The Mech Touch

The fleet was ready.

The new Journeymen were settling into the clan.

The Larkinson Clan's allies had completed their own business.

There was nothing preventing the Golden Skull Alliance from departing the Vulit Central Star Node.

After undergoing a final round of inspections, the expeditionary fleet had already lined up in front of a Langrange point in order to make their way out of this busy and prosperous star system.

"I'll miss this place." Ves sighed as he looked at the projection of the highly-developed star system.

"Meow." Lucky shook his head.

His cat didn't quite agree with this assessment. The biggest issue to him was how extensively the MTA controlled and monitored the entire place!

Perhaps an ordinary person wouldn't feel bothered by that, but the need to constrain his behavior was practically a nightmare for Lucky!

The cat was more than happy to leave this heavily-restricted place behind. He yearned to return to the old days where he was free to roam around as he wished and poke whatever he found interesting.

Ves rubbed Lucky's disgruntled head. "We'll be out soon enough. We just have to wait until the MTA escort ship arrives.

It did not take too long for the MTA to finally dispatch its representative.

The ship arrived with blazing fast speed that none of the ships in the Golden Skull Alliance could possibly match!

The Big Two were the primary users of phasewater harvested in the Red Ocean so it made sense that all of their ships had already been upgraded with the new superdrives.

"Damn, that's fast."

Ves envied the sheer amount of speed that these ships could reach in realspace. Just the ability to zip around inside star systems granted the Big Two a huge tactical advantage that the rest of humanity couldn't possibly catch up to until at least a couple of centuries had passed!

As the ship disengaged the space warping function of her superdrive, the sensors of his ships could finally get a solid look of the new MTA vessel.

The ship was an armed frigate. Though she was quite small compared to the warships that lingered all over Vulit, she was still a force to be reckoned with due to all of her advanced tech.

In fact, the warships that the MTA employed in the Red Ocean were more modern, powerful and advanced than the ones in the old galaxy.

Even without accessing any records, Ves could clearly recognize that the Simile Halifax had only been completed up to half a year ago. She was practically brand-new and completed her trials not too long ago.

Despite her relatively tiny mass and size compared to all of the ships of the Golden Skull Alliance put together, the Simile Halifax probably possessed enough capabilities to destroy entire second-class pioneering fleets!

Ves could easily imagine how such a slaughter could take place. The Simile Halifax was probably armed with long-ranged warship-grade weapons that could easily pick off enemy starships one by one at distances where many mech-grade weapons were ineffective!

In order to make sure that the Simile Halifax did not risk any encounter with expert mechs or taboo weapons that could pose a considerable risk to such a small vessel, she could make fantastic use of her superdrive to maintain the perfect distance at all times!

"What a deadly little package."

This was the power of a warship. While a frigate was no match to a battleship, they were still far bigger than a typical mech! If all of that capacity was allocated to combat-related functions, then such a vessel could easily match or exceed the power of a juggernaut!

"The Simile Halifax is hailing us, sir."

"Accept the hail." Ves instructed.

The projection of a highly familiar figure appeared in front of him. Ves practically sat up straighter in his chair as soon as he recognized his old acquaintance.

"Jovy! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Hahaha!" The young MTA Journeyman laughed. "Surprised to see me? It took a lot of effort for me to complete my final assignments in a rush so that I could make it to the Red Ocean in time. I had to do a lot of pleading to replace the original officer assigned to this mission."

Ves was quite happy to be watched over by someone friendly and familiar instead of a complete stranger.

At the very least, Ves could trust that Jovy would not slack off or try to hinder the Larkinson Clan in any way.

Jovy also revealed a few clues in his words. Apparently, he wasn't supposed to be on this assignment, but worked extremely hard to obtain the chance to accompany the Golden Skull Alliance for the next 23 months.

"I'm glad to have your company while we take our first steps into the Red Ocean, but… I don't understand why. Are you truly sure about this, Jovy?"

The young MTA Journeyman responded with a smile. "If I make a mistake, I would only waste two years of my life at best. I am certain that I have made the right decision, though. You're always interesting to be around, Ves. Even if nothing blows up around your fleet, you always come up with an interesting new mech or invention. I want to be in the vicinity whenever something like that happens. I can't live an exciting life as yours, but I think I can get much of what I want if I follow you around."

In other words, Jovy was hoping to gain inspiration by accompanying the expeditionary fleet. It was certainly a much more exciting option than remaining in a place like Vulit and working in a design lab every day.

"I can't promise you anything, but I'll do my best to give you a reason to be grateful about your choice."

The two talked to each other a bit. Both of them already knew each other and neither of them were big on formality.

