The Mech Touch

The Sundered Phalanx's own collection of expert mechs presented enough of a challenge to force many heroes of the Larkinson Clan to fight at their best.

Each of their battles provided the Design Department with a wealth of empirical data that the Larkinson mech designers barely had time to study in detail.

Even so, a brief look at the footage and most important pieces of data granted them plenty of insights.

"Let's address the matter of phasewater technology first." Ves began. "The Gauge Dynasty equipped each of its expert mechs with transphasic parts and systems. Though none of those machines barring the Skorpion Kommando received an excessive amount of phasewater, what we have seen so far should be the minimum standard going forward. The Sundered Phalanx and other well-funded mech organizations will probably continue to equip their expert mechs with stronger and more phase water-saturated technology over time."

"What is your point, Ves?" Gloriana asked.

"The development of our expert mechs can't fall behind. We need to think about what kind of phasewater technology we should incorporate in their designs in the future. This especially applies to our older expert mechs which are still counting on Unending alloy armor systems to protect them from damage."

"Wait. Are you changing your stance on trying to extend the use of Unending alloy as long as possible? What about your past arguments? Didn't you tell us that prime mechs can be more powerful than transphasic mechs?"

He let out a tired breath. "I don't believe my argument is wrong, Gloriana, but what happened to the Shield of Samar has been a wakeup call for me. Living mechs and prime mechs should be absolutely powerful enough to contend against modern transphasic mechs, but the problem is that it takes years if not decades of growth to reach that point. Our enemies won't give our expert mechs to grow to that extent. I have neglected the time factor in my calculations. It takes more than two decades for a human baby to grow into a qualified mech pilot. Mechs aren't the same as us, but they should take at least just as long to develop a lot of inherent power."

The Shield of Samar possessed plenty of advantages in this area when it was still intact.

It was among the oldest living mechs in active service, which meant that it had accumulated many years of growth.

Being paired with strong individuals such as Venerable Jannzi and Qilanxo had further boosted its spiritual growth by providing the living mech with rich spiritual feedback.

Along with the advantages granted by its Ardent Wish gem that increased its spiritual feedback by a whopping 40 percent, the Shield of Samar was definitely the machine that best encapsulated Ves' design philosophy!

Yet despite all of these spiritual boosts, the Shield of Samar ultimately proved itself to be a bit too young and immature to defend against the horrible lethality of the Skorpion Kommando!

"Sara." Ves turned to one of the Voiken siblings. "You've studied what has happened to the Shield of Samar, right? Please explain to us whether Venerable Jannzi's expert mech could have survived the final attack of the Skorpion Kommando if it was outfitted with a high-quality transphasic armor system."

Sara Voiken pressed her lips. "I can't give you a solid answer. It depends heavily on the quality and specs of the transphasic armor system. In general, I still think it would have been unlikely for the expert space knight to resist the flood of phasewater-enriched corrosive substances from the Skorpion Kommando. The concentration of phasewater was simply too high. At least a quarter of the Shield of Samar probably would have dissolved, but I am mildly hopeful that this will be the extent of the damage. The expert mech has a lot of mass, and transphasic armor plating is excellent at neutralizing phasewater attacks."

That was what Ves thought as well.

"Transphasic weapons will only become more prevalent in the future. Perhaps rare cases like the Skorpion Kommando's extremely powerful venom formulas might not happen too often, but the chances that our expert mechs will encounter a similar threat will only grow in the future. Since I don't want us to fall behind the trends, we should proactively begin to consider how to replace the armor systems of our old expert mechs with more modern transphasic armor systems in advance."

That was a surprise even to Gloriana.

"Are you sure about this, Ves?"

"I am sure. I love Unending alloy, but we lack the expertise to reverse engineer its production method or make it transphasic. We also lack the ability to develop a substitute material that possesses similar properties. Given this reality, I have judged that it is best to phase out Unending alloy over time."

No one offered strong objections to this change. Nobody aside from Ves cared too much about Unending alloy anyway.

"What is the timeframe of this upgrade round?" Sara Voiken curiously inquired. "We are currently in the process of servicing and repairing the expert mechs that have survived the battle. We can overhaul their armor systems once we return to Davute and gain access to the services of the local development companies."

"Let's not be too hasty. Our expert mechs are still doing more than fine even if they are still stuck with Unending alloy. We should look into replacing the armor systems while also incorporating other powerful technologies to our older expert mechs in five to ten years."

"So they will still remain vulnerable to the same sort of attacks that have felled the Shield of Samar during the Trailblazer Expedition."

