The Mech Touch

　　"Since I designed this mech to cooperate with my brother's Rigid Spine model, I wanted my mech to reflect this relation. I couldn't come up with anything better than Rigid Wall, though."

　　Ves scratched his head. "Rigid Wall sounds… simple. How many knight mechs have the word 'wall' in their name?"

　　"Too much." Sara mirthfully said. "I do think that calling it a wall is appropriate for this mech. It is designed to function as one, and it is particularly effective at its job when fielded in larger numbers."

　　He could easily imagine the sight. As long as more than a hundred Rigid Walls got together, they could block a lot of firepower or hinder the advance of an offensive unit.

　　Of course, space warfare made it far too easy for spaceborn mechs to maneuver around static mechs. The Rigid Walls therefore had to be employed and positioned in the right manner in order to leverage its defenses effectively.

　　That either meant that the mechs had to be positioned at choke points or parked extremely close to strategic mechs or starships.

　　The Rigid Walls should find a lot more use in landbound battles if the Larkinsons ever had a need to establish a presence on land. Ves didn't think those situations would happen too often, though.

　　As Sara Voiken admired the first mech design she completed on behalf of the Larkinson Clan, she could not get around the unique features that exemplified any Larkinson mech!

　　"What do you think about my contribution to your work?" Ves curiously asked.

　　"I would need to see it in action to be sure, but if I look at the results from testing the prototypes, you have definitely added extra dimensions to the Rigid Wall design."

　　"Indeed. The mech is alive, though that won't be as obvious at first. Our mech pilots will appreciate it, though. Those that have trained or fought with the Bright Warrior in its space knight configuration will be thankful for the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with a receptive mech."

　　"Its glow is also… different." Sara said. "When you added it to the design, I found that it has given me and its mech pilots all of the right feelings, but doesn't do much else. I thought that optimizing the mech design would make its advantages more apparent, but I haven't noticed much of a difference."

　　Ves turned to his fellow colleague. "What did you expect from its glow, then?"

　　"I thought it would give my Rigid Wall mechs a more concrete defensive boost by strengthening their shield generators for example." She responded. "Part of the inspiration for my Rigid Wall design is the Shield of Samar. The glow and living properties of that expert mech are much stronger and more potent. Venerable Jannzi personally explained to me how 'Qilanxo' can actively cooperate with her and her mech to form a stronger energy barrier."

　　"My design philosophy isn't that exaggerated, Sara. While it can do more with expert mechs, that is because they are built with special materials that react well to my methods such as Unending alloy. There is nothing special about the mech pilots or the construction of the Rigid Wall design, so there is no support for the more advanced applications of my design philosophy."

　　The female Journeyman looked disappointed. "Is there any way you can change that through a future update or modification?"

　　"Don't dream about it. That's not what my design philosophy is all about." He said. "I focus primarily on the relationship between the mech and the mech pilot. Glows are a tool that can help the mech pilot adopt the right mentality. As one of my older glow sources, Qilanxo has grown to be quite powerful, but even she would find it difficult to channel a significant portion of her prodigious strength through a standard mech like your Rigid Walls. The only way I can do more is to design a prime mech variant that is suited to be piloted by expert candidates and expert pilots that are still waiting to receive their expert mechs. I can't do that unless I get my hands on more prime materials."

　　"Prime resonance? Prime materials?"

　　Ah. Ves remembered that the second batch of Journeyman that joined the Larkinson Clan were still clueless about various secrets.

　　"They're not immediately relevant at this time. If you want to know more, you can look up the archival data on my prime mechs such as the Valkyrie Prime. We fought a couple of battles where they prominently showcased their capabilities. In truth, our expert mechs are also prime mechs if we go by their definitions. I usually leave the latter part out because hardly anyone notices."

　　It was also better if the enemy didn't pay attention to this detail either. The prime mech capabilities of his first six expert mechs made them considerably more powerful and effective in battle than anyone could reasonably expect!

　　Ves found it a pity that the soon-to-be-completed Minerva Project did not possess the qualifications of a prime mech.

　　He had run out of Unending alloy.

　　While he could shave off a few kilos from the Shield of Samar's tower shield to free up a bit of prime material, this was not an effective solution.

　　In order to turn the Minerva Project into a mech that was capable of utilizing prime resonance in battle, he would need to provide it with a lot more prime materials.

　　So far, Ves made no progress in this area. He already told his clan to be on the lookout for any Galenta Bone, an organic exotic grown by galenta whales, but there weren't any on the market in Vulit, Pellysa and Davute at the time.

　　If any human forces managed to stumble upon any wild galenta whales during this period, they either kept the spoils to themselves or sold them in more exclusive exchanges.

