The Mech Touch

The addition of Erlemin turned the current version of the Dark Zephyr from a light skirmisher that was merely fast and difficult to target to a supermachine that could completely disrupt the layout of entire enemy fleets!

It was quite difficult for the mech designers to say too much about the uses of Erlemin as much of it remained theoretical at this time.

Sure, they had access to limited footage and records on the use of Erlemin in another ace mech, but that data was understandably filled with redactions.

The mech designers moved on to addressing another essential upgrade to the Dark Zephyr Mark III.

"If we left the improvements at Erlemin, then you would have gained a quasi-first-class ace mech." Ves said. "What we did instead is to replace the old power reactor with a new one that is much stronger. Master Benedict has taken point on this matter as this falls within his specialization. I will let him explain the details."

Master Benedict smoothly took over from Ves by projecting a wireframe model of the new power reactor.

"This is the Mikuel Lightweight First-Class Power Reactor customized for the current version of the Dark Zephyr." The older man said. "We formed an agreement with Emiliana Energy to obtain this high-tech power reactor. It is not comprised of archetech, so it is comparatively fragile in relation to the rest of your archemech. That said, it is well-shielded and deeply buried within the torso of your ace mech, so if the power reactor ever comes under threat, it is doubtful that your machine can survive. I have also slightly upgraded the energy transmission system of this mech, though many of my methods do not apply to archemechs."

Saint Tusa silently noticed these details. It was quite important for him to never allow his battle partner's power reactor to come under harm under any circumstances.

"I am confident that I can protect the power reactor against most external attacks, but it is much more difficult for me to shield it against gravity attacks once my Saint Kingdom is depleted."

"So what can I do with a much stronger power reactor?" Saint Tusa asked. "I know the gist of it, but how does that affect my machine in particular?"

"We have thought about that attack vector already." Master Benedict said with a smile. "We mentioned that the chamber holding the power reactor is shielded. What we mean by this is that it is not only surrounded by its own azure energy shield, but also shielded with transphasic hyper alloys that are expressly designed to dampen multiple forms of energy field attacks. The alloys are not cheap, but it is a worthwhile expense for a machine as important as your Dark Zephyr."

This meant that a powerful phase whale couldn't instantly make the Dark Zephyr powerless by generating a space with gravity that was several orders of magnitude stronger than standard gravity!

"So what can I do with a much stronger power reactor?" Saint Tusa asked. "I know the gist of it, but how does that affect my machine in particular?"

Master Benedict smiled. "There are many benefits, a number of which are much more pronounced on a light ace mech such as your Dark Zephyr. While your machine does not contain an integrated energy weapon that can channel much of the output of the Mikael Reactor, there are two other systems that can use all of the energy they can obtain. We have tuned up and updated the azure energy shield generator to safely handle much higher loads. We have done the same for the special transphasic hyper flight system that your clan has already developed for this machine."

"That means that outside of the protection granted by your Saint Kingdom, your Dark Zephyr can withstand attacks much better." Ves elaborated. "The unlocked and updated azure energy shield generator relies on cutting-edge technologies and extremely precious exotics and hypers to match the performance of a much larger azure shield generator that you can typically find in a first-class sub-capital ship."

That sounded quite impressive! Tusa couldn't even begin to understand the advanced technological principles used to make that possible, and he did not bother to. It was the job of the mech designers to comprehend all of the technical ingenuity they used in his machine.

"The survivability of your Dark Zephyr is much improved not just because of his stronger azure shield generator, but also because you can combine it with your living mech's stronger flight system." Gloriana also pitched in and gestured to the rear of the tall and dormant mech frame. "The flight system can channel much greater power, though persistent heavy usage will eventually cause it to reach its heat limit, so do not accelerate at maximum if you can help it. Heat management is one of the greatest bottlenecks of your machine, even accounting for the strong cooling effect of your Saint Kingdom. However, as long as your mech is well away from its heat limit, you should be able to fight head-on against greater phase whales without incurring significant damage."

That sounded extremely impressive!

It normally took senior ace pilots to fight against greater phase whales, and even then only peak ace pilots had a decent chance of killing them on the battlefield.

It was a bit difficult to form generalizations as the properties and advantages of ace pilots and phase whales diverged enormously from each other. There was no guarantee that Gloriana's claim was accurate all of the time.

Ves decided to interject. "I think it is more accurate to say that the new power reactor and technological upgrades will help your Dark Zephyr survive an encounter against a formidable greater phase lord or phase whale. The combination of a strong energy shield and exceptionally high mobility makes it nearly impossible for attacks to hit your living mech, and even if he does get hit, the energy shield will hardly notice the damage. You can comfortably rely on the technical performance of the Dark Zephyr to focus the power of your Saint Kingdom elsewhere."

