The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5618 Departure from Bortele

Ves experienced a lot of different emotions now that he was about to depart from Bortele III.

His stay was too short. He did not spend any time on exploring any of the cities that had been erected as of late in order to service the huge influx of mech forces that made use of the strategic hub.

However, time was short, and he could no longer treat his security as casual as before.

"Goodbye, Bortele."

"Meow..." Lucky echoed as he rested in Ves' arms.

The gem cat had partially recovered from his most recent heavy exertion. The cat still looked drained and damaged, but he at least regained enough vigor to be up and about again.

A few moments later, Alexa and the 25 Journeymen Mech Designers that had recently joined the clan also arrived.

Ves nodded at a couple of them, but otherwise maintained a certain degree of distance to the new recruits.

He was way too busy to get to know each of these new mech designers in person. He understood a lot better now why leaders always preferred to isolate themselves in their ivory towers. They just couldn't be bothered to familiarize themselves with all of their subordinates.

It became even more important to institute a more sophisticated hierarchy in the Design Department. So far, Alexa was performing the role as their direct supervisor with admirable competence.

She may be an Apprentice Mech Designer who had yet to formally establish her design philosophy, but her impeccable training, her impressive background and her close relationship with Ves caused all of the other proud and accomplished second-raters to bow their heads in her presence!

Ves felt awfully tempted to put her in charge of managing the Design Department, but that was a waste of her talents.

She was a mech designer first and foremost! More importantly, she had reached a stage in her career where she needed to invest as much attention as possible in her core work in order to stoke her passion and form the initial seed of her design philosophy. He did not want her to suffer any setbacks or delays because of unnecessary entanglements.

"Is everyone ready to depart?"

"Yes, sir." Alexa reported like a prim and proper junior assistant. "I have made it clear to all of them that they will be journeying with you to New Constantinople VIII shortly after they have been brought into the clan. They have packed all of the luggage that they intend to bring along and placed it downstairs. They have also sold or entrusted all of the assets that they cannot bring along to the local branch of our clan."

"Good. It is unlikely that we will return here. The focus of our clan will shift increasingly more to our Premier Branch and our first-class activities. We will still remain involved in the world of second-raters, but it is my hope that every lead designer in the Design Department will earn enough Larkinson merits to undergo EdNet training and promote to a first-class mech designer in time."

The mention of this promotion channel perked up a lot of eager mech designers. This was one of the most compelling reasons why they had chosen to quit their old jobs and apply to work for Ves!

Not even the requirement to make a lifelong commitment to the Larkinson Clan could stop them from grasping this opportunity to ascent from the second-class mech community that they originally called home!

Many third-raters and second-raters dreamt of becoming as wealthy and pampered as the Terrans and the Rubarthans.

Though the Larkinsons had yet to reach this height, it was well on track to become a sizable first-class power!

Ves and Alexa exchanged a few more words before everyone received an alert.

Soon enough, the entire group disappeared from the surface of Bortele III and reappeared in one of the teleportation chambers of the Tarrasque.

"Welcome aboard our warship." A mecher officer greeted the new arrivals, most of whom looked in wonder at all of the advanced materials and technologies that they could observe. "We have arranged suitable accommodation for all of you. We have also opened a limited section of our internal library that you can access in order to supplement your knowledge base, courtesy of Professor Larkinson. I must ask you to control your movements while you remain a guest aboard our fine vessel. As resplendent as her interior may appear, she is still a vessel built for battle."

As the mechers began to settle all of the new guests, Ves briefly chatted with Alexa and Gavin before following another officer to a familiar lounge compartment at the upper decks.

As the Tarrasque and the other warships of the Bluejay Fleet began to fly to the nearest Lagrange point in order to exit the star system, Ves met with Jovy once again.

"What's up?" Ves casually asked as he sat down next to the bar where Jovy just downed a drink. "By the way, did the interrogation of Master Quan reveal any juicy information?"

"I am told that Master Quan has been remarkably... informative above the inner workings of the Cosmopolitan Movement, particularly when it comes to his cell." Jovy replied in a steady voice. "As a 300-year old Master who has likely held treacherous thoughts towards the current human order all along, he knows more about his own organization than the low-ranking members that we have occasionally caught before. It is normally difficult for us to rely on our advanced technologies and interrogation methods from his encrypted and booby-trapped mind, but we have managed to circumvent many of these obstacles by borrowing the power of a God Kingdom."

Reality no longer followed all of the rules within the willpower-saturated domain field of a god pilot.

No matter how clever or sensitive Master Quan might have been when he designed his own elaborate security measures, god pilots could easily use their tyrannically powerful will to negate the activation of all of these safeguards!

