The Mech Touch

The expert brawler mech that Vincent wanted to fight with in the future did not completely get rid of all of the traditional shortcomings of its mech type.

Allowing it to equip different types of gloves substantially increased its viability in combat, but it was up to the expert pilot to maximize their potential.

"An expert mech is only as good as its pilot." Ves warned the over-eager man. "Just like how the First Sword is an absurdly strong duelist due to the strength and skill of Venerable Dise, it will be up to you to transform the C-Man into a fearsome melee mech that can defeat or at least go equal to other expert melee mechs. Do you understand what I am trying to convey?"

"Hey, no worries! I\'m not new to this. I regularly sparred against other Larkinson soldiers in the past! I\'ll just need to pick up my training and maybe learn a few martial arts in preparation for my upcoming expert mech. By the time the C-Man falls into my hands, I will show you that my performance in the last battle is not a fluke!"

"Sure sure, Vincent. Whatever you say." Ves inwardly rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I have collected enough preliminary information now. I still need to visit a bunch more recovering pilots. I will leave you here so you can continue to come up with different glove weapons for your upcoming expert mech. Just don\'t expect to get back into the saddle quickly. It takes time to develop a powerful new machine, and the fact that we have to upgrade your existing B-Man adds an extra burden."

"How soon can I pilot my new expert mech?"

"Well, if nothing special happens, it will probably take 8 months for us to complete this project. Gloriana might be able to complete it ahead of schedule, but don\'t hold any unrealistic expectations."

"I get it. I know the others had to wait a long time as well. I just hope that the C-Man will live up to my expectations."

Now that Ves developed a general idea on how the Design Department should handle the C-Man Project, he stood up from his chair and made to leave.

"Ah, wait! There\'s one more thing!"

"What is it, Vincent?"

"Didn\'t we raid a lot of phasewater and fish-whale organs from Purgatory? Why not make use of that to make my C-Man extra fast and extra uncatchable? Just think of what I can do if I can move at warp speeds! Lack of reach? Pff! As long as I have a combat drive, I\'ll be able to catch up to a lot of ranged mechs! There\'s no way these flimsy machines can defend against my expert mech\'s punches!"

Ves overlooked this option. He was still stuck in his old mindset to realize that his clan had more options now. The B-Man\'s compatibility with a minidrive happened to be high!

A brawler mech was not a simple mech, but it should offer plenty of capacity to mount an external minidrive module on its back.

The power draw of a brawler mech wasn\'t that cumbersome either, so the C-Man should be able to meet the substantial energy requirements of a typical miniaturized warp drive.

Still… Ves was reluctant to grant Vincent access to an expensive minidrive right off the bat. The cost of such an expensive module might equal that of the rest of Vincent\'s expert mech!

"We can discuss this further at a later date." Ves eventually decided to defer his judgment on the matter. "While it is true that minidrives can add a lot of functionality to our mechs, they are expensive and difficult to manage. They also impose a great degree of responsibility to the pilots who carry them into battle. If you fight carelessly enough that an enemy unit is able to destroy a costly minidrive module, then our clan will end up with a significant loss."

"That won\'t happen! I\'ll take real good care of the minidrive. No one will ever succeed in attacking the C-Man from behind! Wait, we haven\'t talked about the codpiece yet. Can you make it small enough so that it can be mounted on the front? You can layer extra armor on top of that and turn it into the manliest codpiece to have ever graced a mech! Doesn\'t that sound brilliant?"

Ves responded with a flat stare.

"That is one of the most idiotic ideas I\'ve heard from you since you came up with the Punchanger concept. First off, the current state of minidrive technology doesn\'t allow for them to be smaller than a typical backpack module. Even then, their performance is not all that great. If you want to mount it to the front, I can guarantee you that it won\'t look as if your expert mech is wearing a large codpiece. It will make your mech look like its belly is swelling as if it is pregnant with a baby!"

A repulsed expression quickly appeared on Vincent\'s face. "No thanks, then! Keep it mounted on the back, then. Just make sure the look and contours of my mech looks impressive enough from the front. The codpiece for my C-Man has to be even more awesome than the one you designed for the B-Man, got it? If you can make only one part of my expert mech into a masterpiece, it has to be the codpiece!"

Ves did not even bother to say anything to that request. He quickly bid Vincent farewell before he left the recovery room.

He already decided to hand over this headache project to Gloriana as quickly as possible. He should let her deal with Vincent\'s inane requests.

"Nyeow nyeooow!"

"Oh hey, Minxie. How are you doing, little darling?"

"Nyeow!"

The Persian cat padded over to Ves and rubbed her body against his legs for a time.

Meanwhile, Director Raella Larkinson dismissed her projection which she used to browse the news.

