The Mech Touch

When the battle scenario ended, Ves transmitted a command that forcefully pulled Venerable Tusa and the Dark Zephyr out of the MSTS.

The reason why Ves visited the underground hangar bay in the first place was because he wanted to have a good talk with Tusa.

The expert pilot noticed what had happened and quickly powered down his expert mech.

"Heya Ves. Have you come to check out how we're faring after the latest upgrades?"

"That, and more, Tusa. First off, how are you doing in your personal life? Has becoming a father changed you in any way?"

A strained but loving expression appeared on his face. "Fatherhood can really change a man. I'm sure you know what I mean. I am not used to living my life while knowing that I'm responsible for a bunch of cute and needy little brats. I feel guilty each time I start my shifts when my kids are demanding attention. It doesn't help that my wife Ranya is even busier than considering that she needs to run an entire research institution."

As far as prominent couples went, Tusa and Ranya did not immediately come to mind.

However, the pairing between the sole expert light mech pilot and a director of the second-largest research and business operation of the Larkinson already elevated the pairing to the ranks of nobility in the clan!

Their children were bound to become exceptional due to all of the opportunities their wealthy and powerful parents were able to provide.

As much as Ves wanted to keep the Larkinson Clan as egalitarian as possible, situations like these were unavoidable over time. The higher-ranking clansmen possessed a lot more expertise and also earned higher salaries and benefits. They could pass on much of their superiority to their offspring.

Ves was guilty of the same behavior. It was unthinkable for him to raise Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine as if they were ordinary clansmen.

After chatting about the woes of parenting for a while, Ves addressed a more serious topic.

"I'm glad to see that you have taken well to the Dark Zephyr Version 2.0, but I can't help but see that you have spent an awful lot of time playing with the new transphasic high-explosive grenades in the MSTS."

"Is there anything wrong with that?" Tusa asked as he crossed his arms.

"I think I have reminded you over a dozen times how expensive they are. We can't even build them in-house, you know. We have to order a new batch of them at Morton Tech. It will be rather difficult to replenish our stock when our fleet is in the middle of the Trailblazer Expedition."

"Then our clan should stockpile more transphasic grenades. Problem solved."

"..."

"Look, would you rather lose a kilogram of phasewater or an entire capital ship?"

Ves would lose the former any day. A capital ship was too precious to the clan, especially given the enduring shortage of shipyard capacity and the necessity to maintain as much strength as possible in the new frontier.

"I'll see what I can do on short notice, but it won't be long before we formally launch the Trailblazer Expedition. There are only so many transphasic grenades that we can obtain. You will have to learn to be more frugal and make more use of the other grenade types that we have stocked. It's much easier for us to replenish our stores of conventional high-explosive grenades. There are also a couple of other useful grenade types that are useful in certain scenarios. Think of EMP grenades and particle cloud grenades.

"I'm already familiar with those grenades. They're easy to figure out and I've already mastered their use in my previous practice sessions. These transphasic grenades are much harder to use. They're powerful, I'll give you that, but they don't always work the same against different targets. It takes repeated practice to understand how to best put their power to use against different materials, different ship constructions, different alien defensive solutions and so on. You don't want me to toss a transphasic grenade against a weird alien starship only for it to get blocked because I did not know that this would happen, right?"

Ves grimaced. "I'll give you that, but don't let the ease of how many transphasic grenades you can toss around in the MSTS give you the impression that you can do the same in reality. I will personally decide how many transphasic grenades your mech comes equipped with per deployment. If the enemies are not threatening enough in my judgment, then you will just have to make do with the more regular grenade types. Do you understand?"

"Crystal clear."

"Even if you don't have access to the transphasic grenades, you're still a lot better off than before. You used to be frustrated all the time because you only had your daggers to rely upon to deal damage. Now, you can enter into battle with a formidable amount of explosives that can deal massive damage against larger groups of particularly tough opponents. Turning your expert mech into a grenadier has completely transformed your role on the battlefield, especially when we have paired your Dark Zephyr up with the Stiletto Drive."

Tusa smiled in return. "I suppose that I've become too spoiled as of late. I am truly grateful that you have addressed all of my feedback and adapted my expert light skirmisher to the battlefields of today. It's quite amazing how the addition of just two systems completely elevates my role. I am looking a lot more forward to putting all of my new possibilities to good use against our future enemies."

It pleased Ves to hear this. The Dark Zephyr was his first true expert mech design and one that would always have a special place in his heart.

Though Venerable Tusa had the privilege of being the first Larkinson expert pilot to obtain an expert mech, the subsequent machines that Ves had developed over the years heavily outclassed the Dark Zephyr with each subsequent addition.

Newer tech, higher design budgets, better skills and more extravagant materials all caused the Dark Zephyr to turn into the forgotten child of the class.

It didn't help that the Dark Zephyr was far short of reaching masterwork quality. Gloriana couldn't even give it hope of evolving into one because she needed to conduct a more thorough overhaul in order to turn it into a god body.

