The Mech Touch

The prohibitive cost of a beyonder ticket shook most people back to reality.

The truth was that the vast majority of humans would never be able to pay enough credits or merits to redeem a beyonder ticket!

The best hope that most ordinary people possessed was to join a crew of a fleet owned by someone who possessed enough merits.

How easy was it to join such a crew? Such distinguished individuals already possessed their own power base! Even if they lacked enough personnel, they would only hire the best!

With how many people wanted to join the excitement, they probably didn't even have to pay a salary! People would pay to obtain passage!

Though it seemed that those who exchanged fleet beyonder tickets had to pay a huge price, the truth was that they also gained a lot of benefits in return.

Every notable individual who redeemed at least 10 percent of the price of a beyonder ticket gained the status of galactic pioneer!

Each and every galactic pioneer gained a lot of rights and privileges from the Big Two!

The most important one was that as long as galactic pioneers traveled in frontier space, they gained the right to run their fleets as sovereign rulers!

In addition, they didn't lose all of their sovereign powers when they entered a territory claimed by other groups.

Of course, this special condition only applied in the Red Ocean, and only for a few centuries.

However, this was enough to make any prospective galactic pioneer excited!

Similar to the division between a space peasant and a galactic citizen, the Big Two wanted to impose another division between those who contributed to them and those who merely leeched from their betters.

Basically, only galactic pioneers earned the right to transact and interact with the MTA! Those who tagged along could only rely on lesser groups and organizations.

In a frontier space where law and order was very rare, this was a very big handicap!

"In the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy, the only people with a say are galactic pioneers!" Ves stated after he processed the rules. "Everyone else is a space settler!"

That was basically a very nice description for a space peasant!

The only difference here was that even the most esteemed galactic citizen would be stuck with the status of a space settler as long as they didn't pay a hefty amount of merits!

The Big Two didn't care about someone's lineage or past achievements. They only cared about concrete benefits!

Everyone who wanted to gain the vaunted status of galactic pioneer needed to bleed themselves dry!

Gloriana looked disappointed. "It's very unfavorable for us to hitch a ride on another expeditionary fleet. I don't want to be a space settler! We'd be no better than serfs in the Red Ocean!"

Inwardly, Ves sighed in relief. He was afraid that Gloriana wanted to become a passenger of an expeditionary fleet organized by the Hexadric Hegemony!

The thought of becoming dependent on Hexers sent a chill through his spine!

He had to maintain his independence at all costs!

Becoming a galactic pioneer was by far the best way to gain control over his own destiny!

There was no Bright Republic in the Red Ocean. There was no Hexadric Hegemony in the Red Ocean.

He was very sure that the two states might pool their efforts together to organize at least one expeditionary fleet to found some new colonies.

Yet what did that have to do with Ves? As long as he could earn the necessary amount of merits on his own, it was much better for him to get rid of his existing entanglements and go his own way!

As Ves discussed his wishes with Gloriana, he discovered that she shared the same idea.

While she didn't necessarily mind hanging out with Hexers, she detested the lower status of a space settler!

As long as becoming a galactic pioneer was within reach, Gloriana wanted to do everything possible to earn this distinguished status!

Sometimes, Ves appreciated that Gloriana was such a high achiever.

The question was whether it was doable for the two of them to earn the required merits. Gloriana's second-class status and his own ambitions meant that redeeming a second-class fleet beyonder ticket was the most appropriate choice.

Every human interested in becoming a galactic pioneer began to look up the pages which described the many ways of earning merits from the CFA or MTA.

Ves did not bother looking up the ways to earn merits from the CFA.

As a mech designer, he had no choice but to work with the MTA!

Though Ves already knew several ways of earning merits, now that he took his time to go through the list, he spotted many more interesting ways for people to contribute to the MTA.

The organization even opened up many more options for people who weren't involved in the mech community to earn a lot of merits!

"Anything that benefits the MTA is a way to earn merits." Ves summed up. "I think that the MTA is about to gain a lot of riches and benefits in the next hundred years!"

The price of beyonder tickets were so high that no one could help it. They had to make as many contributions as possible to join the great phasewater rush!

As long as the galactic pioneers got in early enough, it was very much conceivable that they could quickly recoup their initial investment! Any phasewater they obtained after they paid their debts was pure profit in their pockets!

In that regard, the prices the MTA charged were very fair.

"It's too hard to accumulate millions of merits. They can't be transferred. You can only spend them directly at the MTA."

Merit represented contribution. It differed from a currency like the MTA credit in that a group of people couldn't pool their merits together.

If this rule didn't exist, then a million people could have easily figured out some way to earn a single merit from the MTA before transferring them all to a single person who didn't even lift a single finger!

That was far too cheap!

