The Mech Touch

"I understand that you did not exactly fit in with the previous companies that you have worked for." Ves said after he heard Cormaunt Hempkamp's perspective on his turbulent employment history. "The companies that tend to require the services of neural interface specialists such as yourself are usually large and established companies that have already built up a way of doing things. These structures usually emphasize stability and regularity because that is how you can best produce constant and consistent output."

The dark-skinned mech designer looked as if Ves hit the nail right on the head!

"That is exactly right, sir!"

Ves possessed a particularly special understanding of Hempkamp's difficult position.

On the one hand, he was a mech designer who had relatively few restraints about pursuing radical innovations and inventions. He regularly disregarded safety rules and confidently gambled on his next implementations, hoping that they would work out great when utilized in practice!

On the other hand, he was also a leader and the person who was ultimately responsible for what the Design Department put out. Every mech design that flowed out of this critical department was bound to be used by different people, whether they were external customers of Larkinson expert pilots.

It was because he wore both of those hats at once that he understood how Mr. Hempkamp and his frustrated former employers must have felt in the past.

A mech designer that was proactive and possessed an innovator's heart was incredibly precious!

However, such a mech designer often turned out to be a time bomb as well!

A mech designer such as Mr. Hempkamp was a high variance professional that could make groundbreaking inventions but at the same time create disasters that could figuratively blow himself and all of the people around him into pieces!

The best case scenario was that Hempkamp would turn into the second coming of Ves, able to revolutionize the entire landscape of neural interfaces after succeeding in his attempt to evolve the tech by a qualitative leap!

The worst case scenario would look similar to what happened to the Supreme Sage.

Ves still remembered how the prestigious former leader of the Life Research Organization no longer became satisfied with ordinary research.

In his quest and obsession to extend his life beyond his already-ancient lifespan as well as gain strength beyond any measure, he created a biojuggernaut called Uranus in order to serve as his next 'body'!

Naturally, the Supreme Sage paid for his hubris with his life, but not before creating a monstrosity that eventually went rogue and unleashed a huge amount of devastation!

When Ves directed an evaluating gaze towards the mech designer before him, he wondered which category Mr. Hempkamp would fall under.

Though Ves felt a natural kinship towards a fellow innovator such as himself, he could not allow his personal biases and preferences override his sound judgment!

If Mr. Hempkamp screwed up in an enormous fashion, then his entire clan would suffer! Hundreds of thousands of Larkinsons might pay the price for the radical mech designer's hubris!

This was why Ves did not dare to accept the man immediately. He needed more information before he could weigh the pros and cons in a rational and logical manner.

"I am aware that it was us that approached you first, but what makes you think you will fit better in our company?" Ves carefully asked as he monitored the other man closely.

Mr. Hempkamp freely smiled. "I have done my research on your clan. Compared to those stuffy old Seniors and Masters who only value their own strengths and expect little to nothing from their subordinates, I think you would be able to appreciate my work more."

"Oh?"

"You're a Journeyman, just like me, so you won't look down on me so much. Your mech company is also young and it does not have the reputation and proven track record of other, more established competitors. That means you need to work harder and bet on a lot more uncommon mech designs because that is the only way you can successfully differentiate your products on the market. The success you have enjoyed shows that you understand this truth and also used this daring strategy to your advantage."

"I see you understand the business side of mech design quite well." Ves smiled. "You are right. As a Journeyman, I don't have the natural advantages that higher-ranking mech designers rely upon to capture market share with greater ease. My work has to be more wonky and unique in order to create a different kind of value that the mech market has not seen before."

"We are the same." Hempkamp hungrily insisted. "While you are undoubtedly the more successful of the two of us, we are both creators who love to design mechs that are different from the molds that already exist. I would be a great fit for your mech company given the more interesting differentiation strategy that you pursue. Your living mechs have already made your LMC gain a powerful foothold in the Red Ocean. If you add my contributions on top of that, I think that your mech company will be able to sell many more mechs!"

That was a bold statement! Cormaunt Hempkamp certainly wasn't lacking in confidence. For him to predict that his specialty could add so much value to the LMC's products meant that he truly believed in his ideas!

Ves grew more interested in what Mr. Hempkamp sought to accomplish in his mechs.

"Let's talk about your design philosophy. As I understand it, you are a certified neural interface specialist. Despite your… missteps, the MTA has not seen fit to take back your permit. From what I know of the mechers, that probably means they hold a bit of interest in your work and wish to see it develop further."

Hempkamp looked sheepish. "The Mech Trade Association has given me numerous warnings. I feel obliged to disclose that I am not on the Association's good side at the moment."

