The Mech Touch

　　After performing a routine of basic actions such as moving its limbs and flying in different directions, the light harasser mech finally showed what it was capable of in the more advanced tests.

　　First, it warmed up its submachine gun by firing at numerous practice targets.

　　Though the target dummies weren't actual mechs, they were built to closely mimic the defensive properties of different mechs.

　　"As expected, the submachine gun is powerful enough to defeat other light mechs." Ves smiled in satisfaction.

　　Although the Deceptor Project possessed no defenses against light skirmishers that managed to get into melee range, beyond that the ranged mech possessed a decisive advantage!

　　The high firing rate made it easier for the Deceptor Project to track and land their hits on fast, maneuverable targets.

　　The relatively low damage per shot was not a big deal if the enemy mech did not possess that much armor to begin with. This was showcased by how the various stationary and mobile target dummies all got shot to pieces by the submachine gun.

　　One of the advantages of this weapon over many other comparable ones was that it was based on luminar crystal technology.

　　Though the weapon was too small and compact to fit too many luminar energy attack phase crystals, Ves still managed to make enough space to equip the submachine gun with three different energy beam types.

　　For this test, Ves was equipped with a laser beam crystal, a slicer beam crystal and a disruptor beam crystal.

　　This caused Commander Firelight to grow intrigued.

　　"Is this the recommended package for the Deceptor Project? What is the rationale for this luminar crystal loadout?" He asked the patriarch.

　　"Out of the six energy attack phase crystals at our disposal, I found that the three of them work out the best. First, you need to be aware of how the weapon fits in the overall system. It's a light weapon because it is paired with a light mech. It needs to deal effective damage at a budget because the Deceptor Project does not cope well with elevated energy consumption and heat generation. The simple and humble laser beam is therefore the most optimal attack pattern for the Deceptor Project."

　　Sure, laser beam weapons were relatively simple and low tech compared to other energy weapon types, but that played to its advantage in this case.

　　Humanity's understanding of laser weapons had grown so high that it was an extremely mature tech. The same applied to the luminar race as their own application of laser weapons was extremely refined!

　　The direct consequence of this was that the Deceptor Project remained highly efficient as long as it kept firing laser beams!

　　Although the damage potential and penetration power of this beam type was not that impressive, the Deceptor Project could easily keep it up without issue.

　　"The damage that a single Deceptor Project can deal is not high, but remember that it is a ranged mech." Ves told the Vandals. "A mech squad or mech company can easily array their guns against single targets. Even better-armored mechs will succumb when they are being peppered with a torrent of laser beams!"

　　This was much better than with the Ferocious Piranha. While it was possible for the light mechs to gang up on a single target, only a few of them could safely approach at a time. If they weren't careful enough, they could easily collide against each other!

　　"This is the capability that we have been missing." A Vandal mech captain said. "The Ferocious Piranhas are good machines, but some mech formations are too dense to attack easily. With this ranged mech, we have more options than before. At the very least, we have means to apply pressure without committing anything."

　　Aside from the laser beam attack phase, the Deceptor Project also tested out the other two attack phases.

　　The slicer beam fired by the submachine gun was quite thin and weak. Even though it was more effective than the laser beam at penetrating through solid armor plating, when put into rapid-fire mode a lot of beams scattered around, preventing the Deceptor Project from quickly dealing critical damage.

　　It was only when the Deceptor Project switched the firing mode of its weapon that it was able to penetrate through armor more effectively.

　　"This is an option that works best in the high-powered firing mode. This is because it is easier to apply a lot of energy at the same position." Ves explained to them. "The downside of this is that the submachine gun cannot fire like this continuously without quickly reaching its limits. I highly recommend you to stick to the rapid-fire mode."

　　"Will that still be effective?" Commander Firelight asked in a skeptical tone. "Because it looks to me that you're firing the equivalent of a lot of razors at a wall."

　　Ves nodded. "Your analogy isn't wrong, but like the previous case, think about how fast a mech company of Deceptor Project mechs can chew through the exterior of an enemy target. In fact, the true value of employing this mech this way is not to reach the internals, but quickly wipe out and disassemble all exterior modules. If your mech units are able to target the rear section of enemy mechs, they can quickly knock out the flight systems and possibly other rear modules without requiring to do anything further."

　　"We can already do that with the laser beams."

　　"It will be more effective with the slicer beams. Flight systems are built to withstand a lot of heat because they often generate a lot of it in order to generate thrust. The alloys and materials used to make these modules need to be able to resist heat first, so a typical laser beam will just disperse a lot of heat energy over surfaces that are expressly designed to deal with it. While slicer beams consist of energy as well, they are a special type that keeps it extremely concentrated."

　　There was a lot more theory behind it, but Ves did not bother to explain it to the mech pilots and mech officers. They just needed to take his word that the slicer beam was highly effective when utilized in certain situations.

