The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

After Ves set a plan that would hopefully alleviate the growing manpower problem in the Design Department, he became a lot less worried about the immediate future.

He knew it wouldn't be easy to attract the more talented and capable young Journeymen that had managed to reach the Red Ocean.

The majority of Journeymen who arrived at the dwarf galaxy had already signed long-term employment contracts with various powerful pioneering organizations.

Only a minority of ambitious mech designers entered the new frontier as free passengers rather than part of an existing mech company or other organization.

Despite the limited proportion, a huge amount of humans poured into the Red Ocean every day! Over time, the trickle of available Journeymen continued to grow until there was a healthy supply of them. Ves was not afraid of lacking any choices.

What he was actually worried about was what it took to hire the more promising ones. The Larkinson Clan was weak by second-class pioneering standards, so he would have to make significant concessions to sway someone. This was exactly what Ves didn't want to do. No newcomer should enjoy special privileges.

Ves pressed his fingers against his forehead. "I'll have to figure something out. If I can raise my prestige and make the Larkinson Clan a more attractive destination, then I don't have to make too many compromises to hire better Journeymen."

Much of it would have to wait until the Larkinson Clan reached the Red Ocean, which wasn't too far away.

As Ves and many other Larkinsons made their final preparations before they made the great jump, the expeditionary fleet had already moved on from the port system where they received the Gorgoneion and the Diligent Ovenbird.

Just as promised, the two new capital ships performed well enough. The inexperienced but sufficiently trained crews kept most problems under wraps and made sure not to delay the journey.

All the while, a lot of activity went on in the background. The biggest priority of the Larkinson Clan was hiring enough skilled personnel and transferring as much mechs, goods and personnel over to the capital ships as possible.

The clan had already made a deal with different vendors to offload all of the sub-capital ships and deconstructed mech salvage that couldn't be taken into the Red Ocean.

The Larkinsons had less luck obtaining another capital ship, most notably a mass conveyor that could transport a lot of mechs and other cargo.

Surprisingly enough, the other members of the Golden Skull Alliance managed to expand their own core fleet.

The Glory Seekers happened to meet up with a band of other 'refugees' from the Hexadric Hegemony. The Wodin Dynasty had made a deal with this group that brought them under the fold.

This deal added two more capital ships to the Glory Seekers, and they both happened to be fleet carriers!

Although the fleet carriers were older models by the standards of the Hexadric Hegemony, they both possessed a respectable mech capacity.

The Feminine Grace was a standard fleet carrier with balanced specs. Her six-sided rod-like hull shared many similarities to both the Spirit of Bentheim and the Indigo Tremor. She was capable of carrying 500 combat-capable mechs and double that number when the mechs were packed.

The Dagger Dilettante was a smaller, slimmer and slightly cheaper fleet carrier. She traded a bit of armor for mobility, but otherwise performed similar to the Feminine Grace. She was able to carry 450 mechs and also double that number when packed, as was standard.

The Cross Clan didn't have any connections to its former state, so it had to rely on a different source to obtain additional capital ships.

Although the Crossers never explained how they managed to expand their core fleet, Calabast already told Ves that Professor Benedict Cortez likely played a key role. As a powerful Senior, he was able to exert a lot of influence, especially when he was proficient wielding power.

Even so, the difficult market conditions only enabled the Crossers to obtain a pair of non-combat capital vessels.

The first addition was a second-hand ark ship. The Banner Cross — named after an expert pilot that died in the Battle of Reckoning — was a 3.4 kilometer utopia that provided paradisiacal living conditions to any inhabitants lucky enough to live on her. Although some of her aging systems clearly needed attention, the ark ship worked well enough to completely change the situation of the other clan.

The Banner Cross massively increased the comfort and happiness of the civilian Crossers. Many of them previously had to live on combat or industrial vessels that did not offer much in the way of stable and pleasant living.

The Cross Clan did not have a tradition of living in space. Back when they were in power, they held a lot of planets in the Garlen Empire. Those territories used to be the homes of the original Crossers.

Although they had been forced to live on ships after their exile, the addition of the Banner Cross meant that they had taken their first true stride into becoming a spaceborn clan!

The Cyclical Engine was the second capital ship obtained by the Cross Clan. She was another second-hand capital ship, but her role came as a huge surprise to Ves and many Larkinsons.

It turned out that the Cyclical Engine was a factory ship, one that Professor Benedict had taken great effort to procure!

The newest acquisition of the Cross Clan was clearly used but possessed her own merits. With a length of 2.9 kilometers, the Cyclical Engine was significantly larger and more productive than the Spirit of Bentheim.

However, Ves didn't harbor a lot of jealousy towards the Crossers. The Cyclical Engine may be a powerhouse in terms of industrial production, but she was a capital ship that was designed for peaceful purposes. She did not contain any design elements that were expressly optimized for frontier conditions.

