The Mech Touch

Ves had spoken for a long time.

The Yellow Jacket was his brainchild after all. He had come up with the concept and contributed the most crucial technologies that made it work. Without his input, the Yellow Jacket designs would not be able to attract the attention of the Red Association, let alone capture the imagination of all of human society!

Still, when it came to introducing other specific features, Ves eagerly left this job to the respective specialists who worked on these parts and systems.

He was not egoistical enough to hog all of the attention for himself. In fact, he felt a little guilty for claiming a disproportionate amount of the limelight for himself.

The Yellow Jacket was a cooperative effort. The other 4 Senior Mech Designers not only provided valuable design solutions that made the mech designs comprehensively stronger, but also served as a sounding board that helped Ves refine his own implementations.

Ves was therefore glad to take a break and stand in the background while allowing his collaborators to enjoy their moment at the forefront of humanity's latest obsession. "Meow."

Lucky floated over and jumped into Ves' arms.

The gem cat relaxed as Ves gently stroked the oiled metal exterior.

[How is the reaction so far, Gavin?] Ves discretely inquired over a communication channel.

[You can't believe how many messages we have received! The LMC and our clan has received a deluge of purchase requests for the new Carmine mechs.]

[As expected. Have there been any groups that have exhibited significantly less demand?]

[As expected, the Red Fleet has shown very little interest, and the states that are heavily invested in the Auxiliary Fleet Program are also not as enthused.] Gavin replied. [Even so, it is impossible for them to remain completely unmoved. Mechs, not warships, are popular among the people. It is easy to fire people up by introducing a good mech, but it is much harder to build up passion for warships after centuries of cultural and legal suppression.]

As Ves continued to collect more information from Gavin, two of his collaborators had begun to introduce what could arguably be regarded as the most controversial aspect of the Yellow Jacket designs.

When Vector Loban and Romanda Devos attracted everyone's attention, the former spoke first.

"As the honorable Professor Larkinson has shared before, the Carmine System is biomechanical in nature. Every Carmine mech is a cybernetic mech by definition. This is an inescapable reality due to the limitations of the current generation of this tech. In more concrete terms, a Carmine mech must always contain at least a small proportion of organic matter. This can be quite minimal as the demand to create blood circulation throughout a mech frame is not difficult to meet. However, our design team has chosen a bolder approach and decided to apply a far greater proportion of organic systems relative to the mech frame for specific reasons. I shall display the actual proportions of metallic and organic components in the three versions of the Yellow Jacket."

A projected overlay appeared on the exteriors of the three Yellow Jackets.

These overlaid images seemed to erase the exterior plating and expose the guts inside the machines.

Every overlay displayed a realistic and complete representation of the components stuffed inside the Yellow Jackets.

It didn't matter if no one understood what the individual parts and components did. What mattered was that exposing the guts of the machines immediately revealed the proliferation of organic matter inside the Yellow Jackets!

Beneath their metallic exteriors, the slender upper torso section of the Carmine mechs. consisted almost entirely of organic matter!

A combination of flesh and bone occupied the positions traditionally taken up by the cockpit and many other important systems.

Although they already heard from Jacob Abbott that the Yellow Jacket at least partially contained organic components, this was much different from what most people expected!

The vast majority of organic components concentrated on the upper chest, so much so that it dominated this entire section.

This had many implications!

Many mech designers and industrialists frowned at this sight. The production chain for organic components was completely different from the production chain of metallic components. To grow a single, large organic mass like this required large and dedicated growing facilities.

It was not particularly difficult to set up these organic production facilities, but it took a large amount of upfront investment to construct them all. A lot of people needed to be trained and educated in biotechnology-related subjects in order to know how to handle the production and maintenance of these weird organic masses.

Not many people welcomed the additional burdens brought by this organic chest section. They would rather buy a Carmine mech that possessed only the bare minimum of organic components.

Both Vector and Romanda already expected to receive this response.

Neither of them felt worried because they firmly believed in their design solutions. "Many of you have begun to ask why we have made the unusual decision to implement a large organic mass inside the upper chest of the Yellow Jackets." Lady Romanda addresses the puzzled crowd. "This is because it represents the living core of a Carmine mech. I have combined my specialization in Ultra-Large Enhanced Cockpit Systems with Professor Vector Loban's specialization in Furnace Mitochondria Systems to develop an oversized organic 'cockpit' that has seamlessly merged with the Carmine System." This explanation already overwhelmed a lot of people. They still did not understand why this entire section had to be all-organic.

The Terran mech designer continued her lecture as she was far from finished.

