The Mech Touch

Chapter 6501 Part-Time Piloting

The Bluejay Fleet finally returned to New Constantinople.

Just as expected, no incidents had occurred despite the fact that the journey took a little longer due to taking a detour.

Ves looked forward to returning to Diandi Base and reuniting with his family in person.

After that, he wanted to put all of the 'exciting' events behind him and return to his greatest passion, which was designing mechs.

As the Bluejay Fleet settled into orbit of New Constantinople VIII, Ves headed down to one of the hangar bays to see off an ace pilot.

"Now that you have safely made the journey back to this star system, I am no longer needed to keep you safe." Saint Tusa declared to Ves as he wore his custom piloting suit and looked ready to depart. "The Bluejay Fleet and the armed forces of the Devos Ancient Clan should be strong enough to fend off most possible attackers. I have already heard that the Red Three is in the process of upgrading the local defenses as well, so your position should be quite secure. Having me around won't really change that much, so I prefer to make myself useful elsewhere. The frontlines of the Upper Zones are still under pressure and could sorely use my help. The sooner I leave, the better!"

Ves sighed. He would have preferred to keep Saint Tusa around despite the friction that had emerged between them. He had too few reliable protectors by his side.

However, Ves could not dismiss Tusa's argument either. In the interest of safeguarding human civilization, it was better if Tusa returned to acting as a troubleshooter at the frontlines. A highly mobile and difficult to catch ace light skirmisher could provide relief in many future battles.

"AGREED." The ace mech voiced his own opinion. "THIS STAR SYSTEM IS BORING. NONE OF THE ALIENS ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO MOUNT AN ATTACK ON IT, MY PARTNER AND I WILL JUST GROW BORED EVEN AS OUR COMPATRIOTS ARE DYING AND FIGHTING FAR AWAY. OUR CALLING LIES IN THE BORDER REGIONS. WE SHALL NOT REST SO LONG AS THERE ARE STILL ALIENS WHO ARE TRYING TO INVADE HUMAN SPACE."

Since there was no way to stop Tusa and the Dark Zephyr from doing what they wanted, Ves simply shrugged and accepted this decision.

"I won't lie and say I am happy to let the two of you go. I can understand that you are still needed at the frontlines, though. It is actually a failure on the part of the Larkinson Clan that we have yet to form a proper first-class fleet that can support you and fight alongside you. We will be able to form it eventually, but that requires more time. For now, the best way for you to fight is to rotate as a freelancer as you have been doing before."

Tusa nodded and placed his hand on the battlefield. "I am glad you understand. Just as

you are serious about fulfilling the responsibilities of a mech designer, I am also serious about my own job. As a mech pilot and a particularly strong one, my place lies on the battlefield. I cannot ignore the drastic consequences of letting the most besieged star systems fall to the native aliens, thereby putting another region at risk of getting overrun by the native aliens."

"You have a good heart." Ves complemented. "If you go, make sure your ace mech doesn't take any heavy blows. It is really troublesome to repair an archemech away from any knowledgeable technicians or engineers. The maintenance crew accompanying you and the Dark Zephyr are still incapable of performing many repairs."

"Don't worry. I will make sure I won't get hit." Tusa confidently said.

After a bit more chatting, the ace pilot decisively entered the cockpit of his machine and departed from the hangar bay.

Ves meanwhile returned to the design lab and addressed the Senior Mech Designers who were left.

"Jovy, Vector, I will be in touch with you as soon as I have come up with a good idea for our next Carmine mech design project. Romanda, you are with me. Since you have decided to work for me, I will help you get settled inside Diandi Base."

The status of Romanda remained a bit awkward for the moment. She remained a branch member of the Devos Ancient Clan, but also served as the secret liaison of the Horizon Cell of the Cosmopolitan Movement.

That latter part was ordinary grounds to have her arrested for treason before letting her get executed, but Ves saw no profit in that course of action.

As much as Ves despised the cosmopolitans regardless of which galaxy they happened to reside in, he was not above using them to his own advantage.

In the Milky Way, his mother and her fellow conspirators were probably trying to contact the cosmopolitans over there in order to form an unholy alliance.

In the Red Ocean, Ves wanted to obtain a precious information channel that could give him a much better understanding of what the crazy cosmopolitans were up to. He did not want to get caught off-guard like he was in the past.

He at least accepted the notion that the Cosmopolitan Movement had grown far too old to maintain a single united front. Many of its cells had spent so much time apart from each other that they had diverged into entirely different organizations.

Depending on their leadership and the challenges they faced, the cells had radicalized to different degrees. Their experiences had also shaped their culture and moral bottom lines in many unique ways.

From what little Ves managed to discern from Lady Romanda Devos, the Horizon Cell most definitely sounded like the more reasonable ones.

Of course, that did not cause Ves to let his guard down entirely. Moderate or not, any

part of the Cosmopolitan Movement still possessed the fundamental delusions and willingness to act on them! No cosmopolitan was entirely safe!

