The Mech Touch

Ves found it difficult to engage Davia Stark in conversation. The spiritually crippled expert pilot was a woman without spirit. She completely lacked the strong will and belief that normal expert pilots possessed.

While her state made her pliable to an extent, the problem was that Stark no longer possessed the will to live!

He frowned as he felt he wasn't making any progress in their one-sided conversation. Every time he attempted to prod her, she merely replied in a perfunctory manner.

It felt as if he was talking to a suicidal bot.

Fortunately, this was not the first time Ves encountered a traumatized mech pilot. It was just that this case was a lot more thornier than usual because Davia just happened to be an expert pilot.

Injury and death remained an ever-present risk to those who risked their lives on the battlefield. The Larkinsons were very familiar with this universal truth. Not even their expert pilots returned from war unscathed.

His grandfather Benjamin happened to be a good example. He used to be an expert pilot before he returned with some sort of injury that no longer made him an expert pilot.

Such an outcome should have been devastating to any expert pilot, but his grandfather managed to pull through that dark period and readjust his life without any issue.

Since the Larkinsons raised so many mech pilots and sent them off to war, they also became proficient in treating them when they became wounded, crippled or traumatized.

War was a messy business. Those who entered the meat grinder never emerged unscathed.

The main reason the Larkinson Compound accommodated so many Larkinsons was to provide a calm refuge to those who needed to heal their mental scars.

The Larkinsons always believed that leaving a traumatized mech pilot alone was incredibly negligent.

People tended to develop weird thoughts when they were left by themselves. This problem was worse among the wounded and the mentally-scarred.

Therefore, the simple, low-tech solution the Larkinsons came up with after hundreds of years of trial and error was to surround the traumatized with family.

While it didn't work all the time, the Larkinsons saw enough success in this approach to stick with it. Ves always remembered his time at the Larkinson Compound fondly.

"I have a suggestion." He began. "Recuperating in this isolated recovery room won't do you much good. Once your physical condition improves, I intend to bring you to my Cloud Estate where my relatives can keep you company. Is that okay?"

Davia snorted. "Do what you want."

"Okay."

Though she remained a tough shell to crack, at least she didn't express any intentions to leave. After losing her home and everyone she knew, she had nowhere to go. It made no difference to her if she stayed in his care or returned to the farming settlement.

Ves soon left her room, allowing the sedatives to put her back to sleep.

"Take good care of her, Dr. Lupo." He repeated his instruction. "Once she recovers enough to stand and walk on her own, transfer her to the Cloud Estate. Make sure to assign some caretakers to her to attend to her daily needs."

Though Lupo still didn't know why Ves paid so much attention to an ordinary wounded veteran, he knew better than to question his employer.

"I will make sure that she is taken care of, Mr. Larkinson. I'll also spare some time in my schedule to check up on her condition and form a customized diet to facilitate her physical recovery."

Ves smiled. "Good. Treat her just like you treat Gloriana and I. Don't skimp on anything."

Ever since Ves put Dr. Lupo in charge of ingredient preparation, every meal turned into a delight.

While Ves was initially dismissive of Dr. Lupo's obsession with nutrition, it turned out that this specialty was not as trivial as he thought.

Each meal incorporated ingredients that Dr. Lupo tailored to their individual physiques!

The meals that Gloriana ate became a lot more delicate and pure.

In contrast, Ves ate meals that became a lot more filling and dense with energy.

Ever since he switched to Lupo's customized diet, Ves never felt as full and energy-rich as before!

He realized that he was missing out an entirely different facet of life before he employed Dr. Lupo!

Gloriana was just as happy with Dr. Lupo's addition to the staff!

Though Dr. Lupo frequently demanded to cook their meals, he was not as adept in the culinary arts as the chefs employed by Gloriana.

Personally, Ves didn't mind, but Gloriana vehemently opposed any notion of replacing her chefs.

She always employed the best she could get her hands on! Dr. Lupo was incomparable to Chefs trained in a prosperous second-rate state like the Hexadric Hegemony!

Of course, who knew if that remained the same a few years from now.

The Intelligence Candies that Ves graciously fed to Dr. Lupo weren't cabbages!

After the exobiologist adjusted to his expanded intellectual capabilities, he devoured knowledge like a bottomless hole!

Ves expected much from Lupo in the future!

As the two walked out of the Foundation's medical center, Ves quizzed the exobiologist on his progress.

"It's too soon for me to achieve any results on my assignments." Dr. Lupo admitted. He spent too much time putting his new learning ability to use. "My understanding of organic food substances is the highest. I'm confident I can make some headway into cracking the secrets of geril spice."

"What about the Archimedes Rubal?"

Lupo frowned for a moment. "I've tracked down some old records. It's not a bioimplant that is used anymore. I found a lot of useful documents and files that can help me update its bioprogramming, but the problem is that I can't make heads or tails of the data yet. Even if most of it is outdated, we're still talking about high technology here."

