The Mech Touch

One of the more interesting aspects about Andraste was her companion spirit.

Just like Aurelia, Andraste's other half was a spiritual kitten as well.

"Yaika, can you go outside so I can take a look at you? I need to inspect your growth stage and see whether you have developed in a healthy direction."

"Whhhuuuu?"

Little Andraste, who was wearing a cute yellow onesie, stared up at her father with no sign of comprehension at all. She was still far too young to understand human speech.

Even if she was a bit older, she still wouldn't have understood what Ves was trying to convey. Though Andraste was a designer baby whose genes imparted greater intelligence and learning capabilities to her, her overall design direction was different from that of her older sister.

Aurelia had been bioengineered to become an excellent and charismatic leader. Her brain development heavily leaned towards increasing her social skills and other related skills.

One of the side effects of this biased cognitive development was that the first-born daughter was able to talk and communicate substantially earlier than other babies!

Of course, activating her spirituality extremely early in her life also helped a lot. The speed in which she became self-aware was frighteningly quick!

Though Andraste also enjoyed a lot of cognitive enhancements, hers was biased towards mech piloting and combat, with only a little bit dedicated towards command and overall intelligence enhancements.

Part of this already became quite evident in how much faster Andraste was able to gain control over her own body and limbs.

Ordinary babies spent many months in a body that was too weak and feeble to move in a coherent manner.

Though designer babies were a lot better in this regard, it was too reckless to speed up this development too much.

Only an abnormal kid like Andraste was able to crawl with her own limbs at a time when she should barely be able to roll around her plump little in her crib!

"Look! Look, Ves! Isn't she adorable? She's so talented!" Gloriana cheered as she tracked her little girl's antics.

"I don't think she can keep that up. Her body and limbs are still too underdeveloped."

Ves was right. Andraste only crawled around for a couple of minutes before she took another nap on the spot.

In any case, getting Andraste to show her companion spirit when she was asleep was easier said than done.

Fortunately, Ves possessed several means to get Andraste's other self to appear.

Blinky silently exited from his head and dove into his daughter. Soon enough, Blinky reappeared while lifting out a black kitten that was hanging from his maw.

The cute black shorthair kitten looked so soft and adorable that Ves had to resist the urge to embrace Andraste's companion spirit.

"Hmm. Interesting."

The appearance of a companion spirit said a lot about the person, especially if Ves did not decide it in advance.

The reason why Mana appeared so white was because Aurelia developed a bias towards Lufa early on in her life.

His first-born daughter could have grown her companion spirits in many different directions.

Mana could have embraced another pure influence such as Goldie or the Solemn Guardian.

Aside from that, the spiritual kitten also had the option of embracing a mix of influences and developing brand-new powers.

In the end, Mana embraced purity and turned into a powerful protector against negative spiritual influences. The white kitten also started to develop other interesting powers, but it was too soon to know what the growing companion spirit could do for the time being.

"Mana is a good companion for someone who spends a lot of time with other people." Ves smiled.

As for Andraste, her companion spirit was already predisposed towards combat.

Just as with his first-born daughter, Ves inserted six carefully selected ingredients into Andraste's companion spirit seed.

The selection was different in order to fit Andraste's own proclivities.

Each of the ingredients were useful in multiple applications, but he made sure that they were all relevant in combat.

The first key ingredient came from himself, as usual. If Yaika embraced life, then Andraste could potentially develop into a mech pilot similar to Venerable Joshua.

The second ingredient came from the Phase King. The power of phasewater and spatial manipulation was quite evident to everyone in the Red Ocean. If Yaika was able to embrace this aspect of herself, then Andraste would definitely be able to perform brilliantly if she ever had the chance of piloting a transphasic mech!

The third ingredient came from Helena. The power of death was one of the most lethal expressions of spiritual power that he had ever witnessed. Seeing and hearing how Helena was able to bypass many forms of defenses and sap the life out of enemies was awe-inspiring!

A mech pilot or any sort of warrior that was able to control the power of death would definitely become a feared presence in any fight!

The Handmaidens of Death and all of the other Hexer expert pilots who had broken through while piloting any of his Valkyrie mechs could attest to that! Their ability to kill weaker individuals was especially horrifying!

The fourth ingredient came from Qilanxo. Though the defense-oriented design spirit had lost a lot of shine after the emergence of more powerful and exotic spiritual entities, that did not mean that the former sacred god was weak!

Ves would have loved it if Andraste's companion spirit embraced Qilanxo. Of course, he would have preferred it if his daughter did not develop an extreme personality shift like Venerable Jannzi.

The fifth ingredient came from the Illustrious One. While Ves had a few concerns about the luminar design spirit's alien influences, there was no better choice if Andraste ever wanted to excel in ranged combat in the future.

