The Mech Touch

Though Ves was taking longer to finish the configuration of the Sentry Project's energy rifle, he believed he was onto something.

"Luminar crystals have two distinct advantages compared to other energy weapon catalysts." He enthusiastically claimed to his wife. "They are very efficient and effective at their jobs. They can enhance the power of a laser beam without needing to input extra energy. They can also add special properties to the attack when combined with a prime mech. We're only scratching the surface of what we can do with luminar crystals now that I have figured out how to unlock their potential?"

Gloriana's face turned sour as she crossed her arms. The room in the design lab turned pretty tense as her heels clacked sharply against the metal deck.

She stepped closer to Ves until she loomed over his seated form.

"Ves?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I EXPECTED YOU TO SPEND YOUR TIME ON REFINING OUR DRAFT DESIGNS! I DID NOT GIVE YOU A LICENSE TO GET DISTRACTED BY A RANDOM STUDY THAT TAKES UP WAY TOO MUCH OF YOUR TIME!"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Calm down!" Ves hastily said. "You don't understand the benefits yet! Do you really think I'm just doing this to improve the Sentry Project?"

Gloriana narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about, Ves?"

He was quite used to her blowing up in his face these days. He already prepared a good excuse.

"How many expert mechs will we arm with laser weapons? How many custom mechs and other special mechs will we arm with laser weapons? Each of them will be able to hit a lot harder if they are equipped with improved luminar crystals. Our fleet has plenty of melee expert mechs, but we are still deficient when it comes to ranged expert mechs. We can partially make up for this shortcoming if we can add some extra punch to our ranged expert mechs in this way."

"That sounds fine and dandy Ves, but COULDN'T YOU HAVE JUST WAITED UNTIL AFTER WE HAVE COMPLETED OUR CURRENT ROUND OF DESIGN PROJECTS?! We have to stay focused on what is important! We already have plenty of design problems to take care of. We'll only get bogged down even more if you add new ones on top of that! Stop chasing after every shiny toy just because you can't control your urges!"

Ves did not back off. He knew he was right and he had to convince his wife that he was on the right path.

"I can't just do it later. This is a core feature of the Sentry Project. It just wouldn't be the same if I develop this tech afterwards and integrate it with the finished expert mech. As long as I incorporate the new crystals into the Sentry Project from the start, I will not only be able to tune the improved energy rifle to the expert mech to a significantly greater degree, but I'll also be able to figure out how to best embed the crystals into the mech frame to produce the greatest possible synergy. It is a lot harder to do this when the expert mech is already complete. I'll have to perform a time-consuming overhaul that will take the expert mech out of commission for quite some time!"

"THAT IS BETTER THAN WASTING TIME RIGHT NOW AND CAUSING THE COMPLETION OF OUR EXPERT MECH DESIGNS TO BE DELAYED!"

"C'mon, Gloriana! Don't be like that! Didn't I tell you that it's fine to be a little more adventurous during our design process? The benefits of my little side study are absolutely worth it. Not only will the results immediately strengthen the offensive power of the Sentry Project, but it will also enhance the performance of the Chimera Project as well! After all, the rifle we're arming it with is also energy-based."

His wife briefly paused at that. If Ves chose to invest so much time and effort just to improve a single expert mech, then it was quite questionable whether it was worth it. If his efforts improved multiple expert mechs, then that was a different story.

Seeing that Gloriana was leaning towards the other direction, Ves smirked and brought out his killer argument.

"The expert mech design project you're collaborating with the Hexers is also an energy rifleman mech, right? I'm sure your lovely little brother Brutus would be able to ensure his survival a lot better if he's armed with a rifle that performs as much as thirty percent better than normal. The other expert mechs of our clan will also be able to provide him with more support on the battlefield. Think of how Venerable Davia was able to save your brother's life in the nick of time during the Battle of Reckoning. My attempt to integrate luminar crystals with prime technology is the key reason why the Bright Beam Prime possessed the power to divert a fatal resonance-empowered attack!"

That was the final push that tipped Gloriana over. Her eyes glazed over a bit before she regained her composure. She directed a measured look at Ves.

"If that is the case… I expect you to deliver solid results before Master Willix arrives to deliver our much-awaited batch of materials as well as the mech pilots we are supposed to take under our wing. Can you do that or do I need to revise my estimate of your research capabilities?"

"Hey! I'm a great researcher! I have made many interesting discoveries and came up with a lot of useful innovations! You can disparage whatever you want about me, but don't question my scientific credentials. I am absolutely certain that no one in the clan is better than me in this aspect! I'm the Larkinson Clan's version of the Supreme Sage in our fleet!"

An awkward silence fell in the room.

Gloriana blinked. "Didn't the Supreme Sage build a monstrous biojuggernaut that proceeded to go out of control, kill millions of civilians with its indiscriminate attacks, wipe out an entire mech division including all of its expert mechs before requiring direct MTA intervention to take down?"

