The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1064

After a long time, Ves finally shed himself of his military uniforms and his eye-catching medals and ribbons. He packed all of them deep within his floating luggage trunk and planned to stuff them into his closet the instance he returned home.

Currently, Ves sat in a luxurious waiting area on one of New Foundation’s commercial space stations. The space station served as a nexus for transit in and out of the strategic star system.

Few people in the lounge recognized him despite seeing his face plastered all over the news recently. He took a page out of Ketis’ playbook and bought an overpriced beret from one of the trendy fashion stores at the space station.

The black beret rested comfortably on his mop of raven hair, though it wasn’t the poofy kind which helped Ketis hide her horns.

In order to make himself more incognito, he also copied Melkor and bought a large violet visor that covered half of his upper face. The bright violet color made his visor look gaudy, but it was the largest model the electronics store offered.

For some reason, slim and tiny visors were in vogue these days.

Complemented with a drab casual outfit, Ves looked completely from his sharp and impeccable appearance in the media. Once he donned his accessories, practically no one on the space station gawked at him anymore.

Only one person approached him. When Ves looked up from his seat, he recognized the newcomer’s merchant navy uniform.

"Captain Silvestra!"

"Mr. Larkinson, the Barracuda awaits your arrival."

"Good. Let’s go."

Ves followed the captain of his corvette out of the lounge and into a series of expansive hallways before they arrived at a pier dedicated to smaller starships. After undergoing several security inspections, they were finally allowed to board the Barracuda.

Shortly after their entry, the Barracuda requested and received permission to separate from the space station and depart. The slim corvette followed a fixed route and slowly sat in line as she waited for her turn to transition out of the New Foundation System from the closest Lagrange point.

After Ves settled in his luggage in his personal stateroom, he entered the bridge and witnessed the proceedings.

Even though several years had gone by, the Barracuda and her assigned crew hardly changed. The interior of the ship may have received some new additions, but it was still essentially the same corvette that Ves received after reaching the finals of the Leemar Open Competition.

The small, all-women crew of the Barracuda looked as fit and attractive as ever. They seemed incredibly familiar with the operation of the ship, which they should after serving on the same ship for years.

Ves sat silently in his observer seat as he witnessed Captain Silvestra calmly dealing with traffic control while at the same time issuing instructions to Miranda Pham, the ship’s helmsman.

Only until the ship successfully transitioned into FTL did everyone relax. It was always a hectic moment when they tried to navigate in such a busy part of a busy star system.

"We are now underway to the Rittersberg System, Mr. Larkinson." Captain Silvestra reported.

"Understood. Keep up the good work."

The New Foundation System was very close to the Rittersberg System so the trip would only take a couple of days. Ves figured that since he was already close to the Larkinson Estate, he might as well pay a visit there before he travelled to the Bentheim region.

Ves planned to have a good talk with his grandfather and possibly make some dealings with the family’s steering committee. He did not forget that he was an elder of the family by virtue of his business accomplishments.

"How will they treat me now that I’ve survived and thrived in the war?"

Now that he gained possession of a normal commercial comm, Ves was able to catch up to recent events. He did his best to ignore the stories related to the supposed romance between Venerable Foster and himself and moved on to any news related to the Larkinsons.

A lot of stories popped up. As a famous military family, the Larkinsons attracted a decent amount of attention wherever they showed up. Some of the military veterans of the last war distinguished themselves again during the current generation’s war, but they didn’t attract as much attention as the rising stars of the family.

Perhaps the most eye-catching Larkinson to stand out from the younger generation was Venerable Ghanso Larkinson.

"So he’s a Venerable already?"

He only spent a short time as an expert candidate before he quickly advanced to become the latest expert pilot for the 1st Volari Starhawks! Due to his quick and seemingly effortless advancement, everyone believed that Ghanso had a bright future ahead of him in the Mech Corps!

"Still, he’s not the only Larkinson to excel in the war."

Perhaps owing to the shortened duration of the war, none of the other notable Larkinson mech pilots managed to advance to expert pilot. Even so, two more members of the family managed to become expert candidates, giving them hope of catching up to Ghanso Larkinson in time.

The first one that stood out was Porellia Larkinson, the granddaughter of Ovrin Larkinson. Unlike many other Larkinsons, Porellia eschewed more mobile mechs where she could put her excellent mobility training to use and instead opted to specialize in piloting landbound heavy artillery mechs!

Somehow, her operation of these sluggish machines became so good that she somehow reached a superhuman level of performance! All of the engagements she participated in accelerated her development as an expert candidate and it seemed it was only a matter of time before she advanced to expert.

"Good for her."

The other expert candidate in the family was Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson, the grandson of Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson.

Ves did not have the best impression of Raymond. The old man never suffered any hardships. As the Third Elder of the family, he managed family’s trust fund and other finances.