The Mech Touch

The so-called Larkinson mech for a lack of an official model name served several purposes.

Aside from the reasons that Ves already mentioned, he withheld a more profound and important reason from his fellow clan members.

Though he already trusted them to an extent, it was far from the level where he was willing to reveal some of his more sensitive secrets.

Even now, Ves harbored no intentions to reveal the true nature of glows. None of the Larkinsons were aware of the existence of spirituality or design spirits and how they all tied to his design philosophy.

It sounded a bit pathetic that Ves was more willing to share his secrets with Gloriana than his own clan members!

Was it because he distrusted his family? Perhaps.

The truth was that it didn't serve the Larkinson Clan very much to learn his secrets. While it might improve their ability to pilot his mechs, it wasn't worth the chance of exposure.

When his secrets spread to dozens or hundreds of Larkinson clan members, only a single bad apple was enough to spill them to the public!

Ves knew how much controversy and greed his secrets could generate. He had to avoid this outcome at all costs, and that meant that he needed to keep everything sensitive under wraps!

He only made an exception for Gloriana because he trusted her. He had faith in her dedication towards him, and he figured the risk was small enough to share some of his most valuable insights with her in order to improve their collaboration.

So far, it had been worth it! The Desolate Soldier, the Deliverer and all of the variants and custom mechs they designed together had achieved massive success. Part of the reason why they caught on so much was the synergies he formed with Gloriana.

Ves wouldn't gain as much if he revealed the same secrets to the Larkinson Clan. This meant that he was more inclined to keep his mouth shut regardless of the fact that he was snubbing his own family.

In any case, Ves withheld information from the Larkinsons for so long that it hardly affected him. Trust could be built over time. Perhaps his attitude towards the Larkinson Clan would completely be different after a couple of decades!

Ves rose from his seat and placed the Larkinson Mandate on his desk. "Make no mistake. The future of our Larkinson Clan will be defined by the mech I'm about to design. I want you to realize that I am taking this responsibility absolutely seriously."

"No one is doubting your ability to design a good mech." Commander Magdalena responded. "Each of us have faith in your skill. We all look forward to what you can make."

"I'm excited. This is the first mech made for our Larkinson Clan, and one of our own is its lead designer! Ves is born and raised as a Larkinson. There is no mech designer in the galaxy who knows us better than him! If his other designs are an example of what he can do, then the mech he develops for his own flesh and blood will certainly be great!"

Many Larkinsons were optimistic about the Larkinson mech. Each of them believed that Ves would pull out all the stops to succeed with its design.

They weren't wrong! Ves was genuinely planning to invest a considerable amount of resources in its design and production! Even though it would probably become one of his most cost-inefficient designs, as long as he managed to strengthen his clan and obtain some self-defense ability against a second-class mech force, it was worth the investment!

The meeting wrapped up shortly after that. The Larkinson mech pilots each bid goodbye to Ves and left his office.

Ves was content with the discussion he managed to foster. Aside from gathering lots of information from the target audience of his mechs, he also made them more involved in his activities.

The fates of Ves and the Larkinson Clan were intertwined.

There was a time when Ves didn't want to involve any family members in his business. The Larkinson Family never involved itself too deeply in the LMC, especially at the beginning.

While Ves understood the family's original stance, within his heart he never really forgave it for lacking faith in his venture.

Only his father believed in him! None of the other Larkinsons aside from his grandfather supported him in that early period.

No matter what he felt about his family, now that he grew the LMC and his other organizations to this extent, he needed their help to retain control. It was better to rely on the loyalty of his family than complete strangers!

Only the Kinners enjoyed his trust, but even then Ves still preferred to lean on his own flesh and blood.

Ves spent some time to document the results of the meeting and write down his own thoughts.

The Larkinson mech started to gain more shape in his mind. Its design would certainly be ambitious, so much so that its complexity might rival that of the Devil Tiger!

A part of him hoped that he could finally make another masterwork mech with this project. Ever since he departed the Sentinel Kingdom, he never managed to replicate his success.

Neither his Desolate Soldier nor its variants managed to get him close towards the amazing realm he reached that unforgettable day!

He wasn't even within the range where he could employ one of Lucky gems to cheat his way past the masterwork threshold.

Ves felt as if he was doing something wrong when he embarked on his previous projects.

After a lot of reflection, Ves figured that he simply wasn't invested enough in their design to form a strong and overpowering emotional attachment to them. While that didn't mean he was indifferent to his own work, he always considered them to be products rather than a creative work.

There was a difference between the two. When Ves designed the Devil Tiger, he almost completely disregarded practicality in favor of designing an innovative, groundbreaking mech!

