The Mech Touch

The Design Department turned idle for a couple of months. The completion of the Everchanger marked the formal end of the last design round.

Many changes had occurred since that time. The Golden Skull Alliance shed its sub-capital ships before passing through both a lesser and greater beyonder gate.

Once the expeditionary fleet arrived in Vulit, the Larkinsons and its allies did their best to adjust to the environment and acquire as many additional carrier vessels as possible.

Ves and the other mech designers had to perform so many different tasks that they simply could not spare any time to start a new round of mech designs.

It was different now. The Larkinson Clan's exit from Chance Bay meant that there was no possibility for the clansmen to participate in any reality-based tournaments.

Sure, the Larkinsons could always choose to participate in one of the many virtual tournaments held on the galactic net, but the prize pools were much worse and entry requirements were too harsh.

The tournaments held in Chance Bay were more generous than usual because they served additional purposes. Competitions held in realspace also held greater attraction because none of the action was fake.

While Ves found it a pity that his clan wouldn't be able to win anymore combat carriers with relative ease, he finally had time to return to his original purpose.

There was nothing better for him than to go back to designing mechs, and right now he enjoyed the process of preparing for the next design round.

Right now, his highest priority was to make sure the four new Journeymen became productive as soon as possible. This was why he gathered them together in a small conference room in order to hear out their ideas.

After spending several weeks among the different mech legions, Janassa, Tifi, Sara and Dulo should have come up with a lot of useful design concepts.

If they failed to come up with any good ideas, then Ves would seriously question whether he hired the right people. He expected better from mech designers of this caliber!

Fortunately, the Journeymen who participated in the Wild Brawl Bowl didn't lack for ideas. Their minds were nimble and they had plenty of time to think on how they could best leverage their design philosophies.

The entire reason why Ves went through the trouble of hiring four talented and capable Journeymen was to give more options to the Larkinson Army, after all. He did not really need their help to design additional commercial mechs though he still looked forward to collaborating with them on that end.

The mech concept that Dulo Voiken was presenting at the moment sounded quite intriguing to Ves. He never thought about having the Living Sentinels exchange their swordsman mechs for spearman mechs.

While Ves understood the logic of this proposal, it was still a massive change that would disrupt a lot of arrangements.

"By my knowledge, every mech cadet undergoes basic training in swordsmanship." He spoke. "Even if they don't have a talent in swordsmanship, every cadet has to pour years of training in order to become proficient at wielding swords before they are allowed to graduate. No melee mech pilot should be bad at piloting swordsman mechs."

The other Journeymen including Dulo all nodded. This was already the case for third-class mech pilots. Second-class pilots had to undergo much more rigorous training, but they were often able to keep up as long as they received at least one augmentation.

"I agree with what you said, but will these mech pilots actually be able to display the full range of their swordsmanship skills in the middle of an intensive battle?" Dula responded. "An elite or highly disciplined mech pilot should easily be able to keep his cool, but a typical Living Sentinel mech pilot doesn't possess those qualities. To them, real battles are so chaotic and dangerous that they may not be able to match their performance in their training sessions."

This was a reasonable point. While Ves did not pay too much attention to the Living Sentinels as of late, he could still guess what their mech pilots were like. All of the better ones should have joined one of the more elite and prestigious mech legions instead, so the ones that remained were ultimately not good enough.

Ves still harbored doubts, though.

"If these mech pilots can't fight well with swordsman mechs, why do you think they'll be able to do any better with spearman mechs?" He asked. "I don't think spearmanship is a standard course in the curriculum of a mech academy. Will the mech pilots be able to transition successfully to a mech of your design?"

"Definitely." Dulo confidently answered. "I have worked with many mech pilots before, not all of whom trained with spearmanship. It is easy for them to get started with spears, especially if they have already gained proficiency in a more advanced weapon such as a sword. Spearmanship is easy to start with. It only takes a few weeks of training for mech pilots to know how to best perform a basic stab. While such a mech is not a great individual threat, the beauty of spearman mechs is that they perform a lot better when fighting alongside each other. Forming a wall of spears will result in a qualitative improvement in battle power!"

"That's assuming the enemy doesn't bombard this tight and static formation." Janassa added.

Dulo frowned at the woman. "That applies to every mech formation. Even if it isn't viable to adopt a tight formation, they can still achieve good and consistent performance. Sure, they probably won't fight too brilliantly, but they can pose enough of a threat to stop any incoming melee mechs, especially when they are designed in the hoplite configuration."

Ves wasn't so sure about that idea.

"The Living Sentinels should be our only defense-oriented mech legion, so I plan to provide them with an excellent defensive space knight design. That already covers their defensive needs. What the Sentinels require on top of that is an offensive instrument that can take out enemy mechs rather than stop them in their tracks."

