The Mech Touch

Ves had long grown annoyed at the Red Association's habit of requisitioning masterwork mechs.

He still had no idea what the Mech Trade Association had done with the Little Angel for example.

The only reason why he had managed to avoid this problem for years was because he invested a lot more effort into designing expert mechs!

Now that he thought about it, one of the original reasons why he had become so enthused about designing high-level mechs was exactly because he wanted to avoid his work from getting hijacked by the greedy mechers!

Exquisite machines such as the Amaranto, the Everchanger and the Phobos were absolutely irreplaceable to Ves. He expressly designed them to excel in their areas of specializations in order to bestow amazing advantages to the forces at his disposal!

He did not invest his heart and soul in each of those amazing masterwork expert mechs just to allow the mechers to leech off his hard work!

Though Ves detested their policy a lot in the past, his perspective had broadened since those years.

The mechers served many essential functions in human society. They may be greedy for masterwork mechs, but they probably had good reasons for their power.

"Alexa, I wonder if you or the Terrans know what the Association is doing with so many masterwork mechs. Why can't they rely on the ones they built themselves? I mean, the mechers must have plenty of masterwork mech designers in their ranks that can fully meet their own demand."

"It is not that simple, sir." The woman shook her head. "From what I have learned, the reason why the Mech Trade Association can never have enough masterwork mechs is because each of them are notably more effective in combating an internal threat that is difficult to fight against with mundane mechs. Not even the most luxurious first-class multipurpose mech can adequately resist this danger if they do not possess the qualities of a masterwork."

There was only one enemy in the Milky Way Galaxy that could make the mechers so spooked.

"The Compact."

Alexa nodded with a serious expression. It did not surprise Ves that a woman of her background was aware of the existence of this infamous cult.

"You are correct that the Mech Trade Association has sufficient Master Mech Designers in its ranks that can produce masterwork mechs non-stop." Alexa continued. "These Masters occasionally produce masterwork mechs of their best designs in order to meet certain quotas or earn additional MTA merits. However, they cannot dedicate all of their time to this single priority alone. Each of them must invest far more time in their core research and mech design projects. Anything that detracts from these activities will reduce their chances of advancing to Star Designer."

That made sense for the most part. Time was the most scarce and precious resource of every mech designer.

One of the most severe demands of masterwork mechs was that they could not be produced en masse with the help of the most advanced production method mastered by the first-raters.

Materialization technology was fantastic at fabricating exact carbon copies of mech designs, but they lacked the essential human touch that could elevate the products beyond their physical existences.

It took a lot of time and effort to fabricate a high-quality first-class multipurpose mech. Even the most reputable Master Mech Designers such as Master Vayro Goldstein would have to waste hours if not days to fabricate a proper mech by hand.

This was not an efficient use of their time!

As such, it became easier for the Mech Trade Association to just lay claim to random masterwork mechs built by third parties.

It was not as if the space peasants could resist the power of the mechers. At least they received handsome amounts of MTA merits in return for their 'voluntary' contributions.

"Almost none of those requisitioned masterwork mechs are up to the standards of the Association." Ves argued. "It is quite troublesome to upgrade them into first-class multipurpose mechs. The amount of work put into this effort is excessive."

"That is true, but it is important to identify who is doing all of the work. The difficulty of upgrading an existing masterwork mech is much lower than making one from scratch. The Association can delegate the former to various journeymen, Seniors and Masters who are not as important. Working on these upgrade projects also serves as excellent creative exercises for them. They can all get into contact with foreign mechs that are designed according to completely different principles than what they are accustomed to. Every masterwork mech has their own points of brilliance no matter how humble they actually perform."

That was information that Ves had not been able to obtain or deduce in the past. It was quite useful to know what happened immediately after the mechers swiped the masterwork mechs off the hands of their original makers.

A part of Ves felt a little annoyed that the MTA mech designers easily took advantage of the hard work of the space peasants they talked down upon most of the time.

"Okay, I can understand why the Mech Trade Association values masterwork mechs so much, but is there any reason for the Red Association to maintain the same stance?" Ves asked with a frown. "As far as I am concerned, the Compact's presence in this dwarf galaxy is negligible. There is no need to accumulate a large amount of masterwork mechs just to combat a special threat that is not easy to fight against through conventional means."

One of the factors that was relevant here was that Messier 87's exotic radiation created an environment where it became easier for mech pilots to break through.

Expert pilots and higher were much more effective at fighting extraordinary threats!

Besides, the main high-level threat of the Red Ocean were the phase whales and phase lords.

Their spatial manipulation abilities were quite powerful, but they were otherwise a lot more physical in their threat profile.

The best way to beat them was to overpower their defenses and demolish their enormous fleshy bodies by relying on overwhelming firepower.

It was not a coincidence that the Destroyer of Worlds and the First Flame annihilated the ancient phase whales the fastest during Operation Night Jazz!

Alexa was smart enough to deduce what Ves was thinking. She shook her head yet again.

