The Mech Touch

The expeditionary fleet had almost reached the border of Majestic Teal. Weeks of uninterrupted travel without making any stops allowed the Golden Skull Alliance to make swift progress.

After getting swept up by the chaos that erupted in the Prosperous Hill System, none of the Larkinsons and their allies had any stomach left to visit the remaining sights of the star sector.

They passed by numerous states that each had something unique to offer in favor of distancing themselves from the Life Research Association as much as possible. Who knew if the aftermath of the civil war and the biojuggernaut's rampage would affect the clan in any way. If the LRA dispatched a military fleet in order to drag the patriarch back for whatever reason, it would be very hard for the clan to resist.

Fortunately, the LRA had bigger problems to deal with at the moment. Not only did its famed biomech industry suffer a huge crisis of confidence, one of its biggest trade planets suffered an enormous humanitarian disaster.

The entire state had already suffered a lot of damage due to the civil war. The biggest urban metropolis on Prosperous Hill VI that also happened to be a nexus of trade and commerce was practically wiped out in totality. How could the LRA possibly continue to return to business as usual at this point?

The government faced the prospect of suffering an enormous budget deficit. Aside from rebuilding and restoring its reputation, solving this acute problem was the highest priority of all of the surviving leaders of the state!

Besides, even if a high-ranking official wanted to use their authority to request the military to chase after the Larkinson fleet, how could they possibly spare any of their forces?

The military garrison stationed at Prosperous Hill VI suffered heavy damage. The remaining military units were all preoccupied with stabilizing the planets marked by anarchy and infighting. They also had to patrol the borders of the state in order to prevent any neighbors from perceiving any weaknesses.

This eventually allowed the Golden Skull Alliance to smoothly exit the Majestic Teal Star Sector.

This time, the Larkinsons and the rest truly entered foreign territory.

Almost no one in the entire allied fleet had ever set foot in the central star sector of the Yeina Star Cluster.

After a relatively difficult journey that caused some of the starships to rattle a bit, hundreds of vessels of different sizes and shapes eventually passed through the gravitic barrier that partitioned space into different star sectors.

Though the space on the other side of the border was pretty much exactly the same as in Majestic Teal, the people in the fleet still experienced a significant psychological shift.

Ves stood on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim at the moment of transition.

Lucky had claimed his seat for himself. The cat casually yawned and napped onto the soft padded surface.

"Meow…"

The cat didn't see much reason to get excited about, but it was different for Ves. This was the third star sector he entered and each crossing was still eventful to him. The rest of his clansmen were no different. They each entertained different thoughts now that they entered the famed Winged Serenade Star Sector.

"You know, if you stop by in any of the states around here, you can probably pick up a lot of high-skilled personnel." Calabast said as she stood at his side.

An eight-legged exobeast scurried around the wide deck of the bridge. He looked astounded at all of the elegant decorations and the amount of bridge operators on duty.

"Squeak."

Arnold soon waddled back to Calabast. He sniffed the bottom of Calabast's black pants and hugged it with his two forelimbs.

"Squeak squeak squeak."

Ves directed his eyes downwards and frowned. "Arnold is not supposed to be a pet, you know. He's a captured exobeast of a species that has never been bred or modified to become tame."

"That's not a problem to me. Arnold is smart enough to understand me, and that's enough. I know how to tame pets." Calabast smirked.

"Well, don't blame me if Arnold bites you or something. You know, he's supposed to be my test subject. I planned to perform all kinds of interesting experiments on him. He has powers that no average lifeform possesses. Performing studies on him will certainly progress my design philosophy."

"If that's the case, you can borrow Arnold whenever you want. He's adorable but he's no Lucky. I won't complain if you can strengthen his powers and make him useful in battle."

Though Arnold had become preoccupied with chewing Calabast's pants, he wasn't completely unattentive. In the past, he constantly had to monitor his surroundings in order to stay alive.

"Squeak…?"

Ves smiled at the chubby mammal. "Don't worry, Arnold. I'll take great care of you when I come up with an interesting experiment. It's too bad that I am way too busy with working on my design projects at the moment. It might take some months before I can free enough time to conduct another minor study."

A shudder ran through the eight-legged creature's body. Why did Arnold feel as if he was facing an apex predator?

As Ves contemplated what kind of interesting experiments he could perform on an exobeast with strange displacement and illusion powers, Calabast completely disregarded the possible harm that the mech designer could inflict on the exobeast.

"What are your plans for the next month?" She asked. "Will you continue to focus on your design work?"

"Of course. The projects we are working on at the moment are too critical for us. Their heightened complexity and advanced nature also means that Journeymen like myself have to do more work in person. There are way too many problems that can't be solved by my assistants."

