The Mech Touch

A fire lit up inside Ves.

Ever since he conceived of a major and more goal-oriented expedition, he became completely enamored by all of the possible gains he could make from this epic adventure.

Just like his prior grand expedition and past campaigns, he could obtain a wealth of benefits by exploring places where few dared to travel!

Though Ves already planned to take his fleet out of the comfortable and increasingly more prosperous Davute System in order to resume his explorations of the Red Ocean, he had never seriously spent much time on planning and setting expectations.

There was even a part of Ves that told him that he had fought enough battles and risked his life plenty of times already.

Now that he had become the most prominent and successful Journeyman in the Krakatoa Middle Zone, there was no need for him to take insane risks in order to get ahead.

If he just focused on researching and improving his existing set of solutions and possibilities, he had no doubt that he could evolve his current product offerings to a higher level.

"As a father, I owe it to my children not to make them suffer due to my mistakes…"

His sense of duty as a parent held him back from committing to this brand-new expedition.

Yet that only lasted a brief time.

The fire that sparked within his heart could not be snuffed!

"I truly have to go out there!"

The benefits were too great even if the risks were vastly increased as well. The main reason why he persisted with this new plan was because he was confident his combined fleet and forces were much better equipped to face the challenges of the new frontier than before!

"Even if I drag my wife and all of my children along with me, I will still be confident it willbe okay!"

His clan had made an enormous leap in strength during this past year and there was still plenty more time to go before his intended departure time.

As long as the Larkinson Clan and its allies put more effort into rearming and expanding its combat forces, there was no doubt that they could form a formidable expeditionary fleet that could smash enemies that were ten times stronger than the enemies they faced before!

This gave him enough assurances that he would be able to protect his wife and kids even if he brought his fleet awfully close to the frontlines where the Big Two's warfleets were fighting intensely against the increasingly more united indigineous alien opposition!

Ves became so driven by this new initiative that he quickly activated his desk terminal and began to structure his thoughts and intentions into an initial document.

Just because he decided to go on a second major expedition didn't mean it would happen in a heartbeat. His clan had grown much larger and his allies had also grown substantially more powerful.

Not only did he need to gain the support of his clansmen and convince them that this was a great idea, he also had to persuade his other stakeholders such as the Crossers and the Glory Seekers to go along with his bold new venture.

"That is going to take a bit of effort." He frowned.

Despite the opposition that his new expedition would evoke, Ves was determined to push through his plans!

This was the first time that he became passionate about his next major expedition!

Regardless of whether he wanted to earn enough MTA merits to obtain an audience with Divine Hussain Albedo, he could expect to obtain a lot more gains from such a lengthy and exciting trip!

"Meow…"

While Lucky kept demanding more attention, Ves continued to formulate a framework of an expedition that would last at least several years.

One of his most important demands was that he did not want to return to civilization too frequently.

It was a big waste of time to travel to unexplored space, stay for a few months and then head back to Davute in order to repair and resupply.

"If possible, we should bring enough supplies and try our best to extend our operation time by scavenging or mining the resources needed to keep our fleet running."

In other words, Ves needed to make sure to beef up the logistical elements of his expeditionary fleet.

"My forces must be as self-sufficient as possible!"

Alongside bringing along additional production and repair vessels, Ves also needed to stockpile a huge amount of supplies that could not be reproduced aboard the fleet.

"I can't forget about manpower as well."

There had been times where Ves had been limited in what he could do due to lacking enough mech pilots or technical personnel.

The great thing about starships was that their personnel capacity was quite flexible. The clan would not impose an unreasonable burden on a typical starship by crewing her with four times the amount of personnel needed to run her operations.

If necessary, the clan could even upgrade its ships so that they could accommodate even more crew and passengers!

"A lot more people have arrived in the Red Ocean as of late. We should have no trouble hiring the manpower we need."

A lot of people wanted to travel to the Red Ocean, but the difficulty of entering it was too great for most individuals.

However, as more and more traffic flowed through the greater beyonder gates, plenty of enterprising companies have adopted business models that proved to be surprisingly profitable!

Their arrangements were quite simple. They took huge mass conveyors and initially filled them with compact passenger accommodation.

Once titanic cargo ships that temporarily moon-lighted as makeshift passenger liners were stuffed with as many paying customers as possible, they transited to the Red Ocean and subsequently dumped their human payloads into central star nodes such as the Vulit System.

The ships subsequently ditched their passenger modules and proceeded to fill their hulls with phasewater and other rare and unique goods and materials that were exclusively available in the new frontier.

