The Mech Touch

The names of resonating materials were all over the place. Different companies and individuals adopted very different naming schemes for the powerful materials they discovered or made.

Compared to the more ridiculous-sounding materials like Pierrotis and Opticonium, GT-535 sounded incredibly boring. It wasn't even a real name. It was a code name, a model number or a registration label.

Yet the potency and efficacy of GT-535 absolutely trounced all of the other resonating exotics by a considerable margin!

Why did she choose to favor the Bulwark Project over the other ones? Did she have a soft spot for large and heavy mechs? Did her main specialization cause her to develop a greater affinity towards heavy knights or something?

There had to be a reason why she intended to lavish the Bulwark Project with a bigger gift than the other expert mech design projects!

Master Willix could guess what Ves was thinking. "Are you wondering why I chose to grant a more precious resonating material to the Bulwark Project in particular?"

Ves nodded.

"The rationale is not that deep." The older woman answered. "Unlike other resonating materials, GT-535 is a product that I have personally developed. You can say that it is my property. I have vastly greater rights regarding its use and propagation than with other materials. You do not know this, but it is quite difficult to bring out materials such as Bissonat and Perfidious Steel from the Association's reserves and transfer them to private individuals and organizations. This is also one of the reasons why I have not given you anything more powerful and potent. GT-535 is not subject to the same restrictions, which is why I can dispose of it with much less scrutiny."

"I see." Ves softly answered.

He wasn't fully aware of all of the rules that Master Mech Designers had to abide by in the MTA. It didn't make much sense for him that Master Willix had greater latitude when it came to using products such as GT-535. Even if she developed it on her own, she was still a part of the MTA, which meant that all of her work should have belonged to it as well.

Maybe Masters enjoyed special treatment. Maybe the Association thought that it could encourage its members to innovate more by promising that they could do what they wanted with their own inventions.

If this was the case, then the ambitions of high-ranking mech designers within the MTA were not small!

"GT-535 potency is high as it was not originally developed for mechs such as the Shield of Samar. It is more suitable to be integrated in a high-tier expert mech that is piloted by an expert pilot of notable strength." Master Willix cautioned.

"Does that mean the Shield of Samar will become too difficult for Venerable Jannzi to control?" Ves asked while frowning.

"Not as such. As long as Venerable Jannzi Larkinson does not activate this resonance ability, her expert mech will not put her under great burden. In its passive state, GT-535 already provides value in the form of increasing the physical resistance of the expert mech. It has to be able to do this in order to ensure that it can withstand the center of its gravity well. It is only when Venerable Jannzi attempts to activate the resonance ability that she will be under strain, but she can scale her own effort to a manageable range."

A mech didn't have to fly forward at maximum acceleration. The stress put on a mech and its various systems was substantial if it did everything it could to move forward as fast as possible. In order to preserve the integrity of the mech and prevent it from malfunctioning, it was customary to hold some power back unless it was truly needed.

In the same way, Venerable Jannzi would be able to activate just a small proportion of the potential of GT-535. While this was not an efficient process, it was a decent solution to the problem of lacking the strength of activating the resonance ability associated with such a potent material.

Ves wasn't sure how large the gravity well would be and how strong its attraction force would turn out. Perhaps Venerable Jannzi would have to wait for years until she gained the strength to make good use of this promising but incredibly arduous resonance ability.

While Ves tried to estimate how much time it took for the upcoming version of the Shield of Samar to show off its full might, Gloriana studied the spec sheet provided by the principal developer of GT-535.

"According to this data, GT-535 is not an easy material to work with." She noted. "An expert mech will have to integrate multiple tons of this resonating alloy. Concentrating so much GT-535 in a single mech frame will result in a high degree of resonance interference."

That was a huge downside, especially for an expert heavy space knight that possessed lots of capacity!

It meant that they would have to forgo many lesser resonating exotics because of interference issues.

Master Willix didn't look surprised. "GT-535 is a hardy and resilient material in itself. It was partially meant to replace the structural materials of a mech in the first place."

All of that sounded well and good, but that also made it insanely expensive to repair the Shield of Samar if it ever suffered substantial internal damage!

Though Master Willix hadn't mentioned the cost of this material, the fact that it was so high-specced implied that the cost of making it was not low! For someone in the MTA, the cost might not be a problem, but it was different for the Larkinson Clan!

Ves directed a deep glance towards Master Willix. As far as he knew, she was the only source for GT-535. If this resonating material was about to become an essential source of strength to the Shield of Samar in the decades to come, then Ves would have to go back to the MTA Master every once in a while in order to replenish the Larkinson Clan's stockpile.

The ability to generate a strong localized gravity well and bend the spacetime around an expert mech as sluggish as the Shield of Samar was too valuable to give up! This was especially the case when GT-535 would only begin to show its true value when Venerable Jannzi developed her strength further and approached the level of Patriarch Reginald Cross.

