The Mech Touch

"Do you know how I managed to put both a hostile pioneering fleet and a dangerous alien battleship on a collision course?" Ves asked with a smile.

The daughter that he carefully embraced with his armored hands furrowed her brows in thoughts.

This was a rather advanced question as Aurelia did not have access to all of the information she needed to explain the full story.

Nonetheless, she was clever enough to guess at his methods.

"The alien warship's priority is to remain hidden." She remarked. "The best way to draw her out is to attack her, but that is liable to scare her into running away."

"Correct, my dear. The ship that we have codenamed the Tower of Babel is obviously not interested in fighting another battle after all she had gone through. Even if the Cenatus Prospecting fleet is relatively weak, it is still not wise for the aliens to stay any longer in a star system that is within the domain of human civilization. How have we been able to stop that from happening?"

"By… giving the aliens a reason to stay and fight." His daughter guessed. "You planted something in the star system that will make sure of that, am I right?"

"You are right, but anyone can come up with such a scheme. The important part is to prepare the right bait. You need to present something that is attractive enough to lure the Tower of Babel into abandoning her efforts to hide from prying eyes but also construct a reasonable story around it to prevent our targets from developing too many doubts. Can you guess at what I have done to meet both of these criteria?"

"Uh…"

"Can you tell me what we have used to play the Cenatus Prospecting fleet like a puppet on a string?"

"..."

Ves smiled and bent his head to plant a kiss on top of his daughter's head. "It's fine if you can't figure it out yet. I didn't come up with this plan on my own. It took the combined efforts of myself, Minister Shederin, Director Calabast, General Verle, Marshal Ariadne and Master Benedict to come up with all of the necessary steps."

He had come a long way since the start of his career. The addition of all of those talented leaders allowed him to avoid many potential disasters while grasping a lot more growth opportunities.

He would have never been able to make it this far if he was still relying on himself. He wanted to make sure to drill this lesson into Aurelia's head. It was especially important for a designer baby that excelled in social skills to build an expansive network of subordinates and allies!

"Together, we managed to formulate a low-risk but also high-impact plan." He explained. "Do you know what those words stand for? It means that our plan will benefit us a lot if it succeeds but cost us nothing if it fails. This is the benefit of surrounding yourself with a lot of smart, competent and most importantly trustworthy people. Of course, it is hard to enact a clever scheme without sufficient strength and resources."

His daughter nodded as she became more awed by her amazing father.

"What did you do, exactly?"

"That's not the question you should ask, Aurelia. If you want to understand our plan, you should first figure out the conditions of our targets. Let's begin with Otrus Magrin's fleet since a human pioneering group is much easier to understand. You should have done your homework on Cenatus Prospecting, so I expect you already have a basic understanding of its history and prominent figures. What does Mr. Otrus Magrin wants the most?"

"He wants… to become more powerful than anyone else." Aurelia said as she drew from her memories.

"What does Saint Neville Magrin want?"

"That is an easy question. The ace pilot wants to make his own papa happy!"

"That's right!" Ves grinned. "Normally, there is nothing with a child trying to please his father, but in this case our plan takes advantage of this. Tell me, Aurelia. What is Otrus Magrin's greatest reliance?"

"His son, naturally." She said in a slightly cultured accent that resembled that of her mother. "Saint Neville Magrin has become his greatest enabler. Without at least one loyal ace pilot at his disposal, the elder Magrin will not be able to become more powerful, especially when he is in the Red Ocean."

"Mhmm. By that logic, this means that anything that can make Saint Neville Magrin stronger and help him get closer to advancing to god pilot is beneficial to Cenatus Prospecting. Now how do you think we have exploited this circumstance?"

Aurelia's eyes lit up as she finally understood the essence of the plan!

"You offered them a way to help their ace pilot become stronger! Uncle Lufa told me that he can help many mech pilots get better!"

That surprised Ves a bit. "You talk with Lufa?"

"Uh huh." The dark-haired girl nodded. "I try to talk with all of our design spirits, papa! They're so fun and interesting, but not all of them want to talk to me. Grandma sometimes visits me and pats my head. Helena is a funny aunt while Lufa is a nice uncle. He has taught Mana a lot on how she can use her powers in different ways."

"That is… interesting."

He felt a little disconcerted that his design spirits talked to Aurelia without him being present. He didn't exactly know what they were talking about and what their agendas might be. Still, as long as they didn't hold any malicious thoughts, he felt it was fine for his daughter to forge a good relationship with the design spirits.

Ves shifted the topic back to the matter at hand. He gestured at the live feeds that showed what was happening in the Ramage Repulsor System.

