The Mech Touch

The related incidents of the costly operation on Duqaste XI and Saint Commander Casella Ingvar's unexpectedly early breakthrough generated a lot of waves in the Larkinson Clan!

People celebrated Casella's ascension to ace pilot while at the same time mourned for her brother's passing.

The Larkinsons reacted to both events with tempered attitudes. They really wanted to celebrate the rise of a third powerful ace pilot among the Larkinsons, but couldn't do so in an exuberant manner due to the passing of the very same ace pilot's brother.

The clansmen all respected Casella. It would be incredibly disrespectful to organize parties like they did after Saint Tusa broke through.

This left the Larkinsons in an awkward position. Casella's breakthrough was obviously one of the most positive developments so far, but the death of Imon was also one of the most negative developments of the year.

Of course, most Larkinsons tended to focus a lot on the former than the latter.

Losses were a fact of life in any military or martial organization. Participating in the Red War on the frontlines had already resulted in many deaths among the Larkinsons.

While Venerable Imon Ingvar was certainly a much bigger name on the casualty list than others, he was ultimately just a single figure, and not even an important one compared to the likes of her sister.

If the Larkinsons were being really honest, they more than agreed with the premise that it was an incredibly profitable bargain to exchange Imon's life for Casella's early breakthrough!

The rise of a powerful ace commander completely caused a lot of mech pilots to rejoice because they could directly exert a lot more power so long as they benefited from her leadership!

It was only after the Larkinson Clan announced that the new Saint Commander would soon be transferred to the Premier Branch of the Larkinson Clan that a lot of people in the Larkinson Army reacted with dismay.

"Why bring her away from the expeditionary fleet?! She has been fighting alongside us since its founding! She belongs here! I can't imagine how much weaker we'll become once she is gone!"

"No! If Casella is no longer in charge of the Living Sentinels, we'll be completely reduced to the bottom of the ranking of the mech legions. She was our only star. She made sure we gained our fair share of resources and support. Once she is gone, the Avatars and the other mech legions will definitely try to encroach on our rights."

"Who will they appoint to replace Casella as our general? Don't tell me they will put Legion Commander Melkor forward. He's an okay Larkinson, but he's… not brilliant."

"What do you expect from a third-rater? There are plenty of talented people from the early days of the clan who have excelled on a bigger stage, but Commander Melkor is not one of them. Appointing someone as dull and unexceptional as him to the head of the Larkinson Army goes against the principles of meritocracy of our clan. It is pure nepotism if the patriarch puts his name forward anyway."

The clansmen continued to talk and gossip as they enjoyed their downtime from the latest battle in the Arvest Lima System.

Just as predicted, the orven assault fleets declined to press the attack now that they had suffered a greater blow than usual.

Wary of any further surprises from the new Saint Commander, the native alien leaders called for reinforcements and were content to sit around and wait until they managed to scrounge up a lot more phasefighters and warships.

The Saint Commander did not make any further public appearances. She and her expert mech had disappeared inside the Spirit of Bentheim for days on end.

The reason for the absence of the Minerva was fairly clear. The mech endured a certain degree of strain due to channeling forced resonance for a time. Even if the intensity of it was not as great as it could have been, the masterwork command mech clearly needed a thorough round of servicing in order to ensure that the Saint Commander piloted mechanically sound machine in her subsequent battles.

While the mech technicians were in the process of partially disassembling the precious machine in order to conduct in-depth maintenance tasks, they also began to perform minor modifications and replacements.

Shortly after Casella broke through, both Ves and Gloriana had dug up their old design files of the original Minerva and began to apply quick and easy upgrades to the outdated expert mech.

The two mech designers regarded the so-called Mark I Revision 2 version of the Minerva as a very crude stopgap design.

Its sole purpose was to bridge the gap between the original Minerva and the much-anticipated Minerva Mark II that required a lot more time to design and complete.

"I abhor this design." Gloriana said with an ugly frown as she looked at the projection of the I-2 edition of the Minerva. "I hate you for forcing me to contribute to this abomination of an expert mech. The brand-new azure shield generator that you have added to the back of the Minerva completely ruins her feminine contours and makes her look like an ugly hunchback! The hasty grafting of hyper materials and additional transphasic alloys is so rough and primitive that I want to tear my eyes out! How can you still call this a masterwork mech when its utilization of technology and materials have taken a nosedive? You are just throwing money at the Minerva, only for the machine to waste 60 percent of it due to its incompetent design!"

