The Mech Touch

Though the Journeymen of the Design Department argued quite extensively about the booster modules of the Disruptor Project, they had good reasons to focus on this aspect.

Light mechs depended heavily on mobility to perform their roles on the battlefield. This was even more important for their expert mech versions as it was literally the only reason why they were able to survive in fights against other deadly expert mechs.

The opponents that Venerable Tusa would face in the future were far different from the dummies he encountered during his most recent campaign.

His battles back on Prosperous Hill VI were no different from bullying children in his perspective. The biomechs he faced were sometimes decent, but were mostly lower-end models that could not keep up with the performance of a military-grade mech.

Their mech pilots were quite skilled, but that was only due to the fact that second-rate states were able to provide better training to its mech cadets. The criminals and members of various fringe groups that Tusa faced weren't comparable to the elites he fought during the Battle of Reckoning.

Since the main goal of the Disruptor Project was to enable Venerable Tusa to fight against other expert mechs, the design choices had to prioritize this need the most.

It was natural to sacrifice many other niceties in the process. Even if expert mechs possessed a lot more capacity and could integrate a lot more tech, when fighting against other high-end mechs, these advantages no longer seemed as powerful!

Gloriana insisted on maintaining a consistent approach to all of their projects, so Venerable Tusa's future expert mech had to give up a lot of staying power in order to ensure it possessed enough peak performance to defeat another expert mech.

"It's not ideal, but battles between expert mechs don't last too long in most cases." Gloriana stated. "It is very much worth it to compress all of the combat potential of our expert mechs so that they can eliminate opposing expert mechs quickly. We don't have to rely on our expert mechs to carry the rest of the battle. Our regular mech forces are already strong enough to win any conventional battle."

Everyone else nodded in agreement. Though there were flaws and holes to this logic, it was the most fitting choice to make under the circumstances.

The only reason why Ves felt a little queasy about this choice was that the Disruptor Project could potentially expend its resources very quickly if locked in a very difficult struggle. He felt it was actually a tad bit too short.

This was not a big deal if they fought against weaker opponents or those who were unfamiliar with the combat doctrines of the Larkinson Clan.

Yet if they fought against an enemies that possessed a thorough understanding of the clan's fighting approach, then they could easily employ strategies to drag out a battle and seek to exhaust Venerable Tusa's expert mech first!

This was a potential danger and one that might actually be used against the Larkinson Clan one day.

The only reason why Ves didn't speak up about it more was because his mech forces weren't completely helpless in extended battles.

His fleet enjoyed the protection of a formidable array of artillery mechs and cannoneer mechs. The former was especially useful in attrition battles as they were much easier to supply and support when they were locked into bunkers rather than launched into open space.

Their formidable cannons were still effective against second-class expert mechs. It was just that it took a lot of time for them to deal significant damage against these well-armored machines.

In the future, Ves intended to design more mechs that possessed more staying power. He wanted to differentiate the Living Sentinels and encourage them to trade in their explosive power for stability.

That was a matter for another time, though.

Before Gloriana rounded up the discussion on the Disruptor Project, she briefly turned her attention to its weapon loadout.

"Ketis, how much progress have you made in refining the weapon design?"

The newest lead designer of the Design Department stopped caressing Bloodsinger for a moment.

"It's going well, all considered. There is not that much complexity as long as we rely on Unending alloy as the main material. It's incredibly hard, but aside from that it's not the ideal material to use for a pair of twin knives. It's a dense material and it's difficult to work with. I have no problem with determining the exact shape and length of the blades, but it's annoying to work around the constraints of a material that has already been set."

"Have you thought about enhancing the penetration capabilities of the knives by empowering them with heat or some other method that can allow them to pierce thicker armor?" Ves asked his student.

"I've already thought of those options, but I don't think they're necessary." Ketis shook her head. "Weaker augments aren't worth the trouble. They'll barely make a difference while significantly draining the mech's energy reserves. Stronger augments are even worse. While I recognize that they can enable the Disrupter Project to punch its knives through more resilient armor, just activating them for a single second already consumes a lot of energy. It's not feasible or even necessary in my opinion."

"Why is that?" Gloriana questioned with a critical expression. "Doesn't this go against our goal to enhance the peak performance of our expert mechs?"

"The Disruptor Project already consumed a lot of energy according to its current configuration. It can't really take anything more. Look, light skirmishers aren't swordsman mechs or spearman mechs. The latter two are much better equipped to pierce through frontal armor. A light skirmisher never does that. It utilizes speed and precision to outmaneuver an opponent and sink its short but sharp blades through the weak points of an enemy mech. The weapons don't actually have to be all that powerful for this approach."

"I understand that, Ketis, but some of the expert mechs we face might not be that easy for Venerable Tusa to outmaneuver. What if we face a high-tier expert mech?"

