The Mech Touch

In the past sixty days, everyone in the Design Department poured their heart and soul into their work. Not just the Disruptor Project, but all of the other expert design projects received their love and attention.

The difference in progress was very obvious,though. Whereas the Chimera Project and the Vanguard Project were mostly imaginary in form, the only expert light skirmisher project had virtually surpassed the others at lightspeed!

The fast expert mech in battle would also be the first to reach completion. That was what Gloriana and the others had decided and had now come an important step closer to realizing.

The mech figurine that Ves had artfully fabricated and assembled stood in the center of the large meeting table. Its small and thin form gave the surrounding mech designers a much clearer and more tangible impression of the project that they had contributed to or assisted with in the last few weeks.

The assistants had all grown exhausted after continuous days of high-intensity crunch work. Even though they were more than motivated enough to put their all into helping the expert mech become real, their minds and bodies couldn't keep up with their ambitions.

However, seeing the fruits of their labor take shape in such an impressive guise made everything worth it. Grateful and relieved smiles appeared on everyone's faces as they could finally appreciate the complete form of their work.

The mech figurine may possess a few inaccuracies due to both material and practical constraints, but it conveyed a much more tangible feeling to those who observed its form.

The first iteration of the Disruptor Project was undeniably rough and unoptimized, but its actual state was not that bad. Due to the exceptional productivity of every participating mech designer, they managed to squeeze seventy or eighty days worth of work in just two months!

Even though the mech figurine exhibited a large number of inaccurate details, Gloriana's glee was barely dampened. She recognized much of the hard work and new methods she put into the design!

"The Disruptor Project may be small, but the technical complexity of her internals is quite high." She stated as she crossed her arms. "The smaller the mech, the less allowance we have for space. I have been forced to come up with so many new solutions to fit so many powerful components inside the design that I've come up with a couple of systematic methods that I can apply to our other projects!"

Every challenge that pushed the mech designers to their limits often yielded a reward at the end.

To Gloriana, it was applying her design philosophy to find the perfect fit in terms of component density. There were good ways and bad ways to go about it. She had to balance a lot of difficult variables, including how much structural support she should maintain in order to keep the integrity of the expert mech high.

Somehow, she succeeded in finding several sweet spots that met several important thresholds at once. The Disruptor Project was both fast, agile and reasonably durable. The only real shortcoming it possessed was that it lacked the energy reserves to keep up its potent performance.

Still, by giving up this criteria, Gloriana managed to make the expert light skirmisher excel in mobility and still offer enough defensive power to give Tusa a high chance of survival if the battle ever took an awful turn.

Not that this should be a concern in most battles.

Whereas most of the mech designers focused their attention on the front, Juliet mainly directed her eyes towards the back of the mech figurine.

Ves had exquisitely approximated the appearance of the flight system. Even though it was nothing like the real version that was mainly designed by Juliet, its diminutive form still managed to convey her great emphasis on high mobility!

The flight system along with the directional boosters placed throughout the frame of the Disruptor Project all carried her distinctive touch. Compared to other other mechs, the mobility systems of the expert light skirmisher were disproportionately large and powerful for its mass and dimensions.

What this essentially meant was that a huge proportion of the powerful machine was solely dedicated to making it move as fast and whimsically as possible!

"The Disruptor Project is by far the fastest and most mobile mech that I have ever designed up until now." Juliet emotionally sighed. "It would have been better if I designed it for a Penitent Sister or a Hexer, but.. this is good practice, if nothing else. This expert mech just happened to be a suitable testbed for my new ideas."

She wasn't the only mech designer who took advantage of the opportunities that such a powerful machine presented to her. Every other Journeyman revelled in the lack of budgetary and conceptual constraints. Since they weren't designing the expert mech for an external client, they no longer had to abide by anyone's approval except Gloriana's, they received a lot more latitude for experimentation.

As long as they managed to convince Gloriana that their invention would benefit the mech design in some way, they were often allowed to make an attempt!

Given the Disruptor Project's proclivity towards mobility and more specifically evasion, it's design had Juliet's fingerprints all across its frame. This made the quiet and least eccentric Journeyman of the Design Department quite satisfied!

Opposite to the Hexer mech designers, Ves and Ketis brought their own charm to the mech. The only issue was that their contributions were much more difficult to quantify from the technical mech design.

This was why Ves proposed to give the current iteration a physical form. Only by translating technical specifications and wireframe models into a solid, touchable form would everyone truly gain an actual grasp of what kind of monster they had just given birth to! Even if the mech design still lacked a glow or design spirit, the life it bore was already vivid!

