The Mech Touch

The expeditionary fleet approached one of the few Langrange points in this nearly empty star system transitioned into FTL travel without any surprises.

The Tower of Babel never responded and maintained a stable position inside the brown dwarf star.

Perhaps the aliens who operated the battleship never detected the human fleet from the beginning.

Perhaps they did notice the presence of the expeditionary fleet, but thought that it was better to lay low rather than confront the new arrivals.

Whatever the case, Ves and many other people relaxed. It was highly unlikely that the Tower of Babel possessed the capability to intercept ships in FTL travel. That was one of the core secrets of the Big Two and a major reason why they could keep most of humanity in check.

In any case, the Golden Skull Alliance had made its move. Now it had to wait for the results.

If all went well, the Tower of Babel and the vulture fleet would both take their respective bait and confront each other in battle.

If that didn't happen, then Ves would be put in an awkward position.

"Oh well. At least I tried."

He was confident that it would work out somehow. Ves was confident in his ability to anticipate the responses of different parties. While neither of the human and alien forces he was dealing with were simple, they should still be susceptible to irresistible temptations.

A part of him enjoyed this game. It felt fun to pull people's strings and make them move the way he wanted.

He was no puppeteer by any means, but it was quite convenient to make his enemies move according to his design. There was no need for him to defeat every opponent on the battlefield. As long as he was able to remove an obstacle with minimal investment, he would be a fool to deny this option!

"Cenatus Prospecting should have entered the Ramage Repulsor System at this time." Calabast informed Ves over the comm. "Our closest observation devices have already detected the light of their entry. The amount of ships that have emerged on the edge of the star system match our expectations. Their arrival coordinates are not where we thought they should appear, but they should still be in the same neighborhood."

"Hmm." Ves nodded in understanding. "That is odd. We know the coordinates of the vulture fleet when it transitioned into FTL in the last star system. You can roughly draw a straight line from that location to the Ramage Repulsor System to determine the emergence location with a decent degree of accuracy. Why is there such a deviation?"

"There are several tricks to deviate the place of arrival if you know what you are doing." Calabast replied. "You should talk to a drive engineer about this. I have heard that only a few highly experienced engineers are qualified to conduct these operations. This is because they have to induce deliberate irregularities in their operation. The FTL drives can easily blow up or malfunction if they are handled incorrectly."

That was a scary thought. Ves possessed a basic understanding of how FTL drives worked, but this was clearly only reserved for the more advanced engineers who possessed a deep understanding of a specific model of FTL drives!

Just knowing the theory wasn't enough. The operators of an FTL drive had to know its exact properties as well as its unique quirks that varied from product to product. Only then would they be able to induce deliberate deviations that were slightly removed from the most optimal solutions.

Though Ves did not exactly know how to pull it off himself, he still understood just enough about FTL drives that it was as dangerous as walking on a tightrope!

"Cenatus Prospecting must have excellent drive engineers in its employ." Ves remarked. "Otrus Magrin must have deliberately hired and trained so many of them so that he can increase the variance of the arrival coordinates of his fleet."

"It is a good way to avoid an ambush upon arrival." Gloriana affirmed.

There were too many ways to screw up a fleet once its coordinates and its trajectory in FTL travel became known. From planting space mines to preparing more inhumane traps, it was hard to survive such nasty surprises when the ships didn't even have any chance to evade these welcome gifts!

Ves made a guess. "Otrus Magrin must have been bitten by this in the past. He has deliberately trained better drive engineers so that his fleet would never fall for such a trap again."

Space was enormous, so any deviations were bound to be massive. Even if the Larkinson Clan wanted to surprise the Cenatus Prospecting fleet, there was no way to plant enough space mines to cover billions of cubic meters worth of space!

"Can our ships do it, Ves?"

"No. Maybe a handful of our ships can do it, but none of our engineers have conducted any special training in this area. Even if we train all of them, not every starship and FTL drive will have the same tolerance for deviations. We also need the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan to play along if we want to keep our current fleet whole and united."

The expeditionary fleet was too messy and inconsistent to support this operation. It was best to play it safe and avoid mistakes as best as possible.

They continued to talk about what the observation devices had detected so far. The Black Cats had planted enough hidden equipment in the star system to track both the incoming Cenatus Prospecting fleet as well as the alien battleship that was quietly hiding inside the brown dwarf star.

Right now, neither of them had many special moves, but Ves expected that to change in the near term. He did not want to spook either of them, so he held off on dangling his bait in their proximity.

Seeing that the Cenatus Prospecting fleet hadn't done anything special up until now, Ves grew and closed the feed.

"Keep monitoring the situation inside the star system and inform me of any developments."

"Will do, Ves. I'm curious to see whether your ploy will bear fruit."

Since Ves could do little at this time, he decided to spend time with his family. He played with a bunch of dolls with Aurelia. He brought Andraste to the hangar bay to show off a few cool mechs. He even taught and guided Marvaine on how to improve the design of his latest Mekanos.

