The Mech Touch

The intelligence gathered by the Mirror Raiders eventually made their way to Task Force Predator through some obscure means.

Even if the Mirror Raiders were no longer allowed to leave Ulimo Citadel, they still possessed several sophisticated ways to transmit data.

Before, Abis and Rodan were very reluctant about using any of those means. Once exposed, they would fail their mission and doom the lives of every Mirror Raider!

They only took the risk after capturing and interrogating several important pirates, most notably the technicians and officers of the Dry Snakes and Xona Stalkers.

It was very difficult to capture them without leaving behind a trail. In order to frustrate any investigations, some of the Mirror Raiders deliberately stirred up trouble.

From sabotaging important systems to inducing hostility between different pirate gangs, Ulimo Citadel became a little bit more chaotic. The Mirror Raiders even managed to lay some fails trails that hinted that the Hapid Qlinters were the ones responsible for kidnapping some of the pirates!

Sendra and Rodan had noticed that the Hapid Qlinters regularly quarreled with the other pirate groups. Most of the Hapid Qlinters consisted of unruly, bloodthirsty raiders who felt repressed after not being allowed to leave in order to plunder some new victims.

None of the Mirror Raiders knew why the Dry Snakes put the Hapid Qlinters under their heel. That didn't stop the disguised Larkinsons from taking advantage of the rabid and undisciplined pirates!

With parts of Ulimo Citadel becoming increasingly more chaotic, it was no surprise that the Mirror Raiders managed to transmit some vital intelligence.

Once this crucial information fell into the hands of Task Force Predator, the Black Cats in conjunction with the Military Bureau went to work in order to increase their understanding of Ulimo Citadel.

Calabast eventually visited Ves while he was working in the design lab in order to report her findings.

"Let's speak somewhere private. You need to know this." She said.

When they entered an office which Calabast proceeded to secure, Ves sat down at a desk while holding Lucky.

"Meow."

"I know you can't wait, but be patient. You'll get your banquet of exotics soon enough."

Once Calabast approached the desk and parked her rear end against the edge, she explained what she learned.

"Ulimo Citadel is a bigger target than we thought." She began and handed over a data pad containing a summary of the intelligence. "The formation of Ulimo Citadel shows that the Dry Snakes are very serious about resisting any potential attacks from our direction. They are more prepared than ever against our moves, and that is rather disconcerting."

"Have we infiltrated their defenses? Do we know what hardware they use to depend on their stronghold?" Ves asked as he rapidly skimmed through the documents and sketches in the data pad.

"The Dry Snakes has long maintained some good relations with some of the bigger pirate alliances. Lately, they have partnered exclusively with the Allidus Alliance. As a result, they have been supplied with additional superweapons, some of which they have installed throughout their fortification. The rest usually go on auction, thereby supplying many other pirate outfits with illegal, destructive weapons."

Usually, someone from civilized space would react with horror to such news. Incidents such as the infamous Friedmont Massacre reminded everyone living close to the Nyxian Gap of the devastation that weapons of mass destruction could unleash!

Yet the pirates at Ulimo Citadel paid even less attention to the Big Two's taboos than before. They cared nothing about the lessons of the Age of Conquest or maintaining the stability of human civilization.

They just wanted to survive!

Therefore, even if the Friedmont Massacre made it even more dangerous to own taboo weapons, most pirates feared closer threats such as the Larkinson Clan more than distant ones such as the MTA and CFA!

Even if the latter organizations were much more powerful, the threat from rival pirate organizations, Peacekeeper outfits and the Larkinson Clan was much more acute!

"In effect, our aggressive moves have only encouraged the Nyxian pirates to increase their arsenal of prohibited superweapons." Calabast looked amused. "The Allidus Alliance is profiting a lot from this trade and Ulimo Citadel is one of the few places where independent pirate outfits can procure the dangerous products."

"How much?" Ves asked.

"According to our current estimates.. compared to Xiphard Base, there are at least ten to twenty times more superweapons at Ulimo Citadel!"

Ves almost shot up from his chair. "That much?! How the hell hasn't Ulimo blown up from all of that powerful hardware?!"

"Most of these weapons are stored in remote vaults hidden and secured at a healthy distance from the main fortification. Even if some of the bombs inside the vaults were improperly secured and blew up for some reason, Ulimo would only lose a couple of dozen superweapons at most."

The data pad held by Ves contained some estimates and inferences of what kind of weapons were stored in the vault.

The list included goods such as nuclear bombs, exotic bombs, warship-grade laser cannons, warship-grade torpedoes and even biological weapons!

Any of the vaults contained enough weapons to scour at least ten percent of the people living on a major planet such as Cinach VI!

The superweapons were more than enough to destroy Task Force Predator if they were activated all at once!

The worst aspect of all of this news was that this list only contained the superweapons that were locked in storage. Either they were owned by visitors such as the Mirror Raiders, reserved for sale in future auctions, or were left behind when their original owners could no longer take them back.

Regardless, compared to these castoffs, the pirates in control of Ulimo Citadel most definitely made use of considerably more powerful superweapons!

Even though Ves felt incredibly threatened by the sheer amount of firepower, he was also very pleased.

