The Mech Touch

"Aren't you scared, great-grandpa?"

"I am." Venerable Benjamin Larkinson gently said as he placed his palm against the solid metal foot of his battle partner. "Every time I deploy onto the battlefield, I do so with the knowledge that I might never come back home again. I am scared that I will never be able to see my sons again. I am scared that I will never be able to witness my grandson lead our family to a greater height. I am scared that I will not live long enough to see children like you grow up and find your own calling in life."

Young Andraste stood next to her great-grandfather and looked up at the old man with a mixture of concern and admiration.

"If you are so scared, why don't you wait until my papa upgrades your Blood Star into a high-tier expert mech? That is what other expert pilots do when they don't have access to a powerful machine. It is not as if you can make much of a difference when you are stuck piloting a standard mech."

The old man let out a tired sigh. "That is true for other pilots, but I am different. I am already old. Due to special reasons, my lifespan is tied to my fighting ability. If your father did not tie my life to the Blood Star, you would have already witnessed my funeral by now. Do you understand now, dear? I fight not just because I enjoy the thrill of combat, but because it is the only way for me to live and see you grow into a lovely woman."

"You'll also be able to grow stronger in the process!" Andraste chirped! "People are saying that you and Uncle Ark have the highest chance of becoming the first ace pilot of our clan. Between the two of you, who will break through first?"

Benjamin shook his head. He lowered himself to his knees so that he could look at his great-granddaughter straight into her eyes.

"Mech piloting is not a race. It is a life-threatening job. Breakthroughs are serious business, Andraste. In the history of the Larkinson Family of old, many expert pilots have emerged from our ranks. Many of them have shown great talent and bravery, yet they have never managed to overcome the bottleneck that prevents them from becoming a Saint. I do not dare to say whether Ark or I can be the first trueblood Larkinson to fulfill our old family's greatest dream."

"Papa can help." Andraste claimed with absolute confidence. "He helped Reginald Cross advance to ace pilot by designing the Mars, so he can definitely help the two of you in the same way!"

"We are all hoping for that. I do have a lot of faith in your father's design abilities, but that is not an excuse for Ark and I to slack off. A strong mech will never enable a weak pilot to exceed his limit. This is another reason why I voluntarily participate in battles despite knowing that my mech can be destroyed by a single direct hit from a warship cannon. I have too many shortcomings as a recently recovered expert pilot who has been sitting in retirement for over half a century. If I can't be as skilled and experienced as my peers, then I will just have to be braver than everyone else. It may be an exceedingly reckless way to test my limits, but it has been proven to work."

What Benjamin didn't tell his great-granddaughter was that the death rates of pilots who chose to embrace this method of pursuing greater strength was distressingly high!

People always tended to fixate on the few brilliant success stories, but this caused them to overlook the countless bodies of deceased mech pilots.

All of these poor souls ultimately sacrificed everything in exchange for becoming a forgotten footnote in humanity's history!

Fortunately, Andraste was still a young girl for the most part. All she thought right now was that the grandfather of her father was an awesome expert pilot!

Andraste developed a liking for every Larkinson expert pilot. She especially looked up to Venerable Dise due to how the Swordmaiden expert pilot exquisitely leveraged her excellent swordsmanship to overcome greater challenges!

Yet despite Benjamin's lack of a powerful expert mech, flashy moves or a clearly defined advantage, Andraste had come to admire him as well.

The greatest virtue of the Larkinson Clan was bravery. This did not come from nowhere, but originated from the Larkinson Family!

Andraste briefly daydreamed about embodying the virtue of bravery herself. Once she grew older and completed her training as a mech pilot, she wanted to blaze her own trail and follow the examples of her relatives by chasing after breakthroughs by confronting deadly opponents!

An old man like Benjamin knew exactly what little Andraste was thinking. He had seen far too many Larkinson children indulge in the same fantasies.

It was a pity that the majority of them never had a chance to fulfill their wishes.

From the moment a child celebrated their tenth birthday, their aptitude of piloting became clear.

Benjamin did not want Andraste to develop too many unrealistic expectations.

He reached out and embraced the girl in his arms. "Piloting mechs is a noble profession, but it is not the only way for girls like you to excel. There are many other ways for people to attain greatness. Your father has built up our entire clan from nothing by excelling in mech design. General Verle commands an entire mech army."

"I know, great-grandpa. I know they are all awesome in their own way. I heard it a million times before." The little girl whined. "I don't want to sit behind a desk all day and let others fight on my behalf. I want to grab a weapon and beat our enemies myself! Aurelia and Marvaine can go off and do all of the boring stuff. What I want is to become the greatest mech pilot ever, and if that is not possible, the greatest swordmaster, oh, aside from Ketis of course."

Benjamin's mouth twitched when he heard the boundless desire and enthusiasm from the girl.

