The Mech Touch

The Larkinsons in the know wouldn't have even noticed the departures if they hadn't specifically tuned their sensor systems to catch the specific emissions that denoted their passage.

It would take a few days before the leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance learned of the results of this risky sabotage operation.

That was an agonizingly long wait for Ves. Hexers or not, the DIVA commandos that chose to do their duty without hesitation were all risking their lives on behalf of a cause that they might not be personally invested in. He hadn't even met any of them in person as there wasn't enough time to waste on any pleasantries.

Would these highly trained DIVA agents put the completion of their dangerous missions above their own survival?

From everything he had heard about them, this sounded likely. That made Ves feel even more ambivalent.

As he looked down towards the deck of his grand stateroom, Marvaine was in the middle of presenting his new Mekanos to Andraste.

"Look look look! I'm a Mekanos designer now! Aren't these mechs cool, sister?"

The slightly older red-headed girl looked skeptical as she held a toy swordsman mech.

"...It looks lame."

"Oh, come on, sis!"

"Ketis' mechs are much more awesome." Andraste unsparingly said to her brother. "Even her simpler mechs are great. Do you know why? She actually knows how to fight with a sword, unlike you. While I have only started to learn swordsmanship myself, I can already tell you that a swordsman mech as top-heavy as this will easily get beaten. Those skinny legs don't have the strength to support the maneuvering needed to make this mech good."

"That's not true!" Marvaine protested!

"Oh, you think I'm wrong, do you? Why don't you let it fight? Let me go to my room so I can grab another toy that will smash your stupid mech!"

Ves smiled in amusement at his children. He was pleasantly surprised that Andraste already figured out a couple of the basic principles of melee mechs.

He didn't particularly blame Marvaine that he had made a lot of fundamental design errors with his swordsman Mekanos. He was still a little boy, after all. How would he be able to know any better?

Ves and Gloriana could easily set him right by teaching him, but they had both decided to be more sparing in their guidance.

Both of them understood that the best mech designers tended to be ones that learned how to solve their own problems. Lessons were useful but they would do more harm than good if the student became too dependent on a higher authority to resolve a problem.

The two parents knew from personal experience that making mistakes were much more effective teaching moments than being told what was wrong.

Of course, in order for Marvaine to be able to recognize his mistakes and find a way to do better, he occasionally needed a bit of guidance to set him on a better path. That was what Ves and Gloriana were waiting for. No mech designer had to do everything by themselves.

"Papa?" Another young voice called.

"Yes, my sweet little pumpkin?"

Aurelia looked as lovely as ever. Upon the instigation of her mother, she had taken to wearing slightly formal dresses that allowed her to get used to carrying herself around with dignity.

It just made her look cuter as she was still too young and short to be taken seriously by adults.

Right now, Aurelia was sitting next to him on the couch. Clixie leisurely rested on her lap and allowed the little girl to brush her fur with a comb.

"Miaow~"

"Why are you so sad?"  She asked as she looked up at him with her expressive gray eyes.

Her pupils almost seemed to glow due to her notably strong spirituality. Ves already noticed that weaker people tended to get affected by her stare in different measures. It was as if their subconscious minds already noticed that she had already risen above the confines of ordinary humans.

"I'm not exactly sad. I'm worried about the success of the upcoming operation. I don't want the people responsible for sabotaging the fleet that belongs to Cenatus Prospecting to encounter a mishap."

"DIVA is doing its job, right? Mother said that DIVA agents are like soldiers. They fight to make our lives better."

Normally, a kid like Aurelia shouldn't have the right to learn about a confidential operation. Only the leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance along with the Glory Seekers that were directly involved in the attempted sabotage attempts knew of its existence.

Aurelia was different, though. She was not only growing smarter and more knowledgeable at an impressive rate, but also developed a greater interest in assuming responsibility over the clan one day.

Her designer baby genes along with Gloriana's persistent expectations continually encouraged her to develop an interest in leadership. She showed no signs of rebelling against all of those influences. She never said anything about wanting to become a mech designer or an artist or anything.

Those designer baby genes were too effective. When Witshaw & Seneca developed their products, they tried their best to give the designer babies derived from them a disposition to make good use of their artificial advantages.

There were many subtle methods to ensure that designer babies embraced the professions that they were born to embrace, from injecting dopamine into their brains whenever they engaged in related activities to giving them an instinctual rejection towards radically different jobs.

It reminded Ves too much of the caste system of the orven race. They had divided their species into multiple subspecies that were divided by birth, ability as well as genes.

Their best leaders were literally born to lead while their soldiers were pretty much engineered for combat.

