The Mech Touch

As the Bluejay Fleet cut through space like knives, Ves remained distracted throughout rhe remainder of the trip.

The Overlord Project turned out to be a bigger deal than he anticipated.

II it succeeded, then it had the potential to open up an entirely new branch of red humanity that pursued power in an entirely different form!

Mechs and warships would no longer hold a duopoly on power. The rise of phase lords in human society would trigger a major restructuring of the existing power base!

The Red Association was playing a dangerous game here. Granting people a lot of power would likely lead to inflated egos and other detrimental consequences. The situation could easily grow out of control.

Perhaps the constant shortage of phasewater may temper the ambitions of many human phase lords, but there would always be people who made a lot more progress than others.

Still, this had little to do with him. His responsibilities were much more limited. He felt better by knowing what the mechers were up to by working on the Overlord Project, but there was no need tor him to involve himself any further.

He didn't have the time to spend on these affairs anyway.

Though Ves couldn't keep his mind off the implications of the Overlord Project, it did not slow down his work too much. He still made adequate progress in his design projects during the remainder of the journey.

Numerous days quickly went by. The Overlord Project was still in the information gathering stage, so Ves had ample time to spend on other activities.

He mostly busied himself by designing his mechs, chatting with Jovy, corresponding with the Larkinsons who stayed behind in the fleet, playing with his children and more.

His life had actually become a lot calmer now that he had separated himself from his clan. The Larkinsons who remained behind were more than capable of sorting out their own affairs and didn't really need any input from the patriarch to make most of their decisions.

That said, Ves still missed the warmth and company that he could only experience by surrounding himself with family and trusted comrades.

Although the mechers assigned to the Bluejay Fleet were much stronger and offered much better protection, Ves couldn't bring himself to trust them to the same extent.

The mechers that he met aboard the Tarrasque were all decent and polite enough, but when it came down to it, they would always obey instructions from their higher ups!

Ves couldn't really imagine a future where he slowly converted them into his own personal guard. Jovy may have painted a pleasant picture to him about this, but reality was not that simple.

The company of his wife and children did much to relieve his feeling of alienation. So long as he kept those he held most dear close to him, he was sure he could manage in the months to come.

Besides, his immediate family weren't the only Larkinsons who came along. His honor guard and a few other staffers came along as well in order to handle trivial matters.

It was a pity that none of them had reached first-class standards, but that could always be improved over time. Numerous guards and assistants had already been granted EdNet quotas in order to provide Ves with qualified protection and administrative help in the near future.

"l am afraid that I will have to rely more on rhe bodyguards provided by the Bluejay Fleet for protection than you guys." Ves told Nitaa and the other guards he called over in his temporary office.

None of the Battle Criers who had pledged their lives to guard the patriarch looked pleased with this announcement.

They were professional enough to accept this assessment, though. The cold hard truth was that they simply weren't able to defend their principal against first-class threats.

Ves waved his hand, "l am not blaming you for this. I've been moving far too quickly as of late. There isn't enough time for all of you to keep up, especially when many of you were originally third-raters. While a part of your unit is preparing to undergo EdNet training, I still want the rest of you by my side. I trust you guys the most, and in my personal experience, it is always better to have familiar people by my side."

"Are you certain whether that is wise, sir?" Nitaa spoke up. "Some of our equipment has reached quasi-first-class standards, but that will not amount to much in Terran space. Our training and skills are also woefully inadequate."

"That is why I have requested the Bluejay Fleet to provide you all with customized first-class guard infantry equipment. 1 have emphasized the need to keep them as simple and solid as possible to reduce the difficulty of operating them. Even then, you will be required to undergo significant training in order to make use of all of the functions without relying too much on AI systems. Once you have completed this crash course in operating simplified first-class gear, your presence in the field won't be a detriment anymore... I think."

That was the most he could do for them. They needed to learn way too much to operate more advanced technological equipment, and that couldn't be done in a few months.

While it was technically possible to make them effective right away by relying on highly automated systems, Ves disliked this option even more.

There was no difference between doing this and relying on a bunch of armed bots for protection.

Any enemy that was highly proficient in technology could hack or sabotage them, causing the stupid AIs to turn against the person they were supposed to project!

Too many incidents like this had occurred in humanity's lengthy history that nobody was stupid enough to put their lives in the hands of automated protection these days.

This talk was one of the many necessary adjustments that Ves had to make in the wake of all of the changes.

"We will do our best to perform our duties in spite of all of the difficulties." Nitaa promised.

