The Mech Touch

"Meow."

Something small but hard smacked his cheek. Ves yawned and stretched as he sat up from the bed. He rubbed the faint stubble that grew over his face while he wearily looked around for whatever hit his face.

He became a bit more awake when a mysterious-looking gem rested on the side of his pillow!

The gem attracted his attention due to the pulsing glow emanating from its center. Though faint, its irregular rhythm reminded him of the heartbeat of a dying person. Ves felt a very faint sense of instability and danger from the purple gem.

He carefully pinched it with his fingers and brought it in front of his face. Soon, his System vision provided him with a description.

[Unstable Chaos Essence]

A terrible essence of chaos is locked within this gem. The essence is stolen from a great and ancient horror that would dearly wish to regain it. Carry this gem at your own risk.

"...That's it?"

Ves wondered if he was still dreaming. What kind of stupid description was this? The System's description completely failed to tell him what it could be used for! Could this mech even be used on mechs at all, or was it merely another baubling that was only useful as an ornament?

"At least it looks good." Ves muttered as he rubbed his eyes in the hopes that the description changed. No luck. "Maybe I can integrate it into one of my wedding bands."

He still hadn't worked on the bare but extremely high-quality wedding rings given by his mother. Even though they consisted of some unknown but exceptional high-grade exotics, their lack of color or decoration made them a little boring for the moment.

Someone as exacting as Gloriana would never accept such plain rings!

While Ves managed to keep her happy with the engagement ring he presented to her some months ago, he knew that he needed to come up with something better in less than four months or Gloriana would definitely become angry.

He frowned. So far, raiding pirates yielded a lot of Kavenit and random exotics. Yet none of the spoils aside from B-stone fit his marriage rings.

While some high-quality mechs and equipment contained trace amounts of high-grade exotics, they weren't stable or safe for humans. Ves needed to get his hands on materials that met all of his requirements.

Hopefully, he might be able to obtain what he sought from Ulimo Citadel. Since the field of asteroids around it was known to contain deposits of higher grades of exotics, Ves believed the Dry Snakes squirrelled away a decent amount of high-grade exotics.

He turned his body until he faced his cat, who floated curiously next to his bed. He lifted up the gem. "Is this what months worth of eating exotics has produced?"

"Meow!"

"You have literally eaten tons of metals! Why couldn't you have produced something of practical value?!"

"Meow meow!"

"What? The Nyxian Gap is upsetting your digestion system? Pff! What a useless gem. I can't use it at all on mechs. I'll only forgive you if you produce an identical one before the wedding, got it? Otherwise, you can forget about eating my Breyer alloy!"

"Meow?"

"You heard that right. I'm relying on you to decorate my wedding rings. I need an identical pair! At the very least, they need to look similar. Try and produce an orange or red gem, that would go nicely with this purple one."

"Meowwww!"

Lucky hissed and quickly dove through the deck. Ves merely shrugged at his cat's antics.

He climbed out of his bed and went through his morning routine. After undergoing a quick cleaning cycle, he dressed himself in his ordinary clan uniform while a grooming bot lightly styled his messy dark hair.

When it was time for him to shave, he held out his face, allowing the bot to shave off his stubble in a matter of seconds.

The bathroom's original grooming bot unfortunately perished when Ves used it as a decoy during his successful hijack of the Scarlet Rose. Gloriana generously gifted him with a high-quality Hexer grooming bot that was originally part of the inventory of the Stellar Chaser.

The Hexer model featured exceptionally effective shaving mechanisms. Ves was highly-impressed with the speed and thoroughness it displayed when it got rid of his stubble. The fact that it made his skin feel exceptionally smooth and supple throughout the day was a great testament of its quality.

"Female Hexers want their boys to look as young as possible, after all. It's difficult to infantilize the male half of their society if they are all wearing beards that make them look like actual adults."

Once he finished shaving, he ate his breakfast quickly before visiting the isolated communication chamber. After placing a call, Gavin's projection soon appeared to provide a daily briefing.

"A lot has happened, boss."

The assistant succinctly described the thousands of Hexer mechs that had entered the Cinach System as well as the revised plans for the wedding.

Though Ves had expected the upcoming wedding to change according to the circumstances, hearing that the Wodin Dynasty planned to station an entire mech division of the Wodin Warriors was out of his expectations!

"I thought the Wodins would only dispatch a mech regiment or something! And the Glory Battalion wouldn't have more than a thousand mechs!"

"The Blessed Squire finally caused the Wodins to acknowledge your great value to them, boss. It shouldn't be a surprise that they want to express their sincerity in this fashion. The matriarch of the dynasty and around fifty other Wodins will be attending the upcoming wedding!"

Ves did not look happy at all. To the Hexers, having a matriarch personally attend their wedding was a grand honor. To him, the presence of an old lady who was used to getting her way only represented trouble!

The Hexers took their matriarchs very seriously. Each of them were stately leaders or grand experts in their respective fields. Not any old Hexer could call herself a matriarch. Though Ves wasn't quite clear on how a female Hexer could obtain the title, those who obtained them had undoubtedly become part of the ruling class of the Hegemony!

