The Mech Touch

Despite setting off with over a thousand mechs at once, Task Force Fisherman did not generate too much commotion.

The void between the asteroids was largely empty and devoid of any fish-whales.

Regardless of which kingdom they hailed from, it was too dangerous for them to wander around by themselves.

There was also no good reason for them to go on a sight-seeing tour. Most of the other asteroids were fully occupied by lots of strong fish-whales. Without enough numbers, it was hopeless to attack any of these groups.

Therefore, traveling through the void was relatively safe and uneventful. Even if the task force encountered a random Swarmer horde that was on its way to attack one of the other kingdoms, it was easy to spot this massive threat from a distance. Taking a simple detour should be enough to avoid drawing their attention.

Since Purgatory was only the size of half a moon, it shouldn't take too long to cross the distance between the Gate Continent and the Lab Continent.

However, the inconvenient part about this journey was that the human mechs had to travel from one end to the other end of the Swarm Kingdom!

This meant that if the Swarmers truly wanted to, they could surround and overwhelm the task force with millions of rabid fish-whales!

In order to avoid this calamitous occurrence, the mechs did not race through Swarmer territory at their fastest pace.

Running their flight systems at full power was less efficient and expended a lot more energy than normal. This was not good because it was much better to save as much energy as possible for the potential battles ahead.

In addition to that, more active flight systems also translated to hotter mechs. If a single mech burned at full speed, then the fish-whales might not take notice of the blip, but if a thousand mechs generated lots of heat at once, it would be a lot harder to ignore this large movement even if the task force maintained its distance from every asteroid!

As the mechs carefully followed a winding path that was carefully chosen due to how they optimized the distance between the different Swarmer-occupied territories, the distance to the Evolution Kingdom steady grew smaller.

During this tense but quiet ride, Ves did not board one of the armored shuttles that constituted the task force's supply train, but instead sat behind Venerable Joshua in the cockpit of the Everchanger!

When Ves changed the Everchanger so that it could accommodate an extra passenger, he could have chosen to arrange the seats for himself and the pilot in various different ways.

The most straightforward choices were to put them side by side or behind each other.

He initially thought about doing the former. Sitting next to Joshua would put Ves on a more equal level with the expert pilot. This made it easier for the two to chat and exchange with each other.

The downside to doing this was that Venerable Joshua might become distracted more easily by the mech designer sitting by his side.

Of course, with his sensitivity and perception, it was impossible for Joshua to ignore the extra passenger in his cockpit, but it was still a good idea to maintain a bit of distance even if the cockpit did not have much room in the first place.

Ves eventually chose to arrange his seat behind and a bit higher than Venerable Joshua's piloting seat. This put him out of Joshua's sight and also symbolized his higher status.

"Meow…"

The Everchanger also hosted an additional passenger. Ves had grabbed Lucky and forced the mineral-seeking cat to accompany him on this journey.

Though the cat was anything but eager at the prospect of visiting a bunch of powerful fish-whales, Ves still insisted that Lucky should take part in this mission due to his unique talents.

Who knew whether Secret Agent Lucky needed to make an appearance again.

For now, the gem cat yawned as he lounged on top of the headrest of Ves' seat.

Nothing much of interest had happened and the Everchanger wasn't exactly a fun place to roam around.

The cat didn't even dare to phase through the metal construction of the expert mech because the true resonance running through its frame inhibited this ability!

As Ves sat on his little throne, he spent much of his time studying different reports and recordings.

Since he was about to meet the fish-whales of the Evolution Kingdom, it became crucial for him to study and become familiar with the different fish-whales.

The Evolvers possessed such a great variety of unique and mutated fishes that it was impossible for Ves to be intimately familiar with all of their properties.

It was enough for him to know the king fish as well as the other powerful fishes. If the fish-whales revered strength, then the numerous Evolvers that had shown considerable strength in the last battle should hold considerable influence within the kingdom.

The bladed fish-whale that was able to turn a horde into a bloodbath and the shimmering silver fish-whale that contained a massive amount of phasewater were particularly notable.

If the king fish happened to fall or become indisposed, the bladed fish-whale and the silver fish-whale were probably next in line to take over the Evolution Kingdom.

"How united are they, really?" Ves softly wondered.

The Evolution Kingdom differed from the Swarmer Kingdom in that every fish-whale was sentient.

While this granted them greater initiative to make their own choices and choose their own directions of development, it also introduced the possibility of dissent and disagreement.

However, even if the Evolvers disagreed with each other, it was unlikely for them to come to blows or spark a civil war.

With the Swarmers pressuring the Evolution Kingdom, it was completely self-defeating for fellow comrades to consume each other's strength!

Even if the fish-whales had never heard of the divide and conquer strategy, the intelligent ones should still be able to figure out the logic behind the futility of infighting in the face of a massive existential threat!

As Ves quietly did his homework, the expert pilot sitting in front and beneath him finally broke the silence.