The reason why Ves tolerated Lady Romanda to the point of inviting her to work and live in Diandi Base was because he perceived very little individual threat from her. There was little she could do to him in the absence of an army at her disposal.

Despite the enormous danger she put herself into, the woman still believed in her mission.

She was a cosmopolitan who could actually recognize that recklessly continuing to support the native aliens by transferring intelligence and technological secrets to them would ultimately result in total human extinction.

So long as helping Ves would maintain a certain degree of equilibrium between red humanity and the native aliens, Romanda should remain a valuable ally and intelligence

asset.

However, once the balance of the Red War shifts in the favor of red humanity, her reliability should drop. The more red humanity was able to gain the upper hand, the more Romanda turned into a liability.

Ves accepted this condition. He was confident he could keep Romanda under control. At worst, he could always arrange an 'accident' for her. That would be best, as exposing her for a traitor would cause her to spill inconvenient information.

Such a solution was still too far away. Red humanity was doing anything but good at the moment. Ves should start worrying about the damage that Romanda could do once the

war had finally taken a turn.

"Let's go."

"Right." The older woman said.

After a small delay, Ves and his entourage soon teleported back to the surface of New

Constantinople VIII,

"Papa! You're back!"

"I missed you so much, papa!"

"Oh, calm down! I am not going anywhere."

Ves grinned as he reunited with his wife and children. He had been absent for too many weeks, so that made this reunion especially heartfelt.

He made sure to reserve the rest of the day to spending time with his children. Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine all remained as cute and lovely as ever. That wouldn't last, so that made these days all the more precious.

His wife also greeted his return with a smile, but her eyes clearly conveyed she had a bone or two to pick with her husband.

She was willing to keep her opinions to herself, though. She did not want to spoil the

reunion for the children.

Once Ves played and chatted with the kids up until late evening, he and his wife gently

put them all to bed.

As Ves finally tucked Aurelia to bed where she lay next to a watchful Clixie, he leaned in

and kissed her on the forehead.

"Papa?"

"Yes, my golden girl?"

"Can I pilot a mech?"

Both Ves and Gloriana blinked.

"What brought this question on, my dear?" The mother said with a touch of concern. "You never expressed a strong interest in mech piloting before."

"That was because piloting mechs was reserved for norms, mama. I have almost no chance of developing a good genetic aptitude." Aurelia said as she started to cuddle with the Rubarthan Sentinel Cat. "Now that papa released his Carmine mechs, anyone can become a mech pilot. I think that going forward, everyone who can afford to will become a Carmine mech pilot. It will be as common as firearms possession. Statesmen, bureaucrats, law enforcement and so on will all become part-time Carmine mech pilots just because they want to possess the power to protect themselves if necessary. They don't want to delegate all of their security to others. If necessary, I want to fight as well."

Ves understood what his daughter wanted.

"Oh, Aurelia..." Gloriana said as she stroked her hand on her daughter's head.

It did not take much thinking for Ves to make up his mind. "I see. You have made a wise choice. I cannot bear to refuse your request. I am fine with letting you become a 'part-time Carmine mech pilot' as you have described it. You don't want to become a soldier, but you want to be able to fight if enemies show up at your doorstep. That is unfortunately a risk that you have to bear simply because you are my daughter. I have made many enemies, and some who think they are clever will try to kidnap or kill you just to get back at me. If a situation like that ever happens, I would be much more reassured if you possess self-defensive capabilities." Aurelia looked up with a sleepy smile. "So can I?"

"Yes. I will think about how to do this correctly. I can't enroll you into a mech academy and become a full-time mech cadet. You will have to take part-time classes outside of your regular schooling in order to steadily gain the proficiency needed to pilot a powerful Carmine mech pilot. Be prepared for a hefty study load as I don't want you to pilot a machine as simple as a third-class knight mech. A daughter of mine should definitely be able to pilot an advanced first-class Carmine mech, preferably a rifleman

mech."

"What about a first-class multipurpose mech?" Aurelia asked.

"Absolutely not!" Gloriana rejected this proposal. "If you insist on this course of action,

then you need to know your limits. There is only so much you can learn in your limited free time. Earning the qualifications to pilot a first-class multipurpose mech is extremely arduous, even for the more talented and intelligent first-raters. It is better to master a more limited set of skills well than try to spread yourself too thin. I agree with your father. Specializing in piloting a first-class rifleman mech is the best choice. You solely need to improve your marksmanship as far as weapon skills are concerned. You do not have to fight by getting close to your enemies, and your mech should be fast and nimble enough to stay clear of incoming threats. Becoming a good marksman while piloting a Carmine mech should also allow you to become good at handling firearms outside of the

cockpit."

Ves had never thought of letting his children become part-time Carmine mech pilots, but now that he was thinking about it, he recognized that there was a lot of potential in this proposal.