As a result, the Cyclical Engine was not only slow and unwieldy in space, but was also clad with thinner hull armor.

Both the Banner Cross and the Cyclical Engine imposed a huge defensive burden on the Crossers. They were still worth it as they both rounded out the Cross fleet and increased the independence of the martial clan.

Ves was gratified that the Golden Skull Alliance became stronger and that his two allies began to carry more weight. With 16 capital ships, the expeditionary fleet came close to reaching the maximum limit of 20 hulls per beyonder ticket!

If the Golden Skull Alliance was no longer able to obtain any further capital ships, then the alliance partners had already agreed to use up the unused ship quota for sub-capital ships.

This was an enormous missed opportunity, of course, but it was better than wasting the remaining quota entirely!

There was a brief discussion about the MTA merits needed to purchase a beyonder ticket, but the Larkinsons brought slightly good news. Ves and his fellow Journeymen were still waiting to receive their earnings for fabricating two successive masterwork expert mechs.

The only problem was that the Glory Seekers still couldn't pay for their own ship quota. It wasn't a big deal when their core fleet only amounted to the Indigo Tremor, but the addition of the Feminine Grace and the Dagger Dilettante significantly added to their debt!

When Ves, Marshal Ariadne and Patriarch Reginald conducted a virtual meeting to discuss these problems, no one was in the mood to quibble over numbers.

"We've fought numerous major battles alongside each other." Ves explained his thoughts. "Admittedly, most of them were provoked by the Larkinson Clan. During each engagement, your Glory Seekers never hesitated to risk your lives to help us fend off our enemies. Your willingness to confront a dwarven ace mech has earned my trust. If you are okay with it, you can cash in the favor that I owe you. We need your fleet carriers anyway. The more we can bring into the Red Ocean, the better we'll be able to defend our fleet."

He made this offer both out of friendship and out of practicality.

"I concur with the last point." Patriarch Reginald Cross spoke. "I'm not an accountant and I don't care for these trivial sums. We are brothers and sisters in arms and we should assist each other. If the Larkinson Clan cannot cover the quota of the Glory Seekers, then our Cross Clan will make up for the shortfall. You'll just owe me another favor, Marshal."

The leader of the Glory Seeker looked gratified. "Thank you for your generosity, patriarchs. To be honest, we have tried our best to solicit Hexers who possess a significant amount of merits, but none of them are open to our conditions."

Ves chuckled. People who were capable and powerful enough to earn millions of MTA credits would not easily agree to subjugate themselves to others. All of these powerful Masters, trade magnates and so on were more than capable of becoming pioneers themselves. They had already formed their own pioneering fleets with their own associates.

"I guess it doesn't really matter how we divide the capital ship quotas among ourselves anymore." He said with a shrug. "We're stuck with sixteen capital ships and I don't think that will change in the time we have left. Each of them is a valuable asset and it's unthinkable for us to leave any of them behind. The only number we need to pay attention to is the total amount of MTA merits that we can muster. We cannot enter the Red Ocean if we are short of 95 million MTA merits."

Although Ves hadn't maintained any contact with the Rim Guardians as of late, his discount was still valid! Even a measly 5 percent reduction off the total price was invaluable in situations like these!

"As far as I am aware, we are still short of meeting this sum." Marshal Ariadne Wodin noted.

The Cross Patriarch didn't look worried. "It will not be an issue. Professor Benedict has never stopped working on this front."

In the end, the meeting ended harmoniously. The growing trust and friendship between the alliance partners had progressed their relations past the point where they let annoying details get in the way of common interests.

Once the expeditionary fleet finally entered the Tarnished Crown Star Sector, the alliance partners completed almost every step they needed to take before passing through the beyonder gate.

Many people were already preparing to bid farewell to the Milky Way. They organized solemn ceremonies and enormous parties to mark their final moments in the old galaxy.

Nobody knew when they would be able to return to the galaxy of their birth. No one was certain whether they would even want to return if given the choice. Many of them had already said goodbye to their old homes and cut ties to their past.

To the Larkinsons, their clan was their only home. Even though it had only been a couple of months or years since they departed from their old states, none of them yearned to go back to them. The Larkinson Clan was so much better that pretty much no one exhibited any homesickness!

Of course, Ves knew that Goldie played a considerable role in helping the new clansmen embrace their new lives. Without the crucial kinship network, it would have been much harder to retain all of these members and prevent them from defecting throughout the lengthy journey to the beyonder gate!

"We're almost there." Ves told his cat.

"Meow."

Lucky didn't appear to pay any attention to the significance of leaving their native galaxy.

"The Bright Republic, the Friday Coalition, the Hexadric Hegemony, the Komodo Star Sector, the Yeina Star Cluster… we'll soon be cutting ourselves off from all of these regions. We'll be leaving the Larkinson Family behind as well."

That was an enormous pity, but the family members led by uncle Ark insisted on leading their own lives… They were still trying to build a new life in Vicious Mountain last he heard.