrival of the rest of the fleet. Last I heard, they're fighting through a horde of sandman ships, but they'll definitely be here within a day or less. Hang tight, okay? We'll all be reunited with the fleet and can leave this forsaken star system together."
"Captan Orfan." The Finmoth Regal's comm officer replied over the channel. "Mech Captain Bonnet insists that you land on our carrier. Our long-ranged sensors have detected a massive amount of activity and weapon emissions from Aeon Corona VII. We believe it is prudent to follow the second contingency plan and fall back to another Star System. Are you in possession of the cargo, ma'am?"
Ves pressed a button that momentarily muted their comms. "Don't answer that question, please."
"Fine, you suspicious git." Orfan scowled at him before brushing aside his block. "Ahem, we are indisposed at the moment. If you don't mind us, we'll park ourselves out of the way while we wait for the rest of the fleet. Tell Julie Bonnet that we'll be sharing drinks some other time!"
A short crackle sounded out from the channel before someone else patched into the comm channel. "Rosa! I don't know what's gotten into you but you better get your butt down here in our hangar bay! This isn't the time to play one of your stupid games!"
"That sounds just like Julie Bonnet." Orfan whispered to Ves. "Look Julie, I'd love to join you, but there's a bunch of spoilsports on my shuttle who would rather for the Shield of Hispania and the Jaded Sword. So I guess you'll have to keep that beer you owe me in the cooler for a while longer!"
The two began to argue like a pair of familiar drunks. Captain Orfan actually enjoyed frustrating Captain Bonnet and she went along with the plan to wait just to spite her fellow mech captain.
Of course, as Bonnet's orders and cajoling grew more heated, Ves noticed from the sensor readings that the mechs of the Finmoth Regal erupted into activity.
"The Finmoth Regal is launching out more spaceborn mechs. Their mechs are also fanning out in a search pattern."
Captain Orfan frowned at that development. "Julie, what the hell are you doing?"
"We're dragging you back kicking and screaming, that's what we're doing! As I've already stated, this is a critical time and we should evacuate as soon as possible!"
"What about the fleet?"
"You need to face reality, Rosa! They're dead or delayed for such a long time that there's no point in waiting!"
Even as the two mech captains continued bickering over the comm channel, the mechs accelerated as they traced the comm channel in the direction to the shuttle. Ves noticed that the mechs flew very fast.
Lieutenant Dise's expression grew even graver as she zoomed in on the footage provided by the shuttle's advanced optical sensors. "Those mechs are making an aggressive approach. I don't like the way they are brandishing their weapons."
When Orfan studied at the footage, she lost her jovial mood. "Julie, call off your dogs. They look like they are itching to take someone down. Why are you guys so nervous, anyway? There's hardly an enemy ship or mech in sight."
"You obviously haven't seen how desperate we fought to keep our ship from fallen apart or being eaten by living sand! It's not safe out here!"
While Captain Bonnet's answer sounded plausible, Ves made an alarming observation as he zoomed in as close as possible to the rifles of the ranged mechs. "Their weapons are hot! All of their safeties are disengaged and they can instantly shoot us down if they get in range!"
"What?! What is the meaning of this, Julie?!"
"It's as I've said. I'm bringing you back whether you want to or not. Forget about waiting for the fleet!"
Nothing about Captain Bonnet and the Finmoth Regal's response to their presence reassured Ves. While this might all be just a huge misunderstanding, their complete lack of willingness to wait sent alarm bells ringing in his head.
"Please keep our distance from the Finmoth Regal's mechs." He said to Dise.
"Will do."
She did not even solicit anyone else's opinion before she turned around the shuttle and quietly flew away.
"Captain Orfan, please close the comm channel. It's leaving behind a trail for them to follow back to our shuttle."
"Sure, sure." She grumbled, though a bit less severe than before. Even she noticed something strange about the Finmoth Regal. She turned back to her comm to transmit one last respond. "Julie, if you are hearing this, call off your boys and cool off their heads! They're coming in really hot for what is supposed to be a friendly reunion!"
As she closed the comm channel, the mechs didn't slow down or stow away their weapons. Instead, they flew even faster and kept their weapons poised in their grasp. It seemed as if they were really desperate to track down their shuttle!
This uncharacteristically aggressive search pattern seemed far too overblown for the situation! Even if they guessed correctly that the shuttle held the mission objects, they shouldn't have lost their composure to this extent.
"Can anyone tell us what the hell is going on with the Finmoth Regal?" Orfan asked in shocked bewilderment. "Because the Julie Bonnet I know wouldn't be so impatient to send all of her mechs on the warpath. Look at them! They've sent out so many search parties that the Finmoth Regal practically has no escorts left!"
The Finmoth Regal launched over thirty mechs, mostly Inheritors along with a couple of Hellcats and some other miscellaneous models. This was less than her old complement of spaceborn mechs, but the problem was that the combat carrier hadn't launched any other mechs to take over patrol duty.
This strongly hinted that Captain Bonnet sent out every mech she had, perhaps even possibly deploying her personal mech as well!
Ves didn't know this very well, but this pattern of behavior deviated from standard procedures. Both Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise recognized that Captain Bonnet unnecessarily jeopardized the safety of the combat carrier in an attempt to intensify their search.
So far, the shuttle easily managed to dance outside the effective detection range of the Vandal mechs. Ves knew their parameters very well and he also familiarized himself enough with the CFA shuttle's capabilities to know that it could easily outpace any mechs, even the Inheritor light skirmishers which possessed excellent mobility.
The Finmoth Regal and the mechs transmitted numerous hails to the shuttle, each of them bearing more and more urgent-sounding demands.
The inability to understand their intentions really grated on Captain Orfan. She turned accusingly at Ves. "You got us into this mess. Now the Finmoth Regal's entire crew is freaking out!"
He understood her frustrations. The lack of information frustrated him as well. He began to think of a way to solve this problem.
"We should try and make contact with a couple of people on the Finmoth. Preferably outside official channels."
"How do you suppose we do that?"
"This shuttle isn't any good in combat, but it offers us a bunch of other options. One of them is to establish a pinpoint comm channel that is only detectable at a single coordinate. We can do this by launching three of the shuttle's miniature comm buoys and send them close to the Finmoth Regal."
It wouldn't be possible to really do this with any accuracy or stealth if the Finmoth Regal moved through space. Right now, the Vandals on the ship parked her on the surface of Nine, which made his suggestion viable.
None of them really understood him, so he took action anyway. The CFA shuttle discretely disgorged finger-sized comm buoys which quietly started to zip to the Finmoth Regal. Unless the mechs scanned specifically for small objects like this, they'd probably stay undetected.
The only problem was that it took some time for the slow comm buoys to reach their positions. Ves set them up so that they surrounded the Finmoth Regal in a triangle. This allowed Ves to open up a comm channel with the highest degree of accuracy.
In the meantime, he engaged a low-powered scanner and tried to map out the Finmoth Regal's interior. Although he visited the ship a couple of times, he wasn't familiar enough with her layout to pin down exactly where people might be. Though the scanner only returned a fuzzy result that grew even fuzzier as it penetrated deeper, Ves mainly wanted to scan the mech workshops and mech hangar bays.
The fact that the shuttle's scanner managed to return all of these results without the ship being the wiser impressed Ves enormously. This was just a cheap, outdated shuttle in the eyes of the CFA, yet its technological prowess still allowed him to perform various actions that completely confounded a modern mech force.
"Got it!" Ves said and honed in on a specific lifesign aboard the Finmoth Regal. "I know one of the mech designers there. Let me try to hail him through this pinpoint comm channel."
The shuttle connected to the comm buoys, which then attempted to open up a comm channel with the comm of a specific individual who currently sat in an office next to a mech workshop.
The channel connected.
"Who is this?" An uncertain voice sounded out from the noisy comm channel.
"Loke Vedette. It's me. Ves Larkinson." Ves stepped in and replied. "I'm aboard the shuttle with Captain Orfan. We recently arrived at this planet and we didn't expect to find the Finmoth Regal. What happened to you guys?"
"Damnit! I can't tell you this! The monitoring system probably caught me! I can already hear the security officers rushing to my office! Damn, you Ves!"
"Look, stay put and we'll rescue you somehow. Just tell us what is going on at the ship!"
"You bastard! If you must know, Captain Bonnet and half of the upper echelon! They quit the Mech Corps and plan to go pirate! And that's not all!"
"What else is worse than deserting?"
"The deserters banded together with the Dragons of the Void!
Chapter 940
Dragons of the Void! This old pirate organization led the vast Dragon Alliance which organized many different pirate gangs under a single banner. Together with the Ravienne Alliance, they dominated over the Faris Star Region as a side hegemon.
Ves wasn't too unfamiliar with the Dragons of the Void. He encountered them for the first time during the Groening mission. He encountered them again during the Glowing Planet campaign.
Both times, the Dragons of the Void proved to be consummate opportunists and cowards. Yet their cunning, organization and above all else their penchant for brainwashing loads of cannon fodder made them into a force to be reckoned with.
Personally, Ves considered the Dragons of the Void to be the most formidable pirates in the Faris Star Region.
In contrast to the violent and destructive Ravienne's Ravagers who presided over the loosely-organized Ravienne Alliance, the Dragons of the Void distinguished themselves over other pirates by being smarter and more rational than the average pirates.
Naturally, this was a very low bar to surpass considering how stupid most pirates that Ves encountered turned out to be, yet just a modest bump in intelligence practically increased their threat level by at least five times!
Therefore, hearing that the Dragons of the Void became involved immediately made him think that they were out to capture those who fled the surface of the planet. After all, any survivors who managed to make it out of that hellhole stood a considerable chance of making it off with their mission objectives!
"How did the Dragons of the Void manage to convert the Finmoth Regal's officers?" Ves hastily asked Vedette over the pinpoint comm channel. "Answer me quickly!"
"The Finmoth Regal became lost ever since they arrived in this blasted system. We fought off several sandman ships and we almost died if not for the Dragons of the Void. Right now, at least half of the crew are on their side while the rest of us are awaiting 'processing'! A bunch of those pirates are even keeping an eye on everyone! You gotta help me before they stuff me in the brainwashing machine! Please rescue us!"
The channel cut off pretty quickly as the ship's security officers stormed into Vedette's office and hit him with an electrifier baton.
Ves turned to the other three occupants of the shuttle with a grimace on his face. "Looks like the Dragons of the Void caught the Finmoth Regal when she was cornered by the sandmen."
Captain Orfan scowled. "The Finmoth Regal has always been a troubled ship. There was that thing with one of their chief technicians, and now they went as far as turning pirate! Ahem, no offense to you Swordmaidens."
"No offense taken." Dise said stoically. "Many pirates actually look forward to being brought into the fold of the Dragons of the Void. The higher-ranking officers of your lost ship were probably able to get away from being brainwashed but the rank-and-file will probably get turned over time."
Ves saw many instances of people affected by the Dragon Alliance's brainwashing methods. Those who underwent the process tended to become suggestible but also fairly stupid and impulsive. It was as if they lost some of their intrinsic value as a human being. While the brainwashed idiots wouldn't hesitate to throw away their lives in suicidal charges, they weren't quite capable of performing any tasks that required higher-level brain functioning.
This was probably why a mech designer like Loke Vedette escaped being put through the brainwashing machine. The fact that he was kind of a wimp who couldn't hurt a fly likely caused the deserters to disregard him as well.
The question now was what they should do with this new information. "I think I speak for all of us that we can't do anything about the Finmoth Regal for the time being."
"Why not? We got all of this fancy CFA gear right?" Ketis retorted as she wrapped her gauntlet against her breast plate. "As long as we can sneak aboard the combat carrier, there won't be a single person aboard that ship who can stop us from killing all the pirates and deserters!"
Lieutenant Dise shook her head. "No, Ves is right. Look at the state of my gear. Captain Orfan and I aren't in the best shape to fight. Even if we manage to hold up against the ship's security officers, there's one type of opponent that we'd be helpless against. Their mechs."
A person could never fight a mech. Though it was not impossible, in most circumstances the difference in scale and power was simply too vast to overcome. An ant would always be an ant in front of an elephant even if the ant decked itself out in high tech gear.
This was the Age of Mechs! Conquering a ship from the inside didn't offer them a solution against the mechs currently searching for their shuttle's whereabouts! As long as the mechs remained on the side of the deserters and the Dragons of the Void, taking control of the Finmoth Regal was meaningless!
"Right now, our priority should be fulfilling our mission, which is to get our lockboxes back to civilized space and hand them over to the right people. The first step in doing so is to reunite with the fleet, or at least board a friendly ship that can take us out of here." Captain Orfan spoke, recentering the discussion on what they ought to do.
"We should wait for the fleet." Ves suggested. "There's no point in going anywhere else, and I'm sure we can hide ourselves from the Finmoth Regal's mechs."
They decided to hole themselves up in high orbit over Aeon Corona IX and keep the shuttle's ECM systems up. The technological disparity between the shuttle's ECM and the sensor systems of Finmoth Regal's mechs meant the latter likely wouldn't be able to see a thing unless they came within a range of a hundred kilometers.
The CFA shuttle neatly entered a very high orbit, far enough away from the planet to keep their distance from the Finmoth Regal and her complement of mechs.
Nobody really knew what to do at this moment. Dise and Ketis conferred quietly amongst themselves through a private comm channel. Meanwhile, Captain Orfan kept glowering at the sensor plot showing the Finmoth Regal's mechs continuing to fan out in an aggressive search pattern.
As for Ves, he knew that they'd be screwed if they failed to secure a berth on a friendly FTL-capable ship. Therefore, he pointed the most powerful long-range sensors of the shuttle in the direction of Aeon Corona VII and attempted to make sense of the battles that took place in orbit.
Even if the CFA shuttle boasted some of the best sensors he had the privilege of working with, the remnant astral winds that linger in the void of interplanetary space still caused a lot of problems in terms of gaining accurate readings, especially at a fair distance away.
Nonetheless, the shuttle's sensors captured a large amount of emissions originating around the huge planet and its moons. Though they didn't provide Ves with enough fidelity for him to figure out who was fighting against who, the fact that a large amount of emissions were clustered at several points revealed that the fleets were still intact for the time being.
"Although it's hard to say whether they still exist considering the time lag."
Aeon Corona VII and Aeon Corona IX happened to brush by very close right now, so it wasn't as if Ves observed sensor readings of a battle that already ended several days ago.
"Still, the fact that these emissions have lasted for many hours is very disconcerting."
This told him that the stricken fleets were likely engaged in a continuous running engagement against an onslaught of sandman ships.
The emissions mostly concentrated in a handful of points at the start, but after several hours of continuous battle, some of them started to split up and spread in several different directions.
