The Mech Touch

Now that Gloriana formally played no role in the First Sword Mark III Project anymore, there was no reason for Ves to remain in her office.

The good news was that they did not end this meeting on a bad note.

Though Gloriana failed to defend her right to participate in the upgrade project, she accepted a new challenge and became a lot more enthused about developing her own counter to superdimensional weapons!

Ace mechs bore the brunt in the fight against alien phase lords. Anyone who wanted to continue to design them had to be able to prepare a response against Saint Piercer arms, or cooperate with a mech designer that was capable of solving this problem.

Gloriana had no intention of giving up on this matter, so she had every reason to follow Ves' proposal and seek out cooperation with the mechers.

Archetech was strong and possessed a lot of potential, but red humanity's development and understanding of it was still too shallow.

It was up to pioneers such as Gloriana to work hard to improve its utility and bring out its strengths. Working together with a metallurgist who was working on developing his or her own counter against superdimensional weapons would definitely increase the viability of archetech.

Gloriana did not want this shortcoming to serve as the downfall of the use of archetech in subsequent high-ranking mech design projects!

Ves smiled when he saw his wife exploding into action. She had become incredibly fired up now that she interpreted this assignment as a direct challenge against Ketis and Master Lilian Recins!

Every mech designer had their own triggers where they became much more passionate and productive than before.

Ves always worked better in high-pressure situations or when he got caught up in the throes of his own creative passion.

Gloriana on the other hand became a lot more effective whenever she felt pressured by formidable competitors.

The greater her feeling of inferiority, the greater her counterattack!

This was also why she was able to keep up with Ves more or less. She constantly compared herself to him every day, and whenever she perceived the gap between them had grown wider, she would work extra hard to make up for this shortfall!

While Ves believed that his proposal would definitely help Gloriana solve one of the weaknesses of archetech, the greatest uncertainty was how long it would take to develop an effective solution.

At best, it would probably take months for Gloriana and her collaborators to develop a version of archemetal that could effectively resist Saint Piercer arms.

At worst, the development time might stretch out over several years, which meant that more ace melee mechs could not be converted into archemechs due to failing to meet the latest industry standards!

Ves mentally shrugged. This was not his problem. Archetech had become his wife's latest prestige tech, so her own progress and credibility was at stake.

After Ves left her office and entered his own private design lab, he called Ketis yet again and resumed his discussion with her about the First Sword Mark III Project.

Both Ves and Ketis looked considerably more relaxed now that a certain abrasive third element was no longer present.

The projected version of the Heavensword attracted a lot of attention from Ves, but he knew that this was not the right time to address this topic. He simply gave it a curious stare before he turned his attention back to the mech design project.

"Please continue your overview of the plans that you have made." He told Ketis. "What else do you have in store for Saint Dise's next machine?"

The swordmaster spoke in a relaxed manner. "Well, what comes next doesn't require too much clarification. Aside from myself and Master Recins, there are two more core participants that are vital to both the pure version and the sword fey version of the First Sword Mark III. One of them is Master Lucien Kerckhoff, who has a Class IV design philosophy in Electro-Reactant Flight Systems."

"What?"

"I think it is easier for you if I show you an example."

Ketis transferred a video file to Ves.

When Ves watched the archival footage of one of the many ace mechs that fought in the Red War, he quickly figured out the basis of this strangely named flight system.

Under normal usage conditions, an Electro-Reactant Flight System remained small and low profile. Its energy consumption was probably not that great, but its efficiency was probably pretty high, so the thrust power was not that bad.

This was not enough for an ace mech to effectively duel against an enemy as formidable as a greater phase lord.

Against such a powerful and massive opponent, ace mechs needed to move faster and be able to make very rapid course changes in order to maintain their rhythm in battle.

This was where the Electro-Reactant Flight System truly began to shine!

The ace pilot activated a second mode that caused the formerly low-profile flight system to suck in a lot more energy, causing it to overload in a way that directly caused it to shoot out lightning bolts!

No!

Not lightning bolts! Instead, it looked as if skeletal wings made out of stable lightning channels had unfolded behind the back of the ace mech!

The wings appeared much larger and more dramatic than the ace mech itself!

It looked as if the machine had transformed into a dragon that embodied the element of lightning!

All of the highly charged plasma that took the shape of wings was not for show.

For whatever reason, they massively boosted the ace mech's mobility, allowing the machine to move almost two times faster while also enabling it to make turns that were much sharper than before!

The greater phase lord fighting against the electrified monster quickly became overwhelmed by this flashy display. The enemy champion's spatial barrier depleted quickly.

Eventually, the native god lost much of his courage and retreated from the battlefield much earlier than expected!

This turned out to be a rather fortunate development as the ace mech equipped with the Electro-Reactant Flight System expended so much energy that it could hardly keep up its supercharged state.

