The Mech Touch

"I'm back!"

The journey back to New Constantinople VIII did not last long at all. The superdrives of the warships of the Bluejay Fleet had shrunk transit times to such an enormous extent that travel became a lot more convenient in the new frontier.

Of course, only the major powers had access to this luxury. The phasewater and the advanced technologies required to develop and construct superdrives was beyond the capabilities of smaller groups.

Not even the Larkinson Clan possessed the technological background to produce them in-house!

It was not as if the Larkinsons wanted to address this shortcoming, but there was no justification to invest in a sector that was already being dominated by many established market leaders.

Though Ves had enough confidence that his innovative mechs could compete against some of the best of what the mech industry could offer, he and his fellow Larkinsons had no such thoughts when it came to the shipbuilding sector and its related industries.

In the past, Ves did not even dare to think about investing in a notoriously high-capital industry such as shipbuilding, but this time was different.

The gains he had made during his visit to Bortele III were too rich.

Not only did he secure a massive new source of income for the Larkinson Clan, his reputation and his connections increased by a whole new level!

This was crucially important to Ves because it opened up a lot of doors. The Larkinson Clan had finally gained the qualifications to become a serious shipbuilder.

However, the threshold to build first-class starships was much higher than building second-class starships!

Ves did not really value the latter because second-class starships were too fragile. They might be serviceable when deployed against the fleets dispatched by the poor and exploited minor races of the Red Ocean, but they could easily be demolished by any serious fleet that hailed from one of the major races!

Humans may be willing to play by the rules, but the aliens had no reason to do so! There was no barrier stopping the major alien warfleets from detouring through the middle zones so that they could smash apart a lot of underpowered mech forces!

Of course, forcing confrontations in space was difficult. As long as the human mech forces received enough advance warning, they could usually slip away before they got intercepted.

This was not a truly safe course of option, though. Ves worried about the survival of the expeditionary fleet every day.

The presence of numerous powerful ace pilots from the other members of the Golden Skull Alliance granted them at least a measure of protection against powerful warships, but that was not a total substitute to fielding a proper force of first-class assets.

Ves inwardly shook his head. It would take a lot of time and a lot of investment to get to this point. He needed to take this step-by-step and make a lot of incremental advances before his clan could put up a fair fight against any major alien warfleet.

As Ves and Alexa led the latest batch of Journeyman Mech Designers out of the teleportation chamber of Diandi Base, everyone got a good look of the interior of Diandi Base.

The first-class outpost might not be luxurious by the standards of the Terrans, but it was absolutely awe inspiring to the second-raters who had entered the Upper Zones for the first time!

"The alloys that make up that wall are more expensive than an entire second-class mech regiment, no, mech division!"

"That security turret might look simple, but it can launch plasma bolts that can melt through an entire second-class heavy mech with a single hit."

"How much does the Red Association value our new patriarch? The mechers have dispatched so many mechs and security forces to defend this site!"

Ves smiled as the new Journeymen became awed by the conditions of the Premier Branch.

He found it a bit unfortunate that the Larkinsons hadn't been able to station enough clansmen to truly bring Diandi Base to life. This made it a lot more difficult for the new recruits to fully assimilate into the Larkinson Clan.

Ves already had a few solutions in mind that should address this particular concern.

All of that could wait for later. First, he just wanted to settle down now that he returned to the closest thing he had to home!

"Papaaaaaaa!"

"You're back, papa!"

"Miaow miaow!"

It did not take long for the children to hear that their father had returned to New Constantinople VIII.

Soon enough, three different munchkins crowded around their father and pleaded for hugs and kisses.

"Hahaha! Calm down, little fellows. There is more than enough time for us to cuddle with each other."

It had only been a few weeks since Ves had split up with his children after departing from Ocanon VI, but this seemed like an eternity to the latter!

Even Clixie missed Ves and Lucky's company. The Rubarthan Sentinel Cat wearing a prominent golden collar affectionately brushed her body up against Lucky's archemetal body.

"Miaow miaow miaow."

"Meow meow..."

"Miaow?"

"Meow meow meow!"

"Miaow!

As the cats and kids made all kinds of happy noises, a single clearing of the throat immediately caused them all to regain their composure.

A woman stepped into view.

Dressed in a luxurious and fashionable cross between a red coat and a black business suit, Gloriana Wodin looked like she had returned from the Vulit Central Star Node as a reinvented woman.

The sheer superiority radiating from her caused her to stand out from any other mech designer!

Aside from Ves, no one present was able to match her strong presence.

Gloriana smirked when she saw that her entry produced the intended effect. She clearly wanted to put up a show for her audience. It was best to show all of the newly recruited Journeymen from Bortele III who was in charge of them when they started to take up their duties.

"You have returned, and so have I." She said.

