The Mech Touch

Many people scrambled to transfer the right mechs and goods to the right carrier vessels.

Long queues of mechs, shuttles and transports formed in front of the hangar bays of ships such as the Wild Torch and the Antonio Cross.

The bots and personnel assigned to the relevant ships all had to work at punishing speeds in order to complete their tasks as quickly as possible.

Haste became so crucial that people even started to resort to tossing out unnecessary goods into open space.

The shuttles and transports could always pick them up later.

As all of these exchanges took place, Ves became embroiled in another argument as he was about to transfer to one of the ships of the strike force.

"Whaaaa! Don't go, papa!" Marvaine cried as he clung onto the leg of the Unending Regalia. "I don't want you gone!"

Meanwhile, Andraste burst into tears as she clung onto the other leg! "You're so mean, papa! You promised to take me with you! I don't want to be left behind! I want to see the aliens get killed up close!"

Ves looked down with an exasperated expression. It wasn't easy being a father, especially to a bunch of precocious children.

At least Aurelia was well-behaved enough to avoid joining her siblings. Her suited form stood neatly beside her mother. She showed no intention to join her father on a dangerous mission.

"What are you doing, Ves?" Gloriana spoke with an irked expression. "This is a military operation and your presence will not change anything. There is no need for you to accompany the strike force. You can easily preside over the battle and provide advice by remote. Why are you so eager to make the stupid decision and put your entire life on the edge of destruction? What if you have miscalculated the strength of the Tower of Babel? What if the battleship manages to land a lucky hit on the starship you are stationed on? Do you know how devastating it will be if our clan loses its patriarch and head designer? What about our children?! Are you so eager to make them grow up without their father?!"

She made a lot of good points. Though Ves did not agree with her assertion that he could not contribute to the battle in any way, he could see how the risks far outweighed the benefits.

Ves was cognizant enough that he was acting like an adrenaline junky again. He couldn't give in to his desire to get close to the action and gain lots of inspiration from witnessing the death and destruction that was about to ensue.

Despite knowing that the Tower of Babel was still strong enough to destroy a large fleet with her intact gun batteries, Ves did not flinch in the face of danger.

What nobody knew was that Ves recently acquired a backup option in case he died.

He had made sure to hide his cyborg cat incarnation deep inside the Spirit of Bentheim.

This meant that once his real body died, a part of him would still live on in his living divine artifact!

Of course, this was hardly an ideal option as Ves would lose much of the elements that defined him. If his mother was any indication, he would have to spend a lot of time rebuilding and regaining what he had lost!

Even so, it was better than nothing.

"It'll be fine, honey. Our fleet will maintain high relative speeds throughout the operation so that the damaged alien battleship won't be able to land any shots."

"You know as well as I do that you are relying on far too many assumptions!"

The two continued to argue a bit. As usual, Ves remained unmoved by Gloriana's arguments. His wife understood him well enough that further nagging wouldn't accomplish anything.

"FINE THEN!" Gloriana threw up her arms. "Go play with the big boys then! I will continue to stay behind and watch over our children that you are leaving behind."

He sighed. "Come on now, honey. I am not abandoning them. I am just going on a brief work trip."

He eventually managed to placate his family. He kissed his wife on the lips only for her to cross her arms and turn her head away.

He had better luck with his kids. He bent down his armored body and kissed Aurelia on the head.

"I hope you will continue your studies and absorb everything you need to know to catch up to your first-class peers. I won't be here for the following days, so try your best to watch over your younger sister and brother in my stead, okay?"

Aurelia nodded.

"I will, papa."

He kissed Andraste's head next.

"I wanna go with you and kill the aliens!" His red-haired daughter petulantly demanded!

Ves carefully raised her arm and patted his energetic daughter's back. "I know you are eager to participate in a fight, but you're too young to get involved in all of this grown up stuff. Only soldiers get to participate in our upcoming operation, and you are far from being one. Just wait until you have completed your studies at an academy before you make this request."

His words bummed her out, but Gloriana pulled back the overeager girl before she could make any further outrageous remarks.

"Marvaine." Ves spoke as he turned and planted a kiss on the head of his youngest child. "I will only be gone for a short time. Listen to your mother and make sure you keep up with your studies, alright? If you want to have fun, you can play with Mekanos, your sisters or any of your other toys. Don't worry too much."

"Okay, papa."

Once he bid farewell to his family, he called up Lucky and boarded his shuttle.

"It will be just you and me again, old buddy." Ves whispered to his gem cat as they both settled in for a short journey.

"Meow." Lucky yawned in boredom.

The main reason why the cat agreed to come along was because the Tower of Babel consisted of a huge amount of valuable exotics!

