The Mech Touch

Once the seemingly-ordinary second-class frigate left the star system in a seemingly normal fashion, life on the Larkinson fleet went back to normal.

Work on the expert mech design projects still proceeded as normal. Master Willix's visit hadn't fundamentally changed any of the projects and most of the plans related to them. The Larkinson Clan was still allowed to field these powerful weapons, though any thoughts about selling them went out the airlock.

Ves felt quite ambivalent about what had happened. A part of him actually wished that he hadn't created such a powerful means to strip an expert mech of its resonance shield. Without the light beam attack phase, he guessed that he would have never tripped the MTA's alarm.

"Oh well. At least my clan won't have to be so afraid of expert mechs anymore."

Master Willix's judgement had removed a cloud of uncertainty over his head. He had always felt a bit nervous about increasing his reliance on luminar crystal technology. Now that he received official sanction from the MTA, he did not have to worry about losing the right to use it as long as he did not do anything excessive.

The biggest downside was that Ves, like any technological contributor, was expected to continue to supply the MTA with any significant advances he made. Though the mechers promised to grant him additional merits for each significant contribution, he still felt irked at how extensively the Association took advantage of him. The entire scheme reeked of a scam.

He couldn't imagine how much knowledge the MTA received from all of its contributors every day!

"At least I've already gotten merits out of this arrangement."

After spending a long time without completing any missions for the MTA, Ves finally managed to alleviate his need for merits.

His personal account now held over 44 million MTA merits!

Together with Gloriana, the Larkinson Clan essentially held 45 million MTA merits, which was enough to claim 9 out of 20 capital ship slots of a beyonder ticket.

This reward alone was enough to wash away all of his lingering sourness.

"Together with the two free ship slots that the Cross Clan exchanged with me, my clan has a total of 11 ship slots!"

This was more than enough for the Larkinson Clan to get off to a decent start in the Red Ocean. Ves was particularly happy that he had room to add additional capital ships to his fleet if he could get his hands on a couple of them. As long as he stumbled into an opportunity to obtain a fleet carrier or a mass conveyor, he would definitely pounce on it as the fleet urgently needed to reinforce its combat capabilities!

"This doesn't mean I should stop finding ways to earn more merits, though." His expression turned serious. "45 million MTA merits isn't quite enough to grasp the majority of the rights in the Golden Skull Alliance."

Ves wasn't sure how many merits the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan would be able to earn in the next year or so. If they weren't as good as he hoped, then the expeditionary fleet might end up arriving at the lesser beyonder gate without all of the merits needed to leave the galactic rim!

The best way to prevent any delays was to keep finding more opportunities to earn additional merits. Besides, Master Willix was right that they didn't become useless once he reached the Red Ocean.

Aside from offering the usual rewards such as exclusive knowledge, rare exotics and most notably life-prolonging treatment serums, the Big Two also offered many precious goods and services that were difficult to obtain in the current state of the Red Ocean.

Merits never lost their relevance! The MTA and CFA certainly made sure of that!

Once Ves processed all of the changes, he paid a visit to Gloriana.

Ever since Master Willix told her that she needed to contribute to the MTA in order to get what she wanted, his wife had become incredibly invested in her work!

"Ves!" She said as she noticed his arrival. "I need you to refine your work on your luminar crystal rifle further! What you sent to me yesterday is too rough. Even though I don't understand this tech as well as you, I can easily spot more than a hundred significant issues. I've already transmitted my list to you, so get to work and don't come back until you've addressed my complaints!"

"You're working too hard, Gloriana." He said as he approached her back and massaged her shoulders. Her flowery scent already began to tickle his nose. "I know you're in a hurry to please the MTA, but there is only so much you can do as a Journeyman."

"I'm not working hard enough in my opinion." She growled. "I can't settle for as many compromises anymore, Ves, not if I want to earn the MTA's appreciation."

"How do you intend to do that? Tell me you have a gameplan. As far as I know, you aren't versed in any field that the MTA has not mastered as of yet. I managed to luck out by gaining proficiency in a tech that the MTA hasn't cracked, but I doubt you have a similar opportunity."

Gloriana merely shook her head. "You're right. I am not familiar with any alien or exotic tech. I don't excel in researching new tech. So I won't."

"Then… what are you trying to do, then?" Ves puzzlingly asked.

"Isn't it obvious? I might not be as good at researching new tech, but I am confident in my ability to apply existing tech. I intend to work as hard as possible and turn one of our upcoming expert mechs into masterworks!"

Ves widened his eyes. "That's almost impossible! Expert mechs are in an entirely different league from normal mechs. The difficulty is so great that it is unrealistic for us to expect that we'll be able to succeed in our next attempts."

