The Mech Touch

The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers entered the territory of their enemy once again.

Not many of them thought this was a good idea. They all retained bad memories of their first entry into the Vulcan Empire.

However, the circumstances were different this time.

The expeditionary fleet might not have been able to get back up to its previous strength, but the mercenaries contracted by the Larkinson Clan made up for a lot. With at least ten-thousand extra protectors by its side, the Golden Skull Alliance became even less appealing as a target!

"You're moving in too soon, Ves." Chief Minister Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson said to Ves over the comm.

"Relax. The Vulcanites have greater threats to contend with than us." Ves replied to the projection. "Even if they have finally smarted up and stopped their ridiculous civil war, there are way too many human invaders for them to spare any attention to us. We'll be avoiding all of the major hotspots where most of the dwarven troops are concentrated."

"What if there are Vulcanites that will stop at nothing to take revenge on us? We have attracted a lot of heat if you didn't know that already."

"We're spending a lot more effort scouting the way ahead. Also, we're a lot more on guard against the dwarves this time. The Black Cats are constantly monitoring different indicators to see whether there are any dwarven forces going after our fleet."

"All of that sounds nice, but I have heard nothing that makes me confident that our safety is guaranteed. You are relying on too many assumptions about the dwarves that we won't end up well if any of them turn out to be wrong. That is also why we almost met our end last time."

Ves grimaced. Raymond indeed made a good point. They had been too overconfident and did not assume that the dwarves would be crazy enough to attack the expeditionary fleet despite obtaining a special permit.

"Back then, we did not fully account for the internal dynamics of the Vulcan Empire. We know a lot more about the dwarves now that we're entering their territory for the second time. I think we can trust our intelligence organization to account for all of the ways the dwarves might plot against us, assuming they can even spare the attention."

That was still highly questionable. All of the core star systems held by the dwarves were under threat! The Vulcanites could not afford to lose too many of them and had decisively concentrated most of their mech forces to these key nodes.

Under these circumstances, it was stupid to withdraw at least four mech divisions to go after the Golden Skull Alliance and its mercenary escorts! Even if the Vulcan Empire had a lot more forces at its disposal, its military forces had to cover a lot of important star systems. Removing 40,000 from the defensive line might lead to an early collapse and loss of a strategic location!

Even though the war situation looked awful to the Vulcanites, the stubborn dwarves did not intend to lie down and let the human invaders walk all over their stocky bodies. As long as they withdrew their forces from their outlying provinces and concentrated their defenses in the center around the Uriburn Province, they could still hold out for a moderate amount of time!

As long as they bought enough time and forced the human invaders to occupy a large amount of dwarven territory, the invasion would inevitably slow down.

It was not easy to hold all of those conquered dwarven territories! The dwarven residents of all of the conquered planets did not like their new human overlords and did not hesitate to take up arms and mechs to form local resistance movements!

The only way to clean up these troublesome planets was to wipe out all of the dwarves who lived there, but no one dared to do so. Not only did the MTA take a dim view on war crimes, butchering Vulcanites wholesale was extremely bad optics.

It was one thing to take down the Vulcan Empire. It was another thing for humans to wipe out every dwarf in the Fermi Star Cluster! No matter how much the local humans hated their dwarven neighbors, they still had to make sure their conduct conformed with the galactic norm.

In any case, there were plenty of ways to make the dwarven problem disappear after the main invasion was done. Just like how the Vulcanites slowly displaced the human population when they took over Smiling Samuel, the human invaders finally had the opportunity to turn the tables!

Of course, none of the aftermath had anything to do with Ves. He just opened up the Vulcan Empire for his own purposes. Just as the Empire of the Lost and all of the other human states took advantage of his deeds, Ves also exploited their invasion to attract all of the attention of the dwarves away from him and his fleet.

Due to this, the relationship between the expeditionary fleet and the other human forces were a bit complicated.

For example, no one wanted to get close to the supposed masterminds of the Vulcan Empire's fall from grace.

Whenever the Golden Skull Alliance encountered another ship or fleet, the latter always tried to keep its distance!

It was as if those other human forces were afraid of causing misunderstandings and attracting the ire of the Larkinson Clan and its increasingly infamous patriarch. Not even well-equipped military fleets wished to remain in the presence of the foreigners that had upended the entire geopolitical situation of the Fermi Star Cluster.

"Why are they avoiding us so much?"

"Isn't it obvious? The states that have dispatched these troops are afraid of setting you off. They don't want to become the next Vulcan Empire!"

That was a ridiculous reaction. Ves didn't think he was that scary.

Of course, the leaders of the Ferril Province also held this sentiment and paid for it. With the Vulcan Empire as the grand prize, the leaders of the various human states did not want to take any risks. They had all instructed their own troops to avoid the Golden Skull Alliance like the plague.

