The Mech Touch

The physical projection of Master Willix calmly inspected the design schematics of the Cat's Paw.

Ves casually stood in the isolated chamber while the Darkbreak module remained active.

Perhaps in the past, he would have never dared to call an esteemed MTA Master Mech Designer, especially for something as trivial as seeking consultation.

Yet after frequent contacts and talks with the Master, Ves slowly lost his apprehension towards Moira Willix.

Certainly, he did not dare to act too presumptuously in front of other MTA Masters. They enjoyed a very high status in one of the most powerful organizations of human civilization. Each Master from the Association could easily affect the lives of entire star sectors with their words and deeds!

The fact that they remained distant and aloof from the local space peasants made them even more unfathomable. Many ordinary mech designers who never interacted with the core people of the MTA developed all sorts of wild fantasies about the great organization that represented their profession.

Ves was no different, once. Yet now that he had come into contact with both the Rim Guardians and Master Willix, he realized that the elite humans who were part of the Association were not as obtuse as he thought.

Familiarity slowly tore away the veil of mystery in front of Master Willix.

The more he talked to her, the more he realized that she was a very pure mech designer.

Her heart for mech design was not bothered by temporal desires such as greed or power.

Ves recognized that she simply wanted to design better mechs. Nothing else.

Her status within the MTA merely served as a means to an end to her. That said, it would be a mistake to think of her as someone who stood apart from the Association. She lived and breathed its rules down to her very bones.

That was both good and bad.

The advantage to Ves was that she possessed a very generous mindset towards young talents like him. Every mech designer bore the responsibility of bringing up the younger generation. Even though Ves was barely older than thirty years old, he already started to take on this role by teaching Ketis, the Larkinson seeds and the rest of his assistants.

The bad news was that she was quite strict with the rules. There was no way he could gain an exception from her. The most she was willing to do was to bend the rules, but if something was absolutely forbidden, she would never acquiesce!

Ves admired her for that. She held onto her principles like a solid rock. Her steadfastness presented an extreme contrast to his.. flexible conduct in matters of principle.

Regardless, her nature as a teacher and her open favor towards him had made Ves a little bold.

Since Master Willix was willing to guide him, why not take advantage of it? As long as he no longer paid so much stock to her identity as a powerful and inscrutable MTA Master Designer, she was just a very enthusiastic lover of mechs.

Ves happened to love mechs as well!

Over the course of his interactions with many people, he gradually learned an important lesson.

No matter how different he was from others, he could still get along with them as long as he focused on what they held in common.

No one was the same, and there were many people who possessed completely different backgrounds, ideologies and principles than him. Yet by finding some common ground such as originating from the same state, fighting the same enemy or participating in the same mission, Ves got along with folks ranging from Ylvainans, Swordmaidens and other weirdos.

If he could befriend religious nuts and former pirates, why shouldn't he be able to have a normal conversation with one of the most influential people in the Komodo Star Sector?

Master Willix finally gathered her thoughts. To be honest, Ves didn't believe this was the first time she studied the incomplete Cat's Paw design. Ves had collaborated with Gloriana many times through the Darkbreak module, so Master Willix should have easily been able to peep at them while they slowly pieced the heavy artillery mech together!

"I didn't have to study your record to know that the Cat's Paw Project is your first heavy mech design." She began. "It is very arrogant for you to design a heavy mech of this caliber for the very first time. You also have no experience in designing artillery mechs. The rifleman mechs you have designed in the past are completely different from what you are trying to tackle."

Ves grew a little hot. "My partner has helped shore up my shortcomings."

"Miss Wodin is not a heavy mech designer. Just because she has been involved in some heavy mech design projects as an assistant in the past does not mean she understands the essence of heavy mechs. The two of you lack too much comprehension to design a competent heavy mech."

It hurt a bit when she told him that his work was inadequate, but Master Willix's judgement was probably correct. As a maturing mech designer, Ves understood the earnestness of her admonishment. She did not criticize him in order to step on his face. She pointed out his mistakes in order to set him onto a correct path.

"Please guide me, ma'am." Ves slightly bowed. "I have tried my best to apply what I have learned, and so did my partner. In our eyes, our Cat's Paw Project should have conformed to what we have learned."

Ves had studied several Clarion University textbooks that related heavy mechs. Gloriana possessed her own Hexer learning resources.

While the Friday Coalition and the Hexadric Hegemony possessed slightly different interpretations of heavy mechs, there were a lot of universal principles.

"There is not much wrong with the design principles that you have learned. The issue is that you may know how to implement a solution, but do not entirely understand why you should choose a specific solution. The small errors that you and your partner are making is a problem of vision, not science."

Well that sounded clarifying. Not. Ves tried his best to keep his frown off his face.

"Uhm… could you elaborate?"

"Let me ask you this. Your experience with heavy mechs is limited, correct?"

