The Mech Touch

5941 Ominous Undercurrents

Ves entered into a contemplative mood after his latest meeting with his mother.

Her advice offered a lot of clarity. Though he wished she could have told him more, he had to admit that her advice was apt and relevant.

However, her words also caused Ves to entertain doubts.

It was so easy for him to behave like a good boy and follow his mother's advice and recommendations to the letter.

Yet if he did so, he would behave more like his mother as opposed to himself.

He may have inherited a few traits from his mother, but he grew up in a modern human society.

Every time Ves encountered a vestige of humanity's ancient cultivation history, he frequently became confronted by a completely different human culture.

So many people at the time struggled to compete with each other in a brutal contest for survival. The desire to monopolize the best resources available led to constant power struggles.

Cooperation may be possible in certain cases. There was still plenty of room for honor, affection, duty and even altruism.

Yet when the most powerful gods of a society all turned out to be tyrants comparable to the Subjugation King, then it was difficult for the cultivators below them to hold themselves to a higher standard.

The individual struggle for power and eternity had become a central pillar of this tribal culture!

As a product of modern human civilization, Ves did not like it at all. The Five Scrolls Compact likely became responsible for its own downfall due to an inability to rein in all of the different personalities that abused their power and authority for their own gains.

His mother's apparent past painted her as a murderous opportunist who was willing to betray her superiors, break her oaths, slaughter innocents and sow terror in order to advance her own power.

Though Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson did her best to paint the woman previously known as Cultmaster Original Sin in the worst possible light, Ves could not bring himself to deny that his mother was capable of committing these deeds.

Though the present version of Cynthia Larkinson didn't behave nearly as deplorably, Ves was able to pick up plenty of clues through Veronica's eyes.

His cyborg cat incarnation only possessed a limited understanding of the Oblivion Empire due to staying isolated on a single ship all of the time.

This caused Veronica to only catch a small glimpse of the Oblivion Empire forged by Cynthia.

This 'empire' was anything but simple. It attracted ambitious and desperate mech pilots like moths to a flame. Those who abandoned their previous lives and identities in human space became disturbingly loyal to the Lady of the Night at a remarkable speed. They fought and died against her enemies for a cause that did not really benefit them all that much!

There were too many disturbing clues about the Oblivion Empire that Ves could not deny the uncomfortable truth any longer.

His mother… had turned into a despotic cultivator. Ves suspected that she engaged in a particularly insidious form of deity cultivation that was way more exploitative than any of his spiritual networks!

In fact, Ves even suspected that she may have used his works as a template before twisting it to provide her with far greater advantages than what she deserved!

Though Ves no longer considered himself a part of original humanity, that did not mean he lost all empathy towards them. His distant human cousins were still humans. The principle that every human possessed fundamental rights was too ingrained in his psyche for him to deny his mother's callous disregard towards ordinary folk.

Ves wished he possessed the courage to confront his mother on this issue, but he never dared to do so. He already understood that the attempt was doomed to fail.

Was this what it was like to live under the reign of a True God?

He developed greater admiration towards god pilots. Their combat prowess was so enormous that they could easily topple the regime of a powerful state and rule it with an iron fist.

Yet the fact that they clung to their honor and duty as protectors of the common folk was a miracle in itself.

If Ves had a choice, he would much rather contribute to the rise of modern humanity then facilitate the rise of a despot.

However, when that very same despot happened to be his mother, Ves found it extraordinarily difficult to cling to his values.

Ves deeply cared about family. He had lost his mother once. He went through great lengths to bring her back to life. It would not be a mistake to claim that his mother was one of the most powerful 'products' that he managed to restore!

Unfortunately, taking credit for her return also burdened him with a sense of responsibility over his product. Cynthia had done far more than to take over the Nyxian Gap and build an empire that could help her defend against the enemies that rabidly sought to claim her life.

Even to this day, the minions and the cadre of the Five Scrolls Compact continued to invade the Nyxian Gap and wage a war of attrition against the Oblivion Empire.

Though the frequency and the intensity of these battles had dropped to an extent, far too many soldiers of the Oblivion Empire sacrificed their lives just to buy time for Cynthia to recover her strength and complete her hidden schemes.

Though Veronica was shielded from much of the affairs of the Oblivion Empire, she picked up enough clues on her mother's flagship to sense that a massive operation was in the works.

It seemed that the Oblivion Empire had enough of remaining passive. The Oblivion Empress was likely preparing to launch a major offensive, but that was all Veronica was able to glean.

She failed to gather any intelligence relating to Cynthia's goals, locations, assets and timeframe.

That unsettled her. Staying on the defensive was clearly not a long-term solution, but the bloodshed was bound to skyrocket once the Oblivion Empire launched a risky offensive!

