The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7243

Chapter 7243: Mutated Voribug Hives

After the meeting concluded, Ves and Gloriana reluctantly called it a day. They assigned a few mech designers to monitor the Riot Mark III on a rotating basis before they chose to retire to their grand stateroom.

Their children all reacted with surprise after their parents briefly explained what had happened.

Andraste looked sympathetic. “Poor woman. Rosa doesn’t deserve this. I would hate it if I was forced to live the rest of my life as a machine.”

“That might not necessarily be the case.” Ves gently replied. “As long as she is able to become a god pilot, she will gain the power to shape her own destiny. We all believe it is not that difficult for her to reform a human body for herself again. Aside from that, I have been thinking about giving her a stopgap solution. The simplest answer is to connect her to a mechanical or bionic avatar that can roam around within a certain distance of herself. This is not a perfect solution by any means, but it is still sufficient to give her a semblance of human life.”

He already had a few ideas on how he could improve on this idea. Just because he could not restore her original human body did not mean he could give her opportunities to enjoy human-like experiences.

It all depended on how much he could mess with the Riot. Now that Saint Orfan had fused with it, changing any aspect of the mech entailed greater risks than usual.

Any significant change could either strengthen or weaken her soul. It may even change core aspects of her personality.

Due to these concerns, Ves and Gloriana ultimately decided to postpone any upgrades until she woke up again.

In the meantime, they could revise their old plans about swapping out the resonating exotics and investigate whether they need to make other changes for the Riot Mark III Revision B.

Ves happily foisted most of the work onto Gloriana’s lap.

“Why do I have to undertake this burden?” She asked with a voice devoid of enthusiasm.

“This sort of work is more technical and delicate. You are much better suited to apply physical tweaks to an archemech. Besides, have you forgotten about my deal with the Dark Apostle? I borrowed a lot of time from him in advance. I am obliged to uphold my end of the bargain. I will surrender control over my true body to my other self for a handful of days. He will be spending his time over at the Armitage, so please take care of the Riot on my behalf.”

“What?” Gloriana looked outraged! “You are running away from your own problem! This is your mess, not mine! What if an incident occurs that only you can solve?!”

“Then call me over an emergency channel. The Dark Apostle will return control of my body to me and I will transfer over as quickly as possible.”

The pair continued to discuss their arrangements for the next week. It might not be fair to Gloriana to assume so many responsibilities, but Ves had no other choice.

“What will your other self be doing in the meantime?” She asked.

“That will be up to him. I expect my phase lord self to spend his valuable time on training and getting up to speed with his new leadership position. We also need to decide where exactly we should go and what we intend to do once we arrive at the frontlines.”

His wife grew grave. “Those mutated voribugs are dangerous. I have not spent much time on keeping up with the news of what is happening at the second Rubarthan front, but the news is still pessimistic. The reinforcements from the Cybernetic Empire are helping, but their efforts are not enough to stem the tide. For all of their vaunted CE tech, they can still get exhausted after getting flooded by unending tides of voribugs. At most, their warfleets are buying more time for evacuations. At least we will no longer see as many instances of entire populations getting abandoned and being left to the tender mercies of our alien enemies.”

The return of the Cybernetic Empire had not only changed the military landscape of red humanity, but also its infrastructure.

The Cybers had built up a huge merchant marine.

The Cybernetic Empire’s military aid was constrained by its own greed and ambition. The other major human powers were reluctant to give up so many resources, territories and manpower, afraid that they would ultimately contribute to the Polymath’s takeover of their people.

Fortunately, the Cybers were less reluctant in letting its merchant marine ply the star lanes.

Tens of thousands of cheap but serviceable civilian-grade cargo haulers had begun to engage in transport services.

While their service sounded a bit boring and unremarkable in an age where heroes and gods collided against each other, the value of all of these trading vessels was immense!

Not only was industry and trade beginning to work properly again, but many ships suddenly became available to assist with the relocation of humans on vulnerable planets to safer locations.

Of course, the Cybers were not doing this out of the good of their hearts.

The demand for logistical services had risen so much that many companies were willing to pay high premiums to contract the services of any cargo vessel, no matter whether they were Terran, Rubarthan or Cyber in origin.

This was also an easy way for the Cybers to connect to the wider human society that they had been separated from for over 50 years and earn a bit of goodwill in the process.

In addition, sending ships to evacuate large amounts of humans gave the Cybers an opportunity to bring back large amounts of people who would be happy to join the Cybernetic Empire and start new lives on newly colonized planets.

Many people could figure out that the Cybers were taking advantage of the ongoing wars to expand their population, but what could the others do? It was the fault of the established major powers that they were unable to protect their own citizens against their alien foes.

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