"That's not an issue to us." Ves dismissively waved his hand." I am on speaking terms with several MTA Masters, so that more than cancels out your problem. Once you come under our wing, we will be responsible for your work."

"That is great to hear. If you do not have a problem with that, then I believe I can bring much to your clan and mech company. With regards to my specialty, let me give you a brief explanation. Many people in the mech industry make use of neural interfaces without thinking much about it. Is that the case with you as well, sir?"

"Hmmm… now that I think about it, in most ordinary projects I usually shove the most suitable-sounding model inside the cockpit and call it a day. I can't do anything with neural interfaces because I do not have a permit like you and do not possess enough expertise to know what is safe."

Hempkamp did not look surprised. "That is how most mech designers treat the neural interfaces in their own mech design. To me, that is a great shame and also a major flaw in their approach. Neural interfaces have become so detached from their design choices that these components have turned into the equivalent of black boxes to them. They cannot change anything and do not understand their working at all. The only real choice they can make is choose which boring MTA-designed neural interface they want to slot into their machines."

"And that is wrong?"

"I wouldn't say they are wrong." Hempkamp quickly said in case his earlier statement happened to offend the Larkinsons who had adopted the same approach for a long time. "They only made the decisions that were available to them due to lacking a knowledgeable expert in neural interfaces such as myself. In fact, I have observed a lot of imperfect matching between mech designs and neural interfaces. The descriptions that come with the latter hardly explain their full attributes and nuances. From my perspective, the way that ordinary mech designers select the neural interface models for their mech designs is as clumsy as a child attempting to put together a house."

Ves shared a glance with Gloriana, who looked troubled as well. They did not like being compared to children who didn't know what they were doing.

Still, they were mech designers. They always wanted what was best for their mechs as well as their clients. They possessed a professional obligation to know what they were doing wrong and how they could improve their products.

"So your entry into our Design Department will immediately make that better?" Ves asked.

"I can completely guarantee that your mechs will perform at least 2 percent better than before. I know it does not sound that much, but this is the benefit that I can provide to you when I do nothing else but match the right standard neural interface models to the right mech models. You might not know about it, but the Mech Trade Association has developed countless neural interface models, many of which are subtle variants of each other."

"Oh? I have never encountered that before. Whenever I browse the interface, I only get a limited selection of current models."

Mr. Hempkamp snorted. "That is because the MTA knows that uninitiated mech designers such as yourself cannot understand all of the advanced factors that subtly affect the man-machine connection. The database trims the amount of entries in order to simplify the selection process while also making it more foolproof. It is only when a certified specialist such as myself access this database that it will reveal a much larger catalog. While it is still not as complete as I wish, it contains a lot more subtle variations as well as more interesting models that are slightly less proven."

"Hmmm…"

If this was true, then the Larkinsons were missing out! Even if the improvements were rather small, Ves did not want to let go of any advantage!

As mechs and their designers got better, it became a lot harder to achieve meaningful performance boosts. Ves would have embraced a neural interface specialists like Mr. Hempkamp even if he was only able to boost the performance of Larkinson mechs by just 0.5 percent!

Of course, Hempkamp could provide far more than that. Ves had a feeling that the other man was not satisfied with picking and choosing readily available neural interfaces for every mech.

Ves leaned forward. "What kind of performance boost can you provide if you design specific neural interfaces for our mechs?"

"I can't give you a single universal figure. It is much more complicated than that, sir."

"Give us an approximate range, then."

"Hmmm." Hempkamp fell silent for a few seconds. "Given the quality and performance levels of your commercial mechs, I think I can effectively boost their performance by 4 to 9 percent. I am aware that there is a large difference between the lower boundary and the upper boundary, but there are many variables that affect what I can put together. In my own experiences, I can make a greater difference if the mech is more complex and possesses more systems. There is relatively little I can do for frontline mechs for example."

"I see."

Ves and his fellow Larkinson mech designers developed both simple and complex mechs.

The former generally came in the form of affordable mass production models such as the Pacifier.

The latter generally applied to more expensive mechs aimed at more advanced mech pilots. Outside of expert mechs, examples of this were the Valkyrie Redeemer and the Ferocious Piranha.

"All of this sounds interesting, but I would like to hear a description of what you can do with neural interfaces that the MTA models cannot provide." Ves said. "I want to know more about your design philosophy and how you relate your work to mechs. What are you trying to accomplish? What aspects about mechs do you wish to improve above all else? How do you plan to realize your ambitions?"

This was the most important part of the interview session. Ves needed to know whether Mr. Hempkamp's ideas on mechs were compatible with his own!