The Mech Touch

Chapter 5958  More Powerful Than An Expert Mech

The floating greatsword that looked sharp enough to easily split a human from top to bottom floated up and down in a friendly gesture.

"Sharpie! Heaven! Heaven! Sharpie!"

"Hello there, Sharpie. Are you still in your 'heaven' phase?"

"Sharpie!"

A hand smacked the floating greatsword back. "Behave, Sharpie."

"Hello again, Ketis. It's been a while since we communicated more directly. I apologize for not getting to you sooner. I got dragged into a lot of affairs as of late, as you may have heard."

Ketis rolled her eyes. "You mean you willingly threw yourself into one pit after another."

"Hey! The public inquiry was not my fault!"

"Says the founder of the Red Collective."

"An organization that does not exist at this time."

"I might not be the brightest politician, Ves, but even I know that it is doomed to take its place alongside the Red Two. There is even talk about putting you in charge of it, especially after you somehow upgraded the Dominion of Man into a living dreadnought. I am curious how you managed to do that, but you probably aren't allowed to share those secrets."

Ves nodded and started to pace around his office. "You are right about that. A lot of changes are in store. My latest business trip has yielded many results. Let me tell you the details that I am allowed to share."

He briefly summarized what he had done and what he had managed to obtain. Though he cut out a lot of portions of his story, he made sure to put extra emphasis on his many gains.

"I already heard about the first-class support mech, the Destroyer spear and the juggernaut." Ketis said. "Personally, I wouldn't have gone for them. They are too costly and impose far too many requirements in order to put them to good use. What purpose does the juggernaut serve, anyway? Did you just want to secure the bragging rights for owning an enormous mech?"

"I bought it for research purposes." Ves claimed with a straight face. It was emphatically not a toy for boys! "You should know what I mean. We can deepen our understanding of mechs if we step outside familiar ground and work on stuff that is different from what we handle on a daily basis. I already harvested a lot of insights when I participated in the transformation of the Dominion of Man. I think I can make similar gains when I start working earnestly on the Otalon Sprius." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"And when will that happen?"

"Not now." He admitted. "Maybe in a decade. There is way too much stuff I need to take care of first. My to-do list is so long that it can practically be turned into a book."

"Then you should delegate more. Haven't you always taught me that no mech designer can shoulder everything alone? You can easily shift more responsibilities to Gloriana and Alexa. I have spoken with that new student of yours a number of times. She has a bright head on her shoulders. I am not ashamed to admit that she is much more intelligent and sociable than me. Those Terran ancient clans sure know how to raise excellent descendants."

Ves approached and raised his arm to pat Ketis on the shoulder. "There is no need to denigrate yourself. Mech design is never about being the smartest. It is about serving mech pilots to the best possible extent. As a Swordmaster, you enjoy a unique advantage that makes your mech designs much more suitable for your target audience regardless of the imperfections they might have."

The swordmaster smiled. Ketis did not need any affirmations, but it was nice to receive a compliment.

They soon began to discuss the mech designs that Ketis had been working on in the past few months.

"I have been working hard to complete the Storm Sword." Ketis explained to Ves as she pulled up the design schematics of the quasi-first-class hyper transphasic swordsman mech. "It is by far the most powerful mech that I have designed so far. It is also by far the most demanding and complicated one. Not even the original First Sword can match the Storm Sword in terms of technological sophistication and material value."

That sounded like an absurd statement at first. How could a standard mech exceed the value of an expert mech?

However, Ves did not disagree with his former student. One glance at the design schematics already told him that the disparity had grown big enough to make such a statement.

The First Sword was an old mech design that originally contained no phasewater. It was only later on that the Larkinson Clan tacked on a number of transphasic parts, but the scope of incremental upgrades remained limited due to a reluctance to ruin what was already working.

Her best gimmicks was the fact that she wielded the masterwork Decapitator mech sword and enjoyed the protection of Unending alloy.

That was more than enough to allow a skilled expert pilot such as Venerable Dise to challenge and defeat a myriad of challenging foes!

Though the First Sword was able to accompany Venerable Dise a lot further due to the living mech's inherently high skill ceiling, the living expert mech ultimately showed her age, just like all of the other early generation Larkinson expert mechs.

This was how such an absurd situation came to be. Compared to a quasi-first-class mech design that incorporated a hefty amount of hyper technology and phasewater technology, the Storm Sword model indeed outperformed a second-class low-tier hyper expert mech on paper!

That did not mean that a Storm Sword or even 10 Storm Swords could defeat the First Sword in actual combat.

The combat power of a mech should never be evaluated in isolation. This was especially relevant in the case of high-ranking mechs.

The current Venerable Dise had evolved so far past the limits of mortal mech pilots that she could handedly thrash a squad of Storm Swords without much suspense!

