The Mech Touch

Though Gloriana hadn't fully finalized the configuration of the weapon loadout of Vincent Ricklin's custom mech, she had already made a drastic design choice.

Instead of taking advantage of the Larkinson Clan's exclusive access to advanced luminar crystal technology, Gloriana decided to eschew it entirely and resort to kinetic weapons!

Gauss weapons, missiles and even melee weapons featured prominently in Gloriana's mech concept for Vincent's new personal machine.

Typical to a hybrid mech, the concept envisioned by Gloriana did not mount any huge and powerful weapons. It instead incorporated multiple smaller ones that could each inflict respectable damage under the right circumstances.

The mech was even able to fight up close, though not as good as dedicated melee mechs. The hybrid mech carried a rather thick but short tower shield along with a wicked sword that could deliver slow but powerful strikes without requiring too much finesse!

All in all, the upfront damage potential of this hybrid mech was quite good due to incorporating all of these physical weapons. It could accurately pound enemy targets at mid-range while whacking mechs into dented wrecks if they ever came close!

While it was possible for the hybrid mech to snipe targets at range, this was insanely difficult because Gloriana did not optimize its design for long-ranged combat. The lack of energy weapons was a tell-tale sign that she did not even bother to give Vincent a good means to fight against distant opponents!

The overall direction of this mech design already gave Ves a good idea of what Gloriana was thinking about, but he still found her design decisions to be perplexing.

"This is an unusual weapon loadout for a hybrid mech." He explained his thoughts to his wife. "These guns and missile launchers all look nice, but they take up a lot of capacity. It's not that bad if a mech only utilizes one kinetic weapon, but the issue here is that it integrates multiple of them across its frame! All of those weapons require ammunition in order to function, and that takes up even more space inside the mech."

Gloriana shook her head. "Not entirely. Haven't you noticed the external ammunition bins? The New Man Project does not have to have to rely on its internal magazines to keep the weapons fed. I'll design different ammunition feeding systems that will efficiently transfer the contents of these ammunition bins to the various integrated kinetic weapons. With this, Vincent's hybrid mech can sustain its firepower output for a considerably longer time."

This was a simple solution, but a good one. Though his wife hadn't put too much detail in the draft of the ammunition bins, Ves could see that they were designed as external modules that could easily be attached and detached whenever convenient.

On the battlefield, the New Man Project could easily eject its empty ammunition bins and allow bots or mechs to mount new ones in the same slots. The transition didn't not have to take much time at all, so as long as the hybrid mech did not sustain much damage, it could actually fire its weapons for a long time until the buildup of heat and the accumulated stress on its kinetic weapons had finally reached their limits!

Of course, this treatment was a little extravagant for a single mech. It wasn't worth it to field lots of mechs that needed to be accompanied by its own maids and babysitters in battle. It was only tolerable if this treatment was confined to individual machines such as custom mechs.

After studying the design schematics a bit further, he reluctantly put down his concerns about the New Man Project's overreliance on kinetic weapons.

Even if these weapon modules were not as powerful as his luminar crystal weapons, they offered a lot of much-needed diversity.

There was one element of uncertainty that caught his attention.

"This mech doesn't consume as much energy as our rifleman mechs, but I see you haven't channeled all of its excess power to its flight system. It's actually a bit slow for a medium mech. How are you planning to use all of that additional power?"

The draft design was still incomplete, so Ves couldn't figure out what Gloriana had in store.

His wife pointed towards the projected design. "Just like the Adonis Colossus, the New Man Project is a mech that is strong in both offense and defense. I've already taken care of the former in the form of its weapon loadout. I'm still working on the latter, but you should already be able to tell that my hybrid mech is covered by a substantial amount of armor. That's not enough, though. This mech is so eye-catching that it will doubtlessly attract a lot of enemy fire. In order to increase its survivability even further, I decided to mount it with a compact but premium shield generator."

Shield generator!

These were powerful but energy-hungry defensive modules that were mostly found in defensive mechs and high-end mechs.

Ves considered the effect of mounting one to the New Man Project. The mech had become so sluggish that it could certainly use a bit of help in fending off incoming attacks.

"Are you sure it's worth implementing in the design?" He questioned. "A shield generator is an intensive module. If you choose to integrate it in a knight mech, then I wouldn't have any doubts about your idea. The problem is that you're trying to stuff it in a hybrid mech that already carries a lot of integrated weapon and ammunition modules. You can't even mount it externally because you have already reserved that for the ammunition bins!"

Gloriana sighed. "You're right. It will be hard for me to integrate a good shield generator to the New Man Project. I still think it is worth implementing. Energy shields possess different defensive characteristics that can help my custom hybrid mech survive in different situations. It is also easy for us to upgrade it with a more powerful model in the future. Once we obtain access to superior and more higher-performing mech parts, it is not impossible for us to turn the New Man Project into a defensive powerhouse!"

