The Mech Touch

It was always hard to say goodbye.

As much as Ark and Benjamin wanted to stay at Diandi Base a bit longer so that they could spend more time with Ves and his children, their places were elsewhere.

As expert pilots that had reached the threshold to the next rank, their main priority was to use their new machines and seek their breakthrough opportunities in battle!

Even if the two men truly enjoyed their time on New Constantinople VIII, they did not feel comfortable amidst all of the extravagant wealth and luxury on display.

This was not their world.

Their hearts beckoned them to return to their true homes.

As such, the two guest Larkinsons gathered in front of their hosts one last time before they returned to the middle zones.

Ves' children were especially sad to see their grand-uncle and great-grandfather go! There weren't a lot of other Larkinsons they were close to in the small and underdeveloped Premier Branch. They missed the hustle and bustle of the expeditionary fleet.

"Are you going away to beat the aliens with your new mech?" Andraste asked as she looked up at the tall and dashing Ark.

"I certainly will. Each soldier has an obligation to stand up and do their part to defend our state, our society and our race. I fight not because I enjoy the violence or because I relish in the suffering of alien beings. I fight because the humans of our dwarf galaxy need the protection of those who possess the strength to resist our enemies. Make sure to pay attention to the news. The Warborn and 1 will be making a name for ourselves in the Torald Middle Zone. We shall do our utmost to pose as a shield between the murderous aliens and the defenseless citizens of the Krakatoa Middle Zone!"

Meanwhile, Aurelia exchanged a few words with her great-grandfather.

"Are you happy with papa and mama's gift?"

"More than you can ever imagine." Venerable Benjamin replied as he gazed at the young lady with pride. "It is not entirely necessary for me to obtain such a mech as fantastic as my new Blood Star. The greatest gifts that my grandson has given me is to thrive and have lovely children such as you. Nothing makes me happier as an old man than to see my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up and live their own happy lives. In a way, I am grateful that Ves has restored my ability to fight again. The stronger I become, the more I can relieve your burdens."

Benjamin was fortunate enough to grow up and spend much of his decades during the high tide of the Age of Mechs. He lived in a galaxy where humanity reigned supreme and where the threat of aliens was an afterthought.

If he was being honest, then he would have liked for the Larkinsons to remain in the old galaxy.

Sure, the Milky Way Galaxy did not offer much excitement. The absence of phasewater, E energy radiation and hyper materials meant that the mech designers over there were stuck with the same old resources as before.

However, Benjamin envied the safety and stability that the people of the old galaxy took for granted.

Even if a disaster took place in a star sector, there were still plenty more where humanity would remain safe and sound.

Benjamin envied this simple luxury.

Here in the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy, humanity was locked in such a huge confrontation that no zone was safe!

Neither the Agamemnon Upper Zone nor the Krakatoa Middle Zone were guaranteed to remain intact. It would only take a few massive offensives from the native aliens to break through the frontlines and ravage all of the colonies within their reach!

As far as the old man was concerned, it would be best if the majority of the Larkinsons retreated all the way back to the rear of human space.

Given how rapidly Ves rose in status and importance, it should be possible for him to move his immediate family to Bridgehead One or one of the Central Star Nodes.

However, his stubborn grandson refused to do so for reasons that Benjamin did not understand.

Though the old expert pilot would like nothing more than to personally drag Ves and his children all the way back to the other side of human-occupied space, he lacked the authority and power to make this happen.

The future belonged to the younger generations!

The time where Benjamin held significant sway over the Larkinsons had passed. His grandson was the most powerful voice within the clan, and that was not necessarily bad.

Ves certainly brought far more prosperity to the Larkinsons than anyone else in the old family!

"I hope your father will keep you safe when I am not around." Benjamin said in a good-natured voice as he bent down to hug Aurelia. "If he fails to do so, tell me. I will make sure to come back and teach him a lesson about caring for his family!"

"Hihihi!"

After everyone said their goodbyes, Ark and Benjamin finally disappeared from view.

One of the warships of the Bluejay Fleet would be taking them back to their respective destinations together with their shiny new expert mechs.

Whatever happened after that was largely beyond Ves' power.

At most, Ves would be able to help his Uncle Ark in a pinch through his weak but permanent relationship with the Lionheart.

This was also another reason why Ves regretted the fact that he was unable to turn the Blood Star Mark II into a masterwork mech.

If Venerable Benjamin ever got into trouble, Ves could not help him with his own power.

The only way Ves could directly intervene was by lending his own power to another mech on the battlefield that happened to be one of his masterworks.

