The Mech Touch

Once Ves confirmed that he received 25,000 MTA merits, he did not order his forces to depart from the battle site immediately.

Instead, he instructed Major Verle to board the flagship of the Rust Grinders and sweep her from top to bottom. With her propulsion system down, there was nowhere for the vessel to go. The cowardly crew had also surrendered long ago when it became clear the pirate mechs stood no chance against the might of the Avatars of Myth.

A couple of shuttles entered the hangar bay of the damaged pirate ship. Ves, Lucky, some bodyguards and twenty-six assistant mech designers emerged from the vehicles.

Even though the air was still breathable inside the ship, everyone who entered the ship wore hazard suits out of an abundance of caution. There was no telling whether the life support systems might introduce some nasty toxin in the air or if some of the compartments suddenly opened up to vacuum.

The young mech designers each looked fascinated by what they saw. A handful of heavily-damaged mechs rested on the deck. Various tools and other gear the pirates used to service the mechs were strewn all around.

If not for the lack of cleanliness and the random piles of detritus shoved into corners, the hangar bay of the pirate vessel looked no different from that of another ship!

Ves smiled as he saw their fascinated expressions. Aside from Ketis, this was their first time stepping aboard a bona-fide pirate vessel. They had heard many lurid stories about them that the experience of entering one of them was very remarkable.

Due to her extensive expertise, Ves assigned Ketis as their tour guide today.

"As you can see, pirates normally aren't very thorough in their work." She told them. "The Rust Grinders are better than most because I don't see any stains on the deck that suggests that some of the pirates do their bathroom business on the spot."

Disgusted faces appeared on Catherine Evenson and other assistants.

"Do pirates really do that?!"

Ketis smirked. "You'd be surprised. All sorts of desperate people are forced to become pirates. Many of them aren't quite right in the head."

They toured the hangar bay a bit before entering the interior of the pirate ship. Numerous Larkinson clansmen clad in vacsuits, hazard suits and combat armor strode through the corridors as they continued to sweep the vessel.

Ketis explained why that was necessary. "Pirate ships like this one tend to be riddled with traps. Attacking other pirates in order to hijack their stuff is very common. There is no rule prohibiting pirates from targeting their own kind. In order to deter rivals from attacking them, the pirates will often try to make it as hard as possible to profit from their defeat. From wiping out the data banks to adding a hidden trigger that sets off a huge bomb, pirates employ many ways to get the last laugh!"

Many of the assistants suddenly looked alarmed, which amused both Ves and Ketis. It was funny to witness their realization that they had essentially entered a trap-filled ship!

"You don't have to be concerned about your safety." Ves attempted to soothe their nerves. "Hours before we stepped aboard this ship, the Black Cats, Flagrant Vandals and Battle Criers have already taken control of her and neutralized all of the threats."

"Could they have missed something?"

"Likely not. I'm especially confident in the Black Cats. Otherwise, I wouldn't have stepped aboard this ship in the first place. The power reactors of this pirate ship are fully shut down and under guard. In truth, my men have temporarily brought aboard some temporary reactors in order to supply minimal power to the vessel. Nothing will blow up while we are here."

If that wasn't enough, then Lucky should be sufficient enough to detect anything that Calabast's subordinates had missed. Ves turned towards his cat with an expectant gaze.

"Meow?"

"You know what to do."

"Meow meow."

"Yes, you can take a bite out of anything good you find, but make sure to leave some for me! Keep an eye out for any hidden supply caches."

"Meow!"

His cat quickly zipped down the corridor in search for juicy exotics and other treasure!

This wasn't the first time the task force boarded pirate ships in order to look for booty. It was just that the Larkinson Clan's previous opponents were too small and weak to carry anything valuable.

According to the initial sweeps conducted earlier, this time was different. The Rust Grinders truly carried some valuable spoils that they had accumulated through accepting continuous tribute.

Ves couldn't help but feel a little excited about it. Perhaps pirates were truly onto something. Robbing others could be very lucrative sometimes!

"Pirate ships are like loot boxes. Once you obtain them, you can't help but get addicted to opening them up in order to see what goodies they contain!"

They spent some time touring the various decks and compartments of the pirate vessel. Though the boarding parties had already taken care of the crew beforehand, the blood stains and marks denoting weapon fire still provided sufficient proof that the takeover had been anything but peaceful.

Some of the assistants looked queasy at the various sights. Hardly any of them looked like they enjoyed this tour. They were too used to living in civilization to imagine that humans could live this way.

When they entered a compartment that held the data banks of the ship, Calabast calmly supervised a team of hackers as they disarmed all of the security precautions that prevented them from accessing the data.

"How is it going?" Ves asked.

"We have already decrypted numerous data banks." She responded. "Though much of it is filled with junk, we have gathered a wealth of intelligence, though much of it still needs to be processed. It will be worth it, though. No matter how much intelligence we've gathered in the Sentinel Kingdom, nothing beats obtaining first-hand and second-hand information."

