The Mech Touch

Selecting Lady Romanda Devos as the Terran collaborator on the Swarm Project was a bold and unusual choice.

As much as Ves prized her design philosophy and its fantastic synergy with the Carmine System, he still had a few reasons to remain skeptical about this choice.

The criticism that other mech pilots and mech designers levied against Lady Romanda was not entirely baseless.

The woman obsessed so much about what happened when mechs got defeated in battle that she centered her design philosophy around that scenario.

She designed her mechs with defeat as the starting point.

Ves did not know how to feel about that. He personally felt repulsed by the very idea, even though his mind could understand the logic behind this approach.

It would be good if at least one mech designer directed serious attention to preserving the life of the mech pilot after his mech got shot down. This became an even greater priority after the Great Severing. Getting cut off from the old galaxy meant that red humanity's manpower pool just became a lot more finite. This meant that Lady Romanda Devos and her work should have gained a lot more appreciation as of late.

Somehow, he did not think this was the case. A mech designer that focused more on defeat rather than victory would always remain out of lockstep with the rest of the mech community.

Her solutions only amounted to a more advanced form of loss mitigation.

She was not like other mech designers who focused on strengthening the aspects of a mech that could allow their products to win harder and inflict more decisive losses onto their opponents.

The big question of the current times was whether red humanity could secure its own survival by adopting a defensive or offensive posture.

The mainstream still preferred to act aggressive. Even though the Red Tide Offensive forced humans into playing defense, many people were still waiting for the day they could finally turn the tables against the native aliens and launch daring counterattacks!

However, what if dreaming about attacking the native aliens was never a realistic prospect?

What if red humanity stood a greater chance of securing its own survival by digging in and trying its best not to suffer too many losses?

The native aliens were clearly banking on attrition warfare to grind red humanity down in both the short and medium term.

The simplest way to prevent the enemy from having its way was by reducing the loss rate of war materiel and mech pilots.

As long as the native aliens ended up crashing too many of their warships and phasefighters into the defenses of red humanity, then the Red Tide Offensive would eventually run out of steam by itself! nøvel.com

From that sense, adopting a defensive approach was not an entirely imbecilic idea. This was a situation where Lady Romanda's design philosophy would definitely prove its value, even if many people wanted to deny it the recognition it deserved.

"Please arrange a meeting with her." Ves eventually decided. "Since she is a member of the Devos Ancient Clan, she should be able to reach New Constantinople VIII if she isn't here already. I think it is better if I sound her out and give her the recruitment pitch in person."

Vector nodded in agreement. "Requesting a face-to-face meeting will do much to emphasize the importance of your secret endeavor. Even if you cannot divulge any solid details, the request in itself will give her enough indications that this may be a life-changing endeavor if she agrees to work with our team."

Ves turned to Jovy. "Do you have anything to add?"

"Not particularly. If I have to give an opinion, then let me state that I am of the opinion that she is seriously underappreciated by the Devos Ancient Clan and the Terran Alliance. Perhaps you can think about recruiting her after we have completed the Swarm Project. She only needs to possess the status of a Terran during the design process. Once we have completed our work, you are free to recruit her if you wish."

The thought had crossed his mind, but it did not linger for long.

"I am not too sure whether she is a good fit or whether she wants to become a part of my clan. My Design Department is getting increasingly short-handed, and we definitely need to take on more first-class mech designers, but I want to be more careful about hiring more mech designers from the first-rate colonial superstates. Besides, Senior Mech Designers as old as Lady Romanda Devos are a bit less flexible than Journeymen who are a generation younger. I much prefer to hire them instead because they are much more likely to integrate into the Larkinson Clan."

A Senior Mech Designer was no longer a junior who did not know his or her way around anymore. Lady Romanda was a professor who had already begun to teach her craft and pass on parts of her design philosophy to her students.

Such professionals were usually past the age and phase of their lives where they yearned to leave their nests and set up in a completely different state or organization. If Romanda never saw any reason to leave the Terran Alliance despite all of the pushback she received, then she was probably a committed Terran.

Ves inwardly shook his head. He was making too many assumptions about a woman he had never met. He needed to meet with her in person in order to gain a better impression of her true personality and desires.

"Let's move on. Now that we have tentatively set our sights on a Terran mech designer, we need a Rubarthan mech designer as well in order to fulfill our political quota. Who do you want to present next?"

Jovy took over from this point.

The central projection began to scroll down the names at a rapid pace. Ves barely had time to register even a single name before it was already gone!

He did not consider this to be a big deal. "It is better to have too much choice than none at all. So what did you do to narrow down the list of candidates?"

