The Mech Touch

"Do you remember the pair of Xona Crystals we've obtained from Ulimo Citadel?" Calabast asked.

"Yes. I heard that they are huge and unwieldy. They demand a lot of energy and they can only be used for 2 minutes and 34 seconds at a time. After that, they have to cool down for as much as 86 hours, 29 minutes and 11 seconds."

Ves stored those numbers in his implant so he was able to recall them at any time.

"Before you ask, we haven't managed to improve the usability of the crystals. We don't have any alien tech researchers or crystallographers on our staff. Our existing techs, engineers and researchers have all puzzled over the two crystals for a time, but we really can't make any progress in improving their usability without starting to study them from scratch."

"That's fine. A window of 2 minutes and 34 seconds is enough to convey a lot of important messages that absolutely need to remain confidential. For regular communications, we can make due with regular quantum communication nodes."

Everyone knew that the galactic net that the quantum communication nodes connected to was as leaky as a sieve. While there were many cryptographic methods to convey messages to one another without someone else listening in, most organizations would rather take the trouble to resort to the low-tech solution of using physical couriers to convey matters of great importance.

In that sense, the Xona Crystals allowed the Larkinson Clan to skip that tedious process, so Ves was not annoyed at its many limitations.

Calabast raised three fingers. "Well, did you remember that the Xona Stalkers used to operate five of these crystals? The Stalkers placed three of them in other, far-flung pirate bases in order to maintain a covert communications network. Since they're placed so far away, we gave up on trying to collect them. Have you ever wondered what happened to them now that the Xona Stalkers placed in those outposts are left to fend for themselves?"

"You told me these groups of Xona Stalkers belong to the loyalist faction. They're mostly made up of native Nyxian as opposed to exiles from Majestic Teal."

"Correct. I've been keeping tabs on them. Just as expected, now that these Xona Stalkers lost the support of their mother organization, they've defected to the local pirate factions. I predicted that would be the end of that, but it turns out that a very special Nyxian group has attempted to make contact with us through one of the three crystals."

Ves leaned closer over his desk. "Who?"

She looked straight into his eyes. "The Oblivion Hand."

"Truly?!"

Ves almost shot up from his chair! The Oblivion Hand! That was the dark mercenary organization that his parents had taken over. Last he heard, the Oblivion Hand had been razing pirate base after pirate base before venturing deeper into the core regions of the Nyxian Gap. The spatial warping there was so bad that most forms of communications no longer worked.

While he had idly instructed Calabast to make contact with the Oblivion Hand since a long time ago, he didn't really get his hopes up that his parents would be able to bail him out of this predicament.

They were too far away.

It would take at least several months for the Oblivion Hand to travel all the way to this location. The breakdown of communication in the core regions also meant that his parents would likely learn of the news late as well.

His worst fear was that the Oblivion Hand was so isolated from the pirate community that they didn't learn of the news at all! Perhaps they were still merrily beating up pirates in the more inaccessible parts of the Nyxian Gap!

"Don't get too excited, Ves. Just because the Hand made contact doesn't mean they are in a position to help."

"What does the Hand want?" Major Verle asked. "As far as I am aware of, the dark mercenaries are hostile to most pirates, but that doesn't necessarily make us allies."

Of everyone in the fleet, only Calabast and a handful of others knew the truth. Everyone else did not know that his parents helmed the Oblivion Hand.

While Ves considered revealing this to Major Verle, he quickly rejected the option. With secrets like these, it was best to keep it on a need-to-know basis. There was no compelling reason why the major needed to know such an important matter when it wouldn't affect anything.

"They might have an unbearable grudge against the Allidus Alliance." Ves shrugged. "We have already made contact with some other pirate factions who think Lord Hivex and his warships are disrupting the order of the Nyxian Gap."

While the Larkinson Clan hadn't managed to make any substantial deals with the pirate factions that secretly reached out, the contact nonetheless made it clear that the Nyxian Gap was anything but united.

The most annoying part about all of this was that these pirate factions were just waiting for the fight to happen. As long as the Larkinsons took out the Gravada Knarlax, the territories of the Allidus Alliance would soon get very busy!

While this might help get the remainder of the Allidus Alliance off the Larkinson Clan's back, it did not help at all in the crucial upcoming battle!

This was why both Ves and Major Verle didn't have much hope for the latest offer for help.

Calabast must surely know that, but she maintained a confident expression. "I know what you're thinking, but the Oblivion Hand has offered us a potential solution to.. bridge the gap."

"Haha."

"I'm not joking, Ves. Just look at this before you dismiss what I am saying."

She withdrew a secure data chip from her tight black uniform pocket and threw it over.

When Ves grabbed the data chip and inserted it into a slot in his desk terminal, a series of coded lines popped up. Rows and rows of encrypted entries kept scrolling through the projected screen.