"There are additional motivations for the mechers to lay claim to masterwork mechs. Do you recall that mech pilots have a much higher chance of breaking through if they pilot masterwork mechs as opposed to normal machines?"

"Oh. Yeah. I should have thought about that. Are you saying that the Association wants to promote the rate of breakthroughs through this policy?"

"Yes, but that is not all. Think about it, sir. The continuous transfer of masterwork mechs from the states to the Association will not only increase the rate of breakthroughs in the latter, but also reduce the same rate for the former. Over the long term, the mechers will welcome a larger amount of expert pilots while the armed forces of many states will see a reduction in the number of mech pilots who undergo their first apotheosis."

"What?! That's outrageous!"

Ves almost stood up when he heard this explanation!

What the mechers were doing was nothing less than stealing the breakthrough opportunities of the masses!

How many more expert pilots could states such as the Bright Republic, the Heavensword Association and the Garlen Empire produce if they managed to retain all of their masterwork mechs?

There had to be tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands over the span of several centuries.

All of those poor mech pilots that originally had brighter careers ahead of them all lost their opportunities without even knowing it because the Mech Trade Association stole away their breakthrough machines!

Instead, those masterwork mechs went through extensive overhauls before they got assigned to a large number of freeloaders within the MTA.

Ves found this conspiracy to be profoundly dishonorable and disgusting. He understood that it served to increase the Mech Trade Association's superiority over the space peasants, but that was not enough to excuse these heinous acts.

The injustice of it all gave him another reason to dislike the mechers!

Alexa gave him a rueful smile. "Expert pilots are not the strongest individual combatants that humanity can produce, but they have all embarked on the path to godhood. The larger the pool of expert pilots, the greater the amount of ace pilots that will emerge from their ranks. In turn, a larger pool of ace pilots will increase the number of god pilots that successfully survived the greatest test of their lives. This is why the Mech Trade Association has the largest number of god pilots under its sway. The Terran Confederation and the Rubarthan Federation on the other hand have to make do with less due to their more limited opportunities."

This was a conspiracy! This was a clear and obvious scheme to strengthen the Association at the expense of the subjugated states.

A scowl appeared on Ves1 face. "Why don't these mechers go ahead and deprive the right to own masterworks among expert mechs and ace mechs?"

"That is counterproduce to their overarching goals. The Association is still invested in the goal of producing the largest number of god pilots as possible. It is just that the mechers would rather make it so that as many god pilots come from their own ranks as possible, hence the mass transfers of masterwork mechs. However, once a third party makes a masterwork expert mech just as your Lionheart, the mechers will violate their own policies if they attempt to take it out of your hands."

"Ah. I understand. The Lionheart will not be able to produce any breakthroughs if it falls in the hands of the mechers. However, taking it away will hinder Uncle Ark from advancing to ace pilot and eventually god pilot."

The mechers were able to tolerate the existence of god pilots who did not pledge their loyalty to the Association. This was because powerful heroes such as the Light of Sol and the Destroyer of Worlds helped to counteract the pressure from other rival powers such as the Common Fleet Alliance and the Five Scrolls Compact.

This consideration held true for the Red Association as well. The mechers of the Red Ocean had no incentive to stop their thieving ways.

Ves crossed his arms as he thought about the massive implications of this conspiracy.

He was personally affected by this nefarious policy. If he successfully fabricated a masterwork version of the Fey Project, none of the bright and talented mech pilots of the Larkinson Clan would be able to enjoy this reward!

Instead, Jovy himself would probably swoop in and spit out a poor excuse before teleporting the freshly made masterwork mech away.

It was one thing for Ves to let this happen when he remained ignorant of the greater truth, but now that Alexa had enlightened him to this dark secret, he was not as pleased!

"Wait. I am an honorary member of the Red Association. Doesn't that mean I am exempt from this policy?"

That made Alexa chuckle. "That is true, but you are a mech designer, not a mech pilot. There are no other honorary members within your clan, correct? You need to see this from the perspective of the mechers. Of all of the possible mech pilots that can contribute to human civilization, the ones that have received the best training and can pilot the strongest mechs come from the Association. An RA expert pilot is a thousand times more valuable than a Davutan expert pilot. Humanity will become much weaker if there are less first-class expert pilots and more third or second-class mech pilots."

That sort of made sense. It was a justifiable reason to transfer the most valuable breakthrough resources from the weakest to the strongest pool of mech pilots.

It did not make Ves any less angry, though!

"So from the perspective of the Red Association, my Larkinson expert pilot are not worth as much. Did 1 get that right, Alexa?"

"That is an accurate characterization." She affirmed. "To be fair, it is not personal to the mechers. It is merely a game of numbers to them. They are driven by their goals. That encourages them to think in absolutes. They constantly think about the big picture and ignore all of the individual harm they cause with their decisions. It is a common fault of hegemonic organizations. It is usually responsible for their eventual downfalls as well."