The Mech Touch

The Gold Beacon, formerly known as the Super Avatar Project, was Gloriana's attempt to create both a lesser and different version of the Minerva Project.

She took a lot of cues from the ongoing Minerva Project but also put her own personal spin on the command mech concept.

The mech immediately stood out for its gold coating and the prominent bust of the Golden Cat featured on its chest. Gloriana deliberately designed the custom mech to resemble an avatar of the Avatar of Myth's favorite design spirit.

The basic configuration of the Gold Beacon was roughly similar to the Minerva Project. Melkor's custom mech was primarily a command mech that possessed additional processors, analytic engines and other related modules that could help the Avatar Commander gain a better overview of what was happening on the battlefield.

Even if he was cut off from the command center aboard one of the capital ships of the Larkinson Clan, he could still do an adequate job of coordinating his troops and passing on orders by himself!

In order to make sure that the Gold Beacon could stay in contact with Avatar mechs even during the most challenging battle circumstances, the mech also incorporated a decent amount of premium communication modules.

The most distinctive of them was a powerful transceiver that was mounted on the rear of the Gold Beacon.

Two large telescoping antennas could poke all the way up until they extended up to twice the length of the custom mech!

This was the origin of its name. When its communication functions were working at full strength, the Gold Beacon essentially turned into a powerful semi-mobile communication node!

"How well do these oversized transceivers work?" Commander Melkor asked.

"They are much more reliable and able to push through jamming than any of our existing mechs." Gloriana proudly explained.

Though she was exhausted due to working so many days in a row, her passion could not be denied!

Naturally, Gloriana did not need to state that the Gold Beacon was still inferior to the Minerva Project in terms of communication capabilities. An expert mech would always be able to do the job better, not just because the design budget was a lot higher, but also because it obtained the support of an expert pilot.

Aside from this command focus, the performance of the Gold Beacon did not actually stand out too much.

If Melkor wanted to, he could truly pilot the Gold Beacon like a typical rifleman mech. The mobility of the command mech wasn't great due to all of its extra modules, but it was not horrible either.

The mech also boasted a superior armor system that Gloriana had specifically chosen to control the Gold Beacon's mass. While the command mech wasn't supposed to excel at defense, it could at least survive a decapitation strike if it was caught in the open.

Of course, it was always best to rely on other mechs to defend the Gold Beacon. Melkor's custom mech wasn't designed with an excessive amount of fault tolerance like Vincent Ricklin's new B-Man custom mech.

"How well can the Gold Beacon fight against hostile mechs when it doesn't have any backup to rely upon?" Imon Ingvar asked.

"Better than a Bright Warrior, but don't expect any miracles." Gloriana answered the expert candidate. "There is only so much I can do to make it battle worthy when it also has to command the Avatars of Myth. Some of the less important auxiliary modules are also relatively vulnerable due to their placements, so it is best not to duel any mechs if you can help it, Melkor."

The Avatar Commander nodded. "I understand, but we don't always get to choose our battles. I've been in enough battles to know that every additional fighting machine counts. If I want to command my Avatars from the rear, I would have chosen to retire from piloting mechs and command my troops from the Gorgoneion. The Gold Beacon is my way of always maintaining a close connection to my subordinates."

Although there were many theorists who questioned the wisdom of having the commanders of mech units fight alongside the troops, this was still the preferred standard in the mech community.

Melkor knew he wasn't a great legion commander. Compared to Casella Ingvar who continually reinvigorated the Living Sentinels, he was merely average in comparison.

Risking his life in battle and showing that he braved the same dangers and rigors of ordinary mech pilots was one of the best ways for him to maintain the respect of his men!

Ves still harbored a few concerns for his blood-related cousin, though.

Melkor was no longer young and his many responsibilities increasingly prevented him from practicing his piloting skills as much as before.

Though Casella was able to develop both of her command and combat skills without too much setbacks, that was because she had received systematic training for this due to her former noble background.

Aside from that, advancing to expert candidate and subsequently expert pilot earlier also helped a lot. The current Sentinel Commander had already left Melkor far behind.

Though Melkor was still an excellent mech pilot and a good commander by the standards of the old Bright Republic, the Larkinson Clan had advanced far past that point.

Ves already knew through the intelligence reports that he received that Melkor relied increasingly more on delegation to run his mech legion.

While it was normal for any leader to delegate work, it was clear that Melkor was increasingly doing so not because he was short on time, but because he could not perform his duties himself.

If he was unable to perform the job himself, how would he be able to understand all of the work being done by his subordinates? His control over the Avatars would inevitably deteriorate because of the increased distance between himself and the actual situation among the rank-and-file.

Piloting mechs was therefore one of the best but also the riskiest ways to compensate for this effect.

Was it the right choice, though?

