The Mech Touch



Two weeks went by after Ves came up with the Rainbow Shield concept and handed over Object 431 to Venerable Jannzi to practice with. He and his wife spent a lot of time on bringing the Dullahan Project and the Ghost Project closer to completion.

Everything proceeded smoothly. If not for the need to accompany their children after they were done with their daily tutoring sessions, the married couple could have made even more progress on their mech design projects!

As Davute continued to settle down and transform into a proper state after the conclusion of the founding festival, an important event took place on a certain day that forced Ves and many Larkinsons to break from their routine.

This was why they all boarded their shuttles and moved to a medium-sized town located a moderate distance away from Kotor City.

The town was based around a large military base. The entire economy was centered around servicing and accommodating the military units that would be stationed in this location in the future.

This was the site where the mech division that General Ark Larkinson led would formally be established.

It would not be the permanent home of his mech division. The Colonial Federation of Davute had become a rather expansive star territory, but its main problem was that an excessive amount of military units were concentrated in the Davute System.

The port system already enjoyed a sufficient amount of protection. What the newly founded colonial state needed the most was to increase its presence and military control over the vast tracts of space in the surrounding regions and provinces.

Many corners of Davute were not that well developed. The colonies there were years behind as lack of population and investment severely inhibited their growth.

The colonial government hoped that stationing more mech units over there and setting up regular patrols would vastly increase the security level of the region. Trade, immigration, industry and investment would subsequently flow into these underserved regions.

In addition to that, Davute also needed to establish more strongholds throughout the provinces. This was vital to create a robust military infrastructure in preparation for the upcoming war.

One way or another, General Ark Larkinson and his new mech division would become embroiled in the bloody and relentless competition between Davute and Karlach.

Ves had no desire at all to get caught up in a petty war between two greedy colonial states. All of the fighting and killing was completely pointless in his opinion.

Still, not everything was bad. War was great for mech designers. As long as their products were good enough, they would get sold in large numbers as many different groups desperately sought to strengthen their troops in order to tilt the numbers in their favor.

Although the Living Mech Corporation did not really sell any real military-grade mechs at this time, its machines were still incredibly attractive to the large number of paramilitary units that had signed on to fight for Davute.

Technically speaking, General Ark's new mech division was classified as a paramilitary unit. Much of its ownership and control were in the hands of outsiders. Its rules and regulations only partially followed the federal military's code.

This wasn't meant to stay this way. If not for the fact that a war was brewing in the short term, Davute would rather take its time to raise proper military mech divisions and maintain tight control over them from beginning to end.

Ves wasn't sure whether Ark's mech division slowly transitioned from the External Group to the Internal Group of the Federal Military of Davute.

There were huge differences between the two. The former maintained a small distance from the colonial state while the latter was completely integrated into its military apparatus!

He shrugged. This was not really his business. It would be up to the Davute Branch to decide how extensively it wanted to cooperate with the state.

The founding ceremony for Ark's new mech division was not too grand. It was 'just' a paramilitary mech division for a time being. The Federal Military already attracted a lot of outside parties and promised to give them a piece of the pie so long as they made military contributions.

Within a section of the large base, hundreds of mechs had gathered into neat columns.

The majority of them consisted of familiar living mechs such as the Ferocious Piranha and the Crystal Lord.

Curiously enough, the new mech division did not include any mechs that were exclusive to the Larkinson Clan or any group. The conspicuous absence of the Bright Warrior and the Transcendent Punisher caused General Ark's new unit to look awfully unbalanced.

Over ten-thousand servicemen had also arrived. Each of them formed into ranks and stood in front of a large podium.

Many of the soldiers consisted of eager mech pilots, but there were also plenty of other professionals among them. General Ark and his staff had already put a lot of effort into recruiting mech officers, mech technicians, starship spacers, construction engineers, medical personnel and more.

When Ves swept his gaze across these people, he could immediately recognize where they hailed from based on their connections to different kinship networks.

Roughly a third of the personnel consisted of Larkinsons. Another third originated from the Cross Clan. The remainder had likely been recruited from outside sources.

The proportions looked so even that Ves was convinced that this was a deliberate arrangement.

"Wow. There is so much already." Andraste spoke as their group continued to move forward. "Does all of this belong to Uncle Ark?"

"Not exactly." Ves explained. "Much of this belongs to the state. General Ark and his people have the right to shape the mech division according to their ideas, but they can only do so with the authority bestowed by the higher ups of the government. It's complicated."

Since the colonial government funded and provided much of the infrastructure for the mech division, it did not want General Ark to turn everything into his own private army.

It was remarkable how much personnel General Ark had gathered under his banner. From the start, his mech division had become more attractive than the alternatives due to a combination of factors.

