The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3421

Chapter 3421: The Family Left Behind

"It's not really home." Melinda Larkinson sighed.

The mech pilot looked out of the porthole of the Forbearance, the fleet carrier of the Larkinson Family.

To Melinda, the Larkinson Family had been drifting ever since it evacuated from the Bright Republic.

The trauma of getting betrayed by the Bright Republic and getting dragged into Ves Larkinson's willful conflict against the Friday Coalition had pushed many family members to the brink.

Too many Larkinsons became unmoored from their lives. Nothing became familiar to them anymore as they could no longer return to the warm and green Larkinson estate.

Instead, the Larkinson Family had begun to live in massive metal coffins in space. Although there were plenty of opportunities for Larkinsons to go on shore leave on whatever planet their modest fleet was orbiting, few family members wished to stay on the ground for a long time.

It wasn't home. Second-rate states were still too weird to the people who grew up in the Bright Republic for their entire lives. Everything was bigger, more advanced and more discriminatory towards wealth and class.

It didn't help that the Garlen Empire possessed a culture that was obsessed with glory and martial valor. While this obsession granted Patriarch Ark Larkinson a lot of respect among the Garleners, even he couldn't reconcile his values with the warmongering tendencies of this powerful state.

The Larkinsons were strangers here. There was no other way to put it. They didn't belong here and developed no attachment to the strangers that welcomed the old family for different reasons.

"They either want to get their hooks into a potential ace pilot or they're eager to forge deeper connections with the Larkinson Clan."

Their current benefactors was the Feneton Tribe, a large and powerful group situated in the heart of the Garlen Empire.

The Fenetons already had ace pilots to spare, but they were never satisfied with their current lineup. They would love to gain an additional leader figure and powerhouse, so they offered attractive conditions to the Larkinson Family.

It also helped that befriending the Larkinson Family might give the Feneton Tribe an advantage when trying to procure powerful mechs from the LMC. At least that was what the Fenetons thought would happen.

In reality, contact between the Larkinson Family and the Larkinson Clan was shallow and perfunctory. Though blood family members split between the two branches initially talked to each other almost every day, all of the changes over the years caused them to become increasingly more alienated from each other.

The members of the Larkinson Clan had undergone drastic changes. The truebloods among them even consider the people they adopted as closer brothers and sisters than the members of the old family!

Ves didn't even bother to call Benjamin, Ark and Melinda anymore unless it was for special occasions such as the birth of his daughter.

Though Melinda found her tiny niece to be adorable and wanted to see her in the form of a projection once again, Ves and the other members of the Larkinson Clan were too preoccupied with their own ambitious goals to spare much time to connect with the family they left behind.

It was… depressing. Especially when news regularly poured in about all of the excitement the clan went through and how they gained yet another impressive mech or capital ship.

A younger Melinda would have grown frustrated when she realized what she was missing out upon. The Larkinson Family disproportionately consisted of the older generation. They were too old, crotchety and inflexible about sticking to the old ways. They adapted poorly to the new circumstances and only dug in their heels further when faced with change.

It was fortunate that Ark was more open-minded than the oldsters. At least he was able to strike a better balance than the Larkinsons who agreed more with the late Venerable Ghanso Larkinson than herself!

Despite knowing about the ulterior motives of the Feneton Tribe, Patriarch Ark agreed to become its retainer for a set amount of years in exchange for obtaining a high-tier expert mech.

To their credit, the Master Mech Designers who worked for the Feneton Tribe worked earnestly to design the Travon Exine, a high-tier medium expert hybrid mech. It was armed with a plethora of powerful ranged weapons and could also handle itself against enemies up close with a sword.

Yet compared to the often-praised expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan, the Travon Exine was too cold and impersonal.

It sounded strange to say this about an expert mech that was customized for Ark, but after piloting the living mechs designed by Ves, every other machine lacked that spark that made mech pilots feel more connected to their battle partners.

At least the other Larkinsons were enjoying their Bright Warriors a lot, even though they were purportedly inferior to those produced by the Larkinson Clan itself.

She felt his presence nearing. She turned around to see the leader of the Larkinson Family join her in looking out onto the planet below.

"Did you enjoy the parade?"

"Hardly." Ark replied in an even tone. "The Feneton Tribe's penchant for parades, festivals and showboating does get tiring, but it is a better alternative than being thrown into combat against another tribe."

That was one of the redeeming points about the Feneton Tribe. It was powerful yet had to tread carefully due to its leading status. Any clan or tribe that developed an excessive appetite easily united other enemies! This was exactly why the Cross Clan fell.

Since the Feneton Tribe's ace pilots were a bit more aware of the dangers, they satisfied their craving for glory and recognition in more benign and less deadly ways.

Nobody died in these events, but participating in them did get tiring. According to his contract with the Feneton Tribe, Ark had to rotate through every province and major star system and take part in one of their local events.

Although he wasn't a famed ace pilot, his unquestionable martial strength was still impressive enough to make the Garleners crazy!

It was a disgraceful circus, but it was also honest living.

"When will we be able to leave?"

"Not soon." Ark shook his head. "It depends on what happens, but I should be able to end my obligations within ten years. The problem is that we don't have a good destination in mind."

Every state was weird and different from home. There was no place that was close enough to the Bright Republic for them to settle. The Larkinson Family had become a second-class organization as well, so it was impossible to quietly settle in a third-rate state.

Melinda began to glower when she thought about what had happened as of late. "It's getting more dangerous here as well. The frequency of terrorist attacks isn't as great as before, but… there's always a risk each time we make landfall."

"Nowhere is safe."

"I agree, but have you noticed how many more shady and suspicious fleets have been passing through Vicious Mountain? I wouldn't have been surprised if they were trying to make their way to Tarnished Crown, but they're heading in the opposite direction."

As a former peacekeeper, Melinda had been trained to read various patterns. The increasing traffic towards a destination other than the nearest gate system had set her on edge. What was it about the Nyxian Gap that was attracting so many different people? Had rumors spread of some kind of ancient alien treasure?

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