Chapter 532
Now that the fleet entered into FTL, they didn't have to worry about any enemy attacks for the time being . Each ship could stand down and let the crew relax . Not too much, of course . Plenty of work needed to be done, especially for the mech technicians and mech designers .
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Ves frowned at the list of resources the Vandals needed to replenish their losses . The total price tag increased by a third, which signified how many raw materials was required to plug all of the gaps .
"Just a brief skirmish already inflicted so much damage!"
Despite their material losses, the Flagrant Vandals treated it as a win . No matter how skewed their losses turned out to be, they successfully fended off the Calico Dancer Bats and forced them to abort their stalling plans .
Ves knew why the mood was so upbeat . The servicemen really needed a morale booster . Major Verle explicitly ordered everyone smart enough to know the truth to play along with this charade .
He pressed his lips into a line as he wandered across the Shield of Hispania . Everyone acted as if they had become indomitable against all adversity .
To Ves, the Vandals only made it out because of some extreme decisions and the benefit of luck .
If Imodris had been a little more prompt in sending out their reinforcements, the Vandals wouldn't have made it out at all .
Back at his office, Ves worked hours on end to adjust the timetable in response to the heavy damage sustained by the Inheritors . Even mechs that hadn't suffered a single scratch would have soothy smoke emerging from the internals .
"More than two-hundred Inheritors are crippled! This is too much!"
The brief period where the mech pilots pushed the overload from twenty to thirty percent represented a painful spike to the mechs they piloted .
Just as Ves thought he would be handling logistical issues for the entire week, Major Verle suddenly called him up to his office . After entering it, the mech officer immediately brought up a disconcerting topic .
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"I'm here to discuss the situation with the Finmoth Regal to you . Our investigators have achieved some preliminary results . Read this first . "
The major handed over a data pad to Ves, who quickly scoured through the heavily-summarized report . His expression sunk as he realized how far this rabbit hole descended .
When Ves detected something strange from Nemo McAllister's mech, he traced the suspect work back to a trio of mech technicians aboard the Finmoth Regal . When Ves passed his suspicions to Major Verle, he ordered their arrest .
That was when the bombs exploded . The damage to one of the Regal's hangar bay was already bad enough, but taking out an engine almost forced the task force to leave her behind .
They couldn't afford to lose a combat carrier!
Fortunately, the Finmoth Regal was able to keep up by getting towed long enough for her to regain partial propulsion . She was also able to transition into FTL without a problem because FTL travel didn't rely on sublight propulsion in the first place .
Now that the immediate crisis had passed, Major Verle ordered an extensive inspection of the Finmoth Regal . From top to bottom, everything shady and dubious got exposed .
The data pad listed various minor infractions such as illegal gambling rings and fight clubs . None of those incidents really mattered too much so the Vandals who participated in these kinds of activities only suffered a slap on the wrist .
The investigators focused more on the serious infractions . A loose string of threats and blackmail eventually led to Chief Technician Michael Elin .
"I see now . " Ves uttered with shock and disappointment . "Chief Elin was one of the ringleaders responsible for the embezzlement that we cracked down on . I can't believe he got mixed with traitors . "
The three mech technicians who installed the unauthorized modifications in Nemo's mech couldn't be brought to questioning because they all blew themselves up . The investigators tried hard, but they couldn't identify any fellow conspirators . The three had always acted in a low-key manner and made few friends among the crew of the Finmoth Regal . The only person aboard the ship that had a connection to them was the chief that supervised their activities .
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As their superior, Chief Elin should have kept a closer eye on what the hidden traitors had been up to . Letting them install unauthorized modifications without a single checkup was a massive act of negligence on the part of the chief .
While chief technicians couldn't possible ride behind the shoulders of every subordinate, they should at least be diligent enough to check off any completed modifications .
"How did Chief Elin get mixed up with the traitors in the first place?"
"Money, basically . " Major Verle sighed and rubbed his tired face . "The treacherous trio got inside his good books and helped him facilitate the embezzlement . They became his left and right arms and did all of the actual work . Through years of pretending to be his dimwitted but loyal henchmen, Chief Elin completely trusted their loyalty . "
"Even then, regulations state that chiefs have to double-check everyone's finished work no matter how much they favor them . How did the traitors manage to get the chief off their backs?"
"They took advantage of the embezzlement that Chief Elin was engaged in . It's very simple, Mr . Larkinson . As the mastermind behind this scheme, would the chief want to get caught red-handed trying to manipulate the machines that siphoned away a minute portions of valuable exotics?"
"He would want to stay away as far as he can . In fact, it would be better if Chief Elin exposed himself as little as possible . "
The traitors certainly outsmarted the greedy chief who thought nothing about his own benefits . The man whose job was to supervise his underlings completely neglected his fundamental duties .
A chief technician's main job was to direct the mech technicians and stop them from doing any damage! Any other responsibility only served as extras compared to this first demand .
Thus, with the traitors aboard the Finmoth Regal going out with a bang, how could Chief Elin not escape from scrutiny . It took a lot of digging to uncover the hidden files and other shady matters that he had done .
