The Mech Touch

Venerable Orfan had a lot of egg on her face. Her failure to get along with her new expert mech contrasted sharply with Venerable Dise's smooth integration with her own powerful machine.

Though the former Vandal officer finally managed to acquit herself in subsequent test runs after she recovered, her pride incurred a substantial hit.

"Hahaha! The Vandal expert pilot is just as sloppy as the rest of her hounds!"

"Even the youngest mech cadets haven't fumbled as badly as Orfan in piloting a mech."

"She's the weakest expert pilot of our clan. Why do we need a spearman mech anyway? Venerable Stark can shoot everyone down with her masterwork mech!"

Though Venerable Orfan wanted to bite back, she knew she had to be better than that. She was a tough woman and had endured plenty of adversity.

"You'll regret saying that once we enter battle. There's no one in the Larkinson Clan who can do what I can do." She growled as she sat in the cockpit of her tentative new partner. "We'll definitely show them all, will we Riot?"

The former Vanguard Project and now aptly-named Riot flashed its orange third eye. The ferocious expert mech was eager to show its prowess and prove that it didn't need a masterwork weapon to outdo every other expert mech.

With the addition of the Riot and the First Sword to the mech roster, the Larkinson Clan was now able to field more expert mechs than the Cross Clan and the Glory Seekers put together. This increased the weight of the Larkinsons even further.

This was important as Ves showed no sign of turning away from the border to the Smiling Samuel Star Sector. As several days went by, the combined fleet passed through one of the few stable gravitic corridors and formally exited the Bertrand Obsidian Star Sector.

As soon as the entire fleet emerged in the new star sector, tensions across the fleet had risen.

"We're in dwarf country now."

Everyone had heard about the famed hostility that the dwarven population held against the tall folk. Any apologists for the heavy gravity variant humans that occupied this star sector had little ground to stand on as soon as people pointed out the atrocities committed by the dwarves during their successful revolution.

The vengeful rebels slaughtered billions of people, treated many more as chattel and displaced an untold number of refugees from their homes.

Though many people were abhorred by the cruelty displayed by the Vulcanites, the victorious dwarves were merely getting their payback as far as they were concerned.

The dwarves did not do anything worse than what the humans had already done to their kind. If the tall folk wanted to receive better treatment, then they should have provided better treatment to their dwarven brothers.

This sense of grievance and urge to punish normal humans for the misdeeds of their kind ran deep in the Vulcan Empire's culture. The Vulcanites continued to employ this argument to justify their ongoing repression of their human captives.

When Ves learned about all of this, he felt this was rather messed up. It would have been much more PR friendly if they at least tried to be the better man. A bit of lip service could go very far even if everyone knew that the dwarves were lying through their teeth.

Instead, the Vulcanites still engaged in hateful rhetoric against the tall folk to this day. While this was helpful in whipping up the domestic population, it did not endear the Vulcan Empire to any foreign state or organization.

It was no surprise that everyone in the expeditionary fleet became a lot more vigilant towards threats. The alertness of the Larkinsons was permanently raised and the Larkinson Army no longer provided as much leave to the servicemen anymore.

Everyone treated this trip as an excursion into a hazardous region. It was as if the Smiling Samuel Star Sector was just as dangerous as the Nyxian Gap!

Though Ves sometimes felt that everyone was taking the potential threat way too seriously, he did not object to their prudence. It was better to be overprepared than underprepared.

Despite the perceived risks, the Golden Skull Alliance decided to keep the fleet together.

The various leaders briefly considered the possibility of splitting the fleet in two. Ves only needed to reach a single star system in the Vulcan Empire before he was done with his mission. Given these low demands, it was best for the alliance to split off a lot of combat assets and form a tight and coordinated task force to escort Ves to his mission objective.

"We can't split the fleet." Ves stated during a high-level meeting. "A small escort force is too vulnerable, but if we make it any bigger, our main fleet will be stripped of most of its protection. That makes it a lot more vulnerable to attack. Before you argue that it's unlikely for that to happen, consider how close we are to the lesser beyonder gate at Tarnished Crown. A lot of aspiring pioneers from the surrounding star clusters are converging on it, but many of them don't have enough capital ships. When they see strategic assets like the Andrenidae, the Vivacious Wal and so on floating around without a lot of fleet carriers and combat carriers in sight, will they be able to resist the temptation?"

No one could guarantee that these powerful pioneering fleets would not pass over the opportunity to expand their ranks further. Due to the constant outflow of capital ships from the Milky Way to the Red Ocean, the shortage of large-sized vessels in places like the galactic rim grew worse over time.

Though a lot of shipbuilding companies were already investing their windfalls on constructing more shipyards in order to meet the overwhelming demand, it took years and even decades for them to come online. Capital ships were so immense and complicated that a lot more trained and experienced shipwrights were needed as well.

