The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1018

The intentions of Senator Tovar on Ves couldn’t be more clear. He needed to learn to get along with Vesian nobles and officials.

That didn’t necessarily mean that Ves needed to take on a Vesian coat and buy into their values and beliefs. He had to maintain hold of his Brighter identity even as he somehow made nice with the Vesian envoys and attaché.

"Easier said than done." Ves said when Secretary Lowe left his cabin after passing on his message.

Ves benefited a lot from the diplomatic aide’s insight. He learned how to cope with Vesian manipulation and distortion.

Simply said, Ves was no diplomat or politician. So why should he get into a substantive debate with those who were? It would be like a farmer talking about mechs to a mech designer. No matter how much the farmer read up by himself, he could never match the sheer amount of knowledge, insight and experience of a formally trained mech designer!

So the first truth that Ves had to keep in mind was that he’d been invited to the delegation to connect with the Vesians as a mech designer!

"The key is not to focus on the differences, but on what we share in common."

Brighters and Vesians may be highly opposed to each other, but as life-long rivals they shared many similarities as well. At the very least, both sides made use of mechs to fight. Ves should be able to connect to anyone with a connection to mechs, not just fellow mech designers.

Connecting with Lord Javier served as a useful practice run. Although the captive Vesian noble on parole admitted that he had an incentive to befriend his captors, Ves figured that he needed the handicap in order to make nice with a Vesian.

He shook his head. "It’s so strange to play nice with a Vesian."

Before the war, the Vesia Kingdom had always been a faceless and dormant threat. The ravages of the previous generation’s war still scarred the Bright Republic during the period he grew up. Everyone treated it as a particularly deadly war, with many more people dying than the historical trend.

Everyone made mistakes. Everyone underestimated the full scope of the war. Many people paid the price.

Growing up under such an ever-present well of depression among the adults colored Ves against the Vesians. Even if he never met a Vesian before, he already inherited the burning hatred and swelling animosity towards the citizens and combatants of their neighboring state.

It was only until the war began and Ves experienced what it was like to fight against the Vesians that he learned that all of their fears were true. The Vesian Mech Legion might be too fractured to coordinate effectively with each other on a strategic scale, their ferocious mech pilots fought just as well as the professional and highly-trained mech pilots of the Mech Corps!

As the disguised fleet under the protection of the elite 8th Spiral Shockers of the 3rd New Foundation Division made it halfway to the Reinald Republic, Ves began to meet with Lord Javier on a regular basis.

The bored and lonely noble welcomed the company, especially since the security officers aboard the Felicitous Remembrance disallowed him from accessing the galactic net.

These kinds of restrictions broke the illusion of freedom and emphasized his status as a hostage. Even if he could roam around the ship and visit almost every public facility open to passengers, Lord Javier would always be reminded that he was a stranger among enemies.

Sometimes, his arrogance and his confident facade cracked at the strain. The arrival of Ves gave him some very much-needed relief from the absence of peers.

They gathered at one of the luxurious lounge and bar rooms of the Remembrance. Ves looked at the noble scion in confusion. "I’m not a peer. You’re the son of a count and the heir to House Eneqqin. You’ve ruled star systems populated by billions of commoners, each of which are affected by your actions and decisions. I’m just a mech designer."

"You’re kind of like the Brighter version of nobility in my eyes." Javier responded with a smile before he took a gulp of his glass of imported beer. "The Larkinson Family could be called House Larkinson and there won’t be too much of a difference. The only shortcomings of your house would be that it has way too little wealth and territory for their military contributions."

"The Bright Republic doesn’t work that way."

Javier grinned. "Is that so? As I’ve stated earlier, the Republic and the Kingdom aren’t so different. Everything is just a lot less obvious in your state. It’s crazy to me that you Larkinsons are content to remain as a middling family! If you Larkinsons threw your lot with the Kingdom instead of the Republic, you would have been at least as powerful as House Eneqqin!"

The Larkinson ancestor used to be a mercenary who worked for the highest bidder. He might as well have gone on to fight for the Vesians instead of the Brighters if the latter hadn’t offered the most pay!

Of course, that was just idle speculation from Ves. The historical records from the time of the founding of the Bright Republic were spotty and fragmented.

Although the historians in the family did a great job at reconstructing the missing parts through the use of corroborating sources, it hadn’t been entirely clear why the Larkinson Ancestor threw his lot with the Bright Republic.

A lot of employers opened up their coffers in the newly-opened Komodo Star Sector. All of them spent their savings on hiring mercenaries in order to pad their numbers and win the opportunity of a lifetime to capture more valuable territory before the borders became fixed!