The Mech Touch

The Larkinsons in the hangar bay all held their breaths as the Dark Zephyr began to move.

When the black-coated machine, a soft but suppressive footstep echoed across the compartment.

When the Dark Zephyr took another step, it was as if a beast was just about to step out of its nest.

The Larkinsons present in the chamber all gained an increasing sense of awe as they became exposed to some of the extraordinary traits of the Dark Zephyr when paired with its intended expert pilot.

The mech hadn't even activated all of its combat systems yet, but already the hearts of the clansmen in the hangar bay could not even muster a single sense of resistance against this great and terrible machine!

Elsewhere on the Spirit of Bentheim, Calabast stood in the middle of an intelligence gathering room. Though her understanding of mechs did not even come close to that of a mech designer, what she witnessed so far did not disappoint her in the slightest.

"This is definitely not an average light expert skirmisher." She murmured.

This was a good sign. Much of the success of the Larkinson Clan was due to her strategic partner's astounding ability to come up with powerful new surprises. Being able to carry this trend through to an expert mech vindicated everyone who decided to bet on Ves, including herself.

"What do you think about the mech, Arnold?"

"Squeak squeak."

The eight-legged creature sidled up to the side of Calabast's left boot. The chubby animal had entered a strange mood ever since the Dark Zephyr first came online.

Though he didn't look like it, Arnold was also a design spirit, a mutated exobeast who extended a portion of his consciousness and extraordinary capabilities to the mechs and mech designs that were bound to him. The Dark Zephyr was definitely one of them and he could clearly feel as if he was connected to it in an intimate fashion.

"Squeak squeak squeak."

It was unfortunate that Calabast did not understand Arnold's speech. She could only go on information that she had gathered from other sources.

According to her own judgement, the upcoming demonstration of the Dark Zephyr would soon prove whether all of the investment put into the expert mech designs was worth it. The cost and effort to develop the Larkinson expert mechs absolutely surpassed that of regular ones that were suitable for low-tier expert pilots.

"We can do so much more once we field proper expert mechs." She grinned.

While expert mechs weren't needed for an organization to stand out, those that were able to field one were absolutely remarkable. Average organizations simply weren't able to get their hands on an expert mech or retain a pilot that was dedicated enough to fight for them. It was a clear indicator of strength if the Larkinson Clan was able to field not one, but several potent high-level machines.

By now, the expert mech had approached the end of the hangar bay. A double layer energy screen separated the interior of the space to the vacuum of space beyond.

As soon as the mech passed through the first energy screen, the artificially gravity that pulled the mech onto the deck was no longer present.

The expert mech started to float due to its motion.

Before the machine even came close to drifting out of control, Venerable Tusa smoothly engaged the flight system.

A pair of powerful flight 'wings' came online and began to emit both light and heat. The Dark Zephyr instantly regained control and smoothly began to fly out of the Spirit of Bentheim.

Once the expert mech emerged into open space, a lot more people were able to view its inaugural deployment.

"Is that it? The expert mech is so dark. It's difficult to distinguish its details."

"This is a real light skirmisher. The Ferocious Piranha is like a toy compared to this expert mech!"

"We haven't seen anything yet. Let's wait until it is put through its paces."

Venerable Tusa might be eager to exercise the full capabilities of his expert but he knew he had to be a little patient for a moment longer. As an expert pilot, he was fully capable of disciplining his mind and impulses.

Instead of flying to the blockaded test area at full speed, he deliberately accelerated the Dark Zephyr forward at a sedate pace.

The mech was gliding to the checkpoint as opposed to racing towards it. The maximum straight-line acceleration parameters of the Dark Zephyr was valuable intelligence and should not be given to the public for free.

At the very least, it was much more beneficial if the Larkinson Clan was able to keep this data under wraps until it stumbled into a battle where the Dark Zephyr had to show its full strength for the first time. Any opponent that was strong enough to force the clan to this extent should not be able to prepare to fight against the full capabilities of Venerable Tusa's expert mech in advance!

While the onlookers who didn't have the authority to view the performance of the Dark Zephyr felt disappointed when the expert mech clearly wasn't trying to do its best, they did not complain too much.

If they were in the position of the Larkinson Patriarch, they would make the same choice.

It wasn't until the expert mech passed through the massive interference zone that it began to speed up a bit. Within this signal-blocked envelope, Venerable Tusa didn't have to act so restrained anymore.

Though he had yet to employ the full speed of his expert mech, the Dark Zephyr reached the center in remarkably little time. It would have taken a Ferocious Piranha its maximum effort in order to reach the checkpoint at the same amount of time. The fact that the Dark Zephyr did not look anywhere close to burdened hinted that it was still far from its limits!

As the Dark Zephyr came to a complete stop relative to the sphere of Larkinson mechs, half a minute went by as the mech designers in the design lab analyzed the data they had received so far. No one dared to be sloppy at this time.

"The temperature and heat distribution of the Dark Zypher are working well. We have detected no dangerous heat pockets or overheated sections so far."

"Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson's life signs are all stable if elevated. He is excited and actively engaged in controlling the mech. The resonance meter has yet to reach a strong level."

"The bridge informs us that the fleet has yet to detect any spy drones, stealthed vehicles or other observers within a light-second around our fleet. However, the ships of the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan have engaged some of their active sensors."