The spearman mech specialist smiled. He did not get upset because Ves shot down one of his suggestions.

"Then we can go in the other direction. What if we can design a spearman mech that can complement this defensive mech? The Living Sentinels can deploy their super-defensive space knights in front and place their spearman mechs right behind. The latter should be able to stab their polearms forward through the gaps between the shields. It is a classic formula that has worked for many different forces."

This is one of the oldest combination tactics in existence. It was used by human armies in antiquity and saw a resurgence when the Age of Mechs commenced.

Such formations possessed many known weaknesses, but their strengths were undeniable. As long as enemy units only approached from the front, any basic spear-and-shield formation could stop them in their tracks and grind them down at a steady pace!

The Larkinson Army might not even have to dispatch flanking units in order to roll up the stalled enemy mechs.

Ves smiled at Dulo. "I like this idea. Please work out your proposal further and we'll discuss it at a later date. You will need to discuss this matter with Commander Casella Ingvar as the Living Sentinels must be willing to adopt this new spearman mech model. That said, this also means the Living Sentinels must obtain an adequate defensive space knight model. Does your sister have any ideas?"

"I have." Sara Voiken spoke up. "The Living Sentinels are currently using the Bright Warriors in their defensive configurations to serve their purpose, but this is merely an adequate solution. Though the Bright Warriors possess balanced specs and are easy to pilot, their ability to withstand damage is not as optimal. I can design a medium space knight that can truly excel at blocking enemy mechs or resisting massed firepower. With my specialty, these knight mechs can easily resist three to five times as much kinetic or explosive damage than your Bright Warriors!"

This was definitely an attractive option to Ves! He knew that the Bright Warriors didn't actually perform that badly in their roles, but they possessed unnecessary modules that were more relevant to offensive mechs than ones that were designed to take a lot of punishment.

"A defensive mech for the Living Sentinels should have more features than that." Ves said. "Does your mech concept possess any other features that allows it to stand out further?"

Sara furrowed her brows for a moment. "I can think of five or six ideas, but I will need to perform further research before I am ready to present them to you. A defensive knight mech design can perform drastically differently depending on how we allocate its capacity. We can make it more mobile by fitting it with a larger flight system. We can increase its defensive options by equipping it with a shield generator, though that introduces many other complications."

"I understand. I think that equipping them with shield generators is worth the effort. They are also a bit more efficient at blocking energy attacks, so they can adequately compensate for your weakness in this area."

There wasn't as much to discuss about this defensive space knight mech proposal. Such mechs were inherently simpler and Ves already wanted to provide the Living Sentinels with a sturdier defensive option.

Seeing that Sara Voiken was willing to undertake this project, Ves shifted his attention to another Journeyman.

"It's your turn now, Janassa. What kind of mech do you think you can provide to one of our mech legions?"

The woman blinked. "Well, as you know, I share the same design philosophy as my friend Tifi, but I work better with lighter mech designs. I have formed many ideas on how to upgrade the offensive strengths of our clan's current melee mech roster, but I also prepared a few proposals for new mech designs. The Swordmaidens currently don't have a swordsman mech that matches well with them. I've already talked to them and learned that Swordmaster Ketis is already preparing to design a true spaceborn swordsman mech for them, but I'd like to collaborate with her to make it even stronger in combat. There is no other area where my design philosophy can be of greater use at this time."

Ves looked thoughtful. "Are you sure about working on Ketis' new mech design for the Swordmaidens? Maybe Tifi would be a better partner for this project instead."

"No. I've already discussed this with Swordmaster Ketis. She intends to design a fairly mobile medium mech that is light enough to flank and maneuver around the battlefield. Such a design will have more limited capacity which is not as constraining to me. I am confident I can strengthen this greatsword-wielding mech in an efficient and effective manner."

"I like your confidence. Since you've already started to talk with Ketis about this, then you are already working on this project. You can continue to work with her, but keep in mind that she will always be in charge."

"I can accept that." Janassa nodded. "She intimately understands the needs of the Swordmaidens. I would never presume to know better."

After hearing Janassa out, Ves turned to the fourth new Journeymen.

"Last, we turn to you. What have you been thinking about in the past few weeks?"

TIfi Coslone finally received the opportunity to present her proposal.

"The Avatars of Myth is supposed to be the assault legion of the Larkinson Clan, but they do not possess the right tools at the moment. I believe I can help them with that by designing a powerful offensive axeman mech that can break through shields and tear through any defensive formation."

Now that was new! Ves hadn't even thought of providing this kind mech to the Avatars!

Still, axeman mechs were completely new to the Larkinson Clan. Ves needed to hear more before he was willing to embrace this proposal.

"Please explain further, Tifi. Why do the Avatars need an axeman mech?"