The Mech Touch

Ves gazed happily at his daughter as she grew a tiny bit larger and livelier than before.

So far, her growth proceeded a little faster than normal. Her designer baby genes along with her highly nutritious customized diet allowed her mental and physical development to accelerate to a pace that was close to the safe limit of human infants.

In fact, Aurelia actually needed to consume 20 percent more nutrients than was typical of a product derived from Formula S-635006-CIN. The biotech researchers over at Witshaw & Yeneca were surprised that such a deviation had occurred!

Only Ves knew for certain why his little daughter needed to raise her energy consumption in order to keep her tiny body healthy and growing. Her spiritual augmentations were growing more powerful by the day.

Though little Mana was able to derive sustenance from other close relatives such as Alexandria and Goldie, Aurelia still had another burden that needed to be fed with additional energy.

Her spiritually-enhanced body was quite a substantial energy sink. What Ves found remarkable was that these same enhancements allowed his baby to generate a small amount of spiritual energy by digesting human food!

"How remarkable!"

"Guuuguubabawooooo…"

If Aurelia wasn't his own baby, he would actually be tempted to surgically separate her digestion system from her body and put it into a vat so that he could cultivate it into a gigantic spiritual energy generator!

Sadly, there was no way it could work. He knew that whenever the doctors came to take blood samples and tissue samples of his baby, any biological matter that separated from the body instantly lost its remarkable nature. It devolved into mundane biomass that did not contain any special spiritual qualities.

Ves didn't exactly know why this was the case, but he guessed that Aurelia's special spiritually-blessed body had something to do with her mind. The two were closely connected in a way that suggested that their boundaries might get blurred if his daughter grew strong enough one day.

"You're such a special little girl." Ves leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "Daddy is so proud of you, do you know that? Daddy will do his best to facilitate your growth so that no mech, monster or alien can threaten you. Doesn't that sound great?"

"Mwaaaaa…!"

"What naughty lessons are you teaching our daughter this time?" Gloriana asked as she stepped out of the bathroom.

"Oh, nothing. Isn't that right, Lucky?"

"Meow."

"Miaow."

Their two cats were casually lounging a short distance away. They looked cutely at Aurelia and Ves.

"Whuuaaaa… Guuewaaaooowweaaa…"

Aurelia began to babble a lot more actively all of a sudden. Gloriana quickly closed in and picked up her baby.

"You're such a beautiful and perfect baby, aren't you? Don't listen to daddy, my dear. Only I know how to raise a woman in this family."

Gloriana played and cuddled with Aurelia until the baby grew tired. She gently tucked the little girl in the advanced floating stroller before she turned to her husband.

"Are you ready?"

"I should have asked you that. You're the lead designer of this project, remember?"

"I know."

"This project won't be the same as the last ones. We're working with new partners now, one of which has a noticeably strong ego. Whatever you do, try to maintain respect. We cannot afford to let you clash against one of the pivotal mech designers of one of our key future designs."

"I'm aware of the stakes." She spoke in a serious tone. "I've been preparing this project for weeks. I've taken every angle into consideration. The cooperation of every mech designer assigned to this project is crucial to its success!"

Considering their past accomplishments, it would take a lot of effort to equal their best results. Gloriana clearly wouldn't be satisfied unless their project fully reflected the gains they recently made.

Once the couple got ready, they departed their stateroom and headed down to the design labs before entering a meeting room.

Two other Journeymen had already arrived a short time ago. Juliet and Sara engaged in an interesting discussion on the optimal balance between mass and mobility.

Given their respective specialties, they had a lot of disagreements on how to strike the right balance!

Still, they quickly ended their discussion once the main mech designers of the Larkinson Clan arrived.

"Good morning."

"How is Aurelia doing?"

As Ves and Gloriana took their seats, they all chatted a bit. Each of them had made decent progres on their respective projects, and they weren't afraid to share their current results.

Meanwhile, Clixie hopped onto the table and sat as close as possible to Aurelia's hovering stroller. The cat could spend hours just staring at the little baby.

"Miaow~"

Lucky on the other hand floated over to Sara and begged for pets by motioning with his paws.

"Meow."

"Wow. Your shape and material composition is highly unusual. Who constructed you?" The defensive specialist asked as she grabbed a hold of the mechanical pet in order to get a better feel of his unique exterior alloy.

Even the newcomer couldn't resist playing with the lovely gem cat!

The four Journeymen continued to chat like a group of friends until the hatch leading into the meeting room slid open once again.

An older and more distinguished gentleman stepped into the meeting room. Though he was garbed in a typical white lab coat, his stern gaze and his guarded posture made it clear that he was not as gentle as he initially appeared!

Everyone else immediately fell silent as they beheld the new arrival.

"Larkinsons." Professor Benedict Cortez nodded at the four Journeymen. "Interesting ship. I'd like to talk about what I have seen, but I am a busy mech designer. Let us proceed onto business."

"Very well, sir. Please take a seat and we can begin." Gloriana spoke up as she assumed the role of a host and a project leader.

