The Mech Touch

What a radical idea!

For a long time, Ves often stated that his mechs were alive. His design philosophy centered around the premise the mechs were just as alive as humans and should be treated as such.

While it was too impractical to grant them rights equivalent to that of a human, it was already good enough to treat them with respect and pay attention to their needs.

Yet despite sticking to this core principle, Ves hadn't entirely treated living mechs according to his own ideals.

It couldn't be helped. Mechs may be alive, but they were also products made to fight. Getting too attached to them was a bad idea for most people as the loss of a living companion was much more hard to stomach than the loss of a piece of hardware.

Another reason why Ves wasn't able to push for better treatment was because he needed to convince a lot of people that it was worthwhile to do so. While many of his clansmen had steadily come around to treating their mechs as if they were alive, only Joshua fully embraced this mindset.

Other Larkinsons were only partially there. Both their hearts and minds had to agree that mechs were alive. Otherwise, these people would continue to treat their mechs as machines for the most part.

This was what their learning and senses told them. They simply couldn't see the potent spiritual foundations of living mechs!

Ves shook his head. This was not the time to investigate this radical idea. He resolutely added it to his to-do list before shoving every related thought out of his mind.

He found it rather strange that he managed to generate several promising new ideas in a short amount of time. In his mentally-exhausted state, his creativity and imagination should have suffered.

Did he misunderstand his low state? Was there more to draining his spiritual energy than what he already ascertained?

Perhaps his current conditions were similar to that when he activated the remote domain fragment in his mind. When he was able to gain access to Gloriana's domain, he was able to view himself in the lens of another person. 

By adopting a different perspective, he was able to pay more attention to details that his normal self overlooked.

Ves believed that he might be benefiting from a similar dynamic at the moment!

By draining a significant chunk of his mind, his personality and thinking patterns had changed. Since he hadn't lost too much spiritual energy this time, his changes weren't too severe, but it was noticeable enough to produce a contrast.

Contrast!

This was the key word! By creating contrast, his hidden biases became obvious and the flaws that he never took notice of became extremely eye-catching.

What all of this meant that it was not a waste to put himself in a low state sometimes! As long as he took advantage of his temporary conditions, he might be able to come up with solutions from angles he never would have considered when he was his old self.

Of course, just like every other tangent he came up with today, he intended to explore these ideas later. He still had to brainstorm two more potential mech design projects.

Since Gloriana had just finished her turn, Ves began to dig up another potential mech concept from his mind. As a mech designer, he frequently came up with new ideas for mechs. He stored everything that was interesting and viable enough in his implant. Therefore, he would always be able to push forward a potential mech design even if he wasn't able to invent one on the spot.

"My next proposal is more specifically geared towards the needs of our clan. As far as I'm concerned, the Transcendent Punisher is the foundation of our expeditionary fleet's defense. It is our greatest weapon against a variety of threats, whether it is vast swarms of pirate mechs or smaller numbers of elite mechs. With sufficient numbers, they can even pose a threat against expert mechs or weaker first-class mechs!"

That last part was especially important to Ves. In the Red Ocean, pioneers of all backgrounds mixed together in a relatively small pond.

Even though the Big Two divided the dwarf galaxy into many zones that restricted the conduct of more powerful pioneers, how could anyone possibly enforce the rules at a distance?

Even if some mad Terran and Rubarthan broke the rules and bullied a second-rate fleet, the punishment meted out to them only came in effect after the incident!

By that time, it was too late to save the victim!

The only way to avoid this unfortunate outcome was to present enough of a threat against these powerful parties to deter any hostile actions.

Order was in short supply in the new frontier. The Big Two's authority did not extend far beyond their star systems and the active frontline against the indigenous powers of the dwarf galaxy.

What happened in the already-conquered hinterland of the Red Ocean was hardly a priority to the mechers and fleeters!

This was why Ves prioritized giving his Larkinson Clan some teeth. He added one tooth in the form of the successful development of a powerful heavy artillery mech was one tooth. He planned to add some additional teeth by developing some expert mechs.

Yet that was not enough to constitute an actual threat against first-class fleets.

"What makes first-class mechs so powerful against second-class mechs?" Ves suddenly asked.

His wife looked confused. "Why would you ask such a simple question to me? It's the same as pitting a second-class mech against a third-class mech. The quality difference is so great that the better mech can easily beat several weaker mechs. Of course, there are also other variables such as teamwork to consider, but overall much of the disparity comes from better tech, better materials and better mech pilots.

"The gap between third-class and second-class mechs is quite big, but not insurmountable." Ves added. "In the Battle of Kesseling VII, the Swordmaidens managed to take down some Fridaymen mechs with third-class swordsman mechs."

"I recall that part of the battle. The Fridaymen were too overconfident and brazenly dispatched a squad of knight mechs without sufficient support."

