The Mech Touch

The assistant mech designers already became fascinated by the three minor projects that Ves and Gloriana decided to add to the pipeline.

Despite their label, each of the mechs associated with the project had the potential to introduce a lot of upheaval.

The Chiron was an adaptable teaching mech that would allow the mech cadets of his clan to make rapid progress in their training.

The Ferocious Piranha was a spaceborn light skirmisher that finally allowed mech forces to employ the Doom Guard's fearsome glow in an offensive capacity.

The Sanctuary was a revolutionary space knight that possessed the rare ability to neutralize any glow as long as the conditions were right.

All three mechs designs would have merely been ordinary if Ves did not involve his specialty. Once he did, they gained a lot of added value without increasing their production cost!

Not only that, but Ves also intended to implement numerous innovations and new implementations into the design. Though he wasn't sure whether he could completely achieve every requirement he set, every failed attempt provided him with valuable data so he could do better next time.

The three minor projects each sounded so attractive that Ves felt tempted to devote more time on them. Sadly, there was only one copy of himself to go around. He could only devote so much time on all of his design projects.

Therefore, aside from taking care of the spiritual aspects of the mech design, Ves mostly left the tangible mech design work to his assistants. With Gloriana intending to keep a very close eye on their progress on this front, he did not need to be worried that the younger mech designers would go off-track.

With five impactful mech design projects on the agenda, Ves felt as if his Design Department already bit off more than it could chew.

When he swept his gaze over the gathered mech designers, he steeled his heart. With sixty capable Apprentice Mech Designers under his command, he shouldn't waste their capabilities!

With three design teams working on every minor project, The Design Department still had room for an additional project.

"I'm sure you are all curious about our final proposal." Gloriana teasingly smiled. "When my lover and I reflected on the LMC's current mech catalog, we have determined that we have designed too many spaceborn mechs lately. This is mostly due to our own needs as a new and growing spaceborn clan. While designing a large amount of spaceborn mechs is not necessarily an adverse development, we still need to remind the mech market that the LMC is a broad mech company, and not one that singularly focuses on mechs that can only fight in space."

In truth, this concern mainly applied to third-class mechs. Ves and Gloriana already decided to enable most of their second-class mech designs to fight on land and in space and possibly in the air as well.

Only certain mech designs that have to conform to very specialized requirements such as the Blessed Squire and the Cat's Paw deviated from this policy.

The Hexers needed to field large amounts of mechs that performed at their best in specific environments. Otherwise, their multi-environmental mechs would always be forced to push back against their Fridaymen opponents!

The Cat's Paw mainly served as a heavy artillery platform. Mobility was of little concern, whether on land or in space. Adding flight capabilities only wasted valuable capacity that could have instead been allocated to adding more weapons on its frame!

Gloriana continued her point. "There are many potential landbound mechs we can design. Frankly, we're spoiled for choice, and that does not even consider all of the landbound variants we can derive from our spaceborn mech designs. Eventually, we have settled on a simple choice."

The main projection shifted yet again.

This time, it depicted a very familiar-looking laser rifleman mech!

Since this was one of his old works, Ves took over the presentation. "I'm sure that all of you are already familiar with the Crystal Lord. Even though it is an outdated, lastgen product, it still possesses some distinctive strengths. Our mech forces still field a decent number of Crystal Lords, though they are admittedly becoming increasingly less attractive despite their modest glows."

The projection highlighted the distinct crystal embedded in the chest as well as the slimmer-than-usual laser rifle. "Part of the initial appeal of the mech is the integration of alien-derived crystal technology in its design. The large crystal embedded in its chest allows the Crystal Lord to mitigate some laser beam attacks by absorbing them. In the right moment, the mech can even unleash the accumulated energy in a powerful retaliatory beam. Aside from that, its laser rifle isn't just more compact than many of its contemporaries, but still manages to pack a punch."

He sighed. "Despite all of these features, the bronze label version of the Crystal Lord never really achieved great commercial success. Without the use of a unique alien crystal that can activate the synthetic crystals incorporated into the mech design, they aren't all that powerful. The silver and gold label versions of the Crystal Lord are a lot more competitive, but third-party manufacturers can forget about fabricating them without their own alien crystal."

His hand waved yet again, causing the depiction of the original Crystal Lord to make way for a draft of a more modern version!

"I have withheld myself from modernizing the old Crystal Lord mech design for several years. It doesn't make enough sense to perform a marginal upgrade when it's not really worthwhile. Some mech companies are obsessed with releasing incremental upgrades. The LMC is not one of them. When we publish a newer version of an existing product, we need to make it good enough to justify the decision to replace the older version!"

Some scumbag mech companies milked their customers by adopting a yearly release schedule or something similar. What they actually did was to engage in very regular releases of existing mech models and product lines.

