The Mech Touch

Ves long harbored an ambiguous relationship towards biomechs.

As a mech designer who was born and raised in a fairly ordinary third-rate state in the galactic rim of the Milky Way, he never had much contact with biotechnology throughout his life.

Unlike the citizens of the rare states that committed to biotechnology such as the Life Research Association, Ves did not receive years of exposure to biomechanical products.

This meant that he regarded it as akin to alien technology. Every biomech and product of biomechanical engineering came across as inhuman to Ves. There was just something about all of the icky flesh and bloody fluids that disturbed both his conscious and conscious parts of his mind.

This rejection reaction gradually lightened up as Ves grew older and gained more understanding of biotechnology.

After Ves managed to gain a more systematic grasp of the science of biotechnology, he became a lot more tolerant towards it. The acquisition of relevant knowledge dispelled much of the mystery surrounding biotech products. Now that he was able to figure out their basic functions and working principles, they functioned just like any other piece of technology.

They just came in a more disgusting form.

Still, Ves may have gone as far as incorporating biotechnology in his design philosophy, but that did not mean he was completely comfortable with working on this organic tech base!

This was one of the two main reasons why he always felt reluctant to take the next step and design a true biomech.

The other reason that held him back from designing such a mech was because he strongly felt that he would be crossing a line that could never be undone.

Ves had gathered plenty of clues that indicated that his design philosophy possessed excellent synergy with biomechs.

Perhaps far too well.

It frankly made Ves both afraid and suspicious of what he might create from his own hands.

His prior trials involving an experimental piece of organic mounted wargear produced a savage monstrosity that constantly sought to fight and rebel against Venerable Joshua Larkinson and the Everchanger.

The Titan-5 Project had been his first foray into discovering the interactions between living mechs and biomechs.

He discovered that biomechs or any form of biotissue could serve as an excellent carrier for the spiritual foundation of a living mech.

It was so much easier that the biomass behaved as if it was meant to carry a living spirit.

While all of this sounded great, the problem was that there was an awful lot of bleedthrough!

Certain properties of the organic tissue transferred to the spiritual foundation, causing the latter to become contaminated to the point of mutating into a monster!

This sounded awful to Ves as the unpredictable behavior and increased resistance from the savage and degenerated living entity led to a severe loss of control!

The problem became so bad in his opinion that he saw no choice to suspend the use of the Titan-5 Project. The large 'meat suit' as he affectionately called it had just become too violent to bother.

Venerable Joshua already mentioned that he had to spend more time and energy on fighting against his own meat suit than the enemy during those final days!

Ves was not a mad scientist who liked to push the envelope just because he could. He knew his limits.

There was no reason for him to play with fire and risk a catastrophic accident with the Titan-5 Project when there was no prospect of a huge payoff.

He had already decided to suspend all studies related to the Titan-5 Project. He also instructed the Larkinson Biotech Institute to freeze the meat suit in a block of ice and lock it inside the deepest and most secure vault of the Dragon's Den.

He could have ordered the meat suit to be destroyed, but he felt reluctant to do so. It was still a fairly powerful and unique living object. Ves had not extracted all of the value out of it. He was very reluctant to throw it all away when he could still mine more secrets out of this bizarre creation.

In any case, if his biomechs ended up similar to the Titan-5 Project, then Ves did not want to birth a much more potent and complete monstrosity into the universe.

Every time Ves came up with a new biomech concept, he would think back on the meat suit and consider whether his idea had any chance of solving or handling the problems that he could foresee.

In all of those cases, the answer was always no. His knowledge base and his concept lacked enough countermeasures and safeguards that could keep the biomechs under control.

Ves did not want to invest 6 to 12 months worth of design time onto a biomech design project that only ended up in catastrophe.

Sure, the failures might be able to teach him a lot of harsh lessons about the perils of combining his design philosophy with biomechs, but he would rather wait until he gained enough confidence to do it right the first time.

This long-awaited moment had finally come.

For the first time in years, Ves came up with a concept of a living biomech that far exceeded the promise of his previous ideas.

"You do not fully understand the weight of what it means to design a living biomech, Talas." Ves spoke in a serious tone. "My previous living mechs were all machines made out of metal. At most, they incorporated a bit of organic tissue like my Carmine mechs. The furthest I have gone so far is incorporating the Biodome into the Yellow Jacket design. Turning so much of the Carmine mech organic is one of the reasons why this organic mass alone can constitute an entire living mech. It also provides other benefits that are rather… difficult to explain."

Vice Director Redmond looked more intrigued than anything. He was not a mech fanatic, but Ves had a way to make any of his mechs sound intriguing.

"If you sound so vigilant towards your own work, then why are you proposing to design a dangerous biomech for our Hunting Association?"

"There is a good reason for that. Based on my prior experiments and exploration, designing a living biomech will always cause it to develop a primal and savage personality. For whatever reason, the flesh contaminates the spirit, and I do not know how to stop this process at this time. In most cases, this is a defect that is severe enough to scrap the entire project. There is no way I can responsibly sell these defective and outright dangerous products to the mech market when I know for a certainty that most mech pilots will suffer an accident."

"What has changed?"