"Some of the human fleets are splitting up!" Ves guessed aloud. "Perhaps the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet is among them. I can't tell from these vague readings."
Captain Orfan cursed. "How many sandman ships are they fighting against?"
"I don't know, but they must be extremely numerous if the fleet decided they are better off splitting up!"
Splitting up a fleet was an act of desperation. Any commanding officer who gave the order only did so when they determined that keeping the fleet together would risk their annihilation!
At the very least, by various combat carriers and other ships in different directions, the faster combat carriers such as the Gorgon's Gaze wouldn't be weighed down by the slower logistics ships such as the Beggar's Bounty and the Linever Swan.
Of course, abandoning cohesion also left those fat, slow ships completely vulnerable to being overtaken by the horde of sandman ships!
While the crew of those sluggish ships destined to be caught would likely be able to shuttle over to the faster ships, it still hurt a lot to lose all of those support ships.
Nonetheless, just like Ves back then, the fleets couldn't think that far ahead when they were only one step away from defeat!
Therefore, Ves did not exhibit too much surprise at this outcome. He instead paid more attention to the trajectory of the emissions as they traveled in different directions.
Some flew up, some flew down, some flew towards Aeon Corona VIII, yet at least twelve different signatures appeared to arc towards Aeon Corona IX!
"We're going to have company soon!" Ves alerted the others. "Whether they're friendly or not, I bet that there's at least a couple of Vandal and Swordmaiden ships among them who received order to pick us up!"
"It could also be the Dragons of the Void."
"Aw, please don't spoil my hopes."
"We need to get ready to face both friends and foes."
It took some time for the signatures to reach the planet, especially when sandman ships constantly nipped at their heels.
Fortunately, most sandman motherships tend to be average when it came to their means of sublight propulsion. Their smaller escort ships were faster but they never strayed too far from the mothership and the sandman admiral controlling them.
The extremely chaotic situation and the act of dumping the ballast saw many ships left for dead. Yet their sacrifice allowed many other ships to successfully dance out of the reach of the pursuing sandman ships.
Shortly after this change, the fighting in the vicinity of Aeon Corona VII subsided and fewer weapon emissions lit up the distant space for the shuttle's sensors to capture and interpret.
"The fighting has pretty much ended at this point." Ves concluded. "The ships too slow to outrun the sandmen have all been caught while the ships that are fast enough to outpace the aliens are no longer threatened."
Nonetheless, how many starships survived? How many ships split up but would never be able to gather up with their fellow sister ships?
Aside from that, a lot of mechs must have been cut off and unable to return to their carriers.
"The Finmoth Regal is exhibiting an increasing level of activity! She's lifting off!"
The shuttle hadn't been the only one to observe the proceedings from afar. Although the old and battered combat carrier didn't carry any high-quality sensors, she had a lot of them and they were all larger. It didn't surprise Ves that they managed to piece together some of the clues as well.
"The Finmoth Regal and her mechs don't have a lot of time left to capture us!"
The situation would become very awkward for the deserters if loyal Vandal ships entered the orbit of Aeon Corona IX. Who knew how either side would react!
Another complication was that the sandman motherships would certainly keep chasing after the humans. A battle between humans only gave the sandmen the opportunity to catch up!
"We shouldn't wait here until they arrive. Instead, we should fly out to meet one of the incoming ships!" Ves suggested.
Chapter 941
Nobody objected to his suggestion, but the question was which ship should they approach and how should they meet them midway?
The troublesome part right now was that the lingering astral winds still caused their sensors to capture hazy readings, especially at longer ranges. Right now, the CFA shuttle's sensors had only been able to track the fleeing ships by the weapon emissions from their escorting mechs.
Now that the fighting subsided, the only way the shuttle could rendez-vous with one of the ships was through extrapolating their possible routes and hoped they picked the right interception route.
This took a lot of judgement and familiarity with both orbital mechanics and navigation. Lieutenant Dise may be a passable shuttle pilot, but she could only fly the shuttle directly from point A to point B. The intricacies concerning space navigation was beyond her as she usually just programmed a destination on the autopilot to determine the most optimal route.
In short, it was up to Ves who possessed the broadest grasp in the sciences to extrapolate and guess the route the fleeing ships followed and hope he selected the right ship to reunite with. Ves had very little data to work with as the long-ranged sensors only captured strong weapon emissions, but for a mech designer that was enough.
"I think I can calculate which fleet and which ships belong to the Flagrant Vandals." He stated as he started to set up the control panel for his calculations. "The weapon emissions that we've been able to capture mostly come from strong explosions and strong laser fire. The Akkara heavy cannoneers are capable of inflicting both types of damage, and I'm sure I'll be able to identify their distinctive weapon discharges."
Both Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise looked at him as if he was speaking an alien language. Only Ketis understood a bit of what he wanted to do, but she wasn't capable of performing this kind of analysis at all.
She simply gave him a thumbs up. "Good luck, Ves!"
All of this sounded complicated, but Ves knew what he was doing. Sort of. He knew the theory, but once he went to work, he struggled a bit and his calculations came out clumsier than he thought.
Nonetheless, he succeeded in determining an approximate route that should bring the shuttle close enough to a ship to recalibrate their route.
The question now was whether they should go meet up with a ship or continue to wait in high orbit above Aeon Corona IX.
"Major Verle told us to stay put here, remember?" Captain Orfan reminded them all. "What do we do if the Vandals and Swordmaiden ships arrive but we're not here to greet them all?"
Lieutenant Dise shook her head. "The major's orders didn't anticipate the presence of deserters hanging around here. I'm willing to take my chances with another ship instead of staying in the vicinity of a hostile ship and her complement of mechs."
Ves and Ketis both agreed with Dise. Even if the shuttle's ECM systems managed to fool the enemy sensors for now, it wasn't a good idea for them to rely on a single system to keep them safe. Any form of technology could fail, even from the CFA!
Therefore, all of them quickly came to a consensus that it was better to take their chances than to sit here and risk the deserters sniffing them out.
As for any ideas about taking back control of the Finmoth Regal and rescue the loyalists such as Vedette? None of them were delusional enough to support such a crazy plan!
The CFA shuttle quietly slipped away from Aeon Corona IX and headed back in the direction towards Aeon Corona VII along a curve in order to meet with the fleeing ships.
Unfortunately, Ves miscalculated somewhat. He did not anticipate the fleeing ships converging with each other at some point. This caused the shuttle to fly in the wrong direction.
Fortunately, the shuttle's sensors managed to pick up the thruster emissions from the other ships once it came close enough. After readjusting their course, the shuttle flew off to intercept their presumed comrades.
As the shuttle came nearer and nearer, the shuttle's sensors finally managed to make a more precise visual confirmation of which ship they managed to find.
"Yes! We found the Shield of Hispania!"
Since Ves was most familiar with the spaceborn mech contingent of the Shield of Hispania, he aimed to identify their weapon emissions from the start. Though he had never been quite sure of his guess, it still gratified him to come within sight of the flagship of the Verle Task Force.
"The Jaded Sword is also with the group!" Ketis burst with pleasure.
Overall, two Vandal combat carriers along with the Jaded Sword and two light carriers made it out of the confusing mess that engulfed Aeon Corona VII's orbital space.
Yet even as they managed to flee and congregate again, they also brought unwanted guests. Flying in the wake of the Vandal and Swordmaiden ships, a mix of unknown carriers followed along.
"They must the Dragons of the Void. Who else but them would flee towards Aeon Corona IX?" Captain Orfan spat.
"The pirate vessels doesn't appear to be able to catch up to the Vandal and Swordmaiden ships. Even if they do, they'll have a tough fight on their hands. They don't have the numbers to overpower our mechs."
Even so, being pursued by an unknown and very likely hostile force did not seem very reassuring!
"There are sandman motherships trailing further ahead as well, but they're falling further behind." Ves observed as the sensors picked up their comparatively weaker energy signatures.
Nonetheless, even if the situation seemed precarious, it was better than floating around in space with just a shuttle!
As the CFA shuttle flew close enough to communicate comfortably, Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise both contacted their respective flagships and exposed their identities. They also explained what went on with the Finmoth Regal.
"What?!" Major Verle shouted over the comm channel. "You better not be pulling my leg, Captain!"
"It's true! I swear! That traitorous cow Bonnet and her deserter buddies completely surrendered to the Dragons of the Void and became their lackeys! I have the comm logs to prove it! Aeon Corona IX is not safe!"
"Damnit, Aeon Corona IX is our planned rendezvous point! If we avoid it and change course, we'll miss reuniting with the other scattered ships of our allied fleet. We'll talk later once you come aboard. Welcome back, captain!"
All four survivors practically broke into tiers when the shuttle came close enough to see the battle-scarred carrier ships and their tired but unflinching mech escorts.
For a moment, Ves couldn't believe their luck was that good! While the others already started to let down their guards, he discreetly pointed the shuttle's scanners at the various vessels and tried to figure out if they'd been compromised in some way.
No matter how many scans he performed, nothing seemed amiss. No strange sandmen agglomerations hid inside the ships, nor did he spot any strange armed personnel keeping the crew in captivity.
"Come on, Ves! We're coming home!" Ketis celebrated with a smile.
His paranoia didn't allow him to accept such a lucky break at face value. He obsessively kept scanning for something suspicious, and by some chance stumbled upon the hidden compartment he found some time ago.
Ves remembered the hidden compartment contained a cell which kept an important Vesian noble from the Detemen System captive.
Lord Javier still lived for some reason. Ves didn't know the significance of this. Shouldn't the Vandals get rid of this fellow now that he had no use? The longer the noble scion stayed aboard the ship, the greater the risk of an accident!
Or did the Vandals make some kind of arrangement with Lord Javier or House Eneqqin?
Could it be that the Vandals turned their coats and betrayed the Bright Republic to work with the Vesians?
"There's no basis to these suspicions!"
Ves shook his head to dismiss the silly thoughts his overactive imagination conjured up inside his stressed and tired mind. What mattered was that Ves and Captain Orfan would finally be able to return to a Vandal ship while Ketis and Lieutenant Dise went back to a Swordmaiden ship.
After dropping the two Swordmaidens off at a shuttle sent from the Jaded Sword that met them halfway, the CFA shuttle finally entered the shuttle bay of the Shield of Hispania.
A team of heavily-armed security officers greeted them upon their arrival. Though they looked menacing, they merely came to secure the strange and foreign CFA shuttle and to be sure that the occupants inside belonged to their own side.
"It's us!" Captain Orfan said as the security officers came to confirm their identities. "What's all this about?!"
"Sorry, ma'am, but who knows if you're a clone sent as a decoy."
"The hell?! You'd know it if I'm a clone! Is a clone able to talk like this?!"
"You make for a convincing argument, but orders are orders."
Despite the rough welcome, Ves did not sense any particular malice from the security officers. As he looked around the shuttle bay, he spotted at least triple as much crew than this section ought to host. He also spotted way more shuttles, many of which were plastered with markings of other ship names!
"Did the Shield of Hispania take on survivors from other ships?" Ves asked while he jerked his head at the others.
"The blasted sandmen ships that have been roaming blind and deaf all converged on Aeon Corona VII as soon as the flow of higher-dimensional particles cut off!" A nearby shuttle technician answered. "I don't know if it's because they regained their vision or if something on the planet drew them there, but the entire space around Seven became engulfed with sand!"
After asking a few questions, the technicians confirmed the fleet cut off their own tails in order to escape the reach of the sandman ships.
"What about the pirate carriers following behind you?"
"Them? I'm just a technician. The brass never tell us anything important, so who knows what we'll do. The pirate ships can't catch up to us anyway, so I don't see how it matters."
Their escorts quickly guided the two survivors to the medbay while posting more guards around the CFA shuttle to keep anyone curious from putting their hands on the advanced vehicle. A separate team also received the lockbox handed over by Captain Orfan and immediately put it into a bigger lockbox, as if they were afraid that the CFA lockbox was too fragile to hold something as important as the mission objective!
"What you're doing is completely redundant." Ves commented from the side as the security officers seemed to treat the bigger lockbox like a holy container. "A high-quality CFA lockbox is worth as much as this combat carrier, I think. The entire ship can plunge into a sun and vaporize into atoms and the lockbox would still be fine, if a little hot to the touch."
The security officers ignored him, of course.
"Oh well. Make sure not to touch my shuttle! It's keyed to my identity and it's my personal property now!"
In the next hour, Ves split up from Captain Orfan as various doctors and other specialists performed a complete checkup on him. The security officers also compelled the both of them to remove all of their gear and have them undergo a thorough checkup, not that Ves believed that they'd be able to determine anything.
Their CFA gear had all been updated with modern security suites, courtesy of Miss Calabast. There shouldn't be any way for the Vandal hackers to crack the CFA comm or any of his other gear.
Still, getting out of his armor for the first time in many days made him feel very uncomfortable. He also didn't like getting poked and prodded by the doctors and being stuffed inside various medical devices once they detected an enormous change in his genes and physiological equipment.
"I went through three rounds of CFA gene optimization treatments!" Ves admonished the doctors who couldn't decide whether he was a botched clone or not. They really hadn't faced anything like this before! "
"This clone is really sophisticated." A doctor scratched his chin as he observed Ves with a clinical eye. "CFA technology sure is wondrous. Their clones are so expressive and they even believe they are the originals."
Ves didn't know whether to laugh or cry!
Chapter 942
Returning to the Flagrant Vandals made Ves experience the deplorable level of technology that was the norm in much of the galactic rim.
The Shield of Hispania's medical bay lacked the high technology medical equipment that could make sense of his altered physiology. Their doctors also didn't recognize the effects of gene optimization treatment.
Since their medical examination failed to confirm the identities of Ves and Captain Orfan, the Vandals resorted to an alternative method.
They first put them through various cognitive and emotional tests to see whether their current behavior matched their known behavior.
Then they brought in various Vandal servicemen they were familiar with to have a chat. Usually, a friend who interacted a lot with someone would know if that person got replaced by a clone. While clones were able to emulate the behavior of their originals to a superficial level, they often dropped the ball during longer and deeper conversations.
Since the doctors suspected that Ves and Captain Orfan might be more sophisticated clones cultivated using CFA technology, they went through extremely lengthy sessions with various known associates without rest.
Ves took this disguised interrogation in stride. He readily reported some of the experiences he went through on the surface of the Aeon Corona VII, and he was sure that the people overseeing the interview would try to corroborate his story with the one from Captain Orfan.
Of course, since he was meeting the likes of Chief Haine and Chief Avanaeon, he couldn't tell them anything too sensitive.