The First Sword would get upgraded sooner or later. Ves and Gloriana just needed to modernize the Dark Zephyr first before they could tackle other upgrade projects.

Ketis understood this well, so she suppressed the urge to inquire about how much time needed to pass before the First Sword got her turn.

The current spotlight rested on the Storm Sword model. It was her latest pride and joy. She had worked hard to understand both phasewater technology and hyper technology to ensure her latest prestige project lived up to her growing reputation.

"How well did you cooperate with your collaboration partners?" Ves inquired.

"Well, you did not pitch in as much as you promised, but this is not necessarily a detriment to the design." Ketis said. "The Storm Sword is still a living mech, but I do not believe it has to evolve into a third order living mech to earn back its value."

"I know, but I think it is best if I make a final pass on your Storm Sword design." Ves responded. "Living mechs is a near-universal feature among the mechs fielded by our clan. Your Swordmaidens will feel as if they are missing out if they are the only ones who are piloting mechs that aren't as alive as the others. Aside from that, my contribution also ensures your Storm Swords come with the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem. This is a powerful force multiplier. The more Larkinson mechs are able to combine forces and form a pseudo-domain, the greater the advantages they can gain just by relying on numbers."

The swordmaster's expression changed. "I have witnessed the EWME in action plenty of times during this mission. The Fey Fiannas and the Transcendent Punisher Mark III's are making many Swordmaiden mech pilots jealous. Those currentgen mechs are able to conjure firestorms or surround the battlefield with mist as long as enough of them have gathered together. They can even interfere with the special abilities employed by mutated beasts."

The introduction of proper hyper technology already made the two quasi-first-class mech designs stand out from their peers.

Adding the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem on top of all of their other advantages allowed them to make an outsized impact on the battlefield!

The greater the mech army, the more dramatic the EWME became!

If not for the fact that the pseudo-domain was weak and easily overpowered by entities with real domains, the EWME would have given living mechs a power boost akin to half a battle network!

Ves was pleased to learn that Ketis had no objections to turning her Storm Sword into proper living mechs embedded with the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem. This would ensure that the high-end machines could fight alongside other Larkinson mechs without looking out of place.

Maintaining unity was paramount for morale and coordination. Mech ecosystems existed precisely to allow different mech models to fight alongside each other with minimal friction.

Ves studied the Storm Sword design closer. By default, they came with a blue coating, but were embellished by jagged purple patterns that represented lightning bolts.

"I already have a good understanding of the Storm Sword's defenses and mobility, but tell me about the weapons. Have you added anything special to them since the last time we discussed this project in depth?"

Ketis started to smile. "The Stormbreaker Greatswords that are paired with this model perform better than expected according to testing data. However, the effectiveness of this mech weapon is heavily reliant on the swordsmanship of the mech pilot. In the hands of Venerable Dise, the sword can be used to perform the Phase Cutter technique and break down transphasic shields with ease. In the hands of an inexperienced Swordmaiden mech pilot, the Stormbreaker does not fully live up to its name."

That caused Ves to furrow his brows. "Does that mean that only a small proportion of mech pilots are qualified to pilot the Storm Sword?"

"The Storm Sword is a swordsman mech that is solely designed for elites. Only the very best Swordmaidens can earn the privilege of piloting one. Compared to my original plan, I have made many design adaptations that have raised the skill floor of the Storm Sword. That makes it so that only advanced and highly trained mech pilots can effectively control my new mech, but given how much funding and resources I have channeled to the Swordmaidens, I expect them to step up and keep up with the growth of our clan. I do not ask them to become as good as genuine first-class mech pilots, but it is not enough for them to be simple second-class mech pilots anymore."

"How high did you raise the skill floor of the Storm Sword, exactly?"

"Very high. Maybe too high." Ketis responded. "To be honest, there are not enough mech pilots who are capable of piloting the Storm Sword properly, but I expect that to change in the following years. I can be patient enough. I do not want the Storm Sword to get overtaken so soon by a more recent mech design in the future."

Ketis may care a lot about the Swordmaidens, but that did not mean she wanted to pamper them. Her fellow sisters needed constant challenge and stimulation in order to sustain their growth and give them enough reasons to expand their limits.

This did not come without a cost. Many of the old veterans from the early days had already given up on this rat race. An increasing proportion of Swordmaidens from the younger generations began to surpass the old veterans.

The second-raters who attended excellent mech academies simply possessed better qualifications than a bunch of former third-class pirates!

"It is all worth it, right?"

"That, and more." Ketis viciously grinned. "A squad of Storm Swords piloted by skilled and experienced Swordmaidens will be a sight to behold. An entire company of them should also pose a fatal threat against any enemy sub-capital ship. Combined with their space suppressor modules, their Stormbreaker Greatswords will easily rip any transphasic energy shields to shreds. It can take only seconds for my most powerful swordsman mechs to pass through the energy shield layer under the right circumstances!"