The Mech Touch



The actual processes that Ves used to subvert control over the alien control interface was a lot more complicated than he described to his sister.

He knew that Helena possessed no background in these affairs. How could she appreciate the ingenuity that he came up with in the days he remained stuck inside the System Space? The living luminar crystal that he had meticulously designed and synthesized was far from simple as it looked.

From being able to interface with his own computing systems to becoming alive to the point where it could circumvent a part of the security measures of the alien control systems, this was a marvel of human and alien engineering that not only allowed him to gain normal access, but also unlocked the highest permissions that were available!

Ves turned to the mysterious primordial human skull that had assisted his efforts in numerous ways.

Ever since he dug David's skeleton out of the funeral pyre, Ves guessed that the ancient human's identity in this place was not so simple.

Why would anyone bother to pile up so many powerful alien carcasses whose bodies were no doubt treasures in themselves and burn it all to honor a single deceased individual?

The only answer that made sense was that David possessed a higher status among the natives of the time!

In addition to that, it did not make much sense to lock a spiritually potent individual in a prison that was completely designed to restrain phase lords.

Ves theorized that David somehow gained employment here because he possessed a lot of personal power but was not susceptible to the restraints targeted towards phasewater manipulating creatures.

Whether his theory was true or not, Ves believed so much in this theory that he was willing to gamble that he could go through a final identity verification check as long as he used David's skull to fool the control system into thinking that a legitimate prison worker tried to gain access!

As Ves took in a lot of information through the electronic cat avatar and his direct connection through the luminar crystal, he gasped as he became impressed by how much access he gained.

"What can you do now that you managed to obtain control?" Helena eagerly asked.

"I can control a number of random and miscellaneous functions." He slowly replied. "It's too much for me to list, but most of them are rather scattered and low-level. For example, I can alter the air composition and gravity of different cells so that they can better accommodate prisoners of different races. A lot of control crystals are broken or damaged, so I don't have nearly as many options as I should."

It was all a bit random and disorganized. In order to gain a better overview of what he could do, he transmitted commands that caused a projection of the map of the facility to appear.

The three-dimensional map showed the structure of the entire prison according to the data held in the crystals.

The exterior of the prison facility resembled an egg. Ves suspected that it was built like this in order to completely fit inside a spherical-shaped pocket space.

The map projected by the alien control system roughly corresponded with the map created by the Phase King. The former was a lot more comprehensive and even provided many clues to the roles of many chambers that had since been emptied out until there was nothing left.

"Look." Ves pointed at the hundreds of smaller cells located in the periphery. "According to the labels and the descriptions, these cells are truly meant to hold weaker individuals. The security measures surrounding them are rather light. Gaining control over them is not that difficult now that I have gained high-level permissions."

Ves had also made sure to differentiate every room by assigning different colors.

"Why are only a part of those cells highlighted in green?"

"That is because only those specific cells respond to this control system. I can't control the other ones. Whether it is because they are destroyed or because I don't have the right control crystals, I am not sure. It is probably a combination of both."

The ones where he gained access to were lit up in green.

The ones where he only gained partial access were lit up in orange.

The ones where he could not exert effective control over were lit up in red.

The majority of the cells were lit up in red, which signified that Ves could not exert any control over them. He could not even query their status, so he did not know whether they were broken or filled with all manner of unspeakable monsters.

Ves immediately made two important observations as he studied the map.

The first was that of the small number of cells that were lit up in green, many of them happened to be familiar to him. Ves had been stuck in one of them, and he also confirmed that the other green cells conformed with the ones he confirmed held other human prisoners.

"Does the primary control room possess access to these cells as well?" He asked.

[Affirmative.] The electronic cat responded.

"Can you give me a log that lists all of the recent commands involving these cells?"

[Denied. You do not have the permission to retrieve this information.]

That was okay. This was not essential information.

"Can I release any current occupants from these cells?"

[Denied.]

"Can I transport myself and the occupants of these cells back to the planet where they came from?" Ves critically asked.

[Denied.]

"Reason."

[Inmates can be brought directly inside the cells with a lower permission level, but only the highest permission level can directly transport prisoners outside of this facility. At most, your permission level will allow you to shift any current cell occupants to AW#*R#R# for their regularly scheduled recreation and socialization periods.]

Ves asked a few more questions and found that he could take advantage of this mechanism. 

"Can I change the period upon which the inmates are scheduled to return to their cells?"

"Can I grant permission to the inmates to exit these halls?"

"Are there any exits to this facility that can be accessed and used with lower permission levels?"

[The primary gate is the main entrance and exit of this prison. It must first be unlocked by transmitting a temporary release command from the primary control room located at @&EF#R#EFA. It must then be activated at the location using your own permissions.]