　　"Of course, slicers are also highly efficient because of their low total energy output, and that is exactly what the Deceptor Project needs."

　　"And the disruptor beam?"

　　"They're just there so that the Deceptor Project mechs can easily drain enemy energy shields. There's nothing complicated about it, and while it might not be necessary to employ it in every battle, it will come extremely handy in the few situations where you are compelled to attack shielded units."

　　The Vandals slowly nodded. Energy shields were a bit more prevalent in the Red Ocean than in the galactic rim. While it was uncommon to see them in cheaper and smaller mechs, the larger ones had a good chance of carrying them. Miniaturization and better energy cells made it easier to integrate them in offensive mechs.

　　"You've explained why you chose those three crystals. Why did you reject the other three?"

　　"Well, let's start with the positron beam. This attack type is considerably more powerful than the laser beam but is also a lot more inefficient as well. Not only will your mechs run out of energy faster, they will also overheat a lot sooner. Once that happens, a lot of ECM measures will become ineffective. It isn't worth it in my eyes."

　　While it was fine for Bright Warriors and Transcendent Punishers to make use of positron weapons, they were substantially bigger and much more capable of dealing with the increased demands of this weapon type. They also didn't place a high emphasis on ECM or misdirection so it didn't matter if they lit themselves up on enemy sensors.

　　"As for the kinetic beam, the reason why I don't recommend it is because it's not efficient. You are converting a lot of electrical energy into physical energy when you employ this luminar crystal attack phase, and that is such a big leap that a lot of energy goes to waste. This isn't too big of a deal with bigger rifles but the loss in damage output is much more severe with lighter weapons."

　　"Oh. What of the light beam, then? They are highly effective against expert mechs."

　　Ves grimaced. He already had a much better mech design lined up for this until the MTA forcibly put a stop to it. He still hadn't gotten a resolution at this time. The Association's bureaucracy sure liked to take its time!

　　"The light beam is somewhat effective, but the relatively low damage output per mech means you will need to field hundreds if not thousands of Deceptor Project mechs to effectively threaten an enemy expert mech. Given our limited carrier space, we can't field so many of this mech at the moment. It is much more efficient to leave the job to other mechs that pack a much greater punch."

　　"I see…"

　　The Vandals all looked disappointed at this reasoning.

　　"Fighting against expert mechs is important but the burden should never fall upon light mechs." Ves told them all. "Your jobs are different. With your Ferocious Piranhas and your new Deceptor Projects, you can become our consummate flankers. Any mech formation that isn't prepared to fight against a light assault unit like yours will easily get torn to shreds!"

　　In order to prove his words, the final tests were the most important ones.

　　The Avatars of Myth agreed to volunteer a Bright Warrior piloted by one of their own. The mech was in its rifleman mech configuration at the moment so that it could effectively retaliate against the Deceptor Project.

　　Once they went through the safety checks, the two mechs began to perform a mock duel against each other.

　　Their luminar crystal weapons had been set to the lowest power settings possible so that they dealt minimal damage to each other.

　　When the two mechs fought against each other, it quickly became clear that they were very different mechs.

　　The Bright Warrior was not as agile and was not as effective at fairly close ranges, but its solid construction and armor plating provided it with a lot of buffer!

　　The Deceptor Project was much faster and performed much better at this range. Nonetheless, its submachine gun was not that powerful and it surely felt every hit that its opponent managed to land.

　　However, as the Vandal mech pilot became more proficient at piloting the real mech in a realistic battle setting, the Deceptor Project stopped getting hit as much.

　　While this was expected from a well-piloted light mech, the amount of attacks it was able to dodge was on the high side!

　　"I wouldn't be able to make an Avatar mech miss so many shots with my Ferocious Piranha."

　　"The difference isn't that big, though."

　　"Who knows. It might mean the difference between life and death."

　　Ves was happy to see that the Flagrant Vandal mech pilots were discerning enough to notice the difference. The combination of the glow and numerous ECM systems both worked to make it difficult for the Avatar mech to keep its gun on target.

　　However, there was no denying that the difference wasn't big enough to merit so much investment.

　　In order to prove the Deceptor Project's true value, Ves ordered his men to move to the final test.

　　A second Avatar mech joined the first one. The arriving Bright Warrior was in a space knight configuration, which immediately compensated for nearly all of the rifleman mech's weaknesses!

　　On the other hand, the Deceptor Project teamed up with a Ferocious Piranha mech dispatched by the Flagrant Vandals.

　　The duel had turned into a two-on-two match. While Ves expected his new light mech combination to perform effectively, the Avatar mech pilots weren't going to make it easy! They had their own pride and they were highly familiar with dealing all kinds of glow effects!