The Mech Touch

The Battle of Pima Prime ended in a decisive victory for the invading forces!

Every citizen of the Hex Federation celebrated the success of the Hex Army and the crushing of one of their most hated foes on the battlefield.

The battle did not involve any tricks or traps. Though the attacking forces most definitely leaned on the element of surprise, the Gaugers enjoyed a considerable defensive advantage.

In fact, the invaders also enjoyed a massive intelligence advantage that allowed them to plan out their assault and make the right preparations, but none of these results would have been possible without possessing enough strength!

The battle that ended today was also significant for other reasons.

For example, this was the first time that the Hexers fought alongside external allies.

During the Komodo War that the two sides fought in the past, the Fridaymen were usually the ones that relied on outside help to bolster their capabilities.

Their ploy to convert the expert pilots of 'vassal' states into their retainers had been a massive success and supplied the mech armies of the Friday Coalition with additional high-end combat power.

It was profoundly ironic that the Hexers essentially copied the same approach from the archenemies by relying on the aid of the Golden Skull Alliance to counter the Sundered Phalanx's powerful elites and champions!

The fact that the Golden Skull Alliance had actually been willing to commit their newly-advanced ace pilot in a dramatic duel to the death was shocking news to many powers in the Red Ocean!

The reputation of the Golden Skull Alliance soared overnight!

Previously, the quirky alliance made up of three weird organizations gained a bit of attention, but not too much.

The living mechs of the Larkinson Clan and the emergence of a new ace pilot from the ranks of the Cross Clan were both noteworthy attention-grabbers, but there were plenty of other groups that performed no less worse.

The Battle of Pima Prime changed people's cognition of the Golden Skull Alliance.

Though their numbers were limited, the Golden Skullers showed that their mechs and mech pilots matched or in some cases exceeded the standard of a credible veteran military mech army!

No one thought that the Sundered Phalanx was weak. Their record in a recent war was as clear as day, and even the fact that many of the mech divisions transferred to the Red Ocean had not yet updated their mech rosters to modern standards was not that big of a deal.

However, in this battle, the Sundered Phalanx had been reduced to a foil. Aside from the rare and fantastic breakthrough of Saint Rebecca Andus, the proud soldiers and heroes of the Gauge Dynasty largely lost at the hands of the troops of this strange alliance!

It wasn't just the strength of the Golden Skull Alliance that made a profound impression on the grassroots and the leaders of other organizations.

It was the willingness of Patriarch Ves Larkinson and its other leaders to take part in a risky offensive operation that also frightened and impressed other people!

Even though there were plenty of pioneering organizations and colonial states that had vastly more troops at their disposal, they always treated them sparingly whenever possible.

The Red Ocean was full of dangers and the difficulties of replenishing lost mechs, mech pilots and starships were far greater than in the old galaxy.

For the Golden Skull Alliance to boldly commit its entire core fleet and mech forces to a battle that did not involve its core interest was rather shocking news.

The consequences of losing in this battle were too great!

For example, Patriarch Reginald Cross could have been killed by Saint Jeremiah Gauge, thereby robbing the Cross Clan and the Golden Skull Alliance of their top-end combat asset.

Though it was probable that the Golden Skull Alliance probably wouldn't run off to intervene in another conflict between colonial states, what if this happened anyway?

Anyone who looked up the history of the Golden Skull Alliance would immediately conclude that it was made up of large numbers of battle maniacs!

From the Larkinson Clan's frequent acts of provoking powerful enemies to the warmongering roots of the Cross Clan, it was hard to believe that the leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance were willing to sit in place and commit to peaceful development.

"We don't have to befriend these maniacs, but we absolutely cannot afford to become their enemies. At least two of their leaders are dangerously unstable and can decide to pick a fight with people for any reason."

"These crazies aren't even content with raiding one of the core star systems of a colonial state. They have also announced an ambitious expedition to the deeper parts of the new frontier."

"There is no way this Golden Skull Alliance will survive in the long run! Sooner or later they will enter into a conflict against an enemy that is too great for them to handle. Over the course of human history, it is far too rare for daredevils like these Larkinsons to overcome their continuous challenges. It has always been the steadier groups like ours that are able to outlast the other ones."

"The leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance aren't as simple as you think. You are not a mech designer, so you haven't been able to see what my colleagues and I have seen. The properties and the effective combat power of the mechs fielded by this alliance are far more impressive and impactful than we thought. The designers of their impressive masterwork ace mech are young but visionary. I have no doubt that the MTA has already taken a special interest in their work."

The excellent performance of the mech forces of the Golden Skull Alliance generated an explosive amount of buzz among the public.

The galactic net became filled with discussions, commentary and post-battle analyses as a huge number of people tried to figure out the details, either out of curiosity, admiration or fear.

Though the strength exhibited by the Golden Skull Alliance most certainly spooked a lot of rivals and possible enemies, the upsides massively outweighed the downsides!

The reputation, prestige and glory of the winners had all skyrocketed!

One of the more immediate benefits of winning the Battle of Pima Prime was that the businesses associated with the Golden Skull Alliance all received a massive surge in interest!

As Ves busied himself with surveying the damage done to his precious expert mechs, his personal assistant did not wait to present him with the good news.

"As far as marketing goes, this battle is worth more than a galaxy-wide advertising campaign." Gavin Neumann said while wearing a hazard suit due to safety regulations. "The LMC has received 300 percent more inquiries in the past four hours than the past week, and this is just the beginning. The company management has already decided to ramp up production and contract more third-party manufacturers in anticipation for the spike in sales."

Ves nodded as he studied the damaged state of the First Sword. Most of his attention was still directed towards the upcoming repair jobs.

