The Mech Touch

Though Ves had been delayed in starting his main design project, he did not consider it a waste. Working on the Aurora Titan, talking to Jannzi Larkinson and touring the Avatar base gave him a deeper understanding of his people.

Ever since Ves formally took responsibility for the Larkinson Clan, his mentality experienced a shift. He no longer purely looked out for himself. He also started to consider the impact of his decisions on his relatives and clan members.

Though he was also responsible for the LMC, he never considered it to be indispensable to him. Even if the company went bankrupt or got taken over by someone else, Ves would always be able to start anew.

This wasn't the case with the Larkinson Clan. For better or worse, he formed a bond with the Larkinson Mandate, causing him to become committed to his role as clan patriarch!

So long as he held the Larkinson Mandate, he had a duty to lead the clan in a wise and responsible fashion! This was the rule he set for the position of clan patriarch, and it was a rule that Ves could not afford to break!

Verbal or written promises meant little to Ves. He never abided by the rules once they no longer suited them, and he often got away with it because it was impossible to penalize his transgressions!

It was different now that he became spiritually connected to the Larkinson Mandate and the Golden Cat. The book and the ancestral spirit it nurtured watched over every Larkinson, including himself!

By design, the Larkinson Mandate was an heirloom that functioned as the spiritual heart of the clan. What this meant was that the book should essentially be able to keep the clan cohesive and united even if it grew into a massive power in the future!

The Mandate would gradually grow in power and become more potent as the clan grew in might and numbers. For now, the spiritual nature of the book remained weak.

This also meant that it was malleable!

If Ves exhibited crooked behavior in performing his duties as clan patriarch, the Larkinson Mandate would eventually reflect that!

Not only that, but the Golden Cat which always looked up to Ves would certainly take over some of his morality, which would be a disaster to the Larkinson Clan!

In order to make sure they developed into the pillars the clan could depend upon, Ves had to make right decisions for the clan. Ones that not only ensured its survival, but also its integrity!

Perhaps those who knew who Ves truly was like would state that he should be the last Larkinson to hold the seat of clan patriarch!

They were right. Ves was anything but an upstanding specimen of humanity. He didn't care, though. In this merciless multiverse where everyone was out for themselves, the Larkinsons needed someone to make the decisions they would never contemplate.

The Larkinson Mandate only governed decisions that directly related to the Larkinson Clan. As for other decisions, the book shouldn't pay much attention.

In any case, the Larkinson Mandate and the Golden Cat played vital roles in his next mech project.

The modular mech platform that Ves envisioned should embody the strengths and virtues of the Larkinson Clan!

This was very hard to do under ordinary circumstances, but the presence of the Golden Cat during the design process should remove much of the guesswork.

He affectionately tapped the Larkinson Mandate floating by his side. "I'm counting on you to make sure my mech does right by the Larkinsons."

The presence of the book in the design lab caused the entire chamber to be immersed with a formative glow.

The intrinsic Larkinson values of duty, family and courage had already started to shape up. The more the Golden Cat matured, the closer she developed the glow that would come to represent the clan!

No one could ignore the glow. Not when they were this close to the book. Ves had called Gloriana and his two design teams in order to make an important announcement.

"From this moment onwards, the Larkinson mech design project will officially start!" He spoke with pride.

Technically, all of the preparation work that took place beforehand should have been included as well, but nobody cared about these details.

The only thing that everyone knew was that Ves had finally decided to commit his full attention towards designing this complicated new mech!

Gloriana grinned and clapped. "I've been waiting for this! This will definitely be interesting!"

He threw her a brief glance. "Have you recovered already?"

"Not quite yet, but it won't be a problem for me to participate in the initial stages of the design process. I'll get back to normal in another week or two. I'll definitely be able to keep up with you by then!"

That was sufficient. He turned to his design teams.

"Alright. To many of you, participating in this project will be the first for you. Every mech designer adopts a different approach to mech design and project management. I'm someone who wants to be very thorough and methodical about our approach. This means that I plan to complete this project step by step according to a predetermined plan and vision. Is that clear?"

His question was mainly directed to the second design team. They all nodded in understanding.

""How big of a role will we play in this project?" Mayer Torto asked.

"Like most design teams, your primary responsibility is to follow our instructions and do the work we assign to you. Going by prior experiences, most of your tasks consist of taking our design choices and fleshing them out. Performing lots of tests and simulating the performance of the various iterations of our design is another major responsibility."

"Do we have any input on the design at all?"

The design team couldn't be blamed for asking such a question. Every mech designer wanted to see their efforts reflected in the end product!