It was extremely hard for orven subjects to rise above their castes or pursue jobs that they were genetically not predisposed to perform.

Was this the future of humanity? Would children like Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine have their futures decided from birth without ever giving them a fair opportunity to determine their own path in life?

Ves felt a little guilty for giving in to the many temptations of designer babies. He significantly underestimated how extensively their genes manipulated them into pursuing a specific life trajectory.

He should have advocated harder to give his three kids a more open-ended designer baby package so that they would be able to have a real choice.

At least none of them seemed unhappy with the courses that their parents had set for them. That made this perverse situation a lot easier for him to stomach.

It may already be too late for his current batch of children, but he resolved to do better for his next batch of offspring.

The Larkinson Biotech Institute had already set up a fully fledged Human Genetics Division. Ves had allocated a lot of money into it after obtaining a 'starter pack' on how to formulate designer baby genes from the Gemini Family.

It would probably take years for the geneticists and other specialists to learn all of the specialized knowledge and verify all of the basic designer baby templates that they had received.

The biotech experts also needed a lot of time to identify useful genes and integrate them into the designer babies that would eventually become a new and universal standard throughout the Larkinson Clan!

As Ves thought about how he could use his own newfound expertise to help the Human Genetics Division develop designer babies that were different and possibly superior to the products of Witshaw & Yeneca, he did not forget about his daughter's inquiry.

"Treating soldiers as if they are disposable tools is not… right." Ves gently replied as he placed his hand on her back. "They are people just like you and I. They may have chosen or been encouraged to serve in a dangerous occupation, but that does not mean we should make use of them so easily."

"I don't understand…" Aurelia said. "They are similar to mech pilots, right? Many people want to become mech pilots even if it is dangerous. They won't complain about being sent into battle. The Larkinson Army has lots of soldiers who eagerly want to fight for the clan."

"That is because their leaders such as General Verle do their best to make it worthwhile for them to risk their lives."

"How?"

Ves smirked. "There are many ways. We never take our troops for granted. In order to increase their willingness to fight, we indoctrinate them into the importance of fighting for the survival and the future prosperity of the clan. We incentivize them by paying them rich salaries and pairing them up with fantastic mechs. We pick our battles carefully so that they will never have sufficient cause to refuse their missions. Finally, we try our best to make sure that they will feel as little guilt or remorse for the battles they fought, although we have not always succeeded in that. That is how critics like Venerable Jannzi come into being."

All of this sounded a bit too expensive for Aurelia, but that was not a big problem. She would receive lots of lessons about leadership in the future where she could learn all of these methods herself.

"Are the DIVA agents the same?" The adorable little girl asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, pumpkin. They're not my subordinates. I imagine that the Hex Federation treats them rather well, though. Each operative is expensive to train and replace, and this applies especially to the elite commandos that have become attached to the Glory Seekers. Their superiors have a vested interest in making them last as long as possible. Still, professions like these are inherently dangerous. I am already taking into account the possibility that not all of the DIVA agents will return alive."

"Isn't that a part of their jobs?"

Ves grimaced. "That is correct, but that doesn't entirely make it right. You see, we could have prevented this from happening in the first place if we decided not to pursue a specific objective. The main reason why I want our fleet to find the missing scion of the Yorul-Tavik Clan is because of your little brother."

"My… brother?"

"Yes. Sure, there are other benefits to making the Yorul-Taviks happy, but right now my main motive is to become friends with these first-raters."

"Why is that important?"

"Because the Yorul-Taviks can help Marvaine get into a good first-class virtual school." Ves explained. "Do you know what this means? It means that your younger brother has an opportunity to become an elite and powerful first-class mech designer. He would be able to design machines that are much stronger than the ones I have made!"

Aurelia looked impressed. She had frequently heard about how the first-raters were much more powerful. She also knew that her parents worked hard to uplift everyone to this level.

It didn't take long for her to figure out the implications of this motivation.

"I think it is good that DIVA is risking their lives for us." She said in her young but eloquent voice. "By removing a potential hindrance to our goals, we can complete our objective and obtain the gratitude of the Yorul-Tavik Clan. This will allow Marvaine to study in first-class schools and become a first-rater ahead of everyone else. Once my brother has graduated from his studies and established a footing in a first-class society, he can open a channel for the rest of us. Once our clan has become a first-class pioneering organization, we can provide greater assistance and cover to the Hex Federation. Ultimately, this is what the DIVA operatives are risking their lives for. They are serving their people, much like how our mech pilots are serving our clansmen."

"..."

"What's wrong, papa?"

"Oh. Forgive me. You were just so cute just now!"