The Mech Touch novel Chapter 507

The Verle Task Force transitioned out of FTL at the outer edge of a boring red dwarf system. Due to minute variances in the FTL drives, tiny discrepancies got magnified into substantial divergences. Major Verle’s ships spread out in a messy shotgun pattern that opened them up to a devastating ambush.

Fortunately, none of the ships detected any ships or mechs or weapon emplacements in the immediate vicinity.

Nobody let down their guard. The combat carriers adopted an immediate defensive posture and the entire fleet contracted in a defensive formation.

It took fifteen minutes of intensive scanning before everyone eased up the tension in their bodies. Besides a light rebel presence, the uninhabited star system contained no overt threats.

The fleet cautiously approached an asteroid field. It would take some hours to arrive and many more hours to mine some low-quality ores. While the asteroids didn’t contain anything valuable, there were many uses for common materials, such as replenishing their ammunition which they used up at a massive scale during the Detemen Operation.

"The mech designers are on their way, boss." Iris reported to Ves. "Their shuttles will dock at the Shield of Hispania no later than twenty minutes. Inter-ship traffic is currently hectic so expect some delays."

"That’s okay. Has anyone declined the invitation to meet?"

"Surprisingly not. Every high and low-ranking mech designer answered your summons."

With no problems there, Ves waited for the moment to arrive while Iris went off to prepare the conference room. He thought about his job and found fulfilling it to be a demanding job. Trying to solve every problem within his scope was frankly impossible, but somehow he had taken a liking of trying to achieve the impossible.

It was different from growing a business. Back when he built up the LMC until it could stand on its own two feet, he enjoyed a lot of freedom and held the ultimate authority over how it should be run.

Yet now he answered to Major Verle. Not only that, he needed to maintain relationships with everyone involved in order to get things done. It demanded a different approach where he became dependent on others to reciprocate.

Ves cherished this opportunity because it allowed him to build up valuable experience in leading design teams later on. As long as he got the knack of managing the mech designers assigned to the Flagrant Vandals, he would easily be able to manage design teams working for the LMC.

Half an hour later, the conference room became packed with mech designers arranged in classroom-style seating. When Ves entered the room, he observed an obvious division between two types of mech designers.

Those at the front looked familiar to Ves. He recognized many of them from the Inheritor, Akkara and Hellcat design teams. Excluding Ves, there was only nine of them present in the Verle Task Force. All of them had been cut off from the Wolf Mother which accompanied the primary Vandal fleet.

A larger number of mech designers sat at the rear. Iris must have arranged an obvious gap in the seating between the two groups to emphasize the differences between the two. Despite numbering around thirty people, none of them had a say due to their inferior standing and skills.

When Ves stared at the low-ranking mech designers. He memorized their names beforehand out of due diligence, but he didn’t expect to call on any of them unless they screwed up their jobs. His weighty stare intimidated the low-ranking mech designers. All of them chose to lower their heads in a sign of submission.

Only a handful of mech designers tried to keep up a confident facade. Ves deliberately carried himself in a compelling manner and concentrated his mind in an attempt to conjure up an aura of blood and war.

The results were inconclusive. Some of the weaker-willed mech designers appeared to be affected, but any mech designer that worked alongside the Vandals got used to working with professional killers and raiders. Compared to a genuine mech officer such as Captain Orfan or Captain Branser, his own aura fell short.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the flagship." Ves began as he approached the front of the conference room. "I’m sure you already know this, but my name is Ves Larkinson, and I’m the temporary head designer of the Verle Task Force. I’ve called you here to explain my vision to you so that we are all on the same track. I’ll also be introducing some new policies and directives so that we can be of more help to the fleet that has landed itself in a precarious situation."

Someone raised his hand.

"Mr. Mercator, you wish to say something?"

Ves encountered Bovis Mercator a couple of times when they worked aboard the Wolf Mother. He never saw too much of Mercator because the man had been assigned to the Akkara design team.

Mercator happened to be one of the older Apprentice Mech Designers among them. His outward appearance suggested that he reached his early forties.

"Mr. Larkinson, forgive my rudeness, but the leadership issue isn’t settled yet. You’re too new to the Vandals, and you’ve only been appointed to become the task force’s head designer because you happen to be the closest mech designer to Major Verle. Now that we aren’t fleeing at full tilt from the Vesian reinforcement fleets, we should revisit some of the decisions made in haste."

"Oh really?" Ves narrowed his eyes at Mercator.

The careerist mech designer didn’t hide his ambition. In fact, he stood with a confident demeanor, as if his words made a lot of sense.

Over half of the high-ranking mech designers happened to nod in agreement. Most of them belonged to the same clique of careerists as Mercator. If it came to a vote, Ves had no doubt that he would lose. He was never one for popularity contests, and his background was too shallow among the mech designers working for the Vandals.

Ves minutely shook his head. He would never let this discussion come to a vote.