The Mech Touch

"Hmph. Interesting. Very interesting."

As Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson continued to learn from the Messenger of Silence while serving alongside the Dostoevsky Clan, he regularly reported back to his clan.

Sometimes, Gloriana answered his calls. Other times, Ves managed to free enough time in his schedule to have a good talk with the first and most experienced ace pilot of the Larkinson Clan.

They not only went over some of the lessons that Tusa learned, but also studied the battle logs of the Dark Zephyr in order to explore how the ace light skirmisher could be improved in a future update.

"I appreciate it that you are willing to share the wisdom espoused by the Messenger of Silence." Ves told Tusa over the comm. "It is certainly interesting to hear all of the theories that people have come up with to explain how ace pilots should develop. I don't know enough about this kind of stuff to tell you which ones are plausible or not. You should use your own judgment for that. As a mech designer, I am more interested in how your gradual evolution and development should be paired with matching upgrades to your Dark Zephyr. What are your thoughts on this subject?"

The Larkinson ace pilot looked thoughtful. "Hmmm. I don't feel particularly short on anything when it comes to my battle partner. I am still getting used to the huge amount of power that I have gained after piloting the Mark II version for a long time. The jump in performance is just too big. If I am being really honest, I would have liked to obtain a more effective area-clearing weapon, and also have a more effective way to harm or impair a powerful phase lord, but these are old and familiar shortcomings."

"This is the inherent limitation to sticking to a light skirmisher archetype, Tusa. If you are willing to forgo the purity of this template and agree to mount integrated energy weapons or install missile launchers onto the shoulders, I give your machine more effective area denial weapons that are excellent at clearing large amounts of cannon fodder. Does this sound like an interesting solution to you, or do you want your machine to remain classic?"

"I think… it is better for me to work with the strengths and limitations of my current configuration of my mech." Tusa reluctantly said. "Light skirmishers can't do a lot of stuff, but maybe that is for the better. Mobility is everything to me. If too much of the mech is dedicated to other priorities such as launching stronger attacks, it will make my mech slower somehow. I know just enough about mech design to figure that out. I think it is better if I can maintain my speed and maneuverability advantages as much as possible. I can still cope with a weaker arsenal, especially with the knowledge that there are other Larkinson ace pilots that can compensate for my shortcomings."

"You had a great time working together with a marksman mech specialist, eh?" Ves knowingly smiled.

"I can't describe how luxurious it feels to not have to worry about my inadequate attack capabilities. I can completely devote myself to doing what I do best, which is being really fast and making myself impossible to hit. The Messenger of Silence has assisted me and complemented me in battle in a way that I have never experienced from anyone else in the Larkinson Clan. Venerable Davia Stark could definitely learn a lot of lessons from this saint."

"The circumstances are entirely different, Tusa. You can't make a fair comparison between the two. The Messenger of Silence clearly prioritized his cooperation with you and took special care of you. His primary objectives are also very clear, which is targeting the greater phase lords that are leading the alien fleets in your warzone. In contrast, Davia Stark is much weaker, and she needs to cover the backs of every friendly high-ranking mech as well as do her part to keep our overall strategic direction intact."

Tusa sighed. "You're right. I get it. I think my experiences with the Terrans show that it is really important to have a powerful ranged attacker in our mech forces. Now that I have confronted these greater phase lords, I have learned that it has become all the more important to have a way to effectively threaten their lives. If we don't have what it takes to bring them down quickly enough, they will just wade into our lines and collapse our forces by relying on brute force. If you ever want to raise a first-class mech force and play in the big leagues, you cannot afford to lack this capability. We need to have a powerful saint that can deter these giant bastards."

Both Larkinsons had one ace pilot in mind.

Of the three ace pilots to emerge from the Larkinson Clan up to this point, Saint Isobel Kotin was by far the most destructive and offensive of them all. The purple sun that she managed to conjure during her dramatic breakthrough event proved to be powerful enough to overcome the insane resilience and regeneration of the Emperor Tree and turn its entire core into ash and cinders!

Ves looked regretful. "We can't count on Saint Isobel yet. She is still stuck in the brain-and-spine-in-a-jar phase. According to the regular reports that I have received, her recovery process is on schedule, which is both good and bad news. The good news is that our biotech researchers don't anticipate too many complications that could risk her life. The bad news is that it will take a minimum of 4 years or so to develop a fire-proof bio-engineered post-human body that can fully merge with her surviving organs."

This took too much time. With the Red Tide Offensive hammering at red humanity's defensive lines, the Larkinsons needed Isobel's awesome firepower sooner rather than later!

Unfortunately, even if Ves decided to switch up his strategy and rush Saint Isobel's restoration, it would still take several years for her to recover from all of the trauma of burning up her own body and familiarizing herself with a newly regenerated physique.

Since that was the case, the Larkinsons might as well take their time and go for quality.

