The Mech Touch

"The most ridiculous aspect of it all is that you deliberately exploited the fault-lines of the Vulcan Empire for the sole reason that the Vulcanites have rejected your entry into their space." The CFA captain added.

"We had free passage!" Ves complained! "We had a pass from the MTA, but the Vulcanites chose to violate the rules first and attack my fleet without any justification! Is it justified for me to let that go? They attacked me and my alliance, so that gives me the right to strike back at the Vulcan Empire! It's not my fault that they couldn't take my blows as well as I was able to take theirs."

Captain Reze crossed his arms. "Is it so hard for you to make contact with a friendly and sympathetic dwarven group to take up your quest on your behalf? You could have contracted a group of dwarven agents that could travel to your original destination."

"That wouldn't have worked." Ves shook his head. "I have no power over any dwarves. How can I ensure they hand over the treasure to me without attempting to take it for themselves? In fact, I bet the mechers would find out about the Timpala Steel somehow and claim this extremely valuable resource for themselves! It had to be me to make contact with it. As long as I can reach its hidden location and absorb it on the spot, I can minimize the chance of any interception, whether it is from the dwarves or from the mechers. Besides, it turned out that the Iron Emperor and his pet ace pilot had been waiting for me all along. The dwarven emperor would have taken the Timpala Steel before any of my hired agents could get out of the star system!"

The CFA officer looked disappointed.

"All of this may sound logical from your perspective, but you are completely ignoring the immense amount of suffering that your selfish actions have inflicted on the greater population. Have you ever thought about forgoing the retrieval of the Timpala Steel and resume your journey to the Red Ocean? Not every prize is worth the sacrifice. Not every coin on the street has to be picked up by you. Letting go of opportunities takes just as much courage, Mr. Larkinson."

Ves snorted. "Yeah, right. If I held that mentality, then I would have remained a mediocre Apprentice Mech Designer who is still struggling to reach Journeyman back in the Bright Republic or some other worthless third-rate state. No thanks, captain. I am not in the habit of sowing death and destruction for my own amusement, but if a group of hostiles stand in the way between me and my goal, then it is their fault for losing in a confrontation against me. Those Vulcanites you are trying to portray as victims are anything but bloodless. They have bullied many different human groups in the past. They shouldn't complain when the tall folk that they have disparaged and attacked so many times decided to answer their provocations!"

Captain Zonrad Reze threw a disbelieving look at Ves.

"Have you forgotten about your role in founding the Vulcan Empire in the first place?"

The surroundings changed to show the mines of Desala X. It showed how a mining camp underwent upheaval as the dwarven rebels broke out and fought against the human camp guards.

"Using Rion Aaden as your puppet, you directly agitated and fermented rebellion against the owners of this underground mine." Captain Reze continued. "While it is noble for you to lend your aid to the cause of these underprivileged dwarves, you did so in the ugliest fashion possible. You used that Devil Tongue of yours to fill their minds with crude and anti-human propaganda that you don't even believe in. You even dressed yourself up as Vulcan, the God of Mechs, Dwarves and Craftsmanship. After all of the damage you have done to the Vulcanites, you even had the audacity to hijack the center of their faith and claim it as your own! Do you feel no shame, Mr Larkinson?!"

Despite the CFA officer's thunderous tone, Ves did not feel guilty in the slightest. The events that took place around him might as well be a drama show in his eyes.

He waved his arms around the current environment. "Look at these dwarven rebels. Do they look as if they could become founders of a powerful all-dwarven state one day? No reasonable person would have thought that these bunch of barely literate, uneducated dwarven mining serfs would succeed in toppling not just one, but every other state in the Smiling Samuel Star Sector!"

"And that matters because…?"

"Don't play coy with me, captain." Ves sneered. "I only had suspicions before, but now that I have a better understanding how the MTA operates, I am 100 percent certain of my guess. The Vulcan Empire is nothing but an experiment."

"An experiment?"

