The Mech Touch

What?!

Ves almost couldn't believe what he heard!

Then he recalled all of the ace mechs that he had witnessed in person or through footage on the galactic net.

The pairing between ace mechs and ace pilots resulted in extremely powerful combinations that could easily overturn entire battlefields!

When ace mechs resonated with extremely powerful Saints, they became extraordinary to a degree that defied the laws of nature!

The power of an ace mech was so much greater than that of any expert mech that there was no instance where the latter could overcome the former.

Although the physical frames of ace mechs did not tend to look that different from any other high-end mech, their basic parameters as well as their list of features were completely different!

Ace mechs far surpassed the boundaries of pure technology and tended to perform as if they were driven by magic!

In this context, Ves felt as if he had finally lifted the veil that obscured the secret of the Neo Amadeus.

It was no wonder that the Gauge Dynasty tried so hard to keep the ace mech as confidential as possible!

Anyone who was able to capture this image and analyzed the available information would be able to figure out the real charm of the Neo Amadeus.

If this deceptively simple ace swordsman mech made its first appearance in the upcoming battle, then the Golden Skull Alliance and the Hex Federation would definitely be caught off-guard by Saint Jeremiah Gauge's drastic evolution in fighting style!

The difference was no less than entering into a duel against a single swordsman mech only to fight against five of them at once!

"These damn Gaugers!" Ves cursed. "This descendant of their dynasty is especially devious. Even if the surprise factor would already become invalid after his first proper battle as an ace pilot, it is still a nasty surprise when enemies come to challenge Saint Jeremiah expecting a more conventional swordsman mech only to get bombarded by over a dozen different blades at once."

"All is fair in love and war." The Master Mech Designer in the room smirked. "While the Gaugers are arrogant, they are still professional. The Komodo War has tempered many of their leaders and officers. Considering the threat posed by the Hex Federation towards the Friday Colonies, it is only natural for Saint Jeremiah Gauge to hide his strength until it is the right time to unveil it on the battlefield."

The Neo Amadeus became a lot deeper and more mysterious in Ves' eyes. The ace mech's rather basic appearance could not be used as a reliable guide to its actual performance on the battlefield.

Ves scratched his head. "Assuming that the Neo Amadeus is able to wield so many swords and daggers at a time, how is it able to do so? Is it possible to control the blades by relying purely on true resonance? Reginald, what do you think? Are you capable of replicating this feat?"

The man pressed his lips. "An ace pilot's domain field is strong. As long as I have complete and uncontested control over my own field, I can theoretically take control of different weapons and swing them around by relying on pure force. I don't prefer to do so, though. It's too exhausting for the amount of power I can exert, and it gets harder to control the weapon when it gets further away from my mech. In fact, I wouldn't utilize this method against another ace mech at all. Once I end up in a duel against another peer, that person's Saint Kingdom will fight with mine for control over the surrounding space. There is no way I can reliably maintain control over a free-floating weapon under those circumstances."

"There has to be more to the Neo Amadeus, then." Ves concluded. "It probably incorporates a strengthened control method that can ensure that its free-floating weapons don't go out of control when an enemy ace mech enters the field. There is no point to designing an ace mech this way when it cannot even exhibit its full strength against an equal opponent."

"I think I know how the Neo Amadeus might be able to maintain strong control over those additional blades." Master Benedict said. "The answer is obvious now that I think about it. You should know the person responsible for this control system already, Ves. You have already stolen a few of his ideas. "

Ves furrowed his brows. He grew confused for a second, but then he thought about which Master Mech Designer fit this description.

"Wait… are you saying that Master Toqueman Huron is responsible for designing the control system?!"

It seemed that Ves could not escape the influence of this Master that he had never even met in person!

From brushing against Lady Aisling Curver and the Charlemagne to figuring out how to defeat the man's iconic Tensars, Ves had developed quite an unofficial rivalry against this Master.

To learn that Master Huron even contributed to the design of the ace mech that would likely become his greatest nightmare in the upcoming battle made him feel as if this direct confrontation was arranged by fate!

After all, Ves had contributed significantly to the design of the Mars that Patriarch Reginald piloted these days.

This began to look more and more like a design duel but in real life. Both Ves and Master Huron sought to prove their superiority over each other by comparing their work on the battlefield!

While the collision between the Mars and the Neo Amadeus was primarily a contest between the Multi-Armed Designer and the Skull Architect, the contributing designers also put their reputation and commitment at stake!

Ves became more fired up about the upcoming conflict. It was already crucial for the Mars to to at least stall the Neo Amadeus long enough for the rest of their troops to overpower the Sundered Phalanx, but now he wanted to secure an all-out victory!

The discussion continued. Both Ves, Reginald and Benedict possessed unique perspectives and had plenty to say about the ace mech depicted in the spotty image capture.

Though not all of their words were solid, they at least opened up each other's horizons.

