The Mech Touch

Orthox De Massie was a guardian of the Vulcan Empire.

He didn't start off that way. Like many other dwarves, he originated from a different state from the Smiling Samuel Star Sector.

His early life as a heavy gravity variant human was different from many other people of his kind.

He grew up surrounded by privilege. He was one of the few dwarves in the galaxy who was lucky enough to be born on a heavy gravity planet that was not populated by destitute miners.

The state that controlled the planet was a benevolent republic that believed in fairness and enlightenment. The planetary governor and the local administration were also fair and never discriminated between human and dwarves.

As a result, a large population of dwarves had formed that had risen up from their mining roots and constituted much of the middle-class on the heavy gravity planet.

Of course, when lots of dwarves began to do better, a small proportion of them achieved even greater success!

Tycoons, mech designers, politicians and more emerged from the booming planet. Half of the time, the planetary governorship was claimed by dwarves, which resulted into even more favorable policies. The humans weren't worried about this as they knew the rich and powerful dwarves weren't interested in expanding their reach to other planets.

Dwarves were the natural inhabitants of heavy gravity planets. If they lived on another planet without any gravity accommodations, their bodies would quickly grow weak. Their bones and muscles would atrophy and all kinds of negative body changes would occur. Their altered genetics could only stave off this kind of decay for so long and it was quite expensive to reverse the maladies.

The same applied to humans. Unless they augmented themselves with specific gene mods, they would always have to wear a suit or belt that offset the gravity acting on their bodies. No baseline human could tolerate having to carry and move around twice or thrice their own body weight for an extended amount of time! Even an ordinary fall could prove fatal!

It was for this reason that dwarves and humans managed to live in harmony in the same state. There was little competition for territory and the dominant race did not exploit the minority.

"We live in a world of luxury and abundance." Orthox's father once said to a much younger boy who had just reached his tenth birthday and found out his genetic aptitude. "However, do not think that all is well for dwarvenkind. Once you set out into the galaxy, you will learn that dwarves like us do not live so well. Most humans don't see us as equals like they do in our state. They develop a contempt for our kind when they look at our stockiness and our diminished height. Regular humans are the most proper race of mankind in their eyes. Everything else is a mutation and an abomination."

To a young Orthox who grew up playing with expensive toys and going on many holidays to other planets in the same state, this sounded almost alien to him. While he heard people say that dwarves in other states didn't have it as good, it had always been an abstract matter to a kid like him. The local dwarves also deliberately avoided any mention of their more unfortunate brothers and sisters. Children didn't deserve to bear this burden too soon.

Obviously, his father thought that his son was old enough to learn some of the harsh truths of the galaxy.

"Humans aren't always pleasant, Orthox. You will learn once you get more exposed to people from different places. There are much fewer dwarves in the galaxy than humans. We are also absent from higher ranking positions in human space. That puts us at a severe disadvantage whenever a governing body decides upon something important. We lack representation and we lack the numbers to make our rulers care about us. The only reason why it is different in our state is because our human rulers are generous, but never forget that as long as one president decides that dwarves like us aren't worth taking care of anymore, all of our riches might get taken away."

His father waved out across the balcony, showing off the large underground city which the dwarves have built over many generations with pride.

When the younger Orthox looked out towards the city he grew up in, he carved his father's words in his bones.

He would not let his fellow dwarves lose their prosperity.

Soon afterwards, he began to attend a mech academy. He immediately stood out from his peers due to his B+ genetic aptitude. Though it had not reached the legendary A-grade, his distance to it was so small that there was essentially little difference!

He began to advance through his courses with stellar grades. Expectations piled up on him as he showed a penchant for piloting melee mechs. Whether he wielded a sword, axe, spear, hammer or any other handheld weapon, he was able to outduel all of his peers in no time!

Everything went well for Orthox, but throughout his training, he never forgot about his father's words. He studied the state of the galaxy and the conditions of dwarvenkind throughout human space.

What he learned when he browsed the libraries shocked him. To see dwarves who did not look so different from him stained with dust and operating outdated mining machines on some cramped planet did not sit well with him. It physically made him ill to read how callously human governments and corporations treated the dwarves they controlled.

His people were never treated at the same height as normal humans!

Through his teens and twenties, his empathy and lack of understanding defined his journey.

The more he learned about the ill treatment of dwarves, the more he felt frustrated.

The more he felt frustrated, the more he poured himself into his training.

Soon, his frustration morphed into a deep anger towards the state of the galaxy and the lack of support from humankind.

He began to ask many difficult questions.

"Why doesn't the MTA free our dwarven slaves?"

"Why do humans treat us so poorly?"

"Are dwarves really treated as lesser citizens outside our state?"

