The Mech Touch

When Ves presented Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson with the options to serve on different fronts, he expressed the intention of going where he was most needed.

That essentially translated into the most intense, grueling and deadly battlefronts of the Red War.

The young ace pilot sounded so confident and self-assured at the time that the current Tusa felt like smacking his previous self.

Why did he have to seek a challenge so soon?!

What was wrong with acclimatizing to his impressively upgraded living mech and building up a new combat system based on the use of Erlemin in one of the many less intensive battlefields?

The closer his courier vessel brought him to his new posting, the more Saint Tusa grew apprehensive about what he would be doing in the next few months.

He re-read the briefing package on the New Cartagena System.

Located in the 3rd defense band of the Urikas Upper Zone, New Cartagena was a binary star system centered around a yellow dwarf star and a red subdwarf star.

The Terran Alliance designated it as one of the most important strategic locations of the 3rd defensive band due to a single reason.

There were three types of high-end resources in particular that made the binary star system essential to the large and hungry Terran war machine.

New Cartagena II was a hot terrestrial planet that orbited fairly closely to the binary stars.

The complicated orbits of the two stars along with other satellites caused New Cartagena II to become subjected to extreme swings in climate.

There were days when it was scorching everyone, and there were other days where the heat levels were fairly tame.

Nobody knew why, but New Cartagena II happened to possess large deposits of a first-class exotic material known as Copenhagen Copper.

Copenhagen Copper was also present in the Milky Way Galaxy, but it was less prevalent over there. Humans had discovered long ago that 'CopCop' was an inherently disruptive material just by existing.

It scrambled up a lot of signals and other wireless transmissions.

More importantly, it also disrupted a lot of spatial activity. This turned it into one of the key materials for the production of lots of first-class space suppressors, first-class interdiction field generators and anti-teleportation countermeasures!

There was never enough CopCop to go around. The demand for this exotic was considerable and the Terran Alliance wanted to preserve their hold over New Cartagena II long enough to destructively stripmine the entire planet.

The Terrans weren't entirely confident they could keep hold of the star system forever, so they decisively switched from more ecologically friendly mining methods to tearing out chunks of it and picking up any pieces of ore that contained CopCop.

While the speed of mining had increased by a huge extent, the native alien attackers pressed New Cartagena II even harder in an attempt to deprive the humans access to any further quantities of a high-grade exotic that countered every piece of phasewater technology!

While New Cartagena II had become the short-term priority in this strategic location, New Cartagena VII-F also couldn't be neglected.

The oceanic moon was one of many satellites orbiting a large gas giant. It stood out from the other moons by possessing a lot of sustainable phasewater deposits!

This moon alone accounted for a hefty chunk of phasewater production in the local region!

Before the Terrans arrived to colonize this extremely precious moon, it was occupied by the jureg race, an aquatic crustacean race that was known as the biggest fans of the phase whale race.

The juregs had long considered New Cartagena VII-F to be one of their paradises and a holy site of great religious significance.

Suffice to say, the juregs were pissed at the Terrans for taking away one of their most precious territorial possessions and fought hard in order to get it back!

To the juregs, the Battle of New Cartagena was not an obligation forced upon them by the Red Cabal.

It was personal. And holy.

Led by their hardy and obstinate phase lords, the juregs threw themselves onto the defensive lines of the Terrans in a fanatical effort to wrestle back control of New Cartagena VII-F and restore the underwater holy sites to their former glory!

Faced with this onslaught of attacks from the aggressive major alien race, the Terrans responded in kind and stationed much of their crack troops to the strategic location.

Chief among them was their champion, who was known as one of the deadliest peak ace pilots of Red Humanity.

And Tusa was just about to meet this living legend in person.

His courier vessel first approached the large and astonishingly white capital ship orbiting New Cartagena II.

The Third Rome was the flagship of the Brusilov Fleet. She was a 6-kilometer long fleet carrier that could easily reach the top 10 of a contest that pitted the most beautiful warships made by humans against each other.

Not even the Spirit of Bentheim could compare to the artistic marbled exterior that appeared to be covered with hand-carved sculptures.

Tusa figured it must be really expensive and time-consuming for the Dostoevsky Ancient Clan to repair her exterior if she ever sustained a lot of material damage.

Yet with a peak ace pilot as powerful as the Messenger of Silence using the Third Rome as his home base, the native aliens had yet to land a single scratch on her beautiful exterior!

Before he met with the strongest defender of New Cartagena, he first got received by a dignitary from the Dostoevsky Ancient Clan.

Saint Tusa continued to look impressed as he entered a hall that was filled with tasteful but not overwhelming artworks.

Classical paintings, unpainted sculptures and the occasional plants made it seem as if he had entered a luxury ark ship rather than a military capital ship.

The Dostoevsky's certainly loved to show off, just like any other group of Terrans.

A female junior officer finally came close and stopped in front of Tusa.

