The Mech Touch

Ves continued to expand upon his vision of the Fey Project for twenty more minutes.

The fey offered a lot of versatility to the table.

They could be made to be large and tough enough to form a physical wall that could block anything short of attacks launched by warships.

They could be mounted with sharp blades and serve as an additional source of offensive pressure in close quarters combat.

They could be mounted with transphasic shield generators and spread out so that they could protect the lives of innocent civilians in a city under siege.

Under every circumstance, the fey always had the option of disguising themselves as authentic mechs, which could always throw off the adversary's estimates.

"Information is power. Misinformation is a weapon." Ves succinctly stated. "We can use the fey in a lot of brilliant tactical ruses. For example, they can pretend to be cheap mechs developed by an ordinary mech company. They can pretend to be high-end military mechs. They can even pretend to be mechs belonging to the allies of our enemies. As long as the deception holds, they can produce results that are unattainable by other means!"

Many of his fellow Journeymen understood the potential of the Fey Project and all of its versatile fey, but that did not mean they had lost their capacity for critical thinking.

Each of these mech designers had managed to break through the extraordinary threshold by propelling their design philosophy and design skills beyond mortal constraints!

Ketis stated the obvious.

"I can see how the fey can be useful, but each of these special spurs take up space. Is it truly wise to fill up the mech capacity and cargo capacity of our ships with so many spurs as opposed to more mechs and more supplies? I mean, how much space does the Fey Project even occupy on a carrier?"

"I have already thought about that." Ves calmly responded. "The fey can be designed in many different ways. They can be as large as actual mechs or be shrunken and flattened so that they can be stacked on top of each other like crates. The ideal way to store them is to design the fey so that they can be attached to their mech platforms and remain physically and spiritually connected to each other when not being put to better use. Look at this draft image."

He transmitted a command that caused the center projection to display the image of the Fey Project with its spurs attacked to the front and back of its frame.

The extra additions added a lot of bulk to the mech, but the fey were designed in such a way that they seamlessly linked up with each other while also molding themselves perfectly to the mech frame.

"The mech stables and other permanent storage spaces for mechs on a starship or in a military base are designed to barely accommodate most reasonable versions of heavy mechs." Ves explained. "The Fey Project's mech frame falls under the medium weight class. Attaching four to six fey will roughly turn the combined package into the equivalent of a heavy mech in terms of mass and volume. This is the most efficient storage arrangement of the fey. If necessary, the fey can also be stored into standard cargo containers and be placed in the cargo holds of different starships, though I do not recommend it as the mech platform and the fey are meant to form a social communion."

Though Ves provided an adequate solution regarding the storage of different fey, his last sentence exposed another odd situation.

Sara Voiken raised her arm. "I don't quite understand the positioning of these fey. At one point, you stated that you want to treat them as expendable decoys that can attract enemy fire. At another point, you claimed that they are alive and that they can grow more powerful over time. Wouldn't it be counterproductive to deliberately shove them forward and treat them as cannon fodder?"

This indeed sounded rather incomprehensible to the mech designers who were familiar with Ves. They all knew how much he valued his living mechs. Their potential rested in their ability to grow, adapt and become stronger over time.

This meant that his design philosophy shared an antithetical relationship with expendability. The less people valued a living mech, the more Ves could not tolerate such behavior!

Why did he suddenly change his mind concerning the fey. Was it because they were not full living mechs and could therefore be treated as slaves or commodities as opposed to valued children?

It did not surprise Ves too much that his subordinates expressed confusion about this contradiction.

This situation highlighted the differences in perspectives between the two. The Journeymen of the Design Department judged the Fey Project according to an interpretation of the design capabilities that Ves had demonstrated up to the present.

The problem was that Ves was not a static figure that remained the same all of the time.

He was a mech designer who not only developed rapidly compared to his peers, but also made shocking and revolutionary advancements from time to time!

"I have recently been working on figuring out a solution to preserving the essence of living mechs after their frames have fallen in battle." Ves said as he crossed his arms. "You can treat the relationship between the mech platform and its fey as a trial balloon in this context. I am trying to experiment with a way to preserve at least a part of the lives of the fey after they have been fallen into battle."

"How?"

"Well, I can design them in a way that they are not completely independent. Just as how we all have companion spirits that are extensions of our own selves, the fey can be treated as extensions of the living mech that they are paired with. The mech platform is the root for all of the living fey. As long as the bare machine itself is able to survive the battle, it should effectively be able to resurrect all of its fey."

