The Mech Touch

The evening dinner continued in harmony. The Gravada Knarlax's dining hall was large enough to accommodate thousands of people. Bots and dishes continued to float above the heads of the Larkinsons as they enjoyed the night before the wedding.

Numerous Larkinsons approached Ves to talk about matters that they normally wouldn't be able to bring up. As the Larkinson Clan grew, so did the status of the patriarch. His time was too valuable to spend on addressing each and every Larkinson's personal concerns.

So meeting him to talk about something that wasn't on any agenda was quite difficult these days.

Today was an exception. As Ves looked forward to his wedding, he was in a good mood.

Melkor stepped up to him. "Hey, Ves."

"Hello. Are the Avatars doing okay?"

"We are already back to full strength. The new recruits are a little raw, of course, but the veterans of the Nyxian Gap Campaign have more than enough experience to cover for that. I'm proud of our cadre, though it's a shame you've pulled out all of my expert pilots."

"You know why we had to do that. Expert pilots need room to develop themselves. Your men also shouldn't look up to them all the time."

"I don't think you're here to talk about that, Melkor."

Ves sensed an anxious mind behind his cousin's visor.

"You're right. I have a rather presumptuous request. I heard from one of your assistants that you recently designed a second version of the Crystal Lord."

"Yes. The Crystal Lord Mark II is a modernized upgrade of the Mark I. It not only possesses a much more powerful glow, but it also incorporates restricted alien crystal tech, courtesy of the MTA. It's a fine machine that will be sure to dominate many battles on land."

"Can you design an improved, customized variant for me? I.. I want to pilot a mech you've personally made for me. I saved up all of my merits to get the best mech possible."

Ves grew serious when he heard that. This was a big request.

"It's not going to be easy. This is a time-consuming project. The Crystal Lord is a third-class rifleman mech. It's also completely landbound. Such a mech is not a great fit to our current clan. I'd have to spend months on your customised variant. This is not a cost-effective use of my time."

"So that's a no?" Melkor's heart sank.

"I didn't say that. You should let me finish. Instead of trying to adapt the Crystal Lord Mark II design to your needs, it is much more convenient for us to design a clan mech that will already be up to standard once it's finished. Granted, this clan-exclusive rifleman mech is meant to be piloted by any Larkinson, but it will serve as a much more convenient base for your custom mech. Do you understand what I am saying?"

The Avatar Commander relaxed. "I get it. You need to design a new base model first so that it won't take much work to develop a suitable custom mech."

"It's a much better use of my time. This way, every other ranged mech specialized in the Larkinson Clan will receive something new as well."

"Will you be upgrading the Bright Warrior design to serve as this base?"

"I'm not sure yet to be honest." Ves admitted as he fell into thought. "I think.. our implementation of the Bright Warrior model hasn't fit our circumstances. The modular mech platform exists to provide our mech pilots with choice. It is meant to make us adaptable against a variety of different threats. Instead, most mech pilots simply opt to choose one of the four configurations and stick to that for the remainder of their assignments."

"Part of that is due to the lack of resources. You didn't have enough materials to build the parts to give every Bright Warrior the opportunity to switch configurations."

"That's true, but your Avatars are also too accustomed to lacking choice that they don't quite know what to do now that they have options. I am quite aware that your Avatars has optimized their spare parts stockpile so that there is considerably more leeway to switch configurations than before."

After all, it was incredibly wasteful and completely unnecessary to prepare for sets of configurations for every individual Bright Warrior. Retaining just half of the parts was already enough to give every mech pilot enough choice.

Yet even then, the Avatar mech pilots simply didn't switch.

Melkor shrugged. "I can't force my men to pilot a different configuration. You are asking too much of them. Joshua can pilot all four configurations because he's a prodigy. Our Avatars, while good, cannot master multiple mech types. You can force them to do so, but nobody will be able to rely on them in battle."

That was very fatal in battle. One of the reasons why the Larkinsons always performed well in battle was due to the trust they held towards each other. The mech forces did not recruit incompetent mech pilots.

"It's due to that reason and more that I'm not quite certain whether the Bright Warrior model has a future. It served its purpose as a convenient, versatile mech model. A year ago, the Bright Warrior perfectly fit our needs due to its ability to overpower any third-class mech. This won't be the case today. It's unrealistic to design a second version of the Bright Warrior that can crush other second-class mechs. At best it will be on par with them, but due to the nature of modular mech platforms, its performance will always be 10 to 20 percent worse than specialized mechs."

While Ves hadn't entirely made up his mind yet, he was already leaning away from multi-purpose mechs. They might work well enough for first-class mechs, but he would rather spend his time on designing a roster of specialized mechs in order to maximize performance.

"What will you do with the Quint, then?"

"It has already diverged from a regular Bright Warrior. Most of the upgrades we've applied to it are still applied to the frame. Rather than reverting these changes, I might as well continue to iterate on it whenever needed. It is a mech that has already gained its own life."

