The Mech Touch

As far as Ultimate Modules were concerned, the one that Ves designed for the Yellow Jacket possessed the least amount of sophistication.

This was partially because of the limited time that Ves could allocate on this priority. He did not have the time to design a more elaborate and sophisticated Ultimate Module that could produce a more sustainable effect.

Another reason why Ves settled with such a self-destructive Ultimate Module was because it was a desperate attempt to quickly raise the threat level of the Carmine mechs.

"Adding enhanced self-destruction capabilities to the Yellow Jacket is a calculated choice." Ves explained to his audience. "The Yellow Jacket is a budget mech at every tech level and possesses limited agency on an individual basis. While my Carmine mechs can be quite formidable when gathered in large numbers, alien warships are the least afraid of confronting swarms of small craft. In order to deter enemies from getting too close to the Yellow Jackets and take their threat more seriously, the Ultimate Module is not only designed to coordinate every active part of the Carmine mech aside from the Biodome to unleash their raw energies at once, but also amplify the explosions with E energy." "Before you ask, it is possible to order Yellow Jackets that do not include this Ultimate Module. You can still install the Ultimate Modules on the Carmine mechs at a later date. However, it is currently not possible to replace it with another Ultimate Module or a substitute developed by a third-party as far as I know."

Ultimate Modules were intrinsically tied to the living mechs.

Changing the hardware alone was not useful because the Ultimate Seed, which could be considered the 'companion spirit' of the living Carmine mech, was only designed to work with the Sacrifice Ultimate Module.

Perhaps Ves may be able to change that in the future and implement a more dynamic alteration setup for Ultimate Modules, but it was not a priority at the moment.

Projections began to appear above Ves' head that showed demonstrations of these explosions.

When a third-class Yellow Jacket controlled by a test pilot activated the Superpurge Ultimate Ability, the Biodome ejected while at the same time the remaining mech frame underwent a small transformation.

At the same time, the orientation of the Yellow Jacket changed so that it adopted a horizontal orientation.

The Yellow Jacket essentially turned into a missile!

Although the strange posture deviated from the template of an aggressive wasp, the horizontal orientation shrunk its silhouette when facing the enemy and made it a lot

Harder to shoot down.

This 'missile' accelerated forward with the help of its overloaded flight system.

At the same time, a sharp spike extended from the angular bottom of the Yellow Jacket. This made it look as if the wasp mech had extended a stinger and was about to launch a suicidal charge attack!

As the third-class Yellow Jacket collided against a solid structure, the stinger punctured through the exterior wall, allowing the Yellow Jacket to push inside.

Once the shell of the Carmine mech had dug deep enough, its Ultimate Module instantly triggered the explosion based on preset instructions.

BOOOOM!

A noticeably powerful explosion ruptured the structure from within!

The power of this explosion was far more potent than a regular third-class missile, but it was still not a cost-effective way to make use of a Carmine mech.

Nobody would be stupid enough to purchase a large amount of Yellow Jackets, only to Superpurge them to exhaust the transphasic energy shields of enemy warships.

Still, it was a good way for Carmine mech pilots to spite the enemies that had defeated them in battle.

Not only would the explosion or threat of it divert the enemy's attention from shooting down the fleeing Biodome, but it could also ensure that the Yellow Jacket at least managed to do something useful on the battlefield!

The worst outcome for any mech was to deploy on the battlefield, only to get shot down while doing almost nothing aside from briefly diverting enemy firepower.

Mech commanders constantly sought to squeeze as much value out of their mech units as possible. It was much easier for them to do so when every Yellow Jacket could be converted into a stronger-than-normal missile!

The projections showing the Superpurges of the second-class and first-class editions of the Yellow Jackets were much more dramatic.

Their energy levels were progressively higher, which usually translated into more powerful explosions.

They also possessed greater speed and could traverse longer distances before fulfilling their final purposes.

At the very least, Ves was not afraid that the Yellow Jacket B and Yellow Jacket A would be unable to affect the outcome of the battle at all. As long as their quantity was enough, the amount of explosions they could produce may actually be enough to wipe out an elite phasefighter unit or break open the defenses of enemy warships!

"The power of the explosions produced by the Yellow Jackets affected by the Superpurge Ultimate Ability are not constant." Ves warned his audience. "They are

Mainly affected by the state of the power reactor and the charge levels of the energy cells. If the Yellow Jackets have already fought intensively and bottomed out their reserves, their explosions will be less potent. Other energetic and explosive elements can also affect the power of this final move. For example, a Yellow Jacket that is carrying a lot of enriched gauss rounds that contain volatile substances may be able to produce explosions with greater force or produce exotic effects."

It was a bit disappointing to hear that the Yellow Jackets wouldn't be able to produce explosions of the same potency when they had already fought for a while.

The most common instances where the self-exploding Yellow Jackets could serve their greatest use was when the battle was starting to enter the later phases.

As long as neither side held an overwhelming advantage, a sudden shock attack by launching a few hundred or even a few thousand Yellow Jackets could instantly turn the tide at one of the flanks!

