The Mech Touch

"Do you remember the MTA mech pilots that we've been assigned to train?" General Verle asked during a rare personal visit to the Spirit of Bentheim.

Even though Verle spent most of his days aboard the Graveyard as of late, he still visited other ships whenever the fleet transitioned back in realspace from time to time.

This was the mark of a good and caring leader. Verle didn't let his huge promotion get to his head. With the increasing number of senior officers joining the clan, he felt more pressure than ever to work hard and supplement his learning. If he just sat back and enjoyed the comforts of his rank, then it would only be a matter of time before Ves put a more competent general officer above his head!

Though General Verle did not actually mind if a better general was able to do a better job at strengthening the Larkinsons, he did not intend to admit defeat so easily.

Just like Ves, the general tasted the benefits of being the top dog. With him in power, he was not only able to ensure that his Flagrant Vandals were treated fairly, he was also able to push his own fighting doctrines onto the Larkinson Clan.

It was fortunate that his views on how soldiers should achieve victory happened to match the circumstances of the Larkinson Clan. Boosting friendly morale and attacking enemy morale was his bread and butter. The glows of certain Larkinson mech provided him with incredibly effective and reliable tools to accomplish his desired results.

However, he didn't come here today to talk about strategy.

"There are two items on the agenda which I wish to talk to you about, sir." General Verle spoke. "One of them is relatively minor and one of them will substantially affect the future of our military force makeup."

Ves grew curious enough to stop petting Lucky's back. "Start with the small one first."

"Meow."

Lucky looked annoyed that Ves stopped giving him his daily pampering. When Ves resumed caressing his back, the gem cat relaxed and squinted in pleasure.

"First, I'd like to report on the progress of the MTA mech pilots. More than a month has passed since we started to put them through their paces."

Ves groaned. "Let me guess. They're sulking like children because their parents dropped them off at the wrong house, am I close?"

"How did you know?" Verle looked amused.

"It's not hard to put myself in their place. I once went through a similar experience when I took part in the Glowing Planet Campaign."

That happened a long time ago. The Glowing Planet was where Ves became exposed to massive mech battles for the first time in his life. Dietrich, Walter's Whalers and Rorach's Bone used to be important in his life.

Now, Ves hardly even remembered that Dietrich was a member of the Battle Criers. Last he checked, the former Cloudy Curtainer had matured into a trusted officer and cadre among the Kinners.

General Verle patiently waited for Ves to finish reminiscing about the past. Memories of past experiences were precious. Neither of the two were young anymore and their increased status made it very difficult for them to repeat their earlier exploits.

If either of them were forced to enter the field, then something had badly gone wrong.

Ves eventually snapped out of his memories. "Anyway, the patience of the mechers must be wearing thin, right?"

"They're not even hiding their opinions from us, sir. They have voiced a lot of criticism of our methods. To be honest, our instructors are at wits end. Most of their lessons don't stick or are completely redundant. Their willpower is not weak, but we don't have any leverage to exercise it any further."

Ves frowned. That sounded worse than he thought. "What about pitting them against our expert candidates and expert pilots?"

"Sparring against our expert candidates is one of the few activities they enjoy. While they respect our expert pilots, that is all. The gulf between them is too vast to give the expert pilots any meaningful improvement opportunities. Part of the reason why expert pilots are so effective even when they are piloting ordinary mechs is because their intuition and battle instincts are transformatively better. Other mech pilots simply can't approach this level through regular training."

Though it was true that Ves didn't expect the mechers to make much progress, he was still displeased when his prediction came true.

A part of him hoped that these extremely skilled and privileged mech pilots were able to show their superiority in this aspect. Their failure to do so indicated that the Association was truly far behind in certain aspects.

Of course, this was not entirely bad news to Ves. Now that he confirmed that regular training was unlikely to change the situation for the better, only his more extraordinary methods could make the difference.

"The MTA mech pilots have actually issued a request to us. They want to see if you can make a difference by designing custom mechs for them. Whether they are right or wrong, they are convinced that your design philosophy can play a decisive role in changing their fate."

Ves frowned deeper. "I don't think they're wrong, but their demand is too extravagant. Do you know how valuable my time has become? I haven't even finished any of the expert mech designs as of yet and I already have a lot of pending ideas for the next round of design projects.

Was it worth it to occupy a design slot in exchange for 500,000 MTA merits? Perhaps he would have jumped at this opportunity in the past, but to Ves the time and effort he had to reserve to design a single proper mech was far more valuable!

A lot of mech forces had issued persisted demands to receive their own exclusive mechs. The Living Sentinels, the Battle Criers and the Flagrant Vandals were feeling a bit unloved lately. Though the clan took great care of them, the lead designers of the Larkinson Clan had not yet showered them with attention.

