[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 162: Ship's Crew

The journey to the Mancroft Independent Harbor had to be delayed. Ves along with the entire attack site had to be scrubbed clean in order to remove every trace of Molgon. As soon as he checked out, he boarded a more heavily armed shuttle along with Melkor and travelled to Sanyal-Ablin's headquarters.

Seeing Raella's still and vulnerable body being scanned and prodded by various kinds of medical instruments brought their moods to a low point.

"Will she be okay?" Ves asked softly.

One of the doctors nodded. "Miss Raella is a resilient mech pilot. Her implants and gene treatments have also contributed to her survival. It's a good thing your various countermeasures have activated so early. She'll make a full recovery after half a year of therapy."

Various coincidences allowed Ves to survive this attack unscathed, but he couldn't say the same to Raella. He resolved to gift his cousins at least one set of spare antigrav clothes. He already had a closet full of them so it hardly made a dent.

Ves had to cough up two million credits to pay for Raella's treatment, and that included a heavy discount. SASS must have felt a bit sorry for being caught off-guard by the assassination attempt. In any case, it was money well-spent as Miss Robyn assured him they treated Raella with Coalition-standard technology.

"Now that Raella is out of action, do you need me to take her place?" Melkor asked with a tone that suggested that he'd rather watch over of his cousin.

"No. I'm sure my client arranged his own security arrangement. You're better off keeping watch over my workshop. I don't want people messing around with my stuff while I'm gone."

Even if Ves forced Melkor to go along, the mech pilot would constantly worry about Raella. He decided to leave him at home and bring someone else. The only problem was that Ves didn't know anyone else who could take Raella's place.

Surprisingly, Melkor rejected his suggestion. "Your premises are already quite secure, and I'm confident nothing will happen to Raella. I know you need someone to watch your back, so don't refuse my presence."

"Alright. I'll arrange your mech to be moved to my corvette."

A few moments later, they entered a press room. A number of local reporters gathered here after passing stringent security checks. Their camera bots hovered behind their heads, ready to stream the upcoming press conference to the entire planet.

The attack at his workshop was one of the most dramatic events that had happened in recent history. Every citizen of Cloudy Curtain feverishly spread their gossip as they awaited some sort of official response.

The anemic local police services only issued a perfunctory statement while they were running around like headless chickens. This inadvertently gave Ves the chance to shape the narrative, according to Gavin's media savvy instincts.

Ves nodded at Gavin as he walked over to him. "How's the public taken it so far?"

"They're restless, excited and outraged." Gavin grinned, as if the assassination attempt actually pleased him. "The media aligned to the ruling coalition is already pressing for calm, but almost no one but their diehard supporters are paying attention to those channels. We've got a large portion of the population ready to cling to your words."

While Ves found it distasteful to take advantage of this situation, necessity compelled him to follow Gavin's suggestions.

They were in the light and their enemies were in the dark. No one stepped up to claim responsibility for the attack. In addition, events that happened in Bentheim and beyond might as well be on the other side of the galaxy as far as Cloudy Curtain was concerned.