He reluctantly nodded. "That is correct. Heavy mechs are not ubiquitous in my daily life. My design activities mostly intersect with the private sector. On some rare occasions, I accept commissions from government entities, but even then I rarely get in touch with heavy mechs."

There were very few heavy mechs in the Larkinson Clan. The Flagrant Vandals had brought over their Akkara heavy artillery mechs, but there weren't many of them. Ves never visited the Princely Jackal or other Vandal sh.i.p.s, so he had never studied those impressive mechs up close.

"You need to develop a better feel towards heavy mechs, Mr. Larkinson. Therefore, the first step you need to make is to see and study them up close. You need to understand the raw power they possess, the enormous amount of mass that make them solid and the many limitations they possess that make them vulnerable to certain attacks. While I am certain that you already possess a good amount of understanding of the theory, this is slightly different."

He understood what she was trying to convey. His perspective towards heavy mechs was too distant and too heavily based on theory. This caused him to develop a skewed and shallow understanding towards these majestic machines that was very flawed in the eyes of a high authority in mech design!

Normally, Ves would have sought to undergo a Mastery in heavy mechs, but this was not the time for him to mentally wander off for a week.

As long as Task Force Predator remained in the Nyxian Gap, Ves had to assume that a crisis could burst out at any moment!

"I will take the time to get up close to heavy mechs. Thank you for the advice. Do you have any other advice, ma'am?"

The physical projection of Master Willix began pacing around the isolated chamber. She wasn't in a hurry to open her mouth.

For a moment, Ves developed a strange thought. Since she projected herself in this chamber in this fashion, wouldn't it be possible for him to..

What was he thinking?! Ves immediately scrubbed his mind of irrelevant thought. This was not the time for him to think about the activities he performed with Gloriana's physical projection in this chamber!

Fortunately, Master Willix didn't seem to notice his impure thoughts.

"The basic rationale for heavy mechs are simple. They are large, heavy machines that possess so much mass that they are incapable of relying on their mobility to dodge or evade attacks. They are also slow to move, which is a disadvantage in many battles. Retreating becomes impossible, and so does advancing quickly. This is also why they are mostly fielded by state mech militaries. Heavy mechs are very potent in both large-scale battles and battles of attrition."

Ves nodded. "Another reason why heavy mechs are used by states is because they provide much more value relative to how much capacity they occupy on a carrier vessel."

"That is an important reason for their use, yes. With the various advantages and disadvantages of heavy mechs, it is rare for smaller private organizations to make use of them. Naturally, this rule applies less to larger organisations such as your Larkinson Clan. Tell me, what is the reason for you to design the Cat's Paw?"

"Our Larkinson Clan will soon acquire a factory ship and a fleet of combat carriers. Each of them are very valuable and require a lot of protection. Since they come with bunkers, we can make use of them by slotting in the Cat's Paw."

"Why design the Cat's Paw as a landbound heavy artillery mech?" She asked. "Why did you not design a spaceborn heavy artillery mech instead?"

"The mobility of the latter will never be good. Adding a functioning flight system onto a heavy mech is an enormous building and will take up way too much capacity. A lot of the energy that the mech can draw upon will have to be diverted to the flight system as well, thereby reducing the firepower of such a mech even further. I would rather design a flightless heavy artillery mech that I can fully devote towards maximizing firepower."

She nodded. "This is a logical reason. Spaceborn mechs have to devote a considerable amount of capacity to accommodate flight systems. This is a major burden that you must have already experienced in your previous mech designs. However, you are missing the point. There are many differences between spaceborn and landbound heavy artillery mechs, but why do they truly exist? Why has the mech community settled on defining heavy mechs within specific boundaries?"

Ves paused a moment. He dug up a lesson he learned long ago. "Heavy mechs should be big enough to fulfill their roles in a cost, resource and time-efficient manner. They should not exceed a certain mass or volume because doing so makes them less efficient in the areas that I have mentioned."

"That is a good answer, Mr. Larkinson, but it does not address the point I am trying to make. Mech designers develop heavy mechs along a substantially different paradigm from light and medium mechs. There are good reasons why most mech designers who choose to specialize in heavy mechs belong to a different category. It is not easy to span all three standard weight classes."

She provided another vague answer. Ves felt increasingly more irritated at her lack of clarity. Master Willix probably didn't want him to obtain answers from others. She believed it was best if he came up with the answer on his own!"

"Every mech designer develops a slightly different perspective towards heavy mechs." Master Willix noted. "Depending on how you view them, your heavy mech designs will take on different characters. This is something you must explore on your own. This is a deeply personal process."

"Understood. Thank you again for your guidance." Ves respectfully bowed yet again.

The guidance of a genuine Master Mech Designer neatly made up some of his weaknesses that he had developed as he rose up into prominence.

Despite his various thoughts towards Master Willix and the MTA, he earnestly appreciated her teachings.

As a mech designer, he could set aside everything else in order to learn some valuable lessons!