The Mech Touch

A lot of mech designers entered the conference room aboard the Scarlet Rose. Just like before, the brave mech designers aligned to Ves took their seat on one half of the long, oval table.

Soon enough, the projections of the erudite mech designers under the supervision of Gloriana appeared on the other side of the table.

Two distant locations connected together through the link that the Scarlet Rose still maintained to the galactic net.

Ves did not have to worry about any communication blockades in the outer periphery of the Nyxian Gap. It was only when he entered the inner periphery that he might have to rely on the Darkbreak module in order to maintain a stable connection.

While Ves briefly greeted and chatted with Gloriana, their cats also enjoyed their brief reunion.

"Meow." Lucky pushed his paw through the projection of Clixie, causing it to go right through.

"Miaow."

"Meow."

"Miaow miaow."

Shortly afterwards, Ves commenced the session.

"Alright. Everyone here has submitted their proposals on what minor projects we should work on for the next couple of months. Many of your suggestions are interesting, creative and useful. Today, I would like to go over a couple of the mech concepts that you have proposed in order to illustrate how relevant they are. The LMC's design capacity is still limited, so we can't explore every idea."

He waved his hand, causing a projection of a sketch of a very odd artillery mech to appear above the table.

"First, let's go over the 'PDL–F/D', a mech design proposed by Estelle Lynwood."

He nodded towards the woman seated close to him. Estelle Lynwood just happened to be one of the assistants he picked out right at the start of the selection process. Her spiritual potential was particularly notable, which meant she had a high chance of advancing to Journeyman once she applied herself.

Of course, that didn't mean she was guaranteed to become one. She still needed to work hard and develop her design philosophy properly. Ves could only lay some of the groundwork for her. Estelle still needed to do most of the work.

"Miss Lynwood, would you please explain your concept to us in your own words?"

The assistant in question nodded and stood up. "The name of my mech stands for Planetary Defense Laser, F/D grade pilots. It's a land and aerial-based mech that is designed to strike orbital targets as cost-effectively as possible. By itself, it is a mobile mech that can drill into rock and soil in order to hide itself and use the very land as a giant heatsink."

She manipulated the projection, causing it to fire a very thick and powerful laser straight through the clouds in the simulated environment.

"The mech completely revolves around its laser cannon, which is guided by a highly-automated targeting system. Once the mech fires, it must relocate very quickly using its flight capabilities before the enemy can retaliate. Due to the automation and simple operation of my mech, the demand on the mech pilot is very low. Those with a genetic aptitude as low as F or D are usually neglected. With the PDL–F/D, they can still contribute to the defense of a planet!"

A lot of assistants looked intrigued or appreciative of the idea that Estelle came up with. Her mech concept might not be the most sophisticated or well-rounded, but it packed a very powerful punch without demanding a lot of resources!

"Comments, anyone?" Ves asked.

Someone raised his hand. "Sir, the PDL-F/D is a very efficient mech. However, it will be rather difficult for it to survive after it has exposed its existence after firing a shot."

"That's why the mech is designed to be disposable." Estelle responded.

Some more people spoke up and made some remarks. Ves and Gloriana were glad to see that a constructive discussion had broken out. Everyone may be rivals, but they were also passionate about mechs.

"Ahem." Gloriana attracted everyone's attention. "Despite the advantages this mech design conveys, it possesses a fatal flaw. Can any of you tell me why my partner and I decided to stop exploring it any further?"

A brief silence ensued before Miles ventured his guess. "It looks like a mech. It is piloted by a mech. It's not actually a mech, though. It is too.. specialized. It can't defend itself against other mechs at all."

Gloriana slapped her palm against the table. "Correct! The PDL-F/D is essentially a movable turret platform. Its heavy dependence on an automated targeting system to hit targets high up in orbit means that the mech pilot is only responsible for moving the mech around. Since that is the case, why not go a step further and eliminate the mech pilot entirely? If you turn it into a conventional self-propelled artillery platform, then any norm can pilot this vehicle!"

The realization stunned the assistants. Now that they thought about it, self-propelled artillery platforms that could hit orbital targets already existed to some extent. There was hardly any need to use up scarce mech pilots for a duty that could be easily performed by a trained norm!

"Estelle Lynwood's mech concept is a good one, make no mistake." Ves summed up his opinion. "However, just because a mech concept is good doesn't mean it translates into a good product. In order for a mech to find a place in the market, it has to justify its existence. The wider context must always be taken into account!"

The assistant in question looked a bit dejected. She knew she had made a mistake. "Thank you for pointing out this shortcoming, sir."

"That's okay. I expect you to do better next time."

Ves waved his hand, causing the projection of the PDL-F/D to make way for a depiction of an unusually-shaped areal mech.

The flying mech resembled a bird in flight as it flew across a battlefield and released a lot of bombs. The ground underneath erupted in explosions as the bombs turned an entire stretch of land into an inferno!

Winston Starmond, who came up with the concept, explained his proposal.

