The Mech Touch

After half an hour of presenting themselves, Captain Orfan of the Vandals Lieutenant Dise of the Swordmaidens both elicited a couple of minor roars from the giant form of Qilanxo.

While the roars didn’t sound impressive, the mere fact that both of them managed to hold Qilanxo’s interest already served as an encouraging sign.

"What do you think, Qilanxo?" He asked her directly. "Do you find these two worthy enough to allow them to partner up with you?"

She let out an ambiguous-sounding roar. Both Orfan and Dise frowned as they couldn’t interpret the sound. Even Dise, an experienced beast hunter, couldn’t interpret the meaning behind the roar.

Every exobeast was a completely different alien species who evolved on separate planets. Despite sharing the same label, they different vastly in traits, though they also had a lot of things in common due to convergent evolution.

In Dise’s experience, the sacred gods of Aeon Corona VII possessed a thunderous, warbling roar that unsettled her every time she heard it at close proximity. Her entire bones shook at the low, gutteral vibrations.

It made her feel small and weak, yet it stirred her battle intent as well. She tried her best to repress those desires, keeping the warnings issued by Ves in mind.

"Qilanxo isn’t displeased with the two of you." Ves interpreted for the sacred god. "That doesn’t mean the two of you pass as of yet, but out of every mech pilot in our midst, you two stand the highest chance of getting accepted."

"So what now, kid?"

"The two of you are still strangers to Qilanxo. You need to spend some time with her and continue talking to her. Let her know you better so she has a deeper understanding of who you are. Treat it as a relationship and invest your emotions into building it up. As long as you are sincere, I’m sure Qilanxo will come to accept you as her partner."

Orfan and Dise looked disappointed that they hadn’t been able to convince Qilanxo to accept them right on the spot, but then they reminded themselves that others received a straightforward rejection.

Only the two of them received the opportunity to spend more time with the sacred god!

Captain Orfan quickly frowned after she thought of something. "I have a lot of duties. I don’t think Captain Byrd will be pleased if I’m pulled away from leading my mech company."

Lieutenant Dise shared the same concerns as well, though to a lesser degree.

"Well, it’s either you two, or no one." Ves shrugged. "I’ll bring it up to Captain Byrd and Commander Lydia. I think assigning you from your old posts to allow you to become Qilanxo’s beast rider is a lot more attractive than leaving her unattended."

After sending the two officers off, Ves activated his comm and contacted both Commander Lydia and Captain Byrd in a remote conference call. He briefly summarized how the selection process proceeded.

While Lydia remained calm, Captain Byrd looked irked. "This isn’t what you initially promised. We agreed that one of our low-ranking mech pilots should be in contention."

"Captain, I can’t help it if Qilanxo isn’t willing to give them the time of her day." Ves shrugged. "She’s not a mech that willingly lets everyone who enters her cockpit pilot her like a puppet. She only accepts those who are worthy of the honor to bond with her. As a proud sacred god and and second strongest of her old pantheon, do you really think she’d be content with accepting an average mech pilot?"

"Still, there are better choices than Captain Orfan..."

Did Byrd dislike the fact that Orfan scored such a significant opportunity? It was no secret that the two Vandal mech captains disliked each other.

The chance of becoming a beast rider was an extremely unique opportunity. If Captain Byrd managed to win Qilanxo’s approval, then she’d be able to add this to her record and enhance her stature even after she retired!

Even if the Mech Corps classified everything that happened on Aeon Corona VII, she still had her memories to inflate her ego.

And if some of the theories that Ves and the exobiologists had come up with were true, then Captain Orfan might experience some drastic improvements in her physique and piloting skill.

Just as the sacred god changed under the influence of their beast rider, so did the beast rider change under the influence of the sacred god!

Therefore, what Ves had done under his own initiative practically boosted Captain Orfan in every way imaginable.

"Look, ma’am, none of the other mech officers with the Vandals and the Swordmaidens have ever dueled a sacred god in a one-on-one duel. That alone accords them a critical measure of respect and recognition from Qilanxo. Mortals who challenged the sacred gods and lived are the only humans that aren’t forgettable in Qilanxo’s eyes. Unless you want to go off to Samar and challenge Pailanon and his subordinates for another set of duels, Captain Orfan is all you have among the Vandals."

Commander Lydia nodded her head. As someone deeply steeped in the warrior culture, she instinctively understood Qilanxo’s lofty position. "Captain Byrd, any success is to be celebrated. When I heard how my Swordmaidens failed the initial selection process, I became concerned about what we should do about the beast. Now that we found a pair of compatible riders, we should be grateful that we don’t have to consider less palatable alternatives."

All the other options were worse, so Captain Byrd could only surrender to the circumstances.

"Proceed with attempting to get those two accustomed to directing Qilanxo what to do. We are almost finished with repairs. Within a week, we will begin to move. The exobiologists believe she’s capable of moving by then, so make sure our newly-designated beast riders gain sufficient control over the beast to follow our instructions."

"Will do, captain."

