The Mech Touch

His honor guard stepped out of the shuttle first. Even though the chance that anyone aboard the Mother's Wrath would threaten him was low, Nitaa and her team never let down their guard.

The moment Ves stepped out the vehicle, he could already tell that his guards likely wouldn't have to take action at all. A whole array of Penitent Sisters stood in the hangar bay. As soon as he appeared, the female uniformed soldiers all raised their fists at an angle.

"HAIL TO THE CLAN PATRIARCH!"

"HAIL TO THE SAVIOR OF OUR ORDER!"

"HAIL TO THE SON OF THE SUPERIOR MOTHER!"

"...That's quite a greeting."

Ves had a feeling that the Penitent Sisters poured their greatest emotions when they roared the last phrase. He wasn't sure whether he liked that. He wanted them to respect him for his own status and accomplishments.

Fortunately, the show didn't last for long. The Penitent Sisters still had a lot of work to do and soon dispersed to go back to their normal duties.

Commander Valerie Chancy and Commodore Abigail Evern both approached Ves and saluted.

"We are honored by your visit, Patriarch." The leader of the Penitent Sister greeted. She appeared to be much more enthused to be in his presence than before for some reason. "We have prepared a brief tour for you. The Mother's Wrath may not be an impressive combat carrier, but we have tried to make the best out of her after we have lost the Surly Cockatrice."

The original flagship of the Penitent Sisters had perished long ago during the Battle against the Abyss. The Cockatrice was one of the few sturdy second-class combat carriers that Ves and the Larkinson Clan had at their disposal. The ship did not go down without absorbing a lot of enemy firepower.

"Let's begin."

They first toured the hangar bay itself. There were several mechs on standby or in the process of being worked on. Naturally, only two different mech models dominated the space.

He first directed his attention towards a couple of Valkyrie Redeemers. The model that started a line of Valkyrie variants was one of his great successes.

Compared to a brand-new living mech, the Valkyrie Redeemers that the Penitent Sisters were already using for a while had grown by quite a significant margin.

There was still a lot more room for growth, though. They were only months or years old, so their unique personalities did not make much of a difference at this stage.

"I can see that you are taking good care of these mechs." He remarked.

"We do our best to honor your work, which honors your mother in turn." Commander Chancy replied. "Mishandling one of our mechs is one of the greatest blasphemies that you can commit!"

Ves blinked. He was glad the Penitent Sisters took their mechs seriously, but he wasn't sure whether they held this attitude for the right reasons.

"Do you have any feedback about the Valkyrie mechs?" He asked instead. "Your people have been using them for a while now. Have you discovered any quirks or made any observations that aren't obvious from the surface? Anything you say will help me design a better revision when it comes time to update this model."

Hearing that their feedback would potentially lead to an improvement in a possible Valkyrie Redeemer Mark II, both women looked at each other for a moment.

"The Valkyrie Redeemers are excellent performers." Commander Chancy began. "We are completely satisfied with them. However, if there is one aspect that we would like to see an improvement, it is the ranged armament of our marauder mechs."

"Hmm?"

The mech commander gestured at the giant mech-grade submachine guns placed to the side of the dormant mechs.

"Your Valkyrie Redeemer model is armed with pulse submachine guns that are light and portable. This is a great choice as our nimble mechs can remain fast while easily adjusting their aim in close to mid-ranged firefights. It's just that the firepower is a bit lacking…"

He could see what she meant. Pulse guns were hybrid energy weapons that spat out energetic particles. They were more efficient but also weaker than laser beams. They were also easy to implement in smaller and more compact forms. That made them very suitable for mechs that couldn't afford to carry anything bigger, heavier and more power hungry.

Since Ves designed the Valkyrie Redeemer with an eye towards performing on large and extensive battlefields, their efficiency and energy consumption had to meet a minimum standard. This was why he did not arm the female Hexer mechs with more powerful weapons.

"We heard that you recently came up with a powerful new crystal gun that packs a lot more punch." Commodore Abigail Evern said. "We would like to request that you provide us with submachine gun or carbine-sized weapons so that we can give our Valkyrie Redeemers some actual teeth at range."

Ves could easily imagine what would happen if the Valkyrie Redeemers were armed with crystal weapons. The marauder mechs would no longer be forced to perform a charge in order to deal serious damage. Their tactical flexibility along with their effective battle contribution would certainly rise as a result!

"You can say that about any mech armed with an energy weapon." He responded. "There are many mechs in our fleet that could benefit from such an upgrade. Right now, our production capacity is fully taken up by the need to fabricate more mechs. The Spirit of Bentheim and other production-capable vessels are all busy with churning out as many quality mechs as possible in order to make sure that we make use of all of our available mech pilots."

The Bright Warrior's rifleman mech configuration could also benefit from a luminar crystal weapon update, and so did the Transcendent Punisher. There were already thousands of eligible mechs in service. Ves wasn't even sure if his fleet had enough infrastructure to pump out so many luminar crystal weapons! The production of luminar crystals required different processes and different machines.

