The Mech Touch

"Uncle Butus…" A cute voice called.

"It's 'Brutus' with an R, young lady. Can you say Brutus?"

"Butus!"

"...You will get it right eventually."

A pink-suited figure ran towards the man who wore a dashing white piloting suit and hugged his leg.

Brutus bent down and lifted the tiny but energetic figure of Aurelia up. The little girl giggled as the expert pilot automatically retracted his helmet so he could plant a kiss on Aurelia's forehead and cheek.

"Hihihihi! Kiss back!"

Aurelia did not hesitate to lean forward so that she could plant kisses on her uncle's smooth and handsome face.

As uncle and niece showed their affection towards each other, Gloriana stepped inside Brutus' stateroom aboard the Indigo Tremor.

She approached and hugged his body before looking at him with an evaluating gaze.

"You look good, brother. You seem stronger than before."

"I made a few new insights and deepened my control over the Star Dancer Mark II. My resonance strength has grown." Brutus smiled as Aurelia's tiny hands curiously rubbed over his stubble.

"What is your current peak?"

"20.75 laveres."

Gloriana gasped with surprise and happiness! "You've already advanced to a mid-tier expert pilot! That's faster than I expected!"

There was no single uniform standard that defined the tiers of expert pilots. Different organizations maintained slightly different thresholds based on different combinations of factors such as resonance strength, actual combat strength, expert mech performance and actual battle records.

However, most people used certain measures of resonance strength as a shorthand indication of the overall tier of an expert pilot.

A demigod with a resonance strength that was approaching the upper limit was unlikely to be lacking in combat experience!

A low-tier expert pilot's resonance strength ranged between 1 to 20 laveres.

A mid-tier expert pilot's resonance strength ranged between 20 to 40 laveres.

A high-tier expert pilot's resonance strength ranged between 40 to 60 laveres.

A peak-tier expert pilot's resonance strength ranged between 60 to 67 laveres.

The latter happened to be extremely rare. These were basically old dogs who possessed many decades of combat experience and constantly worked hard to obtain their breakthrough chance.

Unfortunately for most of them, they missed the best time for them to achieve their breakthroughs and suffered from the many ailments brought by aging.

Of course, Brutus did not have to worry about this outcome as he was still in the prime of his life.

In the eyes of Gloriana, Brutus checked all of the boxes for him to qualify as a mid-tier expert pilot.

Though his combat experience was not too abundant, he had fought numerous pitched battles and never slacked off in his training.

His new Star Dancer Mark II was substantially more powerful than his previous expert mech in almost every parameter.

Now that his resonance strength had finally caught up, he had become an existence that could fight with a clear advantage against his weaker and less-developed peers!

This was enough for Gloriana to be happy for her older brother!

As the two sat down on one of the couches in the central compartment, they entered into a discussion about all of the progress that Brutus had made as of late.

The expert pilot had not only grown his resonance strength, but also polished his piloting skills and deepened his mastery of the Star Dancer Mark II.

As he became a stronger and more capable pilot, his expert mech no longer fit him as well as before. The Star Dancer Mark II was tweaked for a demigod who was weaker than his current self.

Part of the reason why Gloriana decided to pay a visit to the Indigo Tremor was to perform the necessary adjustments to her beloved brother's mech.

"Miaow miaow."

As Clixie rested on Brutus' lap and kept Aurelia company, Gloriana contemplated the tweaks she needed to make in order to increase her brother's combat efficiency.

"I think you are ready to assume a greater degree of manual control over your machine." She concluded. "The Star Dancer Mark II is one of the most agile and maneuverable mechs that I have been involved with. It is designed with quick and dexterous movements in mind, but we have locked part of it away because it requires too much fine control on your part in order to make the most out of this potential. If your familiarity, control and multi-tasking is not up to par, then you are liable to trip up your own expert mech."

"I understand that, but I am more than ready for the challenge, sister. You know exactly what I focus on with my fighting style."

Rifleman mech specialists generally excelled in two different directions.

There were the long-ranged marksmen like Venerable Davia Stark who focused most of their efforts on pursuing maximum firepower and extreme precision.

Expert pilots like these were at home in large, organized battles where they could sit in the rear and rely on the protection of their comrades to snipe distant opponents with impunity.

The downside to this fighting approach was that they usually didn't polish their self-defense capabilities.

While expert pilots were always skilled in every aspect of piloting a mech, their time was limited and they could only practice a limited skill set at a time.

Marksman specialists had to spend much of their time increasing their accuracy and precision in a variety of difficult circumstances. This caused them to fall further behind in terms of dueling and close-ranged dogfighting compared to other expert pilots.

Brutus pursued a radically different fighting style. He was the quintessential example of a mid-range duelist who could hold his own against other individual expert pilots.

His long-ranged precision might not be as great, but he was much more able to track fast-moving expert mechs while performing evasive maneuvers with his own expert mech.

Performing all of these intricate and interconnected actions demanded a lot out of every mech pilot!

Expert pilots didn't have it easy either because their expert mechs required vastly more control in order to keep up with the extreme performance of enemy expert mechs.

