The Mech Touch

When the TR-3851 transitioned out of FTL, she emerged in a populated star system under the control of a different noble house of the Paramount Kingdom.

The ship still flew under the identity of a transport ship under the control of House Kantis.

Though her arrival at this star system was unexpected, the ship did not catch anyone's notice.

It was only when the ship started flying straight towards an MTA space station while transmitting a lot of data in every direction that people started taking notice!

Though Ves had already trashed the TR-3851's quantum entanglement node and many other systems, he still retained enough unidirectional broadcast arrays to flood the local space with mountains of data!

Most of the data consisted of extensive documentation and footage of the exploitation of the dwarves by House Kantis.

Plenty of trade ships and other vessels flying in and out of the star system captured the data first.

Soon enough, one of the vessels rapidly proliferated the data through the galactic net!

Enemies and rivals of House Kantis quickly pounced on the data and tried to publicize it as much as possible!

Even if they were already aware of the shenanigans that took place at Desala X, every noble house had made an unspoken agreement to avoid airing each other's dirty laundry.

However, this rule didn't apply if third parties were already doing their best to besmirch a noble house's reputation!

The data that Ves collected and organized all consisted of strong proof. From raw and untampered footage to a mountain of official documentation, Ves provided a very compelling collection set of files that strongly indicated that House Kantis egregiously robbed the dwarves of their basic human rights!

This wasn't enough to condemn House Kantis. However, it was more than sufficient to evoke outrage and call attention to what was truly going on at Desala X.

Regardless of whether the accusations were true or false, the public outrage quickly grew to a point where a greater authority within the Paramount Kingdom was forced to investigate the suspected slave operation!

Naturally, if the royal house or a branch of the kingdom led the investigation, then there was a good chance the misdeeds of House Kantis would be swept under the rug.

Every member of the upper echelon of the Paramount Kingdom was in collusion with each other to an extent. The diminished state was far from its height and the rot continued to seeper into its roots.

Ves already anticipated Paramount's desire to suppress the scandal, so he never directed his message to the nobles to begin with. He just wanted to spread the word among the public in order to keep another party in check!

While the TR-3851's data broadcasts was primarily directed towards the MTA, the local branch of the powerful organization was not inclined to pay attention.

Paramount was a poor and insignificant third-rate state to the mechers. They had much more important concerns to worry about!

Gion Greybeard was right to suspect that the MTA wouldn't be moved by the obvious injustice that took place on Desala X.

To be fair, injustices to the same degree happened all over human space. The dwarves were hardly the only deprived folk who lived under oppression.

At the very least they were still properly clothed and fed!

However, the MTA quickly changed its tune when the TR-3851 transmitted a very explosive message.

"Timpala Steel can be found on Desala X. A small sample of the ore that can be refined into Timpala Steel is stored on this ship."

The data stream then proceeded to transmit detailed scanning data of the sample. The evidence was so convincing that a lot of vessels in the star system immediately began to divert to the TR-3851!

However, a half hour after the bystanders attempted to reach the ship, a small portal formed at the side of the hijacked transport ship!

A small but deadly MTA frigate emerged from the portal! The ship immediately deployed a couple of mechs to patrol the perimeter.

The MTA vessel didn't need to dispatch any shuttles to secure the transport ship.

Instead, the frigate directly teleported a boarding crew throughout the ship!

A group of tall folk in armor immediately emerged in the cargo hold, panicking the distressed and confused dwarves!

Another group of MTA marines emerged on the bridge and immediately started to take control of the transport ship.

A third group teleported at the infirmary where a number of dwarves were in the middle of mourning their hero's passing.

When a couple of dwarves finally encountered Rion Aaden's corpse at the bridge, they were devastated!

Gion Greybeard's disappearance already caused them to lose one of their pillars of support.

The death of their only mech pilot completely caused them to despair!

The MTA lieutenant that led the small squad observed the grieving dwarves and the body stored in the shabby medical chamber with a stoic expression.

"Tall folk!"

Once the dwarves realized that a group of normal humans emerged in their midst, they senselessly charged at the armored figures!

One of the marines discharged an energy wave that caused the dwarves to lose strength and collapse onto the deck!

"Interesting." The lieutenant murmured as he stepped past the crowd of dwarves until he loomed over the chamber.

The corpse made for an ugly sight. The gaping hole in the head and the poor condition of the rest of the body meant that the dwarf was undeniably dead!

"Is this the source?" He softly asked.

"Get away from our ace pilot, tall folk!" One of the stunned dwarves managed to regain some of his strength! "Our great Rion is blessed by Vulcan! The God of Dwarves will smite you for murdering our hero!"

The lieutenant furrowed his brows. "We did not kill this dwarf."

"You lie! You tall folk always lie!"

"Would you still accuse us of this if we bring him back to life?"

"You.. what?"

"We are part of the Mech Trade Association. This body might be a corpse in your eyes, but in our perspective, there is plenty of tissue left of your 'hero' to reconstruct his body. While we are unable to guarantee he can be restored in full, his body is anything but unsalvageable."

Hope started to well in the eyes of the dwarves.

As the MTA took stock of the TR-3851, Ves' consciousness travelled far and wide across space and time!

