The Mech Touch

Before Ves could turn and and fend off his wife, she reached him and grabbed both sides of his collar.

Her face pressed right into his own! "Why did you make Venerable Joshua pilot this new Valkyrie mech?! A HEXER MECH SHOULD BE PILOTED BY A HEXER!"

She attempted to jerk his body back and forth, but her weak arms failed to do more than cause his head to shake a bit. He innocently raised his palms.

"Calm down, Gloriana! You can argue with me, but please don't do so here. Our entire clan is watching!"

He waved his arm across the entire hangar bay.

There was no privacy to be found here. When Gloriana looked around, she spotted several mechs, mech pilots, mech technicians and other equipment.

That wasn't all. She knew that the monitoring system must be listening in as well.

She forcibly calmed herself down. "Fine. Let's bring your new Valkyrie mech back to my workshop and discuss what exactly you have done."

"Hey! This is my project! My mech should be brought back to MY workshop!"

The two argued for a bit until Gloriana reluctantly acknowledged his point.

She still glowered at him as a couple of cargo bots slowly dragged the Valkyrie Prime back to Ves' workshop.

"Miaow."

Even Clixie directed her ire at Ves!

"Good girl." Gloriana complimented as she picked Clixie up and held her pet against her chest. "Ves has been very naughty today. He went off to make a Hexer mech without involving a Hexer mech designer. What's even worse is that he asked a non-Hexer to pilot his homegrown creation. Don't you think that sounds ridiculous?"

"Miaow!"

"You hear that, Ves? She thinks you're wrong as well!"

"Uhm, Clixie is just copying you, you know." Ves pointed out.

"SHUT UP!"

When they eventually returned to the workshop, the bots placed the Valkyrie Prime back into the assembly system.

Ves activated a comprehensive diagnostic routine. Scanners and sensors quickly came to life and began to inspect the mech from top to bottom.

Venerable Joshua had emerged from the mech a while ago. He looked distracted as he kept thinking back on the unique sensation of resonating with the Valkyrie Prime.

While he had never piloted an actual expert mech before, Joshua guessed that there had to be some similarities.

At the same time, Gloriana dragged Ves to a private office space inside the workshop. She let Clixie go, allowing the cat to skulk around and stay on guard.

Gloriana placed her hands on her hips. "We're alone now. Can you tell me what you have been up to behind my back?"

"I was just conducting a small study."

"Liar! This is way more than a small experiment! Do you think I'm blind? You invested a lot of that 'Unending alloy' to make this mech. As far I know, you have been very stingy about using up this strange material you brought back from the Nyxian Gap. There is no way this Valkyrie variant is just an experimental platform!"

"Okay, I admit it." Ves sighed. "The Valkyrie Prime is supposed to be a replacement for Venerable Joshua's current mech. The Quint is a good machine for expert candidates, but it can't enable expert pilots to exert their full strength. Joshua needs a more powerful mech that possesses a higher skill ceiling and can tolerate more powerful maneuvers. While I can't develop a full expert mech, it is not that much of a problem to come up with a variant of the Valkyrie Brunhild. To be honest, I initially wanted to fabricate the Brunhild, but we don't have any Rorach's Bone."

"Hmmm…" His wife frowned. "From what it looks like, your Valkyrie Prime is more than that. Our strategic materials reserve doesn't contain any self-resonating exotics! How did you manage to accomplish resonance? Did you withhold crucial information?"

Ves vigorously shook his head!

"I didn't hide anything! It's just that I found a new way to empower Unending alloy. When I built my mech with this material, I filled it up with spiritual energy. That has caused the mech to become.. special. This is new to me as well, so don't ask me what it can do exactly. The test run you've witnessed earlier is the first time I put this idea into practice! I haven't even processed all of the data I've gathered!"

Gloriana placed her palm on her face.

"I can tolerate you performing an experiment by yourself. I don't have a problem with that. If you want to tinker around with a possible new application of your design philosophy, then you don't need to involve me. What I do have a problem with is your disrespect towards Hexers! I know you don't like them, but that doesn't give you the right to make your own Hexer mech and pass it on to someone who is completely unrelated to my home state!"

"This is not a mech that is meant to be utilized by the Hegemony!" Ves defended himself. "I've made it exclusively to increase the combat strength of our fleet. As I told you earlier, while our expert pilots are waiting to receive their expert mechs, I wanted to give them a second-class mech derived from our existing work that is adapted to some of their abilities. I don't have a lot of options at this time. Between the Blessed Squire, the Transcendent Punisher and the Valkyrie product line, and it's clear that the Valkyrie mech is the most suitable choice for our situation."

His wife pounded her fist against his chest.

"Don't you remember the fundamental rule of Hexer mechs?! Male mechs are meant to be piloted by boys and female mechs are meant to be piloted by females! Why didn't you choose Venerable Orfan or Venerable Dise? They might not be Hexers, but at least they're women!"

