The Mech Touch

The High Tide Tournament entered a long and quiet phase as 94 different Journeymen all drafted their initial designs according to their ideas.

The various limitations and requirements set by the tournament this time forced them to come up with adaptations to their normal work methods. This was annoying, but also ensured their work remained fresh and unique to this occasion.

Outside, the announcers and knowledgeable mech designers hired as commentators kept the audience interested by narrating the silent decisions made by the contestants.

[Look at Mr. Veirsen's draft. It barely took him eight minutes for him to determine his plan. As a mech designer who excels in large caliber kinetic firearms, I expected him to design a short-ranged harasser mech that relies on strafing and constant bursts of fire to wear down its opponents. Instead, he has opted to design a sturdier striker mech that is armed with a powerful shotgun. Light mechs will surely suffer bad luck when they are matched against this shotgunner!]

[That is indeed an interesting choice, but how will he fare against better armored opponents? Surely his striker mech will not concede so easily against such opponents.]

[Ah, with the materials available this time, it should be possible for Mr. Veirsen to adapt the shotgun weapon system against different opponents. Although it is time-consuming for him to expand the functionality of the shotgun to accommodate alternate firing modes and different types of projectiles, as long as he does not add any other optional modules to his striker mech, I can see how it can become a threat against armored foes.]

Since Veirsen's striker mech was just in the drafting stage, there wasn't much to talk about. The commentators soon moved on to examining another Journeyman's draft.

[Miss Esophe will be sure to challenge Mr. Veirsen's striker mech with her knight mech. Though its speed is a major constraint, it is well-armored from each side. That is an unusual choice to make for a defensive mech, but it ensures the knight mech will not fall so easily against maneuverable opponents that manage to circle around and strike its rear.]

[How will this defensive mech be able to defeat the enemy mech if it can't catch up to most of them?] A female commentator asked.

[The draft for this knight mech isn't detailed enough to reveal Miss Esophe's strategy, but I can make a number of educated guesses based on her published mech designs. She has designed numerous knight mechs with offensive solutions. Her favorite method is to deploy gun drones that can put pressure on distant opponents.]

[I cannot see anyone employing drones for this tournament. It is too easy to take them out. Even if they are left alone, their firepower is too limited to defeat a mech by themselves.]

[That is correct, but given the arena environment, Miss Esophe can solve many of the constraints by developing a deployable ground turret. This is a risky strategy as it forces the knight mech to remain rooted in one location in order to protect the turrets, but it can be a compelling method to achieve victory against lighter-armed opponents. I have no doubt that her knight mech will feature additional surprises as well.]

With the help of the commentary, even non-mech designers and less-technically-inclined spectators were able to understand the gist of what the contestants were working on. It was quite fascinating to see how every mech designer started off with a relatively normal base but quickly added their own creative elements to increase their winning odds.

The four Larkinson seeds stood in the front rows alongside the followers of other contestants.

Now that they had already studied the basic courses related to mech design, they had gained enough vision and acumen to understand the intricacies of many design choices made by the people practicing their craft in front of everyone.

Seeing these Journeymen design entire mechs from scratch in a short amount of time was much more impressive when they knew how much skill and effort it took to achieve such rapid progress!

"They're all so fast." Maikel said as he held Lucky in his hands.

"Meow." The cat patted his paw against Maikel's idle hand.

"Oh, here you go, buddy."

Lucky soon squinted his eyes in pleasure as Maikel stroked his metallic back.

The other three mech design students continued to pay attention to the work of other Journeymen.

Each of them spent a lot of time in the design lab. They had seen how lots of assistant mech designers approached their work. They regularly witnessed the four Journeymen of the Larkinson Clan become engrossed in their design sessions.

Yet at this time, the Larkinson seeds became completely dazzled by numerous foreign Journeymen! Compared to Ves, these strangers were clearly faster and made much more progress in the same amount of time!

"Those six are leagues ahead of others!" Maisie Ann gasped. "How can they be so much better when many of them don't that old?"

"Maybe they're older than they look."

Zanthar shook his head. "No. It's the implants that are making the difference. Haven't you noticed that they come from the galactic center? It's not without reason why everyone thinks that those who come from the galactic center are better than anyone else. Just the powerful augmentations alone put these people ahead!"

This was indeed the case. Journeymen were respected in the galactic center as well, and it was relatively easy for them to obtain high-quality cranial implants that provide incredible boosts to their mech design productivity. Each of them possessed the equivalent of supercomputers in their minds that provided them with formidable assistance. Compared to working with external processors, these potent implants that bonded directly with the brain exhibited much lower friction and delays.

As time went by, the differences became even larger. Whereas the other 88 mech designers were still polishing their drafts, the six Journeymen from the galactic center had already moved on to the next design phase!

"Just because they're fast doesn't mean they're good." Maikel said as he drew on his own expertise. "Raw processing power is wasted if the controller doesn't know what to do with it. These pampered centrists should still be beatable."

