The Mech Touch

After Master Willix completed her discussion with Jovy Armalon, her projection disappeared from the stealthed corvette.

She did not need to be physically or virtually present aboard this observation vessel in order to observe the ongoing battle. Her powerful implant was able to feed footage directly into her mind, though much like other people she preferred to observe with her eyes. Events became more real and tangible in this way.

Her real body sat in the middle of an expansive office within the depths of Halcyon Citadel. The office also functioned as her secondary workshop and laboratory. Several hyper-sophisticated machines were currently performing complex tasks.

These tasks ranged from analyzing unknown materials to studying the reactions between different materials and exotics. Willix also enjoyed a considerably large quota of processing power from Halycon Citadel that she constantly made use of to perform an astounding number of calculations related to gravitic and dimensional curving.

Her major research project demanded so many calculations that all of the processors in the Hexadric Hegemony put together amounted to less than 1 percent of her processing quota!

Master Willix knew that several enormous data centers were constantly active deep inside Halcyon Citadel. She even toured one of them and became impressed at how the local branch managed to turn this space station into a powerful computing center. Rows and rows of integrated sandman admiral cores had been linked up so that they could perform effective calculations with a high degree of algorithmic learning and adaptivity.

The CFA wasn't the only organization who recognized the uses of altered sandman admiral cores.

She glanced at the progress report. Only 1 year and three months to go until Halcyon Citadel's processors finished the mathematical modelling tasks that she had requested.

This was a long time for normal people, but not that much for an MTA Master who was easily able to live for at least half a millennium.

In fact, she still had seven decades to go to complete her major transformational research project. She arrived in the Komodo Star Sector a long time ago and gave herself a hundred years to complete her ambitious contribution to the mech industry.

If she succeeded, she would not only be able to elevate her status within the Association to the upper reaches of what a Master could achieve, but also open up a chance for her to get closer to becoming a Star Designer!

No Master was content with remaining at their current level. Every mech designer who worked hard enough to realize their design philosophies was ambitious and loved their craft to an obsessive degree. Not even rational mech designers were exempt from this as each of them recognized they needed to retain at least some passion in order to preserve their love and motivation for their field.

As Willix studied a complicated diagram that one of her experiments recently yielded, she occasionally glanced at the projections displaying the unfolding battle in the Fordilla Zentra System.

Her eyes hardly rested on the dwarven mechs. Though she was mildly impressed at how quickly the Vulcan Empire managed to build up its mech industry from scratch, the dwarven mech designers were too ambivalent towards the MTA.

Compared to the plain dwarven mechs, the vivid and unusual Larkinson mechs were much more interesting to her. Though their designs were simple and primitive in her eyes, they contained a unique and unreplicable charm that only a mech designer like Ves could impart to his work.

Even so, Willix still did not direct much her attention to the various ordinary mechs of the Larkinson Clan. She allocated most of her attention to the most special mechs, all of which happened to be prime mechs or expert mechs.

She wasn't able to see through the prime mechs. On several occasions, they displayed far greater power than what their parts were capable of exerting. Ves may have explained some of his theories to her but she could not yet understand the principles of this strange new form of resonance that he managed to invent.

What was interesting was that the expert mechs she collaborated on seemed to have inherited the traits of prime mechs. She anticipated that this so-called 'prime resonance' might react or combine with true resonance in unpredictable ways.

Though she tried to model and calculate the possible outcomes, she couldn't take any of the results seriously due to lack of understanding and insufficient reliable data.

Therefore, the best way for Willix to gain the answers she wanted was to observe the new expert mechs in action. So far, she hadn't witnessed anything remarkable, but none of them aside from the Amaranto had taken action at this point.

The remaining three expert mechs were not in a hurry to make their moves. Master Willix knew she had to be patient.

The relationship between her and the expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan was odd. Though Master Willix had unquestionably contributed to their designs, she had tried to keep her intervention as minimal as possible so that she would not make her own mark.

That put her in an odd position. She felt very little ownership and responsibility towards the Dark Zephyr, the Amaranto, the Riot and the First Sword. This was despite the crucial work she performed in integrating the resonating materials to the base designs.

Her expression became even more mixed when she beheld the Amaranto. The fact that it turned into a masterwork was shocking to the MTA, but what truly held her interest was how an unknown but extremely capable mech designer improved her work on its design.

She still wasn't finished with digesting all of the gains. What Ves' mysterious patron had done not only showed her more refined methods of integrating resonating materials into expert mechs, but also gave her many minor pointers on tiny flaws and imperfections that she had never even realized she possessed!

As long as she was able to understand and figure out the logic behind these micro-adjustments, she would be able to elevate the quality and performance of her designs by a couple of percentage points.

At her level, even a 1 percent improvement in performance could take years of research to accomplish!

She partially regretted not contributing a little more of her ingenuity to the Amaranto design. If she implemented her best solutions and applied just a small part of her native design philosophy, she might have been able to reap enough rewards to progress her major research project by at least a decade!

Of course, Master Willix wasn't the sort of person to get hung up over missed opportunities. She had lived long enough to know that there were many more opportunities that were ripe for the taking. Whether she was able to grasp them depended on her vision and the choices she made.

Even without this particular opportunity, she still had many more plans in the works that might result in a breakthrough in her enormous research project.