"Damn! I've been missing out!" Chief Engineer Avanaeon cursed while he stared at Ves as if the latter won the jackpot. "You not only got away with all that fancy gear, you also went through some of the best treatments in the galaxy!"
"Outdated treatments." Ves reiterated as he tried to downplay the benefits in order to lessen the jealousy emanating from his latest conversation partner. "The gene optimization treatments are three-hundred years out of date. All the other CFA officers are probably running around with version 2.5 while I'm still stuck at version 2.0."
"Pff! Look at you talk! Your crocodile tears don't fool me, Ves! Version 2.1 may be a little underwhelming compared to version 2.5, but it's loads better than the rest of us unevolved cavemen who are stuck at the original version 1.0!"
"Great risks are often associated with great rewards." Ves repeated the adage he increasingly came to believe during his adventures in the frontier. "When the brass initially planned the ground expedition, you probably received the offer to join them, didn't you?"
"I'm a ship engineer! I know FTL drives like the back of my hand! I'm too valuable to be sent down the surface and suffer the travails that most of you went through."
To Ves, it sounded like Avanaeon was merely making excuses for himself. He decided to comfort the engineer.
"Don't worry. I think you made the best decision. Out of the many thousands that made up the Vandal ground forces, almost all of the mech pilots and support personnel sacrificed their lives for the mission. I do you know Chief Engineer Leslie Dakkon?"
"Dakkon? Yeah, I'm acquainted with him. He doesn't really like mechs, but he's done great work aboard the Beggar's Bounty." Avanaeon sighed. "Too bad she's no more. The sandmen tore her apart and sucked out all of her energy once the crew received orders to abandon ship. She was simply too slow."
"Dakkon and all the other engineer that came down with him are dead. Captured by the Vesians and executed by their hands."
The chief engineer scowled. "I heard of that. The Vesians really outdid us all in their commitment. They even took the risk of sending down a young expert pilot and what sounds like the most expensive mech of the entire Mech Legion!"
"The Vesians gambled big, but the disaster that happened at the end probably equalized us all. There's no way the Vesians would have been able to evacuate all of their ground forces in time."
"Yeah, everything moved pretty quickly once the higher-dimensional particles stopped flowing and the battleship at the surface started getting chomped on by the biggest sandman mothership that we've ever encountered!"
The two continued to chat, with the chief engineer pointedly steering the conversation towards specific topics that he'd been ordered to bring up.
Even though the various conversation partners forced Ves to repeat his answers over and over again, he didn't begrudge them on their persistence. The Vandals truly did a thorough job in trying to confirm their identities and stories. He would have doubted their competence if they'd embrace the two returnees with open arms immediately upon arrival.
Ves just hoped this wouldn't take too long, because he felt really anxious about what was happening in space. No one told him the current status of the fleet and whether the Vandals and Swordmaidens succeeded in reuniting their scattered ships.
Also, while Ves warned them that the Finmoth Regal likely deserted, they only told him they would confirm the news themselves if they ever encountered the lost Vandal combat carrier.
Though Ves hadn't been able to track the time, he guessed that at least three days had passed. The interrogators tried to keep him from falling asleep, only to find out they'd need to wait at least a week before his altered physique finally accumulated enough fatigue to turn his thoughts sluggish.
At that point, Major Verle entered the interrogation room. The man sat down at the opposite side of the plain metal desk and crossed his arms. "Mr. Larkinson, you've been busy."
Ves shrugged, uncaring whether he appeared disrespectful to the senior Vandal mech officer. "I reckon you read through my interviews and checked the data chips I handed over to you? Even if you think I'm a clone, at least I helped you out! That should count for something!"
"We stopped suspected you were a clone after the first day of interviews." Major Verle admitted unapologetically. "Still, we needed to make sure you aren't compromised by hidden CFA or Vesian bioprogramming or the like. Captain Orfan strongly vouched for you, though. She told me all about how she's never be able to survive her deployment to the surface with your invaluable assistance throughout the journey. Your contributions have been noted."
"Oh? So you cleared your suspicion on Captain Orfan before me, sir?"
The major smirked. "Captain Orfan has a... unique personality. That makes it easy for us to tell whether she's the real deal or not. Besides, we found out that she has somehow ascended into the ranks of expert candidates, through your aid she claims. Can you explain to me why a mech pilot who we long knew did not possess the inclination to advance in rank suddenly broke past a barrier that many mech pilots failed to pass?"
"I can't tell you, sir."
"What?"
"I said I can't tell you with the monitoring system and half the ship listening in on the conversation. This is really too sensitive for anyone else to hear. If you'd give me back my customized CFA combat armor, I'd be able to scramble this compartment so that no one will be able to eavesdrop on us."
"You're quite possessive of your loot, aren't you, Mr. Larkinson? You even went as far as stealing entire crates of nutrient packs from a CFA battleship!"
"Hey, that's mine! Don't touch it! They're my souvineers! In fact, all of my gear is keyed to my identity as a lieutenant commander of the CFA. Even if my identity is forged, my stuff is completely useless to the rest of you."
"We can always donate your shuttle and your gear to the Mech Corps for them to reverse engineer some of the principles."
"Hah! Good luck with that. Even if they're out of date, you're talking about genuine high technology. Even if you understand some of the principles, you can't afford to apply your new knowledge without bankrupting the entire Mech Corps!"
"Even so, their value alone will pay for our mech regiment's reorganization. We lost hundreds of mechs and thousands of valuable personnel. It costs many billions of credits to recoup those losses."
"Don't you dare sell my gear!"
"As a mech designer in the service of the Mech Corps, there is really no concept of owning your own personal gear. Every piece of equipment you make use of belongs to the Mech Corps. This is how the military works."
Ves could accept losing his CFA shuttle. After all, it was just a means to go from one destination to another, though it held a lot of nifty capabilities that made stuff a lot easier.
However, the thought of losing his valuable Squalon with the Cadisis, signal jammer, stealth detector, upgraded transceiver brought a lot of distress to him. All this time, he relied on his gear to survive!
To be rid of all of those goodies while the remnants of the fleet were likely still in great peril brought him back to square one in terms of survival capabilities!
"Hahaha!" Major Verle suddenly laughed. "It's a good thing you're with the Flagrant Vandals. We're not much of a stickler for rules around here. I like you, Ves. Even if your story is a little shaky at the end, you were pivotal in enabling Captain Orfan to complete the mission and return with the prize in hand."
Ves saw a ray of hope. "So will that mean you'll return my gear to me, sir?"
"All the engineers, technicians and armorers who studied your fancy CFA gear tell me that it's impossible for anyone else but you to make use of them. They're also quite impressed with what they've managed to find out. Considering the enormous amount of merits you've earned in our books and the uncertainties we might face during our journey back to the Bright Republic, I will allow you to wear your armor. It will just collect dust in the armory anyway if I don't give it back to you."
"Thank you, major!" Ves smiled brightly at him. "Is there anyway for me to keep my gear once we return home and after the war?"
"Let's talk about that later. I reckon the bureaucrats back home won't allow you to keep your possessions."
"I sense a 'but' there."
"You know what kind of company I keep." Major Verle threw a peculiar glance at Ves. "As long as I put in a good word for you to the right people, there may be a possibility that you'll get to bring your armor home. However, that's predicated on whether it will benefit the Bright Republic more if you retain personal use of your gear rather than giving it up for study and reverse-engineering."
Ves nodded reluctantly. He understood what Major Verle was getting at. The mech officer stated that while the Mech Corps would likely be very obstinate regarding this issue, Flashlight and the Firestarters might be more flexible regarding this issue.
The key was that Ves needed to come up with a good reason to explain why he should keep his material gains from the Starlight Megalodon. He might have done the Brighter military intelligence service a huge service with his performance during the mission, but that didn't mean they'd pass on something as advanced as his Squalon!
Ves doubted he could fend off their greedy hands by telling them it was his property. He could tell that coming up with a good reason to justify his continued use and possession of his CFA gear would be extremely difficult.
Still, he was thankful for Verle for opening up this option to him. "I'll think about it. Is there anything else you'd like to ask, major?"
"I have many questions, but as you say, there are too many ears in this room." Verle said and leaned closer. "For now, I want to ask you one thing. Do you feel guilty?"
Chapter 943
Major Verle's question came out of the blue.
What did guilt have to do with Ves?
"I don't understand what you mean." Ves replied while squirming in his seat. "What's this question about, sir?"
His default dark green mech designer uniform made him feel awfully exposed and vulnerable. He badly wanted to get back to wearing the Squalon.
"The psychoanalysis programs analyzing your expressions state that you are shouldering a considerable burden of guilt. Therefore I'm asking you whether you feel guilty."
"I don't." Ves answered simply.
"Truly?"
Ves shrugged. "I have some regrets. I regret not finding a way to save the ground forces. I regret not being able to help the mission more. I regret..."
He regretted having to kill Venerable Karol Xie in the eve of battle. Though it seemed unlikely that Xie could have turned the tides against Venerable Relia Foster and her ridiculously extravagant Belisarius mech, perhaps Xie might have still been able to mitigate the losses somehow.
Though Ves hadn't pulled the trigger that put a laser beam through the expert pilot's head, it was through his insistence that made Calabast arrange for the expert pilot's death.
He had blood on his hands. The blood of an expert pilot.
"Hahaha!" Ves burst out an unhinged laugh without any regard for his audience.
In the end, no matter what kind of excuses he came up with, he was guilty of the same crime that led the Skull Architect to flee to the frontier!
If the MTA ever learned what Ves did, they'd probably put a bounty on his head as well!
"Got it out of your system yet?" Major Verle asked.
"Ahem. Yeah. Thank you for your patience sir. A lot of awful events happened on the surface. There was no time to stop and take the time for me to go through my experiences."
"There is help for you when you need it Mr. Larkinson. Many mech pilots haven't gone through the trauma you must have undergone."
"No thanks, sir." Ves brushed off the major's concerns. "I'd rather just return to work, if I'm allowed to. Working with mechs is the best therapy for a mech designer."
"You'll have to go through a more thorough debriefing as well as another checkup and observation period, but you are more than welcome to resume your post as head designer. Mr. Mercator who has been filling your seat in your absence has proven... less than capable."
Ves smirked. "I can imagine. It takes a lot more than conceit to fill in such a big pair of shoes."
Due to all the monitoring, Major Verle didn't take too long before he left. After his departure, the Vandals resumed their observation on him. Several days went by as Ves went through a more thorough medical checkup as well as going through various competence tests.
His performance during most of these tests exposed how much all of his cognitive enhancements turned him into a freak in this regard!
In fact, his record already included his abnormal cognitive functions, but all the experiences he went through matured him quite a bit since the start of his draft. All the treatments and operations he received on the Starlight Megalodon also comprehensively boosted all of his cognitive abilities by a small notch.
All of this resulted in complete puzzlement on the part of the doctors and specialists administering the tests. Ves performed so far out of bounds in many physical and mental aspects that they simply couldn't judge whether there was anything wrong with his health or mental state.
In the end, they metaphorically threw their hands up and took Ves at his word that he felt fine.
Doctor Cuscar blew out a tired breath as he held a data pad that contained the results of a thorough brain scan. "Compared to an average baseline human's brains, yours is so far out of the norm that you could be mistaken for an alien species."
"Any problems, doc?"
"Hell, what do I know? I think someone who specializes in studying alien biology can tell you more about yourself than a simple doctor like me! You'll have to undergo a more thorough examination at a military hospital if you want to have any hopes of deciphering the impact of all your transformations on your health."
"No thanks. I trust in the CFA's work. There's nothing wrong with me, really."
Though Dr. Cuscar seemed skeptical about the quality of medical treatment a crashed battleship could provide, Ves just wanted to get this all over with. There was no way the Bright Republic's standards on medical technology could ever fathom the work of top-tier trans-galactic organizations such as the CFA and the Five Scrolls Compact.
After his examinations finally ended, he finally received his gear again, having been cleared to make use of most of his gear including his CFA comm, though such a decision was strictly against regulations.
According to Chief Armorer Mandelsen who passed Ves back his gear, Major Verle himself overruled the rules concerning the use of foreign devices and technology.
"We've been going from one crisis to another." Mandelsen remarked as she signed off on all the gear being returned to Ves. "We're still gathering a slew of surviving ships and trying to find the best way to jump out of this forsaken star system. There's pirates, Vesians and above all else the sandmen lurking in every corner. If worse comes to worst, you'll be better off in your fancy CFA suit than the crappy goods us space peasants use."
Ves raised his eyebrows at her cynical words. "Oh, come now, chief. I'm still a Brighter, just like you. You should call yourselves space peasants."
"Isn't that what the folks from the CFA call everyone else who isn't a part of the Big Two and the first-rate superstates? In the eyes of the people at the top, most of human space only exists to mine exotics for them and occupy space that they disdain to take for themselves."
This wasn't the first time Ves received this response. For some reason, when people found out that he underwent several CFA gene optimization treatments and received his own customized set of CFA equipment, they somehow believed that he transcended his origins and joined the CFA for real.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The real CFA would never acknowledge his highly unconventional and outright fraudulent means of fooling the Starlight Megalodon to commission him as a lieutenant commander of the service.
Ves would rather they didn't find out entirely.
After he retrieved his Squalon and immediately fitted into it, he finally marched to Major Verle's stateroom and entered it. To Ves, it almost felt like old times.
"Take a seat, Mr. Larkinson."
"Am I allowed to activate my signal jammer here?"
"Go ahead."
Once he did so, the entire compartment became engulfed in a strong interference field. Compared to his self-developed signal jammer, the one he received from Virtual Chief Armorer Levitt not only blocked more esoteric means of observation, it also possessed a much higher strength, so much so that Major Verle looked a lot more uncomfortable due to the unstable waves passing through his body.
"So this is CFA tech."
"Yup." Ves nodded. "This little gadget only scratches the surface of what wonders the Starlight Megalodon truly held, sir. She's truly a treasure chest of wonders."
"Now that we're amongst ourselves, please relate to me the details that you were hesitant about telling me in the interrogation room."
"At least I can get some things off my chest."
In the next couple of hours, Ves related more stories and details on some of the more unsavory events during their trek to the surface. He mentioned the unethical experiments, Project Icarus and the deliberate transformation of life on Aeon Corona VII and briefly touched on his partnership with Miss Calabast.
Ves held back on that latter topic. Luckily, Major Verle seemed much more taken by one of the other revelations to care about his temporary cooperation with a third party that came out of the blue.
"Is Project Icarus truly this ambitious? I have never heard of a means where mech pilots can be artificially elevated to expert candidates. Do you know how much the galaxy will shake once news of this get out?"
