The Mech Touch

When Ves concluded his awkward conversation with his angry cat, Ves left the bridge so that he could take a closer look at Lucky's gems.

The gems all looked malformed and distorted in a way that just looked wrong to Ves.

Although none of the gems gave him the vibe that they were unstable to the point where throwing them at a bulkhead would cause them to explode, they still triggered his sense of danger.

Ves could not treat these gems like almost all of the other ones that Lucky had produced in the past.

The gem cat normally did a good job in producing solid gems with clear positive benefits and no discernable risks.

That meant that Ves never had to worry too much about imparting any significant negative consequences to the mechs that bore his gems.

If Lucky's gems truly posed a significant risk to the mech or the pilot that would be making use of the upgraded machine, then the Quint would have gone utterly crazy by this time!

This meant that Ves had little experience to draw upon in figuring out the precise effects of this new batch of malformed gems.

Their inconsistency, randomness and hints of malice made it so that he felt extremely reluctant to impart them to any of his mechs.

They might genuinely do more harm than good!

"At least I've gained a better idea on what goes on inside Lucky's body." He noted to himself.

As a mech designer, Ves did not really like to make use of components that he did not fully understand. The act of designing a mech always entailed combining many different parts and technological principles together into a seamless whole.

Gems complicated this process because they exerted an extremely powerful effect but also caused his work to become less understandable.

He had no confidence at all in his ability to fabricate an identical mech that performed in the exact same manner as a machine whose performance had been mystically boosted just through the addition of a single tiny element.

It was not until much later on that Ves was able to figure out the general working principle of Lucky's gems. Seeing what happened to an ace mech like the Mars heavily hinted that the gems vaguely acted like an instant injection of willpower baptism.

The biggest differences from traditional willpower baptism was that the gems exerted the strong influence or domain of a presumably powerful but long-deceased entity on a mech and that it happened in an instant. The transformation medium acting on a machine also appeared to be a lot different from willpower.

It reminded him of the explanation he received in the past of how exotic materials originally came into being.

This was a bit different from that natural process because Lucky's mysterious digestion system was able to exert a lot more control over the transformation process.

"There's much I still don't understand, but I think I'm a bit closer to the truth than before."

The insufficiently processed gems granted him a snapshot of what took place in between the time it took for Lucky to ingest different metals to the moment where he finally popped out his gems.

One of the common shortcomings that Ves was able to glean from the descriptions of the new gems was that they did not do a perfect job of containing the more superfluous and potentially negative influences of what they contained.

This showed that Lucky actually had to put a lot of effort into turning a gem that was raw but powerful into a more tempered and moderated product.

The greatest implication of this discovery was that gems could actually be a lot more powerful if it didn't matter if they came with a few downsides!

Ves drew out the gems from his armor compartment once again. He read through the descriptions provided by the System and tried to figure out whether he could pick up a few other interesting patterns.

[LOBIS FRAGMENT]

A semi-processed gem that contains a fraction of a dancer who could not cease. Will compel a mech to dance to eternity with the grace of an ancient master of her art. All motion shall bear a touch of elegance and refinement that can captivate any audience that is able to experience emotions.

[CURSE OF AIKIREON]

A semi-processed gem that contains the remnant of an ancient curse that has afflicted a long-forgotten sinner. This curse will gradually petrify a mech until it becomes a monument of a burden left untouched.

[INDIGNANT LORD FRAGMENT]

A semi-processed gem that contains the simmering hatred of an ancient lord towards the phase whales of the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy. Any mech that bears this gem will unlock the power of the ancient lord and become compelled to fight any phase whales to the death.

[PORTEND OF AN INEVITABLE ENDING]

A semi-processed gem that contains the collective despair of an ancient race that has become extinct. Any mech that bears this gem will become the carrier to an overwhelming quantity of fear and despair towards a doom that cannot be avoided, but will also trigger the release of power born out of unwilling futility.

[VIEAK FRAGMENT]

A semi-processed gem that contains the royal conceit of a second-born prince that has lost the struggle for the throne. Imparts an aggressive form of regality that will always be inadequate compared to authentic royal authority. Any discussion or behavior that hints or accuses the mech or its user of being a pretender, illegitimate, a spare or second-best will invoke violent retaliation.

[TAINTED KNIGHT'S BROKEN OATH]

A semi-processed gem that contains the regrets and resentment of a once-noble knight that has broken an important oath. Will blacken a mech that bears this gem until it becomes a rejected monster that seeks to taint anything it touches with corruption and degeneration.

[SOLOIS FRAGMENT]

A semi-processed gem that contains a fraction of the lost divinity of a forgotten god revered in ages past. Will cause a mech to bear the unstoppable curse and blessing of metal. The qualified inheritor of this ancient god may gain a gift of immense power, but must also bear all of the karma of its origin.

