Ves conveyed his suspicions about a traitor among the Vandals to Major Verle after thetter epted his request for a private conversation. Privacy screens enveloped them both as they talked among themselves.


    The mechmander didn’t look pleased. "Even I can figure that out Mr. Larkinson, but what will that help? My ships and mechs are surrounded by mines and it will take hours for us to disentangle from them! If your solution doesn’t help us get out faster, it’s not worth my time!"


    "Sir, we already inferred there is at least one Imodris stealth ship in the vicinity that is directing the minefield. What if the traitor in our midst is transmitting our telemetry to them? I want to find this traitor not to shut him up, but to piggyback on his signal to the enemy presence. Once we know the approximate coordinates of the enemy ship, we have more options avable to us."


    Ves actually didn’t know how useful that information would be, but Major Verle definitely took note. "I’m intrigued, but I can’t allocate any personnel to search for the traitor. You can be assured that our quantum entanglement nodes are locked down, so those who are attempting to transmit something will have to resort to regr methods."


    The major basically foisted this task on hisp without any further help. Ves was only willing do pursue this matter because he didn’t have anything else to do. Trying to crack the mines was impossible, while the enemy hadn’t shown off any mechs for him to analyze.


    Ves did keep one eye on the status of each mech designer in the task force. So far, they all remained at their stations and on standby. No mechs sustained any damage so far, and the mostplicated operations the mech technicians had to perform was to replenish supplies.


    They could do without his supervision. In any case, they wouldn’t try to pull anything off while Imodris aimed to kill them all. With their survival at stake, the mech designers definitely did their best.


    At least he thought so. "Could one of our mech designers be the traitor?"


    The possibility was real. If they worked for the enemy, they could do a lot of damage. Their position enabled them ess to many mechs, all of which they could tamper in various ways. They also possessed the technical acumen to screw around withputer systems, thereby installing some sort of backdoor through which they could transmit hidden signals to an unknown receiver.


    After some thought, he eventually ruled it out. First, the Mech Corps already screened everyone’s identities, and even if the Vandals got the dregs, they still passed at least a minimal security check. Secondly, mech designers never worked in istion. All of their actions received scrutiny, whether it was from the everpresent security surveince or from the mech technicians that received their instructions from them. A mech designer almost never worked alone.


    Still, that didn’t rule out mech designers entirely as a risk. Since they fell under his responsibility, Ves checked them out one by one. He pulled up live feeds that watched over the mech designers and skimmed them over, looking for any signs that seemed suspicious.


    Though he eventually found a handful of figures who attempted to do some shady activities, Ves tentatively ruled out the possibility that they passed on information to someone else.


    "Too many of them are working alongside the mech technicians."


    He took a step back and regarded the grant Vandals as a whole. If Ves wanted to put a traitor with the Vandals, who should he pick?


    "Mech pilots are under too much scrutiny. It should be a ship crewmember of some sorts. Not enlisted personnel, since they often worked alongside their colleagues. It’s more likely that the culprit is an officer. Perhaps amunications officer or a sensor officer."


    Major Verle at least handed him a temporary boon that allowed him ess to the task force’s entire surveince system. If Ves wished the Vandals ill, he could do a lot of damage with this expanded ess.


    Perhaps the only reason why Major Verle expanded his ess privileges was because they upied the samepartment. The mech officer would always be able to keep an eye on his actions while Ves did the heavy lifting.


    Ves shrugged at that. They all shared the same goal in the end, and that was to make it out of this trap alive and free.


    He began to scour through the feeds depicting themunications and sensor officers with a very wide sweep. He projected dozens of feeds in a grid and ran the footage simultaneously. He strained his enhanced mind to cope with the sheer amount of multitasking needed to interpret the footage.


    "Nobody?"


    None of the people looked suspicious. They all did their jobs with varying levels of enthusiasm, but Ves didn’t care about that. Though there were many ways in which someone could hide something dastardly in front of someone’s eyes, Ves wouldn’t be able to tell. He didn’t specialize in sniffing out deception. He only investigated these Vandals on a hunch.


    "So it’s not the officers, and looking through the enlisted spacers takes too much time."


    Where did the traitor hide, presuming that the traitor even existed in the first ce. This could all be a suspicion borne out of his habitual paranoia. Only a vague sense of intuition pushed him to continue his search. He thought it would be worthwhile to go through with his investigation. Even if he couldn’t achieve anything else, he would feel better if he verified the trustworthiness of every Vandals.


    After ruling out certain officers, Ves shifted his mind onto a different track. "What if it’s not the ship officers at all? Many of our mech pilotse from shady or troubled backgrounds. Who’s to say that they are all repentant and sincere in their time with the Vandals.


    Questioning the loyalty of mech pilots was an exceedingly contentious issue. Nobody wanted to be foisted with a baseless usation of being a traitor, and mech pilots oftenshed out with physical violence.


