The factory ship was like a city compressed into a capital ship . It housed thousands of servicemen and devoted caverns of space to the industry of keeping the Vandals afloat .
A lot of responsibility rested on the shoulders of the Wolf Mother . While it wasn't unheard of for vagabond outfits to pursue a nomadic lifestyle aboard their ships, in the Komodo Star Sector, it was rarely seen on this scale .
From the basic information that Ves received on the factory ship, she used to start off as a smaller logistics ship . After some time, the voracious demands of the Flagrant Vandals necessitated further expansion .
Modules kept being added along her hull . The rising demand for services caused the Vandals to expand the capabilities of the logistics ship to a reckless extent . More asteroid breakers, more refineries, more alloy forge, more repair bays .
The expansion never ended, though it slowed down at this point due to physical constraints . The shipwrights among the Vandals did their best to accommodate the expansions . They strengthened the hull, overhauled the internal structure and sized up the essential components such as the power reactor, the thrusters and the FTL drive .
Ships of the Wolf Mother's current size were hardly seen in the Komodo Star Sector . Further expansion necessitated an essential upsizing to her FTL engine, something which could not be done by in a third-rate state like the Bright Republic . Only the Hexadric Hegemony and the Friday Coalition could afford to field capital ships of that scale .
In truth, it was cheaper to maintain a single base on an asteroid or an abandoned moon . Running a ship came with its own costs, and a vessel that ballooned to such a size must be using up an enormous amount of power and fuel each day .
Yet that was also the genius of it . The capability to move their main logistical base around gave the Vandals unparalleled flexibility in their deployments . From the stories he heard, the Vandals became famous even before the outbreak of the current war for their deep raids . They struck Vesian star systems situated well within the Kingdom's interior are fleeced their complacent industries to the bone .
While this sounded impressive and commendable, not everyone in the Mech Corps thought so . People would hardly be able to distinguish them from pirates, and their conduct of sneaking around to attack the weakest parts of the Vesians was seen as dishonorable .
While the warrior culture of the Mech Corps allowed for clever tricks and strategies to defeat an enemy force with ease, the Flagrant Vandals took it too far . The shamelessness in which the Vandals avoided standing battles against the Mech Legion led to their estrangement from the conventional military order of the Republic .
A mech pilot of the Vandals regarded themselves as Vandals and not as a serviceman of the Mech Corps . This was a problem, because the mech pilots who served in any other regiment held loyalty to both without any conflict .
Occasionally, Ves heard some talk of that nature whenever he ate in the canteen . Mech designers only made up part of its clientele . A lot of crewmen working in the nearby compartments ate their meals in this canteen .
"We're Vandals, not soldiers . "
"Leave the heavy fighting for the big boys . "
"I heard they're downgrading our paychecks again . As if they couldn't get any lower!"
"Damn, what are the field marshals up to? They're letting the Vesians intrude upon our territory for the umpteenth time . When will they ever have the guts to hit them back?!"
"Hah, we're the only ones who give a damn about that . We might as well be an alien species to the big chiefs . "
Talk like this was a bad indication of how far the Vandals became estranged to the Republic . The Tarry region was already isolated enough, and this undercurrent of resentment posed a lot of risks to the Mech Corps .
Maybe it was the Larkinson within him, but no one else shared his concerns . Outsiders like Pierce and Laida didn't know anything better, but for Ves who grew up with the Larkinsons, some of the talk sounded outright mutinous .
"You know, won't things be better if we just pack up and go?"
"Whadda ya mean?"
"Think about it . What has the Republic ever done for us? We built up the Vandals all by ourselves without a single credit from the state . We worked hard to pay for what we got, so how are we any different from a mercenary corps? If you think about it, we're actually worse than mercs . At least they get paid, whereas we get nothing at all!"
"That's not entirely true . We still have access to their facilities and their database . We couldn't have gotten this far without all of the advanced technology at our fingertips . "
"I still think we should make a getaway . It would be easy as pie . We aren't anchored by any planets . Those with families who live on the surface of one can just take them along for the ride when we leave Republic space . "
"It does sound easy . Getting cut off from the data banks will hurt us hard, but the Wolf Mother has a lot of life in her yet . "
This was merely a sample of the talk that sometimes popped up from the lowest ranks of spacers . It did not mean their officers or the mech pilots fostered the same ideas . Without a better exposure of life among the Vandals, Ves couldn't make any definite conclusions .
It still looked bad though . The canteen was surely monitored . Why hadn't any officers come and reprimanded the spacers?
"Maybe they don't care . "
The crewmen aboard the Wolf Mother could be extremely dedicated to the Vandals and did their utmost to keep the Wolf Mother running . Yet they could also be extremely lethargic when it came to the rest of the Mech Corps .
