The Mech Touch

With just a couple of sentences, Master Dervidian settled the matter of remuneration and compensation in a verdict that clearly favored Ves and the Golden Skull Alliance!

Aside from escaping any culpability for any alleged crimes and misdeeds that the alliance had committed, the Larkinson Clan and its allies were also entitled to the full MTA merit value of the phasewater that they had to submit!

Though the MTA acted a bit domineering by forcing the Golden Skull Alliance to surrender the vast majority of phasewater that its task force had plundered from Purgatory's natives at great risk and danger, Ves did not truly mind giving that much phasewater away.

He was well aware that holding over 2 metric tons of phasewater at any time was just asking for trouble!

The Larkinson Clan simply wasn't big and powerful enough to store that much phasewater safely. Even if the expeditionary fleet returned to the Vulit Star Node right away and deposited all of the valuable substances in some sort of bank vault or something, the clan would still have a big fat target on its back!

All kinds of greedy troublemakers would come out of the woodwork and enact their designs on the Larkinson Clan in order to steal away a couple of hundred kilograms of phasewater here and there. Ves simply couldn't withstand all of the heat of possessing so much valuable materials all at once!

In contrast, exchanging the bulk of it for MTA merits was much safer. Unlike phasewater, merits weren't transferable, so it was much harder to 'steal' it away.

Additionally, as long as Ves was willing to pay a price, he could exchange a portion of his newfound wealth on different forms of protection that would be sufficient to make the Larkinson Clan untouchable for the time being.

MTA merits were not just money. It represented one's relationship with the Mech Trade Association. The more MTA merits anyone had accumulated, the more the mechers treated them favorably!

It was never a wise choice to attack a person with a lot of MTA merits on record!

Of course, Ves did not intend to retain much of the MTA merits that he was about to gain.

In his situation, it was much better to convert intangible wealth into tangible strength and development!

As long as Ves was willing to spend big, he could instantly accelerate his personal development and the development of his clan by a couple of decades!

Better tech, exclusive knowledge, greater might and expanded access to exclusive services were just a couple of the benefits that he could obtain for himself and his people.

This was his golden opportunity to entrench himself in the Red Ocean and build a solid foundation for the Larkinson Clan!

As long as his clan managed to digest all of the goodies exchanged from the MTA, the Larkinsons would become stronger than ever!

Ves wouldn't have as many concerns anymore when his expeditionary fleet ventured into the deep frontier half a decade later!

Compared to all of these gains, Ves was not so eager to hang on to 2 metric tons of phasewater.

What could he and his fellow Larkinsons possibly do with all of that jazzed-up liquid substance?

It was impossible to swim in it! Any pool filled with this potent exotic would generate so much dimensional instability that those who dove into it would have their bodies torn apart before they even touched water!

The Larkinson Clan did not possess the expertise or infrastructure to fabricate warp drives or superdrives by itself.

Perhaps the Larkinson Biotech Institute might be able to develop a potential application for phasewater by successfully reverse engineering the Phaser fish-whale organs in its possession, but this was a dubious and unprofitable venture.

Retaining a hundred kilograms of phasewater was more than enough for the Larkinsons. They could transfer a part of it over to various companies in order to obtain superdrives and minidrives, both of which would massively upgrade the mobility and versatility of their starships and important mechs.

The remaining phasewater could be put in reserve or be used to trade for lots of money or important favors.

As Ves thought about how to spend all of that wealth as wisely as possible, Master Dervidian activated another projection that listed out the terms he mentioned in the form of a ready-made contract.

"Let us go over the agreement to ensure that every party will be satisfied." The man said.

The two proceeded to do just that. Even though they had just made a quick verbal agreement, the enormous amounts of phasewater and MTA merits involved in this exchange made it extremely important to get everything right.

Neither of them wanted to make a mistake at this juncture!

The contract drafted by Master Dervidian was extremely thorough and went into plenty of detail about all of the exact events that took place in Purgatory and the Garimel System.

It took half an hour to review all of the points. Although Ves found all of this bureaucratic nonsense to be boring, he was not careless enough to skip over these proceedings.

"There is an important reason why we must go over each and every point in detail." Master Dervidian explained to Ves. "Aside from making certain that the written contract conforms to what we have agreed, we must also ensure that it does not leave open any vulnerabilities that others may exploit."

Ves frowned. "What do you mean by that, Master?"

"Do you believe that everyone from our Association will agree to treat you leniently? While it is officially within my discretion to decide how to handle this incident, there are… other institutions that may wish to interfere and overrule my decisions. For example, they can make use of the fact that your actions inadvertently led to the release of Moby Dick as a reason to levy punishment on you. They can rightfully confiscate the phasewater that you have obtained in the phase whale enclave without giving you a single MTA merit in return."

What?! Would the mechers truly be willing to taint their credibility and override Master Dervidian's will on this matter?!

