The Mech Touch

The Glow Crusher was very effective at its job!

As a lancer mech, the mech was already good in regular combat. It didn't require a lot of time to build up speed, allowing it to exert its strength in many different situations. It could even function in cramped environments!

Though the mech was too cheap and barebones to incorporate other functions, it didn't need to incorporate any additional bells and whistles.

This was a mech with a very narrow scope. Against enemies that lacked glows, the Glow Crusher didn't function any differently from comparable lancer mechs.

It was only when the Glow Crusher was employed against an LMC mech that it showcased its true value.

When Gloriana showed him other footage of the Glow Crusher at work, Ves began to understand the most important aspect of its operation.

"The Glow Crusher isn't attacking the Blessed Squire. It's attacking the glow."

Ves equated glows to auras. They were spherical fields that influenced anyone that entered its effective range. Glows were most effective up close but weakened considerably further away.

At a certain distance, glows weakened to the point where humans no longer came under their effect.

When Ves carefully studied how close to the Blessed Squires the Glow Crushers needed to be in order to pop the glows, he noted that the exact distance varied considerably.

All of them had to get very close, but those that had to get dangerously close were either outnumbered by Blessed Squires or hadn't gained the opportunity to build up a lot of momentum.

"I see now." He said and closed his eyes.

Gloriana curiously looked up at him as her physical projection leaned on his shoulder. She knew that the footage had dealt a considerable blow to his confidence in his work. He needed time to process this new development.

The footage she displayed to Ves showcased the performance of the Glow Crusher in many different situations.

What Ves paid attention to the most was the distances, the speeds and the quantities. He sensed that these three variables played a key role in determining the effectiveness of the Glow Crusher's main function.

If the footage of the early usage of the Glow Crusher model was representative enough, then he pretty much figured out its conditions.

"The closer the Glow Crusher gets to the Blessed Squire, the more likely the latter's glow will collapse."

"The greater the momentum of the Glow Crusher, the easier it becomes to collapse a glow."

"The more the Glow Crushers outnumber the Blessed Squires, the further away they can disable all of the glows."

These were the three characteristics that both the Fridaymen and Hexers needed to take into account when Glow Crushers fought against Blessed Squires.

It didn't matter whether the Glow Crushers were able to physically down the Blessed Squires. That wasn't necessary when they only had to get within a certain distance to accomplish their main job. This was the part about the new mech model that Ves really couldn't accept for some time!

"How many Masters participated in this design project?" He asked.

"Just two. Master Carmin Olson partnered up with Master Meredith Katzenberg to design this mech. That's why the Glow Crusher's design is fairly basic. I'm still amazed it is so effective, though. I thought it would take more Masters to defeat your glows."

Both Masters taught at the Leemar Institute of Technology, though Ves wasn't sure whether that was still the cause. With the fall of the Crestfallen Stars, the Leemar System should be vulnerable to Hexer attacks. The LIT should have certainly evacuated its students and personnel some time ago. This must have given the two Masters a very powerful motivation to design an effective counter against his mechs!

Ves already knew plenty about Master Olson. He also knew a fair bit about Master Katzenberg because she took in Tristan Wesseling as one of her direct disciples.

Whereas Master Olson specialized in enhancing a mech's mobility, Master Katzenberg specialized in developing better materials. More specifically, Ves heard that she was famed for developing new formulas that substituted the effects of more expensive exotics.

He couldn't quite see how these two Masters were able to grant such a ridiculous ability to the Glow Crusher design.

"Tell me how these two Masters managed to find a solution against my glows." He requested.

Gloriana did not string him along this time. She pointed at the mech engine of the Glow Crusher in the projected design schematic.

"There is something about the locomotion systems that causes it to transform some of its momentum into another form of energy. So far, the Hexer mech designers who have studied the design are temporarily calling it 'motion energy'. Generating this motion energy causes the lancer mechs to slow down to some extent because it isn't free."

"Why does motion energy have to be generated on the spot?"

"It disappears quickly if the Glow Crusher slows or stops. It's very fleeting and perishable and can't be stored in some kind of battery." Gloriana shrugged. "You'll have to ask Master Olson to learn more. I think this is one of the most advanced applications of her design philosophy. It involves so many advanced concepts that not even the Hexer Masters understand how it's made."

This wasn't actually rare. Many different kinds of energy existed in reality. Master Olson managed to touch upon one of the higher-level ones over the course of her career. Perhaps it was something that she could have only developed once she reached the rank of Master.

Whatever the case, this 'motion energy' ought to be the principal reason why the Glow Crusher was able to overwhelm a glow, for a lack of better word.

This wasn't the complete story, though. "What role does Master Katzenberg play?"

"Master Katzenberg has developed a new alloy that is able to contain motion energy." Gloriana answered. "If the Glow Crusher simply charges forward without incorporating any of the new alloy, then the motion energy will just drift away from the mech. The machine has to have something that can keep this motion energy together until it is ready to unleash it against the Blessed Squire's glow."

