The Mech Touch

The greatest pleasure of defeating pirate organizations was obtaining their spoils.

Certainly, Ves did not expect to take over everything.

The valuables in their eyes might be trash in the eyes of the Larkinson.

The goods may have become irrevocably damaged or lost during the fighting, as was with the case of the Allidus trade convoy.

Nonetheless, Lucky's sabotage and the Penitent Sister assault both managed to defeat the Crona Lords without inflicting excessive material damage. In fact, the rioting and despairing Crona Lords inflicted the most collateral damage on the base.

After some time, the Larkinsons began to search through every corner of the base, ransacking both personal possessions and larger goods owned by the Crona Lords as a whole.

Since the LMC earned a hefty amount of money everyday, ordinary goods which made pirates wild no longer interested Ves. He did however allow the individual Larkinson clansmen to pick out something nice depending on their contribution in battle.

Risk should always be followed by reward. While Ves expected his Larkinsons to do their duty to the clan, he wanted them to be enthusiastic about it. Therefore, every member of Task Force Predator was entitled to a bonus. Mech pilots who risked their lives directly received the greatest benefits. Officers and higher-ranking clansmen received some nice rewards as well.

Even if the Larkinsons disdained the jewels, trophies, personal weapons, alien relics, random minerals and other spoils, the clan would just directly reward them with hex credits instead.

Many Larkinsons understood that money increasingly became less relevant to them. Most of their basic needs were already taken care of by the clan, and it was difficult to spend the money while they were traveling in deep space.

What the clansmen began to aim for instead was Larkinson merits. Though the Larkinson Merit Exchange did not offer a full range of services at this time, many clansmen already cast greedy eyes at the second-class augmentations on offer!

Empowering the mech pilots in the clan was an important priority to Ves and the other leaders of the clan. However, the warriors wouldn't value their augmentations as much if the clan handed them over for free.

In order to keep them motivated and foster a culture of diligence and hard work, Ves decided to boost their existing gains by rewarding them with varying amounts of Larkinson merits according to their battle contributions.

This was a fair and transparent way for the mech pilots to improve themselves. Ves hoped to establish a virtuous cycle of improvement with this incentive structure.

In theory, in order to redeem valuable augmentations, they needed to train hard and actively improve their skills.

This would make them stronger, and thereby lead to better battle results.

Better accomplishments rewarded them with more merits, which would allow them to augment themselves faster.

Once they received their augmentations, their skills and battle prowess would soar significantly!

With the right implants and genetic alterations, they would be able to improve even faster and expand their skill set!

This would allow the Larkinson Clan to gain even more value out of them in battle!

Ves knew that as long as the Larkinson Merit Exchange kept offering attractive rewards, the Larkinsons would keep fighting and improving with great vigor!

All he needed to do was to get the ball rolling, which he just did. As he and his students entered the main warehouse of Xiphard Base, numerous off-duty clansmen walked past the crates and piles of refined metals in order to reach the racks that the infantry soldiers had quickly prepared.

On these racks rested a large variety of pirate spoils and trophies. Most of them had been stripped from the bodies of pirates, whether alive or dead, or had been dug from their personal rooms.

Various clansmen in their suited forms inspected the items placed on the racks and picked anything they liked, whether it was a weapon, a piece of gear, some ornament or other curiosity.

Of course, not every spoil was safe and still had to undergo a thorough check, but those were problems that could be dealt over time.

"This is cool!" Zanthar grinned. "Can we take something as well?"

Ves knocked his fist against his hazard suit helmet. "Nope. Rules are rules. Only those who took part or contributed in the fighting are allowed to take some spoils."

"But we're a part of this task force as well! We are taking the same risks as the other Larkinsons!"

"While that is true, they are making actual contributions, whether that is making sure whether our mechs get repaired or whether our clansmen get the nutrition they need. All you two have been doing is studying and learning. You should be paying me instead of the other way around. Be lucky that I'm not interested in charging any tuition."

Many people would kill to receive the personal tutelage of a skilled and knowledgeable mech designer! While Ves was not yet a Senior who usually held respectable positions at universities, he was already one of the foremost Journeyman Mech Designers of his generation.

His rapid ascension meant that he was doing at least something right. That made his teachings even more valuable!

Both Maikel and Zanthar blinked. They had chosen to forgo studying at a mech design university in order to study under Ves. They didn't know how lucky they were at the time. There was no need to shower them with freebies and spoil them rotten before they became full-fledged mech designers!

"You can look, but you can't take. Just take this opportunity to widen your horizons. In the future, you can obtain whatever you want when you actually give something back to the Larkinson Clan."

The Larkinson Clan was under too much pressure. In the present, it needed to survive the Nyxian Gap. In the future, it needed to keep itself afloat in the Red Ocean.

Ves did not intend to keep his head down and rely solely on peaceful development to get ahead.

Only by grasping opportunities would he be able to improve himself fast enough to obtain the power he needed to effect real change!