Even as the Cenatus Prospecting fleet started to move closer to the inner system, Ves did not dare to keep his hopes up. There was still a possibility that the vulture fleet might smell a trap and choose to leave the star system despite the apparent lack of threats.

As Ves thought about manipulating one of the bait he had cast to ensure that it became more compelling, he suddenly received an important notification.

"Sorry, Marvaine, but I've got to take care of business now. Lucky, can you watch over my kid?"

"Meow." The gem cat yawned as he lazily lounged on the couch.

Ves would have to make do with that. "If there is anything you need, just call Lucky."

"Okay, papa."

Though the call he received came from an important individual, it was not too high in priority, which meant that Ves did not have to accept it under the most secure conditions.

He simply moved to his shared bedroom with Gloriana and closed the hatch so that he could accept the call without involving the rest of his family.

"Jovy! I haven't heard from you in a while! You look… different."

Much had changed since Ves last met Jovy Armalon in person. Back then, the MTA finally made up its mind and allowed Ves to implant him with his own companion spirit.

After that, Jovy fell off the grid for a while. Ves had learned that the mechers wanted to observe him in case any unwanted changes occurred. The young MTA mech designer probably had to perform additional assignments as well in order to verify that he was still the same person and that his mech design capabilities hadn't degraded in any fashion.

Considering that Jovy was finally back and wearing a more formal and elaborate outfit than before, he must have passed all of those examinations.

In fact, there was much about Jovy in the projection that seemed… different to Ves. There were so many changes that it took a while to notice the most dramatic difference.

"Wait…" Ves said as he looked closer at Jovy's appearance. "The way you are carrying yourself has changed too much. Your demeanor is not like that of a Journeyman Mech Designer anymore. There is an air of authority and wisdom about you that I have only seen in older mech designers."

Jovy smiled indulgently at Ves. "You already have the answer. Say it. Tell me what you have recognized."

"You… you have advanced to a Senior Mech Designer!"

"Correct."

Mech designers had a way of recognizing each other's ranks. Though Jovy hadn't done anything to hide his recent promotion, Ves still would have been able to figure out the truth, though only after a delay.

Even so, the fact that one of his friends had taken a step ahead of him was a massive shock!

Both of them belonged to the same generation, so Ves regarded Jovy as a rival as well as a close friend. To learn that he had won the race to see who reached Senior first was a considerable disappointment to his ego.

Ves had evolved in many different ways and became much stronger in many aspects.

Yet for all of his improvements, it hadn't helped with allowing him to advance to Senior directly. He still had to complete at least one profound mech design in order to satisfy the vague requirements that forcibly blocked his much-needed promotion.

That was still too far away. Ves still had to deal with Jovy's successful change.

"C-Congratulations, Jovy. You must have gained a lot more authority and renown within the Association for being able to reach Senior at such an early age."

"It's nothing." Jovy said even though he still maintained a rather smug smile. "It is not too unusual for geniuses to breeze past Journeyman, although I admit that I have improved faster than I should."

"Is it... because of me?" Ves tentatively asked.

Jovy smiled. "You've provided me with lots of inspiration. Not only that, but you have opened my eyes to possibilities and probabilities that I have never appreciated before. For that, you have my sincere thanks. Though knowledge may be a burden sometimes, it is still better to know too much than too little in my opinion."

The newly-advanced MTA Senior clearly refrained from saying too many secrets over this less-than-secure communication channel. Ves didn't need a reminder to avoid asking questions about Jovy's new Eye of Providence as well as the circumstances surrounding his advancement.

Ves calmed down. "While I am glad to hear that you have taken a step closer towards realizing your design philosophy, to what do I owe you this call, exactly?"

"Ah. I almost forgot. I have been asked to deliver an… invitation to you by my superiors."

"An invitation? To what?"

"I can't really say, but I think you should be able to guess a few correct answers. Suffice to say, this is not an invitation to a social event or a productive exchange. We will be going over serious business, so make sure you are prepared to answer serious questions."

That made it sound as if the MTA was about to hold a tribunal or something!

If not for the fact that Ves felt that Jovy was relaxed and not that all concerned, he might have tried to figure out ways to evade this appointment.

Ves wasn't stupid enough to refuse this invitation. One did not casually say no to the mighty Mech Trade Association.

"I will be there…" He slowly replied. "When will it happen?"

"You are expected to come within a year from now." Jovy said. "Don't worry about transit. One of our ships will come and pick you up wherever you may be. Make sure you are still alive at that time."

"Erm, I will do my best not to disappoint you on that. You can count on me, though can you at least give me a hint so that I can better prepare to face any inquiries?"

"As I have already said, you should be able to form your own judgment. You are a clever mech designer, Ves. This will be a large and expansive gathering. We will be dealing with many important topics, some of which are so far over your head that you will not be allowed to attend."

"I see. I think I get what is going on now. Will you be there, Jovy?"

"Of course. I will help you with whatever you need to do. I owe you that much, at least. Just know that I won't be able to save you if you utter the wrong words to the wrong people."

"I will be sure to be on my best behavior!"