The Mech Touch

Traditionally, hybrid mechs were classified as offensive mechs.

They carried an abundance of integrated and handheld weapon systems in order to defeat their enemies by relying on the weight of their firepower.

The quantity of different weapon systems not only made sure that hybrid mechs were able to output more shots than any other mech type, the variety of them also provided the machines with different damage types that were effective against different opponents.

However, the cost of carrying all of these varied weapon systems was that it became harder to protect the mechs against damage. Each integrated or mounted weapon system took up space that could have been carrying additional armor. The weapons were also inherently more vulnerable against attacks and could more easily allow enemies to punch through the armor of hybrid mechs.

Though hybrid mechs tended to be rather chunky due to all of the systems they carried, their protection was often considered above average at best. They could never catch up to knight mechs or even striker mechs in terms of defense.

Professor Benedict wanted to change that with the Mars Project. Although Patriarch Reginald Cross had made it clear more than once that he wanted his expert mech to pack the greatest possible punch, it was essential to make sure that the machine was able to keep up with the heavy abuse that such a high-profile mech would doubtlessly attract on the battlefield!

Therefore, it was not without reason that the Senior Mech Designer invested heavily in the Abasis Armor.

The transphasic armor system was far more than a collection of armor plating that were made out of alloys that blended bits of phasewater into their structures.

It was truly a comprehensive system that included additional electrical components and supporting elements that helped make the Abasis Armor worthy to be used in ace mech designs.

The technological and material complexity of each of these components and subcomponents quickly overwhelmed Professor Benedict and Sara Voiken.

Neither of the two had worked with anything so advanced and high-end!

"Don't blame yourself." Benedict told Sara as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "The Abasis Armor was not developed with a client like us in mind. It was made to be utilized by highly-respected Master Mech Designers whose grasp on technology is far greater than we can imagine. Only the best mech designers of a state or large organization are qualified to design ace mechs. I don't think that the developers of this armor system ever imagined that a smaller player such as us would actually make use of it in a 'mere' expert mech design."

Sara Voiken still felt bad. Despite spending much of her time on studying the trove of textbooks on phasewater applications in defensive technology that Ves had exchanged with MTA merits, she barely made any progress in understanding the brand-new theories.

Phasewater was too damn difficult to comprehend! The amount of requisite knowledge needed to do anything with this liquid exotic was so massive that it would take at least a decade before she was able to develop a basic transphasic product herself!

"Can we call for tech support?" Sara asked in a defeated tone. "If I have to keep working on Abasis Armor, I think I will go crazy."

"I will call Truvek Defenses right away. Considering how much we are paying the development company to make use of its Abasis Armor, it is obliged to offer support."

It was not a surprise that the pair of mech designers had little choice but to depend on the assistance provided by the developers working for Truvek Defenses.

Fortunately, the developers were more than willing to assist in the design process. They might not be mech designers, but their understanding of armor and materials had reached such a high level that they were qualified to provide input on the armor design of the Mars Project.

The challenges were still considerable, though. Professor Benedict and Sara could not outsource all of the work to the Truvek developers and had to make plenty of adjustments of their own. It was also essential for them to understand every design choice and impart their own expertise to the mech design.

There were still far too many differences between mech designers and specialized component developers in this regard.

One day, Ves approached Sara as they were both working on the Mars Project at the Primary Cross Lab.

The latter mech designer still looked exhausted despite the additional technical support at her disposal.

"How are you doing these days, Sara?"

"It's… frustrating." The brown-haired mech designer in a plain white lab coat replied. "Each and every aspect about the Abasis Armor is far beyond what I can understand. While I do not need to know how it is put together, just the fact that I need to take into account the interference and other interactions between different phasewater-infused subcomponents is enough to keep me busy for days."

"Is it really that bad?"

"I get the impression that mech designers at our level are not qualified to work with any form of phasewater technology. This is high technology that can be applied to the best and most powerful mechs that humanity can develop. We are like children playing with forces that belong to gods."

Ves frowned. "Technology is technology. Compared to all of the weirder phenomena that I have come into contact with, phasewater tech is still reasonable. While the key material is a bit too abstruse, the tech based around it is based on solid theories, logic and math. Each of us can decipher it as long as we put in enough time in our studies."

"That's the problem, sir. We don't have the time to learn what we need to know in order to keep this project on schedule. There is no possible way that we can complete this ludicrously overloaded design within a single year. Not with the expertise that we possess."

"I will talk to the Crossers about this." Ves sighed. "For what it is worth, I agree with you. The original timeline may have been more appropriate for the pre-Purgatory Campaign iteration of the Mars Project, but this transphasic version demands far more hours for us to complete. It would be fine if we don't have any other design projects on our plate, but we cannot ignore the needs of our own clan."