"I'm more concerned about the transformation of the Glory Battalion into the Glory Seekers." Gavin spoke. "The Wodins are truly serious about giving Gloriana a private mech regiment for her to command. I don't know how they have done it, but every Glory Seeker is willing to leave the Hegemony and follow Gloriana for the rest of their lives! They have even adopted rules about recruiting foreigners to replenish or expand their ranks."

"And they will all fall under the nominal command of Gloriana? Not the Larkinson Clan?"

His assistant's projection nodded.

"Goddammit!"

Ves did not welcome this sudden development! Even though it sounded very nice to be accompanied by a strong, fully-equipped second-class mech regiment, they probably wouldn't listen to his orders!

He knew what was going on. His future in-laws wanted to make sure to maintain a strong Hexer influence around Gloriana. Now that she was about to marry into the Larkinson Clan, it would become increasingly more difficult for her to maintain her pure Hexer roots.

With thousands of loyal Hexer soldiers at her beck and call, it became a lot more difficult to shift Gloriana's mindset.

He sighed and rubbed his face. Though the Wodins valued him very much, that did not necessarily mean they listened to him. The Wodins were very justified in providing Gloriana with the best protection possible. Currently, the Larkinson Clan wasn't able to match the strength of the Glory Seekers when they completed their transformation.

"Do the Glory Seekers come with any fleet carriers or other capital ships at least?"

"No." Gavin shook his head. "They only brought the usual combat carriers and logistical vessels. They're not the Penitent Sisters, though. Their mechs and ships aren't second-hand castoffs."

The rapid growth in strength ensured that the Glory Seekers would easily be able to overtake the Penitent Sisters in strength! At the very least, the protection they offered gave Ves a lot more assurances in his upcoming journeys.

Gavin spent some time to detail the exact strength of the Glory Seekers. More projections came into view that displayed their formidable new ships and mechs.

Ves paid special attention to the mechs fielded by the Glory Seekers. He noted to his pleasure that the worst of them consisted of premium mechs while the best of them consisted of very expensive premier mechs.

What stood out to him was that the mech roster consisted of 1,000 spaceborn mechs and 1,000 landbound mechs.

The spaceborn mechs were able to fly under atmospheric conditions or fight on land, though they weren't optimized to fight under these conditions.

The landbound mechs on the other hand possessed limited boosting capabilities and could maneuver in space, though their acceleration was abysmal. This was because they lacked a proper flight system. Instead, they made use of several small-sized booster modules installed throughout their frames.

It seemed the Wodins weren't big believers in multi-environment mechs. They only compromised a bit, but not enough in his opinion.

"Did they dispatch any expert pilots?"

"No. According to Gloriana, Hexer expert pilots are very principled and it's difficult to convince them to leave the Hegemony and serve a foreign clan. The good news is that Venerable Brutus isn't one of them. The Wodins have decided to make his current assignment permanent. He no longer has to fight the Fridaymen in the frontlines in the Komodo War."

This was not a big surprise to Ves. The contribution he could make to the Hexer war effort was much greater than the presence of a single expert pilot. The Hexadric Hegemony benefited much more if Venerable Brutus kept guarding the Miracle Couple and prevent any potential assassination attempts.

The presence of an expert pilot, which the MTA regarded as a protected class, was more than enough to stop most opportunistic attacks!

All in all, the Wodin Dynasty completely showed their sincerity towards Ves this time, though they couldn't resist putting a Hexer spin on it. Their apparent gifts came with some very dangerous thorns.

The recent changes cleared up a lot of ambiguity about his relationship with his future in-laws. Ves felt grateful that the Wodins did not intend to force him to travel to the Hegemony.

There was one piece of news that irked him greatly.

"By the way, Gloriana and one of her older sisters attempted to change your citizenship status. They applied to 'correct' your current status from Brighter to Hexer. The reason they gave is.. your mother is a Hexer."

"What?! That's not true! My mother is a Brighter! I told her not to spread that nonsense around!"

"We all know it's fake, and the MTA agrees as well. The attempt failed."

At least the MTA was still sane!

Ves glowered a bit. It sounded as if Gloriana was not the only Hexer who thought that he was literally the son of the Superior Mother. Even if it was technically true, it was still wrong in his eyes!

"Is there anything else that needs to come to my attention?"

"We've begun to receive a deluge of requests to attend your wedding, boss. All sorts of prominent mech designers and other powerful individuals want to be there. Some of them have even come from other star sectors!"

"Why the hell do these foreigners want to attend?"

It was a lot of trouble to travel to other star sectors. Ves didn't believe that people did so casually.

"Some want to get closer to the Miracle Couple. Others want to brag about being a part of the most important social event of the decade. A few want to challenge you, while others want to partner up with the Larkinson Clan. A portion of these people aren't easy to deal with, so don't reject them too hastily."

Ves sighed. This smelled like more politics. He knew that he needed to take this warning seriously.