The Mech Touch

Tristan understood why Perla Monater specifically brought him on an excursion to an industrial warehouse.

She wanted to introduce him to the living mechs that practically brought the Friday Coalition to its knees.

The notion sounded absurd and Tristan had a hard time believing in it if he had read about this from afar.

However, after coming face to face with the Hymenoptera mechs and learning how many of them had spread throughout the new frontier had opened up his perspective.

Ves and his clan had come a long way since they left the Milky Way!

A lot of pioneers struggled to adapt to the conditions of the Red Ocean, but the Larkinsons apparently thrived in the booming and chaotic environment.

Their rise exceeded the expectations of the Friday Coalition, so much so that the state had been forced to shelve its plan to assassinate Ves!

This was undoubtedly a major setback and source of frustration to the Fridaymen. The mech designer that turned the Hexers into deadlier and more intractable opponents was allowed to continue his work and aid the Hexer diaspora into rising again in the Red Ocean.

If not for the LMC's clever decision to branch out and compete in the market for both law enforcement mechs and industrial mechs, Ves would have been fair game to the Friday Coalition's secret operatives!

Though Tristan was sure that someone as rich and prominent as his old friend would have invested a lot in his personal security, there was still a huge disparity between the power of a clan and a major second-rate state!

Yet because of the massive amount of influence accrued through the sale of one of the lowest and most overlooked type of mechs, a state that had managed to grind down and overwhelm the Hexadric Hegemony in a massive sector-wide war had no choice but to compromise with an enemy!

This reality contrasted sharply with how the Fridaymen treated their archenemies. The former never compromised or made deals with the latter.

Despite how strong and aggressive the Hexers were at the time, the valiant members of the Friday Coalition bravely stood their ground and managed to end the greatest source of bigotry and tyranny in the Komodo Star Sector.

Every Fridayman including Tristan gained pride in taking part in this great endeavor! Winning the Komodo War was an accomplishment that would certainly be celebrated by many generations of descendents to come!

This was also why Tristan found the current situation to be absurd.

Defeating the Hexadric Hegemony turned out to be costly but doable for his state, but getting rid of a single Journeyman Mech Designer in the Red Ocean turned out to be a bridge too far!

This strange situation forced a victorious state that had just proven itself in war to adopt a much more humble posture towards the Larkinsons.

What was even funnier to Tristan was that the Fridayman diplomats still failed to attract the Larkinson Patriarch's attention despite the humility that they had shown!

It was as if the Journeyman and his clan were too powerful to bother with the demands of an entire second-rate state!

"The power of a mech designer can be great, but this is ridiculous!"

Ves had exceeded the scope of a Journeyman so long ago that his rank in the mech industry was completely misleading!

The amount and power of his innovations as well as the value that they brought to his many products were so overwhelming that he should have been a Master Mech Designer!

Tristan did not understand how his old friend hadn't advanced to Senior as of yet. Sure, he knew as well as any other Journeyman how much work and effort it took to reach the next rank, but a mech designer with as many accomplishments as Ves should have made this far already!

If not for the fact that Tristan had long given up participating in this race, he would have grown both jealous and envious at how much Ves took off these past few years.

"What will happen if we cannot strike any agreement with my old friend?" Tristan asked as he and his guide were ready to exit the warehouse.

"We will resume the fight as best we can." Miss Monater shrugged. "We will not give up our colonial holdings in this dwarf galaxy. If necessary, we will delay our reconstruction and consolidation efforts and funnel more resources into the Red Ocean to make certain that our colonies can hold their ground against the Hexers that have fled to the new frontier."

"Is it that important for our state to maintain a foothold in the Red Ocean?" Tristan questioned.

"Yes. There are too many reasons to count. Access to phasewater, forging new connections and giving our fellow Fridaymen hope for future expansion are just a handful of the strategic advantages that we can gain. There are more that I cannot even say to you. All of our coalition partners are united in this cause."

That was a serious remark. These days, the Friday Coalition was not as tight as before. The absence of a major enemy in the Komodo Star Sector had started to loosen the camaraderie between the different coalition partners.

The Gauge Dynasty that had always been powerful from the beginning had become more aloof and aggressive.

The members of the Gauge Dynasty suffered the least from the Komodo War, but demanded the greatest amount of territory!

On the other hand, the Carnegie Group and the Vermeer Group suffered badly due to the initial invasion of the Hex Army. Many of its star systems were still far from returning to their prime.

Given how much the Carnegies and the Vermeers had sacrificed to hold back the Hexer invasion, they should have earned more rewards.

However, the balance of power had shifted away from them, which made it difficult to compete against the Gauge Dynasty and the Konsu Clan.

The two most powerful coalition partners even showed tendencies of mopping up the remaining ones that had all grown weak and vulnerable!

Yet despite these growing internal tensions, the coalition partners had not forgotten about the threat from the Hexers, and the escalating situation in the Magair Middle Zone likely caused them to stay together for a while longer.

