The Mech Touch

Ves ultimately remained uncommitted on the decision on whether to start over with a brand-new first-class organization.

He understood all of the advantages of doing so, but when he thought about turning his back on the clan, he became a lot more reluctant about going through with this plan.

Just the thought of disappointing the Golden Cat was reason enough to steer away from a more formal separation!

"I need to talk this over with my family and advisors." Ves ultimately decided. "This is not a decision that I should make for myself. I have relied on a lot of Larkinsons to propel me to this point. Many thousands have even lost their lives in order to help me realize my ambitions. I do not want to tarnish their sacrifices by betraying their hopes and expectations. They deserve to benefit from my success. I won't cut them out of my life just because they aren't as useful anymore."

Ves felt the need to voice his values in order to distance himself from the Survivalists. Their attitudes towards people were much more utilitarian in nature.

This was why he started to lean towards forming an elite branch of the Larkinson Clan. It would still exist as a somewhat separate division from the rest, but would still be Larkinson in the ways that mattered.

Doing this introduced a lot of additional difficulties and complications, though. Ves and his subordinates had to flesh out a much more comprehensive plan to turn this into a workable solution.

He welcomed the distraction of attending another important meeting. Ves put down all of his concerns about his clan so that he could hold a proper discussion with the Xenotechnician.

Once the Khamatar Reign teleported him to one of the Star Designer's temporary offices, Ves took his seat.

Compared to their first private meeting, the Xenotechnician adopted a noticeably friendlier attitude towards him. "Ah, the man of the hour has come. I am pleased to see you are still in good straits, Professor Larkinson. I was afraid that the events that happened earlier today may have affected you much more severely."

Ves shrugged in a deliberate show of nonchalance. "I have experience in this kind of stuff. The scale may be a lot bigger than anything I have dealt with before, but I already know how to cope with the consequences of my actions."

His most preferred coping mechanism was to not think about what his actions had wrought. Why should he mentally torture himself when he could be having fun instead? He preferred to spend his time on more productive pursuits such as designing mechs!

The Xenotechnician responded with a smile. "We can always offer you additional aid. We have a great amount of experience in addressing the many issues that leading mech pilots, mech designers and others must cope with as they gain more responsibilities and affect the lives of trillions."

"It's not necessary."

"Suit yourself. Let us move on to business. Now that our faction has embraced the Deep Strike Plan, we will endeavor to introduce fundamental changes to our society. Nothing will be the same again. The old power structures that are largely based on the established inheritances of the Milky Way will undergo significant shakeups. We do not expect the dominant powers to relinquish their entire hold on their territories. They are not stupid and enjoy too much of a head-start to falter. Now that there is actual punishment for inaction, they will become much more motivated to proactively contribute towards the defense of our collective civilization."

Ves couldn't help but smile when he heard that. This was exactly what he had in mind when he recommended this particular plan.

It was inevitable for the different groups to still compete with each other. The old rivalries would never go away. The Deep Strike Plan just shifted the primary means of competition in a much more risky but also helpful arena.

The Deep Strike Plan also introduced a lot more upward mobility. Ves believed that a lot of lesser groups would embrace the chance to prove themselves in risky but highly rewarding offensive operations.

This was the stimulus that red humanity needed to regain its momentum!

"All of that sounds nice, but what does that have to do with me?" Ves asked with a frown.

"That is a redundant question, Professor Larkinson. You should have already deduced the possible reasons why we require your input on these matters."

"The Mace of Retaliation already told me that my various contributions can play a major role in the Deep Strike Plan. He mentioned something about utilizing my companion spirit fruits and kinship networks as incentives to all of the groups that volunteer for these dangerous deep strike operations."

The Xenotechnician nodded. "That is true and more. The overall intent behind the Deep Strike Plan is to strike at the hinterland of the native aliens while training a new class of leading humans. We do not require your input of the former, but we do need your active cooperation to formulate a proper plan to empower our future warlords and warfighters."

Ves raised his eyebrow at that. He did not expect the Xenotechnician to utilize this terminology. It did not exactly have a lot of positive connotations.

From what he could deduce, the status of warlords would probably exceed that of a pioneer!

"I think I can help with that. What do you have in mind, exactly?"

"Let me give you a glimpse of the plan that we are still in the process of building up. The Fist of Defiance and the Mace of Retaliation place a great emphasis on the training and empowerment of our warlords and warfighters."

Ves took a look at the projected document. It did not contain a lot of details, but the contents were already shocking enough on their own!

"You are willing to grant the most meritorious warfighters a chance to make use of the EdNet?!"

"That is one of the more mundane incentives that we intend to make available. You are hardly the only second-rater or third-rater that has demonstrated courage and competence that is far in excess of your peers. Each of them deserve an opportunity to move up and make more significant contributions."

