The Mech Touch

What would a post-taboo on warships era look like?

Ves could hardly imagine the full changes to human society if ordinary people finally regained the chance to command their own warships again!

The darkness in humanity knew no bounds. As soon as a lot more people gained access to warships again, there were bound to be people who abused them against other humans! This was practically guaranteed to occur no matter how many restrictions the Big Two imposed on their users!

Perhaps this was another reason why much of the talk about this drastic change of policy was limited to the Red Ocean.

Not only was the population of humans much smaller in the colonies, but if anything ruinous occurred, only the crazy kids who took the initiative to travel to the wild frontier suffered the brunt of the damage!

The true core of human civilization that was based in the Milky Way Galaxy would remain untouched and unharmed!

Ves grimaced when he made this realization.

Was the Red Ocean nothing but a dwarf galaxy-sized experimental chamber to the Big Two?

His impression of the new frontier as a giant social experiment had grown stronger today!

All of the greedy and ambitious pioneers who poured into the Red Ocean ignorantly thought that the Big Two granted them a chance to found their own states in virgin territory.

What these gullible and ill-informed fools didn't realize was that they had all signed up to become the Big Two's test subjects as soon as they passed through the greater beyonder gate!

What made Ves extremely dissatisfied about this was that he was one of those gullible and ill-informed fools!

Still, even if he knew about this beforehand, he still would have chosen to head to the Red Ocean. The Milky Way was too dangerous for him and the possibility of getting sniffed out by the Five Scrolls Compact was simply too great.

The intensity of the Nyxian War already showed him that the Compact was still too powerful for Ves to resist. Running away to the Red Ocean where the cultists did not possess a strong foundation was by far the best choice that he could make.

He just wished he was better informed at the time so that he possessed a better realization of what kind of trial ground he was jumping into. It took talking to an old fogey for Ves to obtain the information he needed.

"Do you know why I chose Professor Taigen Voiken to lead my family's expedition to the Red Ocean?" Master Barnard suddenly asked.

"I heard from Sara and Dulo Voiken that he is among the younger and more flexible-minded Seniors in your family." Ves answered. "He sounds like a fine enough fellow to lead your conservative family's detachment into a region that is anything but familiar."

The Master slowly nodded. "That is part of the reason why I am optimistic about his current role. However, the driving reason why I sent him over is because his work and specialty is better adapted to the changes that might sweep the Red Ocean in the near future."

"What do you mean?"

"The Red Ocean is not only a playground for the CFA. It is also a testing site for the MTA. Just as the fleeters intend to see how humanity will adapt to the reintroduction of warships, the mechers are curious to see how the relationship between humans and mechs will change after the return of humanity's most tyrannical war assets."

Ves quickly understood what the Master was alluding to. Professor Taigen Voiken did not possess a particularly impressive record of designing combat mechs built for warfare.

This was because the Senior pretty much dedicated nearly his entire career to designing mechs for law enforcement agencies!

While he did not solely design mechs that primarily engaged their targets with non-lethal means, this was what he excelled at the most.

Ves could respect a mech designer who wanted to develop better and stronger law enforcement mechs. It was too easy to make machines of this size and scale as destructive as possible, but it was a lot harder to go the other way and minimize the amount of collateral damage they inflicted on the environment!

This was also why he did not discount the value of Professor Taigen's contribution to the Pacifier Project. The truth was that Ves had no serious clue on how to design a mech that could safely and reliably perform peacekeeping duties in a densely populated urban settlement.

He thought back on Master Barnard's original question.

Out of all of the possible mech types that could remain relevant in a post-taboo era, peacekeeping mechs probably ranked close to the top!

Ves became a lot more interested and invested in the Pacifier Project all of a sudden. This was not just an easy opportunity to earn a lot of money from Voiken Industries, but it was also a form of insurance that could guarantee that the Larkinson Clan wouldn't suddenly become broke once mechs fell out of favor in human society!

His eyes lit up. "There are still numerous roles and responsibilities that only mechs can fulfill. There are also other roles where mechs can still be more effective than warships. Peacekeeping duty is a typical case where warships are highly inappropriate!"

The typical assets utilized by law enforcement agencies consist of combat armor, shuttles and mechs.

If there was any incident that required the power of warships to resolve, then this was no longer a problem for a Planetary Guard organization.

Instead, it became the problem of the state military!