"Your schedule is too one-sided." Calabast shook her head in disapproval. "I couldn't even find a moment to meet you until you decided to visit this bridge to witness our transition into Winged Serenade. There are many other issues that require your time as well."

"Such as?"

"Our search for diplomats isn't making any significant progress. The Ylvainans and Lifers are almost done with establishing their mech forces. The Glory Seekers have absorbed a lot of Hexer evacuees. The influence of the Swordmaidens is still increasing. The LMC's growth has stagnated after reaching the limits of its growth. The lack of new mech models is also taking a lot of wind out of your mech company's sails. Do I need to go on, kid?"

Ves pressed his fingers against his face. "I know, I know. None of those problems sound acute, though. In fact, I don't need to deal with them in person. I have people like you, Raymond and General Verle to address these issues."

"You're the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan, but you're not acting like it. You can't delegate everything whenever you feel it is inconvenient. Your high station and the power it bestows comes with a lot of responsibility. While it is true that you can just leave it to us to address some of the issues I've mentioned, we are different from you. We can make decisions that go against your intentions at any moment. The longer you remain absent, the less we can serve as your agents. You need to show up to some of the meetings at least in order to provide direction. Otherwise, we'll increasingly pursue our own agendas instead."

"I've already accounted for that." Ves casually replied. "I don't think that is an adverse development. I really can't be bothered with spending too much time on solving these problems. It is good if the people underneath me can address them without needing me to hold their hands all the time. If they go out of line, then I'll just say so afterwards. Maybe I should appoint a vice-leader in order to act on my behalf."

Ves was the patriarch but also the head designer of the Larkinson Clan. One person could not fully invest all of their time in both positions. It wasn't a big deal at the beginning, but as the scope of both the clan and its mech design projects had grown over time, it became increasingly more unrealistic for him to do both jobs at once.

That said, he did not want to let go of the highest authority of his clan. He simply could not trust anyone with that much power.

Calabast was already aware of his tendencies, so she did not press him further. This was also a deliberate approach on her part. She knew that there was a high chance that he would only grow more stubborn if she came on too hard.

Her real purpose was to make him more attentive to the problem and prompt him into coming up with solutions. That way, she could still realize her desired outcome without risking her relationship with Ves.

"What was that about our search for diplomats?" Ves asked after a few moments of silence.

"Winged Serenade is the administrative center of our native star cluster. Even if we are still in a remote part of human space, there are so many enormous organizations in human space that the amount of branch offices they've established in this star sector is astounding. That doesn't factor in all of the native organizations that have emerged from this star sector that interact regularly with these trans-galactic organizations."

"I can imagine it's quite a challenge for all of these people and organizations to maintain relations with others." Ves said.

"Indeed. If there is any place where you can find diplomats, it's here. Winged Serenade hosts an entire industry of professionals whose main jobs entail making new friends, negotiating favorable business deals, persuading powerful states to trade their exclusive goods and so on. There are even entire dynasties centered around raising and educating highly competent diplomats."

Ves grew more interested. While his original goal was to just fly through this star sector without pause, he was willing to make a brief stop if that was what it took to acquire a talent that the Larkinson Clan was sorely lacking.

"Have we found any qualified and interested applicants?"

"We have found some potential diplomats who can be persuaded to join our clan, but they have all requested to meet you in person."

His mood quickly soured. "They want me to visit them instead of the other way around?"

"These diplomats are highly valued by everyone, Ves. They're not your average career relations manager."

"I don't sense much sincerity from them." Ves frowned and crossed his arms. "I don't feel like visiting another planet at the moment. Not after surviving Prosperous Hill VI. If these supposedly impressive diplomats don't want to go out and visit our fleet, then forget about it. They apparently don't want to expend much effort to join our clan. I don't need any half-hearted clansmen. Keep searching for diplomats but don't bother me with this issue until one of them is willing to visit our fleet."

"You won't make a lot of new friends with that approach."

"I don't care. We still have time. We can afford to be patient. We'll still be crossing through a couple of star clusters before we reach the beyonder gate. I don't believe we will fail to find someone who proactively wants to join our clan."

Time passed as the two continued to discuss other matters. They did not touch upon anything that was too sensitive, but they still touched upon a lot of important subjects.

Calabast grew a bit dissatisfied with her strategic partner's lack of interest in running the clan. He held so much power but refused to use it to the fullest. A Hexer matriarch would have never been so blase about the power she wielded!

Then again, Ves wasn't really a leader or a politician… He always considered himself a mech designer first, so everything that wasn't directly related to his primary occupation didn't hold his interest for long.