The Mech Touch

In just a short span of time, the Komodo War experienced a number of rapid shifts.

The Friday Coalition's expert mech advantage along with the full commitment of the Gauge Dynasty and the Konsu Clan continually drove the Hexers back from their conquered territories.

However, the Hexadric Hegemony managed to slow down the enemy assault and stave off a rapid collapse on the battlefield by employing the Valkyrie Redeemer in increasingly more dramatic ways.

The Hexers no longer employed them as traditional harassers anymore. Several properties unique to the Valkyrie Redeemer allowed it to affect the course of larger battles when employed in larger numbers.

As long as enough Valkyrie Redeemers attacked an enemy unit, their combined disruptive abilities were bound to disorient their targets!

What frustrated the Fridaymen who faced this new mech model was that they couldn't muster up an adequate defense against the Valkyrie Redeemer's infamous shock abilities.

The Starburst grenades were not strange to both sides. The Oni Guard were already adjusting their mechs to shield them better against EMP attacks. They also began to deploy more auxiliary mechs that were capable of mitigating the effects of such attacks.

Yet when it came to countering the Valkyrie Redeemer's glow and related pulse ability, the Konsu Clan was largely helpless!

Neither the Glow Crusher or any other first-generation mech was useful. Even if the Glow Crushers were capable of breaking the glow of the Valkyrie Redeemer, when the latter began to show up by the hundreds, it was impossible for the Fridaymen to prepare hundreds of counters as well!

If the Oni Guard truly dared to deploy hundreds of Glow Crushers, then the conventional mechs dispatched by the Hex Army could make quick work of them. Due to various constraints, none of the counter mechs excelled against fighting normal mechs!

Many Fridaymen generals and officials grew concerned. Some were even ready to tear their hair out due to this new complication!

"These Valkyrie Redeemers are disrupting our ground operations!"

"They're beginning to affect our operations in space as well."

Though the Valkyrie Redeemers were primarily designed to fight under atmospheric conditions, they were also spaceworthy. It was just that their effectiveness in space battles was a bit less dramatic at the moment.

Despite its various shortcomings, the Valkyrie Redeemer successfully captured the hearts of the Hexers. Many of them clamored to pilot the new model in order to take advantage of its unique abilities.

Even if the casualty rate among the reassigned mech pilots was high, the enthusiasm surrounding the Valkyrie Redeemer had not abated!

It was a bit unfortunate that the introduction of a single new mech model failed to affect the overall trend of the war. Unlike the Blessed Squire, the Valkyrie Redeemer did not lead to many major paradigm shifts.

Still, the war would have turned for the worse if not for the Valkyrie Redeemer mechs sowing fear and uncertainty among the Fridaymen.

As the original designers of the Valkyrie Redeemer, Ves and Gloriana received detailed reports about the mech's performance. They called each other to discuss the various developments.

"How long until you've arrived?" Gloriana asked.

Ves rolled his eyes. "I'll be back in a day. You don't need to ask that question all the time."

"I just want to make sure that you're not delayed! The wedding is scheduled to take place next week and I don't want to see any further mishaps."

"It will be okay. Don't forget that I'm travelling with the MTA. there's absolutely no chance that anything will go wrong with Master Willix watching me like a hawk."

They discussed a few routine matters before turning to the main topic of discussion.

"Our Valkyrie Redeemer is a success. The Hex Army loves it and intends to utilize it on a wider scale. It's just…"

"The Hex Army is too inexperienced at war." Ves did not mince words. "I don't know what all of those 'wise' Hexer generals and matriarchs are thinking, but even I know that taking over so much territory at once is hubris. It's not that easy to maintain your grasp on occupied territory."

Gloriana sighed. "I feel as if we failed, Ves. The Blessed Squire quickly allowed our side to gain a considerable advantage. I thought our Valkyrie Redeemer would have an even bigger impact, since it's a female mech. It's just that the Gauge Dynasty and the Konsu Clan committed their forces at the worst time!"

The Valkyrie Redeemer's suppressive glow was very effective against most opponents, but the caliber of the two strongest Coalition partners were not for show!

The Oni Guard mech pilots may not be immune to the new glow, but they had amply proven that they stood a far better chance.

If the Fortune Legionnaires fought in their place, then the Valkyrie Redeemers would have swept their foes away at an unprecedented scale!

Even the Sundered Phalanx mech pilots managed to cope with this new development. While their mental fortitude was a bit laxer, the Valkyrie Redeemers simply weren't as effective in space.

Overall, the Miracle Couple's second Hexer mech design failed to surpass the one that came before! This caused Gloriana to feel upset!

Ves felt she was being melodramatic. "Hey, there are always hits and misses in mech design, and it's not settled whether our Valkyrie Redeemer is a loss in my book."

"WE FAILED!"

"We succeeded." Ves insisted. "Just not as much as you hoped. There's a difference. We still have 6 more Hexer mechs to go, so there are plenty of opportunities to do better."

She was being unreasonable. Ves really couldn't understand why she thought the Valkyrie Redeemer's current level of success was inadequate.

