The Mech Touch

t have the spending power of my older and more established peers.
Even so, it ’s no problem for me to look at medium-sized mercenary corps, especially if I can buy them without their shoddy gear. ”

Kinner mercenary corps tended to disappoint when it came to the mechs they piloted.
The Kinner Tribe still wasn ’t a prosperous state and its mercenaries couldn ’t afford to pilot expensive mechs.
The best they could do was pilot budget mechs valued at around 20 million bright credits.

The Kinner Tribe instituted all sorts of complicated financial arrangements in order to put a mech in the hands of as many aspiring mercenaries as possible.
Otherwise, how could the state keep hiring out mercenaries when they didn ’t have any mechs to perform their jobs?

If it was possible, Ves would have preferred to replace the mechs of whatever outfit he hired with his own.
Yet such an option wasn ’t realistic.
The LMC did not yet possess a robust market presence in the states he intended to visit.

Gavin brought up something else.
”By the way, Ves, it ’s customary for visitors to hire a local guide.
Bloodstone is reputed to be a very complex planet.
With all the mercenaries and foreigners running around, it can be quite chaotic on the surface. ”

”Go take care of it, Benny. ”

As Gavin moved to make the arrangements, Ves returned to staring at all the ship icons displayed on the local plot.

The ships came from all over the star sector.
While none of the vessels hailed directly from the second-rate states, citizens of almost every third-rate state converged on Bloodstone II.
Ves even noted a couple of lone vessels and small fleets that hailed from the Bright Republic!

”They ’re a long way away from home! ”

Each of these people and influences all traveled to Bloodstone for one reason.
The same reason Ves diverted to Bloodstone as well.

Thinking of all the money that must be flowing into the Kinner Tribe ’s coffers, Ves scoffed.
”Even if people aren ’t able to produce something valuable, they can always turn themselves into products. ”

The Kinner Tribe ’s practices leaned a bit too close to slavery for his liking.
Ves understood the necessity of it, yet did the Kinner tribesmen truly support these customs, or were they coerced into playing along?

What Ves mostly found disturbing was how the Kinners raised many of their children.
Mech pilots were a rarity, so the Kinners resorted to unsavory means to accumulate as many of them as possible.
Otherwise, the Kinner Tribe ’s mercenary pool would have dried up many generations ago.

Too many Kinners grew up knowing that they were hardly worth anything.
They grew up in a government camp or institute without ever meeting their biological parents.

Only until they reached ten years old did they have an opportunity to transform their lives.
Those who possessed the right genetic aptitude would instantly be taken away and put into a different training regime.

As for those who turned out to be norms, some of them went on to be raised as the support staff for the mech pilots.
The remainder just became low-wage laborers who were sent out into other states in order to eke out a living without straining the resources of their home states.

In short, the life of a Kinner from the underclass was barely better than that of a slave.
Ves would not want to grow up under those conditions.

After a lengthy period of time, the Barracuda slowly neared orbit of Bloodstone II.

Due to all of the potential dangers involved with letting ships from every state orbit over an inhabited planet, the Kinners instituted a policy where they could park.
The Kinners forced every visiting vessel to orbit around Bloodstone II-A, a nearby moon.

Bloodstone II-A was a small, barren rock mostly used as a moon-sized warehouse and storage space.
Its surrounding orbit was littered with ships and fleets assigned to specific orbits to prevent collisions.

Anyone who deviated from the instructions of traffic control could be expected to be blasted into pieces by all the defensive installations and mech patrols in the vicinity.

A number of space stations orbited the moon as well, providing visitors and commuters with transit to the surface of the Planet Dyed in Blood.

”It certainly looks like someone dumped a planet-sized bucket of red dye over Bloodstone II. ” Gavin commented as he and Ves looked out of the transparent wall of the space station they entered.
Right now, its orientation offered a distant glimpse of the globe colored in red.
”It doesn ’t help that the Kinners love to incorporate the same shade in all of the architecture. ”

All of this combined gave visitors the illusion that they were visiting a hellish planet.
The ubiquitous bloodstone that made up much of the rocky planet ’s surface made for relatively poor construction material, but that did not stop most Kinners from using them as the principal construction material of their structures.

”Meow. ”

Ves readjusted Lucky ’s body over his shoulder.
”Yeah.
Bloodstone probably tastes bad for you. ”

”Meow. ”

”Oh? You ’ll help me pick the right mercenaries to hire? Do you even know what to look for? ”

”Meow! ”

”Yeah, you did help with selecting the least awful board members for the LMC back then..
not that it helped all that much. ”

Lucky appeared to be looking forward to having a say in the matter, so Ves did not reject the offer.
He knew that Lucky could be quite perceptive, but Ves possessed some tricks as well.

Ves briefly brushed his hand against his head, careful not to mess up his hair.

Almost two months had passed since he departed from Centerpoint.
During that time, his spiritual energy reserves came closer and closer to returning to its peak level.

By now, Ves regained sufficient spirituality that it wouldn ’t do him any harm if he employed some subtle spiritual tricks.
At the very least, employing his spiritual vision to see if any of the mercenaries in his consideration possessed the potential to become an expert pilot shouldn ’t be too demanding!

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