The Mech Touch

Ketis presented Ves with an interesting option. If they were insisting upon disassembling the Bright Sword Prime in order to recycle its Unending alloy, why shouldn't they go a step further and recycle its spiritual foundation as well?

When Ves studied the dormant prime mech with his spiritual senses, he could feel the growth it experienced after many months of use. It already experienced a huge transformation during the Battle of Reckoning and had become firmly imprinted by Venerable Dise.

Was it viable to transplant all of this spiritual development from the Bright Sword Prime to the upcoming Decapitator Project?

Ves had to think deeply about it before he could muster up an answer.

He eventually shook his head. "It's an interesting idea, but it wouldn't be fair to the newer mech. Let me give you an example. I have a daughter on the way. She's a completely new life that is well on her way to experience the wonders of life from a pure and unblemished perspective. Now, do you think it is right to just erase or kill this newborn consciousness and replace it with yours or someone else?"

This was quite an extreme analogy. Ketis frowned as she immediately repulsed at the thought.

"That would clearly be wrong." She admitted. "I don't think the two situations are comparable, though. A mech isn't alive until you make it. What if you build the mech around the life of an existing mech from the start? That way, a new life won't be able to form."

Ves shook his head. "There are other problems. Transplanting an old life in a new body will doubtlessly lead to compatibility problems. The fact of the matter is that the Bright Sword Prime is a vastly different mech from the Decapitator Project. Their properties and fighting style are only superficially similar. In truth, the changes are so much that reusing the foundation of an old mech into a much different one will lead to a lot of inefficiencies that will ultimately deprive Venerable Dise from getting the support she needs to make the most out of her expert mech."

In his understanding, the Decapitator Project also needed to start from scratch because the Bright Sword Prime was originally derived from the Bright Warrior design. This made it so that the prime mech never fully matched with Venerable Dise. Bringing it over would just preserve this flaw and waste some of the Decapitator Project.

The expert swordsman mech was the first mech designed by the Larkinsons that fit Venerable Dise from the ground up. The compatibility between the finished expert mech and the expert pilot should be 100 percent or close to it. Ves believed this was an essential standard that any expert mech had to meet.

Ketis brought up one more argument, though.

"You say all of that, but you've already decided to preserve the current version of the Shield of Samar by transplanting its life over to the Bulwark Project. Isn't this exactly what you said you wouldn't do, Ves?"

Ves smirked. "Nice try, but it's not the same. Unlike the other expert mech design projects, the Bulwark Project was explicitly set up as an upgrade project, not a completely new design project. It is a different approach that expressly seeks to transform the Shield of Samar rather than replacing this old mech. In this particular case, a new living mech will never form because it was never meant to birth one in the first place."

In the end, Ketis accepted the need to clean up the old in order to make way for the new. With cargo space at a premium, there wasn't any room to store the remains of old and decommissioned mechs.

Still, Ketis' attempt to persuade Ves to preserve an old but loyal living mech put him to thought. Despite what he said, he did feel sympathy for the Bright Sword Prime and the other prime mechs that the Design Department needed to dismantle in order to make way for newer and better machines.

Now that he thought about it, didn't he already possess a ready made resting for old and broken mechs?

"We put all of the remaining parts of the Bright Sword Prime and our other decommissioned mechs onto the Graveyard." He told Ketis. "In that way, our loyal machines will be with us and can be of service to us in another way."

She looked a lot less troubled after hearing that. "I suppose that is the best we can do for this old mech."

They returned to work after this. The reason why they brought the Bright Sword Prime to the mech workshop in the first place was to study its greatsword and see if they could derive any lessons from it that they could apply to the newer sword wielded by the Decapitator Project.

"I think we should keep this sword and modify it into a different and more suitable form." Ketis suggested. "Unlike the prime mech itself, this sword is already highly similar to the weapon design I have in mind for the Decapitator Project. Also, its use will largely be the same. We just have to adjust it to take the properties of the Decapitator Project into account while also integrating Bissonat in its structure."

These were substantial changes, but her idea was still valid. Ves thought about it for a moment and decided to agree to her request.

"Swords and any other weapons don't have to be shackled to any single mech. In fact, it is rather normal for weapons to be interchangeable. Expert mechs are different but I don't see as much of a problem here."

"Great!" Ketis grinned. "If we do this, then we will be able to transfer over at least some portion of Venerable Dise's old prime mech."

The new design she had in mind did not differ too much from the old one, but to a specialist like her, the shift was a huge upgrade.

"What kind of sword style is the sword and mech supposed to execute, exactly?" Ves asked. "I've heard that Venerable Dise has been hard at work in trying to refine and develop her own sword style. Will she still fight like a normal Swordmaiden or has she already set off on a different path?"

