The Mech Touch

　　When their broken and tormented mentalities came into play, the pakklaton soldiers completely degenerated into suicidal animals that only sought to kill at least one filthy human before they died!

　　In contrast to the pakklaton resistance, the voribugs were much more difficult to defeat than everyone thought.

　　With the manpower, training and equipment of the Golden Skull Alliance, the various boarding teams were experiencing considerable difficulties in securing the vessels.

　　Even if they killed millions of bugs and wiped a couple of nests, there were still a lot more voribugs scurrying around that had drilled into areas that were incredibly difficult to access by humans!

　　The only way to reach these isolated areas quickly was to employ a mech to dig into these sections, but that would be ruinous to the alien ship in question.

　　There was no good solution at the moment aside from steadily grinding down the voribug numbers to a more manageable level.

　　Casualties had fallen among the soldiers sent to secure the alien ships. The constant engagements against the swarms of voribugs and especially the elder voribugs that remained behind took their toll against the enthusiastic but inadequately equipped troopers.

　　Morale among the men remained high, though. The soldiers of the Golden Skull Alliance were not meek, and everyone was aware of the realities of combat.

　　This was what they had trained for! If they could not show their value in this instance, how could their organizations possibly increase their investment in them? Demonstrating their willingness to fight was the best way to show that the expeditionary forces consisted of more than mechs!

　　The constant fighting gradually achieved results.

　　"Look! The voribugs aren't attacking us anymore! We're making progress!"

　　The human forces discovered that as long as they reduced the population of the voribugs below a point, the insects became a lot less active.

　　They needed time to breed and replenish their numbers before they resumed their offensive!

　　Back on the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves did not pay any mind to the ongoing fights anymore.

　　Boarding actions and infantry-level battles were not his specialty and there were lots of other officers that could direct the cleanup operation.

　　He left the bridge and quickly headed down to the main design lab. He quickly spotted his wife along with a number of other Journeyman and approached the group.

　　Gloriana grinned at her daughter as she held the baby high in her grasp.

　　"Say it again, Aurelia. Say 'mama'!"

　　"..Mamaaa."

　　"Good girl!"

　　Gloriana leaned in and kissed Aurelia's cute face.

　　"What do you say to me when you see me again?"

　　"Mama!"

　　"What a clever girl!"

　　Gloriana smooched her daughter for the umpteenth time.

　　"When your father and I come up to you at the same time, who do you run up to first!"

　　"Mama!"

　　"You're so cute!"

　　As Ves observed this spectacle, he looked anything but happy. Aurelia barely learned how to say her first word and already Gloriana was indoctrinating her daughter with all of this 'mama' nonsense!

　　"Ahem."

　　"Hmm? Oh, the loser has arrived. Look, Aurelia. He's your father. What do you call your father?"

　　The baby girl grew confused as she wondered why Gloriana wasn't showering her with love this time.

　　"Guuu…swataaa?"

　　"Hihihihi! Just call mama, dear!"

　　"Mama!"

　　Ves grew so annoyed at this stupid display that he stepped forward and tried his best to wrench his daughter's pink-suited form out of Gloriana's grasp!

　　"Hey! What are you doing, Ves! You don't get to hold her right now! I won this contest!"

　　"Our daughter isn't a vehicle for you to compete! She is the product of our love!" Ves hissed at Gloriana before he tried to direct a gentle expression towards his baby. "Don't listen so much to your mother. I'm much saner than her! Call me papa."

　　"Boooo…."

　　"No, not boo. Papa. Paaaaapaaaa. Papa. Can you say it, honey?"

　　Aurelia didn't seem to understand what he was trying to convey. She looked around as a line of drool leaked from the corner of her mouth. Her face, which was moist with all of he kisses she received, began to look increasingly more droopy.

　　"No! Don't go to sleep yet! Say papa, please! Paapaaa!"

　　"…maaamaaaa…"

　　Aurelia dozed off and took another nap.

　　An awkward silence fell the area as the other mech designers pretended that they did not hear anything.

　　"Let me tuck her in." Gloriana triumphantly said as she took Aurelia back and carefully put her tiny body onto the floating crib. "There you go. Have a good rest, my sweetie pumpkin!"

　　She activated the setting that formed a shield and sound-isolating barrier around the crib before turning back to Ves. She couldn't help but smirk while placing her hands on her hips.

　　"You lose."

　　Ves frowned. "Can you stop that? I know you're smug and all, but Aurelia just happened to spend more time with you, that's all. I'll make sure to do better next time!"

　　"You're welcome to try." Gloriana confidently smirked.

　　In her opinion, it was impossible for Ves to gain the upper hand in the parenting contest! She was the best mother in the Larkinson Clan while Ves was just an overgrown kid. How could they possibly compare? The superior Hexer teaching principles she learned in her home state was the best way to raise a child!

　　Once they moved past this matter, Ves and the Journeymen turned their attention back to the main projections.

　　The live helmet feeds along with the overviews showing the progress the soldiers had made in capturing the alien ships all showed how far the expeditionary forces had come in securing their gains.

