The Mech Touch

After a relatively brief and cold stay in Bridgehead One, the Golden Skull Alliance and every other pioneering group that had just entered the Red Ocean finally reached their first true port of call!

The Vulit Star Node was similar to all of the MTA regional headquarter systems that Ves had visited in the past.

However, compared to places such as Centerpoint, Morgana Deltor and Opalis, Vulit was much bigger and more diverse!

The expeditionary fleet transitioned out of FTL at a surprisingly long distance from the center of the system.

The reason for that was the concentration of large stellar masses in the form of 9 large stars in the center of the system. Each of them were surrounded by Dyson swarms which precisely block, absorb and regulate the energies they released.

As a central star node that was jointly controlled by the MTA and CFA, all of the energies released from the stars that had been artificially brought in went on to power numerous massive applications.

For the first hours since the fleet's arrival in Vulit, Ves and many other clansmen simply fell silent as they admired all of the grand and wondrous marvels of human ingenuity.

It wasn't as if they could do much anyway. The restrictive rules imposed by the Big Two still applied, so nobody was allowed to deploy any mechs or activate non-essential systems such as active scanners.

An abundant number of patrolling CFA warships and MTA mechs stood by to respond to any violations of the rules.

If the threat level was considerable or if the offense was serious enough, the local patrols had the right to employ their full firepower to annihilate the rule breakers from the face of reality!

No one had to doubt the Big Two's resolve. With so many pioneers pouring into the Red Ocean every day, dozens of idiots had already proven with their lives how they could easily invite calamity due to malice or sloppiness!

Of course, the Larkinsons didn't have to worry about inviting an immediate response as long as they were careful.

"…Bububuwaaa…" Aurelia cutely babbled as her tiny arms reached out to one of the projections.

"Yes, my dear. That is a huge 14 kilometer-long super cannon called the Yscar. Doesn't it look pretty?" Gloriana hugged her baby as she explained the sights that she was admiring.

"…Wuuu…googogowaaaaa…"

"The Yscar is a strategic phase energy cannon, an example of a brand-new weapon type that is instantly able to send enormous beams of energy from one star system to another star system. That sounds impressive!"

Aurelia began to leak a trail of drool from her adorable mouth.

"What makes the Yscar special is that the Heart of Fire personally developed this weapon and its underlying tech. His invention has made humanity in the Red Ocean a lot safer!"

"…Buwaa!"

Back in one of the outlying regions of the galactic rim, it was hard for people like Ves to bump into any truly impressive feats of engineering. The star systems that hosted the MTA sector headquarters tended to be the most developed places in any given star sector, but they were not important enough to host anything truly excellent.

Vulit was different. As one of humanity's most important rear strongholds and the gathering point of all second-class pioneering fleets, it was a central star node that was of great concern to the galactic mech councilors and the grand admirals.

As a result, Vulit became host to several grand designs. From massive space stations to planetary shields, the Big Two pulled out all of the stops in order to turn Vulit into an impregnable fortress!

Even though the frontlines had shifted far enough for many of these defensive measures to remain unused, the Big Two weren't in a hurry to shift them to more strategic locations.

At the very least, the sight of all of these massive examples of peak human engineering reinforced every pioneer's awe towards the MTA and the CFA!

Ves, who sat next to Gloriana, entertained additional thoughts about the Yscar.

"The Heart of Fire…"

Star Designers tended to be referred to by their titles rather than their real names. Maximilian Zu was over three centuries old and had long made a name for himself for designing powerful mechs that boasted transformative energy weapons and energy systems.

Through his great mastery of energy and most famously his love and passion for beam laser weapon technology, the Heart of Fire had continually advanced humanity's mastery for many different applications of technology!

His work had been pivotal in raising the standard of laser weapons to a higher level for the current mech generation. This was only a single example of the massive influence that a Star Designer could exert on human society!

Although the Yscar was light-hours away from the expeditionary fleet, Ves could feel the effort and passion that the Heart of Fire had poured into this strategic war weapon. It might not be a masterwork, but its overall standard of quality surpassed that of any large-scale engineering work such as battleships and space stations!

The oversized cannon orbited the inner system and was guarded by an array of defensive platforms as well as a garrison of MTA warships and mechs.

Although the Yscar was able to draw on its extremely potent internal power source to channel its powerful attacks, it could also receive a direct power feed from the Dyson swarms orbiting the local suns.

"According to public sources, the Yscar has a maximum range of 20 light-years and can blast apart any planet, moon and relatively immobile presences such as space stations and large fleets." Ves said after he called up a short encyclopedia article. "I bet this cannon is a lot more capable than what the MTA claims."

"That should be a given." His wife agreed. "Strategic phase energy cannons are new, but they should work similar to more conventional energy weapons. Their performance is scalable in several different ways. I think that adding more phasewater to the Yscar can further increase its range."

