The Mech Touch



The aliens stored a lot of different goods and weapons on this floor.

Ves and the others had essentially figured out that the floor above served as the main living space of the aliens.

It also happened to be the floor which held the crucial portal that could bring them back to normal space if activated.

Ves did not understand why the pescans built their main settlement inside this prison facility so close to a portal that opened up right in the middle of the capital city of the human conquerors. He could only chalk it up to irrational alien sensibilities.

At this time, a new firefight had begun. The pescan soldiers, many of whom originated from this floor but managed to retreat in good order, tried to push back from the entrances they controlled.

The actions of the aliens forced the human troops to split themselves up and prevent the aliens from pouring back out and turning this hard-won floor into a contested area again!

Although the human forces managed to hold their ground due to the fact that the aliens only sent forth their own infantry so far, the constant fighting continued to deplete precious ammunition and energy.

Whoever was in charge on the other side was not a bad commander!

Given how many supplies and other goods the aliens managed to bring into the prison facility at the time, the aliens would most certainly outlast the humans in a battle of attrition!

The actions of the defenders forced the attackers to hurry up with their consolidation and launch a brutal assault as soon as possible.

Given how the human infantry troops had taken a certain amount of damage and expended crucial resources, Ves and the other technical-minded people dove into the surviving alien structures and tried to make sense of whatever intact alien gear and supplies the pescans had hastily left behind.

Ves and his family had recently entered an alien armory of sorts. Although a lot of its racks were empty and barren, the aliens failed to take away half-a-dozen suits.

Right now, Ves and Gloriana had teamed up to examine one of the tall and oddly-proportioned armored suits.

The tech was rather primitive by their standards, but that did not mean they could decipher its workings and immediately make use of this alien suit. The circumstances were anything but ideal as the mech designers lacked a lot of time and did not have access to a lot of equipment.

"These goddamn aliens don't make use of handheld rifles like other humanoid races." Ves cursed as he tinkered around one of the arm cannons of the alien suit. "What is worse are their energy sources. Their energy density is impressive, but the output is too violent and inconsistent. It will take too much time and energy to make them compatible with our own weapons."

His wife maintained a distasteful expression as she examined the alien tech through her own lens.

"The pescan race have done the best they could with the technology that they have mastered, but their workmanship has clear limits. The control system is also rudimentary. There are no direct mind or implant interfaces. The servos respond to physical movements, which means that there is always a lag in making movements. No wonder the armored pescan soldiers cannot move quickly. They also haven't integrated any antigrav or flight modules in their equipment."

"I'm not surprised." Ves responded. "Antigrav technology or the alien equivalent to it is mostly used to produce artificial gravity in starships. The nunsers have clearly tried to bottle up the pescan people on their own home planet, which means that there is not much of a reason for the local aliens to master this tech and utilize it on a wide scale."

The abandoned armored suit exposed many of the shortcomings and limitations of the pescan civilization. The humanoid aliens had evolved too late and in the wrong time period as well.

If these aliens managed to expand their civilizations to the stars tens of thousands of years earlier, they had a much better chance of becoming an established regional power. That meant it would be much more difficult for the nunsers to convert the pescan star nation into a protectorate.

As Ves and Gloriana continued in their attempts to try and make sense of the primitive alien tech, their children wandered around and examined the other odd alien gadgets in the armory.

Marvaine grinned and picked up a few odd pieces of gear that looked like the alien equivalent of spy drones.

"This is so cool!"

Andraste on the other hand found an arm module that extended into three long and wicked-looking blades.

Though she was incredibly eager to study the alien claw sword, she took Ketis' training into mind and did not act recklessly around the naked blades.

In fact, Clixie remained close at hand and would immediately intervene if Andraste tried to do anything foolish such as using her own body to test the sharpness of the odd alien weapon.

Only Aurelia looked disinterested. She had grown old enough to no longer become fascinated with every piece of alien tech that came along. Compared to the more modern and sophisticated  tech of the Fractured House of the Collapsing Star, the pescan products were way behind the times.

She was more interested in examining what Ves had done earlier.

"Papa?" She asked as she walked up to her father and patted his Unending Regalia. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, my dear." He smiled. "I am not too busy. Ask away."

"Is it really necessary for good leaders to accompany their soldiers on the battlefield?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Gloriana answered before Ves could ever get a word in. "Don't get fooled by your father, Aurelia. Ves may be successful, but his decisions are not always as well-considered as you think. Your father has a lot of bad habits that he can't get rid of anymore since he has become set in his ways. It is not too late for you to develop a superior leadership style."

