The Mech Touch

After Ves ended his call with Saint Tusa, he tried his best not to grin like an unhinged madman.

He felt ecstatic!

Out of all of the draft designs that Master Benedict Cortez whipped up as possible evolutions of the Dark Zephyr, Tusa picked the one that provided the greatest benefit to Ves and the Larkinson Clan!

"Hehehehe…"

Although Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson was the first member of the clan to advance to the rank of ace pilot, he would soon be joined by others.

Isobel Kotin had already broken through, and there were many high-tier expert pilots that just needed to take one step further in order to reach the same rank.

Although not even Ylvaine could predict the timing of pilot breakthroughs, the Larkinson Clan nurtured enough peak ace candidates to be able to 'win the jackpot' at least once or twice in the upcoming campaign.

This was not a certain bet, but Ves did not think that Tusa and Isobel were the only pilots in the Larkinson Clan that could undergo apotheosis for a second time.

The other high-tier expert pilots possessed their own strengths!

They just needed a single powerful opportunity to push themselves past the threshold. Whether that was receiving an updated high-tier expert mech or fighting an extremely intensive battle during the imminent alien offensive, Ves had already formulated a few plans based on the assumption of specific individual breakthroughs.

If the future matched his predictions, Saint Tusa's role in the Larkinson Clan would automatically change from a frontline leader to a flanking supporter.

This was what fit Tusa best. His Dark Zephyr functioned best when the light skirmisher was not the most ostentatious presence on the battlefield.

"It would have been great if Ark broke through and came back to the clan." Ves sighed.

Ark was by far the best candidate to take a leading position in any large mech force. His domain and his combat system all hinged on becoming the brightest star in the field.

Still, Ves could work with others if necessary. Jannzi Larkinson, Joshua Larkinson and Casella Ingvar all possessed good leadership or inspirational qualities. Each of them had the potential to elevate the Larkinson Clan's premier fighting forces in different ways.

As harsh as it sounded, Ves did not include Tusa on that very short list.

It was not that Ves had no faith in Tusa's leadership abilities. He could certainly step up if there was no better alternative. He was just not suitable for this prominent role.

If not for the fact that Saint Isobel Kotin's distorted breakthrough and traumatic injuries caused her mental stability to drop off a cliff, Ves would have already prepared a plan to turn her into the standard bearer of the Larkinson Clan!

In any case, Tusa's decision to adopt the Banisher Edition was fantastic news to Ves!

The Dark Zephyr with the power to exile troublesome enemies to another dimension had many useful applications, but Ves mainly prized one use in particular.

"Loss mitigation!"

Yes!

Ves did not naively assume that his forces would be able to win every battle in the future.

The Larkinson Clan became stronger, but the enemies his forces were expected to confront were growing stronger as well.

Part of that is due to the technological and organizational improvements made by his opponents.

The rabble that the Larkinsons previously looked down on in the past was slowly getting better and better. All of the trash had already been wiped out, but that meant that the second echelon forces that remained were much better. The expeditionary fleet should no longer have it as easy as before.

Another part of the increasing difficulties was that the first-class mech force that Ves intended to raise in the near future had to fight against the 'real' enemies of red humanity.

The Torment Fleet only gave the Larkinsons a small preview of what it was like to fight the main warfleets of the major alien races.

Against a real orven, nunser or puelmer warfleet, the Larkinsons were bound to suffer a lot of casualties in battle!

After all, if not even the well-equipped RA and RF warfleets could win their own battles without losing valuable soldiers and assets, how could the Larkinson Clan possibly do any better?

Even if the first-class mech force of the Larkinson Clan actively tried to avoid any alien warfleets that posed too great of a threat, there was no guarantee that a confrontation could be avoided forever.

The price of losing was far too great to Ves. This was why before he thought about the benefits of winning a battle against such powerful opposition, he needed to think about what must be done if his forces lost a battle!

This was where the Banisher Edition of the Dark Zephyr came into play. If the living mech truly incorporated Erlemin as a key resonating material, then the machine should be able to buy the Larkinson forces enough time to retreat.

Saint Tusa did not even need to kill the winning enemies. As long as he used his ace mech to banish a handful of extremely powerful warships or units that possessed the greatest lethality, the remaining alien enemies had a much smaller chance of wiping out the fleeing Larkinson troops.

Perhaps the pursuers may even decide to interrupt their chase for fear of getting defeated in detail!

This was a role that only Saint Tusa and the Dark Zephyr could perform.

Theoretically, any other ace pilot that was compatible with Erlemin could fulfill the same purpose, but the situation was not so simple.

Out of all of the high-ranking mech pilots in the Larkinson Clan, a light mech specialist such as Tusa possessed the highest agency on the battlefield!

His Dark Zephyr was the fastest and most evasive mech of the Larkinson Clan. The light skirmisher could visit any corner of the battlefield and get away without suffering any significant consequences.

