The Mech Touch

Just as the name suggested, Pentahull Station was made up of five different capital ships that had tightly integrated with each other to form one large space construct.

On the one hand, Pentahull Station technically functioned as a single whole. The hulls were designed in a way that allowed them to reduce the barriers between them as much as possible in order to present the illusion that it was one big happy place.

The Pentahull Coalition maintained a common set of rules that applied to the entire station, so most people did not have to worry about watching their behavior after crossing over to a different hull.

On the other hand, there were definitely a lot of distinctions between the different station sections.

Every capital ship that made up Pentahull Station featured vastly different cultures, aesthetics, venues and layouts. They were like cities that had been plucked from random star systems before being mashed together without too much regard for whether they matched each other.

The people manning the shops and keeping the peace in a particular hull predominantly came from the coalition partner that owned and operated the capital ship in question. This led to moderate differences in how the locals interacted with the guests and how they interpreted the rules.

Relations Manager Reynard Clarke of the Clark Clan decided to start off the tour with a flyover.

He led Ves and his little family to a sightseeing shuttle reserved for the purpose. The vehicle gently took off and soared into the open skies of the enormous internal space of Pentahull Station.

Of course, a small escort of Larkinson mechs accompanied the vehicle. The First Sword along with an Avatar mech flanked the tourist shuttle, which was a highly unusual sight in Pentahull Station as the only mechs allowed to patrol inside belonged to the Pentahull Coalition.

The Larkinson Clan was one of the few groups of visitors to have ever received such a rare exemption!

The sight from up high was incredible. Though a lot of structures, monuments and other sights were situated in the distance, Ves already gained a quick preview of the rich variety of culture and architecture available for visitors to enjoy.

"Ohh! Look! The floor is see-through!" Andraste exclaimed as she lowered herself to her knees and pressed her covered hands on the surface.

The other two children gathered around and dropped and began to make exciting sounds as they admired the changing views.

Reynard Clarke smiled as he began to narrate the origin of the frontier space station.

"Pentahull Station is an initiative formed by five different groups from different parts of the old galaxy, our Clarke Clan included. Prior to forming our coalition, we were strangers to each other. We all resided in our own star sectors without having any ideas to team up with groups that are too far away to effectively work together."

"I suppose the opening of the Red Ocean changed all of that." Ves astutely commented.

"That is correct, patriarch." Reynard affirmed. "To be more precise, it is the establishments of beyonder gates that have introduced an epochal change to our society. Even if the Big Two ended up keeping the Red Ocean to themselves, human civilization was already becoming more connected as distant parties could suddenly meet each other in reality in a matter of months rather than decades."

He was right. Ves did not really think too much about this because he and his clan emigrated from the old galaxy to the new frontier as quickly as possible.

This caused him to become separated from the Milky Way which was continuing to change at a rapid tempo due to many different civilization-wide events such as the Crown Uprising and the construction of the Milky Way Galactic Gate Network.

The latter was definitely the most shocking development in the old galaxy!

While the Crown Uprising petered out after a few years, the ripple effects created by the placement of many different lesser beyonder gates across human-occupied space continued to snowball with each passing day!

Whereas the pioneers of the new frontier had become obsessed with utilizing phasewater to upgrade their war-making potential, the established powers from the old galaxy were mostly preoccupied with taking advantage of the brand-new transportation channels opened up by all of the new beyonder gates.

Reynard turned and gazed down at the structures that were part of the hull owned by his clan.

"We always had the galactic net to connect with people from all across human space, but that has never brought us much closer to people from the other side of the old galaxy due to how much time it takes to cross these distances. The recent changes at the start of the current mech generation changed all of that. Our Clarke Clan recognized some of the new opportunities earlier than our peers. We decided to take action as soon as possible, but quickly concluded that we did not have the numbers or resources to start an ambitious enterprise in the Red Ocean by ourselves."

"Well, it makes sense for you to team up with other groups." Ves remarked. "How come you decided to band together with four other pioneers that are located far away from you? Isn't it easier for you to team up with friends who are closer at hand?"

The relations manager gave the Larkinson Patriarch a wry smile. "Our Clarke Clan doesn't have that many friends back in our old home. The same goes for our coalition partners. Each of us were not in the best of situations. Instead of opening ourselves up to our neighbors that may have conflicts of interest with us, we instead sought out like-minded strangers on the galactic net that have no reason to be hostile to us. Through our shared values and goals, we decided to form the Pentahull Coalition and use our own means to commission five new capital ships in our own home star sectors. That has all led to what you see around you. Doesn't it sound amazing?"

