The Mech Touch

As the date of the upcoming product reveal of the Doom Guard approached, something completely unexpected occurred.

One day, the boisterous Cinach System welcomed another august visitor.

If the arrival of Ves Larkinson and his formidable Hexer escort already sent tongues wagging, this time the new arrival attracted attention from the highest level of the Sentinel Kingdom!

As Ves was in the middle of an intensive mental design session with Gloriana, an external alarm caused the pair to quickly retract their implants from each other!

The quick withdrawal and the abrupt return to normal time caused Ves to suffer a minor headache. He groaned and held his palm against his forehead.

"Meow?"

Lucky, who was huddled against Clixie, looked up at him with a curious expression.

"Something is up." Ves frowned. "I just received an emergency notification from Benny."

Soon enough, his executive assistant barged into his design lab. He looked so alarmed that Ves was convinced that something serious had happened!

"Boss! You won't believe what happened! A ship called the Ubiquitous Force just entered the Cinach System! She's on her way to Cinach VI right now!"

"...What?"

Was there a reason for Ves to take note of the arrival of a random starship? The Cinach System was one of the Sentinel Kingdom's many trade hubs. Hundreds, if not thousands of ships entered and exited the star system every day!

"The Ubiquitous Force is not an ordinary ship! She's an armed MTA frigate!"

"What?!"

The unscheduled arrival of a genuine warship was truly unusual! As far as he was aware of, the MTA didn't maintain any notable military bases at Cinach. The large branch on Cinach VI mostly serviced the local mech industry. It held relatively little defensive value compared to the fortresses the Association erected elsewhere.

Ves didn't bother to ask Gavin any questions. Instead, he connected his implant to the galactic net and rapidly scanned the latest news.

It only took a few seconds for Ves to understand his assistant's alarm.

The Ubiquitous Force was not a regular frigate! She was a vessel that was personally assigned to one of the Master Mech Designers stationed at Centerpoint!

The name of this Master sounded very familiar to Ves. His face instantly darkened.

"What is it, Ves?" His girlfriend asked as she stroked Clixie's back. "Who arrived in this star system?"

"It seems Master Moira Willix of the MTA has decided to visit Cinach VI. Her personal frigate portal jumped over at the best possible speed according to the starship watchers."

What took at least a month for Scarlet Rose to traverse only took a day or two at best!

If Master Willix embarked on a trip to Cinach the regular way, then Ves and his Larkinson Fleet would have been gone by then. He wouldn't have to deal with her thieving presence in that case!

Sadly, not everything went his way.

"Has Master Willix announced the reason for her visit?" Gloriana asked with a hopeful smile.

"No, Miss Gloriana." Gavin meekly responded as if he worked for her instead of Ves! "The people of the MTA have no obligation to explain themselves. What few inquiries the locals have sent to the Ubiquitous Force have gone unanswered. We do know that the MTA branch at downtown Torze has exhibited a lot of activity since yesterday. We can now conclude that the local mechers have been getting ready to receive an august figure."

"Ugh." Ves groaned and palmed his face. "And I'm sure the great master's visit has NOTHING to do with the validation of our latest mech design."

There was no way a revered Master Mech Designer portal jumped straight into the Cinach System to lay her eyes on the mechs designed by the local mech industry. The only reasonable explanation was that she came to take a peek at the work of a mech designer she had already expressed interest beforehand!

What a nightmare!

For a moment, Ves darted his eyes at Lucky. He began to contemplate the feasibility of sending off on an impromptu assassination mission.

"Meow?"

"Yeah, bad idea."

He quickly shelved his impulsive thoughts. Even if Lucky's stealth and phasing abilities turned him into a top-notch assassin, there was no way a higher up of the MTA was that easy to kill!

Ves already knew that senior CFA officers gained access to fancy toys such as personal teleporters, high-grade shields, life-saving augmentations and more.

If that wasn't enough, her bodyguards, whether they came in the form of mechs or accompanied her on foot, were incredibly formidable! Before Lucky could even rake his claws into Willix's flesh, the bodyguards would have already moved into action!

High technology was both miraculous and unfathomable to Ves. The MTA was one of the two most powerful organizations in human space, and utilized the best tech at humanity's disposal. Underestimating the survival abilities of a high official of the Association was a quick way to ruin his life!

"Have we received any message from the MTA, Benny?"

"We are watching our channels around the clock. So far, we have received nothing but routine notifications. The validation process of the Doom Guard design is still ongoing, though the MTA branch has unexpectedly extended it by a couple of days."

Ves' face frowned. "That means our design won't be validated until after its product reveal! I can't introduce a product and provide the assurance that it will go on sale very soon!"

What if the MTA withheld its validation on the design? What if they knocked on his doors in order to requests some modifications? The delays would stall the momentum of his product release!

"Can we postpone our announcement?"

"We can't delay the product reveal, boss." Gavin shook his head. "We have already invited a lot of journalists, outfits and other people. A significant chunk of them have specifically booked passage to our star system. These are professionals who are on a very tight schedule. They'll be departing Cinach the next day!"