Instead of improving an older mech design by a generational leap, the companies instead fixed a few bugs, added some improved parts, tweaked a few settings and gave the design a new visual makeover.

With just a minimal amount of effort, the mech company was ready to release a brand new version of the same mech!

Due to the peculiarities of customer psychology, there were always people who couldn't stand the thought of owning outdated mechs. When they became aware that a fifteenth version had just come out while they still owned the fourteenth version, they would do everything to swap out their old machines with newer ones!

Though such an approach made at least some sense when it came to products such as software, Ves always thought it had no place in the mech market!

For this reason, even if the latest mech generation introduced a lot of improved technology and components related to laser weapons, Ves still felt it wasn't enough.

The second edition of the Crystal Lord had to be more than just a landbound rifleman mech. It had to be more than the original version with better parts.

What Ves actually sought was to reinvent its entire mech concept and elevate its vision to a higher level.

Just like with the Sanctuary, the introduction of spiritual constructs finally tipped over his resolve.

He didn't want to wait any longer!

Cherie-Tovar Larkinson reluctantly raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"Sir, your draft design looks a little.. incomplete."

"That's because we haven't fully fleshed it out at the moment. We still need to determine whether to incorporate any crystal technology and whether we should license a ready-made solution from the LMC." he replied. "To be honest, the other projects demanded much of our time on what to add to the Crystal Lord Mark II."

"What have you already decided, then?"

"No matter the version, the Crystal Lord should always reflect its name and its original vision." Ves mentioned. "The Crystal Lord stands for a leader among rifleman mechs. It is a premium rifleman mech that not only excels at firing lasers at the enemy, but is also capable of mitigating incoming laser attacks. Ever since the MTA commenced the new mech generation, laser-armed mechs have shown up on the battlefield at an increasing rate. While there is always a place for mechs armed with kinetic and ballistic weapons, it is clear that they are not the darling in the current mech environment."

This provided fertile ground for a laser rifleman mech that excelled at fighting other laser rifleman mechs!

"The Crystal Lord Mark II will inherit the same balance between offense, defense and mobility. This is generally not advisable for more affordable mechs, but since the budget of the Mark II is rather generous for a third-class mech, we can still get away with it. Its rapid-fire laser rifle makes the mech suitable for mid-ranged combat. Its compressed armor plating allows it to withstand more attacks than typical rifleman mechs. Its slim and speed-oriented frame allows the mech to engage in run-and-gun combat."

This was all identical to the original Crystal Lord. The new design and components just allowed the Mark II to perform a little better. This was not enough to justify its development. Ves needed to incorporate at least some interesting crystal technology in the design. He also had to flesh out its spiritual characteristics, of which upgrading the design spirit of the original version was just the start!

It was only then that Ves would feel justified in designing the Crystal Lord Mark II.

As the original was his second original mech design, Ves possessed a lot of sentiment for it. It would have been better if he designed every aspect of the Mark II in person, but that wasn't realistic these days. It was much more convenient to allow his design team to do the grunt work.

Whatever mech design that might result after a few months, as long as he properly survived the entire design process, it would surely become a worthy successor!

"Are there any questions?" Ves asked.

A couple of mech designers asked some minor questions.

"How will your specialty apply to this updated version?" Mayer Torto asked. "I recall that your original Crystal Lord wasn't too distinct in the area. It's no Desolate Soldier in terms of glow."

Ves crossed his arms. "I don't have a solid idea yet, but you are free to offer me some suggestions."

"Can you add some sort of targeting assistance like you did with the Deliverer?"

"No." He shook his head. "First, even if it's possible, I wouldn't implement it in a mass market product because it's too powerful. I only released the Deliverer mech in the first place because the Sand War necessitated a drastic intervention. Outside of that, such a capability is best left out of the public's hands. Second, the Deliverer's glow is intimately tied to the Great Prophet. Mech pilots who don't believe in the Ylvainan Faith can't take advantage of this unique power. I'm sure the Ylvainans in your team can tell you more."

The young Sentinel mech designer looked sheepish at his Ylvainan colleagues.

Ves moved on to his last point. "The third reason to withhold this power from the Mark II is that I believe there are more ways to empower a rifleman mech design than providing targeting assistance. The battle effectiveness of a mech depends on both its frame and its mech pilot. Shifting too much agency from the mech pilot to the frame is not a good idea in my opinion. What I want to do instead is to empower the mech pilot. Offering more choice, providing mental encouragement and so on are all better options."

A mech like the Deliverer had the potential to make its mech pilots lazy. The spaceborn marksman mech essentially incorporated a cheat that allowed the mech and mech pilot to succeed when it should have failed.

The Crystal Lord Mark II ought to be different! Cheating was highly incompatible with its character!