The Mech Touch

The hype about Carmine mechs started off strong, and only got more ridiculous over time.

The emotional impact of norms being able to pilot mechs for the first time was indescribable.

As the Palace of Mechanical Marvels stocked enough Yellow Jackets to satisfy thousands of lucky guests, many attendees who acted quickly enough to sign up for the opportunity to purchase and try out the Carmine mechs right away all displayed such strong reactions that entire broadcasts had been dedicated to recording their experiences!

The popularity of the product reveal still remained strong despite the fact that the speakers had already concluded their presentations.

It couldn't be helped. In the absence of piloting their own Carmine mechs, the masses residing on many different planets and other vessels had no choice but to watch other lucky norms take advantage of this stellar opportunity first.

Master Theresa Oreinze had lived for over 360 years. She was a Terran who grew up during a time where mechs still went through rapid changes and evolution.

Just like any other child born during the Age of Mechs, she dreamt of becoming a mech pilot.

Alas, it turned out that she belonged to the 96.5 percent of the population that did not possess a suitable genetic aptitude.

Just like any other 10-year old kid at the time, she took the disappointing news extremely hard.

In desperation, she threw herself into mech design instead, channeling her love and passion for mechs in a creative approach rather than a martial approach.

She studied hard. She constantly lacked time to spend on leisure. As an ordinary civilian, she lacked the more advanced and powerful implants enjoyed by the scions of ancient clans.

However, that made her gains all the more precious. While those pampered ancient clansmen could rely on their implants and genetic gifts to do most of the work, Theresa Oreinze simply worked harder and tried her best to capture the essence of the subject matter she was trying to master.

Gradually, she managed to stand out and impress a professor with her studying and problem solving abilities. After becoming the professor's protege, she finally obtained enough support to acquire a superior suite of augmentations.

That was when she truly started to make a lot of progress!

The mech industry at the time was a lot more splintered and fluid at the time, so after she graduated, Theresa immediately began to make sales based on her own approach towards mech design.

Theresa had always developed a fascination for fast mechs. She chose to specialize in designing light mechs that possessed superior straight-line acceleration characteristics because she loved speed so much.

Though her combat mech models never really generated a large amount of sales, her racing mechs occupied a growing share of the market.

Decades and eventually centuries passed. She no longer enjoyed the advantages of youth, but managed to make steady progress. Every time she started to lose her love and motivation for the craft she had dedicated so much time and effort to, she thought about her regrets for not being able to pilot a mech.

It would be a complete betrayal for the little 10-year old girl who decided to design mechs as opposed to piloting them after she received results of the genetic aptitude test.

For the sake of that promise, Theresa detested any thought about squandering her work as a mech designer!

That determination had ultimately carried her over to her current rank. Unlike her works, her design philosophy did not progress all that quickly. She only managed to promote to a Master Mech Designer after living for over 2 centuries.

This was an embarrassingly slow rate within the Terran mech design community, but Master Theresa was just glad that she managed to avoid disappointing that 10-year old girl.

Unfortunately, her progress never picked up since then. There was so much knowledge that first-class mech designers had to learn, and they also had to work harder in order to meet the heightened expectations of the mech market.

As Master Theresa slowly neared her 4th century of life, she still had no solid prospect of becoming a Star Designer.

She only had a handful of promising research directions to choose from, but none of them gave her the confidence that she would be able to transcend her own limitations and create a work that could surpass the quality of masterworks.

She was fine with that. Master Theresa had already lived for a long period of time. Many of the friends and rivals she once interacted with had either passed away or moved away from her orbit.

She had already married and had kids, who subsequently had families of their own. Not all of her descendants had accompanied her to the Red Ocean, but there were enough of them that Theresa had no concerns about continuing her bloodline.

A few of them even managed to possess the right genetic aptitude to become mech pilots.

The old woman envied these descendants very much. She funded their training and education and made sure they never lacked for good quality mechs when needed.

Other people may have accused Master Theresa for living vicariously through the potentates of her family, but she never really took them seriously.

Which mech designer hadn't lived vicariously through their potentate descendants? This phenomenon was so common that the stigma had already lost its value!

Perhaps seeing her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on fulfill their own goals and dreams by piloting mechs was the only activity left that brought genuine joy to her heart.

Master Theresa had long made peace with her inadequate genetic aptitude.

As a Master Mech Designer of one of the most powerful states of human civilization, she shouldn't have anything to complain about.

She had worked her way up from an ordinary citizen and built a commercial empire that enabled her descendants to start from a much higher position in life.

As she continued to grow older, her physical body may be able to endure for a few more decades, but her soul had already grown too weary to pursue life with as much passion as before.

Even the joy she derived from seeing the members of her Oreinze Family become brave and dashing mech pilots started to produce diminishing returns.