The mere idea of a strategic energy weapon that could literally cross huge distances of space in order to inflict damage was extremely frightening!

If a state like the Friday Coalition had their hands on this weapon, then they could safely keep the Yscar behind enemy lines while steadily destroying the fortifications of one Hexer stronghold after another!

The Fridaymen didn't have to sacrifice hundreds of thousands or even millions of mechs to fight a hard battle in order to repel the Hexer defenders from an important star system.

They just needed to power the Yscar and let it do all of the work from an enormous distance!

It was extremely fortunate that only the Big Two retained the right to employ these planet-busting superweapons.

Ves and his wife soon moved on from observing the Yscar. The Vulit System was large and featured over sixty settled planets and moons.

Each of these satellites hosted an enormous amount of industry, commerce and housing. Mechers, fleeters and space peasants all gathered on different settlements in order to live, work and play.

The space peasants tended to stay for a limited amount of time. Just like any other central star node, it became progressively more expensive for people to reside in Vulit.

The Big Two levied an extensive amount of fees and taxes for each day that someone stayed. These costs doubled every five days, and went on continuously until not even the Terrans and Rubarthans were willing to throw away so much money!

The good news was that the free trade writ that Juliet had cleverly requested from Master Willix finally started to show its value. For a duration of 10 years, this valuable trade writ exempted the Larkinson Clan from half of the costs!

This effectively allowed the Larkinson Clan to stay in a central star node 5 days longer than normal.

Was this a big deal? Certainly. A lot of business could only be conducted in a place like Vulit, and the ability to extend a stay by 5 days was invaluable!

With so many different pioneers dropping by places like these every day, Ves and the Larkinsons could perform a lot of additional transactions with the extra days!

Combined with the fact that the free trade writ exempted the Larkinsons from all taxes and fees for every direct transaction, the clan would be able to save a lot of money with every trade!

"Damn, it's no wonder I have to pay 100 million MTA merits to extend this free trade writ by 10 more years. This is downright cheating!"

From the moment the expeditionary fleet had entered the Vulit Central Star Node, it was on a timer.

It had to complete its first round of business within a few weeks before its alliance partners had to pay a copious amount of MTA credits just to extend their stay!

After Ves and Gloriana finished admiring the most notable space objects such as the Yscar, they soon began to have a more serious talk.

Aurelia grew sleepy again as her mother gently rocked her body. Gloriana softly kissed the top of her little daughter's head.

"Where are we heading to first, exactly?"

"We're on our way to Vulit XIV-B, otherwise known as Chance Bay. It is one of the moons that orbit a gas giant in this star system." Ves softly answered. "Vulit XIV-B is one of the commercial marketplaces where you can find a wide variety of goods, but the main reason I'm interested in heading there is because it features a large and easily accessible employment market."

While he did not strictly need to visit any planet or moon in order to recruit a Journeyman Mech Designer, Ves preferred to meet and talk with any potential candidates up close. This way, he could gain a more accurate impression of their personality and attitude.

He also predicted that the Larkinson Clan might not be attractive enough to convince Journeymen to join up. Ves might need to seek them out rather than wait until they knocked on his doors, and it was a lot easier to command their attention if he was able to approach them in person.

"Chance Bay is an odd name for a moon settlement."

"It's called that way because it is home to a lot of casinos and entertainment venues in the main cities. It's a supersized version of Twilight City on the Vivacious Wal."

The two weren't comparable. Though Twilight City had already made a name for itself among the rambunctious mech pilots and other members of the Larkinson Clan, Chance Bay was at least a hundred times better since it was built and managed by the Mech Trade Association.

The only advantage that Twilight City offered was that it constantly moved with the expeditionary fleet.

"You want to go down on the surface of Chance Bay?"

"I do." Ves smiled. "It would be nice for me to stand on solid ground again after so many months of living inside a starship. With the MTA in charge, the moon is absolutely safe. We can bring our daughter along."

"That's a good idea. It will be nice to give her a little taste of other environments, even though she's too young to know any better."

Both of them began to plan out a short tour on Chance Bay. This was the first time that they would step foot on a real human settlement in the Red Ocean, and they wanted to make this a visit worth remembering.

Plenty of other Larkinsons planned to go down as well. Even if most of them didn't have enough money to purchase anything meaningful or take part in the many games of chance in the casinos, just the sightseeing experience was enough to make them satisfied.

Besides, Ves also heard that a lot of different competitions took place in Chance Bay. Perhaps he might be able to compete against other talents from the old galaxy in order to see where he stood.

Were the Journeymen who originated from the galactic heartland and the galactic center truly better? Only a direct comparison would allow him to figure out his own worth!