The availability of the EdNet was not high. While the Red Association clearly wanted to expand upon this capacity, the necessary resources were so scarce that quotas would remain fairly scarce for a long time.

Ves felt a lot more thankful that he managed to secure 5000 single-use quotas from the Polymath!

That said, Ves saw hope in granting more Larkinsons the opportunity to gain access to the EdNet. They just had to travel much deeper into alien space than they ever had in the past!

The Red Association offered a lot of other rewards that made it worthwhile to sign up for a deep strike operation.

For example, it became a lot easier to gain additional starships as long as a warlord produced enough results!

According to the plan, the warlords would be able to order brand-new warships that were packed with some of the latest technological advances at reduced prices.

Not only that, but if the warlords ever lost any starships during a deep strike operation, they could purchase replacement hulls at a greater discount!

Starships had become a lot scarcer now that the greater beyonder gate no longer spat them out anymore.

Ves had little doubt that the Red Association would have trouble fulfilling this demand. The organization had access to far more resources and industrial capacity. It should be a lot easier for the mechers to pump out a lot of hulls on a monthly basis.

"What about warships?" Ves inquired. "Will warships be part of the incentive package for warlords as well? I can tell you that you can attract at least twice as many volunteers if you can earn Warship Tokens through these dangerous operations."

The Xenotechnician grimaced as a response. "That is one of the points of contention that we are still working on. The Red Fleet has proven to be remarkably obstinate and uncooperative about rewarding our future warlords with even the smallest Warship Tokens. The fleeters are apprehensive about handing over warships that possess an enormous capacity for destruction to warlords that have razed many population centers. The Age of Conquest has taught us that the line between bombarding alien cities and bombarding human cities is remarkably thin."

Ves looked disappointed. The fleeters were really paranoid about handing warships to the masses. The current setup was as far as they were willing to go for the time being.

"That is regrettable."

"We did not intend to put a heavy emphasis on warships in the first place." The Xenotechnician dismissively said. "Mechs shall remain the focus of our deep strike operations. The Fist of Defiance is adamant about throwing as many mech pilots into dangerous and high-stress situations in order to produce many breakthroughs. Warship crews cannot break through in the same manner, so they are less valued by us. Expert pilots are generally too weak to individually affect our strategic outlook, but every ace pilot and god pilot that emerge from the battlefields is another cause for celebration."

It was typical that the Fist of Defiance put a lot of focus on the people rather than the hardware.

"I understand. The prospect of obtaining additional carriers is enough of an incentive for most warlords." Ves predicted.

"These are a handful of the possible rewards that we are willing to offer to successful warlords who return. What is more important to us is what we intend to gift them in advance of any operation. We do not intend to dispatch deep strike fleets through the modified beyonder gate without resorting to means that can increase their success rate. The loss rate will likely be much more severe if we transmit them to a distant location without additional preparation. Our greatest challenge in doing so is to keep it economical at a larger scale."

The Deep Strike Plan demanded a lot of deployments in order to significantly shake the hearts of the native aliens fighting at the frontlines.

A few isolated raids would not make a difference. Red humanity had to send out hundreds if not thousands of destructive warfleets in order to shake up the entire dwarf galaxy!

Giving them a lot of costly goodies such as first-class multipurpose mechs or additional carrier vessels could easily cause the Red Association to drain all of its resources.

Perhaps it was worth it to spend a lot in order to help the raiding fleets survive and complete their missions, but there was a limit to how many freebies the mechers were willing to hand out to volunteers!

Ves suddenly thought about the cost of his own solutions.

"Wait. You intend to offer companion spirits fruits and so on to these warlords and warfighters because their cost is trivial compared to the massive value that they can provide, is that right?"?

The Xenotechnician grinned. "Exactly! The extremely low financial cost of your set of solutions has enormous implications for us. We have already tasked numerous research teams with developing a means to mass produce your companion spirit trees. Even if this vital research project stalls, we can still fall back on your other solutions. The Mace of Retaliation has become especially enthusiastic about your kinship networks."

"He has a good eye."

This particular subject was deeply intertwined with Ves. Without his assistance, there was no way that red humanity could take advantage of kinship networks by themselves!

"While there are legitimate concerns about the wisdom of linking up the souls of so many of our best and brightest to what essentially amount to inhuman pretender gods, the inconvenient truth is that we cannot afford to let our doubts get in the way of necessity. We are willing to expedite or outright eliminate all of the necessary safety studies and investigations in order to implement a number of highly effective kinship networks. So long as you can vouch for their safety and reliability, we are willing to take you at your word."

Ves knew that his kinship networks had a lot of iffy qualities about them that made a lot of outsiders squeamish about using them. He felt considerably honored that the Mace of Retaliation was willing to disregard all of these legitimate concerns.

He felt it was his duty and responsibility that the mechers correctly employed his kinship networks.

"What are your requirements?"