The Mech Touch

Ves felt betrayed!

The expert pilots that he had painstakingly nurtured and showered with powerful expert mechs no longer wanted to help him out on his expeditions.

Instead, they thought about joining the Davute Branch so that they could fight the Karlachs in order to increase the profits of major investors of Davute like the Clive Consortium!

"These ungrateful bastards." He grumbled under his breath. "What are they thinking? At least you won't abandon me for another Larkinson, right Lucky?"

"Meow~"

It turned out that after Lucky had swept the room clear of bugs, he had slowly drifted over to Venerable Ark.

Right now, the lazy gem cat was luxuriating in the ministrations performed by the expert pilot!

The man knew just how to scratch Lucky's head!

Ves palmed his face.

"Your fleet has grown too big, Ves." Ark straightforwardly told his nephew. "Many mech pilots do not feel they can make a meaningful difference. This is especially the case when they are fighting against extremely powerful alien battleships. On top of that, they often get overshadowed by the abundant amount of expert mechs that are crowding the same battlefield. In turn, your expert pilots possess increasingly less agency with the appearance of Saints. With the impending expansion of the Golden Skull Alliance, your expeditionary fleet will gain two ace mechs at once."

"We will also be losing the Mars to this blasted war."

"That still leaves you with a net positive of two ace mechs, Ves. Most pioneering fleets already make do with just one, you know. What matters is that expert mechs matter less in your expeditionary fleet these days. Expert pilots can gain many more opportunities to test their mettle when they are fighting against their counterparts from Karlach."

Ves looked skeptical. "Won't the same situation repeat itself? If they join the mech division helmed by you and Patriarch Reginald Cross, they will still get overshadowed by the Mars."

"Not necessarily." Ark shook his head. "You do not have a full understanding on how large wars are waged at this level. Once the war breaks out, multiple war theaters will open up where the fighting will take place at many points in space and on land. Ace mechs such as the Mars cannot always babysit the mech division it is embedded in. Mech regiments and mech battalions may be separated by tens of kilometers or hundreds of kilometers on a planet with rough terrain. Isolated mech units and any expert mechs attached to them will have to depend on their own. Reinforcements may take precious minutes to arrive."

Ves could imagine how these sorts of deployments could give mech pilots more chances to excel. Low-level flashpoints and skirmishes often provided much better stages for weaker pilots to outfight their opponents and turn the tide.

"What about the ace mechs? Are they just going to hover around?"

"Many times, that is the case. They are trump cards and should not be thrown into a battle lightly. Ace mechs are generally used to cover a wide region and keep enemy ace mechs in check. They will only intervene when it is necessary and if there are assurances that they will not be thrown into a losing situation. As battle hungry as Reginald may be, even he should know the value of restraint. His father got baited into an ambush, so he should not be prone to making the same mistake."

Ves seriously doubted that. Reginald seemed a lot more likely to bull his way into an obvious trap! After all, President Yenames Clive had played him like fiddle!

Well, it was not as if Ves had to bother with this anymore.

Once Patriarch Reginald and his Mars left the expeditionary fleet, it was no longer up to Ves to clean up their messes. That would become Ark's job from that point onwards.

After a bit more clarification, Ves understood why certain mech pilots and expert pilots in the Larkinson Army wanted to throw themselves into the upcoming war.

It all came down to accelerating their growth and breaking past their bottlenecks. Davute promised to give them a higher frequency of actual battles, smaller and more engaging missions as well as familiar human opponents.

All of these factors were much more conducive to the growth of mech pilots that tended to thrive in times of war.

Expert pilots ultimately sought to become stronger. While they also valued loyalty and duty, they were not devoid of ego and selfishness.

In actuality, they could be more selfish than many ordinary people!

It was just that nobody could distinguish the truth when they were kept happy. It was only when they thought they could do better elsewhere that they started to become troublesome!

Ves realized that for a long time, he had done a good job at meeting the needs of his growing expert pilots. He granted them opportunities to fight serious battles on occasion and he also fulfilled their desire to obtain powerful expert mechs.

"Do you understand now, Ves?" Ark softly spoke up again. "If you truly care about your expert pilots, then you should give them the chance to contribute to the Larkinson Clan in a different manner. Let them choose their own way forward. Your main fleet already has enough expert mechs as it is, especially when we consider that you are working on adding three new expert mechs to your lineup. I think you can manage with four or five fewer expert mechs."

"You are asking for too much, uncle! You're talking about taking away more than half of the currently active expert mechs of the Larkinson Army!"

"Will your fleet be able to tell the difference when it is operating under the direct protection of the Jedda Sandivar and the Royal Jeem?"

"..."

"Thought so." Ark smiled as he scratched Lucky under the chin in just the way the cat preferred!

"Meow meow~"

Though Ves still had to verify Ark's claims about his mech pilots, there was no way his uncle would lie about such a matter.