　　Ves briefly glanced at his new batch of lead designers. He didn't need to look at the earlier batch of Journeymen to know that they were unaffected by the violence. None of them were like Jannzi so he didn't have to worry about getting scolded.

　　Janessa Pellier and Tifi Coslone were both disciples of a Master Mech Designer. Ves had looked into their background and he figured that they were quite sheltered.

　　This wasn't unusual for mech designers as many of them were happy to work in a quiet design lab for years on end.

　　Even if they traveled around, they never went off the beaten path or braved any dangers.

　　The faces of the two female Journeymen looked a bit pale. Neither of the two were able to endure all of the bloodshed and violence of the boarding actions.

　　Tifi turned towards Ves. "Is this necessary, sir?"

　　"Why are you asking a question that you already know the answer to?" Ves turned her question around. "We did not come here to hold tea parties with the aliens. We came here to grow stronger. The aliens aboard those vessels need to be cleaned up one way or another. Dispatching our infantry troops is best way to do so without ruining everything else that remains on those vessels."

　　"Sir…"

　　"Did you object as much to the sight of mechs fighting alien warships?"

　　"No…"

　　"This is the same thing." Ves waved his arm at one of the helmet feeds that showed a squad of Battle Criers gunning down a group of hysterical pakklaton refugees. "Red Ocean belongs to humanity, and any alien that stands in our way must be removed. This is the imperative of all pioneers."

　　"Must we do this job ourselves?" Tifi questioned.

　　"Each of us must do our duty. If we want to do well in the Red Ocean, we can't sit back and shy away from dirty jobs. Anyway, there's no point discussing this any further. We have come this far, so we should look forward instead of backwards."

　　"I don't agree." Gloriana said as she grew serious again. "We should reflect on our performance in this battle. I do not think that I am the only one here who has seen the flaws in the performance of our mech forces."

　　Everyone's expressions grew ugly.

　　"Our melee mechs… are not effective against warships in their current forms." Dulo Voiken said.

　　This was a hard admission to make for someone who specialized in designing spearman mechs.

　　If battles against warships became more prevalent, then the demand for ranged mechs would rise while the demand for melee mechs would drop!

　　How could people like Dulo Voiken find any meaning in their existence if that was the case?

　　"You don't need to worry too much, Dulo." Ves tried to console the man. "There are lots of mech designers who are in the same straits as you. Will all of them lie down and let themselves become irrelevant? I don't think so. Someone will come up with adaptations that can infuse new lives into melee mechs. One of the ideas that we can apply is to find a way to increase our defenses against warship-grade weapons."

　　Sara Voiken became more enthused at this moment. "There's been movement in my field of specialty. There are many defensive specialists who are much more competent than myself that are quickly developing stopgap solutions in this regard. From creating an ultra-powerful shield generator to creating a giant 'armored sled' for mechs, there are still many ways for us to allow our melee mechs to close in on powerful warships. I even heard that the Polymath herself is contributing to these efforts!"

　　Everyone gasped or looked up at the mention of this title. The Polymath!

　　Ves directed an odd expression to Sara. "Are you sure?"

　　"Yes, I'm sure. The MTA isn't keeping it a secret. The mechers are all aware that solving this problem is extremely vital to preserve the strength of the mech industry. The Polymath might not be a defensive specialist, but she is an excellent innovator and knows theories that other defensive specialists have never come in touch with. She is not only one of the main mech designers who decide what innovations will be included in the next mech generation, she is also responsible for developing many of them! The rate of technological progression after the Polymath came into power is at least 20 percent higher than before!"

　　This was a scary number!

　　It spoke much about the Polymath's ability to contribute to humanity when just herself could accelerate the development of mechs to this degree.

　　The rest of the innovations were painstakingly invented by the rest of humanity! A hundred Star Designers, many more Masters and countless other researchers worked their utmost in order to push mechs to the next level, but their individual contributions were merely a fraction of that of the smartest mech designer!

　　Having met the legendary woman herself, if only in secret, Ves knew that the Polymath was highly concerned about the Survivalist cause and the MTA as a whole.

　　She would definitely find a way to make melee mechs more relevant in battles against warships. Ves could practically guarantee that the MTA would unveil a new surprise soon.

　　The latest mech generation had already rolled in a few years ago. It was too early to announce a new wave of innovations and updated technological standards, but this problem was so acute that he bet that the Polymath wouldn't wait!

　　"You hear that, Dulo and Ketis? The two of you don't have to…" Ves trailed off as he noticed that he overlooked the fact that there were only seven of them here. "Wait, where is Ketis?"

　　Juliet silently pointed at one of the projected helmet feeds.

　　The source of the feed held a blood-stained greatsword of excellent quality at the moment. A swarm of voribugs attempted to engulf the person, but all met their deaths when the sword wielder released an energy wave with just a single swing of her blade!

　　Ves looked aghast at the display. "What the hell is she doing on the evacuation ship!?"