The Mech Touch novel Chapter 164

According to the CFA, the sandmen thought on an entirely different level. To these intelligent clumps of sand, everything consisted of either matter or energy. They viewed the human race and their many ships and settlements in the same way as a rock or a tree.

Though humanity only had a limited glimpse on what went on in their core territory, it appeared they lacked a complex society. Their culture was nonexistent and their society consisted of a one-dimensional hierarchy based on the value of their composition.

"They’re not a race we can talk to." Captain Silvestra said as everyone finished their dessert. "It’s either kill or be killed. Energy weapons aren’t very effective but high impact damage will do the job."

"Since they’re so dangerous, why do people keep invading their space, if you can call it that?"

"As a silicate-based lifeform, they’re extremely obsessed with rare and valuable minerals. Their higher castes have a tendency to hoard exotic minerals for years before processing them or shipping them to their core territories. As long as you’re not afraid to die, a strike group can easily overwhelm a smaller colony and make off with a large amount of exotics."

While the larger conglomerations of sandmen posed a great threat, the smaller groups tended to be slow and stupid. As long as the raiders left before reinforcements arrived, they stood to gain a handsome profit.

Everyone dispersed after dinner. Ves got a lot more stuff to think about. The dangers and opportunities one could find in the border region could easily enrich a daring prospector.

Much of the space in the core regions of the galaxy had already been mapped out and claimed by various powers. Only at the vast rim of the galaxy could someone change his fortunes after stumbling across an untapped windfall.

Midway into their journey to Mancroft, Ves received a surprising call.

Master Olson personally summoned him to her virtual abode. He immediately dropped whatever news program he idly watched and connected to the one-time address he’d been given. His stateroom’s top-quality projectors strained to portray the majesty of her surroundings.

Ves beheld the famed Titanium Garden for the very first time. It existed both in real space and in virtual space, and both looked magnificent in different ways. The virtual version looked like an endless three-dimensional titanium garden.

The virtual garden had no up or down. Small plots of soil rested atop titanium enclosures which themselves connected to other plots via various vine-shaped titanium lattices. The mixed orientation and the fact that the water that flowed between them never fell outside their channels made it clear that gravity worked inconsistently in this space.

Despite the mind-boggling complexity involved in its construction, the entire garden appeared to exist in harmony. Ves did not get a headache even after he tried and failed to derive some pattern out of the random environment.

A soft clap interrupted his thoughts. He moved his body and saw that his master rested on a divan in the center of an alien garden. Blue grasses and red leafs swirled around her position like how planets revolved around the sun. The moving foliage presented him with an enchanting sight, especially when the plot appeared upside-down in his perspective.

"Come on down." Master Olson said, gesturing her carefully manicured hand towards another bench that appeared from the grass. "There are a couple of matters that we must discuss."

It took some time for Ves to figure out how to flip his perspective and land on the bench. He looked up at Master Olson like a schoolkid eager to begin his first lesson.

"How are you today?"

"I’m good. I’m currently on my way to Mancroft."

"I am aware of your mission." She responded in an elegant fashion, the many jewels adorning her head tinkling with a distinct melody. Her brilliant blond locks flowed with the wind, which markedly contrasted with the blue and red foliage. "It is not to be taken lightly."

If his master went out of her way to call him directly, then Ves might be in danger. "Is the Groening mission that dangerous?"

Her cool eyes continued to bore down on his sitting form. "Do you know that I have been nurtured by the Vermeer Group for more than eighty years?"

He nodded.

"I started my training in a batch of thousands. In order to meet the expectations of the Vermeer Group, we competed directly against each other for resources and attention."

Ves hadn’t heard about this at all. Her public biography only briefly mentioned a dry statement that she had been nurtured by the Vermeer Group in a secretive experimental training program. Ves wondered why she narrated her own back story.

"Compared to my brothers and sisters, I was not the most intelligent nor did I make the most friends. Yet after eighty years, only I am able to reach the Master level. Do you know why?"

He shook his head.

"I treated myself harshly. Where my rivals studied five courses, I studied ten. When they gained some experience by taking an easy mission, I took an assignment that sent me straight to an active battlefield. I never slacked off in my pursuit for knowledge and power."

Ves started to understand why she told him this story. "Every great mech designer has worked hard to reach their positions."

"Hard work is not sufficient." She gently chided him. Her eyes grew chillier by the second. "Ruthlessness is needed above all. Everyone starts the same. Only by subjecting yourself to pressure will you be able to break and reforge yourself into something more than human. Only by reaching beyond the limits imposed by our flesh will you be able to reach the Senior and Master level and craft many wonders from your mind."

It sounded like she referred to some great secret or truth. Ves started to get a little lost. "So is it a good or bad thing that I’m taking the Groening mission?"

"Let me put it this way. Your current chances of survival is less than twenty percent."