The Mech Touch

Chapter 7614 Cybernetic Prisoners

This was not the first time that Ves learned that his clan lacked the research capabilities to decipher the secrets of exotic spoils of alien nature.

That was very problematic considering the Larkinson Clan's forces regularly came into contact with powerful alien adversaries.

Due to controlling the only human source of superdimensional matter, the Larkinsons enjoyed the unique advantage of fielding some of the strongest mechs short of god mechs!

Such powerful machines needed to be used on the right battlefields.

It was a waste to dispatch them onto less intensive battlefields where they could mindlessly bully alien cannon fodder without a single threat to their safety.

Not all of the native aliens were weak. Their encounter against the Blackwater Summoner and his well-equipped vassals under his command had given the combined fleet a bloody nose.

These were the enemies that the champions of the Larkinson Clan were destined to overcome!

It also helped a lot that fighting these enemies was highly rewarding.

Acquiring all of those deathborn artifacts greatly enriched the clan.

Salvaging the abandoned Saint Piercers and Saint Armors also gave the Design Department much more leeway in developing future superdimensional mechs.

The Dark Apostle and his Ascended Giants also drooled over the acquisition of new high-end phasewater organs!

If not for all of the casualties, Ves would have considered his half-finished campaign to be a resounding success!

"Perhaps my forces will return none too soon." Ves idly muttered.

He had a premonition that this would not be the last time the Larkinsons tangled with the deathborn and their native alien collaborators.

The acquisition of the mysterious Large Mother Crystal Fragment alone made him believe in this possible future.

After all, even if the Larkinsons failed to get anything useful out of it, just its most superficial function alone was an incredibly useful tool to pin down the locations of deathborn across the stars!

Red humanity did not need to rely on painstaking reconnaissance and infiltration to find out where the deathborn converged. They could just fly close enough before activating the crystal fragment for a few seconds to discover the precise coordinates of their nests.

If the sampling of valuable goods and debris from the previous battle was an indication of what humans could attain, he believed that future raids would still yield plenty of gains.

However, that brought Ves back to the original pain point.

The research institutions of the Larkinson Clan were unable to keep up with the growing demands of their services.

The matriarch of his clan along with many of the executives had done their best to address this shortcoming, but this was far from the only priority on their list.

The clan was still relatively young and grew larger with each passing day. Every administrative branch was swamped with work. The recruiting offices did their best to scale up their operations, but their efforts became increasingly more strained as they struggled to lure in the right kind of manpower.

Red humanity did not lack for ordinary job seekers. There were certainly enough third-raters, second-raters and even first-raters with average qualifications that dreamed of working for an up-and-coming group like the Larkinson Clan.

Yet the truly high-end talents remained frustratingly elusive.

Many of them were spoken for at birth or at a relatively early stage of their education.

Many major players had played this game for so many years that they had long planted recruiters or talent scouts at any upstanding school, academy and university!

These professionals could also rely on the huge reputations of their parent organizations to open doors and sign on promising prospects without encountering too many barriers.

While Ves believed that the men and women from the Larkinson Clan would one day be able to throw their weight around, he did not foresee this happening within a single generation.

That also meant that trying to scale up his research institutions could be done any faster.

The alternative solution was to buy up other research institutions, but even there the Larkinson Clan faced many barriers.

The most affordable ones could engage in ordinary R&D tasks without too many issues, but they completely lacked the high-end talent and experience to decipher anything truly challenging.

The more valuable institutions were already claimed by others for the most part. Many of them had been founded by states, superorganizations and other formidable players. They would never exchange such a strategic asset to their rivals unless they were truly desperate.

When Ves read the reports on how much the Larkinsons tried and failed to expand their effective research capacity, all he saw was a hundred ways to fail.

"Is it really that bad?" He asked his closest assistant.

Gavin Neumann did not need to employ the full capabilities of his digitized mind to respond.

"Every human knows that the ability to conduct research is an essential advantage at the beginning of the new age. New methods and technologies have become available. Any power that wants to retain their current strength and expand it in the future must innovate their way to success. The demand for scientists and engineers has become so great that every student that has proven to be a talent is being fought for by at least 20 employers!"

This pattern already created a considerable distortion in the employment sector.

Many students yearned to become a valued researcher.

Not only would they enjoy treatment reserves for kings and nobles, they also escaped military service and all of its associated dangers.

Almost no one was stupid enough to risk these precious talents on the battlefield!

The fact that so many organizations had already begun to put up scientists on a pedestal and bestowed them increasingly more extravagant privileges definitely spelled trouble in the future!

At the very least, it forced the Larkinsons to engage with more diva-like personalities than they wished.

"To be honest, we are doing quite okay even if we are unable to expand our research institutions as quickly as we like." Gavin tried to reassure his boss. "The relationships that we have forged with our allies have never been better. The Red Tree, the recently founded colonial empires and so on are all willing to share some of their most valuable research attainments with us. That is enough to prevent us from falling too far behind on the technological curve. A better outcome is more desirable, but not as attainable."