"I think it's a lot harder to replicate this process than you think, sir." Ves shrugged. "The conditions that made it possible for Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise to be turned into expert candidates should be almost impossible to replicate without so many prerequisites. Somehow, the higher-dimensional particles and energy leaking from the Starlight Megalodon is necessary to foster a unique ecosystem that can support the growth of the god species, who themselves have many unfathomable aspects."
"So only the big boys can make use of this development?"
"I'm not sure if that's even possible, sir. Right now, the laboratory and mainframe holding all of the files on Project Icarus has self-destructed due to the triggering of a trap and perhaps the sandmen will scour the entire planet of life. If the CFA ever comes, there won't be much left for them to reconstruct the conditions that made Project Icarus succeed."
If the Bright Republic ever held the means to foster expert candidates, then they would certainly have to relinquish the method to the Big Two. Major Verle wasn't truly serious about pining after Project Icarus' research data.
Still, the thought that something like this went on underneath everyone's noses in the deep frontier still astounded him. It made Major Verle question what other profound innovations the Big Two kept under wraps.
"Much of the wealth and technology in the hands of the CFA is out of reach to the Bright Republic. There's no point in envying their power." Ves responded.
They had a word for this phenomenon. Tech envy. Much of the galaxy lived in inferior conditions compared to what the citizens of the first-rate superstates and the people privileged to be part of the Big Two all took for granted.
The galactic center was where all the magic happened. The extreme density stars and all the energetic reactions and collisions that took place there constantly generated an abundance of remarkable exotics and anomalies that could easily be leveraged to produce wondrous applications of high technology.
Yet there were far too many hindrances involved with spreading the wealth. The less well-off galactic heartland and the deplorably underdeveloped galactic rim could only stare with envy as the so-called 'first-class citizens' of the galaxy kept the best for themselves and only threw some scraps to the beggars outside their porch as charity.
"You're right." Major Verle smiled deprecatingly at himself. "Chasing after the greater wonders of the Starlight Megalodon has always been a bit of a stretch for us. We should be glad that we obtained a lockbox from one of the battleship's vaults."
The confidential discussion proceeded to move on to other areas. Even though Ves tried hard not to draw attention to his interactions with Calabast, Major Verle wasn't so easily fooled.
"Now, I've already heard from Captain Orfan that the only reason you managed to gain entry to the Starlight Megalodon with the help of an alleged intelligence agent you encountered once before on Harkensen I, is that correct?"
"Yes, sir. At least this time she didn't make herself out to be a Vesian intelligence officer. I think. She's certainly not on the side of the Vesians, that's for sure."
Major Verle grimaced at Ves. "It's obvious you're reluctant to explain your dealings with her to me. As someone who has a foot in the dark, I know very well how murky it can be to deal with these types of people. Nothing ever good comes out of collaborating with foreign intelligence agents."
No matter how much the major poked and prodded him, Ves kept his mouth shut regarding Miss Calabast. "I'm sorry sir, but I really don't want to talk about her. Could you leave this portion out of your report?"
"I'll consider it. In truth, there are many aspects about the mission that the Bright Republic rather not wish to follow up on. Technically, we did steal CFA property though. Even though they'll probably dismiss us as beggars digging for their trash, it's better if we don't attract their attention at all by leaving behind a detailed record. Besides, we have other concerns to deal with at the moment."
Ves voiced a nagging concern of his. "If I may ask, why haven't we jumped out of the Aeon Corona System yet?"
He would notice something as obvious as an FTL transition. Yet over the course of his checkups and interrogation, he never felt the discomfiting sensation of FTL travel even once.
Chapter 944
Through his many interactions with Major Verle, Ves noticed that they gradually grew closer and more amiable in each other's presence.
Ves realized that Major Verle trusted him more and more. Especially after the conclusion of his ground deployment, Ves seemed to have inadvertently entered the commanding officer's inner circle.
Not only did Major Verle indulge Ves whenever he made an unconventional request, the mech officer also talked more freely about the major decisions meant to steer the scattered and diminished fleet to safety.
"The Aeon Corona System is a frighteningly large star system. The edge of the star system is much more distant than usual due to all of the planets and stars it holds. There are pirate ships following behind our wake and there is the Finmoth Regal taking position in front of our route. They are cutting us off."
Ves widened his eyes when Verle mentioned the Finmoth Regal!
"So let me get this straight, sir. Not only have the Vandals assigned to the Finmoth Regal betrayed us, they're also coordinating with the pirate ships to corner us?"
"That's the gist of it." Major Verle shrugged in seeming helplessness. "We've been playing the maneuvering game with them in the vicinity of Aeon Corona IX while we wait for more allied ships to arrive. Yet so far, no other ship has showed up. Right now, it's highly unlikely that any of the other carrier vessels of the Flagrant Vandals or Lydia's Swordmaidens will show up any time soon."
To Ves, it sounded as if Major Verle already wrote off the missing carriers! This was a massive loss in combat capability!
"I take it our spaceborn combat strength isn't looking to good right now." Ves probed.
"It's deplorable." Verle sighed as he let down his guard and revealed his weakness in the face of the events that caught the fleet off-guard. "Our two carriers can only muster up fifty or so spaceborn mechs for battle. All the desperate fighting against the sandmen ships caused a lot of our mechs to suffer the fate of being crushed by sand. While we've supplemented our numbers somewhat by taking in mechs abandoning the slower combat carriers, our two ships are well below capacity in this regard."
"How are the Swordmaidens faring?"
"Our contact with them is spotty. Right now, the sudden loss of Commander Lydia has come as a near-fatal blow to their morale. From what we heard, Lieutenant Dise who you brought from the surface of Aeon Corona VII is currently making a power play over the established mech captains for control of the gang. I don't know why she bothers. The Swordmaidens are nearly completely annihilated."
"What?" Ves frowned. "Shouldn't there be mech captains among the Swordmaidens who are closer to the line of succession."
"There are, but the Lieutenant Dise has one advantage over the older and more experienced Swordmaidens. She's an expert candidate."
"Ah."
With how much mech pilots idolized expert pilots, the revelation that one of their own might possibly be able to reach such a height gave Dise an invincible position among the Swordmaidens.
Unless she was a complete idiot, Lieutenant Dise should easily be able to take over the position vacated by Commander Lydia's untimely demise.
Why she wanted to take control, Ves didn't know. Right now, the Swordmaidens were only left with the Jaded Sword and two low-quality light carriers. This was a far cry from their peak!
"To be honest, our relationship with the Swordmaidens have cooled down a bit." Verle explained. "If not for the presence of mutual enemies in each direction, they would have split off from us and make their own way back to their old haunts in the frontier."
Ves understood that now that both forces retrieved the mission objects, they didn't have much of a reason to stick together besides depending on each other's strength. Even then, the two would always eye each other's spoils. Wouldn't it be great if they could grab another lockbox from their erstwhile allies?
This was also why the remnant of the Flagrant Swordmaidens avoided going into battle and tried to outmaneuver the Finmoth Regal and the ships of the Dragons of the Void trying to confront them. If a battle ever occurred and if one side suffered too many losses, then they couldn't rule out the possibility that their ally would finish the job and stab them in the back!
Hearing these concerns directly from Major Verle in the flesh placed Ves in a position to provide his own take to the challenges. This was because the commanding officer not only enlightened him to the full challenges facing what was left of the Vandal forces in this star system, but also asked him what he thought and how he would respond.
"Why ask me, sir? I'm not a mech officer. I'm not versed in matters of strategy and tactics."
"If I wanted to ask a mech officer, I could have asked myself." The major retorted. "A good leader facing a difficult problem should always be exposed to a diversity of perspectives when they can afford to do so. As a mech officer, I believe our best course of action is to punch through the Finmoth Regal's blockade. However, it is one thing to attack pirates. It's another thing entirely to attack our former comrades."
"I can't speak about the skill of Finmoth Regal's mech pilots, sir, but their mechs are just as formidable as ours, even if they aren't in a great condition due to their own battles against the sandmen. Nevertheless, the Finmoth Regal has their own complement of Akkara heavy cannoneers. Their prodigious firepower alone can chew up half of our mechs before we are even able to get close!"
"The deserters of the Finmoth Regal are well-versed with standard Vandal tactics and formations. Part of the reason why we've always gained the upper hand against the pirates is by making use of our superior coordination. Against an equal opponent who knows every trick in our book, we lose this critical advantage."
"So in the end, it's not such a good idea to attack the Finmoth Regal."
"Correct. This is why we are in a stalemate right now."
Ves couldn't provide any useful suggestions to get the Flagrant Swordmaidens out of this awful fix. They were practically trapped in a jar with no easy ways to get out. He figured that Major Verle mainly brought up their circumstances in order to solicit a viable solution.
"I'm sorry, major, but I can't think of anything that can help you out."
"What about a technological solution?"
"Sorry, sir. There are no backdoors or weaknesses for me to exploit. Aside from their battle damage and recent wear and tear, the Finmoth Regal's mechs are just as deadly as our own."
The confidential meeting between them ended in disappointment. Even though Ves hadn't been able to conjure up a magical solution to Major Verle, he nonetheless felt appreciated for being given the opportunity to provide his input on such an important matter.
As Ves stood up, he received his next orders. "You're reinstated to your old post as temporary head designer. Right now, the workshops urgently need your help restoring as many of our mechs as possible. The more mechs we can field in upcoming battles, the higher the chance we can all make it back to the Bright Republic alive."
"Understood. I'll do my best to get our mechs back in fighting condition!"
Ves left the stateroom and stopped by at the shuttle bay. His CFA shuttle had been secured to the deck by temporary restraints, but overall the shuttle technicians stopped gawking and poking at it once they learned that all of its systems only responded to authorized personnel.
Right now, Ves was the only person who could unlock the shuttle and enable it to fly. There wasn't any use trying to authorize someone else to fly the shuttle without his presence because it only responded to the commands of a genuine CFA officer in possession of a properly-configured CFA comm.
If Ves ever lost his CFA comm, he'd lose the ability to unlock and command the shuttle. This was aso why the Flagrant Vandals stopped casting greedy eyes at his gear and his shuttle.
Once he unlocked the hatch and slipped into the shuttle, he checked all of the cargo stowed in the cargo compartment. "Good. All of my nutrient packs are still in one piece!"
Evidently, the security officers hadn't bothered to perform more than a cursory sweep on them, dismissing them expired survival rations. Obviously, none of them even attempted a taste, thereby never finding out how sublime they tasted.
Ves grinned. "Hehe. These vintage nutrient packs are all mine."
While he didn't value the crates of vintage nutrient packs over the shuttle or the Squalon, he did regard them as genuine treasures. There was no way he would relinquish them to the military!
"All mine!" He huffed with greedy breaths as he took in his haul. "I don't care what everyone else says. These nutrient packs are all mine!"
After indulging in his fancies, Ves slowly sobered up and checked the contents of one particular crate. Hidden right in the middle among the nutrient packs was a small and nearly undetectable container that held Adeseus Longhorn's bioimplant.
"Looks like the security officers didn't search these crates closely."
Who could blame them? They only contained some worthless nutrient packs in their eyes. Besides, the container as well as the bioimplant itself didn't trip up many alarms unlike a pistol for example.
Ves did not report this treasure to anyone else. A bioimplant, even an old one, wasn't common goods in the Bright Republic.
Even though he didn't dare to have the Archimedes Rubal implanted in his head right now, he hadn't given up on it yet. So long as he found a reliable biohacker or other relevant specialist to update its bioprogramming, Ves would be able to augment his memorization capabilities to an enormous degree.
The more he came in touch with a variety of alien, classified and high technology that even the System didn't include in its Skill Tree, the more the ability to instantly store a vast amount of information would be of enormous use to him. Aside from that, the bioimplant also offered a number of other useful functions.
"People ask too much of a mech designer." He sighed to himself. "No wonder why there aren't many Seniors and Masters."
As Ves took on the role of the deceased Mr. Longhorn aboard the Starlight Megalodon, he put on the shoes of a Senior Mech Designer for a few weeks.
It turned out they were very big shoes to fill.
If there was anything Ves found out about Senior Mech Designers, it was that they depended on accumulating an enormous amount of knowledge.
"Seniors are always pushing the envelope of what is already known. From a broad and deep base of knowledge, they jump off the beaten path and try to pierce what is beyond the fog of the unknown."
In the perspective of Ves, a Journeyman Mech Designer mainly concerned themselves with designing the best mechs as their abilities allowed. Their design philosophies aided them in distinguishing and empowering their designs with their unique touches.
However, once someone advanced to Senior, the act of designing mechs turned from a pivotal means to earn money and fame into a vehicle to pursue a near-impossible goal.
"Senior Mech Designers aren't that interested in designing today's mechs, but only cast their eyes towards tomorrow's mechs."
Original research became a vital component to their development as an advanced mech designer. Performing research was also crucial in their pursuit to bring their design philosophies to fruition.
"It's too bad that it's extremely expensive and difficult for Senior Mech Designers to attain their goals."
The transition from Apprentice to Journeyman was the first watershed of a mech designer. Yet the amount of Seniors who successfully advanced to Master was even less!
Two main reasons lay behind their inability to pioneer a new path in the field of mech design. One was the lack of funding and resources. The other was the lack of knowledge and research ability!
For now, Ves couldn't do anything about the former, but he always considered the latter to be his strong suit. The earlier he strengthened this aspect, the more distinct this advantage played out throughout his career!
"I am practically made to be a research-oriented mech designer! Kind of like... the Skull Architect."
Ves suddenly felt less jubilant about this declaration.
Chapter 945
Once Ves left the shuttle bay and entered his office for the first time in a very long time, he noticed some changes since the last time he visited.
It was as if someone else took over his home.
"Well, it's not like this office is my personal home." Ves shrugged.
Soon enough, Ves keyed himself to the office and logged into the terminal. The first thing he wanted to find out was the disposition of the mechs at the disposal of what was left of the Flagrant Vandals.
The second thing he wanted to find out was their actual condition in space. Besides some short descriptions from Major Verle, Ves hardly knew where the remnant allied fleet still stood in the Aeon Corona System.
As Ves summoned up a plot of the star system, he studied the known and estimated positions of all the human and sandman ships in local space.
"Seems like Aeon Corona VII turned into a hive of sandman motherships."
He had no idea what really went on there, but for some reason a large majority of sandman ships in the system continued to converge in orbit of Seven. They didn't descend to the surface nor did they chase after human ships. Instead, they just orbited the planet as if they turned into satellites for some reason.
"Hmph. I bet that dwarf lover has something to do with it." Ves threw out a guess.
Ves only recently freed the sentient AI from its prison. Sigrund wasn't completely free of all of his shackles, and probably still needed some time to adjust his state.
