The Mech Touch

The fabrication of the Minerva Project started slower than usual.

The four Larkinson mech designers were unfamiliar with Professor Benedict's workshop and still had to get used to all of the differences. It took hours for them to truly get accustomed to the layout, the positioning of the production equipment and the type of bots available in the workshop.

In fact, the adaptation process should have taken longer if not for a novel factor.

When Gloriana summoned Alexandria from her mind and ordered her companion spirit to form a design network, everything changed.

Of the Larkinson Journeymen, Ves, Gloriana and Juliet were already accustomed to the effect of a design network. They hardly exhibited any surprise and immediately took advantage of the additional data they received.

Sara Voiken had come in touch with design networks numerous times when she collaborated on the design of the Minerva Project.

However, this was the first time she came under its effect during a fabrication run. The work they performed was substantially different so she still needed time to figure out how to make the most of her new condition.

Professor Benedict Cortez was the true newcomer to design networks.

Initially, he instinctively repulsed Alexandria's attempt to form a spiritual bond with his powerful mind.

It took a lot of effort on his part to lower his defenses and allow the spiritual cat to successfully establish a working bond.

Even then, Professor Benedict's inherent guardnessness and caution made it so that only a limited amount of his thoughts and emotions flowed through the bond. He might be new to this, but his mental control was surprisingly formidable.

This was not a man who trusted others easily. This was not a surprise considering all of the skeletons he hid in his closet.

Ves initially paid close attention to Professor Benedict as the latter got accustomed to the novelty of a design network.

The Larkinsons had briefed the man in advance so he already knew what to expect. That said, experiencing it himself was far different from hearing about it. He immediately understood how helpful it was to receive the thoughts and emotions exchanged by every member of the design team.

This was one of the best tools for cooperation that he had ever encountered!

While the Senior had occasionally heard of other powerful remarkable methods to increase the coordination of a design team, none of them were this easy and harmless.

The prerequisites and downsides of a design network were much less. Compared to linking everyone's cranial implants or resorting to strange alien technology, a design network was the least invasive but also the most intimate means of boosting cooperation that he knew of! Perhaps even those pampered MTA mech designers would drool if they encountered this kind of boon!

As Professor Benedict familiarized himself with this strange new state, he slowly put down his guard and opened himself up to an extent.

He still exerted a lot of control over the thoughts he was willing to share with his fellow mech designers.

Aside from keeping secrets, Benedict did not want to flood the design network with an immense amount of high-level theories related to mech design.

As a Senior and a fairly advanced one, his knowledge on mech design was much more overwhelming than that of the Journeymen he worked with. Ves and the others were too young to handle so much input. He had to pay attention to what he passed on through the design network in order to avoid polluting the minds of the Larkinson mech designers with knowledge that they were not ready to comprehend.

No one objected to this. Ves was not greedy to access the knowledge of a Senior. Besides, much of what went on in Professor Benedict's mind mostly pertained to his design philosophy.

What Ves and his fellow peers received from the design network was just the basics. The bits and pieces that Professor Benedict cautiously passed on was enough to increase their understanding of the Senior's work, but not enough to distract them from their primary work assignments.

"Amazing." Commander Casella Ingvar said as she quietly stood next to Alexandria. "You are truly a remarkable cat. I heard from Venerable Joshua how taking part in this fabrication run can give me a much better understanding of mechs and mech design, but this is something else! I already feel as if I know every strength and weakness of my new expert mech!"

Although several different mech pilots had already cooperated with the Larkinson mech designers in this fashion, the gains they made from this remarkable experience varied by a considerable extent. Every mech pilot was different so the way they interpreted the input from a design network was different as well.

For example, an expert pilot such as Venerable Joshua who did not receive too many augmentations and only attended a couple of third-class mech academies in his life did not exactly stand out in terms of intellect.

ᴾᵃⁿᵈᵃ ⁿᵒᵛᵉˡ He was an expert pilot who heavily relied on feeling, intuition, passion and diligence to excel. He was much worse in book learning and never stood out during his theoretical classes.

Therefore, when Joshua became a part of the design network during the fabrication of the Everchanger, he mostly paid attention to how Ves regarded his living mechs and whatever he could learn about the patriarch's design philosophy.

Casella was different. Even though she started off as a third-rater as well, she was a former noble who had grown up under a considerable amount of pressure and expectation. She had always been serious about her studies and she had kept that up when she joined the Larkinson Clan.

Leading the Living Sentinels was tough and she had always tried her best to increase her qualifications through additional studies.

What truly caused her to stand out from most mech designers was that she was not bad in studying the sciences. This had come in handy as she possessed a much better understanding on what mechs were capable of and how far she could push her mech units. Pa nda

No vel Due to this foundation, Casella was able to understand the science and engineering-related knowledge passing through the design network to a much greater extent!

