The Mech Touch

The projected performance of the Bulwark Project exceeded the estimates of the other Larkinson expert mechs.

It performed well in each of the concepts that its design centered around.

As a dedicated defensive mech, its ability to withstand damage was incredible. The core of its physical defenses lay in its armor system, which was predominantly made up of Unending alloy. The mech was also clad with supplementary armor layers that were mostly geared towards absorbing concussive blows.

Even though the other Larkinson expert mechs were clad in Unending alloy as well, the Bulwark Project was an entirely different beast. It dedicated more capacity than anything else to increase its ability to resist both physical and energy attacks.

Not even the Amaranto's maximum-powered shot should be able to penetrate the defenses of the Shield of Samar in a single round!

This was an essential requirement as extreme ranged threats such as the Gauss Baron weren't all that uncommon in space battles. Without the capital to resist powerful strikes, the Larkinson Clan might fall victim to the kind of rampage that Venerable Stark once unleashed on the Ferril Provincial Army.

"The defenses of the Bulwark Project not only encompass its exterior."

The expert mech iteration of the Shield of Samar featured a completely redesigned internal architecture. Different from its prime mech incarnation, the space knight featured a true high-end internal arrangement that was heavily reinforced and was packed with damage mitigation systems.

Its compartmentalization also stood out. Since the mech designers didn't have to allocate a lot of capacity to strengthening the Bulwark Project's offensive capabilities, Gloriana meticulously designed a scheme where any internal damage would be contained in a limited volume of space.

There were only two major weaknesses to the Bulwark Project's defenses.

First, it was considerably less effective at mitigating energy damage. Although the expert space knight was not bad at resisting laser beams or positron beams, it did not have a good solution to off-load excess heat damage that was conducted through its Unending alloy armor layers. The only way to slow it down was to set it on a starship or solid ground so that it could transfer away a substantial amount of heat energy through its legs.

Second, the expert mech version of the Shield of Samar inherited the same gap in protection as its current version. The limited supply of Unending alloy gave the mech designers no choice but to cover up the rear of the expert space knight with second-class armor layers.

Sure, the alloys used to protect its rear were superior to Breyer alloy, but it still fell short to Unending alloy.

"Once we get to the Red Ocean, we can slowly work towards plugging this defensive gap with true first-class defensive alloys." Ves helplessly decided.

In truth, he could have chosen to deconstruct the Shield of Samar's massive tower shield and use up all of that freed up Unending alloy to cover its rear sections.

However, that would weaken its frontal defenses which Venerable Jannzi had to rely on the most.

Either way, this was a difficult decision, but Ves and the other mech designers still thought it was better to retain the current scheme. It was not that easy to attack the Shield of Samar's relatively weaker rear and Venerable Jannzi never fought alone.

The second major emphasis of the Shield of Samar was shielding.

This was actually one of the Bulwark Project's less powerful concepts, at least for now. The Larkinson Clan was unable to procure a powerful resonating material that met its requirements. It had to be both highly compatible with Venerable Jannzi yet at the same time produce a limited amount of interference with the other exotics integrated in the expert mech.

"Oh well. We'll just have to wait until we find a suitable material elsewhere." Ves sighed. "There are lots of new and interesting exotics and alloys available in the Red Ocean."

That said, the Design Department was still able to integrate weaker shielding-oriented resonating exotics into the design. The effect they produced was relatively weak but Ves had higher hopes than most mech designers.

This was because the Bulwark Project was also a prime mech!

By borrowing the power of Qilanxo, Ves believed that Venerable Jannzi would be able to generate a far stronger resonance barrier than normal!

"If that doesn't work out, it also possesses a powerful shield generator."

Just like the original Aurora Titan design, the latest iteration of the Shield of Samar allocated a lot of internal capacity to its shield generator. The high-end defensive system was designed specifically for expert knight mechs and it was capable of projecting an extremely resilient close-ranged energy shield and a more wider-area energy barrier.

Naturally, the larger the surface area of the energy shield, the weaker it became.

Ves had high hopes for this defense measure. From the very start, the Shield of Samar always centered around similar systems. Though its reliance on energy shielding had lessened over time, the living mech had grown so accustomed to it that it could probably leverage it better than any other defensive machine.

"What's important is that we can always upgrade its shield generator at a later date."

The latest iteration of the Shield of Samar was by no means its final one. Ves never minded the limitations of the Bulwark Project because it was never static. Many of its present weaknesses could clearly be addressed by upgrading or overhauling discrete parts and systems, similar to a modular mech.

Ves even believed that shielding would become the defining strength of Venerable Jannzi's expert mech in the future!

"The initial expert mech version of the Shield of Samar is just the starting point. There is still a long road of development ahead."

The final strength of the Shield of Samar was its ability to manipulate gravity.

This was a new capability that the mech did not possess before. Venerable Jannzi had no experience with wielding this concept and would have to start from the beginning in order to master this advantage.

