The Mech Touch

specifications of the implant, Ves returned to the much more pleasant task of shopping for his next goodie.

He spent half an hour trawling through the different categories and subcategories and opened his eyes to the many pieces of advanced gear on offer.
While he hadn ’t spotted anything as extravagant as a fully-fledged personal teleporter reserved for flag officers, he did find several items he found almost inconceivable.

”An upgrade to the Squalon ’s minifab system! ”

”Two heavy security bots as permanent and completely loyal guard escorts! ”

”A complete replacement of the bone structure with a compressed alloy version! ”

The sheer amount of attractive choices threatened to overwhelm him to the point where he forcefully took a break in order to calm his raging excitement.

He started to return to his initial priorities.
What did he require the most in his current conditions? ”A way to survive the coming crises! ”

His previous selection of a single-use teleporter already leaned towards this direction.
Yet what was the use of teleporting up to a thousand kilometers away when he was still stuck on this planet?

What he needed more than anything right now was a real escape route off this planet!

”There ’s really only one choice left among the thousands of options. ” Ves smiled ruefully.

He could have used this extremely rare and valuable opportunity to redeem for something that would have undoubtedly improve his ability to defend himself or to design mechs.
Yet he decisively gave up those long-term gifts because future benefits would be of no use to him if he was dead!

Ves picked arguably one of the most valuable options on the list, the personal rights to make use of one of the CFA shuttles stored in the hangar bay.

While the shuttle he redeemed wasn ’t a copy of the CFA ’s valuable FTL-capable models, it possessed an attractive range of options that put it far ahead of any other shuttle he had ever laid his eyes on! It not only possessed a large passenger and cargo capacity, it also accelerated very fast and possessed more than enough thrust to escape the heavy gravity of Aeon Corona VII.

It might not have any exotic features, but in terms of speed and acceleration this shuttle could even leave many starships in the dust! It also helped that it possessed an efficient engine that could stretch its fuel capacity over several weeks!

”This is a perfect escape vehicle if not for its lack of FTL capability! ”

Unfortunately, a lieutenant commander didn ’t have the rights to touch an FTL-capable shuttle.
Ves would need a much higher rank or authorization before he could touch one of those.
The Starlight Megalodon also had very few of them left.

Obtaining the personal rights of a CFA shuttle meant that Ves pretty much owned it outright.
Although the ownership title of the shuttle still rested in the hands of the CFA and the Starlight Megalodon, Ves obtained a nearly unlimited right of use of the vehicle as long as he was an active servicemember.

If he wanted to go on a joyride and drive the shuttle straight into a moon for his own amusement, the CFA wouldn ’t bat an eyebrow at him.
Not only that, Ves also gained a standing permission to leave the Starlight Megalodon with the shuttle as long as he provided a plausible reason!

”This is also a privilege reserved for senior officers. ” Ves nodded as he read the rules associated with his choice.

After confirming his choice, he quickly went through the raft of other messages.
Now that Ves became a Senior Mech Designer, he not only gained some rights to speak, he also regained many of Mr.
Longhorn ’s old authorizations, including access to some of the most core mech research projects in the Research Department.

In fact, Ves also ’regained ’ his access to a handful of cross-disciplinary research projects with some of the other sub-departments!

Miss Calabast should probably be pleased with this unexpected development.
Ves quickly sent her a message of his successful promotion and his access to these highly confidential research projects.

Of course, Ves couldn ’t state outright which projects fell into his lap, but he was sure the department head of the Intelligence Department could get around that restriction.

At the very end, Virtual Lieutenant Baskanson offered an option that Ves always kept his eyes on.
[As a final privilege upon your ascension to Senior Mech Designer, Mr.
Longhorn, you are allowed to exert the right to recruit any mech designer as your personal disciple or apprentice.
Do you wish to exercise this option?]

”I do. ”

He asked for an overview of the safe around the battleship.
Through the top-down view projected in front of him, he carefully sought out the presence of a hibernating Qilanxo along with a gaggle of Asterias, Enduring Protectors and transports.

While Ves was having the time of his life on the Starlight Megalodon, the remnants of the Flagrant Swordmaidens continued to languish in the empty and overgrown safe zone.

A lot more Vesians arrived as well just outside the border of the safe zone.
Numerous transports poured in from the opposite side of the battleship, gorging out a large number of what appeared to be scientists and engineers.
The experts looked out of place amidst all the armed troops and mechs.

Even though the breakdown effect did their best to degrade all of that gear, the Vesians brought plenty of spares.
No other force that initially arrived on this planet would be able to pose a threat to the Vesians!

After studying the disposition of the Vesian forces and making sure that the Flagrant Swordmaidens still lived, Ves proceeded to zoom in over Ketis ’ head.
She was currently practicing her swordplay on an open field next to the farm.

As Ves tapped his finger atop her head, a tractor beam immediately held on to her armored form.

The projection even transmitted her voice!

”Ehh!!? Why am I flying?! ”

Without even bothering to put her into stasis, the Starlight Megalodon swept Ketis right towards one of her access hatches!

”Ahhh! What the hell?! I didn ’t sign up for this! Lemme go! ”