The Mech Touch

Long after James left his stateroom, Ves remained in deep thought as he repeatedly analyzed everything he heard and inferred.

His spiritual adviser certainly lived up to his unofficial title. James Ylvaine was truly a font of knowledge when it came to the more mysterious side of reality.

"What a troublesome parting shot. Is he trying to ruin my impression of expert pilots?"

Clearly, James expressed his contempt for high-ranking mech pilots several times. It was as if they were somehow worse than those who pursued different paths to power.

Despite the great temptation to take everything that James said at his word, Ves couldn't bring himself to do so. The final remark especially compelled Ves to make a stand and refute what his advisor had claimed.

To Ves, expert pilots and higher weren't poor or crippled. Everyone relied on external tools and aid these days in order to do their jobs. Human civilization was practically defined by its extensive and ubiquitous use of technology to accomplish feats that were impossible to accomplish with human power alone!

After all, great feats such as constructing Dyson spheres around suns, terraforming lifeless rocks into life bearing planets and crossing the stars could never be done without the use of lots of vehicles and technological inventions.

Even a mech designer like Ves depended extensively on technology to propagate more technology. Didn't the criticism espoused by James apply to him as well? Was this the Living Prophet's veiled way of dissing his current path of progression?

"You bastard!"

Ves should feel happy. He not only learned a lot about a subject that he depended heavily upon, but he also solved many of his doubts and uncertainties with regards to his battle network.

Yet some of the implications that James alluded to added additional burdens to his mind. He felt haunted by some of the more unsettling theories and guesses he formed.

"Are mech pilots, and by extension mech designers, really crippled and overly dependent on external tools?"

He didn't think so. Ves was a mech designer. He was part of a greater society that depended entirely on tools to gain superiority over the rival alien empires that used to dominate the galaxy.

"Human civilization is an empire of tool users." Ves muttered. "The Seven Apex Races and many other alien civilizations used to lord it over us because of their inborn strengths and endowments. Now look at them. We've displaced them entirely from the most prosperous and juiciest parts of the galaxy. Many of their former empires have gone to ruin and all of their monuments and traces have disappeared."

He believed that the views espoused by James were more sympathetic towards the Five Scrolls Compact than the Big Two. This alone caused Ves to inherently reject the views espoused by the clone.

"I could use a bite."

Ves didn't bother standing up in order to eat a meal at the mess hall. Neither did he bother to call a chef to deliver a hand cooked meal to him. Why should he go through all of that trouble when he had plenty of food within arm's reach.

He opened one of his drawers, revealing a messy heap of nutrient packs. Ves picked up one of them and looked appreciatively at the label.

"These Ulimo nutrient packs are certainly unique. If my ships had the room, I would have packed up their nutrient processing plant and taken it back."

Perhaps the Larkinson Clan should look into producing its own nutrient packs.

"Nah." Ves put down the suggestion as he tore open the wrapper. "The nutrient pack sector is one of the most oversaturated markets in human space."

He dug out the small spoon that was embedded in the folds of the wrapper and began to spoon the dry, dense concentration of nutrients. As soon as he swallowed his first spoonful, his eyes lit up. His taste buds instantly came in touch with deep, rich flavors.

After spooning up a few more scoops, he immediately felt invigorated. A burst of energy refreshed his mind and eased his stress. He felt ready to work an entire week!

Once Ves finished his meal, he restored his hydration level by drinking a large glass of water.

"Ahhh!" He sighed in pleasure. "I needed that."

Taking a break and eating a hearty nutrient pack completely reset his mind. Now that he had taken a step back, he no longer felt as troubled as before.

"Who cares what he thinks?" Ves huffed. "I chose to be a mech designer. My job is to serve mech pilots by providing them with the best tools for the job. Is there anything wrong with this? Just because I can't become like my mother doesn't mean I'm inferior!"

He was not jealous of his mother and her extensive mastery over spiritual manipulation!

Whatever James thought about mech pilots was only relevant to himself. The rest of the Larkinson Clan largely centered around mechs. Both its mech pilots and its mech designers were vital to its future might and prosperity.

In the Age of Mechs, this was a winning combination!

"Making use of mechs is even better than relying on yourself. As long as mechs are alive, the combination of human and mech can achieve fantastic synergy that can rival the entities who pretend they are gods!"

The previous battle was a fantastic example of this. At the very end when the Unending One was about to unleash his wrath, Venerable Jannzi, her mech and Qilanxo all combined forces to crush the ancient alien horror!

Alone, the three probably weren't capable of defending against the Unending One. Together, they had the potential to overturn the entire galaxy!

"My design philosophy centers around symbiosis. By nature, my research and ambition is all about combining different elements together in order to accomplish a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. I can't do much with a single part."

Ves felt more sure of himself after he made this realization.

