The Mech Touch

Everything had become faster, stronger or more diverse.

The MTA shipyard also removed a lot of Hexer influences from the original builders of the factory ship.

Though the vessel still vaguely possessed a six-sided hull on the outside, the corridors and many compartments no longer adopted similar shapes.

The ship architecture no longer annoyed Ves as much as it did in the past, though Gloriana held the opposite opinion.

The only true part about the Spirit of Benthelm\'s comprehensive upgrade that irritated Ves was that she never had a chance to show off the full capabilities of her three Identical superdrives!

It was fun to accelerate the factory ship to unreal speeds by warping the space around her hull, but it was not advisable for her to distance herself too far from the rest of the expeditionary fleet.

The Spirit of Bentheim could have easily entered the Torald Middle Zone by now, but she was forced to match the pace of the slowest starship in the fleet due to safety concerns.

"We can\'t go on like this." Ves complained to Chief Minister Abigail Evern. "I need you to prepare a few plans on adding a new fleet to the Larkinson Clan that consists entirely of starships equipped with superdrives. We don\'t have to establish it right away, but I want our clan to make preparations in advance so that we can form a highly mobile fleet."

"You want to form a new core fleet based entirely on superdrive-equipped starships?"

Ves nodded. "Yes. Let\'s assume we can form it entirely out of true first-class starships. It may take a while before we can realize this ambitious plan, but I want our clan to figure everything out in advance."

"We can do that, sir." The former Hexer naval officer spoke. "We do not have the capability to design and construct first-class starships by ourselves, and nobody that we are allied with can solve this need either. We will have to forge strong connections with a first-class power if you want to have any hope of commission first-class starships."

She was right. Ves already talked with Vivian about this problem. The requirements to design and produce first-class mechs were incredibly high. The requirements to get started with first-class starships were even greater!

Just the capital requirements alone was unbearable to the current state of the Larkinson Clan!

Ves briefly thought about the potential first-class contacts that he could obtain powerful starships from. His options weren\'t great at the moment.

The Red MTA remained his best hope at the moment, yet from what he heard through several channels, the mechers had become fully preoccupied with solving their own acute needs!

The war against the Indigenous aliens was in the process of heating up, which meant that the MTA needed to field more warships than ever! How could the mechers waste any of their existing shipbuilding capacity at this sensitive time?

Ves seriously doubted whether he could cash in all of the remaining favors and goodwill he had left from the Yorul-Tavik Clan.

The foundation of this first-class clan still remained rooted in the old galaxy.

After Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik catastrophically failed in his amateurish expedition, the rest of his clan had become a lot less interested in expanding its holdings in the new frontier!

As for the Terrans...

"Forget it." He shook his head in dismissal. "I\'m just a simple professor employed by an ordinary university. It will be hard to establish mutually beneficial ties with these arrogant Terrans."

The Devos Ancient Clan that founded and operated the Eden University of Business & Technology most certainly had the strength and capability to construct first-class starships, but what did that have to do with a second-rater like Ves?

Unless Ves was willing to reveal his most valuable trade secrets, there was no way this powerful clan would pay him any serious regard!

After all, the Terrans needed those first-class starships themselves!

In the end, it all came down to shipbuilding capability.

Those who possessed it closely held it to their chests.

Those that did not possess it effectively had to work like dogs in order to expand their fleets!

"We can expand our own shipbuilding operations if we alter our current development strategy." The female chief minister proposed. "If we Invest additional resources into Murphy & Sons, we can Increase our supply of second-class sub-capital starships. They may not sound as attractive to you anymore, but they are better than nothing."

"I know, but there should be a limit to how much we can do this." Ves said with a sigh. "The real bottleneck isn\'t the lack of shipyards. It is the shortage of raw materials that is ultimately limiting production everywhere. It will take a long time for all of the colonies to complete their initial developments and get their industries up and running. This is also why I don\'t think there is much point to leaving the Diligent Ovenbird behind in Davute."

Rather than keep the Diligent Ovenbird deployed in a fixed position so that she could function as a relatively functional shipyard, Ves would rather have her accompany his expeditionary fleet in order to properly maintain and repair his starships.

Ves ultimately accepted that there were no good solutions to expanding or upgrading his fleet in the foreseeable time.

Red humanity needed to go through an extensive period of development, and the Larkinson Clan needed to become a lot more powerful as well!

Once he completed his latest discussion on starships, Ves decided to stop by the Dragon\'s Den at the next possible opportunity.

Both the Larklnson Biotech Institute and the T Institute reported a lot of changes since the Great Severing.

Ves knew quite well that exotic radiation would have drastic implications to the ongoing research projects of both research institutions. He delayed his visit to them because he was too busy with other matters and because he wanted to give them more time to figure out their circumstances.