Then, he would probably leave and go as far away as possible. Sigrund wouldn't possibly be stupid enough to stay here considering that a CFA warfleet would definitely arrive in the system sooner or later.
If there was one thing that could get the CFA's rocks off, it was the existence of an actual sentient AI! Such a development was the culmination of one of their greatest dreams!
The intense concentration of sandman ships orbiting over Seven practically ruled out any continued human presence in the vicinity of the planet.
As the Shield of Hispania beat a desperate retreat, they observed many distant battles as other fleets fell from the onslaught of sandman motherships. Vandals, Swordmaidens, Vesians and pirate vessels all succumbed to the overwhelming number of alien aggressors.
It didn't look good to the remaining cohesive force of Vandals and Swordmaidens. The two flagships survived as well as an additional Vandal combat carrier and two Swordmaiden light carriers.
"Five carriers in total. No transports, no cargo haulers, no logistics ships. Damn."
In the short term, the absence of their supply train wouldn't affect them that much. Yet in his position as head designer, Ves knew how vital it was to bring along an abundant amount of supplies.
This went double or triple for any operations in the frontier, where there was a dearth of space stations where the fleet could resupply!
Ves already started to develop a headache at the thought of trying to keep the Vandal mechs in fighting conditions as fuel, energy, materials and replacement parts began to dwindle quickly.
Worse, each battle the Vandals fought accelerated the consumption of supplies. The Akkara heavy cannoneers especially spewed bucket loads of laser beams and ballistic shells in rapid succession!
Though the loss of so many carriers meant that the remnant fleet didn't have to support so many heavy mechs anymore, what little they still possessed was more than enough to empty their reserves in a couple of intensive battles!
He came to an important conclusion after making this observation. "We need to avoid battle whenever we can! The more we fight, the faster we run out of supplies. It would be best if we didn't have to fight at all!"
Sadly, pirates and the deserters gunning for the remnants of the Flagrant Swordmaidens did their best to force the opposite.
As Ves played out the maneuvers the fleet and its pursuers performed in the last couple of days, it became clear to him that no matter where they turned, the ships aligned to the Dragons of the Void always moved in a way to intercept their prey.
This dogged determination led Ves to believe the pirates strongly suspected or outright knew what the Flagrant Swordmaidens managed to retrieve from the surface.
"They'll never give up pursuit if that's the case."
Even if the remnant fleet managed to transition into FTL, the pirates would sure be following right behind.
It was no wonder that Major Verle expressed an intent to battle. It was best to get rid of these jackals sooner than later!
Despite what was best for the fleet, Ves couldn't see any way that Major Verle would be able to get out without a fight. The pirates at the rear and the Finmoth Regal blocking the direction ahead became necessary obstacles for them to overcome.
"At least the pirates shouldn't outnumber us as much."
The Dragons of the Void suffered just as must as any force when calamity struck. Even so, losing most of their ships didn't deter the remaining pirate vessels from giving up the spoils Vandals and Swordmaidens obtained at great cost.
Ves considered all of the information he gathered and tried to figure out a way out of this hole they stumbled into. Yet no matter how hard he thought, he failed to come up with a viable idea.
"Even if we know everything about the Finmoth Regal, so what? We can't hack their mechs or sabotage the combat carrier from remote."
Mutiny, desertion and rebellion was one of the worst things that could happen to a mech regiment! All of the investment put into building up the Finmoth Regal and her mech roster not only became moot, but was even being turned against the original owners!
The thought of Inheritors, Hellcats and Akkara mechs slugging it out against each other in a mirror match sat very poorly with Ves. No matter how much he thought about it, the fleet would definitely suffer substantial casualties despite their local advantage in numbers.
"Should we negotiate?"
Perhaps something like that already happened. There wouldn't be any result. Desertion was hard to foment but even harder to reverse. Once someone forsook their oaths and loyalties, they would always bear the stigma of treachery. There was no way Major Verle would believe the Finmoth Regal rejoined the light.
"No. A battle is inevitable."
After staring at the plot some more, Ves simply couldn't figure out a way to get the fleet out of this closing trap. Sooner or later, the Dragons of the void would come close enough to force an engagement.
"Well, there's no other choice than to prepare the mechs for battle."
With great reluctance, Ves dropped his focus on the outside and began to focus inward. As he studied the condition of each mech, he noted many deficiencies that slowed down repairs.
"I guess I'll have to clean up after other people's messes again." He sighed.
Ves resumed his old routine as head designer. Back on Aeon Corona VII, Ves formed countless repair plans in order to cope with the breakdown effect. All of that practice made him extremely proficient in spotting faults and coming up with the most efficient way to address those problems.
Roughly speaking, his repair plans were up to fifty percent less wasteful and time-consuming than before! This was an enormous boost in efficiency that only seasoned mech designers specialized in repair services could accomplish!
As soon as he finished the plans, he distributed them to the maintenance crews of the two ships. After that, he considered his next steps.
"Making plans from my office isn't enough. I should drop by at the workshops."
Ves left his office and went down to the lower decks until he sought out Chief Technician Haine supervising the frantic repairs.
What struck Ves immediately as he walked through the corridors and entered the workshop was that the Shield of Hispania faced a serious congestion problem!
"We took on too much crew from other ships!"
The life support systems of the ship must be straining right now to accomodate all of the extra people the combat carrier currently supported.
More mech technicians also didn't necessarily mean the repair work finished faster. All the people in the way and the differences in methods, priorities and opinions that emerged caused many mech technicians to spend more time in arguing with each other than actually performing their assigned work!
"Chief Haine!" Ves yelled through the hustle and bustle of the busy workshop.
"Ves! You again!"
The familiar chief technician already chatted with Ves once earlier during the interrogation and interview sessions. Right now, Chief Haine appeared a lot more frazzled and even started to show her age.
Evidently, herding all of these mech technicians exhausted her enormously!
"What brings you down to this pig sty, Ves?"
"I came down to observe the condition of our mechs. I didn't expect the mech workshops to be this... lively."
Chief Haine scoffed at his description. "It's a dump right now. I don't like this anymore than you do, but Major Verle doesn't want the refugees we picked up from the other ships to be idling by themselves. Bad things happen when you leave a huge number of defeated and unruly Vandals by themselves."
"It will be a repeat of the Finmoth Regal. Gotcha." Ves nodded in understanding. "Even so, these mechs need to be repaired so that they can get back into action quickly. I don't know how much time it will take for the battle to arrive, but by my reckoning we don't have much longer than two or three days."
"That's a very tough time frame to accomplish anything, Ves." The chief technician furrowed her brows as she contemplated how many mechs they could bring back to fighting condition. "The awful thing about fighting the sandmen is that most mechs get outright crushed if they get caught by the sandman ships. However, that's not the only arsenal of the aliens. Most of their motherships are capable of firing a penetrating beam that can blast a mech to pieces or at least wipe out a significant chunk of their frame when hit."
"I'm aware." Ves nodded. "When I composed the repair plans, I noticed that we need to fabricate a lot of replacements parts to fill in the missing chunks. For expediency's sake, I mostly aimed to replace the missing portions with cheaper components that can be fabricated very quickly."
"In other words, you cut corners."
"I did, but at least I'm doing it smartly rather than opportunistically. The quality of the repaired mechs will slide, but they won't collapse at any moment due to developing a crippling weakness from sloppy repairs."
The chief grunted. "That will have to do, I guess. Even so, if we have five or six days or so, we can restore thrice as many mechs than if we only have two days. Many of our damaged mechs are really in such a horrible shape that it's impossible to fix them up within a day no matter how many mech technicians work on them. In fact, they're already slowing everything as you can see for yourself!"
Ves didn't pay attention to her complaint but instead focused on an earlier detail. "We need time. The more time we buy for ourselves, the more mechs we can field in the inevitable battle against the pirates. Our odds of winning are much greater if we can field ten or fifteen extra mechs!"
He knew what the Flagrant Swordmaidens needed to accomplish in order to improve their chances. Though he hadn't been able to come up with a way to avoid a battle, he could nonetheless come up with a way to stack the odds in their favor!
"Still, how can we stall our opponents?"
For some reason, Ves was reminded of Miss Calabast. This seemed to be more up her alley.
Chapter 946
Once Ves ascertained the state of the workshops and saw the conditions of the damaged mechs for himself, he mulled over the idea that developed in his mind.
"If a battle starts in two days, we can rush five or so additional mechs back into the field. If we have double the amount of time, then it's not impossible to get ten or more additional mechs ready to deploy!"
Even if the condition of these hastily-repaired and jury-rigged mechs would likely be awful, every mech frame counted in a battle against a tricky opponent.
The Dragons of the Void deserved their reputation as the most skilled and organized pirates in the frontier. Paired with the deserters from the Finmoth Regal who knew every trick in the Vandal playbook, the Vandal and Swordmaiden survivors did not possess an overwhelming advantage in the upcoming battle.
Therefore, Ves long thought about a means to tilt the advantage to his own side in an unconventional manner.
"It's not about courage. It's about survival."
Certainly, the Vandal mech pilots aboard the Shield of Hispania all wanted the whoop the butts of the deserters. Mech Captain Bonnet and her ilk not only forsook their oaths, but more importantly turned their daggers against their former comrades!
A stab in the back was a lot more painful than a stab in the front!
When Ves thought about what delaying actions the Flagrant Swordmaidens could employ, he honed in on the Finmoth Regal. Didn't he scan the battered combat carrier thoroughly to the point of mapping out all of her exterior damage as well as the structural integrity of at least half the ship with his CFA shuttle?
Not only that, he also obtained detailed scans about the condition of all of their spaceborn mechs!
"We have an information advantage!"
While Ves did not know enough about starships to pinpoint their weaknesses, he knew at least one person aboard the Shield of Hispania who could easily school him in this field.
After bidding farewell to a frazzled Chief Haine, Ves zipped out of the mech workshops and navigated the congested corridors all the way to the engineering bay where an abundance of engineers and technicians milled about core ship components. He sought out Chief Engineer Avanaeon among the crowd and drew him to his office.
"What's this about, Ves?" He asked. "I'm busy supervising this rabble of stubborn engineers! Everyone of them wants to do things the way they did back on their old ships!"
"I need your help with a plan to deal with the Finmoth Regal. As long as we can hinder or disable that ship, we might not have to fight an arduous battle against the Dragons of the Void."
This caused Chief Avanaeon to look up. "What do you have in mind?"
"We have detailed files and schematics as well as status updates on the deserter vessel, right?"
"Yeah, but that won't help as much as you think. A combat carrier is military-grade starship built for surviving the rigors of war. Combat carriers are next thing to a fleet carriers in taking a beating!"
Ves activated his Squalon's built-in comm and projected the detailed scan results of the Finmoth Regal.
Chief Avanaeon widened his eyes. He immediately recognized the Finmoth Regal. "This resolution. This scan penetration! Where did you get all of this?! The quality and quantity of all of this scan data is extremely luxurious! In fact, it's even better than standing right next to ship!"
"CFA tech has its perks." Ves grinned. "I think the shuttle I lifted off the Starlight Megalodon probably did double duty as a vehicle for customs inspections and peacekeeping. Its scanners are remarkably good at scanning ships, mechs and other vehicles of every kind."
"Makes sense. Damn, the CFA has some really good stuff!"
After Chief Avanaeon went over his tech envy, he demanded Ves to transfer all of the files over to his terminal. Once he obtained the files, the chief engineer performed some quick data aggregation and analysis on the scan data.
The older man became so engulfed in his work that Ves practically didn't exist anymore in his eyes!
Knowing the importance of a focused state of mind, Ves stood quietly and let the engineer engross himself in the sheer quantity of high-quality scanning data.
After half an hour, the chief engineer finally closed his eyes and leaned back against his chair. His hazard suit creaked as he did so.
"If you told me to come up with a plan to exploit the weaknesses of the Finmoth Regal with archival data, I would have packed you off. Yet now that you brought me all of these up-to-date scan data, there's no way I can miss out on an easy opportunity to cripple their ship!"
"What a confident boast!" Ves raised his eyebrow. "That sounds ambitious. Are you certain you can cripple the Finmoth Regal?"
"Ves, to a seasoned engineer like me, the Finmoth Regal is a ramshackle combat carrier which depleted most of their supplies. Look at the scans of their cargo bay and material stockpiles to see what I mean. While her crew patched up the most egregious holes, their repairs aren't very thorough and with the right application of force we can easily punch through them and damage the delicate components and compartments underneath!"
"Even so, most of the surface components and compartments aren't very vital to the functioning of a combat carrier. Their core systems are always buried in the center with loads of compartments, hull structure and redundant armor layers in between."
"That's generally the case." Chief Avanaeon nodded, but then spun around the projection so that it showed the Finmoth Regal's stern. "However, the engineering bay is always placed close to the rear of the vessel and so isn't as well-protected. The sublight propulsion system is especially exposed. This is where we should strike!"
In the next couple of hours, Ves and Avanaeon hammered out of a plan of approach to cripple the Finmoth Regal's sublight propulsion system. This encompassed trying to find ways to deal with its various subsystems, from the main thrusters to the engines to the fuel supply.
Under the detailed scans obtained by Ves, they found several ways to affect these subsystems through expedient means!
Even though they spent a significant amount of their limited time on this harebrained scheme to sabotage the Finmoth Regal, at the end of the session they both smiled at each other for a job well done.
"Let's bring it up to Major Verle. Even if the plan is a little risky, it's better than facing our opponents upfront!"
When the both of them requested an urgent meeting with their commanding officer, Major Verle regarded as if they were a pair of boys trying to show off something cool to their parents.
"This must be important if it involves my best engineer and mech designer. Spit it out. What did the two of you cook up?"
"It's like this, sir." Avanaeon began. "Ves brought over a large amount of recent, high-quality scans of the Finmoth Regal. After pouring over the combat carrier's actual state, we've found several ways in which we can impair her mobility for weeks with minimal effort, essentially taking her out of action for the foreseeable time."
"Oh? How does this minimal effort look like?"
Avanaeon activated a projector that showed the Finmoth Regal's actual, damaged and partially-repaired state and highlighted several sections of her stern.
"The battle damage that the Finmoth Regal incurred against the sandman can't be fixed in a short time in the field, sir. What her crew has done is to patch over the holes and more vulnerable areas with easily-workable but inferior armor plating. The repair job is very hasty and patchy as well. Look at this section of plating that covers a major fuel line. As long as we can affect these stress points along the fused areas, we can blow this entire patched section into pieces and wreck the fuel line!"
The chief engineer proceeded to highlight several more vulnerable areas. Ves actually did most of the work in identifying these weak points as he possessed a lot more familiarity with working with armor plating, though some of the intricacies of ship-grade armor plating still escaped him. Nonetheless, his broad foundation in the relevant fields pulled him through.
