The Mech Touch

The Federal Military demanded more than that, though.

Anyone who studied the only war between two major second-rate states where living mechs were utilized on a massive scale learned that these special machines could not single-handedly win a war.

They could make a difference alright, but there were many other factors that could also affect the chances that a state could win or lose a massive conflict.

Davute had an extensive staff of military officers, strategists and other clever people that had conducted a lot of research and information gathering on the living mechs designed by Patriarch Ves Larkinson.

This investigation went deeper than many people realized. The Davutan investigators did more than collect a lot of news articles on the galactic net or watch a lot of the public battle footage of Ves' mechs in action.

The colonial state had already sent out lots of spies to the Friday Colonies and the Hex Federation over at the neighboring Magair Middle Zone.

These spies had been tasked with gathering first-hand information on the performance and the impact of notable mech models such as the Valkyrie Redeemer.

It was not that difficult for the spies to gather deeper information on how the living mechs designed for the Hexers changed this group of people forever.

Much of what the spies had learned over the course of their covert intelligence gathering activities frightened the Davutan analysts.

However, as scary as it was to discover that a single mech designer literally hijacked the beliefs of the people of an entire state so that they could worship a fictitious matronly goddess, it was undeniable that this very same belief had united a people and kept them together throughout their migration to the Red Ocean!

A lot of people in the colonial government were rightfully afraid or ambivalent about asking Patriarch Ves Larkinson to perform a similar service to Davute.

There were control freaks who treated Davute as their own personal kingdom and wanted to make sure it remained completely in their hands.

Fortunately, the chief of staff of the federal president was not in their camp.

Reina Kernsk had access to almost all of the information that President Clive was authorized to know, and she understood that Karlach's military buildup was frightening.

Karlach went all-out on winning the upcoming war. Davute had to do the same in order to keep up, and that included enlisting the help of a mech designer who was notorious for possibly 

Causing the downfall of not one, but several states!

There were good reasons why President Yenames Clive had never assumed an antagonistic posture towards this infamous mech designer.

He did not want the Colonial Federation of Davute to follow in the footsteps of all of those doomed states!

The chance that Patriarch Larkinson would somehow engineer the downfall of Davute due to being slighted by a Master Mech Designer in the service of Davute was low, but the female government official did not want to take any chances.

"The main problem with Ves Larkinson is that he does not have sufficient credibility among the Seniors and Masters of our colonial state." Reina Kernsk analyzed. "We need to change that by providing solid proof that collaborating with him is not a waste of time and effort. We will need to start with finding one or more Masters that are truly willing to cooperate with the Larkinson Patriarch to the point of surrendering the initiative to the younger mech designer. So long as this initial collaboration produces fantastic results and sets a clear example of what is possible, it should be easier for us to convince the more stubborn mech designers such as Master Manuel Terrence to work with the Larkinsons."

Master Hergard Elroy remained silent for a time as he thought about how this sequence might play out. His expression remained troubled but it lightened up after a minute.

"Your plan is sound. I agree with your approach. The issue is finding the right Master that can break the ice. That is a considerable challenge. I am considering a handful of names that may be able to put down their egos to allow a younger mech designer to take the lead, but their work and design philosophies may not entirely be ideal. Since your administration has only convinced the Larkinson Patriarch to accept three of your mech design commissions, then it is imperative to make them broad and widely applicable enough to be fielded in many of your mech units."

The representative of the federal president nodded. "That is a given. As I have stated before, we need to assure that what we can gain from Ves Larkinson exceeds the value of 9 fleet carriers. The stability of our administration and the approval rating of our president will suffer greatly if this does not happen. What do you think about Master Layla Wall?"

Master Layla Wall was one of the deans of the Davute University of Technology, so Master Elroy knew her well. The female mech designer was notable for her Class I Design Philosophy which centered around transformable mechs.

Elroy shook his head. "She is in a similar position as myself. She is mature and advanced enough in her career that she is no longer concerned about the difference in status, but I am struggling to think of any synergy between her and the Larkinson Patriarch. Not every mech designer is suited to collaborate with another mech designer. There needs to be a clear justification for them to pool their efforts into a single line of mechs, or else it is better to allow Ves Larkinson to work with his own team."

"That is not good enough for our administration."

