The Mech Touch

"Brutus!"

Gloriana entered a highly secure and luxuriously-furnished recovery room on the Indigo Tremor.

The Glory Seeker fleet carrier had become a lot emptier after the destruction of lots of mechs. Fortunately, the enemy hadn't prioritized her as a target so she incurred remarkably little damage.

For now, her crew were busy trying to recover the wrecks floating in space while also organizing a prize crew to facilitate the takeover of the Auralis.

Gloriana didn't care about that at the moment. She ran up to the bed where a tired-looking Brutus looked at his sister with happiness.

"You're safe."

There was little doubt about that as soon as word of their eventual victory reached his ears. However, seeing was believing. Only when he saw that her sister was safe did he feel reassured.

His protective force of will embraced the woman in a familiar fashion. On her part, Gloriana relaxed even further.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she tried to spot any injuries on his body.

"I'd be in a treatment machine if I was hit more seriously. Don't worry. My cockpit got banged up a bit, causing me to suffer some bruises that are easily treatable. You don't have to be concerned at all. My most serious problem is that I overloaded my mind. Trying to keep my mech alive as long as possible against the Charlemagne and those pseudo-expert mechs was the most challenging moment of my life. I pushed myself so hard to dodge more attacks and prevent all of those Glory Seekers from sacrificing their mechs to block incoming attacks. I.. I regret that I failed to protect all of those people."

"There was no choice, Brutus." Gloriana reached his side and retracted her suit so that her bare hand touched his shoulder. "Those Glory Seekers did their duty. Our expedition is much better served if you're alive."

"This isn't how I want to fight my battles. It's me who is supposed to be protecting you all. How can I possibly continue to pilot a mech when those brave female Hexers are risking their lives for me? This is a travesty!"

"They're doing it because of me!" Gloriana gripped his chin and turned his head around until their eyes. "You are much more valuable than anyone else in the Glory Seekers. Even Colonel Ariadne Wodin is worth nothing compared to you! So don't think that everyone has their priorities wrong. If you die…"

The wounded expert pilot sighed. "You're being selfish again, sister."

Gloriana leaned in and kissed his cheek before staring lovingly in his eyes. "That's the privilege of power, brother. I only value two people in our fleet: Ves and you. The Glory Seekers exist to serve me, so I told them to do their best to keep the two of you alive. I am not going to allow you to make me sad by getting killed in battle."

"You.." Brutus was speechless.

As a soldier dedicated to protecting Gloriana and other Hexer women, his sister's declaration did not sit well with him. His honor and his duty compelled him to resist this policy!

Yet… Brutus couldn't go against his sister. She always had the final say in matters. No matter how unreasonable she sounded, her will trumped everyone else's as long as she didn't endanger herself.

They soon changed topics.

"I took a look at the Star Dancer when I was on my way to visit you." She said as she calmly sat down next to his bed. "I'm sorry to say that what is left of your expert mech is not in good shape."

Brutus looked pained. "The Star Dancer accompanied me well for several years. It served me well in this battle. I was hoping that it could serve a few years more."

Gloriana tried to smile. "It's okay, Brutus. Ves and I will try and make a replacement for you. I've prepared for this project for many months. We just need to determine what materials we can use and which Master we should partner up with to design a better machine. You should definitely look forward to what I have in store. The mechs that Ves and I are capable of designing are extremely special. Just look at the so-called prime mechs that my husband came up with. I still can't accept that the Valkyrie Prime along with several hundred standard mechs are able to wipe out a vast swathe of mech pilots along with the entire crew of a starship."

"You're not the only one who is wondering. No one in the fleet will underestimate his mechs from now on. While I detest the Fridaymen, a part of me feels that no one deserves to die from such an odd method of attack. It's.. too destructive. It's practically a weapon of mass destruction."

As a mech pilot, Brutus instinctively repelled any weapon that diminished the lives of soldiers. It was one thing to get killed by getting shot by an enemy mech. It was another thing to get killed along with thousands of other comrades by getting blasted to pieces by a tactical nuclear weapon!

Gloriana was not as conflicted, though. Her smile stretched wider as she relished in her memory of that wonderful moment.

"The Fridaymen deserve to be slaughtered by the Superior Mother! Don't feel any pity for our loathsome enemies. If they didn't want to lose their lives this way, then they shouldn't have gone out to ambush us. They should have known better than to go up against Ves and his wonderful inventions!"

His sister was incorrigible, Brutus thought. Still, it wasn't as if he felt much differently. The battle had been close. Too close. If he fell too soon or if the others fought a little worse, then Gloriana and everyone else in the fleet might have been killed by now! Thinking what might befall of his sister wiped away any sympathy he held towards his opponents.

