The Mech Touch

The Larkinson mech was probably one of the most cost-inefficient mechs he ever designed.

Ves felt ashamed at how he let himself go. When presented with difficult design choices, he became more and more inclined to pick the lazy option and rely on his financial superiority rather than his ingenuity in mech design.

"It's as if I was previously rationing my meals because I couldn't afford any better, but then start to gorge myself once I can buy all the food I want!"

From this analogy, Ves was practically binging himself right now! The Larkinson mech became more and more stuffed with wonderful but extremely expensive features!

Fortunately, Ves did not set out to design a commercial mech from the start. Cost efficiency was one of the lowest priorities of a private mech, a mech developed for his own use!

If he was tasked with designing a commissioned mech, then he at least needed to abide by the budget of the client.

"I'm my own client right now." He grinned.

Being able to answer to no one to himself was a liberating experience. Neither the mech market nor the whimsical desires of a capricious client interfered with his demands. He had no need to take the expected product margin into account, nor did he have to add a codpiece onto his mech against his will!

Well, a small part of him wanted to add a subtle 'belt' onto the base platform of the Larkinson mech.

He quickly squashed down that impulse. He was not Vincent Ricklin! He did not need to emphasize his masculinity every second of the day!

Besides, he wasn't designing this mech alone. Gloriana also had a say, though her voice mattered less this time because it was mainly his pet project.

He never lost sight of his goal.

The Larkinson mech was meant to provide as much added value as possible to the Larkinson Clan. The mech had to provide his mech forces with benefits beyond what the market could provide!

This was why he didn't mind that the production cost of the mech rose to astronomic levels. Even with the cost of the Breyer alloy taken out of the equation, the unit price of a single copy might very well exceed the price of an Aurora Titan!

The culprits responsible for ballooning the cost of the mech was the various expensive components and materials Ves had added. While essential components such as the power reactor, flight system and the cockpit failed to attract much attention, they were very expensive compared to other components on the market!

"They're worth it. I don't regret licensing any of these overpriced components!"

All of these goodies served to elevate the Larkinson mech to the limits of third-class mechs or beyond. Ves fully embraced the notion of treating the Larkinson mech as his passion project.

Ves not only wanted to incorporate all of the features and nuances in the Larkinson mech that he refrained from adding to his other designs. He also wanted to take this opportunity a step further and push through some 'spicy' innovations!

In many subtle ways, the Larkinson mech design departed from his previous products by a significant margin. Not even the Deliverer, which was already extreme for a mech design, contained as many radical elements as his current project!

One of the subtler innovations he pushed through was adding various ways for the design spirit to 'nudge' the mech to move or act in a certain direction.

He did so during a design session when he became particularly inspired. He didn't quite know what he was doing, but he was adding several optional control methods to the various components that seemed redundant.

The neural interface was the key. As long as the neural interface outputted a signal from a second source, the mech would obey as long as the first source did not object!

Ordinarily, there was no reason to add these tweaks to the mech design. It added a vulnerability to the mech as the second source could very well take the form of tampering or outside interference!

Nonetheless, Ves believed the chances of that happening were low. The benefits were well worth the risk in his eyes. This was essentially incorporating an innovation that he already applied to the Devil Tiger.

Back then, Ves gave Zeigra, its design spirit, full control over the movements of its tail!

"This time, the control goes beyond just a balancing component."

The tail of a tiger mech only played a marginal role in its functioning. This contrasted sharply with how extensively Ves embedded backdoors throughout the base platform and individual configurations.

He did all of this to provide the Golden Cat with agency on the battlefield!

As the progenitor of the Golden Cat, he believed in his own product. He had faith that the ancestral spirit was completely dedicated to the Larkinson Clan and would never abuse her access to the systems of the Larkinson mech!

That said, Ves made sure the Golden Cat only had enough authority to 'nudge' the mech. Taking over outright control was a step too far even to Ves.

As a principle, the mech pilot should always be in control of the mech. No one else. Not the mech designer, not the mech, not the design spirit should ever interfere with the primacy of the mech pilot!

"A mech is not a mech if the mech pilot is not in control anymore." He muttered.

He dubbed this new feature Ancestral Assistance to reflect that the Golden Cat should only ever play an assisting role. There should never be a case where she would have to take control directly!

"I don't even know if that's even possible." He mused. "It's an interesting experiment, though."

Once he was done with these novel adjustments, he showed off his work to Gloriana as if he was a kid running to his mother.

"Well? What do you think?"

The female mech designer studied the altered schematic with a thoughtful expression. Her face soon turned pensive.

"You're very… bold. I give you that. Don't you care about the potential the mech might get hijacked?"

