The Mech Touch

5930 Glorious Surprise

The journey back to the New Constantinople System took a little over a week.

The most exciting event that took place during the return trip was the addition of another warship.

The Babylon Excavator awkwardly joined the Bluejay Fleet.

As much as the mechers of the Bluejay Fleet resisted the entry of an RF reconnaissance cruiser, it could not be denied that the vessel provided a lot of help to Ves' personal escort force.

There was no need to force the Babylon Excavator to line up with the other ships of the Bluejay Fleet.

As a heavy scouting vessel, the Babylon Excavator was best suited to scout the route ahead and verify that no one had prepared any ambushes designed to ensnare Ves.

Although the chances of this happening was small, it was not non-zero. The latest stunt committed by Ves most definitely painted a much larger target on his back. The Red Cabal was probably on the verge of doubling or tripling his bounty!

Ves had already heard from Jovy and Sigrund that the Red Two were already thinking about bolstering the Bluejay Fleet even further.

The mechers already had plenty of reasons to invest in the security of the most successful Senior Mech Designer in the Red Ocean.

Now, the fleeters also found a reason to join the party. They did not want anything to happen to the only person who successfully transformed the Dominion of Man into a god ship!

One of the reasons why the Red Fleet urgently pulled the newly transformed Carmine dreadnought back from the frontlines was because its naval engineers wanted to decipher the methods used to convert her into such a powerful vessel.

Ves personally wished them luck, but did not think that they would attain any significant breakthroughs.

So long as the fleeters had no way of replicating or imitating what Ves had done, he would continue to remain valued by the Red Fleet. His protective detail needed to be raised for as long as he possessed the capability to convert the remaining 7 dreadnoughts into comparable living warships.

"The Red Association is standing in the way of dispatching additional RF warships." The projection of Captain Zonrad Reze told Ves. "The mechers acknowledge the need for greater protection, but they refuse to let the Red Fleet dispatch more warships. Your old patrons argue that since you are a mech designer, your security is their responsibility."

"They're correct in a sense." Ves said. "That said, I am not opposed to receiving additional help from another source. I have no objection to receiving the protection of additional RF warships aside from your Babylon Excavator. The larger my escort force, the greater the deterrence. I won't have to look over my shoulder as much."

It was a pity that the decision was not in his hands. Ves found his situation to be frustrating. He lacked the strength to exert enough influence. There were a lot of tier 1 and tier 2 galactic citizens that made decisions on his behalf without bothering to take his own interests into account.

This was an old problem. He knew that the only way to remedy this situation was to progress his design philosophy and advance to the rank of Master Mech Designer as soon as possible.

Fortunately, he already had a clear idea on how to speed up his progression. His latest escapades enabled him to return to his design lab with a wealth of inspiration and design concepts.

In fact, Ves spent much of his time during the return trip on accessing the Red Association and the Red Fleet's internal databases!

His tier 3 galactic citizenship along with his improved relationships with both organizations granted him greater access to restricted knowledge than before.

The latest rounds of lightning baptisms had significantly advanced and sublimated many aspects of his life.

His comprehensive learning abilities had taken a significant step forward. Not only was Ves able to digest complicated scientific theories a lot faster than before, but he also discovered that he was able to understand more convoluted and divergent alien-derived knowledge.

Part of that was due to his new affinity for darkness. When Ves discovered that he was able to glean a lot of new insights related to stealth technology, he quickly decided to focus on this field.

He was making clear strides towards becoming a first-class mech designer!

It shouldn't take too long before he passed the minimum qualifications to design a low-tier first-class mech.

However, Ves planned to continue studying after that in order to ensure that he was able to design proper multipurpose mechs.

He needed to gain additional proficiencies in lots of different miniaturized tech. It was not that difficult to learn them all if Ves had already mastered their larger equivalents, but the sheer quantity of miniaturized parts and modules still required a lot of time to comprehend.

He also had to master the overall design principles of a first-

class multipurpose mech. This was by far the most difficult 'mech type' that he would have to learn.

Unlike other first-class mech designers, he had never been raised from the ground up to develop such versatile and complicated mechs. Ves knew that he would have to fight an uphill battle to break his old habits and grow accustomed to making radically different compromises in order to design an acceptable multipurpose mech.

"There is too much for me to learn." Ves lamented as he sat behind his desk terminal. "You have it easy, Lucky. The only thing you need to do to grow stronger is to eat a lot of expensive metals. By the way, how far are you in digesting the piece of EE-343F-00334R I fed you the other day?"

"Meowww…"

Lucky's dark shape rested listlessly on the desk. The gem cat still hadn't recovered from biting such a significant chunk of super-class alloy.

Whatever properties this artificial material possessed, it clearly took great effort for the current iteration of Lucky to process it! The cat hardly had any energy left to spare for other considerations!

The fact that Lucky refused to eat any further meals was proof that he would remain indisposed for a while longer.

Ves reached out and softly patted Lucky's head.

"Take your time. I hope you will become stronger and more capable than ever. I also expect you to produce a powerful gem from this. Don't give me a reason to believe that you have squandered my investment."

