The Mech Touch

5969 Malleable Legacy Products

Talking to Gloriana had been fruitful for Ves.

He not only made his wife aware of the amazing potential of his Ultimate Module, but also allowed her to plan for its addition to the Dark Zephyr Mark III in advance.

Furthermore, his wife also asked a lot of good questions that allowed Ves to flesh out aspects that he had not properly considered.

His theoretical framework became more solid and complete as a result. He gained even greater confidence that his latest idea would comprehensively elevate the combat power of the Dark Zephyr Mark III and more.

Since Ves had dabbled into multi-spirit living mechs yet again, he also went back and expanded one of his older theoretical frameworks.

The Fey Fianna was the first asymmetrical multi-spirit living mech.

It was multi-spirit because it contained multiple personalities.

It was asymmetrical because its subordinate spirits were not equal to the dominant spirit.

Now, Ves added another classification to distinguish his living mechs further.

According to his expanded theory, the Fey Fianna should now be classified as an external asymmetrical multi-spirit living mech.

The word 'external' signified that the Fey Fianna's subordinate spirits acted on separate constructs. The living fey were unable to augment the combat power of the base mech directly.

In contrast, the Dark Zephyr Mark III according to the latest plan should be classified as an internal asymmetrical multi-

spirit living mech.

It gained a special subordinate spirit called an Ultimate Seed that exclusively occupies a physical Ultimate Module.

In most cases, the Ultimate Seed needs to work together with the Ultimate Module in order to activate a powerful Ultimate Ability.

The destructive phasing ability that Ves had come up with for the Dark Zephyr Mark III qualifies as one!

"Since it is possible to develop an internal or external asymmetrical multi-spirit living mech, is it possible to design a machine that combines both of them at once?"

In other words, could the Fey Fianna or any similar mech accommodate an Ultimate Module as well?

"There is nothing that stops this from happening!"

The only issue was that the spiritual foundation of a mech bore a greater burden by maintaining so many subordinate spirits. There was always a price to pay, but it should not be too big in this case.

"The next update of the Fey Fianna model should include an Ultimate Module as well!"

Ves decided to call this possible implementation a combination multi-spirit living mech.

"It will probably take a lot of time before I am ready to design such a mech, but once I do, I'll be able to verify even more theories."

He was getting ahead of himself. He had yet to design and build a mech with a functional Ultimate Module at this time. He needed to accomplish this first before he could think about designing more advanced mechs.

His focus for the following years should center around the development of future internal asymmetrical multi-spirit living mechs. They held great promise and should have lots of room for refinement.

"I should have realized it sooner. It is such an obvious idea."

He never fully recognized until now that the subordinate spirits of living mechs could develop their own form of Ascension Runes!

Fortunately, it was not too late.

Once he woke up and came up with his latest concept, Ves had essentially developed a brand new core system that made his living mechs more complete!

Ves grew a lot more passionate about the Dark Zephyr Mark III Project. This was the first mech that would carry a proper Ultimate Module, and Ves became excited beyond belief!

His productivity rose at a remarkable rate. He began to make rapid progress in his research.

One of the more exciting moments was when the Red Association finally delivered a diverse batch of medium to high grade hyper materials.

It was quite convenient to rely on the Red Association's service on this matter. The mechers possessed an even greater collection of hyper materials than the Terrans. The former were also a lot more willing to give him access to the more restricted and confidential samples.

Of course, Ves still needed to pay for what they were worth, and that was not small in many cases.

Ves did not mind because he had plenty of MTA merits to spare.

When he visited the underground storeroom that held the recently delivered samples, he did not come alone.

He decided to bring Andraste along.

Yaika's death affinity caused the girl to become more sensitive towards death and negative energy.

Combined with the senses granted by her partial primordial human physique, she was able to perceive a lot more out of hyper materials than most people!

He currently held her in his arms. The girl looked curious at the cold, industrial surroundings. She never visited this section of Diandi Base before and grew curious at all of the mechs, materials and supplies stored inside all of the storage spaces.

"So much stuff." The girl said with awe.

"That's right. It is better to have too much than too little. I have everything I need to fabricate or materialize first-class mechs. We can not only produce powerful mechs of our own design, but we can also produce a select range of mechs designed by other companies. We don't have enough pilots to make use of them all. We are still in the process of ramping up recruitment."

"Ohhh…"

Also accompanying Ves was Alexa Streon.

The former Terran mech designer had been busy in the past few months. She completed her pilgrimage to the Red Association. Though she did not really learn a lot of new secrets, she still returned as a changed woman.

After she came back, she began to flesh out the basic structure of her design philosophy and began to explore what she was capable of by designing a few casual mechs.

