The Mech Touch

Phasewater was an exotic material with remarkably special and powerful properties.

It was also versatile and malleable. When researchers combined phasewater with other exotics, they created experimental products that often came with strange and abnormal properties.

The vast majority of these combinations ended up in disappointment. The phasewater either didn't do anything important or reacted violently when coming into contact with incompatible materials.

Either way, getting phasewater to combine with other materials and get an amazing result out of it was difficult!

Just throwing random materials together with phasewater was not enough. The researchers needed to possess an extensive understanding of how phasewater behaved while also understanding the properties of other materials.

This was materials science on another level!

Fortunately, people like Ves who were interested in phasewater didn't have to reinvent the wheel.

The Big Two had entered the Red Ocean much sooner than everyone else. Not only did the MTA and CFA gain access to large quantities of phasewater a long time ago, their research teams had already conducted a lot of useful studies on this exotic!

Mech designers such as Ves could easily get their hands on basic and fundamental knowledge on phasewater.

However, if they wanted to do something useful with phasewater, learning the basics was far from sufficient!

What Ves needed was access to more advanced knowledge that organizations such as the MTA hoarded over the years.

Since the MTA took great effort to figure out ways to apply phasewater in different situations, it was only natural for the greedy organization to charge a high price for its precious knowledge and research data.

In fact, it was in the Association's best interest to allow many mech designers and researchers to tinker with phasewater. The more people who worked with it, the more applications humanity developed over time.

Whatever people managed to discover or invent, it would all end up in the hands of the MTA sooner or later! The mechers definitely earned the greatest profit out of this arrangement!

However, the time to spread phasewater-based technology on a widespread basis had not arrived as of yet. The Red Ocean had only opened up for a few years and the supply of phasewater was still too limited.

It was useless to give too many people and organizations access to phasewater technology. This was why the MTA put up a lot of barriers and charged extremely high prices to anyone that wanted access to its phasewater tech!

Ves knew that if he waited a decade or two, the MTA would probably lower the amount of MTA merits needed to exchange for knowledge on phasewater tech.

However, starting out late meant that Ves would always be far behind the pioneers who mastered this field earlier!

There was great value in being able to work with phasewater tech as soon as possible. With so many barriers to get started with phasewater tech, the few exceptional individuals who were able to meet all of the requirements at this early period would enjoy an unprecedented advantage!

Few mech designers and companies knew how to make products that took advantage of phasewater!

If the Larkinsons became one of the few who did, then there was no stopping their rise!

Even a rudimentary product that barely leveraged the special strengths of phasewater was already a hugely useful addition to the market!

There was so much hype surrounding phasewater that even a nutrient pack that was laced with this substance could become a bestseller!

It didn't matter if eating the nutrient packs subsequently tore the stomachs of their consumers. Just the bragging rights of eating phasewater was enough to make the fanatics excited!

The Larkinsons in the conference room all stared at the projected footage of a field test of a mech clad with an experimental armor system that was laced with phasewater.

Ves had no clue how a mech designer managed to integrate a water-based substance into a metallic alloy to such a degree that they got along with each other, but it was no doubt an impressive engineering feat!

What was even more significant about this advancement was that it was clearly an early generation product.

If the Mark I version of this phasewater armor system was so good, what about the Mark III version? What about the Mark VII version?

Ves anticipated much more drastic improvements in defensive specs once specialists performed follow-up research on this successful application!

"How does this even work?" Venerable Vincent Ricklin asked.

"In order to understand the answer, you need to know more about science than me." Ves replied. "No one in the clan can give you a clear answer. The only person who can come close is Miss Sara Voiken."

The female Journeyman Mech Designer did not expect to be mentioned during this meeting.

After all, even though her profession was honored in the Larkinson Clan, she was still a newcomer whose contributions were still limited.

There were many Larkinsons who played much greater roles in the rise of the clan.

Nonetheless, her mech design capabilities were real and her expertise in armor systems was unsurpassed in the clan. Ves wasn't wrong in claiming that she understood more about the test product in the footage than the others!

"I do not clearly understand how it is put together, but I think I can make a few guesses on how this experimental new armor system is able to withstand more damage." Sara stated in a calm but confident voice. "As you know, phasewater has a destabilizing effect on space. This means that it can disrupt anything that occupies it. If there is a method that can allow you to integrate phasewater in an armor plate while tweaking its original properties in various ways, you essentially gain a piece of protection that can weaken any attack just before it strikes the armor."

This simple explanation was enough to give people a greater understanding of what was happening.

