The Mech Touch

"Some of the shortcomings of your specialty have come to light." Gloriana pointed out. "By resorting heavily on ranged attacks, our Blessed Squires are being shot left and right before they can even make it to the enemy lines."

Her physical projection leaned against Ves. The realism of the Darkbreak module's projection technology was so great that it was as if her body was actually aboard the Scarlet Rose!

This time they did not employ this fantastic tech for its original purpose. They had too much work to do to waste their time on expressing their love.

Both of them paid closer attention to the progress of the Komodo War since one of their products finally entered the field.

Ves enjoyed Gloriana's projected warmth as he studied the limited amount of footage and reports he received from DIVA.

Tracking the performance of the Blessed Squire was crucial to the development of their subsequent Hexer mechs!

From what he had seen so far, every Hexer mech regiment that received the Blessed Squire had already embraced the new product wholeheartedly.

Neither their males or females neglected this useful mech model and made sure to treat it with reverence.

To many Hexers, it was unthinkable to employ the Blessed Squire as cannon fodder!

Part of it was due to its desirable glow. The Superior Mother seemed to resonate with Hexers of every gender and every background. From the lowest classes of commoners to the noble and arrogant highborn females descended from the matriarchal dynasties, everyone who grew up as a Hexer inexplicably valued the Blessed Squires once they experienced its glow!

Certainly, there were plenty of conservative Hexers who feared this drastic change and suspected that some form of brainwashing was at work, but the victories this mech enabled slowly wormed away their stubbornness!

While it was too early to tell whether the Blessed Squire changed the views of the Hexers to a more boy-friendly ideology, the signs so far were modestly optimistic.

"What are you grinning about?! This is a serious problem, and this is just the prelude. The Friday Coalition will unveil other responses soon enough!"

"It's fine, Gloriana. The Blessed Squire is still fulfilling its purpose, if not as one-sided. First, the Blessed Squire will always be able to support other Hexers. If it can't effectively boost friendly melee mechs, then it can still boost friendly ranged mechs!"

"The differences aren't as big. Emotions play a much bigger factor at close range. In a long-ranged firefight, the material performance of mechs play a much greater role."

She was right. Melee combat was quick, fast, brutal and visceral. Mech pilots needed to have the grit and confidence to confront an enemy mech that swung a heavy implement that could easily inflict heavy damage at an instant!

The Blessed Squire always provided the Hexer mech pilots with great advantages in these situations. Unfortunately, some of the utility it provided became invalid when the Hexers failed to close the distance.

Though Gloriana looked quite upset at this development, Ves was a bit more nonchalant about it. As the principal designer of this mech, he had already anticipated this kind of response.

It made too much sense to do so. A mech whose greatest strength only took effect at a limited range around its frame would always become a priority target at range!

"I'm afraid our Blessed Squire won't be as valued by the Hex Army anymore after this." Gloriana quivered.

"It's okay." Ves whispered. "The Blessed Squire is not a fragile mech. It's a knight mech with a shield, so the Fridaymen always have to invest a lot of firepower into taking it out. In the meantime, Hexer ranged mechs aren't as constrained and can focus their firepower on more vulnerable targets. Therefore, even if the Blessed Squire can't play a role, its presence on the battlefield still imposes some constraints on the Fridaymen!"

This was how real battles were fought between states. From some of his previous Mastery experiences, he knew that the development and use of different mech models constantly evolved.

Even when suppressed, the Blessed Squire still added value to the Hex Army, so Ves did not share Gloriana's pessimism.

Besides, the Fridaymen hadn't unveiled their killer weapons yet. The Miracle Couple's true crisis began the moment the Fridaymen Masters rolled out their counters against his specialty!

Considering the formidable design capabilities of Masters, they probably already developed numerous candidates. They were probably being tested in secret labs at this time.

Gloriana raised another topic of concern. "I'm worried about our Valkyrie Redeemer. As an aerial mech that primarily relies on spear charges to take out its foes, its very vulnerable to ranged attacks."

"The same applies to every aerial mech, Gloriana. This is hardly unique to our Valkyrie Redeemer. Different from the Blessed Squire, our second Hexer mech can selectively project its death-based glow to any distant target. That alleviates the range limitation a bit. Also, our marauder mech is also designed to fight away from the frontlines, so it won't encounter as much ranged firepower."

"My fellow Hexers won't value our mechs that much if they keep encountering so much focused resistance. In the long term, we'll become less valued if this keeps up. I think we need to develop some effective ranged mechs as soon as possible!"

The worry and urgency in her tone betrayed her need for validation. Ever since the Blessed Squire accelerated the takeover of Marrakath, her fame and reputation in the Hegemony had grown dramatically!

The thought of losing all of these gains made her desperate!

Ves kissed her projected cheek and tried to comfort her. "There is no point in rushing ourselves. Let's finish our current projects first before embarking on other ones. In the meantime, we can observe all of the counters the Fridaymen will eventually bring to bear against our initial products. Once we know what they are capable of, we can implement specific countermeasures in our subsequent Hexer mechs."

