The Mech Touch

Just like any other recently completed mech, the B-Man had yet to show off its strong side.

While the confrontations against the Titania and the pakklaton refugee fleet were both intensive battles, they did not progress in a way that allowed the newer mechs to showcase their full capabilities.

However, the B-Man took part in enough virtual and live practice sessions for everyone to gain a decent idea of its battle prowess.

The custom mech was a fairly powerful hybrid mech that could pump out a lot of firepower while resisting a decent amount of incoming damage in return. Its major shortcomings was its lack of flexibility and its less-than-stellar mobility.

The B-Man actually occupied an awkward position in the Larkinson Army.

It was weaker than an expert mech and could not pose a threat against such a powerful machine.

It was also strong and special enough that it couldn't blend in with the regular mech units. The lack of coordination along with the ostentatious appearance of the B-Man would only lead to problems!

This was why any mech piloted by an expert candidate fell out of place in the expeditionary fleet.

Yet this was different. Now that Commander Casella was trying out the resonance ability she had recently comprehended, the B-Man began to develop a brighter dark yellow glow with each passing second!

"It's done. I can go no further. Please tell Vincent to show what he can do in his current state."

It took a bit of time to snap Vincent out of his fascination. Once he regained control of the B-Man, he tested out its capabilities.

Compared to the mechs that were Commandeered before, the Single Empowerment ability significantly enhanced all of the B-Man's attributes!

Whether it was defense or mobility, the B-Man was no longer weak in either of these areas.

However, what truly stood out for the custom mech was its abundance of integrated weapon systems. The B-Man's firepower became a lot more threatening when all of its energy attacks became empowered by a substantial amount of resonance!

"Amazing!" Ves enthusiastically studied the elevated sensor readings. "The B-Man is still too far away from challenging an expert mech by itself, but the individual enhancement is so potent that it can definitely beat any other normal mech!"

The B-Man effectively became several times stronger under the influence of the Minerva!

The strength enhancement was much more comprehensive as well as all of its parameters increased, though the increase in attack power was still the greatest.

What was more important was that Vincent also received the direct guidance of Commander Casella. The B-Man fought a lot more effectively under their combined control!

"Our compatibility is not the best." Commander Casella reported to the mech designers. "Vincent and I don't get along even though he's a friend of my brother. I do not think I am doing the Single Empowerment ability justice with the B-Man."

Ves could vaguely see what she meant. The Single Empowerment ability exhibited much poorer efficiency than the Commandeering ability.

After all, the Minerva was able to multiply the combat strength of the B-Man by 300 to 500 percent.

In contrast, its use of a Command Field could only amplify the strength of an ordinary mech by a more modest margin before reaching a limit.

The difference was that the Commandeering ability worked across hundreds of friendly mechs!

Ves would rather choose to strengthen a hundred mechs by 50 percent than boost an individual machine by an even greater margin!

However, there were still situations where Single Empowerment could play a useful role. Duels, challenge rooms and so on were instances where boosting a single mech could lead to a lot of benefits.

He still preferred the Command Field in large battles. The difference it could make was vastly greater as the sheer quantities involved could trample any opponent!

After they collected enough data about empowering the B-Man, they moved on to applying the same effect on other mechs.

This time, they paraded a number of other mechs such as the Bright Warrior and the Ferocious Piranha.

The mech designers soon figured out a few rules.

While it was possible to empower a regular mech to the point where it could easily defeat elite mechs, the strengthening effect was not as good this time.

Part of it was because the mechs simply couldn't carry as much power. Strengthening them further might cause them to burst out greater force, but the relatively weak mechs risked falling apart right afterwards!

This made the ability tasteless in the eyes of others.

Rather than supercharging a single mech by three times, it was much easier to deploy five mechs in order to accomplish a task!

During the trials, they also learned that compatibility was a much more important issue.

There was no problem at all with Casella's relationship with her subordinates. It went without saying that the Sentinel mech pilots received her strength with the least amount of friction.

It became a lot more difficult if she tried to get in sync with the pilots of other mech legions.

"Single Empowerment is not designed to be applied to a random stranger mech." Gloriana said. "It should be treated as a means to lend a considerable amount of strength to hand-picked expert candidates. The stronger the mechs, the easier it is to carry the weight of Commander Casella's power."

Ves ultimately wasn't satisfied with this series of tests. The resonance ability had a lot of potential, but it cost Commander Casella quite a lot of effort to power up just a single mech.

If it could be applied to an expert mech, then that was still okay.

If the best it could do was to strengthen a single mech piloted by an expert candidate, then that was too pathetic!

Gloriana turned to Ves. "We should end the field test. Commander Casella's life signs show that she is close to reaching her limit. We aren't gathering any new data from the current tests either, so there is less of a reason to continue on like this. Let us go back and digest all of the data before planning out the subsequent tests."

