The Mech Touch

It was not entirely necessary to use badges to denote the identity of an invited guest.

Every mecher and everyone they considered worthy to become their associate all possessed cranial implants. This enabled them to call up additional information in real-time on anyone and anything that entered their view.

Nonetheless, it was a lot easier and less cumbersome if everyone wore a brightly colored hat or distinctly different uniforms.

The Survivalists did not force anyone to change their wardrobes to such an extent. They chose to go for the most practical solution, which entailed handing over shiny badges that were large enough to be easily visible from a distance.

Members of the Red Association received green badges while associates received teal badges.

There was nothing special about the badges. They were clearly mass-produced by materializers and did not contain any circuitry or more mystical components.

Ves privately thought that the organizers of the conference could have chosen more contrasting colors, but perhaps there were good reasons behind these choices.

The Survivalists did not bother to add any further differentiation aside from that, which Ves thought was just fine. He did not want other people to judge him thoroughly before entering into conversation.

Not that it mattered all that much. People could still use their cranial implants to look up his colorful record from the Khamater Reign's public network if they sought more information.

As Ves placed the self-adhering metal badge on the front of his most refined and gilded red uniform, he felt like he was truly part of the crowd.

"Come. Let us stow our luggage in our staterooms and check up on the state of your cargo." Jovy said as he started to move deeper into the interior of the massive vessel. "1 can give you a small tour while we are on the way."

The Khamatar Reign possessed a fairly standard interior for the Red Association. The bulkheads were mostly gunmetal gray that occasionally bore functional markings.

The deck was made out of similar alloys but oddly did not make any noise when people stepped on them. Ves found this lack of sound to be disturbing at first, but he quickly got accustomed to it once he no longer thought about it too hard.

The relative lack of warmth did not last too long. Ves encountered more and more interior halls and compartments where the mechers had put more effort into making them look pleasant and livable.

The Survivalists still showed considerable restraint, but they went out of their way to place a variety of artworks as well as scale models of powerful mechs in large public spaces.

Touches of advanced technology were everywhere.

Sturdy bulkheads occasionally morphed into open entrances despite the fact that Ves was sure they were all made out of solid metal.

Overhead materialized reproduced entire meals in a large cafeteria. Each of the meals were originally cooked by the best chefs for the purpose of getting scanned down to the placement of the last atom.

A mech designer that wanted to call up an item that was stored in the cargo hold only had to make a single request. Seconds later, the deck opened up and delivered the good despite the fact that it was originally located all the way down in the lower decks of the enormous capital ship!

There was so much for Ves to take in. At times, he wanted to secretly send out Blinky or employ his spiritual senses to study anyone or anything that caught his interest.

He restrained himself. He was surrounded by so many powerful individuals that he did not believe he kept his action discreet. This was not the time for him to fool around.

"There are many facilities within the Khamater Reign that might be worthwhile for you to explore." Jovy said. "There is no time for that today. We need to check into our rooms and get ready to attend the opening speeches."

Ves already had a decent idea of what this was all about.

"That is the moment where your three leaders or their representatives explain the overall agenda of this conference and present their own proposals, right?"

"Yes. I highly suggest that you listen to them carefully. You don't have a direct say in these matters, but your individual projects might get affected by changes in policy."

"I see."

What else could he say about that? He clearly had no business with getting involved with the top-level power struggle. He just wanted to keep his head down and sell his modest contributions to the Survivalists.

After a lengthy journey across the hull of the enormous research battlecarrier, they eventually reached their staterooms.

The Survivalists did not skimp out on this. That was for certain. Even though Ves had resolved to make the best possible use out of his time and stay awake for an entire week, he could see himself going back to unwind in this expansive and luxurious suite.

Once he confirmed that everything was in order, Ves joined up with Jovy so that they could move to a massive assembly hall that was already half-filled.

Lots and lots of expensive-looking capsule seats were placed around an elevated stage at the center.

People had already been assigned to the seats in advance.

Different from what Ves expected, the most powerful and influential mechers were not seated at the front.

Instead, they took their seats at the far rear.

The more junior and less important guests received the privilege of getting a closer view of the important dignitaries who would soon be addressing all of the attendees!

Ves was indirectly able to determine his overall ranking among the associates by studying the positioning of his seat.

He was situated further away from the front than he expected. He somehow gained more priority than thousands of eager young Journeymen, battle hungry mech pilots and an incredible variety of associates.

What Ves found notable was that he spotted a sizable quantity of Master Mech Designers, both mecher and associate, who had been assigned with lower priority seats!

