The Mech Touch

In the end, the Saint Commander confirmed her decision to focus on developing her new Enfeoffment ability. She would continue her Commandeering ability as well, but she did not intend to invest too much time and effort into improving it beyond her natural growth progress.

Ves completely understood her reasoning and thought that she had indeed made a rationally good choice for herself.

He would have supported her to the same degree if she chose to specialize in Commandeering instead, as he believed there were still ways for her to gain a lot from expanding the reach of her Command Field and being able to effectively command huge mech armies.

There were good reasons the mech community looked up to both the Archistrategos and the Technmancer. They were both excellent in their own ways. They had chosen different paths for themselves, but managed to make them work really well.

The sheer variety of god pilots and the immense diversity in their power expression basically proved that mech pilots could attain ultimate success by pursuing any development trajectory to the extreme.

Perhaps certain specializations were much more difficult to progress than others, but as long as the pilots were capable enough, it was not impossible for them to make their dreams come true!

The most important requirement was that Saint Commander Casella possessed a lot of motivation to work towards a defined goal.

To a high-ranking mech pilot, desire was the root of progress. It was where they found the discipline and willpower to work harder and tackle greater challenges than mortals could accomplish.

Now that Casella gained a permanent fixation on reviving her dead brother, Ves did not have to worry about motivation problems from her end!

One of the good points about the Saint Commander was that she was not as… brain-damaged as other high-ranking mech pilots.

Her momentary outburst of extreme emotions hadn't seemed to distort her personality too much.

In fact, as long as nobody brought up General Ark Larkinson and Venerable Imon Ingvar in a conversation, the Saint Commander acted just like her old self, if only a little more dour than before.

It was a good thing that Casella had not participated in General Ark's foolish operation.

If she witnessed the death of her brother with her own eyes and broke through from this trauma, then there was a decent chance that she might attack General Ark and his Lionheart right after repelling the two phase lords!

If that happened, then the Larkinson High Court would have to convene again in order to exile the new Saint Commander from the clan.

That would have represented a massive loss for the Larkinsons!

Casella would take her powerful abilities elsewhere and likely receive rich incentives to become retainer for the Red Association or one of the first-rate colonial superstates.

This was also why Ves felt glad when he managed to convert Imon into his first Chosen Envoy. So long as her brother remained in his grasp, Casella would never defect from his side!

Even though neither of them explicitly talked about the fact that Ves possessed a strong handle over Casella, both of them were smart enough to understand the new dynamic between them. They had become more than an employer and an employee.

The unspoken reality was that from now on, the Saint Commander had little choice but stand up for his interests over that of others.

Ves did not feel inclined to act like a cruel and heartless bastard who would torture Imon's damaged spirituality if Casella ever disappointed him, but the threat always existed. The Saint Commander did not want to take any chances when it came to her brother's life.

She already understood that the best way for her to cope with her new situation was to align herself to the patriarch as much as possible. If she came to agree and support all of his actions and initiatives, then the probability of conflict between them should be minimized!

The less disagreement, the lower chance that Ves would do anything adverse towards Imon!

To be honest, Ves wanted to speak up and tell Casella that her fears were misplaced. Ves had principles. One of them was that he would always reciprocate loyalty with good treatment.

Though Venerable Imon Ingvar had lasted far too short, he still made plenty of contributions to the Larkinson Clan. Ves would never deliberately harm him, especially now that the deceased expert pilot had turned into a different kind of asset.

Imon may have been reduced to a terrible condition at the moment, but he was slowly beginning to recover and complete his transformation into a new form.

Once Imon completed his lengthy recovery process, he would probably become a force to be reckoned with after gaining the power of a Chosen Envoy!

The only question was whether Chosen Envoys like Imon could fight effectively by himself, or whether Ves needed to design a mech for him in order to fight to his full potential.

Did Ves have to design a material mech for his first Chosen Envoy, or would he have to figure out how to design a completely spiritual mech?

He didn't know!

The System hadn't offered enough clarification on the matter. Ves had no choice but to wait until Imon recovered before learning whether the Chosen Envoy needed a mech to do his job.

In any case, after Ves gained a thorough understanding of Casella's choices and intentions, he went to his wife and conveyed what he learned so that she could lay the groundwork for the Minerva Mark II Project.

"I will make the preparations for this upgrade, but do not expect to see significant progress in the early stages." She warned Ves. "As much as I am eager to tackle another ace mech design project right away, it wouldn't be fair to set back the completion of the Amaranto Mark III Project and the Riot Mark III Project. Venerable Stark and Venerable Orfan might not have broken through yet, but that does not make them any less worthy to receive new machines. You can even argue that they needed updated expert mechs more, because receiving them may be the catalyst they need to finally break through."