Ves already began to smell her intoxicating flowery scent. Though it was completely new to his senses, he enjoyed the pleasing associations that it inspired.

"Both of us have made a lot of gains on our trips." Ves smiled.

Husband and wife embraced each other after a long time of separation. Each of them had changed so much.

Gloriana had missed the creation of the Elemental Lord, did not get acquainted with all of the mutated beasts of Ocanon VI and had no involvement with anything that took place on the surface of Bortele III.

At the same time, Ves had little clue what Gloriana had been doing when she and Saintess Ulrika Vraken made a special trip to the Vulit Central Star Node.

It had been a long time since Ves last visited the Red Two's major strategic hub for second-class immigrants.

The star system had already been highly developed at the time. The mechers and the fleeters had developed it even further, enabling its occupied satellites to reach a level of prosperity that could rival the main star systems of the old galaxy!

Gloriana had done much more than replace her old second-class cranial implant for a superior first-class product while she visited one of the centers of human civilization.

Not only was there a huge amount of shopping opportunities, but entire communities of mech designers had sprung up as well.

A visiting mech designer could harvest massive gains as long as he or she had enough money and reputation!

Still, the main purpose to visiting Vulit was for Gloriana to complete the biggest upgrade of her life.

The old Erestal-015 bioimplant that the Wodin Dynasty originally arranged for her had served her well for a long time. It significantly sped up her learning and also contained a lot of handy processes that enabled her to design her mechs with greater speed and rigor.

She wouldn't have been able to advance to the rank of Journeyman Mech Designer so quickly without this crucial aid!

Now, her visit to a specialized implant development company had enabled her to replace this old and outdated implant with a cutting-edge model that was top notch in many measures!

The favor that Ves originally secured during the Survivalist conference granted Gloriana a chance to get the best of what the mechers could obtain at this time!

The value of this opportunity was intimately high. Neither Ves nor Gloriana dared to produce a concrete estimate because they were afraid of figuring out this sum!

Nonetheless, the performance and the features of Gloriana's new cranial implant must be extraordinarily great because Ves could immediately tell the difference when he came close!

As husband and wife ended their hug, Ves looked astonished when he sensed the newfound strength in Gloriana's head.

"Honey... you..."

"Let us hold this discussion elsewhere." The invigorated female mech designer suggested.

"That is a good idea."

Ves was incredibly curious about what sort of improvements his wife had gained that caused her mind to reach such an extraordinary state.

He quickly turned around and issues a few orders to Alexa and Gavin to arrange the new Journeymen.

After that, Ves and his immediate family all went back to the central building and entered their penthouse apartment in order to enjoy a private moment.

"Hihihi!"

"I missed you, Lucky!"

"Meow!"

"I want a hug, papa."

"Miaow miaow."

Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine missed their father so much that they refused to leave his side.

Ves helplessly embraced and cuddled with his children on the couch as he tried to hold a conversation with his wife.

"I brought back gifts from Vulit that should be of interest to you." Gloriana began to speak as she elegantly sat down in her own seat. "You cannot imagine how its planets are thriving. It is a paradise for any mech designer that is looking to obtain inspiration and advanced technological boutique products."

"I came back from Bortele III with a few gifts as well, but all of that can wait for the time being. Right now, I want to know about your cranial implant. Why is your mind so much stronger than before?"

Gloriana grinned. "This is one of the brand-new functions of my new implant. It is a true cutting-edge experimental product. All of the months spent in developing it and customizing it according to my conditions paid off. It is not only perfectly tailored to my brain and spinal cord, but it is also designed to augment my companion spirit as well!"

"What?!" Ves almost jumped out of his seat, causing him to startle his kids. "Has the development of cranial implants already begun to experiment with augmenting companion spirits?"

"Yes. The method may be rudimentary for the time being, but the effect can still be strong as long as the cranial implant is impregnated with a powerful hyper material. The Arachne 01 Distributed Mech Project Leader First-Class Cranial Implant Set that has replaced my old Erestal-015 bioimplant is laced with a unique high-grade hyper material that especially boosts all mental activity."

That was a mouthful of a name. It clearly indicated that Gloriana's new augmentation did not consist of a single implant, but a collection of multiple ones that were probably spread throughout her brain and body.

This was so much more elaborate than Ves was familiar with, but the effect should be especially great as a result!

"What sort of hyper material did the implant development company utilize?" Ves asked. "I have encountered this effect before."

"That is because my Arachne 01 implant set is laced with small pieces of a single Mentalist Crystal. This is a recently discovered hyper material that is very rare, so much so that the Red Association only has a dozen or so in their possession at this time. They can only be found in the brains of abnormally intelligent mutated beasts that have demonstrated unusual mind powers in the past. The mechers have discovered that these Mentalist Crystals have many stimulating effects on human minds, but that is not all. The new hyper material also happens to improve the performance of Alexandria's design network!"