"So, are you and your fellow mech designers about to design an expert mech that will keep my man safe?"

"Uhh… the design project hasn\'t officially started yet. Gloriana will have to conduct a lot of research before we can get a solid idea about Vincent\'s future expert mech. He\'s pretty set on piloting a brawler mech though, so don\'t expect that to change."

Raella didn\'t look pleased with that news, but enough time had passed for her to come to terms with this development.

"This is probably the first time that Vincent is really enthusiastic about dedicating himself to a single combat approach. As much as I don\'t like it, piloting a mech that fights with its limbs probably fits him best. He has always been a more hands-on fighter and never built up a passion for ranged weapons."

"Ordinary brawler mechs might not be great, but don\'t write off our attempt just yet. With the windfall we\'ve obtained from the Purgatory Campaign, we can invest more into our mechs than before. As long as we pile up enough expensive materials and components into the C-Man, it will be able to overwhelm the majority of its opponents by relying on brute force alone."

The woman sighed in resignation. "I guess we will have to settle for that, then. I will take anything I can get."

The two trueblood Larkinsons chatted a bit about Vincent and other matters while Ves led her to a nearby meeting room. Once inside, he activated a number of privacy functions so that he could discussed a more sensitive topic with Raella.

"I am sure you have been apprised about what happened in the battle that turned Vincent into an expert pilot."

Raella\'s expression turned serious. "I have. I heard that the Everchanger played a big role in Vincent\'s breakthrough. That\'s a pretty amazing feat. Can you do it again for other mech pilots?"

"Maybe. The measure I employed is… experimental. It\'s also extremely sensitive and could easily attract a lot of unwanted attention to us. This is why I passed on instructions for everyone to keep quiet about it. That doesn\'t mean that I intend to sit on this solution. I made a deal to work together with the MTA to develop my special glow further."

"What does that have to do with me, Ves?"

"Breakthroughs don\'t happen out of the blue. I\'ve tried to make mech pilots surpass their limits many times before I realized it is futile to do so while they are just sitting or standing around. In order to stimulate them enough that they can smash through their bottlenecks in one go, I need them to be in an active state. More specifically, the mech pilots have to be deeply immersed in a battle they care about in order to bring them close enough to apotheosis that my glow can give them the final push they need."

Raella looked at Ves with wide eyes. The information she received was both huge and shocking!

"Why are you telling me this, Ves?! Wait, are you saying that your glow only works when mech pilots have lost themselves in a fight? If this is the case…"

"From what I have learned and seen, mech pilots are most likely pushed to the brink when they are subject to life-and-death battles. There\'s nothing like the threat of death and the prospect of seeing your fellow friends and family fall to encourage them to fight with 120 percent of their usual strength. Logic dictates that I should subject our mech pilots to more major battles if I want to create more expert candidates and expert pilots. The problem is that battles like these don\'t come by that often. The risks to our clan are too great and the losses can easily set us back by a lot. It\'s also hard to find the right opponent. Too weak and our mech pilots won\'t be as emotionally invested in the battle. Too strong and we\'ll get wiped out, making this entire attempt moot."

"So that\'s why you came to me." Raella looked enlightened. "Do you think we can simulate the right conditions in competitive mech matches as opposed to actual mech battles?"

"It\'s a possible theory. You\'re a mech pilot yourself. There were times that you cared so much about winning a duel or match that you treated it as the equivalent of a life-and-death battle, is that right?"

She nodded. "That\'s true, I guess, but I was really trying to become the strongest mech duelist and champion at the time. Now that I\'ve become an executive, matches don\'t excite me as much as before. I\'m afraid that most of the mech pilots in the Larkinson Army will treat our competitive mech circuit as more of a game than a life goal that they have to fulfill at any cost."

"Oh, I don\'t think it will be a problem to encourage them to do their utmost." Ves smirked. "Let\'s say we limit the use of this glow to the play-offs or finals of a competitive league. Our mech pilots must at least try their best to overcome the intense competition to make it this far. Does this sound like a good way to raise the stakes?"

"That can work." Raella admitted. "As long as you spread the news about this reward, I bet you that at least 70 percent of the Larkinson Army will sign up for one of our many leagues. The demand to compete will become so high that I will probably have to expand all of the existing rosters as well as open up new leagues in order to accommodate all of the mech pilots. Even then, we still don\'t have the venues to host all of the scheduled matches. We don\'t have enough arenas!"

"We\'ll figure something out. You don\'t have to go big right away. We can go for the elite route instead. Let\'s start with implementing this change to a couple of leagues and see how it goes from there. We might even keep it at this scale in order to prevent too many mech pilots from breaking through."

Ves didn\'t want to get swamped with expert mech projects!