The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4365

The Golden Skull Alliance finally set off for the deep frontier.

Though the border region between the Krakatoa Middle Zone and the Zelmar Upper Zone was not that deep into unchartered territory, it was still along the route to the more exciting parts of the Red Ocean.

In any case, it looked as if the Golden Skull Alliance was one of the many parties that was willing to try its luck and see whether it would be lucky enough to stumble upon Lord Pearian by luck.

Practically no one imagined that the Larkinson Clan possessed an incredibly effective means of homing in on the missing first-class lordling's actual coordinates!

It wasn't even that difficult to figure it out. The Larkinson Clan's association with Prophet Ylvaine was a matter of public record. The Ylvainans that utilized the mechs that Ves had especially designed for them even demonstrated astounding feats that they could have never pulled off through ordinary technological means.

Yet despite the fact that all of the clues were out in the open, no one managed to connect the dots and directed any extra attention to the Golden Skull Alliance.

"It's too unreal." Calabast told him when he shared his doubts about this matter. "We rarely made a big show out of Ylvaine's powers. The Sand War happened a long time ago and in an entirely different galaxy. Perhaps those who were directly involved in the battles against the sandmen may be aware of the effectiveness of Ylvaine's prophetic abilities, but those survivors are all third-raters and most likely stuck in the Komodo Star Sector."

"I see."

The only way to figure out the truth was to go by third-party accounts. A lot of those stories and news articles sounded so exaggerated and fantastical that it was hard for a stranger to believe it was all true.

In short, the chances that others would immediately figure out that the Larkinson Clan possessed the ability to home in on Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik should be negligible.

Calabast wasn't finished, though.

"Suppose we enter the border region and head directly to the star system where Lord Pearian is presumably hiding. Once we take him out and return him to the custody of the Yorul-Tavik Clan, a lot of people will begin to question how we were able to succeed where others have failed."

"Oh. That can be a problem." Ves frowned. "It can be incredibly dangerous for us to expose our ability to find different people, assuming that our upcoming attempt succeeds. We will have to act more circumspect in order to deflect suspicion."

Calabast nodded. "That is what I wanted to bring up with you. We shouldn't be too obvious and direct about our actions. I suggest that our fleet should take a more meandering route that makes it seem as if we are doing what everyone else is doing. Once we finally reach the star system where Lord Pearian resides, we should pick him up as quietly as possible and gradually make our way out of the region."

"Hm, it will be difficult to keep it all a secret." Ves guessed. "As long as proof of Lord Pearian's retrieval leaks to the public, we will probably get swarmed by hundreds of pioneering fleets. There is no way we can survive so much attention."

The spymaster still maintained a confident demeanor.

"I don't think our situation is as bad as it sounds. We have several advantages that we can rely upon to maintain secrecy and bring Lord Pearian away as soon as possible. We just need to make good plans and be observant enough to make changes on the fly depending on how the situation develops. If others find out, we can always toss him away and let the other pioneers fight over returning him to the Yorul-Tavik Clan."

"I suppose you're right."

The leaders of the clan were already forming a lot of plans on how they should handle this upcoming task. There was no need for Ves to provide his input, so he was free to spend his time on other matters.

For example, he met up with Cormaunt Hempkamp and confirmed that he had succeeded in recruiting a bunch of Apprentice Mech Designers that obtained special certificates from the MTA.

The new design team formed by these Apprentices would soon be ready to help with upgrading the neural interfaces of every Larkinson mech design.

Ves also checked up on the installation of the new Gravity Net.

The highly competent crew of engineers and other specialists had cleared out a highly protected compartment deep inside the interior of the Spirit of Bentheim.

There were high requirements to the use of the experimental device. The Gravity Net not only had to be protected against external damage and shocks, but it also needed access to a huge power supply.

This was also one of the reasons why the Larkinson Clan decided to install this powerful device in the flagship. The Spirit of Bentheim possessed a lot of power generators in order to meet the demand of her powerful superfabs and other production machines.

Ves and many others in the fleet paid close attention to the first live tests of the new Gravity Net.

In order to minimize the chances of accidents, the Larkinsons made extensive preparations. The Spirit of Bentheim had to separate herself from the rest of the fleet by several hundred kilometers.

The factory ship's many expensive production machines and other equipment were buttoned down.

A lot of non-essential crew members and civilian residents temporarily moved away from the factory ship.

Though these measures introduced a lot of inconveniences, it was better to safe than sorry.

Fortunately, the initial testing session was a resounding success.

Researchers and developers working for Morton Tech witnessed and monitored the performance of the Gravity Net from remote. Their input had been crucial in solving the minor glitches and inconsistencies in the initial activation of this powerful device.

When the Gravity Net became active and began to exert its influence in the surrounding space, the space around the Spirit of Bentheim didn't look any different.

Ves had to look at a simulated image in order to figure out that the factory ship had generated a large and invisible spatial net around her hull!

The density of the nets was extremely high at close range, but this rapidly dropped the further away from the new device.

In truth, the 30 kilometer range was just a loose estimate. The actual truth was that the net could still be effective at inhibiting warp travel at 50 kilometers or even 100 kilometers as long as the target's warp travel power wasn't too high! pan(da-n0vel.c)om

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