"This design approach has many implications. When we started to design the Carmine mechs of the Swarm Project, we all became aware of the limitation that a Carmine mech pilot can only form a single Blood Pact for the rest of his or her life. In order to prevent many hopeful norms from returning to their old selves ahead of time, we sought to increase the survival rates of the pilots as well as their bonded Carmine mechs. After a large amount of trial and error, Vector Loban and I have finally developed a cockpit that carries enough metaphorical weight to form the bare minimum of a living machine." Professor Vector Loban explained why this mattered. "The most important implication of this special condition is that when you form a Blood Pact with a Carmine mech, you will not necessarily form a pact with these large yellow-and-black metallic-looking constructs, but the significantly more compact organic masses buried in their upper torsos. This means that the organic ultra-large enhanced cockpit is essentially the Carmine mech in truth. The rest of the machine that is predominantly made out of metal alloys can be treated as an elaborate, highly functional suit of armor." Many people grew silent when they processed this crucial information. A lot of people understood the implications right away, while others needed more help to understand

The benefits.

"Similar to an infantry soldier, if you destroy the suit, the person wearing it may still be able to survive." Lady Romanda explained with a smile. "Only when an attack kills the human is the soldier actually dead. The Carmine mech will always be able to remain alive even when it is reduced to just this organic ultra-large enhanced cockpit, and it does not even need to be whole. The less organic matter is left, the more heavily injured the Carmine mech becomes, but as long as it is relatively intact, it can still be restored in full. This will give any Carmine mech pilot who lost their 'mech' in battle a second chance to fight as before. As long as the pilot is able to evacuate from the battlefield with a functional cockpit, the Blood Pact will remain healthy and operational." Now that the two Seniors had made it clear enough, a lot of people suddenly changed their evaluations on these weird organic masses.

They previously regarded them as unwanted and undesirable complications. Now, they

Literally embraced the organic cockpits as saviors!

They wished their cockpits were even larger and stronger than now, because that would give them an even greater chance of making a comeback after suffering a personal

Defeat in battle!

No one was able to win a battle every time. No mech pilot could guarantee that he and his mech would remain in one shape after the end of every battle. Losing one's mech was a common occurrence in battle. The more informed individuals knew that the probability of losing a mech rose when the machine was cheap. Other factors that increased this rate was when the pilot was lacking in both skill and

Experience.

All of this meant that many early Carmine mech pilots had a high chance of losing their bonded Carmine mechs in their first battles!

It would be extremely painful to many of them to enter the battlefield in high spirits, only to get thrashed by the ruthless aliens and eventually crawl back from the front without a Carmine mech to continue their short-lived piloting careers.

Lady Romanda Devos activated a new projection that displayed a cross-section of the three different varieties of cockpits.

To call them 'cockpits' was actually a misnomer. They gained so many additional systems and features that they had become vehicles in themselves!

"As you can see in these images, my organic ultra-large enhanced cockpits incorporate a large variety of elements that enhance their survival ability. If a Carmine mech falls in battle, the ultra-large cockpit will detach from the alloy shell and rocket back to the rear or nearest designated safe zone unless otherwise specified. The cockpit is large enough to mount fairly compact but powerful short-duration boosters. The damage resisting capabilities of these cockpits are fairly modest due to the need for cost savings, but their mobility is good. They contain a range of other damage control and damage mitigation systems to further enhance their survival,"

"The ultra-large cockpits possess an additional feature that can help with preserving the Carmine mechs as well as the pilots sheltering inside." Professor Vector Loban added. "I have applied a version of my Furnace Mitochondria into the organic cells. This will enable the ultra-large cockpit to overload its systems at the cost of rapidly extracting the high density of stored energies contained within the cells. This will cause the organic cells to rapidly burn out and die, but the released energies will be so great that

The ultra-large cockpit may briefly double or triple its acceleration as it flees the

Battlefield."

This was quite a nifty feature!

The ultra-large cockpit was like a fast shuttle that could speed up even faster for a brief interval as long as it burned up parts of its organic mass!

This was a self-sacrificial feature that would rapidly degrade the size, the protection and

The functionality of the ultra-large cockpits.

However, the power boost gained from this sacrifice was more than worth it in the right.

Moments!

The sooner the ultra-large cockpits escaped the range of enemy firepower, the greater

The probability that they would live to get rebuilt into complete Carmine mechs again. "The ultra-large cockpit functions quite similar to an escape shuttle for all intents and purposes." Lady Romanda said. "It is larger, more robust and just as maneuverable than a shuttle. When the aliens learn that the best way to handle Carmine mechs is to relentlessly eliminate the cockpits, then they will target them specifically. The burden of defeating your ultra-large cockpits will increase, and successful interception attempts will drastically drop."

It was not quite certain whether that would be the case, but many people had a lot of

Confidence in these claims.

As the two Senior Mech Designers continued to explain the nuances of the organic

Ultra-large cockpits, they gradually found their own rhythms and smoothly introduced the possible uses and constraints of the ultra-large cockpits.

"Do not forget. The organic core is the living mech. The alloy parts built around the

Ultra-large cockpits are all optional and redundant. Losing them will not threaten the survival of the Carmine mech,"

Now that more and more people gradually understood how much this could save their lives and careers, they finally expressed overwhelming support for this wonderful

Implementation!

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