"I would have thought that you would start a more serious project by now." Ves said as he passed through the entrance that led into the material storeroom. "The sooner you start to produce your living legacy mechs, the sooner they can start their own mech dynasties. Isn't that the whole point of your design philosophy?"

The blond woman shook her head as she walked alongside her mentor. "Time is of the essence, but I cannot afford to botch the introduction of my living legacy mechs by publishing objectively inferior products. My preferred target audience comprises old and well-established family organizations. They already have their own channels for mechs, so it is an uphill battle to persuade them to invest in my legacy mechs. I need to present them with a product that they are already inclined to purchase without factoring the inheritance aspects."

Ves frowned at that. "You won't be able to sell any of your products to them if you design them by yourself. The only way to present an attractive value proposition is if you collaborate with other mech designers, or make your products malleable enough that the mech designers working for the family organizations can further refine and adapt your legacy mechs. Have you chosen your strategy?"

"I have, sir. From the two possibilities that you have presented, I strongly favor the latter." She said. "Do not get me wrong. If I collaborate with you, I am convinced that the resulting end product will be more than strong enough in its own right. My issue with that is that I will become too dependent on the contributions of other mech designers. That is not how I want to develop my design philosophy. This is why I have adopted a strategy and a business model that should make my products attractive to my target audience without requiring any help from you or other mech designers."

It was a bold approach, but also a risky one.

"So your plan is to design a basic legacy mech that can be used as a starting point for further customization?"

Alexa nodded. "I have grown up studying and working with the mechs of the Streon Ancient Clan. I understand how management handles third-party mechs. It is unlikely for such demanding clients to easily embrace mechs produced by another company. The Streons have their own mech doctrines, martial traditions, technological standards and more. If they want to add a third-party mech model to their roster, then the product must be malleable enough to allow their own mech designers to reshape it into a Streon mech."

"I see. If this is already an established phenomenon in this side of the mech industry, then I could see how it makes sense for you. It is much easier to design a variant of a mech if it is only empowered by a single design philosophy as opposed to 5 of them. As long as the intrinsic qualities of your design philosophy remain intact, there are legitimate reasons for your target audience to embrace your works!"

There were clear downsides to approach, but so long as Alexa was able to persuade enough large clients to invest in her legacy mechs, they would soon be able to cultivate a lot of mech dynasties in a few generations!

"I don't think you'll be able to attract the appreciation of any first-class customers." Ves said. "You are still too young and you haven't built up much of a reputation in the business. You may be able to borrow my reputation to persuade more open-minded second-class customers to trial your legacy mechs, but their enthusiasm shouldn't be too strong at first. It takes far too much time for your products to show their true value."

"Although I prefer to design first-class mechs, I am not opposed to designing second-class or even third-class mechs." Alexa said with a smile. "You have started your career by designing the most basic third-class mechs. I am of the belief that I should expand my horizons and familiarize myself with third-class mech design. Once I have earned enough success in the third-class mech market, I may move on to designing second-class legacy mechs."

That… was a pretty deep plan.

"I can see the logic in your approach, but… it will take a long time before you can design proper first-class mechs if that is the case." Ves said. "Are you sure you want to commit to such a long journey?"

"I do, sir. Do not worry. I am still available for collaborations on first-class mechs. I can still pull my own weight in the Design Department and complete any assignments. I will only design third-class mechs in my free time."

That sounded acceptable to Ves. Personally, he would have chosen a different approach, but he admired Alexa for her willingness to work outside of her comfort zone. Her attitude and behavior were much more conducive to subsequent promotions.

"We're here." Ves said.

The group stopped before a long table that held a large amount of secure metal containers.

The alloys used to make the head-sized containers did a good job at isolating the fluctuations of the hyper materials stored inside.

Ves developed a greater interest in the containers themselves. The alloys reminded him of B-stone.

"Interesting. I need to get more of this material."

His daughter squirmed in his arms. "Papa! Go over there! Yaika senses something good in that box!"

She became so attracted by the unknown material stored in that specific container that a black spiritual kitten shot out of her forehead.

"Maaw!"

It looked like Yaika couldn't wait to come into contact with the mysterious hyper material!

"MROW!"

"MaaAAAW?!"

Before Yaika could reach her destination, Blinky appeared and quickly bit her scruff, thereby stopping the naughty kitten in her tracks!

"Maaaaaw! Maaaaaw!"

"Mrow mrow mrow!"

"Papa! Why did you stop my companion spirit? Yaika merely wanted to take a closer look."

"It's not safe, dear. Some of these hyper materials are so energetic or weird that they can inflict real harm on people. I need to examine them from a distance before I ever think about letting you get close."

"Awww… that's so boring, papa."

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