The Mech Touch

The Lucid Rage and the Maiden of Adversity were the two most notable new additions to the Larkinson Army's mech roster, but they were hardly the only newly introduced models.

The evaluation meeting also touched upon other models that hadn't been deployed in large numbers.

Many of them were similar to the Lucid Rage in that the Larkinsons only produced smaller batches for trial purposes. If they succeeded in performing well in real battle conditions, then the clan might decide to expand their usage.

"The handful of beast mechs that we have designed over the past few years have performed adequately in battle, but if I am being honest, they did not impress me that much. None of the avian mechs or tiger mechs have produced significantly greater results than their humanoid equivalents." Ves shared his opinion to the others. "I see no reason to found a new mech division that is centered around beast mechs for the time being."

The Power Pair looked disappointed as they had been the ones that spent the most time on designing beast mechs for the clan, but neither Janassa nor Tifi expressed too much objection to this evaluation.

Compared to a fantastic new model like the Maiden of Adversity, the strange combination between the Sharpwing and the Mauler models looked a lot less brilliant in comparison.

They were merely average, and that was not enough to impress the Larkinsons.

Merrill O'Brian, one of the newbies among the Journeymen, accurately identified one of the factors that could explain the lackluster results.

"Beast mechs are not fully capable of utilizing all of their advantages in space battles. Their non-humanoid form factors grant them great advantages under aerial and landbound conditions, but in an empty void like deep space, the variables that make them special possess much less weight."

Ves and many others nodded in agreement. This was a common observation. What use was there for a tiger mech when its four powerful limbs weren't able to gain any leverage over difficult and complex terrain? Why did it matter if an avian mech possessed wings when there was no way to generate lift in space due to the absence of air?

Though these animal-derived elements did not completely lose their utility when put into space, they simply brought significantly more deadweight than humanoid mechs.

"Maybe the Trailblazer Expedition will give our beast mechs better opportunities to showcase their unique strengths and advantages." Ves noted with a bit of hope. "There is a lot to gain on certain planets, and depending on how wild it is, avian mechs and tiger mechs can navigate difficult terrain a lot better and more efficiently than our other mech models."

The Larkinson Clan would eventually grow large enough to accommodate beast mech units. Ves was more than willing to add them to his clan so long as the additions made sense. For now, there were too many reasons for the Larkinsons to wait until they embraced this massive addition.

As the discussion continued, the Larkinson Journeymen eventually covered every new mech model that debuted in the first major battle since their release.

The topics soon shifted towards the older and more familiar mech lines. Many of them were Mark II versions of the original mechs that had been designed a long time ago. Despite the age of their concepts, they still remained relevant on the battlefield with the help of extensive technological upgrades.

Gloriana brought up footage of the many different varieties of the standard mech model of the Larkinson Clan.

"The Bright Warrior Mark II's haven't necessarily shown great power, but they have managed to become a lot more relevant due to their increased modularization. The ability to equip all kinds of optional equipment and modules has empowered the mech pilots. The people who have come to embrace the Mark II are much better able to utilize their strengths."

The logic of this was clear and indisputable. The Bright Warrior Mark II truly presented a lot of good options to mech pilots who had become tired of sticking to rigid configurations.

"The Bright Warrior Mark II also takes up more space than normal mechs." Sara Voiken mentioned. "Depending on how far you go with this, much of the additional weapons and modules will take the place of supplies, raw materials and other essential cargo. It's not an efficient solution to our current situation. Ves, you have just mentioned earlier that we should maximize the value that we can obtain from a given amount of space on a ship. If we adopt the Bright Warrior Mark II more extensively, then I am afraid that we may be filling up an unnecessary amount of capacity on redundant equipment loadouts."

She brought up an important point that Ves hadn't fully considered.

"You're right, Sara. If I am being honest, the Bright Warrior Mark II is another mech platform that is more suitable to be used in a planetary environment because there are no meaningful constraints in place. Still, our clan should be able to minimize the amount of useless gear that this new model brings due to the fact that our main fleet possesses strong recycling and production capabilities."

The expeditionary fleet was fully capable of recycling old and unused equipment while at the same time producing new gear that might fit a future situation better. This helped a lot with preventing space from being wasted.

As other mech designers provided their own input on the Bright Warrior Mark II, Ves became fairly satisfied with the versatile mech model.

Perhaps it did not perform as eye-catchingly well as the Maiden of Adversity, but there were hardly any cases where the Bright Warrior Mark II performed badly.

This was its greatest strength. As long as the Larkinsons made sufficient preparations, they could always count upon their Bright Warrior Mark II's to serve as a reliable base in any mech lineup.

