The Mech Touch

Tristan Wesseling's first impression of Davute VII was that it was a booming economy.

"This trade junction is doing extremely well!" The blond mech designer with a maturing face noted with surprise.

Though he already read a lot of articles about the increasingly more important economic hub, many of those were already outdated.

The actual situation of Davute VII was a lot more prosperous than a few months or years ago. Kotor City had already expanded to accommodate a population of over 10 million inhabitants while many other settlements on the planet had grown at least half as big!

Due to all of the traffic and people converging on the planet, the main spaceport was extremely busy. People were everywhere and Tristan had to wait behind many long lines in order to go through every mandatory arrival procedure.

If Tristan had already settled in Davute, he would have been able to skip much of this, but he was a first-time arrival from 'abroad', so he had to bear with the congestion.

Once he finally left the spaceport, he followed the navigation instructions provided by his comm and reached a large landing zone where an unassuming shuttle awaited his entry.

A relatively young woman with straight gray hair and a sharp business suit moved forward and extended her arms.

"Welcome to Davute VII, Mr. Wesseling. I am Perla Monater, an attaché of our local diplomatic mission. Please step inside the shuttle where I can brief you further on your assignment."

Both Fridaymen hopped inside the vehicle which soon lifted off and flew away from the direction of the city center.

"So Miss Monater…"

"What do you wish to ask, Mr. Wesseling?"

"I learned that our state sent a team of diplomats to this planet a year ago. Are you part of this delegation?"

"Correct." Perla Monater admitted. "While we have failed to gain any purchase in our talks with the Larkinsons, we have learned much about them. I do not think that there is any Fridayman that understands our subjects more than us. It is our duty to pass on a part of the information that we have collected to you. This way, you will be able to avoid several detours and prevent yourself from violating any of their taboos during your initial talks."

"Can you pass on more than that?"

"I am afraid not. We do not wish to fill your mind with instructions. It is important for you to come across as authentic. A person as emotional and informal as Patriarch Ves will appreciate that more than excessive preparation."

"I understand." Tristan sighed. He had heard this argument several times before. "By the way, please indulge me for a moment. Are you a diplomat, or are you a spy?"

Perla Monater smirked. "In my line of profession, the lines between these two professions are often blurred. That is especially the case for those of us who have received… special training. It is remarkable to think how much the skillsets and responsibilities of the two overlap. We can be whoever we want to be depending on the situation."

That was a frank explanation. Tristan already developed the vibe that Monater was not a straightforward woman.

"Then… since you and your fellow colleagues haven't been able to make much progress as diplomats, I am guessing that you have made more progress as spies."

"You can say that." Miss Monater frankly admitted. "While we have been unable to collect any intelligence from the interior of the Larkinson Clan or the Golden Skull Alliance, we are still able to collect information around them. Even so, we know full well that the Black Cats have kept their eyes on us before our team even arrived on this planet."

"The Black Cats? You mean the spies of the Larkinson Clan?"

"The Black Cats are far more than mere spies, Mr. Wesseling. I can guarantee you that they have already noted your arrival as well. While they cannot operate with impunity on this planet, their agents must have already collected your biometric data and obtained the registration data that you have submitted to the authorities. They may even know about your important mission."

Tristan grew concerned. "That sounds bad. Will I still be able to meet with Ves if this is the case?"

"It depends on what the people around the Larkinson Patriarch decide." The woman replied. "I do not believe that Director Calabast Arnlend of the Black Cats will block your attempts to meet with Patriarch Ves. There is little threat to this meeting and she no longer values her ties to the Hexer people. She cares more about the gains and losses of the Larkinson Clan. As long as we show enough goodwill towards the clan, it does not matter if we strike a deal that damages the interests of the Hexer colonies. We believe that plenty of Larkinsons including their patriarch do not care much about the remnant Hexers these days."

Tristan looked skeptical. "What about his wife? She's a Wodin as well as a Larkinson. Everything I've read about her suggests she still has a strong attachment to her former people and more specifically her relatives in the Wodin Dynasty."

"That is correct, but Patriarch Ves holds the final say."

Perla Monater continued to fill Tristan in on various details about the Larkinson Clan. She clarified Gloriana's position in the clan as well as the clan's ambiguous relationship with the Hexer diaspora.

Much of this sounded quite murky to Tristan. It was not entirely clear how much power and influence that Patriarch Ves had over the Hexer colonists.

"Wait a second." Perla suddenly raised her hand. "Our pilot has just informed us that we are about to fly past a patrol of Planetary Guard mechs. Our shuttle will approach the machines so that you can take a look at them up close. It is quite an experience, especially if this is your first time."

Tristan already had an inkling of what the diplomatic attaché was referring to. He moved over to the side of the vehicle and looked out the window.

Seconds later, a soft but unmistakable glow encompassed the shuttle!

Tristan, Perla and the pilot in the cabin at the front all became affected by a mysterious energy field that directly caused them to lose their stress and ease their concerns.

