The Mech Touch

Ves did not come up wih the idea to let Ketis loose on an impulse.

Even if he didn't suspect that Ketis had a problem with designing mechs in collaboration with others, he still would have wanted her to explore her potential without needing to compromise with fellow Journeymen.

In every mech design project where multiple capable mech designers were working together, no one was able to get their way all of the time. Even when someone like Ves or Gloriana made the final call, they could never completely disregard the contributions of others, especially when the work division ensured that the more capable contributors worked on design tasks that they were best at completing.

However, the flaw that people like Master Willix warned about was that long-term work on many collaborations risked eroding a mech designer's ability to handle every aspect well.

This was why Ves wanted her and the other Journeymen of the Design Department to fly solo as well for the next round of mech design projects.

Gloriana, Juliet and Ves himself all needed to go back to their roots and find out what they could accomplish if they weren't able to rely on others to prop up their weaknesses.

There was also a more practical reason why Ves was thinking about letting every Journeyman work on their own design projects by themselves.

"The Larkinson Army needs way more specialized mechs!"

The well-rounded performance of the Ferril Provincial Army's mech divisions showed that there were huge inadequacies in the way the different Larkinson mech units fought in battle. The shortage of mech models and the dominance of the rather plain and boring Bright Warrior model caused his mech pilots to lack sufficiently strong and distinctive tactical options.

Ves was eager to make up for this shortcoming, but he knew that it would take way more than just a handful of mech designs to provide every mech legion with a fitting synergistic mech roster.

So instead of making every Journeyman work together, Ves thought it was more expedient for them to split up. In any case, the Design Department had already expanded in size. There were enough design teams to allow every Journeyman to work on three or four design projects concurrently in a single design round.

"Maybe we can handle even more if I hire another batch of mech designers." He muttered.

He knew that there would be one final opportunity for his clan to recruit a lot of skilled and talented personnel in the near future.

The star systems where the lesser and greater beyonder gates were based had become hotspots for any ambitious person who wanted to go on an adventure to the Red Ocean!

Billions of people who could afford the expense had moved to the gate systems and tried to get hired by the pioneers that passed through.

Of course, many of the people who wanted to get in on the Red Ocean were frankly rubbish. Still, with the sheer amount of manpower that piled up in the gate systems, there were gems everywhere as long as someone looked hard enough.

Special hiring companies had also emerged that specialized in seeking out these brilliant talents. This way, pioneers like Ves didn't have to scour the personnel markets in person and could just pay a fee in order to get a list of potential hires that satisfied his demands.

The only question whether Ves would be able to get enough high-quality personnel was whether his clan was attractive enough for them. He wasn't sure whether the most skilled and promising mech designers and other professionals were willing to get onboard his drunken party boat.

"Well, the recent publicity will likely help with attracting more adventurous and open-minded personnel." Ves guessed. "Our clan needs people with guts, not caution. There are plenty of other alternatives if people can't stomach any excitement."

The personnel market in the Red Ocean was a lot worse than the ones in the Milky Way. Even though a lot of free passengers still managed to flow into the dwarf galaxy, the truly skilled professionals were all locked into long-term contracts.

Perhaps this might change once the first colonies bloomed and a large population base began to emerge from those sites, but at this stage the children who were born in the Red Ocean weren't even old enough to study math!

"Hmmm, I should make sure our clan stuffs our capital ships with people. They're more than big enough to accommodate a huge amount of crew and passengers so we shouldn't be stingy."

Ves was sure that the chief ministers and other leaders in the clan had already made preparations for this, but he intended to check up on whether their recruitment targets were ambitious enough!

In the meantime, he still had to address his current tasks.

"I almost forgot about that."

Gloriana had already gone ahead and completed her survey of the damaged Larkinson expert mechs, but that didn't mean Ves was familiar with their current state.

He read all of the reports and witnessed how much damage they accumulated over the course of the battle, but if he really wanted to understand their condition, he needed to examine them in person.

What was important was that he did not just pay attention to their physical state, but also their spiritual state.

What gratified him was that none of his expert mechs showed any problems in this regard. Even if a machine like the Riot looked like it was a few steps away from becoming a wreck, its spiritual character was still as strong and vigorous as ever.

In fact, the influence of the Unstable Chaos Essence had altered its character and added a touch of madness to the expert mech.

When Ves initially bestowed the gem unto the Riot, Ves was quite fearful of the consequences.

Now that he saw how much value it added, he no longer held any concerns. Lucky's gems were always geared towards helping mechs in some way. That was their basic purpose, so even if their descriptions sounded dubious, the Riot was probably fine.

