The Mech Touch

"What a pitiful star system." Ves remarked. "Then again, brown dwarf systems are all pitiful by definition."

This was not the first time that he had entered a brown dwarf system. The current space environment was disappointingly similar to the environment of the last one he visited.

Ves did not call the star system pitiful for nothing. It was devoid of a rich collection of satellites. It only featured one tiny rocky planet while the rest amounted to asteroids.

The brown dwarf star itself was also rather pathetic. It was on the smaller end of this star type and was quite dim compared to proper stars.

It produced a lot of infrared radiation, but the relatively tiny size of the brown dwarf meant that it was barely competent in its ability to warm up the surrounding space.

"Some astrophysicists are in favor of classifying brown dwarfs as rogue planets. They claim that it is misleading to call them stars." Gloriana noted as she stood at his side.

He could understand the sentiment. Brown dwarfs were essentially Jupiter-like gas giants that were big enough to produce heat through the immense contraction forces generated by their own considerable mass.

Just like how ancient combustion engines heated up gas by exerting pressure through pistons, brown dwarfs were just massive enough to contract all of its gasses by relying on gravity alone.

If the gas giants were a lot larger, then the gravity exerted on the gasses became so powerful that it could trigger runaway thermonuclear reactions!

In other words, a lot of tiny particles fused together into bigger particles, releasing a lot of energy in the process!

This was how real stars turned into bright and warm cosmic lanterns!

The fact that brown stars were so congenically deficient that they couldn't even trigger and sustain nuclear fusion meant that they were basically planets that produced just enough heat for people to confuse them as stars!

The more he thought about it, the more he became sympathetic to the camp that wanted to reclassify them as rogue planets.

They were gas giants that produced just enough internal heat to survive the cold void of space. This was how they managed to maintain their cohesion without access to heat radiated from an actual star.

Ves ultimately shrugged. "I don't really care whether we're talking about a star or a gas giant. I suppose we should stick to treating them as a star as it will be a lot more confusing to treat it as a rogue planet. Hardly anyone in our clan understands the theory behind stars anyway."

"Uneducated boors." His wife muttered.

"That is an uncalled for statement, Gloriana. Mech pilots and other professionals can be just as smart or knowledgeable as us. They just haven't devoted their lives to a technical or scientific discipline."

"That still doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of our clan is too ignorant to understand a theory as basic as nuclear fusion and the basic mechanisms of stars."

"Can you tell me if the proportion of Hexers who understand stars is any higher?" Ves asked in response.

"Uhh… that's not a fair comparison, Ves! The boys of the Hex Federation are dragging down the average!"

The look he gave her made it clear that he was not impressed by her lame argument.

"Whatever." Ves snorted. "We haven't come here to discuss the theory and perception of stars. We have a mission to complete."

"You're right." His wife got back on track as well. "I have already made contact with the representatives of over a dozen different virtual schools. Most of them are willing to enroll Marvaine into their classes as long as he is able to verify his test results by completing an entrance exam, but their conditions aren't the best. The most accessible schools only charge a yearly tuition of 1 million MTA credits, but the more reputable and renowned ones can cost at least ten times as much. Aside from that, the better schools also impose additional requirements."

Ves frowned. "We are not going to pay 10 million MTA credits just to provide a year of schooling to Marvaine. We will have to sell a lot of phasewater and go deep into debt in order to keep our son in the same school. I would rather put him into one of the cheaper virtual schools if there is no other option. He will at least be able to make more friends with people who come from similar backgrounds."

"That is unacceptable! Marvaine's status will be incomparably greater in the future! He should make friends with first-raters to begin with to ensure that he will have an adequate support network in place by the time he graduates and begins his career as a first-class mech designer!"

That actually made a lot of sense. Even if Marvaine's background was rather poor compared to most of his future classmates, the fact that he was able to get into a better school in the first place meant that he possessed his own advantages.

It didn't matter if Marvaine wasn't able to become the most popular student in his class. As long as he was able to forge a genuine friendship with a first-rater, then he would be able to exploit this connection to an immense degree in the future!

"You don't need to remind me what must be done." Ves said as he crossed his arms. "Our men have already begun the search for our mission objective. Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik is most certainly hiding in this star system. We just need to pin-point his location."

Both of them gazed at the projection of the local space map that was constantly being updated with additional information.

The map became crowded with additional satellites while the appearance of the brown dwarf and its only planet became a little more defined.

To be honest, to call that sad excuse of a vaguely spherical rock a planet was an awful stretch.

If the brown dwarf was reclassified as a rogue planet, then the rock would be regarded as a moon, which was much more appropriate in his opinion.

Ves wondered whether Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik had secretly buried himself underneath the surface of this rocky planet. It was the most obvious hiding space, though if he really wanted to avoid pursuit, he should be hiding among one of the many asteroids that orbited this neighborhood.

