The Mech Touch

Scaling up luminar crystal weapons came with considerable challenges.

It wasn't so bad at first. Ves first started with scaling up his standard assault rifles to heavy assault rifles.

The former was light enough to allow regular baseline humans to handle them without any significant hindrance. While the weapon was certainly a bit hefty, Zanthar didn't exhibit too many issues when he test-fired the standard rifle.

The latter only looked a bit longer and thicker, but its total volume had scaled up drastically. This caused the weapon to become very dense and heavy, so much so that even Ves felt uncomfortable with handling it despite his augmented strength.

It wasn't just the weight that made it difficult to handle. Its exaggerated proportions and its longer rifle barrel made it harder to balance it in a person's hands.

The truth was that the heavy variant was not meant to be wielded by ordinary people at all. Ves designed it to match the heavy rifles that were customarily assigned to infantry in medium and heavy combat armor.

Their augmented, powered suits of combat armor not only granted them the strength to carry these heavy weapons, but also provided them with a stable platform to utilize them in an effective manner.

When Ves made these larger rifles, he began to encounter new problems relating to scaling. Each of them required him to come up with solutions that were derived from multiple sources, such as his material understanding of the crystals to the insights on alien circuitry borrowed from the Illustrious One.

Alien circuitry patterns that worked for smaller crystals no longer functioned quite as well when applied to larger crystals.

The greater mass and volume of a crystal caused the effects of the circuitry to be diluted.

Ves couldn't solve this problem by engraving these crystals with larger circuitry. Luminar technology didn't seem to work that way. Instead, he had to channel the Illustrious One for long periods of time in order to come up with longer and more elaborate patterns that took the increased volume into account.

This was tedious work because every unique crystal design needed its own separate circuitry that was tailored to both its physical properties and its intended purpose. Two crystals with identical shapes could contain completely different circuitry if one was made for physical damage resistance and the other was made for heat absorption.

Still, as much as Ves lamented the time required to reconfigure the enlarged luminar crystals, the outcome was worth it as the heavy assault rifles packed a much greater punch than the original version.

The slicer beam even cut right through the dummy and the rear wall of the firing range! If not for the shield generator that Ves had installed as a precaution, the beam would have gone on to destroy the rack of equipment further in its path!

"Damn, I need to beef up the protections before I resume the tests!"

It didn't take much time for him to install additional slabs of metal in order to prevent the near-disaster from repeating. Ves also made sure he stayed further away and examined the tests from a much safer distance.

Ves spent an entire week tinkering with these heavy rifles. Even after creating the new circuitry for the enlarged crystals, he still encountered several issues that reduced the efficiency of the weapon or increased its power consumption beyond reason.

As much of the Larkinson Clan continued to work on making the Vivacious Wal, the Andrenidae, the Discentibus and the Blinding Banshee fit for travel, Ves practically spent his entire waking hours in his personal workshop as he became more fascinated by making significant improvements with each new heavy crystal rifle he designed and crafted.

He made sure to thoroughly detect and address every adverse change in performance from scaling up the crystal rifle design. This led him to produce a pile of expensive weapons.

Instead of disposing of them, Ves selected the best twelve heavy luminar crystal rifles and handed them over to his honor guard.

"Here you go. These rifles are leagues better than the ones you are currently using."

The honor guard were all happy with receiving their new weapons. Despite their experimental and uncertain reliability, the many tests that Ves had conducted over the past few days had fully proven how much firepower and versatility they possessed!

Though it was too laborious for Ves to equip all of the infantry soldiers with powerful handmade weapons, it was not a big deal for him to give his bodyguards an extra boost.

"Besides, strengthening my bodyguards will increase my safety. It is more than worth it to give them my attention."

Once he was satisfied that he had mastered the heavy rifle version of the luminar crystal rifle concept, he decided to scale it up another notch.

He did not move on to designing and creating mech-sized rifles just yet. Instead, he settled on a middle ground and created a weapon system that was too large and heavy to be wielded by infantry but could easily be mounted on shuttles.

The Larkinson Clan did not have a habit of mounting weapons onto shuttles, though, so it was likely that these guns would not be put to use. Ves therefore tried to make as little of them as possible.

"It costs exponentially more money and resources to make them as well." Ves frowned.

Just one of these guns used up enough materials to outfit his entire honor guard with heavy luminar crystal rifles!

The fact that Ves was trying to develop a high-quality rifle for an expert mech meant that he could not cheap out on materials. He needed to gain a greater understanding of all of the materials used to make the strongest and most potent crystals. He also had to familiarize himself with all of the properties of these types of crystals whether they were scaled for infantry soldiers or mechs.

Even though the LMC's Procurement Department kept complaining to him about how difficult it was to source more batches of the rare exotics that he was squandering, Ves didn't care too much.