Ves held her wrist before she could pound him for the umpteenth time. "I did not choose to develop a mech for them. I chose to start with Venerable Joshua for some very good reasons. Not only is he eager to take part in my experiments, he is also our most adaptable expert pilot. He can pilot any LMC mech! As the initial test run has just proven, Joshua is fully capable of piloting a Valkyrie mech!"

"Just because he can doesn't mean he should! I won't dispute your claim that Venerable Joshua can pilot a Hexer mech, but it's not right! Back in the Hegemony, what you have just done is strictly prohibited. The authorities won't hesitate to confiscate your mech and put you and your friend into prison!"

Ves smirked. "It's a good thing we're not in the Hegemony, then. We are Larkinsons. Our clan is completely independent and not an extension of your home state. I don't have to abide by the Hegemony's arbitrary and discriminatory rules. In the rest of human space, it is not unusual to see women piloting masculine-looking mechs and men making use of feminine-shaped mechs."

"But—"

"—And don't attempt to bring up the issue of rights." Ves cut off his partner. "The Hegemony formally gave us permission to make use of the Hexer mech designs they've commissioned. Perhaps your home state assumed that we would follow all of its traditions and customs related to its mechs, but that isn't mentioned in any agreements!"

"You…"

"If you set aside the fact that the Valkyrie Prime is a Hexer mech, it is just a custom second-class mech. No one aside from Hexers cares about the gender of its mech pilot. This is why I felt free to make this mech for Venerable Joshua. This is also why I didn't want to involve you in this project either. I knew you would kick up a fuss and bring in invalid arguments to stop me from designing a suitable mech for one of our expert pilots."

"You could have chosen to develop a variant of the Transcendent Punisher instead! It's just as powerful if not more than the Valkyrie Redeemer! Venerable Joshua has already proven that he can pilot Ylvainan mechs."

Ves crossed his arms. "Are you being serious? The Transcendent Punisher doesn't even have a flight system! Sure, it's a solid mech and possesses lots of firepower, but it is a one-dimensional machine that doesn't give full play to Venerable Joshua's varied skills. He's much more useful if he pilots a mobile mech. He excels at piloting assault-oriented mechs, and the Valkyrie product line completely fits this category!"

"It still looks wrong to me! If you needed a test pilot for your Hexer mech, then why didn't you turn to Venerable Brutus? He would love to help you in your experiments as long as I ask nicely."

"Have you been listening to me, Gloriana?! The Valkyrie Prime is not a disposable experiment! It's a stopgap mech for Venerable Joshua! I'm killing two birds with one stone by developing this mech. That's efficiency for you. Besides, Venerable Brutus is primarily a ranged specialist, while the Valkyrie Prime possesses powerful melee capabilities. Not only is there a mismatch between mech and mech pilot, but your brother is already piloting the Star Dancer! It doesn't make sense to tailor the Valkyrie Prime to an expert pilot that already has a fine expert mech."

It took several more minutes to rebut and deconstruct Gloriana's objections. Even though her Hexer sensibilities still objected to his project, logic was on his side.

She didn't have a leg to stand on and she knew it. Once she realized that her husband wasn't going to appease her, she finally got off her high horse.

"Okay, I get it. You want to perform some experiments while developing a new mech for Venerable Joshua. While I don't agree with your decisions, I won't stop you from proceeding with your project."

Finally. Ves was about to head back to the main hall of his personal workshop, but Gloriana quickly stood in his way.

"You're not leaving me out of this! You should have brought me in the moment you chose to work on a Hexer mech. Juliet can keep watch over the design lab."

She pressed her body up against his own. Her scent wafted in his nose. She smelled like honey and flowers today.

He didn't have any energy left to fend her off. He slumped his shoulders in resignation. "Okay. However, I'm in charge of this project. While you can help me with analyzing the data that I've gathered and providing me with a second opinion, I will decide how to proceed."

"I'll do my best to help you succeed. I'm not your enemy, Ves."

Now that they have made up, they emerged out of the private office while discussing the details of what Ves had done.

He quickly summarized his goal, his theories, his decisions and the outcome of the initial test.

When he introduced the concepts of prime resonance and prime mechs, she finally looked impressed.

"That's quite a good naming scheme? I'm not sure if anyone has already used the term 'prime mechs', but I think it is quite appropriate in this case. You can even extend it further to the key materials that makes this possible. Unending alloy and any other exotic with similar properties should be classified as prime materials."

That was actually quite a good suggestion! Ves immediately embraced her idea.

"I actually have two different prime materials in stock. The P-stone that I have shown you before is another one. It's too bad that I only have a modest collection of lumps. While the storage capacity of P-stone is much higher, it is a soft and fragile exotic that is not available in larger quantities. Sourcing more P-stone has actually troubled me for several years. As for Unending alloy, you already know where I got it from. I don't think we'll be able to find it anywhere else!"

The limited supply of prime materials severely limited how many prime mechs they could make.