Ves helplessly shrugged. "Let's just hope we don't encounter an opponent that has access to exceptionally powerful transphasic weapons."

He was eager to move on from this topic, so he quickly activated a projection that displayed the Dark Zephyr.

"Of all of the expert mechs that we have deployed in battle, the Dark Zephyr probably stands out as the best performer. It has not only managed to defeat two mid-tier expert mechs by itself, but also retained considerable battle effectiveness at the end of its first bout, allowing it to assist with defeating numerous other enemy expert mechs over the course of the battle."

The Dark Zephyr might be the lightest and smallest of the Larkinson expert mechs, but it consistently delivered solid results.

Gloriana was not as impressed, however. "The main reason why the Dark Zephyr managed to overcome the Quadknife and the Filemon with relative ease was because you equipped it with a batch of transphasic grenades. Although Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson is not weak, personal strength does not play that much of a role when his expert mech is equipped with explosives that are powerful enough to threaten other expert mechs."

"A transphasic grenade can't deal as much damage if an expert mech still maintains a fully intact resonance shield." Sara said. "Venerable Tusa at least deserves credit for whittling down the defenses of the Quadknife beforehand."

Ves spent a few seconds watching the footage displayed by the central projector.

The transphasic grenade that the Dark Zephyr blew up in the Quadknife's face was definitely a turning point in this bout.

"I think that this engagement shows that we should think about using phasewater-enriched explosives to a greater extent. Their power is incredible and they can be lifesavers. Perhaps the Shield of Samar might not have ended up in such a sorry state if it was equipped with a transphasic grenade or missile." He said.

Sara Voiken shook her head. "I am not so certain about that, sir. Transphasic grenades can still be resisted as long as the expert pilot or the defenses of an expert mech are strong enough. A mech as strong and armored as the Skorpion Kommando would have been able to fend off most of the damage even if it has lost its resonance shield. It is not so easy to enable a light mech to easily take down a space knight."

As much as Ves became attracted by the idea of equipping every expert mech with a transphasic grenade, he wasn't certain whether the clan could afford the consumption of phasewater.

There were many possible uses for phasewater, and Ves vastly preferred to expend it on more permanent enhancements rather than squandering it on consumable products.

Once an expert mech tossed a transphasic grenade, all of the phasewater put into it was pretty much lost forever.

"I think it is better to save up our phasewater to upgrade all of our standard mechs in the future than to spend it on these luxury weapons. We need to show more restraint. We can't act like those other groups that have ran through their phasewater reserves too quickly because they can't exercise enough self-control." Ves eventually judged.

Though the Larkinson Clan still saved up a considerable amount of phasewater from the amount gained during the Purgatory Campaign, Ves had resisted many temptations to use up the remaining reserves over the past five years.

Many times, he resisted this urge, though there were also incidents where he gave in and invested in powerful applications.

The Larkinson Journeymen continued to discuss this topic a bit more before they moved on to talking about other expert mechs.

"The Riot and the First Sword did not look good in the last battle, but it was not their fault." Ves spoke in a serious tone. "They simply weren't equipped to fight against Rebecca Andus and her Shellshock. We underestimated the power of a high-tier expert pilot and accompanying high-tier expert mech. We should have tried to allocate an additional expert mech against the Shellshock and the Skorpion Kommando."

"We didn't have the expert mechs to spare." His wife reminded him. "We did not have much choice but to assign only two of our expert mechs to the Shellshock."

Ves shook his head. "We could have done more. For example, we could have tried to give the Amaranto more space to support the Riot and the First Sword. I think we should have ordered Venerable Tusa to stop his efforts on the right flank and move his Dark Zephyr to the center as quickly as possible."

He was determined not to make this mistake again.

"I think a part of the reason why we misestimated the power of the Shellshock and the Skorpion Kommando is because they have benefited more from phasewater technology than other mechs." Gloriana explained her own theory. "The amplification provided by this tech becomes higher as the mechs get higher in tier and rank. This is partly due to their owners allocating more funding in their development as their strategic importance rises, but it is also partly due to the ability of stronger mech pilots to achieve more results with transphasic products."

Ves thought about her words and found that they made a lot of sense.

"You're right. Previously, we based too much of our expectations on the high-tier expert mechs that we have witnessed in the past. The Bolvos Rage and the Erin Tear come to mind. Both of them were powerful in their own right, but they were lastgen products that do not represent the mechs of today."

The Riot and the First Sword could partially be described as expert mechs that were stuck in the past as well. Their lack of transphasic parts meant that they were missing out on the latest developments in the mech industry.

"Maybe we need to rethink the two melee expert mechs." Ves wondered.