The Mech Touch



The proposal that Gloriana shared to Ves that night kept him restless the next day.

The glow and satisfaction he gained from fulfilling his wish to become a Senior became overshadowed by the cloud cast by the Hexers.

A part of Ves agreed with the logic presented by his wife, but another part of him understood that this was an extremely dangerous game.

He had too many concerns. His survival, the safety of his children, and the wellbeing of his clan weighed heavily on his mind. Every decision produced a lot of consequences, many of which might end up biting him back.

As Ves was still going through all of the changes that arose after his successful promotion, he took a bit of time to share his concerns with his advisors.

Naturally, Ves first turned to the woman who knew the Hexers the best. He met with Calabast in an underground office and shared Gloriana's proposal to his spymaster.

"Squeak." Arnold sniffed Ves' leg before huffing and rolling his chubby body.

Calabast meanwhile fell into thought as she took in the story. She had already stayed up all night in order to look up a lot of intelligence and conduct an analysis.

"Your suspicions about the motives of the Hex Federation are correct." She began. "The Hexers are dissatisfied with the stalemate that exists between the Friday Colonies and their own state. So long as their archenemies are still present in the Red Ocean, the Hexers can never rest easy. They have incurred enormous trauma from losing the Komodo War and they do not want to repeat this disaster again."

"The Hexers have been careful all of this time." Ves spoke. "Why turn around all of a sudden?"

"This is why the Hexers are eager to take advantage of a miracle solution to resolve their greatest threat. If you can truly amplify the performance of every Hexer ace mech that you can get your hands on, then the Hexers will definitely gain an enormous advantage on the battlefield. The only concern is whether the other colonial states will allow the Hexers to conquer the Friday Colonies."

Ves looked skeptical. "It is the height of foolishness to bet on a single miracle solution. While my work hasn't been countered yet, that doesn't mean it is impossible to do so. The Fridaymen have probably allocated a lot of manpower and resources into finding a viable means to neutralize my design applications. If they happen to succeed, the greatest reliance of the Hex Army will become invalid at once. This will result in a huge disaster for the Hexers."

"You are right about that, but think about this from the perspective of the Hexers who have fled the Komodo Star Sector. The Fridaymen had to pay a huge price to win the Komodo War. Most of their mechs and assets are currently tied up in reconstructing all of the damage produced by the war and integrating all of the conquered star systems. This is a process that will take many decades, but sooner or later the Fridaymen will be able to free up enough manpower and resources to build up the Friday Colonies."

Ves understood the implications of these words.

"Are you saying that the Hexers want to start a war while the Fridaymen are largely preoccupied with their affairs in the Komodo Star Sector?"

"Exactly." Calabast smiled. "It is a race against time. If the Hex Federation cannot launch a decisive war within one or two decades, the Friday Coalition will eventually be able to channel so much support to its colonies in the new frontier that the odds will grow even more unfavorable. If I am not mistaken, the Hexers place a high amount of importance on rotating their ace mechs. They will keep each top machine with our fleet long enough for you to upgrade them to the best of your ability before it will be rotated with another one. So long as you can upgrade all of their ace mech within a decade, the Hex Federation will definitely be able to start this war with confidence!"

Much of this had to do with the Battle of Pima Prime. The heavy blow inflicted by the Hex Army and the Golden Skull Alliance still left the Gauge Dynasty's crown jewel in ruins.

The Gaugers hadn't even come close to recovering from the loss of an ace pilot along with a majority of the infrastructure on the port system.

While the Gauge Dynasty was certainly powerful enough to return Pima Prime to its peak within 5 years, it was impossible for the Gaugers to pay such a huge price when there were lots of other lucrative territorial acquisitions closer to home!

This meant that as long as the Hexers struck before the Gauge Dynasty fully rebuilt its colonial holdings in the Red Ocean, they would definitely encounter less opposition than if they delayed their offensive!

"Gloriana told me that the Vrakens will send their ace pilot and ace mech first." Ves said. "I guess that they are the first to jump on this idea. Do you have anything to say about this? It does take a lot of trust to give me access to one of their most important trump cards. I thought that the Vrakens were all secularists who don't buy into the hexism crap."

"You are making a generalization, Ves, but you are largely correct. However, Matriarch Alisia Vraken who has likely issued her verdict on this matter is a woman who always tries to make objective decisions. It is apparent that she saw enough promise in you and your work that she did not hesitate any further and went fully onboard with this idea. When it comes to taking advantage of opportunities, the Vrakens will never be slow."

Ves chuckled for a moment. He believed in Calabast because she had acted the exact same way when she decided to defect to the Larkinson Clan!

