The Mech Touch

The extensive looting process lasted for a week, and did not proceed without problems.

The temporary coalition grew less united by the day as the individual pioneering groups constantly argued against each other for the same pieces of loot.

So much alien salvage and treasure had become available that greed became ubiquitous. The compulsion to claim the shiniest loot and the most interesting toys frequently provoked quarrels that often left every side dissatisfied with the compromises they made at the end.

Negotiating teams from every pioneering group continually met with each other in order to make backroom deals and form temporary alliances in order to gain priority on certain types of loot.

Time was of the essence. Of the two stars of the Boryan System, one of them was a highly disruptive neutron star that continually bathed the entire star system with unstable magnetic fluctuations and other hazardous activity. Already the derelict alien warships were beginning to degrade at an accelerated rate.

Everyone sped up their salvaging efforts. They concentrated on looting priority goods such as starfighter energy shield generators, containers filled with valuable exotic materials, warp drives that needed a lot of overhauls in order to make them usable for human vessels, databanks and other electronic storage devices, distinctive alien artwork that appealed to collectors, live alien prisoners and most importantly phasewater.

Different groups had different priorities. For example, the Lehrer Foundation displayed an extremely high interest in obtaining samples of advanced alien technology, particularly the powerful transphasic weapon systems of different alien warships.

The Gemini Family wasn't particularly picky about the loot. It just wanted to obtain the goods that could yield the greatest amount of MTA credits and MTA merits.

The Golden Skull Alliance meanwhile grabbed a little bit of everything.

Master Benedict Cortez instructed the Cross Clan to snap up alien tech that could be relevant to mechs once he managed to study and reverse engineer their underlying principles.

The Glory Seekers selected items of particular interest to the Hex Federation, which most notably included relatively intact hulls of disabled alien warships.

The Larkinson Clan also claimed a modest amount of samples of exotic alien technology, but also put a greater priority on biological goods and phasewater.

The division of phasewater became one of the most contentious issues of the plundering operation. The amount of pure phasewater was considerably less than expected as many alien pirates had either used them up or purposely destroyed their stashes out of spite.

This caused most of the available phasewater on the battlefield to be locked inside existing products.

It was certainly possible to recycle warp drives, shield generators and other phasewater-infused products, but the yields were too low. Obtaining 50 percent of the phasewater integrated into a device was the best case scenario, but the prevailing yields were much lower.

All of this meant that the recycling value and the resale value of all of the alien tech were severely discounted.

The only way to gain maximum value out of them was to sell the working pieces of technology to alien buyers who were already familiar with the native products, but that was most definitely a treasonous act!

Every pioneer had to abide by a common set of rules before they obtained passage to the Red Ocean, and consorting with indigenous aliens was definitely an important taboo!

The Big Two had intensified their enforcement of this particular rule as of late. There had been too many incidents of greedy human pioneers trading away valuable human tech and knowledge to the native aliens that examples needed to be made!

As such, a lot of powerful alien technology could only be sold to human buyers at a fraction of their value.

"It's not so bad, Benny." Ves shrugged as he leaned back in his chair. "I didn't agree to take part in this battle in order to fill the coffers of the clan. The Living Mech Corporation is already doing a good job at that. What I am truly after is phasewater, rare and powerful pieces of tech and other goods that simply don't get sold in marketplaces like Davute. Our research and development divisions have obtained a lot of goods that will easily keep them occupied for several decades."

Ves learned that alien technology was one of the currencies of the new frontier. The overall tech level of the indigenous alien community might be inferior compared to the tech level of humanity as a whole, but the natives possessed an unquestionable advantage in their familiarity and ability to leverage phasewater.

Famed research and development institutions such as Morton Tech and Melmen Advanced Systems largely depended on reverse engineering salvaged alien devices to fuel their own advancements.

If Ves ever wanted to reduce his dependence on external development companies for high-tech mech parts, then he needed to give his clan enough materials to work with, which was exactly why the Larkinson Clan collected so many diverse pieces of alien tech.

"Did we manage to acquire a lot of alien biotech products during the salvaging operation?" Ves asked his personal assistant as he glanced around his office.

He needed to expand the display area for his battle trophies. He wanted to commemorate the defeat of the V'gahnt-Zezne and the unclean whale.

"I am afraid I have to disappoint you, boss. The Palace of Shame lacks a biotech infrastructure. The only major use of biotechnology employed by several pirate groups is related to food cultivation. They have these large flesh pillars that can absorb pretty much every form of organic materials as well as many kinds of inorganic materials and process them into pure nutrients tailored to satisfy the individual dietary needs of a specific alien race."

Ves grew interested. "Oh? Tell me more about these flesh pillars."

"According to numerous sources, these organic food producers are highly mature products that have long been in use by many different alien races. The tech has been around long enough for many alien races to develop their own racial variants that can efficiently keep them fed under circumstances where the supply of natural food products is unstable. They are particularly common in small outposts, isolated space stations and pirate vessels."

