The Mech Touch



The next few days passed by without incident.

The Davutans continued to put a huge amount of effort into maintaining security.

Kotor City became busier and busier as people continued to forget about the earlier attacks. A lot of tourists and residents did not want to miss the opportunity of a lifetime and eagerly partook in the celebrations!

A lot of Larkinsons participated in the various tournaments and achieved mixed results.

The mech pilots of the Larkinson Clan were highly skilled and possessed plenty of real combat experience.

However, it was far too difficult for them to stand out from the crowd without the benefit of living mechs.

It soon became clear to people like Ves that much of the training and improvements of the Larkinson mech pilot were centered around living mechs.

Without the benefit of the deep partnerships and synergies with their bonded machines, the Larkinson mech pilots weren't actually all that great.

Sure, they were good alright. Many of them easily met the standard of elites.

The problem was that the Red Ocean was filled with talent. The organizations that brought lots of mech pilots to the new frontier always prioritized quality over quantity.

Ultimately, this meant that the Larkinson mech pilots always had a tough fight on their hands as soon as they fought against other elite mech pilots.

The Larkinsons even fought against familiar friends and acquaintances in the mech arenas.

The Glory Seekers, the Cross Clan, the Adelaide Mercenary Company and the Boojay Family all sent their own mech pilots to test their mettle and see where they stood relative to other pioneering organizations.

The personalities and fighting styles of all of these mech pilots diverged considerably, but their overall results were much closer than Ves expected.

In a situation where all of the mechs were equal and where the terrain did not convey any special advantages, it was hard for a mech pilot to defeat equally skilled opponents on a consistent basis.

All Ves learned from observing these matches was that his Larkinson mech pilots were good enough to fight against most but not all elite opponents.

There were certain groups of mech pilots, particularly those that hailed from the most formidable special operations units of the Federal Military, that truly managed to push the generic tournament mech models to their limits!

Their excellent skills, high combat experience and higher-than-average genetic aptitudes easily enabled them to win at least 70 percent of the matches against his Larkinson mech pilots!

This margin of victory was not too overwhelming, but clearly taught Ves and many other overinflated clansmen a lesson.

There were other pioneering groups that had brought over the stars of their respective regions.

There were mech athletes that won numerous championships and knew how to work around the limitations of tournaments better than everyone.

There were grizzled war veterans who had an endless bag of tricks under their sleeves and won impossible matches by relying on their beastly instincts.

There were even rich and privileged scions who hadn't been pampered at all. Instead, each of these wealthy descendants received the best possible training that they could buy, up to and including receiving personal tutoring from expert pilots!

Compared to all of these frighteningly skilled opponents, most of the Larkinson mech pilots still seemed immature and rough around the edges in comparison.

His men still had a long way to go before they could truly outfight any of their peers under completely equal circumstances. It might not even happen as the Larkinson Army did not really focus on training its men to excel in mech competitions.

"Don't feel too bad about the fact that none of our mech pilots have won any tournaments." General Verle consoled Ves during one of those competitions. "I already had an inkling that our men wouldn't be able to go much further. We may have the MSTS, but our strongest rivals have other excellent if prohibitively expensive training methods at their disposal."

Verle dropped by the VIP booth as he happened to be in the neighborhood. He had plenty of reasons to pay close attention to how his men fared against the best of what Davute had to offer.

Ves nodded when he heard his analysis. "Our clan's dependence on living mechs is our greatest strength… and possibly also our greatest weakness."

"There is no need to exaggerate the downsides of our approach, Ves. We both know that if our clansmen can participate in these tournaments with the machines that you have painstakingly designed, our winning percentages would be a lot higher. I dare say our clan can even bring home a few trophies."

Ves shrugged. "It doesn't matter. These tournaments and competitions aren't all that important to us. It would be nice if our clansmen can rank at the top and increase our fame this way, but we have already managed to stand out by winning actual battles. Our mech legions are all geared towards defeating serious enemies on the battlefield. That is what matters. The rules aren't fair either, and that plays to our advantage as we can make a lot more preparations."

Both Ves and General Verle had lived through times where their forces were not as adequately prepared to confront the challenges in their way. This was why they both invested a lot of effort into training and equipping the forces under their command.

The outcomes of the matches in the tournaments were not completely reflective of the strength of their clan. Ves only had to compare the current performance of his mech pilots to how much they accomplished during the initial outbreak of the warbeasts.

The fame and gratitude that the Larkinson Clan earned that day surpassed any of the rewards that they could earn in the tournaments!

That didn't mean that Ves was happy with the situation, though. Deep inside his heart, he wanted his mech pilots to win actual victories. All of these good but not excellent results put him in an awkward mood where he couldn't decide whether he should be happy or upset.

