The Mech Touch

Their combat experiences, their training and their rapidly improving circumstances had given the Larkinson Clan's mech pilots boundless confidence in their fighting ability.

Sure, they only fought a relatively small amount of major battles.

Sure, their training was not as thorough and systematic as the elites who had been born and raised under a strong regime.

Sure, most of them lacked competitive experience and were not accustomed to fighting under the many cumbersome rules imposed by mech tournaments.

Nonetheless, after facing off against so many powerful and horrible enemies within a single year, the Larkinsons had completely lost their fear and apprehension at the thought of fighting against other strong mech pilots.

The death of fear was one of the most important prerequisites to doing well in tournaments!

Besides, it was not as if most Larkinson mech pilots lacked confidence in their own technical piloting ability.

Compared to many other mech forces, the Larkinson Army invested an unreasonably high amount of resources into training and enhancing its mech pilots.

From providing them with expensive genetic treatments to allowing them to challenge their limits within the highly realistic battle scenarios of the MSTS, hardly any other forces in Davute could match the effectiveness of this unique training regime!

The only true stumbling blocks the Larkinson mech pilots had to deal with were the overly limiting rules that severely limited their means.

"What?! We can't fight with our own mechs in any of the mech tournaments? That's unfair! Mechs have rights as well!"

Competitions such as the Davute Star Tournament and the Rising Prodigy Tournament completely had to be fought by using the mechs provided by the organizers themselves.

Most of them were pretty much generic machines that possessed balanced properties. No matter the mech type, every tournament model was devoid of any gimmicks or distinguishing properties.

In public, the colonial government stated that it wanted the mech tournaments to put the emphasis on the skills and fighting acumen of the mech pilots.

Davute already organized a sufficient number of mech design tournaments to showcase the kind of mech designs that the new colonial state could expect to field.

In actuality, the tournament organizers didn't want to deal with the burden of trying to regulate the sheer variety and destructiveness of many of the mechs fielded by so many different mech forces.

It was extremely difficult to guarantee the safety of the audience once weird and dangerous mechs entered the mech arena.

For example, a mech armed with a transphasic gauss rifle might miss a shot, only for the slug in question to phase right through the energy shields encompassing the arena and crush dozens of spectators into mush!

Another example was the phenomenon of glows. What if a bunch of Ferocious Piranhas flew alongside the edge of the mech arena? Hundreds of thousands of people in the stands would become subjected to awful mental torture!

A few Larkinsons even suspected that the existence of living mechs had been one of the driving reasons why the tournament organizers prohibited the use of third party mechs entirely.

Still, living mechs or not, the combative Larkinson mech pilots did not let this little restriction affect their confidence.

The colonial government at least gave the registered participants to purchase copies of all of the tournament mech models. Davute also released their virtual designs in a standard mech simulation format so that any mech force could plug them into their own simulation programs and train to their heart's content.

It took a bit of time and effort for the Design Department to convert and upload the tournament mech models to the MSTS, but once they became available, a lot of mech pilots eagerly hopped into the cockpit of their living mechs so that they could begin to master the completely different machines as best as possible!

Naturally, the living mechs were not pleased at all that their pilots had decided to 'cheat' on them. What was worse was that the Larkinson mechs had to facilitate the infidelity of their partners by acting as the interface that connected the mech pilots to the MSTS!

"YOU NEED TO TEACH THESE FELLOW HUMANS OF YOURS A GOOD LESSON ABOUT FIDELITY."

A strong hand touched the front console of the irate expert mech. "Our mech pilots aren't being unfaithful. They still love their living mechs as much as before. They are only forced to pilot the tournament mechs by necessity. You know our pilots would have loved to bring their own machines into the mech arena, but Davute is far too stingy for that. This place isn't as rich as Vulit."

The C-Man that Venerable Vincent Ricklin piloted at the moment showed a bit of irritation by vibrating his cockpit.

"WE SHOULD HEAD TO WHEREVER THE RULERS OF THIS PLANET ARE HOLED UP AND CONVINCE THEM TO CHANGE THE RULES. I SWEAR THE DAVUTANS ARE OUT TO GET US. THEY ALL KNOW THAT NO ONE CAN STAND A CHANCE AGAINST US WHEN OUR MECH PILOTS JOIN FORCES WITH THEIR ASSIGNED LIVING MECHS."

Vincent sighed. He was more familiar with mech competitions than almost everyone else in the clan.

"Enough about this, C. We aren't the ones funding or taking responsibility for all of these tournaments. It is up to Davute to set the rules of its own games. We can at least be assured that our opponents won't be able to bring any unfair advantages into the mech arena either. It will be a completely level playing field for everyone."

As the C-Man started to stretch its legs across the expansive training ground. The clan-owned site was located in one of the remote grassy plains situated far away from any urban settlements.

Many other mechs stretched their legs as well. The difference this time was that most of them weren't living mechs, but rather brand-new copies of the infamous tournament mech models!