Ves already expected as much. "It's fine. I do not disagree with you. Just don't accept too many projects after we have completed upgrades of the Amaranto and the Riot. Perhaps we can begin to work on a comprehensive upgrade of the First Sword Mark III, but that is only because Ketis is already working on it by herself. Our clan truly needs the Saint Commander at her best. The sooner she can fully exercise her new strength, the better."

"Why the hurry, Ves?" Gloriana furrowed her brows. "As far as I know, hardly any progress has been made on raising a first-class mech force for the Larkinson Clan. It is difficult to do so when you have not even designed a proper first-class living mech as of yet. Considering your design schedule, it should take around two years for you to satisfy this necessary requirement, maybe less if you are collaborating with several excellent first-class mech designers."

"Saint Casella is useful for more than just leading our Larkinsons in battle. Yes, I really want to pull her into the Premier Branch, not just to boost my own protective detail, but also to prepare for the upcoming deep strike expeditions… assuming that the aliens haven't derailed the Deep Strike Plan. However, there is no rule that prohibits us from loaning her out to other forces. She can do a lot of good if she serves as a guest commander of a first-class mech force belonging to the Terran, Rubarthan or mechers. Her Command Field is so powerful that she should be able to turn a lot of defeats and victories at some of the most important defensive nodes of the 3rd defensive band."

His wife looked thoughtful after hearing that. "That… sounds plausible. Is she effectively able to Commandeer and Enfeoff a large amount of non-living mechs? Is she willing to serve as a mercenary and command troops that are not her fellow Larkinsons?"

"Don't worry, Gloriana. She will do what is best for the clan. It will take a long time for our Premier Branch to raise a combat-ready first-class mech force. Casella will need to exercise her abilities in actual combat if she wants to maintain a higher growth rate. She will not refuse to volunteer her services to other first-raters. This is not only a good way for her to quickly accrue combat experience as an ace commander, but also a way for her to contribute to the clan by satisfying our allies. We can even use the attraction of Casella's Command Field to form a new first-class coalition force modeled after the Golden Skull Alliance."

That was actually a very good idea!

Even as the Larkinson Clan was beginning to take root in first-class society, Ves was painfully aware that the Larkinsons were not even close to matching the power of the Red Two and the first-rate colonial superstates.

So long as the power difference remained so vast, it was a good idea for Ves to strengthen his relations with these major powers.

"All of this can wait for later. We need to complete our mech design projects first before we can bring our other plans to fruition." Gloriana said. "You need to finish your secret design project as soon as possible. I need to speed up my progress on the Amaranto Mark III Project and Riot Mark III Project as well. As much as I am concerned about the progress of the Red Tide Offensive, our responsibility as mech designers is to develop better mechs for the troops in the frontlines."

"I agree. While I still have to meet a few other obligations, I don't intend to waste my time on any further distractions before I have completed one of the most important design projects of my life."

After the two ended their conversation about work, Ves returned to his office so that he could begin his preparations on one of those aforementioned obligations.

Gavin had already arrived and prepared an extensive update on one of his latest assignments.

"Well?"

"We did it, boss. It took more time than expected, but we managed to wrangle representatives from 34 of the top 50 religious organizations in the Red Ocean by membership."

"Just 34 out of 50?"

Gavin shrugged. "That was the best we could do on relatively short notice. I already told you that there are faiths that are anathema to each other. Neither of them can tolerate each other's presence. If mech forces who hold opposing beliefs ever end up in the same star system, you can bet that at least one of them will hunt the other down. My team and I have received far too many claims about how a church representative will stand up and leave from the virtual meeting if another representative from an opposing religion is present at the table. We had to study the histories and relationships of all of the top 50 churches and calculate an optimal selection that will result in the least amount of conflicts. Even then, our modeling was in vain as new and more obscure political and dogmatic disagreements has led to unexpected refusals and sudden cancellations."

Ves wanted to palm his face. He had a feeling that this was just a taste of what was to come.

He hadn't even met these religious nuts yet, but they were already testing his patience as well as the viability of the current plan!

"Give me an example."

"Well, there is a popular faith that believes that ancestors turn into stars that has developed a millenia-old conflict with another faith that believes that our greatest heroes are incarnated from the very same stars. Their doctrinal beliefs are quite similar, actually. Their only major disagreement is the order in the sequence. Did you know that their churches and their affiliated states have fought 72 large-scale wars since the start of the Age of Stars? Billions have died in some of those wars, just because these superstitious dolts couldn't agree on what came first!"

Ves grimaced even further. He definitely did not look forward to this upcoming meeting.

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