The Mech Touch

Ves only managed to detect and unravel the lockbox due to the same advantages he employed so successfully in completing the research projects.

Without his modern scanner that could detect what ancient scanners could not, he wouldn’t have been able to detect the lockbox buried underneath the toilet.

Without his advanced knowledge and practical experience of working with various kinds of machines, Ves wouldn’t have been able to reverse engineer the mechanical lock and unravel it in the proper method.

Without his modern military-issue comm with a hacking module that could take advantage of many known exploits, he wouldn’t have been able to bypass the electronic lock so quickly.

"A Senior Mech Designer that went through so much effort to hide something inside such a lockbox must be hiding something remarkable."

No matter what, this Senior Mech Designer worked for the CFA. Back then, the Starlight Megalodon was one of the most advanced battleships humanity had either fielded. Ves only scratched the tip of the iceberg so far with regards to accessing the advanced means the CFA had at their disposal.

Unfortunately, the Starlight Megalodon strayed too far from her heyday. The attack by the sandman mothership and the subsequent crash and deprivation used up a lot of irreplaceable equipment and precious materials, much of which the battleship couldn’t replenish on her own.

All the infighting in the past consumed even more equipment and supplies, and the thousands of years passed by inevitably degraded many systems that were never designed to last that long.

The lack of competent human crew severely curtailed many of her functions as well. The virtual officers did a decent job at picking up the slack, but their limitations prevented them from taking full control over the ship.

Now that Ves spent a few days inside the Starlight Megalodon, some of the fog that shrouded her capabilities no longer hindered his vision.

"I used to think the Starlight Megalodon was invincible. In truth, she only managed to retain five to ten percent of her former capabilities. She’s fallen too far from her imposing height."

Nonetheless, a battleship was still an immensely capable and destructive construct. Just five percent of the Starlight Megalodon’s might could still scour the entire planet of life at least five times over!

Due to his low rank and the altered regime introduced by the executive officer’s final solution, Ves hadn’t been able to come into touch with advanced technology that he truly owned besides his CFA comm.

What the original Longhorn stored in the lockbox fully caught the attention of Ves. "This is a biological implant!"

The small transparent case put a remarkable piece of flesh in stasis, preserving its freshness and keeping it from decaying. For some reason, the case was a treasure in itself, as Ves realized it drew upon ambient energy to sustain the stasis effect.

This was how the biological implant managed to survive despite laying dormant for over three-thousand years!

The extravagant mastery of technology of the CFA astounded Ves once again. A simple storage case for a biological case easily lasted for several millenia when Mr. Longhorn likely intended to keep this implant under lock and key for a couple of decades at most.

The only downside to this case was that it was fairly fragile. It couldn’t resist much outside force. If Ves pressed it a little too hard, he could easily shatter the case and destabilize the stasis effect, risking the biological implant’s integrity.

Ves stared at the biological implant with a considerable amount of interest. He knew that the MTA and CFA developed some of the best implants in the galaxy. Besides the first-rate superstates, every other organization needed to worry about their electronic or biological implants getting hacked. Not so for those who employed the best human hackers in the galaxy.

Three-hundred years ago, this biological implant must have been an incredibly valuable device.

Yet its programming and security measures hadn’t aged since the years went by. Outside the star system, three-hundred years went by and new advancements in hacking must have long resolved all the security measures an implant like this must have relied on to remain impenetrable.

Ves felt as if he obtained a broken machine or a ruined treasure.

"Even so, a biological implant of this quality must be extremely exquisite in terms of its tissue alone."

He developed an ambition. If he could replace the obsolete biological programming with a more up to date one, this implant might be safe enough to implant in his head.

"With the rumored capabilities of a CFA implant, my cognitive functions will receive a massive boost. Not only will I be able to read and memorize entire data banks of knowledge, I’ll also be able to perform mass calculations without relying on a processor!"

Such a function combined well with his superhuman level of intelligence, improving his capabilities to a greater height!

Ves carefully put the stasis cage back into the lockbox and tediously reset the locks. He put the lockbox back into the hollow underneath the toilet and restored everything to their original condition.

"Right now, I’d be crazy to run off the infirmary and ask the virtual doctors to put this implant in my head. Miss Calabast would probably be able to dig out all of my secrets!"

He knew that at least one competent hacker gained entry to the Starlight Megalodon. Putting an implant inside his head without understanding its ability to resist hackers was crazy! It would be like installing a backdoor in his mind that any hacker could use to pull data from his mind!

Of course, Ves knew that a biological implant so valued by a senior CFA researcher shouldn’t be so easy to crack. Yet the passage of time and the evolution of hacking posed far too much of a risk for Ves to dabble.

"Let’s leave it for now."

He felt regretful for leaving such a treasure behind, but he didn’t dare make use of it either. To distract himself on what he was missing out, he instead turned to his other gains. He inspected the weapons, gadgets and spare suit of combat armor before turning to the data chips and data pads.

