The Mech Touch

Cinach Ves visited it once before during his tour through a portion of the star sector.

The Cinach System was as prosperous and industrious as ever. Controlled by various noble houses of the Sentinel Kingdom, the settled planets offered something for every Sentinel and visitor!

The identity that Ves held during his previous visit was completely different from his current identity!

Back then, he was a young Journeyman whose fame hadn't entirely reached the Sentinel Kingdom. While that still made him into someone of importance, he ranked very low in every local power's consciousness. They treated him like one of the many foreign business partners that stopped by Cinach to conduct transactions.

That was no longer the case.

Even before the Larkinson Clan arrived at their destination, the Sentinel Kingdom already reached out to them in order to arrange their stay in the star system!

"The entire Sentinel Kingdom is afraid of us." Gavin summed up the day before. "You have to look at it from the perspective of their nobles and royals. Despite their eminent status within Sentinel, their state essentially operates under the auspices of the Hegemony!"

"That means that they can't afford to offend the Hexers, is that right?"

"Correct. While the Hegemony has always restrained their influence on the lesser states for diplomatic reasons, the Komodo War has changed that to an extent. The Friday Coalition has made a play for the lesser states, so the Hegemony has to follow suit as well!"

"Which means the Hexers have become a lot more overbearing outside their borders?" Ves guessed.

His assistant nodded. "There's a lot of political and diplomatic maneuvering going on behind the scenes, but most of it isn't very relevant to us. The only factors we need to take into account is that the Sentinels will likely treat us as an important diplomatic entity."

"We're not, though." Ves retorted. "Our Larkinson Clan doesn't hail from any state. We are completely independent."

"Tell that to the Sentinels who see us barging in with a very blatant sign of Hexer favor. Hardly anyone in the Cinach System will be able to ignore the presence of the Penitent Sisters and Glory Battalion! The fact that you have received the public backing of the Wodin Dynasty and is dating one of its descendants will only reinforce every Sentinel's impression that you are a de facto representative of the Hegemony!"

"Damnit…" Ves groaned and palmed his face. "I'm not a Hexer! Our Larkinson Clan is nothing like the dynasties of the Hegemony! My clan title starts with the letter P, not M!"

"Are you sure about that, boss?"

"Don't joke around, Benny!"

Even though Gavin started to wear the sky blue LMC uniform with the Golden Cat adorning his back, his dynamic with his superior hardly changed. Ves still interacted with his assistant with a contradictory mix of irrational distrust and jovial familiarity.

While Ves contemplated promoting Gavin to some useless desk job in order to obtain a more trustworthy assistant, in the end he shelved this plan. He couldn't imagine a future where his assistant was completely loyal to a fault like Nitaa.

Not only would such a helper be boring, Ves also feared he might grow complacent and stop being as paranoid around his gatekeeper!

The best way to prevent betrayers from one of the people he was closest to was to constantly maintain his suspicion!

Of course, in order to maintain the illusion that every Benny harbored double loyalties, Ves conveniently disregarded that Gavin Neumann-Larkinson was constantly operating under the supervision of the Golden Cat.

"Whatever the case, you can expect to receive VIP treatment wherever you go." He said. "You have already received invitations from institutions such as the Peacekeeper Association and Rawlings University. I've taken the liberty of filtering out the irrelevant ones while sending the more interesting ones to your comm. You can peruse them at your leisure or ignore them if you wish. They're not too important. The Executive Council is handling most of the communication with the Sentinel Kingdom so far. If there is anything you need, you can pass it on to the council members."

"Understood. Aside from meeting with the Larkinson Family, recruiting more mech designers and resupplying our fleet, I don't intend to do much else in the Cinach System." Ves spoke. "At the very least, I have to devote two more months to complete our current design projects. Both of them are very significant. One is designed to rejuvenate the LMC while the other one is meant to repay my debt to DIVA."

Once he got those two projects out of the way, Ves would hopefully have more room for maneuver. From there, he could look towards accepting a mission from the Rim Exchange or seek opportunities in other star sectors!

The Sentinel Kingdom wasn't only close to the Nyxian Gap, but also within range of Vicious Mountain.

The only problem was that many ships of his fleet weren't rated for cross-sector travel. Ves would have to leave them behind or replace them with more robust vessels that could withstand the possible rigors of inter-sector space travel.

For now, that was not something he could achieve in the short term.

"Are there any ships for sale in the Sentinel Kingdom?" Ves asked in a hopeful tone.

"No." Gavin shook his head. "While Sentinel has managed to stay out of the Sand War and the Komodo War, it is engulfed in its own conflict. Did you hear about the Friedmont Massacre?"

"Yeah…" Ves smiled in a brittle manner. "I did.. what a slaughter.."

"The pirates of the Nyxian Gap have become more and more brazen lately! Not only are they burning each other's strongholds in the Gap, they have also turned their weapons against civilized space!"

