The Mech Touch

It was not easy to deal with family on certain occasions.

The root of the problem laid in how long it took to complete a high-end mech design project and how many of them could be worked on at the same time.

The pipeline was too small and limited. The Design Department in its current state was not able to keep up with the progress of the best combat talents of the clan.

Ves had already spoken to Gloriana about this, but there were no easy fixes to this pipeline problem.

The Larkinson Clan was built from the high-ranking living mechs designed by Ves and Gloriana. Everyone in the clan had developed a fanatical degree of love and appreciation for iconic machines such as the Dark Zephyr and the Everchanger.

While all of this made Ves feel great, the problem was that as demand continued to rise, he became increasingly more pressed for time.

This problem was even more severe for Gloriana as she shouldered most of the workload!

This was why Ves advised her to step up and work harder on raising a bunch of qualified disciples.

So long as more mech designers emerged who could roughly do the same jobs, then that would relieve the limitations that delayed the arrival of the Lionheart Mark II and other powerful machines.

There was another way to solve the problem. That was to let other mech designers with different specializations form their own design teams to work on high-ranking mech design projects.

This meant that there may be a future where not all of the Larkinson Clan’s expert mechs and ace mechs may be alive and made out of archemetal.

While that sounded like a definite downgrade, Ves did not think so. He had never underestimated the competence of other mech designers.

Talents on the same level as Alexa Streon and Jovy Armalon were rare, but they definitely existed.

Then there were Master Mech Designers who had accrued a lot of experience and developed a rich understanding of their specializations.

Ves did not necessarily object to delegating a few high-ranking mech design projects to these people.

The only conditions that needed to be met was whether the mech pilots agreed with the decision and whether the mech designers were loyal and trustworthy enough.

However, he already knew that Gloriana would shoot down this suggestion with all of her might!

Designing high-ranking mechs was her passion and her lifeblood.

It had already been difficult for her to let go of the responsibility to design low-tier expert mechs for mech pilots that had undergone their first apotheosis.

At this stage, her workload may be high, but it was not unbearable enough to make her give up on a portion of her precious projects!

Ves sighed. "Is there a way to increase our productivity further?"

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He felt tempted to research a solution that would allow Gloriana to form another incarnation.

Ves was able to keep up with Gloriana’s high pace by borrowing the minds of Blinky, Vulcan and Veronica.

Perhaps she could step up by creating an extra incarnation.

He quickly shot down this stupid idea. He was able to succeed easily enough because of his special circumstances.

The only viable way for Gloriana to create another incarnation was to learn and develop her own orven ritual sacrifice altar. She would then have to conduct a life-threatening ritual that required her to carve out a piece of her Divine Core and insert it into her altar while breathing life into the object that she had shaped.

The probability of success when performing this ritual blindly was exceedingly low.

She at least needed to be inducted in the Mech Designer System so that she could observe and manipulate her own Divine Core.

Ves would be able to take care of steps that involved breathing life into the soul fragment, but it would be safer if Gloriana completed this step herself.

He shook his head. "This is not a good idea."

It was also not necessary in his opinion. Gloriana’s productivity had already reached a high level after she upgraded her cranial implant. The Mentalist Crystal fragments were constantly stimulating her mind, allowing her to process more data and perform faster deductions.

Her improvement was so impressive that even Ves felt envious. Perhaps he should look into whether it is possible for him to implant a whole Mentalist Crystal in the center of his brain.

"It’s too risky. There’s too many ways for this to go wrong."

Ves shoved aside his unrealistic fantasies and tried to focus on the job at hand.

He still had to deal with plenty of matters related to the aftermath of the final battle that took place in the Viola Magnifica System.

From approving personnel transfers to signing funding requests, Ves had to handle a lot of paperwork in his capacity as the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan.

He also attended a handful of planning sessions related to the next moves of the expeditionary fleet.

Saint Commander Casella Ingvar sounded grim as she shared her analysis on what might happen in the coming months.

"Now that the native aliens are ready to assault the fifth defensive band, we expect our enemies to throw everything at us short of weapons of mass destruction." She explained to the senior staff and officers of the expeditionary fleet. "The Torald Middle Zone will fall faster than we would prefer. This means that the Krakatoa Middle Zone will come under immediate threat. We must minimize the amount of time we spend on recovery and repairs. To that end, we have no choice but to make hard decisions."

"Hard decisions like what, ma’am?"

"Living mechs that require too much time and labor to repair will be transferred elsewhere along with their pilots if they are unwilling to switch. Freshly fabricated living mechs will take their place. We will also pick up a large number of Larkinson mech pilots that were previously assigned to our planetary branches. This will minimize the friction and the adaptation period that is normal when transferring lots of newcomers to our carriers."

The Saint Commander continued to list out various emergency measures that were aimed at increasing the combat readiness of the expeditionary fleet as soon as possible.

"Where will we fight? I heard that we are on our way to Davute."

