The Mech Touch



Ves grimaced for a second once he saw that Lanie had suffered another defeat.

"That's six deaths so far. She isn't having the best luck."

He had tracked the young mech pilot's performance due to his prior experimentation on her. He had reason to believe that she could stand out in this competition on account of her excellent skill and piloting acumen.

While her performance at the beginning was good, Lanie quickly fell victim to the qualifying round's excessive chaos.

There was no way for Lanie to guard against ambushes by multiple mechs!

She could not help it if the environment around her virtual mech shifted in an unfavorable manner.

After getting three times during the qualifying round, her swordsman mech performed only 85 percent as good as before.

This gap in comprehensive performance exceeded the differences between mech generations!

While Lanie had still been able to earn a smattering of points by hunting down weaklings that suffered even more defeats than herself, her luck consistently ran out as her progressively weakened machine painted an increasingly larger target on its back!

After suffering so many deaths, it became unlikely for Lanie to earn any further points. The only way she could still fell opponents was by forming large groups of cannon fodder mechs and hope that her swordsman mech would not get taken out first.

This was a slim hope as many of the undefeated or lightly defeated mechs simply mowed through these mobs of loser mechs without getting stopped!

Lanie was not the only mech pilot who entered into this death spiral. Many other Larkinson mech pilots that Ves had a good impression of had befallen the same fate.

It was a good thing that Lanie and numerous other Larkinson mech pilots still managed to harvest their fair share of points. Their skill at least ensured that they could take a few opposing mechs down as their own machines finally succumbed to the damage.

Ves frowned and rubbed his hairless chin. He glanced down at his two children who appeared to be enjoying the spectacle!

"Hihihi!" Andraste giggled as she held Lucky against her chest. "Look! The gravity in area B13 has reversed. Those landbound mechs are falling upwards!"

"Meow…" The damaged gem cat commented as he tried his best to take a recuperating nap.

Marvaine began to look upset. "Why are our brothers and sisters losing so much? Aren't they better than the others?"

Ves smiled and patted his son's head. "Better is a relative and contextual word. Are our Larkinsons better at piloting living mechs on organized battlefields? That is definitely the case. Are our soldiers better at participating in a free-for-all where teamwork and opportunism is paramount to accruing a high score? Not necessarily. Our mech pilots are all out of their element. If you studied the real-time statistics closely, you will find that mercenary mech pilots score consistently higher than others. Can you tell me why that is the case?"

His children frowned as they thought about this question from their own perspectives.

"I think the Swordmaidens complained about this a lot when I trained with them." Andraste spoke up. "They say that we Larkinsons are too honorable and gullible for our own good. We haven't met too many scumbags and don't know how to deal with them when they try to trick our soldiers."

Ves tapped his daughter on the head. "Language, young lady! I don't mind it too much if other people have a habit of calling people names, but it is not polite for you to do the same. You are supposed to be better than that. Besides, your mother will punish you if you use foul language."

His naughty daughter's response to that was to stick out her tongue.

Marvaine meanwhile did not understand what was wrong. "Can you explain to me, papa?"

"You're still too young, my boy. Wait until you've grown a little older. All I can say for now is that your sister is right. Our clan and people are honest, honorable and generally nice people. That is good for us but not entirely. The dwarf galaxy we live in is a dangerous place, and nice people don't tend to survive that long. Just look at the virtual matches taking place down below. The mech pilots of our clan aren't doing so well. In fact, it is telling that out of all of our pilots, the Swordmaidens perform the best on average."

The Swordmaidens had split up into many different tournaments, many of which focused purely on melee combat.

Not a lot of mech pilots from this iconic mech legion had actually signed up for the Davute Star Tournaments, but those that did were predominantly old veterans who not only survived the old frontier during their pirate days, but also lived through all of the crazy battles the Larkinson Clan had fought.

Even though these older women from the same generation as Venerable Dise did not possess any special spiritual traits, their skill, experience, resilience and above all their adaptability were top notch!

Ves turned his attention towards the best performing Larkinson in the tournament up to this point.

There was no benefit to earning way more points than the theoretical cut-off threshold, but Georgina Larkinson didn't get the message.

The woman not only managed to collect 36 points, but also managed to gather and lead a mob of 25 melee mechs!

Ves could tell that Georgina had been clever about this. She did not take over an existing group, but recruited lone melee mechs one by one with the force of her personality and her brilliant display of solid swordsmanship skills.

She did not approach any of her peers who only suffered 1 or 2 defeats, but she sought out the more worn mechs that had been beaten down at least 5 times over the span of a couple of hours.

Slowly but surely, she gathered a fluid following which she used to charge at other mech groups and harvest as many points as possible!