"Ylvaine, where the hell is that guy?"

The Larkinsons hadn't been able to determine Lord Pearian's exact location when they hadn't entered this star system. This was because the distance was still so great that Ylvaine was only able to determine a single, relatively imprecise direction.

Yet now that they were no longer light-years away from the failed pioneer's hiding place, Ylvaine should be able to employ his foresight capabilities to provide a much more detailed and precise answer!

Gloriana impatiently waited for Ves to obtain the answer.

"Well? What has your little prophet divined?"

Ves briefly looked uncertain. "For some reason, Ylvaine still isn't able to determine the precise coordinates of his hiding place. I only know he is hiding in that direction."

His thumb pointed almost straight towards the brown dwarf and its closely orbiting 'planet'.

Gloriana understood how challenging the search may be. "If he is hiding on the only major satellite of this star system, then we will have to conduct a search in close proximity to the brown dwarf. Our mechs and search parties will have to work under challenging gravitic conditions. No matter how inadequate a brown dwarf may be, it is still a massive stellar object that generates enough activity to produce strong gravitic activity, especially in close orbits."

It was like standing in close proximity to the main thrusters of a capital ship. Even if Ves had calculated that he maintained a safe enough distance, no one would feel comfortable with hovering so close to the powerful emissions of a massive starship!

"I will instruct our mech legions to harden their mechs against gravitic and heat damage. They will have to endure additional stresses to their internals and exterior frames."

It wasn't a big problem in the short term. Most of the mechs fielded by the Larkinson Clan possessed solid, quality designs, though the mechs of the Cross Clan were even more robust on average.

After Ves and numerous members of the Eye of Ylvaine confirmed that they needed to more closer to the center of the star system, the expeditionary fleet was on the move again.

It didn't take a long time to approach the center of the Ramage Repulsor System. The mass of a brown dwarf star was exceptionally low, so any ships or fleets that traveled to it arrived at a much closer distance from the start.

This also made it so difficult to navigate towards. The brown dwarf star's gravitic profile was so small and narrow that it was incredibly easy for FTL drives to miss and overshoot.

In any case, Ves and many other people did not need to test their patience too much in order to get closer to the only planet.

While the expeditionary fleet ultimately opted to orbit the brown dwarf star at a generous distance, a number of combat carriers had continued to move ahead until they reached the orbit of Ramage Repulsor I.

The ships proceeded to engage their scanning systems. At the same time, scout mechs hailing from the Flagrant Vandals started to deploy from the combat carriers.

Once they entered into space, they split up and began to scour the surface of the planet up close.

The search was just beginning before Ves received a surprising piece of information from a Legion Commander.

"Sir, I hate to interrupt you, but the Great Prophet has revealed to me that our men are searching in the wrong place!"

"What?!"

Ves sat up straighter in his observation seat. He looked skeptically at the projection of the tiny planet. Although it didn't look like a good hiding place, it was the only viable place for a starship to make itself scarce.

"Where is he hiding, then? Has he fallen into the entrance of a phase whale enclave? Is there another Purgatory hiding in plain sight in this star system?!"

He already became excited at the thought. The Golden Skull Alliance managed to harvest a lot of phasewater as well as other valuable goods from the last time it had plundered an alien pocket space.

However, Taon Melin immediately shook his head. "That is not the case, sir. I don't know whether there are any phase whale enclaves in this star system, but Prophet Ylvaine has determined that Lord Pearian is still residing in the same dimensions as us. We don't need to enter a hidden portal to reach his location.

"Then where can we pick him up?" Ves frowned. "Do you have the answer?"

Taon looked around until he faced the large star map projected on the bridge. The expert candidate and legion commander slowly lifted his arm until he pointed past the planet that was being searched.

"The man you wish to find is located here."

"...Where is 'here'? There's nothing in this pocket of space. Is his flagship orbiting the brown dwarf under stealth?"

"No, sir. You misunderstand. He is located… here."

Ves looked at Taon's finger and extrapolated it towards the projection.

If Lord Pearian wasn't hiding on a starship under cloaking in open space, then that meant…

"Wait. Are you claiming that Lord Pearian isn't orbiting just outside the corona of the brown dwarf star, but is instead hiding inside the star itself?!"

Taon's nod was all of the confirmation that Ves needed.

His jaw practically dropped as he took a much closer look at the brown dwarf star.

At first, it sounded absolutely ludicrous, because most stars were too powerful and destructive for starships to dive underneath their outermost layer for an extended period of time!

However, he suddenly recalled that brown dwarfs weren't really proper stars at all. They didn't fit into the category of 'most stars'!

Just as Ves accepted the truth that Lord Pearian may actually be located in this extremely unusual hiding place, he soon began to suffer a headache.

"How the hell do we pull him out of this star?"