"You guys." Ves grinned. The more he looked at the grizzled old hunter, the more he saw promise in his new and still-developing ideas! He was rapidly filling up the gaps in his initial plan as he spoke! "Ordinary people and soldiers cannot handle my savage biomechs. They just can't. They will either be driven mad or get killed by their hostile living machines somehow. They are just too weak and unfamiliar with the monsters they are dealing with. Yet when I think about Hunters such as yourself, I see how you are anything but unfamiliar with what I have created."

Talas Redmond puffed his chest. "We have overcome our fear of monsters. We do so each time we set out to hunt a mighty beast. Out of all of the humans in our society, Hunters have the most experience with fighting against large, savage and utterly violent exobeasts. We are professionals in this area. No matter whether they are naturally born mutated beasts or biomechs gone rogue, they are all the same to us. They may see themselves as the ultimate predators, but we human Hunters have taught them time and time again that we can turn them into prey under the right conditions. The more great and powerful exobeasts we have felled, the less we fear the potential threat they pose."

Ves grinned more and more. "That is exactly what I wanted to hear, Talas! This confidence! This concept towards exobeasts! The utter certainty that you will be able to turn the tables against any superior opponent! You will need all of that in order to harness a living biomech, no Carmine biomech of my design! Regardless of whether a Hunter has the right genetic aptitude or not, they live a dangerous lifestyle where they rigidly follow a code in order to gain strength. A Blood Pact fits right into your culture and customs."

The vice director contemplated that claim.

"I truly have no interest in your mech proposal or any mechs for that matter." The old man said. "However, given what the younger generations of Hunters pursue, I can imagine that they will enjoy this challenge that you have presented to them. It reminds me of the sub-set of hunting colleagues that tame an exobeast in the wild in order to leverage its power in future hunts. These beast tamers are more daring than most hunters for tracking down their prey with the help of their not-always-docile exobeast pets. From what I understand of your speech, you seek to present our Hunters with Carmine biomechs that serve a similar role."

"That is a pretty good comparison to what I am proposing. This is not a Carmine biomech for the weak and feeble. I actually doubt whether any mortal can fully harness such a dangerous machine. Your Hunters are different. Through the feedback generated by your sacrificial rituals, you become infused with greater strength, clarity and mental power. I have not studied any Hunter up close, so I am not entirely familiar with what improves, but I am sure that my guess is close to the truth."

The old Hunter crossed his arms and nodded. "We hunt our prey and take from it the strength of the beast. It is… fascinating to hear a mech designer try to imitate our methods with an unconventional mech design."

"Oh, this is more than a quant mech design. There is great potential in it." Ves grinned wider as he continued to flesh out his idea. "In my imagination, this biomech will start off as bland and aligned to the human race as possible. While I intend for it to become a living mech, I do not want it to develop its own personality at this stage. I will take special measures to prevent the birth of a conscious personality in order to minimize the risk of accidents. When a person enters the cockpit and forms a Blood Pact with the biomech, it will hopefully develop the first vestiges of a personality that is based on the Carmine mech pilot."

"I imagine that this will not remain this way." The Hunter guessed. "It will embody the idea that you have mentioned earlier. Once the biomech begins to hunt, it will begin to absorb the superior flesh and organs of the exobeasts that it has felled. This will not only result in grotesque physical mutations, but even more terrible transformations to the personality of the living mech. Perhaps… the biomech may even revive portions of the slain exobeast's personality and consciousness!"

Whereas other mech designers considered this to be an immensely dangerous idea that needed to be rejected, Ves saw a huge amount of promise in this idea!

Ves became so enamored with his latest vision that inspiration struck him yet again!

It was not enough to design a quaint little Carmine biomechs oriented towards the Hunting Association.

He increasingly felt inclined to base his water-attributed elemental Carmine mech around this concept!

He already came up with a fitting name for this type of advanced Carmine mech!

"The greatest strength of my future Mergewater Carmine biomechs is that they can reflect the strength of the prey a Hunter pilot has defeated." Ves boasted with an increasingly more maniacal smirk! "Just think how glorious that would be! Every Mergewater biomech will evolve into a unique trophy and combat machine. The Hunter pilot has earned every powerful upgrade."

"What about the potential backlash from these Carmine biomechs, Ves? Can you truly promise us that your products will be stable or manageable enough for us to pilot?"

"You are right to ask this question. The greatest risk factor to these special biomechs may serve as an incredible disadvantage to other mech pilots, but I believe in the strength of the members of the Hunting Association. They have already defeated the exobeasts in their hunts. How can they ever give in to the savage remnants of their personality that the Mergewater biomechs have absorbed? A true Hunter will master his own machine no matter how violent and unruly its personality has become! A competent Hunter will know how to control and direct all of that potent aggression towards his real enemies, thereby allowing them to defeat much more opponents than normal!"

All of that sounded great, but the vice director wondered what would happen to Hunters that did not meet these high standards.

"The danger cannot be eliminated." Talas Redmond concluded. "This means that only the strong and capable deserve to pilot this special Carmine biomech of yours. Those who overestimate their abilities and succumb to their dangerous biomechs considered themselves to be predators, only to find out far too late that they are prey to their own machines. I… do not object to this as much as I should. As long as the risks are known and predictable enough, these strange Carmine biomechs still hold value. However, these interesting machines must also be significantly stronger than conventionals that lack these additional complications. Your words alone are not enough to convince us. We need proof that you can realize this ambitious mech design."

Ves' eyes glinted.. "Does that mean you are finally willing to form an agreement between our two organizations?"

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