Ves waved his hand. "I didn't spend hours making this intricate figurine just for you to admire it from afar. It's not a collectible and it won't fall apart if you drop it to the deck. Go ahead and hold it in your hands. You can only truly appreciate the essential charm of our work by holding it in your hands."

The assistants eagerly grasped the figurine. They clearly recognized the sections that they had assisted in creating or optimizing. However, there was so much more to the Disruptor Project that they failed to notice at first but vaguely managed to perceive now that they held a physical representation of their work.

The figurine was alive in a way that an abstract mech design could never reach. This allowed the object to portray Ves and Ketis' design philosophies in a much more lively fashion.

The life contained in this mech design was surprisingly substantial. It shouldn't be a surprise that Ves had poured a lot of attention to it, but he managed to build up its spiritual foundation into the most solid he had ever created.

Part of it was due to his growing strength, but part of it was the care and passion he put into it. This was not just his first expert mech design, but it was also a machine that was meant to serve both Venerable Tusa and the Larkinson Clan. Ves couldn't approach this project like a regular commercial one that was destined to be piloted by lots of anonymous customers.

Tusa was part of a dwindling group of trueblood relatives who comprehended Ves' background and ideals a lot better than other people. Each time he engaged in battle, there was a risk that he might fall, and that risk had to be minimized as much as possible.

However, Ves not only needed to make the Disruptor Project as safe as he could manage, but also had to ensure it was able to fulfill an essential role on the battlefield.

The future of the expeditionary fleet and the Larkinson Clan might hinge on its performance!

It was unfortunate that neither the design nor the figurine was able to show all of the difference his work could make. Giving people the impression that the mech was alive and perhaps even aware did not mean much if it wasn't put through its paces.

The advanced spiritual constructs he designed along with the prime mech aspects that he had added to the expert light skirmisher were not noticeable for the time being. The project had to progress to a much more advanced stage for his contributions to be fully recognized.

As the assistants such as Dukan French and Oscar DiMartin tried to glean their own insights from the impressive mech figurine, Ves emphasized the importance of maintaining the right mentality towards their work.

"Treat the figurine with respect. Even if it is just a toy, it is a representation of a much more serious product. In the coming weeks, we'll be performing a lot of iterative work, and a lot of the assignments will test your patience. Don't let your passion and enthusiasm die down. The mech design is alive enough to notice if you don't put your heart into the project."

Most of the mech designers nodded in understanding. Different from previous times, Ves could tell this time that the Braves and Erudites comprehended his true meaning.

Blinky's design network allowed other mech designers to experience a minute portion of his approach and perspective towards mech design. While Ves did not feel comfortable about contaminating impressionable assistants with his unique design philosophy, he had to admit that the benefits were substantial.

He had already noticed that people's attitude towards living mechs had undergone a significant shift. Even if the members of the design team already acknowledged the existence of living mechs, their lack of understanding and inability to go against common sense previously hindered them from appreciating what all of it meant.

No longer. The mech designers were not as clueless anymore. Even if they didn't know how to make use of what they learned, the fact that they were more aware than before would definitely result in greater and seamless cooperation going forward!

Ves turned to Ketis. Out of all of the mech designers, Ketis was the only one who truly took advantage of his work.

When he looked closely at the spiritual design of the Disruptor Project, he was able to perceive a distinct influence that did not originate from himself.

When the figurine passed into her hands, she carefully imagined it in a duel against another expert mech.

"The Disruptor Project is not a regular knife fighter." She spoke. "Its knives are extensions of its frame and its blades can pierce through many barriers. As long as Venerable Tusa channels a specific knife fighting style that I have matched with this expert mech, it will be able to employ additional abilities that aren't necessarily based on resonating exotics. This is my contribution!"

If her work lived up to her promises, then the Disruptor Project would definitely exceed his initial expectations! Though Ketis had already explained her theory to him, Ves did not dare to bet whether the Disruptor Project would truly be able to channel the power of a traditional swordsman. The notion was too radical!

After everyone was done admiring the figurine, Gloriana briefly explained the next phase of the design project.

"While I am proud of what we have accomplished, this is not the time to rest on our laurels. The design work we have accomplished up until now has set the base for our project, but what I intend to accomplish next must transform our rough design into a refined and flawless vessel. The distance between these two states is quite vast, especially since we are dealing with an expert mech. Master Willix has already done her part by integrating the resonating materials in the mech design and pairing these special additions to Venerable Tusa. The rest is up to us. In one month, I hope the Disruptor Project will be ready for fabrication!"

One more month! Ves already knew that Gloriana wanted to stick to a tight schedule, but a single month devoted to optimizing a complicated expert mech without the opportunity to gather reality-based data was a considerable challenge!