Ves shook his head. "The mech pilot remains in control. He can override any command from any other source. I made sure to hardwire that into the hardware and software of our mech. I spent extra time to add some redundant programming to the operating system in order to make sure that third parties can't wrest control!"

"I admit that your precautions are adequate, but.. it's the principle of the matter. This is yet another worrying sign of your deviances, Ves. You're getting weirder and weirder in your mech design. While I understand where you are coming from, just because we are working on a private project doesn't mean you have to abandon each and every requirement set by the market!"

"I'm not adding stuff willy-nilly to my mech! Every addition improves my mech in some way!"

"You're indulging in yourself too much!" She hit back! "Your restraint is getting less and less. Our mech is already overloaded with your 'innovations'. I don't think it will benefit it if you continue to add any more unplanned features to its design!"

Though Ves disagreed with his girlfriend, he was still affected by her rebuke. He stopped looking for opportunities to add further innovations to the design.

Instead, Ves and Gloriana transitioned into the refinement and optimization phase of the design project. Days passed by as they began to tighten the overall design and squeeze out more performance out of the rough implementations.

They weren't able to devote enough time to each of the four configurations. Many refinements required a lot of time, and Ves was forced to skip sleep for multiple days at a time in order to meet his increasingly brutal schedule.

Physically, his body could go on an extended period without sleep. Mentally, his mood began to be affected by his continuous obsession over his work.

This was not a bad thing! The pressure and urgency drove him to work even harder and commit himself more to his project. Even as his mind was starting to become a little bit frayed, he continued to persist by borrowing from the strength of his strong Spirituality!

He grew even less aware of his outside circumstances. He stopped showing up at his daily meetings with Gavin and others because he didn't even want to leave his design lab!

He fabricated his own bed and turned one of the private offices into his bedroom in order to skip the travel time between the Austen Estate and his headquarters!

The only person who could pull him back from his design fugues was Gloriana.

"You're very intense lately." She said mildly. "I'm concerned about your health. I love designing mechs as much as anyone, but I don't skip my sleep every day!"

Ves embraced her in a brief hug. "I'm not asking you to. I can afford to go without sleep because of my augmentations. Your limits are lower than mine, so you should never try to imitate me. What you have contributed to the project is already sufficient!"

"Really?"

"Really." He smiled and kissed her on the lips. "I love you, Gloriana. Designing this mech with you is one of the most important reasons I can persist in my work!"

She looked adoringly into his eyes. "Oh Ves…"

Small moments like these invigorated Ves whenever he began to approach a mental limit. Sharing his passion with someone he loved was one of the greatest pleasures of his life. It was such a far cry from his days where he designed all alone!

Even the design teams that assisted their work from the side played considerable roles in making his marathon sessions more tolerable. He could offload all of the tedious and time-consuming tasks to his assistants. As long as the assignments didn't require too much knowledge or skill, Ves could pass them off to others without any further worries!

This was a very considerable luxury that Ves had neglected for too long. He even felt that he needed to expand his design teams in order to ease his burdens even more!

All of these factors played a role in sustaining his drive to design the Larkinson mech. No matter what kind of hindrances he encountered, he always managed to overcome them in some way!

As the first iteration of the design neared completion, Ves began to feel as if he had made a great accomplishment. He felt very good about his work so far. As long as the first prototype performed within expectations, then all of his efforts weren't in vain!

"I poured my very heart and soul in this design!" Ves clenched his fist and thumped it against his heart. "This mech design must succeed! My passion and my vision are on the line!"

The Larkinson mech design was a high-stakes bet in his eyes. He incorporated many major and minor innovations that he hadn't adequately tested before.

Though Gloriana questioned his weird design choices many times, in the end she had chosen to believe in his vision.

Ves appreciated her support. He could have never designed the Larkinson mech up to this point without her indispensable help!

Though it was a pity that her reluctance dampened some of her passion in the project, Ves hoped that his overpowering drive more than compensated for the shortfall!

"It's finished!"

After another day of refinement, both Ves and Gloriana agreed to set the current state of the design as the first iteration of their mech!

The Tovars, the Ylvainans and the other assistant mech designers practically collapsed in their chairs. With Ves setting such a frantic example, his design teams sought to keep up as much as possible!

Even Gloriana looked tired beyond belief as she had to cope with the rapid pace of design work. Ves was like a monster in the last month! He almost never tired and constantly progressed the mech design whenever she wasn't paying attention!

Reaching this important checkpoint was a massive relief to her. Now that the design had reached this stage, the upcoming design work would continue to focus on optimization as opposed to innovation.

Her ordeal was over!