"I see." Major Verle nodded thoughtfully. "Yet even if we know exactly where to apply force on the Finmoth Regal, getting in a position to strike these vulnerabilities is easier said than done."
"Ah, but this is where an invention of ours comes in, sir." Ves stepped in and progressed the projection to a depiction of a small stealth shuttle passing between the Finmoth Regal's mech patrols only to come up right next to the desert ship's stern! "If you may recall, the chief engineer and I developed a small stealth shuttle some time ago. Although there are many deficiencies about the shuttle, its stealth systems are just as good as the ones employed by the Venidsans so long ago!"
Ves and Avanaeon may have developed the Six-Sided Dice as a potential escape vehicle, but the main use of stealth shuttles had always been to sneak up to an enemy and hit them where it hurt!
That was also how the Venidsans initially dealt a near-fatal blow against the Flagrant Vandals back when they confronted the Frosty Meteors!
It took some time for Major Verle to recall the strange-looking shuttle collecting dust in a forgotten corner of the shuttle bay.
"That little thing? That's the smallest and shabbiest shuttle that I've ever seen. Is it truly capable of sneaking all the way inside the Finmoth Regal's security envelope?"
Ves grinned with confidence. "If we're talking about any other enemy, we wouldn't be so certain, sir. Right now, however, we are talking about the Finmoth Regal, a ship that used to be ours. We know exactly how their sensors and scanners are configured. With some additional tweaks, our stealth shuttle wouldn't even be a blip on their most sensitive sensors!"
"I recall that some of the Inheritor mechs are upgraded with stealth detector arrays. This is an addition which you yourself advocated to be put to use."
"It's exactly because I helped develop it that I'm most aware of its shortcomings and blind spots. Stealth and anti-stealth systems are constantly in competition with each other. It's not that difficult for me to modify the stealth shuttle to counter the characteristics of our own stealth detectors."
"Is there a risk that the Finmoth Regal's crew have adjusted their sensors to guard against this situation?"
"I don't think they're aware that we possess a stealth shuttle, sir." Ves replied. "Besides, it takes a very high foundation in sensor and signals tech to be able to know what you're doing. I am not aware that there are any notable experts in this field aboard the Finmoth Regal. The typical sensor officer may be adept in using all of the capabilities of a sensor system, but they can forget about tinkering on them. It takes an actual expert to do something so advanced!"
Overall, while Ves couldn't rule out that the Dragons of the Void stationed some experts on the Finmoth Regal to do something like that, nobody thought they would do such a thing.
As Major Verle weighed the various risks, he concluded that this scheme was actually very plausible!
"I like it, but time is short. If we want to affect the Finmoth Regal in time, we'll have to deploy your stealth shuttle very soon. I'll take care of the staffing and the planning. Besides deploying the stealth shuttle, I also want you to go out and observe the proceedings from a distance with your CFA shuttle."
"Why?"
"In order to provide up-to-date support. Are you up for it, Mr. Larkinson?"
The way the commanding officer stared at Ves subjected the latter to a peculiar kind of pressure. It wasn't the spiritual pressure that Ves once felt from attracting Venerable Foster's ire, but it was the kind of pressure that only existed within his imagination.
This was the kind of pressure every leader was capable of subjecting to their subordinates!
It didn't seem as if Major Verle took no for an answer, so Ves graciously 'volunteered' for the duty.
"I will do my part for the Bright Republic, sir!"
"Knock off that facetious display. You're far too sketchy to come across as authentic. Now get out of my office and prepare the two shuttles for deployment!"
Chapter 947
As soon as Major Verle approved the plan concocted by Ves and Avanaeon, he took it to some strategists and fleshed it out. Not only that, he also selected the best shuttle pilot and a specialist in explosives.
The Six-Sided Dice was fairly small for a shuttle and possessed even less internal volume. It only fit four passengers in ordinary circumstances, and even after taking out all the emergency nutrient packs, oxygen tanks and water filtration system, they still couldn't stuff too much explosives inside the stealth vehicle.
Nonetheless, if the calculations performed by Ves and Avanaeon panned out, they didn't need to plant too much explosives on the Finmoth Regal to cripple her sublight propulsion system!
Of course, a key part of the plan entailed the use of compact but extremely potent directional explosive charges.
Much like any other weapon system, they came in various shapes and sizes. For this mission, the Vandals pulled out all the stops. All of the best armorers and bomb experts gathered together to custom fabricate a special batch of shaped charges.
While Ves didn't verse himself too deeply in bombs and explosives, a shortcoming that he definitely planned to fix in the future, he knew that the shaped charges would do the job of penetrating through the weak points of the Finmoth Regal's patchy armor.
With all the data at their disposal, the bomb experts calculated the force needed to breach the armor and have enough force left over to damage the vulnerable components and compartments underneath.
Naturally, in order to damage portions of the core systems buried underneath, the shaped charges needed to be made of potent, high-quality materials. The Shield of Hispania used up several rare and volatile exotics to form these potent but very compact charges, but no one begrudged the expenditure.
If these rare exotics allowed the remnants of the Vandals and Swordmaidens to slip through the net and avoid a destructive battle, then the investment already paid off in spades!
"It's done." Chief Avanaeon said as he accompanied Ves to the CFA shuttle. "I thought my days of entering the fray were over. I feel kind of nervous depending on the ECM systems of this shuttle to keep us under their notice."
"Don't worry, chief. I already flew this shuttle fairly close to the Finmoth Regal and they didn't have a clue. As long as we don't come close enough to be caught on their optical sensors or plain human eyeballs, we'll be fine."
Due to various reasons, the two would be riding aboard the shuttle that would follow the stealth shuttle from behind and coordinate the upcoming stealth operation with the help of its pinpoint comm buoys and advanced sensors and scanners.
Much of these systems couldn't be accessed without the availability of authorized personnel. For now, only Ves himself could unlock the full capabilities of the shuttle.
A handful of other Vandals entered the shuttle and took the helm or set up various makeshift control panels in the passenger compartment. Each of the people chosen to ride the shuttles were abundantly competent in their respective fields.
After a quick greeting and introduction, everyone turned back to their own preparations without further word. As professionals, they'd rather focus on doing their best to increase the success rate of the coming operation.
Everyone knew what was at stake. If they succeeded in crippling the mobility of the Finmoth Regal, the Flagrant Swordmaidens would be able to take instant advantage of the deserter ship's inability to maneuver!
Shortly after, both shuttles launched out of the Shield of Hispania's shuttle bay and quickly flew off into the void of space.
The distance between the Flagrant Swordmaidens and the Finmoth Regal wasn't too large. It only took a couple of hours for the shuttles to reach the vicinity of the latter, and this was in a state where they pulled back the throttle in order to minimize their emissions.
The CFA shuttle stopped well outside the range where it might risk being detected by the deserter mechs. In the plan refined by the strategists, the CFA shuttle would never be employed as a vehicle to conduct the sabotage.
The Six-Sided Dice took on the starring role instead. As Ves and Avanaeon sat side-by-side in front of their own control panels, they carefully observed as the stealth shuttle threaded its way through the various mech patrols orbiting the Finmoth Regal.
"Did you ever reckon we would put our stealth shuttle to offensive use?" Avanaeon asked.
"Nope." Ves shook his head. "Then again, I never expected to be plotting against one of our own ships. If we targeted any other pirate ship, I wouldn't have risked it. The only reason why I proposed this action is because we are probably more familiar with the Finmoth Regal's hull structure than her entire crew."
He couldn't overstate the advantage in information. Combining detailed scans with archival data stored within the Shield of Hispania's local database allowed them to plan ahead and account for almost every variable.
With all of these preparations, the stealth shuttle should easily be able to sneak close, which it did as time went by.
Although Ves grew a little more apprehensive as the shuttle got dangerously close to the ship and her powerful sensors, he also felt confident enough about the effectiveness of its stealth systems to stay calm.
As the stealth shuttle came closer, the CFA shuttle began to employ some subtle scans to confirm the condition of the Finmoth Regal.
"So far, the Finmoth Regal received a small amount of patchwork repairs." Chief Avanaeon stated as he poured over the incoming scan data. "It's not much, though. I think their engineers and technicians hate the thought of performing EVA work out here."
"They might not be loyal to the cause either." Ves added. "From what I've gathered of the mutiny, those who readily turned pirates are usually those with the most grievances. The more skilled and competent Vandals shouldn't be as enthusiastic as the bottom ranks."
"That theory doesn't apply to the ringleaders such as Mech Captain Bonnet. They made the decision to desert for more reasons than poor treatment."
They both fell silent upon that. This wasn't the time to talk about why the Finmoth Regal deserted in the first place. Certainly, desperation at being hunted down by the sandmen and gratefulness towards the Dragons of the Void for rescuing them certainly played a role. Yet the leaders of the Finmoth Regal must have had their own ideas to embrace this grave act of betrayal.
As the Six-Sided Dice exerted its stealth systems to the utmost, it deftly slid around the detection radii of the increasing number of mech patrols as it neared the ship.
The closer the stealth shuttle got, the more it risked brushing within a couple of kilometers past the orbiting mechs on patrol!
Although this sounded like a huge distance, in space it was practically close enough to spit in each other's faces. Due to the sheer emptiness of space, any signal of heat emission, no matter how minor, would immediately stand out like a candle in the dark, especially at such a close range.
Therefore, both Ves and Avanaeon hoped that they did a thorough job in the initial development and design of the shuttle. The most precarious part about their use was that even a single leak or gap in its stealth cover would be able to expose its existence!
So far, though, everything went as planned. The Finmoth Regal hadn't put up their guard up at all against possible stealth incursions. The Inheritors upgraded with stealth detector arrays kept the fragile and energy-hungry sensors dormant.
For once, their plan proceeded without a hitch. Though Ves tensed his body in case a complication arose, the stealth shuttle never risked exposure even after it reached the Finmoth Regal's stern section!
The various Vandal specialists poured over the scans and relayed various bits of information to the stealth shuttle with the help of the pinpoint comm system. The CFA shuttle already deployed its small and stealthy comm buoys beforehand which currently surrounded the Finmoth Regal in a triangle formation.
"The Finmoth Regal isn't on high alert. Her crew is operating under yellow alert. No deserter crewmembers are near the target sections."
"The deserter mechs are continuing to maintain their routine patrols at half-strength. Scans of the mech stables and workshops suggest that no additional mechs will be able to deploy from the Finmoth Regal within three minutes."
The lack of vigilance on the part of the deserters enabled the stealth shuttle to open up a tiny gap and affix the shaped charges at the exact points along the Finmoth Regal's hull where they could do the most damage.
This was the most delicate portion of the operation. It was impossible for the Six-Sided Dice to perform their sabotage without exposing itself, it only a fraction.
If the sensor operators of the Finmoth Regal were a little more alert or if its system was watching out for stealth shuttles from the start, then the Six-Sided Dice risked immediate exposure!
Fortunately, none of these possibilities came through. The Finmoth Regal maintained a steady course at low burn in order to maintain position in front of the path that the Flagrant Swordmaidens dearly wanted to pass in order to exit the star system.
"The bomb expert has finished planting half of the charges! The stealth shuttle is proceeding from the starboard side to the port side of the Finmoth Regal to emplace the remaining charges."
Like most combat carriers, the Finmoth Regal possessed a lot of redundancy. In the case of her particular ship model, she possessed twin mirrored propulsion systems that mostly operated as a single entity but could be used separately if needed.
That meant if one of them got knocked down, the Finmoth Regal would still be able to maneuver at half propulsion!
While knocking out one half of its sublight mobility would severely constrain the Finmoth Regal's ability to cut off the Flagrant Swordmaidens, it was best to be thorough!
At this point, a complication finally occurred.
"Detecting a long-ranged signal from the direction of the pirate ships! The encrypted signal has reached the Finmoth Regal!"
"Do we know what the pirates said to the deserters?!"
"We can't crack the encryption in a short time! However, the data transmission isn't large. I think.. I think the pirates just transmitted movement orders to the Finmoth Regal!"
Half of the Vandals in the CFA shuttle widened their eyes. "Tell the stealth shuttle to cut short and pull back! The Finmoth Regal is about to turn!"
Too late! The huge combat carrier began to heat up as her main thrusters and maneuvering thrusters came to life. The Finmoth Regal began to rotate on her axis!
Unfortunately, she changed her course in such a way that caused the stern port section to abruptly slam against the stealth shuttle.
"The Six-Sided Dice has collided against the hull of the Finmoth Regal!"
The sheer difference in size and mass caused the cube-shaped stealth shuttle to be flicked off into space in a nigh-uncontrollable spin! The Six-Sided Dice had never been a very tough and robust vessel, and its stealth systems couldn't handle such a powerful impact and shock.
"Stealth systems have shut down! It's exposed!"
The Finmoth Regal immediately entered red alert as her sensors detected a small objects flinging away from the combat carrier!
"The mech patrols are alerted to the threat! A squad of mechs are beelining towards the Six-Sided Dice!"
"Tell the crew to re-enter stealth! The entire shuttle is exposed!"
"They can't. The collision has broken its active stealth coverage." Ves declared as he pointed the shuttle's scanners towards his own creation.
The outcome was already set in stone as soon as the butt of the Finmoth Regal bumped against the Six-Sided Dice.
No matter how much Ves, Avanaeon, Major Verle and the rest planned this operation, in the end a simple set of maneuvering orders transmitted by the pirates at an inopportune time jeopardized the safety of the stealth shuttle!
"The stealth shuttle won't have the opportunity to plant more charges. Detonate the existing ones now before they detect our sabotage!"
A Vandal officer aboard the CFA shuttle activated the detonation command.
As a number of deserter mechs approached the stealth shuttle, the shaped charges abruptly exploded, directing most of its potent power towards the weak points, piercing right through them and affecting numerous delicate and important components and compartments!
Because the Finmoth Regal had just completed a course adjustment, her main thrusters were more active than usual. This also caused the ship to suffer significantly more damage as all of those active systems suffered catastrophic damage!
Chapter 948
Even though the stealth shuttle never managed to place all of the shaped charges it carried, over eighty percent had already been placed before the sudden accident.
Even as the Six-Sided Dice rolled away in space in an uncontrollable spin, Ves imagined a giant dice thrown across the galaxy in the largest casino game in the history of reality.
He quickly shook his head to rid himself of that inappropriate image. This wasn't the time to indulge in his fantasies!
"Mr. Larkinson, Chief Avanaeon, is there anything you can do to help the Six-Sided Dice to resume its stealth mode?!" The Vandal officer asked.
Both of them shook their heads. "No, sir. There is simply no way. The Six-Sided Dice needs days of repair work before it has any hope of recovering her ability to enter stealth!"