"We are indeed withdrawing to Davute." Casella confirmed. "Due to our large branch on that planet, we have access to extensive repair facilities over at Davute. The large manufacturing hub owned by the Davute Branch has also redirected their production away from commercial mechs to Larkinson-exclusive mechs. We will be able to replenish our mech roster much faster over there. It is not certain whether we will stay and defend the Colonial Federation of Davute. There are other states and strategic locations that also require our protection."

"I think we should strongly consider the latter." Ves voiced his own opinion. "The Larkinson Clan must exist as a sovereign entity. It is fine for us to establish branches in many different states, but we must never become too dependent or committed to any single one of them. No matter how well they treat us, their ruling powers ultimately only prioritize their own interests. It is best if the forces of our clan fight where they can make the greatest difference rather than try to earn favors from an individual state. Besides, the 77th Warborn are already committed to defending Davute and its citizens, so as far as I am concerned, our clan is already doing enough."

The expeditionary fleet had not set a final destination. The Golden Skull Alliance needed to wait and see how the frontlines developed. It may be better for them to transfer to another Middle Zone if it turned out that the Krakatoa Middle Zone was able to handle the influx of hostile alien warships.

Speaking of warships, another important development was taking place.

Ves received a private briefing from Head Naval Design Director Vivian Tsai and Chief Shipwright Keziramous Demodian of the E-66 Experimental Yard.

Both of them had worked extensively on leading extensive overhaul, conversion and rework of a captured orven battleship.

"In line with your latest orders, we have hired additional naval engineers and other shipbuilding personnel to speed up the refit of the Torturous Scream." Vivian Tsai reported to Ves. "We have paid special attention to adaptations that go beyond the standard features. This demanded a large amount of additional work under less than ideal circumstances. The E-66 Experimental Yard is not equipped to work on a vessel with the size and dimensions of a 3.6 kilometer alien battleship with a vertical deck layout, but this is okay since much of the refit work does not require drydock facilities."

"Have you managed to make our temporary flagship accommodate mechs?" Ves asked the most critical question.

Kezi, the man who was actually in charge of the E-66 Experimental Yard, nodded in response.

"The Torturous Scream may be alien, but her hull design is fairly modern and clearly influenced by lessons taught by the cosmopolitans. We have removed many tertiary and secondary gun batteries in order to make room for many bunkers. Each of them are compliant with the specifications that you have set."

The physical projection of the chief shipwright displayed a blueprint of the orven battleship that showed all of the gun batteries that had been removed to make place for well-protected bunkers.

"As you can see, there are 155 bunkers spread across the hull in total." Kezi explained. "Each of them can fit one heavy artillery mech, and are especially designed to accommodate the Devora Cannon mounted on every Transcendent Punisher Mark III. In order to raise the firing rates of both the energy and kinetic weapons mounted on the heavy artillery mechs, the bunkers can directly feed ammunition and energy to them through specially designed channels. They can also connect to the data network of the Torturuous Scream. The Transcendent Punishers only need to slot themselves into place before they can fire at targets with extensive support from the battleship herself."

The legality of feeding energy directly into a bunker mech was highly dubious and controversial to say the least.

It should be a bit more acceptable to allow Transcendent Punishers to link up with warships, as the latter were already armed with much larger and more powerful guns.

However, the mechers vehemently disagreed with this. Most of them had long formed the consensus that mechs need to remain independent and solve their enemies the old-fashioned way.

Whatever the case, Ves was pretty certain that none of the Red Three would object to what the shipbuilders had done to the Torturous Scream!

Kezi highlighted four thicker bunkers at various points at the sides.

"In addition to the 155 heavy artillery bunkers, my men and I have all installed 4 bunkers of more robust quality. These sniper bunkers are more specialized and designed to contain the Amaranto Mark III but potentially other humanoid mechs such as the Everchanger. Aside from that, they also offer space for an optional defensive mech such as the Bastion."

Just like with the heavy artillery mechs, the Amaranto Mark III could slot herself into the bunker to become connected to the converted battleship.

"After her minor overhaul that is scheduled to begin shortly, the Amaranto Mark III will turn into a proper first-class ace mech." Ves remarked with a smile. "She will already become considerably more powerful than when she fought in Viola Magnifica. If the Amaranto can also draw power from the Torturuous Scream while simultaneously dumping all of her heat into the massive hull, I can scarcely imagine how high her damage output will be. I bet that she can easily out-damage any of the battleship’s primary gun batteries!"

This was one of the biggest reasons why he ordered the E-66 Experimental Shipyard to install so many bunkers onto his future flagship!

Many of his mechs had become so powerful that they were able to outperform warship-grade cannons in multiple criteria!

Ves was eager to turn the Torturous Scream into the most powerful base and flagship of his clan. He believed it was more than worthwhile to commission the extra hull work in order to obtain a much more threatening battleship!

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