The Mech Touch

"Pardon me, sir, but are you sure this will work?" Venerable Joshua asked over the private communication channel. "We have never tried this before. What if we end up wasting our time? What if the Santana Group rejects your proposal?"

Ves tiredly sighed. "Don't underestimate my power, Joshua. I always make it a habit to have a few tricks at my disposal. Besides, there is little harm in trying. I am sure the executives of the Santana Group are just as desperate to neutralize the threat as us. Who knows whether the unclean whale can regain enough strength to destroy all of our ships in a spacetime anomaly."

He did not bother to contact the Santana Group directly but left the job to his subordinates.

A communications officer soon passed on the good news. "The Santanas have agreed to allow us to execute our plan provided that we do not direct any malicious intent towards their ace mech and ace pilot. The Thunderer Mark II will retaliate with lethal force if Saint Osenring thinks we are harming him and his machine."

Ves grimaced a bit. That meant that the Larkinson Clan had to put a lot of trust in the foreign ace pilot.

"Tell the Santana Group that we agree to its terms, but that we reserve the right to abort our own plan at any time if there is a lack of sincerity."

Both sides needed to trust each other in order for this initiative to succeed.

As Ves refined his initial plan, the Everchanger stopped firing its rifle at the distant unclean whale's spatial barrier and flew towards the Thunderer Mark II as fast as possible.

The expert hero mech even chose to activate its combat drive to speed up its passage and reach its destination faster now that the spatial environment had stabilized.

Soon enough, the Everchanger slowed down as it approached the edge of the Thunderer Mark II's Saint Kingdom.

It was considered to be a great taboo to intrude in an ace mech's domain field without permission.

Getting closer not only put units at the mercy of the ace pilot, but also exposed the ace mech to potential danger.

However, ace pilots weren't ordinary people. They were potent transhuman warriors who possessed extremely keen senses.

From the moment the Everchanger came close, Saint Osenring had already begun to scrutinize the newcomer.

Much to his surprise, the ace pilot did not sense one individual inside the Larkinson expert mech, but three different traces of life!

"I see now what these Larkinsons mean by living mechs." The artillery mech specialist remarked.

Venerable Joshua and his battle partner tried their best to remain on their best behavior. They tried their best to lower their guard and showcase their goodwill as the Santana Group's ace pilot thoroughly scanned their intent.

"You may proceed." Jelmer Osenring announced. "While I do not fear your attacks, please keep your weapons powered down and out of the way. We cannot afford to create any misunderstandings."

"Understood, sir."

The Everchanger respectfully flew forward. Both Joshua and his living mech immediately felt oppressed to the point where their true resonance began to wobble.

They had entered the domain of a completely foreign ace pilot, one that rippled with shockwaves!

This was a considerably new experience for Joshua. He compared Saint Jelmer Osenring's domain to that of Patriarch Reginald Cross and figured out that there were many differences between the two ace pilots.

This was not the time for him to contemplate the strengths of mech pilots who were a step ahead of him. He had a job to do and he couldn't afford to waste any further time.

"Do I have your permission to proceed with our plan, sir?" Venerable Joshua politely asked as his Everchanger stopped a short distance away from the large and massive ace heavy artillery mech. "I have been told that we will be attempting to execute an invasive procedure onto your Thunderer Mark II. This will result in permanent changes that we may or may not be able to reverse."

A ripple of unease spread throughout the Saint Kingdom.

"I would not agree to this desperation measure under ordinary circumstances." Saint Osenring said after a short pause. "My ace mech is my steed and I have always entrusted its development to the mech designers that I have known and trusted for decades. I acknowledge that your Larkinson Patriarch is brilliant for a mech designer of his age, and now that I have examined your masterwork mech up close, I can even admit that he can change my ace mech for the better. That does not mean that I am willing to give him free rein."

"Don't worry, sir. You can block our efforts at any time if you sense anything amiss."

After gaining the ace pilot's agreement, Venerable Joshua took a deep breath before starting the strange and unusual plan that his patriarch had proposed.

"Everchanger… switch your glow to that of your maker."

"WITH PLEASURE, PARTNER. THIS WILL BE FUN."

Joshua expected his expert mech to take a bit of time to connect to a 'design spirit' that it hadn't connected to before.

In fact, the young man still wasn't entirely convinced that the plan could even work. It went against everything he thought was possible, but oh well. He would just give it a try and see whether the patriarch wasn't being delusional.

"WAIT. THIS IS DIFFERENT. MY PROGENITOR… IS CLOSE!"

Back inside the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves continued to track the state of the unclean whale, the progress made by the different attacking ace mechs and the overall state of the other mech forces.

He also maintained a dialogue with his advisors while also making sure to pass on his wisdom to his two curious daughters.

Even after doing all of this, Ves still had plenty of attention left to spare on other matters.

It was surprising how much his consciousness and focus had expanded after his first sublimation. His mind and Spirituality had grown so much after absorbing the galactic energy provided by the Milky Way Galaxy that it was tempting to call himself a god.

He consciously had to reject this absurd notion. He had seen where this could lead. Many different examples such as the dark gods of the Nyxian Gap or the cultist leaders of the Five Scrolls Compact had shown how all of these pretender gods were no match to the power of human civilization!