The electrified wings quickly faded away, restoring the ace mech to its weaker and much less explosive state. The machine was not in a state to confront phase lords any longer and had to retreat in advance as well in order to replenish its energy reserves.

"Wow." Ves reacted. "I am impressed. Compared to other flight systems, the efficiency and endurance of this tech is really bad. However, I can see why you are so enthusiastic about it. If the only job of the ace mech is to overwhelm and defeat enemy phase lords before they can do a lot of damage against other human units, then this is definitely a design application that can facilitate this role."

Ketis smiled. "I have spoken to Master Kerckhoff numerous times, and he shares the same thoughts. His most advanced implementation of Electro-Reactant Flight System is best suited for ace mechs that have a very high demand for extreme short-range mobility, but are not already equipped with other energy-hungry systems. The First Sword Mark III definitely meets his requirements. The biggest sacrifice that I have to make is to settle for a smaller and less powerful azure energy shield generator. The First Sword Mark III will not be able to rely on it to withstand a large amount of attacks, but this is not too important as it is unable to block the passage of superdimensional weapons. It also doesn't synergize well with Saint Dise's domain."

Anyone who understood Saint Dise's strengths would prioritize physical defenses over energy defenses.

An azure energy shield generator could still be used to block space dust and trivial attacks, but the First Sword Mark III clearly shouldn't rely on it to defend against attacks from more serious opponents.

Right now, Ketis revealed the core players of her design team.

The swordmaster herself was responsible for leading the mech design project. She also took it upon herself to design the overall mechanical structure of the mech frame and optimize it to fit Saint Dise's personal swordsmanship.

Master Lilian Resins was in charge of shaping the defenses of the First Sword Mark III. She contributed her TEVA Armor to massively strengthen the First Sword Mark III's ability to resist superdimensional weapons and many other forms of transphasic armaments. She was also expected to work together with Ketis to contribute her TEVA Weapon Tech to upgrade the Decapitator mech sword.

Master Lucien Kerckhoff of the Mech Supremacist Faction was in charge of improving the mobility of the First Sword Mark III. His Electro-Reactant Flight System would definitely turn the ace swordsman mech into a powerful duelist. Even if Saint Dise wouldn't be able to use this powerful design application to defeat an enemy phase lord, her machine should at least be able to disengage safely, thereby allowing her to fight another day! Stay tuned to M-V-L

This was already a powerful combination. Ketis did not necessarily have to rely on other mech designers in order to develop a powerful ace swordsman mech.

Of course, it was still better to fill up the two remaining slots in order to maximize the improvement to the mech design.

"The pure version of the First Sword Mark III doesn't include your participation." Ketis told Ves. "It is purely designed to excel at defeating enemy phase lords and nothing else. For this purpose, space suppression technology plays a vital role. Master Pritanis Clisner was part of the R&D team that originally cooperated with the Spacelock to develop space suppression technology. Even if he was not the lead researcher of this important project, he has developed enough insights into this tech to invent his own brand of space suppression tech."

That most definitely sounded interesting to Ves. Any researchers that were qualified to work with a god pilot on a game-changing piece of technology most certainly weren't weak or incompetent!

"What does he specialize in?" Ves asked.

"Master Pritanis Clisner has a Class VIII design philosophy in Long-Distance Waveform Propagation." Ketis answered. "In short, he can increase the range of energy fields and many other stuff. In this context, he has agreed to contribute a Long-Distance Space Suppression Module to the First Sword Mark III."

"With a name like that, I think I can guess why you have chosen it for your project."

"There are two advantages over using this special space suppressor over the normal versions. First, the ace mech does not have to move too close to the enemy phase lord in order to weaken the target's spatial barrier. Second, it can effectively penetrate deeper into the massive body of a larger phase lord. The ones that are as large as space stations or more are so physically huge that a single space suppressor cannot completely weaken the enemy's spatial barrier or spatial abilities. Having a module that can encompass a much greater volume of space will help the First Sword Mark III perform better against these massive opponents."

"I see." Ves remarked. "That sounds extremely useful, especially in the later stages when Saint Dise has grown stronger. A Long-Distance Space Suppression Module should also help the First Sword eliminate warships more effectively, as they all rely on phasewater tech to move faster, hit harder and resist more attacks. This is truly a practical and useful choice under all circumstances."

Space suppression tech was still relatively new. It was also so complicated and so deeply intertwined with phasewater theory that many other mech designers had difficulty improving on the tech.

However, a Master Mech Designer that took part in the development of the original version of space suppressors did not suffer from this problem!

It should be much easier for such a figure to develop selective improvements on the original tech. Even if the space suppressor became a lot more expensive and lost performance in other areas, it may still be worth it under the right circumstances!