"It will be alright." Gloriana comforted him as she led the children back inside. "Your uncle and grandfather chose this life for themselves. They are fighting so that the rest of us can remain safe. We should respect their service."

"Hm, you are right. There is not much point in worrying about what they will get into now that they have proper mechs again. The best we can do for them is to help our clan in our own ways."

Everyone had a part to play. Mech designers such as Ves and Gloriana could contribute just as much if not more by designing fantastic mechs.

The couple spent the next few days analyzing the newly gathered data and processing everything they had learned.

Completing the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II and witnessing them in action had verified a lot of theories and assumptions about the latest tech.

The second generation god body method, the second generation Carmine System and the fourth generation luminar crystal weapons all worked as intended more or less.

Aside from that, the Larkinson mech designers personally verified the soundness of many other applications of hyper technologies.

The Larkinsons were fully qualified to design hyper mechs that better made use of the changing environment!

This was great news for the remaining mech design projects.

The Fey Project in particular contained many essential aspects that hinged on Ves' ability to realize all of the drone mech's ambitious new features.

A versatile and powerful mech like this could never become as good if it did not take advantage of the Hyper Generation!

While Ves and Gloriana could have completed the mech design sooner, they deliberately extended its development so that they would still have room to apply the lessons from designing the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II.

The Fey Project experienced a lot of small but useful improvements in the days that followed.

The complicated mech relied a lot on its fey to augment its combat effectiveness. The issue with that was that the fey were too small and compact to pack a lot of power.

It would have been great if Ves designed the Fey Project as a first-class mech. He could fit a lot of miniaturized components in the small fey and still make sure they were powerful enough to be of use in battle.

However, it was a bit too difficult to make them strong enough while Ves was stuck with second-class technology.

The only ways that Ves could make up for this shortfall was by leaning heavily on both hyper technology and E-technology.

The variant of the Fey Project that was exclusive to the Larkinson Clan should possess ample enough power to cement its place in the mech roster.

The Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem should be a lot more effective for a living mech that could deploy multiple fey that also happened to be alive!

This would allow any mech units with this mech model to capture a lot of E energy radiation and harness all of that power for other purposes.

"The greater the quantity of fey, the greater the effectiveness of this mech model."

Ves was not able to determine how many fey a copy of this mech could effectively control.

He assumed that it should not be difficult to control 4 fey at a time, but how much time would it take for the Fey Project to grow to the point where it could control 6 fey at once?

Ves did not have enough data to make a reasonable projection. It may be that the Fey Project would not be able to expand its effective control over the fey when it evolved into a third order living mech.

If that was the case, then one of the key factors that Ves relied upon to raise the value proposition of his product would become invalid!

"Urgh. It is too difficult to make predictions when I can't simulate any of this stuff."

Hyper technology and E-technology were so new and mysterious that no adequate mathematical models existed to make accurate predictions.

It used to be a lot more manageable back during the Phasewater Generation. A few years after the use of phasewater became widespread, a lot of clever people had studied this exotic material so extensively that they derived a lot of formulas that could be used to increase the accuracy of simulations.

If nothing unusual happened, then the Phasewater Generation would have persisted for at least two decades, granting the mech industry enough time to refine the mathematical models and improve the application of transphasic products.

Unfortunately, the fast and unexpected rollout of the Hyper Generation had interrupted the old technological cycle and started up a new one, bringing everyone back to the starting line.

To say that Ves and many other mech designers were annoyed at this was an understatement.

It may have been necessary for red humanity to embrace hyper technology as soon as possible, but the researchers and developers who needed to keep up with the changes had all been dragged out of their comfort zones!

"Do you think the Fey Project will live up to its promise?" Ves idly asked his wife.

Gloriana briefly contemplated the question. "1 am confident that both editions of the Fey Project will end up satisfactory. They have to be considering all of the work that we have put in. The real question is whether they will be successful enough to take the second-class mech market by storm. That is still in question. In my opinion, there is a small chance that it will sell well, but only as long as the competition has not released anything that can rival its value."

In other words, the Larkinsons had not been able to make the Fey Project good enough to dominate the sales charts.

Ves did not like this as his competitors would be the ones to determine the success and failure of his work.

There were a lot of brilliant mech designers out there. Who knew whether a handful of them could release a powerful alternative to the Fey Project.

After all, Ves should not be the only mech designer who recognized the new and powerful synergies between hyper technology and drone mechs!

Ves narrowed his eyes. "I won't admit defeat that easily. Let us focus on refining the Fey Project earlier. I do not want my first original commercial product of the Hyper Generation to turn into a flop. We need to do whatever it takes to get our mech business back on track!"