"In any case, we decided to take a risk and expose a glimpse of what Lufa was capable of in order to lure the Cenatus Prospecting fleet deeper into peril. The key here is to generate enough interest from the Magrins to proceed forward, but not go too far for fear of making the situation look too good to be true. Old dogs like Otrus Magrin are especially sensitive towards traps. You can't really beat that, to be honest."

"Then how did you manage to overcome it anyway, papa?"

"That is one of the more brilliant parts about my plan." Ves grinned. "Calabast and Shederin have been especially helpful in figuring this out. You see, the best way to override Otrin Magrin's considerable caution is to distract him with the hope of a powerful gain. Giving his son and the expert pilots under his command an opportunity to advance faster is enough of an incentive. Lufa didn't even need to expose his transcendence glow for long. Just teasing the Magrins for a few seconds is enough to drive them crazy!"

"Why so short?"

"There are two reasons, honey. First, the longer Lufa showed up in Saint Neville's range, the greater the risk that the latter would figure out the truth. Don't underestimate the intuition of ace pilots. They are highly sensitive towards threats. The only way that Lufa hasn't directly triggered Neville's danger sense was to keep Lufa's role as benign as possible. I instructed him to be sincere about wanting to help the mech pilots of Cenatus Prospecting break through their limits."

Aurelia looked confused. "And that works?"

Ves grinned. "It works as long as there is enough separation. Lufa doesn't know the full plan and I deliberately told him to keep his curiosity in check. This way, we can ensure that Lufa comes across as a benign influence to the likes of Saint Neville Magrin."

This was probably the most difficult part about the plan. Ves had to depend heavily on his theories and understanding of the intuition of high-ranking mech pilots to configure an action plan that could successfully deceive their danger sense!

His daughter looked impressed. She raised her little hands and clapped.

"Wow. You are so clever, papa!"

"I surely am." Ves grinned even though a part of him suspected that his manipulative little girl was putting on a show. "Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is that you can fool the most experienced vultures and the strongest ace pilots as long as you figure out their desires and exploit them to your advantage. Greed is a powerful motivator and it can often make people set aside their doubts."

Aurelia's eyes glittered like stars. "Mech pilots all want to become stronger. None of them want to remain weak."

"That is right. There is nothing that attracts a mech pilot more than an opportunity to become stronger. Even though Saint Neville Magrin is already a lot more powerful than almost anyone else, even he has flaws where Lufa can help. His incredibly flawed upbringing under an awful father like Otrus Magrin has probably left a lot of hidden dangers in his psyche. It is already impressive that he managed to advance to ace pilot in the first place."

"Then what about the aliens, papa?" She asked. "What did you use to lure them out of the sun? Is it Lufa again?"

Ves shook his head. "We thought about that, but we felt it was unlikely to work. Can you figure out the reason?"

His daughter frowned but couldn't come up with an answer.

"I do not know, papa."

He sighed. "That's okay, but you need to do better next time. When you grow older and assume more responsibilities, you cannot afford to miss important details that can affect the outcomes of your decisions, even when they are difficult to spot. You can gather experts and specialists by your side that can help you see more, but it is best to get good at this stuff yourself, do you understand?"

Aurelia nodded. "I will not disappoint you, papa. I will do better, I promise!"

That was Gloriana's influence again no doubt. While Ves certainly wanted her to do better, she was still a young girl.

"Hey, don't be too bothered by what I said. You still have plenty of time to grow and learn. Anyway, the answer that I wanted you to find is species."

"Species?"

"Yes. It might not be obvious to you anymore, but Lufa is a human design spirit."

"He is an angel!"

Ves shrugged. "Close enough. What I am trying to say is that if Lufa shows up in front of a bunch of aliens, the latter will probably react as if they are under attack by humanity, which means that their chances of avoiding our trap is far greater than normal. That is exactly what I don't want to see. Do you know how I have managed to gather the interest of the aliens?"

"You used a different design spirit."

"Which one?"

Aurelia paused for a moment. "It has to be a native one, so either the Titania or the Phase King. It has to be the latter!"

"Why the latter?" Ves grinned down at his girl.

"Because the native aliens envy the phase whales! Everyone wants to become as powerful as these whales. If the Phase King shows up and disguises himself as a member of this powerful race, the aliens of that warship will go mad, because phase whales can help them grow stronger!"

"That's true more or less. You've learned, Aurelia. The Phase King can play the same role for aliens as Lufa does for humans. This shows how life that originates from different galaxies value different roads to power. The indigenous aliens are obsessed with becoming gods by stuffing their bodies full of phasewater, and no one is better at doing so than the phase whale race."

"What about you, papa?"

"Huh?"

"The Phase King told me you have phasewater in your body as well." His girl stated as her innocent eyes looked up at him. "Will papa turn himself into a phase whale?"

"What? No! How did you get that idea?!"

"Hihihi!" Aurelia burst into giggles. "Just kidding!"