"Lieutenant Daria Dimitrievna Dostoevskaya. I am one of the assistants of the Messenger of Silence. I have been tasked to serve as your guide while you remain a guest aboard the Third Rome. Please follow me to the bowels of our flagship. Our great champion is currently free to meet you in person."

The relatively young ace pilot nodded and followed after the woman through the extensive hallways of the large vessel.

"So what is with your name, lieutenant? Are you a member of the Dostoevsky Ancient Clan, or do you come from one of its off-shoots?"

The woman looked amused. "I come from the main branch of the Dostoevsky Ancient Clan. You foreigners always ask the same questions. We follow an old naming tradition that originated from an ancient nation-state that predated the Terran Empire. You only have to know that our ancient clan varies our last names based on sex. Our male descendants generally carry the name Dostoevsky, while our female descendants carry the name Dostoevskaya. I can transfer a number of books about our ancient traditions if you care for it, but they make for a dry read."

Tusa raised his palm. "No thanks. I am okay so long as I don't have to remember too many convoluted rules."

The ace pilot did not hate studying, but he dislikes spending lots of time on relatively passive and boring activities. He had always been an active person, and would rather spend his time on exercise or practice.

"Very well. In truth, aside from the other Terran lineages that still take pride in our pre-Age of Stars heritage, there are very few families left in red humanity that uphold the same traditions. It is… a regrettable loss of culture for so many descendants to forget where their bloodlines originated from. So much has been lost throughout the ages, and not all of it was due to death and destruction. In our rush to seek out new territories and put down our roots on brand-new planets, too many of us shed the names and traditions of our forefathers and instead create our own cheap customs as inferior substitutes. We are one of the few people that has resisted this habit, and we take pride in preserving one of the oldest continuous lineages of the human race."

While Daria Dostoeskaya sounded very passionate when she boasted about her old and storied heritage, Saint Tusa couldn't bring himself to pretend he cared.

He was not a Terran and cared little about ancient history. Most modern humans never really thought about what their ancestors did a few thousand years ago. It was just too distant from their current lives.

Fortunately, Lieutenant Daria did not harp too much on the greatness of the old Dostoevsky Ancient Clan. She came back to her main responsibility and provided Tusa with the necessary instructions for him to interact with the Messenger of Silence.

"Our great Saint is burdened with heavy responsibilities." The woman spoke in a more serious and subdued tone. "The juregs are highly motivated in their attempts to take back the New Cartagena System, and do not hesitate to send their shell-covered soldiers to this star system in droves in order to choke us to death. The juregs do not hesitate to send their greater phase lords to this battlefield, only pulling them back sporadically when they have indications that the Light of Sol is approaching in this direction. The timing of your arrival is relatively fortuitous. You have come just in time for this rare lull to happen."

The native aliens weren't stupid. Even if they were prepared to sacrifice the lives of a lot of phase lords, they were not willing to let them die so cheaply against the god pilots!

The Red Cabal and the colluding Cosmopolitan Movement had become increasingly better at tracking and predicting the movements of all of the god pilots.

Even if the aliens were wrong about their predictions of where the god pilots would be going next, it was better to be safe than sorry!

"Does that mean that the Messenger of Silence has ample amount of time to fulfill his duties as a mentor?" Tusa asked.

"He should. It depends on his mood. The Messenger of Silence… is not known to be the most social of ace pilots. Despite the many glorious victories that he has delivered to our ancient clan since, he is still haunted by the battlefield loss that has defined him ever since."

"That matches what I have read." Tusa quietly responded. "He is known to be more… melodramatic than many of our other peers. He also doesn't speak anymore."

The lieutenant solemnly nodded. "That is correct. However, it is important to note that while he does not choose to speak, that is not the same as not choosing to communicate. He prefers to convey his intentions with his domain field. You may feel highly disconcerted when you meet and communicate with him the first time, but I can promise you that you shall quickly become accustomed to it. Perhaps in time, you may even appreciate the manner in which our great champion expresses his beautiful soul towards everyone."

The lieutenant solemnly nodded. "That is correct. However, it is important to note that while he does not choose to speak, that is not the same as not choosing to communicate. He prefers to convey his intentions with his domain field. You may feel highly disconcerted when you meet and communicate with him the first time, but I can promise you that you shall quickly become accustomed to it. Perhaps in time, you may even appreciate the manner in which our great champion expresses his beautiful soul towards everyone."

"...I see. Do you know why the Messenger of Silence chose to accept my clan's request to mentor me? He does not appear to be a person that likes hanging out with others."

The lieutenant shook her head. "It is not in my place to answer your question. Our champion has his own motives, I am sure. I can tell you that this is not an obligation imposed by our ancient clan or certain other authorities. He wants to mentor you, if only for a relatively brief period. I can assure you of that. You cannot imagine the amount of mech pilots that would kill to be in your place. It is a great honor for you to be chosen by him. Do not dishonor him by taking this opportunity too lightly, and do your best to fight with greater courage and skill to demonstrate that you have benefited from his tutelage."

"I shall do my best not to dishonor his teachings." Tusa earnestly said.

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