The Mech Touch

6086 The True Value of First-Class Multipurpose Mechs

Ves was genuinely happy for Venerable Lanie.

She had found a new purpose in her life. She had also managed to make an excellent first impression of her new backer.

Although the Mace of Retaliation did not exaggerate when he shared his intentions to push Lanie past her limits, at least he had her best interests at heart. That was more than he could say for many other potential employers.

If the Mace truly regarded Lanie as the heir that could possibly fulfill his deepest desire on his behalf, then he would definitely not exploit her and discard her later on. That completely went against his implied goal.

Ves no longer had to torture himself with concerns on whether Lanie found a good employer. She had pretty much won the lottery today.

Before Ves was ready to leave the two alone so that they could discuss arrangements that had nothing to do with the Larkinson Clan, he offered the lucky expert pilot one more parting gift.

"Lanie."

"Yes, sir?"

"Considering all of the hard fights ahead of you, I cannot in good conscience let you go without a trustworthy and reliable mech at your side. I am willing to transfer ownership of the Elegant Rage to your name. Just give me a month or two to complete my research on your living mech."

A brilliant smile bloomed on the young woman's face. "That… is wonderful!"

"I have a proposal, Professor Larkinson." The Mace of Retaliation turned to face Ves directly.

"What is it you require?"

"The Elegant Rage is not a particularly powerful mech, but it, or rather she, is an excellent complement to Venerable Lanie here. Since I desire for her to overcome more difficult challenges that can stimulate her growth to a greater extent, she will need to pilot a machine she can trust with her life. There is no better choice than a living mech that has already done so once before. Let us raise the stakes. Let us make it so that each time she deploys on the battlefield, she can either return alive and her mech intact, or not at all. If she ever falters and loses her mech even once… then she has ultimately failed to live up to my expectations. There is no further need to push her limits any further."

Ves widened his eyes. "Are you requesting me to convert the Elegant Rage into a Carmine mech?"

"I am. Will that be a problem, professor?"

"No. I can do it. In fact, it matches well with one of my new research initiatives. I have been thinking about developing an upgraded version of a Carmine mech. The Elegant Rage in her current form already matches the specifications of what I have in mind. I can promise you that once I am done with converting the Elegant Rage to a new generation Carmine mech, Venerable Lanie will be able to attain even greater synergies with her battle partner. Just… try to preserve what makes the living mech unique when your own mech designers begin to upgrade my work. It may be wise to consult me first before you mechers go crazy."

"I shall take your warning into consideration."

This plan worked out quite well for Ves. He lamented the loss of the Elegant Rage, but researching the mutated mech before upgrading her to the first Woodsap mech in existence should allow him to maximize her short-term value!

Ves was confident that as long as he successfully modified the Elegant Rage into an improvised Woodsap mech, he would be able to design a proper Carmine mech based on the wood element from the ground up without too many complications.

By that time, there was no need for Ves to feel sorry about giving up possession of the Elegant Rage!

A few minutes passed before Ves chose to end the communication link. Venerable Lanie and the Mace of Retaliation had already begun to discuss details such as undergoing extensive augmentations and signing up for a crash course in piloting first-class mechs at one of the RA's top mech academies.

As a second-class expert pilot, Lanie possessed many 'deficiencies' that needed to be made up before she earned the qualifications to fight alongside other mechers.

Fortunately, the Red Association integrated so many external recruits every year that it had a well-developed training and adaptation program for cases like her. Demigods also mastered the art of piloting more advanced mechs much faster, so it shouldn't take too long for Lanie to earn the minimum qualifications.

Of course, Venerable Lanie would only be able to competently pilot specialized first-class mechs for the time being.

There was no way to compress a decade of intensive training and studying on how to pilot the most modern iterations of first-class multipurpose mechs in less than a year.

That was fine for Lanie. She did not think the Elegant Rage was perfect, but RA's excellent mech designers should be able to expand the mutated melee mech's armaments on a gradual basis over time.

"First-class multipurpose mechs are mostly designed with the elimination of weaknesses in mind." The Mace of Retaliation shared his own wisdom and perspective on the subject. "Their greatest advantage is strategic in nature. It is virtually impossible to develop a truly effective counter against them, so most of our enemies do not even make the attempt."

"Are first-class multipurpose mechs that difficult to fight against?"

"Let me put it this way, young lady. The Terrans are famed for their Destroyer weapons, so they have always developed a bias for melee combat. The Rubarthans are reluctant to compete against their archrivals in this aspect, so they have developed a bias for ranged combat. Centuries of directed mech development has made both groups strong in either areas. Do you understand?"

Lanie slowly nodded. "If you, I mean us, ever fight against them, we can adapt our mechs and loadouts to avoid their strengths and target their weaknesses. At the same time, the Terrans and the Rubarthans cannot counter RA mechs as effectively because they are true all-rounders."

