The Mech Touch

When Ves closed the deal with the Red Fleet and departed from the Babylon Excavator, he quickly sought out his wife and explained what he had done.

Different from what he predicted, his wife did not look too upset.

"There you go again making life-changing decisions that affect my work and the rest of our clan without consulting other people’s opinions, most notably mine." The woman said in an exasperated voice. "Let me state that the choices you have made do not exactly align with my own preferences. It is much more beneficial to us if you chose to select 5 smart AIs that excel in research and development. We have no immediate need for smart AIs that improve our naval operations. Admiral Gori Tensen of the Bluejay Fleet is a much more reliable naval commander than the SEA SOVEREIGN, and we can employ survey ships and survey mechs to fulfill the role of the STAR WATCHER. And do not get me started on this ridiculous STARVING ARTIST."

Though Gloriana lamented Ves’ choices, she at least expressed satisfaction for choosing at least two useful smart AIs. Your journey continues at

"If you selected the ARMOR POLISHER and IRON MONGER templates, then I think that you have truly destroyed the value of those Warship Tokens. Mechs remain the foundation of our success. I truly cannot wait for the RF to ship over the SF-02. We can compress our schedule and work on more mech design projects at the same time. So long as we devote all of the available processing power to the two R&D-centered smart AIs, we should quickly be able to reduce our backlog."

Just as expected, Gloriana only valued the R&D smart AI templates. She did not see the value in the other templates even though they had their own value in order for the RF to invest resources into developing them. Their value was far greater than his wife gave them credit for. It was unfair to pretend that they did not exist.

It was useless to persuade her otherwise. Perhaps the only way for them to prove their value to Gloriana and everyone else was to see them in action.

Until that happened, Ves was content with leaving the naval smart AIs mostly inactive.

After he concluded his talk with his wife, he continued to make the arrangements for the arrival of the SF-02.

A lot of mech designers reacted positively to this addition. The first-raters were especially glad to receive much more processing power.

"Our courses have taught us how to make the best use of the processing power of supercomputers and processor clusters." Alexa Streon explained to Ves. "The processing power that you have secured for us is luxurious. I have studied the specifications that you have sent to me and I can judge that the fleeters are indeed sincere in this exchange. The SF-02 is far from the most powerful processor cluster that you can obtain, but what strikes me the most is that it is far more compact and efficient than the alternatives. Part of that is due to superior design and materials, but another part of it is vastly more effective software. The smart AIs alone defy contemporary understanding of intelligent systems design."

"That is interesting to hear." Ves responded before turning to another Journeyman. "What do you think, Kelsey?"

The former Rubarthan’s verdict was immediate. "This is a security nightmare. This tech is beyond our understanding. Even if we have full access to the programming code, there is so much of it that it is far too easy to overlook anything dangerous. I am also rather concerned about the hardcode that underpin the behavior of the smart AIs. What if they are hardwired to obey the instructions of the RF above our own? There is little we can do to prevent that from happening. Then there is the potential for the smart AIs to escape our control."

Kelsey Ampatoch specialized in subverting systems, so his words carried a lot of weight.

Ves had already thought about most of these issues, though. "The RF and our clan have signed a formal contract that restricts the former from sneaking in any backdoors into the SF-02. The fleeters are also obliged to transfer a handful of their computer experts to our clan who are capable of understanding the RF’s programming language and solutions. While they may not be the best of what the RF has to offer, once they become a part of the Larkinson Network, their loyalty is not in doubt."

"What about their competence, sir?" Kelsey retorted. "You should have pushed harder to absorb senior AI programmers that have materially contributed to at least one of the smart AI templates. Frankly speaking, it does not matter how much these former fleeters are dedicated to serve our clan if they are too ignorant to recognize the subtler traps and vulnerabilities that their more competent seniors have left behind."

"It’s okay." Ves responded. "As soon as we get the SF-02, we will begin to alter it so that it becomes our own work. I already have a few ideas in mind. Trust in my E-technology. So long as the smart AIs are alive as I suspect, I have many ways of binding them to my cause."

"What if you are wrong, sir?"

"Then we treat the SF-02 as a discrete tool. We store it in an isolated chamber and prevent it from connecting to our other networks. We only feed it with the data that we explicitly permit it to access. This should limit the threat it may pose. I don’t think it will come to that, though. I have plenty of justifications to go back to the RF and accuse them of not abiding by the terms of our contract."

Isolating the SF-02 made it a lot less useful, but that was a compromise that Ves was willing to make if he could not gain enough guarantees about its reliability.