The two Larkinsons began to shift their attention towards another name, one that had become a lot more prominent than before!

"Can Casella do it?" Tusa questioned.

"Possibly. Not entirely. Our study of the Saint Commander's improved Commandeering ability and newly gained Enfeoffment ability shows that she can massively amplify the firepower of a large mech force while also elevating the firepower of dozens of mechs to the standard of a low-tier expert mech. Combined, this can definitely multiply the effective firepower of our mech force to a formidable degree, but the maximum degree of empowerment still remains limited. The temporarily endowed 'Knights' and 'Barons' as we call them can only gain so much true resonance assistance. Their current level of firepower can definitely threaten lesser phase lords, but I am not so sure that remains the same towards greater phase lords."

Greater phase lords, just like senior ace pilots, had reached a threshold of power that allowed them to become virtually impervious against massed small arms fire.

When their tough phasewater-empowered true bodies reached the size of metropoli or even small moons, then the sheer quantity of attacks of the mechs under the command of the Saint Commander simply came across as shooting lots of needles!

Sure, these needles had enough power to wear down the greater phase lord's spatial barrier and induce pain when struck his physical body, but there was no way these tiny attacks could seriously damage a well-protected phasewater organ or have any chance of inflicting a crippling injury.

Command specialists seemed to be incredibly powerful, but they always had trouble with confronting powerful enemies at the same level or higher.

A powerful enough champion could ignore any army arrayed against him and rampage with impunity!

The Diffraction Lord and the Biopod Mother both seemed excellently suited to counter a mech army led by Saint Commander Casella.

The Diffraction Lord would be able to weave a lot of false images and misdirect a lot of incoming firepower.

The Biopod Mother could produce a seemingly endless tide of disposable biomonsters that could force the mech army into a grueling contest of attrition. The Biopod Mother was so massive that she could definitely spawn a lot more biopods than the amount of mechs that any typical mech force could muster!

A well-rounded first-class mech force, no, a mech corps geared towards fighting the most powerful alien fleets had to be led by multiple different ace pilots.

There were many viable ace mech compositions, but at least one of them had to possess the attack power to inflict real harm onto a greater phase lord. Whether that ace mech was primarily melee or ranged focused did not matter too much. The machine had to be able to kill an opponent that possessed body proportions that ranged in the hundreds of kilometers!

Ves and Tusa eventually went back to discussing the Dark Zephyr. There was little point in talking about subjects outside of their immediate control.

"I still need to unlock the remaining potential of the current version of the Dark Zephyr before I have a better idea on what should be improved." Saint Tusa told his cousin. "I have barely scratched the surface of what it is capable of. For example, I have begun to experiment with Erlemin and tried to banish many different objects. I am not satisfied with the scale of stuff I can banish. I need to keep practicing and increase my resonance strength to the point where I can whisk away entire chunks from alien warships."

"How much time will you need until you can properly weaponize your Banish ability against enemy warships?"

"I don't know." Tusa shrugged. "I have been trying to create a so-called artistic conception based on this resonating ability that should hopefully speed up my progress, but it is hard to create an image that I am invested in when this is completely new to me. I need to put in a lot more time and practice before I am ready to combine this resonating ability with my domain field."

The God Kingdom Building Theory gave Saint Tusa a clear enough direction and methodology to develop his set of abilities. However, the formulaic approach also demanded a lot of trial and error. There was no substitute for hard work.

"Take your time, Tusa. Erlemin and its effects are new to us as well. We need to gather all of the data related to it and crunch the numbers in order to better attune your Dark Zephyr to its unique properties. I am glad to hear that we don't have to perform an urgent upgrade or correction at this time. Our Design Department doesn't have the time to revisit the design of the latest iteration of your ace mech at the moment."

"How are the other high-end projects coming along?" Saint Tusa eagerly asked.

"Saint Commander Casella Ingvar won't be joining you on the battlefield soon. The Minerva Mark II Project has almost reached the halfway point and still requires a lot more work. The good news is that the Amaranto Mark III Project and the Riot Mark III Project are much closer to completion. Gloriana and her collaborators have managed to solve many of the difficult problems that stalled them for a while. Once they overcome the most challenging hurdles, they can essentially do the rest of the work on autopilot. It just takes time to flesh out the designs of the two high-tier expert mechs. Whether Venerable Davia Stark and Venerable Rosa Orfan will be able to break through shortly after receiving their powerful new machines is another question, though. So far, neither my grandfather nor my uncle have managed to obtain any luck."

That caused Tusa to frown. "Once I have completed my tour with the Dostoevsky Clan, I'll come back and instruct them in person. I have learned so much more about what makes an ace pilot. Maybe I can set them on the right path."

"Let's hope so. If they can't break through even after that… then maybe they are never meant to transcend their limitations any further…"

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