"Have you captured some important pirate officers alive?"

"My men are already in the process of interrogating a number of Rust Grinder officers. While it is unfortunate that the Quint violently tore Commander Veron Upander to pieces, we at least managed to secure Elmer Nodan, the captain of this ship. We're trying to extract everything he knows about the local pirate community. Would you like to take a look?"

Ves briefly glanced at his assistants, who looked as if they wanted to return the Scarlet Rose as fast as possible!

"Sure."

The entire group left the data compartment and moved to a compartment that the Black Cats used as one of their interrogation chambers.

Despite what his imagination had conjured up, the Black Cats did not beat up Captain Nodan or cut open his body.

Calabast laughed. "Did you think we would be so crass as to torture our captive? There are more effective ways to extract information out of the good captain."

A pair of trained female interrogators leaned on the pudgy captain shoulders as he sat strapped to his chair. The black-clad females whispered sensually in the man's ears.

The captain giggled as his unfocused eyes tried their best to look at the women pressing on his side.

"Hehehe.. I can already tell you that the Gose Boys are no longer in charge of Yvis Station. From what my contacts have told me, a new group called the Inster Brotherhood have already taken it over. The Gose Boys managed to flee with at least half of their ships intact, though. Be careful if you travel near their fallback point. They are grabbing every pirate that they can lay their hands upon in order to bolster their numbers for a revenge attack."

Ves blinked at the sight. He and the rest of the mech designers found the interrogation to be a bit befuddling.

Compared to their reactions, Calabast looked fully at ease.

"There are many drugs that can make someone talk, especially given the funding you have provided to my department. As long as they don't carry any anti-interrogation augmentations, it is quite trivial to induce them in a state that makes them very willing to reveal information on their own accord."

Though Ves already understood that, he looked askance at the two Black Cats who were in the process of toying with the drugged pirate captain.

"Is it truly necessary to have those.. ladies.. by the captive's side?"

Calabast smirked. "Not strictly, no, but it does make it easier to extract valuable and pertinent intelligence from men. This is one of the most effective interrogation methods employed by Hexers, and I see no reason to fix what isn't broken."

"..Okay. I'll let you get to it, then."

Ves soon guided his assistants away. He led them through other sections of the ship. They took a peek at the engineering bay, where they discovered that the pirate ship didn't actually possess an FTL drive!

An engineer from the Flagrant Vandals explained the reasoning behind the conspicuous absence. "FTL drives are expensive, complicated and difficult to maintain. They also don't work at all in the Nyxian Gap. If a pirate outfit doesn't want to leave, then they don't have to mount any FTL drives onto their vessels."

A ship without an FTL drive demanded a lot less engineering and technical expertise to operate, so their existence eased the difficulties of many pirate groups. The only downside was that the ship couldn't be brought into civilized space.

The tour group eventually moved on and entered the cargo bay, where a number of clansmen were cataloging the valuable goods they found up until this point.

"The total value of the goods in the cargo hold aren't particularly impressive. Their estimated market value is just 35 million hex credits."

That must be a considerable fortune for the Rust Grinders, but to Ves that wasn't enough to produce a single Blessed Squire!

"What else is there?" He asked the quartermaster.

"We found greater spoils when we ransacked the personal quarters of Commander Upander and Captain Nodan. Both of them have hoarded some remarkable items.

The quartermaster guided Ves towards a table which displayed various jewels, cards, data chips, weapons and other notable goods.

He picked up a ring that looked like a laurel wreath. A shiny green jewel topped the ornament.

"That's a fallen house's noble signet ring. If we hand it over to the right parties, we can earn a modest reward."

Ves picked up a data chip next.

"The data chip contains the encryption key to an anonymous bank account. Commander Upander squirrelled away 134 million hex credits over the years."

After that, Ves focused on a case that contained a gnarly rock.

As soon as he looked at it, he began to sense something odd about it. The moment he tried to poke it with his spiritual senses, he suddenly felt as if he encountered a wall.

Ves immediately became interested.

"Ah, that is one of Captain Nodan's possessions. The man evidently placed it close to his bed for some reason."

The more Ves inspected the rock, the more astonished he became.

Wasn't this an ultra-rare B-stone? The only material that Ves had discovered so far that could block spiritual energy?

He hit the jackpot this time!

After years of possessing just a single lockbox made out of B-stone, Ves finally obtained another sample!

Anything that could block spiritual energy was valuable! Though the sample he obtained wasn't enough to build a protective suit that could shield his entire body, at least he came one step closer to fulfilling this personal goal!

"Hahahaha!" He erupted in laughter. "This is truly a great find! This exotic is wasted on the Rust Grinders!"

The only spiritually-reactive exotics that Ves could reliably obtain were P-stones. He never expected to encounter a long-sought B-stone out of the blue! It would have been even better if he stumbled upon an F-stone as well, but he had no complaints.

"I see! Entering the Nyxian Gap is the best way to obtain more rocks like these! The closer to the source, the greater the likelihood of obtaining what I want!"