The Mech Touch

Once the people attending the meeting finished their discussion on the state of the Larkinson Clan, they moved on to their next priority, which was trying to make it out of the Vulcan Empire alive and intact!

"Tell me how we stand with regards to our flight from a dwarven country."

"The Vulcanites are in the middle of an upheaval." Calabast immediately spoke up. "Have you checked the galactic net lately?"

Ves shook his head. "No. I have my hands full with managing other affairs. Several of our expert mechs are in bad shape and need to be repaired as soon as possible to restore our top-level battle effectiveness. How can I spare any time to browse the galactic net?"

Calabast pressed her lips into a line. "Well, you might want to take a look at the regional news portals. Not just the Vulcan Empire, but the entire star cluster is buzzing about our battle!"

A sinking feeling overcame Ves. He tapped his fingers and called up a projection that displayed a selection of the current news in the star cluster.

[THE DWARVEN MENACE HAS RETURNED]

[LARKINSON CLAN - THE POWERHOUSE FROM THE KOMODO STAR SECTOR]

[REVIEW THE STUNNING FOOTAGE OF THE BATTLE OF FORDILLA ZENTRA WITH ANALYSIS FROM ESTEEMED TACTICIANS AND MECH DESIGNERS]

[MAGIC OR SCIENCE?! WITNESS THE DEBATE ON THE LARKINSON CLAN'S MASS ENERGY ATTACKS ON 20:00 STANDARD TIME]

[THE VULCAN EMPIRE MUST AVENGE THE EVIL DEEDS OF THESE INTRUDING HUMANS!]

[VES LARKINSON: BLASPHEMER AND LIAR. THIS EVIL HUMAN SORCERER MUST ANSWER FOR HIS CRIMES!]

Suffice to say, the headlines did not put Ves in a good mood. When he looked a little deeper, he realized that footage of the entire battle had ended up on the galactic net!

From start to finish, the entire progression of the engagement from the initial blows of the dwarven fleet to the eventual halt in hostilities was captured by several different long-ranged optical sensor feeds.

"How bad is it, Calabast?" Ves whispered as he saw a giant projection of himself talking nonsense to the dwarven fleet.

The spymaster smirked. "I wouldn't be so worried if I were you. We looked good during the battle. You can't say the same for the dwarves, who not only bear the fault of initiating hostilities, but also failed to achieve their objective. Sure, we exposed our trump cards to everyone who cares, but with how often we make use of them this outcome would have happened sooner or later. At least this is one of the best ways to insert fear into anyone who thinks they can employ massed mechs to tear us down."

"You call this 'the best way'?!" Ves angrily gestured at the footage.

"If you look closely at the footage, you'll see that they only consist of a few long-ranged optical sensor feeds from a relatively cheap third-class commercial vessel. The resolution of the footage isn't high and smaller details are difficult to distinguish due to distance and interference. The Dented Coin uploaded this footage to the galactic net live in order to discredit the Dwarven God Cult and strengthen the traditionalists in the Vulcan Empire. The ship did not transmit any other sensor readings."

Ves calmed down when he heard that. "Has it actually helped us in any way?"

Calabast looked pleased. "Director Olivier Persham succeeded in his goal. A lot of controversy has erupted in the Vulcan Empire. There are Vulcanites who are for or against this battle and there are a lot of angry leaders who don't want their worst nightmares to come true. This unprovoked attack will have repercussions on their entire state and the last thing they want is to worsen their case in front of the MTA. Although this news isn't public, a couple of my sources tell me that Grand Regent Habidas Aaden himself is in talks with the Association."

Shederin Purnesse smiled as well. "According to my own understanding of the local political situation, a large and intense opposition has broken out from the more traditional and dovish parts of the Vulcan Empire. There are still many Vulcanites who dread a war against the powerful tall folk and want nothing more than to enjoy their current level of power and prosperity in this star sector. The warmongers threaten to tear this all down. The fact that the Ferril Provincial Army provoked a battle with superior numbers only to lose badly has embarrassed and discredited the fanatical Dwarven God cultists."

"And that means…?"

"A follow-up action is highly unlikely to happen. The controversy is too big and the traditionalists within the Vulcan Empire will not allow their younger and rather short-sighted Vulcanites to make this problem worse."

That was good news to Ves. The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers all lost a lot of battle effectiveness and could never win against a similar opponent in their current condition.

Of course, Shederin's judgement was not absolute. There was still a chance that the crazy dwarves organized another pursuit force and were on their way to intercept the escaping human fleet before it left the star sector!

Therefore, until the Larkinsons actually left the reach of the Vulcan Empire, Ves and the others did not intend to relax!

Calabast and Shederin continued to explain their take on the developing political crisis in the Vulcan Empire. The Vulcan Faith and the dwarven leaders who were aligned to it had long shown great concern at the Dwarven God Cult's unceasing growth.

Up until now, the rise of the cult had long been unstoppable! More and more dwarves of the younger generation were not content with worshipping a human god.