"That is nice to hear, Andraste. It is fine for you to have aspirations as a child, but I hope that you will not fixate on them too much if there are better professions for you out there. You are not an ordinary Larkinson, you know. You are a princess of a powerful clan. Leadership is your birthright. It is not that hard for our clan to train hundreds of mech pilots a year, but it is much harder for us to raise qualified and responsible leaders."

"Mama and papa are already raising Aurelia to become the next matriarch of the clan. I don't want to steal my older sister's job." Andraste flatly said. "As for me, I'm supposed to grow into her protector! How can I do that if I can't become good at fighting? If I can't become a mech pilot, I will never be as good as others!"

Try as he might, Benjamin couldn't temper Andraste's determination to become an expert pilot.

This was bad as children like her tended to suffer the greatest psychological blows if their genetic aptitudes ultimately weren't good enough to support their dreams.

Though Benjamin knew from his grandson that the Carmine System might be powerful enough to give those without the right genetic aptitudes a chance to pilot a mech anyway, this experimental tech was still in early development.

It may have been fine for the Carmine System to augment the control of existing expert pilots such as Venerable Jannzi or restore the piloting ability of veteran expert pilots such as himself, but even Ves did not dare to test his new invention on a young and weak ten-year old child!

Ves might have to invest decades worth of research into the Carmine System in order to refine the tech and make it safe enough to be used by the general public.

Until he reached that point, there was no way he would risk the life of his precious daughter by treating her as a test subject!

Andraste suddenly smirked.

"I'm definitely becoming a mech pilot, great-grandpa?"

"Oh? What makes you sound so confident, young lady?"

"Hihihi! I have a little secret- " She teased before she lifted her arm and activated her comm. "Look at this! I found this super-secret method a few weeks ago when I browsed the galactic net on how to increase the chances of developing the right genetic aptitude. The poster claimed that it would definitely turn a kid like me into a potentate as long as I follow all of the steps!"

Venerable Benjamin grew perplexed when a projection of a sketchy virtual document appeared in front of Andraste.

"What? That can't be true. Hasn't your mother or father told you to always remain skeptical and never believe in the nonsense spouted by people on the galactic net?"

"This isn't nonsense, great-grandpa! It really works! I know it since I tried it out myself!"

The old man frowned deeper and deeper as he quickly skimmed over the text. The contents reminded him of the meditation manuals that he used to read and practice after he had lost the ability to pilot a mech.

The meditation helped him get over his trauma and look forward to living out the rest of his life as a simple family man.

Yet as Benjamin continued to read through this parody of a meditation method, he did not find it credible in the slightest!

According to the exaggerated claims of its anonymous writer, practicing this specific meditation recipe would definitely encourage the formation of better genetic aptitude in the brains of developing children!

"The galactic net is becoming more and more messy ever since we have been cut off from the Milky Way." Benjamin grumbled. "The Red Two and the local Comm Consortium have become too short-handed to clean up all of this harmful nonsense."

"Hey!" Andraste wanted to kick the old man's foot! "It's not harmful and it's not nonsense! Let me show you how it works!"

The impulsive girl immediately dropped into a lotus position on the deck. She proceeded to close her eyes and began to whisper a mantra under her breath.

She did all of this while still remaining under the influence of the Blood Star's glow!

Fortunately, the offensive knight mech was directly tied to the Golden Cat, so the glow hardly bothered Andraste.

Though Andraste looked incredibly endearing at the moment, Benjamin did not want the foolish girl to get her hopes up by indulging in this superstition.

How could mediation possibly increase one's genetic aptitude?

People had tried out a lot of different methods to increase their probability of becoming a potentate during the Age of Mechs.

From participating in brutal survival camps to practicing musical instruments to a professional level, they had done so many different things, yet hardly managed to affect their chances in the end.

Venerable Benjamin firmly believed like every other human that developing genetic aptitude was completely out of their hands.

It was for that reason that he wanted to pull her great-granddaughter from her delusions.

Yet just before he tried to lift her up to her feet, he paused in his motion.

This was because Andraste's actions produced a reaction.

The effect was faint, but a high-tier expert pilot like Benjamin was still perceptive enough to feel the shift of E energy radiation in the environment.

Instead of swirling around in place like normal or getting pulled into the Blood Star due to practicing the Greater Larkinson Metal Guardian Mantra, a faint amount of spirituality began to get sucked into Andraste's body!

"...What...?"

Benjamin's attitude towards the little girl's behavior had completely changed. He took another look at the virtual document, but this time he tried to analyze it with a more earnest outlook.

He still thought that it shouldn't be doing anything at all, yet Andraste proved his assumption wrong!

What was the matter? Was this secret method truly legit? Who came up with it, and why post it on the galactic net?

Benjamin felt there was a lot more going on with this than he initially thought.