Now that they observed the footage a little closer, they observed a faint fluctuation emanating from the experimental mech.

It was as if it was surrounded by an invisible energy field!

Although the fluctuations of this field were almost imperceptible, any projectile or energy beam that passed through this space began to look a little shakier.

That was not all, though!

Sara's eyes grew brighter. "There is something more going on with this revolutionary new armor system. The destabilizing energy field is only the first line of defense. The second one is the actual surface of the armor itself. I cannot describe what phasewater has done to it, but the result is a metal that can absorb or divert damaging impacts and energy at significantly greater degrees than conventional materials! This two-stage defensive system is absurdly effective at protecting this mech, though I have heard that the most advanced native alien species have developed comparable tech. In any case, I would love to study the actual data and theory behind this implementation."

"You may get your chance." Ves smiled at her. "As long as you think you can handle this high technology and find a way to convert what you have learned into concrete gains for our clan, I will redeem it for you with some of my MTA merits."

Sara looked happy with this announcement, but her expression quickly grew concerned.

"This is high technology in a new and exotic field. How many MTA merits do we have to exchange in order to gain access to this tech, sir?"

Ves grimaced a bit. "I've already looked it up. It depends on how deep you want to go and whether we want to acquire knowledge in related and connected fields as well. If you want the full package where you get access to some of the most cutting-edge results, I do not know whether the MTA merits I have is enough."

Several people widened their eyes!

They knew how many MTA merits Ves had access to right now. The fact that even he couldn't obtain everything available on phasewater armor tech said much about its exclusivity!

It also said much about the Association's unending greed!

Sara Voiken shook her head. "Too much knowledge isn't useful. My expertise on armor systems only goes so far. Only Masters and Star Designers can work at that level of armor development. I think it is best if I gain access to the more basic data and articles on this tech."

She was right. Just like Ves, she was still a young Journeyman who had only recently achieved notable results. She spent much of her life learning the basics of science and engineering. The time she spent researching more advanced subjects was still limited!

Ves quickly references the MTA's internal database. "The price is much lower if you only want access to the basics. The price should be around 20 million MTA merits, which is a lot but not out of our budget."

He still winced at this sum, though. 20 million MTA merits was equivalent to a fifth of a second-class fleet beyonder ticket.

Perhaps he could justify this kind of expenditure a few times, but it would be excessive to do it too many times!

"My fellow lead designers and I will discuss our exact choices on how to spend our MTA merits on access to different categories of high technology later." Ves declared to everyone. "I have decided to free up a budget of 60 million MTA merits on phasewater-related high technology. I am aware that this is a substantial sum of knowledge that we may not be able to convert into anything of value, but I believe it is worth it for us to try. We must seize the advantage early or resign ourselves to losing it if we act too conservatively."

Few people were comfortable with spending that much on MTA merits, but this was a decision that Ves strongly believed in. It was an investment in himself and his fellow mech designers.

The more they could do with phasewater, the better their output!

Any of their mech designs that leveraged phasewater in some way would be vastly stronger than comparable mechs!

"Can you give us an idea on the kind of phasewater tech that you are thinking about acquiring for our clan?" Venerable Jannzi asked.

She looked quite intrigued by the example that Ves had shown. Which defensive mech pilot wouldn't like to pilot a mech that could better resist attacks?

If one application of phasewater could do this, what about other applications?

Ves grinned at everyone. "The potential of phasewater is great and diverse. We have plenty of choices in that regard, but not all of them are right for us. For now, I am looking at obtaining more basic applications of phasewater. I have already set my sights on miniature warp drive technology. Making stuff go faster is the defining use of this exotic. We cannot miss out on it. Juliet, are you confident that you can get started in this field?"

The Penitent Sister mech designer looked as if she was enduring great pressure.

"It will be… difficult. Warp drives are already advanced enough to me. The science and engineering around their miniaturized forms is multiple times more complex. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to produce anything useful with phasewater in the first decade."

"What if you have access to tutoring or gain a chance to collaborate with minidrive experts?" Ves asked.

"I believe that I can develop an effective and useful application much faster." Juliet regained a bit of her confidence. "I will still be lacking in many of the fundamentals, however."

That was good enough for Ves. He was willing to wait a number of years in order to allow the Larkinson Clan to develop genuine phasewater specialties.

As long as everyone studied hard enough, the clan would be able to build its own minidrives, thereby ridding itself of its dependency on third-party vendors, who always charged excessive prices for their products!

Perhaps the Larkinson Clan could enter this lucrative business sector as well!