"The Dark Zephyr's systems are all green. Every active component is operating within their expected ranges. No fault indicators have been triggered up to this point."

"You can proceed with the first test, Tusa." Ves said after everything checked out. "Show us how fast your Dark Zephyr can fly."

Venerable Tusa finally grinned. "With pleasure."

Mobility was the core of the Dark Zypher. Without the ability to outspeed and outmaneuver its opponents, it could not perform its role!

Due to the confines of the interference zone, Venerable Tusa couldn't accelerate forward in a straight line. Just like runners competing in a stadium, his Dark Zephyr had to run laps in a circular trajectory in order to avoid exposing its full capabilities.

The mech sped up remarkably quickly. The emissions released by its flight system ramped up as Tusa began to push his mech more and more.

The greater the acceleration, the more Tusa and the Dark Zypher felt at ease. Both of them possessed a high affinity towards speed and movement so it was natural that they would feel more comfortable when they were on the move as opposed to remaining stationary.

The Dark Zephyr continued to accelerate. This not only caused it to endure greater stress to its flight system, but also caused it to circle around faster and faster with each completed lap.

Soon enough, the mech had reached its top acceleration! The mech vibrated as its flight system was outputting much more forward push than a normal second-class light mech could ever reach.

"Now this is true speed!" Venerable Tusa grinned!

Both he and his mech felt great joy at being able to traverse forward at such a blazing pace. The expert pilot had never experienced this level of speed!

The Ferocious Piranha was already decent, but its speed was completely inadequate for an expert pilot. Now that Tusa was finally piloting a more powerful mech, he felt fully confident that he could leverage all of his skills without any concern at being limited by the technical constraints of his machine!

"Tusa." Ves spoke over a communication channel. "You've run enough laps now, but you have yet to show how fast the Dark Zephyr can really move. Try and resonate with your mech and activate the resonance ability that is associated with the flight system."

"Roger that, Ves."

Venerable Tusa had received prior instructions on how to activate a resonance ability. He not only had to send a specific command via the neural interface, but also had to hone and excite his will in a way that allowed it to connect with a specific component or section of the mech.

While the Dark Zephyr incorporated two key resonating materials that defined its greatest extraordinary capabilities, the expert mech also incorporated some lesser resonating materials.

They were mostly responsible for empowering the expert light skirmisher with more basic and standard resonating abilities.

One of them was boosting the performance of the flight system at an extraordinary level. While the resonating material responsible for enabling this capably wasn't particularly strong or valuable, anything that enabled an expert pilot to empower a portion of a mech with willpower was already useful.

The rear of the Dark Zephyr began to glow a lot brighter. The visible emissions escaping from the flight system grew larger and began to glow in light blue as the entire section became affected by true resonance!

In an instant, the Dark Zephyr accelerated 40 percent faster, and it was only ramping up as Venerable Tusa began to get accustomed to exercising his willpower in this manner. Even though the strain was starting to get to him, he became swept up by the rush of zipping around even faster!

In the end, the Dark Zephyr's acceleration had peaked at 80 percent beyond its regular maximum. While this was far from record-setting, it was still a game changer if Venerable Tusa employed this capability well!

Gloriana frowned as she noted some worrying signs from the telemetry transmitted by the expert mech.

"It's not advisable for Venerable Tusa to sustain this extreme degree of acceleration. The flight systems are starting to show actual strain. The Dark Zephyr will require extensive servicing if Tusa keeps pushing it at its limits."

Ves shrugged. "This is a small price to pay compared to the alternative. Speeds like this can win battles."

In fact, the Dark Zephyr was circling around so fast at the moment that it was faintly having difficulties trying to maintain its circular path.

"Alright, now try out the maneuverability of your new expert mech! Let's see how well you can dance around the battlefield."

"I was waiting for this!"

The Dark Zephyr no longer ran boring laps. Instead, it started to follow a more irregular path. It zigged and zagged around while still being affected by its active resonance ability. Though Venerable Tusa found it surprisingly hard to control his expert mech, its movements were both quick and agile!

Its evasion ability became even stronger once Tusa activated the boosters placed throughout the frame of the Dark Zephyr. The small but powerful boosters only had to activate briefly to push the entire mech in a completely different direction!

The performance of the boosters was so great that Venerable Tusa was confident that he could dodge nearly every incoming attack that he was aware of! With multiple boosters placed on the back, front and sides of the mech frame, he could fully choose which direction to evade.

"Hahahahaha!" Venerable Tusa laughed even as his brain came under a lot more stress than before. "I'm untouchable in this state!"

"Are you willing to put that to the test?" Ves spontaneously asked.

"Sure!"

"Then get ready."

Ranged mechs armed with specially-prepared laser rifles began to take aim.

The energy output of the weapons had been deliberately lowered to an extremely low magnitude. Not even a third-class mech would sustain any significant damage from getting hit by a low-energy laser beam.

This allowed the Larkinson mech pilots to feel free to fire their weapons with abandon. Even if their weapon discharges hit the mechs holding position on the opposite side of the sphere, no harm would be done.

"Fire!"

Hundreds of colorful but mostly harmless laser beams converged onto the Dark Zephyr!