The Mech Touch

The Larkinson Clan received a large influx of new recruits after Ves unveiled his latest creations.

The Four Living Aspects of Lufa, of which only two were actually accessible at the moment, did wonders in changing the opinions of the refugees.

Lost, hurt and angry, the citizens of Veoline were cast adrift ever since the Supreme Revolution overtook the Life Research Association.

If they were left to stew by themselves, who knew what kind of ugly or deviant thoughts they immersed themselves with. Of all of the refugees, few of them specialized in treating mental health issues.

The Living Aspects changed that. To those who were receptive to approaching the oddly-real and vivid statues of giant angels, they began to look at themselves, their lives and their place on this planet in a different light.

Ves saw all kinds of irritable and outright aggressive people calming down when they entered one of the plazas.

To those who lost more than others, the mind-numbing presence of the Aspect of Tranquility provided an escape from their pain.

The Aspect of Healing had an even stronger effect on people. The joy and comfort it was able to provide was particularly loved among children.

As for the Aspect of Rationality, the guards did not allow too many people to experience its special glow. Only certain leader figures and educated professionals who were already sound of mind gained an opportunity to approach the mysterious third statue.

Ves carefully studied every person who came under the effects of this aspect. He noted that each of his test subjects adopted an emotionless expression upon entry.

Different from those who basked in the silence of the Aspect of Tranquility, the people who spent time with Lufa's third aspect became incredibly active!

Their mental activity shot up as the figures made full use of their unrestrained rationality to think about many matters. Since they no longer fell under the sway of their own irrational emotions and biases, their own thinking processes became unprecedentedly clear and honest!

People told themselves lies all the time. They faced many uncomfortable truths in their daily lives, and the easiest way to cope with them was to paper them over or diminish them by using dishonest means.

The Aspect of Rationality stripped all of these defenses away, forcing everyone in its presence to view themselves from what they considered to be an objective viewpoint!

Not everyone took this unvarnished image of themselves that well, but the signs of inner turmoil were difficult to spot. Ves gradually discovered that absolute rationality was a frightening concept. While those who became severely affected by it did not act out in any way, once they exited the glow, they quickly broke down and cried in the air!

These incidents had caused a lot of surrounding Lifers to get spooked!

The attentive guards had to activate a gravitic module to drag these poor bastards to the Aspect of Healing to put them back together.

Ever since then, the time that people were allowed to spend around the living aspects was strictly limited. Ves and the others had learned that nothing good came out of spending an excessive amount of time.

No one was allowed to spend more than two hours in the presence of the Aspect of Tranquility and the Aspect of Healing. While the harm they did was minor, their effects were so desirable that the refugees started to get addicted to their glows!

The rules for the Aspect of Rationality were even harsher. The guards always pulled everyone out after they spent just five minutes in its presence.

Any longer, and the chance of suffering a breakdown rose geometrically!

"I get what you are trying to do here, but you can't allow these poor Lifers to grow dependent on their treatment." Venerable Jannzi complained to Ves. "Did you know that more and more people who came in touch with your mechs have developed the same dependency?"

"Huh?"

"Don't act stupid, Ves. Many of your mechs such as the Desolate Soldier are able to make people feel good in some way. There aren't any restrictions to this effect either. As long as someone is able to access the mechs, they can enjoy a mental drug that is always constant and reliable. This problem grew more significant as your mechs became more widespread that there's even a term for these addicts: glow junkies."

As Ves looked over the wall and down at the mobs of Lifers who adopted mindless expressions in front of Lufa's aspects, he felt that this label was quite apt!

"While I understand your concerns, I think the risk of developing an addiction outweighs letting these citizens go untreated. Would you rather see them wallow in their own misery to the point of taking their own lives? Compared to the alternatives, I'm doing them all a favor. Besides, as long as we restrict access, this dependency won't become a major problem."

Venerable Jannzi couldn't argue with that. She was quite sensitive towards the conditions of other people, and she could clearly see that many displaced Lifers truly needed any therapy they could get. There were worse ways to treat them than exposing them to the glows of a couple of weird statues.

"Don't go too far with exploiting these angel statues. You look like a drug dealer who is pleased with expanding his fixed clientele. While you are doing these people a service by providing them with relief, the cure should never be worse than the disease."

"Hey, who do you take me for? I'm just a mech designer, Jannzi! My business model is not based on turning my customers into addicts so that I can continually exploit them in the long-term by pushing more and more products on them so that my mech company can earn a high and continuous cash flow!"

"..."

After multiple complaints from Venerable Jannzi, Ves acquiesced and limited people's access to any of the living aspects to just one hour a day.

This predictably led to considerable indignation from the refugees, but Ves made another promise.

"If you join our clan and adopt our name, I can give you an additional quota of 30 minutes a day. We can only give you the greatest possible care that we can provide if you are one of us. If you are unwilling to cast away your old identities, then I'm sorry, but we can only give away so much charity."

