The Mech Touch

A mostly untamed planet such as Ocanon VI possessed a huge amount of biodiversity.

Billions of years of nearly untouched evolution had shaped the organisms on the planet in profound ways.

Though the human colonists who recently claimed this jewel discovered faded signs of prior alien visitations and occupations, the planet's critical lack of phasewater drastically lowered its worth among the native alien races.

Their neglect made sense in a time where the Red Ocean used to orbit around the Milky Way, but the Age of Dawn had completely upended the status quo.

Plasewater still remained valuable, but it was not as critical of a resource as before.

Humans and aliens could not have imagined that an ordinary life-bearing planet such as Ocanon VI could one day hold just as much value as a planet with a renewable phasewater deposit!

The rich and natural ecosystems of these virgins had turned into strategic resources overnight.

Their huge value lay in their ability to effectively convert raw E energy radiation into bizarre and powerful mutated beasts!

The greater the quantity of exoplants and exobeasts, the higher the incidences of extreme mutations.

The greater the biodiversity of the ecosystem, the more varied and unusual the expressions of mutations.

Ocanon VI happened to score high in both criteria!

Though it was easy for Ves and his children to understand these rules in theory, the facts became a lot more impactful when they had a chance to see the results for themselves.

The shuttle continued to fly across the wildest and most dangerous Chasseur Continent. It became increasingly clearer to them why the death rates had skyrocketed all of a sudden.

The entire continent had been turned into an intentional calamity beast breeding ground!

This turned it into the most exciting challenge ground. Virtually no one but the most daring adventurers dared to hunt their prey on foot on this exceedingly dangerous landmass.

In contrast to the more regulated Melrose and Chamon Continents where the Hunting Association actively culled mutated beasts the moment they crossed the limits of their hunting grounds, the Chasseur Continent received so little interference that all kinds of strange life forms evolved from its expansive hunting grounds!

For example, when the shuttle flew over the Mother River #405 Hunting Ground, Ves and his children spotted an amazing creature swimming in one of the many tributaries of an expansive river delta.

"Look! Look! Look! It's a dragon, papa!"

"Wait, really? Oh, wow, it truly is a dragon."

"That is not a dragon, silly. It has no forearms, so it should technically be classified as a wyvern."

"It's a dragon! Tell her I'm right, Lucky."

"Meow?"

The supposed 'dragon' only vaguely resembled one. It looked like a reptilian pterodactyl that lacked feathers and gained a lot more bulk.

This should have made it so that the creature became too heavy to support its own flight, but with the help of the Oceancaller, Ves managed to sense that the creature had a strong affinity to both the water and air element.

The mutated beast had evolved in a direction that enabled it to rise up the food chains in both an aerial and aquatic environment!

Ves could not even begin to understand the logic behind this unusual evolutionary direction, but it obviously worked out for the creature because it had grown large enough to block a third of this river tributary!

"The Azure Tornado Dragon is already a borderline calamity beast in our books." President Oscar Tarich continued to play the role of a dutiful tour guide in the shuttle. "Though it is relatively unintelligent compared to its peers, it is also strong in body and ability. Its maneuverability in the air is low, but it can utilize its power of air to boost its straight-line velocity, making it difficult to retreat once you have engaged it in battle. Its most dramatic display of power was when it generated an artificial tornado that completely tore apart the formation of a hunting team. This incident caused the death of 10 hunters. Ejecting did not save them at all as the creature possessed enough mobility to intercept them before they escaped its reach."

That caused Ves to frown. "Did your Hunting Association have the power to save those poor hunters?"

"We did." The older man plainly admitted. "Before you ask, we chose not to intervene. Our Association's general policy is that we only intervene when people are being attacked by exobeasts that they are not supposed to encounter in a hunting ground. The rules are always made clear beforehand. If powerful exobeasts wander into areas that they should not be in, or if exobeasts have mutated far beyond what is acceptable in a given hunting ground, then we consider them to be force majeure incidents. The victims bear no fault for encountering dangers that are beyond their capacity to handle."

It was necessary for the Hunting Association to intervene in these cases because people generally entered its hunting grounds with limited numbers and loadouts.

Hunting was an expensive hobby, and a lot of people who engaged in it could afford to bring much better and more powerful mechs and equipment.

However, the Hunting Association usually denied them the ability to bring out the best in order to protect the fragile ecosystems and preserve the challenge of the hunt.

It would be incredibly unfair if the Hunting Association's own rules led these hapless hunters to their deaths!

The rapidly growing organization would not be able to keep its approval rate high if it did not maintain its own fairness!

Yet it was because of those very same rules that the rescue teams of the Hunting Association did not lift a finger when hunters died after they bit of! more than they could chew.

