The Mech Touch

Ves continued to quiz the Larkinson mech instructors about the Chiron model and what their mech cadets sought from their training mechs.

Each and every instructor was a veteran who possessed an abundant amount of experience. A few even participated in major wars, thereby accruing valuable practical knowledge that could help many of their pupils survive the battles of the future.

"One of the biggest challenges to transforming immature brats into qualified soldiers is to prepare them for the cruelty and unfairness that they will face when they step onto an actual battlefield." An aged female instructor explained. "Everyone dreams of becoming future heroes and champions, but for everyone that succeeds, hundreds or thousands of colleagues get struck down without any mercy."

Another instructor concurred. "Every mech academy struggles with the same dilemma, sir. If we want our cadets to build up confidence and pursue greater and more ambitious jobs, we need to make sure that our training program does not pressure them too hard. The training scenarios and simulated battles that we craft for them need to be fair enough for them to stand a chance of winning as long as they display the level of skill that we expect of them. However, if we do this too much, then our cadets will develop a distorted impression of actual battles and be in for a rude shock once they fight their first actual battle when nothing goes their way. Will they break or will they adapt to the adversity?"

Ves frowned. This indeed sounded like a flawed solution. Personally, he was of the opinion that it was better to prepare the mech cadets for the harsh life ahead. This way, they knew how much they could take in advance and prepare themselves accordingly.

This was not the perfect solution though, as affirmed by the female veteran.

"The opposite approach isn't necessarily better either, patriarch. You may think that ratcheting up the difficulty and intensity of our training programs will produce tougher and more mentally prepared mech cadets, but that is only valid to a certain degree. If we push our cadets harder, we will increase the proportion of producing elite mech pilots, but that will come at the cost of breaking a larger proportion of bottom performers. The latter will have become so discouraged at the prospect of entering into actual battle that they will often decide to pursue safer and less intensive careers. Instead of enlisting in a mech military, they will opt for jobs at safe and boring security companies."

"I see."

Ves often looked down on mech pilots that spent over a decade of their lives training to become the future heroes of the battlefield, only for them to squander their opportunities for greatness by becoming the equivalent of a glorified security guard!

_{ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ꜰʀᴇᴇᴡᴇʙ(ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ).ᴄoᴍ ᴏɴʟʏ.}

Of course, Ves was being a bit too harsh and unfair towards these humble mech pilots.

Guards played an essential role in society. There were many facilities and people that needed protection, and some mech pilots had to fulfill these essential jobs.

Even the Larkinson Clan needed mech pilots that could perform the same protection duty day in and day out without any complaint or insistence on doing more. It was not always the case that every job related to mechs needed to be fulfilled by skilled and hardened elites!

One of the reasons why Ves supported the creation of the Mercenary Hall was to give his more ambitious and battle-hungry mech pilots the opportunity to utilize and develop their skills further.

He knew their type well enough to know that they would easily get bored if they had nothing else to do in their time except participate in training sessions that got stale after a time.

Just as different types of professional mech pilots needed different treatment, mech cadets also performed better or worse depending on their treatment.

"Mech academies usually try to specialize in teaching a limited range of mech cadets." An instructor explained. "The elite ones raise their recruitment standards in order to maximize the proportion of mech cadets that respond well to harsher training. The more accessible ones are not as picky and usually focus on training mech pilots without as much expectation that they will excel in battle."

"What of our mech academies, then?" Ves curiously asked.

The female instructor smiled. "We try to do both, sir. Currently, our clan hasn't produced enough new potentates to justify the creation of multiple mech academies that operate in parallel, so the ones we have now are basically mixed. Depending on the grades, the individual performance and the aspirations of each of our cadets, we assign them to different tracks."

She raised a finger.

"There is a command track that we have opened up for the handful of mech cadets that have shown talent and passion in ordering troops in battle."

The instructor raised another finger.

"There is the elite track where we have concentrated the best-performing mech cadets that have responded well enough to our harsher training courses."

She raised a third finger.

"Then there is the normal track which is exactly what you can imagine. Most of our cadets are on this track at the moment. We maintain its training intensity at a level that meets the requirements of our clan but at the same time make it broad enough to accommodate all sorts of mech cadets."

Ves nodded in understanding. "I suppose there is considerable movement between the tracks, correct?"

"Yes. That is the advantage of maintaining multiple training tracks, sir. Those that perform well in the normal track have the opportunity to be promoted to the elite track. Anyone that is currently within the elite track that finds that they cannot handle the pressure anymore can demote to the normal track. We try to assign our mech cadets to the right tracks as best as possible, so there is not as much movement between them as you think, but as these kids continue to grow and mature under our instruction, they will change in ways that might not make them suitable to their current tracks anymore."

