The Mech Touch

Ves felt incredibly gratified that he lived during the Age of Dawn.

Only in a more energy-rich environment would his living mechs gain the opportunity to tap into their greater potential.

Back in the Milky Way, his living mechs weren't exactly useless, but they had no choice but to live and fight with one hand tied behind their backs.

Ves had no doubt that he would have been able to climb up the ranks by continuing to develop his design philosophy in a low-energy environment, but his works would never be able to display as much overt power as his Fey Fianna had displayed during this shocking exhibition match!

[A blow against the establishment! The triumph of Professor Ves Larkinson and his Living Mech Corporation is a condemnation of the rest of the mech industry. How is a single Senior Mech Designer able to trump over thousands of design teams led by Master Mech Designers? The explosive performance of the new Fey Fianna has exposed the truth of the mech industry: innovation has stagnated and the leading mech designers have become creatively bankrupt. If the megacorporations want to regain any credibility, then they must turn off their autopilots and design real hyper mechs for a change!]

[The second year of the Age of Dawn has only just begun, but the winner for the awards of best mech, best second-class mech, best drone mech and most innovative mech has already been set! No other mech model released for the rest of this year can possibly exceed the stellar reaction to the introduction of the Fey Fianna. The only possible way for this revolutionary mech model to get outclassed is if Professor Ves Larkinson trumps it with another mech of his own design!]

[Do not believe in the hype! The Fey Fianna is an overpowering mech at first glance, but the demonstration match is filled with flaws. Drone mechs are known to be effective counters against rifleman mechs. Why hasn't the Living Mech Corporation shown how the Fey Fianna fares against melee mechs? Does the LMC have the courage to match its latest work against the drone mechs of other mech companies?]

As many different journalists tried to vie for attention while they commented on the Fey Fianna, Ves attracted everyone's attention once again now that the mechs had their fun.

The Standard Fey Fiannas left the arena grounds in order to undergo repairs while all of the broken debris had already been swept out of sight.

The way that people looked at Ves had changed.

The strength of his mech design directly affected people's respect towards its maker!

Many people who were already familiar with his works already held him in high regard, so their opinions did not change that much. They were already accustomed to his miracles.

It was the folk who were less familiar with his works that became impressed by his ability to design such a powerful mech. There were still plenty of second-raters who resided in middle zones further away from Krakatoa and Magair that began to develop a serious interest in living mechs this time.

The LMC's market penetration was not as good in those distant zones. Perhaps the Pacifier models might have started to show up on various planets, but Voiken Industries was primarily responsible for the sale and distribution of those mechs.

The Fey Fianna could be the breakthrough that the Living Mech Corporation needed to properly enter those markets!

To be more specific, the Fey Fianna could single-handedly enable the Larkinsons to establish a presence in the second-rate colonial states of both the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact!

More sales not only translated in more revenue, but also increased the influence that Ves could wield in human society.

This increased his political weight and allowed him to gain a greater say in affairs relating to the running of human society.

More importantly than that, changing the lives of more mech pilots and their dependents through his works validated his design philosophy. This helped to promote his progress and bring him closer to advancing to the rank of Master Mech Designer.

How could Ves not be pleased at this time? He graciously smiled at his audience even as he stroked Lucky's back while he held the cat in his arms.

"Meow-"

"What you have just seen is an early taste of what you can expect from our latest work. No matter whether the Fey Fianna is controlled by general mech pilots or skilled drone mech specialists, it can bloom in anyone's hands. Its low barrier of entry and endless depth can allow the Fey Fianna to fit in nearly any mech force composition. With subsequent training and more refinement, I believe that each mech force can turn them into their own characteristic mainstays."

Ves briefly raised his hand as a signal.

Three more drone mechs stepped forward. They were the more expensive and exclusive Elite Edition of the Fey Fiannas!

The Standard Edition of our new mech line should already satisfy the needs of most of you, but if you want to gain much more assurance in becoming a warlord, then investing in our Elite Edition is a wise choice. So long as you are willing to pay the extra price in phasewater, our best mech factories will carefully fabricate your new quasi-first-class mechs with exquisite care and attention."

When the Elite Fey Fiannas initially stepped forward, they were accompanied by a mixed configuration of fey.

Instead of showing what they were made of in their current state, an unexpected change occurred.

New fey appeared and swapped places with the current ones!

The three Elite Fey Fiannas had changed their configuration so that they were accompanied by 12 transphasic fire hyper luminar crystal cannon fey in total!

This completely altered the threat level and the role of the Fey Fiannas.

A small swarm of target dummies entered the other side of the arena grounds. The target dummies were little more than moving constructs of layered armor plating. They possessed no combat power, but were so sturdy that it would take any typical mech a lot of effort to break.