Oscar Tarich shook his head in disapproval. "What happened here a week ago is not a force majeure event. We have granted as much information as we could to the hunting team. We even advised its leader not to challenge the Azure Tornado Dragon. He ignored our warning and proceeded to challenge the beast anyway. Do you know why? He and his hunters believed too much in his new mechs. The hunters thought that their new aerial mechs were powerful enough to resist the tornado and strong winds generated by their prey."

Modern second-class aerial mechs possessed enough thrust power to push through most storms. Mere strong winds could not completely inhibit their passage.

However, the winds generated by powerful mutated beasts were different. They were consciously enhanced by the manipulation of E energies, causing these ordinary phenomena to acquire extraordinary power.

This was a power that could defy the laws of physics to the point of allowing a huge multiton 'dragon' to take flight despite the fact that its wings were unable to generate enough lift force by themselves!

"Can the Swordmaidens slay this dragon?" Andraste curiously asked her father.

"It depends on what sort of mechs they are allowed to bring." Ves spoke. "It is too difficult to confront an opponent like this with a landbound mech such as a Monster Slayer. It is best to field a mech that can swing and fly. If that is not possible, then a hunting team must consist of a combination between amphibian mechs and aerial mechs. Even then, there are too many other challenges. Ranged mechs likely won't have the power to overcome the strong active and passive defenses of this mutated beast. Melee mechs might be able to get through, but they cannot withstand the tyrannical physical attacks of this massive dragon."

An even greater issue than that was that it would be impossible to coordinate the actions of all of the hunting mechs.

Hunting teams were able to defeat much more powerful exobeasts by relying on tight teamwork and coordination.

The Azure Tornado Dragon had the ability to mess all of that up by summoning highly disruptive weather events.

Once a large tornado fell into their midst, the scattered mech pilots had no choice but to fend for themselves!

Ves quietly gripped his Oceancaller as he stared down at the relaxing apex predator.

His connection with his new flute allowed him to sense its yearning.

The Oceancaller became attracted to the Azure Tornado Dragon's domain.

Ves had a hunch that he might be able to speed up his artifact flute's growth by feeding it with the mutated beast's soul!

He inwardly shuddered.

Was this why the Mistress of the Ocean unleashed so many world-ending floods when she was alive?

All of the residents of those planets had been reduced to sacrifices in order to further the transformation of a high-level artifact!

Ves briefly thought back of his most recent discussion with Helena and felt conflicted again.

He had already decided to upgrade his living mechs with the ability to absorb their defeated foes.

While he only had the best intentions in mind, he could not rule out the possibility that this growth method might be abused one day.

However, this was an issue that would only become relevant in the distant future. Ves was far from developing this new solution, let alone implementing it in his mech designs.

He still had time to flesh out his ideas.

"Do you intend to instruct your clan to take action against the Azure Tornado Dragon?" The branch president inquired.

Ves thought for a few seconds before offering his answer.

"I would like to send them out if they are allowed to field stronger mechs than usual. According to your own words, this beast has already touched the threshold of a calamity beast. It may have already become one. I think that should warrant a loosening of your hunting restrictions. If my Swordmaidens can confront this beast with their Second Swords as opposed to their Monster Slayers, then they can regain their parity with this beast."

Unlike the commercial Monster Slayers, the Larkinson-exclusive Second Swords were not only capable of flight, but also performed well enough to participate in the Larkinson Clan's serious battles.

"I am afraid that I cannot oblige you, Professor Larkinson. If it has come to that point, then the Azure Tornado Dragon has grown too powerful to be treated as a hunting target. A verified calamity beast needs to be exterminated, and we can already do that ourselves. This is our original responsibility."

What Oscar Tarich did not mention was that if his men felled the Azure Tornado Dragon themselves, the Hunting Association could claim all of the remains of this powerful beast without needing to share them with others!

"When will this happen?"

"We shall dispatch a termination team as the Azure Energy Dragon has openly manifested the power of a calamity beast according to our definition. If this beast is content to laze around, then we will wait 8 to 9 days before eliminating it regardless of whether it has completed its major evolution. We cannot take the risk of allowing a calamity beast to accumulate its power in secret."

"I see."

Ves tried his best to suppress the urge to send out his clansmen on a hunt that was beyond their capacity to complete.

He had already spent enough time with President Tarich to know that the Hunting Association fanatically stuck to its own rules, or rather code.

Every rule had its basis in the rituals and ideology of the Hunter's Code. This turned the members of this organization into dogmatic fools who would rather obey the rules than to save people's lives!

While Ves could respect their faith and conviction, that did not mean he had to like them all. In an age where red humanity needed all of the soldiers it could muster to persist in the war against the native aliens, he found it exceptionally wasteful to let all of these trained and combat-ready mech pilots perish in these sordid hunting grounds.

Perhaps this was another form of ritual sacrifice. Survival of the fittest applied to the hunters as well.

Only the strongest and most adaptable among them deserved to enjoy the rewards of their efforts.

Those who failed to measure up as hunters inevitably became food for the exobeasts