　　He placed his hand on Sara's shoulder. "If we can obtain a sufficient quantity of prime materials through exploration or trade, we may one day be able to develop a variant of your Rigid Wall model which possesses enhanced defenses. For now, you should be content with the ordinary benefits of my methods. Don't underestimate how well the Rigid Wall can reinforce the mental defenses of our mech pilots. This is a vital feature that can only firm up the morale of the Living Sentinel mech pilots, but also protect their minds against hostile mental influences."

　　This was not an important feature against ordinary opponents, but if the Larkinson Clan ever bumped into any dark gods or other strange opponents, the Rigid Wall would be a lot more useful than the Bright Warrior in this scenario!

　　Sara acknowledged his words. "The Rigid Wall's glow also compliments nicely with the glow of the Rigid Spine."

　　This was yet another form of synergy between the two mechs.

　　The spearman mech model was governed by the Solemn Guardian, whose glow provided just as much benefit to any nearby space knights. The mech pilots assigned to the Rigid Walls would become filled with a sense of duty and fight back harder against heavy opposition.

　　At the same time, Qilanxo was able to extend her mental protection to the Rigid Spines, allowing the spearman mech pilots to fight while enduring less pressure.

　　Ves already thought of a way to enhance this mental defense line. If he added a third mech model that carried Lufa's glow, then he could leverage its spiritual suppression capabilities to blunt any hostile spiritual attacks before they got close.

　　The Living Sentinels would truly be able to excel at defending against all manner of extraordinary threats!

　　Still, it might be better for him to reserve this capability for the Battle Criers. So far, the Living Sentinels were mainly designed to defend against mundane threats while the Battle Criers were supposed to become his weapon against spiritual threats.

　　He could think about that later.

　　"Let's test your new Rigid Wall."

　　The Living Sentinels enthusiastically tested their new defensive mech as soon as the expeditionary fleet dropped out of FTL travel.

　　The final version of the mech design had not changed all of that much compared to its prototypes, so everyone already knew what to expect.

　　The Rigid Wall model did not disappoint anyone's expectations. It did not exceed expectations either.

　　All in all, Sara Voiken's mostly-solo project was a relatively adequate if unexciting addition to the Larkinson Army.

　　When Ves, Sara Voiken, her brother Dulo Voiken as well Commander Casella Ingvar came together in order to discuss the disposition of the Rigid Wall model, the latter did not look all that happy.

　　When an expert pilot became unhappy, everyone around the person noticed. Their force of wills pretty much broadcasted their most predominant feelings.

　　"Why the look, commander?" Ves commented. "The Rigid Wall is a valuable addition to the Sentinel mech roster."

　　Casella frowned. "You are correct, but only if we can actually field it in large numbers. Just as with the Rigid Spine, it will likely take years before we add enough capacity to field at least several hundred copies of the new mechs. Do you know how frustrating it is to dangle two new useful mech models in front of my troops only to tell them that we don't have the space to accommodate any new units? Just this single Rigid Wall that you've been testing is not enough to make a difference."

　　Everyone else frowned as well. The Larkinson fleet was still horribly short of combat carriers. While the Diligent Ovenbird had already begun to produce cheap and fragile light carriers, they only added space for 20 or so mechs per hull, which was woefully inadequate!

　　"We can't do anything about it, commander." Ves tiredly replied. "All of our other mech legions are suffering from the same problem as well. Roping in Murphy & Sons should help, but we will only obtain a single oversized combat carrier for the foreseeable time."

　　"What if we preemptively scrap our oldest mechs whose performance have fallen below standards? During my tour through the mech legions, I've noticed dozens of machines that are still being used even though they have already had their best years behind them. We can replace them with newer mechs." Dulo suggested.

　　That was a good suggestion, but Ves shook his head.

　　"Unless the damage has reached a concerning threshold, it doesn't matter if the mechs perform a bit worse. Our standards are relatively high. When we crossed over into the Red Ocean, we made sure to scrap all of the excess mechs that were already performing worse than normal. Those that we kept don't have as many problems. All of our mech technicians are well-trained and properly supervised. I'm confident that they can keep our more worn mechs in a relatively good state for quite a few years. It's not worth it to scrap them right away."

　　In the end, Commander Casella Ingvar had no choice but to go back to her Living Sentinels and tell them that their mech legion would not employ the Rigid Walls in large numbers.

　　The same applied to the other mech designs that reached completion in around the same time.

　　Of course, this unfortunate outcome did not apply to the remaining two custom mechs that Gloriana designed for Commander Melkor and Imon Ingvar.

　　She completed and fabricated the two custom mechs at around the same time.

　　When Ves visited her personal workshop to view her latest work, the clients for the custom mechs were already present.

　　Both Melkor and Imon looked impressed at the mechs that were designed just for them. The rifleman mech and swordsman mech both possessed a lot of common elements that Ves had already observed from Vincent Ricklin's B-Man custom mech.