The Mech Touch

Though Miles Tovar needed a little more handholding than Ves anticipated, it was not a big deal.

The Ghost Project gradually entered the right track as Ves and Miles regularly worked together to select and plan out the integration of numerous advanced mech systems.

The role of advanced technology was indispensable for this design project, so Ves was willing to pay a lot of money and phasewater to obtain a cutting-edge stealth system and low-profile flight system from an advanced development company.

"It is best if we purchase both of these key elements from the same developer." Miles told Ves. "That is because the developer can attune the flight system to the stealth system from the start. We will experience much greater design problems if we attempt to mix and match separate systems from different developers."

"Hm, you're right. Let us try and find the right combination from the right development company."

The problem was that there weren't many development companies that were large and capable enough to support the development of advanced stealth systems.

The market for these products was too small and limited, which meant that the price was inevitably high.

Even if the Larkinson Clan was willing to spend lavishly, Ves did not like getting ripped off, so he could only look beyond the limited offerings available in Davute.

They eventually found a relatively good combination of mech systems when they shopped around at a major development company called Arcan & Bolt.

Arcan & Bolt was a relatively major player in the tech development market and was based in the Magair Middle Zone, which was far away from Davute to avoid any possible conflicts of interest.

What Ves liked about Arcan & Bolt was that it had a lot of product lines and developed many different mech parts.

The company was not only highly professional, but also accustomed to making its products work together.

"Arcan & Bolt has a good reputation in the industry." Miles mentioned. "There has never been a case where the secrets of its stealth systems has been leaked to the enemies of a client."

"That we know of." Ves emphasized.

"That may be true, but since Arcan & Bolt deliberately markets itself as a trustworthy company, it should not be willing to risk its credibility for short-term gains."

The negotiations with Arcan & Bolt went well. The company was highly professional, so while there wasn't much room for changes, the terms were relatively fair and transparent.

Soon enough, the Larkinson Clan signed a contract where Arcan & Bolt would develop customized versions of its products for the Ghost Project.

It was crucially important for the stealth system developed for the Larkinson Clan to be unique from the ones provided to other customers of Arcan & Bolt.

If the differences between all of these products weren't too big, then figuring out how to overcome the efforts of one of them would simultaneously unravel the others as well!

The biggest downside was that Arcan & Bolt needed months of development time in order to prepare the customized products for the Ghost Project. This meant that Ves, Miles and anyone else involved in the project could not make much substantial progress.

Ves did not mind this problem as he could easily shift his attention to other design projects.

As he began to spend his time working on other upcoming mechs such as the Dullahan Project and the Eye Project, he suddenly received an interesting piece of news from Calabast.

Normally, the two held regular meetings in order for Ves to remain up to date on any major developments related to intelligence.

For Calabast to contact him out of the blue and during a time where he was in the middle of a design session no less was highly unusual!

Ves pulled himself out of his design mentality before accepting the call.

A projection of the spymaster appeared. Calabast was sitting behind her desk while Arnold rested on her lap.

The woman pampered her pet as usual by massaging his back with her hand.

"What's up, Calabast?"

"We have stumbled upon an opportunity that may be of interest to us." Calabast answered as she immediately addressed the topic. "One of the many pioneering fleets roaming the border region has discovered a secret alien asteroid base that has apparently existed for centuries if not millennia. It is supposedly a thieves' den that has long provided safe harbor to smugglers and pirates."

Now this sounded interesting.

"What race does this pirate station belong to?" Ves asked. "Is piracy even common among the indigenous aliens. What is the fighting power of this secret stronghold?"

Calabast raised her palm to stop Ves from asking more questions. "I can't provide you with any detailed answers. The information that we have received is extremely limited. If we want to know more, then we need to join the upcoming raid on the pirate station."

Ves frowned. "It sounds like there is a greater story behind this. Please start from the beginning."

"Very well. This story started when a pioneering fleet belonging to a group called the Gemini Family somehow discovered this hidden alien asteroid base. As an old and established pirate haunt, the indigenous aliens that operated it for a long time had done an excellent job at blending it in the middle of an immense asteroid belt. We do not know how the Gemini Family succeeded in finding it when other pioneering fleets transiting through the star system presumably failed to detect any clues, but I digress. What is important is that the Geminis have found a juicy alien target that has not yet been spoiled."

This was a massive find. These days, any region of space where humans had begun to explore on a wide scale turned into a disaster region.

Entire continents became uprooted when greedy pioneers engaged in destructive mining.

A lot of primitive aliens living on life-bearing planets were wiped out in totality so that the pioneers could earn MTA merits.

With so many pioneers working to extract any possible source of easy profits from the border region, it was hard for a single cohesive alien force or stronghold to remain intact all this time!

