The Mech Touch novel Chapter 779

"There is one more topic I’d like to address before my protege returns." The purple-haired, purple-skinned mech designer said.

If not for her human heritage, Ves would have mistaken her as an alien.

"Speak." Ves gestured her to go ahead.

"I know you have been wondering why we are here. It is a question that is quietly weighing on everyone’s minds."

Ves carefully nodded. "I have questions, yes, but no one seems willing to answer."

"That is because they don’t know or are compelled to keep their mouths shut. Even I can’t tell you what we are after, only that our efforts will be worth it if we manage to secure our objectives."

"That’s exactly the kind of vague answer that everyone is regaling me with. They tell me it’s worth it, that our sacrifices will be meaningful, that we are pursuing a great and important cause. I don’t know what to believe anymore."

The momentous effort and the high degree of secrecy involved in this hunt made Ves more and more skeptical about its entire purpose. He even started questioning what Calabast said back then at Harkensen I.

Did everyone really pursue something as banal as high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum? Though its value indeed surpassed the GDP of several states like the Bright Republic put together, Ves did not have any proof to support this belief except for the word of a foreign, professional spy.

Someone like that wasn’t exactly the most reliable source of information.

Over time, he realized that he had given in to his biases when Calabast initially made her revelation. Just because he favored one conspiracy theory over another didn’t make it any more true.

So for now, Ves didn’t know what to think.

For her part, Mayra appeared sympathetic. "These questions will be answered in due time, but you must have patience. Even I don’t have the full picture. To be honest, before we received this mission, Commander Lydia has never revealed that her Swordmaidens belonged to someone else. As a dear friend, I thought I knew her. I was wrong."

"You mean you never thought the Swordmaidens had a backer?"

"Indeed. Strange, is it not? Commander Lydia is a force to be reckoned with. Every Swordmaiden of the first generation thought she was starting something great. She regaled us with dreams of elevating the status of women in the frontier by raising the strongest all-female pirate force in the Faris Star Region. For decades, we fought and bled for that dream, only to find out that a shadowy man from civilized space had been pulling our strings all along."

Ves started to feel that this conversation had taken a dangerous turn all of a sudden. His vigilance increased even as Mayra remained poised and elegant, as if she was discussing the weather. _{freewebnoveℓ.com}

"Are you dissatisfied with the Swordmaidens?"

"The Swordmaidens? Of course not!" She smiled briefly before frowning. "It is Commander Lydia who I am starting to get disillusioned with. How would you feel if the strong leader who we have all invested in turns out to be a puppet being pulled by someone else’s strings? We all thought that founding and developing the Swordmaidens was an end in itself, only for us to find out that we are merely tools for someone else to use at their convenience."

"Well, if you put it that way, it doesn’t look very good. Still, it’s very hard to achieve anything in this galaxy by yourself. Almost every strong outfit is backed by someone. Do you think I voluntarily joined this wild goose chase? If I had a choice, I would have rather stayed home and quietly design more mechs to round out my mech catalog."

Well, Ves may not be entirely true just now. While he hated being dragged all the way up to the deep frontier and be forced to accompany the ground forces to the surface of a planet that by all accounts appeared to be as dangerous as Groening IV, a small part of him felt different.

He enjoyed the new sights. He enjoyed experiencing something wholly different. Ves felt pretty certain that he became a much better mech designer now than if he had never been dragged through this journey by the Flagrant Vandals.

So in a way, he felt blessed to be a part of this unique adventure, even as he inwardly screamed in fear at the threats he faced.

"We can wax about the nature of how the galaxy is run, but time is short and we have work to do." Mayra dismissively waved her armored hand. "Before Ketis returns, I want to ask another favor of you. As you know, this mission may turn out to be very perilous. If worse comes to worst, I’d like to arrange some contingencies before that happens."

"You want to arrange an escape plan?"

"Yes, but not for myself. I’m too old, and I’m too attached to Commander Lydia. Even if she is driving us to our deaths, I will accompany her in whatever hell she intrudes upon."

"That.. doesn’t make sense."

"Even if Lydia’s Swordmaidens is founded upon a lie, every Swordmaiden believes in the causes it espouses. If there is an opportunity to turn a lie into a truth, we are compelled to see the transformation through."

Ves heard the conviction in her voice, and the conflict hiding within. Mayra spent too much time with Commander Lydia that even if her mind recognized that the pirate leader intended to use them up, the Journeyman’s heart didn’t allow her to turn her back on her sisters.

He mentally applauded Commander Lydia’s means of securing Mayra’s loyalty. The shrewd founder of the Swordmaidens indoctrinated her subordinates so well that they couldn’t betray her even if they all thought it was best to do so.

Ves wanted to dig into their history and learn from the commander’s methods so he could apply them to his own subordinates once the war had ended!

"It sounds like you don’t hold much confidence in your success." He remarked.