The Mech Touch

Venerable Joshua was pleasantly surprised.

Although he was young and eager to earn glory and wealth for himself and the clan, he did not have a death wish.

It was the opposite. Now that his relationship with Ketis had progressed to the point where they were expecting a child, Joshua felt a little less eager to risk his life when he had yet to hold his future baby in his arms.

Becoming a father could change any man, and Joshua was no exception. In fact, he developed an even greater urge to raise his own family due to his own quirks.

He had to make quite a drastic mental adjustment in order to get around the idea that he would be raising kids at this stage in his life. However, that did not stop him from looking forward to the years to come.

If he had a choice between raising his kid in the middle of an alien-infested conflict zone and a more peaceful region, Joshua would definitely choose the latter!

He did not want to put his child under any more distress than necessary. Just the thought that alien warships could come and attack the ship hosting his wife and kids made him feel uncomfortable!

Venerable Joshua smiled even as he made sure to pay enough attention to piloting his expert mech.

"Returning to Davute in order to settle down and grow sounds great. How many years will we stay put exactly?"

"Who knows." Ves shrugged before he thought about his main goals. "It will depend on many circumstances. Strictly speaking, we need to make numerous arrangements. First, we need to design and equip our mech legions with a complete set of exclusive mech models. Our old Bright Warriors and such need to make way for better options that are more adapted to the actual circumstances of the Red Ocean. Second, we need to acquire more carriers. Our mech capacity is too low at the moment. Third, we need to establish a thriving mech company that has at least obtained a foothold in Davute's mech market. Only after we have met these goals will we be better equipped to face the challenges of the new frontier."

"And that will take…?"

"Five years, I think. Any sooner than that and I don't think we will be able to acquire enough combat carriers. They're really difficult to get a hold of and they take time to build. Any later than that and I am afraid that a lot of our clansmen will become too comfortable with their more sedentary lives. I don't want everyone to forget the motto of our clan."

PER ANGUSTA AD AUGUSTA.

Ves twitched a smile. "That's right, Everchanger. It's not just a fancy phrase. A motto succinctly encapsulates our identity, or at least it is supposed to do that. There are so many people trying to get ahead in society that normal means aren't enough to stand out and become successful. We need to get off the beaten path and find opportunities like the one we are attempting to grasp right now. Normal people would never think about taking the risk to head deeper into Purgatory, but that is exactly what makes us different. I don't want to wake up one day and find out that our clansmen have lost their ambition and their fighting spirit."

This was why Ves did not want his fleet to sit around for longer than five years.

In fact, settling down for five years was already a considerable risk. A lot of people would grow up and mature over this period of time. The patterns they developed during these quiet times would take up a significant chunk of their lives. Ves needed to make sure he could shake this complacency by throwing right back into the fire after the time for rearming and rebuilding was over!

A strong clan needed a strong army. Ves did not invest a huge amount of funding and resources into his mechs and mech pilots just so that they could function as glorified guards! They needed to retain their fighting spirit and be willing and able to fight all kinds of threats, no matter whether they were mechs, alien warships or giant exobeasts!

All of this was for the purpose of getting ahead.

He did not want to give up on massive discoveries like Purgatory. If there was one phase whale enclave in the Krakatoa Middle Zone, then there were doubtless other ones in the region!

Since phase whales were arguably the most powerful alien race in the Red Ocean, their space pockets should never be too shabby! Perhaps the giant aliens stashed the majority of their wealth in these hidden areas!

Although Ves wasn't sure what means he could use to track down and open these phase whale enclaves, he had several years to come up with possible solutions.

If he failed to find a good way to plunder these lucrative pocket spaces, then he could always adjust his goals afterwards.

As for finding the hidden areas, Ves could just leave that job to the Black Cats. In any case, Calabast had taken a lot of MTA credits from him in the name of building up a regional intelligence network. It would only be right for him to expect a return on his investment!

As Ves and Joshua talked about how they would spend the following years if the Larkinson Clan took a five year break, the Everchanger suddenly joined their conversation.

EARLIER, YOU SAID YOU INTEND TO REPLACE OUR OLDER MECHS WITH NEWER ONES BASED ON BETTER DESIGNS. WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THE MECHS THAT HAVE BECOME OBSOLETE?

The Everchanger applied a bit more pressure to the cockpit, signaling that this matter was of considerable importance to the expert mech!

Ves adopted an awkward expression. If an ordinary person asked this question, then he would have replied that his clan would do what it had done before. There was no room for redundant mechs on his fleet. Continuing to carry them around when they took up space that could have been occupied by mechs that were 30, 50 or even 100 percent stronger was foolish!

However, Ves reminded himself that he had just promised to treat living mechs better. The Everchanger was apparently highly invested in this topic and would not regard Ves in a favorable light if he expressed his determination to slaughter redundant living mechs en masse like before!