The vessels then retraced their steps and transited all the way back to the Milky Way where they subsequently unloaded their precious cargo and earned a massive profit from the trip!

Ves had heard that the major trading companies responsible for setting up this costly rotation managed to secure preferential treatment from the Gate Consortium.

Otherwise, there was no way that these trading convoys could repeatedly pass through the greater beyonder gates. The cost in MTA merits was too great to sustain the volume of traffic!

"What else do I need to take into account?"

When he thought of the strength and preparation of the Larkinson Clan, the Cross Clan and the Glory Seekers, he became somewhat confident in their ability to handle unexpected situations.

"Yet… what if that's not enough?"

The dangers of venturing too close to the active front lines were well-known. There was no shortage of daredevil pioneers who saw great profit in plundering the star systems that had recently been swept by the Big Two's warfleets.

The MTA and CFA only cared about smashing apart organized opposition and major population centers. Since their forces needed to sweep through a lot of territory, they simply did not have the time to thoroughly scour and salvage anything of value from the places they had just conquered.

This presented a lot of lucrative opportunities to the scavenger fleets that hungrily descended upon these freshly bombarded star systems.

The huge hauls that these scavenger fleets brought back to port systems such as Davute produced a lot of success stories.

Even if their profits did not match the value of the plunder that the Golden Skull Alliance brought back from the Garimel System, Ves had definitely noticed the arrival of pioneers who managed to rise to prosperity in a single leap due to winning their bold gambles!

"However, the scavengers that eventually manage to return with their ships intact are not among the majority."

The threat of alien reprisal was quite great as many remnant alien forces regularly slipped through the Big Two's net.

Aside from that, infighting was quite frequent among the scavenger fleets. The situation got especially ugly when multiple groups descended onto a single planet!

Though Ves was confident that few would dare to attack his own expeditionary fleet when it was helmed by an ace pilot with a cutting-edge transphasic ace mech, who knew if he stumbled upon another major player.

If he wanted to obtain more assurances, then expanding his fleet by bringing along additional forces was a viable proposal!

There were huge issues, though. Trust was the number one concern. Ves and many others in the alliance were extremely reluctant to expand their military alliance with a party that had not shared their struggles and did not prove their loyalty and commitment to promises.

This was why there had been no news about expanding the Golden Skull Alliance after all this time.

Occasionally, Minister Shederin Purnesse came and brought up several potential candidates to Ves, but there were always reasons to reject their entry into the alliance.

"Maybe I've been too harsh. Do you think we should expand the Golden Skull Alliance, Lucky?"

"Meow."

"Is that so? You make a good point."

If he could find a way to share the burden and gain tens of thousands of additional mechs to his expeditionary fleet, then that would increase his chances of returning while preserving his life and the lives of his children!

Compared to this benefit, the potential costs and complications were much less concerning. Ves did not mind splitting the profit to more parties if that was what it took to crush stronger enemies.

As Ves finalized his initial framework, he called in his three most trusted and insightful advisors to his office.

"General Verle. Director Calabast. Minister Shederin. Come take a seat and tell me your first impressions."

As the three senior leaders of the Larkinson Clan proceeded to do just that, their expressions quickly changed in different ways.

Ves paid close attention to each of their expressions.

Unfortunately, he did not get much out of this little test as he wished.

Calabast possessed such great control over her body language and emotions that Ves couldn't glean any reliable clues from her behavior!

Shederin was the same, but he expressly crafted a response that expressed mild surprise that might overstate or understate his actual thoughts.

Only General Verle was fairly honest about his initial reaction. The military leader frowned as he read through elements that troubled him for one reason or another.

"I have no objections to committing to another expedition." The general began. "You have made your intentions regarding the need to keep our clan active and on the move quite clear from the beginning. However, I was under the impression that once we finished our recuperation in Davute, we would venture into the hinterland regions of Krakatoa. There is still a great amount of unexplored and underexplored star systems in our current zone. While the chances of making gains are lower, the risks of encountering overwhelming alien opposition is much lower as well. The risks are much more manageable for these reasons. Now I find out that you want to travel to the border where fights between humans and aliens are much more frequent."

"Is there a problem with that, general?"

"The risk factors are much greater the closer we travel to the frontlines of humanity's ongoing conquest of the Red Ocean, Ves! I'm not talking about bumping into refugee fleets or remnant military vessels that are already on their last legs. There is a realistic possibility that we may get cornered by a complete and intact forward echelon alien warfleet, one that is formed to fight against MTA and CFA warfleets! Their strength and technological prowess is far beyond what we can handle even if we can count on the support of a friendly ace pilot!"

These were realistic concerns. Ves could not easily account for this scary possibility.