Tristan gained a much greater cognition over the importance of this charm offensive. There was too much riding on his attempt to negotiate with Ves. If he was not able to conclude a sensible agreement with the Larkinson Patriarch, then a lot of Fridaymen would suffer!

Before he and his guide left the warehouse, he took one more look at the popular ant mechs lifting and carrying different crates and containers.

The different variations and their physical differences told him that the Hymenoptera was a modular or at least a semi-modular design.

The base model was designed to be a cheap but customizable platform. It was largely made out of mundane metals in order to reduce its reliance on scarcer and more expensive exotics as much as possible.

There were more expensive variants available if clients wanted to obtain stronger and more resilient versions of the Hymenoptera, but for the most part its ordinary variants were already good enough to fulfill many different jobs.

That inherent versatility and flexibility was due to its brilliant mechanical design!

As Tristan observed their performance a bit closer, he could tell that the ant mechs were able to lift a surprising amount of weight. Their insectile construction enabled them to support their frame on six limbs, four limbs and two limbs, allowing them to choose when they needed to maximize their footing or carry the heaviest and strongest weights in their limbs.

"The Hymenoptera is largely designed by the Power Pair." Miss Monater informed him. "From what we have learned, Ves Larkinson was only responsible for turning it into a living mech while his wife worked on the legs to make them more versatile and capable of holding different objects while also navigating difficult terrain."

"Power Pair?"

"That is how the Larkinsons and numerous other people refer to Janassa Pellier and Tifi Coslone. Both Journeymen have become prominent for designing LMC mechs that are physically strong and dangerous to fight against at closer ranges."

"I see. No wonder these ant mechs look so comfortable when carrying heavier containers."

With the help of these advantages, the Hymenoptera found a place in many warehouses, factories, mines and other work sites throughout the Red Ocean.

Its semi-modular nature and abundant number of variants allowed customers to configure them according to their needs.

For example, a company operating on the surface of an untamed planet might opt to buy a more expensive variant that not only possessed better armor, but also possessed limited fighting capabilities!

The ant mechs didn't need to be strong enough to fight against real combat mechs. It was already enough to make certain that they possessed enough teeth to fend off exobeast attacks.

Another company might be in the business of making bioproducts. It could purchase a batch Hymenoptera mechs, but replace its forelimbs with variant components that were especially designed to handle organic materials!

Then there were companies that operated outdoors in a mountain range or other complex environment. The Hymenoptera variants that they might wish to utilize would possess the ability to fly with the help of wing-like flight systems that could be installed and removed from their backs!

The flying ant mechs were faster and more maneuverable than their flightless counterparts, but exerted a greater strain on their frames while also drastically increasing power consumption.

Even so, giving these popular industrial mechs the ability to fly further increased their ubiquity throughout the Red Ocean!

There were only a few situations in the dwarf galaxy where there was no place for the Hymenoptera!

"How powerful is the LMC exactly these days?" Tristan asked when the pair finally exited the warehouse and stepped onto the streets.

"That is difficult to say." Perla Monater replied. "The LMC's profitability is not too high but their reach and influence has already exceeded many companies led by Masters. The mech company has published a few mech designs that have gone on to become major successes in the Red Ocean, but this trend will continue unless the competition can respond with an effective counter to living mechs."

Tristan knew that this was always a possibility, but it was unlikely that one would exactly show up. If the Fridaymen failed to develop a truly effective counter against glows and living mechs after leveraging the power of their entire state, it was likely that others would not be able to achieve anything better.

"What are the sectors and markets that the Larkinsons excel at?" He asked.

"Hm, their product catalog encompasses over a hundred commercial mech models if we leave out the variants, but there are several broad categories where they managed to stand out. Aside from their dominance in the markets for both law enforcement mechs and industrial mechs, they have also been a rising force in training mechs."

He had already read a bit about the LMC's innovative but controversial training mechs. While there were many conspiracy theories surrounding the Larkinson Clan's iconic products for mech cadets, their potential value was undeniable!

An increasing number of mech academies were unable to resist the demands from their mech cadets.

Which aspiring mech pilot didn't want to train with a machine that could actively guide them and pull them into battle scenarios that were much more realistic than what the latest simulators could accomplish?

Enough time had passed since the initial introduction of the LMC's commercial training mech models that a noticeable difference in grades and results had formed. Mech cadets that intensely trained with living training mechs graduated with noticeably stronger piloting foundations!

"Slowly but surely, the LMC is becoming a more integral contributor to humanity's development in the Red Ocean." Miss Monater said. "The Larkinsons can cease developing combat mechs entirely and still become an indispensable group solely through the sale of their other mechs. They have also become a key source of strength, wealth, influence and prestige for Davute. This has enabled them to make a lot of friends in the local community."

In other words, Davute had become their new homeland!