The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1720

Chapter 1720 Stubborn Boy

Ves already knew how Hexers treated men in their society.

It was actually a mistake to call them man-haters.

Hexers didn't hate men. They just considered them inferior.

It was not a contradiction for female Hexers to adore male gender but simultaneously treat them as lessers.

In fact, if Hexers treated men like slaves or abused them on a daily basis, the Big Two would not tolerate their conduct!

The basic rights of humans had to be respected. Just because the Hexers only treated half of its population like dirt did not mean it could get away with such rampant abuse!

The Hexers therefore propagated an alternate vision on how human civilization should be run. They ran the Hegemony like a model that other states should adopt.

Both men and women had a place in their society. Women deserved to be in charge and occupied all of the upper level positions.

Even if female Hexers weren't good at anything, they still had the right to boss around males in the workplace!

As for the boys, they were continually treated as juveniles at best or pets at worst.

They received much fewer opportunities than women and had to work a lot harder to get anywhere.

This strangely led to the phenomena where the rare male successes became incredibly successful in their chosen vocations!

Male expert pilots were one of the rare species of boys who earned genuine respect from female Hexers!

Male high-ranking mech designers also existed in the Hegemony's vast mech community. Each of them gained some appreciation and were treated better than other boys. _{freewebnovel.cσ๓}

Of course, just because they were better than most women in their professions did not mean they deserved equal treatment.

Every male expert pilot had to answer to a female officer! This was because Hexers regarded them as powerful brutes that had to be controlled lest they run rabid!

Boys were still boys. As long as they were given free reign, the boys would surely give in to their worst impulses!

Male Journeymen and Seniors received similar treatment. While the Hegemony did not block boys from excelling in this career, they were not allowed to design and publish mechs on their own.

Each of them had to work with a female mech designer!

The best a male mech designer could hope for was to become a spouse of a female mech designer.

Those who weren't as lucky could only serve as a minor contributor or assistant to a bossy female mech designer.

This was the reality of being born a male in Hexer society.

"Don't you see the absurdity of devoting yourself to your Hexer girlfriend?" Aisling persistently prodded him. "Open your eyes and look beyond her pretty face! Behind her is an awful state that heavily discriminates on men like you! If Hexers like Gloriana have their way, they would strip you of your dignity and tear down your pride until you become nothing more than a human-shaped puppy!"

Ves did not attempt to debate her points. In order to resist her persuasion, he took a page out of Ghanso's playbook and defaulted to his Larkinson stubbornness.

"I am committed to Gloriana. I never break my commitments. To change my mind is to betray the promises I've made to her! I will never stab her in the back!"

Aisling threw a perplexed look at him. She didn't understand how someone so brilliant in mech design could be so stupid when it came to women!

"Do you enjoy being treated this way, Ves?"

"..."

"The Friday Coalition can offer you so much more! As long as you stick with me, I can give you a new status in our state! As Master Huron's direct disciple, no one will hinder me from settling you in the Warsaw Giant System and giving you an opportunity to participate in my design projects. So long as we achieve some success in our collaborations, my Master will definitely put his full weight behind our partnership!"

"I have already cut ties with the Friday Coalition." Ves flatly remarked.

"That's not entirely correct. You merely cut ties with Master Olson and the Leemar Institute of Technology. At most, you're blacklisted by the Vermeer Group and the Carnegie Group. Our Gauge Dynasty never pays attention to what they do. We are better!"

Ves shrugged. "That sounds nice, but I have no desire to restore my relations with the Friday Coalition. Gloriana will never tolerate me if I reconcile with your state!"

Aisling grew angry and momentarily lost control!

"Gloriana Gloriana Gloriana! Everything is about Gloriana to you! Don't you realize that she has got you wrapped around her fingers? The moment she met you at Centerpoint, she ceaselessly tried to trap you in her web! The two of you were never made to be together! A proud mech designer like you deserves better!"

Obviously, this conversation went nowhere. After enduring a long tirade, Aisling finally sent him back to his quarters.

During his time in captivity, only Patricia talked to him without an agenda.

Sadly, Patricia rarely appeared in his presence.

He needed to do everything possible to hasten his preparations. Aside from waiting for Lucky, he also resorted to other means to increase his understanding of the Scarlet Rose.

One example of this was by taking advantage of the library in his quarters.

"These books are quite good." He murmured as he leaned back on his chair while flipping page after page.

He currently studied an advanced programming textbook. While its contents were most relevant to mechs, the programming language it taught just happened to be common enough to be used in many ships as well!

Learning how to hack or subvert the programming of the Scarlet Rose was essential to taking it over! Though it was impossible for him to access her systems on his own, so long as he had Lucky, he was confident he could circumvent most of the safeguards and tap into her core systems!

This wasn't enough to guarantee a successful takeover, though. He dabbled in other textbooks as well. For example, he deepened his understanding of power reactors in order to find some way to sabotage and disable the ship's central power reactor.

As Lucky occasionally came back and covertly displayed the data he gathered, Ves ascertained what he needed to do in order to subvert the ship.

He identified three core areas which he needed to control.

First, he needed to lock down the bridge and prevent the captain and the bridge crew from controlling the vessel.

Second, he needed to secure the engineering compartment in order to grasp the crucial power reactor and FTL drive.

Ves could not afford to allow anyone to damage these two critical ship components! As long as the engineers thrashed either of them, the Scarlet Rose would become stranded in space!

Therefore, Ves not only had to take control of engineering, but also neutralize the engineers before they could do any damage!

The third area that Ves needed to control was the security compartment, which also served as the armory. While the Scarlet Rose did not employ a lot of spacers, she still possessed a crew complement of fifty people, of which fifteen of them consisted of guards and security officers!

Ves not only had to grasp the entire security compartment, but also neutralize the armed personnel before they could take up arms and launch a counterattack!

Of course, that did not mean the rest of the crew were harmless. Each of them posed a risk to his takeover attempt. With their expertise and access to the systems of the ship, they could easily cut off his access by sabotaging crucial communication lines or something.

Aside from taking over these three areas, Ves also had to disable every independent safeguard. Lucky's surveys revealed that each compartment contained an independent security system that would automatically activate as soon as something went wrong!

Ves could not afford to ignore these small and isolated security systems! He had to sabotage or tamper with each and every one of them lest they blew up when he walked through a corridor or something!

"What a headache!"

Yet the more formidable the ship, the more Ves wanted to claim her for himself! The Scarlet Rose would serve as an excellent mobile workplace for him if he was on the move! She was pretty much a miniature version of a factory ship but in a much smaller and more convenient package!