Perhaps Veronica had grown too comfortable with the status quo. She loved it that she finally managed to reunite with her parents. She did not want to ruin the stability of the present.

"It's too bad those cultists refuse to leave my mother alone." Ves muttered as he passed through a gate and stepped outside the perimeter of Diandi Base.

His wife along with her guards had already reached the gathering spot in advance. She had plenty of reasons to arrive early.

[This lowly slave greets the male consort of the Glorious Queen.] The indoctrinated arche engineer dipped his four legs in the alien's version of a bow. [May your shell-less grace please Her Majesty.]

Ves rolled her eyes at the alien's translated speech. He still did not like what the arche was saying, but Gloriana did not turn Hekkel into a servile dummy.

Every young and low-ranking member of the arche race was trained to act in this fashion. Their archeshells were far too small and dull to elevate their status in their alien society. It was only through centuries of growth and selective feeding of high-grade materials that the more successful arche rose in status and gained the respect they deserved.

Arche society was quite fair and meritocratic when it came to social mobility.

Of course, that did not prevent the emergence of aristocratic lines. Successful members of the arche race became good at raising descendants who enjoyed many advantages during their childhood.

The main advantage of these alien aristocrats was that they invested many generations into developing exclusive recipes of valuable materials. Special combinations of different materials could lead to the growth of exceptionally beautiful and powerful archeshells.

Even if the size of an archeshell was not yet up to par, as long as it looked pretty enough, a young arche could still rise above the lowest-ranking members of his race!

This was one of the reasons why Gloriana managed to keep Hekkel docile.

His wife absolutely refused to transplant an archeshell on her back, yet she still needed to wear something in order to prevent Hekkel from going mad.

The exquisite Archglove was an acceptable compromise. Though Gloriana failed to turn it into a masterwork, it was well-designed and possessed beautiful aesthetics. The cost of this hard-plated accessory could probably give first-class mechs a run for their money due to the use of both phasewater and precious high-grade materials!

One of the more notable traits of the Archglove was that the hyper materials were aspected towards metal. This not only made it easier for her to harmonize with archetech, but also strengthened her connection to any arche, as every member of this alien species ingested and incorporated a lot of metallic substances in their archeshells.

Ves dismissed Hekkel's greeting and presence. He did not come here to explore the mysteries of the arche and their advanced alien technology.

There were more impressive and imposing pieces of tech that demanded his attention.

"So this is what you have decided to trade during the grand auction on Ector V. How… typically male." Gloriana said in a flat and unassuming tone. "I do not have too many problems with objects themselves. They are far more powerful than any other weapons in our possession. What I do take issue with is your judgment. Why did you commit thousands of kilograms of phasewater and valuable shares of the LMC for what amounts to toys for boys?"

Oh boy.

Ves already anticipated this response from his wife. He could already tell during the grand auction that she would not be pleased by some of his choices, but he committed to his decisions anyway because it made sense from his perspective.

He did not have any reason to apologize for the choices he made at the time.

"I managed to bring home plenty of strategic gains, honey. Both Starfarer Berth and the E-66 Experimental Yard have granted us genuine first-class shipbuilding capabilities that will generate greatest value for our clan over the long term. The Zeta-65 Warp Interdictor is based on exclusive tech that is expressly designed to counter transphasic technology and hunt down phase whales."

"Ves!" His wife turned around and barked in his direction! "I am not referring to those acquisitions! Obtaining shipyards was your original purpose, and the Zeta-65 comes with enough exclusive terms to retain its value over time. What I take issue with is these TOYS!"

She gestured her arm towards the objects that had just been delivered beyond the walls of Diandi Base.

One of them was the long and slender container that held the tier 3 Destroyer mech spear.

The other was the Alpha Lifeguard first-class masterwork support mech.

The final one was by far the biggest and most ostentatious of the bunch.

This was because the mechers had just delivered the Otalon Sprius, a 350-meter long juggernaut!

The size of this outdated metal monstrosity was enormous. Even though it did not contain any extraordinary traits, its age combined with its titanic size already made it impossible for anyone to ignore its presence!

Its imposing height and its humongous mass granted the juggernaut an overpowering physical presence that could easily diminish the stature of any other mech in the vicinity!

The Otalon Sprius was so big that Ves had no idea where to store it. There was no space on the surface of Diandi Base. None of the underground spaces were tall enough to accommodate a mechanical monstrosity whose length was comparable to sub-capital ships.

Though the raw power of this metal beast was unimaginably high, its practicality was so abysmally low that Ves understood why juggernauts fell out of favor.

"I can explain." Ves said as he raised his palms in a placating motion. "I did not buy this juggernaut because I wanted to play with a really awesome toy. There is immense strategic value in being able to field an actual juggernaut in battle."

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