The Mech Touch

A month after reaching Cinach, the Larkinson Clan continued to expand and consolidate its strength.

The Clan of the Golden Cat became more and more formidable during this time! The quantity and quality of ships, mechs and manpower constantly improved with each passing day!

The only downside was the increased strain to the clan's financial health. Much more cash flowed out of its coffers than the other way around!

The pressure this worsening trend exerted on Ves increased. It became more important than ever to generate new revenue sources for the clan!

Right now, Ves could only rest his hopes on his upcoming striker mech project. Though it was merely a third-class mech design, it had the potential to become a very big seller!

As the project progressed rapidly during the last few weeks, the mech came close to reaching its prototype testing phase.

While Ves did not involve himself too closely in its design process, he spent a considerable amount of time and effort on preparing its spiritual foundation.

He already decided to imbue the design with Zeigra's spiritual fragment, but it needed a considerable amount of treatment before the striker mech's glow became menacing enough to achieve its intended effect.

Ves wanted his flamethrower-wielding mech to be able to scare away enemy mech pilots with its glow alone!

"This is the solution to the capacity problem!" He concluded.

He spent way too much time in trying to resolve this critical shortcoming. His striker mech boasted a decent amount of armor and a considerable punch, but its endurance and longevity on the battlefield never reached a satisfactory standard!

Ves had already tried and failed to come up with an alternate configuration to its humanoid mech shape. At its current budget and tech level, there weren't any good solutions to the fundamental problem that his striker mech risked running out of propellant a bit too quickly.

"However, my mech doesn't necessarily have to burn its opponents to a crisp in order to complete its mission."

He expressly designed his mech to act as a deterrent to massed attacks. While it would be best for his mechs to destroy any enemies entering its reach, scaring them away was the next-best outcome!

There were multiple ways to fulfill this second objective. Previously, Ves focused most of his design efforts in integrating and optimizing the cooperation between the mech frame and the 34F Enison Spreader flamethrower model.

"The simplest way to deter incoming enemies is to throw a lot of firepower in their direction."

With the Enison Spreader as the central focus, Ves designed everything else about the mech around the weapon. He even planned out its glow to compliment the fear factor of putting up a wall of flames!

It was only later on that his perspective started to shift.

The glow for the mech needed to play more than just a complimentary role. It had to be able to become frightening enough to deter approaching enemies even if the mech wasn't engaging in active area denial!

When Gloriana heard his reasoning, she didn't look convinced.

"I understand what you are getting at, Ves." She began. "As much as I have faith in your glows, your proto-gods aren't strong enough to carry a battle by themselves. Not at their current level of development. We always designed this mech with the assumption that the glow and the flamethrower would work in unison to achieve the effect we want. By themselves, neither of them are as effective as we would like."

A suppressive glow mainly affected the mentality of the opposing mech pilot. However, there were so many variables which affected the success rate of relying on a glow to fulfill one of the mech's objectives.

Against an outfit with overwhelming numbers or excellent training, it was hard for a glow to affect their morale and composure! The confidence that mech pilots gained in their material advantages vastly outweighed any vague mental influences!

Still, Ves didn't give up on his dream. "I think it should still be possible to rely on psychological pressure alone to keep enemies at a distance. I just have to spice up the spiritual composition of our mech design. Zeigra alone can't do it alone."

The former Crown Cat turned spiritual entity was truly a strong and frightening being. Whether he was dead or alive, his notable spiritual prowess which emerged as a coincidence was something that Ves had already made use of in the Kinslayer and Prideful Soldier designs!

However, it was exactly because of his familiarity with Zeigra's glow that Ves held little confidence in the huge cat.

Properly speaking, Zeigra excelled in devouring and corrosion. When he used to be alive, the Crown Cat was notorious for degrading the integrity of enemy mechs and consuming the opponents he downed!

The intimidation factor he possessed was mainly a side effect of his desire to prey on others. The cat constantly regarded everyone and everything else as its food!

Though this was very disconcerting, Zeigra would much rather maul and munch on its prey than scaring it to death!

"I'm running out of time." He whispered to himself. "Soon, we'll test out the prototypes and optimize the design even further. I can't introduce major changes while the project has reached an advanced stage."

He began to run through his options. Which design spirit or spiritual entity could he choose from to turn his striker mech into a fear machine?

Only one possibility remained.

"I need to visit the Scarlet Rose's vault." He told Gloriana.

"Can I come with you?" She asked.

"No. I don't need your help."

He took Lucky and departed the design lab.

For the past month, more than half of the clan was working and living on solid ground. To many Larkinsons, the return to normality that living on a terrestrial planet provided was very essential in restoring their mental states!

Even Ves, who was determined to make his fleet his home, still wasn't used to spending so many months in space!

"Meow."

"Just one more month to go before we are ready to depart. We'll be saying goodbye to the Larkinson Family at that time."

"Meow?"

"I don't know, Lucky. It depends on the opportunities I can find. I'm still on the lookout for lucrative missions that can earn me lots of credits, but most of them are only suitable for teams."

