The Mech Touch

Ves tentatively gave Alexa permission to play with the Otalon Sprius. So long as she was able to learn archetech and find a meaningful way to combine it with living mechs, then she had a good chance of turning the outdated juggernaut into a special war machine.

In an ideal reality, Ves preferred to tinker and experiment with the Otalon Sprius himself. Scale translated into power. He would have loved to work on a juggernaut and understand the rules and mechanisms that made them so dominant on the battlefield.

However, his schedule was so packed that he had little choice but to delegate this priority to Alexa Streon.

The only other alternatives available to Ves was to sell it to another party or keep it in storage for a longer period of time.

Neither of these options sounded acceptable to him. He could not afford to waste his resources and assets during this sensitive period of time.

Ves actually felt really grateful towards Alexa. She offered a more optimal solution to this problem. He would still be able to benefit from her work by studying her design for the reformed and upgraded version of the Otalon Sprius.

Studying Alexa’s homework might not allow him to understand the juggernaut as deep and intimately as he would like, but he could at least obtain a lot of knowledge and insight for free.

He also felt it was worthwhile to assign this challenge to Alexa to develop her as a mech designer.

If she wanted to stand out in the mech market, then she needed to choose an interesting direction for her work.

It was not enough for mech designers to stick to routine work. A Journeyman Mech Designer should go beyond the well-trodden paths and begin to explore how to apply facets of their design philosophy in a superior and novel fashion.

The outcome was not too important so long as the mech designer learned and improved from the experience.

Of course, Ves did not think that Alexa would botch her assignment and fail to properly upgrade the Otalon Sprius. She was one of the most competent mech designers in the Design Department. Her excellent background and upbringing even caused her to perform better in certain jobs than Ves and Gloriana!

Though Ves only knew Alexa for a few years, the latter had consistently met or exceeded his high expectations. The Terrans truly knew how to raise their best scions.

With the Otalon Sprius issue out of the way, Ves began to spend his time on developing the Victrix into the living fey and Ultimate Module that his wife envisioned.

Designing the exquisite owl-shaped construct as a living fey was not that difficult. What stumped Ves was how he was supposed to make it expand Casella Ingvar’s reach or amplify the strength of Casella’s Command Field.

As Ves puzzled over this issue, he paused in his work when he received a silent alarm.

It was a very special alarm. He had set it shortly after he exited from the System Space after concluding his latest marathon.

His lips curled into a smile, but he kept himself under control. He resumed his work but secretly waited for a development.

It did not take long for his personal assistant to send a priority notification to Ves.

"You need to see this, Ves! Did you know what happened shortly after the expeditionary fleet arrived in the Davute System and settled down to recover from the latest battle?!"

"Let me guess, Gavin. Did Casella and Ark come to blows with each other?"

"No! This is much bigger! The news had already begun to spread, sir. Swordmaster Ketis flew out into space and used the Heavensword to cut a giant tear through space! Unlike similar tears that other powerful beings have made in the past, the one created by the legendary weapon is remaining open much longer than it should! The swordmaster herself claims that it can last up to 24 hours, and the preliminary scans and analysis on the tear in space indicate that it may indeed last for at least 20 hours!"

Ves paused for a few seconds. He tried to act as if he had no idea what his former student had been up to. Ever since the Heavensword pressed itself into her hand, it hadn’t really done anything remarkable, so many people had gradually ceased to pay attention to the weapon.

While Ketis had gained a lot of prominence as of late after her Heaven Earth Man Trifecta started to spread across the mech community as well as the swordsmanship community, the influence of the Heavensword over her theories was largely abstract and difficult to visualize.

This was different.

Nobody could miss the obvious tear in space!

Although a strange barrier formed over the dimensional tear that evidently prevented background radiation and small particles from passing through and contaminating places where they did not belong, it was still very obvious that Ketis had created a portal into the unknown!

At this time, Ketis floated in front of the breach she created. After multiple delays, she finally did it. She potentially altered the course of red humanity by ’exposing’ one of the Heavensword’s hidden powers.

She had very obviously wielded the Heavensword prior to creating the dimensional breach.

A large and oversized Dimension Blade had briefly overlapped the blade of the ancient relic as she chopped it down.

Hopefully, the sleight of hand should be enough for observers to conclude that her ability came from the Heavensword as opposed to another source.

"So this is what you have been planning to do all along." Venerable Joshua said as he and his Everchanger floated close at hand.

As her husband, Joshua had grown concerned when Ketis randomly expressed her desire to take a lengthy space walk.

A lot of accidents could happen when a vulnerable individual like Ketis chose to fly out into space while wearing nothing but their suit of combat armor!

The infantry-grade protection might fare well when peppered by small arms fire, but any decent mech would be able to squash her body flat!

Even if she was a swordmaster and even if she enjoyed the direct protection of the Heavensword, Venerable Joshua could not stop himself from worrying about her safety, so he hopped into the cockpit of his Everchanger and launched into space.