This looked perplexing to Ves as well as many other invited guests. Ves received frequent glances from mech designers who were much older than himself.

"There is no need for you to feel nervous." Jovy reassured his friend. "Our faction did not make a mistake with the seat assignments. The mech designers who are seated in front of us are unlikely to make as many contributions to humanity as you. The allocation of seats is largely determined by your galactic citizenship tier. This approach is not entirely perfect, but it leads to the least amount of doubt and disagreements."

That made a lot of sense. Higher tiers of galactic citizenships were not easy to come by. If a Master Mech Designer did not introduce ground-breaking technologies that permanently strengthened mechs on a universal basis, their citizenship tiers would never move past tier 8.

Ves and Jovy were oddballs in that they were younger and less powerful than typical tier 6 galactic citizens.

It was as if they were a pair of children that had somehow managed to sneak into a gathering for grown-ups!

The conference attracted many talents, though. As Ves swept across the seats placed in front of his current 'ring', he could spot a lot of relatively young faces.

A fair number of them were mech designers who had demonstrated enough potential to attract the Survivalist Faction.

Each of them possessed special advantages that could help with turning the tide against the aliens so long as they advanced to the rank of Master Mech Designer!

Unfortunately, Ves did not think that many of them were likely to realize their design philosophies in the short or medium term. There simply wasn't enough time for them to mature and complete their life-changing research projects.

Even if this cohort of young talents received more time to develop their own craft, only a minority of them would be able to realize their ambitious design philosophies.

The Survivalists already recognized this reality. They chose to go for quantity and make sure to put enough talents under their wings in the hopes that at least a couple of them would succeed!

Ves had figured this out in the past, but he felt a lot less valued now that he was able to observe so many of his peers in a single place. The Survivalists already took failure into account and did not do anything further than was necessary to claim their territory.

This did not affect him for long. Relatively few of his kind were able to earn tier 6 galactic citizenship.

Not only that, but Ves was pretty sure that his various innovations would certainly attract much greater attention and appreciation from the faction!

Time passed by. Ves chatted with Jovy to a limited extent. He wasn't in a hurry to start a conversation with other people even though he was itching to make new friends.

It was not wise to talk with anyone without knowing what was actually going on. Ves at least needed to listen to the opening speeches before he could set out to pursue his own agenda.

"How many people are attending this conference?"

"There should be around 50,000 mechers and 27,000 associates." Jovy answered. "The majority of them are marginal figures. They are either tag-alongs or trusted individuals who have been brought over in order to widen their horizons. Only a couple of hundred high-ranked participants have a real voice during this conference."

The lights in the circular assembly hall slowly started to dim as the final guests arrived and took their seats.

A large central projection came to life. An impressive rendition of the Red Association symbol came into view.

Once this projection turned off again, Ves noted to his surprise that a new figure had appeared on the stage!

Everyone's backs straightened while people fell utterly silent.

No one dared to show any sign of disrespect. People did not even dare to transmit silent messages to each other anymore.

The reason for that was that a legendary Star Designer had finally appeared in front of everyone's sights!

Ves became reassured that the Polymath did not show up so soon.

The Star Designer who decided to kick off the conference turned out to be the Xenotechnician!

Though his moniker sounded a bit perplexing, his extensive work and his contributions over the centuries were undeniable.

The man played an indispensable role in strengthening and popularizing mechs throughout the generations. He converted a lot of exotic alien tech that were previously exclusive to the native aliens of the Milky Way and more recently the Red Ocean into more universal and usable human tech.

This extensive legacy of unlocking the secrets of alien tech caused many people to question how extensively the 456 year old fossil became affected by his own work.

While Ves did not see any obvious alien touches in the old man's surprisingly fit and upright body, he almost gasped when he took a closer look at the figure's outfit.

The Xenotechnician had a well-known habit of adorning himself with items and clothes with clear inhuman elements.

This time, he chose to wear a suit and voluminous robe that were made entirely out of silvery paneled archemetal!

Though Ves was not able to glean too many details from this distance, he knew enough about archetech that it shouldn't be possible to produce working pieces of archemetal that were so thin and light!

This showed that the Xenotechnician not only deciphered the working principles of archetech, but also improved upon it to the point where he was able to strengthen and widen its applications!

More than a few mech designers displayed a lot of appreciation of the Xenotechnician's silver-toned outfit.

Even Ves wanted to obtain a copy of it so that he could protect himself with a much thinner but more functional protective suit!

If the Xenotechnician already understood archetech well enough to create this simple product, what if he applied his latest gains to his mech designs?