The Mech Touch

The body of a conventional energy rifle was made out of metallic alloys for obvious reasons. The most suitable materials had to be able to contain or endure a lot of heat, electromagnetic forces and external attacks.

While there were plenty of innovators who sought to reinvent the concept of an energy rifle by utilizing alternative materials, their applications always turned out to be limited.

The alternative materials either turned out to be weaker, more expensive, more difficult to fabricate or more troublesome to repair. As long as one or more of these flaws held true, it simply made too little sense to adopt these alternative products on a larger scale.

In fact, even if a brilliant Master invented a weapon made out of alternative materials that was just as powerful and efficient as their conventional counterparts, it still wouldn't be a success!

Just like the problem with biomechs, the current mech infrastructure was unaccustomed to working with rifles made out of wood, crystals and other weird materials. Owners of these weapon systems needed to hire or train special personnel to handle them as well as purchase plenty of strange materials to fix them if they broke.

Who wanted to go through all of that hassle? Only a small number of abnormal customers were willing to go through all of that trouble. The rest were more than willing to settle with their normal guns.

In short, rifles made out of crystals were a solution in search of a problem. There was no compelling justification why anyone would resort to them when a conventional metallic weapon model was already able to do the job.

This 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality' exemplified the laziness of humanity. There was nothing inherently bad about sticking to known solutions as it was a lot more efficient if people just stuck with solutions that already worked.

Anyone who had the opportunity to act lazy was either efficient, a bum or both.

Ves preferred to consider himself as someone who worked efficiently. Time was an incredibly precious resource to him and he could never have enough.

This was why it was rather odd that he would deviate from convention and make a rifle out of luminar crystals as opposed to normal materials.

It wouldn't have been a surprise if Ves specialized in either energy weapons or crystals, but that was not the case. His domain still revolved around life and mechs, which meant that he did not possess any exceptional advantages in this field.

Then why did he decide to create something that was so far out of his comfort zone that his test product had a high risk of exploding or malfunctioning?

"Alright, let's see how my latest version handles." Ves spoke with satisfaction as he integrated the final parts and performed a quick check to see if everything was in order.

The crystalline rifle looked exceptional. The white, semi-transparent luminar crystals that comprised its main body granted it a unique appearance that made it look like a giant jewel instead of a functional war weapon. Its sparkling, attractive appearance caused it to look wholly out of place on a battlefield!

"It can probably attract a lot of compliments if it is used as a prop in a fashion show."

During the design phase, Ves couldn't help but play around and make the rifle look more pleasing than necessary. He liked it when his products looked good because that made it easier for his customers to care about them. People were a lot more reluctant to abuse products when they looked so damned nice.

However, the test rifle was not a weapon made to appeal to anyone's vanity. As pretty as it looked, Ves did not neglect the functionality of it at all. There were good reasons why he made so much use of luminar crystals.

The design of the weapon actually deviated from conventional rifles in other ways. It featured a lot less internal components and even lacked many systems deemed essential to energy weapons.

Where were the heatsinks? Where were the energy converters?

Ves did not forget about them or anything. Even though his rifle lacked a lot of basic necessities, he had great confidence that it would work as anticipated!

However, just to be sure, he did not hand the rifle over to Nitaa so that she could test it out in person. He handed it over to a bot instead and hid behind a secure enclosure that was well away from the firing range in his personal workshop.

"Even if it blows up and unleashes all of its energy at once, It's unlikely to affect me at this range." He muttered as he huddled behind a workstation that was set against a solid metal barrier.

Once he implemented the right settings, he commanded the bot to fire the weapon.

BZZZZT!

A surprisingly loud noise echoed across the workshop as the crystal rifle spat out a laser beam that was more powerful than the discharge of any other rifle that Ves had tested!

Compared to the output of the improvised revolver rifle that Ves had made a few months ago, the attack unleashed by the crystal rifle was at least three times more powerful!

This was a massive difference!

Of course, the two rifles didn't strictly belong in the same category. The crystal rifle was made out of substantially more precious materials and its fewer amount of discrete parts were a lot more high-end.

"Again!"

The bot handling the weapon electronically pulled the trigger multiple times in quick succession. What was remarkable about the performance of the crystal rifle was that it hardly generated any waste heat at all. Ves had taken full advantage of the fact that luminar crystals were able to absorb thermal energy. Since the entire rifle body was made of this material, there were hardly any paths where heat could escape!

Since Ves didn't have to worry too much about heat buildup, the crystal rifle offered a lot more room for other advanced systems. In fact, he had actually decided to fill up a portion of the available space with even more luminar crystals!

He was quite certain that no one had ever made a crystal rifle like this. Not even the MTA should have been able to perform the required techniques and follow the strange methods that Ves employed to make such a revolutionary weapon possible.

Once he completed the round of testing, Ves summarized the results and made some preliminary conclusions.

"My weapon can fire more powerful beams at a sustained rate without draining its energy cells too quickly." His eyes shone. "Even though my weapon is more expensive to make and more troublesome to repair and maintain, all of this effort is worth it as long as it is applied to an expert mech like the Sentry Projects!"

That didn't mean it was uneconomical to apply the same principles to the weapons of regular ranged mechs. Ves just needed to lower the complexity of his rifle design and tone down the materials he used so that other people could handle the mass production models.

The performance increase wouldn't be as drastic as a result, but the gains in efficiency alone was well worth the trouble. Out of every material that Ves had handled, nothing was as cheap and effective in handling heat as enhanced luminar crystals!

The only other part that was able to do a better job was the dimensional heatsink of the Amastendira, but the difference in cost and production difficulty was so huge that Ves didn't even spare any thought in this direction.

A normal Journeyman shouldn't have been able to create such an impressive weapon, especially in just a week.