Ves intended to go over this issue when he returned to the Spirit of Bentheim. The fleet had to expand its crystal production capabilities because it was already a certainty that his clan would depend heavily on luminar crystals in the future.

After completing their brief inspection on the Valkyrie Redeemer, they moved over to the Eternal Redemption. The larger and heavier cannoneer mech was close to the limit of the medium weight class.

It was a pity that it had yet to participate in any major battles since its introduction. The mechs and their mech pilots were only able to show their chops in practice sessions.

"Is it possible to arm the Eternal Redemptions with heavier crystal weapons?" Commander Chancy asked.

Ves shook his head. "It's out of the question. The design of this cannoneer mech is entirely slanted towards physical weapons. It is configured in a way that it can carry a fair amount of rounds while also supplying enough energy to propel them forward. One of the reasons why this mech is so big and fat is that it needs to possess enough physical bulk to carry enough ammunition while at the same time resist all of the physical stresses that are associated with this mech type."

"What does that mean for the Eternal Redemption?"

"It's not worth it to arm this model with a crystal weapon." Ves spoke. "We'll have to wait until we design the next revision before we can make such a major swap."

"I see." The Penitent Sister Commander looked disappointed.

"It's not that big of a deal." Ves said. "The gauss cannon it is armed with is already powerful. Its projectile is also purely physical which means it is not as affected by strong energy interference like energy beams. We need to maintain at least some redundancy so that our enemies can't employ a single trick to neutralize all of our ranged capabilities."

The Eternal Redemption was still useful despite the advancement of technology. Ves was sure it would be able to show its usefulness in the next major battle.

After Ves finished inspecting the Eternal Redemptions, he quickly toured the rest of the Mother's Wrath.

All in all, the combat carrier did not hide its Hexer heritage. The hexagon-shaped hatches and corridors were depressingly familiar sights.

What Ves found a bit novel was how the Penitent Sisters added a touch of personality to their vessel by erecting statues and images of the Superior Mother.

Many Penitent Sisters walking by would briefly bow and press their hands in front of a significant depiction of the Supreme.

Sure enough, the Penitent Sisters were still cultists. That hadn't changed at all. Commander Chancy did nothing to stop this behavior.

In fact, she performed this ritual as well!

"You don't have to do that all the time." Ves couldn't help but speak out after Commander Chancy paid her respects for the fifth time already. "The best way to honor the Superior Mother is to bear a child and raise your offspring according to her tenets. She cares a lot more about whether you are all living according to her ideals rather than bowing mindlessly in front of her. She is an example that you should be working towards, not an unreachable god that demands your worship."

The two female leaders fell silent for a while.

"We.. understand, sir." Evern said, though her eyes were still filled with devotion. "We will endeavor to do our best to live by the Superior Mother's standards rather than contemplating on them. Thank you for your guidance. You are truly her son!"

Ugh. Ves resisted the urge to palm his face. He couldn't blame the Penitent Sisters for worshipping his mother to an extreme degree.

As he continued his tour, he briefly viewed several spaces where the Penitent Sisters were quietly going about their own duties.

He paid particular attention to how the original Penitent Sisters treated their new recruits.

"Alright, you ladies. Just because you have decided to become our trainee doesn't mean you're one of us yet." A stern-faced officer spoke to a row of younger women. "The first lesson you need to learn is that we are all guilty. If the clan patriarch hadn't saved us, we would have likely died while failing to redeem ourselves. Now, I'm sure you're wondering what that has to do with you. No matter if you have not committed a sin against womanhood yourselves, know that you will bear the same guilt as long as you truly become a part of our sisterhood."

The recruits did not appear enthused about this news, but the officer was not done with her story.

"Do not consider this guilt to be a burden! The Superior Mother is watching over us all. We bear her blessing. The mechs that we pilot are made in her image and as long as we pray for her mercy in battle, she will descend on the battlefield in person and offer her salvation to those who have done their best to atone! Do you not see? The Superior Mother is both our jailor and our savior. Through her son, we have become an extension of her will! It is an honor to channel her will!"

Ves twitched his mouth as he listened to what was clearly an indoctrination session. The Penitent Sisters hadn't changed at all when it came to their fanaticism.

As he observed the women further, the only good thing he could say about their attitudes and behavior was that they had cut off all ties with the Hexers and the Hexadric Hegemony.

"We are Larkinsons, not Hexers." Commander Chancy elaborated. "We have committed a great sin against the Hegemony. We do not dispute that. The Hexers do not want our atonement. If not for the fact that we can earn our redemption through you and your mother, we wouldn't know what to do. We will forever be grateful for that, patriarch."

The more he had to deal with their fanaticism, the faster Ves wanted to leave this ship. He couldn't take this nonsense any longer!

"Let's cut this tour short. I don't have all day." He said. "Let's move to a conference room so that we can discuss Commodore Evern's future."

As he threw a glance at the naval officer, Ves wasn't as certain as before whether it was a good idea to turn her into a chief minister. Was it a really good idea to put a religious nut in charge of the clan?