A small chime sounded in the hollow office. Willix noticed that the time of her next appointment had arrived. She mentally approved the incoming communication request while waving her hand to shut down any sensitive screens that were too sensitive to expose to outsiders.

A highly-realistic physical projection of another woman appeared in the space.

The newcomer did not offer a meaningless greeting to Master Willix because it was pointless to say them in the first place. They were already familiar enough with each other to make ordinary pleasantries redundant.

As research-oriented mech designers, they valued efficiency over theatrics.

The newcomer stepped closer and sat down on a chair close to Master Willix's desk. The woman was dressed in a fashionable business suit and wore a tight-fitting lab coat over her body. She brushed aside her blond hair and swept her gaze at the projections of a distant battle.

"The Larkinson Clan." She spoke.

"My work." Willix responded.

"How much?"

"Minimal."

"Why?"

"You will see."

"Answers."

"Unexplainable."

"Ves."

"Confirmed."

"Stupid."

"Maybe."

"Reason?"

"Unknown goal."

"I see."

The two women stayed silent for a time. Whether they were communicating through other, non-verbal means was unknown, but their expressions remained neutral and without emotion.

Still, when the Amaranto began to show off more of its capabilities, the spectators became increasingly more interested.

"Masterwork?"

"Not only."

"A pity he changed his allegiance."

"Cooperation."

"Unlikely."

"38.75 percent."

"Irrational."

"Irrational."

"Touché."

They no longer spoke about this topic. They continued to observe the performance of the Amaranto and other notable Larkinson mechs. They paid more and more attention to the data readouts that measured hundreds of different unusual phenomena that most people didn't even know existed.

This was also the main reason why the MTA dispatched a stealth corvette all the way to the remote Fordilla Zentra System. If Master Willix wasn't interested in gathering more data, then she could have settled for a more convenient way of observing the battle.

"Progress on your project?"

"Steady."

"Need assistance?"

"Not yet necessary. You have other obligations."

"Free time."

"Doubt."

"Komodo War's outcome is almost set."

"Doubt."

"Cannot overcome shortage of expert mechs."

"Doubt."

That caused the visitor to frown a bit, which was highly unusual to see for a rational mech designer.

"Argument."

Master Willix waved her hand at the live footage of the battle. "New solutions."

"Serious doubt."

"Confidence."

"We will see."

Another period of silence passed by. Master Willix turned to her guest. "Reason for visit?"

"Request."

"Explain."

"Phasewater."

"Unfulfillable."

"Why?"

"Lack of supply."

"Reason."

"Reserved."

"For what?"

"Confidential."

"Friends."

"Confidential."

"Aliens?"

"Confidential."

"Cultists?"

"Confidential."

"Threat zero."

"Confidential."

Master Olson's projection directed a deep look at Master Willix. The host calmly looked back.

Both of them may possess different backgrounds, but they shared a lot in common. They were not only Masters who had already made numerous accomplishments in their respective fields, but they also approached mech design from a rational perspective.

It was a lot harder for mech designers to realize their design philosophies if they weren't allowing their passion free reign!

This handicap was so great that most mech designers outside the MTA simply failed to get started. Master Carmin Olson was a rare exception as she had managed to realize her design philosophy without the support of the MTA by relying on her hard work and talent.

That made her worthy of Master Willix's friendship. Even if one of them was a native mech designer of a second-rate state and the other an MTA Master of much higher status, to them their expertise and insights mattered more than these superfluous barriers.

It didn't matter that Master Olson was much further behind in terms of accumulation and breadth of knowledge. Her expertise on motion, mechanics and engines along with her different perspective occasionally served as useful supplements to Master Willix's projects.

Of course, the main reason why Master Willix cultivated a relationship with Master Olson was because the latter might be able to play a crucial role in her ambitious research project at a later stage.

"Battle."

"Not going well."

"Partiality."

"Yes."

"Ves?"

"Interesting."

"Dwarves?"

"Mistake."

"Clarify."

"Should not exist."

"Agree, but too late."

"Regret."

"Rectification possible."

"Rights."

"Dwarves have rights?"

Master Willix frowned at her peer. "Do not question."

"Not what I have heard."

"Factions."

"Ah. Support."

"Negligible. Dwarf population insignificant."

"Sad."

"Glad."

Master Olson knew what faction that Master Willix was a part of, so she already knew it was unlikely for her standpoint to deviate.

"Nyxian Gap."

"Not now." Willix shook her head.

"Crown terrorists."

"Annoyance."

"Maybe more."

"Annoyance."

"Nyxian Gap."

"Progress will continue."

"Doubt."

"Underestimation."

"Insufficient information."

"Tell."

"Confidential."

Despite saying that, Master Willix could not predict what would happen to the Nyxian Gap as the Crown Uprising continued to unfold. The traffic to this anomalous region had tripled in the last half year and it was only projected to rise even higher in the next year.

The reason for this was unclear. Sometimes, she entertained suspicions that Ves Larkinson had something to do with the loss of the supposed crown, but she had confirmed many times that this wasn't the case. He and the Larkinson Clan had already moved far away from the Nyxian Gap by the time the galaxy-wide upheaval erupted.

Still, as she continued to see his work in action, she couldn't help but wonder if her assumptions were correct. Her mind said one thing but her instincts said another thing.