The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

Each grand stateroom offered unmatched luxury. Fine wooden, metal, composite and stone furniture filled up the partitioned rooms. Aside from looking exquisite, they also gave Ves and especially Gloriana a sense of ownership.

From today onwards, this little mansion within a ship would become their permanent home.

While the grand stateroom still lacked a personal touch, there was plenty of time for the married couple to turn it into their sanctuary. They may be living here for decades or even centuries. Ves already planned to craft a custom desk and chair in order to spice up his private office. Gloriana had much bigger plans in store.

"I love it here!" She grinned as she walked up to him and pulled him into an embrace. "One home like this is worthy for us. It's going to be so much better once we get to decorate it even further. I need your help in order to make it perfect!"

She enthusiastically babbled some requests. In particular, she wanted to set up the private worship room with a shrine that was 'blessed' by the Superior Mother.

She also wanted him to create a bed that carried the same 'blessing' as well!

Suffice to say, Ves immediately grew alarmed at this request.

"No!"

"Why not?!"

"I don't want my mother snooping in on us when we're in bed! Can't we enjoy a little privacy?"

"I want her to bless our future children."

"The Superior Mother is not some kind of universal medicine, Gloriana! Don't pull her in for every single matter."

The couple argued about this a little before they came to a rather unsatisfying compromise.

They decided to make two beds. One of them would be a carved stone queen-sized bed themed around angels.

Considering that both of them frequently interacted with glows, Ves thought it would be prudent to rest under Lufa's influence. The angel-like spiritual product possessed a calming and tranquil glow that worked well in easing people's stress. With the heavy responsibilities that Ves and his wife assumed, ending the day in a spiritual and physical sanctuary should give them the best rest that they could ever enjoy.

However, in order to satisfy his wife's childbearing demands, Ves agreed to make a second bed out of carved wood. She wanted him to incorporate some Hexer style elements and even carve out a tall headboard that made it seem as if the Superior Mother was looking down on whoever was sleeping in the bed!

Though Ves found her proposed design to be a little disturbing, he consoled himself by her promise that she only insisted on sleeping in it when she was pregnant.

Gloriana grabbed his arms and stared at him with a hungry expression. "We need to provide the most perfect growing environment for our babies. There is no one better than the Superior Mother who can ensure our babies will grow strong and healthy. I will not allow you to squander this opportunity!"

"Okay, okay! I get it. I'll invest plenty of effort in making this bed. Are you happy now?"

"Definitely!"

She was so happy that she instantly glomped him and pulled him into a kiss. After a passionate make-out session, she pulled back and began to explore the bedrooms reserved for their children.

"Women." Ves tiredly sighed as he readjusted his uniform.

"Meow."

"Miaow."

The two cats were both perched onto a large, soft cat bed. The stateroom was not only a paradise for Ves and his family, but also their pets!

Various cat toys, scratching posts, obstacle courses and little cat doors ensured that every feline would be able to keep themselves entertained.

He spent the remaining time allotted to exploring the grand stateroom on inspecting the kitchen, library, living room and other areas. Though the Hexers had already furnished them with excellent furniture, there was abundant room for more.

If he wanted to transform this space into his real home, then he had to surround his living with his own style. Gloriana had the exact same idea. He envisioned a lot of arguments in the future on how to decorate their shared spaces.

"Well, whatever. We'll just split it up if we have to. At worst, I'll just move out to one of the vacant grand staterooms."

When the couple finished touring their new home, Captain Vraken led them out and briefly showed them the other cabins set up for long-term occupancy.

"The HHX-6963 offers plenty of space for living accommodations. Due to her potentially large crew complement, not every crew member can live in compartments as extravagant as yours. Here you can see a greater stateroom. While it is only a fourth the size of a grand stateroom, it still offers plenty of room to house an entire family with comfort."

As Ves quickly explored the greater stateroom, he found it to be more than enough for him to live in. It was akin to a normal house if built on land.

To be honest, the grand stateroom that he and his wife had claimed was too big. Ves didn't exactly need all of that space to live in comfort. Still, his demanding wife would never accept anything smaller so he didn't voice any objections.

"This is a good room to live in for senior officers, chief engineers and other key personnel." Ves remarked.

"Exactly." Captain Vraken nodded. "The HHX-6963 offers 66 greater staterooms in total. Our senior officers, vital personnel and any important guests will be able to live in comfort here. There are also 666 staterooms that are suitable for our junior officers and other mid-level personnel such as chief technicians and the mech pilots of our bunker mechs. By providing them with comfortable living spaces, their productivity will always be high."

Sadly, the rank-and-file crew members didn't enjoy these luxuries. They had to make do with smaller and more compact berthing compartments.

The only consolation was that the individual living quarters were adjustable. If the HHX-6963 had to accommodate more than 100,000 people, then it was best to make the cabins smaller so that more of them were able to fit the 39th and 40th decks.