All of this evidence indicated that Ulimo Citadel was a hotbed of illegal superweapons. This meant that Ves stood to earn a lot of merits once he destroyed the entire arsenal and submitted proof to the MTA!

He could already see the merits falling into his hands even now. While he wasn't sure how the MTA calculated the merit rewards for disposing taboo weapons, Ves believed the MTA wouldn't be stingy. With the Association doubling every reward related to this contribution, it might be possible for him to earn up to 10 million MTA merits at once!

"Ten million merits!" Ves drooled as he became lost in his fantasies.

Calabast frowned as she observed her partner. She quickly snapped her fingers.

"Hey! Don't take Ulimo for granted! The defenses of Ulimo are several times stronger than Xiphard, and worst of all the pirates are paying close attention to their critical infrastructure."

Ves snapped out of his fascination. She was right. A pirate base that was collectively worth up to 10 million MTA merits would never succumb easily to an attack. Compared the Crona Lords, the Dry Snakes seemed to have learned something from the chain of attacks that recently took place in Maynard Fields.

Prepared enemies were so much harder to attack than those who were oblivious to danger!

"These long-lived pirates are too cautious for their own good." He cursed. "Can Lucky infiltrate the base and sabotage their defenses?"

"We're working on that, kid. Right now, my agents are trying to learn more about the tech mastered by the Xona Stalkers. We have managed to obtain some of the technical specifications of their gear, but it's not enough to ensure complete dominance. There are also other plans in the works that might allow us to gain some advantages."

She cast a mysterious smile at that, causing Ves to believe that she was up to something again.

He paid more attention to the incomplete technical specifications stored in the data pad. Every stealth tech possessed vulnerabilities and loopholes. Once the Black Cats obtained enough information, they could modify their stealth shuttle and tweak its settings to minimize the chance of tripping any sensors that were on the lookout for invisible intruders.

"Well, tell me when we have made some substantial progress." Ves said as he handed back the data pad. "What is your overall impression on the Dry Snakes. Why is this pirate organization engaging in trading superweapons at such a large scale? Surely they can't believe the Big Two will ignore their rampant behavior forever."

"That is what is puzzling my analysts as well. The flagrant conduct of the Dry Snakes does not conform with the relatively cautious and forward-thinking that is prevalent among the larger pirate groups. Each of them have survived for many decades or even centuries while the majority of their other rivals have long ceased to exist. Much of that is because the more conservative pirates actually know how to restrain themselves. While they still have the heart of a pirate, their actual conduct is more in line with respectable rulers."

That was what Ves had observed for some time as well. This far into the Nyxian Gap, only the smaller pirate outfits earned their living by plundering others. Many of them didn't own any FTL-capable ships, so they could only attack their fellow pirates.

The pirates who did own ships that could travel faster than light lived even shorter lives because of the danger of raiding trade convoys and settlements in civilized space.

In contrast, the larger pirate groups such as the Crona Lords and the Dry Snakes had it easier. They only needed to claim and defend a patch of asteroids in order to mine the mineral wealth locked within.

Before Ves said something, the air in the office suddenly changed. A strange chill settled on their bodies as strange grey shadows flickered across his vision.

"ENEMY ATTACK!" Nitaa, who had spent most of her time around Ves in complete silence, had suddenly moved into action! "GET DOWN, SIR!"

Though she transmitted her words through the speakers of her combat armor, Ves didn't hear her words.

Time seemed to freeze as people moved, yet remained in place.

People spoke, but no one heard any voices.

Frost started to crust over various objects in the office, but Ves still only felt a subtle chill through his bones.

"MEOW!"

Lucky jumped up into the air and tried to fly close to Ves for safety! Yet his body seemingly remained still on the desk.

Ves blinked, trying to make the grey smudges in his vision clearer. He failed. A strange echo rang throughout his ears, but his actual ears did not hear any sound.

"What is going on?"

He felt utterly confused, but his instincts were warning him of an imminent threat.

A pressure built up in his mind. The strange sensation seemingly reminded him of something.

He tried his best to ignore the strange impulses and concentrated his mind. He first engaged his spiritual senses, only to find nothing out of place. Lucky and Nitaa both registered normally to him, and Calabast was nearly invisible as usual due to her lack of spiritual potential.

He decided to look deeper.

Ves breathed deeply as he increased his concentration. Meanwhile, the Scarlet Rose rang a ship-wide alarm. Many other alarms began to ring throughout the ships of the task force.

No one in the office heard the alarms. It was completely silent inside, which helped Ves enter the correct state.

He proceeded to extend some of senses into the imaginary realm.

A raging storm greeted his spiritual projection! The huge vortex that caused the imaginary realm inside the Nyxian Gap to become so unsettling had generated some sort of turbulence in this area.

The faint grey shadows that Ves faintly saw in the office had become much more clearer in the imaginary realm!

It turned out that the imaginary realm was inhabited by monsters!

Strange alien phantasms attempted to climb out of the clumps of corrosive energy, yet failed to drag their intangible bodies out of their cells. As the vortex blew them onwards, many of the phantasms noticed Ves' spiritual projection. Each of them clawed forward, only to come up short!

"AH!"

Ves became frightened and immediately pulled his presence back from the imaginary realm!