The popularity of the Larkinson Clan, the hero worship of Patriarch Reginald Cross, the confidence in General Ark's leadership ability, the extensive use of living mechs and other reasons all made it so that this had become one of the the hottest mech divisions that Davute had founded as of late!

Once Ves and his immediate family arrived at the front, they were seated in positions of honor along with other important people.

The founding ceremony soon commenced. With the local star hanging over everyone's heads, a large number of soldiers wearing their newly-issued uniforms witnessed the arrival of the champions of their mech division!

The Travon Exine. The Riot. The C-Man. The Blade Chaser Mark II.

Four different Larkinson expert mechs descended from the skies like angels descending from heaven!

The soldiers all cheered at the arrival of these strong and impressive expert mechs!

"Aren't they supposed to be ours?" Marvaine asked.

"Nominally, that is the case." Ves replied. "These mechs still belong to our clan, son. We are just loaning them to the Federal Military of Davute. Once our expert pilots have completed their service, they will take their expert mechs back to our clan."

Of course, this was all theoretical. Whether these expert pilots and expert mechs would resign from the Federal Military once the war against Karlach had ended was unclear.

Even if the expert pilots left the military, they could choose to go back to the main fleet or settle down in the Davute Branch.

Ves did not really care too much about this. The Larkinson Clan already had a lot of expert pilots. New ones would emerge on a regular basis, so the Larkinson Army never had to worry about running out of powerful champions.

All of the Larkinson expert pilots that chose to serve in the Federal Military of Davute or stay in the Davute Branch might not be at his disposal, but they were still clansmen in the ways that mattered. They could protect and promote the interests of the Larkinson Clan in their own ways.

As the four Larkinson expert mechs all touched down behind a large podium, another mech descended from the skies!

A strong presence approached the large gathering! Everyone began to raise their fists and shout a single name!

"Mars!"

"Mars!"

"Mars!"

The powerful masterwork ace mech dropped towards the ground at high speed, only to arrest its momentum and land with utmost precision in between the expert mechs!

Patriarch Reginald Cross had arrived!

The appearance of Reginald and his ace mech briefly caused Ves to look upset.

"Damn glory hound. I could really use the firepower of the Mars in my expeditions." He muttered.

"We can still manage without the ace hybrid mech." General Verle reassured the clan patriarch. "The Adelaide Third Fleet and the Boojay Family are close to joining the Golden Skull Alliance, so their ace mechs will soon strengthen our expeditionary fleet. Both groups are entitled to hefty shares of any profit we make in the frontier, but this is a worthwhile tradeoff as far as we are concerned."

Two ace mechs sounded good, but three ace mechs were even better! Ves would much rather keep the Mars as well because of its strong ranged damage output.

Unfortunately, Reginald was too damn hard to control. The man was too much of a war addict to pass up the opportunity to throw himself into the thick of an upcoming conflict!

Soon enough, the expert pilots all exited the cockpits and descended to the podium. Reginald remained within his ace mech in order to ensure everyone's safety.

As Ves was able to see the familiar faces of his expert pilots again, he noted that they had changed their uniforms into ones that looked similar to the uniforms worn by other servicemen.

The colors of the mech divisions consisted of red and light blue. Their selection was not random as they were strongly associated with the Larkinson Clan and the Cross Clan respectively.

The emblem of the mech division looked rather interesting. It consisted of a planet that was engulfed in flames. The imagery was surprisingly aggressive and not what he expected.

From the moment General Ark Larkinson stepped forward and stood in front of his staff and officers, much of the crowd quieted down.

"Soldiers of Davute. I salute you all today, for you have answered the call. No matter where you come from or how much you have struggled in order to reach this planet, know that our colonial state has become your new home now. Davute has opened its doors and welcomed you all inside. It is only right to defend it from the aggressors that seek to tear it down."

General Ark continued to address his soldiers through his words. He made sure not to overreach and try to usurp the control of the colonial government, which caused his words to become more subdued.

Nonetheless, the soldiers all had a lot of faith in General Ark's leadership ability. The troops all clung his words as if they had a magnetic quality.

"Each of us have a trait in common." Ark continued his speech. "From the beginning, I have established a rule that limits our recruitments to battle-tested soldiers and veterans. There are no rookies among us because we do not need them. Our mech division shall pursue the elite route and take on the most challenging missions as a consequence. Our service is not for the faint of heart, but I believe that each of you will become the greatest possible soldiers in our state! It is for that reason that I have chosen a name for us all that befits our brotherhood."

The Mars leveraged its Saint Kingdom and subjected everyone to Patriarch Reginald's strong yearning for combat!

At the same time, fireworks blasted into the air while a large projection came to life that displayed the symbol and the name of the new mech regiment.

"From this day onward, we shall operate as the 77th Warborn Mech Division!"