"The Twilight Phoenix is an aerial mech designed for bombing purposes. Unlike regular bomber craft, my proposed mech is designed to navigate through dangerous airspaces with high amounts of signal interference. So much jamming is deployed on battlefields that it is usually very hard for air support to do their job effectively. In my proposal, the Twilight Phoenix is not only able to rely on its anti-ECM systems to cope with the jamming, but can ideally rely on a glow that can offer navigational help!"

At least half of the assistant had included some mention of possible glows in their proposals. They assumed that Ves was capable of creating any glow and tried to imagine how that would work with their mech concepts.

When Winston finished his explanation, his colleagues began to make remarks.

"The bomber mech suffers from the same problem as the last mech concept. The same job can easily be performed by a regular bombing vehicle."

"I don't entirely agree." Catherine Evenson shook her head. "Aerial bomber mechs still have a place on the battlefield due to their considerable capabilities. Vehicles piloted by norms perform substantially worse and are always easily shot down from the air."

Ves nodded in agreement. "Mr. Starmond's proposal has a place on the battlefield. However, aerial bomber mechs generally aren't great sellers. They can't fend against other aerial mechs, so they require escorts. If you want some place bombed, it is generally more convenient to rely on landbound artillery mechs. A mech like the Twilight Phoenix will always draw a lot of fire because their targets won't allow anything to drop bombs over their heads for free!"

The weak market demand for bomber mechs in the Komodo Star Sector was the decisive factor in rejecting the proposal. It was too much of a niche product in the regional mech market.

They moved on to a couple of other mech design proposals. Each time, Ves allowed the assistants to figure out the reasons behind rejecting them. He wanted them to become more familiar with the criteria that he and Gloriana used to decide which mech concepts they found suitable enough to turn into actual products.

The projection of a team of large, broad mech appeared next. In the simulation, the humanoid mechs approached a giant reptilian exobeast.

Surprisingly, the mechs did not take out any weapons. Instead, they surrounded the exobeast and wrestled it on the ground with their considerable weight and physical strength!

Even as the exobeast struggled to break loose, the mechs that hadn't dogpiled the giant lizard instead pulled out some of the materials they carried in their backpack containers.

In the span of a couple of minutes, the mechs rapidly built up a cage around the restrained exobeast. Soon enough, a cage that was strong enough to contain the captive creature came into existence!

"This is another example of a creative mech concept." Ves told everyone. "As you can see, the Hound of Glory is geared towards hunting and construction. However, just like many of the other proposals, it is a niche product. While specialized hunting mechs exist, it is not very worthwhile for the LMC to enter this specific market."

A lot of mech designers, especially those whose proposals had been shot down, looked increasingly more upset.

Rina Orion raised her hand. "Are we even allowed to design a niche mech at all, sir?"

"It's not all about sales volume." Ves shook his head. "There are many reasons to design a mech. Sometimes, you just want to earn a lot of money. This is the main rationale behind designing the Doom Guard. Sometimes, you want to unleash your creative energies. That's the main driver behind the Aurora Titan design. Other times, you want to design something different and innovative. Designs such as the Deliverer is a good example."

"In short, what Ves is trying to convey is that we cannot design every mech we like just because they sound interesting." Gloriana followed up. "He often likes to say that our time is limited. We can only handle so many projects at the same time. This means it is important to pick the right projects that provide us with the most benefits out of the options available."

Ves nodded. "Every mech we have published serves a specific goal and benefits us directly upon release. The Bright Warrior, despite not being sold on the market, is a powerful mech that immediately strengthens our clan's ability to fight and defend itself. Without it, our clan would have never survived the CRC's surprise attack on Kesseling VIII! As for the Desolate Soldier and its variants, not only have they sold a lot and generated a lot of revenue, they have also played an instrumental role in defeating the sandmen."

"Can you give us an example of a good proposal, sir?"

"Why certainly." He smiled. He waved his hand once again, causing the projection to display a very plain and rather basic mech. "Merril O'Brian-Larkinson, would you like to present your mech concept?"

The projection of the former pirate designer and rational mech designer calmly stood up. The newer assistants weren't too familiar with her because she had been hired prior to the mass recruitment event.

While she never really attracted anyone's attention after she joined the LMC, Ves highly appreciated her mech concept!

"This is the Chiron." She gestured towards the plain-looking mech. The projection displayed slightly different weapon loadouts and configurations of the same design. "When I studied Mr. Larkinson's old work, I stumbled upon two different virtual mech designs. Unlike many other mech designs geared towards mech cadets, the Young Blood and the Old Soul are both explicitly geared towards teaching specific skills to the next generation of mech pilots."

The Young Blood and the Old Soul were still piloted by many players of Iron Spirit to this date! Even though Ves had long stopped paying attention to his virtual mech designs, in truth the two teaching mechs had already influenced a considerable number of mech cadets throughout the Komodo Star Sector!

Now, Merrill formed a proposal that sought to revive something that Ves had neglected: designing teaching mechs! The Chiron was the successor to the Young Blood and Old Soul!