Of course, Ves always reminded himself that he was dealing with someone of great importance. Their status was so far apart from each other that he always had to make sure he stayed within the boundaries of what was permissible.

"For the time being, my Simile Halifax will constantly shadow your Spirit of Bentheim." Jovy explained. "You don't have to transmit your route or navigation data to us. We'll make sure we keep up with your ship no matter where she goes. Other than that, let me tell you that we are not allowed to interfere in any incidents between you and other human forces unless the latter are the aggressors. We won't allow you to use us as an excuse to attack random pioneers. Lastly, we won't initiate any hostilities against alien forces unless there are other reasons. There are more rules that I will send to you later, but those are the main points. Do you understand what I've said?"

Ves nodded. "I'm already clear about the rules. I don't think that any human fleet will want to mess with us as soon as anyone detects the Simile Halifax. People would have to be stupid to confront us with your ship in the middle of our formation."

"Hey, you'd be surprised what kind of stupidity our Association faces on a daily basis. You fell victim to the Vulcanites yourself for example. Now, their state has been taken back into human hands."

No thanks to the MTA. Ves had put too much faith in the MTA's willingness to enforce its own rules.

Though he thought highly about Jovy, Ves could never assume that the Smiling Halifax would react in a timely manner!

The two talked a bit more. Jovy and his crew made it clear that they were quite limited in what they could do. They were not allowed to meddle in the Golden Skull Alliance's affairs and Jovy was prohibited from providing obvious assistance!

This ruled out actions such as collaborating on a mech design or providing technical solutions for difficult problems.

Jovy smiled. "We can still hang out and exchange our views from time to time. We're both mech designers so we can still exchange with each other. I just have to be careful not to provide anything specific or proprietary to the Mech Trade Association."

"I see. Well, we can still gain much from each other even if we don't go into too many details."

Jovy possessed a different design philosophy from pretty much anyone else. Despite the difficult and abstract nature of his primary research interest, he somehow managed to transform probability manipulation into a real phenomena in relation to mechs!

An average mech designer could never make this accomplishment. Ves was eager to learn Jovy's methods and approach towards his work.

"I have a question, Ves."

"Please ask."

"Although I said that my frigate will be able to keep up with your ship, it would be convenient if you can tell me your first big destination. Where do you intend to travel first?" Jovy asked.

Ves paused for a moment. "We'll likely pay a visit to the Magair Middle Zone first."

"Good choice. Magair is relatively close to Vulit and has become a scavenger paradise. There are many ruined planets that used to host indigenous alien settlements. They're all gone, and many scavengers are digging holes in the ruined planets in order to recover treasure that hasn't already been recovered or destroyed."

"Digging through alien ruins sounds fun, but only for the first couple of times. I don't intend to stay in Magair for too long. Once my men become accustomed to alien civilizations, we can go deeper into the Red Ocean where the odds of encountering actual aliens is higher."

"Your plan is sound. Magair is a good starting point for many pioneering fleets. It has become a lot safer over the years as most of the real valuables that people are willing to fight for have already been retrieved. Now, many fleets treat it as a transit zone."

"The more powerful and daring pioneers head out as quickly as possible, but I'm glad you are exercising caution, Ves. The deeper zones are much more volatile.

Ves received another signal. It turned out that the Golden Skull Alliance finally received its turn to leave the star system.

"We're about to enter into FTL travel, so we'll have to continue this discussion another time. I'll talk to you later, Jovy."

"Goodbye and see you on the other side."

The Spirit of Bentheim and every other ship in the Golden Skull Alliance successfully transitioned into the higher dimensions, thereby marking their actual departure from one of the safest human strongholds in the Red Ocean!

"From now on, we'll be traversing the real frontier!

"Meow!"

Despite traversing into a dangerous region of space where friendly ports of call were a rarity, the presence of the Simile Halifax meant that his fleet shouldn't encounter too many threats in the next two years.

This effectively gave the Larkinson Clan a buffer period to build up its own strength.

"Within two years, my clan not only needs to possess a lot more carrier vessels, but also be equipped with newly-designed mechs that will put my troops on par with the standards of the Red Ocean!"

These were large and ambitious goals. The biggest difficulty was that he had to get it all ready by the time that Jovy and the Simile Halifax had to go back to the MTA.

"It's doable."

Taking care of the mechs should be easy enough. Ves just had to make sure that the four new Journeymen did their jobs and designed a lot of mechs.

It was a lot harder to expand the fleet with additional carrier vessels. Ves had to build up a relationship with a power that owned a bunch of shipyards in the Red Ocean. That was not easy considering that many different pioneers were trying to do the same!

"Ugh, I'll think about it later." Ves pressed his fingers against his temple… "There has to be a better way to expand my fleet."