"This will not happen on a normal occurrence, but this incident is too great." The older man continued. "The amount of phasewater is too great and there are many groups within the Association that have an enormous need for it. Do not think that issuing hundreds of millions of MTA merits for your harvest is easy to arrange either. Every major transfer of MTA merits must personally be approved by high-ranking officials within our Association. If those officials see fit to question our arrangement…"

"Then the deal won't go through?" Ves gulped.

"Let us make certain that the contract is both proper and acceptable to the parties involved."

Ves became more diligent after that and made sure to question each and every clause that he didn't fully understand or agree with. Once he became certain that he was covered in a legal sense, he finally relaxed when they neared the end of the contract.

This was where the good part started!

"Let us define the quantity of phasewater that your pioneering alliance has obtained in total. According to your records as well as other sources, your Golden Skull Alliance have managed to harvest 2346 kilograms of pure phasewater from the phase whale enclave known as Purgatory, is that correct?"

Ves nodded. "That is correct. They're all stored in different containers."

In truth, 2346 kilograms was a rounded tally of the total harvest. There should have been a few decimal numbers behind the comma, but the records conveniently left them aside.

Aside from that, there were also more quantities of phasewater locked inside many of the Phaser fish-whale organs salvaged from the previous battle.

The only problem was that extracting these extra kilograms of phasewater would lead to the loss of those organs, and Ves wasn't willing to do that unless there was no better use for these exotic alien bioproducts.

Ves briefly smirked. As long as this was the case, there was no reason to add this extra amount of phasewater to the sum of pure and freely accessible phasewater in the records!

Though Master Dervidian must have certainly figured out that the Golden Skull Alliance must have certainly fudged the numbers, the older man clearly didn't mind.

With over 2 metric tons of phasewater at stake, what was the deal with keeping a few hundred extra grams of phasewater off the books?

"You agreed to submit 90 percent of this harvest to our Association, which amounts to 2111.4 kilograms of pure phasewater. This means that your Golden Skull Alliance retains 234.6 kg of pure phasewater. Do you object to these figures, Mr. Larkinson?"

"The numbers are correct."

"The current going rate for phasewater in our Association is 200 MTA merits for 1 gram of phasewater. This means that we will award your pioneering alliance a total of 422,280,000 MTA merits for the phasewater that you agree to submit. Are these figures correct?"

Ves quickly recalled the exchange rate of phasewater. According to his memories, a pioneer who submitted 5 grams of phasewater was entitled to receive 1000 MTA merits.

This meant that 5 kilograms was worth 1,000,000 MTA merits, a sum of which most people would never be able to earn in their entire lives!

"They're… correct."

422,280,000 MTA merits!

Ves was practically salivating at this point! He did not bother to maintain his composure because anyone in his position would become ecstatic at hearing they could get their hands on so many precious MTA merits!

He still remembered the times where he had to dive into the Nyxian Gap and take insane risks just to earn tens of millions of MTA merits!

A lot of other people had to work for centuries or become a highly capable Master Mech Designer in order to earn a comparable amount of MTA merits!

This stupendous exchange highlighted the promise of the Red Ocean. Sure enough, pioneers could grow insanely wealthy in a single leap as long as they succeeded in an exploratory venture.

Of course, Ves was well aware that the dangers were much greater as well. The fish-whales or the super whale could have easily annihilated everyone under different circumstances!

He sighed as he became overcome by emotions. This single adventure had already exhausted his risk tolerance for the time being. He just wanted to return to Davute and spend the next few years in peace and quiet.

With so much MTA merits in his hands, it would take a long time for him to digest all of his recent gains!

Ves soon remembered that he wouldn't be able to claim all of the awarded MTA merits for himself.

"Ah, can you split the MTA merit award in three?" Ves asked. "The phasewater harvested from Purgatory doesn't belong to the Larkinson Clan alone. The Cross Clan and the Glory Seekers should also receive their own share of MTA merits."

Task Force Fisherman did not entirely consist of Larkinson mechs, after all. The Cross Clan and the Glory Seekers both contributed several hundred mechs to this risky venture. It was only right that they should be compensated for their respective contributions.

"That should not be a problem." Master Dervidian replied. "How should we partition the merits?"

"We already agreed to the proportion before we started this campaign based on how many troops and assets we have invested in Task Force Fisherman. If I recall correctly, the Larkinson Clan should receive 50 percent while the Cross Clan is entitled to 30 percent. The Glory Seekers should get the remaining 20 percent."

"Very well. I will add that to the contract." Master Dervidian said as the clause was already being updated.

Ves inwardly winced as he saw that he would only get half of the original sum of MTA merits, but he did not feel too sorry about it. The Larkinsons couldn't have done this alone. Their allies truly helped them out, not just this time but also many times in the past.

Giving them their rightful shares was not only fair, but also a form of compensation for all of the losses they suffered for supporting Ves and the Larkinson Clan for so long!