The Mech Touch



Marvaine's birthday party came and went without disrupting everyone's schedule too much.

Ves, Gloriana and a few other lucky mech designers quickly returned to examining the Superpublished design of the Dullahan Project from top to bottom.

Their frighteningly high intelligence and comprehension capabilities enabled them to quickly refamiliarize themselves with their work to a shallow degree.

The mech designers involved in the Dullahan Project were able to come up with superficial explanations for the vast majority of improvements and modifications.

This was far from fully understanding the design choices made by the System. That would probably take much longer, but Ves and the others could do that after they fabricated their first new expert mech.

The main priority at this time was to fulfill Venerable Jannzi's greatest wish and deliver a powerful new expert mech to her. She had been relegated to the sidelines long enough. It was time for her to regain her ability to fight and resume her role of protecting her fellow Larkinsons to the best of her abilities!

Ves was eager to complete this fabrication run. He had spent enough time and effort on the Dullahan Project. He eagerly wanted to finish his current responsibility and embark on other new and exciting projects.

That did not mean that he had lost his appreciation of the Dullahan Project. Its improved design held a lot of promise. Ves particularly became enthralled by its optimized Empowered Blood Sharing System.

The Superpublish function not only corrected a lot of potentially dangerous flaws, but also increased its integration into the frame of the expert space knight in many subtle ways.

Though the Dullahan Project retained all of the traits of a classical mech, the introduction of blood circulation to its internal systems technically turned it into a cyborg mech.

Ves did not know to what extent the Dullahan Project would exhibit the properties of a cyborg mech. He already held an expectation that it would become more alive to a degree.

It might even be possible for the Dullahan Project to evolve its life state and evolve into the fourth order living mech that only existed in theory up to this point!

Ves shook his head. "I shouldn't get my hopes up. Fourth order living mechs are equivalent to ace pilots in terms of spirituality. The gap is too great."

Though Ves held high expectations towards the Superpublished Dullahan Project, the actual combat power of the defensive expert mech was not that mind blowing.

Sure, its defenses received an enormous upgrade, but it was still a melee expert mech that could only make its presence felt within a limited range.

Ves was fine with that. A defensive expert mech could still be a lifesaver in the situations that mattered.

Once Venerable Jannzi grew stronger, her ability to affect the battlefield would become even more exaggerated!

He would have to wait until she advanced to ace pilot before that happened, and that would take a while to say the least.

One of his most important concerns for the fabrication run was whether they could produce another masterwork mech.

Gloriana cared the most about this, but that did not mean that Ves was totally indifferent to the state of her expert mech.

The last major iteration of the Shield of Samar managed to become a masterwork. That provided Venerable Jannzi with a lot of benefits. Her resonance strength grew the fastest among her peers in the Larkinson Clan, with only Venerable Davia Stark rivaling her in growth speed.

Though the design of the Dullahan Project called for recycling much of the parts and materials that comprised the relatively intact head of the Shield of Samar, this was not an upgrade project in the strictest sense of the word.

Ves truly approached this expert mech design project as a spiritual successor more than anything else. The Dullahan Project did not start as a blank slate, but it did not inherit much of the properties of its predecessor either.

From the vast reduction of Unending alloy comprising its frame to the notable increase in mobility, the Dullahan Project performed like a substantially different expert mech in many of the ways that mattered.

"It's almost time."

He and his wife had set up everything a long time ago. The AP-VEX superfab had been fully recalibrated and all of the raw materials required to fabricate the mech were waiting to be used.

Different from the fabrication runs of the past, Ves had to make more extensive preparations than usual.

One of the more annoying aspects about biomechs was that it took a lot of time to grow their organic parts. This downside partially extended to cyborg mech as their organic parts could only be grown, not produced.

While it was possible for the most advanced and specialized materializers to essentially 'print' a complete organic mech from start to finish, this was far beyond the means of the Larkinson Clan.

The custom version of the Empowered Blood Sharing System that Ves had designed for the Dullahan Project stood out in various ways.

Compared to a more generic version of this cybernetic system, the organic tissue of the EBSS integrated in the Dullahan Project was based on Jannzi's DNA.

In other words, the Dullahan Project would essentially carry a part of Jannzi's cloned flesh!

While it sounded creepy, Ves knew that this would help a lot with making Jannzi meld with her new expert mech. The shared DNA and root would minimize the probability of triggering a biological or spiritual rejection response.

Of course, in order to grow enough organic tissue to form the EBSS during the fabrication, Ves had to start with cultivating the flesh and certain key organs a few months prior.

If he wanted to hurry up, he could instruct the Larkinson Biotech Institute to accelerate the growth process and have everything done in a couple of weeks, but that would severely affect the quality and longevity of the end product.