After an indeterminate time, his consciousness eventually sunk back into his own mind and body!

Ves was ready to resume his old life!

There was just one problem.

"Why am I not waking up?"

After a few sluggish minutes passed, Ves discovered to his horror that his body seemed unresponsive!

His current state was unprecedented! His consciousness hadn't fully integrated back into the center of his mind, therefore causing it to be detached from the state of his body!

"This is weird. What is going on? What has happened to my body?!"

Ves slowly took stock of his situation and realized that while his body remained unresponsive, his Spirituality was fully accessible and under his control!

Perhaps he could take advantage of this to make sense of his current condition.

He focused and forced a portion of his Spirituality to venture outside his mind.

He soon discovered what while he was capable of sensing some spiritual senses such as Gloriana, the Golden Cat and some of his mechs, he wasn't able to observe his surroundings with his normal senses!

His current condition resembled the time where he astrally projected a part of his Spirituality into the imaginary realm.

The biggest issue right now was that he was blind to the material realm!

Could he solve this problem?

"There's probably a way. Otherwise, how else can my intangible mother interact with the material realm?"

His mother could obviously see and hear what was going on around her. Despite her lack of flesh outside the crystal builder leader's body, she was still able to interact with Ves and Lucky without any issue!

Ves tried to fumble around for a bit. He tried but failed to shape his Spirituality in a way that allowed him to reconstruct his sense of sight or sound.

"This is harder than it seems!"

He possessed no foundation in this kind of technique. His half-baked theories and guesses all turned out to be nonsense as his experiments continually failed.

"Wait a minute. Why should I reinvent the wheel when others have obviously already figured the required techniques?"

He wasn't alone in his spiritual wizardry! Aside from his absent mother, Ves could beg for help from a range of spiritual entities!

After a bit of thought, he decided to approach the Golden Cat. He still possessed an active spiritual bond with the ancestral spirit, so it didn't take very long for him to spiritually hail the cat.

"Hey Goldie, I'm back! My body seems to be recovering from the implant surgery, but my consciousness is back to normal!"

Nyaa?!

The Golden Cat, who was likely residing in the Larkinson Mandate, reacted with surprise at Ves' spiritual reappearance!

Nyaaa~!

Like a kitten yearning after her mother, Goldie affectionately embraced his spiritual projection.

"Hahaha, I missed you too. I've been out for a while. How is the Larkinson Clan faring?"

Nyaaa… nyaa….

"What?! A lot of Larkinsons have died?! Who killed them? When did they die?"

The Golden Cat wasn't able to communicate the full details, but she conveyed enough information to get him up to speed.

"The Ylvaine Protectorate surrendered to the Friday Coalition?! The CRC launched an ambush on our clan with the help of foreign mercenaries?! Larkinson mech pilots died to repel the surprise attack?! My personal chef tried to assassinate me?! What the hell?!"

Ves first became alarmed. Then he turned furious!

The betrayal of one of the men he trusted to operate his brain was a horrible misstep. He had failed to investigate the exobiologist! He never imagined that the Friday Coalition was able to compromise one of his closest subordinates!

What happened afterwards made him even angrier. The Friday Coalition not only targeted his life, but even convinced the Protectorate government to dance to its tune!

Though the Golden Cat didn't convey too many details, Ves could easily figure out the reason why the government turned against the Bright Martyr.

He didn't blame the Ylvainans too much. They were under heavy pressure from the Friday Coalition and the surrounding hostile states to defect to their club.

What truly made him angry was that the Friday Coalition and the CRC simply wouldn't let him go!

"I was already planning to leave this stupid star sector! Why must you hound me and threaten my life?! It's not enough for you to aim at my life. Killing my fellow Larkinsons is a step too far! Blood must be repaid with blood!"

Ves was not a vindictive mech designer, but right now his entire Spirituality thrummed with fury!

He wanted to make the Friday Coalition pay!

He wanted the Hexadric Hegemony to win the Komodo War!

He wanted to kill Lady Aisling and Patricia in person for embroiling him into a feud with the CRC!

"I need to wake up! I can't remain stuck into a coma forever!"

He remembered why he contacted the Golden Cat and quickly requested her to teach him how to observe his surroundings in a Spiritual fashion.

Nyaaaaa? Nyaaaa.

Though the Golden Cat was surprised that Ves wasn't able to do so, she was eager to show him how to perceive the material realm through pure Spirituality.

The technique was very profound. It was so complicated that Ves immediately grew confused!

"Stop! Don't teach me this method! Don't you have a simpler one? I just need to observe my immediate surroundings."

Nyaaa.

Several hours passed by as the Golden Cat slowly instructed Ves on how to construct a 'spiritual eye', for a lack of a better description.

Once Ves figured out the broad strokes of the Golden Cat's techniques, he began to run with the idea and added his own touches to the spiritual eye. He incorporated several principles of mech sensor technology into the eye in order to increase its sensitivity and resolution!

The moment he infused the spiritual eye with energy and brought it to life, he finally gained an omnidirectional view of his body's surroundings.

Though the 360 degree vision disoriented him a bit, he couldn't help but perceive something very alarming!

"Gloriana? Why are you licking my face?!"