The Mech Touch

The ARCEUS System was quite interesting to say the least.

As the closest thing to an energy weapon specialist among the design team of the Mars Project, Ves mostly took up the responsibility of integrating the ARCEUS System.

It was not as simple as slotting in all of the integrated weapons and accompanying systems into a mech frame.

The more powerful the parts, the more demands they imposed on a mech design. From the beginning, Ves struggled with placing all of the components and subcomponents into a mech design that was still under development.

Not only did he have to prevent the powerful and sometimes volatile parts of the ARCEUS System from interfering with each other, he also had to make sure that they did not disrupt any other parts placed in their vicinity!

If not for the fact that he could regularly call for help from the developers of Immace Energy Armaments, he would have gotten lost by all of the high technology that made up this suite of integrated energy weapons!

Though Ves still struggled to make any progress with taming and harnessing the ARCEUS System, he harvested many benefits over the course of his design sessions.

Just like how Sara Voiken was able to accelerate her mastery of defensive phasewater technology by tackling advanced problems related to this subject, Ves also found himself becoming rapidly more familiar with some of the more basic principles behind this high-end tranphasic weapon system.

Combined with studying the high-level knowledge that he had exchanged from the MTA, Ves was able to combine theory and practice, thereby amplifying his gains whenever he did anything related to this field!

"It's too bad that transphasic energy weapons can't be integrated with luminar crystal weapons yet." Ves sighed in regret.

While the two shared the same base, they followed completely different technical directions.

Luminar crystal weapons were both powerful and versatile. They derived their power from advanced energy transformation processes enabled by the use of obscure and exotic alien crystalline components.

The luminar race truly developed incredibly powerful energy weapon applications by dedicating much of their research in this field. What was especially helpful was that the key theories and applications were not dependent on the use of specific materials and exotics.

Just like how Ketis could forge a sword out of many possible metallic materials, Ves could make luminar crystal weapons out of many different combinations of exotics!

This was because the essence of luminar crystal technology lay in the structure of the crystals, not in the materials it was made of. Ves could make them out of junk materials mined from worthless asteroids and still end up with serviceable weapons!

"Transphasic energy weapons are completely different in this regard."

They were basically energy weapons that have been modified to take advantage of some of the amazing properties of phasewater. Just like how adding a bit of carbon to iron could produce steel with vastly superior properties, adding just a little phasewater to energy weapons could substantially increase their effectiveness in combat!

The ARCEUS System's energy weapons were all based on incredibly high-end tech and methods. Ves would have struggled to harness them before phasewater ever came into the picture due to how convoluted their designs had become.

However, once the developers of Immace Energy Armaments forcibly tried to merge these advanced weapons with phasewater, the complexity of the entire system skyrocketed!

The fusion between energy weapons and phasewater still looked fairly crude to Ves. While he discovered that the developers of the ARCEUS System partially based their design solutions on salvaged and reverse engineered alien technology, their understanding of phasewater technology was still relatively immature compared to the engineers of the puelmer race.

All of that meant that the ARCEUS System was an experimental first-generation product that still had lots of room to improve.

"Even so, it is already stupendously powerful in this immature state."

This was not a guess, but an undisputed fact. Ves had once received an invitation from Immace Energy Armaments where he could witness a live test and demonstrations of one of the energy weapons of the ARCEUS System.

The power of that single energy gun alone had completely solidified his respect and awe for transphasic energy weapons.

Just a single laser beam succeeded in phasing through several layers of thick second-class alloys!

Not a single ordinary mech or starship could stop a mech equipped with the ARCEUS System from inflicting effective internal damage!

In fact, the integrated energy weapons of the ARCEUS System were so exaggeratingly effective at phasing through solid armor that overpenetration was a serious problem.

Mechs that were too weak suffered comparatively little damage because the laser beams and positron beam just phased right through their fragile frames without inflicting much damage!

Therefore, Patriarch Reginald or the Mars Project would have to tweak the settings of the ARCEUS System in order to make sure that they did not waste too much energy in destroying weaker targets.

"Damn, a transphasic energy weapon is incredibly useful for the Amaranto."

The Instrument of Vengeance was a powerful expert mech-grade rifle, but it was not capable of penetrating armor with as much ease as a transphasic energy rifle.

Against certain opponents, it was much more useful to possess the latter than the former!

Still, if Ves had to make a choice between the two, he would probably settle for luminar crystal weapons.

They were more accessible, more economical and more versatile. Ves already possessed a foundation in luminar crystal technology and he could gain an even greater feel and understanding of them if he enlisted the help of the Illustrious One.

There was another important reason why he preferred to stick with luminar crystal technology.

"Luminar crystal weapons interact quite well with spirituality."

The two shared a certain relationship with each other. The luminar race was definitely aware and proficient with spirituality. The luminars developed their crystal technology with the option of combining them with spiritual phenomena in order to produce even more astounding results!