Let alone days, the stealth shuttle didn't even have seconds as a handful of deserter mechs immediately arrived next to the spinning stealth shuttle.
A Hellcat hybrid knight mech piloted by Mech Captain Bonnet herself came closer in order to make sense of the strange metal cube. Seconds later, realization came through as she connected the cube's appearance to the damage the Finmoth Regal suffered.
She opened up a channel to the shuttle. The CFA shuttle following in the distance listened in as well.
"Vandals." Bonnet spat acidly. "No one else wants to take us down as much as my old pals. I know it's you!"
"Heh." The stealth shuttle's pilot chuckled. "Friggin' traitors. What now, traitor? Your ship is dead in the water! You're going to have to be towed to get anywhere! Good luck asking the pirates for a tow when sandmen ships are continuing to scour this system of human ships!"
"Oh yeah? Too bad you won't live to see it, Vandal!"
Captain Bonnet's Hellcat lifted up its wrist and fired the nail driver mounted to it. A large, thick and sharpened alloy rod immediately launched from the wrist and punched a hole straight through the Six-Sided Dice!
The stealth shuttle immediately shattered afterwards, destroying it utterly without giving its occupants any way to survive!
"The Six-Sided Dice is destroyed at the hands of Mech Captain Bonnet." The Vandal officer noted with regret. "No life signals detected from the wreckage of the stealth shuttle."
Every other Vandals closed their eyes at the loss of two loyal Vandals.
As for Ves and Avanaeon, as the creators of the Six-Sided Dice they regretted its loss over the loss of the two Vandals. That was their escape vehicle!
While Ves didn't know how much Avanaeon cared about the shuttle, personally he deeply felt pained by its loss. He lost a valuable escape method!
While his recent stint as a Senior Mech Designer aboard the Starlight Megalodon allowed him to supplement his understanding of stealth systems by a little bit, he lacked the resources and industrial capacity to fabricate a second Six-Sided Dice.
He only managed to construct the one that just got driven a nail through by repurposing the salvaged remains of Venidsan stealth shuttles.
Perhaps if the Vandals still retained their logistics systems, he would still be able to cobble up an inferior copy, but for the moment the only shuttle that Ves could rely on was his CFA shuttle.
Thinking about the many capabilities of his CFA shuttle calmed him down a bit. Almost all of its parameters vastly exceeded the parameters of that sad excuse of a stealth shuttle. The CFA's standard ECM systems already approximated the functionality of an active stealth system. If not for its inability to hide itself from plain view, the CFA shuttle was already a nearly undetectable vessel in space!
Ves sighed and refocused himself before he decided to move away from the loss of the Six-Sided Dice.
Although the loss of the stealth shuttle pained the Vandals, they quickly whooped in joy as they saw the Finmoth Regal being wracked by various explosions!
Her recently-active propulsion systems suffered modest but incredibly focused and deliberately-aimed damage. The shapes charges damaged critical sections that not only disabled their functionality, but also caused certain active and volatile elements to explode as well!
This meant that immediately after the short and underwhelming series of detonations, more than a dozen more significant and more destructive secondary explosions wracked the stern of the Finmoth Regal!
"Half of her main thrusters are inoperable!"
"She is leaking fuel and propellant!"
"The Regal's engineering bay has been breached! Secondary explosions have inflicted moderate damage to the core engineering compartments before emergency seals have set in! One of her power reactors has been affected and is currently undergoing emergency shutdown!"
A raft of damage reports streamed in as the CFA shuttle easily peered through the mess of signals and mapped out the effects of their sabotage. After the secondary and tertiary explosions subsided, it became clear to everyone that they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
Even if the Vandals suffered painful accident, this same coincidence also magnified the damage suffered by the combat carrier!
"Chief Avanaeon, what's your verdict? Can she move or resume operation within a short period of time?"
"She's dead in the water." Avanaeon declared with confidence. "No matter how good their engineers and repair crews are, the Finmoth Regal needs a drydock or the assistance of a well-equipped logistics ship if she wants any hope of regaining her mobility. All the secondary explosions have not only damaged the sublight propulsion systems directly, they also affected the structural integrity of the hull sections around them. Her entire rear is shredded!"
This was all they needed to hear, because the Vandal officer quickly ordered the CFA shuttle to retrieve its comm buoys and discreetly slink back to the Shield of Hispania.
During the journey back, Ves took note of the mood of the other Vandals. While they felt pained by the loss of the crew of the Six-Sided Dice, compared to the thousands of comrades that never returned from the surface of Aeon Corona VII, the deaths of two measly servicemen hardly weighed on their minds for more than a couple of minutes.
As soldiers, losing comrades and suffering casualties was a fact of life. The important point was that the two deceased Vandals didn't die in vain. They succeeded in their mission to cripple the Finmoth Regal, and did so to such an extent that the deserter ship and her traitorous crew could forget about participating in any hostile actions against the Flagrant Swordmaidens!
This opened a lot of options for the remnant fleet. Not only would they be able to escape through the hole in the net cast by the pirates, they also had the possibility to attack the Finmoth Regal!
Avanaeon didn't think Major Verle would go for such a satisfying but needlessly pointless course of action.
"The most important priority is to complete the mission. Hunting down pirates and deserters will only set us back on that front. While the Finmoth Regal has lost her legs, she still possesses a full set of teeth."
Ves nodded in agreeement. "Captain Bonnet is a capable spaceborn mech pilot and leader and her subordinates are as trained and disciplined as our own meh pilots. We'll lose mechs regardless how much of a local number advantage we are able to bring to bear."
Certainly, if their foes stood in the way of making it back to the Bright Republic, then the Vandals wouldn't shy away from a fight. However, the entire point of this sabotage was to push the weakest link of their enemies out of the way.
Now that they succeeded, Major Verle would definitely opt for the rational choice and escape!
As the CFA shuttle finally made its way back to the Shield of Hispania's shuttle bay, a small gathering of mech technicians and other folk to congratulate them for their success!
Every Vandal already heard about the Finmoth Regal's painful injury!
"Can you pass me the footage of the moment the Regal's rear blew up?"
"Hahaha! We sure went to town on the Finmoth Regal's butt!"
"The traitors are sitting ducks! Let's go recapture the ship and executive those lowlives!"
Crude jokes about doing unsavory things to the Finmoth Regal's rear end seemed to be especially popular among the rank-and-file. Ves smiled ruefully and shook his head at the banter.
At least everyone regained some of their cheer. After all of the losses the Vandals suffered and after running across half the star system while being hunted like dogs, it felt good to hit back for once.
Once Ves and the others came out of the CFA shuttle, they went through a round of debriefing. After reporting the events from his perspective and answering some routine questions, the man in charge summoned him up to his stateroom for another private meeting.
"It's unfortunate we lost your stealth shuttle, Mr. Larkinson. I've underestimated its capabilities. We could have performed many sabotage missions with such as useful shuttle in our hands."
Ves shook his head in regret. Though he already got over its loss, he would rather not lose it in the first place. "Sir, I won't be able to build anything like it considering our resource shortages. The loss of the stealth shuttle and the two crewmembers is a painful price to pay in exchange for crippling the Finmoth Regal."
Verle smiled grimly at Ves. "The lives of every Vandal under my charge is precious. They are my responsibility. The mutiny that occurred aboard the Finmoth Regal is my responsibility as well, and I'll be sure to face an inquiry once we return home."
"Home is very far away from here, sir." Ves said before he asked a question he wasn't comfortable with asking before. "Will we truly be able to cross the frontier and return to civilized space in one piece? Unlike last time, we don't have that inexplicable voodoo from the Church of Haatumak to shield us from sandman detection. Also, our diminished numbers will make us a lot more vulnerable to the opportunistic pirates that roam the frontier."
"It's a challenge, I admit, but we are more than the cowards of the Finmoth Regal who blinked in the face of despair. We will make it home, of that I am assured."
The major sounded very confident about his claims. Personally, Ves knew that more than courage would be required to cross the perilous frontier all by themselves.
"Could you tell me what our next steps will be?"
"I intend to take us through the gap opened up by the Finmoth Regal's loss of propulsion and take us all to the edge of the star system where we can finally leave the Aeon Corona System behind. After that... we shall have to retrace much of our old route as we make our way back to the border of civilized space."
"And?"
"That's all I can tell you for now."
He already figured out what little Major Verle revealed. In fact, Ves learned almost nothing of substance!
"Okay, sir." Ves said simply. What else could he say to such a limited response? He turned his attention to another matter. "Can I ask you what your stance is on the Swordmaidens? How is Lieutenant Dise doing by the way?"
"Last I heard, the leadership struggle ended after Lieutenant Dise soundly defeated the Swordmaiden mech captains and other challengers in the sparring ring. It seems like she's become an exceptionally formidable warrior after experiencing some changes during her deployment on the ground."
The uncomplicated Swordmaidens disdained backstabbing and secret plots. If someone wanted a promotion, they usually challenged the Swordmaiden occupying the position above them. The ones who won the sparring duel usually got what they wanted.
Ves partially envied the simplicity of their governing system! Although there were a lot of flaws associated with letting the person with the biggest fist be in charge, he had to admit that during times of crisis it was a quick way to settle a contentious leadership struggle after the death of a charismatic leader and founder.
"I'm acquainted with Lieutenant Dise, and Captain Orfan is practically her bosom buddy. Now that Dise has taken the reins, why not propose a deeper cooperation?"
"Oh?" Verle picked up something interesting from Ves' demeanor. "What's on your mind? Do tell, Mr. Larkinson."
Chapter 949
Since the time Ves returned to the fleet, he often thought about the relationship between the two allied forces.
At first glance, they didn't appear to be a good fit. The Flagrant Vandals may be scoundrels among mech regiments, but they still stayed true to their military roots.
As for Lydia's Swordmaidens, though their founder attempted to train elites among pirates, they still couldn't shed their unsavory background no matter how much they adopted their unique mindsets.
A mech regiment and a pirate outfit should have been hostile to each other from the start. The only reason why the two forces banded together was because they saw the need to rely on each other's strength to fulfill their missions.
Yet now that they managed to retrieve the lockboxes, what next?
Ves thought about their current relationship and believed the only reason the Swordmaidens hadn't split up yet was because they lost too much to be able to protect themselves in the cutthroat frontier.
The Flagrant Vandals on the other hand were completely out of depth in the frontier. They didn't know the lay of the land nor did they benefit from any connections to the local powers. They didn't know the best star systems to lay low and which star systems posed extreme hazards to anyone who jumped to them. All the while, the ever-present sandmen loomed behind their backs.
Right now, the Flagrant Vandals were only left with the Shield of Hispania, their flagship, and the Gorgon's Gaze, which still hosted Parallax Star and the half-dead Venerable O'Callahan. This offered them a respectable amount of fighting power, but not enough to deter most opportunistic enemies from taking a stab at them if they thought they could actually win.
Combining their numbers with the Swordmaidens brought their collective threat level just enough to scare away most bottom feeders. Yet how long would they stick together? The Swordmaidens could leave at any moment once they reached some form of safe harbor. The frontier was their stomping grounds, after all, so they didn't have to travel as far to reach safety compared to the Vandals who needed to go all the way back to civilized space.
"What's on your mind, Mr. Larkinson?" Major Verle asked as his curiosity increased at Ves' mention of the Swordmaidens.
"I've spent some time among the Swordmaidens. Enough to get a good sense of their values and priorities." Ves began, thinking back on the times he chatted with Ketis or visited the Swordmaiden camp. "We should consider becoming their 'friends'."
"Aren't we already friendly with the Swordmaidens?"
"Our arrangement up to now is an alliance of convenience, sir. Something which has mostly served its purpose. You have to know that the Swordmaidens makes a strong distinction between business partners and 'friends'. They don't have any hesitation to kick the former dead when they are down on their luck. However, if we are worthy to become their friends, they would instead extend a hand to them to pull them back on our feet."
A frown etched on Major Verle's face. He failed to understand the Swordmaiden concept of 'friends'. "What is it you are proposing, exactly?"
"I propose we endeavor to make a new and more permanent connection with them. Call it a long-term alliance if you will. Unlike most pirate outfits in the frontier, the Swordmaidens are known for keeping their word and for their relatively honorable conduct. They are probably one of the best pirate outfits we can partner with on an ongoing basis."
Major Verle looked dubious at Ves. "Honorable pirates? I know the Swordmaidens are rather distinct, but you make a bold claim. Suppose we accept your premise. Why should we forge a deeper alliance and how will that benefit us in our current state?"
"Lydia's Swordmaidens is founded upon an ideal, sir. They aim to lift the status of women in the frontier and attempted to create a strong, all-women mech force to protect their sisterhood. With the death of Commander Lydia and the loss of over eighty percent of their ships, mechs and sisters, they are probably unmoored and demoralized right now. That makes them vulnerable. Vulnerable to degeneration but also vulnerable to suggestion."
"Go on." Verle waved his hand for Ves to continue.
"Sir, it's like this. While our current forces are extremely meager, we are still part of a greater organization. If we can appeal to their ideals and offer them medium and long-term assistance in rebuilding and revitalizing the Swordmaidens, they'll surely accept such an arrangement because they won't have to give up and abandon the ideals they worked for all their lives."
"Let me guess this straight. In exchange for providing material support in the future, we are asking the Swordmaidens to stick with us and protect us through thick and thin?"
"Yes, sir."
"There are many problems with your proposal. First, the Flagrant Vandals already crossed a line when we partnered up with a pirate gang for this mission. A single slip-up can be forgiven and swept up under the rug, but it's a different matter entirely if we continue to break the rules over and over again. The Mech Corps will certainly never approve of an ongoing relationship with pirates."
"Major, the Mech Corps might not approve, but other... more clandestine organizations might be interested in forging ties with a reliable partner in the frontier."
For a moment, Verle just stared at Ves. They both knew that Ves referred to Flashlight. Right now, Ves hadn't activated his signal jammer yet, so he didn't dare say the name of the military intelligence agency out loud.
"What you say is... possible." The major eventually conceded. "However, such decisions need to be made in coordination with more senior authorities in the Bright Republic. Without a working quantum entanglement node anywhere on our ships, I can't make binding agreements."
"Why not just do it and ask for permission later? Isn't that the Vandal way of doing things, sir?"
Verle smirked at Ves, before going back to frowning. "You've been learning. Sadly, even is certain other organizations are amenable to the idea, it won't change the fact that I will be severely crossing my boundaries."
"I think the relevant institutions of the Bright Republic will understand considering what we've done for them. Right now, sir, we are in a precarious situation. Not only are we deep in the frontier, but we are also surrounded by threats on all sides with no friendlies in sight. What's the harm of making a deal with pirates when it will help us complete our mission and enables us to forge a solid connection to a minor but trustworthy and grateful power in the Faris Star Region?"
