The Mech Touch (Web Novel)-Chapter 6880 Marvaine’s Childish Ambition

"So your friend rejected your invitation."

"Yup. Do you think he is stupid?"

"Not necessarily." Gloriana said as she held Marvaine in her lap. "I partially agree with him. It is worth it to fight to preserve our humanity. Survival is important, but so is retaining all of the progress we have to advance our civilization. All of this fighting is causing us to backslide into more savage versions of ourselves. We are looking more and more like the humans of a less enlightened period of our history with every passing day. While I am not stupid enough to hinder efforts to defend our space, I am not blind to the increasing militarization of our entire civilization."

"Hihihi!"

While her mother spoke, Marvaine continued to play with a toy. The colorful ball lit up with different lights and made interesting noises depending on how he manipulated it. Different manipulation patterns generated different responses. There was an entire game centered around making the ball produce rare and highly coveted reactions based on precise timing and deductions.

Ves smiled at his son.

Marvaine was still too young to involve himself in these kinds of debates, but that would change in the future.

The start of the Age of Dawn proved to be a period of strife and war. Ves was afraid that all of the fighting and struggle might force children such as Marvaine to forgo their childhoods and work hard to mature faster than normal.

This was not what Ves wanted to see. His children already exhibited accelerated mental development due to their pseudo-primordial human physiques. He did not want them to lose the joys of growing as kids.

That was why he agreed to live on New Constantinople VIII. The planet and its prosperous cities and society had done wonders to give his children a pleasant and idyllic growth environment.

Sure, their schooling was intensive, but they could keep up with it better than any of their classmates due to their genetic and spiritual advantages.

Even if the schools had begun to accelerate their curriculums in response to systematic cultivation, his children still had plenty of free time left to play with their friends and go out from time to time.

All of that would soon come to an end from the moment the Premier Branch relocated to its new but powerful fleet.

The Larkinsons had already decided to trade away peace for strength. This was one of the many concessions that humans needed to make in order to secure their own survival.

"Papa?" Marvaine asked as he shifted his attention away from his ball.

"Yes, little one?"

"Once we leave this planet, are we ever going to go back?"

"Probably not, son. Red humanity is… in a bad place right now. We are losing star systems left and right. The New Constantinople System is not in imminent danger, but if the native aliens keep winning more fights, they will get here sooner or later. Much of the people should have left in advance just like our Premier Branch, but the aliens will still be free to steal and destroy everything that we have left behind. Even if we can drive the aliens away in the future, New Constantinople VIII will become unrecognizable to us. Our home, your school and everything else you are familiar with are long gone by that time."

Marvaine's expression fell. "That… that is bad."

Ves reached out and petted the boy's head. "Lives are more important than property. Diandi Base may be gone, but as long as our ships are in one piece, our people will live on. We can always build new homes for ourselves, but it is much harder to turn the dead back to life."

"Can we save everyone?"

Gloriana shook her head. "This is war, Marvaine. It is impossible to save everyone from death. Our own clansmen are dying, and there is little we can do about it. The soldiers of the expeditionary fleet are doing their best to step up and make use of our mechs to stop the aliens from advancing. They are not eager to die, but they have accepted it as a necessary price to save the lives of many civilians, including children such as you. Then there are the side branch members of our clan that have chosen to settle in one of the exposed planets of the new frontier. Arranging evacuations for them is… challenging, and not all of them have chosen to flee when they can make a difference at their current locations."

For the first time in years, the Larkinson Clan was losing more members than it was able to recruit.

This was a concerning development as the Larkinsons could not simply resign from the clan.

Clansmen were dying in droves. Many of their deaths couldn't easily be prevented, but the clan should have done more to prepare for this doomsday scenario.

Ves had an obligation to lead the Larkinson Clan and do right by its members. He could have been more attentive with arranging evacuation routes. Another way to limit the casualties to the Larkinson Clan was to constrain its growth and proliferation.

He saw little point in founding so many side branches on smaller and more vulnerable planets.

Perhaps these branches made it easier to harvest and ship local resources, but the clan could have bought them from the open market easily enough.

Ves inwardly sighed.

His own subordinates and advisors still dreamt of building a traditional empire. By seeding so many different planets with branch offices, the Larkinson Clan effectively spread its tentacles over vast amounts of territories.

Even if the Larkinson Clan did not gain sovereignty and primacy over all of these settled star systems, it could still enjoy at least a part of the benefits of holding resource-rich territories!

The Larkinsons ultimately became a bit too greedy and complacent. They did not respect the immense numerical advantage of the native aliens and automatically assumed that human supremacy would prevail.

