The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1275

Lieutenant Ferct stared at each of them before announcing the winners of the final trials.

"Each of you showed your strength. However, only two of you are worthy enough to proceed. Tristan Wesseling, you’ve won all three of your duels. Your performance was very steady. I hope your design work will be just as steady."

"I will try my best to meet your expectations, lieutenant."

The woman then turned to Ves.

"Ves Larkinson, you’ve won two of your duels, which places you further ahead than the other two. You’ve passed as well."

"Thank you, lieutenant."

Tristan went undefeated, which meant he defeated Goz. Ves won against Goz as well, so the Hexer had already lost two out of three duels in this round-robin format.

Considering what Ves knew of the only woman among them, her rifleman mech shouldn’t have been able to win against the others! Her lithic mech was too weak and unsuited to the circumstances to fare well against the other machines!

Lieutenant Ferct offered some cheap praise to the pair of losers. Goz Zoza did not look pleased at himself, but Ves and Tristan defeated him fair and square. He could only blame his own bad luck for claiming a light skirmisher at the end of the second trial.

As the lieutenant took the time to console the mech designers who failed to secure enough victories, Ves processed his lingering yearning to reenter the cockpit.

It was so exhilarating to pilot a mech! Even though Ves firmly reminded himself that he was first and foremost a mech designer, the allure of piloting a mech continually teased his desires.

It took a bit more effort than he liked to stamp out this temptation!

As much as Ves desired to continue to pilot a mech, he had already made his choice. He already enjoyed far more success in his design career than he could ever hope for. Why squander his gains and his promising future for becoming something he simply wasn’t meant to be?

It was fine to envy a mech pilot. Yet his hidden desire must not develop anything more than a passing fancy!

The two losers disappeared after Lieutenant Ferct finished talking to them. The Rim Guardian turned her head to both Tristan and Ves.

"As for the two of you, both of you have shown enough capabilities to associate with us. We’ve just updated your records to reflect that. I must say, I’m not surprised that Mr. Wesseling has been able to pass, but you, Mr. Larkinson, are a lot more versatile than we thought. Other than your muddled performance during the first trial, you’ve continually exceeded our expectations."

"I’ve been through some challenging times." Ves smiled. "Also, I come from a military family. How can I not know what it is like to pilot a mech?"

The lieutenant shook her head. "Whatever. Come with me. I’ll explain what it means to be our associate."

A portal formed underneath the three and brought them away to a comfortable lounge. Ves, Tristan and Ferct each sat down after accepting a glass of liquor from a waiting bot.

"Tristan, I think you have a good idea what it means to become our associate, correct?"

The Fridayman nodded. "It means I’ve become qualified to treat with the Rim Guardians. It doesn’t mean I’ve become a part of your fraternity or enjoy your protection."

"Neither of you have become internal members of the MTA. You’ll have to pass completely different trials in order to be eligible. In the beginning, what the two of you earned is merely an opportunity to be heard by us. This essentially means that as long as we require something from an external mech designer, we might ask you to perform a task. It also means that if you’ve found something interesting or came up with a very valuable transaction, we’ll consider your offers seriously."

Ves frowned a bit. He still didn’t quite understand what he was getting into. "There must be more than that, right?" _{freewebnoveℓ.com}

"Correct." Ferct nodded while she took a sip of his drink. "You are only our most peripheral associates for now. If you want to enjoy more benefits from our fraternity, then you will need to work for it. Both of you will have to be proactive and come up with something interesting, valuable or worthwhile enough for us to invest in our relationship with you. If you think you’re already in the bank, then you are sadly mistaken."

The Rim Guardians may not be particularly dominant within the MTA, but they were still behemoths on a galactic scale!

The fraternity sought closer relationships with many mech designers throughout the galactic rim, but not too much. In their perspective, it was better to develop closer relations with one good mech designer than a thousand mediocre mech designers.

Considering the immense disparity between the Rim Guardians and the local mech designers from a star sector, the former didn’t have to do any of the work in developing the right relations. They counted on the mech designers to be proactive and prove themselves worthy of friendship!

"Look, lieutenant, I’ve been dumped in the Pit without any explanation. Can you finally tell me what’s so great about becoming your associate and why you want to treat with us locals?"

Lieutenant Ferct smiled in an intrigued manner. "I suppose you do deserve an explanation. Let’s start from our perspective. There are two additional reasons why the Rim Guardians wish to develop a network of local mech designers. First, let’s just say that we want to expand our options. We don’t always wish to do business with the MTA’s internal mech designers. They’ve formed their own cliques whose interests don’t entirely match ours."

"Does that mean there aren’t any mech designers among your fraternity?" Ves curiously asked.

"Some, but not all of them can be trusted with sensitive business. Sometimes, it is better for us if we rely on an associate that isn’t closely connected to the MTA, like you two. Naturally, we don’t expect too much from locals. We won’t hold you to the same standards as those who come from our own ranks."

"What is the second reason?"