Ves was able to perceive the changes induced by the gems in the other expert mechs as well. The First Sword gained a sharper vibe while the Amaranto appeared brighter to his senses. These clear differences made him feel better about using up his gems on them even if he didn't get any new masterworks.

"Then there's this." He said in a weary tone as he stopped in front of the remains of the Valkyrie Prime.

The prime mech was in a sad shape. If Venerable Joshua hadn't ejected his cockpit in the nick of time, the Burza Fens would have cleaved right through his body!

The Valkyrie Prime's defeat not only dealt a mental blow to the expert pilot, but also caused his mech to gain a somber vibe. Ves could practically feel the sadness flowing from the broken machine.

This was a strong contrast from his expert mechs, and he suspected he knew why there was a difference.

"You know what is going to happen to you, am I correct?" He asked the ruined prime mech.

His living mechs weren't alive in a conventional sense, but the older and stronger machines tended to possess a greater personality than the younger and weaker ones.

All four expert mechs were smart enough to figure out that they would remain in use for a long time. As long as they weren't totally blown to pieces, the living mechs could always count on the Larkinsons to take care of them and even upgrade their capabilities in order to keep them competitive.

The Valkyrie Prime's was different from theirs. Venerable Joshua had been piloting it for at least a year and it had grown a lot in the process. Not only did it benefit from being used by a powerful expert pilot, it also happened to be paired with the one whose life domain was exceptionally suitable to accelerate a living mech's growth!

Ves suspected that he latter factor caused the Valkyrie Prime's growth and maturation to exceed that of any other prime mech by a significant margin. Venerable Joshua wasn't his favorite expert pilot for nothing!

"It's a pity that not all growth is good." He slowly shook his head.

He slowly stepped forward and placed his armored hand on the surface of the Valkyrie Prime's broken torso.

Though the contact wasn't direct, both his Unending Regalia and the exterior of the prime mech were made out of Unending alloy. The spiritual conductivity of this material was excellent, so the indirect contact allowed him to examine and feel the Valkyrie Prime's spiritual foundation to a much more intimate degree!

A sense of death and malaise suffused the prime mech.

"I see." Ves became enlightened. "You've seen and inflicted death so many times that you have inadvertently become sensitive to your own demise as well. That's… quite remarkable. I never knew something like that could happen."

This made it all the more harder to go through with his decision to break down the remains of the Valkyrie Prime and recycle its materials.

The prime mech performed above and beyond what Ves demanded out of it. Together with Venerable Joshua, the Valkyrie Prime truly saved the clan with its fantastic capabilities.

Yet that did not stop Ves from going through with his intention to take out of Unending alloy so that he could use the recovered materials to construct the base form of the Chimera Project.

The Larkinson Clan needed an expert mech. The performance increase was too great and Venerable Joshua also deserved to pilot a machine that better complimented his current strength.

The Valkyrie Prime must have been aware of all of these considerations. After all, Venerable Joshua had been entertaining these thoughts as well when he interfaced with this mech.

This direct exposure caused the prime mech to show no objection to its final fate.

"Thank you, Valkyrie Prime." Ves sincerely said as he leaned his head forward until it touched the metal exterior. "It's not right for you to suffer this fate when you have done everything right, but that is the way it works around here. I need to reuse your Unending alloy so I have no other choice. I am glad you understand."

The Valkyrie Prime might be a hexer mech, but its lifelong partner had always been Venerable Joshua.

The prime mech knew what its expert pilot needed and wanted the best for it as well.

Even if that meant that the Valkyrie Prime needed to be replaced by a newer and better machine, it chose to support the course of action that was best for Venerable Joshua!

The more he looked at this situation, the more it seemed as if the Valkyrie Prime loved Venerable Joshua!

Of course, the love it exhibited towards its only pilot wasn't the kind of love that Ketis held towards her boyfriend.

Instead, it was a more sisterly or platonic love. Ves found it difficult to find the right description for the subtle affection that the Valkyrie Prime held towards Venerable Joshua.

"This… is the love that one family member holds towards another family member."

Just like how his own mother did not hesitate to sacrifice everything for her son, the Valkyrie Prime also showed its willingness to embrace its own death as long as it benefited Joshua!

Ves was speechless for a moment. The Larkinson Clan's embrace of kinship wasn't limited towards its clansmen. Even its mechs had learned how to love the Larkinsons!

"This sounds too weird…"

He knew that if he told this to others, they would just look at him as if he was mad.

What was next, mechs marrying humans?

How could that even be possible, and how would they even be able to reproduce?

"Well, modern human tech is able to solve many problems, so an issue like this might not be impossible to resolve."

If that didn't work, then maybe Ves could truly and design a biomech. It would be a lot easier for it to reproduce with a human!

"I bet a biomech designer has already pulled it off!" He guessed.