"Fortunately, I hear the Swordmaidens and the Heavensworders are making a splash during the personal combat tournaments." Ves relaxed a bit. "I haven't attended any of their matches, but I hear that they are gaining a lot of fans."

General Verle nodded. "Our swordsmen and swordswomen are good enough to rank in the tier 1 category of personal combatants in this zone. Their combat skills are on another level as far as I am concerned. The only reason why they still occasionally lose their matches is because they are being challenged by transhuman supersoldiers with superior augmentations."

"Oh?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "So these supersoldiers are essentially good because their employers invested a lot of money in their upgrades?"

"It is a little more complicated than that, but that is the short version of the story. Highly augmented supersoldiers are the norm in this sector. Their combat skills may not be as sophisticated as our swordsmen, but their consistency is higher. As long as you have the money, you can take any decently talented soldier, apply a standard set of implants and genetic modification templates before teaching him how to make use of his expanded capabilities. The more expedient supersoldier programs can pump out a qualified humanoid monster in as little as three years."

Ves looked impressed! It took a lot longer to train a real Swordmaiden or Heavensworder, and not every boy or girl had the talent or the inclination to keep up with the brutal training regimes.

Still, the results were worth it as far as Ves was concerned.

"I wish good luck to our sword fanatics. I hope they can do their part in increasing the reputation of our clan." he shrugged.

Neither Ves nor General Verle cared too much about these swordsmen and swordswomen. They were living in the Age of Mechs. Infantry could still make a difference in many different situations, but it was undeniable that these small and weak combatants could never help the Larkinsons win a major battle.

Only mechs and maybe more serious hardware enabled the Larkinson Clan to earn one dazzling victory after another!

Thinking about the lack of accomplishments in the mech department caused Ves to feel a bit conflicted.

His pride and his expectations prompted him to make a decision.

"I think I will go through with participating in the upcoming Twin Weapons Tournament." He announced. "It really doesn't sit well with me that there are people who think our mech pilots or mech designers aren't worth that much."

That caught his wife's attention. "Are you sure you want to put yourself in a high-pressure situation again so soon? You have become more relaxed now that you have set aside your duties and taken our children to all of these events."

"I'm not that fragile, honey. A few days of rest is enough for me to recover from the previous incidents. I am not only ready to show what our clan is capable of, but I feel it is essential for me to demonstrate my skills to Davute!"

"Hm… I can see how it may benefit us. The mech community in Davute still have many doubts about your design qualifications. Once we begin to collaborate with the Master Mech Designers of the state to design a series of Davutan mechs, it will become much easier to gain the other party's cooperation if you have proved you can work at this exceedingly high level."

He never said anything about involving Gloriana in his projects. In fact, he wasn't even sure whether that was the best choice for his upcoming mech design commissions. He needed to look into this and see whether there was any room for his fellow Journeymen.

In any case, Ves had his mind set on competing in the Twin Weapons Tournament.

Out of all of the mech design competitions he participated in, this one certainly sounded interesting due to mixing up the format.

Every pair of mech designers needed to combine forces in order to design two mechs in an exceedingly short timeframe. The possible permutations of melee mechs and ranged mechs should produce a lot of interesting and original combinations!

Ves already had a few amusing ideas in mind, but he would have to wait and see how many other surprises the tournament introduced before he could select his final plan with Juliet.

His wife did not look completely fine with letting her husband work together with Juliet.

"You can do better, Ves." She told him. "Juliet is a fine Journeyman mech Designer, but she is not as brilliant as us. I would have preferred you to collaborate with Ketis. She may be younger and less experienced than the others, but even I have to admit that there is no one who can design better swordsman mechs than her. She is also unique in that she can also imbue her works with a part of her swordsmanship. That is an astonishing advantage that can propel your team to the finals."

Ves sighed. "You're right, but… I don't want to win the Twin Weapon Tournament by letting my design partner carry me to victory. Besides, I am sure that whatever stuff that Ketis can pull out of her hat will get her in trouble with the rules arbiters. She already caused tournaments to change their rules in the past. Now that she has become stronger, I am sure she'll cross another line. I don't want to deal with that. I want to test my own skills against other excellent Journeymen without relying on any unreasonable shenanigans. Cheating may help me earn an easy trophy, but it would turn into a tainted prize in my hands."

Too many years had passed since he last competed in a bunch of mech design tournaments back in Chance Bay.

Ves no longer knew where he stood relative to other Journeyman Mech Designers.

He had a strong feeling that he had already reached the threshold to Senior Mech Designer, but that was just a vague description.

His performance during the upcoming mech design tournament would allow him to make a much more concrete measurement of where he stood in his journey.