The Mech Touch

Chapter 7022 Changing of the Guard

After the Larkinson Clan successfully concluded its first leadership election, everything quickly went back to normal more or less.

As a former candidate who pledged to preserve the Larkinson Clan, Casella Ingvar did not intend to reinvent the clan from the ground up, especially right away.

She and her staff had to take the time to acclimate to their new jobs and responsibilities.

The Larkinson Clan may still be relatively small by the standards of millennia-old family organizations, but it had grown so much in the past decade that its administration had grown to a formidable size.

That brought a lot of complexity that only specialized experts and staffers could oversee. Casella therefore made the prudent decision to retain most of the existing staffers that served the first patriarch in this capacity.

Only a handful of staff that answered directly to Gavin Neumann opted to resign from their postings in order to work for Ves in a personal capacity.

Ves saw nothing wrong with that. He did not need to be attended by an army of assistants now that his administrative workload had dropped by an enormous degree.

Perhaps he might need more help once he became more involved in other matters such as the Red Collective, but he or Gavin could always hire additional personnel when necessary.

Ves had mixed feelings as Gavin and a handful of bots cleaned out his personal office aboard the Tortuous Scream.

"You do not have to vacate your office, sir." Casella said as she stood by his side. "This battleship is big enough that I can select many other offices of this grade."

The new matriarch of the Larkinson Clan already wore her new modernized matriarch uniform sans cape like she was born for this. She was also accompanied by a pair of bodyguards in heavy armor, though these ones hailed from the Larkinson Clan as opposed to the Red Collective.

One of her guards had taken over the solemn and sacred duty of carrying the Larkinson Mandate.

As much as Ves wanted to maintain his possession of the living artifact that he made with his own hands, it belonged to the clan as opposed to any single individual such as himself.

Casella could make much better use of it than him. It would be criminal to withhold it from the Larkinsons.

"No. That is not appropriate, matriarch. This compartment has the best location. It is close to the bridge and other important functions. You can get to the Minerva Mark II faster in case there is an emergency. Its physical defenses and privacy protections are also better here than elsewhere. As the matriarch of the Larkinson Clan, you need this place more than I. There is no need to worry about me. I can easily set up shop elsewhere. In fact, I have been thinking about moving to the Tarrasque."

That caused Casella to turn to Ves in mild surprise. "So you have made up your mind on separating from the Premier Fleet?"

"I have not entirely made up my mind." Ves corrected her. "A part of me wants to visit the Astral Octagon and stay there for a while so that I can get more acquainted with what the Red Collective is doing these days. However, if the Rubarthan Pact is falling apart due to getting attacked by both the native aliens and the voribugs at the same time, then I can't stand by while remaining safe in the hinterland of human space."

"Can you even do anything that can make a difference, Ves? When the voribugs have invaded numerous second-class planets within the sphere of Rubarthan space, the local defenders deployed numerous different living mech models such as the Ferocious Piranha and the Pacifier. The battle footage showed that the voribugs are somewhat susceptible to the glows, but are able to power through them anyway."

Ves grimaced. "I know. I saw the same footage as you most likely. I have my own theories on what is going on. Theoretically speaking, there are at least two instances when living life forms are able to resist suppressive glows. The first is that they are not alive or possess a complete range of emotions. The second is that they are strong enough to resist the glows directly. I seriously doubt that most of those voribugs fall within the latter category. They are clearly grown and put into action in a very short time interval. I refuse to believe that these bugs who are at most a year or so old can acquire the mental fortitude to resist the glows of my mechs when many normal civilians still struggle to maintain their wits when subjected to the same effects."

The Saint Commander raised her eyebrow. "You suspect that they are not actually alive?"

"No, not that. The mutated voribugs are clearly alive. That is not in question. I think that these voribugs share a metaphysical connection to each other as well as a stronger hive leader of sorts. This queen or commander unit is probably older and stronger on the mental front. It explains why the voribugs are able to move with great coordination and never get into each other's way. It also explains why they are able to resist the suppressive glows of my living mechs."

The Saint Commander paused in thought. She had to admit that his theory sounded quite compelling.

Although red humanity possessed scant intelligence on the new voribugs, several analysts already floated around the theory that if they were able to mutate in a physical sense, there was no reason why they could not mutate mentally or spiritually.

There had to be leader voribug units among the huge mass of cannon fodder bugs. Their intelligence may not be high compared to humans, but so long as they were strong enough to resist most mental tampering effects, then that was enough for the swarms to wreck human space without getting hoodwinked by glow or cultivator shenanigans!

It was as if… the voribugs had been engineered to counter these easy solutions.