He did what he said and held a brief discussion with Professor Benedict.

It turned out that the Senior was already aware of how untenable it was to maintain the original timeline. Everyone had fallen behind schedule and Benedict was no exception.

"I have already seen the necessity in extending the schedule for our design project." Benedict spoke. "The hardest part will be convincing Patriarch Reginald that he won't be able to play with his new toy as quickly as he hoped. I will try to persuade him of the necessity regardless. He still cares about the quality of our work."

In the end, Patriarch Reginald and the Cross Clan accepted the need to spend additional time on doing everything properly. A huge weight had been lifted off the chest of the participating mech designers.

They not only had additional time to hit the books and learn more crucial details about phasewater technology, they could also spend more time on figuring out the correct solutions through trial and error.

Ideally, it was better if mech designers like Sara Voiken got everything right by relying on superior skill and experience.

If mech designers were lacking in either of these qualities, then they had little choice but to fall back on trying stuff out until they finally came across a solution that worked.

It was a profoundly stupid and time-consuming approach towards mech design, but it was the only way for less-than-qualified mech designers to achieve results in any difficult design project.

Slowly but surely, the participating mech designers persevered. Sara Voiken quickly became more proficient with handling phasewater technology.

The speed in which she was able to understand and play with the basic properties of transphasic products was impressive, mostly because of all of the trial and error she had invested herself in. There was no better way to develop a more intuitive grasp and understanding of phasewater technology than working with its applications in a serious design project!

She already developed a few ideas on how to take advantage of her growing proficiency in defensive phasewater technology.

"We can start to upgrade our older Larkinson expert mechs with transphasic armor systems in a few years." Sara Voiken told Ves one day. "I need more time to study the required knowledge, but I think I will be able to start with this kind of work sooner than expected due to everything I've learned over the course of working on the Mars Project. We won't need to rely so heavily on external support either. As long as the transphasic armor system is not as complicated, I am confident that I can apply it to any expert mech design."

Ves looked surprised. "Truly? That is great news. Do you have any preliminary suggestions on which of our existing expert mechs we should upgrade?"

"Hmm. That is difficult to say. The Dark Zephyr, the Riot, the First Sword, the Shield of Samar and the Everchanger are all clad with Unending alloy. Even though this material does not possess transphasic properties, it is already extremely tough by nature. There is no need to replace the armor systems of the aforementioned expert mechs unless you truly insist on imparting them with the benefits of transphasic armor."

Sara had brought up an important point. Ves truly felt it was difficult to make a choice between the two options.

"Can't you develop a way of making Unending alloy transphasic?"

"Impossible." The armor specialist firmly shook her head. "You are dreaming if you think I can do that. It would take decades of learning to obtain the minimum qualifications necessary to undertake such work. Not only do I need to learn enough about metallurgy and materials science to decipher and reverse engineer the formula of Unending alloy, I also need to possess a far greater mastery of phasewater technology and transphasic armor systems in particular to perform such work."

Ves looked ugly. This was not what he wanted to hear. Unending alloy played such an important role to his expert mechs because it was not only as hard as first-class alloys, it also happened to be a prime material!

The Everchanger was the most dependent on the properties of Unending alloy due to how much it relied on glows and prime abilities to make itself useful. It was the mech that could least afford to move away from Unending alloy as the principal material for its armor system!

Unless the Larkinson Clan was able to reproduce Unending alloy or find a serious alternative in the Red Ocean, the future of the Everchanger would grow increasingly bleak.

After all, if every expert mech around it began to adopt transphasic systems aside from the Everchanger itself, Venerable Joshua would always have to fight with one hand tied behind its back!

"Sir, I have a suggestion."

"Please share your thoughts."

"Just because I can't do it doesn't mean that others are incapable. If it is truly necessary for you to modernize Unending alloy, then you should consider working with the development companies that we are working with. Of the ones that are based in Davute, Truvek Defenses is arguably the best at developing high-end transphasic armor systems. Melmen Advanced Systems is not as capable, but since we own shares in the company, it might be better to cooperate with it instead."

These were good suggestions, but Ves was not willing to entrust something as important to his clan as Unending alloy to an external company that he did not even control.

"I'll take your words under advisement." Ves replied in a noncommittal tone. "Our Unending alloy expert mechs are still more than capable of keeping up with other expert mechs in terms of defense, so there is no hurry for us to renew their armor systems. Let's revisit this topic in a decade. Our situation should be much better at that time."

"If you say so, sir."