The Mech Touch

Both the Crystal Lord Mark II Project and the Sanctuary Project risked losing direction because Ves had not begun to work on their spiritual properties.

While his assistants would still be able to complete the technical designs of the two mechs, the lack of glows and design spirits meant that none of his people were completely aligned to their projects.

Ves already noticed this because he often had to clean up after the messes the assistants left behind in the spiritual foundations of his mech designs.

Even if he taught them how to focus their minds and free their minds from distracting thoughts, their insufficient concentration and lack of awareness meant that they deposited plenty of pollution.

This was a persistent problem that Ves always had to address in person. No other mech designer was able to design as focused as him, because he could immediately perceive the consequences of his own sloppiness.

Not even Gloriana, who prided herself on her precision and thoroughness, could keep a spiritual foundation pure!

Ves knew that he couldn't address his problem in person in the long run. He was a busy mech designer and would only become more preoccupied once he advanced to Senior or Master.

He felt as if he was a cleaning bot assigned to a decrepit bathroom in some pirate base. Even if the toilets were perfectly functional, the careless pirates and the hopeless slaves didn't always follow instructions.

When pirates spilled some of their messes onto the floor, which they always did, Ves the cleaning bot had to hover out in order to remove them! Failing to do so would ruin the bathroom!

Thinking about this analogy sparked an interesting idea in his mind.

What if he could automate this process? What if he created some spiritual construct or something that would automatically wipe away the incongruities?

Ves noted down this idea in his implant. This wasn't the time to go into it and he hadn't reached the point where he was unable to pay attention to every minor project.

He turned his attention back to Moltar. "The Sanctuary is not as challenging to design as the other mechs in the pipeline, so I expect more from you and your team. Don't think that the way forward is smooth sailing. I will provide some specific feedback to you later on how to improve some of the areas that look a bit iffy."

"Yes, sir." Moltar obediently bowed his head.

Over the course of the Sanctuary Project, Ves hoped that Moltar would suggest something new or interesting. His chosen specialization was signal disruption, which meant that he should have a good affinity with a mech that sought to still every glow.

It turned out that Ves expected too much from him. His progress in his chosen field still hadn't left the starting line, which meant it would take a good amount of years before Moltar even came close to advancing to Journeyman.

At the very least he hadn't wasted his time up until now. Moltar possessed quite a broad range of knowledge due to all of the books he studied. He just needed to transition from learning to innovation. No matter how pathetic the results, every Apprentice had to start somewhere with their original research.

Ves quickly moved on to Catherine Evenson, who led one of the design teams assigned to the Ferocious Piranha Project.

"Our work is proceeding exactly on schedule." She began. "As a spaceborn light skirmisher, we have tried our best to turn it into a peak performance machine that can disrupt and assassinate enemy elements. While we don't have its adapted fear glow to work with, we believe that the mech should be more than capable of disrupting the rhythm of enemy mech pilots."

"How is the endurance of the design?"

"Pretty bad, even if we account for its generous budget. It's not suitable for extended deployments and can't perform too many attack runs." Catherine looked a bit helpless at this admission.

"This is a deliberate design choice on our part, Miss Evenson. You don't have to feel too ashamed at this shortcoming. We just have to make sure that the mech provides sufficient value in the short time that it is active."

In this regard, the Ferocious Piranha possessed the opposite performance profile to the Sanctuary.

Part of this contrast emerged due to their diverging roles.

The Ferocious Piranha had to leverage its terror glow to disrupt and break enemy formations in the shortest amount of time.

The Sanctuary did not engage in any risky maneuvers. Instead, it was merely expected to keep up with friendly formation while staying alive as long as possible.

Another reason to design these two mechs in opposite directions was the capacity they boasted. A light skirmisher did not possess a lot of internal space for energy cells and other components that increased their run time.

Space knights were much less limited in this aspect. Even if much of their volume consisted of armor plating, they were still big enough to fit plenty of energy cells inside.

Knowing that a light skirmisher like the Ferocious Piranha would never be able to last hours on the battlefield, Ves and Gloriana did not even attempt to do so. It was already good enough for the mech to be able to maneuver around and engage in medium-intensity combat for thirty minutes straight.

Perhaps the only saving grace for light skirmishers such as the Ferocious Piranha was that they expended much less energy. Their lighter mass allowed them to accelerate with ease, which meant that their flight systems didn't have to be as powerful and wasteful as those of bigger mechs.

Another mitigating factor was its budget. While the Ferocious Piranha cost 50 percent more than the Doom Guard, its size and dimensions were considerably smaller!

This allowed the design teams to implement a much better armor system to the light skirmisher. Even if it looked thin and fragile, its compressed armor meant that it shouldn't go down after suffering a couple of direct hits!

The situation of the Ferocious Piranha was relatively close to the Valkyrie Redeemer in that regard. The latter might be a medium mech, but both of them emphasized mobility.