"The search for a Rubarthan mech designer proceeded a lot more straightforward than our attempts to find a suitable Terran mech designer. We did not get sidetracked a second time. From the onset, we sought to find a mech designer with a specialization in ranged weapon systems. The Rubarthans have a slight preference in ranged combat as they cannot fully compete against the Terrans in melee combat. The problem we faced this time is that we have formed a list filled with hundreds of Senior Mech Designers who fulfill our basic criteria."

The central projection began to scroll down the names at a rapid pace. Ves barely had time to register even a single name before it was already gone!

He did not consider this to be a big deal. "It is better to have too much choice than none at all. So what did you do to narrow down the list of candidates?"

"We set tighter age and background requirements. We wanted to take on elites who have accrued enough experience in a large organization as well as on an independent basis. Furthermore, we wanted to find a Senior whose specialization has proven to be both deadly and cost-effective. That last demand is particularly difficult to meet. Most weapon systems are powerful after investing a disproportionate amount of high-quality resources into their construction. It is not typical for Rubarthan mech designers to develop weapons for the more budget-conscious customers."

The huge list rapidly shrunk until there were only twelve names left.

"Wow. A lot has disappeared. I bet the ones that remained are all good choices."

"That is true for the most part." Jovy answered. "Vector and I have extensively studied each and every name. Each of them are excellent in their own ways, but there is one name that stands out more compared to the rest."

The list eventually shrunk until there was only one name left.

[LORD RICHARD BROWNSTONE.]

"A lord, huh? That is not a title given to a normal Rubarthan, especially when the Rubarthan Pact is supposed to be highly meritocratic." Ves said with a frown. "Wait, Brownstone is a familiar name. Isn't that…"

Jovy nodded. "It is just as you may have guessed. Lord Richard is one of the many grandsons of Prince Havilaik, the Brownstone Prince. As the 1335th Prince of the Imperial Rubarthan Household, Prince Havilaik has long chosen to invest in mining and economic development. His children and grandchildren are all engaged in a part of his many industries."

"I take it that Lord Richard is an exception."

"Partially. Lord Richard chose to become a mech designer. Though his parents did not fully support his choice, they provided him with the wealth and resources needed to excel in his craft. Lord Richard largely met expectations and went on to work for a mech company owned by the Brownstone Prince for a time. Eventually, Richard appeared to have grown dissatisfied with working under another person's regime and decided to strike out on his own, similar to Lady Romanda."

Ves looked more intrigued. "What did he do next?"

"Lord Richard decided to found a small mech company and focus on designing custom mechs for affluent or more adventurous clients. The Rubarthan mech market is much more dynamic and less dominated by the top, so the man was able to achieve small-scale success."

"Did his customers decide to conduct business with Lord Richard because his products are that good, or because his last name happened to be Brownstone?" Ves curiously asked.

"We believe both may be true. Lord Richard Brownstone has never tried to evade his ties to the Brownstone Principality. In fact, it is one of the reasons why he was able to progress his design philosophy so quickly. His work is heavily dependent on access to many different resources. With the support of his parents and possibly grandparents, Lord Richard fully took advantage of his background to build up a reputation for success."

"What the hell is his design philosophy?"

"His Class II design philosophy is labeled as follows: High-Attribute Kinetic Damage Application. To put it in simple terms, his mechs are all armed with gauss rifles or rapid-fire machine guns that can release kinetic projectiles. What Lord Richard Brownstone is focusing upon is upgrading and modifying the properties of kinetic projectiles. Whereas most people tend to ignore or dismiss these rounds, they are the primary means for the Rubarthan mech designer to implement his improvements."

The central projector shifted to display a few of Lord Richard Brownstone's work in action.

In one short piece of footage, a first-class mech aimed one of its integrated kinetic weapons at an opposing mech.

The projectile ended up colliding against the transphasic energy shield of the enemy mech.

This was a predictable outcome, but what Ves did not expect to happen was for the enemy mech to stutter as if time had skipped a few frames.

Another recording showed a different first-class mech firing a rapid-fire cannon at another enemy target.

The opposing mech's defenses held out quite well against the deluge of light kinetic projectiles, but what the enemy did not know was that the projectiles did more than generate a physical collision.

Once enough rounds had struck the enemy machine's defenses, a hidden charge reached its limit, thereby causing it to explode and engulf the enemy mech in a blast of energies that produced EMP-like effects!

The powerful discharge of energy not only knocked out several important systems that kept the enemy mech running, but also caused it to abruptly lose its rhythm and become dangerously exposed to its adversary!

More examples like this occurred. Ves figured that every special round developed by Lord Richard Brownstone produced a myriad of strange and unpredictable effects.

Ves liked it! He liked it a lot!

"How well does Lord Richard Brownstone's fare with hyper materials?"

"Extremely well." Jovy grinned. "I would say that the Age of Dawn is his time to shine. The emergence of hypers has added a whole new dimension to his design philosophy. He can generate a greater variety of on-hit effects and can make many of his existing works stronger."

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