The Mech Touch

The crackle of lightning and electrical discharges frequently spread across the cramped cargo compartment in the courier vessel.

Ketis had specifically requested to clear it out to serve as her makeshift training room. As a swordmaster, she could not afford to slack off and let her body drop from her peak physical condition.

Though the work she put into maintaining her transhuman body was time-consuming and monotonous, she did not feel she was wasting her time.

Not only was she polishing her strength as a swordmaster, she also had enough spare brainpower left to contemplate the many problems she faced in her design projects.

There was nothing like swinging her blade while simultaneously becoming engrossed in performing mental calculations that might lead her to develop a brilliant solution to a stubborn problem!

That was what she was doing right now. She used the time to spar in order to figure out how she could implement her latest idea.

Stormblade technology was not designed to produce the massive effect she envisioned. She needed to figure out a way to make her Stormblade Samurais combine their power without causing them to overload and get fried in the process.

She did not wield her usual Bloodsinger this time. As good as her greatsword may be, it was not designed with stormblade technology in mind.

In order to familiarize herself with how mechs fought with this tech, Ketis had taken the time to forge different blades with this technology.

Right now, she held two of those infantry-scale stormblades and began to cut through one imaginary opponent after another. The electrified blades regularly discharged their power in the process, causing the air to become charged with energy.

Her arms swung like the wings of a dragonfly. They moved so dazzlingly fast that it was hard for ordinary observers to distinguish them. The rest of her body moved accordingly in order to support her imaginary assault.

As her blades continued to swing at a rapid tempo, they frequently came close to colliding against each other, but Ketis always managed to avoid contact by the barest of margins.

There was a purpose to this action. She did not deliberately seek to short circuit her stormblades, but wanted to use the momentary proximity of their electrified blades to generate an electrical interaction that she could use to form a lightning blade of sorts!

Unfortunately, her attempts failed. She exerted her willpower many times, but the sparks lasted so short that she was not able to react fast enough to do anything useful.

She was clearly doing something wrong here. Her blades were not optimized for the specific purpose she had in mind. Using her willpower to produce a lightning blade would not give her much direction on how to replicate the effect by relying on hyper technology and E-technology. The same actions might produce completely different consequences when executed by a towering mech as opposed to a swordmaster.

Ketis knew all of this, but she wanted to give this approach a try, if only to see that she was not completely going off-track.

"I need more time." She eventually concluded as she steadily reduced the speed of her sword swings.

Her body had become stronger than ever after ascending to a swordmaster, but it was still limited to human boundaries in many ways. She could not endlessly swing her twin stormblades without accumulating fatigue.

Ketis breathed heavily as she wound down. Her sweat-covered body exuded a lot of heat, though her well-designed training suit did a good job of containing her emissions.

Her thoughts continued to linger on her theories and her most recent observations as she took a quick shower before changing into a Larkinson uniform.

Her sheathed Bloodsinger silently hovered behind her back as she stepped back into her cabin and thought about what she needed to do in order to successfully elevate her first commercial product in years.

Should she ask for advice from Ves?

The logical answer would be yes. Her mentor always had a way with coming up with inventive solutions. He was particularly good at blending the metaphysical into his products. This fell right into his area of expertise.

However, the stubborn and pride part of herself rejected this notion. She had been doing fine with designing the Stormblade Samurai Mark II so far. She had not resorted to much outside help, and she wanted to keep it that way. The mech design needed to be a reflection of her current progress and realized potential.

How could she possibly see herself as a successful Journeyman if she had to return to Ves on a regular basis in order to overcome her own hurdles?

Although it was important for her to be able to design and release the Stormblade Samurai Mark II quickly enough to help as many melee mech pilots as possible during the Red Tide Offensive, she was not willing to fail her own test.

Ves and Gloriana had both advanced to the rank of Senior Mech Designer in recent years.

Many other Larkinson Journeymen were making a huge amount of progress while they continued to undergo EdNet training.

Ketis could not afford to fall behind.

Having chosen to reject the offer to make use of an EdNet quota herself, she had to live with the repercussions of her choice by working harder in order to keep up with all of the other Larkinsons.

She needed to be able to stand out and work on her own brilliance. She needed to leverage her unique advantage of being a Journeyman and a swordmaster at the same time.

Above all, she wanted to take a solid stride towards reaching the next ranks of her dual professions!

Since Ketis saw no feasible way of advancing to the rank of sword saint anytime soon, she invested much of her hope on becoming a Senior Mech Designer first.

Unlike swordmasters, mech designers had a much better idea on what they needed to do in order to break through. There were just so much more of the latter, and they also had access to much more extensive support.

