The Mech Touch

5853 Ignited

The Blood Pact was formed and sustained through blood.

Although the Carmine Systems integrated into metallic mechs did not appear to serve any functional use, their symbolic and metaphysical functions were much more significant!

Blood was the medium that tied the Carmine mech pilot and Carmine mech together.

The choice of blood was deliberate. Due to swallowing a certain enlightenment fruit, Ves had become intimately familiar with the extraordinary properties of human blood.

Water and other liquid substances clearly weren't suitable. Ves might be able to circulate them through a Carmine System, but an active Carmine mech pilot would quickly get poisoned as a result!

Even if the mech pilot received heavy augmentation that enabled him to function with water flowing through his veins, it still wouldn't work as well.

Unlike blood, water possessed other inherent meanings. It did not hold the same attributes that paired up well with the Carmine System.

This was why Ves stuck to using blood as the primary connecting medium for such a long time.

The Bastion piloted by Venerable Jannzi Larkinson was the first time that Ves implemented the Carmine System.

His intent for this gimmick back then was a lot different at the time, but it turned out so well that Ves decided to make the Carmine System the centerpiece of his design philosophy.

What was important to note was that the Carmine System was originally a product of the Age of Mechs. It was designed to operate in a low-energy environment that was largely devoid of E energy and hyper materials.

Then came along the Age of Dawn.

With Messier 87 shining its oppressive light over the Red Ocean, the rules of the game had changed.

A lot of new possibilities opened up, so much so that the Red Association quickly introduced the Hyper Generation in order to add more structure to the rapidly developing field of hyper technology.

What Ves did not think about in the months and years after the Great Severing was that the Carmine System might not be restricted to blood anymore.

Logically, any non-solid medium that was compatible with life could do a similar job.

It did not even have to be a material substance. E energy might be able to do the job as well as long as it possessed a few necessary properties.

Yet Ves had never once thought about finding a replacement for blood.

For one, blood always served him well enough. Not a single Carmine mech he produced so far had exhibited any signs of instability.

The Blood Pacts between the Carmine mechs and Carmine mech pilots all functioned without any apparent issues.

Ves preferred to pay attention to the actual problems and limitations related to the Carmine System as opposed to finding solutions when none were needed.

Perhaps it had been a little shortsighted of him to neglect these possible alternatives. Blood had power, but there were other choices that either opened up new possibilities or produced even better results!

Yet because Ves always assumed that the Carmine System was intrinsically tied to blood, he stumbled through the first year of the Age of Dawn without ever deviating in this aspect.

This seemed incredibly stupid in hindsight!

It was as if Ves always had the option of producing transphasic mechs, yet never did so because he neglected to harvest a nearby deposit of phasewater that was hiding in plain sight!

It was strange how taking a break from designing a Carmine mech and working on a possible Carmine dreadnought of all things had led to several crucial discoveries and breakthroughs in this field.

The concept of the Bloodfire Pact was born out of a concern that the Dominion of Man would not be able to function as a proper Carmine warship, if such a thing could even exist.

Ves had good reasons to feel concerned.

Blood made up such a miniscule part of the hull and structure of the dreadnought that it would never be able to match the proportion of a Carmine mech.

Since the probability that blood would not be able to serve as an adequate medium for a pact, Ves had been thinking hard about a replacement.

It was only when Ves recalled his observation that the Spark Reactor was built around a living entity that he made the connection!

The living spark was not only alive, but functioned as the 'heart' of a massive 'living' dreadnought.

Once Ves began to fit these variables into the model of the Carmine System, everything seemed to fall into place.

Though Ves did not have proof that his latest theory had any merit, the evidence so far suggested that he was right to leverage the power of the Spark Reactor!

Of course, the results were a lot flashier than he expected!

As fire-attributed E energies continued to course throughout the entire hull, far more than just the Brain Trust burst into metaphysical flames!

"Ahh!"

The Dread Marines assigned to guard the Brain Trust also began to display the same phenomenon!

Each of their Dread Armors seemed to combust and release fiery orange flames, yet in actuality none of them were really burning.

"We are receiving reports that Dread Marines across the entire hull have caught on fire as well! The soldiers report that they are feeling uncomfortably hot, but none of the heat comes from a physical source."

"We need explanations, Ves! Dread Captain Argile needs answers in order to reassure his crew. Is the Dominion of Man at risk?!"

"The ship is fine as best I can tell." Ves quickly answered as he did his best to observe and analyze the dramatic changes taking place around him. "As best as I can tell, I have managed to tap into the greater potential of the Spark Reactor. What is happening right now is that the Spark Reactor is 'refining' the Dominion of Man for a lack of a better description. The brain units… as well as the Dread Armors are key components of the dreadnought. I bet that the Rubicon Spatial Transfer System must have 'lit on fire' as well."

"Why? What is the point of this process?!"

"The Spark Reactor is transforming all of these elements. This is not necessarily a bad thing. All of the components on fire are changing in a way that will make them more compatible with the Spark Reactor and their new conditions. It is rather great that this is happening because it is fixing many of the flaws that would have caused the process to fail."

Unless the flames actually burned anything for real, they were incredibly beneficial to the formation of the brand-new Bloodfire Pact.

