The Mech Touch

Rubarthan Sentinel Cats such as Clixie traditionally fulfilled this niche, but times had changed.

The transition to the Age of Dawn meant that entirely new kinds of threats might emerge that were difficult to defend against!

For example, it was very much possible that malevolent cultivators or hostile spiritual entities might try to assassinate the members of a powerful family!

While Ves believed that red humanity would be able to develop a lot of countermeasures against such attacks, it didn't hurt to have more options.

A strong and loyal cat that was trained in fighting against these difficult threats could make a real difference!

If Aurelia truly made attainments in this field, then she would have no trouble earning her keep even if she lost the backing of her clan.

What Ves also valued was that it was a way for Aurelia to cultivate in a manner that fit her inclinations well. The more cats she trained, the more she was able to derive benefits from all of these felines, especially if they grew stronger over time.

Although Ves had a lot of misgivings towards deity cultivation, he still prized it for its strengths.

If he had a choice, he did not want Aurelia to practice a more dangerous or risky form of cultivation. Training cats was one of the most harmless choices imaginable.

While Ves was not certain whether it could make Aurelia stronger than other cultivators, she should at least be able to enjoy a more fulfilling life.

With that in mind, he gave her a brief lesson on safety before encouraging her to see if she could teach tricks to other cats.

He also gave a reminder to Goldie to supervise Aurelia's efforts.

"Don't let her do anything that looks dangerous, alright?"

"Nyaaaa."

Ves went to bed that night with cats dominating his thoughts. He felt oddly proud and silly at what Aurelia had managed to accomplish by herself.

Was this what her talent in cultivation had led to? Perhaps in ancient times, his daughter might actually be able to pass off as the goddess of cats, but right now he just found the entire situation to be absurd.

Once he woke up the next day, he was finally able to put most of the matters concerning Aurelia aside.

He put a greater effort into dressing himself up than usual. He also checked to make sure that his clan knew what to do in his temporary absence.

Ves did not actually separate himself from the fleet entirely. He already deposited his cyborg leg in a locked and guarded section of his design lab.

This way, his leg would not only be able to prevent his ongoing design projects from falling behind too much, but he could also take charge of his clan in case of an emergency!

His connection to the small secondary brain integrated in his cyborg leg was strong. Most forms of jamming and signal blocking could do nothing to cut it off. This allowed him to look forward to attending the conference without worrying about the situation back home.

"They're coming, sir."

A solitary Red Association destroyer arrived first. The modem superdrive-equipped starship zipped rapidly towards Corellix III and stopped in high orbit of the planet.

The vessel subsequently generated a portal that enabled several more first-class starships to enter the star system in an instant!

The arriving flotilla was not too big or extensive. It only comprised a handful of cruisers and a dozen smaller ship classes.

Despite the lack of numbers and tonnage, the modest task force was more than powerful enough to fend off most raiding fleets, especially if they deployed their modest contingent of first-class multipurpose mechs!

A handful of relatively large and voluminous cargo vessels emerged out of the portal as well.

These vessels brought an important batch of prefab construction modules used to build the beginnings of a land fortress.

The colony on the planet would become a lot more secure once the Red Association completed this single structure.

At the very least, the colonists could evacuate inside of its extremely powerful titan shield and wait a long time for reinforcements to come to the rescue.

One small frigate broke off from orbit and warp traveled over to the central debris site where the expeditionary fleet had settled down.

The mechers had finally come to Ves.

Ves had already packed up all of his luggage and goods for this trip. He had filled up an entire standard container with working examples of companion spirit fruit trees and other useful goodies.

The Larkinson Biotech Institute had carefully put each individual tree inside their own climate-controlled boxes that ensured that they would not starve and die off while in transit.

As Ves received a notification about an imminent teleportation event, he quickly turned to his wife, children, grandfather and cats and waved them goodbye.

"I won't be gone for long. Take care of my clan while 1 am gone."

"Do your best to impress the Survivalists." Gloriana said with an expectant expression.

"Meow..." Lucky yawned.

"Miaow miaow."

"Goodbye, papa!"

Ves wouldn't really be 'gone' per se, but he felt it was better not to tell them that he had left his cyborg leg behind. His clan needed to be able to take care of its own affairs when he was absent for any reason.

As he took one more look at his family, he wished he could bring at least one of them with him. The conference organized by the Survivalists was a great place for people to expand their horizons and get into contact with a lot of powerful and influential mechers.