Although this did not magically turn her into an engineer who could repair her own mech, it was enough for her to gain a much deeper understanding of the technical side of mechs!

She sat down and completely immersed herself in the moment. She not only enjoyed learning about the unique perspectives that every participating mech designer held towards her upcoming expert mech, but also found satisfaction in contributing her own knowledge and experiences.

Every mech designer including Professor Benedict gained a lot from the expert pilot, especially since she was also a legion commander.

Learning how much Commander Casella worked to strengthen the Living Sentinels gave him a much better appreciation of the most humble mech legion of the Larkinson Clan.

To Casella, duty was paramount. The role of the Living Sentinels was to embody the most fundamental desire of the Larkinson Clan, which was protecting their family.

Casella constantly tried to come up with new ways to improve the performance of her mech units so that more of them came back alive after a battle.

This was a heavy burden. Each of her decisions directly or indirectly determined the lives and deaths of not just the Living Sentinels but any other clansmen affected by the performance of her mech legion.

"She's a hard worker, alright." Ves surmised as he busied himself with synthesizing the many crystals of the Irvan rifle. "She reminds me of Jannzi, but she is much more preoccupied with empowering her fellow Larkinsons rather than protecting them. This is an interesting distinction."

From what Ves knew about Jannzi's mindset, the defensive expert pilot was inclined to defend her fellow clansmen no matter whether they could take care of themselves or not.

Commander Casella possessed similar tendencies, but her different life experiences caused her to be much more accepting of the risks that soldiers endured.

She could not save every mech pilot who deployed on the battlefield, but she would do her damned hardest to improve their chances of winning!

This drive to win was a much more proactive mindset and often encouraged Casella to figure out better ways to defeat their opponents.

Under all of these influences, Ves cared even more about his work and looked at his contribution in a more serious light. He couldn't help but put in an even greater amount of effort in his work than before.

Hours went by as everyone worked in a harmonious fashion. The design network constantly helped to align their thoughts and make their work more rounded.

With a Senior Mech Designer participating in the fabrication attempt, Ves and the others received a lot of simple but profound tips that slightly improved their work in various ways.

They completed their work assignments a bit faster than anticipated and the quality of their output rose as well.

Fewer mistakes and friction occurred as everyone increasingly worked as one instead of five separate mech designers.

The only interruptions occurred when Gloriana needed to take a rest. When Alexandria retracted her design network, Blinky took over for a few hours.

This allowed the mother to go back to Brutus and take back her adorable baby.

"Meeehh…" The baby smiled.

"Yes, Aurelia. Your mama and her friends are making a new mech right now. Isn't that impressive? Once you grow older, I might allow you to lend a hand. That way, you can become a part of the production process of an impressive machine!"

As Gloriana regained a bit of her energy by playing with her child, her brother approached her side.

"How is the work on the Minerva Project proceeding so far?"

"It's going well enough, brother."

"Enough to add a new masterwork mech to our fleet?"

Gloriana looked uncertain. "It's too early to tell. What I can say is that we are all confident and optimistic about our work. The mood among us is good and our willingness to cooperate with each other is higher than ever. Each of us are invested in this project, but Ves and Sara Voiken stand out by how much they care about the outcome."

"Could you explain that further?"

"Well, Ves is Ves. He is always passionate about his work, but he gets particularly excited whenever he works on anything that is new, innovative and different from what he has handled before. The Minerva Project carries so many new features that he is incredibly eager to see his inventions in action."

"What of Miss Voiken? She is one of your newer mech designers, correct?"

"She is an adequate mech designer." Gloriana nodded. "Her defensive specialty adds a lot to our Design Department, and she is useful in so many different design projects. The Minerva Project holds special meaning to her as it is the first time she had made significant contributions to an expert mech design. Our cooperation would have gone smoother if she was more experienced in fabricating mechs and if she already possessed a few masterwork mechs. We are doing our best to bring her up to speed through our design network, but she needs to make sure she carries her own weight for this fabrication run."

Venerable Brutus glanced at Sara Voiken in the distance. The Journeyman was currently in the process of producing armor plating for the Minerva Project. He was impressed by how much she tried to do her best.

Sara did not want to disappoint her peers!

She knew quite well that this was an extremely rare opportunity for her. All of the other mech designers she was working with had already fabricated masterwork mechs. She might be lucky to join their ranks as well even if she did not perform remarkably brilliantly during this week.

The premise of achieving this was that she did not negatively impact the others! This was why she was being extra serious about putting in her all. She did not even dare to take a break at this time!

"She is a hard worker, alright." Gloriana nodded in approval even as she was about to take a brief nap after tucking in her sleepy daughter.