The Mech Touch novel Chapter 525

Who was Nemo McAllister?

Ves didn’t know. He appeared to be one of the younger and more recent Vandal mech pilot recruits. His proficiency in piloting light mechs matched well with the Inheritor light mech, causing his performance to be better than some veterans who normally gravitated towards medium mechs.

Initially, Nemo drew attention due to his panicking expression. It looked very genuine, which was strange since the Flagrant Vandals currently had the situation under control. So long the ambushers from Imodris aimed to stall their escape, they didn’t have to worry too much so long as they continued to shoot down the converging space mines.

This discrepancy prompted Ves to look over the telemetry of Nemo’s Inheritor to see if it exhibited any anomalies.

Ves immediately detected something strange with his sharp eyes. Oh, to a normal mech designer, the telemetry being broadcast appeared absolutely normal.

Its power reactor fed enough power to its flight system and weapon.

Its borrowed light laser rifle heated up and expended a predictable amount of energy with each beam being unleashed.

Its sensors entered the most appropriate scanning mode and linked up with the Vandal battle network to share its readings with the combat carriers.

All of it showed that the Inheritor worked properly, if not for one subtle mistake. The fuel for the emergency boosters embedded in the cockpit did not react properly to the changes in the interior of the mech.

Oh certainly, the fuel warmed up when the interior warmed up, and it cooled down when the heat got shunted away. Yet the rate in which it changed temperature seemed a little strange to Ves. He knew what kind of fuel the cockpit utilized.

Cockpit fuel needed to be steadier than normal in order to insure it wouldn’t spontaneously ignite. They underwent expensive treatment in order to make them safer. It wouldn’t have been cost-effective to let fuel-based mechs run with stabler mixtures of fuel, but it was worth it when it came to infrequent purposes such as feeding the boosters of a cockpit as it ejected from a dying mech.

Ves happened to know the traits of the fuel, so the temperature shifts that Ves witnessed from the telemetry didn’t match up. He came to a quick but incomprehensible conclusion.

"The telemetry in this section is faked."

He scratched his head at the puzzle. Why would anyone attempt to fake the readings for cockpit fuel? Was there something else taking the place of fuel for the ejection system?

Ves tried to dig into this issue a little deeper, but he failed to find out more due to his lack of privileges. It was extremely dangerous for a mech to be too networked. As a remote mech designer, Ves barely possessed any rights besides being able to access the Inheritor’s telemetry.

"I need physical access to inspect this mech."

In the meantime, he couldn’t come to any conclusions. Why would anyone try to tamper with the fuel? And was this the reason why Nemo seemed panicked?

"If someone fudged the cockpit’s ejection system, then Nemo has no escape. If his mech ever got damaged, he’ll have to go down with his mech."

This might be why Nemo constantly looked like he wanted this battle to end as quickly as possible. If he knew about this strange anomaly, then he should certainly cherish his life. At least the other Vandal mech pilots could count on ejecting in time.

He still didn’t understand the point of this. All he knew that a small part of Nemo’s Inheritor was not as it seemed. The best Ves could tell, some mech designer or mech technician removed something in order to make way for another component.

Something important and sensitive enough to hide. Perhaps a hidden transmitter?

He shook his head. It didn’t appear to be a transmitter, as none of the mechs in the vicinity detected any transmissions from the Inheritor. None past the usual transmissions, anyhow.

Ves looked up Nemo’s berth and noted down his Inheritor’s mothership. He dug up some logs and saw that the same trio of mech technicians serviced his mech.

Working on a hunch, Ves inspected some of the other mechs serviced by those mech technicians. Most mechs appeared to be normal to his eyes. Yet his persistence was rewarded when Ves found the same anomaly on another Inheritor mech.

"Again?! What is the purpose of this?"

Besides the two Inheritors, all the other mechs that this group of mech technicians serviced appeared normal and untampered. All of this puzzled Ves to the point where he questioned whether this was an issue he should be digging into right now.

"My goal was to find a possible spy in the crew. Nemo and that other fellow don’t seem like spies."

Nemo looked afraid while the other pilot seemed unaware of his predicament. No matter what was going on, Ves couldn’t allow these unauthorized modifications to persist. Who knew what the suspicious bunch of mech technicians tried to pull off.