From there, they uncovered a network of over a dozen conspirators, from a security officer that hacked and wiped the ubiquitous monitoring system, to a cargo handler who smuggled packets of high-value exotics to black market dealers whenever the Finmoth Regal berthed at a space station .
The worst thing about it was that the conspiracy even extended to a low-ranking mech designer called Loke Vedette . The hapless chump had immediately been thrown into the brig .
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Major Verle emphasized the breadth and depth of the conspiracy . "Chief Elin's network extended throughout the middle and lower decks of the Finmoth Regal . Through the enticement of profits, he subverted over a dozen pliable Vandals . It's a failure on multiple levels . Chief responsibility for this failure rests on the Regal's chief security officer, but the captain is culpable as well . As for Mr . Vedette, he has not fulfilled the responsibilities that we expect from our mech designers . "
In other words, Ves shared some of the blame as well for letting Vedette be pulled into Chief Elin's schemes .
Rather than come up with some excuse that all of this happened prior to being field promoted to head designer, Ves readily accepted the blame . "I have not been thorough enough in my supervision . His failure his my failure . "
"Good" Major Verle smiled . "Accepting your faults is the first step to turning this disaster around . "
He only acknowledged the blame because he didn't care too much about his current job . As for blame, in actuality Vedette should have been supervised by Bovis Mercator . So when it came to actual blame, Mercator should have shouldered the brunt of it . Ves already planned a way to get back at his rival for this screw-up . He felt a lot of threat from this ambitious careerist .
"Our security department and I will pass judgement over Chief Elin and his fellow conspirators . The punishments will be handed out by myself as well . While the others have mostly been duped or charmed into participating in Elin's schemes, the chief himself will likely face the ultimate punishment . "
Verle didn't need to elaborate on what this punishment entailed . Ves heard enough stories from his aunts and uncles to know that the victim deserved every bit of suffering that they had in store .
If Chief Elin was found guilty of gross negligence and betrayal during an active battle in a time of war, he would get what was known as the Cold Burial or Lonely Trek .
The punishment was known as the cold burial because it was pretty much the opposite to the space burial of the honored dead . While servicemen who fell in the line of duty would be flung into the sun to let his physical manifestation experience a rebirth, no such privilege would be granted to traitors .
Chief Elin would pretty much be pushed inside an aircar-sized coffin and be locked with some loose restraints . The coffin would have a miniature life-support system that provided the former chief with a complete circulation of nutrient packs, water and oxygen . Naturally, the waste management system would recycle the waste products and blend them with cultivated organics to produce another batch of nutrient packs .
Basically, the coffin was a tiny prison where a human would theoretically be able to live out their natural lifespan . It cost a fair bit of resources to fabricate such a meticulous self-enclosed ecosystem, but the Bright Republic definitely had the technology to realize such a thing .
However, it was called a coffin and not a prison for a very good reason . Besides these basic amenities, the coffin held nothing else . No distractions, no connections to any networks, not even a shower .
On top of that, the coffin would be operated by an AI whose sole job was to keep the occupant alive as long as possible . The AI insured the prisoner kept being fed and watered while preventing them from committing suicide . To accomplish this, robust robotic arms would be affixed to the insides of the coffin . Like any other component of the coffin, these arms could not be broken by any human force and was meticulously built to last for centuries .
Any human occupant would die long before the coffin succumbed to time .
This cruel punishment where the occupant suffered an endless, lonely trek in the dark of interstellar space was one of the cruelest punishments that the Mech Corps could give out . Personally, Ves thought Major Verle was being a bit excessive by hinting at this punishment .
He much preferred a straightforward execution to end this matter quickly .
"Why did you tell me this, sir? While I'm not a lawyer, I don't think it's entirely appropriate for you to talk about Chief Elin's punishment before his formal trial . "
"In this task force, I set the laws . " Verle boldly stated . The man practically glowed when he said that . "Trial or not, Chief Elin's fate is sealed . In our flight from the Kingdom, we can't afford too many mistakes . Any treachery or acts of negligence puts us further and further away from crossing the borders . An example must be made . The slack that we've given the Vandals during peacetime was a mistake . This is the strongest message I can give that any further failures will not be tolerated . "
Ves inched a little backward in fright . The mech officer was being really intense right now! "Ah, I understand . You want to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys . That's a good idea, sir . Maybe the rest of the Vandals that are scheming against our mech regiment will think twice . "
"I'm not so optimistic about that . Vandals will be Vandals . Obedience is not in our DNA . There will always be incidents . The key is to encourage my men to tone them down . At the very least, outright treachery and negligence that leads to deaths must not occur again under my watch . "
The man shouldered the responsibility of shepherding the task force safely across the borders and reach the promised land of the Reinald Republic . The pressure he faced was immense, so Ves somewhat sympathized with the mech officer .
"One more thing, Mr . Larkinson . "
"Yes, sir?"
"You are responsible for building Chief Elin's coffin . Do it in person . Make it durable and make it last . "