There were two reasons why he was able to come up with this amazing weapon.

A week ago, Ves decided to call up an old friend after a very long time. A lot had changed since the last time he made use of one of his unique advantages.

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Journeyman Mech Designer

Specializations: Spiritual Man-Machine Symbiosis

Design Points: 175,142

Attributes

Strength: 1.6

Dexterity: 1.6

Endurance: 2.0

Intelligence: 2.4

Creativity: 2.2

Concentration: 2.7

Spirituality: 4.9

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly]: Journeyman - [3D Printer Proficiency V] - [Assembler Proficiency V] - [Masterwork Mech Assembly III]

[Battle Mechatronics]: Senior - [Knight Mech Mastery I] - [Rifleman Mech Mastery I] - [Space Knight Mastery I] - [Hero Mech Mastery I] - [Light Skirmisher Mastery I] [Custom Mech Design III]

[Business]: Apprentice

[Computer Science]: Journeyman - [Mech Hacking III] - [Programming IV]

[Electrical Engineering]: Senior - [Structural Pathway Configuration V] - [Energy Storage V] - [Conductors IV] - [Ultracompact Energy Storage II] - [Power Reactors II] - [Dense Energy Transmissions II]

[Materials Science]: Journeyman - [Crystallography V] - [Crystal Laser Propagation V] - [Lithic Materials I] - [Heat-Resistant Materials I] - [Luminar Crystals IV]

[Mathematics]: Journeyman - [Simulations V]

[Mechanics]: Senior - [Jury Rigging V] - [Speed Tuning IV] - [Mechanical Fault Detection III] - [Fine Motion Control II] - [Heavy Mech Design III]

[Metallurgy]: Senior - [Alloy Compression V] - [Fixed Armor Specialization IV] - [Flexible Armor Specialization I] - [Smart Metal IV] - [ASMAS III] - [Internal Structure Specialization III]

[Metaphysics]: Journeyman - [X-Factor V] - [Spiritual Senses IV] - [Spiritual Exploration II] - [Spiritual Manipulation V] - [Spiritual Engineering III] - [Spiritual Energy Processing V]

[Interfacing]: Novice - [Neural Interface Optimization I]

[Physics]: Senior - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization V] - [Gamma Laser Weapons II] [Lightweight Armor Optimization II] - [Mediumweight Armor Optimization IV] - [Melee Weapon Optimization IV] - [Polarizing Shielding II] - [Rapid-Fire Laser Weapon Operation IV] - [Optics V] - [Ballistic Weapon Optimization IV]

[Propulsion]: Journeyman - [Flight Systems IV] - [Propulsion Boosters I]

[Salvaging]: Apprentice - [Field Repairs IV]

[Signals and Communications]: Journeyman - [Anti-Stealth Detection III] - [Active ECM Systems II] - [Passive ECM Systems II]

[Stealth and Cloaking]: Journeyman

Abilities

[Superpublish]: Available. Can be activated once a year.

[Inventorize]: Unavailable.

Evaluation: A competent Journeyman Mech Designer who has made progress in the mysteries of life, mechs and synergy.

The fact that Ves consciously tried to minimize his dependence on the System as much as possible made the changes all the more drastic. He managed to improve numerous Sub-Skills by himself as he spent a considerable amount of time expanding his knowledge in order to solve specific problems while he worked on difficult projects.

The difference to his Spirituality was particularly drastic. Not only did he manage to boost his Spirituality Attribute to a huge degree, his Spirituality-related Skills and Sub-Skills also underwent a huge improvement!

"It has to be Blinky! There is no way I could have grown so much stronger on my own." He concluded.

For some odd reason, the System bugged out and lumped Ves and Blinky's spiritual capabilities together. This was partially the right approach, but in practice it was not always possible to leverage all of this power on many design-related activities.

Ves did not grow arrogant all of a sudden for that reason.

The changes in his Status that were related to his Spirituality did not change anything for him. It was merely attempting to describe what was already the case.

"It's much more interesting to look at my DP." He grinned.

Last time, he expended nearly all of his Design Points to acquire the Odineye. Though he did not regret the decision, it pained him a lot to drain nearly all of his DP.

That had changed after he completed a number of mech designs. The previous round of design projects handed him 150,000 DP, which was in line with his expectations.

However, he earned a surprising windfall after he completed the Disruptor Project.

[Design Evaluation: Dark Zephyr DR-1]

Model name: Dark Zephyr DR-1

Original Manufacturer: Ves Larkinson, Gloriana Wodin, Juliet Stameros, Ketis Larkinson

Weight Classification: Light

Recommended Role: Expert Prime Light Skirmisher

Armor: A

Carrying Capacity: C+

Aesthetics: B

Endurance: D

Energy Efficiency: D-

Flexibility: B+

Firepower: B

Integrity: C+

Mobility: A+

Spotting: B

X-Factor: A

Cost efficiency: E

Project involvement: 17%

Original component composition: 26%

Overall evaluation: The Dark Zephyr is an expert prime light skirmisher that excels at evasion and damage avoidance. Its maneuverability characteristics lend itself well in large, chaotic battlefields where it can approach any enemy position without incurring too much damage. In the right circumstances, its strong resonance and prime capabilities can amplify the performance of the Dark Zephyr in combination with its pilots to an immense degree.

[You have received 100,000 Design Points for completing an expert mech design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 100,000 Design Points for designing a mech with an impressive presence of X-Factor.]

[Your project involvement is lower than 50 percent. Your rewards for completing this design are halved.]

Ves was pleasantly surprised that designing an expert mech netted him with twice as much Design Points compared to designing a regular mech!

Even if the System ruthlessly halved his income due to collaborating with other mech designers, he still earned a large chunk of DP, enough for him to splurge on numerous crystal and energy weapon-related Sub-Skills!