"Uhm, you're not wrong, but you have to admit that the Supreme Sage is quite brilliant when he's on the right track."

After all, the former leader of the Life Research Association had successfully been able to produce a slightly inferior version of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum! Ves directly benefited from the success of Special Project 'V'!

His wife didn't seem very interested in pursuing this argument any further. She simply accepted his claims and expected him to deliver in a few weeks.

Though Ves was already distracted by numerous side projects, he was confident he could meet her expectations. He had a special affinity for luminar crystals that he was just starting to unfold.

The Journeymen talked a bit more about the Sentry Project and other expert mech design projects.

For example, they held a brief discussion on the armor layout of the Bulwark Project. None of the Journeymen present were true armor specialists. Gloriana came close, but her design choices sometimes led to disappointing outcomes.

Gloriana sighed. "I am already shouldering a lot of responsibilities, Ves. It would be nice if you can find a defense-oriented Journeyman."

"You know my policy on that, honey. It is hard to guarantee the loyalty and reliability of Journeymen when we add them to our clan. You don't want to take in a crown terrorist who will blow up our design lab from the inside, do you? Let's just wait until some of our assistant mech designers manage to break through."

"That will take years, if not decades. No one aside from Miles is close to the threshold."

This was an old argument to them, so Gloriana did not insist too much this time. She was confident she was able to handle this aspect by herself. She might not be able to enhance the defensive properties of the expert mech through some mysterious method, but she was very confident in her ability to optimize the armor layouts of all of the expert mechs to perfection!

The Journeymen finally ended their lengthy meeting and went on to perform their individual tasks. Everyone had their hands full with work, and Ves even more so now that he committed to completing his studies on luminar crystals within a handful of weeks.

Even so, he still had to allocate his time on other necessary tasks.

One of them was checking up on the progress of the Larkinson seeds.

He hadn't been spending enough time on them as of late, and that was dangerous. Who knew what Maikel and Zanthar Larkinson were doing while there weren't any people to supervise their activities.

It was both fortunate and unfortunate that Ves wasn't responsible for Rennie and Maise Ann Larkinson. The two seeds who had briefly attended a Hexer university had turned into eager followers of Gloriana. For her part, his wife attentively guided their studies.

"You should have reached your second or third year of studies if you were following a normal curriculum." He began as he looked at the two brats across the work table. "From what I have seen, the two of you haven't slacked off in the slightest. Good job. It's not easy to maintain your drive when you don't have as many peers around you. Are you still set on pursuing your chosen specialties?"

Both young men nodded. Ves felt a bit ambivalent towards their response because he wasn't fully comfortable with their chosen paths.

"Zanthar, how much progress have you made into deepening your understanding towards heavy firepower?"

"I've been mixing both theory and practice whenever possible." The eager adolescent said. "It helps a lot if I can study mechs with big guns in my free time. I practically visit the Transcender Punishers every day. Their huge gauss cannons and their formidable positron cannons are just so huge and imposing that I get inspired every time I look at them. The Eternal Redemption model is a lot harder to see, though. The Penitent Sisters don't visit or get close to the Spirit of Bentheim, so the only chance I can catch a glimpse of them is when our fleet has dropped into realspace. It's cool to see their big cannons blast distant asteroids to pieces."

Ves observed Zanthar carefully. The young student had grown even more passionate about extreme firepower. It didn't appear he would be changing his direction.

"Don't fixate around specific mech models." Ves gently admonished. "If you study the Transcendent Punisher and the Eternal Redemption too much, then all of the work you will make in the future will reflect the heavy weapons that you have admired for so long. This is not good for your future development. I suggest you study some of the more modest ranged weapons of our mech roster. You need to study what makes them different and what choices you can make to increase their firepower."

"Thank you, teacher. I don't exactly like the weaker guns, but I will do my best to study them, I guess."

"Every gun shares a common root. If you want to understand everything there is to cannons, then you need to understand their downscaled versions as well."

After he finished instructing Zanthar, Ves turned towards his more problematic student.

"Maikel. Are you still determined to design living mechs that possess more autonomy."

The other student nodded. "Yes, sir! I can program my own rudimentary AIs now and I can tweak the operating system of a mech to accept them. The results aren't so great, though. In every simulation that I run, the AIs always get trounced by the human mech pilots who volunteered to test my work."

Ves smirked and crossed his arms. "That's because you're pitting AIs with the skill of a beginner mech pilot against highly-trained human soldiers. You don't know what piloting a mech is like, let alone all of the factors that mech pilots are trained to take into account, so it is natural that your AIs are so easy to defeat. This isn't something that you'll be able to overturn unless you invest at least a decade or more on this topic. Are you willing to commit to that, Maikel?"

"I do! I knew from the start that I'm not pursuing a conventional specialty, but I've learned from your example. Besides, my AIs don't have to be good enough to fight against other human mech pilots by themselves. They're meant to complement friendly mech pilots!"