The Mech Touch

Now that Venerable Ark Larkinson became a formal member of the Larkinson Clan, a few hundred original family members followed suit over the next few days.

As for the original Larkinson Family, a modest group of retirees and stubborn fools agreed to settle down and take care of what little was left of this centuries-old institution.

Whether the original family degenerated into a retirement home or rose from the ashes, nobody could say for certain.

Ves had taken the initiative to force the Larkinson Family to relinquish all of the shares it held into the LMC.

Given the current size and earnings of the Living Mech Corporation, a 1 percent ownership of this lucrative mech company was way too valuable to be left in the hands of a decrepit, hollowed-out family organization!

Though he hated to do this, Ves had to persuade his own grandfather to cooperate with the voluntary handover of most of the shares.

"Without someone like Ark to hold the fort, our original family has lost its ability to protect itself against malicious parties who want to steal those shares." Ves frankly explained to Benjamin during one of his visits. "The best way to go forward is to transfer those shares back into my possession where they will be safe."

"...The family…?"

"Don't worry, grandfather. I am not kicking the old family to the curb. I will replace the dividends they earned in the past with more modest annual cash subsidies. I won't shower them with wealth they haven't earned. I will give the people who are left behind just enough that they will have no worries about maintaining their current quality of life."

Benjamin did not immediately respond. He stared out of the same window for half a minute before he finally gave his answer.

"...Fine. It isn't good… if the family becomes overly dependent on handouts."

As a former expert pilot, Benjamin understood more than most people that true success only came through earnest effort. He did not want to see the remnants of the family degenerate into hedonistic good-for-nothings that only spent their time squandering other people's money.

The two Larkinsons possessed the same stance on this issue. This made it much easier for Ves to get back the shares he had initially granted to the Larkinson Family out of sympathy.

With that, the Larkinson Family truly became hollowed out. Once Benjamin Larkinson succumbed from old age and old war wounds, there would be nothing tying Ves to the family he came from any longer.

The Larkinson Clan completely succeeded the old family from that point onwards!

This development was no secret. Though many family members became indignant upon learning the news, this only encouraged them to hurry up with their applications to transfer to the Larkinson Clan.

There was no need for Ves and his daughter to induct this group into the clan in person, so the ordinary Larkinsons had to get in through the regular process.

Though plenty of family members complained about the lack of special treatment, the clan wanted to make a point that they were not royalty.

As far as Ves and many other clansmen were concerned, the adopted Larkinsons that had joined much earlier and made a lot more contributions over the years earned a lot more respect!

Predictably, the old family members including Melinda Larkinson instantly joined the Davute Branch without showing any further consideration to the main fleet.

As far as these stubborn trueborn Larkinsons were concerned, the main branch of the Larkinson Clan was almost entirely separate from this side branch!

They were practically two different worlds!

Once the old family members got in, they soon experienced numerous difficulties in trying to blend in and take up their new positions.

Pretty much all but their youngest had been born and raised as third-raters. Though the time their family spent in the Garlen Empire had allowed them to be promoted to second-raters, they were not as good as the overwhelming majority of clansmen who were born into this life.

Not only that, but the Larkinsons had also ceased to recruit ordinary second-raters a long time ago. Their recruitment standards had become so strict in the last six or so years that only the younger and flexible elites among their respective professions along with their immediate families could enter the clan!

The differences between the two groups were so much that they found it difficult to get along at first.

The older Larkinsons were not only less skilled and knowledgeable at their jobs, but they also held a lot of old-fashioned principles and ideals that hardly evolved ever since the Larkinson Family had been driven out of the Bright Republic.

A lot of friction came about due to the drastic differences between how the old family and the clan were run. The culture clash became so severe that many original family members had to go through refresher courses and extra schooling in order to become marginally useful to the Davute Branch.

Of course, the more talented and outstanding newcomers received better treatment. Ark was the most emblematic of how generous the Larkinson Clan could be towards those who had the potential to contribute a lot more.

Ves and Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson gathered in the main office of the Davute Branch to promote Ark to a higher position right away.

Raymond pinned a badge on Ark's new clan uniform. "I instate you as the Vice Branch Director of our side branch. You will gain greater authority but you will also have to bear many more responsibilities as a consequence. I hope that we can work together and lead our Davute Branch to a promising future."

Ark shook Raymond's hand. "We can make this branch strong by defending our new home state."

They all talked a bit on how they should proceed now that they had taken this step.

"Once we complete our negotiations with the colonial government, Yenames Clive will probably make you a part of his military establishment by appointing you as one of his mech generals." Ves said.