"What you are describing suggests that the voribugs are operating their own version of a kinship network, complete with a powerful living nexus at the center." She said. "Do you suspect that the mutated voribugs have been artificially made by plagiarizing your work?"

That was a controversial theory. Just voicing it was enough to land Ves in hot water.

After all, if there was any possibility the voribugs had become so strong and deadly by learning from his work, then that meant that he was at least indirectly responsible for all of the people who died in the periphery of Rubarthan space!

Ves let out a sigh. "I cannot be certain of anything. I have a strong feeling that I need to travel to Rubarthan space and examine the captured voribugs in person in order to gather more clues. This is another reason why I cannot stay with the Premier Fleet. By the way, will you end the Larkinson Clan's contract with the Terran Alliance early in order to reinforce the Rubarthans? They need the extra help a lot more than the Terrans."

"It is too early for me to make a decision. I have only just assumed office and still need to be brought up to speed on many matters." The Saint Commander replied with an ambiguous answer of her own. "I do not think it would do our reputation good if we prematurely end our contracts. I think the Rubarthan Pact will be able to attract help from many corners of human society. The Terrans may be spared this new threat, but the native aliens are still pressing them hard. With the Red Split, the Terran Alliance will no longer enjoy the protection of any visiting god pilots and dreadnoughts. The Light of Sol will have to work himself to the bone in order to protect the entire frontline of Terran space by himself."

Several days had passed since the Day of Pestilence. The Voribug Outbreak had entered into full swing and showed no signs of abating anytime soon.

The fact that the Red Cabal had yet to issue a recall order and continued to encourage the assault fleets to invade human space was very telling.

If the native aliens had any intention of driving back the voribug tide, they obviously intended to do it without relying on human assistance!

"So the Premier Fleet will stay in Terran space for the time being?"

"At least for the time being. We may still decide to transfer to the Rubarthan Pact, but only if the situation has grown dire. The Terrans have already contacted me in order to express their hopes that our fleet will remain. They have already taken our involvement in the local war theaters into account. Our sudden departure will invalidate several of their war plans. Aside from that, our clan is also cooperating closely with them on other matters. For example, I have heard that you and the Terrans have made excellent progress in the Arboreal Project."

Ves nodded. "My Woodsap mech is indeed shaping up to become a promising Carmine biomech. The only issue is that we mainly designed it to fight against the native aliens. I am unsure how effective it will be when employed against the mutated voribugs. The biomech is not optimized to fight against swarms of weaker biological enemies. It takes a very different approach towards combat in order to do well against the overwhelming swarms that we have seen on the galactic net."

The voribugs most definitely required dedicated designs in order to combat effectively. Many mech designers had no doubt begun to design their own anti-voribug mechs or began to adapt their existing designs for this specialized purpose.

Ves felt the urge to follow suit, but he still had his hands full with the Arboreal Project, the Riot Mark III Project and a few other projects.

"Regardless, the Arboreal Project and other ongoing commitments makes it prudent for us to remain in the Terran Alliance for at least half a year to a year." Casella went back to the original topic. "After that, we can consider whether to relocate to the Rubarthan Pact. Even if the Terrans attempt to bribe us by doubling our remuniation, I may still decide that the Rubarthans need the services of the Premier Fleet more. Even if we are not equipped to fight the voribugs, we can still fight the native aliens that invade Rubarthan space. That will allow us to keep doing what we excel at while freeing other units to reinforce the frontline under assault by the bugs."

They talked a bit more about what sort of conditions it would take to persuade the Saint Commander to transfer the Premier Fleet away from the Terran Alliance.

"Hm, you clearly put a lot of thought on this matter." Ves lightly praised her. "That is good. Your decisions directly impact more than a million Larkinsons and many more allies and dependents. It can never hurt to be a little more careful. Still, no matter what, when you feel it is necessary to make a decision, then do it. The point of becoming the matriarch when there are already many high offices that can fulfill important functions is to have a single person in charge who takes the greater picture into account and does what is necessary."

Casella crossed her arms. "You do not need to lecture me about leadership. Rest assured that I will take good care of the Larkinson Clan in your absence. It is natural for you to feel so concerned for the organization that you have spent so much time and effort into raising, but trust in your own work. You have done a good job in allowing talents such as myself to develop and realize the potential that we did not know we possessed at the time. Just as how you allow your mechs to find their own success on the battlefield, please give us a chance to prove we can make it without relying on your input."

"That is… fair. I apologize. I shouldn't be expressing so much doubt about your leadership. I will do as you say. I won't involve myself too closely in the clan's affairs unless you bring me in. I hope to hear nothing but good news."

"You can count on it, Ves."

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