He had been dropping into the Rim Exchange every other day. Each time his Apollo Radiant avatar entered the Merit Hall, he gained numerous offers, each of which he ignored.

He didn't want to split his mission rewards!

Unfortunately, the missions suitable for individuals rewarded far too little merits in proportion to the risk and time commitment they demanded.

Sure, earning 2 million merits after completing a single mission sounded nice.

What was not so nice was that he would have to venture at least two years into the interior of the Nyxian Gap before spending another two years to exit the region!

Ves began to lose hope of finding a suitable mission. The Rim Guardians may be generous, but they weren't running a charity! Its merit rewards never came easily, especially to Journeymen whose capabilities were limited compared to Masters!

"I'd have to be a Master myself in order to become eligible for the most lucrative missions!"

He even thought up the crazy notion of impersonating a Master before instantly stamping it out!

"It will never work! The MTA and the Rim Guardians can never be fooled so easily!"

Yet aside from this insane stunt, how else could he gain access to the most lucrative missions?

"Maybe.. I can suck up to one of the high-ranking associates of the Rim Guardians."

This meant he needed to find a patron within the Rim Exchange, which wasn't easy. Journeymen were very limited in the perspective of Masters! There was no way that Ves could earn enough recognition to obtain more than a miniscule share of every mission he completed with a patron!

Still, out of all of the available options, this hail mary option was the realistic one out of the bunch. Ves just needed to find a receptive Master and trade something of value.

"For example.. I can offer to impart my glows to their mechs."

One of the more profound but neglected advantages of his specialty was its lack of conflict with nearly every other design philosophy!

Unless another mech designer specialized in something that worked directly with spirituality, then Ves was very confident he could blend his specialty in the works of other mech designers!

No matter how weird their products turned out to be, Ves could always add some value to them by infusing them with a spiritual foundation or imbuing them with a living design spirit!

His eyes burned a bit brighter. This was actually a viable option!

His enthusiasm quickly died down, though.

"I just have to prove my value to Masters."

That was not easy. Masters had access to an enormous talent pool. A huge amount of mech designers wished to work for them. They were practically spoiled when it came to adding complimentary specialties to their design teams!

Still, Ves believed his glows had reached a level where they could significantly improve the effectiveness of any mech!

His existing mech designs should already be sufficient to prove his worth, but Ves feared that it would take more to attract the attention of Masters.

"They don't necessarily care about third-class mechs." He muttered. "While my striker mech design will undoubtedly be able to raise a lot of eyebrows if I succeed, it will be my Hexer mech which will truly put me on the map!"

The landbound support knight mech was a bit further off from completion. Its complexity still perplexed Ves and Gloriana on a regular basis.

Still, its promise in terms of impact was greater than that of his striker mech! Not only would it be his first proper second-class mech design, his Hexer mech had the potential to capture the attention of the entire star sector if it succeeded in making a difference in the huge and pivotal Komodo War!

If that ever happened, Ves would finally have the capital to negotiate with Masters!

After a short trip, he reached the location in the base where his crew parked the mobile supply frigate.

He entered the former Fridayman vessel and passed through numerous security checkpoints until he reached her vault.

As usual, Ves left all of his bodyguards behind barring Nitaa. The bodyguard immediately frowned upon entering.

The air within the vault was rather unsettling.

"Meow!"

Even Lucky showed signs of vigilance!

"Oh, damnit!"

Ves cursed under his breath as he strode to a certain area of the vault. He opened a secure storage section and pulled out the Ancient Sarcophagus that was the source of the unsettling feeling!

Right now, the alien coffin looked a lot more active than his last visit to the vault!

"Nyxie!"

The ancient alien spiritual entity was roiling with fury! His potent spiritual energy was colliding against the bonds of his ancient prison. He wanted to escape!

"Oh no you don't!"

Ves only intended to harvest a small spiritual mote from Nyxie in order to enhance the intimidation factor of his striker mech.

Right now, he couldn't afford to act with restraint. Nyxie had restored some strength and was using it to erode his prison even further! A minor cut wasn't enough to suppress the dangerous spiritual entity!

"I need my F-stone!"

Fortunately, he stored all of the necessary tools in the same vault. He retrieved his B-stone lockbox and put it over his head in order to shield his mind. He also made sure to reinforce the basic spiritual shield he projected around his mind.

After that, he retrieved his F-stone, drew out some of its offensive charge, and cut out a decent-sized spiritual fragment from Nyxie!

Having done this multiple times, Ves proficiently wounded the ancient alien tyrant without exposing himself to any counterattacks!

Soon, the furious Nyxie subsided as he lost too much strength all of a sudden. The Ancient Sarcophagus no longer appeared active as its bonds finally managed to contain the weakened outburst of its prisoner.

While Ves had managed to succeed this time, he didn't look happy.

"What if I didn't come? Would Nyxie have been able to succeed in breaking out his prison?"

That would have been a catastrophe to Ves and the clan!