The Mech Touch

r cluster! ”

He still needed to test this effect.
He raised his arm in order to activate his newly-purchased secure comm.
He composed a brief message and sent it to Calsie.

It was extremely expensive for a mech company to transport a mech across multiple star sectors.
All the cargo capacity of shipping vessels built for trans-sector travel were already reserved by wealthy insiders.

Outsiders such as Ves and the LMC needed to pay a sky high price to transport an entire mech over such a huge distance.
Not only that, but it might take years for the Aurora Titan Ves wanted to send out to reach its destination.

”Fortunately, I can afford to wait. ”

Assuming that the experiment would confirm his guess that his designs were able to sustain their spiritual qualities by themselves, Ves would be partially unbound by geographic restrictions.

”Perhaps it doesn ’t matter as much where I design my mechs. ”

He could conceivably design mechs for both his home star cluster and the star cluster he visited and have them at full strength in both regions.

This was the unique advantage of his spiritual techniques!

Once everyone else learned about this potential property, they would probably look at him in a new light!

It would also attract some unwelcome scrutiny from the MTA, so Ves did not plan to publicise this possibility until he could no longer hide it.
He did not wish to invite their scrutiny after he successfully deflected their attention on his eccentric design philosophy.

”This little feature will probably be regarded as another quirk of my weird Class IX design philosophy. ”

Class IX design philosophies acquired a reputation of breaking the rules and achieving unconventional effects.
Perhaps he wasn ’t the first mech designer to violate the range rule to an extent.

As long as his new assumptions worked out, Ves not only faced less obstacles in moving to another star cluster, but he might even have a very compelling reason to do so!

”If I have the power to expand the reach of my designs, then I ’d be stupid to ignore it! I have to take advantage of this property! ”

With such a great reason for him to flex his design abilities in another region of space, the Five Scrolls Compact wouldn ’t suspect he was actually trying to evade their encirclement!

While he was essentially trading attention from the Compact for attention from the MTA, he vastly preferred the latter over the former.

Attracting the Compact ’s attention meant death.

Attracting the attention of the MTA meant Ves would simply have to pretend to be a nut in order to explain away his irregularities.

”Maybe Gloriana can help me in this area. ”

An interesting possibility came into mind when Ves thought about collaboration.
Perhaps the same range-breaking effect might also apply to the design philosophies of other mech designers who contributed to his designs!

This would give him an excuse to take Gloriana along with him.
Though her existing designs might lose their strength, she developed so few of them that she could easily offer compensation to her customers.

”She only designs custom mechs, after all.
Replacing twenty mechs is a lot easier than replacing twenty-thousand mechs! ”

Ves felt very apprehensive at the thought of roping in Gloriana for his journey.
Yet it might be the only way he would have permission to leave the Komodo Star Sector.
Knowing how highly she valued their relationship, she would never allow him to depart the star sector on his own!

The only reason why Ves did not object to bringing along his ’girlfriend ’ was because he could use her craziness to camouflage his own suspicious points!

”Ves and Gloriana, the two crazy mech designers enjoying their decade-long holiday in another star sector. ”

Yup, it sounded completely crazy.
Hopefully, everyone else would stop thinking deeper about the reason why he really wanted to flee his home star cluster.

The only challenge was that he would have to raise the suggestion to Gloriana.
Ves had no idea how she would react and what kind of conditions she might raise to agree to the suggestion.
She would have to abandon many of her ventures in the Komodo Star Sector in order to accompany him on his trip.

He also assumed that the two of them would still be an item at that time.
Anything could happen in a decade.
Perhaps Gloriana moved on to obsessing over another mech designer in a couple of years.

”…Yeah.
No chance of that happening! ”

Their compatibility was simply too high! Though Ves still harbored a lot of resentment against Callisto Professional Relations, their matchmaking was still largely on point despite the faulty data they worked with.
The odds of Gloriana finding a more compatible mech designer was quite low!

Even if they separated for some reason, Ves could just make do on his own.
He would just have to find some other way to come across as crazy or eccentric in order to deflect unwelcome attention.

”Alright, that ’s the plan! ” Ves clapped his hands.

He needed to make a lot of preparations before he was ready to move to another star cluster.
Depending on how long the Ruined Temple envoys stayed in the Nyxian Gap, Ves might have to stay away for half a century or more.

The only way he could return sooner was if the MTA and CFA managed to uproot the Compact presence in the Nyxian Gap!

”I ’ll have to help the Big Two make that happen somehow! Who knows how long those pests will squat in my home star sector! ”

Despite his misgivings about this plan, a part of him felt excited as well.
Journeymen were meant to travel.
Stepping outside his star cluster and entering into a completely different one would expose him to vast differences in mech cultures.

His Mastery experiences already gave him a lot of glimpses on how mechs were used differently in other regions of space.
Choosing the right star cluster would allow him to get into touch with completely new paradigms, such as immersing himself in a star sector that predominantly adopted bestial mechs!

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