The level of passion he maintained back then was incomparable. He came close to reaching this level when he started working on the Deliverer, but it still fell short for several reasons.

No more!

Ves was tired of failing time and time again. While it was normal for a mech designer to fail in creating a masterwork mech, Ves was different!

Perhaps some of Gloriana's obsession bled over to him, but he was really starting to get annoyed at his continuous failures and lack of progress in this aspect!

The Larkinson mech was his best hope of returning to the peak he reached when he completed the Devil Tiger project.

Designing the Larkinson mech was not a regular commercial project to Ves.

It was a project that involved his own clan. It was a project that was based around a modular mech platform, which was completely novel to him. It was also a project that Ves was willing to invest an unreasonable amount of resources to meet his goals!

Perhaps the only resource he was being frugal about was time.

A mech designer never had enough time. This was a recurring problem to Ves, though he was anything but alone in wishing he had more time!

Setting a three-month deadline was a necessity to Ves. He needed to pressure himself to work fast and efficiently. Delaying the completion of the design not only affected his other interests, but also damaged his confidence.

Ves never needed to spend an excessive amount of time to design a mech! Whereas others needed to spend years to design their work, Ves was fine with just a couple of months!

Of course, allocating just 3 months to design a modular mech platform with four different mech configurations would certainly push him to his limits.

Yet Ves banked on this urgency to keep his passion hot and his excitement at maximum!

He worked best under pressure, and Ves believed he could leverage this trait of his to amplify his passion and maximize the chance of entering into an exceptional state when he was ready to fabricate the first production model!

Would he succeed? Ves didn't know, but as long as he acted as if he was working on a passion project, he would probably get close!

"It seems as if I have to leave some of my other goals aside." He sighed.

His current project was extremely difficult and would definitely consume all of his time and attention. This meant that Ves would not have the opportunity to further his research on imaginary mechs.

"Next time." He promised to himself. "I'll wait for next time."

Perhaps he would be ready to develop an imaginary mech when it was time for him to design a mech for the Penitent Sisters.

Speaking of that, Ves wasn't sure whether this commission would still proceed. After Ves refused Calabast's suggestions, he never heard from her again. Was it that difficult to arrange a way for boys to be the lead designer of a mech design project in the Hegemony?

Time passed as Ves formed a timeline of his project and sorted out his schedule. As long as the Sand War or the Komodo War didn't spring any surprises on him, then Ves expected to be able to work wholeheartedly on his project.

It was at this time that Gavin entered his office. He had an urgent expression on his face!

"Boss, something has happened!"

Ves swiveled his chair towards his assistant. "What's the problem, Benny?"

"It's the sandmen! They've withdrawn!"

"What?!"

This was completely out of his expectation! Why would the sandman suddenly halt their relentless assault on human space? A sudden withdrawal would not only give the beleaguered states a valuable reprieve, but also negate many of the gains they have made.

What had changed? Why were the sandmen breaking their pattern?

"It's true! It's all over the galactic net! The entire third line of defense reports that the sandmen have stopped throwing their fleets at human-occupied star systems! Not a single sandman has launched an attack in the last eight hours! The scouts that are tracking the movements of the enemy have all observed the sandman fleets aborting their forward approach!"

"Where are they going?! Are they retreating back to the frontier?!"

Gavin shook his head. "That's the peculiar part about the changes in movement. The sandmen aren't fleeing like scattered sand. Instead, all of their fleets have altered their routes so that they are all converging on a single star system!"

This was shocking news! There was definitely an intelligence behind this change! Whether it was Sigrund or some high-caste sandman leader, it was clear that the aliens were not content to perpetuate their losing trend!

"Where?"

"We're not quite sure yet. More observation is needed to pin down the precise location. What we're certain of is that the convergence site is located somewhere in the territory of the former Coman Federation."

"That means that practically every surviving sandman fleet will converge in a state that is situated straight in front of the Bright Republic!" Ves quickly realized!

This was a massive threat to his home state! If thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of sandman fleets all gathered in front of the Bright Republic's doorstep, what would happen once this convergence finished?

Would all of these sandmen form another artificial sand planet like the one that ambushed the CFA warfleet?

Unless the Big Two came to the rescue yet again, this death ball might be powerful enough to smash through the entire Mech Corps!

The Bright Republic was prohibited from developing and fielding weapons capable of destroying planets. While this rule was meant to limit the damage in human conflicts, it also crippled the state's attempt to fight against aliens who were unbound by the rules imposed by the Big Two!

The most important question now was whether the MTA or the CFA would move into action.