However, as long as she was able to wield the gravity abilities of the Bulwark Project in a proficient manner, Jannzi's ability to affect the battlefield would rise meteorically!

"The Shield of Samar is different from the Amphis and the Gatecrasher." Ves sighed. "The latter two expert space knights are decently fast and can keep up with other expert mechs. Our own defensive mech is far too slow even with all of the upgrades."

While it was possible to speed the Shield of Samar up, that would entail using up valuable capacity that had already been allocated to priorities. There was no way that Ves wanted to reduce the Shield of Samar's other advantages especially with its entire design centered around extreme defense.

It was for this reason that the Shield of Samar opened up a new dimension by incorporating gravity manipulation capabilities.

Based on Master Willix's own expertise in gravitic systems, the Bulwark Project integrated a substantial amount of GT-535, a resonating material which she had developed by herself. The expert mech also integrated a few ȧssisting systems that were meant to facilitate the operation of gravity manipulation.

Currently, the Bulwark Project was able to express this new feature in two different ways.

By resonating with GT-535 in an all-round manner, Venerable Jannzi would be able to generate a large gravity well that attracted any nearby objects. Depending on the resonance strength of the expert pilot, it was possible to attract or distort the trajectory of projectiles and mechs!

"In the future, the Shield of Samar should also be capable of bending energy beams!"

This was extremely difficult to accomplish at Venerable Jannzi's current level of strength. Ves estimated that she needed to become a high-tier expert pilot before she possessed the raw strength that was necessary to distort reality and curve space to such a degree!

Fortunately, Master Willix also added a second resonating ability that expressed the expert mech's gravity manipulation capabilities in a more concentrated manner.

By focusing the extraordinary gravity attraction in a narrow angle, the Shield of Samar was capable of latching on to individual mechs and pulling them closer as if they had been harpooned.

Although the effective range and strength of this ability was much greater than the earlier one, there were still limits due to how quickly gravity force weakened over greater distances.

Even so, it was still strong enough for the Shield of Samar to lock individual expert mechs in place, especially if they flew close enough!

"This solves the greatest weakness of the Shield of Samar in space combat." Ves muttered. "Enemies won't be able to bypass it so easily anymore."

Although there were still plenty of ways to avoid falling into the Shield of Samar's gravity trap, they all required enemies to restrain their behavior.

"A defensive mech doesn't actually need to block attacks or stand in the way of enemy machines to serve its purpose. If the Shield of Samar can deter enemies from approaching its location, then that is also useful."

This way, the Shield of Samar could be used to protect important ȧssets such as the Spirit of Bentheim or the Vivacious Wal. Not even enemy expert mechs will want to approach these ships if it meant getting caught in Venerable Jannzi's orbit!

Ves was only a bit concerned whether the expert pilot would be able to embrace the gravity aspect that he and his mech designers were about to introduce to the Shield of Samar.

Although this feature complimented Venerable Jannzi's piloting style, it was not her primary focus. She would have to spend a lot of effort into molding her will to embrace gravity force. Only then will she be able to resonate with GT-535 on a deeper level.

"Well, it will probably be fine, I think. Master Willix specifically proposed and designed these solutions."

Venerable Jannzi was a lucky expert pilot this time! She really couldn't have turned to a better mech designer to incorporate gravity manipulation in her mech. Aside from Star Designers, hardly anyone could design better gravity systems than a notable MTA Master that specialized in this field!

This was also why Ves thought that even if the Bulwark Project wasn't the strongest expert mech of this design round, it was certainly the most extravagant!

Ves narrowed his eyes. "Master Willix never told me how much GT-535 costs, but it is certainly not cheap, especially since she developed its formula herself."

Combined with the greater size and mass of the Bulwark Project, it was unquestionably the most expensive expert mech out of the batch!

All of the expense was worth it, though. The Dark Zephyr simply couldn't come close to the expert mech version of the Shield of Samar in terms of withstanding attacks.

Overall, the Bulwark Project's current parameters already put it on the upper end of a mid-tier expert mech. As long as the Larkinson Clan addressed its various shortcomings and upgraded a couple of important systems, it might very well turn into a high-tier expert mech that could stand equal to Venerable Orthox's Gatecrasher!

Ves frowned. "It will certainly be difficult for the Chimera Project to exceed the Bulwark Project in overall performance."

He wasn't willing to admit defeat, though. The Chimera Project was his passion project and his personal playground. He had incorporated a lot of new and unproven features that could propel the performance of this unconventional expert mech to new heights!

"Cost isn't everything. It's how you use the resources at hand that really determines the value of a machine!"

Though the Bulwark Project and the Chimera Project were both part of a new breed of Larkinson expert mechs, their roles were vastly different, which made direct comparisons a bit difficult.

Still, Ves had great confidence that the Chimera Project would definitely be able to achieve a far greater impact on the battlefield than any of his other expert mechs!