The Mech Touch

Once Gloriana clung to Ves like an adoring wife, Clixie no longer hissed at him. Instead, the furry cat cutely crawled on his lap while he checked the data.

"Miaow~"

"According to these readings, the physical performance of the Valkyrie Prime did not receive any noticeable boosts." Gloriana pointed at her terminal. "Fake resonance has a much more limited scope of improvement. It's usually just the components that incorporate self-resonating materials that are boosted. True resonance is broader and can affect the entire frame of a mech."

There was no way to arouse true resonance without pairing an expert pilot with an expert mech.

The only other method that could produce a comparable result was forced resonance, which only happened when mech pilots broke through. This was no different from winning the lottery, so no one ever pinned their hopes on banking on forced resonance despite not needing any expert mechs.

Ves had actually hoped his experiment produced either true resonance or forced resonance. The former was like winning the jackpot while the latter was like getting the second prize.

Reality on the other hand saw fit to hand him a consolation prize. While prime resonance appeared to be stronger than fake resonance, it wasn't very useful in this context.

Ves pointed his finger at the projected schematics of his mech. "The problem with what you've just described is that my mech's armor system and internal frame is almost entirely made out of Unending alloy. The prime material I've used is also top notch in terms of defense. Strengthening the defenses of this material even further is completely redundant."

He would have wanted the prime resonance to enhance other aspects of the Valkyrie Prime. Increasing the mobility and offensive power of his mech would have a measurable impact on its battle performance!

Gloriana hummed as she thought about this issue. "From what I can see, I don't think you can utilize Unending alloy in many other ways. Even though you have clad the flight system of this mech with this prime material, it didn't gain any additional thrust. We need to learn how to apply Unending alloy in other ways. Utilizing it as armor and internal support is only the most shallow application. One way I can think of to leverage Unending alloy further is to fire it as a projectile."

"Absolutely not!" Ves instantly replied. "Don't even think about that! Unending alloy is incredibly rare, strong and precious. Even if it's available on the market, I doubt we can afford any with our current means. Unless proven otherwise, I'll assume that this alloy is only available in the Nyxian Gap. While I am willing to keep an open mind, I highly doubt that Unending alloy or its component exotics can be found in the Red Ocean. That means we can't waste a single gram of Unending alloy."

"It's just a possibility, Ves. I didn't mean you should go through with it. My point is that you need to be more clever with how you utilize Unending alloy. If I was in your place, I would have started with just a fraction of Unending alloy. I wouldn't have used it all on armor plating, structural parts and armaments."

"This isn't just an experimental mech. It's also a mech that is meant to be deployed in battle. If you set aside prime resonance, the Valkyrie Prime is by far our toughest and most damage-resistant mechs. That alone is worth using up so much Unending alloy. It's not doing anything useful while it's collecting dust in our vault."

Gloriana still had a point, though. As both of them studied the effects of prime resonance, they concluded that it was effectively useless in its demonstrated form. Even if the Valkyrie Prime exhibited ten times stronger resonance, it only offered an extra layer of protection to a mech that already possessed excellent defenses!

Due to the many limitations they faced, Ves saw no way to improve his mech by focusing on this aspect.

He would rather focus on another, more mysterious angle.

"My goal is to achieve true resonance." He stated. "That hasn't changed. Even if it isn't possible to accomplish it with our current resources, I want to come as close to it as possible. I managed to create prime resonance by putting something together that is completely different from existing methods. My current idea is to expand upon the incorporeal and human side of my project. My specialty is man-machine symbiosis, so I must continue to explore the Valkyrie Prime concept from this angle."

His wife tentatively nodded. "I can't help you much on that aspect, but what I can do is optimize your mech. Even if you swapped out one material for another material doesn't mean the mech performs as optimally as before. The altered mass and density of the Valkyrie Prime has unbalanced the frame. I'll go ahead and correct that while I perform some other optimizations."

"Don't spend too much time on that. There are several other expert pilots who urgently need improved mechs as well. Our overall priority lies in boosting the strength of our expert pilots as quickly as possible rather than perfecting the mech of a lone individual."

Gloriana frowned. That did not sit well with her. "Why are you in such a hurry, Ves?"

He hesitated for a couple of seconds.

"It sounds silly, but… the Living Prophet made a prediction that we might be confronted with some enemies on our way out of the star sector."

"That's impossible. Our fleet is incredibly powerful and we are still inside Hegemony-aligned space. If the Fridaymen are targeting us, then they need to muster up thousands of mechs and lots of carriers. It's impossible to hide the movements of a massive fleet."

"I know. I agree with you. We're detouring through Vicious Mountain just to stay as far away from Coalition-aligned space as possible. We might encounter other enemies along the way, though. What if some Garlaners attempt to waylay us? What if we'll encounter trouble at the Life Research Association? We need to increase our strength as quickly as possible. Don't forget that it's not a secret that our expert pilots don't have access to any expert mechs. They are paper tigers who won't deter a formidable enemy."

"Hmmm. Maybe you're right." She agreed with his logic. "I don't like rush jobs, but I know this is important to you. We better do a proper job when we design our expert mechs. I don't want to rush any aspect of our best works."