"So what you're saying is that they are basically organic nutrient pack production machines."

"You could describe them like that, I suppose…"

Ves grinned. "Well, be sure to grab a dozen of those flesh pillars. You never know whether they might come handy. How is our internal food production capacity, by the way? If the unclean whale succeeded in teleporting us to a location that is extremely far away from human-occupied space, will we be able to keep our own clansmen fed over the long term?"

"You don't have to worry about starvation for at least a decade." Gavin confidently replied. "We have stocked up on enough nutrient packs to keep our bellies filled. Almost every ship also contains hydroponics chambers that can at least ensure some form of renewable foodstuff production. Our capital ships can keep many more people fed, though their ability to do so is still not adequate enough to meet the needs of a growing population that comprises at least half a million people. The only way to attain a surplus of food is if we convert large internal spaces on ships like the Dragon's Den into specialized food production facilities."

"Hmmm…" Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "How much space does it take to maintain a bunch of those alien flesh pillars as opposed to more traditional food production facilities?"

Gavin took a few seconds to consult a couple of sources. "Assuming that we can develop a variation of a flesh pillar that can generate human-compatible food, then we can reduce the allocation of space by at least 90 percent."

"Damn! Why aren't we planting those flesh pillars like mushrooms already?!"

"Do you really think our clansmen will be happy to give up their organic meals for nutrient packs? They will literally revolt and depose you from your seat if you dare take away their hamburgers and sushi."

"Ugh. I guess you're right."

Ves had no choice but to drop the matter and turn his attention to other matters.

Gavin reported on numerous developments, ranging from casualty figures to the amount of pure phasewater that the Larkinson Clan had obtained up to this point.

"So far, we have obtained 54 kilograms of phasewater, which is a respectable amount after splitting up the bounty with the rest of the temporary coalition and the Golden Skull Alliance. You shouldn't expect to gain much more, though. Our salvage teams have already picked the low-hanging fruits. There are probably shielded caches around here that secretly hide a lot of phasewater, but few aliens left alone can tell us where they are buried."

Ves shrugged. "Our men can search them out, but I don't want to waste too much time on this. We shouldn't stick around for too long. When are we scheduled to leave?"

"In two days if all goes well. There are many departments who complain that the time frame is too short. Our salvage teams can secure much more loot if they are granted another week."

"No. I don't want to overstay our welcome." Ves firmly expressed his stance. "I have a bad feeling about this place. We already got most of what we want. I can live with leaving behind warship hulls and buried treasures so long as we can avoid any possible reprisal from the aliens who originally built the Palace of Shame. Will any of the other pioneering groups make their way out as well?"

"The Adelaide Mercenary Company has opted to leave in the same time frame. In fact, General Herman Foraine proposed to join forces just in case the other pioneering groups are planning to follow us and coerce us into giving up our spoils."

That sounded interesting. This was not an easy diplomatic decision.

"What does Minister Shederin think?"

"He thinks that it is not necessary for our fleet to stay close to the Adelaide Third Fleet. Our clan possesses a lot of deterrence due to showing off so many trump cards. Not only that, it has become increasingly clearer that we enjoy the backing of the MTA. None of our rivals are eager to piss off the mechers, particularly when they want to make themselves look good in order to maximize their profits from this operation."

"You're right. It doesn't make sense at all for our competitors to attack us out of greed. This is a clear loss-making transaction."

"That doesn't mean that help from the Adelaides is useless, boss. Any indigenous alien forces that we may bump into will not pay any attention to our MTA backing." Gavin noted.

"I see. It will be a lot more useful to have a fleet that is just as powerful by our side."

The Adelaide Mercenary Company was both prosperous and well-equipped. It wouldn't have been able to retain an ace pilot and an ace mech if the opposite was the case.

Though Ves appreciated the Adelaide Mercenary Company out of all of the other members of the temporary coalition, that didn't mean he was willing to trust his back to this group.

Betrayal was still possible. No matter how illogical it may be for the Adelaides to stab the Golden Skullers in the back, Ves could still imagine scenarios where it could happen.

Rather than tempt fate and open up his fleet to betrayal, he preferred to nip this possibility in the bud.

"Tell Minister Shederin to politely reject General Foraine's proposal. We can take care of ourselves, Benny. It's not as if we are traveling straight towards the frontlines of the ongoing invasion of the Red Ocean."

"Understood. I have already passed on the message."

The main reason why Ves rejected this offer was because he wanted to hurry up and complete the original goal of this diversion into the border region of the Krakatoa Middle Zone and the Zelmar Upper Zone.

He didn't quite know for certain, but he had a feeling that destroying the Palace of Shame and killing the unclean whale might have produced a lot of ripple effects.

Even if these fears were overblown, Ves still didn't want the Adelaides following his expeditionary fleet to the star system where Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik had fled.