The Mech Touch

Aboard the Scarlet Rose, a tense atmosphere settled over the design lab. The Braves and Erudites that entered the compartment each walked with nervous gaits as they took their regular seats behind the terminals and work stations.

Only a handful of mech designers took less notice of the ambiguous mood in the design lab.

"What's going on?" Ketis asked as she sauntered over to Miles Tovar. The satisfied smile on her face was completely at odds with the grave expressions of the other low-ranking mech designers. "We're finally about to design some mechs again. Isn't this great?"

The former Brighter mech designer raised his palms in a sussing motion. "Quiet down. Don't attract too much attention today?"

"Why?"

"Because there is trouble on the horizon?"

Ketis looked confused. "Huh? What trouble?"

The man leaned forward until his lips came close to her ears. "The marital kind."

"Oh."

The Swordmaiden mech designer still looked clueless.

"Haven't you been paying attention to the messages on the internal net?"

"No. I am preoccupied with something lately. I've been… ahem.. training some personnel over at the Hall of Heroes."

She couldn't help but smile in a mischievous manner as she said that. Venerable Joshua rapidly improved his swordsmanship after he began to follow her high-intensity training program.

Alas, she couldn't spend as much time with the expert pilot as before. Her duties to the Design Department came first, and she also had to spend enough time on her own projects in order to progress her design philosophy.

Her improvement never stopped. Though the prospect of advancing to Journeyman was still fuzzy to her, she continued to work diligently in order to get closer. She had already completed all of her early mech designs and had begun to design another wave of swordsman mechs.

Perhaps other mech designers might go bored or crazy after designing one swordsman mech after another, but Ketis was different.

She loved swords! She loved mechs! She loved combining the two! As long as she had enough time, she could design an infinite variety of swordsman mechs!

This was how a hyper-specialized mech designer worked! The more restrictions they imposed on themselves, the more they were able to expand their options in the areas they excelled at. There was never a case where Ketis would run out of ideas!

As she and Miles spoke in low tones to each other, the entrance to the design lab slid open again.

Everyone sat up straighter.

The air became even tenser.

Gloriana did not pay attention to the nervous expressions of her assistants. She marched over to the front of the lab. Her white coat billowed as she advanced like a woman possessed.

"Miaow."

Clixie dutifully followed the mech designer while keeping a close eye on the other mech designers.

A number of Glory Seeker bodyguards had entered as well. They hardly attracted any attention as they took position around the design lab.

No one spoke as Gloriana quietly sat down at the seat reserved for her. Clixie jumped up and perched on her lap. A delicate hand soon began to stroke her fur.

A few minutes passed as every mech designer tried to keep themselves as still as possible. No one wanted to be the one who attracted Gloriana's ire!

Rather than sticking their necks out, it was better to stay still and act like statues. After all, Gloriana didn't have a problem with them. Only one person was responsible for putting her in a foul mood!

The hatch slid open yet again. Everyone turned to face the entrance.

Several people passed through. The assistants automatically dismissed the presence of Nitaa and the other Larkinson bodyguards.

Lucky attracted a bit more attention. The eye-catching mechanical cat floated forward as if he served as a scout for the people who were just about to pass through.

"Meow."

Two more people passed through.

One of them wore a familiar red-and-white uniform that possessed some ornate touches. This was the Larkinson Patriarch uniform that Ves wore on a daily basis.

The woman next to him wore a very different uniform. Only one mech force issued the fairly distinctive black and orange outfit.

The logo on the front of the uniform attracted even more attention. The very distinctive orange ♂ symbol surrounded in a black circle left no doubt to the identity of the mech designer walking next to the clan patriarch!

An invisible storm seemed to form around Gloriana as the pair of mech designers approached.

The intensity of her barely-restrained fury caused one of the two newcomers to falter in her steps.

Ves turned his head to his companion. "Stiffen up. You're a soldier, aren't you? You're a Journeyman, just like her. The Penitent Sisters have fought against pirates mechs and warships without flinching. Will you shame your sisters by showing cowardice in front of another woman?"

The Penitent Sister's body froze. Ves was right. The Penitent Sisters had shown undaunted courage and valor throughout the Nyxian Gap Campaign. No matter how many sisters perished, none of the exiled Hexers ever broke!

Yet defying Gloriana was easier said than done. If there was one weakness the Penitent Sisters possessed, it was that they were never able to show strength towards other Hexers.

The Hexadric Hegemony held the power of life and death over them once. Though Gloriana wasn't an extension of the Hexer state, she was the closest thing to a proxy in this situation. She even had the Glory Seekers at her beck and call!

Right now, aside from the Cross Clan, the Glory Seekers possessed the greatest might in the Cinach System. On the other hand, the Larkinson Clan wasn't able to exert that much strength anymore as it was in the process of drawing down its third-class assets.