He did so despite the fact that the expert mech was due for a round of maintenance after exerting himself too much in the previous battle!

Joshua felt thankful that he did so, because his Everchanger could clearly sense a huge increase in the amount of active sensors being pointed at the dimension tear’s direction!

"I need more help here, guys!"

Other Larkinson mechs were moving towards the dimension tear to protect it as well as Ketis against anyone mad enough to launch an attack.

A few more familiar expert mechs that were on patrol were also on the way. The Valkyrie Krista and the Valkyrie Ursa of the Glory Seekers had already begun to patrol the perimeter while powering their sensor systems to the fullest in order to sweep up any vessels under stealth that sought to sneak closer.

The Bastion took a lot longer to arrive. The expert heavy space knight’s mobility was not the best, but fortunately Ketis did not fly too far from the Spirit of Bentheim.

She provided a lot more reassurance once she did arrive. The Bastion not only excelled at keeping herself alive, but also others who sheltered behind her considerable bulk and sizable tower shield.

Already, Venerable Jannzi began to resonate with her Bastion and covered Ketis with a resonance-empowered energy shield.

"Ketis, please tell us when you are about to make a high-profile move like this next time." Jannzi pleaded. "Did you know how much unwelcome attention that you have attracted? The Davute System is anything but safe. My intuition can vaguely sense a multitude of overtly hostile glances. These aren’t the usual idiots. There must be cosmopolitan, alien or factional enemies within this port system. If any of them was piloting a mech in the vicinity, you could have been sniped by a mech-grade rifle."

Your adventure continues at

Jannzi was upset that Ketis had needlessly put herself into danger. Did she not understand her current status? She was one of the most prominent mech designers in the Larkinson Clan after Ves and Gloriana.

While the Design Department was filled with promising talents such as Alexa Streon and Kelsey Ampatoch, the Terran and Rubarthan Journeymen arrived much later.

Ketis had been with Ves since the early days. She developed herself step by step and attracted plenty of admiration.

It was only recently that her reputation had begun to spread past the immediate Larkinson circles.

Whether it was her highly effective and surprisingly helpful swordsman mech models or her leadership position among the sword practitioners of the Red Ocean, Ketis had already turned into a pillar of the Larkinson Clan!

What was better was that she was still fairly young. If she was already able to accomplish this much when she was still a Journeyman, what was she capable of introducing when she became a Senior like her former teacher?

This made it even more important to shelter Ketis against external threats!

Once the swordmaster’s security was somewhat taken care of, the Larkinsons became preoccupied with three acute priorities.

First, they needed to form a full security security cordon with multiple layers of defense and interception.

Second, they needed to block or handle the huge amount of inquiries from other powers as well as the general masses!

Third, they had to thoroughly scan the new tear in space and guard against anything that might emerge from the aperture that was roughly 20 meters tall.

Many scientists and experts began to study the data. The mysterious energy barrier keeping the environment of the two sides isolated also prevented everyone from conducting detailed scans of the other side of the breach.

It could be heaven or it could be hell. It could grant them passage to Messier 87 or just the star system next door.

Anything was possible!

It took a bit longer for the local MTA garrison force to dispatch a nearby patrol. The mechers were far more eager to obtain answers than the Larkinsons.

As Ketis continued to get bombarded by internal and external requests for clarification, she abruptly raised her Heavensword and induced it to release a bright flash!

"ENOUGH!" Her voice boomed in an authoritative manner, causing many others to shut up! "I do not have all of the answers, but I will hold a press conference on the spot in order to clarify what I have done. I do not want to repeat myself a dozen times over, so do not bother me with exclusive interviews or interrogations. By the time I have concluded my speech, you will understand the significance of what I have done. For now, I am requesting my clan to dispatch probes through this breach and confirm whether my blade has cut into the right destination."

The Larkinsons had already begun to send out probes. They were not too hardy, but they were cheap and disposable. No one would shed a tear if an astral beast swallowed them whole or if close proximity to a powerful star had vaporized their structures.

The first probe cautiously touched the mysterious energy barrier, but encountered no resistance.

It easily passed through the tear in space. Its disappearance was strong proof that the probe had reached an entirely different destination!

The first probe returned 5 seconds later, just as it had been programmed to do. The Larkinsons downloaded the logs and recorded and gained their first view of what may be lurking on the other side.

"It’s so blue! Everything is blue!"

"Did Ketis use the Heavensword to open up a portal to an alternate universe where Blue Ocean has taken the place of the Red Ocean?"

"Visibility is moderate to poor. Small particles keep interfering with our sensors."

"Look over there! Some of the sensors of the probes managed to detect materials or natural phenomena with elevated energy levels. Whatever the case, these readings are so high that we can definitely earn massive gains if we are able to obtain the first sample of whatever is hiding behind this annoying blue fog."

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