A part of Ves had already acknowledged that the clan and expeditionary fleet had grown too large to stay together all of the time.

It simply wasn't practical or advantageous anymore to put every egg in a single moving basket.

The rapid rise of the Davute Branch reflected the unstoppable tendency for the clan to splinter over time.

That didn't necessarily mean that the Larkinsons were completely separating from each other. Ark had already made it clear that he had no intention of leaving the clan unless it was truly necessary.

The clan just became too big to keep everyone happy by keeping them in a single place. Life inside a fleet was much different from life on a planet.

The larger the population of the clan, the more people emerged who developed a rejection of the life of a nomad.

In that sense, the local branch served its intended purpose. Uncle Ark merely came in and sought to elevate its status and weight in Davute.

Once it became clear that Ves would have to let go of a bunch of mech pilots unless he took extreme measures, he let go of his frustration and made peace with this development.

"I always expected the pivotal figures of our clan to diverge in the future." He sighed. "I just didn't expect it to happen so soon and that a stupid grudge match between two colonial states would be the catalyst to this event."

They talked more frankly after that. Ves could sense and respect the determination of his uncle. If fighting for Davute made him happy, then so be it. The Larkinson Clan still stood to gain a lot of benefits from the colonial state by taking a more active part in the war.

"Can you tell me the expert pilots who are thinking about ditching the Trailblazer Expedition so that they can play soldier?"

"I can't tell you that, Ves. The expert pilots themselves haven't made up their minds as this is still a recent development. They still need more time and information to make an informed decision that has major implications on their future career. While I have a decent idea on which Larkinson expert pilot will ultimately go over, I owe it to them to respect their privacy."

"I see. I hope you at least don't pull away anyone crucial to my expeditionary fleet, Ark. I would like to keep Venerable Davia Stark, Venerable Joshua Larkinson, Legion Commander Casella Ingvar and Venerable Isobel Kotin. They can all play useful roles in battles against formidable alien warfleets even if there are already ace mechs on our side."

"I think you will be satisfied for the most part." Ark reassured his nephew with a smile. "From what I have gathered in the brief moments I was able to chat with them, Davia isn't interested in fighting ordinary opponents. She longs to challenge the strong. Joshua is an earnest kid who is fanatically loyal to you. Casella is best employed by your main fleet to ensure that both of our groups both enjoy the services of a command expert pilot. I do not know much about Isobel, but her specialization is much more effective when fighting against vulnerable alien warships."

The other expert pilots such as Venerable Rosa Orfan and Venerable Vincent Ricklin would probably feel much more at home in a battle against normal human mech forces.

Ves could already see that by recalling how much the expert pilots enjoyed themselves when they sparred against their counterparts during the Battle of Pima Prime.

The Sundered Phalanx units in that important Fridayman port system served as an excellent benchmark and growth engine for the Larkinson Army.

Though Ves still felt somewhat peeved at the thought of depriving the expeditionary fleet of lots of mech pilots, expert pilots and an ace pilot as well as their associated mechs, the ones he had left should be more than sufficient to defeat most threats that he might encounter in the frontier.

"Your clan has long maintained a policy of maintaining a surplus of mech pilots anyway." Ark pointed out. "Even if I take a couple of thousands pilots from your main ranks, your mech legions still have enough reservists on call to fill up the vacancies. At most, your Spirit of Bentheim and your Hammerworks Manufacturing Complex will have to get busy producing replacement mechs."

That hardly sounded like a problem considering that mech production was the Larkinson Clan's strong suit!

As Ves and Ark relaxed in each other's presence, the latter continued to pamper Lucky while the former asked a more personal question.

"Do you intend to use Davute as a way to fill the gap created by our forced departure from the Bright Republic?"

"...That is a good question, Ves." The expert pilot slowly replied. "I honestly cannot give you an answer yet. I need to see more of Davute and what its government is trying to build. I need to fight alongside its soldiers and observe how much they believe in the colonial state that they are risking their lives for. I need to wait and see whether the citizens develop a love and attachment to their new homes. It is anything but certain whether Davute can pass all of my tests."

"And what if it does?"

"Then I shall do my best to follow, no, exceed the example set by the Larkinson Ancestor."

Ves threw a dubious look at his uncle. "I hope that you will learn from his many mistakes. The man was strong in his own right at the time, but he and his descendents ultimately ended up getting used as glorified cannon fodder over many generations."

"I am not blind, and I know our family's history better than you do. I am not so naive, and there are enough people around us to warn us of any impropriety."

"You don't very concerned."

Venerable Ark grinned. "One of the lessons that I have learned over the years is that strength is the ultimate variable that determines the treatment that you receive. If I am able to fight hard enough and receive the powerful expert mech that you have promised, I am convinced that I will be able to undergo my second apotheosis. Once I become an ace pilot, Davute shall never misuse us. This I can guarantee!"