The Mech Touch

Chapter 6493 The Maturation of Ketis

Once the mech commanders of the Larkinson Clan finally wrapped up their meeting, Ketis continued to spend her time on other affairs.

She handled the administrative work that was necessary to get the ball rolling on forming the Heavensword Mech Legion.

Fortunately for everyone, the Larkinson Clan had long anticipated this need. The Heavensworders pretty much half-organized themselves since they day they volunteered to join the Larkinson Clan in order to follow the woman they thought could elevate their swordsmanship to a higher level.

Numerous notable leadership candidates had also emerged. Ketis was not in a hurry to appoint one of them to lead the Heavensword Mech Legion.

Excellent swordsmanship allowed them to gain the respect and awe of their fellow brothers and sisters, but it did not necessarily translate to superior management and battlefield leadership qualities, as she herself had learned the hard way.

Sometimes, a seemingly mediocre leader such as Avatar Commander Melkor Larkinson or Sentinel Commander Sorral Larkinson may end up as the right person for the right job.

Instead of taking risks, it may be better for an organization to build itself up at a slow but steady pace. Before trying to do anything adventurous, it was better to focus on completing the basics and build a strong foundation.

In any case, Ketis felt optimistic about the future of the Heavensword Mech Legion. Once the ancient relic sword arrived from afar, she could easily predict that the members of this new mech legion would get all fired up and become more motivated to earn glory on the battlefield.

They certainly needed it as the fighting in the Viola Magnifica System had never ceased. The native alien forces had not yet committed to a full assault in recent weeks, but they made sure to harass the outlying defensive strongholds.

From moonbases to fortified asteroids, the native alien forces persistently sought to dismantle these defensive outposts before commencing their decisive attack.

The defending humans never expected to maintain these disposable defensive assets. They only sought to delay the native aliens and create opportunities for ambushes and surprise attacks.

Half of the strategically important port system therefore descended into a period of frequent skirmishes and small-scale battles.

Although the intensity of combat was not too high, the cost to both sides was still considerable.

Precious mechs, phasefighters and occasionally warships were getting felled at a

constant rate, causing both sides to bleed precious assets that could be used to give them an edge in the upcoming battle.

Such encounters had become more frequent as of late a red humanity's strategists and tacticians had continually refined their combat approach over the past half year.

Although fighting in this way was not always optimal, it helped to limit the losses after suffering a major setback.

It also offered the participating fighters a good amount of tempering without exposing them to excessive risks.

It should not be a surprise that red humanity favored this approach in the hopes of producing more expert pilots and ace pilots.

What was strange was that the aliens occasionally showed signs of tacitly cooperating with their human opponents.

A competitive spirit had emerged between both sides. No matter what disagreements they may have with each other, neither the humans nor the aliens wanted to lose a fair fight!

Many soldiers had come to enjoy the current pattern of warfare. The risk of dying was not too great, and the battles rarely escalated to a point where they needed to stand their ground or face certain death.

Of course, the native aliens were not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, if their physiologies even included these organs. There were times where they lulled their human opponents into a false sense of security before launching a sudden all-out attack that involved more phase lords than usual!

This was why the defenders assigned to the Viola Magnifica System could never truly let down their guard.

Swordmaster Ketis Larkinson had presided over the expeditionary fleet for a while now, and she became more and more concerned about the immediate future.

The fourth defensive band had managed to stop the native aliens from pushing any deeper for a remarkable period of time, but it was already becoming more and more

tenuous.

She intuitively felt that she wouldn't have to wait too long before it finally collapsed. Then they would have to retreat to the fifth defensive band, which was the only proper 'wall' left to keep all of the hostile raiding fleets and assault fleets out of

human-occupied space.

It was not that red humanity attempted to erect more defensive bands. There were many voices on the galactic net who accused their leaders for being stupid by not

investing resources into forming a sixth defensive band.

The problem was that it already took a huge amount of resources and logistical assets to prop up the existing defensive bands for so long.

The 1st and 2nd collapsed too soon to make any difference, but the 3rd and 4th continually managed to stand firm against relentless alien assaults due to timely and plentiful reinforcement and resupply runs.

From the perspective of human leaders, it was more cost-effective to prop up the existing defenses than to frequently erect new ones from scratch.

While that certainly ensured that humanity's current borders remained as strongly defended as before, the problem with this policy was that the more internal defenses and strongholds had badly lagged behind.

There were still the occasional strongholds and fallback points, but they were too loose and isolated from each other. Many analysts pessimistically predicted that red humanity was as good as done once the 5th defensive band got breached.

The solution to avoid this calamity therefore became very simple. Red humanity simply had to keep hold of the remaining 2 defensive bands at all cost.

This responsibility became more and more difficult to bear when Ketis and other clever and perceptive soldiers in the Viola Magnifica System smelled a grand assault on the

horizon.

The swordmaster felt more and more burdened by the responsibility of navigating the Larkinsons under her auspices through the coming ordeals.

Back when she was young, she never imaged that she would become such a worrisome

leader.

