The Mech Touch

Ever since Ves produced his big breakthrough by creating a new variety of spiritual products that he called 'spiritual fiends', his work on the Ghost Project proceeded a lot more briskly than before.

The Geist System that both he and Cormaunt Hempkamp had remained stuck on for a long amount of time no longer hindered their progress.

Like a dam that had just been broken, Ves and Cormaunt made lots of progress into advancing the development of the Geist System!

As the days continued to pass by, Ves kept ignoring his wife's persistent attempts to persuade him to fund her 120 million MTA merit cranial implant and continued to spend long hours in his design lab and personal workshop.

Initially, Cormaunt Hempkamp did not exactly react well to the introduction of the metal statuette that was shaped like a devil that was ready to bring death and ruination upon the innocent!

It did look unpleasant, but that was exactly why it was suitable for the Ghost Project. The expert mech wasn't meant to be nice and a spiritual fiend like Mephisto was exactly what it needed in order to produce powerful results in the field!

Cormaunt needed a few days of constant exposure to acclimatize himself to Mephisto's existence.

Once the neural interface specialist figured out that Ves had a good grip on the spiritual fiend and that the diabolical monster wasn't about to go out of control, Cormaunt did his best to work this new development into the technical side of the Geist System.

They soon came to the point where they needed to conduct another major test in order to create another important pillar of the Geist System.

"From my understanding, this 'Mephisto' is too weak and incapable to harass and assassinate people, right?" The dark-skinned man queried his superior.

Ves nodded. "Yup, that's right. I haven't conducted any tests due to the justifiable hazards that might bring, but I know what I am talking about. Far stronger entities than Mephistos aren't that much better in this aspect."

"Can't you just make him grow a lot stronger and see where that might lead?"

"It's not as simple as you think." Ves shook his head. "Leaving aside the enormous amount of energy that I have to supply somehow, there are quantitative limits to how much a life form like Mephisto can grow. He will have to undergo a qualitative evolution to raise his maximum limit, and that is incredibly troublesome. Even then, any notable improvement will only cause him to develop a stronger glow, one that might be powerful enough to make people more afraid or tired, but that is hardly the kind of disruption that I have in mind for the Ghost Project."

Cormaunt looked at the half-completed prototype of the Geist System that he was mostly responsible for cobbling together. "This is where this gadget comes in, then. From the moment you formulated the Geist System, you came up with the theory that Object 335 is capable of giving substance and strength to your 'fiends'."

"That's correct. We need a solution that can make fiends like Mephisto affect our material reality while still maintaining all of their intangible and other metaphysical traits. It is the blending of the two that is key to making them effective on stealth missions and active battlefield deployments. By using the force of will of an expert pilot to distort the reality of Mephisto's state of being, we can turn an impossibility into a possibility."

It was like forcing reality to acknowledge that 2 + 2 = 4 as well as 2 + 2 = -4 at the same time! Although this was an extremely exaggerated example, Ves did not think the principle was much different in the case of what he was trying to bring into existence.

However, this was one of the riskiest hurdles of the Ghost Project. The consequences of failure were greater than normal.

A negative result could not only disprove a theory or reveal that the Geist System's current implementation was not viable, but it could also harm the two living parties involved in this radical new piece of tech!

An outcome similar to Helena's first attempts to connect with a generic spiritual product might occur.

If Mephisto popped like a balloon, then Ves would definitely feel the loss as the spiritual fiend was the first of his kind. There was no way that subsequent spiritual fiends that may be better put together would carry the same emotional weight and associations.

On the other hand, the Geist System might also produce an adverse effect on Object 335. The value of the head of a decapitated expert pilot was enormous and may even be irreplaceable.

Master Huron and the Fridaymen somehow managed to gain permission to cut off the head of an old and feeble expert pilot only to turn it into a twisted attempt to reproduce a living weapon.

That didn't mean that Ves could obtain the same permission!

As such, once Ves broke Object 335, it was highly unlikely that he could obtain an exact substitute without committing another war crime!

Though Ves believed that the Geist System could be retooled to make it work without relying on Object 335, that would take way too much time and effort.

For now, he wanted to proceed with the Geist System in its current conception.

"Let's conduct a live test." Ves announced. "We have completed just enough of the Geist System to make it possible. We don't need to do anything elaborate. Just a short test run should be enough to tell us whether my theory is right. We can fine tune all of the other variables such as strength, range and control another time."

Now that he had made this decision, he went ahead and retrieved Object 335.

Due to the sensitive and organic nature of this treasure, Ves had made the Larkinson Biotech Institute responsible for keeping it in good condition.

It took a moderate delay for a shuttle to be dispatched that carried the precious cargo over to the Spirit of Bentheim.

