The Mech Touch

His design team still couldnʼt wrap their heads around the mech concept that Ves proposed.

A storm of troubled emotions flashed over their faces. Like every Brighter, Miles and the other Tovars looked down on religion.

To participate in the development of a mech that explicitly leaned on vague and unscientific concepts such as faith and intuition stood against anything they had ever designed before!

Ves saw that he needed to guide them a little bit further. If they remained too opposed against his ideas, they would pose a hindrance to his design project.

”You donʼt necessarily have to support my proposal.” He said quietly. ”However, you should at least remember who you are. You are mech designers. You are professionals. Regardless of what you think, it is always a good idea to learn how to keep an open mind and to work outside your comfort zone. If you are too narrow-minded, you arenʼt ready to tackle the challenges you face when you progress your design philosophy.”

That lessened their resistance by a bit. Every person who studied mech design learned this lesson. It was a bit unfortunate that most people tended to forget it when they practiced their craft.

Naturally, there were also people who believed that mech designers ought to stick to their own beliefs.

In truth, they had a point. A mech designer who wavered too much would never be able to form a design philosophy that truly fit their own beliefs.

A balance had to be achieved. Mech designers needed to be principled enough to stand up to their core beliefs. Simultaneously, they also had to remain flexible enough to tolerate different beliefs.

What mattered in the end was the outcome. A mech was a success as long as it performed well and fulfilled its intended role. Whether a mech designer took the left path or the right path to get to the destination did not matter very much.

”Letʼs begin with drafting the design.” Ves clapped, deciding that it was best to move on. ��While Gloriana and I will draft our design, I want the rest of you to go over the new generation component designs that we can license and study which ones are suitable. Weʼll discuss your selection later.”

”What parameters should we prioritize?” Ketis asked.

”The weapon is the most important aspect of any marksman mech. Start selecting the weapon first. By my recollection, the new generation hasnʼt introduced any significant advancements in gauss rifle designs, so feel free to take a look at lastgen models. Remember to consider a medium gauss rifle. Too much power is too wasteful, but too little power reduces the impact of my marksman mech. Try to find a middle ground.”

”What about other aspects?”

”Since a marksman mech is designed to operate in the rear of any formation, donʼt focus too much on defense. Mobility isnʼt a big priority either. As long as it can keep up with a formation, itʼs enough. Every aspect of the mech must facilitate the firepower of the mech.”

Ketis frowned. ”Wonʼt that make the mech as vulnerable as a starfighter?”

”Mechs such as the Dawnbreaker already fill the assault role. With so many mechs and starfighters attracting enemy fire in the vanguard, the chances that the sandmen will target a marksman mech is minimal. The sandmen have never exhibited any selective targeting patterns. They just shoot at whatever is more convenient.”

”For now.”

Ves acknowledged the point. ”While itʼs true that the sandman might change, I wonʼt compromise on firepower this time. If my marksman mechs require protection, itʼs much better to deploy some knight mechs instead of tacking on armor to a frame that is unsuited for defense.”

”You are proposing a very unbalanced mech.” Miles scratched his head. ”While glass cannons arenʼt unheard of, itʼs rare to see them in premium mechs. No one likes to field a mech that costs as much as three regular mechs but is only as durable as half of one! It only takes one accident to ruin such an expensive purchase!”

”Hahaha!” Ves chuckled. ”Ordinarily, you have a valid point. However, you are neglecting something very important. You should never judge a mech by its own merits. You also have to take its intended users in mind! If you know the Ylvainans like I do, they are willing to fight and die for their beliefs! I know for certain that if our work matches my vision, plenty of elite Kronon mech pilots will embrace our new product!”

Ves considered his choices very carefully before he made up his mind. For his first mech design of the new generation, he deliberately decided to go for a whacky mech concept that relied on intuition and external intervention to guide the aim of the mech pilots.

Designing a mass-market budget mech like the Desolate Soldier had done much to propel him to the forefront of the mech community.

However, the Sand War already raged for some time. Between these months, many mech designers already published a huge variety of mech designs, many of which fulfilled the same roles.

In such a crowded marketplace, Ves did not see much value in publishing a mech which offered similar performance to the machines that his competitors already put on sale.

Ves wanted to make a statement.

His first new mech design of the latest generation ought to provide value that no other mech designer could provide.

Regardless of how many mechs the LMC sold or how much revenue it earned, the company could continue to stand out from the market.

As long as he became known as a mech designer that could offer something unique, he would never have to worry about becoming irrelevant.

What might become a trend today could easily be forgotten tomorrow. What Ves wanted to do was to consolidate his position and to form a solid foundation for his future work.

Though Ves was certain that his narrow mech concept would mystify many people, as long as it worked out, he would definitely succeed in cultivating an odd and mysterious impression!

His Soldier product line already attracted way too much attention. If the MTA hadnʼt been so preoccupied with the invasion of the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy, their mech designers might have paid more attention to his work!