A part of Ves even thought that it might be better to pressure Melkor into stepping back and letting a more talented and capable mech commander lead the Avatars of Myth.

That would probably crush Melkor, though. Leading the Avatars had turned into his life's work, and he had not yet transformed the mech legion into a form that was anywhere near the state he envisioned!

Ves eventually decided to withhold his concerns. Melkor had made his choices and perhaps the Gold Beacon might be able to resolve his long-standing problems.

He certainly did look happy with what Gloriana made for him. Different from the New Man Project, Ves had contributed a bit of his time to design a custom luminar crystal rifle for the custom mech.

It was nothing too fancy, but it still performed better than the more ordinary rifles utilized by other standard mechs.

"The Gold Beacon is optimized for large-scale group combat. It performs best when it fights alongside a large number of friendly mechs. Your mech is the opposite, Imon. Your Blade Chaser custom mech excels at duels."

The Blade Chaser used to be known as the Champion Project for a reason. Gloriana understood Imon's desire to defeat strong individual opponents and dedicated her time and attention to design a custom swordsman mech that excelled in duels.

Though she was no Ketis, Gloriana was still confident that she could Imon a swordsman mech that did not perform worse, just differently.

While the Blade Chaser was lacking in a lot of areas where Ketis could frankly do better due to her excellent knowledge of how swordsmen fought, Gloriana was much better when it came to optimizing and refining different mech systems.

The result was a custom mech that not only possessed excellent fundamentals, but also fit Imon's current piloting style in an excellent way.

Though it would have been better if both Gloriana and Ketis put an equal amount of effort into the Blade Chaser design, the schedule didn't allow for it. Ketis already had to invest most of her time in the two swordsman mech projects she was leading.

Besides, Gloriana could be very territorial when it came to her custom mech design projects. She only brought in Ketis to design the Blade Chaser's sharp and excellent twin one-handed swords and nothing more.

As the group of Larkinsons looked up at the blue-and-gold coated swordsman mech, they all noticed that it possessed a glow that had only recently received a minor resurgence in the Larkinson Clan.

"I still can't believe you really went for Bravo." Commander Melkor commented. "Is Vincent truly the example that you should strive for, Imon?"

Imon shrugged. "I've tried out all of the mechs with those other glows and none of them particularly speak to me. The B-Man's glow is the first one that I can truly get along with. I know that not everyone has a good opinion of Vincent and his mech, but there is more to it than being manly."

"Bravo also stands for victory and competitiveness." Ves agreed. "I think it is a fine pairing with your Blade Chaser mech."

As the brother to Commander Casella Ingvar, Imon not only felt left out, but also inferior to his much more accomplished sister.

Over time, this could turn into a real problem. This was also why Gloriana agreed to prioritize the design of a custom mech for Imon. He truly needed a change in order to regain his confidence in his own abilities.

The Blade Chaser did that by giving Imon a powerful dueling-oriented swordsman mech that could fight ferociously against many powerful mechs.

The mech was essentially designed to excel in one-on-one engagements. Its sharp twin swords along with its excellent mobility and maneuvering characteristics allowed a skilled expert candidate such as Imon to leverage clever movements to obtain a decisive advantage against other mechs piloted by expert candidates.

It would have been better if Juliet was able to contribute to the mobility of the Blade Chaser, but again Gloriana was confident that she could do no worse.

She had taken a decent amount of inspiration from Juliet's work on other design projects and provided the Blade Chaser design with a flight system that was highly suited for high-budget, high-quality machines.

In any case, even if her work fell short in a few areas, the expensive materials and sub-components would ensure that her custom mech would not perform too awfully in terms of mobility!

"With this mech, I hope to challenge myself." Imon said as he became increasingly more impatient to try his new custom mech. "It's not the Quint, but maybe that's for the best. The Blade Chaser is its own mech."

Once Melkor and Imon fully acquainted themselves with their new custom mechs, they both put their new machines to the test.

In this regard, neither mechs exhibited any surprises. Both worked smoothly with much less deviations than normal. Gloriana done a thorough job in designing the two mechs and eliminated as many unstable variables as possible.

Though that made the Gold Beacon and the Blade Chaser less exciting, they subsequently ranked high in stability and reliability.

If neither of their mech pilots broke through, then they would be able to rely on the current configurations of the two custom mechs for many years without any significant changes.

Of course, it would still be nice to upgrade them if the Larkinson Clan got its hands on new technology or managed to improve its overall design level.

Right now, Ves judged that the Gold Beacon's command systems and the Blade Chaser's flight system still had a lot of room for improvement.

If the Design Department could upgrade these parts, the two custom mechs could achieve a significantly higher impact on the battlefield!

"All in due time." Ves shook his head. "Their current strengths are enough to meet their needs."