The Mech Touch

Many other senior Larkinsons also doubted their new objective. While it was awful that they had suffered an attack, most of them had managed to survive. Wasn\'t that good enough? Why must they go on the offensive when their main goal had always been to wait until they were able to leave this dangerous planet?

"You\'re making the wrong decision, Ves." Jannzi confronted Ves as she picked up a listless-looking Lucky and started to pet his tired form. "Look, I am just as upset with the ultralifers as you, but some forces are too strong for us to challenge. Let\'s ?ssume that the ultralifers on this planet are not too numerous. Have you ever considered that they might have allies? There are many different factions and other groups on this planet, and from what I have learned, many of them maintain at least some ties to each other. The agenda of the ultralifers may be repugnant, but it probably resonates with at least a couple of other organizations."

Ves hadn\'t thought of that.

"Meooowww…" Lucky cutely turned his body in her ??p.

"See? Even Lucky agrees!"

"He\'s just being lazy. He doesn\'t want to go out on another infiltration mission." Ves dismissively waved his hand. "Look, even if you are right, many groups are too busy trying to fend for themselves to take care of an ally. Mechs are worth their weight in exotics during dangerous times. I seriously doubt that anyone is willing to risk the loss of many mechs and mech pilots to help a beleaguered friend."

"You\'ll regret it if you test this ?ssumption, Ves."

"No I won\'t. We\'ll just have to perform more research and collect more intelligence." He firmly stated. "I\'m willing to slow down the timetable in order to ensure our success. I\'m not asking for too much as well. I\'d like to destroy the ultralifer presence on this planet if possible, but I\'m okay with giving them a bloody nose. My primary motivation for going on the attack is to shape our clansmen and condense their fighting will. If they can\'t even gain the courage to fight before we are able to return to space, then what is the point of retaining them? We don\'t seek trouble, but every Larkinson should be capable of fighting adversity when danger comes."

"Danger that you often attract on your own accord."

"Not this time!"

Venerable Jannzi sighed. They held this kind of discussion many times. Though she was an expert pilot known for her steadfastness, there were some realities that even she couldn\'t change. She had spent enough time with Ves to realize that changing his mind on certain matters was a herculean task.

She relaxed in her seat while continuing to massage Lucky\'s belly. She frowned as she observed his condition.

"What\'s wrong with your pet? Lucky usually isn\'t like this. Does he need an oil change or something?"

Ves shrugged. "I don\'t know. He\'s been this way for a while. He just needs time to recover. He\'ll be back up in no time."

"Meeeoooww…"

Though Jannzi felt there was something odd about Lucky\'s condition, she did not pursue this matter further. She did not have any technical acumen so she was completely in the dark on how to fix the mechanical cat.

"If you insist on confronting the ultralifers, can you modify my Bright Warrior?" She requested. "I miss my Shield of Samar. I can do a lot more if I have my main mech, but I can still cope with piloting a Bright Warrior if there isn\'t any other choice. I can do more with it if you improve it. Can you turn it into a prime mech?"

"You\'re asking too much!" He sputtered in response. "I need a lot of Unending alloy to do so. It\'s easier to procure an expert mech for you! Look, our clan doesn\'t have any Unending alloy left to spare. This is also why your Shield of Samar is only partially clad with this material. In addition, even if we have some extra tons of this material on hand, it\'s impossible for me to retrieve it from the Spirit of Bentheim. You\'ll just have to make do with a more normal mech."

She looked quite upset at that answer. "Tusa gets to pilot his own prime mech."

"That\'s because his mech looks small and innocent enough to get approval from the inspectors after a cursory examination. Your Shield of Samar is way too big and intimidating for that. Speaking of that, do you have any ideas about what weight class you wish to retain for your expert mech?"

"My expert mech?"

His shameless attempt to change the topic of the conversation succeeded as Venerable Jannzi immediately changed tracks.

She couldn\'t help it as the Shield of Samar was not only her primary mech, but also her lifelong partner. She had waited a very long time to witness its conversion into a true expert mech that was strong enough to keep up with her capabilities!

"Your wife approached me a few times on this issue." She answered. "I haven\'t made up my mind yet. A super-medium space knight is the most familiar choice for me, but it doesn\'t make much sense now that the limitations in the past don\'t exist anymore."

Ves was not surprised to hear that Gloriana already started to quiz his expert pilots in private. Her design philosophy and approach compelled her to learn as much as possible from her clients. She needed these details in order to achieve the best possible fit.

"Are you thinking about stepping up the weight class to a heavy mech?"

Jannzi fell silent for a moment. She softly scratched Lucky\'s cheeks, which caused him to utter a pleasant mewl.

"I\'m thinking about it. In the past, it was unthinkable for us to field heavy mechs. Now, we have hundreds of Transcendent Punishers in our fleet. A heavy expert mech better complements my piloting style."