[RETRIBUTION OF MAKOWOL THE LOST]

A semi-processed gem that contains the irreconcilable soul of a rebel leader who disappeared on the eve of victory. Will impart greater damage resistance from any attacks launched by figures of authority and their oppressed subjects.

"Who are the figures that bear all of these names?" Ves wondered.

The System's descriptions mentioned a lot of names that sounded alien. Whether entities such as 'Aikireon' and 'Makowol the Lost' were originally alien or human was unclear.

If they were alien in origin, Ves could not exactly determine whether they originated from the Milky Way, the Red Ocean or a completely separate universe. The descriptions were incredibly lacking in this regard, and while not perfectly processed, the gems still did a great job in preventing any form of energy leakage from occurring. This cut him off from any further clues.

"What's up with all of these personalities?" He frowned. "There's an awful lot of losers and defeated figures among them. Is that what is common around these parts?"

It might be a function of availability. If Ves assumed that these past entities were all powerful transcendents or divinities, then the ones that were most prone to dying and polluting the environment with their spiritual compost were those that suffered tragedies.

Powerful beings that did a lot better had a greater chance of remaining alive. If they ever died, then they had probably made arrangements that prevented their power and heritage from spilling out in an uncontrolled fashion.

Despite the obvious dangers and lack of precision of these prematurely released gems, Ves still came up with a few possible suggestions on pairing these gems to specific gems.

He felt the urge to try out at least one of the nine malformed gems, if only to see what kind of influence it would exert onto a mech and mech pilot.

For example, the Lobis Fragment thematically matched the Star Dancer Mark II. Perhaps he could add this gem as a little extra when he finally came around to updating the expert rifleman mech's design.

"I'll need to make a careful decision about this. I can easily ruin an important work if I make the wrong choice."

He put the gems back into a secure compartment in his armor. This was probably not a good place to keep these potentially dangerous objects. He would have to arrange more appropriate storage for them all in case they interacted with each other or induced a form of contamination that he had yet to detect.

Ves proceeded to dedicate the following few hours to examining as much of the interior of the relatively small archeship as possible.

He did not obsess too much over digging into anything specific. He just wanted to get an overall feel and impression of the precious alien vessel from the inside.

He made plenty of interesting observations throughout his extensive tour.

He gleaned how extensive archemetal and electronic resonance dictated the relationship between the archeship and her users.

He noted how extensively the structure of the archeship was able to adapt and maintain its overall integrity when suffering extensive damage.

He also gained a bit more inspiration on how he could potentially design a mech comprised completely of archemetal based on the design principles utilized by the aliens.

Ves developed a strong appreciation for archemetal. It became even more important for him to find a research partner who could take this captured vessel and figure out how she worked as soon as possible.

This was because he developed a vision where he could formally step into first-class mech design by relying on archemetal to stand out from the competition!

"It would be just like how luminar crystals had become the staple feature of most of my ranged mechs!"

The competition in the first-class mech market was extremely fierce. The industry simply had too many excellent players, many of which possessed so much backing or accumulation that it was nearly impossible to dislodge them from their dominant positions!

If Ves wanted to squeeze his way into this highly competitive market that generally held a lot of mistrust towards newcomers emerging from below, he needed to make a splash by relying on a gimmick that was much more straightforward than living mechs!

"I'll be holding my next lecture tomorrow at the Eden Institute. I can ask around for help while I am there. Even the Terrans should hold a lot of interest in getting their hands on a relatively intact archeship."

Once their visit to the archeship came to an end, Ves and Gloriana took their children back to the Spirit of Bentheim.

Despite the fact that the factory ship was currently docked alongside the Diligent Ovenbird, that did not stop the Larkinsons from returning and assuming their old duties and responsibilities.

In fact, the clan had a high demand on her production capabilities in order to replenish ammunition, produce a lot of hull plating to patch up the factory ship damaged hull and fabricate entirely new mechs to make up for the losses in the previous battle.

While the Spirit of Bentheim slowly came back to life, Ves received an unexpected visit from his grandfather and his daughter.

Venerable Benjamin Larkinson entered his private office while holding Andraste's hand.

"Hello grandfather. What's up? Did Andraste get up to mischief again?"

"It is a little more serious than that." Benjamin spoke in a grave tone. "I wanted to wait until the battle was over to bring this matter to your attention. Andraste, can you show him what you learned?"

"Okay, great-grandpa-"

Under Ves' bemused expression, his daughter proceeded to sit down on the deck in a lotus position.

She then proceeded to cultivate according to an unknown method, causing a small energy vortex form around her body!

The sight came as an abrupt shock to Ves!

"What?! Where did you learn this cultivation method?! I don't recall teaching you anything. This is impossible!"