The Mech Touch

Commander Casella was having the time of her life!

After she tested how much firepower she had at disposal at long range, she was finally allowed to test the Minerva's ability to fend off opponents at closer ranges.

A long-barreled rifle that did not possess a high firing rate was too unwieldy to be used in close-ranged fights!

This was why Ves was so keen in making it transformable.

Once Commander Casella received the command to transform the Irvan into its short-ranged mode, she grinned.

"Let's do it, Minerva."

The expert mech's rifle seemingly split in half. Its lengthy muzzle along with a portion of its forward structure detached from the rear half of the weapon.

The Minerva grabbed the detached rifle component and easily stowed it away by placing it onto a slot situated at its rear.

Shrinking the weapon unavoidable made it weaker, but that was not necessarily a demerit.

Through the man-machine connection, Commander Casella was able to feel that her expert mech had become a lot nimbler when handling its down-sized weapon.

"Let us repeat the earlier tests. However, instead of firing your gun at those stationary targets, I have prepared a better target dummy for you, commander."

The Everchanger soon flew forward until it faced the Minerva directly. The older masterwork expert mech knocked against its chest plate with its sword.

"You can fire your gun at me directly without worry, commander. My expert mech isn't as tough as the Shield of Samar, but I can repair it as long as I have enough strength and energy."

"Alright, Venerable Joshua. Get ready."

When the Minerva fired its newly-emerged submachine gun, the weapon barked out a staccato of relatively weak energy beams.

Of course, weak in this case was only relative as the Irvan weapon was still powerful even in its submachine gun mode! A casual strike could easily exceed the firepower of a serious shot from a normal mech.

The biggest difference here was that the Irvan submachine gun's firing rate was a lot higher!

Combined with the fact that the Minerva was piloted by a demigod who possessed inhumanly high skill and precision, such an expert mech could easily disable a horde of enemy mechs by precisely targeting their weak points or concentrentrating attacks on a single point.

The Irvan submachine gun in the hands of Commander Casella and the Minerva was an entirely different beast.

All of the different shots landed at around the same spots while the Minerva nimbly moved around in order to keep it safe in the open.

The Everchanger did not launch an attack but tried its best to spoil the Minerva's aim by performing evasive maneuvers.

It wasn't working!

The Everchanger was not as fast and maneuverable as the Dark Zephyr. The Minerva's weapon was easily able to track the movements of its target due to its fast firing rate and other advantages.

The firepower wasn't impressive, though. The continuous shots never got past the Everchanger's formidable Unending alloy armor plating. For all intents and purposes, Joshua's expert mech was immune against this kind of damage!

"Alright. I've seen enough. Begin resonating with the Urvan gun." Ves instructed. "It's time to see what your submachine gun can do when its shots can shred through defenses!"

The Minerva's damage output underwent a qualitative change now that Commander Casella expended a portion of her resonance strength into imparting additional power into her attacks.

"Damn, my Everchanger is really beginning to hurt!"

Even though the Minerva only fired continuous bursts of laser beams, the golden corona around them showed that they had been infused with Casella's force of will, thereby making the attacks drastically more effective against any kind of target!

A section of the Everchanger's chest plate began to glow and deform to a tiny extent. This was a remarkable amount of progress for such a light and weak energy weapon!

If the Minerva fought against an expert mech that wasn't covered with extremely resilient alloys, the expert command mech might have been able to bore a hole into the enemy's armor at this time!

"Impressive!" Ves remarked as he saw how well the Irvan performed at shorter ranges.

The weapon was not supposed to turn the Minerva into a close-ranged duelist mech. His goal was to give Commander Casella the option of fighting her way out of a predicament if the Minerva ever got assaulted by melee mechs.

With this degree of firepower, Casella definitely possessed the power to outfight a powerful enemy at close range!

They did not spend a lot of time testing Minerva's offensive power. Firing all of the resonance-empowered shots steadily drained Casella's willpower.

Her resonance strength was too inadequate right now due to lacking an expert mech for numerous months. She needed to manage her reserves carefully to avoid expending all of her willpower too soon during a battle.

Unlike conventional resources such as energy cells and ammunition, it was impossible to replenish an expert pilot's willpower once it started to become ragged.

Only rest and time could restore an expert pilot's readiness for battle.

Since this was just an initial test, there was no need to go overboard with weapon tests. That could be done in subsequent sessions.

They moved on to a more boring phase of the field test, which was testing out its command and control capabilities.

The Minerva performed admirably in this aspect. Even when various bots and mechs generated a lot of interference, the expert command mech's powerful communication arrays could forcefully penetrate through all of the jamming!

If that wasn't enough, the Minerva was also able to connect through spiritual networks and use them to transmit data to compatible mechs.

For now, the only compatible mechs that qualified were the Cherub, which was exclusively used by the Hex Army, and the nearly complete Nanny Project designed for the Penitent Sisters.

A lot of waiting clansmen grew sleepy during this time as a lot of the tests were technical and not visible to the naked eye.

