The Mech Touch

The venue slowly filled up. The enormous exhibition space of the Palace of Mechanical Marvels had been used to present all sorts of new and interesting mech products over the years.

This time was different. People held much higher expectations this time. The identity and reputation of the lead designer along with the increasingly more optimistic hints dropped by the Red Association generated far more hopes and expectations from the growing crowd than usual!

The more sensitive and farsighted people even had a sense that history could be made here today. The mechers invested way too much in this product reveal for it to unveil a relatively mundane mech design.

Ves already had a reputation for releasing good mech designs. The sales of the second-class Fey Fianna and the Ultimatum models had plateaued after months of rising momentum, but that did not take away from the fact that they had remained persistent sellers since their release!

Anyone with a brain could figure out that whatever product Ves intended to release had to be significantly more exciting than the two aforementioned bestsellers.

Few people had a good idea what Ves planned to unveil. Could it be the first living mech at the first-class level? Many people expected him to enter the first-class mech market, but even that should not warrant such attention from the Red Association.

Many of the guests freely shared their guesses with each other. Pretty much no one who did not receive advance warning failed to make the correct guess.

No matter what kind of product they thought that Ves would introduce, none of them ever imagined that he would break the limitations of genetic aptitude and open up the possibility of piloting mechs to the wider population!

Back on New Constantinople VIII, Gloriana and her children had made sure to clear their schedules so that they could witness the presentation in their living rooms.

"Miaow miaow." The Rubarthan Sentinel Cat casually licked her paws while luxuriating in her treatment.

"Your father will appear soon." Gloriana said as she comfortably sat next to Aurelia. "Much will change today. All of our lives will change forever. Your father will become a celebrated mech designer throughout history, and his bloodline shall become more exalted than ever. As his children, the three of you will notice that everyone will treat you differently from today onwards. As the children of the man who made mechs available to everyone, you will inherit a part of his honor. Many doors will open to you, but people will also expect more from the children of a great man. If you want to live up to your father's growing reputation, then nothing less than excellence is satisfactory."

The children all nodded and took her lesson to heart. They had all heard many times that they were special and more powerful than other children. They constantly studied hard in order to please their parents and earn their praise.

While the wife and children of Ves eagerly awaited for the presentation to begin, the main exhibition hall steadily filled up. More and more people occupied the large amount. of stands.

Floating boxes paneled with wood and carved with intricate details floated above the heads of everyone else and welcomed a large variety of VIP guests.

Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson joined a gathering of other fleeter officers in a large box reserved for their company. They sat down on the plush couches and partook in the glasses of wine that was specially imported from a distant vineyard located close to Bridgehead One.

Now that the vineyard had lost its main customer, it had quickly shifted its sales to Yernstall, which benefited the locals and visitors of the central star node.

"Captain Reze." The lieutenant-commander as well as grandmaster-protector spoke. "Thank you for accepting my invitation. We may hail from different fleets, but we still serve the same organization. I hope that despite our differences in opinion, we can hold an equitable exchange with each other. You have spent much more time in the company of the Devil Tongue than any other mecher. You have even contributed to the legendary attempt to transform the Dominion of Man into the first known god ship. Our understanding of this mysterious Carmine System is admittedly bare, so we expect you to fill in the gaps and provide additional insights based on your understanding of its

Inventor. In return..."

"I expect you to speed up the conclusion of the inquiry into the Babylon Excavator's performance during her last battle and offer a vote of support in my next promotion evaluation. The fleeter captain plainly stated his demand.

"That is... acceptable, as long as the information you share is commensurate with the value of our concessions."

"You shall find no issue with my insights. Captain Reze smirked. "I may not be able to discuss the details of the Carmine System as we have been unable to track its development within the design labs of the Tarrasque, but I can tell you much about the perspective of its inventor."

As the fleeters chatted with each other, other VIPs continued to enter the private boxes. As Yernstall was one of the most developed star systems in human-occupied space, it was not that difficult for the established movers and shakers to attend this event.

Senior Mech Designers, Master Mech Designers and a whole host of bureaucrats, businessmen, scientists and off-duty military officers continued to arrive at the Palace of Mechanical Marvels and take their seats above the stands.

The gathering of so many humans produced a sense of anticipation that caused the

Surrounding air to become more charged.

It was as if they were all waiting for an announcement that would change their lives one

Way or another.

Ves, still dressed in his carmine-colored ensemble, stood alongside his fellow collaborators and watched how the entire exhibition hall almost became full.

He grew reassured when he saw all of the security measures in place. What was visible only represented the tip of the iceberg, but he nonetheless became happy to see the Red Association mobilizing plenty of mechs inside as well as outside.