What was ultimately important was that Patriarch Reginald entered the battle with a much more thorough understanding of his principal opponent. As long as he was on guard against the various means of Saint Jeremiah Gauge and the Neo Amadeus, his chances of winning this crucial duel were considerably higher!

"We're fortunate that the Gauge Dynasty chose to transfer a relatively new ace pilot to the Red Ocean." Ves said as his mind became filled with all of the power the Neo Amadeus might be able to exert on the battlefield. "The Gaugers could have sent another Saint that has advanced much earlier and has developed for a significantly longer period of time. Even with all of the insane tech we put into the Mars, I wouldn't have dared to seek this confrontation."

Patriarch Reginald only advanced a few years later than Saint Jeremiah. Though this time difference gave the latter a significant head-start, Ves was confident that Reginald was able to catch up in terms of resonance strength.

This was because the Mars was a masterwork mech!

Even after Master Benedict meticulously upgraded the original design from a high-tier expert mech to an ace mech, he completely respected the origins design concept and did not break the essence of what made the Mars so great.

Masterworks significantly facilitated the growth process of an expert pilot!

While their ability to boost the growth of an ace pilot was much less obvious by comparison, there was still a difference!

Therefore, Ves predicted that the resonance strengths of Patriarch Reginald and Saint Jeremiah should not be that far apart.

This was an extremely important detail because one of the main factors that decided the outcome in duels between ace pilots was how much they could impose their domain fields on each other.

If their resonance strengths were too far apart, then the superior ace pilot could take almost complete control over the surrounding space, thereby trapping the inferior ace pilot in a hostile environment!

Master Benedict clearly stated the equation. "What will truly determine the outcome between this duel is the design of the ace mechs, the absolute performance parameters of the two machines, the inherent advantages and disadvantages of their fighting approaches, the tech put into them, the amount of phasewater integrated into their frames and the individual skills and domains of the ace pilots. If we wish to win, then we must gain more advantages in these areas than our opponent. What we must do is go over each of them and discuss how we can still strengthen these aspects before we arrive at Pima Prime."

It was difficult to strengthen their hand any further at this short period of time. While Ves and Master Benedict explored plenty of ideas, none of them were practical enough to implement in a short amount of time.

The Mars was essentially fixed and Patriarch Reginald did not have enough time to conduct too much practice against a high-end multi-limbed swordsman mech.

"Reginald." Ves turned to the ace pilot. "How confident are you in your ability to defeat Saint Jeremiah and his Neo Amadeus?"

The leader of the Cross Clan had fallen silent for a while. He was not that good at technical discussions so he could not contribute that much in that area.

However, that did not mean he was an idiot when it came to mech combat.

"If I can maintain my distance to the Neo Amadeus, I will probably be able to suppress my opponent." Reginald answered. "My Mars is principally a ranged mech, and its ability to project force far outside of the range of my Saint Kingdom is strong. The ARCEUS System will allow me to pound my opponent's mech with a torrent of empowered transphasic energy beams."

Both Ves and Reginald nodded. While there was a possibility that the Neo Amadeus integrated smaller ranged armaments that allowed it to take out targets at range, the Gauger ace mech was clearly oriented towards closer ranges!

There was no way the Neo Amadeus could win a duel against the Mars from a distance!

Ves grimaced. "The problem is that Saint Jeremiah won't stupidly let you pound his ace mech into melted slag. It is practically a given that the Neo Amadeus has either incorporated a minidrive or a transphasic flight system. Hell, maybe it has access to both! There is no reason for the Gauge Dynasty to be stingy in this regard."

An ace mech was already much faster than an expert mech by default. When it was equipped with a combat drive or similar, it could soar across one side of the battlefield to another side of the battlefield in no time!

Not even the Dark Zephyr Version 2.0 could match the speed of a proper ace mech equipped with a proper minidrive!

It was not difficult to say that the invention of the minidrive largely solved one of the greatest disadvantages of melee mechs.

"At least the Neo Amadeus won't be able to appear in the middle of our fleet." Ves said with a bit of relief. "The new Warp Interdictors that we have acquired should be able to prevent any mechs or vehicles from relying on warp travel to get too close."

Warp interdictors essentially projected a special field that made it almost impossible to maintain a warp bubble.

Without a warp bubble, mechs and starships weren't able to move at such an exaggerated pace.

While there were ways to overpower this inhibition effect, the minidrive had to be a lot more powerful than the device responsible for blocking warp travel. This was practically impossible because the latter was almost always a large object that could only be mounted on large starships!

"Our Warp interdictors will help us prevent the Neo Amadeus from getting close enough to demolish our fleet, but they can't prevent the enemy ace mech from shortening the amount of time it is exposed to long-ranged bombardment." Ves stated. "Sooner or later, the Neo Amadeus will get close enough to be able to fight the Mars at its optimal range."

How the battle would proceed at that point was difficult to say. Swordsman mechs ordinary chopped hybrid mechs apart at close range!