The Mech Touch

After the completion of the Everchanger, the new masterwork mech performed above everyone's expectations.

The expert hero mech was both powerful and versatile. It could fit in any role and it could even adopt any glow of its pilot's choosing.

Although it did not perform better in any given role than the specialized mechs of the Larkinson Clan, Ves did not ask it to do so. The Everchanger's entire concept revolved around applying its versatility to always take advantage of an adversary's weaknesses.

However, there were opponents where this strategy reached its limits.

The last two battles served as good examples. Against singular, powerful opponents such as giant astral beasts and alien warships, pure firepower was much more useful than adaptation.

This was because the enemy's strengths were so pronounced that their weaknesses weren't actually exploitable!

In situations where the Larkinsons had no choice but to fight against the enemy at its strongest, the Everchanger's Vitalus rifle wouldn't be able to contribute as much as the Amaranto's Instrument of Vengeance or the Minerva's Irvan luminar crystal rifles.

This was the nature of the Everchanger as a mech that traded raw power for more balanced performance.

The lack of overwhelming power in a specific role was why Ves devised the Everchanger to serve as a base platform for larger mech-sized add-ons.

Just like how humans powered themselves up by equipping themselves with combat armor, the Everchanger was supposed to gain an immense amount of power by deploying into battle while armed with mounted wargear!

Unfortunately, the side projects related to them did not make as much progress as Ves would have liked.

The technical challenges were considerable and Ves already had his hands full with designing the more important Minerva Project and other important mech designs.

In any case, it was not as if Venerable Joshua was suffering at the moment. The Everchanger was still a strong mech in most circumstances and would never become irrelevant.

This was why the projects relating to the mounted wargear took a backseat in the past few months. There was no particular hurry in completing them and Ves wanted to make them right.

The wargear projects all underwent a lot of changes when the Larkinson fleet entered the Red Ocean.

Ves originally conceived of the Everchanger and its associated side projects when he was back in the old galaxy. Back then, he could not get a clear idea on the superior tech and materials he could gain access to when his fleet could shop around in places like Chance Bay, Pellysa III and Davute VII.

It was different now. The Golden Skull Alliance not only committed to staying in the Krakatoa Middle Zone for the time being, but also founded the Open Consortium which was slowly integrating into the regional economy.

Now that the participants in the projects knew what they had to work with, they could finally make real progress in integrating a lot of attractive Red Ocean goodies into the mounted wargear designs.

Ves paid more attention to the artillery wargear loadout than the other ones due to its immense value in the battles of today. The project related to this loadout had to overhaul its progress multiple times as the requirements changed.

Although Ves understood how damaging it could be to change the goalposts so often, he did not want the artillery wargear loadout to become marginally relevant as soon as it was finished.

Anyway, he did not come here to review the artillery wargear loadout that was under development.

He was much more interested in observing the progress that Dr. Perris and her staff had made in the so-called meat suit project.

In response to his request, Dr. Perris led him out of her personal lab and brought him to a different section of the deck. After undergoing a serious security check, they entered a restricted laboratory where a number of Lifer biotech researchers were quietly working on the many problems related to the secret project.

"Welcome to the Scarlet Garden." The female apprentice biomech designer introduced for the benefit of Ves. "The Scarlet Garden Biocombat Department is a new research group within the Larkinson Biotech Institute that is mainly focused on the direct combat applications of biotechnology. Director Ranya Wodin has appointed me as its head and this is where the 'meat suit' is being developed."

The section certainly deserved its name. The interior was predominantly coated in red in order to emphasize the theme and the inherent danger of the research being performed in these labs.

After Dr. Perris spent a bit of time introducing Ves to the researchers assigned to the Scarlet Garden, they moved on to a massive storage hall where literal mountains of frozen flesh were being stored inside specialized transparent storage compartments.

The pale white and gray flesh evoked a lot of familiarity in Ves.

"That's… astral beast flesh!"

Dr. Perris nodded. "Correct. Although our clan has sold the overwhelming majority of organic tissue taken from the enormous carcass of the Titania, we still preserve many tons of the flesh for various reasons. The Titania's flesh not only provides us with great research material, but can also serve as the ingredients for other combat-oriented biotech applications. Although it has properties that are not ideal, it is extremely resilient and fairly easy to regenerate compared to the prevailing alternatives."

The thought of using the flesh of a dead astral beast to make other products sounded disgusting to Ves. It was little different from using the leather derived from the hide of a sentient alien being to make a handbag.

Ves briefly wondered whether aliens would barbecue his own flesh and use his skin to make their own version of a handbag in the future.

He shook his head. What a silly thought!

"Have you done anything useful with the Titania's tissue samples as of yet?" Ves asked.

"We researched ways to turn it into the principal material for the Titan-3 Project ever since we obtained all of this flesh and discovered its superior properties. Although we had to get back to the drawing board once again, our expectations are much higher due to the availability of higher-quality organic materials."

