The Mech Touch

Gloriana believed that the Minerva Project must come with clear and stable communication capabilities.

It had to be a powerful communicator so that it could reach out to friendly, neutral and possibly even hostile units even in highly chaotic battlefields where heavy jamming, energetic weapons fire and powerful explosions could affect the integrity of even the strongest signals!

The true power of Commander Casella Ingvar lay not in her marksmanship ability, but her command ability!

While many people might argue whether Casella was actually better at commanding a large number of friendly units than dedicated officers, none of them were expert pilots like her! With her extraordinary identity, she was able to instill much more confidence in her own men.

The ability to raise the morale of friendly units to an insane height was a precious advantage that could definitely make a substantial difference in battle!

Even if soldiers were fighting for a good cause, they could still get lost or demoralized if they weren't adequately led. The Larkinsons did not have to worry about this problem if Commander Casella was in charge. She had repeatedly shown that she cared for her men. The work she did for the Living Sentinels more than proved her empathy.

This was why giving Casella the best possible means to stay in contact with her own men was so important. The Minerva Project had to be able to reach the most distant parts of the battlefield in order to make sure that no one felt abandoned!

Still, a balance had to be struck. Too many communication modules would obviously detract from the Minerva Project's other attributes.

Ves looked uncomfortable with the current direction of the Minerva Project. "I understand the importance of good communication capabilities, but there won't be much capacity left for the mech's other functions such as its ranged combat capabilities. Don't forget that our expert mechs are mainly needed to resist against other expert mechs. It would be a waste for us to turn it into a pure auxiliary mech."

"Are you sure about that?" Gloriana challengingly raised her eyebrow.

"What are you thinking?"

"I am thinking that Commander Casella might be more capable of defeating enemy expert mechs than you think. Do you recall Venerable Ghanso and his Charlemagne?"

Ves quickly understood what his wife was hinting at. "That's an entirely different case! Ghanso is not a commander at all! It's the mech that is doing all of the work! If we want to reproduce the means that Master Huron employed to create his Scarra, then we need the expertise of a neural interface specialist which we don't have."

"Why are you being so pessimistic?" Gloriana frowned. "Haven't you seen the footage of Commander Casella's breakthrough event? Her forced resonance manifestation directly elevated the mech pilots under her command into pseudo-expert candidates!"

"I know that, but that doesn't mean it is easy for us to reproduce! Besides, the Larkinson mechs that fought alongside Commander Casella after her breakthrough fell short of performing as good as the Scarra. We need the right solutions to enable Commander Casella to channel her powers in this special way, and I'm not sure whether we can reproduce the effect that Master Huron once achieved. Don't forget that both the master and slave units were specifically designed to facilitate this process!"

The implication here was that Gloriana's dream of creating an expert mech that could replicate this powerful effect required the design of a companion mech!

This was not something that Ves wanted to do at this time. Although he favored bold ambitions, that didn't mean that mech designers should pursue them right away. He was afraid that Gloriana wanted to bite way more than she could chew with this ambitious goal!

Ves turned to the oldest man in the room. "What do you think, professor?"

Professor Benedict looked relaxed as he had watched the argument play out. It didn't appear he was invested in the matter, so he shouldn't be too biased.

"Despite your expanded capabilities, it is best to take it slow. While the end user of your expert mech has shown an impressive capability to empower friendly mechs, she might not be strong enough to reproduce this effect. The first expert mech of any newly-ascended demigod should focus on the basics first because we can clearly model the pilot's fundamental performance characteristics. It is more difficult to determine the more advanced capabilities of the expert pilots, especially at an early stage where she is still developing her own powers."

Everyone else nodded. He brought up an important point. Perhaps Commander Casella might become a powerful battlefield commander one day, but that would certainly take a lot of time.

There was a limit to what newly-ascended expert pilots could do. Even if she was equipped with a more powerful expert mech, Commander Casella might not be able to utilize more than 30 percent of its potential!

In that case, rather than aim too high, it was easier and more economical to settle for a more modest expert mech design that Casella could utilize 80 percent of its potential at the start.

This provided her with enough room to grow in without unnecessarily adding too much bloat to the mech design.

"If we do this, then we should revisit our expert mech and upgrade or replace it in the future." Juliet Stameros remarked.

Ves nodded. "That is already the case with our other expert mechs. There is nothing unusual about doing this. The premise is that Commander Casella will remain active at that time."

In the end, Gloriana agreed to pare back her ambitions a bit and skip the inclusion of any excessive communication modules.

While the Minerva Project still possessed much superior communication tech than the other expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan, it still offered enough room for other functions!

On the subject of that, the meeting finally addressed the offensive capabilities of the expert mech.