"When will I be able to get a new expert mech?"

"Uhm.. not soon." Gloriana slowly admitted. "My husband and I are very busy. Once we complete our current round of projects, we need to design a large amount of expert mechs for the Larkinson Clan. While I will do my best to push your expert mech up the priority list, don't expect any quick results. It might take up to a year before you can pilot an expert mech again."

This was not what any expert pilot wanted to hear. Still, it was not an unusual situation for them either. It always took time to develop a new replacement expert mech whenever an older one got trashed. The only way to cut the waiting time short was to fabricate another copy of an existing expert mech design.

"Why not remake the Star Dancer, then?" Brutus carefully suggested. "While I look forward to piloting a mech that is blessed like the Superior Mother, I'm worried about the delay. This battle has already shown me that the galaxy is a lot less safe than I thought. Can't you pick up the pieces of my original mech and put it back together?"

Gloriana shook her head and tutted. "Silly brother. It's not that simple. Your mech got struck by a lot of resonance-empowered positron beams. Do you know what that does to a mech? Too many parts and components are vaporized or melted into slag. Much of the damage is unrecoverable with our current means. We don't have the equipment and expertise to restore your Star Dancer. In my professional judgement, the only purpose the remains of your mechs is good for is to salvage whatever materials we can extract from them and use that to develop your next expert mech."

One of the most important benefits to winning the battle was the opportunity to salvage the wrecks floating on the battlefield!

Not just the Star Dancer, but the wrecks and pieces of plenty of other expert mechs were eagerly being picked up by the victors!

While not all of the valuable materials they yielded might be useful, the valuable salvage would definitely help with accumulating the core materials required to develop their other expert mechs.

All of this was beyond Brutus' understanding.

"I trust you with the development of my next expert mech. Just make it even faster and more agile so that I can evade enemy attacks even better. I've progressed my piloting style after I've participated in this battle. I don't have the patience or the inclination to sit back in the rear and snipe my opponents from afar like Venerable Davia Stark. I need to be more in front so that I can be a lot more proactive in protecting you and my fellow Glory Seekers. A run-and-gun style suits me best."

Gloriana nodded. As his sister, she knew him best.

"I've already taken that into account. It's quite hard to design a mech that is highly mobile while at the same time boast a high amount of firepower. I'll do my best to push for a mech that excels at both, but it will cost us a lot. Our dynasty is funding this project, so they must be convinced to invest more in your expert mech."

"That.. might be difficult. According to what I am hearing from back home, every dynasty in the Hexadric Hegemony is tightening their belts. With how the Komodo War is proceeding, it looks like our state will soon be devastated by war. Everyone has to plan to defend their space while evacuating as many people and valuables as possible."

He was right. The Wodin Dynasty could not afford to be unprepared when faced with a possible enemy invasion. The Wodins had to acquire as much transportation as possible and establish several different escape channels. All of that cost a huge amount of money especially considering that the demand and therefore the price of starships had skyrocketed!

A part of Brutus felt as if he was in the same shoes as Davia Stark.

Previously, it was third-raters like her who were being threatened with invasion and annihilation due to the relentless advance of the sandmen.

Now, it was the Hexers who were beginning to panic and trying to obtain passage that could get them out before it was too late.

The internal stability within his home state had deteriorated! Too many Hexers who never thought they would lose were beginning to realize that the outcome of a war was never decided beforehand!

Both Wodins looked downcast. The situation back home was growing more pessimistic by the day.

"Will your next Hexer mechs be able to do anything to stop the Friday Coalition from advancing?" Brutus carefully asked.

"I don't know." She slumped. "We have some interesting projects on the way, but they're mostly auxiliary in nature. It's too difficult to design a mech that can counter expert mechs. We're trying out some ideas but I don't think they will work out as well as Ves expects. Expert mechs and expert pilots are too strong. This battle has just illustrated that. The amount of standard mechs needed to fight against a handful of expert mechs is too much. The Hex Army can't handle this loss ratio."

Even she could no longer maintain her upbeat confidence when all of the news she was hearing from the front was negative. While the Hex Army still achieved plenty of victories, the results didn't change the overall strategic trend.

As long as the mech armies of both sides remained roughly even, the disparity in expert mechs played a decisive role. No matter how hard the Hegemony tried, it simply wasn't possible for them to conjure additional expert pilots out of thin air.

Gloriana actually hoped that Ves was able to solve this problem. If he could produce in the Larkinson Clan, why shouldn't he be able to do the same for the Hegemony?

Unfortunately, he always put down her request by saying that the circumstances were different or that Master Willix prohibited him from spreading his experimental solutions.

It was so frustrating!

"What can I do?"