The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1740

Chapter 1740 Decentralized

The Scarlet Rose entered a lifeless star system centered around a listless red dwarf.

Due to the absence of terrestrial planets, there was no desire to found a settlement in the star system. The couple of gas giants and their tiny moons offered very little resources to pay back the investment.

Nonetheless, the star system's close proximity to the border of the Friday Coalition demanded at least some presence.

As soon as the Scarlet Rose entered the star system, her sensors detected numerous listening posts and sensor outposts.

As Ves gained a greater mastery over the Scarlet Rose's bridge systems and other core command systems, he made numerous discoveries about his new ship.

One of the more welcome surprises was that the mobile supply frigate possessed more powerful external sensors than he expected?

As a ship purposed for monitoring duties, how could her sensor arrays be weak? _{ƒrēewebnovel.com}

Unfortunately, he found out too late!

If he grasped better control over the Scarlet Rose back when he just hijacked the ship, he could have used the upgraded sensors to track down the stealthed escape pods carrying Aisling and Patricia!

Even if he didn't kill them, he could have at least held them hostage!

If Ves still possessed normal emotions, then he would have gloated at the irony of subjecting them to the indignity he suffered at their hands.

No one kidnapped Ves and got away with it! At least that was what he would think if his spiritual energy wasn't in a sorely depleted state.

As it was, from a rational point of view, he should be thankful that he managed to succeed in his hijacking attempt.

His first priority should be getting back to safety. While taking revenge sounded nice, he wouldn't actually gain much aside from satisfying his vindictiveness.

In any case, he wasn't sure whether the Scarlet Rose's sensors were good enough to overcome the stealth employed by the special escape pods. If Aisling was smart, then she would have configured their stealth systems to defeat the Scarlet Rose's detection methods.

The key was that he was still too close in the sphere of the Friday Coalition's influence! Even this small red dwarf system his ship just entered was littered with listening posts!

Ves knew that these unmanned outposts would soon transmit the whereabouts of the stolen ship to the Coalition!

Fortunately, the star system was a bit too obscure. The sensors failed to detect the presence of any ships in the system.

Of course, that didn't mean that Ves trusted the results. Stealthed ships might still be lurking somewhere in deep space. Even without such capabilities, as long as a ship minimized emissions or hid within an asteroid belt, it was too easy to escape the detection of long-ranged sensors.

A more complicating factor was that most of the sensor systems employed by the Scarlet Rose were limited by the speed of light.

Only a couple of long-ranged sensor types escaped this limitation, but all of them tended to return fussy results.

"Only the CFA excels in sensor technology." He muttered.

As an organization devoted to space warfare, the ability to see everything across light-hours was indispensable!

"Well, as long as nothing is close by, it's fine."

Ves did not dare to be complacent. He instructed the Scarlet Rose to keep her sensor arrays working at full power.

Knowing that the ship's location was not a secret, Ves did not hesitate to resort to full active scanning, focusing completely on observing the immediate vicinity!

No ship or stealthed vehicle should be able to escape the Scarlet Rose's detection!

While his actions meant that he was putting a lot of strain on the sensor arrays, thereby accelerating their wear and tear, Ves didn't even consider holding back.

As long as he returned to safety, he could always replace the worn-out components!

Around five hours passed as Ves quietly waited for the Scarlet Rose to cycle her FTL drive.

If the ship still received the care of a chief engineer, then her FTL drive could have finished its cycling routine in just four hours!

While this was slower than the Barracuda, the Scarlet Rose was several times bigger!

Ves already started regarding his new prize as his flagship. He faintly smiled as he caressed his hand over the temporary workstation that Ves installed in the half-ruined bridge.

A muted sense of pride emanated from his restrained heart. With the Scarlet Rose, Ves finally possessed a ship that could stand equal to Gloriana's Stellar Chaser!

Of course, right now his grasp on the ship was only tentative. During the tense five-hour period of exposure, Ves constantly delved into the internal network and deepened his control.

This was not an easy task! Just because he managed to fool the ship into thinking he was the captain didn't mean he grasped every other system and subsystem!

Mechs were much less troublesome. Though their complexity had no limits, most mech designers tended to make them as simple as possible.

The core concept of a mech was that it should be at the beck and call of a single mech pilot.

Even the rare multi-pilot mechs only featured two or three mech pilots at most.

There was never a case where fifty or a hundred people simultaneously controlled a single mech!

Ships were different. Despite not offering the ability for someone to interface with the vessel, hundreds or thousands of crew members worked in unison to control every aspect of the ship!

While the agency of a single officer or ship rating was limited, when hundreds of them pooled their capabilities together, a qualitative transformation occurred!

Under the collective power and will of a crew, the ship would run as a well-oiled machine!

The problem was that this mode of operation became a drag to Ves. Unlike mechs, the operation mode of a starship was very decentralized.

A mech always ran as a single whole. With just a single mech pilot in control, there was no need to split its control systems!

Ships abided by a different paradigm. They were run much like a government, where the captain served as the 'president'. The different officers in charge of engineering, security, life support, maintenance and so on acted as the 'ministers'.

Grasping the office of the president did not immediately mean that Ves also gained control of the ministries!