The Mech Touch

Klaus Robar-Fulton floated out of the pristine white transit shuttle after it had reached its stop and took a moment to take in the view of the city.

Sandan looked vibrant as the local star rose up from the horizon and illuminated its rays over the planet of New Constantinople VIII.

As the founding colony of the planet, the Devos Ancient Clan had invested a lot to build up the city's infrastructure and facilities.

The modern Terran architecture made this expansive settlement look a bit too new for Klaus to get accustomed to. The original intention was to turn Sandan into a beacon of civilization.

That policy changed after the Great Severing took place.

Now that humanity lost access to a huge amount of support from the Milky Way, everyone living in human-occupied space had to make peace with the fact that the aliens might come for them all one day!

While Sandan still featured a dizzying amount of delicate and highly artful structures, the defense forces became more and more visible with each passing day.

Construction bots erected turrets as quickly as the available supply of raw materials remained sufficient.

Powerful first-class mechs patrolled the streets and the skies with greater frequency.

Entire construction crews had been contracted to erect additional bases and supply depots.

The vision for Sandan had completely changed. It was no longer supposed to be a paradise away from the Greater Terran United Confederation where many of its residents emigrated from in recent years.

It was slowly transforming into a fortress before everyone's eyes. The fresh new paradise that people yearned to settle in so that they could climb up the ladder and become the new movers and shakers in a society that had yet to be carved out was becoming an increasingly more distant dream.

Klaus found this to be profoundly sad and ironic.

Just like every other Terran on the planet, he never signed up for this kind of life.

If his father hadn't gone into debt back in the old galaxy and been offered a way to redeem himself by accepting a long-term work assignment in the new frontier, Klaus would have still remained safe in the highly protected territories of the Terran Confederation.

That part of his life was gone forever now. The fourth year mech design student had little choice but to accept this new reality.

Klaus let out a sigh and floated down onto the ground. Hundreds of other students arriving from afar did likewise.

No matter whether the students came from distinguished clans and resided in private villas or rented more modestly furnished apartments built in neighboring towns like himself, each of them had to go through the security checkpoints situated at the main gates.

The Eden Institute of Business & Technology instituted this policy just before the start of this semester. It was yet another sign that the Age of Mechs had passed for the people who ended up stuck in the Red Ocean.

Klaus walked through the corridor while a dizzying amount of scanners verified his identity and checked for any dangerous contraband.

As a civilian from the Terran Confederation, Klaus was unable to afford the luxurious internal weapon modules that merited greater attention from the security guards.

Once he got through, he began to follow the crowd and walk towards the center.

The large auditorium had opened its gates once again. Thousands of students and staff members poured in because they all grew curious about the opening lecture of a newly hired professor.

Klaus didn't know what to make of this absurd circumstance. He thought that this treatment was only reserved for the most honored and accomplished Master Mech Designers and business magnates that decided to hold a guest lecture.

He did not understand why the Eden Institute granted the best possible treatment to a young second-rater who held no status within Terran space.

Certainly, this young professor did have a number of impressive accomplishments to his name.

Klaus did not consider himself to be a Terran who automatically looked down on second-raters as subhumans, but that did not mean he was able to treat them on the same level as himself.

Terrans were the original humans. Each of them were born at a much higher level than any second-rater. The augmentations that they received along with their much more advanced schooling propelled each of them into geniuses in their own right!

The only reason why Klaus did not feel he was remarkable was because he was surrounded by people who received the same treatment or better.

He swept his gaze around and spotted many groups of students who possessed a more obvious bearing of superiority and class. Their smart clothing looked more refined in all of the little details that were difficult to replicate with cheaper tech.

These were the true princes and princesses of Terra. Their higher stations granted them access to the best gene optimization treatments and implants.

Whereas Klaus had to struggle a lot in order to memorize and comprehend an astonishing amount of learning material, these highborn scions could easily absorb twice as much knowledge in the same amount of time!

Klaus deeply envied the descendants of wealthy clans and families, but he had lived in this society long enough to know that Terran society was deeply stratified.

A relatively ordinary citizen that belonged in a lower layer had to work extremely hard just to obtain a chance to be promoted to a higher layer.

Meanwhile, the better-dressed students merely had to go on autopilot and follow the meticulous plans of their families in order to maintain their higher stations!

Though Klaus was aware that the people born at the upper layers actually had to endure a lot of pressure and expectations from birth, they at least did not have to study well into the night just to keep up with all of his classes!

"There you are, Klaus." A female voice sounded from behind.

"Good morning, Polina." He greeted as a student wearing a more distinguished and colorful outfit walked up to his side.

"Are you eager to attend the first classes of our superstar of a professor?"