Fortunately, phasewater attracted most of their attention, giving Ves enough room to progress his odd design philosophy in peace.

As Ves and Gloriana sat together, they started drawing lines on a projected interface.

It only took a few minutes for them to form their initial sketch. The roughly-drawn image depicted a hefty medium marksman mech wielding an oversized gauss rifle.

The entire frame was designed to complement the offensive ability of the mech. Ordinary ranged mechs tended to be slim and sleek in order to facilitate their ability to dodge and juke enemy fire.

Ves had designed his Desolate Soldier design along this concept.

However, his marksman mech wasnʼt designed to fight the enemy head-on. Trying to accentuate mobility detracted from other aspects of his current project.

This time, Ves wanted to make as few compromises as possible. Just like how his Aurora Titan pursued defense to an extreme, he wanted to make his marksman mech the most offense-oriented mech he could design!

If mobility was no longer a priority, Ves would rather increase the size of the frame. While that made his marksman mech look a bit bulky, there were several advantages to this design direction.

First, making his marksman mech fatter turned it into a more stable firing platform. A gauss rifle was incredibly powerful. Its inbuilt inertial dampeners only weakened its recoil to a degree.

”Newtonʼs Third Law of Motion. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Ves justified his design choice to Gloriana. ”Gauss rifles impart a lot of force on projectiles, but each time they do so, the rifle and mech both have to endure the same force.”

Increasing the mass of the mech wielding the rifle made it easier for the combination to cope with the recoil.

Ordinarily, mech designers mainly added mass to rifleman mechs in the form of armor plating.

This was what the Ansel mech designers pursued when they designed the Dawnbreaker and its variants. The Dawnbreakerʼs considerable defensive prowess not only made it suitable to confront the laser-obsessed sandmen, it also made it easier for the mech to cope with the recoil of its Sandbreaker rifle.

For this reason, the Sandbreaker performed worse when wielded by slimmer mechs such as the Desolate Soldier.

What made his marksman mech different from the Dawnbreaker was that it did not feature stronger armor. Instead, Ves mainly used the extra bulk to increase its capacity and endurance!

The Dawnbreaker was like a coconut that featured a solid shell and a soft interior.

In comparison, his marksman mech was like a shopping bag. It featured a thin exterior but lots of goods inside.

The key was what Ves and Gloriana planned to stuff inside their mech.

”Gauss rifles consume both ammunition and energy. Theyʼre very cumbersome in that regard.” Gloriana noted. ”Unless our marksman mech can guarantee that it can take out a sandman admiral in a single shot, we have to make sure it gets as many opportunities as possible to complete its mission.”

Ves pointed at some internal sections of their draft. ”We have to devote most of the added capacity towards accommodating ammunition and energy cells. We have to be very deliberate about where to store the ammunition. As our marksman mechs continues to deplete its rounds, the mass distribution of our mech will change.”

Every ballistic mech faced this problem. Ordinarily, a mech designer tweaked the programming of the mech to compensate for the changes, but this was only a stopgap solution. It was best to make the placement of ammunition as even as possible to make the piloting experience as consistent as possible.

They could determine how much capacity they had to devote to ammunition and energy cells later.

Since Ves did not intend his marksman mech to move very actively or dogfight against the sandmen in battle, its flight system shouldnʼt consume as much energy as other ranged mechs.

However, a gauss rifle expended a significant amount of energy per shot, so Ves could not afford to reduce the amount of energy cells his mech carried.

One design choice they both hesitated upon was whether it would be better for the marksman mech to store its ammunition internally or externally.

”Itʼs faster and easier for our mech to resupply if its ammunition containers are mounted externally on the mech.” Gloriana suggested.

Ves shook his head. ”If our marksman mech has shot so many times but failed to take out a sandman admiral by then, itʼs a failure. Even if the mech pilot isnʼt skilled enough or if the battle is too chaotic to land a solid hit, my mech shouldnʼt have to return to a mothership in order to refill its spent ammunition and energy reserves.”

Keeping everything internal might make his mech more cumbersome, but Ves did not mind this outcome.

They decided to store everything internal to make their mech as consistent as possible. Making their mech look cooler by draping belts of ammunition across its shoulder was a look that mainly took place in action dramas.

After several hours of drafting and refinement, their marksman mech slowly took shape. Ves spent a considerable amount of time in shaping the exterior of their mech to be more in line with the Ylvainan Faith.

As he played around with the appearance of the mech, the vision that he formed in his mind became more detailed and defined.

Ves designed a machine that embodied a hunter who administered punishment on Ylvaineʼs behalf!

The mech was meant to neutralize any potent threat against the Ylvainan Faith and its adherents!

With a configuration that maximized the firepower, accuracy and capacity of the mech at all cost, the draft already exuded a hint of lethality!