The Mech Touch

As a powerful expert pilot who was preoccupied with overcoming his current limits, Patriarch Reginald did not possess much interest in the administrative and bureaucratic matters of his clan.

He had never made that a secret and was content with letting his deputies and underlings take care of these matters in his stead. As long as they followed his directives and did not weaken his clan, the specific decisions were not that important.

Ever since Professor Benedict entered the clan, his strong personality and his formidable competence in business and administration had turned him into a powerful decision maker in the Cross Clan.

Perhaps too powerful according to some people.

The Cross Patriarch was not concerned, though. His mind might not be as brilliant but his fist was definitely bigger!

In a contest between brain and brawn, Patriarch Reginald always believed the latter was able to vanquish the former!

Both he and the Senior Mech Designer formed an unspoken understanding about their roles and their responsibilities in the clan. As older people who experienced many winds and waves, there was no need to say these considerations out loud.

No matter what, both of them were ultimately members of the same clan, and both of them needed an organization and an army to survive and fulfill their ambitions.

Therefore, Patriarch Reginald allowed the Senior to do what he wanted and make decisions on the Cross Clan's future development. Everything would ultimately benefit every Crosser.

As Professor Benedict was done with outlining the overall plans and activities of the Cross Clan ever since it had temporarily settled in Davute, the Senior finally addressed the topic that was of greater import.

"My main priority is the development of the Mars Project. I have already laid the groundwork for this crucial expert design project many months ago, but the windfall that we have obtained from the Purgatory Campaign has opened up many new and powerful options that we previously couldn't afford. I have spent weeks researching and contacting different parties to discover powerful new tech that we can use to strengthen your future machine even further."

"Did you manage to find anything good?"

"That, and more." Professor Benedict grinned. "It is surprising to see how many developers are willing to cooperate with us as long as we dangle enough money or phasewater in front of their noses. The latter is especially alluring to researchers and developers who possess the ambition to develop transphasic products."

Patriarch Reginald frowned when he heard this unfamiliar word. "What are transphasic products?"

"The short version is that they are items that are much more powerful than normal because they leverage the power of phasewater. I won't bore you with the details, but phasewater is an incredibly powerful exotic that opens up many new possibilities in many fields of technology. Possibilities that people such as myself could never turn into reality before. You cannot imagine the amount of researchers and developers that have gone crazy over the powerful properties of phasewater. Their demand for this strategic resource is incredibly high, but the problem is that there is not enough supply for them to develop their new innovations."

"And that is something we can help with." Reginald spoke. "We are in the possession of many kilograms of phasewater while many other organizations are only able to measure their stock by grams."

The supply of phasewater was simply too pitiful. It didn't help that the MTA and CFA collected most of the phasewater harvested by different pioneers! The Big Two had enormous uses for phasewater. Since their fists were bigger than anyone else's, it was natural for them to obtain the greatest share of this precious resource!

Fortunately, the Big Two were at least thoughtful enough to leave a few crumbs for other parties.

The mech designer grinned. "It turns out that the heads of the various research institutions and development companies can become quite sincere once we show a willingness to provide them with phasewater. I have been introduced to some of the best and most powerful high-end product development projects because of this. After making a careful examination and selection of all of these new possibilities, I have made a basic selection of key systems that will hopefully satisfy your desires for a more powerful expert mech."

Professor Benedict waved his hand. Two projections appeared in view. They displayed two different draft designs of a powerful high-tier expert hybrid mech.

Patriarch Reginald was familiar with the one on the left. He had seen it multiple times when the head developer appraised him of the progress of the Mars Project.

Although the expert pilot did not understand much of the science and engineering of mechs, he was intuitively able to feel that the initial drafts of the Mars Project were already much more powerful than the Bolvos Rage could ever be. How much more powerful, Reginald couldn't say, but any progress was commendable.

However, the Cross Patriarch did not pay attention to the familiar design.

That was because the one on the right had completely captured his attention.

The newer draft design definitely shared a resemblance to the older one. The overall layout and lines looked similar, but the specific components and systems were completely different.

Everything about the newer version looked more sophisticated, more dense and more high tech.

Reginald even thought that a couple of the advanced mech parts looked like they could belong in a first-class mech!

As a powerful mech pilot, there was nothing he loved more than coming into contact with a powerful mech. While the draft design's depiction was short on details and lacked a lot of definition, Reginald's instincts and vision absolutely became attracted to the sight.

"This…"

"It is a complete reimagination of the Mars Project." Professor Benedict confirmed. "It is no longer a mere update or improvement upon an existing mech concept. The leap is so great that you can practically think of it as the Mark II version of the Mars Project. It is a second iteration of an expert mech that has yet to be designed and built."

In other words, this was what the Mars Project might have looked like after one or two decades!

Instead of developing and building a more modest version of the expert mech and waiting until the Cross Clan became wealthier and more powerful, the gains from the Purgatory Campaign effectively allowed Professor Benedict to skip all of this waiting!

Patriarch Reginald liked this a lot. Who wouldn't want to obtain a version 2 instead of a version 1 of a mech?

"Let me start with the most important and by far the most expensive aspect of the new and improved Mars Project. This is the Abasis Armor, a high-end transphasic armor system developed by Truvek Defenses."