"Good. I believe you can become much stronger once it is your turn to undergo EdNet training. I will make sure there will be plenty of quotas available for that. For now, it is best if you focus on protecting me from threats that the goons from the Red Association are less equipped to handle. I trust in their ability to protect me against all kinds of conventional threats, but there is plenty of weirdness out there that can't be defeated by relying on straightforward means. You will need to step in if that happens."

That caused Nitaa to frown yet again. "We don't have the necessary skills and equipment to handle this responsibility. The mechers cannot provide us with what we need, at least in rhe short term."

"Don't worry. I will spare a bit of time in a workshop and fabricate individual pieces of equipment for all of you. That reminds me that my Unending Regalia is due for an upgrade as well. Its performance is no longer adequate in the upper zones."

He needed to do this sooner rather than later. Ves felt much less comfortable now that he had left the middle zones and entered a much more dangerous society.

One of the downsides to rising up so quickly was that Ves had stepped on a lot of people's toes.

He couldn't rule out the possibility that people would make an attempt on his life because he threatened their interests. He had already learned from Master Xena Wintress that the cosmopolitans hated him especially!

Ves went back to work after he concluded this little talk. Time continued to pass until the Bluejay Fleet finally arrived in the New Constantinople System.

The Terrans had made ample preparations for his arrival.

As Ves and his wife stood in the front of an observation chamber, both of them stared out in the void of space where overlays started to light up many different symbols that signified artificial objects and stellar objects.

The New Constantinople System was the capital and the economic heart of the Riston Territory, which essentially functioned like a semi-autonomous state within the Terran Alliance.

The Devos Ancient Clan called the shots in the Riston Territory. The New Constantinople System was also under its control.

The Devosans had spent the last weeks reinforcing the defenses in the port system.

This turned out to be necessary because a lot of Terran vessels had utilized their superdrives to race towards New Constantinople in the hopes of establishing contact with the hottest tier 3 galactic citizen to hit the scene!

Despite all of the reinforcements, it was difficult for the Devosans to hold back all of the eager opportunity seekers.

Fortunately, Ves and his staff had already corresponded with the Devos Ancient Clan.

As much as Ves saw the advantages in making lots of new friends among the Terrans, most of these relationships would remain shallow and worthless if they weren't backed up by serious mutual commitments.

Ves and the Larkinson Clan were too new and unfamiliar with the first-raters at the moment, ft was not wise to dive into the deep and get entangled in relationships that ended up becoming burdens rather than boons.

For now, Ves had already made a decision to limit most of his interactions with the Terrans to the Devos and Streon Ancient Clans.

This was not fair to all of the other ancient clans that were just as powerful and influential, but it couldn't be helped. The Terran Alliance had inherited the Greater Terran United Confederation's lack of reverence towards a supreme authority. There was no single group that could represent the interests of every Terran.

in any case, his clear request meant that Ves should have a relaxing time while he stayed in the New Constantinople System.

Even if other Terran groups wanted to do business with Ves, they would have to convince the Devosans or the Streons to mediate on their behalf.

As much as the two ancient clans tried to reject the Terrans who wanted to push through their requests, it was difficult to refuse all of them due to complex political reasons.

Ves knew that the Devosans and the Streons would still be forced to dump a heap of proposals onto his lap shortly after he arrived.

As he thought about all of the tedious letters he would have to reply to in a sincere maimer in order to avoid causing any offense, his wife suddenly grew animated!

"Look, Ves!" She shouted as she pointed to a window to the side! "A detachment of the 1st Streon Mech Army has just entered the star system! Sensors have confirmed that the Termite Hill is among lhe new arrivals. This is great!"

It took a few seconds tor Ves to realize the significance of this news.

The port system always saw a lot of traffic. Recent events had caused it to spike, but all of this meant lhat the arrival of a new fleet was not news in itself.

The 1st Streon Mech Army was not an average unit.

Just as its name suggested, it was the premier mech force of the Streon Ancient Clan!

Each pilot was an elite with genetic aptitudes that measured at B+ at minimum. Each of them went through hellish training that was considerably more intense in order to weed out anyone that failed to meet the exacting standards of a powerful ancient clan.

The first-class multipurpose mechs of this mech army were so well-equipped and packed with high technologies thal they were almost just as good as lhe ones utilized by the Red Association!

The Termite Hill served as the flagship of this formidable mech army. The large fleet carrier was over 7 kilometers long and was packed with defenses. While her age was not small, her hull had received frequent upgrades over her existence in order to keep her as up to date as possible.

There was one more aspect about the Termite Hill that caused Ves to almost freeze.

The proud fleet carrier happened to be the seat of power of a famous ace pilot known as General Axelar Streon!