Ves threw an annoyed glance at his wife. "Aurelia, you are a member of the Larkinson Clan first. The Wodins and the Hexers have their strengths, but there are good reasons why they have lost the Komodo War. Instead of learning from a bunch of losers, you should learn from your father. Unlike most people, I have produced dozens of victories."

"That may be true, but the cost is also great at times." Gloriana retorted.

"You may have a point in the past, but those days are long gone." Ves shook his head. "I have invested a lot of effort and resources into building up our strength. We are not as pathetic as we used to be when we started out. We have thousands of combat mechs, hundreds of carrier vessels and numerous expert mechs at our disposal. We can easily expand our ranks due to our wealth, our production capacity and our effectiveness in recruiting new soldiers. We have become strong enough to contend against most formidable opponents. It is only situations like these where I have to resort to the tactics that have earned me victories in the past. Winning is all that matters, Aurelia. Do not forget that lesson."

Compared to Gloriana's cautious warnings, Aurelia found her father's words to be a lot more appealing.

Ves could see the stars in her eyes. She admired him and adored the moments where he stood up and acted boldly.

Her mother could clearly see that. She became distressed at the thought of losing influence to her husband!

"You are not your father, so don't try to imitate his leadership style and approach. You may be a Larkinson, but you are also a Wodin. Do not forget that, my dear. What you need to do is to learn the best from both of your parents and combine that to forge your own leadership style. After all, your father was born into a third-class household and had to act forcefully in order to climb his way upwards. You on the other hand enjoy much more superior conditions. You cannot throw your weight around as much once you begin to study at a first-class virtual school and start to make friends with many first-raters. You will need to learn a different set of skills in order to lead our clan by the time you are ready to take over."

Though Ves did not completely agree with Gloriana's words, he had to admit that she had a good point about different circumstances requiring different approaches.

Ves needed to work hard and go on expeditions in order to rush the clan's promotion to a first-class organization.

What then?

Even if the Larkinson Clan managed to enter the eyesight of first-class pioneers and organizations, that did not necessarily mean the Larkinsons had become bigshots all of a sudden!

Once the main branch of the Larkinson Clan had no choice but to emigrate to the upper zones of the Red Ocean, it would enter an entirely new and much more dangerous pond!

It was not so easy to climb upwards from that point because a lot of powerful first-class states and organizations were not easy to mess with. Ves needed to adopt a much more cautious posture as the influences of great powers such as the Rubarthans and the Terrans were unimaginably great.

Of course, that was a concern for the future. As long as Ves continued to stay in the playground for second-raters, he had much more freedom to act as he wanted. That was one of the benefits of operating in a lower and less scrutinized part of society. The Big Two didn't care too much about what third-raters and second-raters were up to because their actions posed no threat to human society.

The two parents continued to instill their own leadership ideals to Aurelia. The young woman absorbed everything like a sponge, but it was still unclear how she would develop in the future.

Ves made his stance clear, though.

"However you decide to develop in the future, I hope you never put yourself too far apart from the people you are in charge of." He told his daughter. "I am sure you are familiar with leaders suchas President Yenames Clive, right? People like him may be effective to a lot of people, but to me he's a snake who reduces everything and everyone into numbers and resources. I don't want you to follow his example and become a schemer who only excels at hatching schemes in an ivory tower. Larkinsons such as ourselves must not forget their roots. No matter how high our positions have become, we are still a part of the same family."

Aurelia seriously nodded. "I understand, father. I won't disappoint you. I will become the best leader of the Larkinson Clan! I swear!"

"You don't need to be so serious about it, honey." He smiled at his cute daughter. "The Larkinson Clan might not be your ultimate stage. There are still plenty of other people in the clan that can take it over. Besides, I am still relatively young, so I don't need to retire anytime soon."

His wife had a different opinion about that. "You should if you want to become more serious about designing mechs. Your duties as a clan leader are increasingly interfering in your mech design work. Let's face it, Ves. You cannot wear two increasingly larger hats at the same time. The clan is not as small and easily manageable as in the past, and your projects experience continuous disruption due to all of the distractions that frequently occupy your attention. This is not a healthy development to your career. If you want to prove yourself worthy as a Master, you need to put mech design above everything else. You should let Aurelia relieve you when she grows old enough."

Ves sighed. "I hope she can become good enough to bear this heavy burden."

It was at this time that the prison facility rumbled again! Everyone's footing grew shaky for a moment as the ancient structure grew less stable!

"Damn, what are those pescans doing?!"