Even so, his transformation had expanded his consciousness to a degree where it became a lot easier for him to split his attention into many parallel thought processes.

This reminded him of his design spirits. Each of them possessed the ability to pay close attention to hundreds if not thousands of individual mechs and mech pilots at the same time!

Though Ves' newly acquired parallel thinking ability had not reached such an exaggerated level, he could think of several useful ways he could exploit this advantage in his work!

He still had to get through this battle first, though.

"How do I do this?" He asked.

He was grasping at straws at first. He had never done this before and did not have the benefit of prior experience.

It was only after he concentrated on Venerable Joshua's expert mech that he felt his own work actively trying to reach out to its maker.

"I'm here, Everchanger. Accept my embrace!"

From the moment the Everchanger cycled its glow, it assumed a substantially different air.

Both the expert mech and expert pilot became reverent as a familiar but also different presence descended upon them both!

"Patriarch! It's really you! I can feel you, sir!" Venerable Joshua gasped. "I can even resonate with you. We've never been able to resonate with each other to this extent!"

As Ves became used to serving as the Everchanger's current design spirit, he began to experience many new sensations. It was as if he had started an entirely different job in an entirely different sector. So many new possibilities had opened up to him that he could spend a lot of time on exploring what he could do in this new capacity!

Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to explore what it was like to mess around with mechs in this fashion. He needed to work on another machine this time.

"Joshua." Ves spoke over the communication channel, though he didn't need to bother with it considering that he had also formed a more direct connection to the expert pilot. "Pay attention to my actions and intentions and follow my lead. I can only do this if I can leverage your power."

All of them tried something completely new. Though Ves had come up with the plan, he had no idea whether it would work.

He just guessed that it was viable based on what he knew about Venerable Joshua, the Everchanger and his boosted strength.

The Everchanger's vibrant green corona began to shake before increasing in brightness.

The sense of life and vitality exuding from the expert mech became stronger, so much so that the machine was spontaneously beginning to reverse the minor damage and the wear and tear it had incurred over the course of the battle!

While the Everchanger did most of the work, it did so at Ves' deliberate direction. His deepening connection with his own work allowed him to understand the state of the mech frame to a surprising degree!

He wasn't satisfied with gaining greater awareness over his own work, though."

"Give me more control." Ves requested. "Allow yourselves to turn into my vessel."

It was hard for both Joshua and his battle partner to do so. They trusted Ves on an unconditional basis, but it was still hard to go against their instincts to guard their sense of self.

The more the new 'design spirit' intruded into their territories, the more strain they experienced.

"Okay, this is enough." Ves happily smiled. "Good job, you two. Try to maintain this state as best as possible and do not resist."

"Roger that, sir."

When the glowing Everchanger began to move, it moved as a mech designer rather than a combat machine!

Saint Osenring couldn't believe how the Everchanger's entire personality and demeanor had changed all of a sudden. Everything that belonged to Venerable Joshua and his expert mech had been pushed to the background in order to make way for this brand new presence.

When the abnormal expert mech continued to move closer, the ace pilot had the feeling that he was being approached by a giant-sized mech designer!

It took a lot of effort for the ace pilot to suppress his reflex of lashing out. This was completely unknown to him and he did not like it when mysterious factors drew close to his machine.

Heavy artillery mechs were extremely vulnerable to enemies that got close, and Saint Osenring had always trained himself to be sensitive towards these kinds of approaches!

"I can feel your discomfort." Ves spoke over both the communication channel and through his own glow. "Please be assured that I do not mean any harm. Do I have permission to touch your ace mech?"

"...Just get it over with, mech designer."

From the moment the Everchanger's two palms pressed against the thick armor plating of the Thunderer Mark II, a completely foreign influence accompanied by a foreign energy attempted to intrude inside the ace mech!

It was impossible for Ves to spread his awareness inside the Thunderer Mark II, but Saint Osenring tried his best to lead this powerful stranger into his inner sanctum.

As the mysterious resonance-empowered energy began to course through the ace mech, it began to make its mark.

Saint Osenring became increasingly more astonished and even a bit alarmed as his trusty Thunderer Mark II changed in a fundamental way.

"What… what are you doing to my ace mech?"

"It's a bit complicated." Ves replied as he invested more and more concentration into this wondrous effort. "I'm infusing your ace mech with the spark of life. This won't do much since I have never worked on your ace mech, but that is what my current actions are about. I am affecting changes to the intangible parts of your machine that will allow me to gain just enough ownership of your ace mech to apply two specific design solutions."

"And those are…?"

Ves grinned. "Good question. First, I am granting your ace heavy artillery mech a design spirit. Second, I am turning your transphasic heavy gauss cannons into blessed weapons. As long as I can pull it off, your problems will probably be solved!"

What he was doing at the moment was absolutely unprecedented!

He did not believe that any mech designer below the rank of Star Designer had ever managed to empower a mech in the field to this extent!

This was probably the first time that Ves could ever claim to wield the legendary mech touch on an active battlefield!

If Ves succeeded in this attempt, he would probably be adding a new entry to the history of the mech industry!

The only downside was that Ves did not look forward to subjecting himself to the inevitable investigation from the MTA.

He already pulled out several new rabbits out of his hat during this battle. A part of his mind was already starting to come up with plausible excuses for all of his amazing feats.