The Mech Touch

ng a lot more time in the design lab where I can guide and tutor you more extensively.
For now, you should look to your colleagues to learn the essentials of working in a design team.
They have much to teach. ”

The Novice Mech Designer understood.
As one of the most junior mech designers in the LMC, he shouldn ’t expect too much at the start.

However, that did not mean that Ves intended to neglect the younger mech designer forever.
With his spiritual potential, Mayer had the potential to be great one day!

After packing Mayer off, he decided to venture to the Ion Tracker, the flagship of the Battle Criers.

It was time to meet with the pirate designers the Battle Criers had captured during their months-long deployment.

Several different thoughts passed through his mind as he tried to determine what he should do with his prisoners.

He didn ’t really have a plan for them.
When he initially issued the order to the Battle Criers, he merely treated it as a side priority.
Once he met the plagiarizes face-to-face, Ves envisioned taunting them before shooting them in the head in order to satisfy his need for revenge.

Yet now that he became used to bearing the mantle of responsibility, he felt ashamed for ordering their capture in the first place.

He didn ’t know what he was thinking back then.
What did it matter if he captured a couple of pirate designers who had the temerity to rip off his mech designs?

While he felt affronted by their awful attempts at putting a new spin on his work, they were so far below his level that squashing them would only dirty his soles.

It was beneath him.
Why should he care about their trivial violations? If Ves could turn back time, he would have told the Battle Criers to stop bothering about this matter.

Too bad it was too late.

”What do you think I should, Lucky? Should I kill off the pirate designers, turn them into test subjects or do something else with the bastards? ”

”Meow. ”

Lucky playfully circled around the Larkinson Mandate that floated after Ves with the help of a custom-built levitation brace.

Due to the tome ’s extreme importance to the clan, Ves did not wish to let it out of his sight.
It was fairly easy for him to build a brace that could clamp on the book and allow it to follow after him.
Even though he could have carried the book in his hands, that would have become a little tedious whenever he needed to put it down in order to employ both of his hands.

Nitaa followed after them both.
Her suit of combat armor thudded loudly as its weight thudded loudly against the deck.

”If I may make a suggestion, sir, you should get rid of them. ” She spoke in one of her rare bouts of initiative.
”Pirate designers are irredeemable criminals.
There is a reason why they have stooped to designing mechs for pirates and other underground scum. ”

”I know. ”

Ves actually feared becoming one as well if he ran afoul with the MTA or the CFA.
Even now, the possibility continued to loom over his head.
He already violated so many of their taboos, and only managed to get away with them because he managed to hide his misdeeds.

There was a risk in associating with pirate designers, that was for sure.
However, he could not bring himself to kill them off, at least for now.
He intended to make a decision after he met with the prisoners and gained a better idea of their character.

They eventually reached the brig.
Though Commander Cinnabar wasn ’t there to meet him, Ves nonetheless smiled as he greeted a familiar figure.

”Dietrich! How are you doing these days? ”

As one of the few non-Kinners in a Kinner mercenary corps, Dietrich stood out with his distinctly different demeanor.
Ves carefully inspected his friend and found that his fellow Cloudy Curtainer seemed content with his new lot in life.

”I ’ve managed to fit in with the Battle Criers, though not completely. ” Dietrich readily said.
”They ’re a good bunch of people, though why they are so dedicated to loyalty is a mystery to me.
I like it, though.
After the Whalers let me down after my old man died, it ’s reassuring to serve and fight alongside buddies who I can trust in the heat of the moment. ”

Ves slapped Dietrich in the back.
”That ’s great to hear.
Please lead me to the prisoners.
How well-behaved are they? ”

”Some of them are more..
feral than than we like.
It ’s like they ’re not really human when their mood swings in the wrong direction.
We ’ve been forced to activate some of the restraint mechanisms of their cells in order to prevent them from bashing the cells and such. ”

That sounded a bit strange to Ves, but then again the people born in the frontier were never right in the head.
He expected better from mech designers who grew up in civilized space, though.
He recalled that Ronnie Blast used to come from the Bright Republic according to the intelligence he accessed.

”Here he is.
Ronnie Blast. ” Dietrich smiled and waved his hand.
The energy screen in front of them winked out, revealing a bare white cell with nothing but a bed where Ronnie Blast was lying bored out of his skull.

”FINALLY! ” The young, blond-haired man instantly perked up.
”I WAS GOING CRAZY HERE! THERE ’S NOTHING TO DO HERE! CAN YOU PLEASE LET ME GO!? I HAVEN ’T DONE ANYTHING! WHATEVER YOU THINK I ’VE DONE, I ’M INNOCENT! ”

Ves unconsciously leaned back from the man ’s screams.
Was this Ronnie Blast?!

”Yeah. ” Dietrich remarked.
”Ronnie here is always like this whenever we show up.
We have to put some sense in him whenever we want him to act normal. ”

”YOU! ” Ronnie exuberant pointed at Ves! ”YOU ’RE IN CHARGE, RIGHT?! PLEASE LET ME GO! THERE ’S NO REASON FOR YOU TO KEEP ME CAPTIVE! I ’M JUST A MECH DESIGNER! ”

Ves slowly began to glower.
Perhaps Nitaa was right.

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