The Mech Touch

Though Gloriana acted all dramatic after they failed to make a masterwork mech, Ves was already used to her tantrums. He simply stood still like a rock and let her vent her emotions.

Perhaps his wife had become aware that her current actions didn't accomplish anything meaningful, because she ran out of steam remarkably quickly this time.

After ten minutes of raging about all of the errors and imperfections that prevented her from reaching the goal she set for herself, she crossed her arms and glared at Ves.

"We can't keep failing like this, Ves. Where is your drive? Where is your enthusiasm?"

"I did my best!" Ves defended himself. "I may not have entered into a special state or anything, but I have never let my attention slip!"

"That's not enough! You know as well as I do that passion is essential! You need to shape yourself up, Ves. You're losing your drive."

After she said her piece, she grabbed Clixie and left the workshop. The mechs they fabricated had already been moved elsewhere aside from the Ferocious Piranha.

Ves intended to work on it further as it served as an excellent base for a dueling mech.

The upcoming design duel loomed closer and closer. Ves was eager to begin his preparations for his upcoming design duel.

"I need five good mechs."

He needed to prepare two different Bright Warriors, one Ferocious Piranha, one Valkyrie Redeemer and one Transcendent Punisher.

The rules for this design duel were rather elaborate and intricate. This was because each mech had to fight at least twice, with different mech pilots each time.

This meant that each of his dueling mechs would fight against Dr. Navarro's biomechs under normal dueling conditions. Both machines would enter the dueling arena in pristine state, but once the fight had ended, it was very doubtful whether they remained undamaged.

The damage might not be so bad for the winning mech, but the losing machine would definitely be in an awful state!

This was why the design duel was split up in two phases. Once the first phase ended, both Ves and Dr. Navarro had three days to repair their respective dueling mechs and ready them for the second phase.

"Three days is not enough." Ves grumbled.

This was especially in the case for mechs that had suffered defeat. Ves might have to make a strategic decision to abandon one of his dueling mechs in order to divert more resources to his remaining four machines.

He also had to make many more decisions on the spot. For example, it might not be worthwhile for him to repair a broken arm when other areas needed his attention more.

"I'll have to make sure my dueling mechs are robust enough to work even if they are no longer in good condition."

According to the rules, the dueling mechs still had to reflect their original designs. Ves and Navarro were only allowed to make a limited number of adjustments. No matter what they did to their machines, their mechs still had to match their normal work. They weren't allowed to present something completely new and different that was clearly only used for this specific duel.

There were a bunch of other rules that limited what he could do. They all existed to make the duel as fair as possible, though there were still a few issues.

For example, it was quite challenging for Ves and Navarro to put forward dueling mechs that belonged to the same price category.

No one thought it was fair to pit a mech that cost 400 million hex credits against another mech that cost 600 million hex credits!

Though Dr. Navarro designed quite a lot of biomechs over his longer career, it wasn't possible to create completely fair matchups based on their design budgets.

This was why each mech design either had to slim down and remove some parts or do the opposite. In the end, all five pairs of dueling mechs had to be even in value!

"This is going to take a bit of work." He frowned.

This was because Ves based the budgets of his mechs on hex credits. For example, the design budget for his Bright Warrior IB model was a simple rounded sum of 500 million hex credits.

However, Dr. Navarro was used to thinking in a different currency! This caused the closest equivalent mech models to be worth the equivalent of 435 or 523 million hex credits!

This was why every design had to be corrected. Of course, Ves also had to make sure his dueling mechs weren't exclusive to specific mech pilots.

His Bright Warrior, Valkyrie Redeemer and Transcendent Punisher were all exclusive mech designs. For his dueling mechs, Ves had to alter their spiritual design so that they became open to neutral mech pilots who didn't have any ties to Hexers or Larkinsons.

Ves had never really done that on a larger scale. "This is going to be a challenge."

It was easy enough to convince an open-minded design spirit like the Golden Cat to open herself up to strangers. After all, her spirit connected with newcomers all the time.

Ylvaine was a lot more picky, though. The Transcendent Punisher was a powerful artillery mech as long as its mech pilot matched its design spirit!

Even if it was possible to prepare a special Transcendent Punisher that did not judge its own mech pilot, how would it be able to show its special feature when the mech pilot did not respect the Great Prophet?

While his artillery mech was still a strong gun platform without its iconic ability, it was not enough in his eyes. Dr. Navarro wouldn't be holding back during the design duel so Ves could not afford to weaken any of his dueling mechs in order to increase their compatibility.

Ves had to find a way to make all of his dueling mechs play nice with strangers!

Fortunately, he still had plenty of days to work on all of these issues.

The biggest difficulty was that Ves wasn't able to anticipate what kind of mech pilots would fight on his behalf.

