The Mech Touch

In the following days, Ves raced to take direct control over the most essential systems.

He focused mostly on navigation, engineering, security and communications. As long as he overcame the defenses of these systems and cleaned up all of the hidden traps, Ves became more confident about his chances of escape.

Even though he took over the Scarlet Rose, Ves still treated as if it was a terrible exobeast who could break out of her shackles as soon as he let down his guard!

As his Grand Dynamo rapidly replenished his spiritual energy reserves, Ves regained more and more of his emotions.

This was not necessarily a good thing. Regaining his emotions meant his frustrations about his new ship began to drag down his mood.

Compared to mechs, ships were incredibly troublesome to work with! Ves personally experienced why shipwrights always worked in teams!

"Starships are too big and complex to be grasped by a single person!"

While it was common for mech designers to work together on a mech design, if Ves really wanted to, he could design and build a mech by himself!

His most recent solo project, the Devil Tiger, served as one of his proudest accomplishments!

When a mech came into existence, it only took a single mech pilot to exert its potential.

In his years of working with mechs, Ves always took these customs for granted.

Now that he started to chew a starship that was bigger than the Barracuda, Ves fully experienced the uphill struggle of mastering a starship by himself!

While it was theoretically possible for a single person to design, build and crew a starship by himself, in practice the amount of labor and expertise required was too much to bear for any single individual!

"I am no Atlas holding up the heavens." Ves helplessly admitted.

The more he dove into the Scarlet Rose, the more he understood the unfathomable depths of ship design.

As a mech designer, Ves only possessed some technical understanding of ship systems and ship components.

The Scarlet Rose possessed over a hundred core systems, with countless lesser ones regulating every minor function!

This was too much for Ves to bear alone!

If he wasn't in a low period, then he would have felt a lot more repelled by his current activities!

Fortunately, Ves took advantage of his rational state. No matter how much he disliked his current work, as long as his dislike was suppressed, he could still persevere and slog through the swamp!

All of this work eventually paid off. Not only did he gain more control over the most essential core systems, he also gained a deeper understanding of the Scarlet Rose.

Her capabilities continued to impress him. She was a bona-fide second-class frigate whose acceleration, FTL cycling time, sensors and fabrication capabilities presented an attractive package to mech designers like Ves!

Although her armor and cargo capacity weren't great, these downsides hardly bothered Ves too much.

What Ves currently valued the most was her elusiveness. Her ability to outrun most pursuers along with her quick FTL cycling time and decent FTL range meant that most powerful pursuers wouldn't be able to keep up with her pace.

This gave Ves the confidence of outrunning the hunters of the Friday Coalition!

Of course, Ves still dreaded them. He only had to make one wrong move to fall into their hands!

While the light carriers and combat carriers of the Coalition wouldn't be able to keep up, it was a different story for smaller and more agile ship classes!

Even another corvette or mobile supply frigate would be able to catch up to the Scarlet Rose!

Normally, Ves did not have any reason to fear these smaller ships. A mobile supply frigate only carried a handful of mechs while a corvette only deployed a single mech at most.

Yet Ves did not forget that his new ship was running entirely on automation right now! The absence of a human crew meant that the Scarlet Rose performed worse than usual!

Not only was the Scarlet Rose unable to outrun comparable ships, she also possessed little ability to resist attackers!

Though his ship currently carried four second-class mechs, without any mech pilots on hand, how could he ever enjoy their protection?

Even if the Coalition didn't send any mechs, Ves would still be hard pressed to hold on to his Scarlet Rose!

Ves still didn't trust her internal defense systems. He feared that any boarding party that managed to step foot on his ship could only be resisted by relying solely on himself and Lucky!

"I can't allow any enemy to board my ship!"

Though Ves and Lucky succeeded in killing the former crew of the ship, that was only by virtue of launching a surprise attack.

Against a large, prepared and determined group of commandos, Ves did not rate his chances highly!

All of these pressing concerns continued to weigh on his mind. While his temporary rational state prevented him from sinking in despair, he still felt a little pessimistic when he estimated his odds.

In the end, he was just a single person! Away from his friends and subordinates, he could only rely on Lucky to assist his efforts!

Ves already realized how unlikely it was to escape Coalition pursuit if this remained true.

He recognized that he needed help! A lot of help!

For this reason, Ves tried to gain control over the external communication systems before the ship reached her next stop.

He shut off and isolated most communication methods and focused completely on the controller attached to the quantum entanglement node.

He knew that the entire controller was very suspect. The reason why he locked down the quantum entanglement node right at the start was because the ship would continue to feed back information to the Friday Coalition if left alone!

While Ves deeply wanted to contact Gloriana and his organization for help, he didn't dare to do so before he replaced the controller.

It took some time to fabricate a rudimentary control module that was completely standalone.

Ves did not want the rest of the Scarlet Rose to connect with this replacement control module. Who knew what kind of hidden programming would spring into action and covertly transmit some information back to the Coalition Reserve Corps!