Ves nodded with certainty. "Yes. A powerful official from the Association took advantage of the dwarven rebels that arrived with a sample of Timapala Steel in their hands and facilitated the ambitions of the escapees. Every step of the way, those bumbling dwarven fools received just the right help to advance their cause but not enough to expose the meddling from an MTA official. Eventually, the dwarven rebels succeeded in their cause and founded the Vulcan Empire, but it is not through my hand they succeeded, but that of an arm of the MTA!"

"So your answer to this matter is that the Mech Trade Association is responsible because they oversee the Smiling Samuel Star Sector and regulate it as necessary. That is not a strong argument, Mr. Larkinson. The MTA oversees every region of human space. It is part of their mandate. The conspiracy theory you are espousing may be plausible enough to be true, but you were the person who granted the dwarves their first strong objects of faith. You should have known those weak dwarves wouldn't have been able to divest themselves from the radical beliefs that you have imparted into their heads."

"I sincerely doubt the MTA cannot handle a bunch of dwarves." Ves retorted. "The mastermind had every opportunity to steer the Vulcanites into a moderate direction, but instead encouraged them to become more radical about their anti-human beliefs. If anything, you should look to accuse this fellow for setting up the Vulcan Empire to fail. All I did was help a bunch of captive dwarves break out of their prison planet. What they did after that is none of my business."

"Is that your answer to this entire affair, then? You continue to stick to your tried-and-true solution of passing off responsibility to other scapegoats, thereby completely denying your own culpability in the process?"

Ves proudly nodded. "Yup. Hey, if it works, it works. Look, I admit that I may not have behaved as neatly as I could have, but I was practically working under duress! The System practically pushed me into obtaining the Timpala Steel at all cost. If anyone or anything deserves to bear the ultimate fault, it is the Mech Designer System! It is the System that pushed me into this life. It is the System that pulled me into Rion Aaden's mind when I just wanted to enjoy a calm and relaxing Mastery experience. It is the System that wordlessly blackmailed me into fetching the TImpala Steel that it had initially found. In the end, it was the System who benefited the most from this disaster!"

"..."

The CFA captain did not even deign to respond to such an absurd line of reasoning.

"Very well." Conrad Reze eventually said. "Since you are adamant about admitting your guilt on these affairs, let us address an issue that is more directly tied to your work."

The surroundings changed to show a random space battle in an unknown star system.

Ves initially didn't know what the fight was all about, but he quickly figured out that a powerful group of aggressors were assaulting what appears to be a civilian refugee fleet.

While the latter possessed a sizable escort, the attacking force happened to possess a clear advantage.

The reason why the attackers gained the upper hand was because they fielded living mechs while the defenders of the refugee fleet did not have that privilege!

Ves could see how Desolate Soldiers worked to stiffen the hearts of mech pilots as they launched attacks against harmless vessels that were filled to the brim with ordinary people.

He could see how a group of Ferocious Piranhas surrounded the flagship of the refugee fleet. Their oppressive and disorienting glows paralyzed and disabled most of the crew, allowing the vessel to be captured intact!

"Hey, that's a good tactic. I should note that down." Ves whispered to himself.

The scene changed again. This time, it showed the invasion of a planet by a hostile state.

Planetary invasions were often brutal, especially when the local citizens armed themselves to resist the incoming occupiers.

Yet as the residents of the captured areas commenced their noble opposition, the Pacifiers designed by Ves showed up whenever an incident occurred!

The rebels who fought desperately against the violent and murderous invaders fell into artificial tranquility as the Pacifiers swooped in and doused the surroundings with their glows.

Though not all of the rebels ceased their struggle, enough of them had lost will to fight, causing them to become easy pickings!

Similar scenarios came into view. Ves saw on and on how different groups of customers made use of living mechs for purposes that were less than honorable.

"Okay. I get what is going on." Ves flatly said. "Are you attempting to lay the guilt of their crimes on my feet?"

