The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1261

Ves returned to the Barracuda via a shuttle, leaving Delta-Gina behind to pick up and guide another mech designer.

"How has it been?" Gavin greeted his boss. "Did they force you to slit your palm and shake hands or something?"

"Nothing of the sort." Ves shook his head. "I can’t say much about what I’ve been through, but it’s mostly a bunch of formalities mixed with grand displays of the MTA’s might."

"Makes sense. The MTA is really adamant about keeping every mech designer under their thumb. It’s kind of weird how every mech designer accepts their dominion."

The MTA could hardly tolerate a rival organization that tries to govern mechs, Ves knew. They wanted to control as many mech designers as possible in order to harvest their gains when they advanced to Master.

"You should mind your words, Benny. We’re still in MTA territory. Besides, the Association has done a lot more good than bad for the mech community."

"I’m not so sure about that. Why is the mech market the only place which requires such an extensive degree of supervision and regulation? You don’t see the market for nutrient packs being governed by a tyrannical Nutrient Trade Association who send out entire warfleets against every manufacturer who rips off someone else’s formulas." _{ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm}

"Nutrient packs are products which are inherently useful and always in demand. We both know that mechs aren’t nearly as desirable."

The MTA and CFA forced every state to replace their warships with mechs. Those that didn’t quickly got demolished. Under such a naked threat, states could only begrudgingly hand over their bigger toys and start playing with smaller ones instead.

Though Ves had never thought about it too much, now that he witnessed the MTA’s urgency in encouraging innovation, he had to admit that their nightmare might come to pass one day.

If mechs failed to develop into war machines that could effectively stand toe-to-toe with warships, the latter would inevitably make a return to human society.

While mechs would always have a place in the armed forces of a modern state, they’d be relegated to unimportant auxiliary units. Deprived of glory, attention and funding, mechs would become increasingly more invisible. The thriving mech industry would shrink to a fraction of its height, forcing countless mech designers to abandon their profession and become more mundane engineers.

The MTA wasn’t about to let this come to pass. They put all of their hopes on mech designers who advanced and developed psionic powers that enabled them to go beyond the technical limitations of mechs.

Yet if the MTA could harness psionics, what about the CFA? What were they up to with regards to this mysterious force?

Ves knew that the CFA should definitely be aware of its existence. He even witnessed an experiment related to psionics on Aeon Corona VII. That meant that as early as three-hundred years ago, the CFA was already dabbling with this power!

Yet the warships the CFA employed to this day did not appear to possess any exceptional quality. They were huge, brutish vessels that solely relied on quantity and quality to unleash overwhelming might!

No matter what kind of metaphysical tricks were thrown at them, warships always managed to defeat exotic effects through sheer brute force!

Perhaps the CFA tried but failed to replicate the powers of a mech designer onto a shipwright. It could be that they decided to focus on a different application of psionics.

Whatever the case, the CFA was not obliged to imitate the MTA.

Gavin interrupted his musings. "Now that you’ve got your Journeyman certificate and galactic citizenship badge, are we done here?"

"Yup. I’ve finished my business with the MTA. We’re free to leave the star system, but since we’re here, we might as well stick around for a while."

While Ves still had an appointment with Master Olsen at Leemar, it wasn’t too urgent. He doubted she cared if he arrived a week or two later.

"Let’s enjoy what Centerpoint has to offer. It’s not every day I get to visit the most prosperous star system in the Komodo Star Sector."

Centerpoint was truly the biggest nexus of trade in the region. Situated smack dab in the middle of the Friday Coalition and the Hexadric Hegemony, it facilitated trade from all over the star sector and beyond.

Despite the huge costs associated with doing business at Centerpoint, a huge amount of cross-sector trade took place here. Huge trade fleets dumped extremely valuable goods from star sectors closer to the center of the galaxy while loading up their cargo holds with exotics and other specialty goods native to the Komodo Star Sector and the frontier.

This also meant that Centerpoint offered a lot of advanced goods and services that weren’t native to the Komodo Star Sector or the galactic rim!

Naturally, not everyone could afford to pay for these goods and services. They were so expensive that only the internal personnel of the MTA and the wealthy citizens of the two second-rate states could afford to spend that much money.

The Centerpoint System was an immense star system that hosted multiple stars, planets, space habitats and space stations. Many of them imposed strict requirements of entry.

For example, Centerpoint III was the exclusive reserve of mech designers working directly for the MTA. A lot of amazing mechs and mech designs emerged from Centerpoint III each day.

Ordinary mech designers from all over the star sector dreamt of being admitted to the planet and becoming an apprentice or assistant to one of the esteemed MTA mech designers who resided on this paradise planet.

Yet for as long as it was settled, Centerpoint III had never opened its doors to anyone but internal members of the MTA!

The same applied to several other planets and habitats in the system. Even settlements with looser requirements still limited entry based on tiers of galactic citizenship.

While Ves had recently been inducted as a galactic citizen himself, his paltry tier only allowed him access to a few additional places.

For all intents and purposes, Ves was barely better off than a space peasant in Centerpoint!

After studying various possible destinations, he decided to visit Centerpoint V first. He recalled that Charlotte gave him an invitation card to a certain club on the planet. He might as well see what it was all about.

"Please set course for Centerpoint V, captain."

"Will do, sir." Captain Silvestra nodded and passed on the orders. "Mr. Larkinson, since the Centerpoint System is strictly regulated, you aren’t allowed to bring along a heavy escort. The most the Greenfeather is allowed to dispatch are a number of guards on foot."