The Vulcan Empire's population skewed heavily to the younger side. The vast majority of its citizens had been born in a time when the Vulcan Empire was already established and in its ascendancy.

The proportion of Vulcanites who lived during the time of the original rebellion amounted to less than 5 percent of the empire's booming population!

This was the strongest reason why the much more appealing Dwarven God Cult managed to displace the traditional Vulcan Faith!

Due to this age distribution, the traditionalists had constantly been losing ground, yet all of that changed after this battle!

Even though a single battle did not say much, the battle was so embarrassing and emotionally-charged to the Vulcanites that the people aligned to the Vulcan Faith were justifiably angry at their more short-sighted and impulsive dwarves!

The infighting that had erupted between the two major Vulcanite factions would cause their attention to be directed towards each other. This was why both Shederin and Calabast did not anticipate any further trouble up ahead.

Shederin predicted that a lot more changes were in store, but all of this speculation and analysis could wait until later. Right now, Ves and the other Larkinsons had to take care of their immediate concerns first.

"Will we actually be safe once we leave Smiling Samuel?" Ves questioned. "Even though we still retained a lot of battle effectiveness, we are weaker and more vulnerable than ever. Many of our trump cards have been exposed, and some of them can't even be used because we don't have the means anymore."

Shederin grinned. "You don't have to worry about that. One of the consequences of livestreaming the footage of our battle is that we have become heroes to the citizens of the Empire of the Lost. We are one of the first group of humans who has fought a real, standing battle against the Vulcanites and managed to hand them a defeat. This is something that many of the Lost have been dreaming of. Considering their loaded past and culture, they would never do anything to us. In fact, I am already in talks with their diplomats. They are willing to send a military border fleet to escort us back to the Amswick System where we can recuperate under the local authority's explicit protection."

Ves did not look assured. "What are the chances that this is a trap? We've been stabbed in the back by government forces way too many times to count."

"You didn't have someone like myself in your staff back then." Shederin Purnesse plainly replied. "You can trust my judgement. There are no major factions in the Empire of the Lost who benefit from attacking us. The downsides are too great. Still, if you are truly concerned, then we can refuse most of their offers and simply accept the more basic ones that put more separation between us and the Lost."

"Do that, then. I don't want any entanglement with any governments. Even if the Lost applaud our victory against the Vulcanites, that does not necessarily make us friends."

With all of his prior experiences with governments and politicians, Ves would be a fool to embrace the entreaties of any official authority!

Though Shederin did not agree with this overly-cautious stance, Ves was in charge and he was not. As a minister, the old man still had enough sense of propriety to bow his head.

"I need a better guarantee of protection." Ves said. "There ought to be a lot of mercenaries based in the port system of a second-rate state. Can we hire the services of a large-scale security company like we did before? I have good impressions of the Infinity Guards back when we were recovering from the Battle of Reckoning. Now that we are in a similar position, I think it is best we employ the same solution."

Everyone in the meeting agreed with his suggestion. Compared to the goodwill from the Empire of the Lost, Ves much preferred to put his faith in a mercenary contract!

"I shall work on it." Minister Shederin said as he bowed his head. "It is best to contract a large, cluster-wide mercenary organization. That way, we will not be beholden to citizens who are loyal to the Empire of the Lost."

"Getting enough protection to deter immediate attacks on us is our highest priority. If possible, also try and see if you can persuade the mercenaries to keep escorting us all the way to the beyonder gate at Tarnished Crowd. I don't want to take any more chances and I'm willing to pay big to rule out any further attacks."

"What budget do you have in mind, sir?" Chief Minister Magdalena asked. "Our financial position is stable, but don't forget that rebuilding our strength will require a huge amount of investment."

Ves waved his hand. "You can discuss the exact figure among yourselves. I don't want any half-measures though. If we have to pay as much as 1 billion hex credits or more in order to receive the best form of protection, then just do it. With all of the publicity that we've gained from showing off our combat prowess, we can't rule out that someone interested in our mechs or methods is planning to do something to us. If we can travel together with an entire mercenary mech division, I would feel a lot safer!"

"That… is highly unusual, sir. The vast majority of security companies can never field so many mechs together at the same time. There are simply too few clients who need such extravagant protection and are willing to pay the exorbitant fees." Shederin warned.

"Then contract multiple mercenary organizations if needed. Who says we only have to go in bed with one of them? In fact, I would feel safer if we don't put all of our eggs in one basket."

The amount of paranoia that Ves was displaying throughout the meeting was excessive.

However, not even Calabast dared to roll her eyes.

In a time of weakness, they all needed to show a lot of caution. Only a single mistake or oversight was enough to ruin the Larkinson Clan and everything that they had worked for! No one attending this meeting was willing to see that happen. They invested too much in the clan to lose it all at this point!

After discussing a few more topics, the meeting finally came to an end. Everyone knew what they needed to do now that they had formed a basic plan on how to get out and where they should go next.