The Mech Touch

Ves was thinking about how he and Gloriana could approach Venerable Isobel's expert mech design project.

Different from the C-Man Project, the expert mech that he tentatively named the Firestarter Project was not an upgrade of an existing machine.

This was one of the distinctive conditions of any expert pilot who broke through while piloting the Quint.

It was not worth it for the Larkinson Clan to make the Quint exclusive to any mech pilots. Its unsurpassed versatility and incredible compatibility with different kinds of mech pilots made it suitable for it to continue its pilot mentorship function.

Ves never thought about upgrading the Quint into Venerable Isobel's exclusive expert mech.

This meant that the Design Department had the luxury of designing a new expert mech from scratch without any old baggage.

The downside to this was that Venerable Isobel did not enjoy a head start into developing a close partnership with an existing mech. Venerable Vincent was much better off in this regard.

It was hard to say which of these cases were better. They both came with their respective advantages.

In any case, Ves already made a few design choices in his heart. Designing a simple and straightforward expert rifleman mech was out of the question.

In his opinion, the Star Dancer Mark II that he and Gloriana designed for Venerable Brutus was a bit too boring. Aside from its exceptional evasion characteristics, Brutus' machine did not stand out on the battlefield.

While it was not necessary for expert mechs to look imposing and capture everyone's attention with their dazzling performance, Ves did not want his work to be dull.

Right now, he saw an opportunity to flex his design abilities. The Firestarter Project would probably require more involvement from him considering that he was the closest thing to an energy weapon specialist in the Design Department.

Although he was not a genuine enthusiast in energy weapons, his mastery in luminar crystal weapons inevitably forced him to play an outsized role in this upcoming expert mech design project!

Ves therefore did not plan to let Gloriana take the lead on everything. He still wanted to implement his own vision for Venerable Isobel's expert mech.

In order to help facilitate his discussions with Venerable Isobel on this technical matter, Ves used his comm to activate a projection where he used his fingers to draw a basic wireframe model of a proposed expert mech.

He started off with drawing a basic humanoid mech shape before adding a crude representation of a fairly large rifle.

"This is how I imagine the initial form of the Firestarter Project." Ves explained. At its base, it is nothing more than a spaceborn mech paired with a rifle, which is no different from what you are used to. Of course, the Firestarter Project will be made out of highly-quality materials and components which you aren't able to see right now. Its overall parameters will be at least as good as the Minerva if not better due to all of the extra funding at our disposal."

Venerable Isobel quietly studied the extremely rough and preliminary draft design. She did not understand the significance of all of the subtle design choices that Ves had made when drawing the lines, but she piloted enough rifleman mechs over her career to pick up a few basic details.

"This looks like a slim and maneuverable rifleman mech. Will there be any problems with going lighter, sir?"

"That is a good observation, Isobel. While I previously said that the rules don't necessarily apply to expert mechs, among other machines of its class, details like this can make a huge difference in how your machine is able to fight against other machines. Before we go any further, let me ask you this question. What kinds of opponents do you most want to defeat?"

The bedridden expert pilot remained silent for a few seconds in order to gather her thoughts.

"I… know our clan mostly needs its expert mechs to defeat opposing expert mechs. That is what I was initially aiming for as well, sir. It's just that compared to expert mechs, the monsters and alien vessels we have been fighting against lately are even more difficult to defeat. The previous battle won't be the last time we fight against massive enemies, right?"

Ves reluctantly nodded. "The Red Ocean is a lot more diverse than the Milky Way. It will probably take at least a couple of centuries for the Big Two and all of the pioneers to wipe out enough indigenous aliens to minimize subsequent encounters against them to the greatest degree."

"If that's the case, our clan needs an expert mech that is much better at destroying massive targets from a distance than any of our existing machines at this level. Of the ranged expert mechs in our clan, none of them are best suited for this job. The Amaranto is mainly a sniper machine that is best at taking down enemy mechs and crippling key components of larger targets, but its firepower doesn't lend itself well to mass destruction."

That was true. Ves wasn't surprised that Venerable Isobel could tell this much. As a ranged specialist, she had made a lot of preparations for the future and studied the properties of all of the existing Larkinson expert mechs.

"The Everchanger can fight like an adequate ranged expert mech, but using its rifle is merely a means to an end to the hero mech. It is not the best in sniping enemy expert mechs and it isn't particularly good at destroying other difficult targets."

A hero mech like the Everchanger was never best at a single fighting style. That wasn't the point of this versatile expert mech. Ves was already satisfied with its basic battle performance. Venerable Joshua was more than capable enough to employ its strengths against the vulnerabilities of different opponents.

However, the downside to emphasizing versatility over power was that the Everchanger was lacking in raw firepower.

"The Minerva… is probably a good general expert rifleman mech. It can use its long-barreled rifle mode to pick off targets from afar and can switch to submachine gun mode to fight against enemies at close range. It's a shame that it also has to perform like a command mech. It could have been a much stronger combat machine if it was fully dedicated towards combat. It is still the expert mech that I would like to pilot the most out of the three."

