The Mech Touch

When the Larkinson Clan erected a couple of statues in front of the walls of Gentle Lotus Base, a lot of people from the nearby refugee camp wondered what was happening.

The Larkinsons marched out in significant numbers. Not only did they deploy a few mechs as protection, but also invested plenty of construction material to form three separate plazas.

"Are they building a podium or something?"

"Wait! Look at those pedestals. The foreigners are installing some kind of organic statues onto them. Don't you think they look different in some way?"

"Who made them? They're not much different from the organic statues in our city, but these ones look.. odd."

"I see what you mean. Is this the Larkinson way of making organic statues?"

While the more intrigued refugees were speculating on the odd sight, the construction crews quickly completed their work.

The Aspect of Tranquility, the Aspect of Healing and the Aspect of Rationality all seemed to beckon towards the distant viewers. Even though their glows did not extend to the edge of the refugee camp, their mysterious charm somehow drew people's eyes to them. Once that happened, the statues that looked like real angels that were frozen in time seemed to beckon them forward.

Unfortunately, the distrust between the displaced citizens of Veoline and the base occupants was still too high. None of them had any good opinions on Ves and his clan. This negative sentiment grew even stronger when he barged into the camp while surrounding himself with intimidating, heavily-armored soldiers.

An hour passed. No one moved closer, despite the obvious welcome the three plazas exhibited. The Larkinsons had even installed simple benches for people to sit on as they admired the different organic statues!

Minutes went by. The most curious and daring of the refugees became less and less willing to sit still. Yet every time they moved forward, the reactions from other Lifers restrained them from satisfying their urge to explore the new additions that broke up the monotony of their current existence.

Peer pressure was a powerful force. It was capable of forcing an entire population to behave in a manner that the majority deemed acceptable.

However, the refugee camp encompassed many different people who came from all walks of life. As escapees from the city continued to trickle in, the newly-emerged settlement hosted former businessmen, biomech technicians, shuttle salesmen, tunnel maintenance crews, beetle breeders and more people.

Some were more willing to approach the organic statues than others. Peer pressure had less effect on them than others because they were already nonconformists at heart.

Ves constantly kept an eye on the site as he began to improve some LMC mechs. He never doubted the ability of the three Aspects of Lufa to attract people to come over.

They were too good to be ignored!

"They're strange. All four of them." He softly said.

Their spiritual foundation was much stronger and more vigorous than they ought to. Ves hadn't spent that much time, effort, resources and expertise to create them. Yet from the moment that Ves began to involve synthesized organic tissue, the totems attained a much higher level!

"Why?"

Ves thought a lot about the discrepancies. Since even a sloppy and haphazard combination of flesh and spirituality produced greater results, the obvious conclusion that he could make was that the two belonged together!

It sounded so obvious in hindsight, but compared to trying to cram life into lifeless objects made of metal, it made a lot more sense to infuse life into objects that were already designed to channel life to begin with! Their fundamental properties and purposes were so far apart from each other that the difference was staggering!

"Life can bloom from any object, but some are better suited for it than others!"

To put it in other terms, it was always harder to bring a bar of metal to life than a handful of meat!

What made this particular case even more exceptional was the high fit between the tissue generated by Dr. Swindell, the shape of the statues and the nature of the design spirit.

According to the biomech designer, he simply used a tissue generating machine from one of the base's medical treatment facilities to pump out a lot of flesh and other organic components.

Since Swindell was in a hurry and didn't have to be too particular about the quality of the organic tissue, he utilized the lowest and fastest settings.

What was a tissue generating machine in an infirmary best at? Producing lots of human tissue!

It made little sense for such a machine to generate exobeast tissue. Certain high-end, upscale models might be capable of doing so, but human flesh was still the most standard option!

As a result of Dr. Swindell's convenient actions, the organic tissue he applied to the base of the statues, whether it was flesh, bones, teeth, hair or nails, were all intrinsically human!

The only anomalies were the obvious angel parts. Baseline humans didn't possess wings, so Dr. Swindell had to resort to a creative solution.

He ended up utilizing bird DNA that was already present in the tissue generating machine's gene database. The feathers and all of the other parts that made up the outer portion of the wings were distinctly non-human, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing.

"Angels aren't human as well. So the anomaly with their wings actually fits with the nature of their existence."

Of course, how could an angel not possess a halo above their head? Adding the stereotypical glowing band of golden light above the heads of the statues was essential to completing the impression that they were true divine creations!

This was familiar territory for Dr. Swindell. He easily implanted special bioprojector cells on the top of the heads of the statues that were capable of forming halo projections on a constant basis as long as they were supplied with energy.

While the care and attention that Ves and Dr. Swindell put into their work may not have been the best, much of their design choices unintentionally worked out extremely well!

