The Mech Touch

Perfidious Steel and Bissonat weren't the only resonating materials that Master Willix integrated into the Disruptor Project. They were the most potent and prominent ones that would determine how the expert light skirmisher fought and became known for. They were the reasons why the work on the project would result in a middle-tier expert mech rather than a low-tier product!

"The materials we invest in not just the Disruptor Project but all of the other ones as well are not common at all." Gloriana self-satisfyingly explained. "Though our expert pilots will have to endure greater challenges in mastering their upcoming machines, in time they will realize the potential that we are painstakingly trying to add to their designs."

Their approach differed from convention. Military organizations like the Mech Corps and the Hex Army always started off with designing an easy and basic expert mech for newly-promoted demigods.

Though it would be nice to hand over more powerful machines to them, the cost and effort required to do so was excessive at a larger scale.

Therefore, expert pilots had to make do with low-tier expert mechs and steadily train until they outgrew their first expert mechs.

As long as they survived and performed well enough to prove they deserved a greater machine, the military would eventually come around and provide them with a middle-tier expert mech..

Though this was not the most luxurious treatment, it ensured that the military and the state did not waste an excessive amount of money on an expensive expert mech only for it to get trashed in the first battle!

There were many differences between expert pilots. While they started off at roughly the same level of strength at the beginning, their growth over time might have followed wildly different trajectories!

One of the reasons why Venerable Foster received so much attention was because her talent was exceptionally high compared to the vast majority of other mech pilots. Even advancing to expert pilot was not enough for her to exhaust her potential!

In those cases, it was not a mistake to hand her a better expert mech!

The expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan were not as talented as Venerable Foster, though. Their genetic aptitudes definitely did not come close to matching her A-grade. Even if this factor became less relevant after undergoing apotheosis, the advantages that the most talented mech pilots enjoyed in the past did not disappear so easily!

What all of this meant was that Ves and Gloriana had no guarantee that the expert pilots they were servicing would ever live up to the potential of the expert mechs in development.

Still, Ves had his own thoughts on the matter. Unlike their peers who served in other organizations, the expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan had the benefit of receiving special assistance.

Whether they powered up with the help of Ves' spiritual engineering or other forms of aid from his helpful design spirits, the Larkinson expert pilots did not have to figure out everything on their own!

As Ves and his wife continued to discuss different aspects of the Disruptor Project, they did not see much reason to reconsider the major design choices that they had already made.

Sure, they had plenty of disagreements about the smaller details, but they could steadily work them all out when they commenced with the main phases of the design project. What mattered most at this point was to lock in all of the essential, high-level decisions that could not be changed once the project progressed past this point.

"The lack of defenses can be excused by the fact that it is good at evasion and is clad with a layer of Unending alloy." Gloriana eventually concluded. "This is not a mech for the faint-hearted, which Venerable Tusa is definitely not. From the moment he chose to specialize in piloting light mechs, he committed himself to a career where he needed to dance on the edge of a knife every time he deployed into battle. That won't suddenly change now that he has become a lot more valuable than before. He wants this. He thrives when he knows that his mech cannot afford to take too many hits."

Ves sighed. "I know all of that. I guess I'm just too nervous about dispatching one of my relatives to battle in a relatively fragile shell."

He recognized that he was being irrationally worried about this issue. Unlike many other light mechs, the Disruptor Project was clad with sufficient Unending alloy to fend off most attacks.

The biggest concern was that enemies might come up with all kinds of strange and unusual attacks that could bypass the protection of this hardy material. Gravitic weapons for example could completely ignore physical defenses and deal substantial internal damage unless protected by special materials.

Fortunately, gravitic weapons that were effective enough to be used in battle were not common in second-class mech battles. The wielders of these fragile and expensive weapons had to get very close to their targets in order for them to be lethal enough, and that was quite dangerous!

Expert mechs were able to wield other strange effects. Humanity had lots of different resonating materials at its disposal. Both natural and artificial ones could achieve amazing effects when they resonated with the right expert pilots.

One of the main reasons why the combination of expert mech and expert pilot earned such a high regard was that it could break the rules!

Common sense and the regular laws of nature no longer applied as strictly as before once expert mechs began to clash. Though the strong willpower of expert pilots granted them some protection against reality-defying effects, Venerable Tusa would definitely get into a lot of trouble if he faced a high-tier expert mech!