Ves would be a fool to abandon luminar crystal technology. As a part-time spiritual engineer, he could make much better use of it than all of the MTA researchers who had spent years or decades on studying this alien tech!

Yet… the power of phasewater energy weapons could not be denied either. It may not have anything to do with spirituality, but that did not stop it from being able to render almost every defense solution irrelevant!

"It would be best if I can combine the two." Ves frowned. "If I can combine phasewater with luminar crystals, then I would have have the best of both worlds."

It was easy to say this, but extremely hard to execute. Ves would need to develop a much higher level of mastery and proficiency in both fields of technology before he could dream about combining the two into a synergistic fusion.

If he was only good at one of these fields but neglected to enrich his knowledge in the other field, then he would not be able to make quick progress. The technological sophistication of both techs were simply too high to make it easy to combine the two without blowing up the resulting combinations!

Ves already knew that this would happen because that was exactly what he had attempted to do back when he returned to the Genesis Lab one day.

His plan at the time was simple. He designed a basic but incredibly sturdy luminar crystal weapon made out of expensive materials that made it more solid.

He then tried to integrate half a gram of phasewater into the weapon in a way that was similar to how the ARCEUS System enhanced its energy weapons.

"The less said about the result, the better."

His wife had certainly given him an earful after the disaster almost ruined one of the testing chambers. The lab equipment certainly wasn't cheap and it would cost a lot of MTA merits to replace them if all of the gear broke with no possibility of repairing them in any way.

After a bit more research, Ves eventually figured out that it was not possible to blend phasewater technology with luminar crystal technology in the short term.

"Urgh. What am I going to do in the future? Will I have to equip the Amaranto with both a luminar crystal rifle and a transphasic rifle? What about the Firestarter Project?"

These were difficult questions that would only grow more troublesome in the future. The realization that he was not adequately equipped to handle difficult matters concerning phasewater technology made him want to hire a specialist that could solve these problems in his stead.

"The problem is that most people who know anything about phasewater at this stage are incredibly valuable to every major organization!"

Phasewater technology was the next big thing in human technology and the scientists and engineers who harnessed its theories in advance were as rare and precious as phase whales.

People such as Professor Neihy Almar either hired themselves out to the highest bidder or tried to build their own companies.

The chances of being able to lure any of them over to the Larkinson Clan were too small!

Ves couldn't even buy out the companies that employed these phasewater specialists because they were already too expensive or out of reach!

"I will have to figure something out in the future."

The more time passed by, the more phasewater specialists emerged from the population. It would become a lot easier to get his hands on them five or ten years later.

In the meantime, Ves threw away any notion of trying to combine phasewater technology with luminar crystal technology and honestly worked to complete his work on the Mars Project.

Naturally, aside from helping Professor Benedict integrate the ARCEUS System into the Mars Project, Ves also took responsibility for shaping its spiritual design.

This required a bit more thought and planning on his part due to the special nature of the expert mech.

"This is a powerful machine that will likely be dominated by a powerful pilot." Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin in thought.

He interacted enough times with Patriarch Reginald Cross to know that the man was not easy to work with. If Ves wanted to make sure that the strong-minded expert pilot would be able to develop the highest degree of synergy with the Mars Project, then the personality of the latter was crucial to fostering better cooperation!

Fortunately, the Mars Project was already strong in its material form. The strong physical design and construction naturally supported a larger spiritual base, allowing Ves to be a lot more generous with the spiritual design of the expert mech.

What Ves had to decide was whether he should turn the Mars Project into a more facilitative or assertive partner to Patriarch Reginald.

In the case of the former, the mech would let Patriarch Reginald take the lead and allow him to decide every action on the battlefield.

Most living mechs were facilitative in nature. This was the norm as mech pilots were supposed to be in charge.

"However, is that the best choice for Reginald?" Ves wondered.

He began to entertain the notion of inserting a more assertive and combative personality to the Mars Project.

Not only would it fit with the character of such a powerful and high-quality machine, Ves also believed it might help Patriarch Reginald in the long run if there was another voice that constantly questioned the man's own decisions.

It was quite obvious to everyone that had interacted long enough with the Cross Patriarch that the man wasn't exactly known for being open-minded.

Sooner or later that obstinacy and unwillingness to listen to other voices would get Patriarch Reginald in trouble!

It would be fine if the guy suffered from his own mistakes, but the problem was that he played such a big role in the Golden Skull Alliance that he might take the rest of the Cross Clan and the alliance down with him! That would be an absolute tragedy!

"I need to stop this fellow from following in his father's footsteps!"

The more Ves thought about pairing Patriarch Reginald up with a back-talking living mech like the Quint, the more he fell in love with the idea!

"Reginald might not be willing to reason, but I bet he would definitely pay more attention to his own mech!"