The Mech Touch

Ves appreciated the heads up from Jovy.

Being able to gain crucial information about the big picture enabled Ves to gain a proper understanding of the current trends of the Red Ocean.

He became quite alarmed by the news that the aliens would soon be hitting red humanity harder than before!

The Red Cabal had plenty of reasons to take revenge on the humans. Many of the native aliens understood that they could not allow the foreign invaders to accumulate their strength over time.

All of this and more indicated that the frontlines would become even more dangerous than before!

Ves had plenty of reasons to be concerned about these changes. The expeditionary fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance and the Warborn Mech Division under the leadership of General Ark Larkinson soon had to face greater dangers.

The Davutans and the Hexers would also suffer a lot more losses if the alien onslaught grew too fierce.

Various border regions such as the Torald Middle Zone and maybe even the Agamemnon Upper Zone might fall due to the rapid escalation of alien offensives!

Suffice to say, Ves was not happy with these developments. His plan for the upcoming years relied heavily on a certain degree of stability in human space.

If red humanity already started to crumble before the Deep Strike Plan could take effect, he wasn't sure whether he would be in a position to meet all of his short to medium term goals.

At the very least, the massive disruptions in the mech market and human society as a whole would make it much harder for Ves to operate!

Right now, Ves needed to focus on what he could do to affect the course of the coming campaigns.

Different from many other people, a tier 3 galactic citizen like Ves managed to gain enough power and agency to materially influence the direction of the war. Even if his ability to strengthen red humanity was still too limited for liking, it was better than nothing!

His current situation reminded Ves a lot of his time in the Sand War. Back then, a few clever mech designs significantly strengthened humanity's ability to resist the invasion of the sandman race.

Could he replicate this old feat and save red humanity on a far greater scale than before?

Though Ves was not conceited enough to assume that he could single-handedly win the war, he could at least do his part to tip the scales in the human race's favor!

The revelations from Jovy urged Ves to help with the coming crisis by designing the appropriate mechs!

Of the handful of projects in development, there were two mech designs in particular that had the potential to exert an outsized influence on the war.

"The Fey Project and the Supremo Project can significantly affect the battles involving second-class forces." He told his wife and his new disciple Alexa when they gathered in the design lab. "We need to rethink their configurations and make sure to load up as much hyper technology on them as possible in order to maximize their ability to impact the war going forward. They will be the mech designs that will put the LMC back into prominence!"

The two female mech designers did not appear entirely convinced by his argument.

"Even though I am still an Apprentice Mech Designer, I am fully capable of designing a low or mid-tier first-class multipurpose mech. These products are rarely used by frontline military units, but they are still widely employed by smaller independent outfits. So long as we combine your living mech traits with my technical design, we should be able to publish a relatively basic first-class mech design that is enriched by our unique value proposition."

"It is too soon for us to intervene in first-class battles." Ves flatly noted. "If we want to introduce the Living Mech Corporation in the first-class mech market, we need to start with a strong opening. A mech that is mostly designed by an Apprentice will produce the opposite effect. It is much better for us to wait until both my wife and I have been promoted to first-class mech designers."

"I agree." Gloriana backed him up. "Failing to take advantage of the current timing means that we will completely abandon our chance of staking our place in the new mech market, but I do not want us to humiliate ourselves by releasing a sub-par product. There are benefits to biding our time. We can wait for the mech industry to develop more refined and mature applications of hyper technology. We can also continue to experiment with new technologies while we are still working on second-class mech design projects. We should only move on when we are thoroughly able to design a revolutionary first-class mech."

They no longer talked about first-class mech designs and turned back on what they could do with second-class mech designs.

"How is the Supremo Project going along?" Gloriana asked. "This mech design is restricted to the armed forces of Davute, so is it worthwhile for you to put additional effort into turning it into a fully fledged hyper mech?"

"It is worth it." Ves spoke. "Think about what the Hex Federation has accomplished with its own set of living Hexer mech models. I want to do the same for Davute. So long as its people grow dependent on my products, I will hold power over them. While the Krakatoa Middle Zone is not right next to the border, I am sure the Davutans are feeling a lot more nervous and desperate now. They need stronger mechs, and we can take advantage of that to gain more power over their state."

"I thought you didn't care about states, especially second-class ones."

"You are not necessarily wrong, but your thinking is too simple." Ves steadily responded. "The right mechs can conquer an entire state. In an age where the current order is set to crumble, it is not a bad idea to build multiple power bases."

His wife let out a breath in exasperation. "I am unable to follow your train of thought. I will give you the benefit of the doubt, but I hope that you will prove to me that your investment is not in vain."