This was a problem common to people who had lived through so many years. Even if Master Theresa was able to earn enough merits to pay for another round of life-prolonging treatment, she increasingly felt unwilling to do so. Her passion for life had diminished when she realized that she was unlikely to become a Star Designer.

She had already accomplished most of her goals in life. Her growing family could always use more help, but it was high time her descendants started to take care of themselves.

Perhaps the only reason why she still persisted in her work and postponed her retirement from her profession was because of the changes taking place in the Red Ocean.

The Great Severing, the Age of Dawn and the Red Tide Offensive had partially revived the urgency in her heart. If she wanted her descendants and the people she cared about to live well after her passing, she still needed to work hard in order to improve the conditions of the soldiers fighting in the frontlines.

There were still plenty of ways for Master Mech Designers to contribute to the war effort.

In fact, Master Theresa just so happened to visit Yernstall in order to attend a professional conference. She happened to sign up for Professor Larkinson's product reveal, but she never expected to become surprised to this degree.

Carmine mechs.

The entire notion of a mech that could be piloted by a norm completely blew up everything she knew and took for granted.

She was one of the stubborn old people who struggled to accept the authenticity of the Carmine System.

How could a single Senior Mech Designer solve the limitation of genetic aptitude to such an explosive degree?!

Shouldn't a breakthrough in this area only allow a slightly greater share of the population to gain the ability to pilot a mech?

To completely unlock mech piloting to at least 99 percent of the population of red humanity sounded absurd!

Yet as the presentations had ended and people began to trial out their newly purchased Yellow Jackets with great enthusiasm, the reality of the situation finally sank into her aged mind.

It was true.

Every early adopter who was lucky enough to obtain an early quota succeeded in bonding with their Carmine mechs.

Yellow Jacket after Yellow Jacket lifted off the air and exhibited extremely immature but genuine movements.

Even if the new Carmine mech pilots only received a brief amount of time to try out their machines, these experiences completely changed their lives!

After hours of waiting, Master Theresa finally received her turn.

"Respected Master, as a woman of advanced age, the risks of interfacing with the Carmine System are greater than usual." A doctor from the Red Association performed a few tests on the Terran Master. "Your heavy augmentations may produce unexpected complications during the interfacing process. We will analyze your physique and augmentations and apply selective restrictions to lock down the implants or organs that may cause overreactions. Do you consent to these precautionary measures?"

"I do."

Master Theresa understood enough about the Carmine System that it would cycle artificial blood in her bloodstream. That should not be a major issue as her heavily augmented body should be able to tolerate a large variety of blood types and properties.

However, her body also possessed a much stronger immune system as well as other protective measures. These systems needed to be constrained, or else her body might choose to fight against the Carmine System!

Once Theresa finished her preparations, she nodded to the pair of descendants that accompanied her before finally entering the cockpit of the Yellow Jacket she managed to buy at the first possible opportunity.

She was one of the lucky ones who managed to reserve the Yellow Jacket Version A. There were many other first-raters who hadn't been able to snatch up the first-class Carmine mechs and could only settle for the second-class and third-class versions.

"Initiate."

Master Theresa followed the simplified instructions that even a teenager could follow and readied herself for the interfacing attempts.

Needles sank through her skin.

Foreign blood began to flow through her veins.

Her powerful mind and spirit began to make contact with a much weaker and innocent existence.

Despite the vast gap in power, Master Theresa actively welcomed the new entity. Her Yellow Jacket eagerly formed a Blood Pact that instantly allowed it to receive a huge amount of high-quality feedback.

As the Yellow Jacket swelled to life, Master Theresa quickly became overwhelmed by the sheer amount of control and new experiences that came with being able to pilot a mech!

Unlike the vast majority of other people who interfaced with a Yellow Jacket for the first time, Master Theresa utilized her extensive knowledge, evolved spirituality and vast intellect to quickly gain a grip on her conditions.

The Yellow Jacket under her control moved a lot steadier and more precise than the ones piloted by other norms!

Though Master Theresa still failed to execute movements that required proficiency in martial skills, she was more than satisfied with how well she could control the most advanced version of the Yellow Jacket!

She never wanted this magical experience to end. The feeling of piloting a machine and the joy of being able to share her passion with a living mech that completely accepted her were indescribable.

When she was finally forced to end her all-too-brief piloting session and leave the cockpit, she quickly knelt on the ground and wept!

"Master! What is the matter!?"

As tears fell from her aged eyes, Master Theresa couldn't help but smile.

"I… controlled an actual mech today. My first and most precious dream… has come true. I… can finally become a mech pilot!"

The fire in her heart roared to life as she managed to revive one of her deeply buried passions!

No longer did she feel that her life had grown stale and boring anymore.. Now that she was able to pilot a mech without any regard for genetic aptitude, she would be a fool if she missed out on the fantastic world of Carmine mechs!

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