The Mech Touch

ni Saints failed to penetrate the defenses of the orven battleship and the unclean whale by themselves.
They managed to make it through with the help of others, but what about next time? If you are ever caught by yourselves by a phase whale, do you think your Embodiment of Love and Sacrifice can truly overcome the defenses of this beast? ”

”We have already exceeded our quota. ” Matriarch Sena Gemini said.
”We do not intend to expose ourselves to any further excessive danger. ”

Ves snorted.
”You might not want to look for trouble, but there is always a chance that trouble will reach your doorstep.
What if an alien incursion fleet drops by your colony? What if your neighbors do not take kindly of your unorthodox family practices and intend to wipe you out for moral or ideological reasons? Having lived this way for multiple generations, you have to acknowledge that this is a very real possibility. ”

”This is not a new problem for us.
We have always succeeded in keeping ourselves and our ideology alive. ”

”That was then.
This is now. ” Ves snapped back. ”Previously, your Gemini Family was bound to a fleet and could always move away before attracting too much animosity from the locals.
That is not the case anymore now that you have decided to found a colony in the Krakatoa Middle Zone.
Not everyone will be as tolerant towards your Gemini Family as us.
The only language that matters in the Red Ocean is force.
Overwhelming force to be more precise.
I can think of no better way to dominate an opponent than to raise the effective combat power of your ace pilots to that comparable to a senior ace pilot. ”

Ves had taken the time to review the battle footage and evaluate the performance of every ace mech.

The Embodiment of Love and the Embodiment of Sacrifice were certainly the most impressive of the bunch.

Their ace pilots worked so well together that they could actually combine their ace mechs into a superpowered combination machine that was greater than the sum of their parts!

Ves greatly admired what the Geminis had accomplished.
The Embodiment of Love and Sacrifice was the most powerful ’mech ’ that he had ever witnessed in person.
Not even a first-class multipurpose mech of the MTA could reach its level of power!

Yet… as much as the Gemini Saints were able to exert much greater power through synergy, it was not enough.

There were much more powerful pioneering groups out there that could either field multiple ace mechs or retained a genuine senior ace pilot.

The latter was the scariest of all.
Similar to how a single high-tier expert pilot could easily slaughter a dozen low-tier expert pilots, those that were just a few jumps away from becoming a god pilot were much more overpowering than other ace pilots!

Although god pilots were the most powerful individuals that humanity could field in battle, in practice they had risen above mundane conflicts between rival human polities.

This meant that senior ace pilots had effectively become the top powerhouses that states and organizations could employ against each other.

The chance that the Gemini Family would attract the hostility of a powerful group that had at least one senior ace pilot on retainer was small, but the Geminis could never rule out this possibility.

Sharpening the teeth of the Embodiment of Love and the Embodiment of Sacrifice would go a long way into deterring these powers from targeting the Gemini Family.

It just so happened that Ves possessed one of the few whetstones that could make the Embodiment of Love and Sacrifice at least twice as deadly as before!

Matriarch Sena Gemini appeared to have run out of patience.
”Let us stop dancing around circles and discuss concrete terms.
What will it cost you to upgrade the mech rifle of the Embodiment of Love and the mech sword of the Embodiment of Sacrifice? ”

”120 kilograms of phasewater. ” Ves immediately said.
”That is quite a generous deal, you know.
Oh, before you try and claim you don ’t have that much phasewater in your possession, we have already calculated the share of phasewater that your family has claimed.
It is several times the amount allocated to my clan. ”

The Gemini Family was entitled to double shares while the Golden Skull Alliance only had to make do with 1.5 shares.

Since the Golden Skull Alliance was made up of multiple groups, the Larkinson Clan only received a part of that bounty.

Ves was quite jealous of the Gemini Family for being able to claim twice as much spoils than normal without having to share what they obtained.

It would be nice if he could claim much of that generous loot for himself.

Naturally, the Gemini Family did not want to part with all of their recently obtained phasewater so soon.

”We have already informed you that we have already reserved our phasewater for other purposes. ” Patriarch Kobal Gemini reminded Ves as if he had faulty short-term memory.
”We have not changed our stance regarding this matter. ”

”That ’s fine. ” Ves flatly replied.
”My services do not come cheap, though, and I do not have a habit of working for free. ”

”We do not intend to ask you to upgrade our most powerful weapons without an expectation of earning remuneration.
We have already observed from your agreement with the Lehrer Foundation that you are willing to accept knowledge instead of a hard good such as phasewater. ”

Ves slowly nodded.
”That is true, but I won ’t accept anything that I can buy from a random street stall. ”

”That is understandable.
Do not worry, Patriarch Larkinson.
We have come prepared.
We have already formulated a list of technologies that we are happy to pass on in exchange for your services. ”

”Oh? What do you offer that you think is of interest to our clan? ”

Matriarch Sena Gemini smiled.
”How about a database that will teach your geneticists and exobiologists how to formulate healthy, intellectually gifted and most importantly empathetic designer babies? ”

Now that caught Ves ’ attention!

”Tell me more. ” He demanded.

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