The happy ace pilot nodded in understanding. "After what I heard, I do not miss Perfidious Steel as much as before. I think it is not that difficult for me to imitate the original Perception Distortion resonating ability though. I have already been working with Trisk to figure out the details."

That sounded interesting. It also sounded viable, especially if a design spirit worked together with Tusa to develop a solution. Ves was pleased that the Larkinson Clan's first ace pilot continued to work hard to improve his strength. Becoming a saint was not the end goal.

After the mech designers highlighted a number of smaller but still relatively important technological improvements from the original Dark Zephyr Mark III, they finally addressed one of the last drastic upgrades to the ace light skirmisher.

"Now that you are standing in front of the Dark Zephyr, you must have noticed by now that his presence and aura has almost completely disappeared." Ves mentioned. "This is because Master Benedict and a team of assistants from our Design Department have painstakingly taken out the components of your machine and impregnated them with Solus Gas."

The expressions of both Master Benedict and Gloriana looked pained.

"You cannot believe how much time and effort we put into making this possible." Gloriana tiredly said. "Much of the reason why we had to delay the completion of the Banisher Edition of the Dark Zephyr was because we had to invent new production methods to make proper use of Solus Gas in an industrial setting. Your Dark Zephyr is the second living mech that has integrated Solus Gas, and we are pleased with the results."

"So that means that the alloys of my mech can slip through both technological and weirder detection methods?"

"Sort of." Ves replied. "Solus Gas has a very strong and comprehensive isolating effect, at least in a gaseous form. Impregnating the particles of this gas into the metal of your archemech does not produce an effect that is as strong, but that does not mean that there is no difference. Many scanners and sensor systems will find it difficult to resolve your machine in most circumstances. They can still catch you if your machine begins venting greater heat or if it is detected by the eyeballs of humans and aliens, but as long as you keep a fair distance, it is possible for you to sneak up to enemies, especially if they are not alert or distracted."

"The integration of Solus Gas does not turn your Dark Zephyr into a proper stealth mech, Tusa." Gloriana warned. "We have already mentioned this to you multiple times, but it bears repeating because you may otherwise overlook this fact."

"I will not forget."

Ves smiled. "This is new to us as well, so we do not have a comprehensive amount of data and understanding how Solus Gas works in this context. You will have to… test drive the Dark Zephyr in his new coat and see how well others can detect the machine. Generally speaking, I do not think the Dark Zephyr can sneak onto any opponents, especially at rest conditions. It is much more useful to attempt an approach on a busy battlefield where there are energy beams flying around and so on. The dampening of your Dark Zephyr's emotions makes it easier to shake off pursuers and sneak up to enemy warships without tripping an alarm until it is almost too late."

Venerable Tusa was having trouble understanding how well Solus Gas integration could help his Dark Zephyr hide in the background of a space battle. The lack of more precise descriptions left a lot of question marks in his mind.

Oh well. That was what live testing was for. Tusa was confident he could know exactly when his Dark Zephyr had escaped the attention of enemies after a lot of training and exploration.

"Thanks." The ace pilot appreciated this extra addition. "It must have been hard to stuff Solus Gas in every part."

"Another reason for the delay is because the manual processing steps needed to allow your ace mech to leverage the advantages of Solus Gas were just too much. It would have been much better for all of us if we had access to bountiful quantities of Solus Gas before we designed and fabricated the initial Mark III. Trying to do this after that junction demanded too much additional work, much of which had to be done manually." Gloriana groused.

Their efforts were worth it. Ace mechs tended to act like lighthouses in the dark. Their extraordinary power and much greater heat emissions tended to make it trivially easy for enemies to track their coordinates and movements.

The Banisher Edition of the Dark Zephyr might not have gained any active stealth systems, but the strong damping of emissions made it much easier for Saint Tusa to approach his enemies without needing to weather a storm of heavy firepower!

"Solus Gas also helps to improve the survivability of your Dark Zephyr more directly by making it much harder for targeting systems to detect him and lock onto his energy signature." Ves added. "When you amplify this effect with your Saint Kingdom, you should even be able to shake off the locks of guided munitions and other automated targeting systems. Missiles won't be able to hit you at all. The only way a warhead can damage your machine is if the explosion radius is too large."

Such missiles could already be classified as weapons of mass destruction!

"Mhmm." Tusa frowned a bit. "I am sure that my battle partner and I will have to confront much more powerful enemies than before. Now that my ace mech is ready, I can finally enter the real battlefield of the Red War."

The big leagues were much different from the more controlled battles he previously took part in. The first-raters struck each other with such technological might that arms with the power of weapons of mass destruction were no longer as sparse as before!

For all of the upgrades to the Dark Zephyr, Ves still feared that the machine might meet an unfortunate end for challenging an enemy that Saint Tusa was not ready to confront!

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