The projection on the right grew larger while also highlighting its exterior in red. Reginald could see that while the armor hadn't grown much thicker compared to the old version, it was definitely a lot more sophisticated!

The most defining visual change of the armor system was that the surface of the armor plating was segmented into many small circles.

It made the new draft design look as if it was wearing a form of chainmail.

"Why does the armor look like that?"

"That is so that the Abasis Armor can better project its transphasic properties while reducing the quantity of phasewater needed to construct it. If the armor system was completely solid, then you would need to use up twice or thrice as much phasewater while only increasing the defensive properties by 20 or 30 percent. This is not a cost-effective tradeoff."

"I see. How much phasewater is needed to build this Abasis Armor for my expert mech?"

"More than 10 kilograms."

This was an astronomical sum for any single mech, but Patriarch Reginald did not even bat a single eyelid!

To him, the more resources invested in a mech, the better! As long as the investment produced a measurably stronger mech, Reginald did not care too much how much his clan would have to deplete its reserves.

"What made you go for this Abasis Armor, Reginald?"

"There are many reasons. First, it is several times tougher and more difficult to damage in its base state. Your Mars Project's survivability is already much higher, but it can reach even greater heights. You see, transphasic armor systems can be energized in order to boost the beneficial properties of the phasewater integrated into them. Most transphasic products can be powered by electrical energy, but the Abasis Armor is special. It is especially designed to work with expert mechs and can be empowered solely through true resonance! While the burden to empower a full application of Abasis Armor is great, I do not believe it will impose too much strain on a high-tier expert pilot such as yourself."

"What if I grow stronger?"

"Then that is even better. Abasis Armor happens to be highly scalable. The more true resonance affecting it, the greater its defensive output. What I mean by that is that in the event you ever manage to advance to ace pilot, your Mars Project will not immediately become irrelevant. You can at least be assured that the defensive parameters of your expert mech will not drag you down if you ever get challenged by an ace mech."

That certainly caused Patriarch Reginald to express a lot of surprise at the effectiveness of this new armor system. The upper limit of Abasis Armor was far higher than the previous armor system chosen for the Mars Project!

Professor Benedict was not done with extolling the virtues of this high-end product.

"Aside from this obvious benefit, Abasis Armor also offers other benefits that are present in every transphasic armor system. They can allow a mech to anchor in a fixed coordinate in space, they can resist spatial effects and they can speed up transluminal travel. However, one of the other main reasons why I chose this product over the alternatives is that Abasis Armor possesses an offensive edge. It can provide a powerful mech with a Transphasic Attack System. Do you recall the battle of Purgatory?"

"I do."

"Then you should still be able to remember how the Phaser fish-whales fought by generating all sorts of phasic attacks with their phasewater organs. The Abasis Armor can partially serve as this organ and allow your expert mech to produce a large variety of spatial attacks, thereby granting you an additional method to defeat your opponents, especially at close range."

Patriarch Reginald was truly astonished this time!

"Are you serious, professor?!"

"I am. Before you get too excited, let me warn you that Abasis Armor is based on an experimental program that is far from complete. Truvek Defenses has mainly focused development on the more fundamental defensive aspects of its product. We know pretty sure how it will fare in terms of defense. The offensive possibilities are still experimental for the most part. If we choose to go ahead and make use of Abasis Armor anyway, then Truvek Defenses has pledged to cooperate with us to help with researching and fleshing out the Transphasic Attack System."

Patriarch Reginald was not so concerned by the experimental nature of this armor system. The best and most advanced mech parts and systems were often still in development. If not, then they wouldn't have been ahead of the prevailing market standard!

"All of this sounds vague. Can you give me an impression of the transphasic attacks that I can launch with the help of Abasis Armor?"

"It is difficult to say. I think I should add that both the defensive and offensive properties of Abasis Armor will vary depending on the pilot that is resonating with it. The reason why it is described as transphasic is because it combines the power of phasewater with another power, which is true resonance in this specific case. Since true resonance is incredibly varied and individual to every high-ranking mech pilot, the only way to know for certain is to allow you to pilot the Mars Product when it is finally complete."

That was helpful. Not.

"So it is a complete mystery?" The Cross Patriarch frowned in irritation.

"Well, I suppose I can make a broad estimate. From what I have observed from your previous battles, the true resonance that you generate with the Bolvos Rage tends to be explosive and forceful in nature. I can imagine that the Transphasic Attack System will also produce attacks that align with these descriptions. The lethality of your expert mech at close range will doubtlessly be terrifying. The premise is that you are powerful enough to control the Abasis Armor."

Reginald raised an eyebrow. "Do you have so little faith in my strength, professor?"

"To be honest, Abasis Armor is actually a top-end armor system developed with ace mechs in mind. Truvek Defenses believe that a powerful high-tier expert pilot such as yourself can reluctantly harness it because of your formidable resonance strength. In fact, that is also one of the reasons why the company is willing to cooperate with us. We are all curious whether you have the power to draw out the true potential of this transphasic armor system."

In other words, Truvek Defenses wanted to turn Patriarch Reginald into a test subject!