"The latter is the case. She's a Swordmaiden, but she's also her own person, so it is only right for her to develop her own sword style. She's been doing that in consultation with myself and the Heavensworders. As a mech pilot, she favors rapid, overwhelming assaults over steady, plodding duels. She's a hunter by nature and she wants to pilot a mech that can best allow her to get in, decapitate a powerful enemy mech and get out before she can be cornered. Mobility and momentum is very important to her for that reason."

"That sounds like a lancer mech but with more lateral maneuverability." He commented.

"I can see why you think that, but the Decapitator Project should also be capable of dueling tough opponents if necessary. It's not ideal, though. In a major battle, Venerable Dise would rather cheat than play fair and fight honorable duels. We're a bit different from the Heavensworders in this way."

The Swordmaidens were originally pirates who had spent decades doing their best to survive under harsh circumstances. That meant that they were a lot more practical and willing to do whatever it took to win a battle.

Mechs designed for honorable duels possessed different traits than mechs explicitly designed to take advantage of enemy weaknesses.

When Ves studied the current design of the Decapitator Project, he got the impression of a ruthless swordsman mech that wasn't interested in honorable knightly combat. Even if it was locked in a duel, it would do everything in its power to create an advantage and decapitate an opponent by any means necessary.

Ketis was responsible for the mechanical design of the Decapitator Project. She largely determined the overall shape and proportions so that it best corresponded with Venerable Dise's newly-developed sword style.

She even worked together with Gloriana to optimize and increase the efficiency of these elements. While Ketis understood swordsmanship and Venerable Dise's sword style the best, Gloriana was a lot more adept at refining the enthusiastic swordmaster's implementation.

Weeks slowly passed as the entire Design Department quietly worked to finish the remaining expert mech designs. During this time, many changes took place.

The Larkinson Clan had slowed down its growth but improved in many other ways. Headed by three proactive chief ministers, the various institutions of the clan had already completed a lot of reforms. The lives of average Larkinsons improved and there was much more to do in the fleet these days.

The Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan were also undergoing changes as they had to make preparations to enter the Red Ocean. Unlike the Larkinson Clan, the two lesser partners of the Golden Skull Alliance did not possess a lot of capital ships. This was a big problem as they would have to dump all of their sub-capital ships once they reached the beyonder gate.

Under the current circumstances, it was extremely hard for both groups to acquire additional capital ships. However, neither of them had requested any help from the Larkinson Clan, which led the Black Cats to suspect that they were already working on a plan to solve this issue.

As the expeditionary fleet continued to cut its way through the Bardo Star Sector, it did not stop over in any star system. The three alliance partners still had plenty of supplies and even if some of their resources were running low, they could always place orders ahead of time and receive their shipment brought by specialized transport companies.

After three months of constant design work, both the Vanguard Project and the Decapitator Projects were nearing completion.

Since they were substantially more robust and more complex machines than the Dark Zephyr and the Amaranto, the two offensive melee expert mechs demanded a lot more time to fill up their entire designs. Then the mech designers had to test and optimize all of these elements, and that ate up a lot of time.

During this time, two major events took place.

First, the expeditionary fleet smoothly left the Bardo Star Cluster behind. The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers entered into a somewhat tense new place as the entire Fermi Star Cluster seemed to have been a bit more badly affected by the Crown Uprising than other regions in the galactic rim.

Second and most importantly, Gloriana's belly had swelled to a noticeable proportion. No matter what dress or uniform she wore, there was no denying that she was carrying a child.

"Miaow."

Clixie rubbed the side of her cheek against Gloriana's belly during a typical morning.

"Meow?"

Lucky, who had finally returned from the Blinding Banshee, looked a bit bewildered at the sight. He was only gone for a few months and already Gloriana looked completely different!

Ves yawned and stretched his arms before picking up Lucky. "Haven't you ever seen a pregnant woman before?"

"Meow."

He ignored his recently-returned gem cat and reached out to press his hand on Gloriana's belly.

Different from the earlier stages, Ves felt an immediate reaction that felt warm and intimate in a way that was indescribable.

"You've grown so much. You're almost ready." He smiled.

After so many days of injecting spiritual energy in his already spiritually-augmented child, her spirituality had already grown a lot more formidable than most adults.

It was still in a pure and pristine state that did not exhibit any blemishes, so Ves wasn't too worried about robbing his child from her childhood. Her brain development simply hadn't caught up to that point yet. His efforts merely gave his growing baby an immense head start.

No other parent was capable of bestowing spiritual potential to a child!

It was too bad that this method wasn't valid to people who were already born. If that was the case, then he would have had a much easier time empowering the people he favored.

"Oh well."

His daughter had already come very close to reaching the level of strength where Ves could safely grant her a companion spirit seed.

"Just a few more days…"