The Mech Touch

Just this statement alone was enough to detonate the mech industry!

Many mech designers started off by becoming strong believers that science and engineering could make anything possible!

By learning and applying the tech that humanity mastered, mech designers steadily came up with stronger and more versatile mechs.

Science and technology also offered a plethora of expanding possibilities to other engineers. Every generation, new and improved products came out that changed the lives of many people for the better.

Human society was built on the foundation of technology. Almost everyone involved in any industry relied on millenia\'s worth of technological accumulation to further the progression of human civilization.

Although humans as a race also clung to religion and superstition to this day, it was undeniable that science and technology had become a necessity to any human society.

There was no way for people to live and compete against their rivals by rejecting the power of technology!

This was the mainstream stance that had gripped most corners of human civilization. Everything that people relied upon to survive and enjoy a comfortable life was based on one combination of tech or another.

Mechs, warships, terraforming and so on were the vital building blocks that allowed humanity to escape Old Earth and spread across the stars!

From the Age of Stars to the Age of Conquest, it looked as if humanity\'s future rose as brightly as the tech that it mastered.

It was a pity that this meteoric rise abruptly came to an end.

The Age of Mechs was a brand new era to humanity as a whole. The rise of the Big Two and the rules they introduced to the galaxy triggered many different changes.

One of the more profound changes was the sly and gradual introduction of extraordinary elements into human society.

The MTA began to expose and unveil the existence of high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers. Their powers seemed to be derived from technology, but those who looked further understood that technology and materials could only explain so much.

If the public knew how much the MTA tried to push a form of psionic power to them from the beginning, a lot of people would have protested due to their unflinching belief that science and technology was the only truth in the cosmos!

However, because the introduction of extraordinary elements proceeded on a gradual basis, more and more people who were born during the Age of Mechs slowly adjusted to the new normal established by the mech industry.

As a result, the MTA succeeded in warping modern human civilization from a society that solely based its power on its mastery of technology to a society that still centered around technology but added a dash of metaphysical mystique on top.

Most people seemed to accept this new addition to human civilization without asking where it originated.

Not even members of the scientific community bothered to ask more on why the new extraordinary phenomena were solely limited to mech designers and mech pilots.

This showed that science and technology still maintained their primacy in people\'s hearts. No matter the recent developments, most people ultimately believed that reality was made up of logical and consistent rules. The natural laws were universal and even the most unexplainable miracles could eventually be explained by scientific theories and lots of math.

As a child of the Age of Mechs, Ves held the same stance.

However, he couldn\'t deny that there were a lot of spiritual phenomena that could not be so easily explained. There were entities that were so powerful that they masqueraded as gods and got away with it for the most part.

Ves never really took them seriously because he knew that they were merely energy life forms that happened to be a lot more powerful than most individuals.

When the difference in power grew too great, it was all too easy for those at the bottom to deify the ones at the top!

This was not a behavior pattern that was limited to those who profess themselves to be gods.

There were many cases where high-profile leaders enjoyed such renown that their followers became indistinguishable from worshipers!

These unflinching devotees may be simple rural residents but they could also be highly educated and successful themselves. These lawyers, engineers, artisans and doctors were all knowledgeable and knew how to approach their professions with a systematic approach based on facts and logic.

Yet as soon as they became charmed by a successful businessman or a charismatic politician, all of their praiseworthy logic and critical thinking disappeared for no explainable reason.

Their intelligence literally degenerated as soon as they became gripped by the power of fanaticism!

The truth behind the myth may not be that far away from public perception, but it was most definitely a lot more mixed and not always flattering.

Yet because an entire group of people had given in to their less logical instincts, they became gripped by modern tribalism that caused them to behave no differently than cultists.

Ves felt that this was a corrosive phenomenon in human society. It was highly inappropriate for people to develop the reflex of turning to worship and believing that a higher power might solve their problems.

How would humanity be able to defeat its enemies and grow more powerful if more and more people stopped believing in their own potential?

During the Age of Conquest, humanity bumped into many alien civilizations that had centered their society around religion and the worship of greater beings!

Many of these alien societies happened to be among the most favorite targets of human conquerors.

The reason?

Too many of these aliens spent too much time praying to their illusionary gods rather than trying to come up with better means to resist the invasion of human warfleets!

Of course, there were still plenty of individuals among the aliens that showed a lot of initiative, but depending on how their societies were constructed, many of these bright and promising talents did not gain the power and influence that they deserved, but were instead ostracized and relegated to the margins of their flawed civilizations!