Since Lufa was a humanoid design spirit to begin with, the overwhelming use of human tissue and the effort spent into fleshing out its angelic traits all produced statues that truly felt like incarnations of the actual entity!

The attraction of the statues was finally too much for some people. The first to emerge were a group of Lifers who Ves immediately recognized.

"Wait.. aren't these the owners of the mysterious purple mechs?"

He never really got any names or identities out of them. The men and women, who all happened to wear purple uniforms, stepped out from the refugee camp and approached the plazas.

The spaces weren't entirely unattended. Ves ordered personnel to be stationed nearby in order to guard the statues and regulate the entry of visitors.

The guards also had to be on hand if someone reacted adversely to the glow of one of the aspects.

"Greetings." The head of the group began. "May we inquire about the purpose of these unusual organic statues?"

The visitors received a brief explanation on their effects. The guards were also quick to point out that they had to undergo an examination before they were allowed to approach the third statue.

"Why the need for such a restriction? Isn't it just an ornament?"

"You should approach and experience the glows of the first two aspects first." The Larkinson guard answered. "You won't understand the third aspect if I explain it to you right away."

The purple men decided to see what all of the fuss was all about. The leader split his group in two. One half approached the Aspect of Tranquility while the other half walked towards the Aspect of Healing.

The visitors immediately became affected by the different glows.

Those who approached the Aspect of Tranquility all let down their guard. Their bodies loosened up and their expressions no longer seemed as stressed and concerned as before.

This was the power of the Aspect of Tranquility. Every burden became as light as a feather. Every other distraction faded into the background.

Only near-total silence was left.

This was not the isolating kind of silence. Lufa never aimed to impose tranquility because that was no different from inducing someone into a coma!

Lufa left enough room for those who became affected by his Aspect of Tranquility to think basic thoughts and pursue his own self-interests.

No one spoke. Everyone simply basked in this strange moment. While the purple men actually didn't possess as many burdens and negative emotions as the other refugees, that did not make the Aspect of Tranquility less attractive!

Their leader was particularly taken with Lufa's simplest and purest glow. His burdens were considerably larger than others, and it felt good for him to forget all of his concerns, if only on a temporary basis.

With the release of all manner of serious and trivial concerns, the people affected by the glow each changed in unknown but most certainly benign ways. It was as if they were all put in a state of meditation!

When Ves turned his gaze to the people who approached the Aspect of Healing, they exhibited a bit more activity.

Unlike the Aspect of Tranquility, the Aspect of Healing did not impose total silence or inactivity.

Instead, its allowance for positive thoughts and emotions enabled the purple men to move and act, if only in a mild fashion.

What they did completely surprised Ves.

He thought these Lifers would smile, laugh, share happy stories or lean back on the benches as if they were on vacation.

Instead of doing all of this, each of the purple-garbed men and women approached the base of the statue and lowered themselves to their knees in supplication.

While they didn't speak any words, the affected individuals all looked up at the life-like face of the Aspect of Healing as if it was a god!

Ves palmed his face. "These idiots!"

No wonder the purple men were so odd. It turned out that they were some kind of cult! A cult that worshipped biotechnology!

He instantly lost interest in these cultists. Their only value to him was that they had become his first test subjects for his latest creation.

As Ves clinically observed the test subjects from a distance, he confirmed that the two aspects did not pose a risk to any of these people. That was a good sign. The aspects were working according to plan.

He wanted to see how more people acted under the influence of the first two statues before he opened up access to the third. He could never be too safe.

As Ves witnessed the strong effect of the statues on other people, he started to think about the implications of his latest work.

"These living, organic totems exist in a class of their own."

There were multiple implications to the discoveries he made today. Chief among them was how well he was able to combine flesh and spirituality.

If Ves was able to produce considerably stronger results with organic totems, what if he began work with biomechs?

The logic was the same. As long as his work contained a significant amount of organic tissue, its capacity to bear and channel life may be multiple times greater than his metallic mechs!

His determination to stick to designing metallic mechs started to waver.

This was because he realized how logical it was to incorporate biomaterials into his mechs.

Even if he did not commit to designing biomechs, he could still selectively incorporate a number of biological components to increase the life capacity of his products!

Ves was reminded of his spiritual domain. It embodied both life and mechs.

The latter was easy to fit. His definition of mechs always came paired with images of metallic mechs. These were the kind of mechs he grew up with and admired throughout his life.

As for the former, life was not a natural fit for metallic mechs. Just because Ves succeeded in combining them did not mean this was an optimal solution!

If Ves truly wanted to exert his spiritual domain to its greatest potential, then he should be applying his skills to designing mechs that incorporated both organic and mechanical components…

"In other words, my best mechs might possibly come in the form of cyborg mechs!"