The Mech Touch

"Do you envision this axe-wielding machine as a medium mech or a heavy mech?" Ves asked Tifi just as she started to elaborate on her proposal.

"I would love to realize it as a heavy mech, but…"

"An assault unit needs to field mechs that can close in on the enemy in a timely manner."

"Correct, sir. In order to keep the mech mobile enough, it is best to stick with the medium weight class. I can still turn it into a mech that is sturdy enough to undertake the dangerous act of assaulting enemy lines while at the same time providing it with enough offensive power to tear up defensive formations."

"A lancer mech can break apart defensive formations much more effectively." Dulo Voiken remarked. "The greatest advantage is that their shock power is so great that they can punch open holes immediately at first contact. These axemen mechs of yours need time to launch repeat attacks."

"Axeman mechs aren't as limited as lancer mechs." Tifi Coslone defended her idea. "Axeman mechs do not have to build up momentum and they can block an enemy unit's advance with their own frames. They also fight much better in confined spaces or in areas where maneuverability is limited."

Everyone here was a Journeyman, so they already understood the pros and cons of axeman mechs. What Tifi said was indeed correct, but that did not necessarily mean the Avatars should rush to accept an axeman mech.

Ves said his own piece. "I think the Avatars of Myth may require a lancer mech in the future, but for now I am already considering one for the Eye of Ylvaine in a future design round. If I think about how the Avatars of Myth are utilized in previous battles, I think it is important for it to be able to stop or pin down enemy units. Lancer mechs can't do that because they spend most of their time building up momentum and finding the right angles to perform their charge attacks. I think equipping the Avatars with an axeman mech fit their needs much better. The only issue is that this mech legion never has a history of utilizing these weapons. Unlike spears, axes have a higher skill floor. It takes considerably more training to become proficient at wielding such dangerous weapons."

There was no way that Tifi missed this fact. She already thought about this issue and formulated an argument.

"Axes are indeed more difficult and uncommon than swords and spears, but the Avatars should be able to handle this weapon type." Tifi calmly responded. "Melee mech pilots who prefer to master the sword are better with the Swordmaidens. Those who are more flexible and do not possess a passion for swordsmanship should be able to master the use of an axe, especially a large and heavy one that emphasizes brute force instead of exquisite techniques."

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "I see. You want to design a mech that isn't flexible enough to fight one-on-one duels but possesses enough mechanical power to tear through shield walls, is that what you're suggesting?"

"Yes. The spear-and-shield combination that you have discussed earlier? My axeman mech is an answer to that. They can chop apart spears and hack through shields as long as they possess the initiative, which they should as shield walls are highly rigid and inflexible mech formations. Axeman mechs can also be utilized to rip through starships and large facilities. They just need to be equipped with a greataxe that is large and sharp enough."

Unlike the other suggestions that Ves had heard so far, he wasn't sure whether he should support this idea.

He knew how effective axeman mechs could be when he recalled one of his previous battles. The Avido Berserker Mech Regiment used them along with even heavier mechs that were equipped with hammers to smash through the lines of the Golden Skull Alliance.

While the hateful Vulcanites failed to crush the Larkinson and Crosser mechs that resisted the Avido Berserkers, that was because other variables came into play.

If the Larkinsons and Crosser mechs had to fight against the Molten Hammer Mech Division including the Avido Berserkers on equal terms, Ves would actually bet on the dwarven mechs!

The main reason why he was so eager to supply so many new specialized mech designs to his mech legion was to bring their effective combat strength on par with proper military mech divisions like the Molten Hammers.

The dwarves had taught the Larkinsons a good lesson about the power of combined arms!

Therefore, the main criteria that Ves used to determine whether a mech proposal was good was whether it helped a mech legion improve its own fighting system.

Right now, Ves used his imagination to envision how the Avatars of Myth would fight if they were equipped with Tifi Coslone's axeman mech.

The Avatars of Myth would probably fight similar to the Molten Hammers. Offensive space knights led the charge and crashed into enemy lines first.

Following up on the space knights were axeman mechs. The latter would either attack the stalled enemy lines from the flanks or just squeeze through the friendly space mechs in order to attack the enemy defenses up front if there were no other alternatives!

Combined with the right glows and a powerful axe, this simple approach could achieve considerable success.

Of course, these axeman mechs were not strong in everything. They were less efficient in defensive combat and were usually a bit more sluggish than swordsman mechs.

Yet as long as they possessed enough striking power, these weaknesses were more than acceptable!

The only real concern that Ves had was whether the Avatars of Myth could actually stomach piloting axeman mechs.

Ves wasn't sure whether the Avatars should even replace all of their swordsman mechs for axeman mechs or whether they should split their mech pilots evenly between the two mech types.