"After over four centuries of rebuilding, there are those in power that think that humanity is finally ready to return to a reality where we must learn to live alongside warships." Master Barnard said in a tired voice. "If such a scenario comes to pass, then mech designers such as you and I must also learn to adapt our business and our products to the changing demands of our consumers. Those of us who fail to complete this transition successfully will soon run out of business."

Ves frowned deeper. "This is going to be a bloodbath. There are lots of mech designers that have developed way too many products that are perfectly fine when deployed against other mech forces but will probably collapse at the first blow when confronted by a single warship. I'm afraid that the golden age of mechs will come to an end if the fleeters have their way."

The reintroduction of warships posed a near-existential threat to the mech industry! Ves could already predict that the bottom half of the mech industry that only managed to eke out a marginal existence would disappear as demand drastically fell while supply was still too great.

Even those who have managed to achieve more success compared to their peers would also fall under hard times after this shift took place.

It was undeniable that warships would take over much of the business that mechs previously monopolized because people simply couldn't get anything better!

"The reality is that the mech industry has always operated around a protected mech market." Barnard plainly told Ves. "It is already a great kindness to mech designers such as ourselves that our greatest form of competition has never been allowed to sell warships to the same consumers as ours. While I prefer that this situation is allowed to continue, we must all be ready to rethink our work if warships truly become ubiquitous again."

The Master's unspoken message was that it was far better to do this rethinking process ahead of time rather than remain completely unprepared when this pivotal moment finally arrived!

Ves spoke a few more words with Master Barnard. Though the man's opinions and attitudes were rather stodgy, his heart was in the right place. The man did not want humanity to go back to the bad old days of bombarding each other's cities and planets from orbit.

"The MTA has been working against the clock to promote and accelerate the development of mechs." Master Barnard said. "The goal is to narrow the gap between mechs and warships as fast as possible. Unfortunately, it appears our grace period is about to run out. No matter what changes may occur in the future, we must do our best to persist and finish what our mech industry has started. Both the older and younger generations of mech designers must work together to solve this existential problem."

"Shouldn't you be looking to the Star Designers to pull us out of this predicament? They're the best mech designers we have. I'm sure the Polymath already prepared a thousand solutions to this exact scenario."

Master Barnard shook his head. "To a Journeyman such as yourself, a Star Designer may seem omnipotent to you. They are indeed highly capable but they cannot solve every problem. There are too few of them and their methods and techniques are not all-encompassing enough to contain the threat of warships. What our industry and community have been doing for some time is to pin our hopes on emerging mech designers whose specialties are powerful and innovative enough to give our industry a chance to compete against warships, either through conventional or other solutions."

Ves widened his eyes. He already figured out that the MTA had high hopes for him in the future, but now he understood the greater context behind the Association's investment in him and other promising talents.

Jovy Armalon was in the same boat as him now that he thought about it. The reason why the MTA invested so much into Jovy's development was because his probability manipulation specialty could help mechs gain more combat effectiveness relative to warships!

This was the true meaning why both of them had been elevated into tier 6 galactic citizenship despite their short careers!

Ves and Master Barnard exchanged a few more words with each other, but the conversation slowly wound down as the latter no longer felt the need to share anymore hints about the future.

What Ves had already heard and deduced from Barnard's helpful ramblings was already enough.

Now that Ves obtained enough forewarning, he could push his men to make preparations in advance.

No matter whether the scenario would come to pass or not, Ves was not naive to think that the CFA would give up if its proposal eventually got shot down this time.

By the time both sides were ready to end the lengthy call, Ves felt a lot better about his upcoming partnership with the Voikens.

Though they would never fully align with each other on every matter, Ves at least recognized that he had enough common ground with Master Barnard Voiken to welcome the opportunity to befriend and work together with his family.

"If there is ever a point in the future where you are in the position to assist my descendants in the Red Ocean from a major threat, I would appreciate it if you take action."

Ves looked a bit uncomfortable at this final request. "The nature of our agreement only covers business obligations. It does not oblige either of us to extend any military aid."

"I am aware of that, but not every relationship has to be limited to the terms of an explicit contract, Mr. Larkinson. I may not be able to offer you much when I am still residing on this end of the greater beyonder gate, but I can still repay the debt that we owe to you in many ways. My foundation in my home star sector and my home galaxy is strong. If you are ever in need of a good and service that can only be obtained in the Milky Way, then I will see what I can do to meet your request."

"Can you get your hands on a naturally grown plant or plant seed from Old Earth and ship it over to my clan?" Ves spontaneously asked.

The Master Mech Designer's expression darkened.

"You would need to put us in great debt for us to consider this means of repayment."

Well, it was worth a try.