Soon after that announcement, the number of new recruits skyrocketed!

Over half of the members of the refugee camp packed up their bags and entered the base.

What Ves found amusing was that almost all of the new recruits didn't even take advantage of the extra quota. Being surrounded by friendly Larkinsons and getting swept up by all of the introductory activities organized by the clan served as alternate forms of therapy that could do the job just as well!

Once anyone came under the influence of the Golden Cat and the Larkinson Network, the former Lifers were never alone. Even if they didn't share their burdens with one of their new clansmen, the injuries to their soul slowly patched up just because they had become a part of a special clan.

The entry of so many Lifers quickly altered the dynamic of Gentle Lotus Base. Not only did the existing Larkinsons had their hands full with trying to integrate so many foreigners, the base also became host to more biomechs and biomachines.

Everyone in the clan was still trying to figure out how to deal with this new tech. The existing mech technicians of the Larkinson Clan were quite adept with servicing classical mechs, but they were as good as useless when it came to performing maintenance on biomechs!

No matter how glad the existing Larkinsons were at receiving some much-needed reinforcements, the increased exposure to biotechnology led to a considerable degree of friction!

Fortunately, the problem did not escalate to the point where Ves had to intervene. Commander Casella Ingvar already took charge in trying to harmonize the different Larkinsons.

"It's not easy, sir." She tiredly sighed as she reported to Ves. "The more recruits we receive, the more organic assets we receive. At this point, we effectively control over a hundred biomechs. Do you know how astounding that sounds? Our clan only possesses eight metallic mechs right now, of which one is on deployment. We have effectively become a biomech force at this point!"

She was exaggerating a bit. While it was true that the number of biomechs in the possession of the Larkinson Clan sounded incredible, their quality and condition was less than ideal.

Besides, the mechs fielded by the Glory Seekers, the Cross Clan and the Infinity Guards also counted for a lot. As long as a strong core of classical mechs remained in place, Ves didn't worry about the Larkinsons on the ground going astray. The existing mech technicians and mech pilots still had a lot of work in store.

That said, trying to make proper use of the former Lifers proved quite a challenge to the leadership.

"We are all unfamiliar with the practicalities and unique conditions of biomechs, sir." Casella admitted. "I've been reading a lot of manuals and guides lately, but I am only scratching the surface of what I need to know about how to employ them in battle, how to make sure they are kept in good condition and how to deal with the peculiarities of their mech pilots. Just the fact that biomechs sometimes discharge waste products is a particularly unpleasant surprise!"

Ves looked up at that! "Biomechs have to go to the toilet?"

"Apparently, yes. While they don't have a traditional digestion system like normal organic bodies, there are still instances where their bodies accumulate substances that they aren't capable of recycling on their own. Biomechs can store these useless waste materials for quite a few weeks, but eventually their reservoir becomes full."

"How do the Lifers process these waste materials?" Ves curiously asked.

"In an emergency, they can just go out in the woods and dump their waste onto any bush, but normally this is frowned upon. The LRA has laws against this. The proper way to handle the foul-smelling substances is to collect them. Biomech waste material happens to serve as excellent fertilizers for certain crops."

This was the cycle of life. The only difference was that biomechs took the place of humans or cattle this time. Ves found it difficult to associate biomechs with such a natural cycle.

Normal mechs did not have a habit of going to the toilet!

After Commander Casella completed her report, Ves waved her away. She was already doing her best to accommodate the new Lifers and their weird biotech applications.

"What do you think about all of the biomechs we're getting?" He turned to his pet, who was lounging comfortably on his desk. "Do you like it if we start fielding more biomechs in place of the mechs we know?"

The gem cat twitched his ears. "Meow."

"Yeah. I can't imagine the sight either. It just feels.. wrong to embrace biomechs. Not only am I incapable of understanding their inner workings, our logistics will become a lot more cumbersome if we decide to field organic machines in large numbers."

The hasty acquisition of the Dragon's Den would help a lot. As long as Ves acquired a few more supporting ships that were capable of meeting the needs of biomechs, it was not difficult to maintain a small and modest biomech force.

Scaling it up any further was out of the question, though. As long as the logistical requirements of the biomech force exceeded the capacity of the Dragon's Den, then the Larkinson Clan had to make a considerably greater commitment.

This was not very practical to Ves. As long as biomechs did not bring anything extra to the table, there was little reason in investing in them any further!

At least, that was what he used to think.

Now, some of the recent discoveries he made about himself had caused him to doubt his old choices.

Ves the patriarch had ample reasons to restrict the adoption of biomechs in his clan.

Ves the mech designer was different. Whenever he thought about how well his spiritual domain took to organic materials, he began to question himself.

"Is it truly right for me to limit myself to designing classical mechs?"