"Ah, I see. So that is what this odd material is for. It's built into the mech engine and the lance, among other parts."

The mech engine generated motion energy and also kept it around for a limited amount of time. If the Glow Crusher didn't expend this motion energy on an attack, then it would evaporate on its own after a time.

This meant that there wouldn't be any ridiculous situations where a Glow Crusher ran forward for several hundred kilometers, building up more and more momentum and motion energy along the way, enough to shatter the collective glows of a hundred Blessed Squires!

Nonetheless, despite the many limitations, Ves could already foresee that Master Katzenberg's latest invention might become a persistent thorn in his side!

Gloriana continued her explanation. "The special new material she developed for the Glow Crusher design is called Olson-Katzenberg alloy, or O-K alloy in short. It's an alloy made out of two valuable medium-grade exotics along with some other lesser materials."

"What are the key materials?"

"They're both metallic exotics with fairly mild effects by themselves. The first important material is Virma steel. It is notable for its ability to inhibit some higher-dimensional energies. The second important material is Fahae-33. It's also a medium-grade exotic and possesses a very weak ability to inhibit all kinds of energy. I don't know how Master Katzenberg managed to combine the two together to develop a vessel for motion energy, but some of my colleagues back home are very impressed."

"How widely available are the two exotics?"

"Not that much. The Fridaymen never specifically focused on mining these two exotics. While the Coalition has accumulated a sizable stockpile of both key materials, once that runs out, it will have to look elsewhere to obtain more. Trade will become the Friday Coalition's main source of Virma steel and Fahae-33 in the future."

It sounded as if the Friday Coalition truly couldn't pump out Glow Crushers as if they cost nothing. Certainly, the mech was already relatively cheap to the Friday Coalition. It was just that adding the crucial O-K alloy to the machine that would limit its production.

Still, for a first-generation counter to an LMC mech, the Glow Crusher should already be considered a success!

"Have the Fridaymen started using these Glow Crushers en masse?"

Gloriana nodded. "For months, We Hexers lorded it over to the Fridaymen. The constant losses must have truly infuriated our enemies to the point where they eagerly embraced any solution that worked! Already, hundreds of thousands of Glow Crushers have appeared on the battlefield. Its first variant has already debuted in space."

She waved her hand, causing hundreds of different footage to play at once.

He became fascinated by all of the sights. While most of the battles involving the Glow Crushers took place on land, a small but growing number of clashes happened in space!

Unlike the inelegant solutions the Hex Army resorted to in order to make the Blessed Squire fly, the two Masters designed a proper spaceborn variant of their Glow Crusher.

"The Glow Crusher OGC-1000 is the base model, and one that is intentionally designed to be adapted by different mech designers or organizations. The Glow Crusher OGC-1050 is a spaceborn variant that can serve the same purpose."

In other words, the basic incarnations of the works of the two Masters were just the start. In the future, the Fridaymen mech regiments and mech divisions that adopted the designs would develop their own variants of the Glow Crusher that excelled in certain aspects!

For example, an elite mech regiment might want to develop a higher-quality version of the lancer mech. Another mech regiment that specialized in aerial combat might take the OGC-1050 and turn it into a machine that was suited to fight in the skies.

The possibilities were endless!

Ves was a bit put off by this, but not too much. No matter how many variants the Fridaymen developed, they all abided by the same principles. Figuring out how to negate one Glow Crusher model meant that his solution should be equally as effective in negating the other models!

He already began to think how he could counteract the Glow Crusher with his designs. Though the work of Master Olson and Master Katzenberg was subject to many limitations, it nonetheless offered the Fridaymen a targeted means to negate one of the Hex Army's significant advantages in a fairly simple package.

"This cannot stand!"

Should he try to develop a means of reinforcing the glows of his mech designs? What if he focused on dispersing motion energy instead?

Many different ideas flitted through his mind. As long as there was a will, there was a way. Ves did not intend for his former Master to have the last laugh!

"Ahem." Gloriana gently interrupted his musings. "The Glow Crusher isn't the only mech the Fridaymen have designed to counteract our Blessed Squire. There are also several other mech designs that interfere with glows in different ways."

She began to exhibit another projection. An enemy spaceborn swordsman mech pushed through some Hexer mechs and managed to strike a Blessed Squire standing on top of a floater module!

Though the Blessed Squire easily managed to block the attack by putting up its shield, something happened that caused the glow to grow unstable!

The Hexer mechs surrounding the Blessed Squire exhibited the now-familiar reaction that signified that the glow was experiencing technical difficulties!

The more the swordsman mech struck the Blessed Squire, the greater this disturbance grew!

Unlike the Glow Crusher, the new model did not collapse the glow. Instead, it just disturbed it to the point it became a mess!

Ves could see from the reactions of both Fridayman and Hexer mechs that this chaos affected both sides without distinction. While the Fridaymen did not have it easy, the Hexers weren't feeling better either!

In this way, this unknown melee mech model managed to level the playing field!