Restoring damaged expert mechs back to their peak conditions was anything but simple. It took a lot more precision and expertise to fix these powerful machines, and the difficulty only skyrocketed when trying to repair masterworks among expert mechs.

Ordinary mech technicians and low-ranking mech designers weren't qualified to repair the expert mechs. Ves and his fellow Journeymen had to take action in person to restore the strongest and most important mechs of their clan.

Ves already lamented the amount of time he had to set aside to fix these important machines, but he had little choice in the matter.

"I'm not that interested in the sales of general commercial mech models anymore, Benny." He spoke. "Whether we earn 50,000 or 200,000 MTA credits a month won't affect our outlook in the short term. I'm more interested in whether our strategic products are able to increase their market penetration. Have our War Squires and our Pacifiers gained additional interest from relevant clients?"

"We haven't seen much sign of that yet, but our analysts expect that to change soon enough. The Battle of Pima Prime offers an abundance of hard proof that your work is not useless. Our living mechs have definitely proved their worth on the battlefield against formidable adversaries. It is much more difficult for skeptics to deny the added value that living mechs can bring. As long as people accept this truth, many more large and institutional clients will become interested in our War Squire and Pacifier mech lines. It will just take a while for them to commit to placing orders since their decision-making is much slower and more deliberate."

Ves nodded in satisfaction. The profit generated from the sales of those mechs were not as important as how much they were able to spread the Larkinson Clan's influence.

There were many ways for him to earn money, but it was a lot harder for him to make friends or build up goodwill among other human powers.

From what it sounded like, the Larkinsons didn't have to worry about this problem as much anymore. Ves was confident that as long as more and more powerful clients adopted his most useful living mechs, they would never think about switching back to the alternatives sold by his competitors!

Gavin continued to report on the other immediate consequences of winning the battle in orbit.

Other subsidiaries associated with the Larkinsons such as the Open Consortium, the Larkinson Biotech Institute and the Creation Association also enjoyed a lot more attention than before, but the increase in business prospects weren't as exaggerated as none of these organizations were  directly tied to mechs.

Nonetheless, Ves confirmed that his clan had definitely taken a large step into becoming a force to be reckoned with. The reputation of the Larkinson Clan was on the verge of hitting a new peak in the Magair and Krakatoa Middle Zones!

"Please tell me whether we have gained any immediate and concrete gains from this victory." Ves asked his assistant.

"Well, I believe you will be glad to hear this news, boss. Minister Shederin Purnesse has already informed me that our clan has already begun to make more headway in our ongoing negotiations with possible business partners. Think of resource suppliers, shipbuilding companies, high-end development companies and more. The companies that we are in talks with are already taking us a lot more seriously than before. This will give us greater leverage in negotiations. I can already tell you that it will be easier than ever to replace the combat carriers that we have lost today."

That was the best news that Ves had heard from Gavin. Though the other gains were also important to Ves, right now it was crucially important for the Larkinson Clan to restore its strength as quickly as possible.

"Our total combat strength is heavily dependent on how many mechs we are able to carry in our fleet. The sooner we make up for our losses, the better."

"You should wait for the good news, then." Gavin smiled. "We are already in talks with several major shipbuilding companies, each of which can produce many more hulls than Murphy & Sons. It probably isn't realistic for us to be able to order capital ships from them, but it should be a lot easier for us to secure promises to deliver a large batch of combat carriers to us within a standard year. Aside from this, we have even received orders to swap the captured Fridayman starships for other hulls."

"Oh? What is that about, Benny?"

"It's a fairly common business arrangement in the Red Ocean, boss. The basic idea is that whenever a group like ours wins a battle, we often end up capturing a bunch of starships from our opponent. It is not wise for us to add these prizes to our fleet because the vessels are most certainly riddles with backdoors. There are companies who specialize in refurbishing such vessels, and they will be glad to take our captured ships off our hands."

Ves became a lot more interested in this new business. The Red Ocean was not lacking in clever entrepreneurs!

"Can you give me a more concrete picture of these starship swaps?"

"Let me give you a general example. For every 4 Fridayman starships that we pass into their hands, we can expect to get 3 refurbished starships produced by other parties in return, each of which have been refurbished. If you insist on obtaining newly produced starships, then you will only gain 2 of them in return. Though the exchange rate is not as great, the waiting time is usually short, so this is definitely a quick and convenient way for groups to restore their numbers after winning a battle."

Ves became incredibly attracted by these potential offers. Though it sounded as if the ship wholesalers gained a massive advantage from this trade deal, it was actually a win-win arrangement where both sides got what they needed from each other.

There was no way for the Larkinson Clan to convert the captured Fridayman combat carriers into usable assets within a short amount of time, so why not trade them for trustworthy new vessels right away?

"Please tell Minister Shederin to prioritize these talks." Ves instructed. "I'm not sure how many Fridayman starships we'll be able to capture and drag back to Davute, but it will definitely be a sizable number. We also have a lot of derelict starships of our own that can't be fixed within a few years. We might as well swap them out as well."

"Understood. Our people will get right on it, boss. Just take into account that we will actually have to bring all of the hulls out of the Friday Colonies first before we can proceed with the swaps. Everything that we cannot bring out of enemy territory will eventually fall into the hands of our foes."

Ves grimaced. "You don't need to remind me. The Gauge Dynasty will definitely attempt to recover from their losses by processing the huge amounts of salvage floating in this star system."

The time table was too tight and there was no way for the Hexers and the Golden Skullers to take away everything of value.

Even now, their troops were desperately speeding up their raids on the surface of Pima Prime V!