The Mech Touch

　　His wife did not like that answer at all. Her face grew red as she tried to hold in her anger. If not for the fact that she wanted to avoid disturbing Aurelia, she would have given Ves a piece of her mind already!

　　Of course, that was exactly why Ves chose to present his labor to his wife at a time when their daughter was awake. He had already noticed that Gloriana in mommy mode was a lot more mellow and constrained than Gloriana in wife mode.

　　"Gigigihihihi…" Aurelia giggled as her delicate hands reached to Ves' face.

　　"Oh, so you think I'm brilliant as well! What a good girl you are. Your eyesight is impeccable!"

　　He leaned in so that his daughter could pat his face with her tiny fingers. Over the last weeks she had grown a bit brighter and more coherent. This pace of development definitely put her ahead of ordinary babies but was not too far out of line compared to other designer babies.

　　Ves was just happy that he could interact with his daughter in more varied ways. Making her giggle was one of the greatest joys a father could experience.

　　"..Miew… miew…"

　　A fluffy incorporeal kitten emerged from Aurelia's head. The kitten had grown more lively as well and wanted to join in on the fun!

　　"Oh, you're such a cute little kitten. Has Alexandria been taking good care of you?" Ves asked in a babying tone.

　　"…Miew… miew…"

　　Blinky appeared out of his own head to lick and pamper the fluffy little kitten. The sight turned incredibly wholesome as Ves and his companion spirit bonded with their younger counterparts.

　　Unfortunately, Gloriana wasn't in the mood to play at the moment. The more she looked at the Enlightened Warrior, the more she thought it was a regression of what they created before.

　　"Why would you possibly want to tinker with the Bright Warrior in the first place?" Gloriana asked her husband. "The mech is designed for a specific service, and that is to provide our Larkinson mech pilots with a broad base platform for them to fight on behalf of our clan. You know as well as I do that our design is not an attractive commercial product at all. There are many other modular mech platforms on the mech market that are much cleaner and reputable."

　　"It's not a commercial mech design." Ves retorted.

　　"Oh? Isn't this mech supposed to be piloted by people other than Larkinsons?"

　　"That's because it's a proof of concept rather than a truly serious commercial mech design! Look, I just want to release a couple of trial balloons onto the market so that I can see what happens with them. I've incorporated a few new interesting features that I'm not unsure about. Rather than throw them onto our own clansmen and hope that everything works out, I decided it was better to let others try it out first. This is why I don't mind selling them at a discount if that is what it takes to move our inventory."

　　Gloriana crossed her arms as she grew suspicious. "You're usually much more selfish about your inventions. You always want your Larkinson soldiers to enjoy your best innovations before others. Why the change? Is there something about the Enlightened Warrior that I should know?"

　　Ves innocently shrugged as he rocked his giggling daughter. "The reason why I came up with the Enlightened Warrior is to placate those guest pilots we've been neglecting for a while. They obviously can't make full use of the Bright Warrior in its original incarnation so I decided to design a more universal mech that is able to provide better guidance to them. The solution I came up with is the truly innovative part. I decided to use the Quint as the Enlightened Warrior's design spirit!"

　　"The Quint?!" His wife grew shocked. It only took her a few seconds to connect the dots! "That… that's a brilliant idea! Our masterwork mechs have become so strong that they have grown into formidable proto-gods themselves. Once they are able to obtain the worship of many other mech pilots, they will truly be able to evolve into actual gods! This is genius, Ves! As expected of the man I married. If the Enlightened Warrior can truly help the Quint ascend, then we can help our other masterwork mechs become gods as well! Turning our best mech pilots into god pilots will become a reality if that happens!"

　　Ves hastily lifted up a hand. "Wait, let's not be so hasty. Before you go any further, let's first see what happens to the Quint. Even if we can accelerate his growth, he'll just become a stronger living mech, that's all. Any talk about turning mechs into gods is pure fantasy!"

　　His wife completely ignored his words. Her eyes turned into stars as she gazed hungrily at the Enlightened Warrior. Though the variant mech design still looked disgusting to her, she was able to appreciate the greater significance behind the work.

　　Once they began to design a proper mech that provided worship to one of their expert mechs, they could truly turn this promising idea into a real method to expand the usefulness of their best works and even help them evolve without any further active intervention!

　　"Just think of what we can do for the Amaranto! This expert mech will have the potential to become the most powerful rifleman mech in the cosmos! Oh, what about the Shield of Samar? Just think how much stronger and more impervious to damage its defensive barriers can become when it is fueled by the devotion of trillions of defensive mech pilots. Wait! The Everchanger can truly become the hero that can rescue humanity from the brink of destruction one day! Your proudest work will become the epitome of a living mech, a god-king that can resurrect the dead and can never be destroyed!"

