The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2984

Chapter 2984: The Chimera Project

Gloriana made their goals clear. The mech designers had to design expert mechs that were entirely geared towards defeating other expert mechs.

Even if the Larkinson expert mechs lacked the power to finish off a powerful opponent, then they at least had to pose enough of a threat to entangle powerful enemy elements.

With the considerable advantages built up by the Larkinson Clan's mech forces, they did not fear a fight against any second-class opponents. Even if the Friday Coalition launched another ambush by dispatching a couple of mech divisions, the Avatars, Penitent Sisters, Swordmaidens and so on possessed more than enough confidence to fend off elite military mech units!

Yet this scenario became a lot trickier if those enemy mech divisions also brought their resident expert pilots. The inclusion of these powerful elements introduced a lot of variables on the battlefield and made it much harder for the Larkinsons to limit the damage they incurred.

What was most concerning about facing enemy expert mechs was that their extremely high individual power granted them a lot of possibilities to swing the battle in their favor!

From assassinating officer mechs to charging into the fray to disrupt a solid formation, expert mechs were able to act as powerful force multipliers. They could even form a commando team and fly all the way to an enemy flagship or headquarters in order to execute a decapitation strike!

The disproportionate power possessed by these great machines meant that no one could ignore their presence. Even if the Larkinson Clan was able to field ten times the amount of mechs, this situation still wouldn't change all that much!

"Expert mechs are best handled by other expert mechs." Gloriana stated. "While it is possible for us to design additional configurations that allow our expert mechs more flexibility, we cannot compromise on their main purpose. We have many different solutions to defeat weaker opponents, but we don't have many answers against powerful foes. We can either sacrifice a lot of lives or design the strongest expert mechs we can. I think we all prefer to settle on the latter."

Their work had real and profound consequences. Each powerful expert mech was a game changer to the Larkinsons. Ves had long admired the powerful expert mechs of the Cross Clan. Though the martial culture of the Crossers caused them to place a lot more emphasis on them, there was no denying that Lord Reginald Cross and his fellow expert pilots were utterly domineering in battle!

Ves wanted the Larkinson Clan to acquire the same kind of strength. As long as he could solve this final shortcoming of his mech forces, he was confident that his clan would become a lot more prepared to face the perils of the Red Ocean!

After Gloriana explained her thoughts on this subject, she moved to the final common element.

"Each of our expert mechs will also become prime mechs." She stated. "I've already discussed the feasibility of this with my husband. According to him, it is possible to transfer the same powers of a prime mech to an expert mech as long as we incorporate Unending alloy in their designs. Considering that it is not possible for us to apply better armor systems to our projects, I do not see a reason to refuse. Our prime mechs have already showcased the superior defensive properties of their armor plating."

This didn't mean that Ves and the rest were about to tear down the prime mechs that had served the Larkinsons well. The expert pilots would still be able to pilot them for quite some time until the Design Department was finally ready to fabricate their real battle machines.

Aside from the Shield of Samar, Ves did not plan to retain any other prime mech. The Valkyrie Prime, the Piranha Prime, Bright Sword Prime, the Bright Spear Prime and the Bright Beam Prime did not deserve to end their service so soon, but Ves didn't really have another choice. _{freeweɓnovel.cøm}

To make the expert mechs of his dreams, he had to kill the mechs that he sometimes regarded as his own children. This was the woe of every mech designer and something that was never an easy decision to make.

Gloriana did not spend too much time on explaining the more esoteric properties of their upcoming expert mech designs. This was not her specialty and the assistants wouldn't understand the finer details anyway.

Before she moved on to explain her projects on an individual basis, she made a final announcement.

"It is no secret that we have managed to secure the services of Master Moira Willix of the Mech Trade Association as an external contributor and consultant to our projects." Gloriana beamed with happiness. "Think about what that means. A Master Mech Designer that is superior to any other Master that we know of will be spending her precious time to observe our work and provide guidance to us. I hope you do not waste her time and shame us all by slacking off and putting anything less than your best efforts in your assignments. If you cannot fulfill this demand, then I will kick you out of the Design Department myself!"

Every assistant winced. Joining the Design Department was a dream opportunity for many of these individuals, and getting fired was one of the worst outcomes that could happen to them! The mech designs they got in touch with became progressively better and more impressive. They even reached the point where they received the honor of being able to work on expert mech design projects, so who would ever be stupid enough to screw this precious chance?

Though Gloriana's warning sounded a bit ominous, it had the desired effect on the assistants. From the way they were vigilantly looking at others, it became clear that they intended to step in and intervene themselves if anyone in their ranks did not do their part.

"Hmph." Gloriana nodded in satisfaction at the diligence shown by the Apprentices. "Now that I have made all of that clear, let us dive into the individual projects. Let us begin by examining the project outline for Venerable Joshua's expert mech."

Prior to this moment, Gloriana already performed extensive prep work. This included quizzing the expert pilots of what they sought in their expert mechs and making many observations and measurements in order to ensure that their future machines fit them like a glove.

Gloriana sounded rather helpless towards this reality. Humanity discovered many different resonating exotics, but their supply was very scattered and inconsistent. States that were able to mine them usually didn't dump them in the open market. Instead, they treated these goods as strategic materials and hoarded them for their own expert mechs.

While it was still possible to buy lower grades of resonating exotics in one market or another, the more potent ones were too difficult to obtain for the Larkinsons. The main reason for this was because they got used within months after they were excavated!

This was one of the fundamental reasons why the power of a state was necessary to accumulate a lineup of quality expert mechs. Without the advantages of territory and all of the powers that it bestowed, it was too hard to obtain many necessary goods.

Fortunately, Master Willix was willing to lend a hand according to their prior agreement, but even she couldn't completely ignore the rules established by the MTA.

As long as the Larkinson Clan was able to acquire enough quality resonating exotics, the Design Department did not have to start off with developing low-tier expert mechs but could start with designing mid-tier expert mechs straight away!

Even though they were much harder for beginner expert pilots to control, this was not a big deal as there were several ways to temporarily suppress the more powerful functions.

The only relief they had was that Master Willix was willing to provide a little assistance, but she still expected the Larkinsons to source the bulk of the resonating exotics they intended to use. Collecting these valuable materials was a challenge that everyone who intended to develop an expert mech had to solve!

Ves already had some ideas in mind that might help. Though he was not willing to exchange his MTA merits to procure these rare exotics, he was confident he could trade something else in order to acquire higher-quality resonating exotics.

"Will this hero mech come in multiple configurations like the Bright Warrior?"

"It shouldn't be necessary, at least at first." Gloriana shook her head. "Let us not get ahead of ourselves. I have worked on expert mech designs in the past. The scope and difficulty of these projects are far greater. We must set simple goals at first and do our best to meet them. It is not necessarily the case that we will put down our work once we complete a project. Expert mechs traditionally remain in active development for a long time. We can slowly implement changes and upgrades to our proudest work so that they can become better over time."

This was the advantage to working on custom mechs as opposed to mass market models. It was very important for the production-ready version of a mech design to remain consistent and up to date for a long span of time. This is not necessarily the case for expert mechs. The importance of making them as strong as possible meant that their developers should frequently go back to their finished works and examine their prior performance. If actual battles showcased a new shortcoming, then the developers would definitely do their best to plug the gap before it turned into a fatal vulnerability!