Ves keenly recognized the difference between low-tier expert mechs and high-tier expert mechs. He always envied the Cross Clan to possess expert mechs that were more powerful than the ones he had seen before. There was a very definite division between strong and weak among expert pilots and expert mechs.

The resonating exotics that Master Willix provided granted the Larkinson Clan a chance to skip over low-tier expert mechs and directly obtain higher quality expert mechs.

Even if he had to jump into Master Willix's little scheme and become more dependent on her generosity, the implicit deal she offered was worth the price!

In any case, Ves already depended on her for cover from the rest of the MTA and more besides. He did not have a good relationship with any other high official within the Association.

Under these circumstances, Ves didn't need to obtain the advice of a diplomat to know that becoming estranged to Master Willix was a really bad idea!

"Don't worry about the cost and supply. I will provide you with sufficient GT-535 to realize the Bulwark Project and ensure a comfortable reserve." The Master promised. "I will have to intervene more extensively in the design process of the Bulwark Project, however. This material has to be integrated across the entire frame of the mech."

"Ah, you are welcome to do so!" Gloriana quickly said.

No one would say no to extra help from a Master Mech Designer!

Once Master Willix explained some additional quirks about GT-535 that the Larkinsons should take note of, she moved on to the second resonating material that she intended to integrate in the Bulwark Project.

"Since the future Shield of Samar will carry large quantities of GT-535, there isn't much room left in the mech frame for other notable choices. The shield carried by this mech does not fall within this scope, fortunately. The so-called Unending alloy you use to form the main layer of this shield is quite interesting. Its resilience falls beyond the scope of second-class expert mechs. This makes it rather difficult for me as strengthening its defense even further is not that useful. There are more ways to improve the shield than that, though."

She switched the projection so that it centered around the massive tower shield of the expert mech. When Venerable Jannzi resonated with it, a large barrier formed that looked very familiar to Ves!

"Isn't that a space barrier?"

A large circular space barrier that was at least several hundred meters across formed just in front of the tower shield!

Ves was not that unfamiliar with the sight. He had witnessed Venerable Jannzi conjuring such a space barrier during her breakthroughs and when Qilanxo was able to assist.

Since Jannzi and Qilanxo were connected by a bond, it was no surprise that the Shield of Samar would be able to form such a huge defensive barrier.

"Venerable Jannzi has a high affinity towards resonating exotics that manipulate space." Master Willix noted. "In fact, Venerable Dise and Venerable Orfan also share this affinity. This is rather curious."

Ves didn't say anything. This related to a secret that he did not want to share too easily. He at least had to obtain a high price if Master Willix expected him to spill the beans!

Fortunately, she didn't pursue the matter any further. She slightly shook her head and focused on the topic at hand.

"BSN-11F is the big brother of BSN-17A, in a way. As their naming convention suggests, BSN-17A is a newer product that has been developed to address a different requirement. BSN-11F is more in line with the original intention of this product. It is a defense and utility-oriented resonating alloy developed specifically for knight mechs. It aims to substantially increase their applicability by extending the range of their defensive coverage."

BSN-11F certainly accomplished this considering how big of an area the space barrier actually covered. At its best, the Shield of Samar with this resonating exotic could even cover an entire starship!

Yet Ves immediately recognized the possible problems.

"Forming a space barrier this large should put Venerable Jannzi under a lot of strain, right?"

"Correct." Master Willix nodded. "I will not lie. While BSN-11F is a good fit for the Shield of Samar, it is not a cheap material, nor will it be easy for Venerable Jannzi to use it to this extent. She will have to grow stronger in order to defend a large area of space."

This sounded quite bad. Sometimes, piling too much good stuff on an expert mech was not a good decision. No matter which resonance ability Venerable Jannzi chose to activate, she would not have it easy!

If the Shield of Samar integrated both GT-535 and BSN-11F, then it was practically a given that Venerable Jannzi would never be able to activate both of the resonance abilities associated with these materials at the same time.

She would probably suck herself dry if she tried out such a foolish act!

Ves understood why Master Willix still chose to go with BSN-11F despite the huge burden it brought. The resonance ability it imparted to an expert mech worked great against ranged attacks.

If the Shield of Samar ever needed to block a lot of incoming firepower onto a vulnerable asset, then it could rely on this massive space barrier to hold the line!

All in all, the Bulwark Project would gain so much from Master Willix that its actual potential actually caught up to a high-tier expert mech. The disparity between this expert mech and the rest was too great!

If Master Willix chose to lavish so many goodies on the Chimera Project, Ves would have celebrated this outcome.

Why did it have to be Jannzi's mech, though?! Was there any fairness in this cosmos?!