"I get it, I get it. Let's get to work."

Ves finally managed to get away from his wife. While she proceeded to examine the armor layout of the Valkyrie Prime, Ves rose from his seat and approached Venerable Joshua.

"Hello again."

"Oh, hey." Venerable Joshua snapped out of his daze. "What do you want to know?"

"First, let me begin by telling you that we have not detected anything concerning the initial test run. Neither you nor your mech sustained any damage. We've also discovered a new form of resonance. Let me tell you what we know."

He briefly filled Joshua in about prime resonance. The problem was that the expert pilot never experienced fake or true resonance. He only ever experienced forced resonance twice.

"So in conclusion, it appears the Valkyrie Prime is not capable of imitating a genuine expert mech." Ves said at the end of his explanation. "What we currently have is prime resonance, which has potential but isn't a game changer."

"Sir.. I don't think prime resonance is as weak as you think." Venerable Joshua replied. "Back when I tried to resonate with the Valkyrie Prime, it felt as if I was trying to lift something heavy. A couch or something. I only managed to lift one side of the couch, and that was with the mech and.. the Superior Mother helping me out. I could have achieved more if I was able to lift the entire couch."

That was a rather poor analogy, but Joshua managed to convey his point.

"Does this mean that resonating with your mech is strenuous to you?" Ves asked.

He nodded. "It's a workout, for sure. I can't do that with other mechs because there is nothing for my mind to grapple on. The Valkyrie Prime is the first mech I've piloted that I feel useful as an expert pilot."

"Interesting. Tell me more about how you feel about the mech itself."

"The mech is quite friendly to me. I can actively feel the Superior Mother's influence now that I know what to look out for. I actively tried to get in touch with her and tell her what I want. I can feel she is helping in some way, but don't ask me for any details. The mech is very powerful to me, but it's frustrating that I can't fully channel it. There has to be a way!"

Ves nodded and smiled in encouragement. "I think so as well. We'll have to perform some subsequent test runs in order to gather more data and try out some different methods."

They began right away.

While Gloriana worked to optimize the armor layout of the Valkyrie Prime, Ves frequently commanded Venerable Joshua to pilot the Valkyrie Prime.

Since his expeditionary fleet was engaged in FTL travel most of the time, it wasn't possible to deploy the Valkyrie Prime in space.

Fortunately, it wasn't necessary to do so. After a few cautious attempts, Ves decided to keep the test runs in his personal workshop. It featured enough space for a mech to move around in a very tight circle and rise a bit in the air, but not much more.

In fact, Ves didn't even need the Valkyrie Prime to move. It was already sufficient to station the mech in the most open space in his workshop before ordering Joshua to keep the mech still.

It was already enough to gather data on the mech while Joshua was actively inducing prime resonance. The machine glowed brightly in the mech workshop, but none of the nearby production equipment suffered any damage.

The repeated tests fatigued Venerable Joshua. While he didn't feel much strain if he induced prime resonance for a couple of minutes, it quickly added up when a session stretched on for twenty minutes or longer.

To be fair, other forms of resonance aside from fake resonance were also strenuous to mech pilots. The power granted by resonance always came at a price. The greater the resonance, the greater the burden on the mech pilot.

Still, no matter how much Ves was asking from Venerable Joshua, the expert pilot diligently did what he was told. He did not ask for any reprieve.

"I can still go on, sir! I am nowhere near my limit!"

While Ves worried about overworking the expert pilot, he wanted to stress test the Valkyrie Prime and its mech pilot. He needed to know if some kind of limit existed if the combination continually engaged in prime resonance.

The frequent, lengthy test runs were very useful in other ways. Sustained use of the Valkyrie Prime soon exposed some details that took Ves by surprise!

"This…"

"What's the matter?"

Gloriana walked over as Ves looked shocked at the pattern he read from the data!

"Look at this graph."

"I see it. The squiggly line is slightly rising upwards. It's quite flat, though, so the change isn't drastic. What am I looking at, Ves?"

"Resonance strength. According to this chart, in a span of four days, Joshua's resonanc strength rose from 2.51 laveres to 2.55 laveres."

"What? That's impossible! Expert pilots are only capable of growing stronger when they are piloting actual expert mechs! Everyone knows that!"

"Well, apparently I came up with a new method. Prime resonance isn't the same as fake resonance. The latter is entirely produced by the mech, while the former is something that an expert pilot actively needs to induce. I think that our prime mech is somehow capable of allowing an expert pilot to 'exercise' the aspect that is responsible for resonating with a mech!"

This was a considerable discovery! If this was true, then the expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan didn't have to wait to receive their expert mechs in order to develop their new powers!

A few days later, Ves made another discovery.

The Valkyrie Prime had slightly grown weaker. As Ves carefully examined the mech, he discovered that it had lost at least 100 Ves!

"Where did it go?"

In the process of investigating whether prime resonance slowly consumed the spiritual energy stored inside the Unending alloy, he came up with another experiment.

Everytime spiritual energy was being consumed, something happened. What if Ves attempted something that consumed even more spiritual energy?

As soon as the fleet transitioned out of FTL, Ves immediately commenced his next test!