The mech pilots that did the actual fighting had to be trustworthy and neutral. This was difficult to accomplish since one of the conditions was that they had to be Lifers, but there were several neutral organizations that supplied them with mech pilots with integrity.

"I need to overcome their biases towards biomechs in order to get ahead!"

Ves had to put extra effort into making the piloting experience as pleasant as possible. That meant that the spiritual foundation and the design spirits of his mechs had to welcome the strangers as warmly as possible!

Ves reviewed the changes he needed to make. He had to make a lot of technical and spiritual changes to every dueling mech. Time was tight, but he was confident he could complete all of the necessary steps by the time the first phase of the design duel commenced.

It was at this time that Ves received a call from his assistant.

He frowned but accepted the call. "What is it, Benny?"

"Did you know that your design duel has suddenly blown up into a public event?!"

"Huh?"

"It's Doctor Navarro!" Gavin exclaimed. "A few days ago, he began to invite his fellow biomech designers and his other buddies to attend the design duel."

Ves nodded. "I recall that I allowed him to do so. There is no compelling reason to hold the design duel away from prying eyes. However, this is different from turning it into a public spectacle. What happened?"

"In the beginning, it's just as you say, boss. Hardly anyone except industry insiders care about a duel between two Journeymen. It's just that the first batch of people who Dr. Navarro invited began to.. Interpret the duel in a creative manner."

That didn't sound good.

"What did they say, exactly?"

"We don't know who is responsible, but word started to spread about a competition that decides who is capable of designing the better living mech! Some of the rumors even state that you openly reject that biomechs aren't truly alive and that your mechs are the only ones that deserve to be called this way!"

The panicked tone that Gavin used to relate these developments did not faze Ves.

"Those rumors aren't wrong." He replied. "I truly do feel this way, though I think I sounded a lot more polite during my exchange with Dr. Navarro."

"Pff! No matter what kind of nuanced debate you held with your fellow peer, once your argument leaks to the public, you can be sure that there will be people who don't understand any nuance. There are also those who wish to drag your name through the mud for their own ends. We might have stumbled into a political dispute without even knowing it. There are conservatives in the LRA who insist on maintaining their current approach and there radicals who wish to change the course of their state!"

"Wait wait wait. Start from the beginning. What is this political dispute all about and why am I involved?"

Gavin gave him the short version. "As you know, the Life Research Association has always been a proponent of biotechnology and biomechs. However, they spent several centuries trying to popularize their tech without accomplishing any significant results. Even its neighboring states shun biotechnology in favor of classical technology! This has caused some Lifers to doubt whether they are making any progress. The radicals among them want to pursue a more aggressive approach."

"What does this aggressive approach entail? Are they going to invade other states in order to spread their biotechnology by force?"

"It's nothing like that, boss. The radicals simply believe that they should.. loosen some of their rules in an attempt to make their products more attractive. These changes don't sit well with the old fogeys who pursue stability above everything else."

"Is there anything about the stances of these two factions that is interesting to us?" Ves asked.

"Well, the radicals also advocate that the Prosperous Hill Star System should get rid of its restrictive rules. They want to remove most prohibitions that prevent foreigners from venturing into the inner system with their own sh.i.p.s. They also want to allow visitors to bring more armed mechs down to the surface. They want to stimulate trade in order to facilitate their goals."

This meant that the radicals wanted to get rid of the slow and overburdened Prosperous Hill Transportation Service. Ves was quite annoyed at how many transfers took days instead of hours to complete because the PHTS refused to assign more transport sh.i.p.s to meet the needs of the Larkinson Clan.

However, his expeditionary fleet was not going to stick around for long. Whatever happened next was none of his business.

Ves angrily snorted. "I don't really care about how the factions resolve this dispute, but what I do care about is someone pulling me into this vortex without my say. Which faction is responsible for turning my design duel into a spectacle? What purpose does it serve in the context of this struggle?"

Gavin hesitated for a few seconds. "The conservatives don't have a compelling reason to do this. These folk want stability. They don't want to rock the boat. It makes much more sense for the radicals to be behind this action. They want to draw people's attention to the division between biotechnology and classical technology. Whether you win or lose, tongues will definitely wag."

"Doesn't that mean the radicals want me to win in order to prove their point?"

"Correct. At the same time, the conservatives do not want Dr. Navarro to admit defeat. That would imply that biomechs in their current state are inferior to classical mechs. As long as Dr. Navarro can stand his ground, the conservatives will still be able to claim that their approach can still work!"

Ves palmed his face. He didn't care about this stupid fight.

"Is this all?"

"Not quite, boss." Gavin replied. "There are more factions aside from the conservatives and radicals. While they aren't as influential, they all have their own reasons to support you or tear you down."

Great.