There was much about luminar crystal technology that still remained untapped. If Ves ever managed to uncover additional useful tech and applications, his daughter would be able to make great use of them if her companion spirit ever leaned towards the Illustrious One!

The sixth ingredient came from Zeigra. By now, the former Crown Cat had taken on traits that came from his father Ryncol. This caused the aggressive design spirit to become even more useful in mech combat.

It would have been nice if Andraste was able to inherit a portion of her grandfather's strength. If her companion spirit turned into a ferocious tiger that was capable of corroding enemy machines, she would gain a powerful advantage in any melee duels!

Ves expected Andraste's companion spirit to take her sweet time to choose an initial direction.

Yet what did he see before his eyes?

A black cat that already exuded the power of death!

This was despite the fact that the Larkinsons had never exposed Andraste to any threats!

Ves didn't know why Yaika, the name that he bestowed on the black kitten, turned so dark so soon.

"Did I accidentally kill any people lately?"

Definitely not! He had not engaged in any funny business ever since he settled on Davute. The Cat Nest where his daughters spent most of their time was no battlefield or executioner's ground either.

So how come Andraste developed such an early affinity towards death?!

"Out of all of the possible evolutionary directions that Yaika could follow, why did she take after Helena?"

He truly couldn't explain why this happened. He seriously suspected that his initial implementation of the companion spirit seed was seriously flawed.

Perhaps he had overlooked a glitch or a flaw that caused his companion spirit seeds to lock in an initial evolution direction far in advance!

"Ugh, I'll have to pay attention to this next time I impart a kid with a companion spirit seed."

Gloriana wanted to have six children in total, and so far she only fulfilled a third of that quota.

With four more kids to go, Ves had to make sure his subsequent kids received more say in how they wanted to develop themselves in the future.

"Put Yaika back, Blinky."

The purple spiritual cat briefly dove into Andraste's head and put the tiny infantile companion spirit back where she belonged.

Ves spent the next few minutes staring at his adorable daughter as she dozed off with no absolutely no concern.

As he recalled how much effort he and Gloriana put into setting their second daughter up to be a fantastic mech pilot, he grew more concerned.

Leaving aside the question whether Andraste would be able to develop the right genetic aptitude to become a mech pilot, Ves might not be happy if she did end up possessing the correct talent.

Due to the MTA's persistent efforts into shaping human culture and perception towards mechs, there were many parents who thought it would be great if their kids were able to pilot mechs!

In the Age of Mechs, there was no legitimate war weapon other than mechs in most parts of human society.

With warships ruled out as permissible options, the only way for states and groups of people to defend themselves and fight for their interests was by fielding lots of mechs.

Given the importance of converting potentates into trained and motivated mech pilots, a lot of states had done a good job at instilling the right values as well as incentives to encourage many parents into sending their potentate offspring to any available mech academies.

Cultivating enough eligible manpower was a vital priority to a state. Although there might not be enough mechs to give every trained mech pilot a job, it was enough to have them in reserve in case a war broke out in the future.

The depletion of the pool of available mech pilots was one of the most common reasons why states lost wars!

While there were certainly risks to turning kids into soldiers who would one day fight on the battlefield, the incentives were quite abundant.

Aside from raising the status of both the future mech pilots and the families that produced them, the salaries and other compensation measures were highly attractive.

Average mech pilots already earned several times the amount of a well-educated civilian in most states!

Elite mech pilots and mech pilots enjoyed drastically higher remuneration than those sums!

So long as these mech pilots managed to survive their tours, they could easily retire in comfort and use their accumulated wealth to invest in a business or buy a big mansion.

Even if they died, their families and heirs would receive rich compensation. This had always been the custom in most states. After all, if the soldiers didn't feel they were being treated fairly by their employers, there was no way to motivate them to fight earnestly on the battlefield.

The maintaining the support and morale of their own mech pilots was a vital necessity to any state or group!

The Larkinson Clan was no different in this regard. As someone who grew up in the Larkinson Family, Ves knew how vital it was to make his own troops feel valued. He had personally ensured that the mech pilots in the clan received even more generous compensation packages than was the norm!

Yet what about Andraste?

"While all of this is good enough to encourage most of the mech pilots in our clan to make use of their talents and fight on my behalf, do I really need to send my daughter to the battlefield as well?"

Ves was different from the rank-and-file members of the clan. Though every Larkinson received generous treatment, they always desired more. Serving in the Larkinson Army was a good way to earn more precious rewards such as valuable augmentations quickly.

"My little girl doesn't have to go through all of that." Ves realized. "I can just buy or make what she needs."

Despite the irrelevance of the existing incentive structure for him and his daughter, a strong part of him still wanted to help his daughter become a successful mech pilot.

Why did he feel this way?

Why would he actively want to push his baby girl to risk her life on the battlefield when there were easily thousands of clansmen who were more than willing to take on this burden?