Once a team delivered the creation that not only held Object 335 but also an expanded life support system to keep the decapitated human head in good health, Ves inspected it carefully before he saw that everything was in good condition.

"We can proceed. Let's bring it all to an experimental chamber that I have reserved for this test."

Hooking up Object 335 to the prototype Geist System was anything but simple. What they were doing was unprecedented to begin with so Ves and Cormaunt both had to develop new solutions on the spot.

They finally managed to make the right adjustments and attach a number of cables between the two critical devices.

After implementing a few safety measures, the pair of Journeymen retreated to an observation room and set everything up on their end.

"I am done on my end." Cormaunt told his boss. "I have just tested the transmission quality of the physical connections between the two devices. Everything in my area of responsibility is operating at close to optimal conditions. I can't say much about the stuff you are overseeing, but the physical parts should not fail during the test."

"That is good to hear. Everything should be good on my end as well. Hit the button!"

As soon as the Geist System came online, Ves utilized his spiritual senses to check whether the prototype machine maintained a working connection to the fiend vessel he had installed on one of its slots.

The statuette containing Mephisto remained unchanged and unaffected, but this was just the beginning.

"Move on to the next phase."

This was one of the most crucial steps of the experiment. This was where the Geist System connected to Object 335.

"Connection established! I am picking up anomalous readings! I think... I think that expert pilot's willpower is generating activity that some of our sensors are faintly picking up! The activity is well within the safety boundaries that we have set for the time being."

"Commence the third phase!"

This was the most important step. The Geist System currently established one connection to Mephisto and a separate connection to Object 335.

Right now, the latter two did not establish any direct contact, but that was soon about to change!

As Ves and Cormaunt inputted the necessary commands and closely observed the data as well as what was taking place in the experimental chamber, a number of drastic events took place!

First, the force of will generated by Object 335 became agitated! The space around the large life support module seemed to wobble, showing that the Fridayman expert pilot that had been reduced to a tool was experiencing a lot of upheaval.

Second, Mephisto became subjected to a lot of pressure that caused the young and immature spiritual fiend to experience a lot of pain!

Though Ves sympathized with Mephisto, there was nothing much he could do. The connection had already been toned down to a point where it was difficult to make it weaker without losing effect entirely.

The spiritual fiend needed to get through this test the hard way.

One of the factors that complicated Mephisto's ability to pass this test was that Object 335 obviously did not like what was taking place!

The state of the Fridayman expert pilot was a bit weird to describe. Though he remained dormant for the most part, his strong and indomitable will that had not been weakened too much by everything he experienced was still conscious to a degree!

Thus, the active willpower of a once-powerful expert pilot strenuously objected to being forced to maintain a connection with a spiritual fiend and generated plenty of hostility and resistance!

This manifested most clearly by the pain and suffering that Mephisto experienced at the moment.

However, as a creature that was based on death energy and had been designed with causing suffering in mind, the pain did not break the spiritual fiend.

Ves slowly felt more reassured as he saw that Mephisto fully lived up to his expectations.

Not only did the spiritual product prevent himself from succumbing to the pain, but he also formed enough resistance against the foreign will to avoid getting subsumed!

Though Mephisto's state was anything but calm, the equilibrium that the two had managed to form remained stable more or less.

The only reason why Mephisto started to twitch and act a bit out of control was due to his immaturity and inexperience.

"Wait. What is happening? Is that.. Mephisto?!" Cormaunt called out from his station.

"You can see him?" Ves questioned.

"Yeah. He's right there. I can see a ghost poking out of the statue that shares his shape!"

Ves did not intend for the Geist System to make the spiritual fiends visible while empowering them at the same time, but he could work out the kinks at a later date.

Right now, he wanted to see whether Mephisto became a far greater threat than before!

The pained and twitching ghost flickered around as if he couldn't pay attention to his surroundings. His sharp mouth snapped as if he badly wanted to eat something to distract him from his agony.

When Mephisto tipped over and began to hit the floor of the experimental chamber, he experienced no physical resistance as he phased through the bottom.

However, as he bit a portion of the metal floor panel, Ves shot up straight when the sensors noted that Mephisto inflicted a faint amount of damage!

The difference was miniscule. When Ves accessed a sensor feed and zoomed in at a powerful degree of magnification, he could spot an extremely faint row of indentations that corresponded to Mephisto's needle-like teeth.

Even though the extent of the damage was so tiny, the fact that Mephisto under his current state managed to affect the material realm at all was a massive breakthrough!

"We did it!" Ves shouted in jubilation! "We did it! The experiment is a success! We managed to prove that the Geist System conceptually works! All we need to do is refine our implementation and magnify the effects so that the full version is strong enough to become useful in the field!"

This was a massive advancement for not just the Ghost Project, but any future mech designs that utilized a similar solution!