Once that happened, virtually every memory of the old cosmopolitan became accessible to the Red Association!

The intelligence coup was so significant that Master Quan had already been away in secret. There were many suitable secret locations where all of the contents in his mind could be extracted and digitized!

"Have you managed to find a lot of names of possible traitors?"

"We did." Jovy responded with a vicious grin. "Master Quan knows too much. He is one of the highest-ranking members of the Indigo Cell. This means that he not only knows many of the identities of his subordinates, but he is also personally acquainted with the other cell leaders. More importantly than that, he has made sporadic contact with high-ranking cosmopolitans who belong to other cells. As long as we are able to confirm that there are problems with the latter, we can repeat our earlier action and capture a new batch of cosmopolitans who belong to different cells!"

"Clever. I feel a lot more reassured now that you guys are being serious about uprooting all of the human traitors that have infiltrated our society. It sickens me to think that there are so many high-placed humans in our society that are capable of abusing their positions to advance the goals of a subversive organization."

The Indigo Cell already attempted to claim the very lucrative bounty on his head. Even if the Red Association managed to sweep it all up, there were many other secretive cells across human space that would definitely escape the looming purge!

So long as these cosmopolitans kept their heads down, they would be able to escape the wave of persecutions that were undoubtedly coming.

The rewards announced by the Red Cabal ensured that the cosmopolitans would continue to think about claiming Ves' head!

However, the successful capture of high-ranking cosmopolitans and the rooting out of many cells should degrade the ability for the cosmopolitans to mess about in human space.

Once many of their fellow cosmopolitans got exposed and caught, the remainder who managed to escape the witch hunt should definitely be scared to the point where they buried themselves deeply for a time!

This should give Ves at least a few years of buffer time.

"So are there any notable figures among the people who are now suspected of believing in the ideals of the Cosmopolitan Movement?"

"I am not privy to that information." Jovy replied. "I am a mech designer. I am not a member of one of our intelligence departments. I can only rely on other channels to gain a rough understanding of what may happen. The stability of red humanity is still fragile, so a mass wave of arrests is the last thing we need. We have to employ a quiet strategy to slowly remove and interrogate the suspected traitors without tipping off the other cosmopolitans."

This sounded like an extremely difficult operation. The rewards were great, but the mechers had to do everything right in order to inflict a real blow to the Cosmopolitan Movement.

It was too bad that Ves clearly did not have the right to obtain insider information about this big operation.

He already imagined the possibilities. The most exciting way for the mechers to deal a serious blow to the Cosmopolitan Movement was to replace suspected traitors with body doubles!

Tearing down the dangerous cells from the inside sounded so delightful to Ves!

"If you can't tell me about any specific plans relating to the cosmopolitans, can you at least share more general information about them? They still have their sight set on my head, after all. It is really annoying that I know almost nothing about them. It doesn't help that you guys always refrain from sharing any information about the Cosmopolitan Movement."

"There are good reasons for that, Ves. I do agree with you that you deserve to know more about them. What do you want to know in particular?"

"How big is the movement?"

"No one can provide you with an accurate answer to this question." Jovy shook his head. "The decentralized structure adopted by the cosmopolitans makes it impossible to obtain a complete headcount. We have always made estimates in the past. The interrogation of Master Quan has recently caused us to revise our estimates upwards. We currently believe that there are 5 to 10 million people in the Red Ocean who hold cosmopolitan sympathies."

"What?! That much?!"

10 million was only a tiny fraction of the total population of red humanity, but it still represented a formidable group if they all joined forces one day!

"It is not as exaggerated as you think. Not all of them are of great significance to the movement, Ves. Many of them are relatives of existing members of different cells. The truly dangerous cosmopolitans are the core members. They do not confine their activities to remaining undercover and passing on valuable information. There should be roughly hundreds of thousands of cadre who are truly willing and able to commit sabotage, assassination strikes and other risky actions."

Ves grimaced. He did not look forward to living in a society with hundreds of thousands of fanatics who were crazy enough to target his life!

"What about their spread?" He asked. "I'm sure that they have managed to infiltrate every state, but what about the Red Two? Have you confirmed whether there are hidden cosmopolitans among the Red Association and the Red Fleet?"

"I cannot say anything about the Red Fleet. As for the Association... there are most certainly people with cosmopolitan sympathies among our ranks."

Jovy sounded almost defeated when he made this admission.

Ves did not blame the mechers. No organization was perfect. The cosmopolitans excelled at infiltration. They definitely prioritized the need to sneak their hidden agents in the most powerful organizations of humanity.

A part of Ves wanted to ask whether the Xenotechnician was among the group of suspects, but he did not dare to follow through with this urge.

It was too dangerous for him to question the loyalties of a Star Designer!

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