Gloriana took notes as Brutus conveyed his demands. She interpreted his requests and came up with an increasingly more precise plan on how to tweak the Star Dancer Mark II.

"The firepower of my rifle is falling behind." Brutus told his sister.

"That shouldn't be the case." She frowned. "The Hexacris is one of Ves' custom-developed luminar crystal rifles. It is as powerful as it can be at its size and budget."

"It's a weapon designed to fight against mechs and expert mechs. It is not designed to fight against alien warships and these space monsters we keep bumping into. What if we encounter an angry descendant of that giant phase whale skeleton one day? The Hexacris loses most of its advantages against such a large and massive opponent. What I require in this scenario is not a light and fast-firing energy rifle, but a large and heavy gun that doesn't need to be too precise but can disgorge powerful, penetrating shots."

"That… should be possible, but let me think this through." Gloriana said as she fell into thought.

The Star Dancer Mark II was not optimized for this mode of combat. While the advantage of humanoid mechs was that they could handle any sort of weapon that fit in their hands, that didn't always mean that it was wise to equip them with substantially different weapons.

If the Amaranto's Instrument of Vengeance happened to fall into the hands of her brother's expert mech, then the powerful precision rifle would not be able to output as much damage due to constraints in energy transmission.

In addition to that, the Star Dancer Mark II's configuration was not designed with long-ranged precision in mind. Many stabilizers, compensators and adjustment systems that turned the Amaranto into an excellent sniper platform were absent in her brother's machine.

The Star Dancer Mark II instead dedicated much of its capacity to enhancing its mobility and agility!

If the Hexer expert mech wasn't moving around like a nimble hummingbird, then Brutus wasn't utilizing its strengths to the fullest!

The drop in efficiency resulting from a mismatch between weapon configuration and mech configuration was so significant that Gloriana couldn't stand the thought of facilitating this approach.

However, she knew that her brother was right. Having a bigger if more unwieldy mech rifle at his disposal could make a substantial difference in a battle against one of the many native alien forces in the Red Ocean.

She let out a sigh. "I will talk to Ves about this. The design project shouldn't take much time to complete. The only variables we need to think about is deciding what materials we should use to develop a superior weapon."

Now that she accepted Brutus' request, she wanted to make sure that her husband delivered a great result rather than going through the motions.

Once Brutus finished outlining all of his preferences with regards to a possible second luminar crystal rifle for his expert mech, he addressed a different topic.

"Mother is in the process of arranging a marriage for me." He revealed in a neutral tone.

"She is?!" Gloriana became excited all of a sudden. "That's great news! Who will be your potential partner?"

"Mother is in talks with the Evern Matriarchal Dynasty about matching me with Lady Callisto Evern."

"Callisto Evern? I haven't heard about her. Is she to your liking?" Gloriana asked.

"Lady Callisto is… a gorgeous woman." Brutus admitted. "The Everns are being highly sincere this time due to our Wodin Dynasty's close relationship with your husband. Lady Callisto Evern has maintained a low profile in Hexer society, but she is a main branch descendant who has already become one of the executives of a major company that the matriarchal dynasty has founded in the Red Ocean.. If the marriage is set, Lady Callisto will move into our fleet and take charge of some of the logistical affairs of the Glory Seekers."

It sounded like a good match to Gloriana. Lady Callisto was a Hexer of superior birth and standing. Backed by one of the six most powerful dynasties of the Hexer people, her presence in the expeditionary fleet meant that the Glory Seekers stood to gain greater access to resources, womanpower and starships!

However, even as Gloriana admired her mother for forging a closer alliance between the Wodins and the Everns, she neglected to pay attention to her brother's sinking expression.

Little Aurelia noticed the changes in Brutus' expression and tilted her head.

"Uncle sad?"

"No. Not quite. Maybe. I don't know." He softly said as he rubbed her precious hair.

"Hm?" Gloriana frowned as she snapped out of her thoughts. "Brother… you are not happy with our mother's arrangements?"

He sighed. "You haven't lived with us, so you probably haven't noticed all of the changes that have taken place within our ships. Just as with my fellow soldiers in the fleet, my time in the fleet has changed me. I am proud to call myself a Glory Seeker, but… our state is dying, sister."

"That is just a temporary setback!" She insisted! "The Hexadric Hegemony may be about to fall, but a newer Hexer state will assuredly rise again in the Red Ocean!"

Brutus shook his head. "It won't work, Gloriana. The Hexer way of life has failed. The more we have traveled outside of the borders of the Hexadric Hegemony, the more we recognize how much the lessons we have learned are wrong. Each time we pray to the Superior Mother, we do not feel she is admonishing us for thinking this way. She has taught us that women as well as boys deserve equal compassion. Do you think that Lady Callisto Evern will be as open-minded? Even if she is willing to play along… I do not think I will be happy with tying my life to a Hexer who constantly wants to be in charge. I… want to spend my life with a different woman."

"..."

Gloriana froze. It was as if she was completely incapable of processing her brother's defiance against their mother!