The Mech Touch

Ves thought that returning to the design lab freed him from suffering from headaches.

It turned out that he was wrong.

He groaned and pressed his fingers against his forehead. Not even Gloriana's perfume and her body warmth alleviated his rising stress.

"Mechs are combat machines. They are big, powerful and deathly. They require a lot of resources to make and they take up valuable transportation space to move them to the battlefield. Under these circumstances, why would you spend all of those resources on a machine that can't even defend itself?!"

His wife shook his head at him. "You don't comprehend how the Hex Army is set up. It is not unusual for certain low value mech models to carry no weapons. They don't need any. In fact, it is better this way."

"Why?"

"Because of their mech pilots."

Ves grew angry. "Is this another way to denigrate the brave male Hexer pilots who are risking their lives on the battlefield without earning any appreciation from their female overlords?"

"It's not that!" Gloriana quickly responded. She patted his arm in order to calm him down. "Let me explain. First, think about the pool of mech pilots of a state like the Hegemony. I'm sure you can guess that the best mech pilots that graduate from our mech academies are destined to serve in the Hex Army. That's where all of our frontline combatants in the Komodo War come from. These talented, highly-trained mech pilots are all entrusted with our best and most capable mechs because they have the ability to make the most out of the most advanced machines built by our mech industry."

"I know that. What does that have to do with this weapon-less communication mech concept you came up with? Why can't we design it like the Blessed Squire?"

Though the Blessed Squire was a male Hexer mech, Ves at least succeeded in giving it a bit of dignity. It was a knight mech, which meant that it was capable of resisting an enemy up close.

What Gloriana proposed was something worse than that. The draft design she came up with did not possess any elements that were conducive to dealing damage or resisting damage. If she told him that this was a civilian industrial mech, then Ves would have believed her! How could such a defenseless mech ever belong to the battlefield?

"Their roles are different. The Blessed Squire is a combat support mech. We designed it as an accompaniment to assault squads. Without adding a sufficient amount of armor and offensive capabilities to the Blessed Squire, it would have been too easy for the Fridaymen to take it down."

In fact, the Blessed Squire rarely fought against enemy mechs up close these days. Due to its indispensable glow, the Hexers always deployed it in the center of their mech formations and treated it as a VIP that needed to be protected at all cost.

While Ves didn't exactly have that in mind when he designed the Blessed Squire, it was better than treating it as worthless cannon fodder.

"Doesn't the circumstances apply to our communication mech?"

"No!" Gloriana shook her head. "It's different! For our comm mech to be useful, it doesn't have to accompany the leading elements of a Hexer unit. It's better to deploy it a bit further behind in order to attract less enemy fire and to keep a good overview of the battlefield. Since the comm mech isn't required to clash with any enemy mechs, we can dispense with weapons. Since it's already a light mech, its armor isn't very thick in the first place, but we can make do with more affordable armor systems in order to save on costs."

"While I admit those reasons sound logical, it doesn't cost that much to invest a bit more in the combat capabilities of this mech. Sure, communications lines might get interrupted more often if you foist some combat capabilities on its design, but it at least gives it some teeth in the event it's under attack!"

His wife shook her head yet again. She looked at him as if he was silly.

"You still don't understand. Have you seen how simple and easy it is to pilot this comm mech after I have left out all of the more complicated combat-related elements from its design?"

"I noticed that. It's as if you're designing an industrial mech. Only potentates with incomplete training and mech pilots with the poorest aptitudes pilot these kinds of basic machines."

Modern mechs were very complicated to pilot. The genetic aptitudes of potentates went from E to A, though some rumors on the galactic net suggested that the MTA actually extended this range to S. Whatever the case, the quantity of mech pilots with poorer aptitudes was significantly greater than those with better aptitudes.

This had led to situations where many states didn't even bother to put mech pilots with E-grade genetic aptitudes through the academy. It simply wasn't worthwhile to turn these poorly-talented prospects into qualified mech pilots.

"Our comm mech has to be simplified in order to lower the skill requirements to pilot it. Right now, the Komodo War is going bad for the Hex Army. Too many elite and well-training mech pilots are getting killed. No matter whether the mech pilots are male or female, attrition is high for both of them. Not too long ago, the Hegemony sent me a communique that requested us to design some mechs that takes lesser-skilled mech pilots into account."

"The Hegemony is that desperate?"

Gloriana tried to look brave. "The Hex Army still has plenty of manpower! It's just that it needs to look out for the long-term. From what it looks like, this war will probably drag on for at least a couple of years. We need to conserve as much high-quality mech pilots as possible, and that means we need to expand the use of low-quality mech pilots. There are so many of them that preserving their lives is not as important."

Ves frowned deeper at her. "You can put these so-called low-quality mech pilots to much better use by pairing them up with frontline mechs. I know you second-raters don't like to field these kinds of mechs, but they are quite effective in wars between third-rate states."

