The Mech Touch

Tristan had already visited several different occupied planets since he arrived in the Red Ocean.

There was no direct transit route between Bridgehead One and Davute.

In order to reach the latter, Tristan first had to board a passenger liner that brought him to the Vulit Star Node.

There, he did not choose to take the next available ride to Pellysa, but stayed in Vulit for a week in order to tour one of the most important human trading hubs in the Red Ocean.

The Journeyman from the Friday Coalition quickly became overwhelmed by the excitement and optimism of the people that chose to seek their fortunes in the new frontier!

He encountered immigrants who originated from the galactic center.

He participated in a mech design tournament that caused him to lose badly due to his rusty design skills and lack of practice.

He met groups of destitute colonists that had suffered far too many losses in their failed attempts to colonize different planets.

Tristan rapidly absorbed what life was like in the new frontier.

Despite all of his reading and despite his psychological preparations, it turned out that life in this dwarf galaxy was so much harsher!

Still, the many examples of failures did not dampen people's willingness to seek their own chances. No matter whether their preparations were adequate or not, many pioneers went through their risky plans in the hopes that they would be lucky enough to survive the difficult early period!

These colonists did not have to turn their colonies into a major economic or military powerhouse.

Everyone knew that as long as the pioneers did a decent job in building a sustainable colony, they would eventually receive an invitation from a local power to become a part of a new state!

Once the most dominant groups founded their states, the lesser pioneers automatically received protection in exchange for pledging their loyalties to their new masters!

Few players had the power and the opportunity to proclaim themselves as the kings of their own state.

Many smaller players were already happy with becoming the dukes, counts or barons of those states. As long as everything went well, their bloodline and lineage would always maintain hold of their colonial holdings!

This was a dynamic that became increasingly more prevalent in the Red Ocean.

When different colonies decided to band together, a peculiar pattern emerged.

Compared to working together with a bunch of strangers who originated from completely different star sectors of the old galaxy, it was a lot safer and more reassuring for those with similar backgrounds to combine their forces!

There were too many advantages to this. Cultural clashes were kept to a minimum. The parties already possessed a high degree of understanding towards each other and they could already make use of existing relationships to develop a deeper understanding.

Due to this, both the Fridayman and Hexer colonies were already on the verge of consolidating their colonies into cohesive states.

Once that happened, both of them would eventually be able to build up enough strength to go to war against each other!

Normally, wars did not break out instantly under these circumstances. Colonial states were not as strong and deep as their counterparts in the Milky Way.

If two colonial states directly fought against each other with all of their strength, they might weaken themselves only for third parties to swoop in and finish them both!

"There should still be time before total war breaks out." Tristan Wesseling quietly stated as he waited for a passenger transport to bring him to the surface of Davute VII.

Normally, the Hexer and Fridayman colonists should have kept to themselves at this time. It took a lot of time, effort and resources to bind hundreds of colonized star systems into a single, unified state. How could they possibly have any attention left to spare on foreign attacks?

There was also quite a bit of distance between the two groups.

The earliest wave of pioneers had opted to found their colonies in the Magair Middle Zone at the time.

This caused subsequent waves of pioneers to settle in nearby star systems of the same middle zone.

This way, the new colonies could receive at least partial protection from their nearby neighbors.

As the years went by, both sides colonized hundreds of star systems, all of them clustered at two different areas.

The first Hexer pioneers arrived first and decided to plant their flags on the 'west' side of the Magair Middle Zone.

The early Fridayman pioneers  that arrived a little later chose to settle a healthy distance away from their acrimonious archenemies.

The latter all knew that they would definitely suffer years of grief and harassment if they chose to become neighbors to the female supremacists once again!

While the Fridaymen and Hexers both wanted to squash each other's colonies at all costs, they were not ready to come to blows when their nascent colonial states were still too fragile to support a full war effort!

The Komodo War taught a lot of lessons to both sides. Even the eager and vengeful Hexers knew better than to pull the trigger too early.

Normally, the two sides should have merely been throwing hateful stares at each other, but the Hexers did not play by the rules!

Though outright war was out of the question, the Hexers who possessed a distinct numbers advantage in the Red Ocean started to employ various means to attack their old enemies!

From conducting raids on under-defended colonies to ambushing trade convoys shipped over valuable goods, the Hexer raiding forces had begun to terrorize the Fridayman colonists!

This was also the reason why Master Katzenberg and a few other higher ups entrusted Tristan Wesseling with an important responsibility.

When he thought about his new mission, he felt an enormous weight on his shoulders.

"It sounds absurd. How can I stop all of these hostilities by talking to a single mech designer? He's not even a Hexer!"

Even though Tristan said so, he knew quite well that his old friend Ves held an unusually high status among the former citizens of the Hexadric Hegemony.