"How is that different from upgrading the regular Bright Warrior model then?"

"Upgrading a single mech is considerably less demanding than upgrading a mech design. Normally, I wouldn't even bother with this, but the Quint is worth the investment. It's a mech that has lived through two consecutive breakthroughs, and therefore possesses more life than any other mech in the clan aside from the Shield of Samar."

All of these considerations were a bit over Melkor's head, so he excused himself a few minutes later.

He achieved his main purpose. Ves promised to look into designing a custom mech for Melkor once the right base model came along.

Ves spoke with some other people. Ketis and Dietrich stopped by to talk about mechs. Some older Larkinsons exchanged views with him as well.

The original members of the Larkinson Family were all proud of the clan. Though it evolved in a different direction than they originally planned, the Larkinson heritage had become stronger than ever before. The decision to adopt a lot of outsiders and induct them into the Larkinson way of life had borne a lot fruit. The integration of different people and cultures had proceeded a lot more smoothly than everyone expected!

Of course, Ves essentially cheated this process by relying on the Larkinson Network. If outsiders truly knew what was in store for them if they joined the clan, then they probably wouldn't be so eager to become a Larkinson!

Commander Valerie Chancy approached him next.

As a former Hexer, many Larkinsons unconsciously shied away from her. Ves was a bit disappointed at that. He hoped that every member of the Larkinson Clan would no longer be judged by their past, but rather by their current accomplishments.

No matter what sins she accrued in the past, all of that was over now that the Penitent Sisters formally became a part of the Larkinson Clan.

"Thank you for advocating for our redemption." The Penitent Sister Commander began. "In our hearts, we don't feel we have deserved the Superior Mother's mercy yet. We will endeavor to do our best to fight on the clan's behalf as recompense."

"It's no problem." Ves casually answered. "The Hexers are glad to get rid of you. Combined with my growing clout, it is easy to negotiate your release. The only condition the Hexers have set is that you and your sisters never return to the Hegemony again, but this is already a given."

Commander Chancy and the Penitent Sisters still had to get used to thinking of themselves as Larkinsons. At least the former Hexers appeared to be receptive to the idea.

"Will we be able stay together within the clan?"

This was a difficult matter. Ves sighed. It seemed he wouldn't be able to relax entirely this evening.

"If you ask me, I would prefer it if you Penitent Sisters split up and join one of the established mech forces. Those who have a preference for sword combat can join the Swordmaidens. Those who want to reduce their commitment can go to the Living Sentinels. I think the remainder of you will fit nicely in the Avatars of Myth."

Commander Chancy grimaced. "That is not what my sisters had in mind when we joined this clan. We agreed to become Larkinsons with the implicit assumption that you would allow us to retain our heritage and traditions. We can't do that if you force us to disband the Penitent Sisters."

"I understand your concerns, but I have to balance out your interests with the interests of the rest of the clan. We already possess an all-female mech force. It works for the Swordmaidens because their training standards are exceptionally strict, so they'll never grow too big. I don't want to add a broader all-female mech force. Your Penitent Sisters will just absorb most of the female mech pilots in our clan. Where will that leave the Avatars and Sentinels? The last thing I want to see is to turn them into a bro fest!"

Balancing the genders of most of his mech forces ensured they remained diverse and open-minded. It didn't make sense to be selective about men or women since either of them were equally good at piloting mechs and performing support functions.

However, there were still cultural and other reasons why some people preferred to serve in an all-male or all-female unit. Commander Chancy and the Penitent Sisters didn't appear to relish the prospect of mingling with the Avatars or Sentinels.

"Is there any way to convince you to give us a chance to stay together? Breaking us up will be seen as a betrayal to us. We won't feel any belonging to the Larkinson Clan if we cannot hold on to our most cherished traditions. If you are concerned about producing a disparity between men and women in the mech forces, why not form an all-male unit as a counterbalance?"

That sounded like a bad idea to Ves. The entire notion of separating genders was a horribly archaic practice.

"We'll talk about this later, commander. I won't make any promises. It will help if you can argue your case by providing me with compelling reasons why your existence benefits the clan."

"We are blessed by the Superior Mother. Of all of the mech forces, only we are fully capable of channeling her strength. If you split us apart, we won't be able to call upon her blessing in battle."

Well, that was a good point. The battle network connected to the Penitent Sisters only worked as long as the latter were identifiably Hexers.

Ves may be able to change that, but he was afraid he might ruin the battle network instead. He did not dare to tamper with it lightly considering it was built directly in an extension of his own mother.

"By the way, you don't have to refer to yourselves as Penitent Sisters anymore. As far as everyone is concerned, you have already done enough to repent your past crimes."

Commander Chancy shook her head and smiled. "I think we'll keep it. If anything, it reminds us of our hubris."