The Mech Touch

The issue with the chief technicians fermenting organized opposition to Ketis did not do their productivity any good. Their stubbornness about taking back control only delayed the repairs to the point of pushing off moving date by another standard day.

The fundamental issue was that the chief technicians felt that the mech designers encroached on their territory. They may not have the guts to fight back against Ves, but they didn’t hold the same amount of apprehension towards Ketis or any of the other mech designers.

The biggest issue was that even though some of these chief technicians only reached their rank due to seniority rather than competence, Ves couldn’t make any moves to remove them. Who would replace these technicians? As much as seniority was a flawed basis to determine rank, they mostly knew a lot more tricks of the trade.

Mech technicians generally advanced very slowly as they needed to service thousands of mechs over several decades in order to master more competences.

Chief technicians not only needed to be good leaders, but also had to become proficient in servicing almost every aspect of a mech, from its core components, its limbs, its sensor systems, its weapon systems, its armor system and much, much more.

This meant at minimum they needed to master at least twelve major technical domains related to mechs.

As mech technicians generally didn’t consist of highly-educated individuals who could have become mech designers instead, they generally learned by doing rather than studying theories. This process took time. Lots of time.

Yet at the end of it, a capable chief technician became extraordinarily adept concerning the practical aspects of fabricating and servicing mechs. Many mech designers simply weren’t their equal when it came to practicality.

This was also why they disliked mech designers, especially younger ones, poking their nose in their business. Mech designers almost always made them feel dumb due to their superior grasp of theory, but their practical experience was often so low that it was basically non-existent.

Mech designers talked the talk, but couldn’t walk the walk.

The opposite rang true in the case of the chief technicians.

They might not be able to know why something needed to be done in certain ways, but they just knew their solutions worked.

In the most ideal case, combining both practice and theory in the workshops would result in the highest level of performance. Mech designers planned or advised the work crews while the chief technicians

This was how things were supposed to happen, at least on paper.

The Mech Corps didn’t go through the trouble of drafting all of those junior mech designers working in the private sector for nothing. That it helped weed out the weak ones and reduced the competition at the bottom of the market was an added bonus in their regard.

This was also why the Mech Corps didn’t hand over too much power to the mech designers. In their own businesses, mech designers occupied a distinct superiority over chief technicians.

In the Mech Corps, the chief technicians held more power than the mech designers. They commanded the men and their orders bore the weight of official authority. Because a lot of new and inexperienced mech designers tended to be drafted during wars and screwed things up, chief technicians always leaned towards a hostile relationship to these upstarts.

In this case, the grievances of the Vandals chiefs weren’t entirely baseless, which made it a bit more challenging for Ves to address. He couldn’t come up with an easy approach that magically solved the problems.

"Do you understand now what kind of situation you’re in?"

"I guess." Ketis answered. "All I want to know is how I can get the men to listen to me again."

"In the long term, you need to become more proficient in working with mechs than the chiefs themselves. This is the best solution! Once you are able to overpower the chiefs in this area, they don’t have a leg to stand on. Their main complaint right now is that you are incompetent! If you can turn this disparity around, then their argument will instantly be turned against them. By then, the mech technicians have no other choice than to acknowledge your solutions over the chiefs."

Ves already reached this point and beyond, which was one of the reasons why he could command the workshop without taking the chiefs into account. They were merely better mech technicians in his eyes.

Unfortunately, Ketis had a long way to go. She frowned. "You said that’s a long-term solution. I’ve been studying up in my free time, but it will take years for me to reach that point. We need to do something now rather than later."

Time presented a problem once again. Ves always faced situations where time became one of the scarcest resources. He always wanted more time, but never received enough to go around.

With a sufficient amount of time, Ves would have the leisure to pursue a perfect solution. Sadly, time waited for no one, so he always became forced to take a step back and resort to an imperfect solution.

"Right now, we have to break the resistance." Ves concluded. "And do so in a way that doesn’t take out too many chief technicians and mech technicians."

"Are we going to beat some people up?" She grinned.

"Not quite. Vandals are a rowdy bunch and they’re not unaccustomed to brawls in the workplace. Fists aren’t as intimidating to them as you think."

"Then how are you going to break the resistance?"

"By resorting to other means."

After he spoke those ominous words, Ves began to invite the chiefs to his office one by one.

While they could have ignored his command if they really wanted to, his prestige was so high that it would only lead to worse outcomes if they dared to defy him. So the chiefs unwillingly filed inside his office.

The first chief entered with a disgruntled face. "You want something from me, Mr. Larkinson."

"Please sit down."

Once the chief sat down, Ves began his spiel.

"I’ve invited you here to mediate your differences with Ketis."

"That Swordmaiden gal? Pah! She doesn’t belong in a Vandal workshop! She doesn’t belong in any workshop at all! I don’t mean no disrespect, but putting her in charge over us is a big fat mistake!"