The Valkyrie Redeemer actually boasted much better armor that could withstand much more damage. The only problem was that it was a second-class mech designed to fight against the best the Friday Coalition could muster. The firepower it faced was either very powerful or very varied, which made it difficult for the Hexer marauder mech to remain intact.

Third-class mech combat was much less intense. The Ferocious Piranha should enjoy plenty of freedom on how to act. Its thin but resilient armor plating provided the mech with enough survivability to escape intact after performing a risky attack run.

Overall, the Ferocious Piranha was supposed to be the offensive counterpart to the Doom Guard. It allowed its owners to project the Doom Guard's characteristic terror aura directly to the enemy. The main charm of it was its ability to induce fear without hitting any friendlies.

Ves had actually done some work in this area. The theoretical premise for the spaceborn light skirmisher's glow wasn't all that complicated. He did not need to birth an entirely new design spirit such as in the Sanctuary Project nor upgrade an existing one such as in the Crystal Lord Mark II Project.

He just had to combine Zeigra, Nyxie and Qilanxo in a threesome.

"Wait, that sounds wrong." He quietly muttered.

He already experimented with combining them. The results weren't pretty.

Trying to balance two antagonistic design spirits wasn't all that difficult. Adding another one in the mix immediately complicated matters!

The main problem was that their strengths were not even.

Zeigra was by far the weakest of the three.

Qilanxo was very strong since she used to be a sacred god that lived for multiple centuries.

As for Nyxie, his strength already exceeded that of the former despite being constrained by the Ancient Sarcophagus!

What Ves sought to accomplish was to protect the mech pilot of the Ferocious Piranha and any friendlies from becoming affected by the terror glow.

THis meant that Qilanxo had to resist both Zeigra and Nyxie.

When Ves made her presence strong, Zeigra's presence became completely suppressed despite his heavy footprint in the design while Nyxie merely drew even!

When he weakened her presence, her influence dropped so that Zeigra could breath. Unfortunately, Nyxie easily pierced passed her barriers at that point!

As a result, Ves had to solve a very complex puzzle by manipulating and balancing out the strengths of three different design spirits. Their changing reactions and their own peculiarities made it difficult for Ves to find a sweet spot where the Ferocious Piranha exhibited the glow that he specified.

It was only a matter of time before he solved this puzzle. Ves did not feel the need to be concerned.

He turned his attention back to Catherine. "Are there any issues that are troubling you and your design team?"

The former Sentinel noblewoman took her time to answer.

"The Ferocious Piranha's projected performance is very impressive. It is just…"

"Expensive?" Ves smiled in a teasing way. "It's deliberately made that way in order to increase the value of its glow. Making the mech tougher and integrating higher-quality components in its design is an added bonus. No matter what, the value of this mech already exceeds several ordinary light skirmishers put together."

Of course, whether the market would see it that way was not entirely clear. One of the potential problems that might occur was that the release of the Sanctuary or some other mech that could restrain glows countered the Ferocious Piranha too well.

If the light skirmisher's glow no longer became a factor, then it devolved into a very expensive light mech. While its technical performance parameters were mostly good, it wouldn't achieve as much once its greatest advantage had been stripped.

Ves inwardly shrugged. He needed to become accustomed to the idea that his mechs might lose their glows. His machines could no longer reign over the battlefield with impunity very soon.

He directed his attention to the team leader that worked on the final minor project.

"How is the Chiron faring?"

"The Chiron Project is doing well. The two Erudite design teams deserve much of the credit. The technical complexity of designing an adjustable, morphing teaching mech is very daunting. All of us are forced to spend a lot of time on designing the different mechanisms."

Ves nodded. "Designing a mech that does not stay in a single form is always difficult to design. What do you think about the budget?"

"It's a lifesaver to us." Dukan French replied. "With 6 million hex credits, we can outfit the Chiron with excellent, sturdy materials that possess a high tolerance for abuse. The current iteration of the Chiron would have never been as feasible if it was made out of cheaper materials."

"That's not a good way to approach the Chiron's design, Mr. French. We need to get away from our dependence on using the Chiron's superior fault tolerance as a buffer for our failures. The mech needs to work even if its frame was made of materials that are just a third as strong."

The team leader reluctantly nodded. "We are trying, but it will take time."

Dukan French happened to be one of the mech designers that Ves recruited right away without undergoing any of the bravery tests. He who possessed amazing spiritual potential and used to be a bright talent as well.

The reason why he ended up joining the Larkinson Clan was that he used to be a citizen of the Chuko Republic!

Ves remembered visiting the state on his previous tour. He had already sensed plenty of decline back then. Dukan French was one of the local Chukans who managed to get out quickly enough to escape the butchering of the state by its three greedy neighbors.

Though Dukan possessed plenty of talent, Ves found that the former Chukan lacked a bit of passion and resolve. Hopefully, spending more time in the Nyxian Gap would remedy this problem.