The LMC could easily cover the cost and the Pelsa Ryndover System was a major port system that should be able to supply all of his needs.

Ves justified all of the expenditures by emphasizing the importance of a good rifle to an expert mech that was completely centered around ranged combat.

Of course, it was out of the question for him to test the performance of these big, powerful beasts in his personal workshop. He had to take the trouble to move them over to a more appropriate testing space to make his measurements and collect the data he needed to further his development process.

Since the Larkinson fleet was parked close to a busy trading hub, Ves did not feel it was wise to test it out in open space. Even if his mech forces could set up a strong interference field, there was still a possibility that an advanced observation post on the surface of Talulah Silver would be able to gather some interesting readings.

"Even if I don't intend to keep my crystal rifles a secret forever, there is no reason for me to show them off beforehand." He muttered.

After exploring his options, he decided to test out the new powerful crystal guns at the mech arena section of the Vivacious Wal.

Enough time had passed for the Larkinsons to make substantial progress in crewing and readying the leisure-oriented capital ship. While she wasn't quite spaceworthy yet, many of her essential functions had been checked and brought online with few issues.

Ves had always grown curious about what the latest capital ships were like. He was thoroughly familiar with the Spirit of Bentheim and visited the Graveyard and the Dragon's Den enough times to get a good feel of them both.

Each capital ship played a vital role to the Larkinson Clan. Ves could not afford to be too detached to any of them. While they weren't alive like his mechs, Ves still believed that every vessel possessed a heart and identity formed out of the people who crewed them and depended on their functions.

After he had made his decision, he made the arrangements and ignored the safety concerns.

The Larkinsons had yet to sweep the Vivacious Wal of security concerns, so there was no guarantee that it was safe for him to step aboard the vessels. However, the odds of something awful happening was so low that Ves did not allow himself to be intimidated from visiting one of his own ships!

"I can't avoid every possible risk because of an imaginary threat. I would have never gotten this far if I maintained a risk-averse outlook!"

Just to be certain, the clan thoroughly prepared for his visit. Calabast dispatched a lot of Black Cats to hastily sweep the vessel of potential security vulnerabilities while hundreds of extra elite Heavensword infantry soldiers boarded the vessel in advance to be on hand if any personal threats arose.

Of course, Ves didn't think that the latter was any useful. When he shuttled over to one of the hangar bays of the Vivacious Wal, he became very impressed by the discipline and strength exuded by the guards.

The most notable aspect about them was that they carried swords as well as rifles. While these swords were all resting securely in their scabbards, Ves briefly imagined what it would be like to be stormed by a hundred copies of Ketis.

If any of these soldiers managed to get close, they could probably slaughter any other infantry troop!

"Getting close is not easy, though." Ves muttered.

Though he was aware that the combat armor of the Heavensworders possessed powerful boosters and other mobility enhancements that could help them close the gap, it was not that practical to rely on them all the time.

Ves no longer paid attention to them and instead directed his attention to the rest of the ship.

Since this was his first tour of a newly-acquired capital ship, he decided to request the company of Vivian Tsai.

The chief ship designer of the Larkinson Clan had already visited the vessel multiple times and was thoroughly familiar with the capital ship's design.

"As you can see from the bright and colorful interior, we are currently on the Joyful Side of this ship." She explained as they walked forward under escort. "The interior design is geared towards providing a comfortable, family-friendly environment that excels at reducing stress. For this reason, the original designers of this ship have tried to avoid as many distracting and discordant elements as possible in the public areas. Peace and harmony are central to this side."

That had become more evident as soon as they stepped into the corridors. Distracting signs and markings were kept to a minimum. Pastel colors such as pale yellow, light blue, baby pink and other airy tints dominated the spaces and made him feel as if he entered an amusement park.

There was plenty of greenery as well. Botanical parks not only offered ample space for humans to connect with nature, but also provided enough room for children to run around and play as if they were genuinely residing in an outdoor environment.

"It feels a bit empty and hollow here, though." Ves commented.

The parks and so on looked nice, but it was a bit too cold and artificial to his liking.

"Ah, that is because this park is meant to be populated by a self-sustaining population of animals and non-aggressive exobeasts. Once we have filled up these parks and other areas with cuddly beasts, the Joyful Side will become a much greater attraction to visitors."

That reminded him of his visit to Felixia. He could never forget the joy of being able to interact with all of those clever cats that resided in the more touristy areas of the cat-themed planet.

What made the Vivacious Wal even more remarkable was that she possessed more similarities to Felixia.

Just like the cat planet, the entertainment ship featured expansive fighting and hunting grounds on her other side. Once Ves had his fill of this warm and cuddly side of the Vivacious Wal, he enthusiastically headed over to the more exciting side…