"Guuwaahaaaaaaa…!"

"See? Even Aurelia agrees! She's such a smart and clever little cutie."

While Gloriana gave her daughter a bit of personal attention, Ves turned to the mech pilot who would eventually be making use of the New Man Project.

"What do you think of her work? Do you like it?" Ves asked.

"I don't like it. I love it!" Vincent beamed. "Just look at how manly it looks. Your wife sure has a good appreciation of the male form. She managed to translate my physique in the form of a mech but make it even bigger and manlier than I could imagine."

Ves grew irritated. "I'm not asking for your opinion about its appearance! I'm asking you about its performance! Are you fine with utilizing kinetic weapons?! Are you fine with piloting a slow but sturdy mech?!"

"Ah, that's all okay to me. I don't need to move quickly. I just want to be able to pound any enemies that come into my range with as much dominance as possible. With all of these guns and armor, not even those hardy dwarven mechs we fought back then can stand a chance against my custom mech!"

Well, it sounded that Vincent was fully okay with the configuration of the New Man Project. His own preferences were relatively simple, so his mech design also reflected that. The custom hybrid mech was meant to become a blunt instrument in the hands of a blunt warrior.

"Are there any shortcomings that you are particularly concerned about?"

"Yeah, just look at the codpiece I requested. No matter how many times I asked, she won't make it any bigger!"

"That's because it is superfluous and will upset the balance of your hybrid mech!" Gloriana responded after she had her fill of cuddling with her baby. "The lower waist of a mech does need protection, but there is a point where excess armor is not worth the tradeoff. The New Man Project has already crossed this line by a noticeable extent, so I need to figure out how to restore the balance of your custom mech. You are not going to make my job any easier by requesting even more padding!"

Ves left Gloriana and Vincent to decide among themselves how thick the codpiece of the New Man Project should be. It didn't appear this argument would end anytime soon.

"Mechs don't need codpieces."

As far as he was concerned, his wife was completely right. it could use a lot of downsizing. The only reason to include it at all was to satisfy Vincent's psychological needs.

Ves continued to drop by the workplaces of the other lead designers.

Everyone else was managing fine, but that did not surprise himself too much. Both the new and older Journeymen in the Design Department were all Journeymen who knew what they were doing. They did not require a lot of input from him while they were still in the drafting phase.

One of the more important projects in development at the moment was the Monster Slayer Project.

The landbound swordsman mech design was of great significance. It was part of a trade deal and could potentially become the first true income source of the Larkinson Clan that was based in the Red Ocean!

Although Ves had agreed that Ketis should design the Monster Slayer by herself in order to exercise her solo design capabilities, that didn't stop him from providing her with feedback.

"Your draft design is considerably more refined than I expected." He remarked as he crossed his arms in front of the projection. "It's cheaper than I thought as well. This is shaping up to be an affordable mid-range swordsman mech."

His former student nodded as she manipulated the controls. "The Wild Fighter Association has been helping me with figuring out what its members want. I've received a lot of advice and read a lot of market research reports."

"And what did you learn from all of that?"

"If I want to benefit as many mech pilots as possible, I should make my Monster Slayer more affordable. If I want to make my Monster Slayer more prestigious and win more impressive competitions, then I should raise its design budget."

"I take it you went for the first route."

"Yes." Ketis nodded. "I truly do want to turn my Monster Slayer into a mech that can win the most glorious tournaments held in the Red Ocean, but that does not really fit with my vision. For my first solo swordsman mech design, I want to spread my work and acquaint as many mech pilots to my design philosophy as possible."

The result of her deliberations was that she had set the design budget of her Monster Slayer to just 1.4 MTA credits.

This was around as much as a third the design budget of the Fearless Project!

Of course, Ves envisioned his Fearless Project as an elite specialist combat mech that was meant to fight against the toughest opponents.

The Monster Slayer was a landbound mech that could perform adequately in landbound battles but was actually meant to fight in arenas.

Since arena battles were costly and attrition was high, the mechs that participated in many standard tournaments should never be too expensive.

Although the price tag of the Monster Slayer was a bit higher than the most popular price category, it was still within a range that allowed for mass adoption.

The only question was whether it provided enough value to swordsman mech pilots to sell that well.

When Ves looked at the sword that Ketis had drafted for the Monster Slayer, he saw that it was a typical greatsword.

He frowned a bit. "I see you decided to pair the Monster Slayer with a greatsword instead of a smaller weapon. Don't you think this is a risky choice? Not every swordsman mech fights like the Swordmaidens."

Ves was afraid that Ketis might scare away too many customers if she insisted on this course of action!