"We're already doing that." She replied. "The Hex Army is mobilizing as many low-aptitude female mech pilots as possible."

"What about the male mech pilots, then?"

"They'll be paired with mechs like this one. There are plenty of auxiliary mechs for them to pilot. However, it takes too much effort for them to utilize the weapons of their mechs well."

Ves looked at her in disbelief. "The pool of mech pilots with low aptitudes is huge. There ought to be just as many men as women who are part of this pool. The Hex Army can't possibly field enough auxiliary mechs to make full use of all of those men!"

"We're not ignorant of that, but this is the policy that the Matriarchs have set. Low-aptitude female mech pilots are allowed to pilot armed frontline mechs while untalented boys must strictly pilot auxiliary mechs."

"Why did the Matriarchs set such an arbitrary rule? A war is going on! The last thing you want to do is to impose artificial restrictions on your fighting forces that will handicap their combat potential!"

His wife paused for a moment. She seemed hesitant to say her next words.

Ves looked her in the eye. "What is going on?"

"There.. is another reason why the Hegemony is reluctant to arm low-quality auxiliary mechs. It's.. so that the boys who pilot them don't pose an acute threat against our own side."

"The Hexers.. are afraid of their own boys turning their coats?" Ves raised his eyebrows.

"Yes."

"Has it happened already?"

"There are isolated cases. Still, the problem isn't as serious as you think. Most boys are well-trained. Every male Hexer pilot that was part of the armed forces at the start of the Komodo War are very obedient and reliable. They're trained to be that way. It's just that the huge influx of low-aptitude mech pilots are different."

"They're not house-trained, are they?" Ves recognized the main issue.

Gloriana sighed. "Yes. They weren't originally a part of the Hex Army."

"That sounds like a massive oversight. The Hegemony started the Komodo War. Couldn't you Hexers take the effort of preparing your low-aptitude mech pilots sooner?"

"That would have tipped the Fridaymen off. You can't hide such massive movements. Also, this isn't something that normal second-rate states do. The more advanced the state, the more its military is geared towards the development of elites. While our state is wealthy, it can't arm so many weak mech pilots without draining resources elsewhere."

Obviously, the Hegemony couldn't afford to be conservative anymore.

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "So what's the danger of pairing these hastily-conscripted boys with armed mechs? From what I have seen of the Hegemony, pretty much every boy is committed to the matriarchy."

"It's not that simple." Gloriana looked pained. "The Hegemony is huge. It's split up into several matriarchal dynasties, which are further split up into smaller dynasties. While the former tries to be as unified as possible, there are still.. differences.. in the way they govern their territories. In some dynasties, boys are treated well as long as they are good. In other places…"

"They're treated like crap, am I right?"

"I guess I can't hide it from you. There are dynasties where boys and in particular male potentates are seen as threats to other Hexers. Sometimes, they only receive the most basic of mech piloting training. In other places, they are treated harshly. None of us ever thought we might actually have to enlist them in battle. We thought we'd be able to win the Komodo War by relying purely on our professional soldiers."

"Hahaha!" Ves couldn't help but laugh! "You women look down on the Friday Coalition too much!"

Obviously, Gloriana didn't look pleased. It became harder and harder for her to maintain the delusion that a Hexer victory was inevitable.

"The point is that it's appropriate to assign armed mechs to untalented and undertrained boys. Even if they pilot a mech with a weapon, there is a good chance that they can't even hurt a fly. They lack the training to actually fight with them. As for the boys that do possess this training, too many Hexers don't trust them. We're all afraid they might succumb to Fridaymen lies and sabotage their own side."

Ves snorted. "I wouldn't blame these poor fellows. I think their lives would actually be better if the Hexer regime is torn down."

"'THAT'S NONSENSE!"

There was no point trying to argue with Gloriana about this. Ves moved away from this contentious topic.

"Let's get back to your comm mech. Now that you explained the reasoning behind your design choices, I understand why your concept doesn't mention any weapons."

"Boys can't be trusted with guns."

"AHEM." Ves coughed. "Just because I accept your design choice doesn't mean I agree with it. You reap what you sow. If you Hexers treated your male potentates better, you wouldn't have ended up in a situation where you have to watch out for betrayal."

Gloriana lowered her eyes. "I realize that, and so do many Hexers. Don't think that I'm part of the groups that mistreated these boys."

"I can believe that, but Hexers like you are not innocent in this matter. You either ignored this deplorable behavior or condoned it in some tacit way. Now that the war has forced you to draw upon the dregs of your society, it's too late to apologize."

The entire concept behind her proposed communication mech was based on some very problematic circumstances. The entire situation disgusted Ves, but he didn't have any choice but to go along with his wife.

Situations like these continually reminded him that he was fighting on the wrong side of the war. Yet no matter how awful the Hexers turned out to be, he never contemplated changing sides.

There were too many reasons why he needed the Hexers to win.

Ves always put his interests before his conscience.