He shoved this matter aside and returned his attention to developing his second battle network. He tweaked his design for the battle network in order to account for willpower. If it was possible for Commander Dise to 'share' a portion of her willpower with her fellow Swordmaidens, then Ves wanted his battle network to facilitate this as much as possible.

He didn't change all that much, though. His second battle network may be narrower in scope, but Ves did at least distinguish it in one specific way.

Inspired by James' description of the power of will, Ves decided not to leave any room for any potential design spirits. The Swordmaidens were some of the most willful mech pilots in the Larkinson Clan. Even the normal Swordmaiden mech pilots possessed minds of steel.

Enhancing their performance with design spirits and glows would only clash against their martial tradition. They were used to being self-sufficient and relying on themselves.

Even if Ves intended to create a sword-oriented design spirit in the future, he didn't want his Swordmaidens to lose this intrinsic strength.

If the Penitent Sister battle network worked entirely on spiritual energy, the Swordmaiden network instead ran on force of will.

Ves added a few safeguards to his design, though he wasn't really sure how effective they would be. When it came to spiritual engineering, a lot of additions that Ves intended to add to his work ended up rather fuzzy. This was the inherent challenge of manipulating something that Ves wished to bring to life.

After a while, he felt satisfied with what he accomplished.

"It might not look much right now, but hopefully it will grow into power."

The next day, Ves shuttled over to the Jaded Sword in order to install his second battle network.

As soon as he arrived, Ketis enthusiastically greeted right outside his shuttle.

"Ves! You're here! Are you checking up on Commander Dise's custom mech?"

"Ah, I'm here for a different reason, but I might as well check up on your progress so far. How much have you changed?"

"Not a lot, but there are still some weeks to go. Let me show you the current state of the Sword Hunter."

"Sword Hunter?" Ves raised his eyebrow.

"That's the name of the mech we worked on. Dise doesn't need any fancy names for her machine. She just wants a mech that is able to attack and move according to her expectations. She has already outpaced her current machine so she expects much from the Sword Hunter."

Even if Ketis made the current Sword Hunter perfect for Commander Dise, it might not last. If the Swordmaiden Commander ever managed to advance to expert pilot in the next battle, then the Sword Hunter would only momentarily be able to keep up due to the temporary outburst of resonance that accompanied the breakthrough.

After that, the mech would likely turn into a sluggish mule for an expert pilot such as her! Only an expert mech would be able to satisfy her from that point!

Once the pair of mech designers arrived at a mech workshop, Ves saw that the Swordmaidens had already disassembled much of the mech. Various Swordmaiden mech technicians were in the process of replacing some of the internal components with higher-performing ones.

Ves instinctively reached out with his Spirituality in order to smooth over the many imperfections that was marring the mech's spiritual foundation.

The mech was already radiating with power. If any Swordmaiden mech pilot randomly entered the cockpit and tried to boot it up, she might actually die!

Only Commander Dise among the Swordmaidens possessed the strength to withstand the pressure extend by her own mech!

As Ves finished his task, he briefly reflected on what he had done.

"Mechs and mech pilots. Do they both rely on the same source of power?"

Mech pilots resonated with their mechs by utilizing their force of will. They needed to combine both their spiritual energy and willpower to produce a composite force that allowed them to wield greater power.

"What if.. the mech pilot doesn't have to supply these powers. What if they came from the mech?"

Wasn't this what he was already doing to an extent? His spiritual foundation enhancement attempts added a substantial amount of spiritual energy to the mech.

When a mech pilot interfaced with an enhanced mech, they essentially pooled their own spirituality with the spiritual foundation of their machine.

"They're like married couples!" Ves suddenly realized.

His outburst surprised Ketis for a moment, but as soon as she realized that he was having another epiphany, she dutifully kept quiet.

As for Ves, he was in the process of applying all of the insights he recently gained and combining them with his previous invention.

Right now, his spiritually-enhanced mechs possessed varying degrees of spiritual energy saturation.

Just like a man and wife, what belonged to the mech also belonged to the mech after they interfaced with each other.

Conversely, what belonged to the mech pilot should also belong to the mech in this situation!

Ves didn't think it was that simple, but if this outlandish theory matched reality, then the implications were profound!

If Ves somehow managed to imbue both spiritual energy and willpower into a mech, didn't that mean it had all the ingredients necessary to accomplish resonance?

It just needed a mech pilot to channel both kinds of power.

Was this a viable means of creating an expert mech without requiring a corresponding expert pilot?

Would he be able to bring an expert mech into existence that was just as strong as the real deal with just a regular mech pilot?

Ves was really shocked at his own realization! Something as radical as a standalone expert mech would completely subvert the entire mech industry!

There were so many mech pilots in the galaxy but few of them managed to advance to a higher rank. If Ves made it possible for normal mech pilots such as Melkor and Dietrich to make full use of an expert mech, then was it possible to make expert pilots redundant?

His body shivered.