Aside from needing to guard against rival pioneers, the Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers also had to protect themselves against other threats, most notably the crown terrorists. The amount of incidents related to the Crown Uprising may have abated a bit, but the terror spread by the indiscriminate attacks still left human space in a more precarious state than before.

"We need to find a better solution."

After an intense discussion, the three alliance partners eventually agreed to keep the entire fleet together. The downside was that they would be bringing a lot of non-combat vessels and personnel into a danger zone. The upside was that they did not leave anything vulnerable behind for other parties to prey upon.

As a result, a major foreign presence cleaved straight into dwarven territory. Ves had no doubt that the local dwarves had already noticed their presence. He never thought about hiding his forces and sneaking right into the interior of the Vulcan Empire. The locals already gained a lot of notoriety for hunting down and butchering any foreign tourists, smugglers, anthropologists and other idiots who decided to stray into Smiling Samuel for one reason or another.

The only reason why the expeditionary fleet wasn't beset by a swarm of dwarven mechs was because Ves managed to obtain official sanction from the MTA. His pass granted him safe passage into Smiling Samuel for a duration of five years from the date of its issue. This was plenty of time for him to complete his business.

It was way too questionable for the Golden Skull Alliance to barge into the Vulcan Empire by itself though. The deeper they traveled, the more dwarves they would meet, and not all of them might be able to maintain their cordiality in the presence of the tall folk.

In order to decrease the chances of unwanted incidents and help smooth over any communication attempts, the Larkinsons decided to hire a local guide.

Fixers existed in any state and any location. Even the Vulcan Empire had dwarves who didn't hate the tall folk as much as the rest of their kind. Minister Shederin Purnesse had already contacted a number of suitable candidates a few months ago. He slowly whittled down the selection until he ended up with a single choice that ticked the most boxes.

When the expeditionary fleet transitioned out of FTL travel in a rather quiet star system on the outskirts of Smiling Samuel, the Larkinsons finally got to meet the guide they hired.

After performing a bunch of initial scans, the expeditionary fleet soon detected a single trade ship floating somewhere else in the outer system. After establishing contact through the galactic net, the dwarven trading ship engaged her thrusters and moved to rendez-vous with the foreigners.

"Tell me about the guides we've hired." Ves asked Minister Shederin Purnesse as they both stood in the hangar bay of the Vivacious Wal while wearing their dress uniforms.

His honor guard and plenty of other guards had already cleared the entire compartment and taken up positions. Some of their protectors stood in rows and looked ceremonial while other soldiers kitted out in full gear but largely remained out of sight.

No one was taking any chances when it came to these potentially-hostile folk. Even Lucky hovered close to Ves, ready to claw out the throats of any hostile dwarves should the meeting unfold into disaster.

"The Persham Chamber of Commerce is a third-class trading company that is based in the Paramount Province. The dwarves that make up this chamber of commerce are all underdogs with strong roots to their local community. Although the chamber is a profit-seeking organization on the surface, the Pershams actually invest most of their profits back to the planets they are based in. They have been responsible for a lot of economic aid and development in the past."

Ves raised his eyebrow. "They're all third-raters?"

"Correct." Shederin nodded. "Everyone looks down on them, even the Vulcanites themselves. The same division that has divided star sectors like your own Komodo between rich and poor is also in effect here. The second-class Vulcanites don't want to spend any of their hard-earned money on uplifting their third-class counterparts, especially when there is no way for the dwarves who live in barren provinces such as Paramount to pay for elevated living standards by themselves."

It was the same kind of disdain and apathy that Fridaymen and Hexers showed towards the third-raters in their own star sector. Even when the Sand War annihilated entire states filled with innocent people, the two second-rate states in the Komodo Star Sector never offered any meaningful aid.

Ves shrugged. "If regular humans can look down on other regular humans, then dwarves should be no different."

"Correct. This is why I favor the Pershams over other choices. The second-class Vulcanites I've contacted are considerably more arrogant and difficult to deal with. They possess greater access and command much more power in the Vulcan Empire, but I deem the risk too great to enter into a contract with them. If my initial conversations with them have already produced a considerable amount of friction, then it is difficult to forge a friendly relationship with them in a short amount of time."

"You're a diplomat." Ves flatly said. "You're supposed to be good at making friends."

Shederin at least had the decency to look ashamed. "I am not a miracle worker, patriarch. The Vulcanites are inherently biased against tall folk like us and that already sets us back by a fair amount. Considering our purpose and the short duration of our visit, I found it better to approach a more pliable guide in the form of the Persham Chamber of Commerce. As third-raters who are focused on helping their communities, the Pershams badly need capital. If there is one resource that we have in abundance, it is funding. Throw enough cash at these dwarves and they will sing to our tune."

"That sounds convenient."

The value of money was also universal. Both dwarf and tall folk needed money to survive!