The Mech Touch

The Empire of the Lost was a relatively young state that was burdened with a loaded past.

When the Vulcanites initially rose up and rallied their dwarven compatriots from nearby star clusters, their conquest did not happen overnight. Many years passed by as the increasingly more emboldened rebels conquered state after state, beginning from the weakest and most decayed third-rate states to finally breaking apart the once-powerful second-rate states.

The dwarves accomplished all of this while fighting and dying under their unflinching belief in Vulcan and the notion that they were superior to the talk folk!

Due to the blending of many different people and cultures in a single amalgamation, the Empire of the Lost was a bit of a mess. It was like the Friday Coalition but with more partners and without a neat partition between them. While the cultural differences between them had lessened through the passage of decades, the state was still dysfunctional in many ways.

The only common threads that tied them all together was their undying hatred for the Vulcanites and their persistent desire to return to Smiling Samuel and take back the territories that they lost.

"What a sad people." Ves commented to Chief Minister Magdalena as the two stood in the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim while the fleet transitioned into the Amswick System. "These guys just can't get over their loss and move on. I hear they are still trying to plot an invasion to push the dwarves off their former homes, but they never mustered up the courage to pull the trigger."

Magdalena held a more generous view of the Lost. "They have good reasons to avoid another confrontation. They suffered enormous losses during their flight. The Empire of the Lost is far from being able to contend against the united and much more expansive Vulcan Empire. It makes much more sense for them to bide their time so that they can rebuild their strength."

"That makes sense, but.. from what I have read about the Lost, the newer generation born after the flight from Smiling Samuel care less about paying back old grievances and more about living decent lives in the empire. In a few more generations, most of the survivors of the tragic flight will have died without ever seeing their dreams fulfilled. I bet the Empire of the Lost will slowly change into a normal state."

The only unstable factor that could derail this predicted outcome was if the dwarves left their star sector and began to expand into other ones. The Empire of the Lost was too close to Smiling Samuel and would definitely suffer the brunt of dwarven aggression.

Not that Ves cared about this. The benefit of being a traveller was that he did not have to sympathize for the plight of any local people.

Upon entry into the Amswick System, the expeditionary fleet received a lot of attention from the local authorities. The port system was not just a major economic hub, but also a strategically important stronghold. It was the central node upon which the Empire's defense against the Vulcan Empire rested upon.

Due to this crucial consideration, the Amswick System was the best-fortified star system of the Lost. It not only concentrated a huge amount of orbital and fixed defenses, but also hosted an entire mech army that were currently spread across multiple bases covering multiple angles of approach.

"The defensive layout of the star system is interesting." Magdalena commented as she pointed at the projection of the overall plot. "The defenses are arrayed like an onion. There are multiple concentric circles of fortifications that become increasingly denser and more concentrated towards the center. While the outermost defenses can easily be bypassed by any invading force, leaving them up will make any attacker vulnerable to attacks from the rear. A proper invasion plan would have little choice but to take out the outer defenses one by one."

"That sounds like a wasteful defensive scheme." Ves said. "Isn't it better for the Lost to just concentrate all of their defenses on a couple of key planets? This way, the dwarves wouldn't be able to defeat them in detail. The invaders will have to face much stiffer resistance if they want to push through the condensed defensive lines."

The chief minister shook her head. "The Amswick System is never supposed to hold back the Vulcanite onslaught by itself. The idea behind setting up layered defenses in a star system is to delay the invaders and increase their consumption of manpower, mechs and supplies. By the time the dwarves reach the final layers, they will already be weakened and vulnerable to an extent. That is where reinforcements from other parts of the Empire of the Lost can pounce the invading force from behind."

There were many other tactical and strategic considerations that Magdalena hadn't mentioned yet. There were so many variables at play here that it would take days to inform Ves about all of the nuances behind the defensive strategy of the Amswick System.

During this time, the fleet confirmed its arrangements with traffic control. It turned out that there was no possibility for foreigners to get close to any of the bustling planets.

"The traffic restrictions are just as strict as the Prosperous Hill Star System that we once visited." The chief minister informed Ves. "Every foreign and almost every domestic vessel is prohibited from entering the inner system. A local transportation monopoly takes care of every transfer of passengers and goods to and from Amswick V, which is the principal commercial planet of this port system. The only good news is that the transportation service possesses an abundance of cargo and passenger transports, so we won't have to wait too long to receive our shipments."

Ves nodded in understanding. "Take advantage of that to stock up on an abundant amount of war supplies. It's questionable whether we need any of it, but it is best to be prudent. I would rather end up with an excess amount of unused stuff than run short of it when we need it the most."