"I still intend to succeed! Don't tell me that I should give up. I will work as hard as possible and give my brother the opportunity to keep up with the growth of the likes of Venerable Joshua and Venerable Jannzi. Only by wielding your best weapons will he be able to realize his own potential!"

He could see that she was dead set on making an expert masterwork mech.

The Dark Zephyr already earned Master Willix's appreciation. Ves had no doubt that a masterwork version of one of his expert mechs would earn vastly more attention from the MTA!

In fact, regardless of the properties of an expert mech, any remarkable machine that managed to reach masterwork quality was an absolute treasure. Ves would probably be able to earn an unimaginable sum of MTA credits if he put it up for auction.

What was even better was that the MTA would be eager to pay a sumptuous amount of MTA merits if it could take possession of the powerful masterwork!

Considering the MTA's well-known love for masterwork mechs and especially masterwork expert mechs, Gloriana had indeed picked a goal that would definitely allow her to get her way.

"The odds are too low, Gloriana. Don't you recognize that? I'm not trying to put you down, but I don't want you to hurt yourself if you get too impacted by continuous failures. Not even Masters who can make masterworks on a regular basis can maintain their success rate when they attempt to make an expert mech. There is something very different about these machines that makes expert mechs a lot harder to reach masterwork level."

"YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT I CAN DO, VES!" Gloriana yelled as she turned around to push him away. "Go away and get back to refining that flawed rifle of yours! I am going to do my best to make the Sentry Project as good as possible, but I won't be able to succeed if you don't pull your own weight. Now get going!"

Ves looked rather helpless as he exited Gloriana's workplace. His attempt to temper her expectations had failed. He envisioned a rather busy time for everyone in the Design Department except for the new recruits.

"Well, at least our clan will benefit from receiving a higher-quality expert mech."

He didn't dare to be too greedy, not after he made the Dark Zephyr. Expert mechs were difficult to get completely right. Aside from their greater complexity and higher performance, much of it had to do with the inclusion of complicated resonating materials.

Due to a lack of understanding on how they worked and how they functioned when embedded into a mech, it was impossible for Ves and Gloriana to know how they should be applied best.

If they didn't even know that, then how could they elevate the quality of an expert mech to the greatest height?

Ves had a hunch that without understanding the full nature of expert mechs, he could forget about making a true masterwork expert mech. He tried to convey that to his wife, but evidently she thought differently.

Well, perhaps he misjudged the situation. He could only wait until they completed all of their expert mechs to see who was right. He just hoped that Gloriana wouldn't become devastated to the point of falling into a coma or something.

This was actually a real threat considering her extreme passion for her craft and how much her entire design philosophy centered around success.

He did what she asked of him and went back to refine his luminar crystal rifle project. Though she hadn't exactly been polite about it, the list of issues she provided him did point out all of the areas where Ves had been less than thorough.

"I was focusing more on expanding the capabilities of this weapon system than to optimize its performance." Ves complained. "The two are different things."

This was also why he wasn't in an immediate hurry to optimize his rifle design. Instead, he continued to try out different measures that would hopefully increase the performance of the weapon further.

Not all of the attempts succeeded, but Ves managed to develop a handful of inventive solutions that slightly increased the power and versatility of the crystal rifle.

It was only then that he started to work on the issues that his wife had meticulously documented. Though it took a significant amount of time to go through every issue, Ves could feel his work becoming more refined.

After two weeks of intensive development, Ves finally completed a highly-refined weapon design. Though the rifle design still had to be altered by Master Willix so that it contained Opticonium, its current form should already be an effective weapon in its own right.

"It's… okay." His wife eventually said after she examined his latest work. "I'm not entirely happy with it, but it serves as an adequate base for now. I can make more precise tweaks and adjustments to the mech frame now that I know the exact parameters of its rifle."

The tentative completion of the luminar crystal rifle design meant that the Sentry Project was much closer to finishing. According to their estimates, it would only take a couple more weeks of intensive design effort to finish the first iteration of the expert mech design.

It would probably take at least a month to optimize the initial design and start another pivotal fabrication run.

In fact, they could have completed this project faster, but his wife wanted to spend a bit more time on it to make sure that they were maximizing their chances of making a masterwork expert mech.

During this period, the expeditionary fleet quietly passed through the Bardo Star Cluster without encountering any disturbances.

The main trading routes that ran through every star sector were usually safe and free from local unrest.

There were way too many people and organizations who had an interest in keeping the trading routines free from trouble. It was not easy for anyone to disrupt the flow of ships passing through the busy star systems.

"It seems that as long as I don't bother any states, no one will take the initiative to bother my fleet."

This was exactly what Ves wanted.