The security demands were too high, though. Any location that gathered so many important mech designers and other notable individuals became a sensitive site. Enemies could inflict catastrophic damage to the Survivalist Faction and the Red Association if they were able to attack it in any way!

Although the Survivalists put a lot of effort into ramping up the security of the occasion, there was no reason for them to take unnecessary risks.

Ves wasn't even allowed to bring a single pet for that reason!

Seconds later, he could feel the characteristic effect of getting materially disassembled before reforming in another set of coordinates!

His body vibrated a bit as he tried to shake off the uncomfortable feeling of getting teleported away.

Once he regained his composure, he took in the environment. He noticed that he had entered a white and well-lit lounge compartment that was tastefully decorated with lively green plants.

They were literally lively.

Ves actually felt a little freaked out at how the seemingly normal plants moved their branches around and behaved as actively as animals!

"Ah, do not mind the decoration, my friend. The captain of this frigate added them to the interior as a personal touch."

Any ordinary human would find the animated plants to be unnerving at first, but Ves quickly relaxed once he saw that they were not actually sentient and intelligent.

So long as these plants were just moving by instinct, they were unlikely to go out of control.

Ves moved forward and sat down at a backless white padded bench.

Opposite to his position, Jovy Armalon smiled back as he sat on his own bench.

"It has not been long since we have last met and spoken in person." The tall and thin Senior Mech Designer spoke with a delighted smile. "Not much time has passed since then, but much has changed in between."

Ves had always been wondering about that. He gazed at Jovy with undisguised suspicion on his face.

"Did you manage to pick up what the phase whales were plotting in advance?"

"Hahaha. That is amusing. You overestimate my capabilities. The new companion spirit that you have gifted me does have a limited ability to glean future trends, but the Great Severing is too great in scope. The wonderful companion spirit that you have gifted me is not strong enough."

"Can I see it again? I'm curious to see how it has grown. You can take a look at my own companion spirit."

"Let us bring them out." Jovy enthusiastically agreed.

"Mrow."

"Zsss."

Two completely different looking companion spirits emerged from their heads and stopped in front of each other.

The Eye of Providence had been doing well under Jovy's care. The mechers must have studied it a lot, but they did not behave improperly and mess around with his work.

Jovy and his companion spirit must have gone through a number of interesting experiences, because the Eye of Providence had actually grown and developed more than expected.

The companion spirit still fell within a reasonable range of growth and development. It had not grown excessively strong nor showed any artificial signs of weakness.

The only problem that Ves had with the Eye of Providence was that it looked unnerving!

It was pretty much a spiritual manifestation of a floating fleshy human eyeball. The iris was purple and glowed depending on how intensively the spiritual entity tried to observe anything.

"Your Eye looks healthy." Ves issued his judgment. "I can see that you have brought it along to observe a good number of interesting sights. That is good. Anything that can stimulate your spirit will help it grow faster."

Jovy did not look surprised. "That concurs with my own feelings and the assessment of other experts. The Association has taken good care of my companion spirit and I. As their concerns about its potential dangers and limitations have lessened, I can tell you that a small number of mechers in the know have expressed interest in obtaining their own companion spirits. The amount of interest would have been greater if more people had become aware of what you have invented."

They chatted a bit more about what the Red Association had done to test and verify the Eye of Providence's capabilities.

Just like many other recipients of companion spirits, Jovy eventually found out that he could multitask and work on multiple design projects at the same time.

This benefit alone was incredibly valuable to mech designers below the rank of Master!

However, the evaluation of the mechers towards companion spirits had recently increased even more as Messier 87's light shone on the Red Ocean.

The Eye of Providence could perceive and interact with E energy radiation a lot better than Jovy himself!

The spiritual entity was literally able to act as his third eye, granting Jovy an undeniable advantage in any research project related to this important phenomenon.

Not only that, but the Eye of Providence also increased Jovy's E energy absorption rate!

The spiritual eyeball's natural cultivation process always fed back to Jovy, enabling him to speed up his spiritual development and make his mech designs a little more effective as a result!

"Under normal circumstances, Our Association is not inclined to hasten the introduction of new innovations." Jovy told Ves. "We are not living under normal circumstances anymore. A group of supporters have emerged that intends to push for the fast and admittedly reckless adoption of companion spirits throughout our organization and ultimately the general public. The premise to making this happen is your ability to automate and increase the scale of granting these useful companion spirits to human individuals."

Ves did not expect the Survivalists to move so quickly, but he welcomed this development!

"Our work on this project is not completely done, but the initial solution that I have been preparing to present to your bosses should be able to do the job. Is that good enough of an answer?"