Although he was theoretically correct, how could these Journeymen who enjoyed much better upbringing than almost anyone else in the tournament possess such obvious shortcomings?

According to their draft designs, the centrist Journeymen each took advantage of their significantly greater productivity by designing more elaborate and feature-rich competition mechs!

Rennie Larkinson pointed at a woman that she had been admiring for a while.

"You're giving them way too little credit, Maikel. Look at what Miss Katien Tievos is working on. Her light marauder mech doesn't look formidable at first, but she's completely disregarding the alloy formulas provided by the tournament and is instead developing a stronger one with the materials available to her. If her plan succeeds, her competition mech will be both fast and tough!"

That was indeed a scary prospect!

This was one of the ways in which the contestants could distinguish themselves in tournaments like these. The rules did not prohibit anyone from developing component designs or alloy formulas by themselves. They could even borrow an existing design or other relevant information from their implants if they were applicable.

This enabled mech designers to leverage their specializations to a greater degree and to make the differences between them more clear.

The greater variety of tech and solutions introduced by the contestants also allowed the new Korok Alpha KA-35 superfabs to demonstrate their versatility. No matter what the Journeymen came up with, the latest product released by Hysphalin Industries could do it all with ease!

From what it looked like, all six Journeymen from the galactic center knew exactly what they were doing. With the powerful and comprehensive production capabilities of a superfab, they did not have to be afraid of getting constrained by the equipment they had at their disposal.

"There are other impressive mech designers as well aside from those six." Zanthar commented. "Look at the oldest guy. He's not as fast as the centrists but his work makes it clear he hasn't wasted all of his years."

Michael Arven Emistes, the 99-year old Journeymen from the galactic rim, showcased how age and experience provided their own advantages.

Though his measured design pace made it clear that he did not possess a powerful cranial implant like the centrists, his design approach was clean, efficient and devoid of many common errors.

"This old guy is designing a hybrid mech! That's a bold decision."

Mr. Emistes had drafted a hybrid mech. It featured substantial armor with several energy weapon systems mounted on its frame. It was also armed with a relatively light axe and a sturdy shield.

On the surface, Emistes chose to realize a hybrid mech that possessed rounded capabilities. However, nobody thought his competition mech was that simple.

"What is this Journeyman planning?" Maikel wondered.

The man had yet to unveil any trump cards that should convey his hybrid mech with a powerful advantage.

With the way the tournament rules were set, this was practically a necessity. Winning a match did not necessarily convey a high score. If any mech struggled to gain upper hand against an opponent and only reluctantly squeezed out a win, its score for this match would not be impressive even if it remained standing.

For this reason, a lot of mechs designed by the tournament participants tended to possess at least one clear strength. Whether it was offensive, defense or mobility, any clear advantages in these aspects could allow these mechs to achieve clear and obvious victories and thereby obtain higher scores.

"Wait, what is our teacher working on?" Zanthar asked as he finally directed his attention towards his clan patriarch.

The other three Larkinson seeds remembered whose side they were supposed to be rooting for. They turned their heads and examined the draft design of the only Larkinson at the competition field.

"Is that… a lancer mech?"

All four of them became astonished at Ves' extreme choice for mech type.

Lancer mechs generally performed a lot better in actual battlefields than in an arena setting. This was the common sense that all of them had learned in their mech design studies.

The reason for this was that battlefields did not impose a lot of terrain restrictions. Lancer mechs not only had a lot more room to build up their momentum, but could also take advantage of cover, complex terrain features and the assistance of other mechs to successfully pull off a charge.

None of those helpful elements would be present in the upcoming fighting phase of the tournament!

Although the enemy mechs wouldn't be able to make use of any obstructions to shield them from any charges, the lack of space made it incredibly difficult for lancer mechs to build up sufficient speed and impact power.

This was a fatal shortcoming.

If lancer mechs weren't able to close in on their targets fast enough, then their attacks wouldn't hit anything.

If these same machines did manage to hit their foes, only to fail to inflict serious damage, then the stalled lancer mechs would become incredibly vulnerable to counterattacks!

"Our teacher should have a reason to go for a lancer mech. Maybe he's thinking about designing a simplified version of the Valkyrie Redeemer." Maikel speculated.

"That's a stretch. The Valkyrie Redeemer is a great mech, but will its glow really work against the well-trained pilots employed by Hysphalin Industries?"

That was seriously doubtful. Hysphalin Industries was an emerging trans-galactic industrial equipment manufacturer with branches in many different star sectors. It should have no trouble hiring decent first-class mech pilots, let alone a lot of excellent second-class mech pilots.

Maikel remained absolutely confident in the clan patriarch's work. "Don't count him out just yet. He has competed in multiple competitions and design duels… He should know what he is doing. If he thinks a lancer mech will give him the best shot at winning, then it must definitely have a surprise!"