"Sharp! Sharp! Heaven! Heaven!" Her possessed Bloodsigner cried out as the greatsword bobbed up and down in the air.

"Can you feel the approach of the Heavensword?"

Sharpie, her companion spirit, apparently possessed greater sensitivity towards the relic

weapon.

"Heaven! Heaven! Heaven!"

The swordmaster sighed. The contamination of her companion spirit gave her cause for concern. What if Sharpie automatically succumbed to the authority of the

Heavensword?

All of the Heavensword Saints in the past got forcibly converted into the sword slaves of the powerful relic, and that was when the ancient weapon was still in a 'power-saving

mode'!

Now that the Heavensword had entered into a much more favorable medium-energy environment, Ketis suspected it could do way more with its endless variety of powers

than before!

What if the old blade decided to make good use of its partially rejuvenated state and take matters into its own hands?

There was nothing Ketis, Saint Commander Casella or any of the other strong combatants in the Viola Magnifica System could do to resist the grand work's actions!

Ketis started to understand why Ves felt so aggrieved whenever he interacted with the likes of the Evolution Witch.

Their 'patrons' likely harbored goodwill towards them, but that did not mean their meddling was necessarily welcome!

Both the Evolution Witch and the Heavensword were so powerful that they could ignore.

a lot of pushback. They were not confined by any normal rules and could do anything so long as they did not cross any bottom lines.

With the help of Sharpie's relations with the Heavensword, Ketis roughly estimated that the powerful self-controlled weapon would probably arrive in another week, maybe longer if it got distracted along the way.

"I wonder how the Heavensworders back in the Majestic Teal Star Sector are feeling"

Ketis mused.

The Heavensword Association were probably devastated at the loss of the sword that symbolized the second-rate state.

Fortunately, there were so many swordmasters over there that they should easily be able

to keep their traditions alive.

Ketis even guessed that the departure of the Heavensword may actually lift a burden off the state and allow its swordmasters to flourish without an overbearing presence at the

top.

The fact that the Heavensword may actually come and shift the burden onto herself and her subordinates was not a good development.

The woman kept her concerns even as she wrapped up her work related to the

Stormblade Samurai Mark II Project and proceeded to move back to her grand stateroom deep inside the Spirit of Bentheim.

Many Larkinsons greeted or saluted her with respect along the way. Ketis always made sure to take the brief amount of time to nod in acknowledgement, though she did not go further and chat with the clansmen.

Now that she had assumed the burden of leadership, Ketis became a lot more attentive

on how she presented herself and spoke to her fellow Larkinsons. She briefly paused in front of a reflective surface.

Compared to how she looked when she was young, Ketis looked so much more mature

and weathered.

Her body remained as athletic as ever. She never let up on her exercise and sword

training.

Her unnatural green hair had made way for a relatively short cut of more natural-looking

red hair.

Her slightly ornate Larkinson uniform may lack rank insignia, but still conveyed an undeniable sense of authority.

Part of this was due to a combination of Ketis' intelligent demeanor. Another part of it

was due to Sharpie's willpower. Both factors caused her demeanor to become less aggressive but no less dangerous.

As the mech designer and swordmaster continued to study her appearance, she liked

how she had managed to progress her demeanor. She shed many of the follies of her youth and managed to exude an undeniably mature and reliable temperament. This was a quality that not even Ves was able to match!

As brilliant as he had proven himself to be, there was always something about Ves that

made people think that he had become incorrigible. There was always a rebellious bone inside him that continually pushed him into making unconventional decisions.

Ketis spent a lot of years with Ves, so she certainly understood why he ended up this

way.

She could not bring herself to imitate her former mentor that closely. The more responsibilities she assumed, the more she felt the need to remain steady and avoid excessive risks.

Of course, she did not go as far as to deny her own nature.

She still grasped her Bloodsinger in her hands and boldly chose to accompany boarding

parties into disabled but not destroyed enemy warships every now and then!

Only by letting her greatsword shed actual blood would she be able to progress as a

swordmaster!

Ketis still had aspirations to become a sword saint and eventually a sword god, so she

insisted on participating in these boarding actions despite the vehement objections of her husband and almost every other Larkinson!

Every native alien species presented difficult challenges in boarding combat.

The orvens liked to rely on excessive firepower and traps to hinder boarders from taking

over their homeships.

The nunsers were the most fun to fight against as they disdained tricks and usually liked

to fight their enemies head-on, though often taking advantage of their superior mass and numbers!

The zzamayels were the most awful species that Ketis had the 'pleasure' to fight against.

The less said about the disgusting slime-like race and their horrendously sticky organic warships, the better.

While Ketis certainly appeared to grow a lot younger and wilder whenever she indulged

in her need to fight with her Bloodsinger, she otherwise made a conscious effort to keep herself restrained.

There was one decisive reason why she made an effort to grow up and become more

responsible.

"Mommy!" "You're back, mommy!"

Ketis smiled with genuine joy as she bent down to embrace Kirian and Mayra.

As a mother, she wanted nothing more than to raise her children and see them grow up

in front of her eyes. "I am home."