Ves winced a bit. He knew she was completely right about the sloppy work. "Look, we have no other choice. We don't have enough time in our schedule to design a more elegant stopgap mech. Saint Casella isn't going to sit on her thumbs for an entire year while you get around to designing the Minerva Mark II. Everyone has seen her amazing performance, and they definitely want her to empower a lot of mechs again. The original Minerva is too weak and vulnerable to make it safe for Casella to show up on the battlefield again, so we have to do whatever we can to bulk up her defenses. I know it looks ugly, but it shouldn't matter so long as it does its job. Casella will only remain stuck with this edition for a year or so. You can speed up this timeline by completing the Minerva Mark II Project sooner."

"That is impossible, Ves. You know that. While I am almost done with collaborating with Master Benedict Cortez on upgrading the Dark Zephyr Mark III into a proper ace mech, the Amaranto Mark III Project and the Riot Mark III Project are major commitments. We have developed innovative and ambitious visions for both expert mechs, but that comes paired with immense research burdens. Combined with my administrative duties, I barely have enough time left to raise my children as well."

As much as Gloriana held a fascination towards high-ranking mechs, she would never put her work over the time she wanted to spend with her children. Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine were already spending a lot of time with their teachers, classmates and friends. Gloriana did not want her children to become distant to their parents.

Ves couldn't help much either. The Evolution Witch forced him to allocate all of his design time on rushing the Swarm Project to completion. He had very little leeway to work on other mech design projects because of that. It would probably take 5 more months before he could dump his Carmine mechs onto the market and address other design priorities.

"You are presenting the exact arguments why we had to resort to a quick and dirty solution." Ves responded. "We can either do this fast and sloppy or slow and thorough. We do not live in a fantasy reality where we can get stuff done both fast and thorough. We have to become Star Designers first if you want to have a more ideal outcome. The current course is the best choice out of a selection of bad options. Saint Casella will get to fight with the expeditionary fleet for at least a year during the heyday of the Red TIde Offensive with an expert mech that is not cheap and running on pure lastgen tech."

It was impossible to grant the Saint Commander an ace mech right away, but the Design Department at least had an obligation to ensure that her stopgap mech did not disgrace her identity as an ace pilot.

It would be an embarrassment for the Larkinson Clan and an insult to all ace pilots for sticking Casella with a second-class expert mech that was only a fraction as powerful as the Lionheart and the Dark Zephyr Mark III!

Though Gloriana still did not like the Minerva Mark I Revision 2, she was not powerful enough as a mech designer to force a more favorable outcome.

She made a disgusted noise before turning to leave as quickly as possible. Her sharp heels clacked against the deck as she tried to wash away the image of the projection of the ugly expert mech right away.

In the end, Ves finalized the Minerva Mark I Revision 2 design and instructed the best crew on the Spirit of Bentheim to carefully upgrade the expert command mech.

As the Minerva was being prepared to participate in subsequent battles in the Torald Middle Zone, Saint Casella already spent a lot of time on sorting out her complex thoughts.

Ves called the Saint Commander to keep her up to date on the work done to the Minerva before he began to inquire about her personal condition.

"How are you today, Casella?"

"I am… not ready yet." The ace pilot's willpower feebly dispersed into the surrounding air. "I still cannot accept what has befallen my brother. Only the hope that I can potentially bring him back if I become powerful enough is keeping me motivated. Yet when I think about what is needed to reach this height…"

"Don't think about the vast distance that you have to traverse to reach your destination." Ves advised the woman. "I mean, it is good that you have set an ambitious goal for yourself, but you can't get there by taking a few steps. You should break up your journey into smaller chunks and focus on the more immediate and attainable goals. You should focus on growing your resonance strength until you have become a peak ace pilot first before you think about anything further."

As a mech commander, Casella was familiar with this management approach. She just failed to apply it to her own condition because she was too caught up in her own emotions.

Saint Casella let out a sigh. "You are correct. My mood is not conducive to planning for the future, but… I am not being productive while I continue to mope around like this. I shall pick myself up again soon enough. I have not forgotten my duties."

"Hey, don't feel compelled to rush back to the battlefield. You are a soldier, but you are also a grieving sister. Arvest Lima will remain in the possession of red humanity for quite a while. Even if you remain absent, the remaining defenders are no slouches either. You are not shouldering the entire fate of the human race in the Red Ocean. Not yet at least."

"No. I will not let my grief prevent me from doing what is necessary to stop the native aliens from overrunning the 3rd defensive band. I will blame myself for the rest of my life if it ends up falling when I could have fought harder to keep it intact."

"...Very well." Ves said with lingering concern in his voice. "Let's move onto a more positive subject. In the process of hastily upgrading your Minerva, my wife and I have already come up with a few ideas on what your future ace mech should look like. In order to present you with a more definite proposal, you need to decide how you wish to develop and specialize your command abilities further. Have you made up your mind on what I have asked?"

Casella's eyes grew more intense. "I did. I am ready to share my thoughts."

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