The Mech Touch

The Mercenary Hall was a major addition to the military side of the Larkinson Clan!

For the first time since the founding of the clan, individual groups of Larkinson soldiers could voluntarily go out to fulfill a mercenary contract!

This did not mean that the Larkinson Clan transitioned into a mercenary organization and that its powerful mech units suddenly turned into income sources.

To Ves, this was simply a side activity. He did not particularly care about the profits that the mercenary Larkinsons earned while they were working on behalf of other groups and companies.

He valued the growth and tempering that his troops could gain from these risky ventures. He was willing to accept the fact that his clan would suffer losses just like any force that entered the mercenary industry.

He even saw it as a good opportunity to purify the Larkinson Army of weaker soldiers. Those that managed to survive and thrive in these ordeals were the true elites of his clan. They could be entrusted with stronger mechs and greater responsibilities.

In any case, the existence of this institution meant that Ves no longer had to worry about his troops growing soft when the Larkinson fleet wasn't doing anything special.

Those with the drive and ambition to improve could volunteer for any available mission that met the Mercenary Hall's requirements.

Access to mercenary missions was not a problem. The clan merely had to sign a small agreement with the trans-galactic Mercenary Association to gain access to its vast network of missions and contacts.

While the civilian half of the Larkinson Clan was not particularly enthused about exposing a portion of their clansmen to the unpredictable dangers of the new frontiers, the military leaders all supported this initiative.

They all believed in the Rubarthan Societal Revival Theory in one way or another. All of the struggles the clan had gone through had made them stronger and more resilient. Many more people were able to draw out their full potential under the stimulation of battle.

Even if Ves had recently discovered the proper way to utilize the transcendence glow, he was far from reaching the point where he could produce expert candidates and expert pilots on demand!

The transcendence glow only provided the mech pilots with an extra push. They still needed to develop their willpower and temper their mentalities in order to get close to the extraordinary threshold in the first place, and that was a much more difficult journey.

Ves figured that the Mercenary Hall was the best and most sustainable way for the Larkinson Clan to produce high-ranking mech pilots over time.

While he had big plans for the clan's competitive circuit, he did not believe that non-lethal matches could stimulate mech pilots as well as actual battles.

For this reason, the Mercenary Hall would become an invaluable institution to the Larkinson Clan. This was especially the case in the far future when the main fleet became less vulnerable to external threats.

"What about us?" Venerable Rosa Orfan asked. "Can expert pilots such as me go on mercenary contracts as well?"

A lot of expressions changed.

It was one thing for a group of faceless grunts to go out on an adventure. It was another thing for a rare and precious expert pilot to leave and never return!

Commander Casella Ingvar shook her head. "The ratio between risk and reward is not as favorable. Expert pilots such as ourselves may grow faster in battle, but our loss and the loss of our expensive expert mechs will inflict great damage to our clan."

"If you go on a mercenary mission, you won't do our clan and the clansmen any favors, Orfan." Calabast chimed in. "The Larkinson Clan will always have enemies. They cannot do anything as long as we stay in our well-defended fleet and outposts, but we cannot extend the same degree of protection to any smaller detachments on a mission. The chances that our enemies will specifically seek out a detachment in order to crush it with overwhelming force become much higher if one of our expert pilots has come along!"

This was not the answer that Venerable Orfan wanted to hear. She was a woman who thrived on the battlefield and found meaning in combat. Her rate of improvement was not high during long periods of peace.

Though there were definite benefits to allowing expert pilots to develop their strength further in different situations, Ves firmly shook his head.

"From the moment you have advanced to the rank of expert pilot, your relationship to our clan has changed." He stated to Venerable Orfan and all of her peers. "You are the guardians and protectors of our core fleet. You are our strategic weapons against the most difficult enemy units that we may face on the battlefield. Your strength and potential makes it worthwhile for our clan to invest a large amount of funding and resources into you. We facilitate your training and we pair you up with precious, high-quality expert mechs. We do not go through all of this trouble only for you to recklessly endanger your life and your expert mech on a trivial mercenary job."

General Verle nodded in agreement. "As long as the loss of a single expert pilot or expert mech significantly weakens the defenses of our main fleet, we cannot risk any of them in non-essential missions. Perhaps we can reconsider this policy in the future when we have thousands of expert pilots in our ranks."

This future was extremely far away. At this time, every Larkinson expert pilot and expert mech was a valuable strategic asset. The loss of even a single one of them could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Ves and General Verle would rather keep the expert pilots bored and safe than the opposite!

The discussion on the Mercenary Hall continued. A fair amount of people were surprised by how soon it would begin operations.