Helena smiled. "You have gained a roadmap to free everyone and bring them out of this prison."

"I don't believe it is that simple." Ves spoke as he focused his attention on the upper floors.

Both the control room as well as the main gate were situated here. The culprits who hijacked many important figures of Davute most definitely occupied those chambers!

"Can you give me a count of living organisms that are currently present on those levels?"

[Denied.]

"Reason."

[Insufficient permissions, no access.]

Ves couldn't scout the details on the upper floors. They were entirely dyed in red, so there was nothing he could do to change these circumstances.

"Can I disable the energy shields on this level?"

[Affirmative.]

His eyes lit up. "Disable them and grant me access to those storage containers."

[Proceeding… task completed.]

"Hahaha!"

All of those containers filled with phasewater had become accessible to him! Now he just needed to make sure that they would remain in his possession and not get stolen by those who came afterwards.

Ves proceeded to make a few inquiries about transporting the containers away, but the secondary control room did not play along with him this time.

"Too many control crystals are missing." Ves frowned. "This facility is in a direr state than I hoped."

"We should work with what we have, brother."

"You are right. Let me see whether I can free my relatives and the other human prisoners. I can't take them out of this facility, but I can sure as hell take them out of their cells and give them a fighting chance."

He began to issue a series of commands that would make this all happen.

The only problem was that he could not free his fellow humans right away.

[Denied. The next scheduled recreational period starts in 21.5 RHUGHRU.]

"What does that mean, Ves?"

"It means I can only teleport the inmates in roughly 86 minutes."

"That is not too long."

"You're right, but I am afraid that whoever is in control upstairs will notice what I am doing and try to hinder me from enacting my plan."

Ultimately, he had little choice. Time was running out and he needed to take action sooner rather than later.

Ves therefore proceeded to formulate a series of commands.  They did not exceed the limits of his permissions as he feared that doing too much might alert whoever was in control of the primary control room.

"Alright, we have one-and-a-half hours before we can rendez-vous with the other humans. We need to move quickly to prepare for an upcoming escape attempt."

The base suddenly rumbled. Both Ves and Helena were caught off guard by what was happening.

"Did you do this, Ves?!"

"Hold on for a second. I need to check the systems." Ves furrowed his brows.

As he began to interrogate the alien computer systems directly, he only managed to obtain scattered information.

[...68 percent of available power is being rerouted to FE*E#*WRFE#...]

[...Access denied…]

[...Permissions overridden…]

[...Conflicting orders…]

[...FROZEN INSTRUCTIONS…]

[...ERROR ERROR ERROR…]

[...WARNING: DAMAGE TO PRIMARY CONTAINMENT…]

[...EMERGENCY LOCKOUT… ERROR…]

"Damnit!"

"What is wrong?!"

"I got locked out!" Ves cursed. "Whoever was in control of the primary control system likely took note of the changes that I have made. They tried to counteract my orders, but their permission levels likely aren't any higher than my own. We sparred a bit and caused the damaged control systems to glitch out even more. Due to our fights, both of us have been locked out for an entire cycle."

"A lockdown shouldn't have caused the entire facility to shake so much." Helena noted.

"You're right. There are multiple possible reasons why that happened, but the most likely explanation is that the fellow on the other side used a purple control crystal to activate a specific protocol."

"What sort of protocol?"

"I don't know." Ves admitted. "It's a high-level restricted setting that can only be activated by the warden or another bigshot and cannot easily be reversed once it has commenced. From what I have gathered, it affects the entire facility, possibly in a permanent fashion. The good news is that there are so many breakdowns and so much loss of power that it takes a couple of hours for this high-level protocol to take off. My people and I need to get out of here before it begins because I have a strong feeling that we don't want to be here when it starts!"

Ves cursed the laziness of the Big Two and the colonists once again. Why couldn't they perform more than a cursory search for hidden and abandoned pocket spaces? Surely they had to know that the phase whales were addicted to creating them! Their race existed so long that practically every star system likely hid an enclave of theirs!

"We need to move back down to the storage hall where all of the remaining diluted phasewater is stored. The energy shields have been switched off, so I should have easy access to it all. I can do a lot with phasewater."

After all of this trouble, there was no way Ves wanted to get out without a lot of personal benefits!

If he could use the same exploit that he performed on the skeleton to all of the diluted phasewater, then he could potentially harvest hundreds of kilograms of pure phasewater in the end!

That was an extremely handsome prize and could definitely help him reach his ambitious goal of transforming his entire Larkinson Army into a quasi-first-class transphasic mech force!