The Mech Touch

Chief Minister Magdalena Larkinson unveiled a controversial proposal.

For a long time, the Larkinson Army was split into seven unique and distinct mech legions.

The Avatars of Myth, the Living Sentinels, the Battle Criers, the Flagrant Vandals, the Swordmaidens, the Penitent Sisters and the Eye of Ylvaine covered the majority of roles of a comprehensive mech force.

In fact, there was a lot of overlap as well. There was no pressing need to add yet another mech legion that excelled at assaults or reconnaissance.

Even so, Ves knew that an older woman and former military officer like Magdalena would not speak out on impulse. She must have been convinced that there was a serious problem in the Larkinson Army to make such a drastic proposal.

The reactions from other military leaders such as General Verle and Commander Casella suggested that Magdalena already discussed the issue with them in advance.

"As my fellow chief minister already stated, diversity is one of our main advantages. Why should we confine ourselves to just seven mech legions when we can accommodate more?" She explained. "The current state of our clan and fleet does not offer any room for additional mech legions, but that will change once we expand our fleet and our outposts. With additional capacity for mechs, we should seriously think whether it is better to add a new mech legion than to expand one of our existing ones."

"If you have come up with this proposal, then you must have already come up with concrete suggestions." Ves stated as he paid close attention to the chief minister.

Magdalena nodded. "That is correct. One of the main flaws of our Larkinson Army is that we currently host thousands of mech pilots and even more dependents from the Heavensword Association who are not at home in any of the existing mech legions. The Swordmaidens are the closest to this group, but their martial traditions are too far apart despite possessing a common love for swordsmanship."

Ves grimaced. She was right. The inability to adequately accommodate the Heavensworders, especially the male ones, was a significant oversight.

Plenty of them had joined other mech legions that had room for swordsman mechs, but mech legions such as the Avatars of Myth adopted mech doctrines and martial customs that did not entirely align with the Heavensworders.

Since they weren't able to fit into the existing mech legions, it made sense for them to form their own military troop!

"Isn't it redundant to field two separate mech legions centered around swordsman mechs?" Director Ranya Wodin questioned. "The Swordmaidens and the Heavensworders fight in nearly the same way. Keeping them separate will lead to a lot of duplication, which is inefficient and wasteful. Why not merge them together into a single sword-oriented mech legion that accepts every gender?"

"Impossible!" Ketis stood up from her seat! "With respect, you don't know what you are talking about, Ranya. All of their swords might look the same to you, but in the eyes of an expert, there is an incredible diversity of sword styles and philosophies. The Heavensworders may be able to get along with each other, but the Swordmaiden Mech Legion is a unique institution that should be kept as pure as possible in order to preserve its existing advantages! I won't approve of any initiative that causes us to lose our identity! This is not why we have joined the Larkinson Clan!"

The only swordmaster in the grand planning session issued a predictable response. She may have gained a lot of prominence as a Larkinson, but she always identified herself as a Swordmaiden first.

"I agree with Ketis. We all respect the Heavensworders and challenge them to sword fights in our free time, but that doesn't mean we accept all of their ways and vice versa." Commander Sendra of the Swordmaidens concurred.

Venerable Dise also supported her fellow Swordmaidens. "Keep us separate."

"Okay, that is a pretty clear answer." Ves said as he wanted to put an end to any talk of merging the Swordmaidens with another mech legion. "While the justifications to form a separate Heavensword Mech Legion aren't the strongest, I think we should do right by the members in our clan. We already accepted them in our ranks, so it is also our responsibility to see that they are happy and respected."

No one issued any strong objections anymore to this specific initiative now that the patriarch had spoken.

That still left the question of what else Magdalena wanted to add to the Larkinson Army.

"We will have a need for mech units that are specialized in both landbound and aquatic combat." She said. "Perhaps our clan will not frequently meddle into conflicts where fights take place on land or underwater, but it is better to have the necessary expertise, training and experience on hand than not. The sooner we start with organizing mech legions that excel in those environments, the more we are able to contend in campaigns that take place on different planets."

This was a bold and farsighted suggestion, though not everyone saw the need to expand the Larkinson Army in this fashion.

"We are primarily a spaceborn clan that fights in space." An assembly member retorted. "This is where we should invest most of our resources. Our mech legions are also versatile enough to fight on land if necessary. The only serious gap we have are mechs that can fight in aquatic battlefields, but how often do we need to do so? We can easily do without aquatic mechs if we avoid any campaigns that involve water-based environments."

"We don't have the room for an aquatic mech legion right now, but what about ten or twenty years from now? We lucked out during the Purgatory Campaign because the phase whale enclave was close enough to a spaceborn environment for our mechs to remain useful. What if we stumble upon another motherload of phasewater that is buried underneath a deep ocean? I don't know much about mechs, but even I know that most machines will malfunction and drown when submerged in water."