Ves understood this, so he didn't outright say no even if he wanted to. "If you genuinely spot a flaw or come up with a good suggestion, feel free to bring them up to me. As long as they are good enough, I'll definitely include them into the design! Just take into account that Gloriana and I will probably come up with them first."

This answer satisfied his subordinate mech designers. Each of them had faith in their specialities!

"Any other questions?"

"Yes." Merrill raised her hand. "What exactly are we designing?"

This question was a lot harder to answer than Ves anticipated. While he had a lot of reasons in his mind, it was difficult to convey them to his audience. He had to pause and think on how to word his reply.

"The goal of this project is to design a mech that can adopt four different configurations for the Larkinson Clan. The major requirements of this mech are threefold. First, it has to be a modular mech platform with several spaceborn configurations. Second, it has to be a mech that embodies and represents the Larkinson Clan. Third, it has to be able to facilitate the promotion of third-class mech pilots to second-class mech pilots."

All of this sounded simple, but to combine all of these priorities in a single mech was a very considerable challenge!

The first and third priorities were easily understandable to the mech designers. While they were extremely challenging on a technical level, at least the mech designers could rely on their design and engineering expertise to solve most of the issues they encountered.

It was the second priority that caused a lot of confusion!

"What do you mean exactly when you say you want to design a mech that 'embodies' the Larkinsons?" Merrill asked in confusion.

Ves recalled that Merrill and most of the other mech designers in the second design team hadn't worked on a major design project with him before. Unlike the Tovar Design Team, they weren't versed in the principles and methods mandated by his design philosophy!

"I'll teach you some of the concepts that pertain to my specialty later." He promised. "Suffice to say, it's all about the mindset. The mentality you adopt and your understanding of the Larkinson Clan all affect the intangible qualities of our mech design."

As Ves briefly summarized some of the theories that he freely shared to his subordinates, he noticed a difference between his mech designers.

The Tovars were already familiar with his methods. While their Brighter skepticism prevented them from embracing his theories fully, they were nonetheless accepting due to all of the proof they witnessed.

Of the second design team, the Ylvainans were already similar. In fact, their expressions were so intense that they were acting as if Ves was speaking the gospel!

The only mech designers who didn't share in the obvious worship of the Ylvianans was the foreigners.

Both Merrill Truman and Mayer Torto viewed their Ylvainan colleagues with distaste. Both of them were clearly secularists and viewed every religion with distaste.

While this difference was a little concerning, Ves did not plan to transfer them to the first design team. The Ylvainans already became increasingly more involved in the Avatars, the Sentinels and the LMC.

Though Ves was gratified by their high spirits and enthusiasm, he did not wish to see their faith take over his organizations!

The Ylvainans needed to learn to get along with people who didn't share their beliefs. Segregating them into their own work groups was not the solution. That would only encourage the functions and cliques to stay apart from each other.

In the long-term evolution of his organizations, this would certainly lead to a potential schism!

"We can bring the second design team up to speed later. Let's get back to something more immediate." Gloriana suggested.

"Such as?"

"Tell us your ideas on the four configurations. How much do they deviate from each other? What aspects do you wish to emphasize for each of the different configurations?"

"Well, before I explain what I want the configurations to be good at, let me explain what they ought to share in common." Ves answered.

He activated a projection of their very rudimentary draft designs.

"If you take a good look at the drafts, what stands out to you?"

Gloriana smiled but refrained from answering. She had been a part of the drafting process, so she played a huge role in setting the initial design choices.

Oscar DiMartin was the oldest and most experienced mech designer. He participated in many different projects, so he quickly figured out the common thread.

"All four configurations are designed to be as similar to each other as possible! They're not very divergent from each other!"

"That's correct." Ves nodded. "Can someone else explain how that is reflected in our configurations?"

Gilbert Tovar, who was very sensitive towards differences in mass and layout, pointed towards the rifleman mech configuration.

"Ordinary rifleman mechs aren't as thick and sturdy as this draft configuration. It possesses an excess amount of armor that is strictly customary for this mech type. It's less mobile and able to evade damage, but it's a lot more resilient against damage as a result!"

"That's not always a good idea." Vela Tovar added. As a ranged mech specialist, she wasn't comfortable with this configuration! "One of the main reasons why rifleman mechs prefer to mitigate damage through evasion is because their rifles are always a lot more fragile than the frames themselves. If the mech becomes too easy to hit, then it's a lot more likely that an enemy will be able to snipe their primary weapons!"

"A slower ranged mech is also one that is less able to kite pursuing melee mechs. The instant a light skirmisher or lancer mech manages to close the distance, that ranged mech is a goner!"

All of these points were valid. Both Ves and Gloriana fully agreed with conventional wisdom.

Yet just because a certain decision turned into conventional wisdom did not mean it applied in every situation!