The melees always turned into a confusing brawl, and it was inevitable for many of Georgina's brothers to fall.

However, as long as her target group suffered enough losses, she forcibly instructed her group to stop fighting, sometimes turning the sword of her mech on her own subordinates if necessary!

Her swordsman then pointed at the handful of surviving mechs that earned a much-needed reprieve.

"Surrender or die. Either give us your points and weaken your mech by another 5 percent, or join my side and earn more points. It is your choice."

When faced with such a choice, the surviving losers immediately agreed to join Georgina's warband. Though it had suffered a number of losses, the addition of fresh blood actually resulted in a surplus of 2 mechs at the end!

On and on her warband continued to roam through the chaotic battlefield that constantly changed and shifted.

Mountains rose, uncaring for the mechs that were present in the terrain. Many of the machines that tumbled down became so beat up that they turned into easy meat for other competitors.

An ocean appeared in place. Mechs that previously enjoyed solid footing immediately became submerged in water. This was not instantly fatal if the mechs were fortunate enough to not have too many holes in their armor. The same could not be said for the rest.

The extreme reduction in gravity caused mechs that jumped to keep soaring into the air. These mechs continued to fly without any means of controlling their trajectory. Once they reached a portion of the battlefield where standard gravity reigned, a powerful attracting force caused them to fall down and never stand up again!

The veteran Swordmaiden exhibited extreme wariness towards these fatal terrain changes. Even though she wasn't the most clever mech pilot, she soon learned a basic rule about this virtual battlefield.

Once a region of space experienced a shift, it usually took at least 10 minutes before another transformation occurred!

Of course, there were exceptions to this rule, but these incidents happened so infrequently that it was better to flock to these 'safe spaces'.

Through mastering these rules, the champions of the qualification round accrued more and more points while keeping their deaths to a minimum.

Ves furrowed his brows as he compared Georgina's performance to that of Lanie.

Both of them were highly skilled, but their life experiences and mentalities had made the difference.

Lanie was too young and inexperienced to handle this sort of situation. She might be good in a straightforward mech battle, but she did not possess the leadership skills or cunning to gather a warband out of fellow strangers and take advantage of their relative weakness.

"Hm, maybe our clan truly needs to engage in more independent operations." He murmured under his breath.

The Larkinson Army had already engaged in limited forms of mercenary work during the long break in Davute.

He heard stories about boring protection duties, exciting hunting missions and beating off opportunistic raiders.

Ves bet that veteran mech pilots such as Georgina of the Swordmaidens continued to learn more ways to deal with complicated situations that couldn't be solved by hacking her sword a lot of times.

By the time this lengthy qualification round finally came to an end, both Georgina and Lanie managed to make it to the next round.

The former easily breezed through and managed to attract plenty of attention. The latter ranked at the bottom end of the survivors and had become completely lost in the crowd.

"Alright. That's it for now." Ves stood up and brushed away any non-existent crumbs. "The Davute Star Tournament is over for today. What do you want to watch next?"

"I want to see mech duels!" Marvaine piped up! "Not virtual, but real ones!"

"What about you, Andraste?"

"I want to go to a personal combat tournament. Can we go there instead, papa?"

"There will be plenty of time to see both. Let me check with your mother first."

They spent the rest of the day dropping in and out of various arenas and competition venues. They never stayed too long, but managed to catch the highlights for the day.

With his personal assistant and his staff taking care of all of the tickets and reservations, Ves did not encounter any hindrances.

His children laughed and became amazed at the feats they witnessed today.

They saw Swordmaidens armed with greatswords defeating formidable warriors who came from many different regions of the old galaxy.

They cheered a team of Avatar mech pilots as they fought against an opposing team that belonged to a prominent mercenary company originating from the galactic heartland.

Ves, Andraste and Marvaine even joined up with Gloriana and Aurelia at a singing competition in a fancy dining hall located in the Austere District.

The voices that sung today were so radiant and enchanting that even Ves couldn't forget about it for the rest of the evening.

Gloriana appreciated the performances. She even started to have ideas.

"Ves?"

"Yes, honey?"

"I think our second cohort of children should focus on the arts and the humanities." She explained her views. "We already have the essentials covered with our current offspring. This is the time for us to diversify our brood and expand our network. What do you think about raising an artist or an actor? With our clan's immense advantages, I think our next sons and daughters have the potential to become famous throughout the galaxies."

Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine all perked up at the mention of more siblings.

"I want another little brother!" Andraste asked as if she was ordering a product from a store.

"Can I have a little sis as well? I'm tired of having only older sisters." Marvaine begged.

Ves smiled embarrassingly at his wife and children. "Let's not talk about this now. I already have my hands full with raising the three of you. Let me think about this further. I'm not sure if this is the right time to have more kids."