The Mech Touch

Though not everyone appreciated the history lesson, Ves believed it was important to frame his work as the confluence of successive developments in mech design over the generations.

He already knew for certain that his Carmine System would serve as a major historical turning point, so he might as well play up this angle.

"Since the start of the Age of Mechs, many different mech designers have contributed to the overall development of mechs over time." Ves continued to address his audience, many of whom were probably watching at their homes or workplaces. "Countless mech designers have managed to produce minor feats of brilliance that have resulted in incremental improvements or an expansion in the variety of mechs that can be made. These small gains are almost unnoticeable when we view them in isolation, but can reach a considerable scale when conglomerated."

Many mech designers who had grown old enough to be realistic about their limited prospects identified with this description. These mech designers may be good enough to earn a comfortable living, but they were not brilliant enough to invent anything big.

Despite this shortcoming, they still ended up with fulfilling careers as they knew that their mech designs and technological applications played a small role in broadening or deepening the foundation of mech design.

This was the strength of a cohesive, united mech industry under the leadership and the supervision of the Mech Trade Association.

"Yet there are also other visionaries who have succeeded in changing the landscape of mechs with a single invention." Ves continued to speak as he grew increasingly more enthused about his speech. "This happens much less frequently, but the rich and expensive mech industry always offers room for more ambitious, capable and far-sighted mech designers that have pursued ideas that others considered impractical until it appeared in their faces"

He had been the victim of this as well in the past. Hopefully, he would not be met with as much skepticism once he made his explosive announcement.

"Let us briefly go over the major advancements throughout the history of mechs." Ves said as a massive projection appeared above his head that displayed an image of what he mentioned. "Mech archetypes. Destroyer weapons. Beast mechs. Aquatic mechs. First-class multipurpose mechs. More extensive miniaturization, Smart metal mechs. Support link technology. Transphasic mechs. Hyper mechs. This is just a small and insignificant selection of successful technological advancements that defined their generations as soon as they became available or reached mass adoption."

Mech designers felt proud of what their predecessors managed to accomplish in the past.

Mech pilots felt grateful to the diligent and hard-working mech designers who developed all of these amazing techs.

Technology bound them all together. The universality of the technologies they worked with allowed them to form a large community that united people from every corner of human society.

The mech industry was different from every other industry because of the unprecedented unity and collective will of all of its participants.

"Through the efforts of many diligent and hard-working mech designers and other professionals, we have steadily managed to solve many problems that proved insurmountable in the past. Only twenty years ago, no one would have taken you seriously if you claimed that a mech can traverse interstellar distances without a carrier ship. Now, enough mechs are equipped with minidrives and transphasic flight systems that it has become an attainable if expensive product. Just think how much much has changed due to the introduction of a new technological paradigm. Before humans got their hands on phasewater, only god mechs possessed the capability to travel faster-than-light and travel to other star systems on an independent basis."

That was true. Mechs had always become inseparable to carriers from the beginning.

Unless mechs were produced on the same planet and assigned to defend it against extraterrestrial visitors, all machines had to be ferried around by large and cumbersome mechs.

The availability of phasewater technology finally liberated mechs from this limitation, at least in theory.

In practice, it did not make economic sense to equip minidrives to every mech. Still, turning an impossibility into a possibility was already a feat worthy of celebration! "I am proud of what my predecessors and contemporaries have accomplished so far." Ves spoke in an uplifting tone. He straightened his back even further and allowed his flowing coat to billow behind his back. "With every passing generation, the mech industry has produced both incremental and revolutionary results. Both types of gains go hand-in-hand, as the former often builds up to the latter and vice versa. Yet..."

He deliberately made his posture more subdued. Above his head, the giant projection that previously displayed the many successes of the mech industry started to portray different footage.

A lot of people's expressions grew troubled as they witnessed the all-too-familiar sights of 10-year old children who just received the results of their genetic aptitude tests.

In the vast majority of the cases, the children suffered their first major setback. Their dreams of becoming heroic mech pilots crumbled into pieces as the reality of their inadequate aptitudes dealt them a fatal blow!

In a society that worshiped mechs and idolized mech pilots, the revelation that you could never feasibly pilot a real mech was enough to plunge teenagers into years-long depression!

Fortunately, these instances happened so frequently that every state and society had their own way of healing these broken children.

Many of the people in the exhibition hall and watching by remote had gone through their own ordeals. As they continued to grow older and wiser, they eventually came to accept their lot and found ways to enjoy pursuits and passions.

Yet... the younger they were, the more they still harbored regrets and longing about the future they could have lived in. What if a quirk of their biologies just happened to twitch to the point where their genetic aptitudes improved?

"I can feel your pain and regret at being denied a chance to pilot a mech." Ves said as he gently pressed his palm on his chest. "I feel it as well. Back when I was a teenager myself, I often cursed my fate for being born in a military family, yet unable to continue its greatest traditions. I was immature back then, so I often blamed others for my own inadequacies and bad luck. It was quite common back then for school children to gather around and curse the stupid and lazy mech designers for failing to expand the restrictions imposed by our reliance on neural interface technology."

What he just said was part of the childhood of every norm. Many people adopted familiar and reminiscing faces as they recalled their own reactions during this phase of their

Teenage years.