"Oh?" Ves became intrigued. "Why would you say that?"

"Well, the Everchanger is not for me because I need to be able to do too much to do it justice. The Amaranto is really powerful at long range, but it is too slow and fragile, which makes it awful at dueling. The Minerva is much more acceptable in comparison. It can fight decently well at multiple ranges and is fairly maneuverable. It's a shame that the expert command mech's armor system isn't as good as the first six expert mechs of our clan."

Though the Minerva was far from a good fit for Venerable Isobel, her preference for it gave Ves a better idea of what she was looking for in her own personalized expert mech.

"Would you rather pilot an expert rifleman mech that is a little thicker and better armored than the one in my draft?"

"It's hard for me to decide." Isobel looked conflicted. "Well, I don't think my expert mech needs to excel at maneuvering like the Star Dancer Mark II. If my primary targets are organic beasts and large starships, then I can make do with a little less mobility. I don't want my expert mech to go as far as the Amaranto, though. I still want to have a chance of winning a duel against another expert mech."

"Understood. Let me make the adjustments."

Ves partially revised the draft and made it a little wider, thicker and more substantial. The preliminary draft of the Firestarter Project no longer looked as skinny and light than before. It actually conveyed the impression that it could take a few frontal hits and still keep going.

"Does this look better to you? The Firestarter Project will be much better at frontal combat, and the loss in maneuverability is not that bad as long as we make use of superior parts."

"I can see myself piloting this kind of expert mech."

"That's good to hear. Now that we have developed a basic picture of its defensive and mobility characteristics, let's discuss the most important element of any rifleman mech, its weapon."

Venerable Isobel studied the luminar crystal rifle that Ves had sketched in the project draft.

"This gun looks rather big to me. It's larger, longer and chunkier than the one wielded by the Everchanger."

"The Everchanger has to be able to wield its rifle with a single arm. In this case, there is no need for your expert mech to wield a sword at the same time. We can afford to equip the Firestarter Project with a larger and more powerful primary armament. We just have to make sure it remains in proportion as we don't want it to become as unwieldy as the gun utilized by the Amaranto."

The Amaranto's overall mech concept was centered around extreme firepower. The older design sacrificed every other parameter in order to amplify its single-target firepower as much as possible.

The Firestarter Project was not as extreme. Venerable Isobel wanted to pilot a mech that could deal a lot of damage against large targets but also be able to hold its own against smaller and more maneuverable threats.

This prompted Ves to design a medium-sized rifle that was adequate in multiple situations.

Though he wanted to make it larger and heavier, he refrained from doing so due to the impact it would have on its handling.

Ves tapped his finger at the wireframe model of the mech weapon. "The rifle I've sketched will be the primary means for you to deal damage in the future. You will need to tell me if there is anything that doesn't feel right to you. Is there anything you want to add to this weapon?"

"Yes. Earlier, you said you can turn my expert mech into both a rifleman mech and a striker mech. So far, we've only talked about the former but not the latter. Where is the flamethrower?"

Ves smiled. "I have been thinking about how to implement that in your expert mech. It depends on how much capacity you are willing to allocate to the flamethrower system. In this sketch, I have added it in as a secondary armament with the nozzle mounted on the wrist."

He tapped the projection a few times to highlight a few elements in red. It showcased a modest-sized flamethrower mounted on one of the wrists along with storage tanks that contained a high-density propellant.

The flamethrower-related modules weren't obvious at first. If Ves hadn't highlighted these parts, Isobel would have overlooked their presence.

She started to frown. "It looks kind of… small. Will it be effective enough in battle?"

"Bigger flamethrower modules aren't necessarily better, Isobel. I think it is better to implement it as a secondary armament. The reason for that is because you can already rely on the mech rifle to defeat most opponents. The only reason why you need to whip out the flamethrower is if there are enemies that have come. It is not supposed to be the case where your Firestarter Project actively needs to close the distance in order to employ its flamethrower."

"I see. I understand why it makes sense now." Isobel slowly nodded. "Well, if my powers are as good as I think they are, I don't need actual fire to burn my enemies. It's enough to resonate with the mech rifle. I still think that the storage tanks are too small, though. Will my flamethrower be able to last more than a minute?"

"It depends on how much we are willing to invest in the propellant formula." Ves smirked. "There are many flammable substances with different properties. Some burn a lot hotter. Others last a lot longer. The more expensive ones are able to release a lot more heat and energy with smaller amounts of propellant. The latter is the most ideal solution, and we can afford to spend extra as long as we only use it to supply a single mech."

"What if that isn't enough?" Venerable Isobel asked with concern. "What if we're overrun by a swarm and we don't have any other striker mechs on hand?"

"Well… I guess we can add an extra storage tank that can be mounted on the back of the Firestarter Project like an external backpack module. You will have to forgo a minidrive if that is the case."

"A minidrive?"