Oh well. The explosion of an exhausted Yellow Jacket may be weaker, but it shouldn't be too pathetic.

"There are other factors that can affect the power of the explosion from this Ultimate Ability." Ves continued. "The Ultimate Module is actually a special living construct and can grow more powerful over time. The older the Carmine mech, the more powerful it becomes. It can also derive more energy from a stronger Carmine mech pilot. All of this means that the self-destruction of a 1 month old Yellow Jacket is nowhere comparable to a Yellow Jacket that has lived and fought for over 5 years. Best of all is this growth trajectory is largely based on E-technology. This means that when you install your Biodome onto a new Yellow Jacket shell, it will gain the ability to explode with much

Greater power yet again!"

That sounded a lot more interesting to people than before!

Nobody had any idea how that could even work! Wasn't the Ultimate Module supposed to be a self-destruction unit that slowly charged up over time? How come a new Yellow Jacket shell 'inherited' this advantage without needing to spend months or years on accumulating energy?

A lot of people started to scratch their heads. They had no idea how E-technology worked, let alone the crazy variant that Ves had developed by himself!

Ves smirked. The Ultimate Module was not called this way for nothing. All of the power was invested in the Ultimate Seed of the living Carmine mech. This was an intangible existence that always remained attached to its principal and by extension the Biodome.

As long as the Biodome remained intact, the Carmine mech would continue to live. This not only preserved the Blood Pact, but also the Ultimate Seed responsible for managing and empowering the Ultimate Module!

All of this meant that as long as the Yellow Jackets grew old enough, their Sacrifice Ultimate Modules would be able to produce damage equal or greater than that of torpedoes, especially once they started to develop their own Ultimate Runes! Hardly any enemy would want to fight against such terrible wasp mechs up close!

It was a lot harder to evade the extremely potent explosions up close as the Yellow Jackets did not have to waste time to reach the right destinations.

Ves pretty much considered this coincidental interfaction to be a bug. He was more than glad to take advantage of it. He was happy to give his customers another reason to do their best to preserve their living Carmine mechs and learn to appreciate ones that had grown older, wiser and more powerful.

In any case, the addition of the Ultimate Module completed the Yellow Jacket in a brilliant fashion. It added functionality that multiplied the lethality of the Ultimate Module and also guaranteed that almost every Yellow Jacket would be able to make themselves useful regardless of the terrible piloting skills of their bonded partners. "Before I complete my explanation on the Ultimate Module, let me address the safety concerns." Ves spoke. "First, the Ultimate Module is largely solid and inert, so it is unlikely to explode when damaged or knocked. Second, the activation of the Ultimate Module is restricted by default. A mech technician can adjust the hardware settings to change the activation conditions. This can range from receiving an encrypted signal from a mech commander, a mothership, a space fort and so on. The Ultimate Module can also be set to only activate with the consent of the living mech. Of course, you can always remove all of these restrictions on the Ultimate Module and allow the Carmine mech pilot to be the sole decision maker."

These restrictions were very necessary because the Yellow Jackets could do a lot of damage to human lives and assets!

Nobody wanted a Carmine mech pilot to fool around, only to inadvertently activate the Superpurge Ultimate Ability and cause the Yellow Jacket to explode inside the hangar bay of a combat carrier!

While this may lead to instances where the Yellow Jackets were unable to initiate Superpurge in situations where doing so could produce good results, it was better to be safe than sorry.

By the time Ves finished his presentation on the Ultimate Module of the Yellow Jackets, he had thoroughly convinced most of the audience of its usefulness.

He had no doubt that there were still customers who planned to order a batch of Yellow Jackets without this potent feature, but they should hopefully be in the minority. The current state of the Red War had little room for caution and forbearance. If the

Yellow Jackets were able to reignite hope across the frontlines, then they should do so in their most effective configurations!

"That concludes our presentation on the Yellow Jackets." Ves finally said after another

Minute of speaking. "This is not the end of our product reveal. We still have 3 more mech designs to introduce to you. They are not as shocking and innovative as the Yellow Jackets, but they are designed to complement the Carmine mechs and help you make more effective use out of them. Their usage is optional, but we highly recommend you to make use of them for reasons that we shall explain soon."

A short break ensued as the 3 Yellow Jackets on display sank below the floor in order to make room for another set of display mechs.

As Ves waited for the next phase of the product reveal to start, Ves noticed that Jovy did

Not look all that happy.

[Why the look, Jovy?]

[I still cannot agree with your decision to hold back on the Yellow Jacket designs. It should not have been difficult for you to implement your proprietary Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem onto both the Yellow Jackets designs and the Jacket Commander designs. In fact, you even drafted an amazing plan where the E energy attracted by the Yellow Jackets is actively channeled into the Jacket Commander that oversees them in an attempt to produce artificial pseudo-champion units. Even if you left out this last part, the base implementation of the Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem alone could have amplified the combat power of large swarms of Yellow Jackets by a large margin. Why do you insist on depriving the Swarm Project this benefit when it has the potential to significantly affect the war effort?] That was a good question.

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