The Mech Touch

It turned out that expert pilots weren't completely single-minded. Aside from obsessing about their principles, they also obsessed over their expert mechs.

It was hard not to! Expert pilots weren't philosophers. They were warriors first. Their entire existence revolved around their ability to pilot mechs.

Each of them knew that stronger mechs allowed them to exert more strength. With greater strength, they gained more influence, allowing them to spread their values more effectively.

This meant that if Ves wanted to remain in charge, he should manipulate these circumstances in his favor.

Promoting his backers and suppressing his critics was a classic way to remain in power. As long as he amplified the voice of Venerable Joshua and diminished the voice of Venerable Jannzi, the balance would slowly tip in his favor.

This was what Ves wanted to see. While he liked Venerable Jannzi as a person, her strong views threatened his ambitions. For this reason alone, he did not mind suppressing her in various ways.

The simplest method to do so was to simply hold off on providing her with an expert mech. In any case, Ves still had to exert a lot of effort in order to obtain any expert mech. If Venerable Jannzi was too ungrateful to appreciate his efforts, then he had no reason to amplify her voice.

Expert pilots each possessed an exalted status in society, but it was very hard for them to remain influential if they continually lacked an expert mech!

In the Mech Corps, no expert pilot worried about lacking a suitable machine. Each of them fought on behalf of the state, so it was extremely rare for them to dissent. Even if they had a problem with their mech regiments, they could simply request a transfer.

It was different in the Larkinson Clan. No matter what, Ves was in charge of everything, so Jannzi had no way of avoiding him in any way. This was especially so if he effectively controlled her access to an expert mech!

Calabast pushed Ves to take advantage of his position of power. "While Venerable Jannzi enjoys the distinct honor of becoming the first expert pilot of the clan, stars fade when others rise. As long as a more pliable expert pilot such as Venerable Joshua continues to astonish our clansmen, who will remember Venerable Jannzi after a few years?"

Though Ves recognized that her approach had a lot of merit, a part of him felt uneasy. There was something distinctly distasteful about engaging in such murky acts. It reeked of politics.

Major Verle happened to feel the same way. "The Larkinson Clan values honor and integrity. Sir, think very carefully about the repercussions of your actions. Once you scheme against your own people, our clan will change into something different. Others will follow your example and hatch their own schemes. Any notion about treating every Larkinson fairly will disappear, and it is all because you taught everyone that it is acceptable to abuse your power for your own gain."

"Everyone abuses their power for their own gain. That's what makes it worth pursuing." Calabast sneered.

"The Larkinson Clan is not a Hexer organization! My fellow Vandals and I initially joined the clan for two reasons. One, we believe in Ves. Two, we believe in the uprightness of the Larkinsons. Many other hopeful people have applied to join the Larkinson Clan because they are attracted to our fair and equitable culture. We are a brotherhood. However, just like any big organization, we have people who have different ideas. The proper way to handle them is to allow them to continue to voice their opinions freely. If Ves and his supporters are right, then they will naturally be able to remain in charge."

"Naive! Dissent must be managed, lest it fester and spread. You cannot imagine how malcontents can manipulate the majority by driving hysteria and spreading misinformation. The way I see it, Venerable Jannzi must be choked out of the clan. It's not worth it anymore to keep her around!"

Ves shot a glance at both of his advisors, forcing them to halt their argument.

"That's enough. I have contemplated both your suggestions. While I am tempted by your suggestion, Calabast, I cannot bring myself to do as you say. Major Verle has said it correctly. The Larkinsons must act honorably and with integrity. I do not want to preside over a clan that is rife with backstabbing and suspicion. Larkinsons shouldn't have to climb over each other's corpses in order to fulfill their ambitions. Kinship is one of our most important values. That means we should respect each clansmen even if they hold opposing viewpoints."

His words caused Calabast to look glum. Major Verle briefly gloated over his victory.

"I'm glad you made the right decision, sir."

This was the end of the matter.

While Ves had not discussed with his expert pilots to comfort the grieving survivors, it could wait. He ordered Calabast and Major Verle to lay the groundwork. He planned to address his men when they were ready to move out of the Nyxian Gap.

In the next couple of days, Ves remained in thought as he slowly began to pick up his regular work.

With his task force still busy salvaging the battlefield and restoring their damaged and captured ship, there was no need for him to pay attention to these chores.

This left him free to return to the design lab in order to resume his design work.

In the month that he and his Braves were occupied with preparing for the battle, Gloriana and her Erudites had achieved remarkable progress on every project.

The Valkyrie Redeemer, the Cat's Paw, the Chiron, the Ferocious Piranha, the Sanctuary and the Crystal Lord Mark II all came closer to completion.

Of the six projects, the Cat's Paw Project still required a lot of work while the Ferocious Piranha was very close to completion.

At least, that was before he lost one of his design spirits.

