The Mech Touch

Just like before, Ves brought his students and Braves on an eye-opening tour.

Hardly any human in the galaxy enjoyed the unique privilege of stepping aboard an actual warship!

The myths and legends surrounding this incredibly destructive class of warships caused the younger mech designers to feel apprehensive about getting close.

Yet hidden behind the glint of their eyes, Ves noticed their intense curiosity and excitement.

As mech designers, their job was to make weapons of war. While they favored mechs the most, they eagerly looked forward to studying an actual warship from within!

"Alright. We're here. Put your helmets up and remember the safety rules."

As soon as their large shuttle descended in one of the hangar bays of the Gravada Knarlax, they emerged from their vehicle in hazard suits and other protective gear.

The hangar bay used to be organized pretty well. The Allidus Alliance may not have been so diligent in organizing its other vessels, but it did not dare to neglect its pride and flagship.

If not for the collapsed sections and all of the vehicles and equipment crashed into the bulkheads, the clan could have made use of this place as an extra place to store the numerous wrecks floating in space!

"Wow. Does the rest of the intact portions of the ship look as bad?"

Ves shook his head. "Not quite. This hangar bay is fairly close to the damaged starboard section of the ship. Further ahead, the compartments aren't in as much disarray. Loose objects and unsecured equipment may have been flung against bulkheads or other obstacles, but there aren't too many of those. The ship is designed to take a lot of punishment. In fact, if not for certain abnormal circumstances, the Gravada Knarlax could have fought on even in this awful state."

It took a lot of sacrifices for his task force to even inflict this much damage.

The Penitent Sisters lost most of their combat carriers to the Gravada Knarlax's main cannons just to allow two more vessels to crash into the starboard side of the heavy cruiser.

Even then, the ship still held on with the help of the Hallowed Abyss Temple!

The warship's bow section suffered a lot of damage when Joshua charged into it. Flush with power from his perfect breakthrough, he managed to summon a powerful energy projection of the Larkinson Clan's ancestral spirit. This was the first time that the Golden Cat directly fought in a battle!

Many Larkinsons still remembered this glorious moment. This was before the dark gods emerged and exerted their soul-pressing auras. Ves had no intentions of hiding it because he wanted to boost the reputation of one of his strongest supporters.

"Let's take a look inside."

Ves and his mech designers proceeded to cross the messy hangar bay. They moved through the passageways and entered some random compartments. The Gravada Knarlax packed a lot of functions. Some of the more important ship components took up multiple decks. Witnessing the sheer scale of some of those systems left an unforgettable impression in their minds!

Of course, the most exciting stop of their tour was when they visited the aft turret system. This behemoth of a turret could fire enormous rounds that were capable of piercing through dozens of mechs or punching a hole in most of the ships of the Larkinson Clan!

The sheer amount of decks occupied by the turret mechanisms reflected the enormous capacity it took to host such a powerful weapon.

"Look at all of the space the pirates had to reserve for this weapon system!" Moltar Ringer remarked. "The turret that is exposed on the hull is just the tip of the iceberg."

Rina nodded and grunted. "Turrets that big don't rotate by themselves. The ammunition feeding system also has to be big enough to make it safe to insert another round in the main cannons."

"Just look at the size of them!" Zanthar stepped towards a secure stack of ballistic shells that looked ready to be fed into the cannons. "They're almost as big as a light mech!"

What was interesting about the Gravada Knarlax was that the ship actually possessed multiple types of rounds. Ves along with many of his assistants closely inspected these huge projectiles.

"They're all simple, but big."

"That's enough to turn this ship into the terror of the Nyxian Gap."

There was something very inspiring about studying the armament of a huge warship. This was a completely new experience for all of the Braves.

While Ves once had the pleasure of residing in a crashed CFA battleship, he never really got to access any of her formidable armaments from the inside.

There was something brutally inspiring about pirate engineering. Simple and uncomplicated, the pirates harkened back to an early age when they built their warships.

"How barbaric." Catherine Evenson shook her head in disapproval. "We no longer live under the tyranny of warships. These blasted pirates should all be wiped out for trying to bring back the Age of Conquest."

She still shared a lot of sentiment for her former state. The Sentinel Kingdom often bore the brunt of Nyxian pirate attacks. Taking down the main fleet of the Allidus Alliance and capturing a large portion of their warships definitely weakened them as a whole!

In a way, the Larkinson Clan performed a huge favor to the surrounding states. Ves narrowed his eyes a bit at that. He resolved to make sure that the Sentinel Kingdom and any other beneficiary would pay sufficient compensation. With the astronomical amount of fame, honor and prestige the Larkinson Clan was about to gain from this overwhelming victory, it would be hard for those bystanders to remain idle!

The tour continued for many hours. They crossed many areas which not only bore the aftermath of the crippling attacks inflicted on the ship, but also became the sites where many remaining pirates held their last stands.