All of these examples further pushed humankind towards embracing logic and science. Perhaps this was also an important reason why the MTA still maintained this principle even as it openly began to introduce the wonders of extraordinary mech designers and mech pilots to the public.

Ves would have thought that the mechers would maintain their rationality and good sense when they worked with the more metaphysical aspects of reality.

Even a brilliant researcher and innovator such as Master Termaneo Dervidian should have been able to retain their scholarly demeanor.

After all, the man had an excellent track record of reaching past the limits of known technology and inventing new ways to accomplish feats previously thought unfeasible.

Yet what happened after Master Dervidian supplied the definitive answer was completely out of Ves\' expectation.

All sense of calm and rationality disappeared from the highly knowledgeable and highly accomplished MTA Master!

If not for the fact that Ves knew for certain that Master Dervidian was a core leader of the Transhumanist Faction who directly answered to some of the highest figures within the Association, he would have mistaken the older man for a Compact cultist!

Right now, Ves had a hard time accepting the complete change in demeanor.

Every Master Mech Designer that Ves had met up until now were all passionate and eager to unlock the mysteries of reality.

Despite the fact that they had developed their spiritualities to a formidable degree, their foundation as mech designers remained rooted in the sciences.

Though their work had expanded in scope and complexity, many of their brilliant innovations were always based on systematic logic and solutions that were reproducible through technological means.

Yet as soon as Master Dervidian started to talk about the awe-inspiring god pilot that had rearranged a child\'s neurology through the power of true resonance, he completely tarnished the image of a mech designer!

"God pilots are the living embodiment of how far humanity can transcend their humble beginning. Each and every living Divine is a testament to our limitless potential and how we as a species can overcome every adversity and evolve into an existence that is powerful beyond measure!"

"The Transhumanist Faction was founded around the ideal of evolving humankind to a higher state of existence. Though we are still far from uplifting every member of our race into more superior versions of ourselves, the few god pilots in existence are all role models that have presented us with numerous examples on how we should proceed!"

"The Common Fleet Alliance are conservative old fools who are stuck in the past and uncaring of the weakness of the human race. All of our tech and materials are eventually external objects that can always be taken away from us. Only by evolving our bodies and minds will we be able to get rid of this vulnerability and rely on our own intrinsic power to defeat hostile alien races and stave off the threat of extinction!"

"As you have seen in this classified footage, the title of god pilot is not an empty allusion. Each and every mech pilot that has transcended to this exalted stage can no longer be described by theoretical models or mathematical formulas. Reality and the laws that govern it have become playthings as soon as they enter the vast and powerful domains of our god pilots."

"It is difficult to fully convey the transcendent majesty of god pilots in a single conversation. God pilots are beyond human in every other category including their forms. Unlike ace pilots, the Divines possess limitless energy and are inexhaustible. No matter how poor and barren their environments, they can utilize their supreme willpower to generate energy from nothing, thereby allowing them to keep operating without ever running out. They can fight for months and years!"

"God pilots are so far beyond the parameters of baseline humans that they are truly gods in definition. Their mentalities are firm and strong beyond measure, allowing them to process an enormous amount of input without growing tired, weary or exhausted. Their cognitive functions have improved to such an enormous degree that they can learn advanced sciences. They can even repair and apply simple modifications to their own god mechs. They are so close to perfection that treating them as mere mortal humans is a huge disservice."

"The existence of god pilots is a validation of the direction that we are moving towards. Science is great and powerful, but as long as we become too dependent on a single power base, we will develop vulnerabilities and lack the insight and ability to address problems that go beyond what technology can explain."

On and on the older man kept talking. Master Dervidian became so completely overtaken by his admiration of the most transcendent pilots in existence that he no longer became prudent about holding back information.

Ves was pretty sure that he wasn\'t supposed to learn this much about god pilots.

He learned more about these supreme mech pilots in five minutes than he had in his entire life up until this meeting!

Yet the strangest part about this situation was that Ves was hardly able to pierce the mystique surrounding god pilots.

Everything that Master Dervidian said about these peerless soldiers and warriors did not actually help Ves understand how god pilots worked and how they were able to accomplish powerful and impossible feats.

"God pilots can do what our tech cannot do." Dervidian continued. "Their powers are so beyond comprehension that most of our attempts at replicating their feats have simply failed. The reason for that is that they have become so formidable that they can skip every step of the way and simply obtain the end result in an instant. The example that I have just shown you is a good example of that. The process of turning a norm into a potentate is entirely omitted. The child simply transformed to a better version of himself in an instant. Throughout this entire sequence, the conservation of mass and energy is entirely ignored. This is so unexplainable that we can only admit that we are dealing with the power of a god."

"..."