It would probably take many years for the gem cat to devour the entire vessel!

Though Ves would never allow Lucky to gobble up the alien warship in her entirety, he didn't mind it if the cat took a few nibbles here and there. The ship possessed so much mass that hardly anyone would notice if a few parts went missing.

The shuttle soon arrived at its destination.

When Ves stepped out of the vehicle, he became enchanted by the sight of lots of activity.

The hangar bays of the Antonio Cross were much smaller and more cramped than the ones of the flagship of the Cross Clan.

This reflected the extreme divergence in their roles. The Hemmington Cross was originally designed to be a large and prestigious symbol of a clan that used to be a part of the Garlen Empire. She was only ever meant to operate in the center of large and well-defended fleets.

The Antonio Cross was the opposite in this regard. The mech capacity of this thin and relatively fragile fleet carrier only amounted to a paltry 240 mechs, but she was by far the fastest and most maneuverable capital ship in the expeditionary fleet.

She was well-suited for exploration missions and other expeditionary activities. Her formidable acceleration and her relatively abundant support suites ensured that she could not only travel quickly, but also remain self-sufficient for months if not years.

Still, the Antonio Cross rarely had a good opportunity to make use of her advantages. As long as she remained shackled to the main fleet, she could never go too far and gallop across the stars.

The blitz operation changed much of that. Though she was still accompanied by a number of other fast carrier vessels, her excellent mobility caused her to play a much more crucial role than other starships.

"Welcome aboard the Antonio Cross." Master Benedict Cortez said as he approached the new arrivals. "We have already prepared sufficient quarters for you and your men, though I am afraid that our workshops are not available."

"It's okay, Master Benedict. I don't think I need to do any tinkering. Our mechs are already in good condition so they don't need extensive adjustments to participate in the upcoming operation."

"Your living mechs are starting to arrive.

Both Ves and Master Benedict turned and saw that a small procession of expert mechs entered the busy hangar bay.

Numerous Valkyrie mechs and shuttles had to move out of the way in order to provide enough room for the new mechs.

A lot of personnel in the vicinity interrupted their work as they became affected by the glows of so many living mechs.

As familiar machines such as the Dark Zephyr, the Amaranto and the Minerva settled into their assigned berths, groups of recently transferred Larkinson maintenance crews attended to them in order to make sure their frames were in order.

"Did you bring one of your mounted wargear loadouts for the Everchanger?" Master Benedict asked.

Ves shook his head. "Not this time. The Everchanger is assigned to lead the Penitent Sister battle formation, so he won't remain in the rear like our other ranged expert mechs. The firepower bestowed by the City Breaker isn't enough to punch through the defenses of the Tower of Babel. Instead, all of that additional bulk will only slow him down and make it easier for him to get blasted by the massive guns of the alien battleship."

The Master Mech Designer threw an odd look at his younger colleague. "Your mechs have gendered pronouns now?"

"Ah. That is a recent development." Ves chuckled. "My living mechs don't really care that much whether you address them as 'it' or something else. They accept their identity as machines, but they have also started to take after their users, many of whom are distinctly men or women."

Master Benedict gazed at the Larkinson expert mechs with a more critical eye.

"I can see why this has become the case, but not every mech pilot will be eager to call a living mech this way. It will be challenging for most people to determine the gender of every mech, especially since they are rarely designed with this distinction in mind. I highly advise you to adjust your mech designs so that people have an easier way to determine whether they are looking at a male or female mech."

That was good advice. Ves should have thought about it earlier.

"I will work on it, though I don't think it is worthwhile to make too many radical changes to a mech design. Well, I will think about it later." He shrugged. "Where is the Mars? It's been a while since I last saw our most powerful collaboration work."

"We have transferred the Mars to one of the workshops of this ship. I am in the process of applying specific tweaks and modifications to better prepare the ace mech for a confrontation against our upcoming alien opponents. Fighting a battleship demands a different approach, and we also have to take that oddly powerful nunser god into account."

Ves immediately frowned. "I don't think that creature deserves to be called a god. Using this loaded word will also cause us to fear this opponent more than we should."

Benedict didn't look like he cared all that much. "We can call him a phase lord if you prefer to use more neutral terminology. Phase lord is one of the most commonly used alternatives to the life forms that have transcended their physical limitations by integrating phasewater into their bodies."

"That can work."

Ves liked this term a lot more. It conveyed the proper amount of information and power without going overboard. It also didn't carry any unnecessary associations related to faith and belief.

He supposed that he could be classified as a phase lord as well, but so far he was unable to replicate any of the impressive powers demonstrated by the powerful nunser that protected the Tower of Babel.

Perhaps that might change if he managed to get a piece of the alien phase lord.