The Larkinson Clan had bought a substantial batch of tournament mechs that were sold at inflated prices in order to give its mech pilots plenty of chances to obtain real physical experience with piloting the machines.

As both Vincent and the C-Man observed the dull metallic gray mechs in combat, they could see that the Larkinson mech pilots did not need much time to acclimate to the machines.

"These mechs are simple and easy to pick up." Vincent remarked. "It will be difficult for them to outfight others, I think. These machines are so basic and limited that the mech pilots need to be clever in order to outthink their opponents."

"THE TOURNAMENT MECHS ARE AS SOULLESS AS A BAG OF SPOONS. WHOEVER DESIGNED THEM SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES."

"Those mech designers were merely doing their jobs. It doesn't matter whether our patriarch or a Master Mech Designer is put in charge of designing the tournament mechs. It's the people in charge that set the rules, and they insisted on using the most boring mechs imaginable."

The gap between these tournament mechs and any Larkinson mech was enormous. This became especially clear on the training ground as plenty of machines from both categories started to exercise their capabilities.

Vibrant living mechs such as the Lucid Rages, the Second Swords and the Ferocious Piranhas moved nimbly and as fluently across the obstacles as they could. Anyone could see that their mech pilots were so in tune with their battle partners that they didn't even have to put any conscious thought into their movements.

The dull gray tournament mechs on the other hand exhibited much less fluency in the hands of the Larkinson mech pilots.

This was after the men and women in question had already trialed the virtual versions in the MSTS!

Although the pilots managed to master the basic movements and operations of the lower-performing machines, they still suffered from the complete absence of live feedback from their own machines.

"They're doing worse than I expected." Vincent noted with disappointment. "Have we become so used to living mechs that we have lost the ability to pilot normal mechs?"

"YOU SAY THAT LIKE IT IS A BAD THING."

"I am not saying that. I think it is great that we have specialized in making the most out of living mechs. It is just that these mech tournaments have nothing to do with our boss' work. All of the clansmen who have signed up for them will have to fight under a handicap that only applies to them. It's not fair, but that is the way these things go. Living mechs still have a long way to go before they become common enough to become standard issue in mech competitions."

The C-Man rumbled again. "I HOPE THAT DAY COMES SOON ENOUGH. SOME OF MY FELLOW LIVING MECHS ARE ALREADY GROWING TIRED OF PLAYING STUPID AND HIDING OUR TRUE SELVES IN THE PRESENCE OF OTHER HUMANS."

"Then you should give your blessing to the mech pilots that are hoping to do well in the upcoming tournaments. The more they excel in front of a massive crowd, the more people will admire what we have. I bet you that the LMC will be able to sell a lot more living mechs after this. Our pilots just have to win a few tournaments first."

Though Vincent had become less involved in the mech games scene after becoming an expert pilot, he hadn't completely lost touch with his former passion.

His wife still ran the various Larkinson-exclusive mech leagues that often attracted a large audience of fans, both inside and outside of the clan!

Lately, Raella Larkinson even started to share plans to expand the scope of the leagues to encompass the entire Golden Skull Alliance. This would enable the Larkinsons to match their skills against their fellow allies a lot more often and in a much more systematic fashion than the periodic joint training exercises.

Aside from that, Vincent's beloved also sought to work out a way to broadcast matches fought completely within the MSTS.

It was technically feasible to do so as Ves, the inventor of the MSTS, was able to project any fight that took place within its simulated environment.

The problem was that the footage immediately lost their thrill and sense of realism once they were broadcasted over conventional channels.

The matches looked no different from any other mech matches that took place in normal virtual reality environments.

That meant that there was no point in going through all of the extra effort into utilizing the MSTS.

If Raella wanted to turn this around, then she needed a way to broadcast matches held within the MSTS while retaining the full experience. This was a difficult technical problem that could only be solved by Ves, who didn't exactly have a lot of time on hand to waste on a relatively fringe matter.

As Vincent continued to observe the Larkinson mech pilots struggling to master their lifeless machines, a part of him wished he was one of them. He missed the competitions where he could forget about every distraction and focus solely on the fight.

"I really hate the fact that Davute hasn't organized any mech tournaments for expert candidates and expert pilots."

The C-Man's eyes flashed at that. "I CAN'T BLAME THEM, FOR ONCE. WE ARE TOO POWERFUL TO BE CONTAINED. CAN YOU IMAGINE THE SIGHT OF THE AMARANTO FIRING HER INSTRUMENT OF DOOM AT FULL POWER? THE ENERGY BEAM WOULD DRILL STRAIGHT THROUGH MULTIPLE ENERGY SHIELDS, THE STANDS, THE WALLS BEHIND THEM AND FINALLY PUNCH THROUGH A COUPLE OF OFFICE BUILDINGS IN THE DISTANCE BEFORE IT HAS EXHAUSTED ALL OF ITS DESTRUCTIVE POWER."

"...Well, now that you mention that, maybe it is for the better."

Vincent and the C-Man were still itching to punch a strong mech, though!