"Prioritize this project over anything else. I don't want to wait too long to implant the Archimedes Rubal in my head. Gloriana's cousin who is supposedly capable of performing the surgery will probably arrive within the year. I want you to be knowledgeable enough about implant surgery to assist in the surgery."

Dr. Lupo ought to be smart enough to realize that Ves did not entirely trust Gloriana's cousin.

"Rest assured, Mr. Larkinson. I will make sure to devote my time to studying this field and deciphering the Archimedes Rubal. It's just that I won't be able to devote as much time on other priorities."

Ves lazily waved his hand. "That's fine. The Larkinson Exobiology Institute is not meant to be a one-man organization. Hire more people and delegate some of the less sensitive tasks to them. I trust you to know what you can share and what you need to keep to yourself."

He employed a bit of his Spirituality and applied some pressure to Dr. Lupo. In an instant, he turned from a mild-mannered mech designer into a ferocious beast in human form!

"I-I-I understand!"

It didn't hurt to remind Dr. Lupo of what he stood to gain if he continued to remain loyal to Ves. It also didn't hurt to remind the former refugee that Ves was not an ordinary man.

Once he parted ways with Lupo, he returned to his office to keep on top of the latest developments.

The LMC sold more and more mechs. The Sand War became increasingly more bloody. The introduction of the Dawnbreaker and its variants slowly started to strengthen the forces that procured their copies. The Sandbreaker weapon system spread out throughout the entire region in rapid tempo!

In fact, the Avatars and Sentinels had already begun to switch out their old ballistic rifles for the newfangled Sandbreaker rifles!

Ves even visited a training ground to witness the effectiveness of the Sanbreaker rifle with his own eyes.

A Sandbreaker round impacted a target dummy made out of grainy substance that resembled the composition of a sandman vessel.

The round exploded instantly upon contact! A powerful concussive shockwave emanated outwards in a semi-focused cone! The target dummy lost at least half of its mass, impressing everyone witnessing the test!

"This Sandbreaker round is thirty percent more damaging against the sandmen than a standard ballistic round!"

This was an enormous difference! Transitioning to this weapon system would certainly save a lot of lives! This was why Ves did not feel any qualms about adopting the Sandbreaker system despite its origin!

"What a killer product!" Gavin commented with a hint of regret. "Those Ansel mech designers will certainly be swimming in money from all of the licensing fees they earn!"

Ves shrugged. "This is what they deserve. There's no point feeling jealous about it. Don't forget that a lot of experts have worked on the Sandbreaker weapon system. One of Ansel's main advantages is that the school has forged a lot of partnerships with research institutions. Professor Xu didn't develop the Sandbreaker by herself!"

These kinds of partnerships became increasingly more prevalent in the upper end of mech design. As much as mech designers accumulated detailed knowledge, they weren't omniscient.

Partnering up with a specialized research institution allowed mech designers to incorporate more advanced solutions in their mechs!

This was a way for mech designers to overcome a gap in capabilities without involving additional mech designers. This was vitally important to the Dawnbreaker project, which already involved five fully-fledged Seniors.

"It's too bad we don't have any ties to research institutions."

"It's not easy to gain the cooperation of those research institutions." Ves shook his head.

For now, it wasn't necessary for him to partner up with them. The advanced Skills and Sub-Skills he redeemed from the System served as a partial substitute to the services provided by research institutions.

Though his mech designs no longer received any hindrance if he involved too many people in the project, he still preferred to keep the headcount low.

Working with too many people not only complicated the management of his projects, but also caused the development time to double or triple.

Under the current circumstances, Ves couldn't afford to delay his design work so much.

Of course, declining to work with research institutions also made it difficult to add a powerful gimmick or a fantastic component like the Sandbreaker weapon system to his designs.

Once Ves saw enough, he left the training ground and returned to the Mech Nursery.

There, he began to discuss his next design project with Gavin.

"According to the schedule, Vincent Ricklin is about to arrive soon, right?"

His assistant nodded. "Your next client is scheduled to arrive in two or three days. He'll be bringing some company along."

"Make sure his party knows that they shouldn���t mess around in Cloudy Curtain. This is my home planet and I don't want these former rebels to provoke a fight."

He knew that Vincent would definitely be accompanied by his goons of the former Bentheim Liberation Movement. Ever since the separatists received amnesty, they no longer hid themselves in quiet asteroid belts or underground bases.

According to the latest news from Bentheim, the former members of the BLM still hadn't shed their savagery yet. Though they did their best to abide by the terms of their agreement with the Bright Republic, thugs still remained thugs.

"Inform Commander Magdalena of our new arrivals and tell her to make sure to assign some Sentinels to keep watch over them." Ves ordered. "I'm not reassured with letting them run around in Cloudy Curtain without supervision."

"They might not take a liking to that, boss."

"I don't care. I'm in charge here."

Vincent's impending arrival weighed heavily on Ves. Though the incident with Vincent happened a long time ago, it was hard for him to forgive this murderous bastard for entangling him in a lot of trouble.

Just because he outgrew the threat of the surviving Ricklin Family did not mean that Ves forgave Vincent for landing him in trouble in the first place!