Ves and the other Larkinson mech designers were satisfied with its performance, though. The Minerva deserved to be called a command mech as it heavily outperformed the other Larkinson expert mechs in this aspect!

"It's time we test out the centerpiece abilities of the Minerva. The entire design revolves around these functions. This is why it exists. If our expert command mech cannot properly channel Commander Casella's special capabilities, then it is a definite failure!"

Nobody thought the Minerva would underperform in this aspect. It had turned into a masterwork mech, and that usually didn't happen with flawed designs!

Everyone grew more excited once it was time to test the special capabilities of the Minerva.

The performance displayed by the Minerva before this point could be described as good but not up to the standards of the better works of Ves and his fellow mech designers.

Since the famed and increasingly more renowned Design Department had begun to design expert mechs, none of them turned out to be basic or average!

Each Larkinson expert mech not only started off as mid-tier models that normally weren't provided to low-tier expert pilots, they also possessed a few incredibly dazzling strengths that defined their existence!

The Dark Zephyr was fast and elusive.

The Amaranto excelled at long-ranged takedowns.

The Riot was a resilient combat engine.

The First Sword possessed the strongest cutting power.

The Shield of Samar functioned as the toughest bulwark.

The Everchanger was always strong in every battle scenario.

Now, the Minerva was about to reveal its signature abilities, thereby joining the list of special Larkinson expert mechs with pride!

The hype among the Larkinsons as well as its allies gradually built up. Nobody thought the Minerva would show an average level performance this time.

Even non-mech designers knew that mechs were designed with limited resources in mind. Since the Minerva had not shown exceptional firepower, defenses and mobility so far, it was clear that much of its capacity had been used to strengthen its utility!

The fairly powerful sensor, command and control systems already confirmed the Minerva's orientation as an expert command mech.

In addition, the spectators were already aware that the Larkinson mech designers preferred to save the best for last. This was because all of the weaker functions of the mech in question did not exert much strain on its frame.

However, the last demonstrations usually took a lot out of the mech and pilot in question. It was naturally best to perform such a big display when there weren't any other tests scheduled afterwards.

"Finally! The Minerva is not a conventional ranged mech. Its real strength lies in working together with other mechs!"

"C'mon! Power up my blade! My body is ready!"

"These Larkinsons are moving further and further apart from us. We need to do something about our lack of expert pilots!"

Two mech legions moved out in force this time.

The Bright Warriors coated in silver and green slowly approached and halted just behind the Minerva Project.

Grouped up into numerous different mech companies, the Sentinel mechs looked incomparably united!

However, the gold-coated Bright Warriors fielded by the Avatars of Myth did not wish to fall behind.

Even if the Gold Beacon piloted by Commander was incomparably weak in front of the Minerva, the Avatar mechs lined up behind the new custom mech exuded a considerably greater sense of threat!

This was the difference in quality between the Avatars and Sentinels. As the first two mech legions to have come into existence, both of them represented the two most fundamental values of the Larkinson Clan.

The Avatars of Myth exemplified the pursuit of ambition and the willingness to uphold honor.

The Living Sentinels stood for the love of family and the desire to protect the weak.

Although it was common sense that the latter was weaker in many ways, the differences in leadership were incredibly clear at the moment!

Whereas the Avatars were led by a relatively young and unremarkable legion commander, the Sentinels gained a lot of confidence by taking their orders from a talented and visionary expert pilot!

No one understood this disparity better than Commander Melkor Larkinson. As a trueblood Larkinson, he always felt inadequate that an adopted Larkinson managed to surpass him to such a drastic extent.

"That's life." He sighed.

Melkor was not the sort of person to get hung up about this. Everyone possessed their own opportunities and he acknowledged that Casella fully deserved to get where she was. Having an additional powerful expert pilot on the side of the Larkinson Clan only helped everyone out, so there was no logical reason for him to harbor resentment at her excellent accomplishments.

He soon adjusted his mentality and regained his confidence.

"Men." He said as he transmitted his words to his Avatar pilots. "We're about to fight in a tough mock battle. Even if our rifles have been adjusted to deal minimal damage, do not hold back even if we are confronting our fellow Larkinsons. I refuse to turn this into a showcase of how overwhelmingly the Sentinels can crush us with the help of their new expert mech. We are stronger than that! If we want to fight against expert mechs in the future, then we must gather our courage and acquit ourselves well! Let us show our clansmen that the Avatars of Myth are qualified to challenge any expert mech!"

"We are larger than life!"

With that little pep talk, the Avatars were fully prepared to face the coming onslaught. The psychological pressure exerted by Commander Casella and the Minerva no longer depressed their confidence!

In contrast to the Avatar Commander, the Sentinel Commander did not hold a speech. The Sentinels already received their instructions before they sortied and they did not need any further encouragement.

Her presence and the presence of the Minerva were already enough. Casella could feel the incomparable confidence and belief that her subordinates placed on her shoulders.

With the help of a purpose-built command mech and a design spirit with ancient roots, she was able to sense that she had already developed a bond with her Sentinels!