"You need to trust in your men." Gloriana softly said. "As mech designers, we can implement as many safeguards as we want, but all of them come at a cost. It is not our purpose to surround our customers with dozens of layers of protective materials. You'll just end up with a big, fat ball of metal that is so unwieldy that it is slower than the Shield of Samar! The established design conventions exist for a reason and there is no reason why we should deviate from them for this project."

Ves closed his eyes and pressed his fingers against his face. "I know you are correct, but we are talking about family here. Each and every decision we make will directly affect whether Venerable Tusa will be able to survive a future battle. If he inadvertently falls against a strong opponent because of a compromise we made or a vulnerability that we have overlooked, I don't know if I will be able to forgive myself."

He thought he had lost the ability to feel guilt. It turned out that he was wrong.

Gloriana recognized that Ves was going through a difficult moment. Her expression softened further. She sat down next to Ves and pulled him into a warm and loving embrace. Her pleasant fruity scent peppered him up a bit.

"I know what you're going through, Ves. I feel the same way whenever I prepare to work on my brother's expert mech. The work we do have an enormous influence on the performance and the survival chances of the people who use our work. That has always been a part of a mech designer's life. You never felt this way when you designed Larkinson-exclusive mechs like the Bright Warrior and the Transcendent Punisher, but the outcome is similar. Why do you not feel nervous when you worked on those past projects?"

Ves shrugged as he enjoyed his wife's attention. "I guess it's more personal this time. Back when I designed both versions of the Bright Warrior, I always had a more abstract audience in mind. Sure, I was designing a mech that would have a huge influence on the lives of a lot of Larkinson mech pilots, but when I treat them as a group, it is kind of hard to imagine the consequences to any single individual. I mean, just think about the last round of design projects we completed. Tens of thousands of clansmen will be piloting our Larkinson mechs while millions of Hexers are depending on the new mechs we designed for their use."

"In contrast, our current round of design projects will only service six individuals. Seven if we count in my brother."

Ves nodded. "Exactly. We will spend months, maybe even a year on just a small number of mechs. No other copies will be made after we have created the originals. I don't know about you, but I don't want to invest so much time in trying to design an expert mech only for it to be an outcome that I have tried my best to avoid."

Gloriana smiled and grasped his hands with her own tender fingers. "You're not wrong for having this worry, Ves. The fact that you are worrying yourself sick means you care. That is an important quality to have for a mech designer, especially one who designs custom mechs for individual mech pilots. Don't think you are wrong to doubt yourself. You just have to push yourself harder in order to minimize the possibility that your fears come true."

She had gone through a similar moment as well in her career. It was quite frightening to realize that one's work on war machines would have far-reaching consequences to the survival of those who operated them. Yet mech designers and any other weapon developers for that matter could not allow these fears to cripple them. From the moment they chose their professions, they threw away their right to feel guilty about this issue.

Empathy was important, but what mattered more was performing their jobs!

At this point, it was too late for people like Ves or any other mech designer to feel guilty or concerned about the consequences of their decisions.

Gloriana did not say anything more, but her silent presence provided enough comfort in itself for Ves to get back into gear.

Though he had not managed to get rid of all of his concerns, he resorted to a solution that had often worked for his problems.

He shoved them to the back of his mind and tried his best to forget about them. As long as he didn't actively think about any unpleasant thoughts, his mood no longer deteriorated!

"Are you ready to get back to work?" Gloriana asked.

"Sure."

Ves kissed Gloriana's cheek, causing her to release a pleasant giggle. She soon switched back to work mode though as she returned to studying the latest documents on the Disruptor Project.

"I have already gathered enough feedback from Juliet and Ketis to know what we have to watch out for when we design this expert mech. In general, we always have to make sure we prioritize its mobility but not to the extent of sacrificing too much in other areas."

"That's easy to say." Ves scoffed. "We have very wide ranges to consider, especially since the performance of expert mechs are so good. Who determines what level of performance is good or bad?"

Gloriana smirked and crossed her arms. "That's my job. You don't need to worry about that. I already ran a lot of numbers and have set some overall guidelines on the performance of every expert mech in development. Don't dip any lower than the minimum specifications that I have set and you'll be fine. Just try and do your best to exceed them if you can. Anything extra that we can get will give us a lot more leeway."

At the end of the day, the Disruptor Project was the first one to pass to the next design phase. While Ves and the others aimed to progress the other expert design projects as well, there was no doubt that they wanted to complete the expert light mech design first!

According to Gloriana's estimates, they might be able to finish the design in just four months if they poured all of their attention on it. However, a more realistic completion date was six months as they could not afford to neglect their other design projects.