"Then I hope we outnumber the opponent in terms of expert mechs." Ves said. "Enough, Gloriana. I think Ketis has a good point here. The tradeoff that you're aiming to make isn't worth it. If you really want to empower the knives in some way, then we need to cut back on the other energy-draining options."

"That's unacceptable! The mobility of the Disruptor Project has to remain high!"

"Then we should just settle with simple, naked blades. Ketis excels in sharpness so she will definitely be able to ensure their performance is definitely up to par. If nothing else, we can just incorporate a resonating material in the knives so that Venerable Tusa can temporarily empower them with armor-piercing properties or something."

His wife reluctantly nodded. "Very well. I guess we will have to place even more faith in Venerable Tusa's piloting skill. Right now, the Disruptor Project is shaping up to be an expert mech that places an extreme amount of importance on skill. A good expert pilot will be able to create miracles with this mech, but a poorer one will cause it to collapse a lot faster than we anticipated."

Unending alloy or not, the Disruptor Project was still a light mech, with all of the inherent downsides that came with it. Ves had no doubt that other expert mechs would be able to inflict significant internal damage to Venerable Tusa's expert mech if the latter was caught flat-footed.

The overall draft design of the Disruptor Project was almost set. The only remaining uncertainty was how the resonating materials that the Larkinson Clan was set to gather would enhance the expert mech.

Reesonating exotics and resonance abilities had the potential to completely transform the combat effectiveness of an expert mech. A more basic resonance ability only provided more generic boosts that weren't all that great, but the better ones often introduced more reality-defying effects that were highly effective in combating other expert mechs.

This was also why Gloriana worked so hard to get the best resonating materials she could. Their quantity and quality directly determined how easily the Larkinson Clan would be able to fight against other expert mechs in the future.

They only had to look at the medium and high-tier expert mechs of the Cross Clan to realize the difference!

After settling some other matters on the Disruptor Projects, Gloriana briefly turned her attention to another expert mech.

"Ves, how far are you into figuring out the design of the energy rifle for the Sentry Project."

"I'm still working on it. You know I've been busy lately. I'm also taking longer than I thought on how to generate higher-quality luminar crystals. I've been performing some experiments but I'm not yet satisfied with the quality that I've been able to produce."

"THAT'S NO EXCUSE!"

Ves raised his hands. "Calm down! I may have suffered some delays, but I am definitely getting closer to a viable solution. The Bright Beam Prime has already proven that blending prime mech properties with luminar crystals can produce a powerful enhancement. The only issue that is bothering me is that the luminar crystals that we can utilize are still too fragile for second-class expert mech standards."

Master Willix hadn't agreed to teach him how to synthesize second-class luminar crystals. Perhaps he might be able to change her mind by dropping to his knees and pressing his hands together, but he preferred to come up with his own solution.

He had already started to create better and more interesting luminar crystals whenever he was able to squeeze enough time to tinker in his personal workshop.

The crystal cube that he managed to salvage from the crystal ruins a long time ago was an essential piece of this. He had always used it to produce higher-quality luminar crystals than usual, but it turned out that he had been using it the wrong way all this time.

The Bright Beam Prime proved that luminar crystals were spiritually reactive. Everything this strange race made out of crystal was therefore designed to interact with spirituality from the start.

What if Ves tried to manipulate the crystal cube in the same fashion?

He soon discovered that the cube could act as a control interface that could manipulate the properties of every crystal he attempted to synthesize.

The only problem was that he didn't know how to use it. He was like a monkey sitting in front of a modern terminal. He could press all kinds of buttons and activate numerous random commands. Yet that did not mean he would be able to design a fully-functional mech this way!

Luminar technology was incomprehensible to Ves, but that was not the case for entities that were related to it. Blinky inherited a bit of luminar influence, but not enough to engage in advanced luminar engineering.

The Illustrious One was different. When Ves channeled or asked for help from this recently-promoted design spirit, he was able to manipulate the crystal cube in a much more targeted and effective manner.

The result was that he was starting to produce better luminar crystals!

Of course, there was still a lot of trial and error involved. It mainly had to do with the input materials he provided to the production process. The crystal cube could enable him to synthesize higher quality crystals, but if the input materials were crap, the end product wouldn't be much better!

Ves had ordered a diverse batch of materials that were typically used in the production of crystals in order to achieve a breakthrough on this front. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the Crown Uprising resulted in considerable shipping delays and disruption.

Hopefully, he wouldn't have to wait too long until he obtained what he needed to finish this essential chore.. He had a hunch that luminar technology had a lot of potential, and that he was one of the few mech designers who could draw it out. The Sentry Project would be his first attempt to prove he could excel in this field!