"I disagree." Ves smiled. "And I intend to convince you of that fact."

"With what? Siccing her on me? If you dare to do something to me, the mech technicians will riot, I will guarantee you!"

The chiefs weren’t stupid and they already formented some rumors. All of this laid the groundwork for a riot in the event something truly bad happened to one of their own.

Ves didn’t care.

"Ketis, please restrain this fellow."

A form the chief hadn’t noticed sprung from the wall and roughly grabbed hold of the chief’s hazard suit. She proficiently restrained the older man with the help of her heavy combat armor.

The chief stood no chance.

"What’s the meaning of this?! The mech technicians won’t stand for this!?"

"I’m not going to hurt you, chief. I only want to bring you along to a little field trip. Let’s go."

Ves, Ketis and her restrained prisoner exited the office and walked across the camp to board a fast transport. A regular transit channel already emerged where fast transports went back and forth between the camp and Qilanxo’s holding chamber every half hour.

Once the fast transport arrived at the holding chamber, the three went past the security checkpoint without any fuss due to Ves and walked all the way up to Qilanxo.

Currently, the two candidate beast riders set up a rotation where they spent at least six hours in Qlianxo’s company. Their superiors relieved most of their former duties in order to make time for these lengthy bonding sessions.

Mostly, these sessions consisted of Captain Orfan or Lieutenant Dise regaling the curious sacred god of their many exploits among the stars. Qilanxo eagerly listened to any stories that took place on very different worlds and star systems.

Right now, Lieutenant Dise regaled the beast with some of the many sights she witnessed roaming through the frontier with the Swordmaidens. She quickly halted when she noted the newcomers.

"Mr. Larkinson! Ketis! Who is this?"

"Just a chump that needs a lesson." Ketis grinned back.

"What are you doing?! Why are you taking me to this animal! I don’t want to be here! This is illegal!"

Despite all the yelling and moaning, nobody stepped forward to stop them because of Ves. Anything he got involved in usually helped out the Vandals. Though they didn’t understand why he brought an unwilling person to the holding chamber, they didn’t particularly see the need to intervene.

"This is my good friend Qilanxo. She’s a sacred god and our newest ally." Ves regaled the chief. "She’s also the reason why I can’t preside over the workshops anymore. Researching the man-beast connection and trying to replicate this feat takes up all of my time."

"What does that have to do with bringing me to this beast?!"

"Don’t address Qilanxo like she’s a herd animal. She’s a sacred god! Even if the title is false, she is still an infinitely greater organism than a little stain like you."

"We’re humans! We’re better than beasts!"

"In my perspective, you’re a cockroach in front of her." Ves coolly stated. "You aren’t even worthy of standing before this sacred god."

"What are you doing. Wait! Don’t bring me closer! Ahhhh!"

When Ves commanded Ketis to bring the chief closer, she roughly dragged him forward and threw him into Qilanxo’s waiting maw. Ketis threw him with enough forward momentum to fly between the gap of Qilanxo’s massive razor sharp teeth, but not enough to cause him to slide down through the sacred god’s throat.

The chief panicked. There was something very frightening and traumatic about being thrown inside the maw of a giant exobeast. The man practically broke down as fears of being chewed into half by Qilanxo’s teeth or being swallowed down into her stomach, never to return occupied his thoughts.

Ves let the chief stew inside Qilanxo’s maw for a single minute before speaking up. "That’s enough, Qilanxo. Please bring the poor man out."

Qilanxo lazily lidded an eye towards Ves, as if she resented that he brought her a meal but didn’t allow her to gulp it down. Nevertheless, her massive tongue lifted up and out of her widening maw.

With a light flick, her tongue threw the unstable chief against the ground, forcing his wet and saliva-ridden hazard suit to absorb the impact.

His helmet had already unfolded in order to protect them against the highly potent substances inside Qilanxo’s spit.

"Ketis, please bring the chief to decontamination to clean up his hazard suit. We’ll be returning to camp as soon as that’s done."

"Okay."

Ketis roughly lifted up the prone and insensiate chief and carried him towards decontamination.

As for Ves, he looked at Qilanxo and bowed lightly. "Thanks for your cooperation."

The beast let out a disgruntled-sounding roar to Ves.

"There are five more people who need to be taught a lesson. As long as you cooperate, I’ll make it up to you. I think I can persuade the Vandals to hunt down a wild god and have you eat its flesh. How does that sound like?"

Qilanxo roared out a light approval.

"You like that? And you want to have the first pick of what to eat? Why so?"

She released several roars, each of which contained complex meanings.

"You want to eat its murky crystal?" Ves frowned. Though the Vandals didn’t know the value of these strange crystal growths, they knew it was important somehow. "What purpose does that serve?"

She roared again, but this time Ves widened his eyes.

"Is that true?!"

In the meantime, Lieutenant Dise stood at the side watching Ves talk to Qilanxo as if he held a normal conversation.

For some reason, she felt very inadequate.