The Mech Touch

The creation of the Illustrious One did not go unnoticed.

Throughout the Komodo Star Sector, owners and users of the original Crystal Lord suddenly found their old mechs changing in unexpected ways.

While the Crystal Lords always possessed a glow, it had always been fairly weak. Only the mech pilots themselves experienced the differences.

All of that changed when the crystal golem morphed into the Illustrious One!

As his name suggested, the Illustrious One inherited much of the potential of the Blinding One. While that didn't immediately translate to increased ability, the integration of the fused elements would only deepen over time. Ves looked forward to what abilities he might wield at that time.

For now, the Illustrious One just gained a massive boost of strength through unorthodox means. It was a given that his condition was not stable. The uncontrolled rainbow lights radiating off his sparkling form was a symptom of his lack of control!

The effect immediately altered the hundreds of thousands of Crystal Lord mechs the LMC sold of its customers over the years!

As Ves' second original mech design, the Crystal Lord was an aging lastgen mech model. It never reached the critical success of the Desolate Soldier and Doom Guard model, but it was already a profitable offering by itself. It's luminar crystal-based laser rifle was slightly ahead of its time during the rifleman mech model's release, but its performance could not keep up with the currentgen laser rifle models.

Nonetheless, its existing pilots had gotten used to the benefits of wielding a lighter, slimmer and less cumbersome weapon. As a premium mech, the Crystal Lord already performed well above typical rifleman mechs. It was no big deal for the mech to effectively keep up with its more modern counterparts.

"What is happening?" A grizzled mech sergeant wondered.

The mechs piloted by his mercenary buddies slowed down. Their unit was assigned to patrol a stretch of sandy plains on a planet that had been scoured during the Sand War.

Sensing an abnormality, the mercenary squad immediately entered into a higher state of alertness. Several light mechs roamed around in order to detect possible enemies while a knight mech protectively hovered next to the frozen Crystal Lord.

Suddenly, the mech seemed to bloom. The sergeant and his comrades immediately became affected by a glow that was suffused with an outpouring of light and ambition!

Every other Crystal Lord exhibited the same reaction! The mechs in the hands of mercenaries, security companies, secret organizations, pirates and even the Larkinsons themselves all seemed to undergo a universal evolution that made them greater than before!

Unfortunately, it didn't last. Several minutes after their owners and pilots greeted this unexpected surprise, the mechs quickly lost their new glows. The vibe of the mechs became muted to the point that it closely resembled its original level.

"What?! Is that it? Where is the glow?!"

"No! Come back!"

"What is the LMC doing? This is the second mech model that has gone out of control!"

When the Illustrious One completed its evolution, Ves stepped in to prevent the changes from affecting the Crystal Lord. Since this was the first time he tried to restore a mech's glow to its old level, Ves needed some time to fiddle out the right solution.

Many people noticed the dramatic changes before they died down!

The LMC became flooded with inquiries once again. Though the media had picked up on the story, the outrage was much less this time. The Crystal Lord wasn't as popular as the Doom Guard and the changes didn't negatively affect any customers aside from a few rare exceptions.

In fact, the owners of the Crystal Lord Mark I's demanded a return of the abortive 'free upgrade'!

Ves briefly discussed the matter with Gloriana, Raymond, Gavin and a couple of other executives in a series of conference calls.

After considering every angle, they eventually came to a consensus.

"The market needs sufficient reasons to purchase our upcoming Crystal Lord Mark II." Ves issued his final thoughts on the matter. "While we can offer either a free or paid upgrade to the customers who bought the Crystal Lord Mark I, this kind of change falls well outside of the scope of the original products. When we initially sold it, we never promised or generated the expectation that the LMC would implement incremental updates in the following years."

The projection of Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson nodded in agreement. "The LMC's business model is centered around developing new product lines and keeping them fresh by releasing updated models with significant improvements. We will only muddy this arrangement if we narrow the gap between new and old by improving the latter."

It was a pure business decision to withhold the 'upgrade' that Ves developed from the Crystal Lord Mark I. As much as Ves wanted to side with his customers and give them a reason to cherish their old mechs even more, the profiteering side of him won out this time.

The LMC may be relatively flush with cash these days, but the Larkinson Clan needed much more capital to acquire more capital ships and fund the development of its upcoming expert mechs.

To that end, Ves needed to build up as much momentum as possible for his commercial mechs.

With the incorporation of improved luminar crystals and the addition of a vastly-improved design spirit, Ves believed that the Crystal Lord Mark II had the potential to achieve the same critical acclaim as his other bestsellers!

On land, the Crystal Lord Mark II performed quite well. Its moderate armor coverage, its nimble movements and its light but very potent laser rifle promised stellar performance when paired with skilled mech pilots.

The design teams assigned to the project that led to its development had done an excellent job. Even without the constant supervision of Ves and Gloriana, the assistant mech designers such as Rina Orion did not disappoint.

