The Mech Touch

The Dark Zephyr impressed every Larkinson who had the privilege of witnessing its inaugural deployment.

The expert mech not only performed well without exhibiting any unanticipated faults, its strength blew everyone out of the water.

The base performance of the Dark Zephyr was unimaginably high. Of course, the extremely high-quality components and materials incorporated in the design of the mech had much to do with it. Even a mediocre mech designer would have been able to come up with a mech design that vastly overpowered against regular mechs with a design budget that surpassed 200 billion hex credits!

This sum did not even include the monetary value of its rare Unending alloy system. Ves did not even dare to put a cost estimate on this precious aspect alone for fear of it leaking out and attracting a whole host of greedy robbers.

The ultimate result of cramming all kinds of high-performing parts into a relatively thin and modest frame was a highly mobile package that simply blew other mechs of its class out of the water.

The closest direct comparison to the Dark Zephyr was the Ferocious Piranha Mark I Version B. From a cost perspective, the Dark Zephyr cost the equivalent of 500 Ferocious Piranhas to build.

It was unimaginable to think how much power was contained in every square meter of the Dark Zephyr. If the mech was sliced up into even blocks, each single piece could be sold for an incredible sum!

Of course, the performance of the Dark Zephyr was not literally 500 times stronger than the Ferocious Piranha. Diminishing returns took extreme effect, causing the performance of the expert mech to be much more manageable.

However, this was not necessarily bad. The value of an expert mech was difficult to quantify because of their many uses. They were not only able to block enemy expert mechs, but also served as powerful morale boosters and rallying symbols.

The Battle of Reckoning had fully taught Ves and the rest of the Larkinson Clan that neglecting expert mechs would eventually lead to a dead end!

It was unacceptable for a large combat-oriented fleet like that of the Larkinsons to lack the protection of an expert mech. The addition of its first real expert mech provided the clan with a lot of relief!

What delighted General Verle and the other military planners even more was that the performance of the Dark Zephyr exceeded that of a typical low-tier expert mech!

While much of the power of the expert light skirmisher was front-loaded, the key was that Venerable Tusa was finally able to duel against other expert mechs and not fall into a disadvantage.

Perhaps some might argue that the sheer amount of investment put into the Dark Zephyr was still too much in relation to its battlefield performance, but such a shallow evaluation overlooked one important point.

"Expert mechs and expert pilots continually improve."

As long as the Larkinson Clan kept iterating and upgrading the Dark Zephyr over time, its technical performance would continue to become stronger. Different from its initial design project, any subsequent modifications would not require a vast amount of effort. Just one or two Journeymen along with a single design team was sufficient to add more functionality or power to the existing expert mech.

The expert pilot was able to improve as well. One dimension of this was growing more familiar with all of the nuances and capabilities of the Dark Zephyr.

Though Venerable Tusa obviously performed well right out of the gate, this was actually just the start. As long as he continued to pour many hours into mastering the Dark Zephyr, the efficiency of his piloting performance would probably rise by a considerable degree, especially in the first couple of months.

Another form of growth entailed polishing his will. Though the Piranha Prime allowed Tusa to exercise his willpower and improve his resonance strength, generating true resonance was by far the most effective method for expert pilots to grow their core strength.

The profession of expert pilots was specifically matched with expert mechs. This was something that Ves believed to an even stronger degree after witnessing how much better Venerable Tusa resonated with the Dark Zephyr.

While it helped that the expert mech was designed solely for Tusa's use, the fact that the expert pilot's willpower was naturally able to resonate with the entire machine was much more correct.

As Ves and Gloriana wrapped up all of the raw telemetry data and sensor readings, they smiled at each other.

"We've learned so much about expert mechs now that we have completed our first project." Gloriana happily stated. "Once we analyze the data, we'll be able to use our findings to improve our implementation of our next expert mech design projects!"

"The Dark Zephyr serves as an excellent model for what is about to come. Even though every expert mech is unique, we can derive a lot of common elements from our first completed expert mech." Ves concurred.

This was especially the case for his attempt to merge true resonance with prime resonance. His only regret was that Trisk was too young and immature to provide much assistance to the Dark Zephyr.

That would change over time as Tusa continually provided the newborn design spirit with potent spiritual feedback, but that wasn't enough for Trisk to catch up to the older design spirits.

"I'll have to design another light mech to boost her growth." Ves murmured.

This was something to consider for later. He was already satisfied with the current strength displayed by the Dark Zephyr.

Its overall performance level was already on par with the Cross Clan's mid-tier expert mechs. In fact, the Dark Zephyr possessed an advantage in terms of extraordinary abilities due to extravagant use of Unending alloy, Perfidious Steel and Bissanot.

However, the Larkinson Clan's first expert mech was slightly deficient in terms of efficiency, stability and staying power.

