The Mech Touch novel Chapter 956

Due to the continuing pursuit of the sandman motherships, the remnant fleet couldn’t stick around for long. The Swordmaidens made their calls first before the Vandals had their turn.

Of course, they expected no privacy when the Vandals sent various encrypted and nonsensical messages to obscure comm addresses registered all over the galaxy.

Nonetheless, only very few people would be able to decipher the meaning of these messages, and that was sufficient.

Ves knew that Major Verle definitely informed the relevant authorities of their state. What help they would send, he had no clue, but it would definitely come!

Shortly before the remnant fleet with the addition of the Saffron Poke transitioned back into FTL, Ves made a short comm call to the Jaded Sword.

"Hello, Ves. Why did you call me this time?" Ketis asked.

"Can you hook me up to the Saffron Poke’s quantum entanglement node? I’d like to send some messages to some of my people back home as well."

She frowned at Ves. "We’re not supposed to let individuals access the galactic net. That’s bad information security, you know. Major Verle told us to block all individual requests unless they are cleared by him in person."

"Oh come on, Ketis, you know who I am. Would I ever betray the Vandals or exercise poor information security? I urgently need to arrange some personal matters. Please?"

Fortunately, the Swordmaiden mech designer proved to be susceptible to her emotions. She quickly softened at his appeals.

"Okay, I’ll take up with Commander Dise. She’s the only one who can unlock access to the quantum entanglement node."

After a few minutes of arguing with the new leader of the Swordmaidens, Dise finally allowed Ves access on account of their private dealings.

"I hope you don’t abuse your new access." Dise warned him. "It will go very poorly for all of us if you inadvertently lead us into an ambush."

"I know what to do. Don’t worry."

Once Ves obtained the authorization codes, he cut off his call to the Jaded Sword and initiated a new call to the Saffron Poke.

After a few seconds of authentication, he finally obtained a connection.

As soon as his CFA comm connected to the galactic net, he didn’t get to make his call immediately. Instead, his device locked up and automatically exchanged a host of data to somewhere!

[Redirecting connection to the galactic fleet network... Connection established... Synchronizing data and uploading logs... Checking device versions... Downloading mandatory updates...]

Ves looked at his comm in alarm! It actually connected to the CFA’s exclusive fleet network without his say so! This was deeply troubling to Ves because while the connection was shielded by heavy CFA encryption that prevented any snoopers from knowing what he sent, that didn’t apply to the CFA themselves!

While Ves wasn’t stupid enough to store sensitive data relating to the Vandals or the mission in his CFA comm, he hadn’t been able to delete all of the logs.

Fortunately, the CFA practiced extremely good information security, so it never recorded anything in restricted sections. However, that still left it with a couple of logs and records about his forged identity’s recommissioning to a missing CFA battleship!

Ves almost felt like vomiting. No matter what buttons he pressed, his CFA comm refused to disconnect. Even activating his signal jammer didn’t help because his CFA comm somehow circumvented the interference. It blocked anything else but the comm’s direct connection to the Saffron Poke’s quantum communication node, which completely bypassed the regular communication channels of the Shield of Hispania.

The enhanced transceiver built into his Squalon actually possessed sufficient range to stretch out all the way to the corvette! More than that, the quantum communication node’s programming treated CFA communications differently from regular communications!

"Damn CFA! Stop hijacking my comm!"

His comm’s fast processors rapidly applied the updated software packages despite their size and complexity. While Ves could do nothing about the outdated hardware of his comm, its software experienced a sea of change, bringing it fully up to date!

[Updates completed. Checking for further updates... Downloading mandatory updates for the XV-99... Applying updates... Updates completed. Welcome to the galactic fleet network, Reserve Lieutenant Commander Longhorn. You have pending messages in your inbox.]

Ves looked at the projection of the slick new interface of his CFA comm with a nauseous expression. He lightly poked at it and it didn’t seem to have noticed anything amiss nor raised any alarms. He checked the settings of his Squalon and quickly noted many new additions and enhancements.

While he appreciated the updates, he didn’t quite know what it meant to him. Surely he couldn’t keep pretending to be someone he wasn’t? The Starlight Megalodon didn’t even exist anymore!

"Hopefully I’ll just be forgotten in the crowd. There are billions, if not trillions of CFA personnel and their dependents. Surely they won’t pay attention to my entry in their vast network, right?"

While he didn’t feel too sure about that, he already spilled the milk. Ves pushed aside his concerns about the implications of this connection and proceeded to follow his original plan.

Due to the forced changes, his updated CFA comm now connected to the galactic fleet network with state-of-the-art encryption at high priority. The galactic fleet network operated outside the regular galactic net operated by the Comm Consortium, which everyone believed leaked like a sieve.

"As long as I don’t mind the CFA listening in, the galactic fleet network is probably a lot more secure than the Comm Consortium’s net."

After familiarizing himself with the modern interface, he finally managed to send a couple of comm messages to several dormant comm accounts he set up once before. Just like Vandals, Ves prepared his own encrypted communication methods that Calsie, who led the Living Mech Corporation in his stead, and Melkor, who led the Avatars of Myth, regularly checked.