"I know you all have opinions on how to arm the Minerva Project. We can make multiple arguments on whether to arm it with a rifle or a cannon, whether to make the weapon big or small, whether to focus on long-range or medium-range combat and so on. Here is what I think."

She tapped the project, causing it to switch to a vague draft of a luminar crystal rifle.

Ves leaned forward as he studied her work.

The weapon immediately stood out to Ves because of the unusual break in its body. As he studied the weapon further, he understood what his wife was thinking.

"This is a transformable weapon." He said.

"Yes." She nodded. "Our clan currently enjoys the services of Venerable Stark, who has proven to be an extremely potent ranged combatant when piloting the Amaranto. However, as the Battle of Fordilla Zentra has proved, once she is suppressed by powerful enemies, it is hard for her to leverage her full power. If she had the assistance of a second expert ranged mech, then she wouldn't have been trapped for so long."

"So you intend the Minerva Project to be the machine that can also bail out troubled mechs in the future."

"Exactly. The Minerva Project should have a great overview of the battlefield. While its firepower will never match that of the Amaranto, Commander Casella will always be able to know where to employ her firepower the best. In order to ensure we can maximize her value as a literal troubleshooter, we need to make sure the weapon is accurate and powerful enough to pick out targets at longer ranges."

"That's going to require a large and substantial rifle. I'm not entirely familiar with this alien tech, but to me it looks too slender to inspire much confidence." Sara Voiken remarked.

"It is not meant to down enemy expert mechs in one or two shots." Gloriana said. "That is the Amaranto's purview. The Minerva Project only needs enough ranged firepower to pose a moderate threat to distant expert mechs and relieve troubled friendly units that way. Other expert mechs will still be needed to do the bulk of the fighting."

"I take it that's not the only way to use the weapon." Ves spoke up. "That break in the weapon is quite noticeable. Is it supposed to break in half?"

His wife nodded and tapped the projection to cause the weapon to transform. "That's right. As you can see, when you detach its forward section from the body, the weapon effectively turns into a more compact submachine gun. Its lighter mass and shorter length results makes it considerably easier to handle, which is perfect for short-ranged combat."

The expected performance characteristics of this shorter weapon was different from its previous mode. According to Gloriana, the submachine gun had to possess a high firing rate. This was a much better choice for short-ranged combat where there was no opportunity to aim and land a powerful strike with a much more cumbersome longer weapon.

Even so, several mech designers had questions about the usefulness of this weapon mode.

"Isn't this submachine gun too weak against most expert melee mechs?" Ves frowned. "While this weapon is better than nothing, I cannot imagine that Commander Casella can defeat any armored expert mechs that manage to get close."

Juliet had a different view on the weapon. "It is effective against expert light mechs, which are the most likely assassination threats that Commander Casella will face on the battlefield. The Minerva Project doesn't necessarily need more striking power. Instead, the lower energy consumption and higher firing rate of this compact weapon mode is much more useful against lighter targets."

"Armored mechs will just laugh at the plinky energy beams it shoots." Sara said. "Sure, the submachine gun can probably cripple a mech through sustained fire, but that will take a lot of time. The Minerva Project might not even be able to last that long as its frame doesn't look particularly maneuverable."

Gloriana took in all of the feedback but remained true to her vision.

"Each of you has a point, but I think this is still the right course of action to take. The Minerva Project is different from an expert rifleman mech and its design should reflect that. Don't forget that it is solely meant to fight against enemy expert mechs. While the firepower of this submachine gun is not great against powerful mechs, it is more than sufficient to cripple or destroy any standard mech that gets close. It can neutralize hundreds of mechs if it is allowed to fire its weapon with impunity."

The submachine gun mode made more sense now. Gloriana was accounting for multiple different situations, including action on land where the environment may be a lot more confined.

Although the luminar crystal weapon's transformation mode added a lot of complexity to its design, Ves did not consider it to be a particularly difficult challenge. He already had numerous ideas on how to realize this two-mode weapon.

"The humble submachine gun does not enjoy a stellar reputation in mech combat, but it is a good weapon at closer ranges." Professor Benedict said his own piece. "It also doesn't have to be as weak as you think. As long as you implement enough quality solutions in the weapon, it can perform close to that of a full-sized rifle. It all depends on how much you are willing to invest in its construction."

Ves shook his head. "Let's not go overboard. As you have already said, this will be Commander Casella's first expert mech. We don't know whether she can make good use of a more powerful weapon. Let us design something more modest and see what she can do with that. If she happens to possess abilities that can substantially empower her own attacks like Venerable Stark, then it is worth investing more in the Minerva Project's offensive capabilities. If not, then we should mainly treat the gun as a self-defense tool."

Was the Minerva Project a rifleman mech or a command mech? For now, the Larkinsons wanted to make it function as both, but it was questionable whether this was the right choice.