The Elite Fey Fiannas opened fire. Their luminar crystal rifles as well as all of the luminar crystal cannon fey under their control simultaneously shot at different targets each!

Not all of the attacks struck a target dummy, but those that managed to do so quickly burned through the layers of armor while leaving lingering flames behind!

Bright and fiery laser beams continually struck the target dummies over and over again. Each and every salvo silenced the crowd and caused them to become amazed at the firepower that these three mechs commanded.

Just 3 mechs commanded 15 energy weapons, and none of them were weak!

The fourth generation luminar crystal weapons were not only transphasic, but integrated much higher grades of fire hyper materials in their construction.

All of this caused their penetration power and absolute damage levels to vastly exceed the weapons utilized by the Standard Edition!

It was like comparing a second-class mech to a first-class mech!

"The Fey Fianna can approximate the firepower of five times its number in the short term." Ves boasted as he appreciated the sight himself. "Compared to fielding 15 rifleman mechs, you can produce similar results by bringing in the right amount of offensive fey. The fey responsible for launching these attacks are smaller, cheaper and much easier to store on a starship. If they run out of energy, you don't have to bring them back to their mothership and manually replenish their energy reserves. You can just swap them with a fresh batch of fully charged fey to resume their fire support mission without interruption."

The transphasic luminar crystal fey had already demolished two dozen hardy dummy bots in a short amount of time, and could definitely eliminate more with their remaining energy reserves!

However, they prematurely swapped places with the 12 gauss cannon fey that showed up next.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The firepower of these fey was domineering in a different way! The sheer penetration and impact characteristics of the transphasic gauss rounds was so impressive that every target dummy could only endure one or two hits before they lost the ability to maneuver above the ground.

The earth energy empowering the gauss rounds caused them to hit harder and dent the target dummies even more!

"Every Fey Fianna can be molded according to your needs and your purpose. You can raise them as individuals or you can mold them into soldiers of a single cohesive unit. The choice of fey models can further specialize them and enable them to perform specific tasks much better than more traditional mechs."

Once the Elite Fey Fianna had pounded all of the unarmed target dummies into scrap, they sent away the gauss cannon fey and gained 12 azure energy shield fey in return.

Each of the latest fey were equipped with the best energy shields that they could fit into their relatively compact forms.

Soon enough, these 12 fey spread around the 3 Fey Fianna and activated their azure energy shields at the same time!

Many different spheres of remarkably powerful energy shields came into existence!

None of them were able to overlap or combine with each other, but that did not stop the main body as well as all of the fey from forming a 'wall' of shield bubbles!

The area coverage of this energy shield array was remarkable. An entire wall had formed that could shield an entire mech company from a hefty amount of damage!

40 fresh battle bots appeared on the other side. They immediately opened fire with their relatively ordinary hyper weapons, but their combined firepower failed to do more than give all of the fey a modest amount of stress!

The differences in tech, materials and design between the two sides had grown so exaggerated that just three powerful fey effectively held back the equivalent firepower of an entire mech company!

That was not all. The battle bots ceased fire and backed away.

In their place was an enormous cannon that the Larkinsons had especially brought into Phoca Arena after receiving permission from the Red Association.

"Is that a warship-grade laser cannon?!"

"It looks like an alien laser cannon that someone has directly stripped from a derelict warship."

"No way!"

"That is illegal! Arrest the Larkinsons immediately!"

"The Larkinsons possess a Warship Token, didn't you know that? They have the right to make use of warship armaments."

The relatively large and imposing transphasic laser cannon was one of the many salvaged war spoils that the expeditionary fleet had sent back to Bortele.

It was not that difficult to restore its basic functionality and gain control over its alien systems.

As the authentic warship-grade laser cannon started to charge up, the three Elite Fey Fiannas did not attempt to defend against this threat by performing evasive maneuvers.

Instead, they lined up and stacked all 12 azure energy shield fey in front of them so that they formed three layers of shield bubbles in front of the mechs!

FZZZZZT!

The laser cannon opened fire at full power, causing the entire mech arena to light up with overwhelming brightness!

As flash disappeared almost as quickly as it came, everyone eagerly tried to see how the three Elite Fey Fiannas managed to fare.

"They're alive..."

"None of them suffered any damage!"

The price of resisting this direct attack had been heavy. 10 out of 12 azure energy shield fey failed to resist the transphasic energy beam as they cut through all of the layers of protection and easily vaporized the small fey.

Yet as the laser beam struck the defenses of the final surviving fey, its potency had finally been exhausted, causing this powerful attack to fall short of eliminating the more crucial mechs.

The precious mechs and mech pilots remained safe!

All they lost was a bunch of transphasic fey, and while their cost was much higher than their regular counterparts, they were still much easier to give than the alternatives!

"Amazing!"

"Give me 200 of these elite Fey Fiannas! I can overwhelm several alien warships with these babies."