The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1466

As much as Finlay’s explanations made sense, he was only a single, biased source.

Ves would be a fool if he believed everything Finlay said. At the very least, he had to take into account that Finlay distorted or omitted the facts. The Sentinel’s one-sided account only shone a single light to the story.

One of the downsides of staying at the private box was that Ves had no one else to ask for a second or third opinion. While the box provided him with some needed privacy, the isolation from the majority of the auction goers also played into Finlay’s intentions.

Nonetheless, Ves accepted the circumstances because he believed he gained a rare glimpse into the true thoughts of the ruling class of the Sentinel Kingdom.

Everything he heard so far sounded plausible.

Time continued to pass by as Ves eagerly harvested more information from Finlay.

In the meantime, the doors to the main hall opened up. A crowd of robed, suited and armored figures slowly entered the hall and took their seats. Groups of them shoved their seats together to form an island within the darkness.

So far, the auction hall was still dimmed in darkness. Only the faint ceiling light and the lights shining from the guests themselves prevented them from bumping into obstacles.

Seeing how many wealthy guests attended the auction, Ves began to wonder how much support the Circle of Mota enjoyed.

"How many Sentinel nobles have taken part in the Circle’s exchanges?"

"Every noble house."

That was a surprising answer! "Everyone?"

"Perhaps not at the same time. Some houses are much more opposed to pirates than others. However, not every noble in a single house thinks the same way. There are always a couple of black sheep in the family who believe there is little harm in dealing with the Circle. They do not make up for a lot of people, though, so only a third of the noble houses are truly eager to take advantage of the services that the Circle of Mota provides."

The picture that Finlay painted spoke of a closer interdependence between the Sentinel nobles and the Nyxian pirates. While both were ostensibly enemies, they depended on each other as well.

"The trade between certain houses and pirates is very lucrative." Finlay continued as the auction hall continued to fill up. "You can even say that certain nobles and certain pirates have grown very comfortable with each other."

"They became partners." Ves remarked.

"Yes. Certain pirate alliances are secretly backed by certain noble houses and vice versa. Well, backing is not the right word."

"They benefit from having closer ties to each other while still remaining wary of each other."

"Yeah! That’s how some of the shadow alliances have formed. For the most part, we accepted that certain parties made friends across the other aisle. In order to facilitate these partnerships and provide a better infrastructure to conduct exchanges, the Circle of Mota emerged to provide a way for both sides to get in touch with each other."

"Who founded the Circle? Who controls the Circle?"

"I don’t know. That’s not something that is commonly known. It’s best if you don’t poke around too much."

"I see."

The question who was actually in charge of the Circle of Mota continued to gnaw at Ves. It was one thing if the Circle was led by a hidden consortium of nobles and pirate leaders. He wouldn’t even raise his eyebrow if the royal house pulled the strings.

However, if the true masters of the Circle turned out to be the Five Scrolls Compact, then Ves had to be extra careful!

There was a possibility that the Compact or an agent of them kept an eye on the spiritually-reactive goods that were about to come up for auction. If Ves appeared too eager to obtain these two goods, then he might be drawing attention that he really didn’t mean to attract!

Ves turned his gaze from the increasingly more occupied main hall to the disguised form of Finlay.

If Finlay bid on the goods that Ves wanted to obtain, then the extra layer of separation served as a form of protection.

It wouldn’t be of much use if the Compact controlled the auction hall, but it was better than nothing.

"Why are you so insistent on adding taboo weapons onto your Spyre Helixes?" Ves asked again. "I understand the argument you try to make, but with the amount of money you are willing to spend, you may as well employ five-hundred normal mechs instead."

"It’s too risky." Finlay’s shadow attire jerked. "We can’t let the attack be traced to us. The retribution that we will be subjected to would ruin us all. With regards to covert operations like these, the less people we involve, the less likely it will leak. The operation has to be conducted with as little mech pilots, ship crew and support personnel as possible. One additional person more means bringing on an extra risk factor. It only takes one informer to warn the pirates of an impending attack."

Ah. That explained the rationale for using expensive doom crawlers instead of cheaper mechs. Finlay’s superiors wanted to bring a certain amount of destruction towards a target. However, they were unwilling to employ too much manpower for fear of leaks.

Under these conditions, it made more sense to employ a smaller force of high-value mechs than a larger force of weaker mechs.

Yet another question quickly emerged in his mind. "Who will pilot these mechs?"

"The automation of the Spyre Helixes are tailored to its conventional weapon systems. If you want me to upgrade their design with different weapon systems, then the programming will have to change as well. That requires a lot of work." _{freewebnσvel.cѳm}