More importantly, the Dark Zephyr continued to remain active but out of sight in the vicinity. Ves could feel the edge of the ace light skirmisher's Saint Kingdom scanning the surroundings for any threats.

As Ves thought about how many benefits his latest invention would bring, he almost took the initiative to ask whether Saint. Tusa was willing to integrate the Carmine System into his Dark Zephyr.

Ves quickly squashed this thought a few seconds later. He already asked Tusa once before, and the answer would likely remain the same.

As much as Tusa liked the benefits enjoyed by Venerable Jannzi Larkinson and others, his very nature deterred him to the idea of shackling himself to a single mech for the

Rest of his career.

While he most certainly loved the Dark Zephyr and developed a fantastic relationship with his only high-ranking mech, he did not harbor a strong desire to make their bond permanent and unbreakable.

Accidents could always happen. No human was immortal, and the same applied to mechs.

Light mechs happened to get completely wrecked at a significantly higher rate than larger and more massive machines. If the worst ever happened to the Dark Zephyr, then Saint Tusa wanted to be sure he could resume his career after getting a replacement

Machine.

The ace pilot harbored no disrespect towards the Dark Zephyr. It was just part of the job. The living mech himself was mature enough to know that his only partner would not be willing to retire after suffering a major mishap.

This brief consideration reminded Ves that the Carmine System was not a must-have. The stronger the mech pilot, the less they gained from it, as the importance of genetic aptitude had dropped for high-ranking mech pilots.

While Ves speculated that the Carmine System might make it easier for peak ace pilots to traverse the road to no return and successfully break through, he never dared to voice this theory due to how outrageous it sounded.

Ves needed to gather hard proof before he could make this claim in public. This was a

Problem because he did not know any peak ace pilots who were willing to bet on his completely new tech that had never been tested at such a high level.

"Don't think too much, Ves." Saint Tusa transmitted over a private short-ranged channel. "Just stick with the basics today. I can feel that your head is filled with all kinds of wild ideas, but let's not overwhelm everyone with them, okay? We should take this one step at a time. It is not too late to introduce other versions in the future." The ace pilot's words inserted much-needed clarity in Ves' mind. "You're right. I was getting ahead of myself. The public can only process so many shocks at a time."

A countdown appeared. Ves only had two minutes left before he was scheduled to

Appear on the big stage.

"Meow meow."

"Yeah, you better follow me as well, just in case. If nothing happens, then at least you will

Be a fixture in all of the historical images that will be used to commemorate this day." "Do you think that there is a Star Designer attending this product reveal?" Lord Richard Brownstone carefully inquired.

"I truly don't know." Ves shrugged. "The security services keep this kind of information away from the public. I do not sense anyone excessively powerful in the crowd, but that does not necessarily disprove this possibility. If the Star Designer wanted to reveal his or her attendance, then that will happen sooner or later."

Ves briefly checked the conditions of his four collaborators and saw nothing obviously amiss with them. They were all elite first-raters, so they were quite capable of enduring the huge amount of stress of hosting a presentation in front of so many people.

To be honest, today was mostly about Ves and his work. The contributions of the other Senior Mech Designers were nowhere near as important, and they all knew it. They only possessed minor speaking roles this time.

This increased the burden on Ves. He tried his best to suppress any nervous tendencies and use his condition to make himself sharp and increase his presence. There was no need for Ves to resort to the cheap tricks he used in the old days. There was no need to borrow any glows or borrow the power of his design spirits.

He was already confident enough in his own work that he chose to approach this like a

Mech designer.

[And now, please welcome the mech designer that you have all been waiting for! Give a good welcome to Professor Ves Larkinson!]

Ves plastered a smile on his face and entered into view of the entire audience. The

Exhibition hall already became noisy as many people clapped and hollered at his arrival."

He ignored all of the noises and eventually managed to move to the center. A bright spotlight shone from above while the surroundings started to dim.

Ves raised a single palm, causing everyone to fall silent.

"Good day, citizens of red humanity. What I am about to introduce to you all will subvert

Many of the rules about mechs that you have taken for granted. Please be patient and

Allow me to introduce the greater context of my works. Let us start with the beginning of the Age of Mechs."

A projection appeared that displayed an excellent reproduction of an old museum piece. "Mechs have existed before the Age of Mechs, Our precursors have painstakingly developed many of the essential technologies that still form the basic framework of modern mechs today. What allowed mechs to stand out from other war machines was

Two reasons. First, they evoked a sense of romance and heroism for those who yearn to pilot them. Second, their neural interface appears perfectly adapted to enable mech pilots to control their mechs directly with their minds. For over four centuries of continuous development, this has always remained constant..."

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