He did not know how much he should believe and how much he should dismiss as hyperbole.

"The son of the Superior Mother. The brother of the Daughter of Death. The ultimate good boy."

These were just a few of the identities that Ves had acquired among the Hexer diaspora.

Though all of them sounded silly and nonsensical, the difference was that Ves possessed actual weight among the Hexer colonists!

The reason for that was simple.

"His living mechs are too effective!"

The Friday Coalition already became highly familiar with the power and the abilities of so-called living mechs.

Though the Fridaymen managed to overpower all of these gimmicky Hexer mechs during the Komodo War, the circumstances were different this time!

The living mechs were even more effective in smaller-scale scuffles. The Larkinson Clan had published a flood of new models, some of which the Hexer colonists embraced with great enthusiasm!

While the Fridaymen colonists made use of quality mech models that were not necessarily weak, the true problem was that their opponents had too many mechs and mech pilots to spare!

If this pattern continued, then the Fridayman colonies would inevitably suffer and slow down their development.

Once a true war finally broke out, the Hexer invasion forces would easily be able to smash the weakened Fridayman colonies without encountering as much resistance as before!

Even though the leaders of the Friday Coalition were mostly preoccupied with consolidating their gains from winning the Komodo War, they did not wish to lose their colonies in the Red Ocean so easily.

While the significance of a Fridayman colonial state was not that great at the beginning, this would definitely change in the future!

Whether it was coming in touch with many powerful groups from the Milky Way or gaining a reliable channel to import phasewater to the Komodo Star Sector, the coalition partners could not afford to give up their vulnerable colonial holdings!

This was why Tristan finally received his chance to move to the Red Ocean.

The only issue was that he did not get to settle in one of the colonies founded by the Carnegie Group.

His mission also had nothing to do with putting his design skills to good use by doing his part to design new mechs that were adapted to the circumstances of the Red Ocean.

Instead, Tristan had to take on a diplomatic role this time!

The reason for that sounded confounding to his ears.

"The Hexer colonies in the Red Ocean are nominally led by the remnants of the six matriarchal dynasties." Master Katzenberg explained at the time. "However, the old Hexer order does not necessarily apply to the current situation anymore. The Wodin Dynasty has been on the rise and already shows faint signs of overtaking its former superiors."

"Because the designer of the Valkyrie Redeemer and all of those other living mechs is associated with the Wodins."

"Correct. I cannot state the importance of this relationship to the geopolitical developments in the Magair Middle Zone, Tristan. No matter which dynasty a Hexer colonist hails from, he or she always looks up to the 'Superior Mother' or the 'Daughter of Death'. As the mech designer who introduced these supposed gods to the Hexer people, Patriarch Ves Larkinson most definitely wields a great amount of influence over them. He is effectively the ruler of the future Hexer state by proxy!"

While Tristan found it hard to accept this chain of logic, he could not bring any arguments to refute it. Even if his old friend Ves did not possess the authority to boss around the Hexers, his influence among their people was undoubtedly great!

This was why Tristan did not reject this assignment in the end. As long as he managed to meet with the former Brighter and persuade the man to let bygones be bygones, the Fridayman colonists would finally have room to breathe!

"We will not send you to Davute without resources or support." Master Katzenberg told him. "You will receive basic training and instructions and also obtain assistance from liaisons that we assigned to Davute VII beforehand."

"Why me?" Tristan asked. "Why not send out a professional diplomat?"

This question had been bothering him for a while.

"Only you can do this, Tristan. We already dispatched our diplomats to Davute a year ago, but all they accomplished was holding fruitless talks with their counterparts from the Larkinson Clan. They never got to talk with the man in charge."

"How can you expect me to do any better?"

Katzenberg smiled. "According to our analysis of the Larkinson Patriarch, he values both personal relationships as well as material benefits. The way to reach him and win him over is to target both of those traits. We are sending you to Davute because we believe that Patriarch Ves is sentimental enough to meet with you directly. As long as you can speak with him directly, you have a chance of sparing our colonies from Hexer aggression."

"How do you expect me to convince him to bring the Hexers to heel, ma'am? He bears quite a grudge against our state if I recall."

"It has been years since he has last been wronged by our state and people. He has long moved past those incidents and fully invested his attention to his current and future endeavors in the Red Ocean. As long as you appeal to that, you will gain his interest. Your ultimate goal is to use the bargaining chips that we will provide to you to melt the hatred between him and our state. As long as you can make this crucial step, the rest of us can take over and work from there. Is that understood?"

"Not completely, but I will do my best to take advantage of my friendship with Ves, though do not expect too much from me. We haven't met each other in years. We are merely distant acquaintances at best."

"Let us see whether you can arrange a meeting with the Larkinson Patriarch first."