The Mech Touch novel Chapter 501

The space burial served as a pivotal event which affected every Vandal among the Verle Task Force. Like a seed buried amidst the fertilizers of the fallen, a new life sprung into being.

"A new beginning."

Those words echoed throughout everyone’s minds. Ves never imagined that Major Verle could be so eloquent. A speechwriter among his staff must have composed those uplifting and inspiring words.

After Ves took a mental step back, he realized the eulogy aimed to invigorate the Vandals. The last thing they needed was people getting hung up about the losses they sustained.

As a soldier of the Republic, they weren’t soft-hearted to the extent that the death of a comrade plunged them into despair.

Yet human emotion was a complex beast, and all manner of negative thoughts might bloom in the darkness.

Verle’s speech served as a light that banished that darkness and guided the thoughts of his subordinates to a more beneficial direction. The underlying message instructed them to cast away the shackles of the past and look towards a new beginning,

The act of plunging the caskets into space during the space burial could therefore be seen as a dividing line between the past and the present.

Right now, it was more important for the Verle Task Force to shake off Vesian pursuit and escape the Kingdom’s borders. The Vesians must be incredibly furious at the daring act of striking at the heart of their territory. Only by butchering the guilty party would they be able to cleanse their shame!

This hounding threat provided the motivation while the space burial gave the Vandals the impetus to pick up their work. Their productivity soared as they pushed all thoughts of mourning the dead aside in order to deal with the present crisis.

Ves arrived at his furnished office the next day. The cabin received a clean but luxurious makeover that wouldn’t look out of place from a cruise ship. Stylish metal furniture marked with green and brass motifs gave the entire cabin a sense that only the most distinguished gentlemen worked in this office.

"This is a bit too much." He spoke after he took in the sight.

"You’re the boss now. You have to show that off. A barebones office won’t do." Iris spoke from the side.

The cabin was kind of cramped, as was typical to ships where space came at a premium. Despite that limitation, Iris somehow managed to divide the interior in a way that squeezed in a desk and terminal for her as well.

Evidently, she wanted to work in the same room as Ves.

"I’ll go fabricate some terminals." He said. "For now, please make contact with the staff aboard the Shield of Hispania. I can probably pull up some official reports from the terminal once its up, but it helps if you can tell me their impressions and overall opinions."

"I can do that, but be aware that I’m a guest aboard this ship. They won’t tell me anything critical."

"That’s okay. If I need to know about something, they’ll pay me a visit or send me some classified documents on their own initiative."

After packing Iris off, Ves went down to the nearest workshop to fabricate some terminals and other high-tech gadgets to make his office complete. This was something he needed to do by himself in order to insure that nobody tampered with his equipment. It was a lot harder to detect irregularities if someone tampered with it during the fabrication process.

Ves didn’t go for anything fancy when he arrived at a 3D printer. He selected the most reliable and impenetrable models available in its database and made some minor tweaks before letting the device do all the work. He didn’t even need to intervene in the production process due to the limited amount of variables at play.

Once the 3D printer spat out all of the gear he needed, he ordered a bot to bring them to his office. Ves accompanied the bot as they climbed the deck and supervised the installation process to insure nothing fudged the equipment.

After realizing that he’d been way too sloppy with regards to information security back at Detemen IV, Ves became way more paranoid about this matter. While he couldn’t match Alloc’s prowess in this area, his rapid study session back then boosted his Computer Science Skill to a respectable level, so he wasn’t as clueless as before.

Once the bots left the office, Ves withdrew a multiscanner attached to his toolbelt and carefully scanned every nook and cranny of his office. He paid special attention to the furniture, but the device detected no anomalies.

Though the cabin did include some very covert monitoring devices, Ves quickly figured out that they were connected to the core systems of the Hispania. In other words, they formed part of the combat carrier’s integrated security systems.

To be certain, Ves sent a quick message to the security department of the ship. They immediately confirmed guess, so Ves had to leave the bugs alone.

Obviously, no part of the ships escaped monitoring. Everyone was subjected to observation, but just because they came under scrutiny, didn’t mean that someone would act on what the bugs recorded.

Ves keenly remembered treasonous talk among the spacers of the Wolf Mother. That they could get away with that talk meant that the Vandals didn’t care too much about small offenses. Even talk of gambling, drinking and fraternization was met with silence.

This absence of action obviously meant that the Vandals couldn’t be bothered with trivialities. As long as the spacers did their job, who cared if they broke over a dozen regulations of the Mech Corps.

"I could probably get away with many things." He figured.

That didn’t mean it was wise to test the boundaries of what was possible. When you walked close to the river, your shoes would eventually get wet.