"Sir?"

"Yes, Joshua?" Ves directed his attention away from the projected screens.

"The Everchanger told me you had a good talk with him about the state of living mechs in the Larkinson Clan. Are you truly about to give my expert mech the ability to talk and access the galactic net?"

Ves put aside his work and thought for a moment.

"I am not sure how far I am willing to go, but I have already decided to give third order living mechs a lot more leeway than before. I do care about them and I do wish for them to enjoy their time in the Larkinson Clan, but my options are limited at the moment. For example, I don't think it is wise to give the Everchanger and other living mechs unrestricted access to the galactic net."

"Why so, sir? The Everchanger just wants to explore the stuff that humans do on the galactic net. It isn't planning to leak any of our secrets or stir up any trouble."

Ves furrowed his brows. "The fact that a mech of all entities is able to browse the galactic net and interact with other humans is already a problem in itself, don't you see? Think about how much humanity and more specifically the MTA is vigilant against AIs and other existences that can threaten humanity's dominance. The rise of living mechs can pose a threat to the human race if it isn't managed carefully."

"The Everchanger would never do such a thing!"

MY PARTNER IS RIGHT. I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH ABOUT ALL OF THE PEOPLE YOU CAN MEET AND ALL OF THE ACTIVITIES YOU CAN DO ON THE GALACTIC NET THAT I WISH TO EXPERIENCE THIS VIBRANT VIRTUAL REALITY.

"I know you don't have any nefarious thoughts in mind, but that won't be enough to reassure the scared old coots who have all the say in the MTA." Ves retorted. "There will always be bad apples among living mechs as they become more ubiquitous. If we don't want to spook the MTA and invite a backlash, we need to take baby steps. This way, we can gradually integrate living mechs in human society so that we can initiate a smooth transition from subservient tools to symbiotic battle partners."

Venerable Joshua looked impatient. As the pilot who was the most closely attuned to living mechs, he already regarded machines like the Everchanger as entities who were practically even to humans. It troubled him to treat them with insufficient respect.

"How long will it take for them to receive the treatment that they deserve?" The expert pilot asked.

"I don't know, but this is destined to be a long-term process, Joshua. It depends heavily on how quickly I can progress as a mech designer. Once I become a Master Mech Designer or Star Designer, I will have the ability to spread my living mechs far and wide. If enough mech pilots across human space adopt my products, then I will gain the power to negotiate with the leadership of the MTA. I just have to convince a few of its factions. Once I have won them over, it is much simpler to build up support from the other factions."

Ves already had a clear-minded perspective on how much time, effort and political support it took to enact such a drastic change to human society.

At no point did he think that it was impossible for him to get the Galactic Mech Council on his side!

This was because he had absolute confidence that he would advance to Master and even Star Designer sooner or later. The Polymath had already set a positive example, and while he did not intend to follow her footsteps, he was still happy that at least another individual of 'his kind' had succeeded in reaching the pinnacle of the mech design profession!

The confidence he showed did much to placate Venerable Joshua. The young soldier subsided.

"You're right. Nothing can be changed if we don't have the necessary strength and support. We still have much to go before we can push our vision onto human civilization."

Ves smiled. Joshua sure had grand ideas. That was good. It gave him an additional reason to fight and progress his strength.

Although expert pilots had much greater chances of advancing to ace pilot when they had access to a masterwork expert mech, that was far from the end of the road.

Ace pilots, though immensely powerful, were still small fry in the face of the mighty Mech Trade Association. Only god pilots among the piloting profession had the right to speak. The journey to become one of this mythical gathering was undoubtedly a lot more arduous!

Although Venerable Joshua was a remarkably talented and diligent mech pilot, his qualifications were far from matching those who had succeeded in becoming figurative gods in human form.

All of those other god pilots might have possessed mixed backgrounds at the start, but the overwhelming majority still possessed first-class or at least extremely affluent second-class origins!

In comparison to those mech pilots who started off with immense advantages, Joshua used to be a poor third-class potentate who grew up in a small and remote planet!

He was not a designer baby. He only obtained a light amount of genetic treatments after joining the Larkinson Clan. He did not even have a cranial implant since it was not necessary at this stage of his career. It was a bit of a waste to integrate a second-class implant when he could eventually gain a more significant advantage with a first-class implant down the line!

With all of these shortcomings and more, Ves knew that Joshua needed an incomparably powerful advantage to overcome the nearly impossible hurdle to god pilot.

The only way that Ves could think of was to upgrade the Everchanger to a grand work. Only by reaching the third rung of Senfovon's Ladder of Craftsmanship could he realize Joshua's dream and present another legendary god pilot to humanity!

"Strength is the ultimate lever of change." Ves softly said. "Practice well and make sure you never forget your current motivations."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, sir. I am far from satisfied with how we humans do things." Joshua grinned in an anticipatory manner.

Both humans inside the cockpit of the Everchanger were aligned on this matter!