Soon after Ves created the Illustrious One, the Crystal Lord Mark II Project entered its final track. New prototypes were being built to test the last round of adjustments and fixes.

The tests also served as an opportunity for the LMC to observe the effects of the Crystal Lord Mark II's improved design spirit.

Compared to the likes of the Solemn Guard or the Superior Mother, the Illustrious One did not induce a strong psychological effect on others.

It did not affect reality as blatantly as the likes of Lufa either.

Instead, the test pilots and observers noted that the glows projected by the prototype exerted a hybrid influence.

The mech pilot and any friendlies within the area of effect gained a higher affinity towards energy, directed energy weapons and crystals. While they didn't gain any concrete knowledge, their intuition and feel towards these subjects had noticeably improved. The mech pilots knew their limits and also exhibited better judgement whenever they piloted the prototype in simulated battles.

Overall, their ability to make split-second decisions in battle had improved!

Yet this wasn't all. When the glow was active, the performance of the luminar crystals inexplicably increased by five to ten percent. This was significant enough to warrant a considerable investigation.

Even Gloriana visited the testing grounds in person in order to study the effect!

No one came up with any answers aside from confirming that the strange luminar crystals were indeed sensitive towards the Crystal Lord Mark II's glow.

When Gloriana acted on a hunch and replaced the luminar crystals of a prototype with normal substitutes, the glow of the mech seemed to grow substantially dimmer.

"It turns out they compliment each other!"

No one anticipated that such a relationship existed. Not even Ves suspected that luminar crystals were so responsive to the spiritual signature of a strong luminar specimen!

"Maybe we've been misusing luminar technology all this time!" Ves guessed.

In fact, Ves believed that not even the MTA research team that delved into luminar technology anticipated this outcome!

A headache immediately formed in his mind. "Ugh. As if I don't already have enough on my plate."

Despite these oddities, the Crystal Lord Mark II prototypes performed well enough to make additional testing superfluous. Ves and Gloriana carefully studied the mech's improved performance parameters and tweaked the design of the laser rifleman mech to account for the changes.

After a final round of touch ups, the pair formally concluded the project.

In two different design labs, the Braves and Erudites both stood up and clapped their hands. The three design teams responsible for realizing Ves and Gloriana's vision basked in the honor of completing the LMC's first minor design project!

Ves proudly addressed the contributors of the finished project.

"Thank you for your efforts. Your assistance was crucial to the development of the Crystal Lord Mark II. We will mark your performance later and award you with additional Larkinson merits if your contribution is great enough. Remember, as long as you go above and beyond what is expected of you, we will always reward your efforts as long as they are helpful."

The members of the remaining design teams became more eager after hearing this announcement.

Earning more Larkinson merits was the best way to improve themselves!

As Ves studied the faces of his assistants, he noted that the Erudites exhibited a much stronger reaction than his Braves.

This was no surprise to him. Due to the fact that his Braves had all taken part in the Nyxian Gap Campaign, they were automatically entitled to receive a set of second-class augmentations.

Though Ves somewhat regretted this expensive promise, he was still determined to abide by it. No matter how much he had to delay his other procurements, he wanted to improve 'his' men so that they would quickly be able to expand their influence in the Larkinson Clan.

Obviously, the fact that the Erudites were left out did not make them happy. Intellectually, they understood that they weren't entitled to any 'hazard pay' as they did not take part in a life-threatening mission.

It did not prevent them from growing jealous.

Seeing the Braves earning some very desirable augmentations without doing anything special was infuriating! Aside from helping to implement some upgrades and modifications, the Braves had not done anything that strengthened the Larkinsons in battle.

Of course, the Eridutes could never understand the fear and desperation of the Braves during the Battle of Ulimo Citadel and the Battle against the Abyss. It took nerves of steel to remain calm during the escalating clashes!

As far as Ves was concerned, the Braves deserved this special treatment. In any case, they were his boys and girls. He selected them for their courage. In terms of pure design ability, they were not as good as their Erudite counterparts.

It was for this reason that Gloriana insisted on leveraging bonuses to provide her assistants with an alternate means to earn rewards. After all, as better mech designers, the Erudites should be able to harvest a lot more bonuses.

The smartest and most capable Eridutes should be able to climb up by themselves. Those who weren't good enough to earn any bonuses deserved no attention from Gloriana. She was quite fair and transparent about her intentions.

"Alright, folks, let's not get too excited." Ves spoke after the excitement died down. "We only finished a single project. There are five more that haven't reached the finish line. Let's work hard in order to finalize the remaining mech designs before my return!"

The LMC's Design Department became more productive as ever. The Miracle Couple devoted all of their available time on the ongoing projects, thereby speeding up progress considerably!

Ves also devoted a lot of time to fleshing out the spiritual characteristics of his various mechs. He implemented retraction dials to each of them and also added them to the LMC's existing mech catalog.

Pushing out this 'update' was very easy. Many customers had been asking for this function for a long time, so when the LMC officially released these minor updates, millions of existing LMC mechs soon gained the same ability!