"You have made that particularly clear. Is it acceptable if I propose foreign Master Mech Designers who are unaligned with Davute? They may not have formed any existing ties with our colonial state, but you can sign a contract with them that ensures they will not aid Karlach for a specified period of time. I have a rich network of contacts. I am confident that a handful of them may be amenable to collaborating with the young patriarch under these terms."

Madame Kernsk shook her head even before the Master Mech Designer was done with bringing up his latest proposal.

"That is unacceptable. We must strictly keep this collaboration in-house. It is already concerning to us that we are commissioning mechs that may be of great importance from a mech designer whose heart is not set on our state. We need a loyal insider that can not only represent the interests of our state during the collaboration, but is also able to tweak and alter the mech design after Patriarch Ves Larkinson has completed his work. The mech lines that we are ordering from him may be in use for years if not decades."

It was troublesome to commission additional work after the original completion of the contract. States had a big appetite for variants of the same base model. It would be a lot easier to obtain these variants on order if one of the participants of the original mech design project was a Davutan mech designer.

Confidentiality was also important. While it was impossible to hide all of the details of a mech model utilized on a wider scale, Davute did not want to make it easy for Karlach to discover all of the nuances of a machine of great military importance.

It took Master Elroy a lot of thought in order to propose a name.

"Given your demands and expectations of this collaboration, I suggest you start with Master Tilda Orkin. She has expressed a notable degree of interest in the works of Ves Larkinson in the past. I believe that the two mech designers possess a considerable amount of shared interests that can encourage greater cooperation between the two. The resulting product may not be as widely applicable as you would like, but this should not be a serious problem as long as your state is willing to invest in the right infrastructure."

"No." Reina Kernsk shook her head yet again. "Master Orkin is an excellent mech designer, but she works exclusively on biomech designs. We support her research because we do not want to remain blind and ignorant of the latest developments in the biomech industry, but that is as far as we are willing to invest in this sub-sector. Despite our claims of openness and plurality, our administration is not a proponent of promoting the use of biomech designs within our state. The redundancy is too great and too many of our citizens are uncomfortable with overt use of biotech products."

That was a missed opportunity in Master Elroy's opinion. He could clearly see that Ves Larkinson's design philosophy had a lot of potential synergy with the specialty of Master Tilda Orkin.

"Are you sure you wish to cross out Master Orkin's name?"

"This is the will of President Clive." Reina said in a warning tone. "I should also add that the key figures of the Davute Biotechnology University are under investigation for the incident that occurred within the Government District not too long ago. Master Tilda Orkin is a known friend and coworker of Professor Murmillian Granse. She has even contributed to the deadliness of the warbeasts that went out of control."

That caused Master Elroy to look severe. It was never good to become the target of such an inquisition. Though he was convinced that Master Orkin was not truly guilty of collaborating with the Karlachs, this black stain on her record would probably haunt her for the rest of her life.

Hergard Elroy sighed. "Very well. I can think of a few other names that reluctantly meet your criteria. One of them is Master Decimus Horst. He may be working for ZUTA University, but he is a relatively younger and more adaptable Master Mech Designer that is noted to teach and mentor many students. He is a social individual who should know how to build an accord with a young talent such as Patriarch Larkinson. His specialty is also relevant to your needs. He is greatly invested in heavy artillery mechs, both on land and in space. While I cannot immediately think of any strong synergies between this pairing, I am certain that they can form their own ideas."

The latest suggestion actually caused Reina Kernsk to think. She did not reject this name out of hand, but it was clear that she still harbored reluctance towards this proposal.

"Our administration is indeed interested in the works of Master Decimus Horst." Reina Kernsk slowly said. "We are not entirely certain about his commitment to our state. He is only loosely related to ZUTA University. From what we know of him, he is mostly engaged in his own private projects and affairs. We heavily suspect that Master Horst is on the fence with regards to our upcoming conflict with Karlach. If our state is at a disadvantage, then we expect him to depart well in advance of our other stakeholders. We do not wish to work too closely with such a fair-weather friend."

Her description of Master Decimus Horst was not unfair. It was actually pretty common for mech designers like this to hedge their bets and avoid committing too much. This was especially prevalent because Davute was still a brand new state that barely had a history to speak of. Too few people were truly loyal to its cause.

In fact, Master Hergard Elroy was not much different in this regard. He may have made a more serious bet than others, but he would not hesitate to abandon a sinking ship if the forces of Karlach approached the Davute System!