As Ves entered an underground laboratory in the company of Ranya Wodin-Larkinson, he paused and looked up at a large network of rosy red flesh.

"How… beautiful." He spoke.

The director of the Larkinson Biotech Institute did not share the opinion. She regarded the large web of flesh with considerable wariness.

"I cannot imagine how this mech-sized circulatory system is supposed to strengthen a mech." She honestly said. "I may not be as well-versed in engineering as you, but I am sure that running blood through a machine made out of metal doesn't magically make it better."

Ves smirked and chuckled. "Oh come now, Ranya. You have worked for me for a decade or so. You should know that my products are never as simple as they appear on the surface. This circulatory system is a herald of the future. Once I implant it into my upcoming expert mech, you and everyone else will get to learn that blood is the key that unlocks the gate to greater power."

"That 'gate' you are alluding to might lead you straight into hell. Are you sure you identified the right entrance?"

"I am sure." Ves declared with certainty. The Superpublish function didn't lie. "Anyway, how has this circulatory system fared as of late? Are there any anomalies or accidents that I should know about?"

"Nothing has changed since we transmitted our latest report, sir. The only abnormality is that the biotech researchers assigned to monitor its growth and condition have felt… ill at ease."

Ves turned to the woman. "This again? I already explained to you that it is a component of an upcoming living mech. It is natural for it to gain a rudimentary sense of life."

This was an important reason why Ves wanted to grow the circulatory system in advance. He did not just want it to become organically sound, but he also wanted to imbue it with greater spirituality.

It was just that its current transitory state produced a number of uncomfortable side effects. None of this should be a problem as long as Ves made use of it soon.

Once Ranya finished her update, Ves stepped forward and accessed the control panel. He began to change a few settings and activated a few tools.

It surprised Ranya a lot that a mech designer demonstrated a decent degree of familiarity with the biotechnological instruments of this laboratory.

Though Ves had already explained that he had begun to 'dabble' in biomech design, Ranya still couldn't understand how quickly he picked up an entirely new and comprehensive discipline!

Ves did not care about her doubts and skepticism. He skillfully manipulated the controls to alter and fine-tune the circulatory system in many different ways.

Some changes amounted to nothing but trimming a few excess bits of flesh.

Other changes were more drastic. For example, Ves formulated a special virus that soon spread throughout the entire nutrient solution tank.

The bioengineered virus soon infected all of the altered humanoid tissue and began to 'patch' the DNA to a newer version!

All of these changes were necessary in order to update the original version of the EBSS to the much safer Superpublished version of this same cybernetic system!

Ves stepped back in satisfaction once he completed his update. All he needed to do was give the circulatory system a bit of time to adjust to its new normal.

"Have you ever thought about renaming the Empowered Blood Sharing System to a more convenient and marketable alternative?" Ranya asked.

"In fact, I have been thinking about doing this as well." Ves replied as he called up the sensor graphs and monitored the current condition of the organic system. "I did not put much thought into naming it back then. If I want to popularize it among our clansmen and beyond, I should associate it with a catchier and more encouraging label. Do you have any suggestions?"

"I do have a handful of suggestions. What about Symbiont or Symbiont System? Your EBSS is clearly meant to establish a greater degree of symbiosis between the mech and mech pilot. It would be good if you can emphasize this relationship."

That was actually a good suggestion. Ves seriously considered the word Symbiont before he reluctantly shook his head.

"It's good, but it is also a bit generic. I am sure that some mech designer or developer already created a product with a similar name. If I am not careful enough, I will get sued due to infringing on another inventor's trademark."

Ranya shrugged. "That was my best suggestion. What about Carmine? It is a tasteful reference to the blood that your unusual system relies upon. If you are afraid of stepping on another company's trademark, you can always add an extra word. You can call it the Twin Carmine System for example."

Ves looked intrigued. He liked this suggestion a lot better than the last one, although he wasn't sure about adding the word 'twin' to the name.

"Twin does not really represent what I am trying to accomplish. I want to reduce the barriers between the mech and mech pilot as much as possible, but I don't want them to become too identical to each other. Their pairing is strong because they both possess their own strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of bringing them together is to produce a lot of power through synergy. The Blood Pact that they can form with each other is meant to elevate this synergistic relationship by making it permanent through the medium of blood."

"If that is the case, maybe you should call it the Permanent Carmine System."

"...That sounds worse." Ves grimaced. "Let's settle for calling it the Carmine System, then. It doesn't need any further descriptors or modifiers unless I am at serious risk of getting sued."

"I don't think you need to worry about that, sir. You're a Tier 6 galactic citizen. I think that will help you avoid a lot of trivial problems."

"I hope you are right, Ranya. By the way, how is your companion spirit seed doing?"

"I can feel it is still growing, sir."

"I see."