"You\'re aware that will mean that your new mech will remain slow, right? In some of our previous battles, we were never able to put you to good use. Your mech is too slow to keep up with offensive actions and it is too slow to chase after attacking melee mechs. The only real use for your mech is to block enemy firepower, but this is largely redundant as of late now that we have converted to beefier second-class starships."

"What are you trying to say, Ves?" Jannzi frowned.

She even paused in petting Lucky, which prompted the spoiled cat to lodge a complaint!

"Meoow!...."

"Oh, I\'m sorry. Do you want another belly rub?"

"Meow meow…"

Lucky exaggeratingly wiggled his body until Jannzi brushed his plated belly. His eyes squinted as he enjoyed his luxurious treatment.

Getting pampered by an expert pilot was one of the most pleasant experiences in his life!

Ves narrowed his eyes in suspicion at his gem cat. Was Lucky really as infirm as he sounded and acted?

Ves coughed a bit. "The utility of a heavy defensive mech is extremely limited in space combat. Distances are magnified because the void is simply too big and empty. The rapid speeds of other spaceborn mechs means that a heavy space knight can\'t effectively intercept them without resorting to unusual options such as grappling chains. Our expeditionary fleet spans at least twenty kilometers on average. An attacking mech force can easily fly in a wide circle around your Shield of Samar and attack our starships without worrying too much that you\'ll catch up to its mechs."

Mobility was king in space combat! The ability to move was so vital in space that good maneuvering could literally decide the outcome of a battle!

"Look, heavy knight mechs make more sense when deployed on land." He elaborated. "Their relative speeds are higher because it is a little easier to speed them up when they walk on legs. Distances are far shorter on solid ground and there are numerous terrain features that further make it easier to funnel enemies in a narrow area. Vertical movement is also more limited on land. Unless we are facing a lot of aerial mechs, you can easily force an enemy to confront your Shield of Samar head-on in the right circumstances."

Indeed, landbound heavy knight mechs were more abundant on certain land-based battlegrounds. Some military regiments often liked to field them in order to defend against a siege or to push an ?ssault against a fortified position.

While all of this sounded nice, Venerable Jannzi was aware that moments that the Larkinsons deployed on land would not happen too often. Moments like these where they were forced to fight on land were more of an exception than the rule, and even then she was unable to pilot the mech she wanted.

Ves could see that his words were having an effect. "Don\'t forget your core purpose. You have to defend as many Larkinsons as possible. The expeditionary fleet is our home base and houses most of our clansmen. It should go without saying that you should be equipped to defend it as best as possible, but under the current circumstances, any spaceborn mech with decent mobility can simply outpace you and prevent you from hindering their actions."

"Expert mechs are top-of-the-line machines!" Jannzi retorted. "They are always faster than standard mechs! As long as you upgrade their flight systems, I won\'t necessarily be outpaced by light mechs."

"That.. is true." Ves admitted, but he did not leave it at that. "It is doable to speed up your heavy expert mech to the point it can win a race against the Ferocious Piranha, but its design will have to incorporate a lot of tradeoffs that might not be cost-effective. What is more concerning to me is that you won\'t have any chance of catching up against a mobility-oriented expert mech. Any light expert mech and most medium expert mechs will easily be able to run rings around you! It just so happens that these hostile elements happen to be the ones that you have to stop the most!"

He made a very good point! Though Jannzi was already aware of this issue at some level, she always dismissed it out of helplessness.

"I don\'t need to fulfill every role, Ves. I can just try to be the best at what I do. We have other expert pilots who can do a better job at chasing after other expert mechs. I don\'t necessarily need to shoulder this responsibility."

"You have too few responsibilities in battle as it is." He painfully pointed out. "If we can slim your Shield of Samar down during its expert mech conversion, then you can finally catch up to most combat actions in space. You won\'t be a useless rock in space anymore!"

"I am more than just a useless rock! Don\'t belittle my contributions!"

"Look, I don\'t want to change the weight class of your mech either, but if you want to do a better job at defending our fellow clansmen, then you need to adapt to our needs! Your current approach is not a good fit to what we need to defend our fleet against fast and agile melee mechs. You need to stop being so selfish and do what is best for our clan!"

"I am not being selfish!" She defended herself, but her words rang a little hollow as she couldn\'t refute its logic.

She stopped petting Lucky as she fell into a difficult situation. She was comfortable with piloting tough, immobile mechs. Moving around too much wasn\'t her style. She is on the other side of the spectrum from Venerable Tusa in this regard.

Yet as she recalled the many times that Venerable Tusa took action and achieved fantastic results due to the amazing mobility of his prime mech, Jannzi couldn\'t help but feel a little jealous.

Was it really right for her to insist on piloting a sluggish mech?