The Mech Touch

Ves did not induct any other Lifers into the Larkinson Clan. While he was aware that a number of other groups such as the Trezin Showstoppers and the Right Siders wanted to defect from the LRA as well, he had to deal with other priorities.

Besides, it was not a bad thing to force the others to wait. Everyone had witnessed how the majority of Roving Hunters had formally joined the Larkinson Clan. While the ritual was a little hasty and lacking in terms of spectacle, the spiritual activity that took place caused everyone to feel the weight behind the changes.

From the way the new members gained instant respect from existing Larkinsons to how they were warmly welcomed inside the base, everything that happened generated a considerable amount of envy among the onlookers!

Ves inwardly smiled at the sight. While he could not browbeat doubters like Oliver Vlambeer into joining his clan, he could employ all kinds of other tricks to increase the attraction to joining his clan!

Marketing textbooks were filled with tactics and methods designed to exert psychological pressure onto consumers. Some of them were benign, but others were much less innocent!

"You guys haven't seen anything yet." He softly said.

"Meow."

Lucky patted his paw against Ves' helmet.

"Hey! I am not breaking the rules! I already told Jannzi that I will stick to softer methods of persuasion."

Ves never forced anyone to pilot his products. He just heavily encouraged the market to do so. Considering that tens of millions of mech pilots were utilizing his mechs to this day, he was doing quite well in this regard!

After handling a few issues concerning the placement of the refugees, Ves and several others proceeded to enter a structure in the center of the base before entering a conference room.

A lot of familiar faces already showed up along with a few new ones. While Ves vowed to never pull his body out of the Unending Regalia until the crisis had passed, he felt secure enough to retract his helmet.

"Ah, fresh filtered air."

As Ves took pleasure in freeing his head, Lucky crawled from his shoulder and floated over to Commander Casella Ingvar.

"Meow."

The stern-faced woman softened a little as the gem cat settled on her lap and looked up at her with his glowing green eyes.

"Oh, poor fellow." She spoke as she stroked his smooth back. "You must have gone through a lot of difficulties to make it back. Did the patriarch treat you well?"

"Meow!"

While Lucky received his regular dose of pampering, Ves briefly gathered with the three expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan.

Due to the vulnerability and incredible value of the Larkinson Fleet, it was irresponsible to station every expert pilot to the surface. Ves and General Verle had to make a hard decision on who to transfer to Gentle Lotus Base.

Eventually, the two settled on Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson.

The former was of limited use in spaceborn battles while the latter fared great in many different circumstances.

In fact, Venerable Joshua was an even more versatile and adaptable expert pilot, but he was much less useful in this situation.

With the Valkyrie Prime, his current value was much greater if he stayed with the expeditionary fleet!

There, the Larkinsons and Glory Seekers weren't restricted from fielding hundreds of mechs. This meant that Venerable Joshua could always join forces with lots of Valkyrie mechs in order to evoke the Hexer battle network!

The power of this extraordinary attack allowed Ves to feel completely assured about the fleet's safety. Together with the main fleet of the Infinity Guards, it didn't matter if the Golden Skull Alliance had yet to replenish its battle losses.

When Ves approached the pair of expert pilots, Tusa looked teasingly as the female Larkinson.

"I heard you got into quite an ordeal. Are you missing your Shield of Samar?"

"Shut up. At least the inspectors recognized that my prime mech is stronger!"

While Master Cline somehow convinced the authorities to allow the Larkinsons to bring down additional mechs, the inspectors did not allow any mech to make landfall!

They were especially vigilant towards big and intimidating mechs. It just so happened that the Shield of Samar looked way too formidable!

The irony was that Tusa did not suffer the same problem. Even though the Ferocious Piranha won a brilliant victory during the first phase of the design duel, the mech looked too small and light to suggest it was capable of inflicting mass destruction.

For this reason, the Piranha Prime along with a pair of other Ferocious Piranha's managed to make it past the inspection!

It helped a lot that the inspectors only examined one of the regular Ferocious Piranha's. After approving one machine, they didn't bother to examine the other two, thereby allowing the much more dangerous Piranha Prime through!

"Don't gloat too much, Tusa." Ves admonished him. "Greater power conveys greater responsibility. Since you're piloting the only prime mech on this planet, I'll be counting on you to repel our toughest opponents."

Venerable Tusa's smile dropped. "You can count on me. I don't fear any opponent aside from expert mechs."

"The odds you'll encounter them in battle are low. From what I have gathered, the main military forces intend to stay out of this wrestling match. Most of their expert pilots are way too honest and principled to take part in a civil war that just inflicts more misery to the citizens caught up in the crossfire."

This was not a unique phenomenon. There were many other examples in history where a lot of military troops firmly stayed out to the fighting.

From a practical standpoint, this was necessary to preserve a state. If the troops started to fight each other, the amount of destruction they could unleash was too great! It also weakened the state's ability to resist its neighbors from invading and rolling over the depleted defenders!