"Let’s see what kind of data Mr. Longhorn has squirreled away."

The data chips and data pads all survived the years of neglect, as they should be for top-quality CFA products. While their contents were all locked behind encryption, it didn’t take his modern Vandal comm much time to hack them all. This just reinforced his precaution towards the biological brain implant.

Much of the contents of the data chips and data pads hardly impressed Ves. They consisted of old periodicals and miscellaneous internal documents that no longer held any relevance.

None of their contents contained any valuable knowledge in the form of textbooks, internal articles or research logs.

Ves was seriously disappointed with what he found. "Longhorn probably knew that anyone could enter cabin and unlock all of his data chips and data pads. He didn’t dare store anything sensitive or valuable in them. What a cautious bastard."

He would have done the same in Mr. Longhorn’s shoes, so he didn’t remain upset for long. His current haul already consisted of enough goodies.

After a moment of consideration, he decided to skip his original intentions to rest and instead make use of his haul to improve all of his gear. He called for a lifter bot to pick up the spare suit of armor and all the other bits and bobs and guided it down towards a specific armory compartment.

The Starlight Megalodon held many armories. The dreaded Internal Security Department controlled half of them while the Marine Detachment controlled the other half.

Virtual Commander Cosit heard that the Intelligence Department controlled a few hidden armories throughout the ship as well.

When Ves approached the nearest armory under the control of the Marine Detachment, a pair of heavily-armed bots prevented him from going further.

[Halt! Ensign Longhorn, you do not have permission to enter the armory.]

"I’m entitled to some gear as a newly commissioned officer." Ves frowned. "I am willing to trade some of my merits for certain services. Can you get me in touch with the chief armorer?"

It took some convincing, but the dumb security bots finally called in to their superior. A virtual officer garbed in a simple but neat marine pattern uniform stepped out of the hatch and gazed at Ves with a curious but casual glance.

[Name’s Levitt. I’m the chief armorer around here. You’re the first human I’ve seen in ERROR amount of years. Let’s step into my office to discuss your visit.]

The Virtual Chief Armorer guided Ves inside, allowing him to see hundreds of advanced suits of combat armor and exoskeleton armor. All of them appeared to be made of extremely high-quality materials that surpassed the spare suit of combat armor that Mr. Longhorn stored in his personal cabin.

Nonetheless, Ves had no right to appropriate any of those advanced marine armors. He didn’t even possess the necessary training to make use of them. Just staring at them just made him jealous for no reason, so he quickly averted his eyes.

As they passed through racks of advanced combat gear, they finally stepped inside an office where the both of them took their seats.

The Virtual Chief Armorer regarded Ves with a merchant’s eye.

[I hear you’ve come for some business. Well, you’ve come to the right place! My armory is at your service.]

Ves tried to restrain his snort. He knew that the chief armorer must be eyeing the merits he earned from completing some of the research projects.

While he wasn’t opposed to exchanging them for some services, Ves did not wish to get ripped off.

"Business must be slow in the last thousand years, right? Besides polishing your marine armor for a few billion times, how else are you able to earn any merits?"

The virtual chief armorer immediately adopted an angry expression. "[I’ll have you know that the marines are some of the strongest combat forces on this ship! We’ve protected the Starlight Megalodon for over ERROR amount of years with dedication!]

Ves smirked and patted his Earth Ant. "I just so happen to be in the possession of some gear from the future. While they’re nothing impressive by themselves, some of their properties such as their programming and innovations is highly valuable. As long as you study them and improve the gear of your armory, I’m sure you’ll be able to earn a considerable amount of merits."

The suggestion immediately sparked Levitt’s interest. The lazy smile on his face turned a little more serious. [Even so, we know that there humans waiting to get inside. There will be hundreds of humans offering up their gear to us in no time.]

"Do you really believe those average people can plass the recruitment test? You’ll have to wait a few centuries before they finally succeed. Besides, even if they enter, who says they’ll approach your armory? I know that there are dozens of armories spread across the ship. What matters is that I’m here right now in front of you with an offer at hand. As long as you do business with me, you’ll get a head start over all the other chief armorers. You’ll be able to study my gear first and crack their secrets faster than your colleagues. As long as you file your reports about your findings first, no one else but you will earn the merits related to my gear."

Virtual Chief Levitt became more and more unsettled as Ves stole the initiative. [You make a decent point, but what is it you want?]

"Let’s negotiate." Ves smirked.

His candid talks with Virtual Commander Cosit increased his understanding of the different departments and their virtual officers. While he knew that the Marine Detachment managed to hang on, they weren’t exactly swimming with merits.

As long as Ves enticed Virtual Chief Levitt with a way to earn a considerable amount of merits, he believed he could gain all sorts of valuable services from him. The threat of approaching another armory with the same offer diminished Levitt’s bargaining power.

In other words, Levitt was much more desperate to close a deal than Ves!