How could the Penitent Sisters hold their heads high in this situation? Despite their common origins, the Glory Seekers did not regard the Penitent Sisters as their own! In fact, it was the opposite!

Every Penitent Sister knew that if they made one wrong move, the Glory Seekers might take the initiative to wipe them out, their affiliation to the Larkinson Clan be damned!

Though Ves was vaguely aware of this dynamic as well, he didn't think the situation could deteriorate to this extent. Relations between the Wodin Dynasty and the Larkinson Clan would instantly sour and his marriage with Gloriana might fall apart as a result.

The Wodins would never let such a disaster come to pass!

Therefore, Ves bet that no matter how he interacted with the Penitent Sisters, Gloriana and her guard dogs wouldn't do anything.

The Penitent Sisters may possess a troubling history, but that was in the past. As far as he was concerned, the former Hexers were Larkinsons now. Since they were his clansmen now, Ves had an obligation to treat them as warmly as his own kind.

Once the pair of mech designers approached the front, Ves turned around to face the assistants.

He gestured to the woman he brought into the Design Lab.

"This is Miss Juliet Stameros, a Journeyman Mech Designer from the Hexadric Hegemony. She is a graduate of the Artemis Institute in her former state. That means that she is a real second-class mech designer. Her specialty is high-mobility flight systems. Given these qualifications, I have decided to appoint Miss Stameros as the third lead designer Design Department, effective from today."

He really went through with his intentions! Despite Gloriana's darkening expression, Ves pretended as if his wife didn't exist at this time as he began to unveil some procedural and administrative changes as a result of the latest addition.

The sudden changes to the hierarchy of the Design Department necessitated a lot of new rules! No longer were Ves and Gloriana able to command their assistants as casually as before. They needed more structure in place so that the department would continue to run smoothly even if some irregularities took place.

"We will be adopting a different project schedule for this round." He announced. "Due to our growing need for second-class mech designs, we will temporarily stop working on minor design projects. For the next round, we will all be working on six major design projects. Since the workload is much greater for all of us, I've decided to raise the time limit from four months to six months. Within half a year, I expect us all to complete six different second-class mech design projects!"

Six second-class mech designs!

Just half a year of time!

Many assistants couldn't help but gasp when they heard the news. The challenges were much greater this time! None of the Braves or Erudites were truly up to the task of designing a second-class mech as of yet. Even if they were relegated to an assisting function, they needed to work much harder and draw on a much greater body of knowledge in order to perform even the most trivial of tasks!

Sure, the Design Department had two more months to complete the design projects, but the magnitude of work was much greater.

With just two Journeyman Mech Designers at the helm, it was extremely doubtful whether the mech designers of the LMC could complete so many projects at the same time.

This was when everyone began to shift their gazes to Juliet Stameros.

Only the addition of a third Journeyman would allow them to finish their projects within the time limit!

Ves smiled in satisfaction as the Braves and Erudites began to look at Juliet in a more positive light.

Through applying pressure, he easily manipulated his assistants into regarding Juliet as their savior and helper instead of an interloper. Whatever negative influence Gloriana exerted to them became a lot less effective.

One of the lessons that every Larkinson learned was that they should always aim to complete their assignments! If they were late or failed to performed their assigned tasks, they might miss out on earning precious Larkinson merits.

No one wanted this to happen!

The Larkinson Merit Exchange that Ves had set up added more and more valuable goods and services to its redemption list. There was definitely something for everyone!

Ves clapped. "As you can imagine, designing six second-class mech designs at once is quite cumbersome. This is why Gloriana and I will share ultimate responsibility for the design projects with Miss Stameros. While she is still unaccustomed to working here, I have high expectations for her. Every lead designer will soon be in charge of leading two design projects each."

This meant that Ves, Gloriana and Juliet would only have to pay attention to two projects instead of all six. Of course, this did not mean that they were supposed to isolate their projects from each other.

An LMC mech was not an LMC mech if it did not possess any life. Ves played an essential role in applying his design philosophy to all six upcoming mech designs.

In the same fashion, Gloriana was indispensable when it came to optimizing and elevating the performance of the mech designs.

As for Juliet, her role was a bit more specialized. It was her task to empower and maximize the performance of the flight systems of every mech design. In fact, her specialty actually encompassed some smaller mobility systems as well such as modular thrusters and boosters.

Since every second-class mech including the landbound kind possessed at least some form of extra propulsion, Juliet could still play a role in the design of mechs devoid of flight systems.

Even if that somehow wasn't possible, the fact that she was a Journeyman meant that she could already handle many other aspects of a mech. It was just that the areas that fell outside of her specialty wouldn't be as remarkable.

That was okay. The third lead designer wasn't supposed to excel in every area. What mattered more was how much value they could impart in a mech design when they pooled their respective specialties together.

Ves truly looked forward to how much faster and more agile his next products would be! With the addition of Juliet, it was the perfect time for the LMC to develop a lot of new light mechs!