The Mech Touch novel Chapter 905

Ves only managed to detect and unravel the lockbox due to the same advantages he employed so successfully in completing the research projects.

Without his modern scanner that could detect what ancient scanners could not, he wouldn’t have been able to detect the lockbox buried underneath the toilet.

Without his advanced knowledge and practical experience of working with various kinds of machines, Ves wouldn’t have been able to reverse engineer the mechanical lock and unravel it in the proper method.

Without his modern military-issue comm with a hacking module that could take advantage of many known exploits, he wouldn’t have been able to bypass the electronic lock so quickly.

"A Senior Mech Designer that went through so much effort to hide something inside such a lockbox must be hiding something remarkable."

No matter what, this Senior Mech Designer worked for the CFA. Back then, the Starlight Megalodon was one of the most advanced battleships humanity had either fielded. Ves only scratched the tip of the iceberg so far with regards to accessing the advanced means the CFA had at their disposal.

Unfortunately, the Starlight Megalodon strayed too far from her heyday. The attack by the sandman mothership and the subsequent crash and deprivation used up a lot of irreplaceable equipment and precious materials, much of which the battleship couldn’t replenish on her own.

All the infighting in the past consumed even more equipment and supplies, and the thousands of years passed by inevitably degraded many systems that were never designed to last that long.

The lack of competent human crew severely curtailed many of her functions as well. The virtual officers did a decent job at picking up the slack, but their limitations prevented them from taking full control over the ship.

Now that Ves spent a few days inside the Starlight Megalodon, some of the fog that shrouded her capabilities no longer hindered his vision.

"I used to think the Starlight Megalodon was invincible. In truth, she only managed to retain five to ten percent of her former capabilities. She’s fallen too far from her imposing height."

Nonetheless, a battleship was still an immensely capable and destructive construct. Just five percent of the Starlight Megalodon’s might could still scour the entire planet of life at least five times over!

Due to his low rank and the altered regime introduced by the executive officer’s final solution, Ves hadn’t been able to come into touch with advanced technology that he truly owned besides his CFA comm.

What the original Longhorn stored in the lockbox fully caught the attention of Ves. "This is a biological implant!"

The small transparent case put a remarkable piece of flesh in stasis, preserving its freshness and keeping it from decaying. For some reason, the case was a treasure in itself, as Ves realized it drew upon ambient energy to sustain the stasis effect.

This was how the biological implant managed to survive despite laying dormant for over three-thousand years!

The extravagant mastery of technology of the CFA astounded Ves once again. A simple storage case for a biological case easily lasted for several millenia when Mr. Longhorn likely intended to keep this implant under lock and key for a couple of decades at most.

The only downside to this case was that it was fairly fragile. It couldn’t resist much outside force. If Ves pressed it a little too hard, he could easily shatter the case and destabilize the stasis effect, risking the biological implant’s integrity.

Ves stared at the biological implant with a considerable amount of interest. He knew that the MTA and CFA developed some of the best implants in the galaxy. Besides the first-rate superstates, every other organization needed to worry about their electronic or biological implants getting hacked. Not so for those who employed the best human hackers in the galaxy.

Three-hundred years ago, this biological implant must have been an incredibly valuable device.

Yet its programming and security measures hadn’t aged since the years went by. Outside the star system, three-hundred years went by and new advancements in hacking must have long resolved all the security measures an implant like this must have relied on to remain impenetrable.

Ves felt as if he obtained a broken machine or a ruined treasure.

"Even so, a biological implant of this quality must be extremely exquisite in terms of its tissue alone."

He developed an ambition. If he could replace the obsolete biological programming with a more up to date one, this implant might be safe enough to implant in his head.

"With the rumored capabilities of a CFA implant, my cognitive functions will receive a massive boost. Not only will I be able to read and memorize entire data banks of knowledge, I’ll also be able to perform mass calculations without relying on a processor!"

Such a function combined well with his superhuman level of intelligence, improving his capabilities to a greater height!

Ves carefully put the stasis cage back into the lockbox and tediously reset the locks. He put the lockbox back into the hollow underneath the toilet and restored everything to their original condition.

"Right now, I’d be crazy to run off the infirmary and ask the virtual doctors to put this implant in my head. Miss Calabast would probably be able to dig out all of my secrets!"

He knew that at least one competent hacker gained entry to the Starlight Megalodon. Putting an implant inside his head without understanding its ability to resist hackers was crazy! It would be like installing a backdoor in his mind that any hacker could use to pull data from his mind!

Of course, Ves knew that a biological implant so valued by a senior CFA researcher shouldn’t be so easy to crack. Yet the passage of time and the evolution of hacking posed far too much of a risk for Ves to dabble.

"Let’s leave it for now."

When Ves approached the nearest armory under the control of the Marine Detachment, a pair of heavily-armed bots prevented him from going further. _{freeωebnovēl.c૦m}