However, the second angle was just as important. Many mech pilots looked up to expert pilots. If these heroes and role models saw no justifiable reason to intervene in a civil war, then a lot of military mech pilots automatically followed their example!

Due to their strong principles, expert pilots were regarded as the moral consciousness of a military organization. Anyone who acted differently had to bear a stigma for doing so. This was enough to prevent all but the most ambitious and selfish soldiers from breaking their neutrality!

Both Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Tusa reacted in relief.

"I hope it stays this way." Tusa said. "While I don't fear any opponent, defeating an expert mech without piloting one myself is as difficult as fighting a dark god."

Jannzi scowled. "Don't mention that."

The emergency meeting began shortly afterwards. Once everyone sat around the oval table, Ves briefly nodded at everyone.

"Thank you for staying calm and doing your part. We're in a difficult situation right now, but we can still make it through as long as we work together."

Everyone expressed their understanding of the situation.

"Now, I have developed a specific strategy to ensure our continued survival on this planet. Much of it has to do with the refugee train I've led. I'm sure you've noticed them all. They're all parked outside the base but haven't made any moves to leave. If I have my way, many of them will become a part of my clan."

"What?" Captain Serena Valeis of the Glory Seekers looked shocked. "Are you being serious? Much of those Lifers outside are degenerates! I don't need to look up their background to know that at least a third of the outfits are small-time gangs that consist of undisciplined mech pilots and other members. Adding them to your ranks is an affront to the honor of your clan!"

Ves coughed. "You're not a Larkinson, captain. I don't see how it is your business to suggest how I should run my clan. I'm in the business of survival right now, and that means grasping onto any form of increasing our strength as possible."

"Why not make our own mechs, then?" Commander Casella Ingvar asked. "Ordinary, we are restricted from fielding too many mechs, but the Planetary Guard can't enforce those rules anymore. Why not look for a mech factory or something and produce some much-needed for ourselves? We still have plenty of mech pilots in our midst who are still lacking machines to pilot."

Captain Rivington shook his head. "It won't work. I am guessing that you are thinking of making your own classical mechs, right? Have you forgotten where you are? If you want to make or appropriate biomechs, then there are plenty of sites I can highlight for you. If you want to produce classical mechs, then tough luck. The amount of manufacturing sites that can produce conventional mechs is very low on this planet. I certainly haven't heard of any that are near."

The newly-inducted member of the Larkinson Clan made a good point. They were not in an ordinary second-rate state right now. The existing infrastructure on the planet was so geared towards biomechs that it was simply too uneconomical to produce and sell classical mechs!

"I agree with Captain Rivington." Ves stated. "When in Rubarth, do as the Rubarthans do. Our current environment doesn't allow us to field more of our own mechs, so we need to adopt local solutions. I understand that it's tough for many of our mech pilots to adapt to biomechs, so that is why I am turning to the locals. Only they can pilot the most ubiquitous kind of mechs on this planet."

"Isn't that dangerous? Even if they don't betray us, they will certainly mess up how we run our affairs around here. We don't have enough space and personnel to provide proper guidance to all of these potential newcomers."

"Tough luck. We need to deal with it. I would rather have more mechs than maintain the stability of our forces on the ground."

Once the people invited to the meeting became accustomed to the idea, their objections weakened. While plenty of people still expected problems, they saw that Ves already formed a full plan.

"We need to allocate a lot of personnel to survey and guard against all of the refugees. We can't have them stirring any trouble or picking fights amongst themselves."

"I'll take care of it, sir." Commander Casella Ingvar said. "I am currently in charge of all of the base affairs so I already know who to tap for this priority."

"Work together with Captain Reina Ember and Captain Cecil Rivington. They are both Lifers, current or former, so they can prevent any unfortunate misunderstandings."

Both of them looked at each other.

"Captain Reina."

"Yes, sir?"

"You're a former Lifer who is used to living in dire and desperate circumstances. I want you to take charge of the refugees that are outside our doorstep. I am aware it is a great challenge to keep them all in line, but don't hesitate to borrow the power of our mechs to get your point across."

The former pirate and Xona Stalker did not look too overwhelmed.

"I will do my best, sir."

"Notify me if anything goes wrong." Ves turned to Captain Rivington. "Your help is needed as well. While Captain Ember will take care of any affairs concerning the refugees that haven't joined out clan, I want you to take charge of those that do. Since you are one of them, I believe you will do great in making newcomers feel at ease."

This was a logical decision. While Captain Rivington didn't even have a good idea of what it was like to be a Larkinson, his loyalty was already assured. He was the right person to help other Lifers adjust to their new circumstances.

"All of this sounds fine, sir, but what if we get attacked by a larger force?" Captain Ulmond Cross of the Cross Clan quizzed. "From the intermittent news we receive, there are already reports of hundreds of mechs clashing against each other, and they're not even backed by any of the political factions. What if an organization that is capable of fielding twice as many mechs as the refugees attacks our base?"

That was a good question. No one had an easy answer to that.