The Mech Touch

When the Phase King mapped out the interior of the large and ancient prison structure, he did not manage to figure out what each compartment held.

Still, even a basic map was enough for Ves and the other Larkinsons to figure out a lot of clues.

For example, there were hundreds of cells of the same size as the one where Ves had just escaped from. These were large enough to accommodate several organisms that were several times taller than an average human being.

The Phase King's survey also revealed over a dozen larger cells within his range.

These cells were much greater and were presumably designed to hold phase lords who could only become as small as a light mech.

Then there was a massive chamber in the center that was exaggerated in several different ways.

It was large enough to hold a sub-capital ship or an equivalent large organism.

The walls in every direction were over a hundred meters thick! The floor and ceiling weren't exempted from this either!

If that wasn't enough, the concentration of phasewater in those walls was also at least five times higher than anywhere else!

Ves could draw an obvious conclusion from all of these measures.

"The central chamber was designed to hold a phase whale!"

Could it be that he had inadvertently stumbled into another version of the Palace of Shame. Were the phase whales so damn chaotic that they needed to build lots of prisons in lots of different star systems in order to contain all of their misbehaving descendants?

It would be quite devastating if it turned out if the center of this entire prison facility actually held a captive phase whale!

"The situation shouldn't be as bad, though."

As far as he knew, the Palace of Shame had been built a thousand years ago and was obviously still in use before Operation Lighthouse commenced.

This unknown prison facility was much older than that. Ves could only sense a lot of desolation in its walls as it seemed that absolutely no one had come and ever attempted to turn it into a functioning prison for many ages.

Aside from that, when the Phase King stretched out his awareness, the design spirit did not sense any living organism within his extensive range that possessed any concentration of phasewater.

Unless a phase whale was strong and capable enough to block this scan, it was highly unlikely that the central chamber still held an actual phase whale!

"It's probably empty."

Even if he was wrong, it didn't matter. Given how much effort and resources had been put into making it as impenetrable as possible, there was no way that a phase whale could get out so easily.

It was impossible for Ves to get in as he was far too incapable to teleport himself inside this chamber!

In order to avoid any accidents, Ves did not intend to approach the center of the facility if he could help it. It was obvious that the security levels were higher over there as bigger organisms tended to have more raw power at their disposal.

In comparison, the smallest and most numerous cells were clearly placed in the periphery of the prison facility. The security levels here were lower as it did not make sense to invest an unnecessary amount of resources to contain lower-level prisoners.

"Even aliens don't have unlimited resources at their disposal."

He already made a decision on where he should explore first based on the map that the Phase King had formed.

Most aliens designed their structures in a similar fashion to humans.

This was especially the case if they had to be economical due to the use of lots of phasewater.

The design of the prison had been reduced to an extremely simple level. Even if it contained more ornamental features in the past, the core construction of the cells and corridors suggested that the builders mainly had practicality in mind!

Just like humans, a lot of aliens tended to place the more functional systems such as power generators, storage vaults and the like at the bottom levels. Any control rooms and offices for high-ranking personnel were usually placed at the top.

However, Ves had to remind himself that the order was usually a bit different when it came to underground structures. A lot of alien races also adopted weird architectural rules that did not make sense to humans. The current location was also highly abnormal.

His goal right now was to free his clansmen and loot any treasures that could be found in this large but barren facility. He bet that he could get what he wanted if he visited the lower levels first.

"If the upper levels contain the master controls, then there is also a high chance that the people responsible for kidnapping so many people have dug in over there. It is too risky for me to confront them all by myself."

This was why he cautiously followed a route that should lead him to a number of ramps and shafts that slowly led downwards.

As his armored feet clanked against the barren stone floor of the corridors, Ves winced at how much noise he was making.

The complete absence of any activity amplified the noises even more!

He contemplated whether he should activate the antigrav modules built into his suit, but that would deplete its energy reserves faster.

He decided to keep walking and continued to move down the corridor.

As he journeyed to the lower level, he made sure to observe his surroundings and remain on the lookout for any other individuals.

He even sent out Blinky and have him explore the cells around him. He also made his companion spirit take a look past different corners whenever possible.

Ves found that it was incredibly useful to have a companion spirit as a scout. Although the distance limit was incredibly annoying, it was already helpful for Blinky to seamlessly pass through every wall and see whether the cells around him contained any prisoners.