He lightly coughed. "In the past, our options were limited, but now that we have gained a bit more room for ourselves, we don't have to dispose of our older mechs. One of the plans that I have in mind is to buy a large plot of land in Davute or another planet so that we can build an extensive base and industrial compound. It shouldn't be too difficult to add additional storage halls where we can mothball the living mechs that we do not need anymore."

He never thought about doing this in the past because he wasn't ready to extend the presence of his clan outside the fleet.

Now that he had decided to adjust his strategy, the problems that had plagued him in the past no longer sounded like a big deal to him anymore. After acquiring an abundant amount of territory on a planet or two, the Larkinsons would have more than enough storage space to store as much miscellaneous goods as they wanted!

The Everchanger was evidently satisfied with this response.

THE SO-CALLED SECOND ORDER LIVING MECHS IN OUR FLEET MAY NOT BE WORTH MUCH TO YOU OVER THE PASSAGE OF TIME, BUT THEY HAVE FAITHFULLY SERVED THEIR PURPOSE. I DO NOT WANT THEM TO MEET AN IGNOBLE END JUST BECAUSE THEIR USE TO THE CLAN HAS COME TO AN END. IF THEY CANNOT MEET AN GLORIOUS END IN BATTLE, THEN AT LEAST LET THEM RETIRE WITH HONOR.

"I agree." Venerable Joshua said in support. "I was always bothered with the way we treated our old mechs before. They're not as alive as the Everchanger and the other masterwork mechs in our hands, but that shouldn't change the fact that they still deserve to be treated with dignity. I think every living mech in our clan would become happier if they knew that we have set up a retirement home for their kind."

A retirement home. For mechs.

Normally, people referred to them as junk yards or debris fields. The only value that old mechs held was the amount of valuable raw materials that recycling companies could squeeze out of their old and outdated frames.

To change all of that and provide mechs with a lot more welfare than at any point in human history sounded bizarre! Ves started to feel weirder and weirder about the treatment he was prepared to offer to his living mechs.

Still, it felt right to Ves and aligned with the values and principles he held dear in his heart. Though he did not have many qualms about violating them when they got in the way, this was not an urgent situation.

The only problem he had with this solution was what would happen if this kept happening.

If the Design Department came up with another batch of mech models, would the Larkinson Army have to place another batch of tens of thousands of living mechs in their new 'retirement homes'?

The bigger the scale, the bigger the burden. If the Larkinson Clan grew to the point where it was able to field millions of mechs, that meant that Ves would probably have to reserve an entire planet to make sure there was enough space and that the locals didn't get greedy and try to steal the old machines!

Ves frowned as he tried to think on what he could do to prevent the living mech retirement homes from overflowing.

Eventually, he came up with an acceptable idea.

"The living mechs that eventually age and fall behind our stands don't have to stay that way forever." He said with a smile. "For example, the Bright Warrior Mark I Version B that we have used for years may have fallen behind these days, but the concept behind this model is still sound. I will definitely revisit the design and update it so that I can complete a Mark II edition of this easy and dependable mech!"

Both Joshua and the Everchanger perked up when they heard this. They both knew what this meant!

"I learned that upgrading an old mech to modern standards is a lot more difficult and time-consuming than building a brand-new mech." Joshua remarked. "Will the clan be willing to invest all of that extra effort into upgrading all of the mothballed living mechs?"

"Why not? While there is an undeniable cost to doing so, the tradeoff is worth it. These living mechs have already grown from their starting point and have become more formidable in their own way. It would be a waste to set aside all of this accumulation and start over from scratch. By upgrading their physical shells so that they can keep up with all of our newer mechs, these veterans of the battlefield will be able to make a considerably greater difference on the battlefield!"

IT IS LIKE GIVING EVERY LOYAL AND DUTIFUL LIVING MECH THE OPPORTUNITY TO UNDERGO NIRVANA. NONE OF THEM WILL WAVER IN THEIR WILLINGNESS TO FIGHT FOR THE LARKINSON CLAN IF THEY LEARN THEY CAN KEEP FIGHTING IN BETTER AND BETTER FORMS.

To be honest, Ves had already developed the intention to do this, but he didn't plan to set up this scheme so soon and at this scale.

Doing this meant that he and his fellow mech designers had to abide by a commitment to keep updating the designs of most existing models in use today.

This was a considerable burden and one that Ves did not always look forward to handling. Revising his old work just wasn't as exciting as pioneering brand new mech concepts!

Nonetheless, the strength of his design philosophy was highly related to growth. If he was able to extend the lifespan of as many of his mechs as possible, then the rewards for all of this diligence would eventually be massive!

Besides, Ves didn't necessarily need to do all of the tedious work of upgrading the designs himself. His Design Department could do most of the work and it still had a lot of room for growth as well!

This was why Ves did not object to pushing this plan forward. The obstacles that hindered him before were nothing serious now that his clan had grown to this scale.