That would be an impressive feat if Ves could make it happen!

Since no one else possessed a lot of depth in living mechs or spiritual engineering, the Journeymen had no ability to judge whether Ves could realize this new idea. They had little choice but to trust his word and believe in his ability.

"Is it even possible for you to design and make a mech that contains multiple lives?" Gloriana questioned. "You have never created such a product in the past."

Ves scoffed. "The past doesn't determine the future. 1 am the pioneer in my own field. I am pretty confident that I can make this happen. It is crucial to make the fey at least semi-autonomous. It plays an important role in what I have in mind for the next wave of spiritual innovations. If I can succeed, our exclusive mech ecosystem will definitely take off like nothing else in the Age of Dawn!"

His vision was so ambitious that he did not dare to explain too much to the others!

He wanted to remain at least somewhat cautious and avoid making promises that he couldn't keep. It was still highly uncertain how his actual implementation would look like as his work was heavily reliant on how well he solved a series of new and unprecedented problems.

They talked a bit more about the Fey Project, but it was clear that Ves had the ultimate say from beginning to end. This was one of his latest pet projects and he was determined to break new ground in the field of living mechs with this useful and versatile drone mech design!

"As the Fey Project is highly reliant on control and coordination, it needs to be equipped with a special neural interface that can better facilitate the control between the mech pilots and the fey. Cormaunt, can you make this interface?"

The dark-skinned mech designer nodded after a few seconds. "I have never developed a neural interface with multiple control objects in mind, but I understand the theory. I can do it as long as I refresh my knowledge and consult additional sources. Let me tell you that your proposed drone mech will be much more difficult to pilot with each additional spur. Normally, it takes high genetic aptitude to proficiently control three or more spurs."

"I think that the fey will not be as difficult to control as they should be able to think for themselves. We can figure out the exact mechanics later."

Drone mechs theoretically possessed a lot of potential, but piloting them was not simple.

If the spurs were largely controlled by Als, then they would lose many of the advantages of mechs. People might as well deploy independent drones in their place.

In order to justify the existence of drone mechs, their spurs had to fall under direct control of the mech pilot, which wasn't always easy as there were too many ways to interrupt the wireless communication channels.

Even if maintaining solid links was not a problem, a human pilot could only keep track of so much stuff.

Multitasking imposed an enormous burden to a controller. After a lot of trial and error, it became clear that only pilots with B-grade or A-grade genetic aptitudes could comfortably control a larger amount of autonomous spurs!

This was a highly restrictive demand, and one that did not sit well with many talents.

Mech pilots with excellent genetic aptitudes generally preferred to deepen their control over a single excellent machine and push it beyond its limits.

Compared to mastering the art of a sword or becoming a highly accurate sniper, puppeting a bunch of disposable spurs did not sound as exciting!

Ves hoped to change all of these rules one way or another. It highly depended on how he realized the Fey Project.

He had so many potential ideas that he could use to elevate his new mech design project, but he still needed to figure out which ones were viable and which ones he would ultimately select.

It was still too early for him to have a clear and concrete vision for the Fey Project.

Ves quickly added another Journeyman to the project.

"Beatrice. I could use your help as well." He told the latest mech designer to join the Design Department. "You have spent enough time in our clan to have a good idea of what we are about. The Fey Project will probably be one of the most interesting and advanced living mech designs that we will be working on for this year, so it will serve as an excellent introduction to our unique mechs. Do you think you can add useful input to this project?"

The woman did not expect to be called out at this time, but now that she learned that she would be assigned to this project, she decided to share an idea that she had in mind for the Fey Project.

"I can work on a modular armor system that is shared between the base mech and its fey. What I mean by that is that I can make them identical and interchangeable. If the mech platform ever sustains heavy damage, a fey can shed a number of its modular armor plating and transfer it to the damaged mech. This will ensure that the mech pilot remains adequately protected. It will also help with keeping the most important element of the Fey Project that can remain in the field."

"Excellent idea!" Ves' eyes lit up. "I haven't thought about it, but you are right. Every fey can serve as a repository for modular armor plating. They can not only refresh the damaged armor of the Fey Project, but also other mechs in an emergency as long as they are compatible enough!"

This would expand the versatility and the defensive utility of the Fey Project even more!

This was the advantage of adding more mech designers to the Design Department. Ves had a lot more options at his disposal compared to before!