Even Ves fell for the same trap. He could have been more attentive and stopped all of the side branches from popping up, but he did not do so because he valued strategy over human lives.

"Being a leader is hard, Marvaine." He taught his youngest child. "Ideal solutions are always out of reach. In many cases, the only way you can solve a problem is to pick the best out of a handful of bad options. Secrets and incomplete information can also misguide you into making the wrong decisions."

"Do I have to make those decisions as well in the future?"

Both Ves and Gloriana exchanged glances.

"Perhaps." Gloriana said as she stroked Marvaine's cheek. "If you become successful enough in mech design or another profession, you will gain wealth, power, influence and allies. No matter whether you work within the structure of our clan or join another organization, as long as you succeed, you will begin to build your own networks and alliances. Once you have reached this stage, people will present you with different issues that cannot be solved with easy answers."

Ves voiced his own opinion. "Don't worry too much about the future, Marvaine. It will take a long time before you get to this point, and by then the Red War should have experienced enough major developments that the situation will look completely different. Red humanity has either launched a successful counterattack that has made our space secure, or the native aliens have pushed us all the way to a handful of star systems that are under the direct protection of our god pilots. Either way, it will not be your turn to make so many hard decisions. You should focus on advancing your career instead."

"You have done well at school." Gloriana praised her only son. "Your teachers have all told us how you have consistently exceeded their expectations. It is not only your memorization that is good. You are able to understand most of the theories that you have learned and apply them in clever and inventive ways. Do not get complacent. If you want to be as good as your father and I, then you need to have grand ambitions and the will to pursue them. Are you strong enough to do so, Marvaine?"

The boy eagerly nodded. Even though he was still a young child, he was the child of two talented and promising Senor Mech Designers.

"I want to become a great mech designer! I want to design mechs that are just as good if not better than yours!"

"Hihihi! You're so cute, my son." Gloriana grinned and leaned down to peck his cheek. "You can certainly try. I look forward to seeing your attempts to surpass my mechs and mech designs."

"Have you put any thought into the design philosophy that you prefer to adopt?" Ves asked.

Neither parents expected to hear a serious answer from Marvaine. He was so young that anything could change by the time he attended a mech design university.

The boy still tried to offer a serious response.

"When I put together my Mekanos, I wanted to make my Mekanos as perfect as the mechs made by mama. Mykonos are like intricate puzzle pieces that you can put together really well if you know the trick to them. It is always fun to make my Mekanos better than the ones put together by the other kids at school."

Gloriana already beamed with pride. She interpreted her son's speech as a validation of her design philosophy. It would be great if she could raise him as one of the successors of her craft!

"Is that the kind of mechs that you want to make when you are grown up?" Ves inquired. "Have you chosen to follow the trail blazed by your mother, or do you have the ambition to pioneer a different field that the mech industry has yet to explore?"

The young boy furrowed his brows and rubbed his smooth chin in a close imitation to that of his father.

"You are right, papa. I don't want to design the same mechs as my mother. I want to do more."

"Like designing living mechs?"

Marvaine stubbornly shook his head. "No. I think a lot about that, but I don't think you would be that proud of me if I inherit your design philosophy. I can do better. I want to form my own design philosophy that is mine alone."

Ves briefly grew a little disappointed at this answer, but a part of him felt a lot of pride.

The mech designers who blazed their own trial and did not rely on their predecessors to build their careers deserved the greatest amount of respect.

Their success rate was much lower than average, but their potential contributions were massive.

If Marvaine could become a successful innovator, then he would definitely be able to stand on his own two feet in the cutthroat mech industry.

"Do you already have a good idea of what design philosophy fits your work on Mekanos?" Ves asked. "Don't be afraid to say whatever is on your mind. We won't laugh. You are still young. You can always change your mind later on if you are dissatisfied."

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Marvaine looked up at both his mother and his father. His cheeks became flushed with red as he mustered the courage to give his answer.

"To be honest, I want to design juggernauts instead of ordinary mechs. Bigger is better. Don't you think that juggernauts are cool? I like to look at the Otalon Sprius that you have put into storage. Alexa has told me a lot of great facts about these big machines. They can be so much stronger."

Ves and Gloriana blinked in surprise.

Of all of the possible design philosophies that their boy might choose to pursue, he had certainly picked an unorthodox one.

He was so similar to his father in this regard!

"Is that the extent of your ambition, or do you have a more specific design application in mind? Just wanting to design and make your juggernaut mechs is not enough. You need to distinguish your mechs further to make them unique.

Marvaine grew thoughtful. He tried hard to think of what aspect about juggernauts he wanted to improve.

"I do not want to design a normal mech. I think… I want to design a juggernaut that can devour entire worlds!"

"What?!"