The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2983

Chapter 2983: Third Round of Mech Design Projects

The excitement surrounding Blinky died down. Since Gloriana accepted the Star Cat into her family, not even Lucky could shoo away the new addition anymore!

After a good night's rest, Ves and Gloriana freshened up and strode into the main design lab with much more weight in their steps. Their pets quietly followed after them, aware that this was a special day for the Larkinson Clan.

Ves no longer paid too much attention to Blinky. Now that he had gotten what he wanted without any further repercussions, he could fully focus on the next major priority of the Design Department.

As for Gloriana, she strode forward as if she was on a mission. She had waited so long for this day. After several delays, she could embark on the projects that she had dreamed about for a long time.

Four Journeyman Mech Designers stood together and faced the crowd of assistant mech designers.

Ves had been absent from the design lab lately, so he had to reacquaint himself with the familiar faces.

He first noted the presence of Dr. Perris. She stood out from the rest because she was primarily a biomech designer. While she possessed sufficient knowledge to work on conventional mech designs, she obviously wouldn't be as passionate.

He briefly swept through notable Apprentice Mech Designers such as Miles Tovar, Oscar DiMartin, Dukan French, Moltar Ringer and Catherine Evenson and tried to gauge their progress by studying their spiritualities.

None of them particularly stood out. Now that Ketis had left the ranks of assistants, Miles Tovar was the closest to becoming a Journeyman, but it was hard to say whether the former scion of the Tovar Family could advance within a couple of years.

From what Ves recalled of the man, Miles and the rest of his Tovar relatives were steady, thoughtful mech designers. They possessed more solid foundations and were quite good at learning and applying knowledge.

Yet this measured approach also caused them to lack the fire and passion of more emotional mech designers like Ketis. This was good for an assistant, but Journeymen weren't meant to be lackeys. If someone wanted to cross the gap and become a mech designer that was fully qualified to lead projects on their own, they had to develop a bolder and more proactive mindset!

Ves briefly glanced at his fellow Journeymen, each of whom exuded a different presence that unquestionably made them stand out from low-ranking mech designers.

"I already have enough Journeymen for now. I'm not in a hurry to welcome more to the fold."

Ves was not inclined to pay as much attention to his assistants anymore now that he assembled a sufficient core of lead designers. He would just let the Apprentices struggle without giving them any special attention. If someone still managed to become a Journeyman under these circumstances, then they deserved true respect. _{freewēbnoveℓ.com}

Before Gloriana began the meeting, Ves briefly met with an assistant mech designer and received some updates on one of the side projects he started.

He hadn't forgotten about his goal of repurposing the Sanctuary from a pure battle mech to a more treatment-oriented version. The design teams that worked on his project performed a lot of research and came up with numerous possible proposals on how to develop a more ornamental variant that didn't have to be maintained so meticulously.

"Good work." Ves nodded in satisfaction as he briefly studied the different design proposals. "I can do the rest from here."

He did not choose to delegate the entire design process to his assistants. If he wanted his new Sanctuary variants to possess potent glows, then he had to get hands-on and make all of the final design choices himself.

Of course, that didn't mean he had to do all of the research and prep work himself. He received lots of relevant materials that could save him a lot of detours and design with a firm goal in mind.

"Hopefully I can squeeze some time in the next month so that I can finish this little side project." He whispered to himself.

Soon enough, Gloriana made her announcement.

"Everyone, our time has finally come." She smiled at the little minions who would soon be working as hard as slaves under her command. "After a long period of planning and preparation, we can finally commence our next round of mech design projects!"

Every assistant turned solemn when they heard this. They already knew that this moment was coming, but now that they finally heard these words, they felt as if it was a bit surreal.

Ordinary Apprentices could never get involved in expert mech design projects! Not only were they crazily high-end, but their designs were usually riddled with military secrets.

"20,000, though only a fraction are assigned to dedicated mechs."

"Is that a lot?"

"It's a lot." Ves smirked. "We have more than enough mech pilots to defend our fleet. As long as we fabricate enough Bright Warriors and other Larkinson mechs, our comprehensive military might will soar!"

Gloriana turned to face the audience again. "Do you hear that? Our mech forces are not lacking mech pilots anymore. They can fully hold their own against other opponents, even if they have military roots. Yet that is not enough to round us out. The Battle of Reckoning has clearly shown how lopsided battles can become when expert mechs join the fray."

The assistants here hardly needed to be reminded of that bloody battle. Each member of the Golden Skull Alliance lost a lot to take down the enemy expert mechs.

"I don't think that anyone in our clan wants to see a repeat of that tragic battle. Even if we are able to outnumber an opponent by ten-to-one, as long as we face a handful of expert mechs, our mech forces are guaranteed to suffer painful losses. Expert mechs are so powerful that every attack they inflict can easily tear through the armor of ordinary mechs and butcher the mech pilots inside. If these expert mechs are allowed to continue their killing spree without getting blocked, then our clan will suffer at least a hundred mech pilots if not more to take any of them down!"

This was not the only downside to lacking expert mechs. Expert pilots and their powerful machines were able to exert drastic changes in morale. They were such notable presences that their appearance on the battlefield could even swing the outcome of massive battles between mech divisions!

"I believe you can understand what I am conveying to you." Gloriana continued. "Our second-class expert mechs must excel in dueling and fighting against other expert mechs. They need to demolish the heroes and pillars of the enemy as quickly as possible in order to decrease the pressure on our men and push our enemies to their breaking points. In concrete terms, this means that our expert mech designs will incorporate more powerful weapons that excel at penetrating high-quality armor. This means there is less room left to integrate weapons that are geared towards inflicting destruction on a wider scale."

There were always tradeoffs, and Gloriana had already made her first one. Ves fully agreed with her decision to design expert mechs that were expressly designed to fight against equal opponents. This was the standard choice for anyone who was about to design an expert mech, and neither Ves nor Gloriana saw any reason to buck conventional wisdom.

It was still easy enough for this kind of expert mech to destroy lots of regular mechs. Their efficiency wouldn't be as high, though.

Gloriana also announced another global design choice. "In pursuit of maximum power, we must also sacrifice the endurance and running time of our expert mechs. The nature of our fleet and the battles we tend to fight leads me to conclude it is not critical for us to design expert mechs that can last twelve or twenty-four hours straight onto a battlefield. While this decision makes sense for the military, we tend to get caught up in pitched battles most of the time. It is more important for us to solve the most critical elements quickly than to wear down our opponents over time."

This was another decision that made sense. While Ves couldn't rule out the possibility that his clan would participate in a longer battle, for now he felt it was best to allow his expert pilots to burst out all of their strength at once.