Sooner or later, Ves would leave this star cluster and continue his journey to the Red Ocean. The people of the Fermi Star Cluster couldn't wait for him to finish his business and send him off! The sooner this walking disaster left their neighborhood, the better!

Ves didn't mind being treated as a plague carrier. He didn't want to provoke any further trouble either and happily watched as his fleet traversed deeper into the wartorn interior of the Vulcan Empire.

Much of the attention of the human invasion forces was placed on the rich and wealthy second-rate provinces of the dwarven state. On their part, the Vulcanites also concentrated their defenses at their superior territories.

This gave the expeditionary fleet a peaceful and mostly quiet ride to the Paramount Province.

In historical terms, the site of the former Paramount Kingdom carried a lot of weight. It was the birthplace of the dwarven revolution and the place where Vulcan initially revealed himself to the dwarves.

However, neither side spared any attention to it. The human second-rate states didn't even bother to conquer the impoverished third-class provinces. The dwarves had no choice but to make the practical decision to defend their critical territories rather than their worthless ones.

As a consequence, the expeditionary fleet did not encounter any friction by explicitly tracing a route through the neglected provinces.

Since Ves was in a hurry, his fleet did not waste time on following a difficult, winding route. Instead, it cut forward at a brisk pace, disregarding any local presences along the way.

The local garrisons and defense fleets posed no threat to the Golden Skull Alliance. The tech difference was too big and the limited number of second-class mechs they used to field had all been transferred over to the core provinces.

"Huh. They're not even putting up a token resistance." Ves contemptuously said.

The Vulcan Empire was on fire right now, so how could the third-raters entertain any thoughts of stopping the expeditionary fleet? None of their forces would even be able to survive getting close as the Amaranto could easily shoot down their ships!

What the dwarves were preoccupied with instead was evacuating from their homes. It appeared that a lot of Vulcanites no longer possessed any confidence that dwarven superiority would allow them to vanquish the human invaders.

Starship after starship took in a flood of refugees and goods. Only a fraction of the population would be able to escape from the scary tall folk this way but it couldn't be helped.

Ves hadn't seen an evacuation of this magnitude since the Sand War. All kinds of dire and desperate scenes occurred throughout the Smiling Samuel Star Sector.

Couples got separated. Wealthy businessmen had to abandon much of their wealth. Anarchy reigned in the streets as law and order had collapsed. So many tragedies took place in dwarven space that the Larkinsons felt increasingly more guilty for triggering all of this chaos.

The main culprit responsible for making their lives hell remained unmoved, mostly.

Was he guilty for making the lives of so many dwarves miserable? Certainly. Did it matter to him? Nope.

He snorted. "Back when the dwarves conquered Smiling Samuel, they must have driven a huge amount of humans to death or desperation. I'm just giving them a taste of their own medicine, that's all. The Vulcanites are anything but innocent."

It was too bad that not everyone in the clan saw it that way. Venerable Jannzi was just the loudest voice that expressed disapproval at all of the suffering that Ves had wrought.

Even so, the latest course of events only reinforced his power. A lot of Larkinsons admired what he had done and were glad that he managed to get payback on the Vulcanites for their attack.

"I still don't understand you, Ves." Ketis spoke as she worked with him to refine the Chimera Project's latest iteration. "I'm no angel, but even I wouldn't go as far as collapsing an entire state and doom all of its citizens, many of whom don't have anything to do with us. Couldn't you have found another solution to get what you want? Those Pershams still seemed friendly at the time. You could have just hired them to fetch whatever it is you're looking for. If not, there are many other groups that are willing to do stuff for payment."

Ves shook his head. "That's not a viable solution. I don't want any dwarf getting their hands on my objective. This is something I have to do myself."

"You make it sound as if you're willing to detonate a nuclear bomb if that is what it takes for you to get your way!"

He directed a pointed stare at her. "Don't be silly. I'm not that crazy. The MTA would be on me in a second. I am a proper, law-abiding mech designer. I never engage in acts that would implicate me! That's not logical behavior!"

Ketis swept her arm around her. "And you think riling up the dwarven crazies isn't damaging enough? The scheme you've pulled off is far more destructive than any nuclear bomb!"

"Hehehe." Ves deviously checked. "You're completely correct, and that's the beauty of it. We're mech designers, Ketis. Our main job is to spend the least amount of resources to produce the greatest possible effect."

"I don't think the effort you put in is anything less than deploying a weapon of mass destruction!"

"Don't be silly. I made sure not to do anything that would trip over the MTA's taboos. My consciousness is completely clean. What those dwarven fanatics chose to do after receiving their gifts has nothing to do with me. They chose to give in to their violent impulses on their own accord."

"You're responsible for more deaths than almost any other human in the galaxy!"

"You're being silly again, Ketis. We're mech designers." Ves emphasized. "We make products that are used to kill people every day. We're not culpable for the acts committed by our customers who use our products."

Was this truly the case? Ketis wasn't sure.