In short, Ves would piss off a lot of people who he was desperate to impress. Even if a delay wasn't a big deal for them, they would still attend his product reveal with a worse outlook than before!

"It's not a big problem as long as the MTA validates the Doom Guard design in the end, boss. The brief delay is meaningless since it will take at least a week for the first batch of mechs to be produced and undergo certification. Besides, if Master Willix has truly gone out of her way to travel to Cinach to inspect your latest work, it shouldn't be anything bad, right?"

Both Ves and Gloriana bought this argument. They were supremely confident of their work! They both knew that their striker mech had the potential to upend the entire market for striker mechs!

Certain mechs designed by other competitors might spew hotter flames, possess more capacity, resist more damage or accelerate faster.

Yet none of them fulfilled the area denial role as well as the Doom Guard!

When the shock at the news finally faded, Ves and Gloriana tried their best to resume their work in refining the first iteration of their Hexer mech design.

They didn't get much done for the rest of the day.

Ves didn't mind too much. The project had already reached a fairly advanced stage. The mech was already in a fully functional state and only required a lot of optimization from this point.

He was pretty proud of what he achieved. The unnamed Hexer mech design was not only an adequate knight mech that could provide basic but meaningful defensive support, but also possessed a range of powerful energy transmission capabilities!

The latter demanded most of his time. Even with Gloriana's expertise, it had been exceptionally troublesome to fit all of the functionality in a single mech frame!

He spent way more time than necessary on the energy siphoning mechanisms alone. He continually strengthened the extra appendages in order to ensure they were sharp and strong enough to breach through various kinds of mech armor. He even consulted Ketis, though at her current level she was of little help to a project of this magnitude.

The inordinate amount of time that Ves spent on sharpening the breaching components attracted Gloriana's attention time and time again.

"Aren't you overdoing it, Ves? It's as if you are trying to make it sharp enough to pierce through the chest armor of a mech!"

He chuckled in response. "I'm not aiming that high. I'm just afraid that it won't be able to pierce through the weak points of a mech. While every machine exhibits vulnerabilities, it still takes a certain amount of force to exploit them. The extra appendages are already fairly weak by themselves, so I have to make sure they won't fail during a critical moment on the battlefield! Many lives are at stake!"

What he conveniently left out of his explanation was that the extra apppendages weren't limited to breaching downed machines. They could also be used to penetrate through the armor of active mech as long as it exposed its weak points!

While Ves did not expect that boys would make use of it in ordinary circumstances due to the indoctrination the women imposed on them, in desperate situations it could make all the difference!

A day after Master Moira Willix's unexpected arrival at Cinach, Ves and Gloriana were just about to start another design session. Before they could do so, their comms chimed at the same time.

They finally received an official notice from the MTA.

"Great news, Ves!" She spoke with a widening grin. "Master Willix has personally summoned us to the MTA branch at Torze! She's definitely impressed with our latest mech design, I'm sure of it! This is our chance to learn from her again!"

Ves did not share Gloriana's enthusiasm. Instead, fear and suspicion clouded his mind. Unlike her, Ves didn't value Master Willix's teaching that much. He was already doing fine by himself!

While the guidance of a Master was of inestimate value to any lesser mech designer, Ves would rather push it away if he had to expose his core secrets!

He coughed. "Our current design project still requires our attention. Gloriana, why don't you go ahead and meet this appointment while I go and complete the first iteration of our remaining mech design?"

His girlfriend froze and turned around. "You dare to reject an invitation from a Master? YOU DARE?! In addition, it's one thing to ignore the entreaties of a Master from the Friday Coalition, it's another thing to ignore a Master who belongs to the MTA! Master Willix is one of the greatest mech designers that I have the privilege of meeting and I am not about to let you ruin this reunition! Our Hexer mech design can wait! Besides, the official notice mentioned you specifically by name, so you can't skip it even if you are sick!"

"Goddammit."

Ves and his gleeful girlfriend quickly boarded a shuttle that flew them to their destination.

As the surface of Cinach VI swept underneath the vehicle, Ves began to build up his mental and spiritual defenses. When he finally met Master Willix again, he wanted to give away as little clues as possible!

He would be damned if Master Willix succeeded in imitating his design philosophy!

During the flight, he missed the company of their cats. The official notice didn't mention them and Ves thought it was best for their pets to stay as far away from a Master as possible.

They didn't even bring that many bodyguards, because the MTA would be taking care of all the security arrangements at the premises. Not even Nitaa was allowed to go any further than the shuttle once they landed at the site!

"You don't have to be so nervous, Ves." His girlfriend offered a reassuring smile at him. She completely misunderstood his concerns! "Master Willix probably didn't come to invalidate our mech design. While our Doom Guard contains a few alarming elements, I'm sure we'll be able to account for ourselves to the great master!"

"That's the least of my worries…"