This was the inherent problem that came with relying on other people’s tech. Ves felt much more sympathetic to all of the haters and skeptics who had viewed his living mechs with great mistrust and suspicion.

Their concerns about the reliability of living mechs were more than justified. Even if Ves never harbored any ill intent towards his own customers, who knew whether that might change in the future.

Ves had the power to change and corrupt his living mechs whenever he wanted. He had already done so in the past when he updated their spiritual foundations as a result of flaws and malfunctions.

Now he found himself in the same position as those paranoid fellows. The SF-02 had the potential to massively increase the productivity and security of his clan, but it also left his Larkinsons more vulnerable to the Red Fleet.

Whatever the case, Ves should avoid getting into a direct conflict with the Red Fleet for the foreseeable future. The best way to avoid the SF-02 from becoming a dangerous trap was to ensure that those who could take advantage of its vulnerability never had any reason to make a move.

"Since the two of you are more familiar with working with these kinds of supercomputers, I would like the two of you to go over the SF-02 once the fleeters deliver it and set it up." Ves instructed the two first-raters. "Be thorough in your inspection and mention any faults or concerns that you may have."

"We can do that, sir." Kelsey Ampatoch said.

"I would like your permission to contact the Devos Ancient Clan." Alexa Streon requested. "THe Devosans have much better computer specialists in their employ than us. Given our relations with the ancient clan, we should be able to trust the judgment of these experts."

"Good idea. Please make the arrangements. Any other suggestions?"

Kelsey raised his hand. "We cannot keep relying on external talent and consultants to maintain our security. We should expand the relevant departments and hire the best experts that apply to our clan. Our reputation is at an ascendancy. We can take advantage of that to headhunt key personnel that ordinarily would have never taken interest in our clan. It is unlikely for us to match the Red Fleet when it comes to the development of these smart AIs and processor clusters, but as long as our new personnel come close enough, we can at least defend ourselves against most attacks from this direction."

Ves nodded in approval. "Also a good idea. If you have enough spare time from working on the Final Glory Project, please take the initiative on this matter. I will tell my personal assistant to give you the authority to make changes on my behalf. Our civilization is continuing to deteriorate with every passing day. I fear that the stuff we take for granted may no longer exist tomorrow. Free markets, interstellar commerce, open economies and so on may become a thing of the past. This will make it much harder for us to hire the highly skilled personnel that we need, so it is better to get this taken care of sooner rather than later."

The Larkinson Clan needed to get ready for the next era.

Once the Premier Branch was able to launch its own first-class fleet, his clan would definitely gain a huge amount of power as well as responsibility.

Whether red humanity managed to beat back the native aliens or not, his fleet would definitely play an integral part in the fighting to come.

"Do you have any other helpful suggestions?" Ves asked.

"We should think about designing a first-class multipurpose mech of our own." Alexa suggested next. "This has been a glaring absence in our mech roster for too long. Right now, the only native first-class living mech of our own design that we can place in our first-class carriers is the Yellow Jacket Version A. No offense to your revolutionary Carmine mech, but we can do much better than that. If we do not have an appropriate design ready, then we may have to resort to using third-party mechs."

Ves briefly thought for a few seconds. "The addition of the SF-02 will reduce the time it takes to design a first-class multipurpose mech, but I don’t think we can get it done in less than half a year. This is a large and complex undertaking. I do not think we have the time to design such an ambitious mech design project right now. I at least want to finish the Final Glory Project and the Minerva Mark II Project before I consider this job. For now, I am not in much of a hurry to design a first-class multipurpose mech. I am perfectly okay with using market products as a stopgap solution."

He wanted to pay close attention to how well first-class multipurpose mechs published by well-regarded mech companies performed in the hands of the Larkinsons.

Once he figured out their advantages and shortcomings, he could design his own first-class multipurpose mechs that promised to be a better fit for his clan.

"Do you already have an idea in mind, sir?"

Ves nodded. "I do, Alexa. Several of them, in fact. While I prefer to design specialized mechs, that doesn’t mean I look down on first-class multipurpose mechs. They exist and have become popular for good reasons. I just find it a little difficult to give them a unique character and set of advantages. You have to go out of your way to give the mech design strong advantages and disadvantages. Right now, I am especially interested in designing first-class multipurpose mechs that can serve as all-round Commandeering vessels for our Saint Commander. Strong firepower is essential, but it also needs to be good enough in melee combat to shred enemy transphasic energy shields."

Mechs did not exist in isolation.

Ves needed to design his first-class multipurpose mech to synergize well with the Minerva Mark II, the Tortuous Scream and the warships of the Bluejay Fleet. There was no reason for it to exist otherwise.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!