The refinement process that took place across the entire hull directly improved the Dominion of Man's qualification as a Carmine warship of the bloodfire variety.

"Captain Reze, please take a look at the readings of the brain units. Have they grown more stable?"

"They… the stress levels are decreasing. There are many indications that the brain units… are beginning to acclimate to the heightened activity. The Alpha Plus Brains are improving even faster. They… they are beginning to synchronize with each other!"

That was good news!

Ves had evidently missed a few crucial steps, but this autonomous refinement process helped to make up the shortcomings.

The brain units remained physically separate, but they had started to come together in a spiritual sense.

Instead of functioning as separate brains, they began to behave more like collections of brain cells that happened to be a little more separated from each other than usual.

While Ves was glad that the Spark Reactor induced all of these spontaneous transformations, the problem was that these were directed actions!

There was an intelligence that purposefully engineered these changes!

Caramond was not responsible. He was too new and did not know how to properly exercise his power.

The brain units themselves also shouldn't be responsible because they did not possess any coherent sapience before he started the ritual.

The only explanation that made sense was that the living spark itself was responsible somehow.

Ves found it difficult to accept this conclusion because he was pretty sure that the living spark was devoid of any intelligence. It was supposed to be the spiritual equivalent of a clone. It had lots of power, but no real mind to do anything more sophisticated than leak it out of its intangible body.

This was also an important reason why Ves felt a bit more comfortable with forming a so-called Bloodfire Pact.

In the model for this specific pact, Caramond played the role of a Carmine mech pilot while the living spark functioned akin to the spirituality of a living mech.

So long as Caramond was the only properly sentient and active intelligence in this relationship, the ancestral spirit would remain in charge of the powerful dreadnought.

However, it turned out that this assumption was wrong!

The current indications suggested that the living spark was not as devoid of intelligence as Ves expected.

This was a scary thought.

If the living spark possessed a hostile attitude towards the Red Fleet and red humanity, then the Dominion of Man had the potential to turn into a demonic dreadnought!

Yet… as Ves and Blinky continued to observe the burning brain units and Dread Marines, there were no signs of any adverse changes.

The strange flames did not cause any physical or spiritual harm.

Nothing showed any signs that they were hijacked by another intelligence.

The Spark Reactor operated at full power without exhibiting any complications.

The conclusion that Ves drew from these observations was that if the living spark was not an enemy, at least for the time being.

Ves' actions may have inadvertently woken up the living spark!

That, or he had caused it to develop an actual semblance of intelligence!

Whatever the case, this scarily powerful True God-level entity did not try to break out of the Spark Reactor, but instead stayed put and continued to supply a huge amount of power to the Dominion of Man.

More importantly than that, the living spark either accepted the terms of the Bloodfire Pact or decided to tolerate the existing one.

This was a far better outcome than trying to resist the permanent spiritual bond!

As time went by, the crew of the Dominion of Man slowly became accustomed to mysterious phenomena.

They were all elites who could withstand a lot of shocks. So long as their superiors told them that the illusionary flames were harmless, they did their best to remain calm and in control. Panic would not help their situation in the slightest.

What mattered at this time was the transformation and stabilization of the Brain Trust.

It was the crucial element that tied Caramond together with the Dominion of Man, or more precisely the living spark.

"The flames are beginning to fade!"

"The heat is abating."

As the transformations started to subside, the Dominion of Man had become a lot more integrated with her Spark Reactor than before.

The refinement process had turned the idea of the Dominion of Man as a Carmine warship into a reality, at least in part.

As far as Ves was able to see, the Brain Trust, the Dread Armor and other critical systems had become intrinsically tied to the existence of the living spark.

It was as if these separate elements had formed their own individual Bloodfire Pacts with the living sparks!

The most important outcome was that the Brain Trust, the Rubicon Spatial Transfer System and all of the Dread Armors had become permanently bonded to the living spark!

Ves worried the most about the latter. He was unclear whether this change also included the soldiers who wore the Dread Armors during the refinement process.

This was not the time to investigate this matter, though.

The latest changes had been a boon to the Bloodfire Pact!

Unlike the shaky Blood Pact of before, the Bloodfire Pact that replaced it was much stronger and more stable than anything he had seen in the past!

Not only had Caramond grown a lot stronger due to the passage of time, but the Dominion of Man was finally pulling her weight due to leveraging the strength of her Spark Reactor!

It was an amazing result. Ves did not think that he would be able to replicate this result with a regular capital ship.

The immense power and crucial assistance provided by the living spark had turned out to be instrumental in forging a working pact!

What was even better was that the 5 Alpha Plus Brains no longer functioned as separate brain units at this point.

The refinement process had somehow completed the work that Ves attempted to make. According to the readings, the crucial collection of brain units had truly begun to function like a mythical S-grade Super Brain!

The consequences were enormous and far-reaching. The entire Brain Trust began to radiate a different sort of power.

"It's working… it's actually working for real this time…"

Though Ves still needed to conduct a lot of examinations to verify his results, he had a strong hunch that the living spark's intervention successfully finished what he started!

The consequences to all of this became very clear as the pressure from above was rapidly growing stronger.

Whether it was the Bloodfire Pact, the magical refinement process or the complete formation of a Super Brain, the heavens had grown jealous at what Ves had managed to cobble together!

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