    "Eh, what do I care. They’re either sitting in their mechs on standby or have deployed into space to intercept the mines. I only need a brief look to cate my concerns."


    Ves began to do the same thing he did with the officers. He called up many feeds and stacked them next to each other so that he could save time.


    From looking at their faces, Ves understood that the mech pilots lost some of their edge at the start. The constant and predictable stream of mines made it easier for the Vandals to cope. However, this in fact lulled the Vandal mech pilots into a false sense of security.


    The worst thing about theircency was that Ves couldn’t tell them to pay more attention. The constant mine bombardment would definitely stretch out over hours, so every mech pilot had already prepared to deploy for the long haul.


    As Ves swiped his hand over the projection and let another set of footage y in front of his eyes. The same pattern ofcency appeared yet again.


    "This might even be the full scope of their trap. Imodris intends to dy our escape, wear down our nerves and lull us in a false sense of security."


    Iris turned her head to Ves and nodded. "That’s what makes it so important to get rid of this minefield. There are too many ways in which our opponents can mess with us. They’re only stringing us along because it will take some time to gather enough ships that can match our half-regiment."


    Ves already understood that. Imodris had cast a lot ofs, expecting most of them to aplish nothing of note. The spread of traps over many star systems ced the punitive fleets in a fairly awkward position. They couldn’t possibly split up their forces and garrison each with a small handful of military-gradebat carriers.


    Ves bet that the main enemy force parked in the most centrally-ced star system. This meant there was an inevitable dy before they arrived at the star system that hosted the that caught their enemies.


    "It’s strange for Imodris to employ this kind of trapping strategy. Do you think that Imodris has let down some of their pride and asked Venidse to coborate on our capture?"


    "That’s simply not possible! Even if their capitals are bombarded from orbit, they would never deign to ask their rivals for help. Their mutual disagreement is intense. Imodris believes that Venidse’s suppliers charge too much for their export materials, while Vendise thinks that Imodris is taking advantage of them. The rivalry between them reaches the very top, from what we’ve gathered."


    "Okay, I can see the chances of coboration is low. Venidse might not even want to stop us as long as we are still inside the borders of the Imodris Duchy. They want to see their rivals suffer a humiliating defeat."


    "That only make Venidse more eager to catch us themselves." Iris pointed out with resignation. "How better to show that they are better than Imodris than to catch a prey that their bumbling neighboring territory had let slip from their grasp?"


    "We can worry about that tomorrow. Right now, we need to get out of our current fire."


    Ves kept flitting over footage of mech pilots out in space or held back until their shift came up. His eyes raked over hundreds of faces, which all responded in a variety of ways at their current predicament.


    Suddenly, Ves stopped swiping his hands to bring up the next set of pilot footage. His eyes narrowed into slits as he studied the peculiar behavior of one of the pilots.


    He read out the brief summary of the mech pilot’s profile. "Nemo McAllister. Male, twenty-eight years old. Three-year veteran. Light mech specialist. Known for being a violent drunk. Never let him close to a drink."


    Nemo piloted an Inheritor mech. The light skirmisher didn’te with any ranged weapons that would have been useful in shooting down the mines, but the Vandals handed it a lightser rifle they had in stock. Nemo frantically fired at the mines that entered his arc like his very life depended on it. He wasn’t too bad of a shot either.


    This immediately caught his attention. "A three-year veteran isn’t really a veteran at all. We might be facing an onught of mines, but they haven’t reached the point of threatening our lives so far. This guy is way too panicky to match our current circumstances."


    To Ves, it felt as if the man tried too hard to convey his fears to his observers. This act might not have looked out of ce immediately after they dropped out of FTL, but now that a lot of time had passed, everyone should have calmed down somewhat.


    "Iris, look at this fellow, will you? Do you think he’s a fake?"


    Iris took a brief nce at Nemo. "If he’s a spy, he’s a really bad one. Maybe he’s faking it for another reason. No matter how long I stare at him, I can’t see him as a spy at all."


    Even if Nemo wasn’t the phantom that Ves was looking for, his abnormal behavior still merited a closer look. Ves leaned forward and pulled up the Inheritor’s telemetry. Having studied and worked at its design for an extended period of time, Ves gained a good understanding of its workings.


    The biggest advantage to bing head designer was that the Vandals finally pulled open the curtain that hid some of the inner workings of the coreponents. Parts such as the power reactor or the flight system no longer appeared in the form of ck boxes. Ves could intimately study how they ticked at his leisure, though the risks of contaminating his design philosophy still remained.


    Though Ves had been busy ever since he became the head designer, he hadn’t neglected this opportunity entirely and briefly studied the uncensored versions of Inheritor, Akkara and Hellcat designs.


    This was why he immediately spotted an anomaly in Nemo’s Inheritor.