"I am aware." The new vice director responded. "I won't be able to become a part of the core power base of Davute right away. The real generals are in charge of leading mech armies that are completely loyal to the colonial state. For the time being, I will only be invested with authority over a mech division that is completely composed of mercenary forces as the government sees it. We will need to prove with our actions and victories that we are loyal and deserving enough to become a part of the core military establishment as well."

This was the game that Davute played with the hopefuls that aspired to become the first-generation aristocrats of the new state.

Ves did not trust Davute nearly as much as his uncle and the other hope-filled Larkinsons.

States and the investors who sacrificed a lot of resources into building them wanted to retain as much wealth and power for themselves.

President Yenames Clive also did not seem stupid enough to hand out unnecessary gifts!

It shouldn't be so easy for Ark and his unit to survive the war and earn enough merits in the process to exchange for a couple of territories.

However, no matter how much Ves expressed his suspicion and misgivings about Davute, he knew his warnings would fall on deaf ears.

The Davute Branch would have to see for itself whether the colonial government was trustworthy enough to work for. If this did not turn out to be the case, then Ark and all of his followers would have to pay the price for their decisions.

Of course, Ves could also be incredibly wrong about this situation. In that case, he would have egg on his face while Ark and the rest of the Davute Branch gained their own planets to develop and rule over!

Ves did not really mind it if he ended up the loser in this little contest. Most of his relatives would remain alive and his clan would be a lot stronger as a whole. What was not to like about this possible scenario?

After making sure that they maintained a united front when negotiating with the Davutans from now on, Ves left the branch headquarters with a lot more reassurance than before.

While Ves and many other people waited for the day that the much-hyped founding ceremony would commence, the Larkinsons made its own preparations.

Now that the Larkinson Clan and its Davute Branch were slated to become close collaborators with the colonial government, the Larkinsons received more prominent places in this historical event.

Mech technicians and mech designers were already beginning to make the appropriate modifications to the mechs selected to display themselves to the public. The additional polishing and cosmetic additions such as voluminous red capes made them look a bit more ceremonial than normal.

Ves also worked on his own outfits. Though he did not feel the need to transform the look of his most ceremonial uniform and his trusty Unending Regalia, he did not feel entirely secure about wearing them anymore.

The clan had fought against incredibly powerful enemies as of late that could easily crush him. Many human groups also managed to get their hands on a lot more phasewater than before, and a lot of advanced development companies figured out better ways to break defenses that used to be a lot more dependable before the opening of the Red Ocean.

Though the Davutans strongly insisted that they would deploy the highest level of security across Kotor City during the event, Ves had experienced too many instances where claims like these had been proven horribly wrong.

He needed to prepare for the worst in the little time that he had left!

"My personal shield generators and Unending Regalia are both out of date." Ves frowned as he evaluated his most intimate sources of protection.

It was easy enough to get his hands on newfangled transphasic personal shield generators that mitigated incoming transphasic attacks at much greater efficiencies. Ves just had to exchange a lot of money, phasewater or MTA merits in order to get his hands on defensive equipment of varying qualities.

He wasn't satisfied with those ready-made options, though. He preferably wanted to rely on equipment designed and built by himself, but that was not always a practical approach.

When Ves estimated the work he needed to do to develop his own custom transphasic shield generators that would carry the Phase King's blessing, he concluded that he would have to spend months on this project.

Much of this was because Ves did not possess a lot of depth in energy shield technology and its transphasic sub-specialization.

Even if his learning ability had skyrocketed recently, he still needed to absorb a lot of textbooks and academic journals in order to reach the minimum standard to build an ultracompact man-portable concealable shield generator!

"It will be easier if I don't have to miniaturize the tech as much, but I doubt I can look elegant if I'm dragging a dog-sized generator around."

The only person in the Larkinson Clan who was best qualified to develop a transphasic shield generator was Sara Voiken, but even she did not possess the expertise to build one right away.

"Just buy a transphasic shield generator from the MTA or your other contacts." Her projection said after he opened up a communication channel with her. "Even if I have mastered all of the theories, it takes too much time to develop and construct one according to your specifications. It is impossible for me to finish this project on short notice."

Ves looked disappointed. "Oh. Thank you anyway. I will figure out another solution."

With that option ruled out, Ves could either choose to stick with his existing shield generators or spend a lot of MTA merits on powerful first-class products.

The advantage of the latter was that he could get his hands on shield generators that were so powerful that even the mechers entrusted their lives to those models!

The disadvantage was that he would have to spend millions of MTA merits on products that he and his clan could eventually build by themselves!