The Mech Touch

The relationship between the Larkinson Clan and the Gemini Family was not exactly harmonious as of late.

The mech patrols and salvage teams from both pioneering organizations frequently generated friction with each other whenever they came into proximity with each other.

Diplomatic talks became more tense and arduous whenever the Larkinsons and Geminis took part at the same time.

Minor incidents had already taken place and it was only a matter of time before a few idiots lost control of themselves and came to blows.

This was also one of the reasons why Ves was eager to leave the star system. He did not want his clan to stay in proximity to the Gemini Family any longer than necessary.

It was clear that the Geminis resented the Larkinsons for 'robbing' them of a huge reward. The value of the remains of the unclean whale was but a fraction of what it was worth when it was alive, especially now that large parts of the carcass had been taken away.

The Gemini Family would be lucky to earn tens of millions of MTA merits at this rate.

Was that a good reward? Most definitely. Could it have been an order of magnitude greater if they kept the whale alive? Probably yes.

The feeling of missing out due to the actions of another generated a lot of resentment. Ves could easily sense that the patriarch and matriarch of the Gemini Family did not harbor any positive associations with him at this moment.

That did not stop them from putting on a civilized air and assuming a demeanor expected of leaders responsible for an entire population of like-minded people.

The mark of a good leader was the ability to put duty over feelings. Ves was quite familiar with this dynamic, so he understood that the Gemini leaders did not approach with the intention of raising a commotion.

They instead approached with rapprochement in mind.

"Is your clan recovering well after the recent battle?" Matriarch Sena Gemini asked in a light tone that completely disregarded the tension between their respective organizations.

Ves had to think about his answer.

On the one hand, he would gain great satisfaction from snubbing the Gemini Family. This group of deviants whose goal was to propagate their own warped vision of universal incestuous relationships had not exactly been acting in good faith all of this time.

It went far beyond taking a risk to subdue a living highly dangerous alien powerhouse.

Calabast and Minister Shederin had already deduced that the Gemini Family knew far more about the real threats of the Palace of Shame.

Rather than be upfront about all of those risk factors, the Geminis deliberately withheld crucial information in order to hoodwink five other powerful pioneering fleets into taking part in an exceedingly dangerous assault.

Though Ves understood why the Geminis had taken this approach, that did not mean he liked getting fooled into a venture that turned out to be a lot more threatening towards his life than he initially thought!

Just thinking about it made him want to spit in the faces of the Geminis. Why should he give them any regard after everything they had pulled off? They might not harbor any intent to kill Ves and his clan, but their deceptive behavior was completely intolerable!

At least Ves always made sure to properly explain the risks of his own ventures to the people he dragged along. He never wanted to make others feel the same as him whenever he got hoodwinked.

Considering that the Geminis behaved similarly to the people who betrayed him in the past, it took a lot of effort for Ves to maintain a cordial expression.

In the end, he continued to do so even though his emotions objected to his approach.

The reason why he did not express his true feelings was the same reason why the Gemini leaders did not expose their dissatisfaction.

They were both better off if they transacted with each other. Whatever grievances they had in the past should be set aside in order to advance the interests of their respective organizations.

It was for this reason why Ves and the Gemini leaders were able to hold a cordial conversation.

They did not talk about anything important at first. They just asked trivial questions about what they thought about the plunder they had managed to obtain and what they learned from the last battle.

It wasn't until they talked about the latest changes to the Thunderer Mark II that Patriarch Kobal Gemini finally brought up the reason for their approach.

"Are you still open to accepting additional orders for your latest service? You have accepted an impressive number of expensive orders as of late."

Ves shifted on his feet. "I can still fit more in my schedule, but demand is high as you have just seen. My time is valuable and I am already obliged to delay my ongoing design projects if I want to free up enough hours to work on my new commissions. I will have to make more drastic changes to the design schedule in order to squeeze in additional commissions."

In other words, Ves was demanded more payment for his services, perhaps unfairly so compared to the trade deals that he had just concluded with the other pioneering groups.

The patriarch and matriarch looked at each other while squeezing their hands. They clearly anticipated such a response.

"We can work with that as long as your rates are not… excessive. We may have earned a greater share of the spoils from this operation, but we have already reserved most of it for the buildup of our colony in the Hoster System. It will be difficult for us to justify the expenditure of tens of kilograms of phasewater for singular upgrades to our ace mechs."

"Those upgrades can save the entire future of your Gemini Family one day." Ves mildly retorted. "Let me remind you that your much-vaunted Gemini Saints failed to penetrate the defenses of the orven battleship and the unclean whale by themselves. They managed to make it through with the help of others, but what about next time? If you are ever caught by yourselves by a phase whale, do you think your Embodiment of Love and Sacrifice can truly overcome the defenses of this beast?"