The only person who could make or break this regiment was the elusive Colonel Lowenfield . Despite her name popping up everywhere in every important event in the last few years, Ves still had no clue what made her so respected among the Vandals .
"Did you hear? The colonel has recalled all of the detachments . We're almost done with our repairs and resupply . "
"Oh, finally! I'm bored to tears staying in this noname star system . I want to see some action!"
"Me too! There's always a good score to be found when we shear the wool off the Vesian sheep . I'm broke and need more money!"
Ves shook his head and finished his meal before returning to the labs . He returned to his terminal only to see that the simulations in the queue needed another hour to complete .
He still had some free time on his hands .
He was pretty much the only person who enjoyed this privilege . A less capable mech designer would have spent a couple of hours trying to get the settings right or spend many late nights on interpreting the data .
The workload put into his lap could not keep up with his capabilities . If not for Alloc's current preoccupation with getting the software right for the Hellcat, then he might have been more attentive to how fast Ves completed his work .
Ves quietly sighed . He looked around and saw that one of the mech designers had left .
While everyone except Ves constantly faced a mountain of work, it was important for the mech designer to keep in touch with how the mechs performed for real . Occasionally, Alloc assigned a mech designer to liaise with the mech technicians and the mech pilots that worked with the Hellcats . They mostly gathered feedback and measured the state of the existing Hellcat mechs .
He wanted to come into contact with the mechs as well, if only to get out of this tiny corner of the Wolf Mother . Ves had never seen a true Hellcat mech and that hampered his work somewhat . Other mech designers might be fine with a bunch of technical documents, but much of what made his work great was his feel for the intangible qualities of a mech .
Within a day or two, the Wolf Mother finally moved . She first exited the asteroid belt and headed towards the border of the lifeless star system with a couple of escorting combat carriers in tow . Once they reached the edge of the system, they transitioned into FTL .
The entire factory ship bucked and groaned while Ves momentarily lurched when that happened .
"Oof!"
The other mech designers laughed . "The first time is always the worst!"
Ves rubbed his head for a bit . The moment the factory ship entered FTL, Ves felt as if a nail had been driven through his skull . "How come it's so painful? It is safe to be aboard the ship when it enters FTL?"
"This is normal to us . " Alloc answered gently . "You have to keep in mind that the Wolf Mother expanded in an ad-hoc fashion . There was hardly any planning involved . Slapping modules onto her hull without restraint has made the Wolf Mother rather unstable . The Wolf Mother's FTL drive is barely rated to carry along a ship of her size and mass . Some kinks are to be expected . "
In other words, the FTL drive could barely cope . The worst case scenario was that it might eventually break from the all of the strain .
Bad things happened when FTL drives blew apart, especially when the ship was still in FTL .
Only a handful times did ships drop out of FTL after their drives became inactive . Most of the time, something freaky would happen and the rest of the galaxy never saw the ship again .
"How well is the FTL drive protected?"
"Oh, the Vandals aren't unaware of dangers posed by a faulty FTL drive . They've put their best engineers to keeping it in shape . There's also a lot of security surrounding this component . Nobody can wander in and do what they want with this critical part of the ship . "
That might protect the FTL drive from boarding troops and internal sabotage, but it did not help the Wolf Mother's inherent vulnerability to outside attacks . She was not a ship meant for battle .
Therefore, the recent orders concerned Ves a bit . Heading deep into Vesian space was a perilous matter even in times of peace . There was always the risk of getting tracked down by a dogged Vesian task force on its way to the frontline .
Ves id not know whether to see it as a good thing or bad thing, but it was undeniable that he would be able to grasp a lot more opportunities in that case . His time with the Vandals might stretch for years, so he would have plenty of time to ingratiate himself with the crew .
"Ves, are you available?" One of the young men looked around for help and saw that Ves was basically daydreaming behind his terminal . "I need some help with this stupid equation . I followed all of the instructions according to the handbook but the simulations are getting out of whack . "
"Show me what's the problem . "
This was the first time someone asked him for help . The three permanent Apprentice Mech Designers often consulted among themselves and never asked Ves or the other designer from Rittersberg for any input .
Vse took a look at the model and spotted the problem at first glance . "It's no wonder your simulation delivers such a nonsensical result . There's nothing wrong with the equations or the model . It's this bad set of data that is at the root of the problem . This is a typical case of garbage in, garbage out . Look at the input data . Do these measurements seem correct to you?"
The mech designer worked with actual measurements taken from a previous visit to the mechs . Whoever took these measurements made a mistake somewhere down the line .
Once Ves pointed out the problem, the mech designer could handle the rest . The young man nodded at Ves with a modicum of respect this time .
As Ves wandered back to his terminal to go back to his daydreams, he smiled in satisfaction .
"It starts with small steps . "
Chapter end
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