Her judgment had been correct and her decision paid off in spades. If every Vraken was like Calabast, then it shouldn't be a surprise that the matriarchal dynasty jumped on the opportunity to allow Ves to upgrade its ace mechs.

"Is there anything I need to be careful about once the Vraken reinforcements have arrived?" Ves asked.

"Not particularly." Calabast shook her head. "I will pay close attention to them. Just treat them as other Hexers. They will be adaptable, so do not worry about offending them or violating any taboos. If there is one area that you must pay attention to, it is that the Vrakens will likely try to insert more of themselves into your clan."

"That's not a problem. I am not opposed to welcoming more qualified personnel so long as they pass Goldie's test."

The Golden Cat had been extremely effective at keeping duplicitous people out of the Larkinson Clan.

The Hexers should know extremely well by now that they could never place one of their own in the Larkinson Clan so long as the intention to serve the Hex Federation remained intact!

Ves shifted the topic. "Let's talk about the possible consequences of accepting this proposal. Do you really think it is a good idea for a Senior like myself to enter into a high-stakes game?" 

The spymaster couldn't supply him with a direct answer. "It depends on you. What is your risk appetite? How confident are you in your ability to increase your power? What are you willing to give up in order to cultivate strong relationships with many powerful groups? There are too many variables at play in order to supply you with a simple answer."

"Try, then. I want to hear what you think and feel."

"Since that is the case, I believe that we are up to the challenge." She told him. "If you leverage your most useful innovations correctly, you can turn yourself into an indispensable asset and receive the support and backing from dozens of different groups. These relationships are not that useful in protecting yourself against direct threats by themselves, but you can take advantage of them to obtain a huge amount of benefits that you can quickly convert into a stronger clan and mech army. This is what Gloriana meant by beating the poisoned chalice. So long as you can withstand the toxins, drinking the chalice will quickly allow you to enter the upper echelon of human society in the Red Ocean."

That was an incredibly attractive prospect to Ves. The faster he rose, the more secure he was in his position. He did not want to waste too much time and develop his strength step-by-step because too many accidents could happen in between.

The Red Ocean was anything but stable and a reversal in fortune could happen at any time!

As Ves thought about the consequences of accepting the proposal, he started to think seriously about what he needed to do in order to keep his head intact during this wild ride.

"The key part about this high profile development approach is the necessity of obtaining enough top-level protection." He said. "A second-class clan is far from enough to resist all of the storms. We need to work together with other powerful groups that can cover for our weaknesses. Who do you think we should befriend first? Should we make an offer to Davute?"

"No." Calabast immediately shook her head. "We already have enough entanglements with the Colonial Federation of Davute. This has produced a large amount of tension within its halls of power. Sooner or later, the first-raters will take notice of your work. They will come and knock on your doors. Rather than allow them to take the initiative, we should be more proactive and make the offers first. So long as we can win over enough first-class organizations, we will have enough room for development to quickly rise to this level within a single generation or less."

She had a good point, but that did not mean it was easy. The Golden Skull Alliance already had to struggle a lot to win the favor of the Yorul-Tavik Clan.

"Should we start with the Yorul-Tavik Clan?"

"That is not an easy question to answer. I am thinking more about the need to form a strong relationship with both the Terrans and the Rubarthans. We talked about this before in the past. We only need to ramp up our efforts and target more powerful groups or factions of these first-rate superstates."

Ves felt incredibly uneasy at the thought of entering into any direct transactions with the Terrans and Rubarthans.

"That sounds like playing with fire."

"It is, but it is better than the alternatives." Calabast retorted. "It is not enough to befriend the Terrans or the Rubarthans alone. If we ally with the Terrans, the Rubarthans have a strong incentive to take you out. If we maintain ties with both of them at once, they will restrain themselves so long as the organizations we have partnered with enjoy enough prestige in their respective states."

All of this sounded a little complicated, but Ves possessed enough political acumen to understand the gist of her story.

It still sounded awfully dangerous, though.

"Not everyone is willing to play by the rules." Ves shared his opinion. "A powerful figure is liable to flip the table. We can't defend ourselves against such threats."

Calabast shrugged. "Every game can be won no matter how unlikely the odds may be. We only need to play it well enough. We know most of the rules, so we can plan our roadmap in advance. I suggest that you give us enough time to draft it up. Once we present our work to you, it is up to you whether you want to change our development strategy."

"Hm, I like the sound of that. Please do that. Make sure to cooperate with Minister Shederin Purnesse and other clever minds."

Ves knew that it was not enough to rope in the Terrans and the Rubarthans. If he truly wanted to guarantee his security in the coming decades, then he needed to obtain much stronger support from the MTA.

Fortunately, he had a good idea on how he could make that happen.