The Mech Touch

Gloriana showed him some additional mech models that successfully interfered with the glow of the Blessed Squire.

The Glow Crusher was the unquestionable winner so far. It offered the Friday Coalition a strong, targeted counter against the unique Hexer mech model that had given them so much grief over the last few months!

The other mech models, such as the spaceborn swordsman mech called the Turbid Nightmare, sought to interfere with glows in different but more demanding ways. They were not as practical on the battlefield due to the simple fact that these mechs had to get very close to their targets.

So far, the Fridaymen mech designers failed to develop a solution that could disturb a glow at range. This was one of his greatest fears, because developing a new weapon that could counter the glows of his mechs would instantly decrease the added value of his products by half!

Ves wasn't sure whether his competitors were close to developing such a solution, but he couldn't underestimate their ability.

The Glow Crusher designed by Master Olson and Master Katzenberg already exceeded his expectations! As an early, first-generation counter, it unquestionably did its job without any superfluous elements.

He could already foresee other mech designers developing more specialized and tailored variants from this excellent base model. As long as they all incorporated Olson-Katzenberg alloy and generated motion energy, then the new derivative designs should all be capable of popping glows as easily as popping soap bubbles!

When Gloriana finished presenting the counters designed by their competitors, Ves fell silent for a time.

Seeing one of the selling points of his mechs neutralized in such a fashion inflicted a severe blow to his confidence. He hadn't expected his glows to be so easy to negate. The Glow Crusher did not even have to physically thrust its lance through a Blessed Squire. It only had to get close enough in order to accomplish its purpose!

This meant that the Hexers needed to widen their security perimeter to adequately guard a Blessed Squire. It was not enough to deploy a bunch of knight mechs and surround the crucial mech up close.

"How has the Hex Army responded?" He asked.

"Our military hasn't abandoned the Blessed Squire." She reassured him. "Sure, it has become more difficult to take advantage of our work, but it is still a great benefit to the Hexers fighting on behalf of the Hegemony. The Glow Crushers are difficult to mass-produce at the moment, so there are plenty of battles where our Blessed Squires only have to stay on guard against the lesser counters. Even if the Glow Crushers become more ubiquitous, the burden on the enemy is still greater. These mechs have to get dangerously close in order to overwhelm a glow, and that puts them in a dangerous position."

Just because the new lancer mechs did not have to reach point-blank range did not mean that they were spared from taking risks. The Glow Crushers still had to rush close enough to put them at risk of getting surrounded by other Hexer mechs. Ves could easily imagine that the likelihood of casualties among the mech pilots assigned to this new model should not be optimistic!

Gloriana mentioned another piece of news. "The Hex Army discovered another simple means to ensure the glows stay intact. Some units have already begun to deploy multiple Blessed Squires at the same. Sometimes, they like to put some in reserve. If a Blessed Squire ever loses its glow, the commander simply replaces them with a fresh and fully-functional copy. The Fridaymen always get angry when that happens."

Both of them chuckled. It took a considerable sacrifice to pop a glow. In many cases, deploying just one or two Glow Crushers wasn't sufficient. If the Hexers pushed forward another Blessed Squire, then the Fridaymen would probably scream with rage!

Of course, the Hexers could also deploy many Blessed Squires together. While superimposing identical glows did make them that much stronger, it became much harder to break them because they mutually supported each other.

Over the course of the Komodo War, both sides learned a lot more about the properties of glows. It operated similar to energy fields, but possessed distinct properties that made them different. As the Fridaymen and Hexers researched them further, they began to develop better ways of employing or negating them in battle.

Even Ves learned a lot of new nuances about his glows!

"Are you okay, now?" Gloriana softly asked.

"I'm fine." He hugged her physical projection. It was so lifelike that Ves truly felt he was touching the soft red fabric of her coat. He even felt the warmth of her body as he pressed his hand on her hip! "Lately, I've shifted away from developing glows. They're nice and all, but they don't entirely relate to my ambitions. If there is one good outcome about venturing into the Nyxian Gap, it's that I've been forced to develop radical new solutions in order to survive. Once I return, we can design some truly revolutionary new mechs."

"I am truly looking forward to that." She giggled. "It'll be especially great if you can truly get Master Willix to co-design our expert mechs for us! I have long admired her and her work. As a Master brought up by the MTA, she is much more skilled than the likes of Master Olson and Master Katzenberg. Getting her involved in our projects will ensure our expert mechs will become even closer to perfection!"

He could already see the stars in her eyes, but Ves did not entirely share her optimism.

"Let's not get too excited, Gloriana. Our expert mechs have to be designed by us for the most part. We can't let Master Willix do all of the work. We need to own the expert mechs we design in order to ensure we can continue to iterate on them in the future. Expert mechs require a lot of care and attention and I doubt Master Willix is willing to babysit them on our behalf."