A major complication had arisen after the Battle against the Abyss. One of the repercussions directly affected the LMC's business operations!

"Benny! Long time no see!" Ves grinned as he finally greeted his personal assistant after more than a month of neglect.

"Boss." Gavin greeted while trying to stay as professional as possible. "A lot has happened over the past month. I've prepared an extensive report for you to peruse. In short, while our clan is doing better than ever due to your astounding victory against the Nyxian pirates, the LMC has suffered some setbacks."

"What's wrong?"

"Our sales are slowing down, boss. We are still selling more mechs each month, but our expansion has stalled. The local mech markets are beginning to lose confidence in our offerings."

"Why?"

"There are two reasons for this. The introduction of targeted counters has shown our customers that our glows aren't as infallible as they once assumed. When the Fridaymen developed the Olson-Katzenberg alloy, they did not keep the alloy formula for themselves. Instead, they put it up for licensing. While we can't count how many mech designers and mech companies have licensed the O-K alloy, it is sure to be considerable."

That sounded bad, but Ves did not panic. "O-K alloy is only part of the equation why the Glow Crusher works. Master Olson's ingenuity in generating motion energy and discharging it as an attack is the true brilliance of her design. That is not what others can replicate."

Ves truly admired his former Master for harnessing such a potent form of energy! It far exceeded his imagination of what her specialty entailed. It showed him that he should never underestimate any Master no matter how boring their design philosophies sounded.

"Well, from what we have heard from other sources, O-K alloy somehow makes it easy to generate at least some motion energy. This gives other mech designers a chance to target glows even if they have to put more effort into generating it. As long as the mech industry improves and refines the application of O-K alloy, our products won't be able to take advantage of their glows with impunity."

Ves remained stoic as he listened to Gavin's pessimistic assessment.

"This day would have come sooner or later. Nothing is infallible. Not even glows. Hell, this is why I pushed to design the Sanctuary. I don't believe that other mech designers can leverage the properties of O-K alloy as well as the two Masters. If you ask me, let these competitors of ours invest in developing their pathetic counters for our products. Once we publish the Sanctuary, the effectiveness of our solution will instantly conquer the market. We will be able to control our counter by that time!"

"Uhm, that sounds great, but what about the Fridaymen? What stops them from buying our Sanctuaries before employing them against the Blessed Squire?"

"That won't be a problem." Ves grinned. "It's hard coded not to suppress the glow of superior mechs. That's the greatest benefit to publishing our own counter!"

Gavin looked shocked. "If that is the case, then I have no complaints!"

So far, the Design Department had kept most of the details about the ongoing projects close to its chest. None of the assistant mech designers had leaked any information, which was good.

"You mentioned another issue that's slowing our growth. What's the problem?"

"Ah, it's about the Doom Guard. The mech has.. changed, boss."

"Oh. Yeah. That's my fault."

Ves quickly recalled that he had lost one of his design spirits in the Battle against the Abyss. He felt quite pained at the loss of Nyxie!

In hindsight, Nyxie had probably turned into a dark god. Unlike the Unending One and the other powerful spirits, Nyxie failed to join their club because his coffin trapped him in place.

If not for that, Ves might not have gained so many benefits from harvesting his spiritual fragments!

Ves personally witnessed the power of a dark god. Whether it was the Unending One, the Inexorable One or the Blinding One, each of them possessed enough power to wipe out his fleet by themselves!

This was because of the insane pressure they emanated. Their sheer presence was so heavy that most people couldn't even stay awake. Only those with at least some spiritual strength would be able to muster up some resistance, but even then none of his expert pilots were able to put up a fight because they lacked expert mechs!

Now that his expert pilots had already broken through, there was no way they could exert as much strength as before.

It didn't matter if his surviving forces managed to take over control of some of the captured warships. Their main cannons probably did little to deter a fully-descended dark god!

For this reason, a part of Ves was quite happy that he got rid of Nyxie while he could. Who knew when the powerful dark god would break out of his prison.

That said, Nyxie's death did present a considerable problem to Ves. In his haste, he filled up the void in the Doom Guard's design with Lufa. At the time, he did not have the time to check how this hasty solution affected one of his best-selling models.

From the look of Gavin's face, the consequences shouldn't be good.

"The Doom Guard mechs have become weird. They are still disturbing, but in a different way. It's like you are getting beaten by a stick one day, only to get splashed by boiling water the next day."

"In what way?"

"Well.. they're still uncomfortable, but they don't induce a sense of terror anymore. Instead, they're disturbing because anyone who enters within the range of their glows is subject to two conflicting influences. One of them is aggressive, and the other one is calm. Strange things happen when both of them are affecting people at the same time. Our customers are still trying to cope with the changes, but it is very different from what they are used to before. The mech pilots assigned to the Doom Guards have to learn how to cope with their glows all over again!"