It turned out that only some of the cells on both sides of the corridors contained any occupants.

The people that had been taken from the seating blocks were anything but normal. Each of them maintained control over themselves and did not go crazy or irrational for the most part.

Even if there were weak-willed individuals among them who began to boil over due to the pressure, there were others that could put a stop to any misbehavior.

Whether this would last, Ves didn't know. He had yet to see any signs of contact, and no one received any food and water as of yet. He had a hunch that whoever kidnapped these VIPs did not plan on keeping these valuable captives for an extended period of time.

Ves hurried his steps after he made this tentative conclusion. He needed to make his moves faster in order to preempt whatever schemes the controllers of this facility had in mind.

He only slowed down his steps when Blinky started peeking into the cells that contained all of the guards, both the private ones and the security guards working for the colonial government.

Just as he expected, the guards had tried their best to employ all of the weapons at their disposal to forcibly blow a hole into the walls, but how could they possibly succeed?

Cells that were built to contain powerful phase lords should definitely be able to withstand all of the massed firepower with ease!

At most, the more powerful transphasic armaments might be able to chip the surface, but the guns quickly exhausted their energy cells or magazines in the process.

Ves only stopped entirely when he knew he had come close to the cell that contained his honor guards.

He did not let Blinky act sneaky this time. The Star Cat openly appeared in the cell containing both his honor guards.

"Sir!" Nitaa along with the other guards on standby had straightened themselves and saluted to the intangible cat! "Did you...?"

Mrow.

The cat nodded.

"That is great! Are you by yourself or do you have a team with you, sir?"

Mrow mrow.

"That is exceedingly dangerous and irresponsible. Can you free us from captivity? Let us perform our mission!"

Mrow mrow mrow.

Ves continued to hold an odd conversation with his chief guard. Of course, he wasn't actually talking to his honor guards with cat sounds. He was actually tapping into the Larkinson Network and using it to convey his words directly to her mind and vice versa.

Once Nitaa discovered that Ves wasn't able to take his guards away from their cells, Nitaa felt glum due to becoming useless once again.

There was nothing Ves could do about that. He first had to find a way to get them out, and he had yet to encounter any control interface or mechanism through his journey.

"We will continue to wait here until you are able to free us. Our weapons are ready to eliminate any enemies that stand in your way and our armor can still resist a lot of attacks that dare to harm your life!"

Mrow!

Blinky disappeared again as there was not much point in lingering any longer. Ves just wanted to reassure his guards and put them on a higher state of alert in case he found a way to release them from their cell.

"There has to be several control interfaces somewhere."

A place as secure as this might only have one control room, but Ves did not think that was the case as it sounded a bit impractical and prone to failure.

Having seen more the actual state of this barren and long-abandoned prison facility, he gained more insight into the design choices of its alien designers.

"Whoever commissioned or built this place really doesn't want any incidents to happen. If an unauthorized party truly managed to access a control center, then there has to be a backup one that can prevent a single person from freeing all of the prisoners."

Ves became more certain that there had to be another control room in this large and expansive facility.

Logically speaking these crucial rooms should be placed as far apart from each other as possible.

Normally, the center should be the most secure place to build a control room, but since it was occupied by a large cell that was built to imprison the most dangerous inmate imaginable, then it would be incredibly foolish to install the controls of the cells in close proximity!

"The odds are much greater that the primary or secondary control rooms are placed at the bottom!"

Even if he couldn't find one at the lowest levels, he would just have to explore the periphery of the facility until he managed to strike gold.

As he started to descend several levels on huge ramps that were large enough to accommodate beings the size of mechs, Ves gained a better feel of the desolation of the entire facility.

He was pretty sure that no one had walked this path in tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years.

Not even the unknown party that managed to take control of this place had disturbed the hallways in such a long period of time.

This caused Ves to develop more ideas about whoever managed to take control over it. A number of possibilities became more plausible than others, but he had too little information to form a definite conclusion.

Perhaps he might be able to gain more clues if he asked Ylvaine, but the design spirit had yet to recover all that much from predicting all kinds of possible future events.

Although Ves could still rely on Ylvaine to make a couple of crucial predictions, it was best to save this up until it was truly necessary.

For example, if he finally found a control room but lacked the ability to enter it because there was a solid wall in the way, he might need guidance in order to figure out a way to get inside!

"I really hope something will break the monotony of this place." He muttered. "This is really starting to get creepy."