Though he became more and more confused, it did not affect the growth of his strength. By the time he graduated, he received an extremely attractive offer for a military commision.

He was just contemplating whether he should go through with his original plan to serve in the armed forces when he saw the news about the rebellion in the distant Smiling Samuel Star Sector.

"VULCAN LIVES!"

"FREEDOM TO THE DWARVES!"

"SLAY THE OPPRESSORS!"

For the first time in human history, a growing band of dwarven rebels not only managed to launch a successful rebellion, but also gained enough momentum to take over a state!

Even if the Paramount Kingdom was just a measly third-rate state, the rebellion was just starting to swell!

When Orthox saw how lesser dwarves showed both courage and fearlessness in the face of heavy human opposition, he felt as if he had found the reason why he had been brought in this galaxy.

He looked down at his own strong hands. "Why am I here? For what reason did I learn how to pilot a mech? Is it just to retain my own privileges, or am I here to make a difference?"

He admired the rebels without looking down on them. He understood that their situation was much worse than his. Yet despite the odds, they did not hesitate to fight against powerful and numerous humans just to free dwarvenkind!

What happened next was a whirlwind that completely transformed his life. He banded together with fellow sympathizers and supporters. They pooled all of their assets and resources together to raise an outfit that was able to field roughly 160 second-class mechs in battle.

Then, they all traveled to the Smiling Samuel Star Sector in order to answer the calling of the dwarven rebels!

Years went by as more dwarven compatriots like him rallied to the Vulcanites. Many of them had long felt that they were missing something and did not hesitate to convert to the Vulcan Faith once they became enlightened to this new dwarven religion.

Others were not as quick to worship Vulcan, but they fought for dwarven liberation all the same. Orthox belonged to this group. Though he was a secularist by nature, his time with the Vulcanites caused him to become increasingly attached to his new people.

Each of them were working towards the creation of a strong and powerful dwarven state!

Suffice to say, the escalating war presented a lot of hardship to the dwarves. Even rich and powerful foreigners like Orthox almost lost his life. Many of the comrades who he grew up with sacrificed their lives to fulfill the same ideal.

With each friend he lost, he began to feel more hatred towards the cruel and callous humans who denied the dwarves their right to live a decent life. He began to feel increasingly more guilty whenever his circle of friends grew smaller and smaller.

In desperation, his mech put down the hammer and axes and started to carry simple shields. The thought of losing his friends and seeing his fellow dwarven battle brothers fall was excruciating to Orthox!

It was then that he truly found his calling.

From winning battles to breaking through to expert pilot, Orthox De Massie became a name that inspired and invigorated the Vulcanites.

All of his dreams came true.

He was proud that he had managed to help his fellow compatriots conquer the Smiling Samuel Star Sector.

The long peace that followed as the dwarves consolidated their rule and erected a massive state from the ruins of human domains did not give him any further opportunities to excel in battle.

Orthox didn't care. He had witnessed so much death that he was more than happy to embrace peace. The longer that mech pilots like him remained in their bases, the more time the dwarves were able to live free and happy lives.

"The humans might come back one day, though. We need to be ready to fend off their greed."

His duty and his feeling of responsibility towards the Vulcanites kept fueling his growth. He knew that this victory was just a drop in the bucket. Many more dwarves in the rest of the galaxy were still subject to wretched conditions. It was impossible for the Vulcan Empire to stretch its influence across hundreds of thousands of light-years.

He made a vow to himself.

"As long as a dwarf was still living in captivity, I shall never release my vigilance! I can still do more for dwarvenkind!"

His iron-clad conviction caused him to continue to feel restless. Unlike many of his fellow Vulcanites, he never gave in to complacency and always kept his guard up against the humans living in the surrounding star sectors. States like the Empire of the Lost were always plotting to take revenge and put dwarves back into their supposed place.

The more he worried, the greater his perceived pressure. The greater his pressure, the more he strengthened his will.

His strength as an expert pilot steadily grew stronger. Before he knew it, he became a high-tier expert pilot. He was someone who was qualified to become an ace pilot, a supreme dwarven icon that could guard the dwarven state at least a hundred times better than before!

Of course, while he feared a reprisal, he never expected that his state would strike the first blow.

To be more exact, it was the Ferril Province that chose to launch an attack, but Orthox wasn't a fool. The new cult that he didn't really care about had bewitched his fellow dwarves and driven them into a frenzy.

"Attacking humans is folly!"

Yet no matter what he said, his status and respect as a high-tier expert pilot carried no sway to the fanatical Vulcanites who believed they needed to take their struggle against the tall folk to the next step.

In the end, the opinion of a god carried far more weight than a demigod!