"We have already started with laying the groundwork on the Mercenary Hall." General Verle revealed. "We have received enough consultation from the veterans of the mercenary business to understand what we need to do. We have hired the right people, formulated a good set of rules and held talks with the Mercenary Association. We only need to gain a better understanding of the local mercenary sector and the risk factors of Krakatoa before we are ready to allow our clansmen to go on missions."

Naturally, only small detachments of Larkinson troops were allowed to go out at any time. The clan could not afford to lose the majority of its defenders at any time.

They also faced many restrictions in the missions they were allowed to accept. These included tasks that took years to complete or required the mercenaries to travel far away.

These were relatively common sense rules that everyone could agree on. The mercenary missions were only made available for the Larkinson troops to gain experience. Earning money, building a reputation and expanding the Larkinson Clan's influence were merely secondary concerns.

Once everyone came to a consensus on this issue, Ves moved on to the next item on the agenda.

"Phasewater is an important resource to humanity." He began. "It can boost existing forms of superluminal travel and enable new ones that we previously did not have access to. Its price is high but its value may be even greater than that. As the defining exotic of the Red Ocean, we must learn to harness it in our own way. If not, we will always pass on the greatest benefit of obtaining this resource to other parties."

Many Larkinsons agreed with this view. Phasewater had many valuable applications, but the problem was that the clan did not master any of them at this point!

This was a shortcoming that needed to be addressed. Ves felt that this was the right time to expand the Larkinson Clan's involvement with phasewater.

His grin became more ambitious. "We are in a rare position where we can invest in research and business activities that can transform phasewater into a more valuable application. Although we don't possess any inherent advantages in any field, that also means we are completely free to choose our direction. Anything is possible as long as we can acquire or develop the right expertise."

Though many people wanted the clan to profit from its enormous reserves of phasewater, the difficulty of doing so was not low!

Phasewater was not only new to most of humanity, it was also a notoriously dangerous and volatile substance to work with! Only advanced researchers with backgrounds in spatial theory and other highly abstract fields were qualified to perform proper studies on this liquid exotic!

"I am aware that getting started in phasewater is difficult." Ves continued. "However, we have the wealth and resources to invest as much as we need to in order to develop a phasewater specialty. We even possess an existing advantage in the form of the Phaser fish-whale organs that we have obtained from the Purgatory Campaign. I believe Director Ranya Wodin of the Larkinson Biotech Institute can explain more."

The woman nodded and explained what was possible according to her opinion. "Many companies and research institutions do not have the capital or channels to obtain significant quantities of phasewater. As the patriarch has said, we are different. We have already solved the biggest problem before us. All we need to do is meet the remaining requirements."

A lot of Larkinsons felt good about that. They fought hard to obtain this immense advantage!

"The biggest problem we have is that we lack the right people and expertise." Ranya seriously said. "We need specialists in fields such as biotechnology, warp drive engineering and miniaturization. As long as we form the right research times, we have a good shot at reverse engineering the phasewater-rich fish-whale organs. Even if we cannot understand all of their principles, as long as we can reproduce them, we can potentially harness them in mechs, though that will require us to complete a separate research project. It may take several years or even decades before we can start producing our own phasewater products. We can speed up this process if we collaborate with a powerful research institution, but this isn't necessary."

Ves did not reject this possibility out of hand. If the Larkinson Biotech Institute truly struggled with figuring out the Phaser fish-whale organs, then it was better to partner up with another group than to waste many decades to achieve glacial progress.

"We should look to acquire research or development companies that specialize in organic drive technology." Chief Minister Novilon Purnesse suggested. "If they are not available, then we should seek the closest alternatives. Taking over these institutions will not only give us access to cohesive R&D teams, but also enables us to take over their accumulation."

"That is a good idea, but I doubt that companies like these are easily available."

"You may be right, sir, but we should still be on the lookout."

Chief Minister Novilon was right. It didn't hurt to try.

Ves did not fixate his attention on the fish-whale organs alone, though. Biotechnology was never the primary pursuit of the Larkinson Clan. He wanted to do more with phasewater.

"Aside from playing with the Phaser fish-whale organs, our clan should also attempt to master other applications of phasewater." He said. "One of the fastest if costliest measures we can take is to exchange a substantial amount of MTA merits for direct access to different applications of high technology."

He waved his hand, causing a projection to appear that displayed a handful of the promising uses that the Mech Trade Association had developed over the years.

"The mechers have already developed different uses of phasewater that may be of interest to us. Here you can see a mech that is armored with an alloy that actually integrates a small amount of phasewater. As you can see, its surface layer has gained special properties that allow it to block a lot more damage than normal!"

The sight was pretty impressive. It showed a first-class multipurpose mech getting bombarded by the ranged armaments of a dozen comparable mechs!