Fortunately, Professor Benedict did not play any power games this time. Ves feared the Senior Mech Designer might chafe at having to answer to a young and lowly Journeyman, but that did not happen.

Professor Benedict seemed to know what Ves was thinking. He smirked at the Larkinson patriarch.

"I recognize that this project is designed for your clan. Though I will not hesitate to give my own opinions whenever I believe my input is useful, your decisions are final as you are the clients in this case."

Gloriana and the rest looked relieved. "Thank you for your understanding, professor. We will do our best to respect your advice."

This was a good start as far as Ves was concerned, but whether they could remain amicable over the course of this design project was another matter.

His wife began to activate a projection that displayed a rudimentary draft design.

"Let us commence our first meeting. The purpose of our gathering is to decide and agree on the basic parameters and configuration of the Minerva Project. As you all know, Commander Casella Ingvar of the Living Sentinels has recently broken through and displayed potential as an extraordinary commander. In order to make full use of her rare and valuable abilities, we must design a suitable mech that can turn her into the most effective force multiplier among the Larkinson expert pilots."

She pointed towards the projected draft design.

"I have taken the liberty of putting together a mech concept that aligns with my overall vision for the Minerva Project. As you can see, its primary armament is a powerful luminar crystal rifle, but unlike the Amaranto that is not its main focus. What this expert mech revolves around instead is its many potent command, sensor and communication modules."

From the outside, the draft design of the Minerva Project did not look much different from a typical ranged expert mech. It only looked a little thicker and voluminous, much like the Fearless Project that Ves had recently worked upon.

What truly caught everyone's attention was the mech components that Gloriana loosely stuffed inside its frame.

"An effective command platform needed to be strong in three aspects." She continued. "First, it needs to be able to gain a good overview of its area of responsibility. Although the Minerva Project can rely on sensor data gathered by other mechs to expand its awareness of the battlefield, I think it is important to increase its independent detection abilities as well. This is why I plan to install excellent sensors in the Minerva Project. Do you have any opinions regarding this design choice?"

Professor Benedict immediately spoke up. "Command platforms indeed come equipped with better-than-average sensors, but you shouldn't go overboard with this choice. Surveying the battlefield is a job that is best left to dedicated scout units. The main purpose of equipping them with better sensors is to be able to detect friendly mechs and capture garbled signals under heavy jamming conditions. A command mech is not supposed to sweep an expansive battlefield by itself. It will expend so much power that it will inevitably generate a large amount of waste heat. This makes it easier for distant opponents to attack the command platform from a distance."

The Senior made such a good argument that Ves no longer felt the need to give his own input.

"Do any of you have any other ideas?" Gloriana asked.

No one responded.

"Alright then. We will still put emphasis on the sensor system, but not too much. Let's move on to the next priority. A command platform must be able to communicate with distant mechs. Although it is able to rely on other mechs to relay its commands in a chain, all of you know that this won't always work in the middle of a hectic battle. It is best if the Minerva Project is equipped with multiple robust communication systems to ensure Commander Casella can always contact distant elements. What is your opinion?"

"The Minerva Project will attract a lot of attention if it transmits many powerful signals during battle." Sara observed. "It will be dangerous for it to operate in the open. It should either hide behind solid cover or come equipped with thicker armor."

Juliet frowned. "We can't make this mech too thick. A command platform should be mobile enough to move where it is needed, and sometimes that means going forward. It may also be targeted by powerful melee expert mechs that can assuredly defeat it when they come into range. No defense is good enough against these killer and assassin units. It's much safer if the Minerva Project can keep its distance."

"The Minerva Project is not a pure auxiliary mech. It's armed with a luminar crystal rifle. Don't forget that Commander Casella is also a specialist in ranged weapons. We shouldn't neglect her respectable dueling capabilities."

Everyone agreed that a command platform should come with powerful communication systems, but the question was how much. These modules could quickly take up a lot of capacity, which meant the Minerva Project would have less room for other features!

Gloriana did not look good as the argument progressed. Everyone had a different opinion about this matter!

"Alright, enough." She spoke, causing everyone to fall silent. "I do not want to compromise too much on the communication systems, but we can determine the specifics later once we expand the details of the design department. Communication is absolutely important for Commander Casella. Even if she has shown the ability to maintain contact with other Larkinson mech pilots without relying on traditional communication channels, we should not assume this will work in any circumstance. Equipping our expert mech with strong communication systems will not only allow it to remain in contact with friendly units under heavy jamming, but it can also reach out to third-party units that are allied or neutral towards the Larkinson Clan."

Not everyone was connected to the Larkinson Network. Also, Commander Casella's ability to reach out to Larkinson mech pilots might have a range limit. It was best not to depend too much on it alone.

"Your command platform doesn't have to shoulder this burden by itself. There are other mechs or better yet starships that can pass on the relevant signals." Professor Benedict noted.

"That is true as long as our mechs fight in the vicinity of our fleet, but what if they are deployed on a planet? We cannot assume that our mech units will be able to maintain contact with our command centers and headquarters at any time." Gloriana retorted.

"That is true."