Given all of these disadvantages, Ves had done his best to shore up the value of the Dark Zephyr. Taking the additional steps of acquiring an expensive batch of transphasic grenades did much to dispel Venerable Tusa's dissatisfaction at his lack of power in battle!

Ves briefly wondered whether it was even wise for him to give Tusa another gift. He had already pampered his cousin a lot. From a management perspective, it might be best to keep any subsequent gifts in reserve and wait until Tusa needed to be placated again.

There were more factors at play, though. Ves had to take his safety and the safety of the clan into account as well.

Granting Tusa a powerful enlightenment fruit would power him up as quickly as possible, giving him plenty of time to master his new skills and abilities.

It would be too late to hand over an enlightenment fruit to Tusa on the eve of battle!

Ves decided to go through with this decision. He gestured for Tusa to follow him out of the hangar bay and move to the specialized isolation chamber that was built in the middle of the underground complex.

Once they reached the secure space, Ves made sure to close it up and deploy all of the jamming and other interference solutions.

Once he was satisfied, he raised his hand and conjured up a special enlightenment fruit. The dark and shadowy aura surrounding the fruit instantly caused the expert pilot to raise his vigilance.

"What is that, Ves? Is that one of the strange fruits grown by the T Institute that Ranya has mentioned to me lately?"

"It's not from the T Institute." Ves shook his head. "It's something different. This fruit… is a gift. I don't dare to explain what it is out loud, but I can guarantee you that it will be to your benefit if you eat it. This fruit will allow you to refine your combat approach and fight in a more specialized way."

Seeing that Ves was eager for Tusa to ingest the fruit, the expert pilot trusted his intuition that said that the patriarch did not mean to do any harm.

The fruit still made him feel uneasy, though. The expert pilot felt that more might change than he would like.

"What if I don't like what the fruit has to offer?"

"It is up to you whether you decide to accept everything. All I can say is that you should do your best to stay true to your heart. Absorb what you think is useful and helpful to you but maintain your skepticism against elements that do not sound so great to you. This fruit will undoubtedly impart a lot of material to you in a short amount of time, so you need to act quick and put your trust in yourself."

This answer hardly reassured the expert pilot. "Can I think about it, Ves?"

"I was thinking about saving it up for Andraste when she grows old enough to handle the fruit. The fact that I have considered this option should tell you how much value this fruit possesses. It can grant someone a fantastic opportunity to become stronger, both inside and outside of the cockpit. I have extended a great privilege to you by reserving it for your use. Is that enough?"

Venerable Tusa decided to take the fruit at this point. He hesitated for only a brief moment before he munched on it. It only took a few quick bites for him to swallow the surprisingly light fruit.

Soon, a strange torrent of shadowy energy erupted from his stomach and attempted to go straight into his mind and spirit!

His powerful force of will and formidable mental defenses stopped the fruit from doing its work.

"Let it through, Tusa. It's mostly information that you're getting."

When Tusa carefully lowered his mental defenses, he understood what Ves meant by those words.

His eyes widened as he immediately understood what he was getting. All kinds of information and knowledge about a remarkable weapon style and philosophy started to pour into his mind!

"This…!"

The Shadow Dance Dagger Style Fruit did not just impart knowledge, though. As a fruit that existed to prime an individual towards an extraordinary fighting style, it also injected Tusa with a quantity of shadow energy that attempted to merge with the expert pilot's spirit!

Ves paid careful attention to this process. He had already figured out that the Shadow Dance Style could only fully be utilized by a practitioner that possessed a large affinity with the element of shadow.

Even a less intensive use of this special fighting style also demanded at least a bit of familiarity with shadow energy!

Tusa's original domain consisted of evasion and freedom of movement. Shadow did not play an obvious role in his fighting style and his philosophy towards life.

He understood that he had to make a difficult decision. Should he embrace the power of shadows and make the best use of the fruit that he ingested, or should he preserve everything that made up his current self?

He closed his eyes and made his choice.

In the end, Tusa chose to integrate a bit of shadow energy but reject the remainder.

This was a compromise decision where he only accepted a minimal amount of influence from the shadow element. This was just enough for him to understand the essence of the Shadow Dance Style but not enough for his personality to change overnight.

It was a pity that his reluctant embrace of shadow would prevent him from using the Shadow Dance Style to its full potential. Not only would every extraordinary move be lacking in power, the expert pilot would also be unable to pull off the most advanced and intensive killer moves of this new fighting style!

Apparently, that was fine with Venerable Tusa. Just like many other expert pilots, he had already made a lot of progress into building his own fighting style and approach. He was confident that he could morph the Shadow Dance Style into a version that embodied his own strengths!

"How powerful!" Tusa uttered with amazement. "I finally understand why those Swordmaidens and Heavensworders are so obsessed with deep and profound swordsmanship. I can potentially defeat opponents that are twice or thrice as myself if I practice this new style!"