The main reason why he decided to finally pay a visit to the partially organic capital ship was because he needed to pick up the Carmine System reserved for his Dawn Star Project.

Ves, or more precisely Veronica, had just completed the rushed design project!

While Ves was not exactly proud of the first mech design completed since his ascension to Senior Mech Designer, it was still a lot more solid than any of his prior rushed mech designs.

He had already checked his grandfather’s condition.

He was afraid that M87\'s exotic radiation would have adverse effects on Benjamin Larklnson\'s dire physical state.

It had already started to become common knowledge that the Increase in ambient spiritual energy affected every expert pilot.

Each of them had become stronger as they were able to affect their surroundings with their willpower a bit more effectively than before!

Ves feared that the reverse might happen to his grandfather due to his broken willpower. He had not noticed any signs of this, but who knew how long this would remain true in the future.

He needed to resolve this matter sooner rather than later!

Director Ranya Wodin greeted Ves as soon as he stepped aboard the Dragon\'s Den.

"You look a lot better than I thought." Ves remarked. "Your last report makes it sound as if you are swamped with work."

"I am, but this is an unprecedented time of change and evolution! Think about it. The entire Red Ocean and every organism that resides in it has moved from a relatively barren environment to a more energy-rich environment! This is a transition that is bound to destroy entire ecosystems and cause trillions of different organic species to go extinct, but those who are able to adapt and survive the mutations wrought by E energy radiation and R particle radiation shall attain unprecedented strength on a population-wide scale! Red humanity is about to undergo a collective evolution on an unheard of scale!"

Ranya continued to rave about the effects of M87\'s exotic radiation. The entire biotech community became abuzz with the possibilities.

While they most definitely understood all of the dangers inherent in the mutations induced by the new galaxy, they were confident that their solutions would help them save their own lives at the very least!

As long as they were able to survive and weather the storm, they could dedicate their research towards all of the fantastic new possibilities presented by Messier 87!

The pair briefly toured the biomes that comprised a large part of the Dragon\'s Den. All of the different organisms that the LBI had acquired over the years had begun to show abnormal deviations.

"We tried our best to fulfill one of your standing orders and purchase as many mutated beasts as we could." She said as they stopped in front of a biome that housed a reptilian bird-like creature. "These creatures have demonstrated abnormal abilities, but their threat has never come close enough to test our defenses."

"Are you concerned that this will change?" Ves asked.

"It is possible that our fears are overblown, but it is also possible that all of these creatures have the potential to become as powerful as expert mechs.” The director said with a grave expression. "On the one hand, these mutated beasts have not only become more precious and unique, but they also have the potential to absorb so much strength from M87 that they can reach a state where they can pose a serious threat to the safety of our ship."

Ves swept his gaze to the surrounding biomes. He tried to extend his spiritual senses in order to evaluate the spiritualities of the closest mutated beasts.

He could feel that each of them had indeed become a lot more active on this front.

Just as humans were beginning to flourish in this more energy-rich environment, the mutated beasts who already activated their spiritualities were beginning to grow stronger with each passing day!

His expression turned grave as well. "Your concerns are valid. The Dragon\'s Den may be able to hold them for the time being, but this won\'t last forever. I don\'t want to see these alien beasts tear this capital ship apart in an attempt to free themselves. What do you propose we do in order to prevent this from happening?"

"My staff and I have come up with several possible solutions, sir. The most direct and obvious way to eliminate the threat is to kill the mutated beasts. They cannot fight against us if they are not alive anymore."

"Unacceptable." Ves immediately shook his head. "They are too valuable to me. Each of them are not only potential sources of spiritual ingredients, but also have the potential to join my collection of design spirits. Killing them at this stage may be the safest option, but it will largely waste all of our efforts."

"We can instruct our Davute Branch to construct a highly secure containment center that can properly house the strongest and more threatening mutated beasts. It is much easier to contain them in a land-based facility. We can even turn it into a theme park if you want it to pay for itself."

That sounded a bit more realistic, but Ves did not entirely like this option.

"These mutated beasts are all essential resources to my work and design philosophy. I don\'t want them to be separated too far away from our fleet. Anything else?"

"We can attempt to freeze them and store them in cryogenic cells, but this is a dangerous procedure that has never been tested on all of those unique species. The death rate is bound to be high.”

"No. Next."

Ranya hesitated for a moment. "If containment is not a solution, then what about befriending them? Each of these mutated beasts possess at least a rudimentary degree of intelligence. If you can assign Venerable Joshua to us, we may be able to use his talent of befriending other life forms to build up amicable relationships with the beasts."

"That... actually sounds like a good idea..."