The adoption of well-received mech models such as the Bright Warrior and the Ferocious Piranha didn't count because of their universality. What the Sentinels and so on really sought were mechs that bestowed them with a unique advantage.

Ves was happy to oblige them, but he first had to finish the current round of mech designs before he considered anything else. He already sketched out a handful of interesting mech concepts in his free time.

"I'm not going to oblige their demands." He shook his head. "I already have another solution in mind. I don't have the time to work it out at the moment."

"Well, you better start doing something in the near future or else these mechers will get really mad. Some of them are already approaching the limits to their patience."

Ves sighed. "You can tell them that I'll supply them with a special machine sometime later this year. I won't commit to designing custom mech for all twenty of them, but I think I can come up with a targeted product that will accelerate their progress."

This was just a spurious idea of his. He was quite interested in designing or adapting a mech model that could exercise an aspect that mech pilots needed to become an expert candidate. Whether it was willpower, experience or something else, anything that closed the gap between a standard mech pilot and an expert candidate would probably increase the success rate of his main experiment!

Ves and General Verle continued to discuss more details about the mechers.

Though Ves knew that his personal intervention was likely the key to bestowing spiritual potential to these elitist mech pilots, Gloriana would kill him if he diverted his attention from his current work.

Fortunately, all of the training performed so far was not in vain. The MTA mech pilots provided him with a lot of detailed information. Ves gained a much more accurate picture of the differences between his own mech pilots and the ones that stood on a much higher starting point.

The mechers also became influenced by the Larkinson ways. While Ves had no illusion that the powerful mech pilots wanted to defect to the Larkinson Clan, they should at least develop a measure of respect towards their hosts.

This would definitely become useful in the future. In what way, Ves could scarcely guess, but his intuition told him that the tedious training was not completely pointless!

Once they finished discussing this topic, General Verle moved to a more important matter.

"Do you remember that the Ylvainans are about to set up their own mech force?"

A wry smile appeared on Ves' face. "I remember. Haven't they gotten their act together yet? It has been months since they started to make their preparations."

"It's not like the old days, Ves. You can't simply add a major combat unit to our organization without setting off a lot of upheaval. Personnel need to be reassigned. Ships have to transfer from one mech force to another. The Ylvainans have to build an entire structure from scratch and hire enough officers and technical personnel to ensure their mech force would run smoothly. Our military bureau had to provide a lot of assistance to them in order to fill up the gaps in their staff."

"So what is holding them back?"

"Not much, actually. They have already smoothed out most of the remaining wrinkles. I believe they will be ready to make an announcement within a week."

"Oh. That's fast. Will the Ylvainans be unveiling some extra surprises?"

"I don't believe so, sir, but may Calabast can tell you more." General Verle replied. "What I can say is that the Ylvainans will primarily focus on precision-based warfare. The Transcendent Punisher has played a great role in defining their place in our fighting lineup. You can expect a lot of Ylvainans to become artillery mech enthusiasts. They have thoroughly fallen in love with relying on the 'Great Prophet' to guide their aim and distinguish key targets from distractions."

Ves had some misgivings. "It is not a good idea for a mech force to become overly dependent on a specific mech model or design spirit. Even if Ylvaine is a really big deal for them, they should try to broaden their horizons and ensure they will remain battle effective even if Ylvaine no longer bestows his blessings on his flock."

"I agree, sir, but these Ylvainans are stubborn about change. Only an authority figure that they can truly respect such as the former Living Prophet and you can command their attention. You should pay them a visit once they are ready to establish their mech force."

"Ugh. Fine. I owe these Ylvainans. I can give them a favor."

"Meow." His cat squirmed on his lap.

"You're missing the point, Lucky. The Ylvainans might be loyal, but their faith is a bunch of nonsense. We shouldn't encourage them too much. The growth of their new mech force must be subject to constraints in order to prevent religious Larkinsons from taking over our clan."

General Verle slowly nodded. "My men will definitely be monitoring the Ylvainans closely. My greatest concern is that they may become overenthusiastic in their attempts to pull in new converts. Aside from organic growth, the only way for the Ylvainans to expand their ranks is to pull in other clansmen."

"Every clansmen is free to act in a reasonable fashion in their downtime, but I hope my men aren't gullible enough to fall for any scams.

"I don't think this is entirely bad." General Verle stated. "Those who are more susceptible to religion will end up believing in one faith or another. It is better for these impressionable individuals to commit to a faith that is already under our umbrella than to believe in other, more dangerous religions."

Ves had become a bit more pragmatic about this issue than before. He had come across too many fanatics to think they could simply stop believing in anything. The voids in their hearts needed to be filled, so why not resort to a friendly and harmless belief like the Ylvainan Faith?