Captain Reze nodded. "Do you not feel any responsibility for their actions? You may not be the man who pulled the trigger, but you are still the person who handed the actual culprits weapons that are far too destructive for their own good. Do you not see the parallels between what you are doing and what has led to the end of the Age of Conquest? Humanity back then almost ruined itself due to wielding too much power than they are equipped to handle. Your unbridled hunger and desire to design mechs that are more combat effective than your previous works will lead to consequences that are so dire that entire wars will be fought with your living mechs as a catalyst. Do not even get me started on your other 'inventions' that have an even greater chance to detonate humanity."

Ves huffed and shook his head. "You should have started with this to begin with. What you are talking about is small fry compared to what you had brought up earlier. If I follow your line of reasoning, then pretty much every mech designer should resign from their jobs and work in amusement parks or something. Hah! The human race is a violent race. War and conflict is rooted in our bones. If I don't develop the weapons that humanity craves, then someone else will. Even if the mech industry disappears overnight, then people will just go back to building and using warships on a massive scale again. I don't know about you, but if I had to choose between mechs or warships to feed humanity's addiction to warfare, I would pick the former within a heartbeat!"

"What a lazy answer. Instead of admitting to the damage that your products have wrought by making them widely available, you instead lean on the argument that warships are worse."

"It's true, right?"

"Both are harmful!"

Ves chuckled. "What do you expect us to do, then? We can't fight with nothing. Humanity needs to maintain an effective means to fight against hostile alien races. Even if you limit the use of mechs and warships to the Big Two, that does not remove the need for mech designers such as myself."

"There are other, more benevolent mech designers that can do the heavy lifting." Captain Reze stated. "You are not needed. The mech industry is already oversaturated with mech designers. Why not pass on this responsibility to more capable hands? You already have a habit of passing off your guilt in a similar fashion."

"I refuse to step aside because I am on the side of humanity." Ves seriously responded. "I have only glimpsed a hint of the greater threats that you have mentioned earlier, but that is enough for me to conclude that human civilization will likely come under existential threat in the future. Instead of cowering underneath the skirts of the Big Two, I chose to step up and do my part in helping fellow humans resist whatever is coming. Is that not a noble goal?"

"Yet the abuses⁠—"

"⁠—SHUT UP!" Ves snapped. "You don't get to judge me. No one can judge me! From the moment that humans left their home planet and strode across the stars, they have entered a survival contest that pits their very survival against that of countless other races. Right or wrong doesn't apply here. Every race deserves a chance to live, but on the other hand no race has an inviolable right to survive. We are living in a part of the cosmos where the survival of the fittest reigns supreme. In the face of so many external threats, any attempt to advance humanity's military might is a virtue. I believe without a shadow of a doubt that my work is both noble and righteous, because everything I do is ultimately to the benefit of my racial group! Unless you want to sound like a cosmopolitan and sympathize with aliens that would love nothing more than to make humanity extinct, then shut your stinking fleeter mouth and begone from my sight!"

The entire background reset into an empty void. Captain Zonrad Reze stared deeply into Ves' eyes.

"That is not the answer that I expected to hear from you, Mr. Larkinson. You are right in a sense. Right or wrong are irrelevant in many cases. The only variable that matters is power. If you are convinced that you are working on the side of humanity by arming its soldiers with ever more powerful and effective mechs, then that is your choice. Just know that your work may not always be what humanity needs anymore. If there comes a point where your mechs causes more harm than good in human society, I hope you will not break yourself by struggling over the hard choices that you have to make at that time."

With that, the annoying CFA officer finally disappeared.

"I hope this stupid ride ends soon. I'm more than tired of ghosts trying to question my principles." Ves muttered under his breath.

He could feel that this 'ride' was finally nearing its end. A deep and profound change was taking place on a level that was too deep for him to track, but he could instinctively feel that it was building up to an extraordinary event that would have massive implications for his life going forward.

"Come on. Who's next?!"