"Understood. Prices of combat supplies have gone up as of late, though. The Empire of the Lost is not in its most quiet period at the moment and the constant pressure exerted by its dwarven neighbor is a constant source of concern."

Ves dismissively waved his hand. "The LMC is still doing well, right? We can afford the expenditures."

As the fleet slowly settled into its assigned sector that was far from any other visiting ship or fleet, numerous preparations were being made to fabricate the two expert mechs.

After numerous discussions with different mech designers, expert pilots and commanders, Ves decided to pull out all the stops for the Decapitator Project but not for the Vanguard Project.

When Ves talked to Venerable Orfan about it, she did not become a fan of the scheme.

"We're Brighters, Ves." She told him. "We don't believe in this crap. The Vandals who are my strongest supporters are different from the Swordmaidens. Aside from their loyalty to the clan, they hold nothing sacred. They believe in their own strength and their own means and don't engage in any of this superstition. They'll obey if you order them to take part in this charade, but I don't think you'll get the result you want."

The Flagrant Vandals were one of the secular-minded mech legions of the Larkinson Clan. It more closely retained the traditions of the Bright Republic's Mech Corps but also kept its more irreverent culture.

Ves realized that this plan might not work for the Vanguard Project. "Ah, I should have known. If this is the case, then we don't have much choice but to fabricate your mech the normal way."

"It's fine." Orfan clapped her hand on his shoulder. "I hear that masterwork mechs come by chance. Either I win the lottery or I won't. I won't cry if I lose this time. Right now, I just want a decent expert mech that can allow me to fight to my heart's content."

"I understand."

She was trying to avoid putting too many expectations on his shoulders. The successful creation of one masterwork expert mech raised the bar for the other expert mech design projects. Disappointment was inevitable as success in this area was tenuous at best. Otherwise, Ves wouldn't have gone as far as organizing a gigantic ritual to see whether that would help with increasing the quality of the Decapitator Project.

The bombastic attempt to fabricate the Decapitator Project in full view of thousands of clansmen presented many different challenges.

Aside from preventing the crowd from disturbing the Journeymen at work, they also had to find a space to accommodate them all. The personal workshops aboard the Spirit of Bentheim didn't offer enough room to host such an immense crowd so Ves had to find a different venue to hold the public show.

"Would you be okay with fabricating the Decapitator Project aboard the Vivacious Wal?" He asked his wife.

Gloriana frowned at him. "Out of all of the possible choices, why there? It's far too busy over there and it is not the most stable platform. Who knows what kind of subtle vibrations and other disturbances occur over there that can interfere with the production of delicate and crucial components."

"Look, there aren't many spaces that are big enough that can host a lot of people in a short amount of time without leading to massive congestion and other problems. The mech arena in the center of Twilight City is literally made for this purpose. We just need to mitigate any sources of disturbance by preparing the arena grounds. There are plenty of devices that we can install and solutions that we can deploy to address any of the concerns that you have mentioned."

"I don't know, Ves. It feels wrong for us to fabricate a mech outside of our dedicated factory ship. We'll also have to ship all of our delicate high-quality production machines to another capital ship, and that comes with many risks."

"Trust in our people. I'm sure they will move our equipment without scratching them. C'mon, just try it out."

Though Gloriana had plenty of misgivings, her objections to this odd plan were not that strong. Even she was a little curious whether all of these extra measures would have an effect on the final outcome.

"Fine, do what you want, then. There will be hell to pay if any of my precious machines get damaged. I'll make sure to inspect and calibrate each of them once they are moved to the Vivacious Wal."

After they finished talking business, they turned their attention to their growing child. Gloriana was roughly four months pregnant now and her belly had become a little bit more pronounced.

Both of them placed their hands on the belly.

"Our daughter is growing bigger." Gloriana smiled in a loving manner. "I can't feel her kicking yet, but the scanners already show that she is beginning to move around. Her development is completely fine at the moment. She had developed health and the few odd mutations and gene expressions that she exhibited are well within tolerance."

Humans were complex creatures and were filled with endless variations. Beyond the earliest stages when they just consisted of a handful of cells, it was no longer as easy as before to correct every single genetic oddity. The geneticists in charge of managing these developments therefore acted with more restraint. As long as the baby did not gain any deformities or known maladies, it was fine for them to show a little variation.

"Have the doctors detected any unusual physical traits?" Ves asked.

Gloriana grinned. "Well, her cells are stronger and more vigorous than before. She is able to resist germs a lot better. The combination of her designer genes as well as the Superior Mother's blessing will ensure she will become the healthiest baby possible!"

Ves wasn't sure about the veracity of her claim, but he was glad to hear his baby was fine, at least in a physical sense.

Her body needed to be strong enough in case anything happened when he conducted his planned procedure on his daughter.