The Friedmont Massacre was a shocking event that took place some time ago. Friedmont V, a major industrial planet operated by House Kant, suddenly became the site of tragedy on an enormous scale when a bunch of doom crawlers that had been smuggled onto the planet began to lay waste to every major city and industrial district!

Billions of people died and trillions of sentinel crowns worth of assets disappeared in a matter of hours as nuclear-armed mechs launched their weapons at abandon before they were taken out by the vengeful surviving forces!

When Ves first heard of the massacre and watched the footage of the massacre, he quickly shut off the projection.

That was because he recognized his own work! The Spyre Helix he designed as an upgrade to an existing model of doom crawlers wasn't supposed to show up in civilized space! Finlay promised to him that his faction would only utilize them against the pirates of the Nyxian Gap!

Ever since the Friedmont Massacre stunned the Sentinel Kingdom, the shadow conflict between the Peacekeepers and the Nyxian pirates intensified to an unprecedented scale! The hostilities threatened to turn into a full-blown war if the two sides continued to escalate their attacks!

"Whoever perpetrated the massacre succeeded in toppling House Kant and destabilizing the Sentinel Kingdom." Gavin remarked. "I've heard the MTA sent an investigation team to track down the pirates and backers responsible for organizing the attack. I heard that they placed an enormous bounty on the mech designer who designed the doom crawlers! Can you believe they're willing to reward any tip that leads to the exposure of the mech designer's identity with a million MTA merits?"

Ves raised his eyebrows while doing his best to suppress his nervousness.

"That sounds rather cheap compared to the severity of the crime. I would feel tempted to join the hunt myself if the reward is a little higher!"

The Sentinel Kingdom was larger and more powerful than the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom. That meant that the intrigue taking place in the state was on a bigger scale! The complication of the state's vicinity to the Nyxian Gap didn't help matters either as Ves was aware that the nobles often banded together with pirates from time to time!

The turmoil not only made the state less safe, but also increased the danger of any excursion into the Nyxian Gap.

That said, the rising risks of venturing out in a region the MTA was very interested in also increased the rewards to anyone who was willing to venture inside it to perform a mission!

This was the main reason why Ves still hadn't ruled this option out. Though the risks were high, the rewards were higher, and with the help of the Penitent Sisters and the Glory Battalion, he could outright ignore most pirate threats!

Of course, the Nyxian Gap contained greater perils than scattered pirate organizations. Even second-class mechs wouldn't be able to survive unscathed when they encountered a mysterious anomaly or came across a huge pirate organization!

Ves asked one more question. "Is there anything else we need to take note of before we arrive at Cinach?"

"There is one more detail. The state requested us to keep most of our fleet in the periphery of the star system. The Sentinel people are very uncomfortable with a powerful fleet lingering in the vicinity of an important planet. They're afraid our Hexer escorts might scare away visitors and depress commerce."

"That's a reasonable request. I take it the council has already come up with a decision?"

"For now, they agreed to keep the Penitent Sisters parked in the outskirts of the star system. The Glory Battalion and our clan vessels are all allowed to proceed ahead."

Ves thought for a moment. He recalled the times when he naively trusted the Bright Republic and the Ylvaine Protectorate to cover his back.

Yeah. He wasn't going to make that mistake again.

"While I understand the decision by the council, I don't agree with them. Tell them that I will overrule their decision!" He declared! "The Penitent Sisters will continue to accompany us while we are heading towards the inner system! This decision is final!"

He was not going to take any assumption of safety for granted, especially when the Sentinel Kingdom had become less stable in recent times! He would be a fool to put his strongest protectors numerous light-hours away!

Gavin frowned at his response. "We already agreed to abide by this reasonable demand."

"I don't care! You just told me that the Sentinels think I'm a Hexer envoy, right? Then let's act like one! I'm sure they'll roll over easily enough if we throw our weight around!"

The Executive Council wasn't happy with Ves' orders.

Too bad. The Penitent Sisters wasn't in their control. The Hexadric Hegemony directly seconded them to Ves instead of the clan. The Sisters were obliged to act according to his instructions, so there was nothing anyone could do to stop their advance to the inner system!

Before Gavin ended his briefing, he passed on one more detail. "By the way, Calabast asked me to pass on a message as well. She states that a couple of old friends and familiar faces might be showing up in Cinach as well."

"Did she say who?"

"No, but she said that some of them make for excellent recruitment material."

"Well, that's clarifying." Ves responded mildly.

It looks like a lot of different people were converging onto Cinach. Ves was curious who he might be able to meet and which of them were suitable to join the clan. As big as his fleet had already grown, Ves could always use more bodies, especially ones who could fight!

"The Sentinel Kingdom might be our final resting stop before we embark on an ambitious mission. We have to make the most out of our stay in Cinach." He muttered.

Around a year had passed since he formed his goal of earning enough merits to redeem a fleet beyonder ticket. Even though Ves had made enormous gains in his career and life during this period, he had hardly come closer to securing passage to the Red Ocean! If he didn't make any progress soon, he would definitely miss his self-imposed deadline!