"In the future, we plan to offer additional tracks." Another instructor mentioned. "We will split the normal track and the elite track into ones that specifically focus on training ranged mech pilots, melee mech pilots, light skirmisher mech pilots, heavy artillery mech pilots and so on. We can make this happen as soon as our enrollment numbers are high enough. This is also one of the reasons why we are so eager to attract external mech cadets."

The instructors spoke a bit more about how they differentiated their training and their lesson programs.

"All of this sounds great, but I have a feeling that this approach isn't perfect either. What kind of problems are you facing?" Ves asked.

"Although our approach sounds as if it is accommodating to everyone's needs, the fundamental issue with trying to place our mech cadets in different boxes is that it is harder to uncover their true talent and potential. We have seen cases where mech cadets end up in the normal track due to personal problems, but slowly prove that they are fully qualified for the elite track. If they had been put into the elite track from the beginning, they would have risen up to the challenge and be considerably further ahead."

That indeed sounded like a wasted opportunity, but how could the mech instructors know how much the mech cadets could take? These were young kids who were undergoing a highly transitory phase in their lives. It was extremely difficult to pin them down from the moment they attended their first classes!

"Consider this other example, sir. Take a mech cadet that has shown a preference in rifleman mechs. We can assign courses to him that mainly develop his marksmanship skills, but he is only able to perform well enough to remain on the normal track. However, what if his talent in swordsmanship is much stronger? This strength may not be obvious if he only attends a few shallow swordsmanship courses, but if he truly tries to delve deeper into this mode of combat, his skill and progress fully meets the standard of the elite track. However, we cannot know this unless we force the mech cadet to invest a lot of time in training how to pilot a melee mech, which he initially wasn't passionate about."

All of these scenarios sounded increasingly more complicated. Ves developed a greater understanding and sympathy for the mech instructors that sought to maximize the potential of every mech cadet.

No teacher wanted their students to follow the wrong trajectory and end up squandering their opportunities for greatness!

However, even the most elite and renowned mech academies struggled with finding the most perfect fit for their mech cadets!

It was already good enough to establish matches with positive outcomes. Mech academies were already satisfied if a training program brought out 60 percent or 80 percent of the potential of a mech cadet!

Was this the perfect approach? Definitely not. It was the most practical approach, though. Most mech academies had no choice of finding out what stuck for each mech cadet. As long as the pupil in question showed at least some positive results, that person's trajectory was set. It was too risky to spend time on digging further and trying to uncover the mech cadet's true talent.

Ves wasn't satisfied with this reality, though. He was someone who did not easily give up in the face of difficult obstacles. As a mech designer and an engineer, he had been trained to assume that there were always solutions to different problems!

He just needed to figure out if he had the tools to solve the current issue.

As Ves gazed out towards the training field and observed the Chiron mechs navigating the elaborate and expensive obstacle course, he tried to understand how his living training mech facilitated the matching process.

"Has my Chiron mechs been helpful to your attempts to uncover and identify where your mech cadets should be placed?"

The instructors all smiled.

"They have offered a bit of assistance, yes. The Chirons all know the mech cadets the best, so there have been numerous cases where the living mechs have helped us figure out a better place for their assigned partners. However, much of this is dependent on the personal experiences and accumulation of the individual Chiron mechs. The mechs that are fresh off the factory do not start with as much knowledge and wisdom, so they do not always know any better. This situation will likely improve as our Chirons get older, but this is a lengthy process."

The Chiron mechs did not completely start from scratch. They were all connected to the Golden Cat, a design spirit that had become exposed to the performance and skills of many great Larkinson mech pilots.

Nonetheless, it was not that easy to transfer Goldie's growing reserve of knowledge and insights to the individual Chiron mechs. They were separate entities so there would always be a barrier between the two. This was why the Chiron mechs still needed to grow by themselves in order to become better at their jobs.

In addition to that, Goldie was not a design spirit that was specialized in training mech pilots. While she was growing in strength, intelligence and many other aspects, the truth was that Ves never created her with training in mind!

If Ves wanted to develop a better and more effective training mech that could seriously displace the competition, he needed to pair his Tutor Project with a better and more specialized training-oriented design spirit.

The design spirit also had to understand mech cadets on a deeper level in order to increase the chances of uncovering their true talents!

As Ves continued to note down his thoughts and ideas, he decided he heard enough from the mech instructors.

"I would like to interview a few of your mech cadets in person. Is a young lady called Lanie Larkinson available?"