Hardly any cleaning took place in the days before. The Larkinson infantrymen may have tried to put some effort into capturing the pirates alive, but if they fought too hard, there was no other alternative than eliminating them on the spot.

Though the follow-up parties had hauled the bodies away, the blood and broken pieces of tissue and gear still scarred the compartments. The Braves may have been spared from the awful smell by virtue of their vacuum-sealed suits, but the lingering presence of death still affected their mood.

Fortunately, this was not the first time that his assistant mech designers confronted such ugly sights. They had experienced so many ups and downs throughout the campaign that they were starting to become desensitized.

This was exactly what Ves sought.

His two protegees had it worse than the others. They were still young and impressionable, so the impact of this tour was greater on them. The sights they had seen today would be seared in their minds for the rest of their lives!

"I knew it would be bad, but I didn't know it was so much worse." Maikel queasily said. He almost looked ready to vomit! "Human body parts aren't supposed to look like that!"

The ugliest sight by far was observing the aftermath of a heavy pipe weighing hundreds of kilograms slamming into a pair of legs.

Ves didn't like to stare at it either. He was a lover of aesthetics and did not enjoy this eye torture.

Still, he felt it was important for his mech designers to witness the consequences of battle.

"Everyone thinks that human society has reached a high standard of civilization." He spoke. "Many humans have the privilege to be born in a decent home in a decent planet and state. As long as they don't go astray, they grow up and become someone normal. Yet that is only the surface of how our society works. Underneath this civilized layer is a more brutal society that is based solely on might. Stronger organizations and states get to dominate weaker organizations and states. If the latter thinks that society will protect them against abuse or exploitation, then they will easily fold once they meet someone that doesn't care about the rules!"

His words made a very deep impression on the Braves. Ves grasped the situation well and couldn't help but take advantage of the situation to imprint some views onto them. He wanted to groom each of his Braves into his loyal and like-minded subordinates.

After half a day of touring, Ves eventually parted ways with the group. The Gravada Knarlax had a lot more to offer. He didn't have time to experience the full breadth of a ship with an internal volume that was so large that she could fit an entire city inside her dimensions!

"She's truly massive." Ves sighed as he walked alongside Calabast. "Sure, the Starlight Megalodon is positively enormous, but we were guests back then. Now, we own this prize."

"For now." Calabast answered.

She still wore her high-quality Hexer-built infiltrator suit. The heavy-duty suit offered both stealth and protection, though Ves doubted she actually made use of it these days. Just like him, she had transitioned to letting the grunts do all of the heavy lifting.

"Let me enjoy this illusion for a little longer. It would be great to parade our captured warships during my upcoming wedding. I'm sure it will make an unforgettable impression on our guests!"

"You'll have to make some arrangements with the MTA to pull off such a stunt, and I don't think they will think highly to your request. The MTA has worked hard to make people revolted at the sight of warships."

"I'll figure something out." Ves muttered.

"You're going to have to figure a lot of things out. The Battle against the Abyss won't be easy to explain to the authorities."

"Don't I know it. I don't want to become a 'long-term' guest of the local branch of the MTA."

Calabast didn't want to see this outcome either. How would she ever be able to exploit him when the MTA already had him in the palm of its hands?

The two talked a little about how they should approach the inevitable inquiry. They didn't go too much into the details because they weren't speaking in a secure location. Even with this limitation, Calabast provided him with plenty of useful advice.

"The MTA is known for its long-term perspective. The officials in charge pay much more attention to the future rather than the present. The key to gaining their support is to present an argument that encourages the Association to miss out in the short term in the hopes of gaining a much bigger prize in the long-term."

This was the reason behind most of the MTA's decisions. Its public history was rife with lots of decisions that seemed illogical at the time but made a lot of sense a century or so later. From regulating the mech market to encouraging the mass-education of mech designers, many of its policies went on to spark a golden age for mechs.

When Ves thought about his problems in this context, he came up with several new approaches on how to handle his upcoming discussion with Master Willix.

"We're here."

He interrupted his thoughts when he realized that they had arrived to a very special destination.

Hidden within the bowels of the Gravada Knarlax was a huge hall that hosted a shrine.

It was larger and more elaborate than the one built at Ulimo Citadel. Made out of the same unknown obsidian stone, the Larkinsons had already tried to damage it. The stone resisted all manner of attacks.

Ves had packed up the previous shrine in a ship somewhere and he intended to bring back this one as well. There was no way he would let off all of this stone!

"I'll have to bring Lucky to split up this shrine." He muttered. "It's way too big to cart off as a whole."

The material the shrine was made of was just an extra to him. He withheld most of the excitement until he finally entered the shrine.

Amidst all of the blood, remains and ruined ritual markings, a large amount of broken metal pieces were strewn throughout the floor!

A brilliant smile appeared on his face. "So much Unending alloy!"