Once his excitement for the discovery of the F-stone faded, he began to address a priority that he had long been waiting to tackle.
\"The Devil Tiger yearns to be born!\"
Ves already finalized the design shortly before he arrived in Cinach. Not only did he impart it with a very lively if rebellious design spirit, but he also collected all of the requisite materials.
The Battle Criers even received the shipment of pure ASMAS on his behalf. Right now, the supply ships of the Kinner mercenary corps stored all of the materials in their cargo holds.
Ves summoned both Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar for a meeting.
\"Nitaa, have you secured a suitable workshop where I can fabricate my mech in secret?\"
His bodyguard nodded. \"I've anonymously approached an underground syndicate that's in control of an industrial district in a medium-sized city. They've agreed to let us use a well-equipped but abandoned mech workshop in exchange for a hefty fee. They demand half of the payment up-front.\"
\"Details, please.\"
The tall woman handed over a data pad to Ves where he studied the layout and the equipment of the workshop.
Though the tools and equipment looked a bit aged, they were well-maintained. That was better than he expected out of an illicit workshop.
\"I'm okay with it. Go ahead and confirm the agreement. Take care of the up-front payment as well.\"
\"Will do, sir. We're free to enter the workshop as soon as the syndicate confirms they've received the money.\"
\"Good. I want this done quickly. Commander Cinnabar, please coordinate with Crindon about the transfer of materials down to the workshop. I don't want to leave any traces, understood?\"
Both of them nodded. While they had no idea what Ves was up to, they were Kinners. It wasn't in their nature to question their employers too much.
\"We'll have to shuffle the materials around for a while if we want to obscure their providence, sir. To be safe, we should also transfer its contents to different cargo containers and dispose of the empty ones.\"
\"Take care of it. I trust that you'll ensure we won't leave any loopholes behind for investigators to trace my activities to me. Do you need more time or resources to complete these arrangements?\"
Nitaa looked confident. \"It won't take more than a day. If any complications arise, I'll inform you as soon as possible.\"
\"Sounds good. Don't hesitate to ask for advice from Crindon if necessary.\"
Having a diverse staff on hand provided him with a lot more conveniences than before. Ordinarily, Ves would have contacted a black market organization himself to make all of these arrangements, but now that he expanded his staff, why not delegate these tedious tasks to his underlings?
While assigning Crindon to this task would have been better, his security expert was still preoccupied with supervising the overhaul of the Barracuda.
In any case, Nitaa was not a simple bodyguard. While she failed to perform well enough to be admitted into the Order of Fl'xix, she still acquired many of their skills. The Kinner order did more than guarding people. Spying, investigating and interacting with underground organizations also fell within their competences.
In short, Ves regarded Nitaa as a budget spy. The only major deficiency she suffered from was that she didn't know how to hack. The most she could do was utilize an automatic hacking tool or program.
Nitaa and Commander Cinnabar immediately started rolling the ball. Taking care to hide their identities with each step of the way, they confirmed their agreement with the syndicate who owned the mech workshop before starting to transfer their cargo down to the surface of Cinach XII.
While Cinach VI provided a much better infrastructure for the production of mechs than Cinach XII, Ves did not wish to bother with the hassle of moving back to the sixth planet from the local sun.
Besides, Cinach XII possessed its own advantages. The presence of the branch of the Peacekeepers along with extensive heavy industries meant that a lot of cargo got shifted around.
It was easy enough to insert a few unremarkable cargo containers in the enormous flow of traffic and shuffle them from warehouse to warehouse.
Though the logistical operation kept Nitaa and the Battle Criers very busy, at the end of the day all of the cargo containers safely arrived at the workshop through an underground entrance.
Ves also arrived at the mech workshop through shifty means. He secretly departed from his hotel with the use of his Stealth Augment and under disguise.
He had to leave Gavin behind along with a member of the Battle Criers who acted as a decoy by wearing the Pride of Dusk. While the deception was far from foolproof, it was good enough to confuse most casual inspections.
In the end, Ves, Lucky and Nitaa arrived at the mech workshop through the same underground tunnels they used to deliver the cargo containers.
As Ves stepped foot in the mech workshop, he briefly inspected all of the equipment and became satisfied with what he saw.
\"Alright, Lucky. Go snoop around and see if the syndicate we've hired the workshop from have left behind any bugs.\"
\"Meow.\"
Ves sighed. \"Okay, okay!\"
He put his hand in the pocket of his obscuring high coat and withdrew a small mineral chunk. He threw it over Lucky's head who immediately jumped up to snap the exotic with his maw!
Having received his prize, Lucky happily floated away with his tail swishing in happiness.
\"You too, Nitaa. Please sweep the mech workshop to make sure there aren't any traps lying around.\"
\"Understood.\"
You could never be too sure when dealing with these underground organizations. While Lucky and Nitaa thoroughly inspected every corner of the facility, Ves approached the equipment and started inspecting their software and hardware.
If the syndicate wanted to keep an eye on what went on in the mech workshop, they wouldn't do something as crude as placing hidden bugs and sensors all over the place.
They'd bug the fabrication machines instead!
While the 3D printer, assembly system and all the other equipment seemed in order at first glance, Ves was very familiar with how they worked. If he wanted to bug the machines, he could think up a million different ways on how it could be done!
With his paranoid tendencies, Ves did not hesitate to waste half a day inspecting all of the machines in person.
He cracked open the 3D printer and scanned every individual component inside.
He utilized an automated hacking software to access the root programming of each machine in order to find any discrepancies.
He activated the machines and used some spare materials to test and witness their performance. This proved to be a prudent precaution because he found that some of the subcomponents had become misaligned due to extensive use.
To be honest, the misalignment was not a big deal, but it annoyed him to hell when he thought about leaving them alone. After he diverted his time, he continued to delve in the guts of the production equipment.
\"Ahah! Gotcha! I knew they wouldn't be able to resist!\"
While the 3D printer ostensibly appeared proper, in truth Ves found an extremely tiny component hidden deep within the enormous machine.
The component acted as a secret logger! While the 3D printer's regular logging software and components had already been removed, this tiny, non-standard part essentially replicated some of their functioning in secret!