The Mech Touch



The meeting between the newly promoted female swordmaster and the leader of a state soon came to a close.

The two had talked long enough and the former increasingly found it difficult to maintain her sense of self in an area that was fully under the domain of the most powerful sword she had ever encountered.

"Before I go, you haven't answered my question yet. What did the Heavensword gift to me? That ball of light is not nothing. I will never feel comfortable knowing that I am carrying a bomb that has hidden so deep inside of me that I can't even find a trace."

The Heavensword Saint understood her concerns. "It is not simple to describe the gift that you have received. If I have to describe it in the simplest possible terms, what you have gained is potential."

"You mean potential energy?"

"Not in the traditional meaning of this scientific concept." The old man responded. "It is more than that. Think of the name of the sword behind my back. What do you think it represents?"

"...Heaven."

"Precisely. You are now carrying a tiny parcel of its potential."

That did not clarify much to Ketis. The information content was too low.

"What can I do with this heaven-based potential energy?" She flatly asked.

"Anything that heaven can produce." The saint responded with a mysterious expression. "The power of the Heavensword is manifesting heaven. I cannot be too concrete about it because to describe it in fixed terms is a disservice to the concept of heaven that the weapon stands behind. It is an all-powerful force that can produce infinite possibilities."

"It… can do anything?"

The old man nodded. "It is exactly because it can do anything that it has managed to survive so many ages. Killing is only one of its purposes. It can also create anything as long as its wielder is powerful enough. I am sorry that I am far from qualified to demonstrate this power."

The Heavensword Association had always been vague about this matter. Nobody would believe that a single sword could create anything its wielder imagined.

This was not a power that could be produced with pure technology anymore.

This was the power of a god!

"I really don't understand why the MTA hasn't claimed the Heavensword for itself." She muttered.

Her idle remark produced a response from the Heavensword. It rattled in its sheath. It was as if the very thought made it angry!

"Do you see what the Heavensword thinks about that idea? It does not want to be controlled by those who worship mechs as opposed to swords."

"Doesn't the MTA have the power to take the Heavensword by force?"

"It does." The saint readily acknowledged. "Yet what then? This is a sword that even god pilots struggle to contain, and that is not an exaggeration. Do you think that it is worth their time and effort to contain an unwilling weapon? They have more important responsibilities to take care of. Besides, they respect the Heavensword too much to be willing to do any harm to it. No matter what, this is one of the oldest surviving remnants of human history. It may hold ideas and stances that are incompatible to modern human society, but when it comes down to it, this relic is still on our side. Compared to the immense damage that it can do should the mechers anger it in any way, it is much more harmless to let it be and allow our state to indulge in its desires."

"..."

Ketis did not know what to say about that. It sounded as if the Heavensword had successfully blackmailed the all-powerful Mech Trade Association into leaving it alone.

It was so hard to believe that a weapon as powerful as this ultimately ended up in a state located at the outer edge of the galactic rim. Shouldn't it be placed in a big museum in the galactic center?

If the Heavensword was this powerful, then the claim that it could create anything became a little more plausible.

She revised her estimation of the power of a grand work. It turned out that products like the Heavensword were much scarier than she thought!

"What a day." Ketis eventually remarked. "I always thought that swords could be much stronger than what I could currently make, but this goes beyond ordinary production."

This distance between her current state and the level of the creator of the Heavensword was so great that a weaker mech designer would have fallen into despair!

It was fortunate that Ketis did not fall into this category.

By the time she exited the floating garden, her willpower surged as she became inspired by everything that she learned.

As for that odd ball of energy that the Heavensword had planted inside her body? She already sensed that the Heavensword directed no malice towards her. The reassurances of the Heavensword Saint successfully addressed her concerns and allowed her to meet her new future with confidence.

"Before you leave, there is one more matter." The old man said. "For obvious reasons, you must keep the contents of this conversation a secret. It is not convenient to allow others to know about the greater capabilities of the Heavensword or let it be known that it is a grand work."

"I understand, sir, but... I am just a mech designer and a swordmaster. If anyone powerful enough tries to interrogate me with the help of advanced technology, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to protect these secrets."

"The Heavensword has already taken the necessary precautions. You do not need to fear anything. That is one of the boons bestowed by the gift of heaven."

Though Ketis had no idea what that meant in concrete terms, she accepted the statement. The Heavensword had already displayed a lot of reality defying abilities. One more feat was not outrageous.

She completely forgot about it after a few years. The gift from the Heavensword had done nothing at all for her, and she never really fell into a circumstance where she needed a boost from a magical sword in order to fulfill her goals.

Even now when she had just survived four shrapnel cannon blasts from a quartet of giant alien battle suits, she still did not think about calling upon this latent power.

This was because her pride and honor as a swordmaster only allowed her to rely on herself to fight her way out of an adverse circumstance.