"How the Geminis have managed to discover the alien pirate base is not important." Calabast told Ves. "What we need to think about is what the Gemini Family has done next. You see, after scouting the defenses of the alien base, the initial discoverers eventually found that their strength is not sufficient enough to defeat the defenders. The only way for them to launch a successful assault is to bring in other help. Lots of help. This is why the Geminis have discreetly contacted an unknown number of other pioneers that are close enough to take part in a combined assault."

Ves understood what was going on now. The Gemini Family wanted to swallow up the long-standing alien pirate base but didn't have the numbers to succeed.

The Geminis would have no doubt preferred to sit on the news and wait until it had grown strong enough to defeat the hidden pirate base.

However, the longer the Gemini Family refused to take action, the greater the chance that another pioneer might discover the alien asteroid base!

At that point, the Gemini Family might end up obtaining nothing as one of their rivals went ahead and launched a decisive attack!

Speed was of the essence here. The Geminis probably didn't have the time to slowly form a united coalition of different pioneering groups, so they could only contact strangers who were in the vicinity in order to quickly gather a respectable attack force.

Ves grew suspicious. "We have never had any contact with this Gemini Family as far as I'm aware of. Do we have any existing relations with this group?"

"No." Calabast replied with certainty. "The Gemini Family is a pioneering group that originally came from the galactic heartland. Once the Geminis entered the Red Ocean, they moved to the Krakatoa Middle Zone and colonized the Hoster System. The new colony is situated well away from Davute and Karlach, so it hasn't fallen into their spheres of influence."

"I see. While that sounds reassuring enough, please look into the Gemini Family further to make sure they do not have any reasons for taking us down."

"Our agents are already on it. We will be able to provide you with a more extensive intelligence report on the Gemini Family by the end of the day." Calabast promised.

"Can you tell me what the Gemini Family is like? What kind of people are we dealing with here? Are they aggressive in nature?"

This time, the spymaster hesitated. It looked as if she had difficulty in formulating her words.

Ves narrowed his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"There is one important aspect about the Gemini Family that you need to know. This ancient and traditional family maintains an unusual cultural custom that has evoked a great amount of disgust and rejection in many people."

"There are a lot of weird and eccentric groups in human space. If man-hating people like the Hexers are able to build a state, then it should be easy for all kinds of other cultures to take root."

"That is true, but this case is different from that of the Hexers. No matter what you can say about them, the Hexers at least maintain a semblance of traditional marriage norms. The Geminis on the other hand have entirely subverted it so that they can put their own notions into practice."

"Don't tease me, Calabast. Say it already. What is wrong with this bunch of people?"

The spymaster no longer dragged it out. "The Gemini Family... maintains a universal custom of marrying brothers to sisters. Every adult member of this family is married to a sibling."

"...I see what you mean."

Humanity had come a long way since the days they were hunting mammoths and gathering berries to feed their bellies.

Even back then, the ancient cavemen knew better than to marry close relatives together!

Over the ages, humanity not only exploded in population, but also became more sophisticated as a race.

The practice of incest should have long been swept into the dustbin of history!

What the Gemini Family did sounded nothing less than regression!

"I don't understand." Ves said. "How are the Geminis able to maintain this practice without degenerating into a collection of inbred idiots? Does every member of the family play along with this unnatural custom?"

"It's not as dangerous as it looks if you think about it, Ves. You see, the Gemini Family consists entirely of designer babies. Every addition to the family is planned instead of left to chance. When a mother births a pair of twins, the offspring are both designer babies formed out of a combination of genes that minimize or rule out the possibility of genetic defects. In this way, the Gemini Family has been able to survive and even thrive for many generations while remaining remarkably united."

"That... sounds absurd. Only a crazy person would come up with such a disgusting approach to family planning!"

Calabast did not look as judgmental. "Your response is normal, but it isn't necessarily warranted. After all, the traditional objection to marrying brothers to sisters is that the children and grandchildren will become physically less fit. In genetics, inbreeding problems are produced by the ailments that have formed from the expression of recessive genes. There used to be no way to prevent this from happening, but human technology has developed so much that we can precisely understand the effects of individual genes and alter them to our liking. Inbreeding is not a problem anymore."

"..."

Technically, this was true.

In an age where people like Ves could order a designer baby where a team of geneticists could precisely program a baby's eye color or cognitive talents, it was trivial to prevent adverse recessive genes from emerging!

What this meant in practice was that any siblings, not just the Geminis, could marry each other and produce offspring without any worries!

Ves began to imagine what it would be like if Gloriana and Brutus or Aurelian and Marvaine married each and started having kids.

He shuddered at the images produced by his imagination.

Biotechnology or not, the family customs of the Gemini Family was just too unnatural!

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