The Mech Touch

Casella and Imon Ingvar were hardly the only people who explored the strange ideals and practices of the Gemini Family.

Many other Larkinsons in the expeditionary fleet also began to get pulled into uncomfortable conversations.

It was as if the upcoming assault on the Palace of Shame took a backseat to discussing the merits of breaking the taboo on intimate relationships between siblings!

The discussion became so widespread that even the children started to overhear what the adults were talking about!

For example, when Marvaine was sitting in a playroom, one of his sisters hopped inside.

"Mar-Vaine~! There you are! What are you doing, little bro?"

Marvaine did not bother to turn around and look up. Instead, he continued to play with the animated exobeast plushies that continued to make all kinds of cute noises.

"Prince Longfang here is about to defeat and dethrone King Snugglepants so that the Beast Kingdom will have a new leader!" He exclaimed!

Andraste stared at the orange and purple plushies and grew disinterested in them. None of these juvenile toys interested her that much anymore. She would rather play with cool and awesome mech toys like the Dark Witch mech figurine her parents had recently bought for her. Mechs were much cooler than alien beasts!

"That's interesting. Say, little bro, do you want to try out something new? I just heard our mama talk about something really fun with Nanny Shannon."

A small shudder ran through Marvaine's juvenile body. He began to get a bad feeling about this, especially when her sister began to show a devious grin!

"Uhm, the Beast Kingdom still needs to depose its old king. Can it wait, sister?"

"Nuh-uh! I can't wait! Let's do it right now! I even brought candy!"

Marvaine immediately perked up when he heard the word candy. He no longer paid attention to his exobeast plushies anymore.

"What did you bring this time, sister?"

"I saved up a few pieces of Uncle Garvey's gummy bears. Look, here's a strawberry-flavored one. It's your favorite!"

Andraste sweetly placed the gummy bear in question into Marvaine's palm.

The boy had no patience and immediately popped the candy into his mouth.

His sister did the same with her own portion.

"Mmmhmm…"

Just as Marvaine began to chew his strawberry-flavored gummy bear, Andraste grabbed his shoulders and leaned forward.

"Wait, what are you doing, sister?"

"Open your mouth for me, Marvaine."

"B-But I haven't chewed my gummy bear yet!" The boy objected.

"Just do what your big sister asks!"

Marvaine opened his mouth by reflex after hearing Andraste's commanding tone.

The older of the two siblings grinned wider. Seeing that her brother was nice enough to cooperate, she no longer held herself back and began to lean closer so that she could try out the exotic Gemini Family ritual for herself!

"MIAOW!"

Yet just before her lips touched the lips of her brother, a cat suddenly interspersed between the two siblings and pushed them away from each other!

"Ow!"

"Ouch! Clixie! What are you doing!?"

"MIAOOOOOW!"

The Rubarthan Sentinel Cat acted as if she had just saved Andraste and Marvaine from killing themselves!

Andraste wasn't so deterred and tried to complete her naughty little plan.

"Go away, Clixie. Why aren't you staying with my big sister? Move aside so that I can finish what I started with my lil bro."

"Miaow!" Clixie hissed as she continually used her formidable strength to nudge and push Andraste's body away from her bewildered brother.

"Uhm, I think we should listen to what Clixie has to say." Marvaine said after he greedily chewed and swallowed the strawberry-flavored gummy bear. "Papa always said that we should listen to her if he and our mama aren't around."

"Well, mama never told us that! She said that humans like us should always be in charge. Clixie is just a pet!"

Marvaine shook his head. "Clixie is family, and she's older than us. If she thinks that something is wrong, then we should stop."

"No! I was so close! Damn you, Clixie!"

"Miaow miaow!"

Though the interruption of an unwelcome cat had spoiled Andraste's plan, she did not give up so easily.

She planned to wait until it was bedtime. Perhaps Andraste might be able to sneak into her brother's bed and restart her plan while Clixie was getting cuddled by Aurelia!

Yet before she could think about her plan any further, a furious-looking mother barged into her room!

"ANDRASTE! Explain yourself this instant!"

Uh oh!

As someone who grew up under a demanding mother for numerous years, Andraste knew exactly how much trouble she was in right now. Gloriana rarely used this tone on her unless she truly broke the line!

Fortunately, not many children were as naughty and adventurous as Andraste.

Time moved on. When the delegates finally returned to their respective ships, the coalition had formally taken shape!

All of the pioneering fleets gathered in the quiet star system were scheduled to depart shortly afterwards.

None of the groups needed to make any further preparations as they were already fairly combat ready to begin with. The crews and soldiers just needed to spend a bit of time on making more specific preparations that could slightly further their chances of performing well in the upcoming operation.

They still had plenty of time to do so while the fleets journeyed to their next destination.

When Ves finally returned to his grand stateroom, he first approached his children and kissed each of them on the top of their heads.

"I missed you, Aurelia."

"I missed you, Andraste."

"I missed you, Marvaine."

Though the Gemini Family was filled with love and affection, Ves never truly felt at home while he was staying aboard the Twin Refuge.