"Don't worry about that. Don't forget that the Supremo Project is not my solo project. I am still collaborating with Master Decimus Horst, who has access to a large support network in Davute. My collaboration partner can do most of the work of replacing outdated parts with newly developed versions that incorporate hyper tech. One of the advantages of having the backing of a state is that there should be plentiful hyper materials available to produce this new artillery mech in large numbers."

The Supremo Project might just be a commissioned mech, but Ves wanted to use it to trial several useful innovations.

He could use the data generated by its usage to refine the Transcendent Punisher Mark III Project. His ambition was to turn it into one of the most effective quasi-first-class artillery mechs in service!

As Ves and Gloriana discussed a few other details about the Supreme Project, Alexa Streon quietly listened and learned.

The former Terran grew quite surprised by some of the hopes and ambitions of her new mentor. Ves had already improved to the point where he actively sought to employ his mech designs as strategic tools!

"If you are determined to play this game, then at least promise me that you work on updating our Hexer mech lines as well." Gloriana insisted. "You do not need to worry about spending too much of your precious time. The Hex Federation has its own Master Mech Designers and development companies. They are more than capable of developing the right hyper mech parts for the Valkyrie Redeemer and Maiden of Adversity."

Ves had no objections to that. He wanted those older works to remain relevant and up to date in order to maintain his strong influence over the Hex Federation. If the Hexers were forced to phase out those mech models in order to keep up with the evolving battlefield, then he would lose his leverage over this state!

They soon turned their attention to the Fey Project.

While Gloriana had little involvement in the design, the Fey Project had made a lot of gains over the last month.

Ves may have left the expeditionary fleet, but he was still able to collaborate with the other lead designers of the Design Department by remote.

Cormaunt Hempkamp, Miles Tovar and most notably Beatrice Hendrix had contributed significantly to the design. The Fey Project was shaping up to become a beautiful and innovative product, though its price would certainly not be cheap.

If nothing unusual happened, Ves predicted that it would only take a couple of months to complete the design.

The recent unveiling of the Hyper Generation ruined the original schedule. There was no way that he would release a lastgen product at this time.

"It will take longer to bring the Fey Project up to standard because we aren't collaborating with a state this time." Ves explained to the two women. "We will need to work with various different third parties to develop the right hyper parts for our drone mech design. The spurs will especially require a lot of attention."

His wife knew him well enough that he had another interesting idea in mind.

"What are you planning to do this time, Ves?"

Ves waved his hand, summoning a projection of the Fey Project.

He pointed at the four spurs or 'fey' that defined this mech design.

"The Red Two's previous broadcast strongly emphasized the importance of employing space suppressors. They are red humanity's most effective tool in countering the heavy use of phasewater technology by the aliens. However, it is rather risky to dispatch a lot of melee mechs to an enemy warship. Every attack run will exact a serious toll on the mechs because the aliens will desperately try to shoot them down in order to weaken the space suppression effect. If we can let cheaper and more disposable fey take their place, we can drastically reduce the casualties of such an attack!"

At the very least, the fey could act as decoys if they were dispatched alongside melee mechs!

Both Gloriana and Alexa looked intrigued at this proposal.

"There is one caveat to this plan." Gloriana said. "Will the fey remain affordable enough to withstand this usage? Do not forget that space suppressors are not exactly cheap. The ones built with phasewater have the best effect. The ones without phasewater are much weaker. Do not forget about their power supply. Space suppressors have a moderate to high demand for energy. From what I can see, these fey of yours do not have much capacity to begin with. If you want to turn them into space suppression tools, then you will have to dismount any weapon systems that you wanted to pair with them. They can only fulfill one function at a time."

Alexa was more optimistic about this design. "The space suppression effect of these fey will not be adequate if a mech can only deploy one of them at the same time, but the combination of several overlapping fields will produce a stronger result. The crucial variable is how many fey your mech can control."

Ves grinned. "That number is not fixed. We are currently aiming for a target of 4 fey, which is admittedly a bit ambitious, but that is what makes the Fey Project so special. It is a living mech, so it can partially take over the burden of controlling and coordinating the fey. When the living mech grows stronger and evolves in a third order living mech one day, this capacity will drastically expand. I think it will easily be able to control 8 fey with a satisfactory degree of control! Just think about what that means."

"From what I can see, the mech frame cannot support so many fey."

"Who says that all of the fey needs to be attached to the mech frame when they are no longer in use? You can dump them in any cargo hold or free space if you want to stow them somewhere. You can also bring lots of spare fey and have them take the place of the ones that have perished in battle. Space won't be a problem. What we need to pay attention to is to increase the utility and combat effectiveness of the fey as much as possible. Even a slight improvement will have a substantial effect on the total package!"