The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1294

When the shuttle arrived at the underground hangar, Ves returned to the Barracuda. Upon entry, Gavin expressed surprise at his swift arrival.

"It’s only been a moment. I thought you would have stayed with Master Olson longer."

Ves smiled ruefully. "The news will go out soon, but I guess you better learn it now. As of today, I am no longer Master Olson’s apprentice. I’ve ’graduated’ from her care. I’m no longer a member of the Clifford Society either. I basically have no formal ties to the Friday Coalition anymore."

That stunned his assistant. "Why? I thought you mech designers loved to maintain relations with each other!"

"Let me explain, Benny."

As Ves gave instructions for Captain Silvestra to lift off into orbit, he described the reasons that led to this outcome. His lack of closeness to Master Olson and Gloriana’s shenanigans both compelled him to cut ties.

At the end of it, Gavin still looked caught off guard. "This changes things. One of the reasons why you stood out was because you were one of the few mech designers who were apprenticed to a Master. How many mech designers can boast of the same? While your association to a great Master will always remain, it won’t be as prominent anymore. Over time, it will merely be a footnote in your record."

"It’s fine. Although I’m rather peeved at Gloriana, it truly was for the best for me to distance myself from Master Olson. We are two completely different mech designers."

Ves would just feel suffocated if Master Olson compelled him to work on her behalf. Although many mech designers looked forward to the opportunity to earn the recognition of a Master Mech Designer, he happened to be an exception.

From now on, Ves did not owe anything to Master Olson, but neither would he be able to obtain any further benefits from her either. That suited both of them fine.

The only reason Ves felt a little cross was that he lamented the end of any ongoing relations with the rest of the Friday Coalition. Ves still had plans to engage with the powerful state in the future.

At the very least, the disruption to the LMC would be serious as Ves could no longer trust in SASS with the security of his company’s assets!

"We will have to end our contracts with SASS." Ves stated to Gavin. "I don’t know how far the news of my ’relationship’ with Gloriana has spread, but we should move all of their security forces out of the Mech Nursery and find another security company to plug in the gap."

Ves did not mention the Avatars of Myth taking over the vacancy, as they were still wholly inadequate to fulfill such heavy responsibilities.

"I’ll coordinate with Calsie and the other folks back home." Gavin nodded. "We’ll have to pay a price, though. I don’t have the contracts on hand but they definitely contain clauses that will force us to pay the full costs of security services over the entire terms of the contracts."

"It’s fine. The price we pay for this waste is less than the price we pay for letting a potential enemy have deep access to my assets."

The changes would definitely lead to a lot of upheaval regardless. Ves did not envy the managers and executives back home trying to keep the LMC together as the trusted and dependable security force of SASS moved out and an entirely new security force took their place.

Nonetheless, Ves merely had to issue the orders and delegate this headache-inducing issue to his subordinates.

With Gavin running off to pass on the new instructions to headquarters, Ves entered the bridge and walked up to Captain Silvestra.

"You’ve returned sooner than we expected." She remarked. "The Barracuda hasn’t even undergone any servicing yet. I suggest we wait until that’s done before we leave."

Ves shook his head. "I’m afraid we can’t do that. You’ll hear about this later, but for now all you need to know is that I’m no longer Master Olson apprentice and that my relationship with the Friday Coalition will soon go sour. I don’t think it is wise to let their engineers crawl all over my ship."

"Oh." The captain rapidly took in the implications. "If the Friday Coalition won’t be friendly territory for long, then it is indeed prudent for us to leave. What are your orders, sir?"

"I’m hoping to take a tour through the star sector before I return home to the Bright Republic. Please set course to the Kamon Republic. It’s fairly close, right?"

"It will take us less time to reach the Kamon Republic than Centerpoint." The captain confirmed. "While Kamon is rather small, it enjoys decent security since the third-rate state borders the Friday Coalition."

With such a huge neighbor right next door, the Kamon Republic enjoyed a lot of business ties to various Coalition influences. While arriving at Kamon would not completely bring Ves out of the Coalition’s sphere of influence, at least he wouldn’t be intruding in their direct territories anymore. He would just be strolling through their front yard instead.

Once there, Ves would have probably figured out his next destinations. He needed to do some careful research to see which states had something interesting for him to see.

They didn’t necessarily have to offer lots of bestial mechs or smart metal mechs. Ves wanted to make one lengthy trip in order to familiarize himself with the overall state of the Komodo Star Sector and experience some of its diversity.

The captain and the navigator charted a speedy course that would bring them to the Kamon Republic in a couple of weeks.

The Barracuda ascended into the air, leaving the archipelago occupied by the expansive grounds of the Leemar Institute of Technology behind. The giant juggernaut that graced the campus became but a pinprick in the projection of the view outside as the ship rapidly gained altitude.

"Farewell, Leemar." Ves whispered and turned off the projection.

He retired to his stateroom, upon which a curious Lucky emerged from his catnap.

"Meow?"

"A lot has happened today." Ves replied, and quickly summarized what happened.

Not surprisingly, Lucky did not react as strongly as Gavin or the others. He merely gave a single feline look at Ves before returning to his slumber.

"Meowww."

"Yeah. It doesn’t really change your circumstances, does it? I’ll manage somehow. I just have to readjust some of my future plans."