There were no compelling reasons to update the model anytime soon. The current version already served its purpose well enough and it did not exhibit any obvious or critical weaknesses that the Design Department urgently needed to address.

If that was the case, then Ves preferred to wait until the clan gained access to better tech, materials and design solutions before revising it another time.

The Larkinson Journeymen proceeded to cover other Mark II and Mark III versions of familiar Larkinson mech designs.

Despite the passage of time, the advancement of technology and the changing conditions of mech combat, the oldies among the Larkinson mech models were still going strong.

The formulas that made mechs such as the Transcendent Punisher Mark II, the Valkyrie Redeemer Mark II and the Ferocious Piranha Mark III so strong had not become invalid in the Red Ocean.

They at least remained relevant when employed against human mech forces.

"I am not so sure these mainstay mechs will be as useful when we fight against alien threats." Ves shared his concerns. "It heavily depends on the force composition and the overall strength of our opponents. If we bump into a minor race like the pakklatons, then we should easily be able to overrun their weak warships by relying on brute force. I'm concerned about the strongest native alien races. We are still short on powerful ranged mech units that can put a lot of pressure on enemy warships."

Ketis recognized the inherent dilemma that had plagued the Larkinson Clan. "It is difficult to decide how we should set the proportion of melee mechs to ranged mechs. Most alien threats can be dealt with by relying solely on ranged mechs, but if we meet a human mech force, this will make us a lot more vulnerable."

Ves nodded in agreement. "That's right. Our potential enemies are both human and alien forces. The entire frontier is filled with conflict and it is easy to trigger a battle for the most superficial reasons. That said, I hope that we can make more progress in helping melee mechs become more practical in battles that involve large alien warships."

Ketis had thought more about this problem than any other Larkinson mech designer. Due to her ideology and commitment to her design philosophy, it was impossible for her to abandon swordsman mechs. Her career strongly depended on whether melee mechs remained relevant.

"So far, there are only two ways for us to improve the relevance of melee mechs." She said. "I don't think there is much wrong with their offensive power, but it is their defenses and mobility that are hindering them from becoming more relevant. Our melee mechs hadn't noticed this problem that much in the previous battle, but they were already struggling to deal with the ranged bombardment from the Blackened Reapers and the Witch Shatterers. The problem can easily become ten times worse if we fight against a fleet that consists entirely of warships."

  Dulo Voiken hummed. "Defense and mobility, huh? The only way for us to improve both of these areas is if we begin to apply phasewater technology to our standard mech models. Mech models such as the Space Piercer employed by the Sundered Phalanx have already given us a way forward. Our mechs don't have to use up too much phasewater to make them a lot more useful on the battlefield."

Several faces turned ugly. It was easy to come up with this solution, but the phasewater required to upgrade every single mech in the Larkinson Army was too prohibitive!

His sister sighed. "Personally, I am hoping that phasewater becomes a lot more common in the future. Once the supply is large enough, it shouldn't be that much of a problem anymore to equip all of our standard mechs with transphasic parts. Our mech legions will comprehensively be able to double or triple their effective performance."

This was not as unrealistic as it sounded. The Larkinson Clan already secured at least one reliable supply of phasewater, and it was not out of the question to open up additional channels in the future.

"Our earning power is one of the greatest strengths of our clan." Ves pointed out. "Cost should be no issue. It is more important to power up our mechs than to be too stingy with our money and phasewater. As far as I'm concerned, it is not enough for us to keep up with the changing times. We need to get ahead of the curve and transform all of our mechs before others adopt this pattern. In a circumstance like ours, we cannot afford to lose a single battle as long as our fleet is at risk. Our ships are our homes. Given our precarious situation, there should be no limit to how much we are willing to spend to strengthen the defense of our fleet."

"We need to earn more money, then." Gloriana concluded. "A lot more money. The current income of the LMC isn't enough to fulfill this ambition. Our mech company needs to earn at least ten times more profit before we can seriously think about converting thousands of mechs into transphasic machines."

"We will have to make sure that we don't neglect commercial mechs once we commence the next design round. I am sure that this battle has given us all plenty of new ideas that might sell well."

Overall, a lot of the changes and suggestions essentially entailed spending more money in order to compensate for the various weaknesses exhibited by the Larkinson Army.

The inability to accommodate more mechs simply imposed too many restrictions on the Larkinson Clan. Every single mech and every single proposal had to work the limited space issue in one manner or another.

Ves was growing rather tired of it. He wished that his clan no longer became as constrained by the lack of space as now. If this problem didn't exist, then it would have been easy for the Larkinson Clan to expand its numbers so that it was able to field thirty-thousand, forty-thousand or even fifty-thousand elite mechs at the same time!