The Mech Touch novel Chapter 878

Stewing in his paranoia, Ves imagined the worst about Venerable Xie. Although they rarely came into touch with each other, Ves grew increasingly more unsettled at the thought of Venerable Xie developing some kind of revenge fantasy against the Flagrant Vandals.

They did screw over the Fourth Prince, the fallen noble who Venerable Xie trained all his life to protect.

Ves cursed Prince Hixt-Klaaster and his untimely death while under the protection of the Vandals. Why couldn’t he cling to his life? The entire basis of the agreement with the Vandals and Venerable Xie rested on the premise that the Fourth Prince was in safe hands.

The Prince’s death sent the Vandals down into a tailspin. Ves shouldn’t have succumbed to Major Verle’s coercion and agreed to mess with Venerable Xie’s neural interfaces. _{freёwebnovel.com}

"I can’t leave this situation hanging." He muttered.

Three tampered neural interfaces existed. Ves didn’t have to worry too much about the Parallax Star’s neural interface. As a spaceborn lancer mech, it had been left with the fleet that was still under the command of Major Verle.

As the only other Vandal in the know, Ves already hinted at him beforehand to take good ’care’ of the Parallax Star’s neural interface.

Therefore, Ves only had to worry about the neural interfaces of the Pale Dancer and the expert pilot’s personal simulator pod. If the Vesians ever got their hands on them and dug out their programming, they could instantly tarnish names of Ves, the Larkinsons, the Flagrant Vandals, the Mech Corps and even the entire Bright Republic with his crimes!

Sometimes as serious as being accused of brainwashing an expert pilot was just as bad as plotting to murder them! The MTA wouldn’t tolerate such a matter. The entire Bright Republic might be sanctioned for this incident alone!

Therefore, this matter affected more than his personal reputation! He needed to take action for the good of the Bright Republic!

"Nevermind that it’s my own fault for provoking this crisis in the first place."

Yet no matter how much he tried to justify his intentions, he wasn’t a spy. How could he possibly sneak to the neural interfaces and access them long enough to wipe away the evidence?

There was no way the vigilant expert pilot and his band of confidants allowed outsiders access to his personal territory.

This problem continued confound Ves as time went by. He resumed his duties and continued to prepare the Vandals for mechs, but his heart wasn’t in his work anymore. His productivity dropped as more than half of mind fantasized about cooking up some wild schemes that allowed him access to the neural interfaces.

Yet what could a mech designer do? Nothing.

He may wield a wide amount of influence among the Vandals, but he had no effective control over an expert pilot. Even if he advanced to Journeyman, he could never surpass the prestige enjoyed by an expert pilot among mech pilots.

"Even prestige has its limits." Ves grimaced.

Even though Ves made up his mind to take action, he simply couldn’t come up with something that wouldn’t backfire on him. The same limitations that prevented him from doing something earlier still existed.

Ves felt as if he was playing a game of chess where he already foresaw that he’d be put in checkmate in a couple of moves. No matter what decisions he came up with, none of them forestalled the disaster that he saw coming.

"It’s like I have no other option but to concede."

Yet that was unacceptable to Ves. Even if he only possessed spurious proof for his fears, just the possibility of it was enough to dominate his imagination.

His thoughts became very dark as a consequence. When Ves finally put down his work and entered his office to clear his mind, the mech technicians around him sighed in relief.

His Earth Ant creaked as he sat down on the reinforced chair. He activated the desk terminal and called up a basic blueprint of the camp.

Due to Venerable Xie’s esteemed position, the Pale Dancer and him resided close to the center of the temporary camp where security was highest. There was no way anyone could realistically sneak inside even if they wore an infiltrator suit.

The security officers all made use of the stealth detectors adapted from an earlier version developed by Ves. The Vandals all grew concerned that the Vesians might employ cloaked saboteurs, even though neither Imodris nor Hafner matched Venidse’s dependency on stealth tech.

"It’s not like I have a stealth suit anyway."

Ves turned his imagination to more extreme possibilities. If he couldn’t forestall a checkmate through legitimate moves, then what about cheating?

He could either cheat or flip the chessboard entirely! After all, why should he lie down and consign himself to condemnation?

Just as Ves started to explore more extreme solutions, the office suddenly became engulfed in a jamming field. That caused Ves to jump from his reverie and frown.

"That’s strange. Is my signal jammer acting up?"

His high-powered signal jammer gadget never showed signs of malfunctioning. In fact, even though Ves pretended to tinker with his personal gear on a daily basis, none of his advanced technological devices showed any signs of degradation. He long abandoned any speculation about the inexplicable reason for their immunity against the breakdown effect.

When he checked the signal jammer gadget embedded into his Earth Ant, he found to his surprise that it still remained dormant. It never turned on without his permission. So why did he became engulfed in the jarring signal jammer effect?

"Mr. Larkinson."

"WHO!?"

Ves immediately jumped out of his chair and drew out his backup laser pistol in the direction of the voice.