As Ves and his students walked past the racks, they paid attention to different items.

As a mech designer and craftsman, Ves was always on the lookout for interesting materials, especially those that reacted to spirituality. He cast out both his visual and spiritual senses for any interesting exotics. He also scanned the small projected screens that provided a short summary of the name and known properties of a particular exotic.

Sadly, the pirates of the Crona Lords did not have any access to high-grade exotics. Maynard Fields predominantly held Kavenit, and most of the rocks that pirates with a certain hobby collected merely consisted of colorful and abnormal samples of Kavenit ore.

"Worthless." Ves shook his head.

He looked down on these rocks for two reasons.

First, even if they contained valuable properties, their volume was too low to build anything worthwhile.

Second, he already had access to better materials. So far, Ves had spotted nothing that could surpass Breyer alloy in protective ability.

That said, his sweep did harvest some small and useful gains. One of them was a mineral that allowed him to strengthen infantry-grade transceivers. Another rock contained properties that made it easier to generate a gravitic field.

Ves wordlessly snapped up these small rocks and ordered his clansmen to take them back to the Scarlet Rose.

In the meantime, his two students ignored the strange exotics and instead studied the much more impressive-looking pirate gear.

The Crona Lords owned all manner of equipment that rarely showed up in civilized space. Weapons such as heated daggers, serrated swords, tiny holdout pistols, cruel and majestic hand cannons, poison arm bracers received almost every clansman's appreciation.

Sadly for Maikel and Zanthar, they could only look on enviously as their older clansmen put a claim on them. Most Larkinsons either sought to add these wicked weapons to their personal arsenal or intended to show them off to their friends.

It seemed the pirate habit of showing off their accomplishments in the form of trophies was beginning to rub off on the Larkinsons. It was a much more vivid and interesting way to present one's life to other people.

"It's also a primitive custom."

There were good reasons why modern humans mainly relied on records to show their worth. Pirates had degenerated from their civilized cousins by resorting to baser means to convey their strength and accomplishments.

Yet despite this fault, Ves nonetheless became charmed by the sight of Larkinsons beginning to wear some more harmless trophies on their hazard suits or combat armor. It gave them a slightly more savage air, as if they were starting to become pirates themselves.

Ves thought they were beginning to look a bit more ferocious. That was good. They needed plenty of guts to make it out of the Nyxian Gap intact.

The smaller prizes did not hold his interest for long. The members of the Crona Lords may be allowed to hold some trinkets, but it was impossible for them to obtain something truly valuable.

No. That was left to the likes of Supreme Lord Roda and his most trusted subordinates.

The deceased pirate leader carried the most valuable and interesting goods. Ves first inspected the weapons and other gear the clansmen had taken from Roda's corpse.

It was too bad that none of them availed the pirate commander at the moment of his death.

The man's comm was missing, likely taken by Calabast so she could hack into it and read the Supreme Lord's personal correspondence.

Even though the Supreme Lord owned some genuinely good stuff, Ves did not show any interest in taking them. He decided to leave them in place for the commanders and those who earned substantial battle accomplishments to take them and use them as proof they toppled a genuine pirate lord.

In fact, Commander Dise suddenly appeared by his side. She wore a wicked-looking suit of combat armor that was draped in the furs of an exobeast along with many other battle trophies. She quickly raked over the goods and picked up the Kavenit alloy insignia which represented the Supreme Lord's authority over the Crona Lords.

"I'll be taking this, thank you." She spoke.

After registering her selection to a nearby guard, she proudly attached the insignia on her belt which already carried numerous old symbols of authority.

The new addition hardly enhanced her already intimidating battle-ready appearance. The greatsword she carried on her back was far more impressive than any of her trophies!

Nonetheless, habits died hard. The Swordmaidens may not call themselves pirates anymore, but changing their coats did not mean the people who wore them transformed all of a sudden.

It was only after he inspected all of the gathered that he came to the biggest prize of all in his opinion.

Three transparent cases holding three B-stones rested in a separate room. Ves carefully approached them and probed them all with his spiritual senses.

All of them blocked his spiritual projections, just as expected.

He grinned. "Finally."

With three more B-stones falling into his hands, the day came closer where he could build a custom suit of armor that completely protected him against spiritual attacks!

In fact, he already gathered a sufficient volume of B-stone to start making one right away, but Ves wasn't satisfied with the degree of protection. He wanted to clad himself with thicker layers in order to offer him sufficient protection against formidable entities such as Nyxie.

As Ves studied each of the rocks in greater detail, he noticed that all of them were not standalone rocks like his existing two samples.

Instead, they had all been cut down to size by an industrial tool or machine!

Ves widened his eyes as he studied the various marks. The B-stones had all been cut until they reached a uniform mass.

"They're products!"

While this did not necessarily mean that the source sold B-stones en masse, it at least proved that the Nyxian Gap must be hosting a B-stone mine!

"Where the hell did the Crona Lords obtain these rocks!?"