Ves understood more than most people how impressive it was to forge a close cooperation between those who were complete strangers to each other just a decade ago. The Clarke Clan and the four other coalition partners involved in this venture had to show a great amount of trust that everyone else would stick to the plan and cooperate with each other over the long term.

Though the coalition partners undoubtedly formalized their cooperation by signing contracts that were enforced by the MTA, that still couldn't prevent every potential disaster.

It still remained to be seen whether the Pentahull Coalition would be able to stay in one piece after a decade, but Ves wished the Clarkes and their new pals the best of luck.

Reynard Clarke continued to explain what happened after that. Unlike the Golden Skull Alliance, the Pentahull Coalition did not fool around as much and only spent a short amount of time upgrading their most essential assets to Red Ocean standards before starting their business operations in the Krakatoa Middle Zone.

Given the lack of colonies, trade hubs and other forms of civilizations in human-occupied space, Pentahull Station soon found success in fulfilling an urgent need. Many pioneers eagerly took advantage of the safe harbor provided by the frontier space station that just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Pentahull Station mainly earned a profit by charging higher fees and setting higher prices for its goods and services.

The fact that the coalition partners owned almost all of the businesses operating on their respective hulls allowed them to capture most of the profits generated by their activities.

Though Ves wasn't overly impressed with the earning power of this venture, it was remarkably stable and allowed the coalition partners to get in touch with all kinds of pioneers.

There was an air of adventure around Pentahull Station as it most often roamed the more remote and less secure regions of the new frontier.

A part of Ves wished that his clan had been a part of the Pentahull Coalition. He imagined that he would come across a lot more excitement than holing up in Davute all the time.

Still, it was not as if the Golden Skull Alliance was any worse. Ves built up excellent bonds of trust with his two allies and they were almost just as willing to explore the deep frontier as him. The lack of a large and lumbering semi-modular space station meant that their expeditionary fleet was a lot more nimble and mobile.

In the end, while Ves admired what the Clarke Clan had accomplished, he believed that his Larkinson Clan did not follow the wrong trajectory.

Everyone had their own paths. There was no need for Ves to grow envious at another group's success when he was doing more than fine himself.

Reynard Clarke began to explain the structure of Pentahull Station.

"As you can see all around you, our station is formed out of five different hulls. They are the Armidia of the Clarke Clan, the ReVez II of the Bonsai Company, the Silverbore of the Travis Group, the Otus Reconstructor of SCQ Incorporated and the Samir Ohansa of the Vhunan-Royce Family. The layout and the architecture of our hulls generally correspond to the cultures where we originally came from. Our coalition considers that to be an advantage because Pentahull Station has something to offer to almost every human."

Ves nodded in understanding. The strength of the Pentahull Coalition was that it was a mashup between partners that all differed a lot from each other. They were all good at marketing themselves to the kind of customers that were similar to the ones they dealt back in their native star sectors in the old galaxy.

"Tell me about your Clarke Clan, please." Ves requested. "What do you excel at compared to the other four partners of your coalition?"

The representative gestured down below. "Our Armidia offers a friendly and highly regulated location for people who have accumulated a great amount of stress to recuperate in a safe environment. We come from a fairly plain and unexciting part of the old galaxy, and our hull environment reflects that. We have the most family friendly sections and our soldiers strongly abide by their honor. We also have strong taboos and we do not engage in more unseemly business activities. Fans of bloodsport and red light districts will have better luck at the other hulls."

"What's a red light district, mama?" Andraste curiously asked as she looked up at her mother.

"You don't need to know that!" Gloriana quickly replied as she bent down to lift her second daughter. "Do you want to go shopping, my dear? There are many stores down here. I found out that some of them even sell exclusive handcrafted toys! Doesn't that sound fun?"

"Papa and mama already make the best toys, hihihi!"

"You're so right!" Gloriana grinned with pride. "We'll still go shopping though. You might not need any new toys, but mama also has needs."

While Gloriana took care of the kids, Ves continued to learn more about the Clarke Clan from one of their own. Reynard Clarke certainly went out of his way to portray his side in the best possible light.

"Our Clarke Clan actually shares much in common with your Larkinson Clan." The man claimed. "Oh, our histories are vastly different and our original homes are separated far away from each other, but our values and our heritage have much in common with each other. Do you know why that is so, Patriarch Larkinson?"

Now that sounded interesting. Ves wasn't sure where Reynard was going with this argument.

"Uhm, no. I haven't read too much about your clan."

"Well, let me give you the answer. The reason why we hold similar values is because we share a common root. You see, our Clarke Clan originated from the New Rubarth Empire, just like the Larkinson Family which your clan is derived from. Isn't it a nice coincidence that our respective clans are closer to each other than what is apparent on the surface?"