　　"Uhh…"

　　Ves gave up on Gloriana. She had gone completely mad with the possibilities that the Enlightened Warrior had opened up. Her dream of turning mechs into actual gods became a lot more reachable!

　　"When will you fabricate the first Enlightened Warrior?" Gloriana hungrily asked.

　　"Tomorrow. I need to catch up on some of the administrative duties that I have neglected these past few weeks. Once I got that out of the way, I'll be fabricating the Enlightened Warrior by myself."

　　"What?! You need me, Ves! I am a much better fabricator than you. Our chance of turning it into another masterwork mech will be much higher when we collaborate. With Alexandria's design network, we don't have to be worried about conflicting with each other. There is no reason to leave me out of the fabrication run."

　　Ves carefully put Aurelia down in a floating crib and faced his wife. "This is a solo project, honey. I started this by myself and I need to finish it by myself. I need to see how much progress I've made and what I can do without you taking care of the work that I usually skip."

　　"Don't you have those other solo projects already?"

　　"The more practice I can get, the more I can exercise the skills I've neglected over the years. I've already made my decision, Gloriana. Don't try to butt in on my private project. I've let you buy that grossly overpriced handbag made out of puelmer leather. The least you can do is give me more personal space."

　　That pretty much shut her up. That damned bag was way too expensive for what it was worth in his opinion. His wife hadn't even been carrying it around every day!

　　Before Ves could embark on his private fabrication session, a major event happened that required his personal attention.

　　The expeditionary fleet finally arrived at its latest pitstop.

　　"The Pellysa System." Minister Shederin Purnesse said as the fleet had just exited from FTL travel and began to get its bearings in the new star system. "Otherwise known as the Aorta of the Red Ocean. It has gained this description by becoming a popular trade nexus and port system that connects the inner frontier to the oldest strongholds of humanity in this dwarf galaxy. Many traders who are transporting back riches from the wilder zones usually pass by Pellysa where they can perform repairs, take on new crew and consolidate their cargo. After that, their fleets resume their journey to one of the central star nodes at the edge of the frontier or head straight to Bridgehead One to bring their valuable goods back to the old galaxy."

　　"I see."

　　The Pellysa System sounded like a new frontier version of the old Bentheim System of the Bright Republic. Ves was well aware how wealthy a port system could become once it became a popular stop along everyone's trade routes. The concentration of people, ships and goods led to a better-functioning marketplace where people could more easily exchange their unwanted goods for items that they truly need.

　　This was quite rare in the Red Ocean as many places were still too scattered and underdeveloped to provide a stable and trustworthy trading platform.

　　"Pellysa is founded and controlled by a consortium of different interests, right?" Ves asked.

　　"Correct. The THZ Consortium is the authority entrusted by its shareholders to keep the peace and regulate the activities that take place in the port system. Its three major shareholders are the Tiven Corporation, the Haywarth-Spelser Corporation and the Zenith Corporation. Each of them excel in different industries. Tiven is a big player in resource processing and heavy industry. Haywarth-Spelser is a leading shipbuilding company. Zenith excels in security and private military services. There are twenty more shareholders but their stakes are too small to influence the decision making of the consortium."

　　"Even though Pellysa is governed by a single consortium, it sounds like there's a lot of internal division."

　　Minister Shederin nodded. "Correct, but our clan and fleet has nothing to do with it. One of the reasons why the Pellysa System has won out over its other local competitors is because the consortium is serious about maintaining its neutrality and guaranteeing fair treatment to its visitors. While the THZ Consortium is not as credible as the MTA, it should be safe for us to roam around the various planets in the star system."

　　Ves smirked. "Even if that's not the case, our MTA escort will make sure the hosts behave."

　　The THZ Consortium had spread out an extensive sensor network throughout the star system and immediately detected the presence of an actual MTA frigate.

　　The people over there were quite smart, so when the traffic controllers welcomed the Golden Skull Alliance to the Pellysa System, they quickly rolled out the red carpet. The hosts did not want to neglect the Larkinsons and its allies in case the MTA took notes!

　　Ves was quite happy to see this, even though he knew his fleet wouldn't receive this kind of treatment once the Simile Halifax finally ended her escort mission.

　　With Shederi and his staff communicating with the THZ Consortium, Ves did not worry about any problems on that end. He made sure that everything else was in order before he left the bridge and entered his personal workshop.

　　"It's time to fabricate my first Enlightened Warrior." He grinned.

　　He had already shipped over the required stock of materials. After running through his timetable, he soon went to work turning his design into a real product.

　　The job wasn't particularly difficult. The Enlightened Warrior still shared many similarities to the Bright Warrior. Even if it used substantially different parts and materials, the method of production was similar enough for Ves to remain unfazed whenever he had to complete a challenging procedure.