The sheer amount of twin brothers and sisters openly treated each other in ways that defied the family norms that the Larkinson Family and the Bright Republic instilled into Ves when he was young.

Though Ves had grown old enough to be able to question some of his biases, the Gemini Family did not manage to convince him that it was okay for close siblings to start treating each other as lovers.

This was a bridge that Ves simply couldn't cross!

As Ves tried his best to wipe away some of the more expressive images from his memory, he noticed that his second child looked a little glum.

"What's wrong, Andraste?"

"Nothing." The red-haired girl grumbled in response.

Though he sensed that not everything was alright at the moment, Andraste refused to say why she was feeling upset.

"Ves." Gloriana spoke as she tapped her foot against the deck. "I hope you did not come back from the Gemini Family's fleet with strange ideas in mind. I don't want you to corrupt our children with deviant notions on how they should treat each other. In fact, I don't want to spend any further time with this revolting group. Please tell me that our clan and alliance decided to decline the offer and move on. Please tell me that you have made the wiser decision this time."

It sounds as if Gloriana still couldn't move past her strong dislike of the Gemini Family. That would make the following discussion harder.

"Uhm, I hate to break it to you, but… the Golden Skull Alliance along with the other groups that have gathered here has decided to attack the alien asteroid base. The benefits are just too good to pass up, and we are confident that our forces can make short work of the pirate warships."

"WHAT?!"

It took a while for Gloriana to vent her feelings on this decision. Ves had already gestured for Lucky and Clixie to take the children elsewhere so that he could give his wife an update in private.

After Gloriana completed her usual rant, both she and her husband sat down on a couch.

"Tell me the details." She commanded. "What has convinced you to keep tolerating the Gemini Family's antics and commit to this attack?"

"The Geminis are alright." Ves said. "Wait, before you say anything, I don't agree with their personal views, but that isn't really relevant here. They have studied their target carefully and they have formed a good plan to assault the Palace of Shame."

Ves subsequently outlined the attack plan and talked about the spoils that they expected to obtain.

Aside from plundering a heap of phasewater as well as an abundant sample of alien technology, he also emphasized the possibility of obtaining powerful alien relics that the Palace of Shame had hidden for centuries!

Unlike the excitement welling up inside Ves' heart, his wife did not put much stock in this claim.

"That's it? I can understand why you are attracted by the prospect of looting a hundred kilograms of phasewater, but you just told me that this valuable resource is spread among many scattered pirate groups. I seriously doubt whether you can gather them all when the pirates scatter in every direction."

Ves smirked. "Ah, but that's where you are wrong. We have enough forces to form an effective blockade."

"What if the enemy ships engage their warp drives?"

"That's not a problem for the most part. The Palace of Shame is situated in the middle of a dense asteroid belt. Not only is this a good hiding place, but it also makes it a lot more difficult to engage in warp travel as there are too many asteroids in the way. The alien ships that are deep inside the belt need to navigate through all of the rocks in the way before they can safely leave the star system."

"What if some of the ships possess a more advanced warp drive that can ignore the obstacles in the way?"

"We already prepared a solution for that as well. No vessel will be allowed to form a warp travel on our watch. We are truly serious about stopping every single ship and vessel that tries to flee from our encirclement. Everything they carry will eventually fall into our coalition's hands."

"Then what of the supposed secret alien relics that you are all trying to plunder from the Palace of Shame?" Gloriana skeptically asked. "Do you even know whether such valuables exists in the first place."

"No."

"You mean you don't know?! Have the Geminis told you nothing!?"

"The Gemini Family has shared what little intelligence they collected about it. They truly know nothing more. All they have is scattered clues that the Palace of Shame hides an ancient secret that is valuable enough to make all of those powerful pirates stay in place even as many other aliens from the surrounding regions have departed human-occupied territories."

Ves ultimately did not believe that the orvens and all of the other aliens chose to stay deep in enemy territory because of irrational reasons.

There were theories that all of those alien pirate groups stayed because they were religious fanatics, doomsday cultists or simply afraid that the alien space police would come and execute them for escaping their 'prison'.

He didn't think that any of these reasons could convince so many different alien races with drastically different personality traits and cultures.

There had to be a strong logical reason why all of those selfish criminals chose to remain so deep in a region that became increasingly more human!

His wife wasn't as optimistic, though. "In other words, you don't know anything. Great. Did you at least ask your intangible crystal ball whether this Palace of Shame truly contains any worthwhile relics?"

"I did, but he did not give me an answer, which is nothing new." Ves replied. "All that means is that we should handle this situation by relying on our own judgment. In my case, that means playing along with the Geminis."

"Do you trust these people?"

Ves smiled. "They're definitely holding back relevant information, so they haven't been entirely forthcoming to us. On the other hand, they are all sincere about our chances of success and the spoils we can expect to gain. They are excited, Gloriana. They don't think the opposition can do anything to stop them from taking what they want, especially since we have gathered so many ace mechs. Some of the enemy warships may pack a notable punch, but I don't think those indigenous aliens have ever handled anything comparable to a machine piloted by a Saint, let alone seven of them at the same time!"