"Hmmm… that is a good suggestion."

Once Ves transmitted the orders to cease the tests and bring every mech home, he reflected on what he had witnessed from the Minerva.

The expert command mech performed above his expectations. Though it showed plenty of shortcomings and limitations, the powers it was able to display when Casella was piloting it for the first time were already impressive!

He could already foresee that the Minerva would center completely around its fantastic Command Field and its useful Commandeering resonance ability.

Just having this capability in any of the Larkinson Clan's previous battles would have led to more decisive victories!

"What does the MTA think of the Minerva?" Ves wondered.

This was a good question. As far as he was aware, expert command mechs were rare and those that could directly empower so many mechs were even rarer!

Master Huron's clumsy attempts to make the Charlemagne work proved how difficult it was to create the ultimate group enhancement mech.

Even though the Minerva benefited from much more expensive resources, it still managed to outperform the Charlemagne in every area that mattered!

"I can see the Minerva doing especially well when propping up a defensive line." Sara Voiken expressed her own thoughts. "Once the Living Sentinels are able to replace their older mechs with our new Rigid Spines and Rigid Wall models, we can form a solid battle line that can intercept much more powerful enemy mech units. Both mech models excel at defense, but their ability to damage their opponents is not that great. If Commander Casella Commandeers them with her expert mech, then the mechs in question will become a lot more lethal and solve one of the shortcomings of their formation."

"That is one promising application of Minerva's Command Field." Ves acknowledged. "The Sentinels haven't played a major role in battle for a while now. They should be much more useful in landbound battles where terrain plays a limiting role, but I don't know when we will ever deploy mechs in a planetary environment. For now, we should focus on increasing the Minerva's synergy with ranged mech units."

Ves wished he already had a hundred Fearless Project mechs at his disposal. The stalled design project promised to deliver a ranged mech that wielded heavy luminar crystal rifles.

These weapons were meant to be so potent that they could pose a legitimate threat to expert mechs!

Still, no matter how much the Fearless Project mechs tried to bridge the gap between themselves and enemy expert mechs, the former still suffered from a lot of handicaps.

Fighting against an expert mech had always been an uphill battle!

If it was so easy to overpower expert mechs through mundane solutions, then the Hexadric Hegemony shouldn't be losing the Komodo War so badly!

The Minerva gave the Battle Criers and other Larkinson mechs hope of legitimately challenging opposing expert mechs.

Sure, the Command Field was only able to impart a shadow of Commander Casella's force of will to other mechs, but when it was applied to several hundred mechs, not even the Bolvos Rage should be able to weather the storm intact!

Ves grew more optimistic about the future of his clan. A single effective solution against powerful threats was not enough to make him feel secure. Creating another one that overlapped with the earlier solution was a lot better!

As he and his fellow Journeymen were about to wrap up this testing session, Ves received a sudden call.

"Patriarch Ves! I was trying to reach out to you for a while now. I had to go all the way up to General Verle to convince him to reroute my call to you" Imon Ingvar said in a hurried tone.

Ves grew confused. "Why are you contacting me? The field test that we have just concluded centers around your sister and her new expert mech. You are not involved."

"That's what I wanted to talk with you about. I think you are wrong. You have tested one of the Minerva's abilities on Vincent, but why have you skipped me out? I am Casella's brother! We grew up with each other and attended many of the same classes during our youth. I have to experience this ability myself!"

"Why are you so impatient? We can wait until next time. Commander Casella has already tired herself out and needs a good rest."

"I don't want to wait, sir! I know my sister. She can still push herself a little further. Just give me half a minute to experience her power. We know each other so well that I think we can cooperate much more effectively."

This was a logical-sounding argument. Ves did not expect Imon Ingvar to be so clever. The expert candidate was too eager at the moment and did not want to turn away from this opportunity.

"Fine. You and your Blade Chaser can stick around a little longer. I will talk to Commander Casella and find out how she wishes to proceed."

He conferred with Commander Casella. Though she was too tired to care about her bonds, she was willing to indulge in her brother."

"It's best to get this over with. My brother won't be able to snap from his obsession if it remains unfulfilled."

This was only a minor annoyance on Commander Casella's part. She was also curious how it would be like for her to support Imon more directly in battle.

If she could give Imon stronger support by loaning him a part of her willpower and her skills, then his chances of surviving a battle would definitely be raised.

Of course, the Minerva could also use its Irvan rifle to shoot down any threats directed towards the Blade Chaser in advance.

The problem was that Casella would be doing her brother a disservice if she went overboard. Imon needed to depend on himself to find his breakthrough opportunity.

He was not having much success with this approach.