This was not his concern, though. These were decisions that were best left to the Avatars themselves.

"I'm mildly supportive of this proposal but I need to receive a detailed plan before I am willing to take it further." He eventually told Tifi. "You need to work together with Commander Melkor to flesh out this mech concept and explain how this will strengthen the Avatars. I won't approve of a mech design project that does the opposite. Is that clear?"

Tifi Coslone nodded in understanding. "Clear, sir."

Ves didn't think that any of the four new Journeymen would fail in this task. They were all competent mech designers who clearly made a serious effort into understanding the fighting approaches of the different mech legions. They were professionals who didn't need any handholding.

He was just mentioning more than he needed to in order to make sure that everyone was on the same page. They all came from different organizations where mech design projects were handled differently. Ves needed to instill his own process into them so that they did not do anything weird.

He took a look at his internal notes. Aside from Janassa Pellier, the new mech designers all proposed good and interesting mech concepts that could provide a lot of value to the Larkinson Army.

This was good. The mech legions did not have to wait as long as before in order to receive their promised new mech models.

"Let's adjourn this meeting for now." He said. "I need to go back and sort out all of the proposed design projects that we will be working on in the upcoming design round. I want us to be productive so we'll be starting up many different projects, but not to the point of overwhelming us. Some of them are solo projects but the majority will require collaboration, so I need to sort that out as well. We cannot have eight mech designers working on the same mech design."

The ideal amount for every mech design was five mech designers. The Design Department was now capable of reaching this target, but in the interest of maximizing output Ves might choose to assign less Journeymen to a project.

It all depended on many factors and it wasn't easy for a head designer like Ves to choose between power and expedience.

Once everyone left the conference room, Ves was left with Lucky who rolled his body around in the air.

"Meow."

"Yeah. It's great now that we've gained additional lead designers, but it's going to take a lot more work to make sure they use their abilities as productively as possible."

Journeymen were powerful creatives that could design all kinds of mechs, but not all of them were useful to certain clients. The Larkinson Army mainly needed spaceborn mechs at the moment so there was not much demand for a landbound or aquatic mech.

Fortunately, the four newcomers were all proficient in designing spaceborn mechs, so Ves didn't have to worry about that. He loved working with competent mech designers.

Ves continued to spend time on planning in the next few days. He regularly consulted with Gloriana and the other Journeymen to figure out which projects they were willing to get involved in and who could take charge of them. He also talked to General Verle and the legion commanders to make sure their mech pilots were actually willing to pilot the proposed mech models.

His discussions with them didn't entirely go smoothly as some of the upcoming mech designs entailed a lot of changes. The Avatars and the Sentinels both had to retrain large amounts of melee mech pilots and reinvent their tactics in order to make good use of the new mech models.

Still, the cases for the axeman mech and spearman mech were strong. The Swordmaidens were just so good at piloting swordsman mechs that it seemed redundant for the other mech legions to utilize them as well.

The only issue was that the Swordmaidens mainly worked with female mech pilots. The Larkinsons had to find an answer for male mech pilots who were also passionate about piloting swordsman mechs.

"What a headache." Ves pressed his fingers against his forehead. "I'll deal with this issue another time."

Even if the Avatars and Sentinels adopted their new melee mechs, they could still make use of swordsman mechs to a smaller degree.

By the time he sorted out the planning, he convened all of the lead designers together.

This was the first time that all eight Journeymen of the Design Department sat together in a single room. Everyone else had been busy following up on their own duties before this point.

There was clear separation between the mech designers. Ves was clearly the head. Gloriana possessed the second-highest seniority within the department and already managed to impress that onto the newcomers.

Right now, Janassa, Tifi, Sara and Dulo had yet to truly contribute to the Larkinson Clan. Until they managed to prove themselves, they would not receive the full treatment that they were due.

"Alright, everyone. Now that we have gathered today, let us settle on our plan so that we can truly begin our next design round with a clear idea on what we should be doing."

Ves activated a projection that listed out numerous different design projects.

"We will be working on 14 different mech design projects in total for the next 6 to 8 months. Of the 14 different projects, 1 of them centers around an expert mech, 3 of them are based around custom mechs while the remaining 10 focuses on mass production mechs. Not all of you will be working on the same amount of mech design projects. This is because your workload differs per project and because I'm not certain how much work that some of you can handle. Nevertheless, I am confident that we can complete all of these projects within time as long as we aren't disturbed by outside factors."

He had to mention that last point because there were multiple times where Ves had to pause his design work because the Larkinsons encountered another crisis.

In a place as dangerous as the Red Ocean, this was bound to happen again!