The opinions on this matter were a little more divided. A mech legion was a substantial burden to the clan. No one wanted to host a new mech legion that took up a lot of precious mech capacity but hardly got put to use in any expeditions or campaigns. It was better to hire a specialized mercenary troop if that was the case.

Ves thought about it for a moment. Though the cheapskate within him felt that it was not necessary to expand the Larkinson Army with these mech legions, Magdalena's proposal made a lot more sense in the long term.

"I think there is merit in founding these mech legions." Ves stated his opinion. "Better yet, maybe we can combine this suggestion with the previous proposal and acquire existing mech troops with the specialties we need."

Just like with half of the mech legions that were currently in the clan, adding new ones by absorbing entire outfits brought many advantages.

"We will do our best to find opportunities to take over mercenary companies that excel in landbound and aquatic combat." Magdalena affirmed. "It shouldn't be too difficult to find decent landbound troops, but those with the capability to fight well underwater are much rarer."

"Take your time. There is no hurry to expand. We don't have the carrier capacity to accommodate so many new mechs anyway." Ves casually said.

"Thank you, sir. We will remain on the lookout for good opportunities." Chief Minister Magdalena replied. "Aside from this, our clan should also diversify in other areas. A good example of that would be to add a biomech legion to the Larkinson Army. Biotechnology has become an increasingly more prominent specialty of our clan and we have already harvested a wealth of information and biotissue of different alien life forms. It would be a waste if we fail to take advantage of our growing competence in this area."

"We don't need biomechs. Conventional mechs can already cover all of our needs. Working with biomechs will only bog us down with greater logistical burdens and other problems."

"That's not necessarily the case. If we have plans to hire biomech designers and if we keep all of the biomechs into a self-contained mech troop, we can handle the additional burdens."

"It depends on whether we intend to design biomechs in the first place. If we don't, then it is hard to justify this addition."

The Larkinson Clan almost exclusively fielded mechs designed in-house. This was not only a strategic decision but also a point of pride. It would be a break in the pattern to field biomechs designed by third party mech designers.

Many gazes shifted to the mech designers seated at the table.

"I have already made a decision to add a biomech designer to our Design Department." Ves announced. "I don't intend for our clan to switch over to biomechs entirely, but we will definitely explore organic mechs and cybernetic mechs in the future."

"If this is the case, then fielding a biomech legion makes even more sense." Magdalena said. "One of the purposes of our mech legions is to demonstrate the performance and use of our living mechs. We can inspire more sales if we are able to show that we can achieve impressive victories with our style of products."

That was another important argument. Ves had read plenty of reports that confirmed that there was a correlation between victories and boost in sales.

The public admired strong mechs and concrete battle results. A lot more buyers would feel at ease with the decision to order living mechs if they had vividly demonstrated their advantages in combat.

Ves knew that the biomech industry was a difficult market to get into, especially for a brand that had no history with biomechs.

Having a strong biomech legion and leading it to victory a few times could do wonders in raising the profile of several excellent biomech models!

"Let us start small at first." Chief Minister Magdalena said after Ves had given his response. "It takes time to design the biomechs after we have hired the right specialists. If we start too soon, we will have to field commercial biomech models developed by other parties."

"Okay, all of these proposals sound good so far. Do you have any suggestions for additional mech legions?"

"There are more, but their priorities are not as high." The chief minister answered. "In the future, we may look into creating a tunneling mech legion, an independent expedition mech legion, an elite defensive mech legion, a law enforcement mech legion and a propaganda mech legion, among others."

Ves was in no hurry to explore these additional options at this time. A mech troop dedicated to tunneling actions sounded a lot more niche than one that simply fought on land.

Aside from that, Ves saw little need to field a law enforcement mech legion if the Larkinson Clan did not set up its own colony. The other mech legions could already cover a lot of security needs even if they could only resort to lethal armaments when fighting against criminals.

As for a propaganda mech legion, Ves didn't even know what Magdalena meant by that. Was this just a troop of mechs that solely existed to put on a good show or something? That sounded completely redundant to his ears.

"I think we will already have our hands full with adding four new mech legions to our army in the coming years. We shouldn't bite more than we can chew" General Verle concluded. "Let us form the new units for the Heavensworders and other specialties first before we consider additional options. Our situation will change drastically a decade later. We will have a better idea of what we need to fill up our gaps."

"Very well, then. Four mech legions it is. We will discuss the budgets for this momentous expansion in a subsequent planning session."

Ves kind of looked forward to taking an active part in the shaping of these new mech units. There weren't many opportunities for him to create a new troop according to his own ideas!