Ketis knew that if she wanted to cut her time as a Journeyman short, she not only needed to design a lot of mechs and accumulate a lot of knowledge, but also develop a brilliant solution that seemed so compelling that she wanted to rely on it to realize her design philosophy in the future!

That was quite difficult as she had yet to stumble upon a specific application that satisfied this exacting demand.

She could choose from multiple viable directions.

For example, she could choose to commit to stormblade technology and try to reach an entirely new height with her stormblade mechs.

While she considered stormblade technology to be a nice complement to her swordman mechs, she did not feel passionate about it to turn this tech into her main specialization.

She much preferred to stick with her roots and focus on developing a killer application based on sharpness or skill inheritance.

Once she had completed her work on the Stormblade Samurai Mark II, she intended to design a mech or several mechs that specifically excelled at cutting through obstacles.

In fact, her dream was to design a swordsman mech that could cleave transphasic shields apart like curtains!

Though most mech designers considered it impossible to accomplish this feat outside of high-ranking mechs, Ketis did not think she was limited by this constraint.

She just needed to figure out the right approach.

As she continued to think about how she could take her mechs to the next level, her ride eventually reached her intended destination.

New Constantiple was a developed port system. The Devos Ancient Clan invested a lot to turn it into a regional hub. It was clear that the effort bore fruit as hundreds of first-class starships continually arrived and left the star system.

The only issue was that the recent developments prompted the Devosans to implement more security measures.

Every arriving vessel had to complete a thorough inspection before they could head into the inner system.

Ships also had to travel at fixed speed along designated space lanes. Any unauthorized deviations could cause the patrolling first-class multipurpose mechs to open fire if their pilots felt it was necessary!

The mood in the port system had most definitely dipped due to the more oppressive and militaristic atmosphere.

The Bluejay Fleet occupied an entire orbital section as it continually hovered above New Constantinople VIII.

The large collection of RA warships and the odd presence of an RF heavy cruiser exerted enough deterrence to force most arriving or departing vessels to stick to the opposite hemisphere of the planet.

Ketis did not transfer directly to the flagship of the Tarrasque.

Her work had nothing to do with whatever the mechers were up to, and she had not received any invitations to take part in any secret projects.

Her ride directly descended to the surface, skipping any security checks and waiting lists, before touching down a few dozen kilometers away from Diandi Base.

Once she left the vessel, she boarded an armored shuttle that was accompanied by a small escort of mechs. The vehicle quickly brought her to her ultimate destination.

"Welcome to New Constantinople VIII." Ves greeted the swordmaster with a smile. "I am afraid that we can't show you around and allow you to get a taste of Terran prosperity, but we have plenty of matters to discuss, so you will feel anything but bored."

"Ketis! It's so great to see you in person again!"

The swordmaster's number one fan ran up and threw herself in Ketis' embrace.

The older woman reacted with mild surprise at how much little Andraste had grown since their last face-to-face meeting.

"You've grown stronger, and not just in a physical way."

Ketis touched the girl's arm, shoulder and back muscles to gain a feel on how much power they contained.

Though Andraste did not deliberately train her muscle strength, her frequent sword swinging caused her to stimulate the growth of her physique to a more ideal biological configuration for swordsmanship.

If she decided not to become a mech pilot, then she would undoubtedly have great promise as a swordswoman!

The little girl enthusiastically babbled her latest progress to Ketis, thereby leaving her father with no opportunity to hold his own conversation with the new arrival.

Ves merely smiled at the sight. He did notmind his daughter's antics. Ketis had practically become Andraste's godmother. The bond between them was already very close.

He even had the feeling that the little girl would much prefer it if Ketis ended up as her real mother as opposed to Gloriana.

Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to mention this suspicion to his wife.

In any case, the real conversation between himself and Ketis would take place in a much more secure location than the landing zone of Diandi Base.

As the group moved to the central area of the base, Ketis leisurely described some of the sights she witnessed over at Reticula Corein V.

"We still do not know where Solus Gas comes from or what it even is. We did manage to find a few clues on the planet that can narrow down the list of possibilities." The swordmaster said. "Do you want to hear my personal guess?"

"I do! Tell me please!" Andraste begged.

"I think… that Reticula Corein V is hiding a decaying phase whale corpse!"

"No way!"

"Solus Gas may be the gaseus residue generated by the abnormal rotting process of an organism that exists in many more dimensions than usual!"

That sounded like a fascinating theory, but Ves seriously doubted that this was the case. The native aliens would have never neglected the planet if it had any relation to the descendants of the Elder Gods!

His own theory about the origins of Solus Gas was that it was merely formed by underground magma activity. The combination of heat, pressure and a special combination of exotic ores coincidentally produced this gas.

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