The Mech Touch

Before Ves was ready to leave Diandi Base and embark on his business trip, he wanted to make sure he remained up to date on the progress of the most important mech design projects of the Larkinson Clan.

He met up with Gloriana in the design lab and checked the progress on completing the designs of three high-ranking mechs.

"The Riot Mark III Project is the closest mech to completion." Gloriana told her husband in her professional voice as she tapped the projection of the design. "The major hindrance is that the design's unusual combination of materials result in effects that are impossible to simulate. The simulation programs can't make heads or tails out of the sheer quantity of 'chaos factor' that we have infused in the high-tier expert mech. On the one hand, this is tentative proof that the experimental armor system that I have designed in collaboration with Jovy Armalon is already capable of obfuscating analysis and prediction. On the other hand, we have been forced to conduct much more prototype testing with scale models in order to gather usable empirical data."

Ves liked the Riot Mark III Project a lot. Though he hadn't been able to put in as much of himself as before, it was fine since it was an upgrade to an existing living mech.

The most interesting aspect by far was that his wife and his Survivalist liaison actually succeeded in developing a crazy combination of unstable exotics and hypers that appeared to be stable… at least as far as they could tell.

It was precisely due to the unusually high energy activity and quantum shenanigans that caused the Riot Mark III design to be so incompatible with simulation programs!

Sure, it gave Gloriana a lot of grief, but that meant that it would confound their enemies even more once they tried to wrap their minds around this illogical machine!

"This is a mech that literally defies prediction." She said in a slightly more appreciative tone. "No matter whether our enemies attempt to deduce the Riot Mark III's performance through electronic systems or more mystical means, they will all fail without a doubt. Anyone who thinks their methods are good enough to know for certain how the Riot Mark III will behave or perform are fools who are blinded by their overconfidence. Jovy has done extremely good work in that aspect. As expected of an RA mech designer."

Ves smiled after hearing that. "I hate prophecies. I also hate being calculated against. There's definitely a lot of both going around in my upcoming business trip. It would have been great if I had the Riot Mark III by my side in order to ruin all of the predictions that people are making of me. When will this mech be done?"

"We need to conduct further testing in order to make sure that the new Chaos Armor that we have developed for the Riot Mark III does not inadvertently cause the machine to collapse in on himself. We will wait until your return from Yernstall before we begin the upgrade process." Gloriana said.

"Alright. That's great. I don't want to miss this opportunity to get my hands on this interesting machine. What about our other expert mech design project?"

"The Amaranto Mark III Project has proven to be an interesting puzzle for me." Gloriana said. "Much of the development was initially stalled due to my search for a key hyper material that can help me realize the concept of an all-hyper material archemech frame. I told you before that none of the light-attributed hyper materials satisfied all of my demands. The hypers that are able to grant the strongest offensive boost to the Amaranto are too brittle and fragile to serve as the main armor and structural support of a high-tier expert mech. Just because the Amaranto is meant to function as a marksman mech does not mean we should turn her into a literal glass cannon. There is a limit to how far we can pursue this extreme. It is for this reason that I decided to compromise on your initial vision and opted to use a combination of two different hyper materials."

"You got your wish and found an excuse to apply Solarium back into the Amaranto." Ves half-accused.

"It is not an excuse! It is a logical and appropriate design choice based on the variables that I have to work with! Look, Solarium is too good to pass up. It is the most effective defensive light-attributed hyper that red humanity has discovered. Its toughness can increase to up to 300 percent when exposed to strong light. As long as we apply Solarium to both the exterior and the structural internal components of the Amaranto Mark III design, her physical toughness will become deceptively high. Not only that, but her ability to resist energy attacks will reach an absurd level, making her perfect for countering enemy snipers armed with energy weapons!"

"I suppose it helps a lot that the Amaranto Mark III can produce the strong light needed to power up all of that Solarium."

"Yes! Now that the use of Solarium has largely negated the demand for a physically tough and damage resistant hyper materials, I could choose from multiple high-grade hypers that can turn the Amaranto into a long-ranged menace. I experimented with different samples to see how they synergized with Solarium and ultimately decided to settle on a hyper material called Divurnas Alloy."

A projection appeared that summarized the basic properties of this artificial alloy.

"Divurnas Alloy is rare and just as expensive as Solarium, but it is worth it as other parties have already begun to integrate this hyper into their own ace mechs. Its main effect is to amplify all forms of electromagnetic radiation, with a particularly strong emphasis on visible light and infrared. It lights up when active like no other light-attributed hyper alloy. According to my experiments, it has good compatibility with luminar crystal technology and is highly effective at amplifying the power of laser beams and light beam-based attacks. What I find interesting is that other groups do not value it as much because they have little use for amplifying visible light. The only weakness other than its cost is that the alloy is relatively fragile and brittle."