The Titan-3 Project was the more formal name of the meat suit research project. It was the first of its kind in the Larkinson Clan and had gone through many twists and turns.

After Ves had his fill of observing the piles of macabre astral beast flesh, Dr. Perris led Ves out of the storage hall and led him over to a design compartment where she had prepared several miniature models.

Each of them depicted the numerous different iterations of the meat suit. The earlier ones looked fairly conventional. They simply made the Everchanger look as if he was a giant human.

Dr. Perris picked up the first organic mech figurine. "Our initial progress was decent but not spectacular. While we are able to design a basic meat suit, it failed to meet our requirements. Its tissue is too weak and we could not make the samples resonate with Venerable Joshua."

She put down the figurine and picked one in the middle. This one looked substantially deadlier and incorporated numerous different organic weapon modules.

"Once we entered the Red Ocean, we gained access to heartland-level tech and materials, which we quickly used to our advantage. The anticipated performance of this meat suit is much higher and can turn the Everchanger into a powerhouse as long as the organic mounted wargear remains operational. It still has its shortcomings, though. Its durability still remains a concern and we were still encountering hindrances in making it resonate with Venerable Joshua. We were close to requesting your permission to contact the Lifer biomech designers to solve this problem."

"I would have given it if you asked." Ves said.

Although it was not wise to work together with outsiders on a project that had real significance in the defense of the clan, the Titan-3 Project was not that critical compared to the Everchanger itself.

So what if the specifications of the meat suit leaked? The finished product would wield so much power that it could resist a lot of attacks head-on. Its most obvious weakness, its lack of ranged weapons, was such an obvious element that Ves did not mind if everyone in the new frontier learned about this fact!

"I'm not interested in the work that we have phased out." Ves said. "Please move on to the latest iteration of the Titan-3 Project. I want to know where we stand."

Dr. Perris put down the figurine she was holding and moved to the end of the table where the mockup of the latest version of the meat suit design was resting.

"This is the version that corresponds to the latest conditions. It not only makes full use of the Titania's powerful flesh, but also incorporates all of the solutions we have developed in the earlier versions and more."

She handed the hefty figurine over to Ves who accepted it with pleasure. He could immediately tell it was made out of actual astral beast flesh which made it a lot heavier and weirder than normal.

"Given the density of the Titania's flesh and how much of it will be used to make the meat suit, the final product will be substantially more heavy." Ves stated. "The Everchanger's flight system will not be able to cope with all of the extra mass. How do you intend to solve the mobility problem?"

"I have consulted with Miss Juliet Stameros and requested her help in designing additional organic mobility systems." Perris replied as she pointed out various organic modules embedded in the rear of the meat suit. "We have included an enlarged and more powerful organic flight system that provides substantially greater thrust power. The Everchanger equipped with the meat suit will not be as sluggish as the Shield of Samar with this upgrade."

"What about these nozzles? Are they boosters? They look awfully large and vulnerable."

"Correct, sir. To be more precise, they are single-use boosters that can only burn at full power for a certain interval of time before completely running out of high-density mech-grade fuel. Their purpose is to help the Everchanger close the gap between our expeditionary fleet and a distant enemy position as quickly as possible. Under ideal circumstances, the Everchanger equipped with this meat suit can come close to matching the acceleration of the Dark Zephyr."

That was quite impressive!

The price may be a bit much, but as long as the Everchanger equipped with the meat suit got close to an enemy fleet, it could definitely wreak a lot of havoc by relying on its overwhelming power at close range!

There was only one detail that Ves was concerned about. "These oversized boosters only work with high-density fuel?"

Perris briefly grimaced. "Correct, and it is not an average formula either. The specific fuel we have chosen to work with is particularly high in quality even among other high-density fuel formulations. Only specialized refineries can synthesize this fuel in usable quantities. For now, we have stocked a modest amount of this fuel in our stores, but we should look towards expanding our fuel reserves once we complete the meat suit."

"I will pass that on to the chief ministers. It would be ideal if we can obtain a refinery ship so that we can produce all of the fuel varieties that many of our assets are burning on a frequent basis. We can become a lot less dependent on third parties if we obtain such a useful vessel."

That was not relevant to the Titan-3 Project so Ves quickly turned his attention back to the specifications of the meat suit.

They talked a bit more about the mobility of the meat suit. A big issue was that once the one-time boosters burnt all of its high-density fuel, the Everchanger's speed and acceleration became a lot more mediocre.

Dr. Perris succinctly described the challenge of using the meat seat in battle. "If you send in the Everchanger in this loadout, then you better hope it can defeat the opposition on the other side. Otherwise, the expert mech must purge the meat suit from its frame in order to lighten its burden and flee more quickly from a precarious situation."

That did not sound good.