Chapter 2841 - Too Threatening (1/2)
Ves did not induct any other Lifers into the Larkinson Clan. While he was aware that a number of other groups such as the Trezin Showstoppers and the Right Siders wanted to defect from the LRA as well, he had to deal with other priorities.
Besides, it was not a bad thing to force the others to wait. Everyone had witnessed how the majority of Roving Hunters had formally joined the Larkinson Clan. While the ritual was a little hasty and lacking in terms of spectacle, the spiritual activity that took place caused everyone to feel the weight behind the changes.
From the way the new members gained instant respect from existing Larkinsons to how they were warmly welcomed inside the base, everything that happened generated a considerable amount of envy among the onlookers!
Ves inwardly smiled at the sight. While he could not browbeat doubters like Oliver Vlambeer into joining his clan, he could employ all kinds of other tricks to increase the attraction to joining his clan!
Marketing textbooks were filled with tactics and methods designed to exert psychological pressure onto consumers. Some of them were benign, but others were much less innocent!
”You guys haven’t seen anything yet.” He softly said.
”Meow.”
Lucky patted his paw against Ves’ helmet.
”Hey! I am not breaking the rules! I already told Jannzi that I will stick to softer methods of persuasion.”
Ves never forced anyone to pilot his products. He just heavily encouraged the market to do so. Considering that tens of millions of mech pilots were utilizing his mechs to this day, he was doing quite well in this regard!
After handling a few issues concerning the placement of the refugees, Ves and several others proceeded to enter a structure in the center of the base before entering a conference room.
A lot of familiar faces already showed up along with a few new ones. While Ves vowed to never pull his body out of the Unending Regalia until the crisis had passed, he felt secure enough to retract his helmet.
”Ah, fresh filtered air.”
”Meow.”
The stern-faced woman softened a little as the gem cat settled on her l.a.p and looked up at her with his glowing green eyes.
”Oh, poor fellow.” She spoke as she stroked his smooth back. ”You must have gone through a lot of difficulties to make it back. Did the patriarch treat you well?”
”Meow!”
While Lucky received his regular dose of pampering, Ves briefly gathered with the three expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan.
Due to the vulnerability and incredible value of the Larkinson Fleet, it was irresponsible to station every expert pilot to the surface. Ves and General Verle had to make a hard decision on who to transfer to Gentle Lotus Base.
Eventually, the two settled on Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson.
The former was of limited use in spaceborn battles while the latter fared great in many different circ.u.mstances.
In fact, Venerable Joshua was an even more versatile and adaptable expert pilot, but he was much less useful in this situation.
There, the Larkinsons and Glory Seekers weren’t restricted from fielding hundreds of mechs. This meant that Venerable Joshua could always join forces with lots of Valkyrie mechs in order to evoke the Hexer battle network!
The power of this extraordinary attack allowed Ves to feel completely assured about the fleet’s safety. Together with the main fleet of the Infinity Guards, it didn’t matter if the Golden Skull Alliance had yet to replenish its battle losses.
When Ves approached the pair of expert pilots, Tusa looked teasingly as the female Larkinson.
”I heard you got into quite an ordeal. Are you missing your Shield of Samar?”
”Shut up. At least the inspectors recognized that my prime mech is stronger!”
While Master Cline somehow convinced the authorities to allow the Larkinsons to bring down additional mechs, the inspectors did not allow any mech to make landfall!
They were especially vigilant towards big and intimidating mechs. It just so happened that the Shield of Samar looked way too formidable!
The irony was that Tusa did not suffer the same problem. Even though the Ferocious Piranha won a brilliant victory during the first phase of the design duel, the mech looked too small and light to suggest it was capable of inflicting mass destruction.
For this reason, the Piranha Prime along with a pair of other Ferocious Piranha’s managed to make it past the inspection!
It helped a lot that the inspectors only examined one of the regular Ferocious Piranha’s. After approving one machine, they didn’t bother to examine the other two, thereby allowing the much more dangerous Piranha Prime through!
”Don’t gloat too much, Tusa.” Ves admonished him. ”Greater power conveys greater responsibility. Since you’re piloting the only prime mech on this planet, I’ll be counting on you to repel our toughest opponents.”
Venerable Tusa’s smile dropped. ”You can count on me. I don’t fear any opponent aside from expert mechs.”