The Mech Touch novel Chapter 989

Ves felt as if he acted out the role of an old-school detective in dramas as he investigated Chief Technician Nyquist.

The only problem was that Ves wasn’t a detective, nor could he borrow his official authority to conduct his investigation openly. He needed to be discreet and circumspect in order to hide his true intentions from the Kadar-Neyvis Group.

Above all else, he could never let them suspect that he worked on behalf of an intelligence agency!

Fortunately, the scope of Chief Technician Nyquist’s work also included the restoration of military mechs.

While mech regiments possessed robust repair operations, as Ves personally witnessed when he served aboard the Wolf Mother and subsequently took on the position of temporary head designer, they only possessed a limited amount of capacity.

Sometimes, a major battle which drew thousands of casualties and wrecked hundreds of mechs overwhelmed the repair capabilities of the mech regiments. It would take months for the mech regiment to restore the mechs back to working condition!

As long as they could ship their wrecked and damaged mechs back to Bentheim efficiently, why not make use of the abundant amount of repair capacity there?

This calculus resulted in a significant amount of military repair orders for the KNG’s Mosville Complex. Of course, the KNG mainly repaired copies of mech models that it produced itself, as they were very familiar with its construction. The Mosville Complex also possessed an abundant stock of spare parts that saved the repair crews a lot of time in putting the military mechs back together.

Naturally, the delicate nature of entrusting the repairs and restoration of military assets to a civilian mech company required stringent controls. Even outside a liaison mech designer like Ves, the work being done on military mechs also involved other active servicemen.

Before Ves approached Chief Nyquist, he first wanted to talk to the highest-ranking serviceman sent to supervise the repair activities.

"I am Senior Mech Technician Darryl Roland, sir." The man saluted Ves even though he wasn’t obligated to do so.

Ves eyed the mech technician and noticed the tell-tale signs of injury, even if he did a good job of hiding it. "Are you hurt?"

"Just some old injuries, sir. The war’s been pretty bad to me. Got both of my legs blown off when the Vesians bombarded the carrier I was on with missiles. The docs regrew my legs, but it’s easier said than done to work them in. Together with my other injuries, I probably need another year before the Mech Corps sends me back to my mech regiment. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy this vacation while it lasts."

"Alright Darryl. I just want to talk about your work, is that alright?"

"You’re the boss. I’ll provide whatever you want, sir." The man said diligently.

Ves couldn’t help but smile. His new reputation as a distinguished mech designer and war hero already saved him a lot of effort in earning Darryl’s trust.

"Let’s begin with your overall impression of the workers at the KNG. What do you think of the mech technicians, managers and everyone else who works here?"

The man shrugged. "Kind of normal, I suppose. They’re not so different from the mech technicians back at our mech regiment. They’re a bit more corporate in their priorities, but they’ve always done right when it comes to doing their part to help the war effort, sir."

That didn’t tell Ves anything new. "Tell me one thing that dissatisfies you most about the Mosville workers. Don’t be shy and don’t hold back."

Obviously, Darryl didn’t want to badmouth the people he worked alongside with, so Ves needed to be a bit more direct to force a critical answer out of the disabled mech technician.

"Well... it’s awfully busy here. Even though the company planned some expansions down the road, work on that has been slow on account of how little free space there is left. Everyone is trying to squeeze in more work. The KNG’s mech technicians do what they can to keep up their quotas for the mech regiments, but there is already so much going on that they can only do so many things at a time, sir."

Hearing this perked up Ves. It reinforced his own observations and strengthened his estimation of the KNG’s utilization of its production capacity.

"So it’s all hands on deck at the Mosville Complex?"

"Yes, sir. Recently the company went on another hiring spree, picking up various mech technicians laid off from the many mech companies that shut their doors in recent times. It’s not that easy to integrate them into the KNG, and they can only be entrusted with the least important duties for now."

"Tell me about the workers in charge of working on the damaged military mechs sent back from the frontlines."

"Oh, they’re a pleasure to work with. They don’t try to shirk their duty and they don’t cut that many corners. Ahem, even if they do, I always make sure to call them out, sir."

"Sure, sure." Ves dismissed that remark. "Give me your impressions of all of the chief technicians you’ve worked with. What are their quirks, how do they work, what are their good and bad points?"

Darryl began to ramble about the many chief technicians in charge of various aspects and work crews. There weren’t that many of them, but each of them played a vital role.

At some point, Darryl came to Errel Nyquist, the chief technician that Ves most wanted to hear about.

"Chief Technician Nyquist is a veteran of the previous war. Served at a frontline mech regiment just like me. That makes it a real pleasure to work with him, as he understands the needs of the Mech Corps best. Many times, he even argued back against the managers on our behalf, sir."

"So you have a good relationship with Chief Nyquist?"

"Oh, we’re practically friends! We regularly meet up for a drink in downtown Mosville every week along with some other buddies! Errel is a good man, both to the company and to the Mech Corps. This is also why the company entrusted him with repairing the most important military mechs shipped back from the frontlines, sir."