Only Saint Tusa was able to execute a mission as dangerous as flying in the middle of the formation of an enemy warfleet and banishing the well-protected flagship before slipping away!

"There is absolutely no way that Jannzi and her Bastion can pull off the same feat!"

The Bastion possessed the lowest mobility out of all of the Larkinson expert mechs, and that was fine. She was fully geared towards functions that did not require her to maneuver around a lot.

There were still many medium expert mechs that possessed decently high mobility such as the First Sword and the Everchanger, but it would be a waste to integrate Erlemin into them. It was better to play to their strengths and let them excel in different areas.

"In any case, once Gloriana and Master Benedict are done with upgrading the Dark Zephyr, I have much greater confidence in the success of our upcoming deep strike expeditions."

It was only when the Larkinsons finally jumped deep behind enemy lines and fought against the native aliens in their home turf that the threat of annihilation was the greatest!

The addition of a mech like the Banisher Edition of the Dark Zephyr served as a powerful guarantee against any unexpected surprises that the aliens may spring.

After all, as competent as the Red Two's intelligence gathering efforts may be, it was impossible for their spies to discover every phase whale enclave.

Any manner of threats could hide inside those secretive pocket spaces. What happened in Davute back then was just the mildest form of ambush as the ones inside merely consisted of a miniscule defeated remnant of the original race that occupied the planet.

Other planets might be hiding much more terrible enemies, from adult phase whales to secret armadas!

"Well, the Dark Zephyr can't take care of any enemy." Ves briefly frowned.

There was not much he could do about that. The only way to increase the chances of survival was to team up with other powerful deep strike fleets. Perhaps he should think about fighting alongside a friendly Terran or Rubarthan mech force.

In any case, there was an entirely different reason why Ves was happy about the Banisher Edition, and it did not have anything to do with combat.

Ves saw a potential synergy between the Banisher Edition and the latest upgrade of the Mech Designer System!

One of the issues that troubled him when he chose the upgrade track corresponding to Dimension Breach Creation was the insanely high AP cost to get the Dimension Observatory up and running.

While Ves expected to make a bit of progress on that in the near future, he was still on the lookout for cheaper alternatives.

The Banisher Edition may be able to serve as that cheaper alternative!

What he did not mention to Tusa was that the Dark Zephyr did not necessarily have to use the resonating ability associated with Erlemin on enemy units.

What if the Banisher Edition of the ace mech exiled a friendly probe into a random dimension?

That probe would enter into a completely different facet of reality, record a lot of useful data before subsequently coming back to the material realm!

As long as the probe survived the abnormal environment of another dimension, it might be able to provide enough data to skip the need to employ the Dimension Telescope!

In fact… as long as the Banisher Edition gained more power and control over the banishing process, Ves could even render the Dimension Telescope redundant!

Forget about investing thousands of AP into this expensive device.

As long as the Dark Zephyr was able to produce the same results without spending a single Ascension Point, only a fool would commit to the more expensive option!

As Ves continued to daydream about how the Banisher Edition might be able to facilitate his dream of plundering lots of unique and valuable resources from other dimensions, he soon reminded himself that this was not the time to think about expansion.

Instead, he needed to spend more time on making sure his clan was able to weather the incoming storm.

"What is taking the aliens so long?" Ves briefly frowned.

The big offensive that everyone was afraid of had yet to kick off. This should be good news to red humanity as it gave everyone more time to prepare.

However, the Red Cabal was not stupid. The phase whales may possess alien thinking that caused them to make decisions that did not make immediate sense to humans, but they had all proven to be rational and self-interested enough when their core interests came under threat.

This suggested that the native aliens needed to wait until they completed their own preparations. Whatever schemes they had in mind were bound to deal a nasty blow to red humanity.

"There's nothing I can do." Ves sighed.

He had grown faster and more powerful than any mech designer of his generation in the Red Ocean.

He was the model of a successful pioneer that had managed to rise up by taking advantage of the opportunities of the new frontier.

He even became the catalyst to the formation of a new hegemonic organization that had the potential to stand equal with the Red Association and the Red Fleet!

However, Ves did not let these accomplishments go over his head. He knew quite well that he firmly remained in the palm of the hands of the true bigshots of red humanity.

Ves was quite sober in his realization that he was still a chess piece as opposed to a chess player.

He only managed to promote himself from a pawn into a bishop or something.

Regardless, a chess piece remained a chess piece. Ves had little actual agency in his ability to influence the strategic direction of human civilization.

At most, he could use his most radical inventions to slightly nudge red humanity in one direction or another.

This was why he quickly put the matter of the Red Cabal's schemes aside. It was not his responsibility to foil the plans of the native aliens.

He had better ways to spend his time. One of them was to contact Ketis to discuss the withdrawal of some of the combat forces in the Reticula Corein System.

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