The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1501

Hearing about the changes taking place in the Bright Republic and Cloudy Curtain really made Ves homesick.

His home state underwent huge changes that transformed almost every fabric of its society! The government didn’t spare anything to muster its defenses and prepare for the inevitable sandman onslaught!

Ves wanted to return as soon as possible to lead the LMC through the current crisis!

"I only have one more stop before my fleet turns home." He reminded himself. "I still have some business at the Hertog Dominion. It wouldn’t do me any good to skip this destination."

After his treacherous— ahem, patriotic assistant finished his daily briefing and left, Ves fell into thought.

With Nitaa standing on guard and Lucky crawling over his body, Ves tried his best to make sense of the past few days. His recent insights related to his design philosophy, the responses towards the sandman invasion and Gavin’s double dealings all bubbled in his mind like a soup.

Though these topics weren’t necessarily related to each other, the more Ves reflected on them, the more he began to see a way to connect them together.

Over the past several days, Ves tried his best to gain inspiration in order to form a bold and fitting vision for his current design project. Without a unifying idea to guide his efforts, how could he ever design a spaceborn rifleman mech that stood out from the crowd?

As Ves activated his terminal and idly started browsing current news articles from the Bright Republic, the seed that had been planted in his thoughts started to bloom.

What did the border states lack the most? Why did they collapse months before they were expected to fall?

"Too many citizens have given up! Even the mech pilots and military officers have lost hope!"

Ves didn’t blame them. The sandman invasion had surprised them all. Hardly any border state received enough time to shore up their defenses before the sandmen fleets flooded out of the deep frontier and crashed into civilized space like a tide!

No sane citizen would stick around and give up their lives in a hopeless cause to stall the sandman invasion for the benefit of others. Rather than sacrifice their lives for the betterment of random people, they would rather save their own hides!

Nonetheless, plenty of courageous mech pilots had stuck to their home states until they could no longer hold their positions. Some even held their posts to the very end!

Plenty of stories of courage and sacrifice from the border states circulated in the galactic net, but they were few and far in between. At this time, most stories centered around the immense amount of refugees hitching rides on any available starship!

These refugees had abandoned their state while feeling abandoned themselves.

It was a sad state of affairs. The societal cohesion at the border states had been too weak to unite their people together when they most needed it.

"Fortunately, the Bright Republic is better off."

The states situated further away from the border not only enjoyed more time until the sandmen reached their territories, but also learned from the mistakes of the border states.

At the very least, the amount of Brighters seeking to flee from the Bright Republic, thereby robbing the state of valuable manpower, was quite modest!

While the government couldn’t stop anyone from leaving if they really wanted to, most Brighters strongly believed that they were tough enough to withstand the imminent alien onslaught!

Not just the Bright Republic intended to stand their ground. The Vesians were just as pumped to defend their state and defeat the aliens!

When Ves compared the attitudes between the refugees and the citizens of the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom, he believed he found the key element that made all of the difference!

"It’s duty! We serve because it is expected of us! We fight because it is our duty to fight!"

Duty!

While Ves recognized that duty was not infallible in the face of an overwhelming threat, currently the sandman invasion hadn’t reached the point where resistance was futile.

As long as everyone did their duty, the defense lines would hold! Every analyst commenting on the current crisis agreed with this conclusion! With a CFA warfleet on their way to annihilate the rear lines of the sandman empire, the states under threat just needed to hold long enough to exhaust the current waves of sandmen invaders!

Ves pinned down the theme he wanted to incorporate into his upcoming mech design!

"It’s duty! That was what I was looking for all this time!"

It was as if a light illuminated the darkness that made him feel lost. Now that he found his light, he had found his direction! He knew what his spaceborn rifleman mech needed to center around in order for it to be useful enough to make a difference!

Ves decided to focus on the concept of duty for multiple reasons.

First, he wanted to do his duty by designing a mech that could help the Bright Republic and other states fend off the sandmen. He believed that the mech he was about to envision would be one of the best solutions on the market.

Second, he wanted the mech pilots who defended their states to do their duty as well. Even if they weren’t supplied with expensive mechs, the brave men and women on the frontlines deserved as much support as possible.

"Mechs form the most important support to mech pilots! Everything else is merely supplementary! As long as their mechs are strong and dependable, the pilots will perform their duties with confidence!"

By emphasizing the concept of duty in his next mech design, Ves not only hoped to do his part, but also influence the mech pilots into standing their ground under difficult circumstances!

This was the third reason, and perhaps the most compelling one to mech buyers!