"Meow!..."

As the days passed by, Ves looked more and more forward to returning 'home'. He had spent too many days away from his family.

While he was able to talk with Gloriana and his children over the galactic net on a regular basis, it was not enough. The communication channels were not secure enough for Ves to speak to his loved ones in total privacy.

There was much that Ves wanted to share with his wife. He could tell that Gloriana also wanted to share a few developments with him. She looked and sounded a lot more upbeat than before, so she definitely managed to make significant progress while he remained away on his business trip.

"I'm finally back!"

8 days after departing from the border regions, the Bluejay Fleet finally reached the port system that was located in the Agamemnon Upper Zone.

The Devos Ancient Clan welcomed the return of their honored guest. Traffic control went out of its way to clear the space lines and grant the Bluejay Fleet a direct route to the eighth planet from the local star.

Once the fleet settled into high orbit, Ves, Lucky and Kelsey Ampatoch all waited to get teleported directly to the surface of the planet.

The Journeyman Mech Designer that Ves recruited during the recent Fey Shaper Contest radiated a noticeable degree of apprehension. Though his training allowed him to maintain a brave face, this was just a facade.

"What's wrong, Kelsey?"

"I should not be surprised that you noticed. There is nothing wrong. I am merely unused to the fact that I will be spending at least several years in Terran space. It is not what I signed up for, professor."

Ves overlooked the fact that a Rubarthan mech designer wouldn't be able to feel at home in the Terran Alliance.

That did not mean that he tolerated this kind of response.

"I can understand your apprehension, but please remember who you are. You are no longer a Rubarthan. You are a Larkinson. I won't ask you to forget your past identity, but do not allow it to supersede your new status. Right now, the Larkinson Clan maintains a cooperative relationship with numerous Terran ancient clans. I do not want you to do anything that compromises these lucrative deals. Have I made myself clear?"

The young Journeyman took the rebuke in stride. "You are correct, sir. It is difficult for me to overcome my biases towards the Terrans, but I will try to keep an open mind. It will take time for me to grow comfortable in the presence of those I previously saw as enemies."

Ves relaxed and gave the former Rubarthan an encouraging smile.

"You don't have to turn your behavior around in an instant. Just try to minimize your exposure to the Terrans until you have adapted to your new status. By the way, I already have a former Terran mech designer in my employ. Alexa Streon is my latest student who has inherited much of my design philosophy, so I would appreciate it if you can learn to get along with her. Both of you are Larkinsons, so there is no reason for the two of you to hold any animosity towards each other. We are all working towards a common purpose."

Kelsey Ampatoch looked thoughtful at that. He had already learned that Ves employed a scion of the Streon Ancient Clan, but that was different from being able to accept the fact that he would become her colleague.

The good news was that their specialties diverged from each other. Alexa Streon specialized in living mechs, while Kelsey Ampatoch specialized in subversion systems.

Soon enough, the compartment made a chiming noise.

Everyone braced themselves just before the Tarrasque engaged the teleportation process.

During the brief interval where his body was being transferred to the surface of the planet, Ves experienced the differences between regular teleportation and crossing the Rubicon.

The latter was far faster, smoother and stabler.

It was difficult to adjust to a more low-end form of teleportation. His improved phase lord cultivation made him a lot more sensitive to the flaws and the fragility of the teleportation method acting on his body.

The Tarrasque had to pump a lot more power into the teleportation system in order to transfer his folded true body to his destination. This made everything riskier and more precarious than before.

The mechers needed to upgrade the teleportation system of the Tarrasque. It was never designed to teleport more than a couple of mechs at most.

Ves quickly transmitted a very brief complaint to Jovy before he focused on his surroundings.

He arrived directly onto one of the open courtyards of Diandi Base.

"Lucky! You're finally back!"

The first person to respond was Andraste!

The red-headed girl eagerly ran forward and embraced the floating gem cat in a hug!

"Meeeooow!..."

Naturally, the indisposed gem cat was not in the mood for a touchy reunion, but Andraste did not care about his discomfort!

Ves had no time to pull the distressed cat away from his clingy daughter.

That was because his wife had decided to greet his arrival with an unexpected surprise!

"Gloriana?"

"Yes, my dear?"

"What is… that?"

His elegantly dressed wife smirked and patted the shiny and crystalline aquamarine archeshell of the alien that stood by her side.

Ves immediately noticed that the hand used to touch the archeshell was wrapped in a glove that appeared to be made out of archemetal!

"I managed to make several breakthroughs while you were gone. Did you know that Alexandria is able to do more than form design networks? I recently discovered that she is also able to dominate the minds and spirits of weaker minds! With the help of this new ability, I persuaded the Red Association to transfer one of their alien captives to me. You are now looking at Hekkel, my very first Glorious Servant, but certainly not the last!"

"..."

"Hekkel, greet my husband."

The translation module attached to the alien's neck translated the arche's native speech.

[This lowly slave greets the highest slave of my Glorious Queen.]

"..."

"Please do not mind his words, Ves. The arche are highly hierarchical by nature. It is difficult to instill the concept of a servant into his alien mind."

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