The Mech Touch

Chapter 7121: Forced by Circumstances

Given the importance of arranging Aurelia’s education in the next decade, Ves sought to meet with the RF delegation first.

They held the meeting at a garden courtyard built on the central continent but situated further away from the crystal pyramid.

Mechs and other security forces ensured that no one would be able to approach in order to spy on the occupants or threaten their lives.

After a moment of waiting, Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson and her niece Athena Larkinson entered the courtyard.

They strode towards the center and greeted Ves and Aurelia before sitting down.

As they did so, the pair of fleeters could not hide their curiosity and fascination for the gifts that the birthday girl received.

As Aurelia calmly sat in her chair and petted Clixie who was lying comfortably on her lap, her medallion continued to exude a compelling golden glow.

Meanwhile, Marigold Larkinson stood behind her seat like a maidservant who was ready to meet any request.

No matter the medallion or the humanoid artifact, neither of them were trivial!

Even within the powerful Red Fleet, objects of this caliber could only be asked for. Perhaps the admirals of the Red Fleet might have a way to get their hands on tech that could produce similar results, but their costs were insane while their supply was far too limited.

Whenever such a precious item became available, mid-ranking officers such as Astrid could never afford the money and CFA merits needed to redeem such a treasure!

Astrid would be lying if she said she was not jealous of Aurelia.

As a member of a powerful spaceborn clan and a descendant of Fleet Admiral Amelie Jameson, her lineage was a veritable powerhouse among contemporary humanity. She enjoyed excellent conditions from birth and had managed to live up to her potential by reaching her current rank at her age.

Yet such conditions and success were only noteworthy among ’normal’ humans.

The Larkinsons... were not normal at all. Ves Larkinson was born a third-rater, but he had already managed to become a tier 3 galactic citizen while he was still a Senior Mech Designer.

And this was just one of many remarkable accomplishments!

Although learning that his mother used to be a high-ranking member of the forbidden Five Scrolls Compact partially explained how he was able to engineer his rapid rise to power, Astrid believed she could do just as well if not better if she enjoyed the same conditions.

She just never had a chance to prove her worth!

When the fleeter compared herself to Ves, she found that with every meeting, the gap in status between the two grew wider and wider.

This was intolerable!

If that was not enough, his daughter had all the makings of an extraordinary leader. Many parties with decent intelligence capabilities had kept track of the growth and performance of the scions of the Larkinson Clan.

Each of the three children of Ves and Gloriana Larkinson had proven to be much more extraordinary than their fellow peers of the same age or even a few years older!

They enjoyed too many advantages. They benefited from the secret cultivation heritage imparted by the mysterious Cynthia Larkinson. They also received companion spirits at the earliest possible moment, thereby activating their souls far in advance and enabling each of them to think with at least two minds at once.

Although the Larkinsons lacked the tech and heritage to match the augmentations mastered by the RF and the spaceborn clans, their own secret methods were much more suited for the current age!

A part of Astrid felt regretful that she was born in the Jameson Spaceborn Clan as opposed to the Larkinson Clan.

Alarms quickly rang in her mind.

She was a Jameson! She was a fleeter! So what if she was at a disadvantage at the moment? If there were any inadequacies, then there was no use complaining about it. Whining did not change anything.

There were only so many advantages that she could derive from her birth and upbringing.

One of the reasons why she managed to get to where she was today was because she worked harder and stood out among her fellow Jamesons!

Now, Astrid recognized that she needed to work harder if she wanted to stay ahead of the likes of Aurelia Larkinson.

They might not belong to the same generation, but if the latter managed to realize her much greater potential, then a day might come where the Larkinson scion might surpass her in status and power!

There was no way Astrid was willing to let a member of the younger generation outshine her in any way!

The RF officer needed to resist the inertia of her rank and fight harder to earn a promotion.

Yet with the institution of ARCHIE, the rules and customs governing promotions had become a lot more difficult to manipulate.

Even a fleet admiral could not recommend Astrid for consideration of promotion without enough merit.

This was why Astrid directed a slightly hungry look at Aurelia. Her ancestor had only issued a casual suggestion — not even an order really — that she should find a way to rope the heir of Ves and Gloriana Larkinson into the Red Fleet.

The merit she could earn from recruiting such a promising young child was not small!

This was especially the case if the individual she recruited went on to perform well in both her studies and in her subsequent postings.

Astrid had to rope Aurelia into the RF. This meeting was probably her only chance to do so. If she did not manage to fulfill this objective, then she could say goodbye to all of the tangible and intangible rewards she could earn from recruiting a highly promising officer candidate.

She soon forced herself to calm down. While she was eager to recruit Aurelia, she could not afford to be too anxious and give away too many clues.