Now that Ketis had retreated far away enough to minimize the probability of getting hit by the deadly transphasic shrapnel fired by the pescans, she quickly took stock of her awful state.

Her personal shield generator had exhausted its charge. This was a painful loss as it had served as her most reliable safety net for years.

Her armor's functionality had dropped due to all of the shards of metal that had managed to penetrate its exterior.

The loss of protection was already bad enough. What was worse was that the attack had also damaged important servos, power lines, circuitry, life support systems and more.

If not for the fact that the suit quickly activated emergency measures that plugged the gaps with temporary sealing materials, Ketis would have been forced to breathe the slightly toxic air circulating inside this prison facility by this time!

"It hurts…"

Becoming a swordmaster did not make her a lot more resilient. The puncture wounds inflicted by the metal shards had affected her body as well. It was only due to the emergency treatments of her combat armor along with the resilience provided by her genetically modified flesh that she managed to retain her combat effectiveness.

Even so, she was no longer able to move around and attack as heartily as before.

This was the difference between humans and mechs. The former had never really evolved with pure combat in mind, while the latter were always purpose built for war!

"Lucky! How are you doing?!"

"Meooowww…"

She had seen Lucky getting hit as well. His ability to resist damage was not low, but he still had trouble resisting the penetrating attacks of transphasic weapons fire.

Though Lucky looked as if he could still put up a good fight, the cat had clearly seen better days!

As Ketis forced herself to stay on the move in order to avoid the encirclement of the angry pescan soldiers, she occasionally found herself forced to exert her injured body in order to chop apart the enemies that dared to stand in her way!

Each time she took another alien life and stained her glowing blade with alien blood, she briefly sensed the emotions of her soon-to-be-deceased victims.

They feared the humans that had come and robbed them of almost everything they ever knew.

Yet their fury towards the extragalactic invaders exceeded every other emotion.

Not all of them fought with self-preservation in mind. Ketis encountered plenty of aliens who had been driven to such despair that they wanted to go down in a final blaze of glory!

As a powerful swordmaster who dared to rampage behind enemy lines, the pescans had designated her as one of humanity's great champions. They would rather keep the four giant battle suits away from the most critical location of the battlefield in order to contain the human woman who fought with nothing else but a sword!

"I need a transphasic gun." She muttered to herself.

There were swordmasters who dedicated themselves so much to the sword that they disavowed every other weapon.

Ketis was not that kind of swordmaster.

She did not eschew the utility of firearms. It was only because of the conditions of the founding ceremony that she had neglected to bring one. It wouldn't have been of much use anyway because she hadn't upgraded her guns in years.

If she was ever able to make it out of this place, she would definitely seek to acquire the best possible pistol that she could carry around!

She needed to learn from Ves how he managed to perform that handy trick of materializing his laser pistol from thin air.

Better yet, she wanted to apply this property to her Bloodsinger. This way, she would never be removed from the weapon of her choosing!

The importance of a good weapon became especially obvious after she encountered a pair of elite pescan soldiers.

She dashed forward without fear and thrust her borrowed sword into the neck of the taller alien!

Due to her adversary's height, she had to extend her reach a lot further than normal.

Her injuries along with the reduced performance of her suit had caused her to pull off this common move a little slower than before.

It just so happened that her target was able to move away fast enough for the sword to scrape against the breastplate!

The thick transphasic armor easily resisted the attack. The sword thrust had only left a shallow mark behind!

"Damn!"

The elite soldier could not shoot her with his cannons from this range, but he could still use his strong limbs to batter her aside!

She barely managed to avoid getting thrown onto the floor by pushing her body behind her limits. She winced as she experienced several spikes of pain.

Despite her blunder, she still managed to jump aside before the other pescan soldier fired his twin laser arm cannons and chopped at a vulnerable knee joint.

"Reeeeruuaaa!"

The alien in question screamed in pain as he lost his footing! Ketis easily managed to finish the job by jabbing her sword through the injured soldier's neck.

More blood stained her glowing blade, but quickly flew away as Ketis attacked the other elite soldier!

Another spray of blood flew into the air as Ketis easily got rid of her remaining immediate opponent.

She had lost count of how many pescans she killed. They had to be more than a hundred she guessed, but with all of that hardly seemed to make a difference as alien reinforcements constantly arrived.

Sure, many of them consisted of conscripted civilians that possessed little combat acumen, but just raising their arm cannons and shooting in the direction of any humans within sight required hardly any training!

"This can't go on!" Ketis recognized.

The human side could easily defeat the masses of alien cannon fodder. It was the elites and the more powerful alien assets such as the giant battle suits and the half-crippled tank that truly needed to be dealt with, but without heavy weapons or favorable terrain, that sounded like a distant dream!

Ketis felt more and more helpless in this situation. She did not know how many trump cards Ves had left. Even though he was notorious for having a lot of tricks up his sleeve, even he should have been caught off-guard by the mass abductions.

She believed that the only person that could change the tide was herself!