"We have already exceeded our quota." Matriarch Sena Gemini said. "We do not intend to expose ourselves to any further excessive danger."

Ves snorted. "You might not want to look for trouble, but there is always a chance that trouble will reach your doorstep. What if an alien incursion fleet drops by your colony? What if your neighbors do not take kindly of your unorthodox family practices and intend to wipe you out for moral or ideological reasons? Having lived this way for multiple generations, you have to acknowledge that this is a very real possibility."

"This is not a new problem for us. We have always succeeded in keeping ourselves and our ideology alive."

"That was then. This is now." Ves snapped back."Previously, your Gemini Family was bound to a fleet and could always move away before attracting too much animosity from the locals. That is not the case anymore now that you have decided to found a colony in the Krakatoa Middle Zone. Not everyone will be as tolerant towards your Gemini Family as us. The only language that matters in the Red Ocean is force. Overwhelming force to be more precise. I can think of no better way to dominate an opponent than to raise the effective combat power of your ace pilots to that comparable to a senior ace pilot."

Ves had taken the time to review the battle footage and evaluate the performance of every ace mech.

The Embodiment of Love and the Embodiment of Sacrifice were certainly the most impressive of the bunch.

Their ace pilots worked so well together that they could actually combine their ace mechs into a superpowered combination machine that was greater than the sum of their parts!

Ves greatly admired what the Geminis had accomplished. The Embodiment of Love and Sacrifice was the most powerful 'mech' that he had ever witnessed in person. Not even a first-class multipurpose mech of the MTA could reach its level of power!

Yet… as much as the Gemini Saints were able to exert much greater power through synergy, it was not enough.

There were much more powerful pioneering groups out there that could either field multiple ace mechs or retained a genuine senior ace pilot.

The latter was the scariest of all. Similar to how a single high-tier expert pilot could easily slaughter a dozen low-tier expert pilots, those that were just a few jumps away from becoming a god pilot were much more overpowering than other ace pilots!

Although god pilots were the most powerful individuals that humanity could field in battle, in practice they had risen above mundane conflicts between rival human polities.

This meant that senior ace pilots had effectively become the top powerhouses that states and organizations could employ against each other.

The chance that the Gemini Family would attract the hostility of a powerful group that had at least one senior ace pilot on retainer was small, but the Geminis could never rule out this possibility.

Sharpening the teeth of the Embodiment of Love and the Embodiment of Sacrifice would go a long way into deterring these powers from targeting the Gemini Family.

It just so happened that Ves possessed one of the few whetstones that could make the Embodiment of Love and Sacrifice at least twice as deadly as before!

Matriarch Sena Gemini appeared to have run out of patience. "Let us stop dancing around circles and discuss concrete terms. What will it cost you to upgrade the mech rifle of the Embodiment of Love and the mech sword of the Embodiment of Sacrifice?"

"120 kilograms of phasewater." Ves immediately said. "That is quite a generous deal, you know. Oh, before you try and claim you don't have that much phasewater in your possession, we have already calculated the share of phasewater that your family has claimed. It is several times the amount allocated to my clan."

The Gemini Family was entitled to double shares while the Golden Skull Alliance only had to make do with 1.5 shares.

Since the Golden Skull Alliance was made up of multiple groups, the Larkinson Clan only received a part of that bounty.

Ves was quite jealous of the Gemini Family for being able to claim twice as much spoils than normal without having to share what they obtained.

It would be nice if he could claim much of that generous loot for himself.

Naturally, the Gemini Family did not want to part with all of their recently obtained phasewater so soon.

"We have already informed you that we have already reserved our phasewater for other purposes." Patriarch Kobal Gemini reminded Ves as if he had faulty short-term memory. "We have not changed our stance regarding this matter."

"That's fine." Ves flatly replied. "My services do not come cheap, though, and I do not have a habit of working for free."

"We do not intend to ask you to upgrade our most powerful weapons without an expectation of earning remuneration. We have already observed from your agreement with the Lehrer Foundation that you are willing to accept knowledge instead of a hard good such as phasewater."

Ves slowly nodded. "That is true, but I won't accept anything that I can buy from a random street stall."

"That is understandable. Do not worry, Patriarch Larkinson. We have come prepared. We have already formulated a list of technologies that we are happy to pass on in exchange for your services."

"Oh? What do you offer that you think is of interest to our clan?"

Matriarch Sena Gemini smiled. "How about a database that will teach your geneticists and exobiologists how to formulate healthy, intellectually gifted and most importantly empathetic designer babies?"

Now that caught Ves' attention!

"Tell me more." He demanded.