From what Ves was able to observe from solid expert mechs such as the Amphis and the Conavis Mer, the Cross Clan's expert mechs did not come with as many bells and whistles, but made up for it with strong, consistent performance.

Even if the Crosser expert pilots exhausted their resonance strength, they were still able to exert a lot of power by relying on the base performance of their stable machines!

This was a considerably different design approach from the one that the Larkinson Clan had adopted.

"The staying power of the Dark Zephyr is too short." Ves frowned. "It's fine if Venerable Tusa is able to conserve his strength during a battle, but if the conflict drags out, he'll eventually run out of steam. While the expert mech can return to a carrier in order to replenish its spent fuel and energy cells, it is not that easy to recharge an expert pilot."

"This is what we decided upon from the conception stage, remember?"

Ves sighed. "I know. We have to solve one problem first before we are ready to solve the next one. Right now, being able to deliver expert mechs that excels at dueling other expert mechs provides the greatest amount of help to our clan. We can consider the matter of designing expert mechs that can function as durable presences on the battlefield another time. We've got a whole host of expert candidates so we'll probably have an opportunity to design more expert mechs in the future."

As the Journeymen finished wrapping up their work, they returned to their staterooms and subsequently collapsed on their beds.

After five continuous days of high-intensity work, they were bone-tired!

Meanwhile, the Dark Zephyr returned to the Spirit of Bentheim's hangar bay in a victorious fashion. The Larkinsons in the compartment all applauded Venerable Tusa for gaining a new expert mech and conducting a successful test!

"What a powerful expert mech!"

"No one will be able to run away from you anymore!"

"Our fleet is invincible now!"

Though Venerable Tusa felt very weary after exerting his piloting abilities to the utmost, he nonetheless took the time to smile and nod at the enthusiastic Larkinsons.

As an expert pilot, he was an influential figure in the clan. Raising the morale of the clansmen and boosting their confidence was one of his essential responsibilities.

He quickly moved past the crowd of admirers and entered the nearest ready room.

He already sensed the wills of the other expert pilots even before he entered the smaller compartment. As Tusa slumped onto an empty chair and loosened the collar of his thick protective piloting suit, he threw a glance at his four colleagues.

"I guess you want to hear all about my first experience, am I right?"

Venerable Joshua, Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise all nodded. Even Venerable Jannzi looked impatient to hear what it was like to pilot a living expert mech.

The only resident expert pilot that was missing from this gathering was Venerable Davia Stark, but that was to be expected. The guest of the Larkinson Clan was much more patient than the others. She was willing to pilot any mech that Ves saw fit to put in her hands. It was only a matter of time before she received a suitable expert mech.

"What's your impression of your new expert mech?" Joshua asked.

Tusa's eyes turned hazy. "It's… indescribable. There are so many new options, variables and sensations that I can't even list them all out. Resonating with my Dark Zephyr is much, much easier. The mech is literally made for it. I was barely able to do the same with the Piranha Prime. I had to force myself to resonate with my old prime mech."

The other expert pilots looked quite impressed. As Tusa began to describe more details about his piloting experience, his audience became more and more eager to get their hands on their own expert mechs!

Venerable Orfan asked another question. "So what was it like to activate the resonance abilities of your expert mech?"

"It's like casting magic. I've noticed that I don't need to exert too much manual control when I want to boost the acceleration of my flight system or make my mech frame a lot harder to hit at range. I just have to resonate with the right parts and let the mech do most of the work. It's quite user-friendly, but I still have the option of changing the details if I wish."

"It's exhausting though, right?"

Tusa nodded. "It depends on the strength and effect of the resonance ability. You can choose to hold back in order to lower your consumption, but the effect isn't as good. Still, this is not a big issue if you fight against regular mechs. The only instance where I need to utilize my full strength is if I'm being targeted by more than a thousand mechs or fighting against another expert mech. It's not necessary to employ so much strength against weaker opponents."

"How about.. the living aspect of your expert mech?"

Joshua cared about this attribute the most!

Venerable Tusa smiled. "I kind of feel why Jannzi is so adamant on sticking with the Shield of Samar. The Dark Zephyr is much more than an expert mech. I feel like it can become my permanent partner. It is just so responsive and compatible with me that I no longer have the desire to pilot another expert mech. I kind of wish that Ves keeps updating it so that I can keep using it for many decades. If my Dark Zephyr can keep growing, I can hardly imagine how strong it will be a couple centuries later."

What he just heard caused Joshua to shudder with anticipation. For a moment, he felt tempted to ask Tusa whether he could take the Dark Zephyr out for a spin!

Unfortunately, he knew better than to voice this desire. Unlike other Larkinson mechs, the Dark Zephyr was undeniably bound to Venerable Tusa. It would be extremely disrespectful for Joshua to pilot it when he knew it was never meant to be piloted by someone else.

"I can't wait to receive my own expert mech."