The giant projection changed to display a simplified wireframe model of a neural

Interface.

Ves began to pace back and forth, with Lucky silently floating behind his back. "It is surprising how little neural interface technology has improved over the centuries. Yes, I am aware that it has experienced many incremental and a handful of revolutionary improvements over the generations, but progress has been much slower in this field than elsewhere. Certain people attribute this to the high entry barriers of this field. Others blame the extensive restrictions that the MTA and RA have imposed on this sensitive and dangerous tech. Whatever the case, whatever improvements that neural interfaces have received during the entire span of the Age of Mechs, they are so subtle and refined that most people can't notice the difference!"

That elicited a bit of laughter, but of the cynical variety. Ves gave voice to an incredibly common and much-shared complaint. Both laymen and mech insiders decried the excessive caution and lack of daring experimentation in the field of neural interface

Technology.

Still, there were plenty of people who reluctantly agreed why the mechers preferred to err on the side of caution. A lot of human experimentation related to neural interfaces tended to produce an unusually high rate of brain damage and fatal accidents among the

Test pilots. Messing around with neural interfaces was no different from poking a metal rod into a mech pilot's brain before stirring it around!

"I am not here to question this policy." Ves said as he spread his arms. "For over four centuries, neural interfaces have simplified our control of mechs and allow potentates to control them as their second bodies. This is an amazing benefit and one that has served as the most foundational technology of mechs. Nobody can imagine a mech that lacks this very crucial tech. We even go as far as calling them by different labels such as battle bots and manually controlled mechanical constructs."

The more clever and insightful people among his massive audience already started to have a clue what Ves was working towards.

The very notion of it sounded so insane and impossible that they could never bring themselves to admit that it could actually be true.

Yet... their hopes and dreams compelled them to listen and find out whether Ves truly produced a miracle.

Ves could easily sense the rising tension and excitement in the air. The thoughts of more and more people all directed towards Ves, causing him to have the illusion that he would have been able to harvest an immense amount of faith energy if he possessed the power

Of a true god!

Alas, Ves was still too far removed from that stage, so he could only allow all of that highly potent energy go to waste.

"Let me be frank with you all." He said in an earnest if somewhat apologetic tone. "I am not a neural interface specialist. My design philosophy has little to do with them. I am not here to announce a much-desired breakthrough in the field of neural interfaces." That disappointed a lot of people, but they did not entirely lose hope.

Ves wouldn't have talked so long about neural interfaces if he did not have a purpose in

Mind.

He began to smile. "In fact, I never thought about expanding the eligibility of who can pilot a mech. To understand what I mean, let me start at the mech that brought me here

In front of you today. This... is the Bastion."

The giant projection changed to display a slightly outdated quasi-first-class expert space

Knight.

There was still much about the large and imposing machine that attracted the admiration of mech designers and other mech connoisseurs.

Ves had poured a lot of love and passion into the design and creation of the third order

Living mech.

It did not start out as a masterwork mech, but gradually evolved into one as the vestiges of the Bastion's previous incarnation fed the machine with power.

"The story of the Bastion is not simple. Her pilot, Venerable Jannzi Larkinson, previously

Piloted another living space knight of my own design that unfortunately fell in battle." Another projection briefly showed the moment where the Shield of Samar melted from the potent acid sprayed by the Skorpion Kommando.

"The downfall of the Shield of Samar was especially traumatic to Venerable Jannzi." Ves solemnly explained. "You see, the expert pilot developed a deep bond with her living mech. Her machine reciprocated these deep feelings because she was alive enough to experience the same thoughts and emotions. Over numerous years, Jannzi and the Shield of Samar developed a bond that transcended physical boundaries. I dare say that it had turned into an extraordinary phenomenon that truly existed despite the lack of empirical proof. It was due to this that Jannzi took the loss of the Shield of Samar much harder than most mech pilots. She was one of those mech pilots who fell in love with a mech at first sight and refused to pilot another mech."

Such pilots were rare, but not unheard of. Mech pilots tended to be emotional people,

And they often developed 'unhealthy' relationships with their mechs, especially if they had not been assigned to other mechs over their careers.

Most mech organizations tended to treat it as a mental disorder. It was wrong for mech pilots to make their mechs out to be more than just lumps of metal that happened to be

Good at fighting. Ves used to think so as well, but he was glad he never tried to 'cure' Jannzi.

"I did not know it at the time, but my desire to reconstruct a more modern and powerful

Version of the Shield of Samar, which also included that extraordinary bond between mech pilot and living mech, changed everything."

More and more people leaned forward and sat on the edge of their seats in order to

Listen to every word.

Though Ves still hadn't said anything that truly excited them, the energy in the

Exhibition hall kept rising without end.

People looked at the appearance of the Bastion and tried to guess what it contained that led to the presentation today. What revolutionary tech did Ves put inside this extraordinary machine that attracted the strong support of the Red Association? The projection slowly formed a series of thick letters that formed a fairly long and

Convoluted phase. [EMPOWERED BLOOD SHARING SYSTEM]

"This was my initial attempt to fill the void in Venerable Jannzi's heart."

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