It took some time for Gloriana to stop whining about her disappointment for the Valkyrie Redeemer. She truly thought that it would have led to a sea of change.

"The biggest factors to the Friday Coalition's success is not contingent on their mech models. The movements of the Gauge Dynasty and Konsu Clan play a far greater role. Before, the Hex Army only fought against the Fortune Legion and the Blue Cavalry. I thought that the mech militaries of every coalition partner was very close, but it turns out the differences are massive. Carnegie and Vermeer don't know how to raise proper soldiers."

The Friday Coalition never fought a large-scale war until recently. Though the Fridaymen were very clever and accounted for a lot of variables, no amount of preparation covered every aspect.

The Fortune Legion and the Blue Cavalry partially suffered from their lack of experience.

In contrast, the Gauge Dynasty and the Konsu Clan seemed to be better prepared. Of course, this was also because they sat on the sidelines for more than a year. This gave them enough time to update their strategy books, adjust the training of their mech pilots and alter their mechs.

As far as Ves was concerned, the Hex Army hadn't really fought against proper Coalition forces. Now that they faced the strongest Coalition partners, the war should not be going smoothly anymore!

It was too bad that Gloriana failed to comprehend this point. She continued to look down on the Coalition, but at the same time she was afraid of the threat the Fridaymen posed to the Valkyrie Redeemer.

"By the way, the Hex Army recently issued a request to us. High command want us to help design some variants."

"The Hexers aren't satisfied with the base model?"

"It's not that, Ves. The Valkyrie Redeemer is still being used. It's just that it's design isn't suited for every scenario. For example, Some Hexer leaders want to obtain a variant with better mobility that is suited for battles in space. Others want a variant that boasts considerably better frontal armor in order to facilitate large-scale dive attacks."

She continued to list out a couple more variants. Ves grew confused at the requests.

"The Hex Army doesn't have a strong habit of fielding a lot of variants."

"This is different. The Valkyrie Redeemer is not suited to be a one-size-fits-all solution. Since the mech is so popular and unique, the Hex Army can't just commission another aerial marauder mech since they won't have glows."

In other words, the Hex Army had to turn to Ves and Gloriana again.

"I don't know, Gloriana. We don't have the time to spend on so many variants."

"We don't have to do anything, Ves. The Masters of the Hegemony have already poured over our design. Some of them have already completed some variants. They just want us to give them a passover in order to make sure they're up to standard when it comes to their glows."

Ves blinked. He hadn't expected the Hexers to be so eager. Their Master Mech Designers were already making a move!

To be honest, Ves felt as if they encroached on his territory yet again. It wasn't enough to optimize the base model of the Valkyrie Redeemer. Now they were developing variants without bothering to ask his opinion first!

He knew he didn't have much room for complaint, though. Though the credit of the design remained with the Miracle Couple, the ownership and all of the rights towards its usage had fallen into the hands of the Hegemony.

This meant that the Hexers were able to decide for themselves whether to design variants.

In this case, they opted to do so and handed over responsibility to some of their Masters.

Before Ves made any further conclusions, he first wanted to study the variants.

"They look better than expected."

The variants actually confirmed quite closely to the original design. Ves could immediately tell that the Masters worked exceedingly carefully in order to avoid breaking their variant's glow. They rationed their alterations carefully and found many clever ways to transform the performance of the Valkyrie Redeemer without overhauling the design entirely.

The problem was that each and every action of a Master Mech Designer inevitably introduced massive changes to a design. Since these changes went far beyond optimizing the Valkyrie Redeemer, Ves could clearly tell that the Masters unavoidably left their marks behinds.

"These variants may be cleverly-designed, but their glows can't be restored to full." Ves concluded.

"Why not?"

"It's not entirely our mech design anymore. These Masters are too overbearing."

This was one of the downsides of having two mech designers of different ranks taking part in the same design. While the disruption wasn't too big if the collaboration involved a Journeyman and a Senior, it was a different story when a Master got involved.

They were too strong!

"Can you still correct these variants?"

Ves tentatively nodded. "I can. It's just that I can't get rid of the strength of the Master without changing the design back. Since that's impossible, you just have to accept that the variants will be a bit worse off in terms of glow. Its Marked For Death and Shock And Awe Pulse abilities won't be as good."

"How much will their effectiveness drop?"

"Not much, but that is mostly due to the restraint the Masters have shown. While I still have to work on these variants, the drop in effectiveness will probably be around 10 to 20 percent."

"That can make a substantial difference on the battlefield." Gloriana frowned even deeper.

"Well, I can't help it. My design philosophy doesn't interact that well with third-party variants. This is something that I can't change."

There weren't many ways to make it better without spending a lot of time on the designs. Though Gloriana wanted Ves to spend his time on designing some proper variants, he rejected her request yet again.

"I am not working for the Hegemony!" He pushed back. "I merely agreed to design 8 different mechs for them, and that is what I'll do. I'm only agreeing to do a pass on these variants because it doesn't take much time, but that's it. I have many other plans in store and I can't dedicate my time entirely on this single pursuit!"