Her smile died down a bit. She sighed. "You're right. We can't expect her to stick around forever. I just feel it is a wasted opportunity if we insist on keeping her involvement as minimal as possible. Sure, our expert mechs will reflect our strengths, but their designs will be a lot rougher than other expert mech designs."

"That is only temporary. If we want them to become better, then we have to work harder to improve ourselves. If we let Master Willix play a bigger role in the design process, then it will be difficult for us to implement any improvements years later."

The most important part about expert mechs was that they never remained the same for a long time. It was customary to improve them as new technologies became available. Many owners also tended to change their configuration to improve their performance under specific circumstances.

Even if the difference amounted to only 1 or 2 percent, this could still mean the difference between a total victory and a dead expert pilot!

Ves deeply valued the lives of his new expert pilots. Talents such as Venerable Joshua and Venerable Jannzi were pretty much irreplaceable in his eyes. Their presence not only boosted the confidence of his men, but also enhanced the prestige and reputation of his clan!

He couldn't imagine what would happen if one of them died. He had to minimize this outcome as much as possible, and the best way to do that was to equip each of them with excellent expert mechs that could keep up with their evolution.

The two lovers talked a bit about what kind of expert mechs they should aim to design for their new expert pilots.

"You're not keeping the Quint for Joshua?"

Ves shook his head. "Our masterwork mech is a fine machine. However, I don't think it's a good choice to turn it into his exclusive machine. He's not like Venerable Jannzi who matches well with the Shield of Samar. The Quint is based on an adaptable, modular mech platform that is designed to fit to a wide variety of mech pilots."

"Venerable Joshua is a mech pilot that adapts well to nearly every LMC mech." His partner pointed out. "Doesn't that make them the same?"

"It's different. Joshua's excellent compatibility with my mechs is more a reflection of shared ideals. I believe it would be better if we design a mech from the ground up that specifically takes advantage to his unique traits."

It was difficult for him to explain his ideas to her without going into details he did not want to convey over the MTA's private network. Gloriana was used to that, so she did not ask for further clarification.

In any case, once they reunited in person, he could say anything he wanted to her without worrying about eavesdropping.

Before they ended their talk, Gloriana conveyed one more piece of good news.

"My sister Kellandra told me that the Wodin Warriors she sent to reinforce you and escort you back to civilized space has almost reached your position. You'll have to sit tight for five more days or so. Will your task force be able to fend for themselves before that?"

"No problem." Ves confidently grinned. "We just brought some of the systems of the surviving warships back online. We scared away most of the vultures by firing their main guns a couple of times. Nothing scares pirates away better than demolishing one of their carriers with a single volley!"

"That's great, but don't take any unnecessary risks. My sister dispatched roughly 5000 mechs to your position. Once they link up with you, I expect no further problems. I hope you appreciate how difficult it was for our dynasty to send so many troops into the Nyxian Gap."

"I know, Gloriana. I truly appreciate this gesture."

To be honest, he expected the Wodin Dynasty to be a lot more reluctant and act in a more self-serving manner. Yet just like Calabast, the dynasty at some point decided to commit to him in earnest. Hexers or not, that took courage.

Of course, that did not mean that Ves let down his vigilance towards the Hexer people. If Gloriana thought that he would be willing to become a citizen of the Hegemony or adopt more Hexer customs, she would be sorely disappointed!

When they ended their call, Ves closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"It's good to get back to normal."

He no longer spent as much time on thinking how to survive and how to defeat his next opponents.

Instead, he considered other matters such as his upcoming wedding, his mech design projects and the Larkinson Clan's impending migration. None of them entailed the sort of acute threats and dangers that continually haunted his thoughts in the last few months.

Ves embraced this change!

Perhaps the Battle against the Abyss succeeded in pushing him to the brink. After almost losing it all in his confrontation against the Allidus Alliance, he no longer felt so eager to repeat the experience. Some risks were too great for him to bear.

"That said, I did manage to progress my design philosophy by leaps and bounds." He muttered as he returned to his stateroom.

"Meowww.."

Lucky listlessly greeted him. So far, he still hadn't recovered yet from ingesting the B-stone.

"You look hungry. Fancy a meal?"

"Meow!"

"Wow. I still can't get used to the fact that you're not in the mood to eat."

Lucky looked indigently at Ves. How could a human ever understand his longing for minerals? It was torture for him to be unable to eat anything during this time!

Ves ignored his pet and sat down behind his desk. He activated his desk terminal and loaded up all of the messages and reports he had pushed aside for the last few weeks.

Work never ceased. "I missed this. It's good to be back."