"Hello again." Ves greeted the two fleeters. "I hope you have enjoyed the show so far."

"The birthday party your clan has organized is most assuredly novel." Astrid politely replied. "You may have set a new fashion trend with your stunts. Others may not be able to replicate your full splendor, but I believe that the practice of inviting collies to set up rituals may become a fixed practice going forward. Your daughter is lucky to be born in your family."

The two began to chat with each other for a few minutes. They exchanged kind words to each other until they were finally ready to discuss more substantive business.

In the meantime, Aurelia and Athena stared silently at each other, though they were mindful enough not to speak at this time.

Athena looked like she wanted to go forward and pet Clixie, though. The cat looked so fluffy and adorable!

Astrid Jameson finally cleared her throat. "Ahem, speaking of business, there are a number of issues where we are seeking your cooperation. We are already working with other partners such as the Red Collective and possibly the Cybernetic Empire when it comes to the development of our upcoming counters to the mutated voribugs. We may seek your input on this matter, but this is not an urgent priority for the time being. There is a certain class of warship where you can be of greater assistance."

"Your dreadnoughts, if I am not mistaken."

"Correct, professor. We... have conducted a large amount of research on the data gathered from examining the earlier iteration of the Dominion of Man from top to bottom. Sadly, the disappearance of Bridgehead One has interrupted our studies, and its subsequent return only to discover that the Cybernetic Empress has illegally claimed our living dreadnought has ended any means of gathering further data on the phenomenon that has caused her to become much more powerful than her sister ships."

Ves could see where this was going. He began to smirk.

"You have already analyzed everything you could from your limited collection of data. Repeatedly going over the same old data won’t turn up anything new at this point. There is no use delaying your decision any further. You can either embrace this new phenomenon and seek to apply it on your other dreadnoughts, or bury your heads in the sand and maintain the current state of your most powerful flagships. I take it since you are here, you have chosen the former option rather than the latter, correct?"

Astrid made a calculated display of weakness. "You are correct. It is intolerable for us to lose control of the Dominion of Man. In the years she has fallen into the hands of the Cybers, they have converted the crew and perverted the original design of the dreadnought. While we are still doing our best to reclaim our lost property, I will not lie to you and state that this is likely to happen. Rather than pine over the return of our only godship, it is better to focus on what we can do to make up for this loss."

"And that is making more godships."

The lieutenant-commander nodded. "Just so. We have taken your past words into account. Combined with our extensive analysis of the Dominion of Man, we believe it is feasible to convert two of our proudest flagships into living dreadnoughts by relying on similar processes. We are already actively cooperating with the Artifact Warship Department of the Red Collective to prepare our dreadnoughts for a more thorough conversion. After all, you relied heavily on improvisation to convert the original Dominion of Man. Our understanding of hyper technology and E-technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. We should easily be able to attain superior results. We have also reserved respectable quantities of low, mid and high-grade superdimensional matter to facilitate these qualitative upgrades."

It became pretty clear that the Red Fleet was truly serious about the need to obtain more living dreadnoughts.

Despite the very real risks of damaging or losing their precious flagships, the fleeters could no longer afford to procrastinate any longer.

The Cybernetic Empire kept gaining ground while the god pilots of the other major factions kept making their own substantial gains.

The Red Fleet was the only major organization that did not enjoy the protection of a god pilot, and that was dangerous in this day and age.

The fleeters had hoped that the Dominion of Man would serve as an adequate substitute to a True God-level champion, but the Cybernetic Empire’s brazen theft had taken the wind out of their sails.

All of this caused the fleeters to come back to Ves with a much humbler and more sincere posture than before.

Ves realized that he possessed a huge amount of leverage in this negotiation.

After all, if they could not gain his cooperation, how else would they be able to turn their dreadnoughts alive?

Yet before he could run away with this idea, the lieutenant-commander raised her palm.

"Before we proceed any further, let me be clear that seeking your cooperation is not our only option. With the cooperation of the Red Association and the Red Collective, we have devised alternative means to upgrade our dreadnoughts. They may not go as far as converting them into living dreadnoughts, but they should be able to become strong enough to defend our existing territories and buy time for subsequent advances in science and technology. If we truly have a need for greater power, we can always negotiate a more substantial agreement with the Cybernetic Empire or the Red Association. They may be our rivals, but they are still composed of human kin. Even the Cybers and the mechers understand that it is better for everyone if the Red Fleet can carry its own weight."

Hm, that was true. The Cybers and the mechers possessed a lot of exclusive technologies and resources that could significantly improve the performance of the existing dreadnoughts under the RF’s control.

What Ves needed to do was to negotiate an offer that was lucrative for him and his clan, but also generous enough to undercut his competitors.