"What the hell is this?" Ves frowned.

"The contact person from the Oblivion Hand did not elaborate. The amount of encrypted data is quite large. In fact, it took four separate intervals of 2 minutes and 34 seconds to transmit all of this encrypted data."

"That's two weeks!" Ves gasped. "What has made them spend so much effort to transmit this data over a Xona Crystal?"

He looked at the gibberish with much greater attention than before. What was the secret behind these seemingly-random patterns of letters, numbers and alien symbols?

Calabast sighed. "You'd have to ask them 64 hours later, because that is when the Xona Crystal on the spokesperson's end will be ready to transmit a message again. Before you ask, no one from the Oblivion Hand can be reached via a quantum communication node. Apparently, they don't want to conduct any business over the Comm Consortium's network. I suspect the spokesperson may be in contact with the Dark Cleaver through another alien device that is similar to the Xona Crystal. In my opinion, the spokesperson is solely responsible for passing on the encrypted data."

This made sense to Ves. His parents were not only hunted by the Five Scrolls Compact, but would also get in a lot of trouble with the Big Two if their identities were exposed. Since Ryncol and Cynthia Larkinson couldn't obtain shelter from any powerful galactic organization, they had no choice but to follow the same route of pirates who ran afoul of the galactic order.

Ves and Major Verle both asked a few more questions about the nature of the transmitted data, but Calabast had no answers.

As a high-ranking intelligence officer of the Larkinson Clan, she had access to all of the codes, passwords and keys of the original Larkinson Family. None of them enabled her to decrypt the code.

She even attempted to decipher the encrypted data through brute-force attacks, but with the computation power the Larkinson Clan had at its disposal, it would probably take years.

Inwardly, Ves cursed his parents. What was up with this? Neither his mother nor his father handed him any private decryption keys before they skedaddled out of his life!

The only keepsake his father left to Ves before he disappeared was… the System.

His eyes widened a bit before he reined in his emotions. He coughed. "I think I have an idea on what to do with this data."

This elicited a reaction from Calabast. "Are you sure?"

"It's the only answer. The Oblivion Hand wouldn't send us a message if we can't even read it. I'll check it out in private after this meeting. If there is anything in the message that you should know, I will pass it on right away."

Though Calabast obviously wanted to be present as he decrypted the data, she knew better than to ask. He valued his privacy very highly, especially when it came to certain sensitive matters.

The briefing resumed, but no one brought up anything unusual. The fleet had made extensive preparations, but the cloud hanging over their heads looked as stormy as ever.

Once the meeting ended, Major Verle left his stateroom first. Calabast lingered long enough to pet Lucky's head.

"So. Do you think your parents can help you?" She suddenly asked.

Now that they were able to speak a little more freely, Calabast no longer held back as much.

"I don't know. They're quite capable, especially my mother, but this is the Nyxian Gap we're talking about. I don't think there's a way for their fleet to reach us quickly."

"We have seen all manner of strangeness taking place during this campaign. Who knows. Maybe your parents have found a way."

"Even if they can bring their entire fleet to us in an instant, that doesn't change the fact that we are still outnumbered and outgunned. No matter how many pirates they have defeated and integrated into their ranks, their cohesion is probably poor to average at best. The only one who can possibly rise above the role of cannon fodder is my father, but even if he's known as an expert pilot, what can he do against an entire warship?"

There were many instances throughout the Age of Mechs where the Big Two had been forced to put down rebellious or unhinged expert pilots for whatever reason.

The most direct way to wipe these rogue expert pilots out was to bombard them with massed firepower from a very huge distance!

This was a simple, direct display of overwhelming power that successfully intimidated every expert pilot throughout human space.

With so many brutal examples, hardly any expert pilots were willing to turn against the existing order!

While the Gravada Knarlax wasn't as powerful as a typical CFA or MTA battleship, its main guns were still huge threats!

Calabast frowned and crossed her arms. "From what I can tell, your parents are quite amazing. How else were they able to accomplish great feats such as raising a well-behaved son as you and achieving success in one of the most depraved dens of iniquity in the local region."

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated. Now get out. I'm dying to hear what my parents are trying to tell me and I don't want you breathing down my neck."

"Are you sure about that? Most boys would love that, actually."

"GET OUT!"

After metaphorically kicking the spymaster out of his stateroom, he activated various security measures before he summoned the System comm from his Inventory.

It had been months since he last called it out. While he wanted to make use of it, he didn't have enough DP to make a difference.

Ever since the System stopped rewarding him DP for every mech he sold, he was only able to earn Design Points through completing mech designs.

Even though he was involved in six concurrent design projects, none of them were finished at this time!

This put Ves in the unfortunate situation where he could only lust at the expensive solutions offered by the System.

In fact, when Ves last inspected the expansive Skill Tree, he even spotted an entire branch devoted to designing expert mechs!