The effect did not limit itself to muting their negative thoughts and emotions. Their positive impulses and emotions had become just as muffled at this time!

Fortunately, the Planetary Guard mech responsible for propagating this glow had put it at a modest setting.

"If this glow was hitting you at full blast, it would be so strong that you would find it challenging to maintain your wits." Miss Monater stated in a tone that was only mildly flatter than before. "A Journeyman such as you will still be fine for the most part, but ordinary people such as myself require special training in order to resist the most potent effects of a glow."

The Fridaymen had fought against the Hexers so many times for so many years that they were intimately familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of glows and living mechs!

There were hardly any other groups of people that possessed a greater understanding of these phenomena!

It was because of their great familiarity with the design solutions of the Larkinson Clan that the Fridaymen urgently sought reconciliation with its patriarch.

The reason for that was because continuing to fight against living mechs was too unpleasant!

They weren't necessarily stronger than mechs sold by other companies, but those who fought against them had to endure a lot more mental pressure and take many additional variables into account.

Any fight that involved living mechs was at least twice as exhausting to the Fridaymen mech pilots!

It was already bad enough to fight against mechs with suppressive glows a couple of times.

The Fridaymen had discovered that subjecting their mech pilots to living mechs for years on end induced so much mental damage and exhaustion that a lot of soldiers wanted to quit their service early!

This was the pervasive aspect of fighting against an opponent that made unscrupulous use of the Larkinson Clan's most iconic products!

As Tristan experienced this new glow that was rare in his home star sector but increasingly more prevalent in the Red Ocean, his thoughts turned grave.

"The combination is too effective. A glow that can reduce any form of agitation, aggression and excitement is just too effective when paired with a mech designed for peacekeeping duties. I can clearly see now why the Pacifier line has taken the Red Ocean by storm!"

Tristan was able to observe the frame of the living mech up close.

It was a fairly modestly-sized mech. He could see even without referencing the spec sheet that the famous copy of the Pacifier VK13500-PF0 possessed a limited amount of mass and volume.

Normally, law enforcement mechs that were built on the skinnier side were not that threatening to rogue mechs.

This was different!

Despite its relatively cheap and budget-friendly design, its intangible qualities were so strong that the Pacifier model had quickly turned into a trending product just months after its initial release!

Even as the shuttle flew out the glow range of the Planetary Guard patrol, Tristan still felt a sense of oppression that dampened much of his previous excitement for finally making it to the Red Ocean.

"It's impossible for me to design a mech that can outperform and outsell the Pacifier line." He concluded. "I feel lucky that I don't have any intention of competing in the law enforcement mech market. I feel sympathy for all of my colleagues that have already done so. There is no way they can compete fairly against the Pacifier model and its variants."

Tristan could not imagine how much money and influence the Larkinson Clan had obtained from selling this mech line alone!

"The Larkinson Clan only received a modest proportion of the proceeds from the sale of the Pacifiers." Perla Monater explained. "However, the increasing volume of sales means that the Larkinsons continue to increase their warchest with each passing month. What is even more ridiculous is that their business partner, the Voiken Family, has actually agreed to hand over the same proportion of earnings generated by the sale of the rest of their mech ecosystem!"

Tristan nodded. "When I read the regional mech publications during transit, I have regularly come across articles that praise the LaVoi System. More and more Planetary Guard units and other peacekeeping organizations are thinking about switching over to it. If not for the fact that many of them have already bought into the mech ecosystems of other competitors, they would have switched over already."

The LaVoi System was the rather simple name for the Voiken Family's mech ecosystem dedicated to peacekeeping and law enforcement purposes.

Although the name sounded rather odd, it was easy enough to figure out that the 'La' came from the Larkinson Clan and the 'Voi' came from the Voiken Family.

According to the articles, over half of the people residing in both the Magair and Krakatoa Middle Zones knew what the LaVoi System stood for! This was often because those very same people had experienced the glows of the Pacifier mechs at least once in their lives already!

"It is rather difficult for existing Planetary Guard organizations to switch over to the LaVoi System right away, but it is not that difficult to buy a batch of Pacifier mechs at first. What is more significant is that colonies founded today and in the future will more likely than not embrace the LaVoi System right away, thereby turning themselves into both large and fixed customers to the Voikens and the Larkinsons."

The breakout success of the Pacifier mech line and the LaVoi System was not good news to the Fridaymen.

The Larkinson Clan had grown even faster after this success, which made them stronger and more difficult to assail.

The Pacifier model did not just bring them a lot of money. The new possibilities they granted to their users also won the Larkinsons a lot of approval from the Planetary Guard units of many different planets in the surrounding regions!

So many peacekeepers had fallen in love with the Pacifier mech line that they did not want anything to happen to the Larkinson Clan and its most famous mech designer!

If anyone attacked or said anything bad about the Larkinsons, a surge of angry customers who had become addicted to living mechs would quickly rise to the defense of their providers!

This was what Tristan had to stop.

"Oh boy. This is not going to be easy."