Qilanxo let out a soft but angry roar once the call ended. Ves conducted his call within earshot of the sacred god and she must have noticed Captain Byrd’s dismissive attitude.

Ves turned to the sacred god. "I don’t want to lie to you. There are people among us who want to make use of you. They also happen to be in charge. For the time being, you are under our care, and that means you only get to live as long as you are useful and controllable in their eyes."

Qilanxo let out a much louder roar now, so much so that Ves was forced to take a step backwards. He held no fear, though. He understood that the cry contained no threat to him. It was simply an expression of helplessness in the face of circumstances beyond her control.

Ves was very familiar with this sensation.

"I know that it pisses you off, but we’re not interested in keeping you captive forever. For one thing, our ground forces eventually have to leave this planet and go back to the stars where we came from. It’s too difficult to lift up something as heavy as you into the stars, so we’ll probably let you go free as long as you are well-behaved. At that point, you can go do your own thing."

A questioning roar escaped from Qilanxo’s maw. It was as if she doubted his words.

"I am absolutely speaking the truth!" He spoke emphatically, and he really meant it this time. "We aren’t like the blessed people who worship you like sheep. Unlike them, we’ve managed to slay several sacred gods without suffering losses. As god slayers, do you think we wouldn’t dare to see you as our cattle?"

Lying against centuries-old beast equivalent to an ace mech wouldn’t work. Ves also didn’t feel the need to lie to the beast. He believed she was intelligent enough to process his meaning without lashing out.

While Qilanxo initially raged, eventually she recognized her precarious position. Even now, a squad of melee mechs stood guard just outside the holding chamber. If the sacred god ever acted out, they received orders to storm in and butcher the sacred god before she could call down an energy tornado or make any other offensive moves.

After some time of communicating with the sacred god, Ves lost all fear and apprehension towards the beast. He fearlessly approached her prone form and patted her rough scaly jaw with his seemingly tiny gauntleted palm.

"If you want to blame anyone, then blame your deadbeat mate who dragged you into a foolish attack against our forces. For now, just give Captain Byrd and Lieutenant Dise a chance. Even if you don’t like them too much, at least pretend you do."

Once he said his piece, he exited the chamber after a quick farewell. Ves sighed all the while.

"This is just the start. I still need to cobble together an actual neural interface that can establish a wireless connection.

This would not only test his engineering knowledge and his understanding of neural interfaces, but also drag in exobiologists due to their indispensable expertise in biological constructs.

Ves tallied what he needed to do for his next steps.

First, he needed to figure out how the blessed people and the cursed people interfaced with the god species.

Second, he had to apply this knowledge into constructing an interface that operated in a similar fashion by translating the thinking patterns of the two new beast riders to the thinking patterns of the natives.

"That is the key to this project."

Building a wireless neural interface wasn’t as hard as it sounded. The true uncertainties came when Ves attempted to match the thinking patterns of a mech pilot to an exobeast.

From his ample experiments involving the dwarf captives, he already knew that the natives thought in a drastically different matter. Their thoughts were passionate, chaotic, wild and unstructured.

Though mech pilots sometimes incorporated some or all of those elements, their thinking patterns actually drifted closer to the logic loops of an artificial processor.

When he thought about the challenges involved with converting the clean, clear thinking patterns of a modern day mech pilot to the chaotic thinking patterns of a dwarf chieftain, Ves heavily frowned.

"Is this even needed? Or can a mech pilot interface with a sacred god without special training?

All of this was new to Ves, and his inexperienced showed as he became a bit indecisive. When it came to matters surrounding a neural interface, Ves would never be able to match the ability of a true specialist in neural interface like Iris Jupiter.

He couldn’t help but fear that one of his mistakes might cripple Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise’s ability to pilot mechs.

When Ves returned to the camp, he remembered one of the issues that cropped up and took a visit to the workshop. Even though most mech technicians already called it a day at this period of time, Ketis still remained behind in one of the offices. She scrunched her head as she fiddled with the design schematic of a damaged rifleman mech.

"Having problems?"

"Ves! I’m dying out here!" She whined. "These mech technicians are all insufferable! They used to fear me, but now they resent me. I can beat up one or twelve of them if I want, but if I want to get them back in line I have to beat hundreds of them at this rate! I almost wanted to do so anyway, but then who will be left to repair the mechs?"

This sounded fairly odd to Ves. "Why did they suddenly grow a spine?"

Ketis scowled. "It’s the chief technicians. They banded together and convinced them all that I’m no good and that my words have no weight. I wanted to beat them up next, but then who would keep the mech technicians in line?"

"Obviously, beating people up will only make things worse." Ves pointed out. "Have you thought of other solutions besides resorting to violence?"

"Nothing I’ve tried has any effect! These mech technicians think they’re better than me. No matter what I say, they stick to themselves."

This was starting to sound like organized resistance. The situation reached a state where Ves could no longer sit back. He had to intervene.

"Tell me about the most recalcitrant chief technicians. In situations like these, there’s often a small circle of leaders agitating the workers. Our solution has to begin with the cadre first.""