"Which means that the Amaranto cannot do without Solarium."

"Precisely. This is why the Amaranto Mark III design has so much of it. Despite the use of so much Solarium, there is still plenty of capacity devoted to archemetal components that are largely comprised of Divurnas Alloy. I have blended the two hypers in such a way to leverage the defensive properties of Solarium as much as possible with the lowest possible footprint. I do not think that I can reduce the use of this hyper material any further without introducing a critical weak point."

"I see."

The design of the almost-complete Amaranto Mark III certainly reflected Gloriana's attempts to establish a balance between defense and offense.

While Ves disliked the fact that her work deviated from his original concept of extreme offense, he did not blame her for doing so. Dreams often had to bow down to reality. He really could not excuse a mech design that tried to convert the Amaranto into an all-Divurnas Alloy archemech. The resulting expert mech may barely be able to get by when fighting on a second-class battlefield, but she would become woefully vulnerable if she ever attempted to fight on a first-class battlefield!

The insanely strong power boost that the Dark Zephyr received upon upgrading to a first-class ace mech was a powerful indicator that first-class forces really did not mess around!

The power of all of the attacks they threw at each other was a lot stronger. Even if Davia Stark managed to advance to the rank of ace pilot, her leap in strength would not strengthen the defenses of her Amaranto all that much.

Ves recognized that once the Amaranto Mark III began to take down high-value targets on a battlefield while glowing like a lighthouse in the dark, she would inevitably attract a huge amount of attention from the enemy!

Many adversaries would definitely seek to take down the potent marksman mech that was able to cripple enemy warships and inflict severe damage onto lesser phase lords with just a handful of shots!

No matter whether the enemy sought to remove the Amaranto off the board up close or from afar, possessing the means to withstand all of these attacks would certainly come in handy. Davia Stark would gain a great buffer that she could use to persist in her attacks without fear of losing her machine. That may ultimately translate into better offensive performance than to make the Amaranto into a much more threatening but also more fragile machine.

"I don't understand enough of archetech to judge whether this archemech design has truly made optimal use of Solarium and Divurnas Alloy." He said. "I will defer to your judgment on this matter. So if your design works correctly, the use of Divurnas Alloy will cause the Amaranto to light up and amplify all of her energy attacks. That will also cause Solarium to work and become up to 3 times tougher and more damage resistant."

"Yes. The Amaranto Mark III will be able to ramp herself up and perform at her peak right from the start. The early phases of a battle is where she will truly shine, I believe. However, as befitting her role as a marksman mech, the Amaranto fares less well in drawn-out engagements. She needs to make every shot count, because each time she fires the upgraded versions of the Instrument of Vengeance or the Instrument of Doom, she will produce heat like nothing else. I have failed to secure the high-performance heatsinks that I desire for this project. The Terrans and so on are highly protective of them as they are the key technologies that differentiate their own machines from that of smaller groups like ours."

In other words, the high-performance heatsinks were deemed strategic goods that could not be bought on the open market, only traded in shady backroom deals. Ves already knew what his wife wanted by mentioning this problem.

"I will try and find a willing partner to trade superior heatsinks with us when I arrive at the Yernstall Central Star Node." Ves said. "I might not have the time, and I might not be able to conclude a successful trade. Don't expect any miracles as I have way higher priorities to deal with when I am there. I don't think it is a major loss if we work with mediocre heatsinks for a time. If Davia Stark is able to advance to ace pilot, then she can use her Saint Kingdom to vent the Amaranto's heat faster. She should also exercise good trigger discipline and make sure to get the most out of each individual shot. We are not relying on the Amaranto Mark III to eliminate lots of cannon fodder. That is what the Minerva Mark II is for once we have completed her upgrade."

Ves did not mind this fault. The Amaranto Mark III was meant to become the Larkinson Clan's preferred solution when dealing against powerful individual enemy assets such as a flagship or a phase lord. Eliminating these targets alone was usually enough to cripple and demoralize the rest of a hostile alien fleet.

Once the Amaranto Mark III proved that she possessed the capacity to assassinate any high-value target at extreme ranges, her presence alone would serve as a powerful deterrent against potential ambushes like the one that the Bluejay Fleet would most certainly encounter during the upcoming trip!

Ves lamented once more that the Riot and the Amaranto would not be in a fit enough state to accompany him to Yernstall. Their pilots still needed to break through, and even if the latest upgrade projects were complete, that still did not solve the problem that they were still quasi-first-class mechs.

Oh well. Ves could at least count on Saint Tusa and the Dark Zephyr Mark III Revision 2 to watch his back. This machine alone evoked a lot of pride and confidence!

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