"You make a good point. Good enough that I can use the same argument when I'll inevitably be called up by my superiors to account for such a daring initiative."
"Remember, sir, not only will we gain an immediate benefit by having the backing of a local power, but we can also continue to exploit this ongoing relationship."
"The Bright Republic isn't completely blind and deaf when it comes to the frontier."
"Then why haven't I ever noticed any form of aid other than from the Swordmaidens, sir?" Ves pressed. "Are there pirate outfits or other local groups along the way that are ready and willing to help us bring us out of the frontier?"
The major didn't answer his probe, which pretty much answered the question. Either the so-called existing connections to the frontier didn't amount to much, or the Bright Republic was restricted from drawing upon them at will.
While Major Verle still seemed reluctant to make permanent commitments to an alliance with the Swordmaidens, the dire situation of the Vandals made it so that they couldn't afford to be seperated with the pirate outfit.
So far, they worked well together and covered each other's backs! It would be best for all of them if such an arrangement continued until the Vandals succeeded in making it out of the frontier.
"There is still another problem to consider, Mr. Larkinson." The mech officer opened up a new tack. "Even if I am willing to take the shot and fight to make sure the relevant organizations will back any agreements I make, why would the Swordmaidens believe in our sincerity?"
Ves smiled at the man. "Sir, Let me go over to the Jaded Sword and discuss the matter with Dise. As I stated earlier, I am already familiar with them. My strong connection with Ketis should also count for something."
"Why not send Captain Orfan instead?"
"Do you think she's any good at negotiations? Besides, while the good captain is very close to Dise, I don't think Orfan has a feel for the Swordmaidens as a whole."
In fact, Ves something back. If Captain Orfan paid a visit to the Jaded Sword, she'd be sure to secure an easy agreement on account of her intimate emotional connection with Lieutenant Dise, or was it Commander Dise now?
In any case, one of the reasons why Ves proposed this course of action in the first place was not just because he wanted to secure his safety, but also to pursue an ulterior motive.
Ves wanted to pave his own connection to the frontier, seperate from the Mech Corps or Flashlight or whatever. He wanted to use this opportunity to speak on behalf of the Vandals to make a parallel agreement or at least open up the possibility for greater ties between his business interests and the Swordmaidens.
Even in the middle of a crisis, he didn't forget to seek for long-term opportunities as long as the situation allowed him the luxury of doing so!
Ves faintly suspected that his business would be in an awful slump when he returned from the war, so opening up new ground beforehand would save him a lot of effort in the future.
After some reluctance, Major Verle allowed Ves to take the lead on the negotiations. Perhaps the mech officer already possessed an inkling of Ves' ulterior motives because his eyes narrowed a bit in suspicion for a moment.
Nonetheless, since there wasn't any fundamental conflict of interest, Ves didn't feel guilty about taking advantage of this opportunity.
After receiving a raft of instructions and limitations on what Ves could offer on behalf of the Vandals, Verle packed him off to the Jaded Sword.
"Take a regular shuttle to the Swordmaiden flagship and go do whatever you need to do. Remember that I will reserve final judgement on any deal you forge with the Swordmaidens, so don't think you have an unlimited licence to do whatever you want."
"I will make sure you'll be pleased with the new agreement I'm about to forgive, sir." Ves bowed.
"Don't take too long. I want you back in half a day at most. Once you return, we can make our preparations to transition out of the Aeon Corona System."
"Got it, sir."
After receiving a data pad that listed all the possible demands and concessions that he could include in the agreement, Ves did as ordered and boarded a shuttle already scheduled to fly to the Jaded Sword.
A healthy distance already separated the two Vandal combat carriers from the three Swordmaiden vessels. This distance was a little wider than before, and showed that the two forces already started to guard against each other for possible betrayals.
Mutual trust between the Vandals and Swordmaidens already started to fray. If this went on any longer, the possibility of betrayal in order to steal their former ally's lockbox became increasingly more likely.
When Ves initially came up with his suggestion, he initially wanted to find a way to integrate the Swordmaidens into the Vandals or at least bind them closer to the Bright Republic.
He even dreamt of convincing the Swordmaidens to forsake their current backers. Still, his own understanding of the pirate outfit made him take a step back from such an ambitious goal. They would never abandon their ideals and their frontier roots.
"Even if they don't show it very often, they are very sentimental people."
Chapter 950
To the Swordmaidens, friendship mattered more than pure benefits.
Nonetheless, that didn't mean they ignored benefits entirely. As pirates who roamed the frontier for decades, it was impossible for them to be duped and taken advantage of so easily.
Even if their outward behavior painted them as battle-crazed boors, the officers among the Swordmaidens generally distinguished themselves by keeping a certain amount of cool. They took their responsibilities of leading and guiding the younger and more junior Swordmaidens very seriously.
It was kind of like how Mayra treated Ketis as her own daughter. This kind of motherly instinct tempered their recklessness and made them pay more attention to their long-term interests.
"Just like us, the Swordmaidens are in a bad shape right now."
As Ves stepped out of the shuttle, he immediately encountered similar conditions from the Shield of Hispania. The Jaded Sword was a rare combat carrier that must have cost a pretty penny for the Swordmaidens to obtain.
To Ves, the worn bulkheads, spots of rust and lackluster cleaning showed that they likely obtained this combat carrier second-hand.
"Maybe they even took the Jaded Sword off the hands of their former owners by force."
In any case, the Swordmaidens took in a lot of survivors who escaped from the other, slower Swordmaiden vessels eaten by the sandmen.
The major difference between the Vandals and the Swordmaidens was that the latter employed a lot of brainwashed slaves.
When it came to evacuating their crew from the doomed ships, the Swordmaidens only really cared about their own sisters. The predominantly male slaves likely all went down with their ships as they hadn't received the order to evacuate!
The outcome of this decision was that the Jaded Sword became stuffed with warrior women who all carried swords in some form or another. The lack of men in the shuttle bay made Ves feel as if he entered the territory of an ancient Amazon tribe.
It made sense from their perspective. Genuine Swordmaidens who all passed their graduation ceremonies were all core members who were too difficult to replace.
As for the slaves, the Swordmaidens treated them as commodities as best. Even if they lost a couple of thousand slaves, they could easily capture more chumps in the frontier and send them off for 'processing' to turn them into obedient, brainwashed servants.
Ves still believed it was an awful idea to rely on slaves to such a great extent. Yet as long as the frontier lacked enough people with technical backgrounds, such practises would never end.
"Commander Dise is expecting you. Please follow me and don't wander off. We'll chop you if you do so." A bored-looking Swordmaiden warrior said as she greeted him off the shuttle.
Charming. Well, at least he knew that Dise gained enough clout to gain the title of pirate commander among the Swordmaidens.
"Please lead the way."
Ves followed after a stoic Swordmaiden guide who led him all the way to the upper decks, where the fancier compartments resided.
They eventually passed through a hatch that led into a conference room, or at least what passed as a conference room among their ilk. The trophies, battle banners of defeated pirate gangs and deadly exobeasts decorating the compartment made it seem that the Swordmaidens usually used this area to impress their might and power upon their visitors.
Once his escort left, two familiar Swordmaidens entered shortly afterwards. Both of them still wore their CFA armor, just like Ves, but this time they added their barbaric Swordmaiden touches to their exterior.
Both of them painted over the original CFA coating and affixed all kinds of symbols, exobeast bones and other outwardly impressively trinkets to their armor. This made them fit right in with the rest of the armored Swordmaidens. Savage capes fashioned out of beast hides completed the ensemble.
"You two are looking good!" Ves complimented them without exaggeration. They truly looked larger than life in their new looks! "I like how authoritative you look now, Commander Dise. As for you, Ketis, you look much more mature than you act."
Ves found it funny that while Ketis tried her best to 'piratize' her CFA armor, she still showed her original rank insignia as well as her large CFA medal. The contrast between the two styles would certainly trip up anyone familiar with the CFA!
"I'm the only mech designer left among the Swordmaidens." She said a little morosely, belying her strong appearance. "With Mayra gone, I can't take it easy anymore. I have responsibilities now."
Ves nodded in understanding. Though the reason might be depressing, he was nonetheless glad to see her taking her profession seriously this time.
"I think you can do some good for the Swordmaidens, but do you still remember Mayra's last wish for you? Even if you are more competent than the average mech designer in the frontier, a Novice Mech Designer like you will hardly be able to change the fortunes of Lydia's Swordmaidens. Err, are you still called this way?"
Commander Dise shook her head. "Commander Lydia is no more, but calling ourselves Dise's Swordmaidens doesn't quite roll of the tongue. We're still thinking about what to call ourselves from now on. It's a good opportunity for me to steer our course in a different direction, so I'm holding off on the decision until I make up my mind where to take the Swordmaidens next."
"I have some ideas and suggestions for that." Ves said, already entering into his negotiating form. "The Vandals can't help but see that you Swordmaidens are in a much-diminished state. You used to be able to field hundreds of mechs and were a force to be reckoned with. Among the pirate gangs that roam the Faris Star Region, you were definitely one of the larger and more successful gangs. Now, though, you are barely counted among the mid-sized pirate gangs."
"We are still able to field enough mechs to protect ourselves." Commander Dise smiled thinly. "Besides, our prior reputation still accounts for something."
"Your prior reputation and conduct has also earned you a lot of enemies. Previously, they held off on attacking you on account of your strength, but now that you only have three carriers left, I bet they won't give you the time to rebuild your mech force."
"We have many friends we can count on such as the Omen of Misfortune."
"I am certainly aware of how much faith you Swordmaidens put into your friendships with the other independent pirate outfits, but would every so-called 'friends' of yours be as sincere at your current strength level? Don't tell me that all of the pirates you are acquainted with will keep their word to those they perceive as weak."
"We aren't weak!" Ketis burst out in her typical fashion. "We are Swordmaidens! We still have three carriers worth of mechs we can field!"
"There are other pirate gangs in the frontier who can field twice as much if not more. Will they still be apprehensive about coming to blows with you now that you are battered and bruised from this mission?"
The two women couldn't entirely ignore his argument. After all, he only spoke the truth. Pirates weren't known to be generous to those they could easily rob and kill.
"I doubt you've come here to disparage us at our weakest state, Ves." Commander Dise dryly remarked. "Please tell us why you have come."
"I have come on behalf of Major Verle and the Flagrant Vandals to forge a deeper partnership with the Swordmaidens..."
Ves proceeded to lay out the broad strokes of the partnership that he and Major Verle envisioned. The proposed agreement mainly boiled around the following points.
First, the Swordmaidens would help the Flagrant Vandals cross the frontier and return to civilized space with every means possible.
For this service, the Flagrant Vandals or another organization of the Bright Republic would remunerate the Swordmaidens with an immediate repayment in the form of hard currency or valuable resources.
Second, the Bright Republic and the Swordmaidens would continue to maintain their ties to each other. If the Vandals or any other organization from the Bright Republic wanted something done in the frontier, the Swordmaidens would offer help if it was convenient and in their power to assist.
In exchange for this voluntary assistance, the Bright Republic would continue to pay back the Swordmaidens in various matters, such as providing them with funds and resources to attempting to fix up their faulty gene mod templates.
Both of them grimaced when Ves touched upon this sensitive point. Ketis would have definitely passed on what she learned about that to Commander Dise.
The tragic fact about the Swordmaidens was that they depended on genetic modification to strengthen the often weak and malnourished new recruits. Every other alternative wouldn't work as well or fast.
Yet it was also a fact that the Swordmaidens rarely lived to old age. Their aggressive behavior accounted for much of the deaths, but they couldn't discount the deaths that came from genetic breakdown.
All of these services sounded very attractive to the two Swordmaidens. Ves observed from their interest in his proposal that whatever backing the Swormaidens enjoyed, they didn't actually receive much help. Not to the point of eclipsing anything that Ves put on the table!
He saw an opportunity there!
Of course, Commander Dise possessed enough sense not to take such bold promises at face value. "Ves. All of this sounds attractive, but deals between pirates and legitimate states never tend to last very long. Words alone are just empty, especially coming from a state where every bureaucrat holds different opinions about such an arrangement."
"I may not be able to bring a lot of guarantees now, but we have fought alongside each other for many months if not a year. The Vandals are absolutely committed to a partnership. As part of forging closer ties with the Swordmaidens, I'm also willing to take part in my private capacity."
"Oh?" That caught their interest. "What do you mean by private capacity?"
"This won't exactly be on the books, but I'd like to partner up with you as well in matters of business. I might not look like it, but just a few years ago I founded a very successful mech manufacturing company. The Living Mech Corporation owns assets in the billions of bright credits, ah that's tens of millions of K-coins."
"It's true, commander. Ves is a very good mech designer and he'll certainly be a bigshot in the mech industry in his home state." Ketis vouched for his claims. "You're not too far from advancing to Journeyman, right?"
"Correct. It will be a couple of years at most. I'm very close. Once I publish a couple more original mech designs, I will definitely be rise to the heights that Mayra once reached. In the future, it isn't out of the question for me to surpass these heights as well."
"Bold claims. Very bold. I've seen many mech pilots boasting that they'll advance to expert pilots some day. None of them actually did so. You remind me of those boasting pilots, Ves."
Ketis stood up for him. "Ves is good enough to back up his claims, commander! Even the Skull Architect respects him! In my eyes, Ves definitely won't stop advancing anytime soon. We're talking to a future Senior Mech Designer!"
What a nice boost! Ketis basically hinted at Dise that Ves would only become more powerful and influential in the future! Forging ties with a Journeyman Mech Designer was already valuable, but being able to enter into a close working relationship with a Senior Mech Designer was nearly priceless!
Even if Ves was nowhere close to matching the capabilities of a true Senior like the Skull Architect as of yet, it was a lot easier to make a deal with him now when he was still an Apprentice!
The hesitation in Commander Dise began to recede a little. "I take it this side deal isn't a part of the agreement with your state, correct?"
"No, but they compliment each other. As a mech designer who hails from the Bright Republic, it isn't out of the question that I will be acting on the interests of my state. So these two deals aren't really separate."
"Okay. But I still don't understand what you want from the Swordmaidens. Please explain what kind of arrangement you would like to make with us." Dise said, giving Ves a chance to lay out what he wanted to obtain.
"Thank you, commander." He smiled with genuine pleasure. "It's like this..."
He knew he had already passed the most difficult hurdle! Now that Commander Dise opened herself up to the possibility of working together with Ves in a business and private capacity, he just needed to throw out just enough concessions to clinch a deal!