"You're.. right." She sighed. "I'm being too hasty. I'm just infuriated at the rampant bullying of our babies. They can hardly poke out their heads these days without getting shot!"

Though the Blessed Squires still provided the Hex Army with some advantages, Ves agreed with his partner that it was better to introduce some ranged mechs in the near future.

Ves felt the need to prove that his mechs also provided a competitive advantage at range!

It was not as if Ves already designed successful ranged mechs. The Desolate Soldier and Deliverer mechs both achieved great results in the Sand War.

The challenge was that it wasn't enough to boost their morale anymore. The Blessed Squire already fulfilled that role to some extent. Designing a ranged mech with a similar glow as their first Hexer mech introduced too little variety.

Perhaps the Hexers might even regard him as a one-trick pony!

The pair began to swap some ideas on what their next Hexer mechs should offer.

"It has to differentiate itself from both existing Hexer military mechs and our Blessed Squires." She told him. "Maybe we can apply the ranged glow mechanic of the Valkyrie Redeemer to our third Hexer design project, but that is not enough I think."

Ves pursed his lips. "The impact of exposing an enemy mech pilot to a ranged glow is not as drastic when it comes from a ranged mech. The reason why I believe the Valkyrie Redeemer pairs well with this mechanic is because it complements its charge attack. Everyone fears a mech barreling down on your position! What my glow does is to amplify this fear in order to hamper the response of the victim. This dynamic is largely absent in a ranged firefight."

"Then what can we do to give our ranged Hexer mech an advantage in this situation? We can't afford to shame the majesty of a Supreme! The Fridaymen must fear her and submit to her in order to do right by your mother!"

He jerked when she said that. Ves felt like vomiting. His mother might be a soul-sucking ghost, but she was no tyrant! At least that he knew of. Who knew what her past was like.

"Ahem." He coughed. "I've learned some new tricks recently. I've already told you about the breakthrough that I've made in our Sanctuary Project. I'll see if I can apply them to our other projects. However, I do admit it is rather tricky to make a ranged mech stand out. Even though my glows sound great, they mainly affect mech pilots. At its core, my design philosophy has always centered on increasing the integration between mechs and mech pilots. My solution will have to come from this direction."

This was his greatest strength but also his greatest constraint. While he entertained some radical ideas, he did not forget that his primary focus was never about enhancing the technical performance of his mechs.

That was Gloriana's responsibility.

Instead, he should find his own way to Increase the applicability of his specialty in ranged combat.

Several ideas passed through his mind. Many of them weren't viable.

"You know, one of your cousins has started to make a name for himself in the Friday Coalition. He's famed for bringing around a bunch of quasi-expert mechs and using them to overwhelm opposing expert mechs with a flood of ranged attacks."

Ah yes, Venerable Ghanso. Ves harbored a lot of loathing for this obstinate Larkinson.

"What are you trying to say?'

"While Ghanso deserves death for killing so many Hexer war heroes, I have to admit that Master Huron has developed a novel way of increasing the effective power of expert pilots. From what our spies have managed to uncover, Ghanso's mind is neurally linked with all of those quasi-expert mechs."

"I know. Aisling explained some of Master Huron's work to me during the brief time I was her captive. I didn't know that this Master's specialty could be applied in this way."

Gloriana grinned at him. "Why not steal his idea? Can you apply your glow in a way that allows Hexers to connect each other with the help of the Superior Mother? She's so powerful! There has to be a way, right?!"

"Woah, there! Do you even know what you are talking about?! This sounds crazy! It's already dangerous enough to mess with neural connections. Forming these connections through glows sounds absolutely crazy!"

In fact, Ves did not believe it was as impossible as he made it out to be. The Superior Mother already acted as the hub of an immense spiritual network. Though the strength of this network paled in comparison to the Larkinson Network, he believed it might be possible to link the participants together in some way.

That didn't mean he was eager to do so, however! Such a radical innovation would definitely reveal too much about his specialty! He didn't even need to guess that Master Willix would immediately pay him a friendly visit and 'invite' him to stay with her at Halcyon Citadel for an indeterminate period of time.

Some lines simply couldn't be crossed!

He argued a bit with Gloriana until she finally dropped her dangerous proposal.

"Spoilsport." She grumbled. "What are we supposed to do, then? Can't you persuade the Ylvainan proto-god to lend his powers to the Hexer cause?'

"That's impossible. Ylvaine only blesses his own devoted. That has always been the rule. Providing Hexer ranged mechs with predictive targeting is off the table."

They didn't have a lot of good ideas after ruling out this option.

Eventually, they called it a day.

"We still have months to flesh out our design concept. There's no hurry."

"I'm aware, Ves. It's just that I'm afraid we won't have anything good by the time we are supposed to embark on our next projects."

"Just because I don't have any good ideas at the moment doesn't mean this will stay this way in the future. I'm constantly progressing my design philosophy. I'll try my best to expand in this direction in order to make our ranged mechs just as useful as our melee mechs."

"You better!"