The Mace grinned. "That is correct. As the only legitimate trade organization related to mechs in human space, we have the right and the means to absorb much of the strongest innovations of both first-rate colonial superstates. We do not always succeed, but we can count on our own formidable mech designers and R&D teams to fill up the gaps and stay at least one step ahead of the masses."

"How does this relate to first-class multipurpose mechs, mentor?"

"I have just described the main reason why first-class multipurpose mechs have become the dominant template in first-class mech combat. They offer far greater strategic depth. They do not truly excel in any area, and we recognize that. What we truly value is their inability to get countered with ease. We have great confidence that our frontline mech units will never collapse in a short amount of time. They may lose against an enemy that possesses an overwhelming advantage in speed, as they recently did in a practice match against Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson's Dark Zephyr, but a war is never decided in a single battle. I can guarantee you that the next time we confront such an adversary, we will quickly be able to field mechs that can counter a powerful light skirmisher."

Damn, the Mace of Retaliation knew about that?! He must be well-versed in the intelligence related to the Larkinson Clan!

"I see." Venerable Lanie's eyes opened up. "Does that mean that the Elegant Rage should be converted into a multipurpose mech as well?"

"That is a personal decision that every expert pilot must make. No mech designer or superior should ever pressure you or coerce you into piloting a mech of a configuration that you do not agree with. This is the machine that will not only determine the heights of your career, but also the odds of coming back from the battlefield alive. Experienced pilots recruited from outside such as you tend to stick to what you are already familiar with. This is a legitimate choice, but it is also one that comes with consequences."

Lanie immediately frowned. "If my enemies want to target me in particular, they will especially target my weaknesses. The current configuration of the Elegant Rage is optimized for melee combat. My living mech also relies more on evasion than armor and energy shields to mitigate damage. I can see how the right sort of opponent can make life difficult."

The Mace smiled at her. "It is not a major concern most of the time. Our Association possesses better tech and materials than any other group. As long as we apply enough upgrades to your Elegant Rage, your machine's advantages will become so dominant that most adversaries will not be able to effectively target your weakness. This is the strategy chosen by many god pilots. You will find that many of them have chosen to specialize in one mode of combat to the exclusion of other approaches. Powerful enough ranged mechs have their means of repelling enemies at point blank range. Strong enough melee mechs can endure the firepower of distant enemies long enough to close the distance."

That was true in the case of many powerful ace mechs and god mechs. The usual rules and guidelines concerning mechs no longer applied to them. This was a good example of how powerful enough mechs and mech pilots were able to change reality in their favor as long as their martial might reached a high threshold.

"Will my Elegant Rage be able to become strong enough to do what I want on the battlefield?" The young expert pilot asked.

"No. Absolutely not." The Mace instantly shot her down. "Our Association has learned many lessons on the sustainable development of high-ranking mech pilots. Foisting mechs that are so technologically superior that they can wipe out all enemies in front of them right at the start will lead to adverse effects. The most common among them are the development of bad habits and the premature stagnation in the growth of resonance strength. We must maintain a reasonable degree of parity between man and machine in order to stimulate your comprehensive growth while still giving you an acceptable chance of surviving your coming battles."

Given that the Mace of Retaliation intended to throw Venerable Lanie straight into the meat grinder of the main battlefields, this was not an easy choice to make!

There was a decent probability that Lanie might bump into an enemy that she was not equipped to deal with and get wiped out with ease due to the weakness of her mech.

Although the phase whales and phase lords generally made themselves scarce, they were more than willing to employ their best warships and superweapons against the formidable warfleets of the Red Association and the Red Fleet.

Plenty of first-raters fighting on behalf of the two hegemons of human civilization perished like dogs since the start of the Red War!

These were all highly trained first-raters that received a fortune's worth of augmentations and developed a lot of competences that would have allowed them to utterly dominate second-raters in their areas of expertise!

Yet even the most privileged mechers and fleeters could never guarantee that they would be able to survive against the more fearsome and terrible phasewater weapons employed by the major alien races of the Red Ocean.

There was no fairness on the battlefield!

A low-tier expert pilot such as Venerable Lanie may already be regarded as a powerhouse in the expeditionary fleet, but she was nothing more than slightly stronger cannon fodder if she participated in the most intensive battlefields!

Venerable Lanie needed to adapt quickly if she wanted to acclimate to her new role. Battles involving the top forces of the Red Ocean were much different from the battles involving peripheral forces.

As powerful as the Larkinson Clan had become in the past few years, it could only be regarded as a peripheral force from the perspective of galactic geopolitics.

For a young Larkinson expert pilot to jump from a small pond in a big ocean all at once would definitely strain her survival ability, and thereby stimulate her growth like nothing else!

This might not be the best way to nurture a true powerhouse, but it was undoubtedly the fastest way to produce drastic results!