If for some reason the factory ship had to accommodate even more people, then it was possible to place multiple bunk beds in the individual cabins.

Captain Vraken wasn't in favor of this measure, though. "I don't advise you to do this unless it is necessary. The HHX-6963 doesn't need so many crew. Considering that many crew members will live on this ship for years, we need to give them enough space to raise a family. By controlling the numbers on this ship, we can provide each crew member or family unit with a modest-sized cabin that offers as much space as a decent apartment on land. That should be more than enough to meet their long-term needs."

"I'll take that into account." Ves nodded in understanding. "After all, our clan doesn't have a foundation on land. All of our crew has no choice but to make this ship their home."

He knew that this wouldn't be enough to keep every single crew member happy. The factory ship may provide more amenities than sub-capital ships, but she was no substitute to living on a real planet.

The greatest shortcomings other than the lack of space was the constant confinement and absence of strangers.

Someone who lived on a normal planet could always live in their towns and cities to explore other places. That simply wasn't possible for the crew of his ship. The lack of people who weren't Larkinsons also threatened to make his clansmen more insular.

Ves didn't have any good solutions to this problem. He had to obtain an ark ship in order to mitigate these issues.

After Captain Vraken finished explaining the living conditions of the crew of the HHX-6963, she finally guided the group towards the most essential sections of the capital ship.

"The production halls are the reason for this ship's existence. The compartments housing the valuable production lines stretch all the way from the 18th deck to the 36th deck. Along with some storage compartments, repair facilities and other related functions, the middle decks are equivalent to an entire industrial complex."

When the group entered one of the production halls, they became dazzled by the brand-new high-quality production equipment.

In order to fabricate a wide variety of high-end second-class mechs, the production lines incorporate a lot of specialized machines that were very capable of producing specific components.

There were crystal synthesizers that could produce larger, denser and more flawless luminar gems.

There were forging machines and alloy compressors that could fabricate very hard alloys that were notoriously difficult to shape.

There were heavy-duty assembly systems along with an extensive suite of powerful bots that could lift tons of metal at a time.

The production halls even offered fine, localized control over the artificial gravity in the halls!

This meant that it was possible to selectively eliminate gravity on a machine while it was producing something delicate. It was also possible to lighten a mech frame so that it didn't take as much time and effort to assemble or disassemble a product.

The pair reverently approached the most important production machine. The 3D printer was the all-rounder and most versatile piece of equipment in a production line.

Back when Ves just started out, he relied entirely on 3D printers to fabricate his mechs. It was only later on that he started to make use of other specialized equipment. Stronger and more sophisticated mechs often imposed greater demands that could only be met with dedicated production equipment.

At the present, a single production line consisted of over 12 primary production machines!

Yet no matter how many toys he added to the production lines, the 3D printer still played an essential role. The higher the quality of the 3D printer, the greater the variety of parts it could produce.

More expensive 3D printers were even able to substitute the role of many specialized machines.

As much as Ves wanted to fill up the production halls with every possible primary production machine that he might need, he needed at least double the space. That simply wasn't doable aboard a starship with a finite amount of space.

Therefore, centering a production line around an excellent 3D printer was essential. When the Hegemony expanded the budget for his factory ship, Ves had invested a considerable portion of the extra money towards upgrading the 3D printer model of all 20 production lines.

Captain Vraken looked up at the giant cube that exceeded the size of an entire mech. "This is the GAIA A-35 3D printer. You probably know more than I about its characteristics, so there is no need for me to explain its capabilities."

Both Ves and Gloriana looked dreamily at this excellent 3D printer. It offered excellent precision, speed, flexibility and more importantly automation.

Many of the best manufacturing complexes in the Hegemony utilized the GAIA A-35 or similar models! The production line centered around this lauded 3D printer was capable of fabricating almost any standard military mech model in the Hex Army's lineup!

"With our GAIA production lines, we don't have to limit our mech designs on account of production difficulties." Ves stated.

This was an immensely important benefit! If he didn't have these high-quality machines, then he wouldn't be able to produce strong and sophisticated mechs such as the Transcendent Punisher or the Valkyrie Avenger.

As Ves wanted to supply his elite mech forces with premium second-class mechs, it was essential to invest in high-end production capacity. Now that he satisfied this requirement, he wouldn't have to worry about any design constraints in the development of his standard mechs for a very long time.

Of course, the GAIA production lines were still a bit inadequate when it came to the production of expert mechs and other top-end second-class mechs.

"Please show us our workshops." Ves requested. "Whenever we want to produce something, we won't be making use of these production lines."

The GAIA production lines were all geared towards mass production. While they were good at churning out lots of standard mechs at a high pace and a consistent level of quality, they were not good enough for the likes of the Miracle Couple!