Basically, the MTA wasn't interested in granting the status of a galactic pioneer to useless spoiled brats who threw a lot of money around. They only recognized people who were capable and brilliant enough to contribute substantially to the organization!

Ves recognized that this was an indirect way to favor passage to the most ardent supporters of the MTA. This gave the MTA a lot more influence over the Red Ocean!

The limitations surrounding merits also prevented too many groups from flooding the Red Ocean.

As huge as a galaxy appeared to be, the Red Ocean was just a smaller satellite of the Milky Way.

The former was just 1.56 percent as big as the latter!

If every Tom, Dick and Harry obtained passage to the Red Ocean, too much chaos and infighting would ensue, which distracted from the larger conflict against the aliens!

As Journeymen, the prospects of earning enough merits to afford a second-class fleet beyond ticket seemed incredibly distant.

However, Gloriana was not someone who gave up easily, while Ves believed that he was different!

Both of them did not shy away from this challenge!

They studied the list carefully.

"Contributing to the fight against aliens is a good way to earn merits!" Ves discovered.

However, Gloriana quickly shook her head. "Before you get excited, you should look up the reward levels. The Sand War is a low-level conflict in the eyes of the Big Two. Even if we contributed significantly to the war effort by selling lots of Soldier mechs, we haven't actually earned a lot of merits."

Ves and Gloriana both browsed their personal accounts at the MTA.

He had never paid attention to it before since he didn't want to get too entangled in the MTA's affairs. Even so, he already earned numerous merits through various actions.

For example, advancing to Journeyman and pissing off the CFA already earned him some merits!

The latter especially surprised him! Although the MTA only credited him 1,000 merits for raiding a CFA battleship, he found it exceptionally funny that such antics actually counted!

"Hahaha!" He laughed. "The MTA really encourages people to antagonize the CFA!"

Gloriana shrugged. "The two don't exactly like each other. They are only working together because they don't have much choice in the matter."

What Ves found despairing was that even his contributions in the Sand War amounted to 10,000 merits. Gloriana earned a bit less merits because she was only a contributing designer in their recent design projects.

Surprisingly, Gloriana actually accumulated a bit more merits in total because of past minor contributions to the MTA.

"I earned them when I was spending a few years on Centerpoint." She explained. "The MTA offers many assignments there, but most don't offer too many merits in reward. It's not worthwhile for us to go back."

When they looked back at the list of ways to earn merit, something else stood out to Ves. "We can also earn merits from building masterwork mechs!"

The MTA appreciated excellence in mech design. They granted a fixed reward of merits to anyone who built a masterwork mech.

What truly interested Ves and Gloriana was that the MTA multiplied this reward by a hundred as long as it received a pristine masterwork mech!

What the MTA exactly planned to do with a masterwork mech, no one knew. All Ves cared about was that it was extremely profitable to build masterwork mechs for the MTA!

Unfortunately, the reward varied according to the class and individual power of the masterwork mech. Submitting a third-class masterwork mech yielded around 10,000 merits, while a second-class masterwork mech was worth around a million merits!

Ves would have to build 100 masterwork mechs to earn enough merits to redeem an appropriate beyonder ticket!

"That's too much! We can't possibly build so many in a span of a decade!"

There weren't any other easy ways for them to earn merits besides that. Fortunately, 1 million merits per second-class masterwork mech was just a guideline. They could easily earn several times more merits if they designed a higher-performing second-class mech.

The most profitable masterwork mechs they could submit was therefore an expert mech or higher!

They only had to design a handful of them in order to earn 100 million merits!

Of course, Ves immediately dismissed this silly notion. He wasn't even qualified to participate in the development of an expert mech at his current state.

Nonetheless, Ves and Gloriana both saw hope for the future. As long as they expended a lot of effort in improving their chances of creating a masterwork mech, then they might be able to earn the status of galactic pioneer by themselves!

"It's not easy to make so many contributions to the MTA, but I believe we can do it!" Gloriana boldly stated.

"I agree. Let's try to do as best as we can in the following decade or so. We might be in a completely different situation by then!"

Ves knew that this was not enough. The MTA set the bar high because they wanted the best. There were so many people in the galaxy that they had to impose harsh conditions in order to limit the amount of galactic pioneers.

Nonetheless, Ves believed that he had much better chances than most. His various advantages along with his rapid rate of improvement ensured that he would be in a much better position than most Journeymen and Seniors!

Perhaps one of the most important ways he could improve his circumstances was by deepening his relations with the Rim Guardians.

Though the Rim Guardian Fraternity was only a faction within the MTA, it probably offered many ways to assist the people they favored.

Ves already figured out that only strangers and outsiders had to pay the most in order to obtain a beyonder ticket!

He'd be stupid if he didn't find some way to get in the good graces of some of the members of the MTA!