"My point remains. It is difficult but not impossible for third-raters to defeat second-raters. However, everyone says that you can basically forget about second-raters defeating first-raters. Why is there such a difference?"

"That's because the difference in tech and quality is much greater this time. I already know this." Gloriana answered with an annoyed expression. "This is one of the reasons why the cost of our expert mechs can be insanely high. It's too difficult for second-raters to catch up to the power of a first-rater."

"What would you say is the best way for second-class mechs to threaten a first-class mech?"

"Deploy a lot of second-class Ferocious Piranhas?" She replied. "The quality of a mech jumps by a huge margin, but the improvement of the mech pilot is not so drastic. The Piranhas have to get close, though. I don't think the light mechs will be able to survive the approach. First-class mechs are usually equipped with a variety of miniaturized weapon systems. They almost always come with solutions against swarming opponents."

As much as he wanted to deny it, she was right. Throwing large amounts of relatively fragile mechs against a first-class multipurpose mech was no different from sending them to their deaths!

This was also one of the reasons why dispatching lancer mechs might not work.

While these mechs were capable of punching above their weight, their other parameters weren't able to catch up. It was too easy for a first-class mech to snipe the incoming lancer mechs at a distance or dodge aside a lance charge at the last moment.

First-class mechs were just as difficult to beat if not more as expert mech!

And Ves only considered the lowest and cheapest first-class mechs in his consideration. The range of performance between different first-class mechs was huge!

However, different from expert mechs, first-class mechs did not enjoy the power of true resonance. This made them more fallible in Ves' eyes, but that did not mean they were easy to threaten. Their shield generators were much more powerful than that of second-class mechs. This advantage was enough for them to toy with his expeditionary fleet!

"I have had my hands on a first-class alloy for some time now." He said. "I've been thinking about how to integrate them into our expert mechs to ensure the best possible defense. I have also been thinking about how such a mech can be defeated head-on. Do you know what I've concluded?"

"No, but I can tell you that if the rest of the expert mechs are still second-class, then they will be much more exploitable than a simple first-class mech. The difference is just too big."

"You're not wrong, Gloriana. It would be great if we can defeat mechs with strong protection by exploiting their weak points, but I don't think we can do that against first-class mechs. The only way to confront them is to confront them directly."

"Isn't that the stupidest solution?"

"Tricks won't work against first-class mechs. As far as I'm concerned, the only reliable method to threaten a first-class mech is to overpower them the old-fashioned way. We need to attack their shields until they pop, attack their armor until it has formed a hole and attack the internals to disable the functioning of the mech."

His rather basic explanation caused Gloriana to become even more doubtful at his sensibilities?

"Are you kidding me, Ves? Is this the answer you came up with? Even a six-year old could give you this answer. The difficulty does not lie in identifying the right method, it is coming up with the requisite power to accomplish such a feat."

Ves did not speak a word this time. Instead, he raised his finger and projected some very specific archival footage.

The clips he chose all centered around one of his other recent inventions, the so-called battle formation and battle network.

Gloriana became engrossed as she watched a tiny portion of the Battle against the Abyss. It depicted the Swordmaiden mechs entering into a battle formation. Every Swordmaiden mech pilot harmonized with the center of the battle network, which happened to be Venerable Dise!

Once the Swordmaidens united as one, Venerable Dise extended her power to her fellow Swordmaidens, causing them to become an extension of her will!

In a situation where Venerable Dise had just broken through to expert pilot, her overflowing power was immense. In truth, it was too much for her to harness!

However, by sharing some of that excess power to the other Swordmaidens, Venerable Dise was able to lighten her burden while at the same time spread out her force of will over multiple minds.

The result was that the Swordmaiden battle network managed to form a giant greatsword that literally scythed through large amounts of pirate mechs!

This wasn't the only battle network in play.

The Penitent Sisters entered into a battle formation as well! The battle network centered around the Superior Mother all caused the Hexer mech pilots to borrow some of her power and manifest her silhouette!

Gloriana instantly became more attentive. "Isn't this what I've just talked about? This is exactly what the Hex Army needs to defeat the Friday Coalition's expert mechs."

He knew that she would react in this fashion.

"Don't be foolish. This is a very sensitive invention. We can't share it with the public. Besides, the conditions to make this happen are simply too onerous. I don't think most Hex Army units are qualified to activate this power."

"Says who?"

"Says me, the inventor of this method!" Ves patted his chest. "Look, I'm too afraid of what might happen if more people find out the power of my battle formations. It should be reserved as one of the trump cards of our clan. I'm only putting it on the table today because I want to design an affordable solution against first-class mechs. It is a weapon of last resort. Under normal conditions, we should never reveal we possess this capability. Understand?"

Gloriana did not look convinced.