In other words, Ves needed to recognize his current reality and dismiss his unrealistic fantasies.

"Do you have any useful suggestions?"

"I have two." His assistant behaved a little more proactively than usual today. "One of them is to continue to do what you do best, which is making friends. As long as you get close enough to a power such as the Cybernetic Empire, it is not out of the question for you to conduct an exchange where the other party agrees to send you a batch of talented scientists."

Due to the Polymath's decision to assume leadership and centralize the entire governing structure of Bridgehead One, her little empire possessed a very strong focus on education and R&D.

For several decades, the Cybers continually made good use of their cranial implants to study advanced sciences and become competent in many different fields!

Of course, not all of them managed to fulfill their dreams. Ves had heard that the competition over there was extremely brutal. The Towers possessed limited budgets and could not indulge in too many people's flights of fancy. Therefore, only the truly talented and capable scientists and engineers managed to get hired.

As for the rest?

They could only settle for working at less prestigious R&D institutions or other employers.

These people seemed to be ripe for recruitment.

"Do you think it is a good idea to try to recruit second-string researchers from the Cybernetic Empire?"

Gavin firmly shook his head. "No. Not unless you make a special accommodation. The Cybernetic Empress keeps her people in a tight grip. Her empire still has not revoked the prohibition against emigration. Its citizens are forbidden from leaving. Otherwise, too many people who used to be mechers, fleeters, Terrans and Rubarthans would go right back to their old homes."

It was an unfortunate fact that many 'citizens' of the Cybernetic Empire never truly had a choice in their allegiance.

This problem became a lot more problematic now that Bridgehead One had reconnected to the rest of the Red Ocean and became accessible again.

As far as Ves had heard, the Red Two and the colonial star empires did not agree with this policy, but lacked the resolve to insist on their demands for repatriation.

The Polymath had become too powerful and well-entrenched to challenge. Threatening her was not only useless, but counterproductive. So long as she did not commit any truly unforgivable taboos, all of the other major powers were more than willing to turn a blind eye to her… lesser transgressions.

"It is not as if the old powers have tried already." Gavin spoke up again. "I have heard rumors, none of them confirmed, mind you, that they have all tried to smuggle their former men away from the sphere of influence of the Cybernetic Empire and back into friendly territory. None of these attempts ended well."

That caused Ves to frown. "What happened?"

"Their cybernetic implants. Think about it. The Cybers installed all kinds of devices into their bodies. All of that metal and circuitry has already merged with their muscles, bones and nerves. Do you truly think that a leader who has demonstrated as much autocratic tendencies as the Polymath could not resist the urge to slip in her own backdoors and contingencies in those devices? Given her brilliance, no one can fully disable or circumvent her tampering. Her authority can also override all forms of opposition."

Ves widened his eyes in realization. "Damn. I hadn't put so much thought into their plight. The Cybers aren't as free as other red humans. Their cybernetic enhancements have permanently marked them as property of the state and its unfeeling sovereign. They are prisoners in their own modified bodies."

"Do you comprehend the greater problem with employing Cybers now, Ves? Sure, there are a lot of good mid-to-high-level scientists among them, but even if you can obtain a batch of them after trading away a lot of superdimensional matter, they will be able to integrate into our clan. Their cybernetic shackles will always bind them to their true owner, who can always choose to yank on their chains"

The unbreakable entanglement between the citizens of the Cybernetic Empire and their advanced augmentations would always set them apart from the rest of red humanity.

"No wonder some people on the galactic net insist on treating the Cybers as a separate race."

"That is a little too extreme for most people." Gavin said. "They are still humans. They are just forced by their own circumstances to maintain a degree of separation from the rest of us. It is not their fault. All blame can be laid at the feet of the Polymath."

The Star Designer likely did not even bother to pay attention to these useless complaints. They had no power over a True God.

Ves eventually shook his head. "Alright, I get it. Hiring the Cybers is not the best way to go forward. What else can we do that can definitively solve our problem?"

"That is why I personally favor my second suggestion." His assistant slightly leaned forward. "We raise them in-house. That may sound absurd to you at the moment, but it does not have to be. As long as we dramatically increase the population of our clan, we will not lack highly intelligent Larkinsons who are too loyal to ever think about defecting to other major powers."

"That… is a logical proposal, but it suffers from the same problem as many other suggestions. It will take too long, Gavin. We aren't growing fast enough to reach the desired scale anytime soon."

"I know, sir. This is why I have come up with a rather bold plan."

"What plan?"

"Take over an entire state. No, why not limit yourself to one? You can try to take over several states! You can do it, Ves. You are not only a tier 2 galactic citizen, but also a battleforged warlord of red humanity. No critic will be able to contest your right to rule over the territories of our people. As long as you act on this ambition, I am sure that you will be able to obtain the support of many allies!"

"..."