The best way to prevent this from happening was by tearing down the bridge!

Of course, Ves didn't know whether the quantum entanglement node itself was connected to the Friday Coalition.

Technically, it should have been under the sole purview of the Comm Consortium, but what if the Friday Coalition gained the right to tap into its transmissions?

The device originally belonged to the Coalition, after all.

This was why he did not dare to be too open in his upcoming communication attempts. He had to act as if the Coalition was listening in on his transmissions.

He smiled. "Thankfully, I've already taken this into account."

As a paranoid bastard, Ves had already made some preparations beforehand. The moment he finished installing the replacement control module on the quantum entanglement node, he connected to the galactic net for the first time since Ghanso took him away!

The control module currently served as a bridge that connected to his comm through a solid wire.

Ves wasn't stupid enough to add wireless capabilities to his control module. Only a fixed connection ensured adequate security!

After checking that nothing was amiss, he first attempted to call Gloriana through an encryption method that Ves had already prepared beforehand.

Gloriana instantly accepted the call!

"Ves!" Her projection appeared in front him, causing his muted heart to stir! "I missed you! How are you? My sources tell me that something has happened to the Scarlet Rose! Are you still a prisoner?"

"Woah, there! Calm down, Gloriana. Let me start at the beginning."

In his current state, Ves did not wish to waste his time. He quickly explained his experiences on the Scarlet Rose. The moment he finished explaining his successful hijacking attempt, his girlfriend gazed at him in admiration!

"I never expected you to be so daring to take over a ship by yourself! How did you manage to do it? I don't see any way for you to kill the entire crew!"

"Ah, I have my ways." Ves modestly said.

"From what little intelligence we've gathered, the Coalition seemed to have the impression that we dispatched one of our special forces teams to liberate the Scarlet Rose!"

"Regardless of what happened, I succeeded in taking control over the ship." Ves moved on, neither confirming or denying her guess.

If the eavesdroppers managed to crack the encryption, they would still be guessing whether a commando team truly captured the ship!

Gloriana understood the gravity of the situation. "I really regret not being able to help you, Ves. I promise to make it up you! While there aren't many Hexer assets in this region of space, I can still convince them to come to your assistance! I can also convince your Avatars to rendez-vous with you!"

"I'll transmit my position, route and plans through the agreed-upon method. You should know what I'm talking about."

She nodded. "I'll be keeping my eye out."

"I'll also transmit the schematics and the current configuration of the Scarlet Rose. I've done my best to subvert control over some of her core systems, but I'm not confident whether I've missed something."

"I already looked up on the Scarlet Rose." She said. "She's a fairly modern ship, and I'm not sure whether the Hegemony has grasped her design. We can only offer limited assistance on this front."

"Well, do the best you can. Even some advice is useful. You Hexers must surely be familiar with the tricks the Fridaymen employ."

"I'll see what I can do. Your friend C should be able to offer what you need, I think. She's been trying just as hard as me to get you back!"

Ves narrowed his eyes. "I could have used C's help earlier."

Gloriana's projection scowled. "You're not the only one who's disappointed in her! While she promised to make it up for her absence, don't put your hopes in her! She doesn't love you like I do! Only I can save my boy!"

"Uhm.."

"Don't worry, Ves! You just do your best and evade the Fridaymen! As soon as I obtain your data, I'll pass them on to the Hegemony to figure out the best way to circumvent their pursuers!"

"How much effort are they investing in recapturing this ship?"

The Coalition doesn't have many assets in place to hunt you down. However, the states in this region are all aligned with our enemies! We have already seen signs that these states have dispatched a lot of outfits and forces to intercept the Scarlet Rose! Don't trust anyone you encounter!"

He already anticipated this possibility. If the Fridaymen managed to work together with Ghanso and General Cavendish, then they should surely be able to leverage the help of states closer to Coalition space!

After discussing his precarious situation, Ves wanted to know what had happened to the organizations he left behind.

"Has the LMC imploded?"

She smiled. "Don't worry, Ves. Your company and your other organizations are still holding up. The people you put in charge are still firmly in control. Right now, they're busy executing one of your contingency plans. While they aren't able to move as many assets as they want to, the authorities haven't posed any hindrance. They can't afford to antagonize us after this scandal blew up in their faces!"

He became relieved at hearing this. He feared the Bright Republic decided to commit to the Friday Coalition and make the LMC and the Larkinson Family miserable.

"What about.. the Deliverer?"

"Our new model is performing as we expected." She smiled brilliantly. "The Deliverers has succeeded in making an impact in the Ylvaine Protectorate! There are already talks about assisting other states, but the negotiations aren't always smooth. You can't imagine how remorseful the Bright Republic is right now! The Ylvainans are driving a very hard bargain against your state right now!"

Ves had mixed feelings about this. If the Deliverers showed their value earlier, the Bright Republic would have never screwed him over!