"I don't know. I am entertaining an increasing amount of misgivings, especially now that this opening lecture has turned into a campus-wide event."

"How so? If the institute is willing to put so much of their credibility and reputation at stake for Professor Larkinson, then he is most definitely legit. The descriptions in his colorful record are not fabrications."

Klaus maintained a skeptical impression. "I am not questioning the professor's record. I just hope he holds more normal classes so that I can pass his courses without complications. I am starting to regret signing up for all three of the ones that he is offering for this semester. I should have known better than to apply for them thinking that a second-class mech designer won't maintain the same academic standards as our regular professors. The course materials hardly include any textbooks or academic articles! If our grades are based on his subjective opinions, who knows what it will take to obtain his approval."

His friend did not look as concerned. Polina pretty much rolled her eyes when he heard what he was worrying about.

"Let us reserve our judgment until we have actually attended his classes. He may be young and inexperienced, but he is a genuine Senior Mech Designer. Second-rater or not, personalities like him should have high standards for themselves."

The pair of fourth-year students passed through another security checkpoint before they entered the main hall of the auditorium.

The entire space was distinctly divided into two sections for this occasion.

250 of the best seats at the center were reserved to the students that signed up for the Frontier Wisdom class.

The tens of thousands of other seats that were located elsewhere were reserved for the other guests that were curious or wanted to have a bit of fun.

Klaus politely greeted the acquaintances that he had grown familiar with throughout his studies.

A lot of Terrans studied mech design at the Eden Institute, and they attended the same set of mandatory courses. Klaus had personally worked together with over a hundred of them on different group projects.

He found it difficult to build any close friendships with most of them. He was actually quite smart as well as hard-working, or else he wouldn't have been able to get into the Eden Institute, but there had been times where his fellow mech design students scoffed at his slow progress.

His lack of augmentations held him back from earning greater respect from his classmates!

Polina did not share the same problem. She smiled and chatted with a few Terrans that she hung out with on a more regular basis.

Her status as a foreign exchange student did not bother her at all. Despite originating from another first-rate state, she demonstrated a greater amount of intelligence and learning capabilities.

As a recognized genius, she not only received a scholarship that funded her tuition while she attended the Eden Institute, but she also received a grant that allowed her to pay for a more extensive suite of augmentations!

Even though her augmentations still couldn't compare to the improvements of the more highborn students, Polina Devonshire occasionally managed to rank in the top 10 in almost every course she attended!

Klaus knew that his friend already received a flood of numerous promising job propositions from different companies and organizations. Their paths would most certainly diverge once they graduated from the Eden Institute.

Fortunately, they still had to go through several semesters before they would go their separate ways.

"Have you settled on your specialization yet?" Polina casually asked as the two of them took their seats.

"I haven't made up my mind yet." Klaus replied. "I am thinking about specializing in sensor systems because not many other students want to specialize in a field that is not as glamorous. I don't think many of them realize the importance of proper scouting and surveying. Our society has a constant demand for high-quality resources, but searching for them is a difficult and time-consuming task. I won't be lacking for job opportunities if I can assist in the design of mechs that are used to search for exotics as well as these new-fangled hypers."

His classmate and friend respected his choice. "Your plan is good. I think you should go for it. The sooner you lock in your choice, the sooner you can work towards acquiring the minimum competences that are required to get hired by a company that is in this business." Klaus nodded. "I know. I have already signed up for a few introductory courses. What about you, Polina? You previously talked about going all-in on specializing in transphasic shield systems. Did the department approve of your course applications?"

The woman smiled. "I had to attend a few meetings in order to persuade the administrators that I have what it takes to study phasewater theory as well as more advanced energy shield systems. They eventually allowed me to attend all of the courses once I showed that I wasn't biting more than I could chew. The only condition is that I have to earn an excellent grade in all of those classes in order to keep up this heavy study load in the next semesters."

Transphasic technology was the rising trend in the mech industry and many other industries for that matter. Anyone who got in early and mastered this complicated new branch of technology would definitely become a highly desirable professional!

Klaus truly admired Polina for daring to take on so many difficult courses in a single semester. He understood his own limitations well enough that he could not possibly do the same.

Though he was happy for her own ability to pursue a greater ambition, he felt increasingly more inadequate about his own situation.

He did not care about sensor systems to be honest. It did not excite him all that much. His dreams were far greater than that. He wanted to design awesome and richly featured combat mechs for a living!

Unfortunately, that future would never come to pass. There were far more qualified and resourceful mech students around him. In an age and dwarf galaxy where materials were becoming more scarce and expensive, the privilege of designing serious first-class multipurpose mechs was only reserved for the very few!

A mediocre mech design student like Klaus himself had no chance to enter this exclusive club. His skills and talent were simply not up to par.